Unit ii. Reading and analysis

Text Interpretation

Reading a piece of fiction we participate in the adventures and the imaginary experiences of imaginary people. There are two main types of literature: literature of escape and literature of interpretation. Escape literature has its only object – pleasure. It is created to entertain readers. A story becomes interpretative as it illuminates some aspects of human life or behavior. An interpretative story presents an insight into the nature and conditions of our existence. It gives us a keener awareness of what it is to be a human being in the Universe. It helps us to understand other people and ourselves.

In the text interpretation the reader gets an insight into the plot, the composition, the idea and themes, the problems and facts of life and the characters.

Plot is a sequence of events of which a story is composed. It is the easiest element in fiction to comprehend and put into words. The plot may include what a character does as well as what he says or thinks. But it leaves our descriptions and analyses concentrating on major happenings. The plot may include one or many episodes.

The development of the plot depends on the conflict. The conflict may be physical, mental and emotional. It may be of three types:

1. MAN against MAN (the main character is in conflict with some other person or group of persons);

2. MAN against ENVIRONMENT (the main character is in conflict with external force, e.g. Nature, fate, society, etc.);

3. MAN against HIMSELF (the main personage is in conflict with his own qualities of character).

In some stories the conflict is single, clear-cut and easily identified. In others it is multiple, various and subtle.

The central character in the conflict whether he be a sympathetic or an unsympathetic person, is referred to as the protagonist. The forces arrayed against the protagonist whether persons, things, conventions of society or traits of his own character, are the antagonists.

Reading for character is more difficult than reading for the plot. Anyone can repeat what a person has done in a story, but considerable skill may be needed to describe what a person is.

An author may present his character directly and indirectly. In direct presentation he tells us straight out what a character is like or someone in the story tells us about it. In indirect presentation the author shows us the character in action. We conclude what a character is like from what he thinks or says or does.

All fictional characters may be classified as static (who are the same sort of people at the beginning or at the end of the story) and developing or dynamic (if they undergo a permanent change for the better or for the worse). The characters are flat if they are characterized by one or two traits and round if they are many-sided. Stock-character is the stereotyped figure who has occurred so often in fiction that his nature is immediately known (the cruel stepmother, the beautiful modest girl or the brilliant detective with eccentric manners, etc.).

The setting of a story is the place and time in which the story happens. Whatever the details of setting are, they have an impact on the characters. The details that are used to sketch a setting need not to be only visual, for the author may successfully appeal to any of our senses. For example, the sense of sound might be important in a story about a violent storm.

Every kind of fiction has a structural design, which is called the composition. There are three main elements in the composition: the exposition (the necessary preliminaries to the action in which the theme or subject is presented; it may be detailed and concentrated in one place or scattered all through the story); the climax (the highest point of the story); the outcome (the unwinding of the action, the events immediately following the climax and bringing the action to an end).

The theme of a piece of fiction is its controlling idea or its central insight, its central purpose. In getting at the theme it’s better to ask not “What does the story teach?” but “What does it reveal?” There are no prescribed methods for discovering the theme. Sometimes the best approach is to explore the nature of the central conflict and its outcome. Sometimes the title may provide an important clue. Sometimes it may be the revelation of a human character. Sometimes the theme is explicitly stated by the author or by one of the characters. More often it is implied, or expressed implicitly.

As the theme is a complete idea, it should be stated in a complete sentence. For example, the theme may be expressed in the following form “Motherhood has more frustrations than rewards.”

Some readers consider the terms “moral” and “theme” to be interchangeable. Sometimes they really are and the theme of the story may be expressed as a moral principle without doing violence to the story. So in fables, the theme is a moral.

The terms “theme” and “subject” are also sometimes interchangeable. E.g. “What is the subject/theme of the book?” or “I have read several books on that subject/theme.” However, they are not synonyms. “Theme” is more general than “subject”. Subject is a specific situation on series of events. Compare:

a) - What is the book about?

- … a famous architect who gives up his career and goes to Africa where gets involved in the war of a leper colony.

- That’s unusual subject

b) The theme of loneliness is one to which the author often returns in his novels and stories.

If we want to focus on the tone of a story, we should identify the following terms.

Humour is the quality of being amusing or comical. It usually causes laughter or smile.

Irony is a contrast between appearance and reality. The discrepancy is between what is said or done and what is implied or expected. E.g. “It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket.” So irony makes it possible to suggest meanings without stating them.

Satire is writing that uses wit and humour to ridicule vices, follies, stupidities, and abuses. Satirists, by directing their barbs toward those they view as offenders, hope to improve the situation – to reform the individuals, groups, or humanity as a whole. Satire may be gentle and amusing or it may be cruel or even vicious. Whatever its tone, satire is usually subtle enough to require the reader to make at least a small mental leap to connect it with its target.

As for sarcasm, it is a sharply mocking or contemptuously ironic remark intended to wound another.