brain storming about ethical analysis paper

For the ethical analysis paper, I am thinking about analyzing the narration of a short story. Since I am English major, I think short stories qualify for my “field of work”. However, for a back up paper to analyze, I will probably choose to analyze the narration of a literary analysis paper. But as of right now, I have chosen to analyze the narration of Raymond Carver’s “where I'm calling from”. I am choosing to analyze the narration of this piece for a variety of reasons. The first is that I really enjoy reading his stories. I find it very impressive and fascinating with how he is able to convey deep messages through a very minimalistic voice. The second reason I am choosing to analyze the narration of a Raymond Carver story is because I want to start writing short stories. By writing an ethical analysis essay on one, I will be able to better understand what writing mechanisms go into establishing good ethos in a short story. The third, and final reason I want to analyze a Raymond carver narration/voice is because I think it would be more interesting and engaging to analyze a composition I like rather than to analyze a composition that is dry or doesn’t hold my interest as much. These aspects will reflect in the voice of my essay. In other words, if I am writing about a piece I don’t like so much my voice will sound dull and to some extent mundane and vice versa.

What to look for when analyzing the narration of a short story: first I should probably distinguish the story’s theme. With this established I can start analyzing the writing mechanisms the author used to arrive at this them, and reflect these mechanisms were successful or not. I can examine word choice, dialogue, descriptions, character portrayals, setting, metaphors, allusions, and voice. Another aspect I can look at is the brevity of the story and analyze how/what the author utilized or did to convey a message in such a compact manner. I can analyze the story’s brevity as part of the ethos and discuss whether this aspect of the story was successful for how the piece was conceived by readers. I also feel the intended audience is crucial in analyzing the ethos in that understanding the audience’s background or expectations of the story will allow me to look at how the author (Carver) composed his writing with this audience in mind.