The Nature of Short Stories: Master Key Concepts & Vocabulary in English | Complete English Course

Okay, hello everyone and welcome back to another lesson. Today we are going to talk about the nature of short stories. If you happen to skip the last lesson, please go back and make sure you've been over it because you won't get lost this lesson. All right, so why are we talking about short stories? If we are going to talk about fiction at all, why short stories? Well, short stories are the smaller version of longer fiction books. So if we study the elements of in order to be able to understand how to comprehend fiction with smaller excerpts, then we will be able to understand larger works much easier. And also for the purposes of this course, I'm not going to read aloud to you an entire book or put an entire book into a PPT presentation. That would just be ridiculous. So in order to teach you how to comprehend short stories, I'm going to show you with short stories. All right, so short stories are simpler to begin with. They have greatly impacted our culture in America. There's so much that we learn from short stories within our schooling today. No English course is complete without short stories and no even political or cultural class is complete without short stories from the era they were written in to demonstrate a main point that impacted society at the time. So short stories are huge shapers of American culture and we're going to see that especially as we get into the 20th century. There's a lot going on in the 20th century as evidenced by our short story culture. So it's also an entertaining way to read and to learn reading comprehension and culture. If I can put the entire story up here or most of the entire story or the adaption of the entire story on here and we walk through it with you to practice, then you're learning multiple things at the same time and that is a very efficient way to learn English. So what is a short story? It is fiction. It is short. It has few characters. So these are elements that are required to be categorized as a short story. It's usually focused on one event and it has a different meaning for different readers. So there are some things that I'm going to tell you what a story means that you may understand something completely different and that is totally fine. Fiction is made for the readers, not the readers for the story, right? So fiction is to make to entertain. Sometimes there are life lessons but interestingly a story written to have an intended life lesson for one thing can also teach somebody something else. So we are going to hold meaning fairly loosely in fiction but we are going to focus on how to identify that meaning that you understand from the story and how to support what you understand. You've got to be able to support and point to examples from the story that say, I understand this because of x, y, and z, okay? Short stories are very imaginative. There are things that you can do in fiction and in short story that you just can't do with other things like talking animals. How cool is that? Speaking of talking animals, let's read The Little Thief in the Pantry. Now this story was originally published in a series of short stories in a book in 1887. The authors of these stories were not recognized so we actually don't know who wrote Little Thief in the Pantry. However, it was part of the short story collection in 1887. So what I want you to think of as we read through is what is the message for the intended audience? Now every time I change the slide you may pause and read it aloud to yourself or read it to yourself. I will also read it aloud to show you how to pronounce some of the words but I encourage you to pause it and read it yourself as well. Mother dear, said Little Mouse one day, I think the people in our house must be very kind, don't you? They leave such nice things for us in the larder. There was a twinkle in the mother's eyes, she replied. Well my child, no doubt they are very well in their way but I don't think they are quite as fond of us as you seem to think. Now remember, Gray Whiskers, I have absolutely forbidden you to put your nose above the ground unless I am with you. For as kind as the people are, I shouldn't at all be surprised if they tried to catch you. Gray Whiskers twitched his tail to scorn. He was quite sure he knew how to take care of himself and he didn't mean to trot meekly after his mother's tale all his life. So as soon as she had curled herself up for an afternoon nap he stole away and scampered across the pantry shelves. Ah, here was something particularly good today. A large iced cake stood far back upon the shelf and Gray Whiskers licked his lips as he sniffed it. Across the top of the cake there were words written in pink sugar but as Gray Whiskers could not read he did not know that he was nibbling at Little Miss Ethel's birthday cake. But he did feel a little guilty when he heard his mother calling. Off he ran and he was back in the nest again by the time his mother had finished rubbing her eyes after her nap. She took Gray Whiskers up to the pantry then and when she saw the hole in the cake she seemed a little annoyed. Some mouse has evidently been here before, she said, but of course she never guessed that it was her own little son. The next day the naughty little mouse again popped up into the pantry where his mother was asleep but at first he could find nothing at all to eat though there was the most delicious smell of toasted cheese. Presently he found a dear little wooden house and there hung the cheese just inside it. In ran Gray Whiskers but oh click went the little wooden house and Mousey was caught fast in a trap. When the morning came the cook who had set the trap lifted it from the shelf and then he called a pretty little girl to come and see the thief who had eaten her cake. What are you going to do with them asked Ethel? Why drown him my dear to be sure. The tears came to the little girl's pretty blue eyes. You don't know it was stealing did you Mousey dear she said. No squeaked Gray Whiskers sadly indeed I didn't. The cook's back was turned for a moment and in that moment tender-hearted little Ethel lifted the lid of the trap and out popped Mousey. Oh how quickly he ran home to his mother and how she comforted him and petted him until he began to forget his fright and then she made him promise never to disobey her again and you may be sure he never did. Okay so in that story I want you to think back how many characters are in it and how do you know this is fiction? Who do you think is the intended audience and what do you think the author of the story is trying to communicate to his readers? Okay so we have four characters we have Mousey, Mama Mouse, the cook, and Ethel the little girl. How do you know this is fiction? Well for one mice can't talk it's from the perspective of the mouse so the mouse himself is telling the story right it's not that he's just talking in the story he's telling the story but it's also from a narrator's perspective so we get a little bit into the mouse's mind but we also hear from a narrator there's some unknown narrator who's unannounced but somebody's telling that story so we're going to get into narrators in the next lesson. Who do you think is the intended audience? Definitely children right it would be a little odd to write something like this for adults but for children for sure this is what is intended and how do we know that? It's because the lesson being taught is basically obey your mother and if you don't something bad will happen because notice the mouse starts he's kind of rebellious he's like I know how to do that I'm not just going to follow my mom everywhere for the rest of my life so it's very important to note that he's talking like he's rebelling against his mother and his mother's guidance. The difference between stealing and given is also a theme in here you have the mouse stealing something versus something being given or freedom being given by Ethel and you also have compassion. Ethel's compassion on a mouse that got into her birthday cake so definitely a lot of themes going on but the main lesson here is obey your mother. So how to understand a story? First you've got to understand that it's cultural product it comes from a certain time in a culture the context as we've talked about before it was what was happening in the world at the time what country was the author in what country did the author come from all of those are important elements as we talked about before language art the way the author uses words to paint a picture in your mind to create a theme to make you feel emotion to convey meaning without telling you his meaning and to make you participate in the story all of those things are very important in understanding a story and it's important to note the tone that is that something is being written in all right we're gonna we're gonna explore that here in a bit i've got another story here for you early autumn by langston hughes what is the story's explicit and implicit meaning and there's going to be a lot of emotion in this so definitely pause and read it yourself but then listen as i speak as well to go over a second time so ideally you will pause as i flip okay when bill was very young they had been in love many nights they had spent walking together then something not very important had come between them and they didn't speak impulsively she had married a man she thought she loved bill went away bitter about women yesterday walking across washington square she saw him for the first time in years bill walker she said he stopped at first he did not recognize her to him she looked so old mary where did you come from unconsciously she lifted her face as though wanting a kiss but he held out his hand she took it i live in new york now she said oh smiling politely then a little frown came quickly between his eyes always wondered what happened to you bill i'm a lawyer nice firm way downtown married yet sure two kids oh she said a great many people went past them through the park people they didn't know it was late afternoon nearly sunset cold and your husband he asked her we have three children i work in the bursar's office at columbia you're looking very he wanted to say old well he said she understood under the trees in washington square she found herself desperately reaching back into the past she had been older than he then in ohio but she was not young at all bill was still young we live at central park west she said come and see us sometime sure he replied you and your husband must have dinner with my family some night any night lucille and i would love to have them the leaves fell slowly from the trees in the square fell without wind autumn dusk she felt a little sick we love it she answered you ought to see my kids he grinned suddenly the lights came up the whole length of fifth avenue chains of misty brilliance in the blue air there's my bus she said he held his hand goodbye when she wanted to say but the bus was ready to pull off the lights on the avenue blurred twinkle blurred she was afraid to open her mouth as she entered the bus afraid it would be impossible to utter a word suddenly she shrieked very loudly goodbye but the bus door had closed the bus started people came between them outside people crossing the street people they didn't know space and people she lost sight of bill then she remembered she had forgotten to give him her address or to ask him for his or to tell him that her youngest boy was named bill too okay so what are the names of the two characters in the story the two characters were once best friends what is the setting what elements in the setting reflect the story and do you think they'll ever meet again one day bill and mary are the characters in the story they were not best friends they were very clearly boyfriend and girlfriend or lovers before and the setting is washington square in new york city it's later not necessarily evening but late afternoon and it's early autumn as far as season goes they're in their older years uh it's colder it's drizzling and there's falling leaves and do you think they'll ever meet again this one's up to you now i really wanted to point out in here how different things are going are at play bill is able to grin but he also had a little frown come quickly between his eyes here it's as if he's um not sure like he seems like he feels awkward because he's like smiling politely notice how at first she's lifting her face uh to as though wanting a kiss like she still is living in the past it seems but he seems like he's not really i mean he's being very polite and he thinks she looks old and he grins and talks about his kids and stuff where she doesn't really talk about that until he asks so it's very interesting that he has clearly moved on he is still young but she has not moved on and she is old so definitely life has been more kind to him than for her since then but this is reflected in setting we see falling leaves uh things are starting to die early autumn right the leaves start to die and fall off the trees it's late afternoon and the lights come on it's it's getting to dusk and things change and notice there's a lot of repetitiveness when it talks about the setting uh the leaves fell slowly from the trees in the square very full description fell without wind autumn dusk she felt a little sick right then you have something like this earlier too people they didn't know you have one full sentence here and then you have people they didn't know it was late afternoon nearly sunset cold very interesting how he's capturing he's using the language itself to capture the meaning of the story to capture the feeling and the emotion in the story so whenever you read a short story be sure that you are paying attention to how something is written this pattern right here being repeated twice with a full sentence and then a short full sentence and then choppy choppy things that is very important because especially since he repeats it again right here so definitely make sure you pay attention to the way something is written not just the words being used very important to the tone and meaning and the emotion of the story okay so let's get to some more questions so what is the significance of her well one thing i want to ask is in your culture what would that mean the story ends happily true or false what does impulsively mean to grin is to smile and reaching back into the past means wishing things were as before true or false she never forgot bill in our culture what this means to us is that she never forgot bill and more than that she never moved on notice at the beginning of the story when it says that she she impulsively she had married a man she thought she loved impulsively meaning she did it without thinking and she married a man she thought she loved which means that she doesn't currently love whoever this is interesting very interesting language all right so you also have there's a story in happily no no it doesn't mary's still gonna be stuck and bill's still gonna be moved on nothing really changes as far as the characters go and then what does impulsively mean without thinking or instinct to grin is to smile yes you can grin and that means to smile and reaching back into the past is an idiom meaning uh to to wish that things were as they were before so mary is reaching back into the past where bill doesn't seem to be he seems to be content with how life is now now we can go on we can go on into what the implications of the story is if you want to do a great exercise you can predict where the story goes next how does mary change or does she not change in the future maybe she's going to be less even less content than what she had before and then bill is this going to shake things up is this meeting with his old girlfriend going to shake things up for him is he going to be less content is he going to try to find mary or is he just going to keep going and kind of forget about her who knows this is something that you get to decide and that's something that's really cool about short stories everybody understands something different and everyone can write the rest of the story in a different way it's really cool this is in the realism style we're going to get into short story genres through the ages of american history uh later but the thing to pay attention to slice of life details the details that are included in the story are very realistic there's no talking animals in here we all know what autumn feels like um there is no moral lesson you can draw themes and ideas from it but it's not really teaching you something i the closest i guess it could be teaching from my understanding is it could just be hang on to the people you love and anger management is important don't just stop talking to somebody or walk away when you're angry you know the reader fills in the gaps so this story you get to write the ending of it how will this happen how will it end in the future so it really is interesting how this can be an open gate to writing a new story all right so whenever you're reading any kind of short story and anything that i give you or anything that you come across in the future make sure you pay attention to the context the time the culture the surrounding words and the surrounding story don't just take one paragraph and rip it out of the story and expect that to carry the meaning of the whole thing you need to read things in context the intended audience is important so the little thief in the pantry is for kids right very obviously so but langston hughes's articles for people who understand what that feeling is like for people who understand what it is like to love someone so it is very important to get that intended audience down in order to be able to understand meaning or to derive some kind of meaning from it language the way something is written the vocabulary used the tone that is very important that's just as important as the setting and oftentimes that setting is described by how something is written just like it is in this story as i pointed out before the structure or the plot line we're going to get into what a plot line is and how it is structured in a future lesson setting characters and narrator all of those are coming up in future lessons but as i teach you how to comprehend or how to identify these elements i want you to be making notes in successive stories about them because it's going to help you be able to comprehend what the meaning is all of these elements are incredibly important to understanding fiction non-fiction is a little different and we've talked about that in the last lesson so very important that you take note of this in this lesson explicit implicit meaning remember explicit explicit meaning is what something says what happens in the story but implicit meaning is what is not directly said but it's what is meant so in the story the first story we did today with the little thief in the pantry explicitly the mouse gets caught right if i said what is the explicit meaning you would tell me what you'd say a little mouse disobeys his mother and gets caught but he is let off the hook he gets given a second chance by a little girl setting him free he goes back to his mother and obeys her from then on the implicit meaning though is obey your mother it does not specifically say obey your mother in the story right that is the implicit meaning that you can get and that's a very simple one it's very easy to understand because it is a child story it is a fable designed to deliver a lesson to children so explicit implicit fiction comprehension is very important for understanding what the story is about how the characters develop why the author wrote the way he or she did why the author wrote the story at all and who the author is writing the story for okay so i'm going to show you the quiz first and then we're going to read a very short story a very short short story if you will but i want you to take a look at this quiz and then we're going to read that paragraph and then we're going to come back and answer it okay so who is mercury what is he doing is the first woodsman good do you think mercury is a good guy or a bad guy and what is the lesson in this story a woodsman was felling a tree on the bank of a river when his axe bouncing off the tree flew out of his hands and fell into the water as he stood by the water's being sad about his axe mercury appeared and asked him why he was sad on learning what had happened mercury had pity on the woodsman and dove into the river and came up with a golden axe is this the one you lost he asked no said the woodman woodsman mercury dove back into the river and came up again with the silver axe that's not mine either said the woodsman mercury dove into the river one more time and came up with the woodsman's axe yes this one is mine said the very happy woodsman mercury was so impressed by the woodsman's honesty that he gave him the silver and golden axes too that night the woodsman told the story of his good fortune to his friends one of them was quite jealous so the next day he went to the river to cut down a tree and let his axe fall into the river sure enough mercury appeared and offered to help the man mercury dove down into the river and came up with a golden axe yes that one must be mine cried the man reaching out for the golden axe but mercury was so disgusted by the man's dishonesty that he did not give him the golden axe and also refused to give back his old axe okay so quick disclosure here this is an adaption of a fable from aesop's fables so i rewrote this to make it much simpler and easier to understand okay so here's the story quiz again who is mercury what is he doing is the first woodsman good do you think mercury is a good guy or a bad guy and what is the lesson in this story mercury is a messenger of the greek gods okay and he's there's also a version of him i think it's hermes in the roman gods well maybe it's the other way around mercury for roman gods hermes for the greek there we go same guy though he ruled over wealth good fortune and thievery so what is he doing he's definitely testing the woodsman he's just camping out in this river and he's testing them to see how honest they are is the first woodsman good yes but it's not all encompassing the purpose of the story is not to say that this man is all good or all bad right it's just saying at least he's not selfish he's going to honestly answer mercury because he's honest about what is his and all he wants is what is his do you think mercury is a good guy or bad guy this one is left up to you in your interpretation again the beauty of short stories and fiction in general is that we can all carry away a different meaning so this one's up to you and your self-reflection personally i think mercury is a bit mischievous i think he is bored and probably playing around but he's also testing he's giving an almost impossible test in terms of mankind because there seems to be a low view of mankind in a lot of stories and so i'm wondering if that is also the basic idea here he found a good one really rewarded him but then anyone else that would have come of the first woodsman friend would probably fail and what is the lesson of the story you should tell the truth tell the truth and take only what is yours and honestly life would probably reward you as long as you are honest okay so here we have a gap fill exercise the goal here is to take the words from the bottom and put them in the correct blank within go ahead and pause this in order to complete the exercise and then when you come back we'll look at the answers okay so the woodsman was felling a tree it was bouncing off the trunk of the tree he was at the water's edge mercury dove into the river and came up with a golden axe first the silver axe second that's not mine either either it means that is also not mine uh this one is mine and mercury was impressed and he gave the silver and golden axes to there you go all right so literature learning begins with pleasure and ends with wisdom it is so much fun to read literature and take it in next we're going to talk about narrators we're going to break that down take a different perspectives narrators can fulfill and i will see you in the next lesson