Identities

Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: Identities

Point of View: Third person semi-omniscient, the narrator talks as if telling what he sees from above/below/beside, but there isn't much insight given about others.

Protagonist: What type of character is the Protagonist? The protagonist is a round dynamic static because he thinks about

Antagonist: The antagonist is the flat and dynamic side of the protagonist. Flat, because the part of him believes that all people from the 'other' side of town are rough, and dynamic because in his last second he realizes that not a cops are good, which shatters his stereotypical thinking.

Describe the setting The setting is in some kind of town that has changed and developed in the protagonists past. The town seems to have poorer and ‘upper’ sections with some in between. The ‘slick hair’ mentioned, and the leather jackets motion towards the 50’s. The turning leaves mean fall.

Type of Conflict: External conflict: Man vs Man ( the main character and the cop), and Man vs himself because the protagonist struggles between his worry and guilt about not telling his family where he was, and his set image of someone who lives in the neighbourhood. In the end, his trying to blend in the the people of the neighbourhood leads a cop to believe he stole the car.

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict is the man vs himself, even though he doesn’t realize that. The protagonist thought the main issue was the other people on the street, until he got shot. His blindness by thinking only rough people are dangerous and his being lost in the past led him to his end.

The conflict is Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax is when the protagonist is when the cop is advancing towards him on the street and thinks he stole the car.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The protagonist starts out care free, wandering through the neighborhood, but when he becomes worried about what he’s done about halfway through. He begins to realize what he has done. When he puts the 10 dollar bill in his pocket, he realizes even more where he has wandered, and what we thinks about the neighbourhood.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The title is Identities, is connected to the last line. “ in the last voluntary moment of his life he reaches his hand not into the air... but toward his wallet for his identity.’

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">How does the main conflict help to illustrate theme?: ~ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The main conflict is the man's stereotypical thinking, and thinking like that is one way to see someone. The theme is that different people see others in different ways. Person A may see Person B as mean, and thinking that they see them as thinking of them as seeing them that way, even though Person B may think Person A is nice.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">How does the climax help to illustrate the theme?~ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The climax is when the protagonist gets shot by the cop who the protagonist thought was a saviour from the seedy people on the sidewalk. The cop saw the protagonist as one of the seedier people, and the 'seedy people' may be very kind business owners who don't care about their appearances.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Simile: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘Paper clogs the fence like drifted snow.’ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘The window light illuminates the sidewalk like a stage,’ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘Darkness was been settling like soot.’

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Metaphor: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘The houses are squat, as though they have been taller and... sunk into the ground.’

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Personification: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘the houses appear identical, repeat themselves with hardly a variation.’ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘Eagles, wolves, and tigers ride their backs’ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Symbol; <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘a ten foot wire fence surrounding a playground of bare equipment and pounded flat’. The protagonist was remembering his past when kids could play anywhere, and people trusted each other. Now, people are suspicious of others and the playgrounds must be fenced in. The fence represents the change in attitude since the protagonists childhood.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Foreshadowing (give both elements): <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘So intent ... upon the future, he dangerously decides to ignore the past.; <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">This leads to the cop shooting the protagonist.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Irony: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘ Last voluntary moment of his life he reaches for his wallet for identity’, the man is shot by a cop mistaking him for someone else. By reaching into his pocket instead of putting his hands up, he looked to the cop like he could have been getting out a gun, further proving him to be what the cop thought him to be.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Imagery: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘salmon tins glinting with silver’ and ‘Their slick hair glistens. Their leather jackets gleam with studs.’ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">‘cracked sidewalks with stiff ridges of grass’

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The identity mentioned would have been an official paper or card proving who he was to society and the government. To the cop, however, his identity was a car thief. Just a guy in jeans who could be reaching for a gun, like a stereotypical person who looked like that would. Who you really are is different than what you or others think you are. Identity is a huge part of humanity, as everyone is different, and sees others differently. <range type="comment" id="87733">Seeing others as people who also see you is humanity.

Completion: 5/5

Effort: 5/5

Content: 4/5

Paragraph: 4/5

total: 18/20