The First Sentence

After the formalities of going over the syllabus Prof. Abraham
started discussing a handout entitled "Close Reading Guidelines". She
discussed the first point of the handout, called the "point of entry
in the story, i.e, where does it begin, how this influences the
writing, importance of the first line". She used the Latin phrase "in
media res" to describe what the first sentence should be like. It
means "in the thick of things", suggesting jumping right in.

Prof. Abraham went on to say that writing is a process of discovery,
so that the writer does not know exactly where the story will go. It
is like driving in a fog, with only a short distance of visibility.
So the first sentence, the beginning, indicates something about the
story that will guide it, something essential to the story line.

The first example was from Anton Chekhov's "Lady With A Pet Dog":

"A new person, it was said, had appeared on the esplanade: A lady
with a pet dog".

Prof. Abraham teased out a number of insights from the sentence. The
word "esplanade", which means a boardwalk, indicates a resort town.
Noticing a new person in town, along with the phrase "it was said"
suggests a small population of vacationers who are there to relax, so
they have time to notice others and gossip. The time period of the
piece the use of the word "lady" and the presence of a pet dog
suggests an aristocratic presence, indicating something about the
structure of the society. In sum, a great deal of information is
bundled into the first sentence.

The second example was from E.L.Doctorow's "House on the Plain":

"Mama said I was thenceforth to be her nephew, and to call her Aunt
Dora."

It is an attention grabber for a mother to be telling her son to
pretend to be a nephew. We can surmise that family affairs are to be
thematic in the story. We could guess it has something to do with
conditions laid down in a will for an inheritance.

There is a story in the Bible about The patriarch Abraham and his
wife Sara, traveling through a town pretending to be brother and
sister to make it harder for the King to bother them. The story is
used elsewhere in E.L.Doctorow's works. It is easy for Prof. Abraham
to make the connection, because she is obviously a direct descendant.