Part One Structure 1
Chapter 1 Plot 1
John Updike A ＆ P 6
Graham Greene The Destructors 17
Chapter 2 Character 37
James Joyce Araby 43
Eudora Welty A Worn Path 53
Chapter 3 Setting and Atmosphere 65
Flannery O'Connor Everything That Rises Must Converge 69
Doris Lessing The Old Chief Mshlanga 89
Chapter 4 Point of View 105
Frank O'Connor First Confession 111
John Cheever The Swimmer 123
Chapter 5 Theme 139
Kurt Vonnegut,Jr. Harrison Bergeron 144
Richard Wilbur A Game of Catch 155
Chapter 6 Style,Tone and Mood 162
Nadine Gordimer The Train from Rhodesia 169
Tobias Wolff In the Garden of the North American Martyrs 176
Chapter 7 Irony,Humor,Satire and Paradox 191
Shirley Jackson The Lottery 197
Bernard Malamud The Magic Barrel 208
Chapter 8 Symbol,Allegory,Fantasy and Absurdity 228
Ann Beattie Dwarf House 235
Donald Barthelme Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby 247
Part Two Interpretation 253
Chapter 9 Moral-Philosophical Approach 253
Isaac Bashevis Singer Gimpel the Fool 257
Kay Boyle Astronomer's Wife 276
Chapter 10 Historical-Biographical Approach 285
Ernest Hemingway Indian Camp 290
F. Scott Fitzgerald Babylon Revisited 298
Chapter 11 Formalistic Approach 322
James Thurber The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 327
Saki(H. H. Munro) The Open Window 336
Chapter 12 Psychological Approach 341
William Faulkner A Rose for Emily 346
E.B. White The Second Tree from the Comer 359
Chapter 13 Mythological-Archetypal Approach 367
John Steinbeck The Snake 374
Harlan Ellison Shatterday 386
Chapter 14 Sociological Approach 403
Kate Chopin The Story of an Hour 409
D. H. Lawrence The Rocking-Horse Winner 414
Chapter 15 Structural-Semiotic Approach 431
Ernest Hemingway A Very Short Story 437
Langston Hughes On the Road 440
Chapter 16 Reader-Response Approach 448
Gary Gildner Sleepy Time Gal 453
Grace Paley A Conversation with My Father 457
Appendixes 466
1．Glossary of Literary and Critical Terms 466
2．Referential Answers to the Questions 497
Bibliography 580