Perrine's Story and Structure

by Thomas R. Arp, Greg Johnson

Overview

More than fifty years ago, Laurence Perrine pioneered an engaging approach to teaching literature that presented diverse, exciting examples and straightforward answers to tough questions. Since then, millions of students have used Perrine's introductions to plot, character, theme, and other elements of fiction, gaining an understanding of fiction and developing essential skills: critical reading, analysis, and writing.

The book's classic and contemporary readings represent diverse experiences that bring the elements to life. Multiple stories illuminate the ranges of featured authors Joyce Carol Oates, James Joyce, and Flannery O'Connor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780495898009
Publisher:	Cengage Learning
Publication date:	02/11/2011
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	704
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Thomas R. Arp received a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan (1954) and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to Stanford University. In 1955-1956, he produced educational television for the University of Michigan. He received an M.A. in 1960 and a Ph.D. in 1962 — both from Stanford. He taught at Bowdoin College, Princeton University, University of California at Berkeley, Hull University (England), and Southern Methodist University. Macmillan published his volume THE FORM OF POETRY in 1966, and he received a Fulbright lectureship at University of Bucharest (Romania) in 1969-1970. Arp joined Laurence Perrine in preparing revised editions of SOUND AND SENSE, STORY AND STRUCTURE, and LITERATURE: STRUCTURE, SOUND, AND SENSE beginning in 1982. He became sole author of the books in 1997 and was joined by Greg Johnson in 2002. Dr. Arp passed away in 2015.

Greg Johnson received an M.A. in English from Southern Methodist University and a Ph.D. in English from Emory University. Dr. Johnson is the author of 12 books of fiction, poetry, criticism, and biography, including LAST ENCOUNTER WITH THE ENEMY (Johns Hopkins, 2004), WOMEN I'VE KNOWN: NEW AND SELECTED STORIES (Ontario Review, 2007), the novel STICKY KISSES (Alyson Books, 2001), and several books on Joyce Carol Oates, including INVISIBLE WRITER: A BIOGRAPHY OF JOYCE CAROL OATES (Dutton, 1998) and JOYCE CAROL OATES: CONVERSATIONS 1970-2006 (Ontario Review, 2006). He joined the author team of PERRINE'S LITERATURE in 2002 and has been the sole author since Thomas Arp's passing in 2015.

Table of Contents

Preface     xi
Professional Acknowledgments     xiii
Foreword to Students     xv
The Elements of Fiction     1
Reading the Story     3
Reviewing Chapter One     9
The Most Dangerous Game   Richard Connell     9
Hunters in the Snow   Tobias Wolff     28
Understanding and Evaluating Fiction     42
Suggestions for Writing     44
Plot and Structure     45
Reviewing Chapter Two     53
The Destructors   Graham Greene     53
How I Met My Husband   Alice Munro     67
Interpreter of Maladies   Jhumpa Lahiri     83
Suggestions for Writing     101
Characterization     103
Reviewing Chapter Three     108
Everyday Use   Alice Walker     108
Miss Brill   Katherine Mansfield     116
The Man Who Was Almost a Man   Richard Wright     121
Suggestions for Writing     132
Theme     133
Reviewing Chapter Four     140
Welding with Children   Tim Gautreaux     140
The Darling   Anton Chekhov     154
A Worn Path   Eudora Welty     165
Once upon a Time   Nadine Gordimer     173
Suggestions for Writing     178
Point of View     179
Reviewing Chapter Five     185
Paul's Case   Willa Cather     186
The Lottery   Shirley Jackson     203
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall   Katherine Anne Porter     211
Hills Like White Elephants   Ernest Hemingway     220
Suggestions for Writing     225
Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy     226
Reviewing Chapter Six     237
The Rocking-Horse Winner   D. H. Lawrence     237
Young Goodman Brown   Nathaniel Hawthorne     251
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas   Ursula K. Le Guin     263
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings   Gabriel Garcia Marquez     269
Suggestions for Writing     275
Humor and Irony     276
Reviewing Chapter Seven     280
The Drunkard   Frank O'Connor     281
Rape Fantasies   Margaret Atwood     290
The Guest   Albert Camus      298
Suggestions for Writing     310
Evaluating Fiction     311
Reviewing Chapter Eight     314
Roman Fever   Edith Wharton     315
A New Leaf   F. Scott Fitzgerald     327
Suggestions for Writing     340
Three Featured Writers: James Joyce, Flannery O'Connor, Joyce Carol Oates     343
Introduction     345   James Joyce
Araby     346
Eveline     352
The Boarding House     356
Critical Perspectives on Joyce     363
From Dubliners: A Pluralistic World   Craig Hansen Werner     363
From "Araby"   J. S. Atherton     364
From "Eveline"   Clive Hart     368
From "'The Boarding House' Seen as a Tale of Misdirection"   Fritz Senn     372   Flannery O'Connor
A Good Man Is Hard to Find     376
Everything That Rises Must Converge     390
Greenleaf     404
Critical Perspectives on O'Connor     425
"A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable"   Flannery O'Connor     425
"Letter to a Professor of English"   Flannery O'Connor     427
From "A Good Man's Predicament"   Madison Jones     428
On "Everything That Rises Must Converge"   Dorothy Walters     432
On "Greenleaf"   Gilbert H. Muller     435   Joyce Carol Oates
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?     438
Life after High School     453
June Birthing     467
From "Stories That Define Me: The Making of a Writer"   Joyce Carol Oates     474
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and Smooth Talk: Short Story into Film   Joyce Carol Oates     475
On "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"   Elaine Showalter     478
On "Life After High School" and "June Birthing"   Greg Johnson     481
Writing about Fiction     487
Why Write about Literature?     489
For Whom Do You Write?     489
Two Basic Approaches     491
Explication     491
Analysis     492
Choosing a Topic     492
Papers That Focus on a Single Story     493
Papers of Comparison and Contrast     493
Papers on a Number of Works by a Single Author     494
Papers on a Number of Works with Some Feature Other than Authorship in Common      495
Proving Your Point     495
Writing the Paper     497
Writing In-Class Essays or Essay Tests     499
Introducing Quotations (Q1-Q10)     501
Documentation     507
Textual Documentation (TD1-TD4)     507
Parenthetical Documentation (PD1-PD6)     509
Documentation by List of Works Cited     511
Documentation of Electronic Sources     513
Stance and Style (S1-S6)     515
Grammar, Punctuation, and Usage: Common Problems     518
Grammar (G1-G2)     518
Punctuation (P1-P5)     518
Usage (U1-U2)     520
Writing Samples     523
Fiction Explication: The Indeterminate Ending in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"     523
Fiction Analysis: The Function of the Frame Story in "Once upon a Time"     525
Stories for Further Reading     529
Civil Peace   Chinua Achebe     531
The Swimmer   John Cheever     536
The Story of an Hour   Kate Chopin     546
A Rose for Emily   William Faulkner     548
A Jury of Her Peers   Susan Glaspell     556
The Gilded Six-Bits   Zora Neale Hurston     575
The Real Thing   Henry James     585
Bartleby the Scrivener   Herman Melville     608
The Cask of Amontillado   Edgar Allan Poe     639
A & P   John Updike     646
Glossary of Terms     653
Copyrights and Acknowledgments     659
Index of Authors and Titles     663

Editorial Reviews

"Really and truly; I see no need for improvement; in my judgment, the text is the best I've ever used for any course."

"Please do not change any of the above sections of STORY AND STRUCTURE: this book is perfect…This book is consistently my first choice for "Writing about Literature" composition courses and for short fiction courses. Thank you for a superb textbook."

From the Publisher