SHORT STORY ANALYSIS (15 points)

Name: Pimmada Siriwat (Broke) Section: 10/08

Short Story Title: POISON by Roald Dahl
Directions: Read the short story given to you. Complete the entire table for ELEMENTS; however, for the
PLOT LINE, your teacher will assign ONE part of the plot for you to analyze. In your plot line analysis,
ensure to explain in details what is asked for. Please edit your work before submission. Upload your analysis
in your individual Google Drive folder.
ELEMENTS
(​Identify​ what is asked for in each number)
1. Main characters
a. Timber Woods [who called Harry a help] (Protagonist)
b. Harry Pope [man who got a krait on his stomach] ​(Protagonist) (how so?)
c. Dr. Ganderbai [who help solve the condition] (Protagonist)
2. Setting
a. Where: Harry Pope’s bungalow in India
b. When: the time Europeans are forming colonies.
3. Plot Summary
- Poison is a story about Harry found lying with a krait on his stomach by Timber who also
did called​ Dr.Ganderbai to help, and at the end, it turned out there was no krait found.
4. Type of Conflict
- Man Vs. Nature, because the snake could be defined as an object of nature and 3 men
(Timber, Harry, and Dr.Ganberdai) must handle with the poisonous krait. ​(Was there really a
krait?)
5. Theme / Moral (lesson)
- The strongest poison is the words that you say which sharply cuts the string of friendship.
(explain)
6. POINT OF VIEW
- First Person Point of View, because the story was narrated by Timber, who uses ‘I’ And ‘he’
to show what other character are acting.

PLOT LINE
(​BRIEFLY explain ​what is asked for in each number)
4. FALLING ACTION
A. What is the story’s falling action?
- The falling action of the story occurs at the time when a krait was not found, and the during the time
Harry was racist toward Dr.Ganderbai.
B. How would you change the falling action if you were the writer? Why?
- If I ​was​ the auth​or th​e falling action would be that the characters found a dead millipede lying dead
beside Harry, and Dr.Ganderbai would use his tongs to throw the dead millipede into a bin, lastly,
there was no argument and the condition was solved. The reason I chose to edit the falling action this
way was because Dr.Ganderbai’s ​confirmations​ were the beginning of Harry being racist towards the
Indian doctor which was unacceptable​. (you don’t want the story to touch a theme of racism?)
C. Identify ONE figure of speech or idiom used by the writer in this part of the plot, and explain its meaning.
- 'Mr. Pope, you are of course quite sure you saw it in the first place?' uses verbal irony, because
Dr.Ganderbai was speaking sarcastically towards Harry who might just have been imaging that a
 krait was on his body which leads to cause Timber and the doctor to panically have ti find a solution
for the problem.
- edit a few errors
- 8/10

​STORY ANALYSIS REVISION 

ELEMENTS
7. Main characters
d. Timber Woods [who called Harry a help] (Protagonist)
e. Harry Pope [man who got a krait on his stomach] ​(False protagonist, from the beginning of the story,
Harry was acting as a victim and after Dr.Ganderbai found that the krait was no there, Harry reveals
his true color, the colors that shows how racist and abusing he could be towards Dr.Ganderbai, with
the use of slangs and words.)
f. Dr. Ganderbai [who help solve the condition] (Protagonist)
8. Setting
c. Where: Harry Pope’s bungalow in India
d. When: the time Europeans are forming colonies.
9. Plot Summary
- Poison is a story about Harry found lying with a krait on his stomach by Timber who also ​called
Dr.Ganderbai to help, and at the end, it turned out there was no krait found.
10. Type of Conflict
- Man Vs. Nature, because the snake could be defined as an object of nature and 3 men (Timber, Harry,
and Dr.Ganberdai) must handle with the poisonous krait, lastly it turned out Dr.Ganderbai .
11. Theme / Moral (lesson)
- The strongest poison is the words that you say which sharply cuts the string of friendship. ​From my
perspective, to make a relationship bond stronger, friends must learn deeply about each other using
words and actions, and if we use these words and actions in the wrong way it might turn out the you
could lose your friend. For example, at the end of the story Harry uses words to abuse Dr.Ganderbai,
his savior, which the following cause is that Harry wouldn’t be able to talk with Dr.Ganderbai
comfortably ever again.
12. POINT OF VIEW
- First Person Point of View, because the story was narrated by Timber, who uses ‘I’ And ‘he’ to show
what other character are acting.

PLOT LINE
4. FALLING ACTION
A. What is the story’s falling action?
- The falling action of the story occurs at the time when a krait was not found, and the during the time Harry was
racist toward Dr.Ganderbai.
B. How would you change the falling action if you were the writer? Why?
- If I ​am​ the author of the story, the​ falling action would be that the characters found a dead millipede lying dead
beside Harry, and Dr.Ganderbai would use his tongs to throw the dead millipede into a bin, lastly, there was no
argument and the condition was solved. The reason I chose to edit the falling action this way was because
Dr.Ganderbai’s ​questioning​ was the starting for Harry to be racist towards the Indian doctor which was
unacceptable, and I don’t want the story to be mentioning topics of racism.
C. Identify ONE figure of speech or idiom used by the writer in this part of the plot, and explain its meaning.
- 'Mr. Pope, you are of course quite sure you saw it in the first place?' uses verbal irony, because Dr.Ganderbai
was speaking sarcastically towards Harry who might just have been imaging that a krait was on his body which
leads to cause Timber and the doctor to panically have to find a solution for the problem.
- IF CONDITIONAL = IF I WERE…
- 5/5