Conclusion to the entire process of analyzing a short story

Throughout the duration of the quarter, I have discovered the process of analyzing a short story to be much more difficult than I thought. The method of analyzing a short story that influenced my reading and writing process the most was that of Flynn, which is why I based one of my responses to "The Man in the Well" on Flynn's categories of reading. I have learned from Flynn that it is necessary for a reader to achieve a solid balance between detachment and involvement in order to fully comprehend and interpret the meaning of a story. It is difficult to achieve this solid balance, but it can undoubtedly be obtained through practice. By practice, I mean re-reading a story multiple times. The more a story is read, the more likely the reader is to form a constant pattern of meaning. I have also found it helpful in some cases to take notes as I am reading. By doing so, important parts of the text are not forgotten. For the final project, I took notes each time I read the story since the project was a weekly process.

I also gained significant insight from the midterm project. The midterm project was a group project that involved detailed discussion between all group members. I found that it is enlightening to hear other people's thoughts on a particular story. A similar form of discussion was also present in the final project where someone who was not currently enrolled in the class, my mother in my case, read the chosen short story and commented on it. I then compared my ideas to her ideas and discussed what insight I gained from the comparison. Through this course, I also learned how to distinguish a short story from an essay (Hesse) and how to determine if a short story is fiction or nonfiction (Morano). I discovered that a reader has a need to "close" a story (May). For example, if a short story contains a trick-ending or if the writer purposely leaves the ending of a story open for interpretation, the reader has an instinctual need to choose an appropriate ending. Although May introduces the idea of a trick-ending, Lohafer introduces the preclosure experiment as a method of determining the location of an alternate ending. Overall, I learned about many elements of a short story that I have always known to exist, but never fully understood. The insight that I gained from this course will inevitably help me to succeed in future college level courses.

I would like to note that I chose a black template for the blog because it reminded me of what the inside of a well might look like -- nothing but darkness.