...Most short stories are focused on one incident, single plot, one setting, and with a limited amount of characters. I think they should be kept in the syllabus because they are very simple and concise to read. This allows students to complete the piece within 30 minutes without boring the reader with extra context. Another reason is short stories are well-written and are very good authors because they know which pieces to keep in the story and which to cut out. Also we can experience different genres this is beneficial because students can enhance their vocabulary. Moreover it will improve both our writing and speaking skills. Different short stories can change students point of view because of other people’s experiences, opinions, culture...
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...Essay about the short story: Pool by Corey Campbell The short story “Pool” is about the couple Darla and Jon. The overarching theme in the story is: unhappiness in relationships, and failing marriages which both are very relevant to the society in which we live in. The author (Cory Campbell) is trying to shed some light on how it is being in an unhappy relationship. The main character Darla is a young woman, and even though we aren’t told her age, based on the quotes: “Darla herself, just older than the couple” and “now they were in year four”, I would conclude that the other couple are in their mid-twenties which I take to mean that she is in her late twenties. Darla doesn’t want kids, which is one of the minor themes in the short story. She isn’t very confident in her looks which we can conclude from this snippet of the text: “she hated others seeing her in her swimsuit”. Darla is in an unhappy relationship with Jon, which after their condom split is tenser than before. They have been a couple for just under a year, and Darla has recently realized that she isn’t happy in their relationship which we can see in this quote from the text: “what she liked best about him, Darla realized earlier in the car, was that it wasn’t going to last”. He is also pressuring her to do things she doesn’t want to do throughout the entire short story, for example when he is trying to get her to drink alcohol even though she isn’t allowed to drink, because of the morning-after pill that she...
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...* The short story ”Be Here Now” written by Miguel Syjuco, was published in 2012. The short story is from Miguel Syjuco’ anthology “Elsewhere”. We meet a journalist who is struggling with PTSD, and his girlfriend Jenna. The story is about a mixed race man, his grandfather was Asian. He is a photographer, and he has previously been taking war pictures in an Arabic country. “I browse through some of my photos that made front pages. A soldier on his knees defusing an IED on the roadside […] A group of boys hiding behind mothers and sisters dressed in niqabs”. This quote shows that he has been in a warzone in an Arabic country. The short story takes place in their house, and follow them through there first days after moving in. The journalist recently came back from the Arabic land where he took war pictures and is now having a difficult time coming back from reality. Jenna is his fiancé and she is the one keeping the relationship going, planning the weeding and the setting up the apartment. After he came back from the war, he has been neglecting his relationship with Jenna, and he is just realizing how important the present and his future. The journalist is having a hard time getting over the things that happened in the war, and he is struggling coming back to the reality. In the short story he has been described as if his life is about checking his email, Facebook and being mentally everywhere else then where he physically is. The story covers about 2 day because we hear...
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...forget them, but on the other hand, thinking about them could lead to eternal grieve. Have you ever lost a beloved and wanted one more conversation, one more chance to make up for the time when you thought they would be here forever? Well, I have… Then you know you can go your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one you wish, you had back. You start talking to them in the belief, they can hear you, and sometimes you have those moments, where you can feel and see them. Exactly this situation, the main character has to deal with in Bernie McGill’s short story “No Angel” published in 2011. The main character of the story is Annie; she is a middle-aged woman, who is the only living member left of the family. The story is based around Annie talking to her father’s ghost; therefor it makes us believe that the supernatural does exist. Formerly she had a brother named Robbie, who was three years younger than her, also both of her parents were alive. Unidentified persons tragically beat Robbie to death, right after he had failed his driving test. The family lamented over his death, especially the mother, who mourned for six months where she barely spoke, until she one day suddenly dropped dead in the kitchen with no specific cause. Annie’s father thought it was because of her deep grieving, and the grief over her beloved son faced her again and again. “…her heart never mended. ” After the death of the mother and Robbie, Annie lived with her father for nearly twenty-two...
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...The short story Reconciliation was written in 2006 by the author Polly Clark. The story gently touches the area of which you go from sane to insane. After reading the story you could ask yourself; what is sanity? And where do we draw the line from a person being sane, to a person being insane? The question about sanity is a valid subject to discuss after reading “Reconciliation”, because the main character and narrator Laura seems to be quite strange and she doesn’t seem to know how to interact with other people. These things are shown very early on – as well as the first small signs of her being on the edge of sanity. At first she forgets to bring proper footwear on the first day at her new job. That combined with her not washing her hair properly, but instead doing a rather unsuccessful (her own words) “dry wash”, could be blamed on her just being a rather untidy person. The first real sign of her being on the edge of sanity is when she explains why she is walking around the office bare footed. She blames it on mountaineering which – let’s face it – is the worst excuse possible. Other signs that show that her mind is rather dysfunctional are the narrator’s use of imagery in her head. She compares her husband – Vernon – with a rhinoceros and a turtle and she describes his shoulders as being like branches in a gale. All of this could be her way of making him lesser human and therefore making herself seem more normal. She even refers to her lacking the skills of being normal when...
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...misunderstandings and difficulty handling obstacles and problems that might occur in the relationship. In his short story “The Hair”, Raymond Carver shows the consequences of the lack of connection in a normal marriage. He especially focuses on the emotional causes of malfunctioning relationships and how it has a psychological influence on everyday life. Using minimalistic tools such as symbolism, Raymond Carver tells the story of a man, struggling with his marriage, developing an internal conflict. Carver uses a minimalistic style of writing in his short story “The Hair”. Minimalistic writing effectively expresses feelings and conflicts, yet allows the reader to be part of the interpretation of the story. Methods such as symbolism, setting, superficial descriptions, and the reticence towards giving the reader information about emotions are often used in minimalistic short stories. Carver’s use of symbolism, setting and the lack of emotional description helps the reader understand the protagonist and his struggles. Reading “The hair”, we are introduced to a man who discovers that a hair is stuck between his teeth. At first, the short story appears anticlimactic, because of its open ending and everyday-life circumstances. However the actual plot in the story, which is not given to us directly, tells the story of the man’s internal conflict, and the effect it has on his life. The mood of the story is very tense, guiding the reader to an understanding of the situation. The use of minimalism...
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...Jackson set her short story, “The Lottery”, in a small town. It could possibly be considered any small town. It is a village with only 300 residents, not nearly as large as neighboring towns, so the lottery only took 2 hours from start to finish. The story was set in the summer; the date was specific at June 27th, however, no year was stated. One can assume the time period was set around the time it was written, 1948, because the women wore house dresses which were typical of that era and not shorts or even pants. The lottery was taking place on a clear, warm day. The children had just recently started summer vacation from school. It seemed that they knew what the lottery was all about because the boys were collecting the rocks that they would eventually need for the stoning. The girls hung out in groups talking while the boys were energetic and loud like it was any other summer morning. The seemingly normal behavior of the children did not prepare me for the public death scene of Mrs. Hutchinson. The men are described as talking about farming and joking quietly but not laughing out loud, only smiling. A visitor passing through the town square witnessing the groups of people talking may not think it’s strange. It would appear to be people gathering for a local event of a positive nature on a beautiful, warm, summer morning in a small close knit and friendly rural town. When I was reading the story I felt that the adult characters tried to act like it was a normal event but...
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...the interests of one individual pupil. If a pupil feels that the individual demands is not fulfilled the outbreak can be devastating. A teacher has to respect pupils and the pupils have to respect their teacher. Fear should not appear between teachers and pupils. Similar problems are depicted in the short story Suffer the little children, by Stephen King. Although in this exact story it is the demands of the teacher which is not fulfilled. She is called Miss Sidley and she is teaching a middle school class. One day while over watching the children through a reflection Miss Sidley a monster appears from a pupil. From this point Miss Sidley loses her mind, and becomes very paranoid and in the end she kills her pupils because of this monster grudge. The short story is told by a third person narrator, who is not a part of the story. The main character is an omniscient person which simply means one can get to her thoughts and feelings. Furthermore, this make one feel pity for Miss Sidley because it is a direct path for her feelings and more important discoveries. As mentioned earlier the main character is Miss Sidley, who surprisingly is described as a very normal when one considers her looks and personality. Her exterior is described as a small woman, wears glasses, grey hair and gimlet eyed1. Personal wise it is the same thing Miss Sidley seems to be the perfect teacher, because her instincts are supreme, she knows all the answers in the whole wide world. Moreover...
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...fictional stories both deal with the behavior of people toward other individuals. Both stories having different writing styles and different settings but the outcome is the same. As "The Lottery" deal with winnings by stoning people, but when the winner are chosen it is a different ball game. I. The Lottery Fictional story setting is normal people from a small village. A. The Lottery story takes place on the sunny summer day on June 27th. B. The place represents normal business places such as post office, schools, and a bank. C. The story takes places around ten o’clock in the morning. II. The main characters are the 300 people of the village. A. Mr. Summers is a jovial man that conducted the lottery. B. Tessie Hutchinson, who was stoned. C. Old man Warner, who was the oldest person in the village, III. The people from the village seem happy to be gathering around for the lottery that takes up to two hours since it was only about 300 people in town. IV. The most dangerous game story settings take place late at night in a yacht on an island, known as Ship-Trap Island. A. General Zaroff’s home. B. Jungle V. The main characters are the General Zaroff’s and Sanger Rainsford. A. Whitney B. Ivan VI. Sanger Rainsford thought hunting animals was all fun and games until he become the victim, and he had to fight for survival while playing a mouse and cat game with General Zaroff's. Analyzing the two short stories, The...
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...home, Cook, clean, and take care of the children and her husband. Many females with a low education tend to follow their husbands commands. These circumstances are shown to us In The Story Of An Hour, by Kate Chopin, she explains in her short story how men and women observed life. Men were responsible of certain things and women were responsible of certain duties as well. This was normal for a typical matrimony in the late 1800’s. In this short story the protagonist, Mrs. Louise Mallard, lives with her husband, Mr. Mallard, in a rural setting. There has been a railroad disaster in which people think Mrs. Mallard husband was involved and died. Kate’s sister Josephine does not know how to tell her sister about the incident since Louise suffers from heart problems. Once Louise finds out about the incident, her first reaction is to cry and run to her room. Kate Chopin uses positive description to describe the room. Even though she had just gotten the news of her husband passing away, we can see all the positive things that Louise observes outside her open window. This shows that she is sad since she is crying, but at the same time it’s the readers first indication that she feels a sense of Freedom now to observe anything out there in the world. She feels free to make choices of her own. As the story goes on, she has mixed feelings; and we...
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...neighbour” Revenge and violence have always been a part of our everyday normal life, but is it becoming worse, and actually even starting to take overhand? A friendly neighbour, don’t know if we can say that. Walter is living in what sound like an all normal neighbourhood, he just got one problem with his certainly violent neighbour Roger. Walter seems kind of innocent in my opinion, as you don’t really get to know what he actually was doing in his underwear at Roger’s house. Roger really don’t seem to like Walter, and finds him very provocative, and can’t go one day without thinking what Walter is going to do to him, and his family. Roger seems very paranoid, and is taking this whole situation to a whole other level. He don’t really know himself what happened the day Walter was in he’s house, he just assumed right away that he was doing something bad. We are getting everything from Roger’s point of view, which makes Walter look really bad, and like he deserves to be “wonked” all the time. (And as he says on page 2, 18. After he “wonked” Walter in front of he’s kids: Great now they hate me, like I’m the bad guy in this) Throughout this story Walter is getting really pissed, even though he seemed like a nice person in the start, he starts to look with these evil eyes at Roger, like he want to do something bad too him. All this drama makes this a bad environment. Because as it looks like a normal family neighbourhood, now just with these men creating this big hate to each...
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...not all marriages last forever and moving on can be difficult. That is what the short story Reconciliation, written by Polly Clark, is trying to tell us. The story is written in 1st person because we are able to read what she is thinking and feeling – even when she doesn’t know it: “It’s my first day, I cycled here” etc. It all starts “in medias res”, where the reader is thrown into the events and quickly forced to understand everything that is happening. The fact that it’s the narrator who tells the story gives a very good insight into her world and what she is thinking and that is very important when you have to characterize her. The story takes place in an office and we follow the narrator and main character, Laura, as she has her first day at her new job. Not just any job, it’s also where her husband works. Her husband is called Vernon Pringle and Laura describes him as a turtle: “..His name is Vernon. He looks like a turtle. More specifically he looks like a turtle without a carapace which gives him a rather exposed and nervous air.” He is also described in a more bad way: “His arms in his shiny blue shirt are curved protectively around his papers, as if all of us, being human, are prone to cheating”. That shows how little he trusts people and is always trying to protect what is his from all others.” When the story starts and Laura describes her clothing and appearance she seems very normal and not really too interesting. Laura has been married to Vernon “for half a life”...
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...ways. The first is media, throughout the poem media is portrayed as having a very important role in war. The second would be personal feeling towards war, how the lady or mad in the poem copes with the idea of conflict. The first line of the poem “I slice sentences” straight away could show how all the time the media are chopping up stories, embellishing them or cutting them down to fit the target audience rather than give people the cold facts of way. The word “slice” is a very fluid motion, which could represent the media manipulating the news to make it less harsh. The second stanza is where the reader starts to become aware of the message Imtiaz Dharker is trying to show, that war and conflict have become such a normal part of day to day life. “At my back, the news is the same”. The phrase at my back shows how to person in the poem is unfazed by the news and carries on with whatever they were already doing, the average person has become numb to the idea of death. On the other hand it could also show the lack of awareness and understanding we have about what is actually going on, which links back to the idea of the news manipulating stories and sheltering the rest of the world from the horrors that occur else were in the world. Imtiaz darker, at the end of stanza three suggests that we are all responsible for the war in our own way, whether that be fighting in it or not doing anything at all. “I don’t need to see, through onion tears, my own hand power the knife”. This...
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...”A Journey” is a short story by Colm Tóibín. It’s written in 2006. The plot is told by a 3rd person omniscient narrator. The composition of the short story is in chronological order with flashbacks. The story begins in a flashback where we are introduced to David’s fear of presence. David is an unsteady boy who is afraid of life. To overcome his fear he keeps asking questions about life and people’s presence in the world. The oil painting, Interior with Woman and Child, on picture 1 by Paul Mathey from 1890 could be an illustration of David – a sad, alone boy who don’t feel secure. Who just stands waiting for the next thing to happen? Mrs. Redmond is taking care of him. David feels safe when he is near her: “Often, when Mary went down to the cottage to collect him, he did not want to come home. But then, once he was back in his own house, he would start to smile again and follow her around asking her questions or, when he was older, telling her what had happened to him at school”[1]. You can tell that he is secure when he is with Mrs. Redmond because he likes staying with her. You can also tell from the quotation above that he looks up to her mother and thinks that she has a large knowledge. He is embarrassed of his stay at the hospital. He can’t look her mother in her eyes afterwards: “… and for a quick second she caught his eye. He looked away”. David’s mother, Mary, has thick blonde hair and a large-boned face. She wants the...
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...Marriage as a Literary Theme in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” Amy Barnes ENG125: Introduction to Literature Instructor Victoria Schmidt February 24, 2014 Marriage as a Literary Theme in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” portrays an average man leading a normal, mundane existence, who is married to a controlling, dominating woman who is in charge of her husband Walter’s every move. The literary elements of plot, tone and setting define the reasons why Walter must escape his daily life from his domineeringly aggressive wife, and find a place where he is happier and more content with himself. “Theme [is] associated with an idea that lies behind a literary work. In a story, theme is a representation of the idea behind the story.” (Clugston, 2010) Another viewpoint of theme is derived from K. Griffith (1990) as he implies that theme is the central idea, commenting in some way about the human condition. A theme is what the work says about a topic and must apply not only to the characters in the story but to the "real" world as well. In the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber (1939), the image of marriage emerges. The author portrays the typical life of two married people, one being passive and the other being dominant. This is not to say that either one is good nor bad, but to show the reasons why Walter fades off into daydream. The characters of Walter and Mrs. Mitty, on the outside are in conflict with each...
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