Identities

1Short Stories - Literary Devices Title: Identities

Third Person
 * Point of View: **

The protagonist is a wealthy man in a wealthy neighborhood with his wife and kids. He may be somewhat well known.
 * Protagonist: **

 The Protagonist is a round and dynamic character.
 * What type of character is the Protagonist? **

The antagonist is an action that people do - generalizing.
 * Antagonist: **

The location moves along with the time. At first, the man starts off at his house, where he moves from the study, to the backyard, and then to the front yard. He lives in a good neighborhood. Then, he gets in his Mercedes and drives from where he lives into somewhere far away into a shady neighborhood. The story takes place in Autumn on a Saturday. The story ends around the evening.
 * Describe the setting: **

Man vs. Himself. (Internal conflict)
 * Type of Conflict: **

The main conflict is whether the man in the story should call his wife or not.
 * Describe the main conflict: **

The climax of the story is when the policeman orders him to halt.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the Climax of the Story: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The protagonist changes over the course of the story in the end, where he sees the officer drawing out his gun, because he realizes that people are stereotypical, and that they usually just go by their first guess.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The title is “Identities”. The theme is about how people are mistaken because of their identities. It also shows prejudice, over-generalization, and jumping to conclusions which are some negative aspects of humanity.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The main conflict helps to illustrate the theme by demonstrating that a person’s identity can be easily be mistaken due ot appearances. The man is not a robber. He is the car’s owner.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When the police officer pulled out the gun because the man reached for his wallet, he clearly didn’t stop to think that the man might be a potential owner, illustrating the concept of mistaken identities.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Darkness has been quietly settling like soot” - This phrase compares darkness to the soot settling in, using the word “like”.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Simile: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“The houses are squat” - This phrase compares the houses to nothing, without using “like” or “as”.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Metaphor: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“The houses have all faced towards the sun.” - Houses can’t really “face” toward the sun. The text gives houses, an inanimate object, human traits (being able to turn and face something).
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Personification: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The man’s wallet is a symbol for identity. He reached for his wallet to show the cop his identification.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Symbol: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When the man does not ignore the present and the police car, the author foreshadowed to us that the man will get into trouble.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreshadowing (give both elements): **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The story is very ironic in two ways. First, the man wants to call his wife so his family won’t be worried, but they would probably be worried at the end of the day. Second, he thinks that the cop is there to help him. However, it is implied that the cop shoots him.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Irony: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><range type="comment" id="641245">Paper clogs the fence like drifted snow (also a simile)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Imagery: **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The class theme is humanity, and the story shows really bad characteristics of humanity - stereotyping, ignorance, over-generalization, etc. Do people that drive expensive cars //have// to be clean - shaven, or well dressed? As the story demonstrates, no. Also, the man and the police both let their incorrect intuition and first judgment cloud their later judgment. Both the officer and the man were ignorant - they did not know the fact that people can, for example, be wealthy businessmen wearing leather jackets. Last, both the man and the cop overgeneralized. There's no proof that all people who hang out in the darker parts of the neighbourhood are "bad" people. Take Ponyboy in //The Outsiders// for example. However, the stereotyping factor is really critical in this story. The officer had no proof that the man was guilty, yet he shot him.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.3333px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story: **

Completion: 5/5

Effort: 5/5

Content: 4/5

Paragraph: 4/5

total: 18/20