The interpretation of poetry and fiction certainly take into account many of the same characteristics, but they are weighted differently in many cases. For example the lists below certainly overlap:

Interpreting Fiction & Poetry.pptx

For example, in fiction we are likely going to talk more about character, action, motivations, descriptive objects, point-of-view, dialogue, narrative stance, and other elements that are associated with story than we would in poetry. We may talk about these things in poetry too, but these are often going to be more prominent in discussions of fiction. By the same token, it is not that we would never talk about rhythm in a short story, but it probably will not come up as often in fiction as it will in poetry.

When I talk about fiction in my creative writing course, I tell students that there are only two actual rules in fiction:

you have to have at least one character, and
you have to have a conflict or a tension of some kind.

I have found that this is where the interpretation rests. No matter what -ism a person uses to interpret fiction, I have found that the focus is most often focused on the relationship of one or more of the characters and the tension or conflict that is playing out in the piece. Let's take the three stories that we are reading for this week:

"To Build a Fire" -- the interpretation is going to explore the man and the dog and the search for warmth.

"The Gilded Six Bits" -- the interpretation will explore Joe, Missie, and Slemmons and their relationship or some aspect of it.

"Araby" -- the narrator and Mangan's sister -- though mostly the narrator and his crush is the pivotal point of any interpretation.

On the other hand, poetry may not take these things necessarily into account. Looking back at "In a Station at the Metro." There is certainly a tension, but is there a character? Or, if we look back at "The Red Wheelbarrow," it is the image that takes precedence over everything else in the poem.

An important consideration when looking at fiction is that in a good short story "EVERYTHING COUNTS." When there is an object or an image brought up in a short story, watch for other places that this may come up in the story. For example, I think I mentioned the statue that comes up in Flaubert's Madame Bovary. It comes up several times, and each time there is a different description of it as it deteriorates through the story. The deterioration is key to understanding why it is in the story.

An extended metaphor, like the statue is not necessarily the only way an author may use an object. The object or objects in a story can manifest in a number of ways. For example, a necklace in one part of a story may reflect a noose at another part of the story. Authors will find multiple ways of bringing out the complexity of the story they want to tell by relying on the objects to express the complexity of the characters and the situation that the characters cannot.