The Corn Planting

English III H Name Haley, Kathleen, and John
Mr. Lynch
Short Story Analyzer
Short Story: The Corn Planting Author: Sherwood Anderson

Element for Analysis|Response/Evidence|Significance|
Basic summary of the story:Major action of the story in five to eight sentences.|- Hatch Hutchenson tends for his father’s farm after his injured father has returned from war and it becomes Hatch’s way of life.- Hatch marries a school teacher around the age of 50 and she was 40.- Hatch and his wife have a son named Will Hutchinson who works on the farm but then moves to Chicago to go to art school.- Will dies in a car crash in Chicago and Hal Weyman, a friend of Will’s in Chicago and a friend of the Hutchensons, is the one to deliver the news to Hatch and his wife.- Hatch and his wife plant corn on the night they received the news of Will’s death whilst in their nightgowns.- Hatch and his wife have a sense of composure the next day when they make arrangements for Will’s death.||
Major Characters:Who are the major characters and how does the author develop them? What do the characters represent?How do they change or not change?Static/DynamicFlat / Round|- Hatch Hutchenson and his wife ● Static characters whose life on their farm and view of life does not change ● Round characters ● Represent monotonous life on the prairie, hard work, and the “old way” of life- Will Hutchenson ● Static character ● Flat character ● Represents freedom from hard work and the “new way” of life- Hal Weyman ● Static character ● Round character ● Represents a success story of a combination of the old way of life and the new way of life- Narrator ● Static character ● Flat character● Portrays an accurate account of what happened with the Hutchensons and is a spectator to the lives of Hatch and his wife through Hal Weyman|All of the characters are static characters and none of them show any development. The only development of any character is Hatch Hutchenson and his wife through their emotions when they receive letters from their son, and when they cope with the loss of their son through planting corn.|
Theme Statements:What are the major themes suggested by the work? What is the story about, and what does the story say about what it’s about?|- The older generation has a more values and a better quality of life than the younger generation.- The old way of life is different and better than the new way of life.||
Author Purpose:What is the author’s purpose in writing the short story? What is the larger point he/she is attempting to make?|The author’s purpose in writing the work was to show the contrast between American lifestyles and how diverse it is. American lifestyles tend to depend on the environment in which people live, as shown through Will and the Hutchensons. The author also wanted to show that the old way of life was suspicious of the new way of life because it was so irresponsible and the new way of life, the people who lives in the cities, did not have the values of life that the old way of life, the people who lived in the country and farmed, did.|The story shows experimentation in literature and how much a setting can influence a story.|
Role of the Setting:How does the author use the landscape? How is the land/natural world portrayed?|The author uses the landscapes to portray the different lifestyles of Americans. The farm setting shows hard work and integrity while the city setting shows sin and partying and a sense of tainted freedom.|The contrast in setting is a statement of the author’s opinion about urbanization and the American values of the time period.|
Author’s Craft:From which point of view is the story told? How does the author change the form of the short story itself? How does the author use specific literary devices to achieve his/her objective? Consider point of view, symbolism, characterization, dialogue, imagery, allusion, foreshadowing, juxtaposition, dialect and other literary devices. |- The story is told in a 3rd person limited narrative voice.- The author uses: ● Symbolism- Corn is used as a symbol for reoccurrence and the rebirth of a new season, or a new chapter in life. ● Characterization- The static characters show that humans do not change. ● Dialogue- It shows the intense emotion of the Weymans and is a way that the characters are developed. ● Imagery- It showed the unusual image of the Hutchensons in the field planting corn and how it was unexplainable.● Juxtaposition- Farm life is juxtaposed with city life in this story.||
Connections to Literary Movements:How does the story connect to elements from Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, AND Post-modernism?|The story takes elements of both Realism and Modernism. The story is Realist due to the fact that the subjects of the story are middle class people and talks about Industrialization and Urbanization. It is Modernist due to the fact that it is a fragmented story. It also is regional literature which is Modernist. The uncertainty of society and the suspicious of the new way of life and Modernist traits.|It shows that the story was written in a transitional period and it shows the author’s view of America at the time and the changing events of the time.|
Values Revealed andConnections to America today:Which values are expressed or revealed in the story, and how do they connect to the American psyche today? What contribution does the story make to American Literature?|- Values Revealed ● Stay where you are socially and do not try to move within class divisions (from farm life to middle class working people) ● The people who live their life the old way are suspicious of the new ways that people are living. ● America has a rapidly changing identity.- Connections to America today ● Today, there is still a struggle between choosing hard work and choosing freedom.● The message of the story is also economic, which could be tied into the recession today.||