3.  Name subjects for real narratives that would need to be written in the first person; in the third person.

4.  In telling about a runaway accident, what points would you mention if you were writing a short account for a newspaper?

5.  What points would you add if you were writing to some one who was acquainted with the persons in the accident?

6.  Consider the choice and arrangement of details in the next magazine story that you read.

+Theme LXXVIII.+—­Write a personal narrative in which the time-order can be carefully followed.

Suggested subjects:—­

1.  The irate conductor. 2.  A personal adventure with a window. 3.  An interrupted nap. 4.  Lost in the woods. 5.  In a runaway. 6.  An amusing adventure. 7.  A day at grandfather’s.

(Consider the unity and coherence of the theme.)

+Theme LXXIX.+—­Write in the third person a true narrative in which different events are going on at the same time.

Suggested subjects:—­
  1.  A skating accident.
  2.  The hunters hunted.
  3.  Capsized on the river.
  4.  How he won the race.
  5.  An experience with a balky horse.
  6.  The search for a lost child.
  7.  How they missed each other.
  8.  A strange adventure.
  9.  A tip over in a bobsleigh.

(How many series of events have you in your narrative?  Are they well connected?  What words have you used to show the time-order of the different events?)

+149.  Interrelation of Plot and Character.+—­Though in narration the interest centers primarily in the action, yet in the higher types of narration interest in character is closely interwoven with interest in plot.  In reading, our attention is held by the plot; we follow its development, noticing the addition of incidents, their relation to one another and to the larger elements of action in the story, and their union in the final disentanglement of the plot; but our complete appreciation of the story runs far beyond the plot and depends to a large extent upon our interpretation of the character of the individuals concerned.  The mere story may be exciting and interesting, but its effect will be of little permanent value if it does not stir within us some appreciation of character, which we shall find reflected in our own lives or in the lives of those about us.  We may read the Merchant of Venice for its story, but a deeper study of the play sets forth and reenforces the character of Portia, Shylock, and the others.  With many of the celebrated characters of literature this interest has grown quite apart from interest in the plot, and they stand to-day as the embodiment of phases of human nature.  Thus by means of action does the skillful author portray his conception of human life and human character.