Description
The Importance of Setting, Epiphany or Allegory in a Short Story
Choose ONE of the following three questions for your written response. Take a few minutes to prepare your answer, focus on analysis and avoid any plot summary. We all know the events in the two stories we covered thus far. Avoid repeating the narrative plot or describing events in detail. Rather, focus on analyzing how one of these elements, either epiphany, or setting, or allegory functions in your chosen story. Please, remember that you should choose only one of the stories we covered this week and answer only one of the three questions below.
The first question focuses on the moment of epiphany or the sudden and often complete moment of revelation that changes the character The second question explores how setting (location, place, imagery) contributes to the main ideas and themes. The last question asks you to examine “Young Goodman Brown” as an allegory. Always support your main points with references/examples from the text, but avoid long quotes in this assignment.
Your written response should be as specific as possible and no longer than one full page.
1. Analyze the moment of epiphany in one of the stories we covered in class. How does the author prepare us for the moment of revelation? What is the nature of a character’s epiphany? How does it affect the character? How does it relate to the main theme(s) in the story?
2. Explore how setting functions in one of the stories we discussed thus far. How does it relate to plot development and character transformation? What major patterns of imagery does the setting reveal? How does it relate to the main theme(s) in the story?
3.”Young Goodman Brown” provides more than one allegorical interpretation. In addition to its complex symbolic descriptions, this story also provides a consistently parallel level of meaning that carries a moral, historical or political lesson. What is your understanding of “Young Goodman Brown” as allegory?
