Analyzing Stories Novels & Stories

The first line read: She parted her thighs slowly, waiting for the warmth of his mouth to find her. “Oh,” I said before I could stop myself. She smiled. “Exactly,” she said, settling back into her chair. “It’s an erotic short story. I’d like you to analyze it. Language. Theme. Symbolism. That sort of thing.” “Right,” I said. “Of course.” “You okay?” “Yeah. Just… caught off guard.” “You’ll adjust.” She crossed one leg over the other. “Would you like to read it here? I thought we could go through it together. Just the first few pages.”

“When you tell a story you are setting a contract with your audience. You don’t say to them ‘Let me tell you something that happened in real life,’ you say, ‘Let me tell you a story.’ People look to stories to give them the things that real life doesn’t.” “Such as?” “In real life your problems are rarely resolved, you don’t get closure on the situations or relationships that have most impact on your life. Your father never explains why he didn’t say how proud you made him. Your ex-wife never apologies for cheating on you repeatedly. Bad people aren’t punished for their crimes and good people go unrewarded for their virtue. We look to stories to give us the closure and the resolution we so de

So when Conrad returned to Antriford and attended the company's new product launch, he was confidently holding Kelly in his arms. It was quite a coincidence. Using public opinion and stock prices as leverage, we pressured Jonathan into making a concession. At the same time, it was a triple win. We cut off Conrad's future, sealed Harmon International's fate, and created a rift between Conrad and Jonathan. The so-called perfect love story was just a ploy to fool the public. Jonathan would never suspect the ever-peaceful Horace. He would think all of this was the work of Conrad. As for Conrad, in his excitement, he probably felt like the heavens were helping him.

*** While we’re eating, Pauline can’t stop but to talk endlessly, Pauline is beside me while Paul is in front of me. “Aunt Janine told me I’m a big girl, so I can wear makeups but Aunt Shia told me I should focus on reading and solving math because I’m slowly growing up. Who’s saying the truth between them? Aunt Janine who told me I’m a big girl already or Aunt Shia who said I’m slowly growing up?” she asks while eating. I laugh. I wiped the gravy on the side of her lips. “None of them, don’t listen to them, okay?” I answer while I’m shaking my head. She nodded innocently.

“You just want to protect your family! You think am going to hurt them don’t you?” “You said you wanted to be with Tulani, but he thinks your feelings for him are only because you misinterpreted things. He thinks you only like him because you are transferring your….” “Oh don’t start with that shrink nonsense with me,” Luyando interjected him. “I spent four years sitting in a Shrink’s office telling him lies and him buying into it like a fool, even coming up with interpretations that made him sound smarter when he knew nothing! “That stuff doesn’t work and I certainly won’t waste my time talking to some wanna-be doctor while Tula gets closer to that woman.”

“At their level. And ask them a question.” “What question?” he said. She held his gaze. “Tell me a story,” she said. “Any story. Something you’ve heard or read or been told. Something that stayed with you.” A pause. “Tell me why it stayed.” He looked at her. Something moved across his face. “That’s it,” he said quietly. “That’s it,” she said. “From that—” he started. “Everything,” she said. “From that the whole first semester builds. Because the stories they choose tell me what they already know about why narrative matters. And the reasons they give tell me where their thinking lives.” She held his gaze. “Then I know what they need.”