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Fiona Shariff

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Fiona Shariff
There are five literary techniques used to create short story: narrator, characterization, setting, plot and perspective. The two short stories chosen to identify these literary techniques are “The lesson,” by Toni Cade Bambara, and “How Far She went,” by Mary Hood.

The literary techniques used are defined as followed. The narrator is the person telling the story, the voice that an author takes on to tell a story. There are two types of narration: omission man, or the character in the story. The omission man knows everything and everyone you are able to trust this narrator because they are un-bias. The character in the story has a limited point of view unlike the omission you are unable to trust this narrator because they are bias. Characterization, is giving a character a specific trait. There are two types of characterization, direct and un-direct definition. Direct definition gives specific traits, examples: mean, spooky. An un-direct definition is speaking about the person allowing a picture to be painted. The setting is the location and time. This tells you about the characters emotions and expectations, everything that goes on before the plot. The plot is a series of event that make up a story. There are two types of plot that a writer can create: unified and episodic. With a unified plot the story is realistic. It includes a central character and action, and takes place in a single place, usually during a short span of time. With the episodic plot the story has a setting central character and conflict. This takes place over a much longer period of time. The perspective is from what view point the story is being told.

The Lesson, by Toni Cade Bambard begins and ends in a poor neighborhood in New York City, most likely Harlem. The main character Silvia describes the neighborhood just as the story begins, '"cause we all moved North the same time and to the same apartment and then spread out gradual to breathe," (pg 456,

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