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Flashcards · AP® English Literature and Composition · Unit 7

Unit 7: Short Fiction III flashcards

48 cards on topics 7.1 to 7.8. Pick a topic or study the whole unit.

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7.1 Character change and complex relationships

What is an epiphany in fiction?
A sudden moment of realisation that lets a character see something in a new light. It is often directly related to a central conflict and may affect the plot by prompting action.
What can cause a character to change?
A conflict of values or a change in circumstances. Name the pressure that causes the change, not just the change itself.
Must every character change?
No. A character may remain unchanged, and either choice has a function. Do not assume that change is always for the better.
How can a group or force act as a character?
A group can have an attitude and influence events, and being included or excluded reveals the group's collective attitude and possibly the character's attitude to it. Do not treat groups as background.
How do you explain the function of a character's change?
Say what the change means: what value is overturned or confirmed, and what the change makes the reader see about the central conflict or the work as a whole.
What should you link an epiphany to?
The central conflict. Calling any realisation an epiphany without a link to the conflict leaves it as a label, not analysis.

7.2 Setting and its relationship to character

What can a change of setting suggest?
Other movements, changes or shifts in the narrative, such as a move from private to public or from safety to danger. Look at what the character leaves behind and what they enter.
How can contrasted settings create conflict?
By placing places that stand for different values side by side, such as a privileged garden above poor cottages. Name the values and say how they collide.
What does a character's behaviour in a setting reveal?
An attitude to the place and to what it stands for, and therefore something about the character. Look at what they do, avoid or describe within the setting.
How does interaction with surroundings reveal the setting?
A character's response can show what the setting values, forbids or threatens. The setting and the character reveal each other.
What is a risk in setting analysis?
Describing the setting and stopping, or calling every setting symbolic. Say what the details convey and give evidence before claiming symbolism.
What does indifferent nature mean in a story about survival?
That the setting does not respond to the characters' effort. Details such as men who notice only waves, not the sky, can show how small human concerns are against a vast place.

7.3 Plot order and sequence

What is pacing?
The manipulation of time in a text. Writers speed up or slow down the narrative to control what the reader feels and notices.
What is the difference between expansion and compression?
Expansion gives a short stretch of story time a long stretch of text, which slows and intensifies. Compression gives a long stretch of story time a short stretch of text, which speeds and summarises.
How can the order of information change how earlier details are read?
A late reveal can recast earlier details, such as a final sentence that shows a long escape happened in an instant. The reader rereads the story differently.
What does it mean to say a twist is part of the earlier narrative?
A good twist is prepared by earlier details, so the reveal changes their meaning instead of arriving from nowhere. Show which earlier details the twist reframes.
Do short sentences always mean fast pacing?
No. Short sentences can slow a moment by isolating details. Judge pace by how much text a stretch of story time receives, not by sentence length alone.
How do you explain an effect of pacing?
Name what is expanded or compressed, say what the reader feels as a result, and link it to a meaning, such as a character's calm before collapse.

7.4 Narrator reliability

Why does narrator reliability matter?
It affects what we believe happened and how we judge the characters. A reader who doubts the narrator reads every detail more carefully.
What are common reasons for an unreliable narrator?
Self-interest, bias, limited knowledge, emotional or mental state, and naivety or age. Name the reason and the evidence for it.
Is reliability all or nothing?
No. It is a matter of degree. A narrator can be sound on one matter, such as events, and doubtful on another, such as motives.
What can multiple narrators do?
They can provide details others do not or cannot, and they may contradict each other. The reader compares accounts to judge what is believable.
How does an over-insistent narrator show unreliability?
Repeated claims of calm or sanity can signal the opposite. When a narrator argues too hard, the reader suspects an anxiety the narrator will not admit.
How does narrator unreliability affect other characters?
The reader's view of the people described is filtered through the narrator, so doubt about the narrator changes judgement of them. Say whose behaviour looks different.

7.5 Symbol and imagery in fiction

What is the difference between an image and imagery?
An image is a single sensory detail. Imagery is the pattern of such details across a passage or text.
What is a motif?
A unified pattern of recurring objects or images used to emphasise a significant idea in large parts of or throughout a text. Not every repeated word is a motif.
What is a symbolic setting?
A setting that is, or comes to be, associated with abstractions such as emotions, ideologies or beliefs. Some settings carry common associations, but each text uses them in its own way.
How can a building be both place and symbol?
A house can be a setting and also stand for a family or a state of mind. A crack in its wall, for example, can suggest decay, and the building's fall can end both.
What does a recurring object add to a story?
Each appearance adds meaning, so the object grows from a plain thing into a carrier of an idea. Track how its meaning changes across the story.
What mistakes should you avoid with symbols in fiction?
Treating every forest or storm as symbolic, giving one fixed meaning with no support, and forgetting function. Say what the symbol adds to the work's idea.

7.6 Simile and personification in fiction

What does a simile in fiction rely on?
The selection of the two objects and their shared traits. Name the objects, say which trait links them and say what attitude the comparison conveys.
What does a deflating simile do?
It reduces something grand to something ordinary, such as a sun pasted in the sky like a wafer. The effect is a diminished, detached view of the scene.
What is personification in fiction?
Crossing the human and non-human divide. Giving human qualities to a thing or idea characterises it; the course also stresses assigning non-human qualities to a person to communicate an attitude.
How does comparison convey a narrator's attitude to a system?
By choosing images such as a cannon or a vessel to be filled, a narrator can show how a system treats people as weapons or containers, and so criticise it.
What is a common mistake with fiction similes?
Naming the device only, or ignoring the specific trait that links the two things. Say what transfers and what attitude results.
Can a simple comparison carry too much?
Yes. Overloading a plain comparison with a complicated meaning can distort it. Match your claim to what the words can support.

7.7 Thesis and commentary

What can make an argument more sophisticated?
Explaining the significance or relevance of an interpretation within a broader context, discussing alternative interpretations, or using a relevant analogy. The exam's scoring row also lists exploring tensions and a vivid, persuasive style.
Why is sophistication not vocabulary?
Elaborate words do not make an argument complex. Sophistication comes from handling a tension, a context or an alternative reading that shapes the reasoning.
How should you handle an alternative interpretation?
State it fairly, then answer it with textual evidence and show why your reading is stronger or how it accounts for the other. Mentioning it and dropping it earns nothing.
What makes an analogy work in an essay?
It clarifies the interpretation by parallel, and it fits the text. An analogy that does not fit distracts from the argument.
What does it mean to revise a thesis as evidence develops?
If the evidence shows something more precise or more complex, change the thesis to match. A thesis that the evidence has outgrown limits the essay.
What is a broad claim with no textual link?
A generalisation such as "people always fear change". It earns nothing unless the essay ties it to specific evidence from the work.

7.8 Selecting relevant and sufficient evidence

What is the difference between relevant and sufficient evidence?
Relevant evidence bears on the claim. Sufficient evidence gives apt support in quantity and quality. A claim with several parts needs evidence for each part.
What is the trap of evidence that is about the topic but not the claim?
It is related but does not support what you said. Test each detail by asking whether it helps prove the claim itself.
Why should you use counter-evidence?
Hiding it weakens an argument; addressing it can strengthen the argument by qualifying the claim. Use it to refine the interpretation.
What is wrong with relying on plot summary as evidence?
Summary retells events and gives the reader no interpretation. Choose details and explain what they show.
How can interpretation be recursive in practice?
A claim can lead you to look for evidence, and evidence you find can reshape the claim. Allow the second step: do not defend a claim the evidence undermines.
When should you quote at length?
Rarely. A phrase usually carries the point, and a long quotation hides the key words. Quote the telling phrase and comment on it.

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