HiSET Reading Study Guide: Literary Texts
On to literary texts, also known as fiction. First of all, many of the same skills you need to know to answer informational text questions also apply to literary texts. However, literary texts present some unique challenges. As a result, you’ll need to know just a few extra skills.
Identifying Plot Elements
In the smallest of nutshells, plot is what happens in the story. The first step in understanding plot involves identifying the conflict — the issue/problem/etc. that drives the story. Conflict can take many forms, such as an argument between two characters or something external that is affecting the characters’ lives.
Hint
Dialogue between characters will often reveal a literary text’s conflict.
Making Inferences
The HiSET Language Arts: Reading test uses passages from short stories and novels. Not having access to the full narrative will force you to make inferences (i.e., educated guesses) about the plot, characters’ motivations, etc.
Making inferences is an advanced skill, but one you can practice by asking yourself a simple question when reading a passage — “What does this dialogue/sentence/paragraph/etc. suggest about the story as a whole?” Everything an author puts into a story has a purpose. If you can think of an answer, you can compare it to the answer choices and choose the best one.
Analyzing Characters
Like real people, characters in a story are complex. They have unique motivations, desires, and fears. In a literary narrative, an outside narrator may describe a character, or the story can take place from one character’s point of view. Identifying point of view can help you understand through which ‘lens’ a story is told.
You can also make inferences about a character by observing their actions and examining their dialogue. This should be easy, as it’s something you do all the time when you meet a new person.
Identifying/Analyzing Theme
A story’s theme describes the unique point of view and message a story wants to convey. It is not a simple description of what a story is about. For example, the classic fable about the tortoise and the hare is about two animals who race one another. The tortoise wins after the hare decides to take a nap on the race course. The story’s theme is that perseverance is sometimes more important than athletic ability.
Expect literary narratives on the HiSET to have more complicated themes. Here are some tips you can use to identify/analyze theme:
- See if the story reveals the theme directly.
- If not, consider what life lesson this story could teach someone. Your answer reveals the theme.
- Your guess may not be 100% the same thing as the correct answer choice, but you should be able to spot similarities.
- If not, consider what life lesson this story could teach someone. Your answer reveals the theme.
- Identify evidence supporting the theme.
- HiSET questions may ask you to cite a quote or line supporting the theme.
Identifying Style
An author’s unique style refers to their word choice, structure, figurative language, and other choices involved when putting words on the page. Some authors write description and dialogue in short, simple sentences. Others use flowery, almost poetic language.
For these reasons, it’s important to consider how an author writes just as much as what they write about.
Literary Texts Part 1 Review Quiz
In this adaptation from the opening of a short story, Polish farmer Janusz Nowak receives an unexpected visitor at his home.
Excerpt from “A Place Where Flowers Bloom”
“Tea or coffee?” the farmer asked as the man wiped his feet at the doorway.
“Tea will be fine,” the man replied.
Tea and snacks ready, they sat across from one other at the cramped kitchen table. “My wife’s better at entertaining guests,” Janusz admitted. “But she’s in Warsaw this week visiting our children at university.”
The man nodded before taking his first sip. “It’s very good.”
Janusz fiddled with his cup. “I assume you’re not.” He paused to clear his throat. “From here.”
“If by here you mean Earth, you’d be one-hundred-percent incorrect. My name is Louis Donnelley. Born and raised in Chicago. My name’s Irish, but I’m half Polish from my mother’s side. To get to your point, no, I am not from this dimension.”
The farmer nodded. Stories of interdimensional travel, however limited, had been in the news and papers for over a year. So far, it was just diplomats and scientists making brief visits to other realities, trying to foster good relations, that sort of thing.
“I know it must seem strange,” Louis continued. “You’ve probably never heard of someone like me just showing up at a random house.”
“That’s true. I figured you’d be at the presidential palace. You sure you got your coordinates right?”
Louis chuckled. “Absolutely. You see, Mr. Nowak, it’s taken a while for political relationships to form among the dimensions. Lots of negotiations and handshakes. Oh, and let’s not forget the copious paperwork!” He paused to take another sip of tea.
“However, now that the ink’s dry, we can move forward, start cultural exchanges, even a little tourism.”
“Tourism?”
“If there’s money to be made, people will do it. Also, the opportunities for learning and personal enlightenment… the sky’s the limit!”
Janusz leaned back in his chair. Learning and personal enlightenment, that did sound good. Yet he couldn’t help but chuckle. “Again, I don’t think you have the right address.” He turned his head to look out the window. “Out there is nothing but sixteen hectares of rye and oats.”
Louis finished his tea, the cup making a slight clink as he placed it on the saucer. His eyes were kind but hid volumes. “That’s exactly why I’m here. Unfortunately, I can’t say much more right now. When your wife is back, I’d like to meet with you both to discuss what would be involved. Please tell her that people from innumerable dimensions are interested in visiting your farm. And, of course, you’d be compensated handsomely.”
Not long after, Louis left only to vanish the moment he stepped outside Janusz’s front door. The farmer spent the rest of the long fall afternoon walking among his fallow fields. The land was silent minus a fat crow’s incessant cawing. He wished it would stop. Maybe then he’d understand what the interdimensional traveler had been talking about. But his mind came up blank. Sighing, he decided to leave the matter until his wife came home.