44. in her essay "writing short stories" flannery o'connor says this about characterization:
"you can't cut characters off from their society and say much about them as individuals."
"you can't say anything meaningful about the mystery of personality unless you put that personality in a believable and significant social context."
consider the quotations above. then pick a story from semester a and evaluate how the social context and the characters work together not only to provide a vivid setting, but also to explain and develop the characters' thoughts, words, and actions. (10 points)

Context lets people know what the circumstances of the characters are, and what influences that they may have, and such other things like that.

For example in the story 'Owl Creek Bridge' that was written by Ambrose, It started with the description of Peyton Farquhar being tied with his wrist bounded with a cord and a rope encircling his neck, this narrated that he either was captured or was being sentenced to death for a serious crime.

As his death came closer thoughts of escaping flooded his mind; "If I could free my hands, I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader's farthest advance.", as he mentions his wife and kids it reveals that he was a caring father and spouse.

The next part of the story brought his adventures and daring side out as he had fallen into the stream and the rope around his had broken, despite the pain he had escaped the men who had pointed their guns at him and had tried to shoot him as he tried to dodge their bullets.

The sensory details in this story had the reader feeling as if he was right beside Peyton Farquhar, its highly detailed description of the setting had led my heart pounding until the very end. At the end when he finally finds his way home and he spots his wife, he thinks about how beautiful she is and he jumps in for a hug shows his love and admiration to his family.

in the short story the slip-over sweater by jesse stuart, the main character and narrator shan is friends with grace, an intelligent girl he has known since childhood and with whom he used to be in love.

at the beginning of the story, shan believes he’s no longer in love with grace, but loves jo-anne instead. in order to buy a slip-over sweater and have jo-anne wear it so that the other students would know she loved him too, shan takes a loan at the bank.

while jo-anne is wearing shan’s sweater, his friend grace starts to wear another popular boy’s one, roy’s sweater. because of that, the other students begin to pay attention to grace and compliment her perseverance and effort. they admire her for walking 5 miles to school every day, despite the weather, and still getting the best grades. shan, who knows all of that for a fact, says, as the narrator, ‘and i knew she had the durability and the toughness of a storm-battered mountain oak.’ he compares his friend’s strength – not only physical, but also of character – to an oak tree, whose wood is known for being sturdy.

as the story goes on, shan changes his behavior out of concern for the debt he has to pay at the bank. his new girlfriend jo-anne never asks him what is wrong nor offers any sort of . instead, she breaks up with shan for not being as fun as she thought he was supposed to be. grace, however, not only asks about shan’s problem, but him make the money he needs. shan can’t but notice how different the girls are and what a wonderful person grace is.   even though he used to find jo-anne prettier at the beginning of the story, he now says, ‘grace was as beautiful as our mountain was in april, prettier than a blossom of wild phlox or a mountain daisy.’ his comparing grace to a mountain or something that exists on a mountain (such as a mountain oak or daisy) certainly has important meaning since shan loves the mountain and everything about it and he knows the mountain thoroughly. shan also loves and knows grace as completely as he does the mountain.

idk

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