Identities+Short+Story+Questions

__Identities:__ By: NFriedmann Answer the following questions. 1.Point of View: 3rd person, omniscient 2.Protagonist: A man who is unshaven, lives on the rich side of town, and is wearing blue jeans. 3.What type of character is the Protagonist? I think that he is flat and static. 4.Antagonist: The young cop, because he makes the assumption about the man, and decides to shoot him. The environment, because the area of town that he is in gives him the impression the he is on the “dangerous” side of town, and it frightens him a little. Also the society, because they created the stereotypes that we see in this story: 1) The nicer the neighborhood, the richer and nicer you are. 2) The messier, and more unkept neighborhood, the meaner and poorer you are. 3) Policemen are men who help you feel safe, and resolve crimes. 5.Describe the setting The setting takes place in two different neighborhoods during the fall, towards evening. The first area is where the gardens are all perfect, and the house are neat and box-like. Hence a nicer feeling neighborhood. The second neighborhood, reflects houses that are unclean, and untidy. The different neighborhoods reflect the mood: the tidy one is a happy and trusting place where everyone is on the richer side, and is very fortunate. The bad side of town, reflects a poorer place where people do more crimes, and fight more to try to survive. 6.Type of Conflict: The types of conflict in this piece of writing is man versus man, man versus himself, man versus environment, and man versus society. 7.Describe the main conflict: The main conflict in this short story is when the man pulls out his wallet, trying to prove his identity, and then the cop pulls the trigger, and shoots. 8.Describe the Climax of the Story: The climax to me is when the cop shoots his gun at the protagonist. 9.How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story? He changes his thoughts in the split second, when he realizes that he is going to die, when he hears the gun shot. I think that his “new” thoughts are that he placed a box on the cop, and the box said that cops are only nice people, and that he is here to help, which was wrong, and that the cop placed a box on his head saying that he was one of the “bad guys” from the neighborhood which also wasn’t true. 10.Describe the relationship between the title and the theme. There are several references to Identities in this story: First of all when, the guy is looking around the town for something to remind him of his own identity. Secondly, when he is assuming that the the identities of the people in the “bad” neighborhood are unfriendly, and mean. Thirdly, when the cop sees him and mistakes the man’s identity as one of the “bad guys” from the neighborhood. Last of all, when the man reaches for his wallet-to prove his identity. 11.How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme? The main conflict illustrates the theme beautifully, by showing us irony (The cop mistaking the man’s identity, and the man trusting the cop, and reaching in his jacket, to pull out his wallet.) and how we have lots of assumptions and stereotypes, that are not all necessarily true. For instance, how the cop thinks the man is bad because he is not wearing very nice clothes, and is in the wrong neighborhood, at the wrong time. 12.How does the climax help to illustrate the theme? The climax shows us that anyone can have their identities mistaken, whether it be an ordinary man, or even a cop.

Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes): 14.Simile: Some (not all) that I found are: “Darkness has been settling like soot.” and “The store window illuminates the sidewalk like a stage.”Short Stories - Literary Devises

15.Metaphor: The whole story is a metaphor, because it shows us that identities don’t always define, us but they can sometimes demoralize us. 16.Personification: “Eagles, tigers, wolves and serpents ride their backs.” 17.Symbol: His wallet because it is his identity, but also, a place for storing money, and cards. 18.Foreshadowing (give both elements): “When the officer, who is inexperienced, who is nervous because of the neighbourhood, who is suspicious because of the car and, because he has been trained to see an unshaven man in blue jeans as a potential thief and not as a probable owner, orders him to halt, he is caught by surprise.” there is also the part, where the cop parks his car and (unknown to the man) comes out with a pistol in his hand. 19.Irony: The cop views the man a a probable thief, while the man (who has been viewing everyone else as a probable thief) views him as a saviour. 20.Imagery: “The smell of burning leaves stirs the memories of childhood car rides, narrow lanes adrift with yellow leaves, girls on plodding horses, unattended stands piled high with pumpkins, onions, or beets. Always, there were salmon tins glinting with silver, set above hand-painted signs instructing purchasers to deposit twenty-five or fifty cents.” 22.Describe the relationships between the class theme and the story. The story goes very well with one of the quotes from Chris Abani speech on humanity: “We are most beautiful, when we are most ugly.” Or in other words: We see your true self when you are in a most desperate situation. In this case, it is the people in the bad neighborhood, that show who they really are when they are most ugly. As an example, when the cop gets scared because of the neighborhood, and suspects the man to be a killer, he shows what type of person he really is by deciding to kill him with a pistol, because the situation was scary. We are all tested in a way when we are in a scary or “ugly” situation because we see what you really are like. Chris Abani’s quote from his discussion of humanity: “We are most beautiful when we are most ugly.”, really emphasizes that. COMPLETION 5/5 EFFORT 5/5 CONTENT 4/5 Paragraph 5/8 TOTAL 19/20