"Exploring Fiction"

“Who are the principal characters in the story?
What functions do the minor characters serve?
Do any characters change during the course of the story? How and why?”
(Abcarian and Klotz 10)

• Knowing who the principal characters are help you to following along with the story and have a better understand of it. Also, knowing who the principal characters are help you to focus more on those characters and less on the minors making it easier to grasp the true meaning of the writer.
• Minor characters are used to support the principal characters and add more detail and interest.
• Knowing if any of the characters change during the course of the story is important because a change in character can mean something drastic in a short story. If any of the characters change it can have an impact on the ending, which as a reader you need to be able to understand why and how the ending came to be.

The above question is quoted from the following source:
Abcarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. Literature: The Human Experience, Reading and writing. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2007:10


"Does the story seem to support or conflict with your own political and moral positions?" (Abcarian and Klotz 11)

• When reading a story being able to relate to the topic is very important. If the story has different morals or beliefs then you do, it may not interest you. This may cause you to not be able to fully understand the authors intentions and you may unintentionally misinterpret the meaning of the story.

The above question is quoted from the following source:
Abcarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. Literature: The Human Experience, Reading and writing. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2007:11