Literary+Devices



Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: Identities

Point of View: 3rd person full omniscient

Protagonist: What type of character is the Protagonist? The Protagonist is the main character which was a guy in the story. He is round and dynamic. (unshaven man)

Antagonist: The environment was the antagonist because it was the thing that caused the problems.

Describe the setting The protagonist was at his house, with a great neighborhood, with kids playing around, and pumpkins at the other houses. It was a nice day at the time. The houses were all facing the sun.

Type of Conflict: Man vs Himself

Describe the main conflict: The main conflict was Man vs Himself because the policeman had to make a choice on whether to shoot down the guy in baggy clothes, with a nice car.

Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax of the story was when the policemen fired the shot. There is no falling action because this is where the story ends.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? The protagonist changes by getting bored of his own neighborhood, so he drifts off away somewhere else but just ends up getting lost.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. The title "Identities", and the theme "Mistaken Identities are related because both of these are related to Identities which you need to show right away to not be mistaken.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict of the policemen making the decision to judge the protagonist if he was going to rob the store or not was a great part of the story. This helped illustrate theme because it shows that you can be misjudged for someone else when you "wander" around somewhere you do not know, and have not been around there before.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? The climax of the gunshot helped illustrate the theme of "wandering" because if you wander to neighborhoods that look dirty, and scary, you could get hurt by many threats, such as getting robbed, or beaten by punks.

Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):

Simile: Darkness has quietly been settling like soot.

Metaphor: The smell of burning leaves stirs the memories of childhood car rides

Personification: Always, there were salmon tins glinting with silver, set above hand-painted signs instructing purchasers to deposit twenty-five or fifty cents.

Symbol: Mercedes is a symbol of wealth in this story.

Foreshadowing (give both elements): The foreshadowing of this story started when he was thinking of his childhood. He remembered wandering through open cabins, so he decided to drift out of his neighborhood, which was described as a very nice one. The reader would expect that he will face something completely opposite of his neighborhood, as it was a short story.

Irony: The irony of this story was that the protagonist expected a wonderful time drifting off somewhere but gets lost, and he ends up getting misunderstood as a robber to an amateur policeman.

Imagery: The houses are squat, as though they have been taller and have, slowly, sunk into the ground. Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. The class theme of "Humanities" is related to this story because the humanity in the protagonist in this story couldn't resist wandering off from his lovely neighborhood. This led to a gun shot, and if the guy got shot in the end, because he is human, he will feel pain, and the policeman will feel sorrow once he found out the guy was not a robber. Temptation led the protagonist to a terrible looking place.