Short Story Unit Quiz Study Guide

The Danger of the Single Story narrator

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

How does one create a single story?

by showing people or a group of people as one thing, and only one thing, over and over again

Shadows on the Wall author

Charles Mungoshi

background on Charles Mungoshi

Born on a farm near Chivu in Central Zimbabwe

setting of Shadows on the Wall

unnamed African rural village in Zimbabwe

Style

the way a literary work is written; the devices the author uses to express his/her thoughts and convey the work’s subject matter

Setting

combination of place, historical time, and social milieu (a person's social environment) that provides a general background

motif

unifying element in an artistic work; recurrent image, symbol, theme, character type, subject, or narrative detail 

Metaphor

Comparison of two distinct things; representation of one by the other 

Simile

Figure of speech that compares two things using like/as

Personification

the attribution of human characterisitics to inanimate figures

Point of View

first person, first person plural, second person, third person

Anaphora

rhetorical figure involving repetition of words/phrases at the beginning of successive lines/sentences, a type of parallelism 

Parallelism

 Rhetorical figure used to emphasize ideas or images by using grammatically similar constructions; can be applied to words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and larger structural units

Everything in this Country Must

Colum McCann

the Troubles

a violent conflict in Northern Ireland (late 1960s–1998) between Protestant unionists wanting to remain in the UK and Catholic nationalists seeking unification with Ireland.

Beets author

Tiffany Midge

Tiffany Midge

Born of Hunkpapa Sioux and German ancestry, grew up in the Pacific Northwest and currently lives in Seattle

Tone

the attitude of the author toward the reader or subject matter of a literary work

Satire

a literary genre that uses humor, irony, or sarcasm to point out people’s flaws and bad habits, with the goal of encouraging change/improvement

Hyperbole

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken seriously

Verbal Irony

when a speaker deliberately says something contrary to what they actually mean; used for humor, emphasis, or critique

setting of Beets

early 1980s during the period that the author calls hyperecological awareness

On the Road at Eighteen author

Yu Hua

Yu Hua

considered one of China's most important novelists, part of the avant-garde, one of his novels was made into a film that won the Grand Prix at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival

Avant Garde

people who focused instead on uprooting reality and overthrowing tried and true principles of narrative; made reality contorted and implausible

setting of On the Road at Eighteen

vague place with no exact location, an area with a road surrounded by mountains, with no civilization in sight.

Girl author

Jamaica Kincaid

background on Jamaica Kincaid

Grew up in Antigua and moved to New York City at 19 years old

Prose Poem

when the line between prose and poetry becomes blurred

Prose

ordinary written or spoken expression; expression that exhibits purposeful grammatical design

Poetry

a literary form that uses imaginative language, structured rhythm, and the relationship of words and sounds to evoke both intellectual insight and emotional experience