Identities

Short Stories - Literary Devises Title: __Identities_____

Point of View: 3rd person

Protagonist: A round and dynamic character, he is a wealthy resourceful forgetful man.

Antagonist: Police officer, a flat character.

Describe the setting: Starts in a mall neatly kept suburban town, then changes to a rough town. The story takes place in the mid 1960’s. The mood of the story starts off as sentimental and quickly changes to intense and suspenseful.

Type of Conflict: Man vs. Man

Describe the main conflict: The protagonist gets lost and hasn’t left a note for his wife and kids who will be worried about him. He realizes that trying to retrace his steps would be pointless because he has been driving for too long without watching where he was going.

Describe the Climax of the Story: When the man sees the police officer he tries to get out his wallet so he can prove his identity to the officer. The man feels relieved to see a cop while the cop is nervous to see the man and scared that the man will shoot him.

How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? The protagonist becomes aware of how he has been profiling everyone he sees because of the neighborhood he’s in. The protagonist only becomes aware of this because he himself is profiled by the policeman.

Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. In my opinion the theme of the story is people losing their identities, the only reason the protagonist dies is because his identity was lost by the police officer.

How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict in my opinion was when the man realizes that he is lost and that he has no way of finding his way home. When he losses his way, the protagonist also seems to loose his identity.

How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? The climax of the story is when the man trys to pull out his wallet so that he can prove his identity to the police officer, but because his identity is lost, the police officer thinks he is reaching for a weapon and shots him.

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

Simile: “the grubby children who dart back and forth like startled fish” “Darkness has quietly been settling like soot” “The store window illuminates the sidewalk like a stage” Metaphor:

Personification: “but time has run away with him” “hand-painted signsinstructing purchasers to deposit twenty-five or fifty cents.”

Symbol: The police officer, symbolizing saftey His wallet, symbolizing his identity

Foreshadowing (give both elements): So intent is he upon the future that he dangerously ignores the present and does not notice the police car, concealed in the shadows of a side street, nose out and follow him. - The author says that it is dangerous for the protagonist to not see the police officer, giving away that something bad will happen involving the officer

Irony: The police officer was following the protagonist, but the protagonist didn’t know. (Dramatic irony) The police officer was actually not trying to help the protagonist (Situational irony)

Imagery: The houses are squat, as though they have been taller and have, slowly, sunk into the ground The store window illuminates the sidewalk like a stage

Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. In the story Identities the police officer and the protagonist were both profiling the area they were in, and judging the people because of it. Our class theme, humanity, makes me think of people losing their humanity when they don't treat others equally because they judge each other. In a way an aspect of humanity is treating people with equal respect and trust. In the story the protagonist wanders into a rough neighborhood and judges everyone who lives there by the litter on the ground and the unkempt lawns. The officer also judges everyone there, including the protagonist, as a bad person just because of the neighborhood. I think that the reason that the protagonist dies is because the officer doesn't trust him. Basically, I think it relates as by being example of how not to be humane. Completion 5/5 Effort 5/5 Content 4/5  Paragraph 5/5

total 19/20