Abstract This paper takes a look at four famous shortstories by Ernest Hemingway and explains how Hemingway uses the literature elements of character and environment as a means to develop the theme and intent of his stories. To illustrate this point, the shortstories "Soldier's Home", "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Sun Also Rises", are each examined in the paper.
From the Paper "At the beginning of "Soldier's Home," the protagonist, Harold Krebs, has just returned from the horror of World War I. Although his friends and associates who also came back from the war much earlier have once again settled into daily life in the small Oklahoma town, Krebs is restless and anxious, unable to readjust to civilian life. His parents cannot understand why he cannot resume a "normal" life--getting a job, getting married, and settling down into traditional middle-American life. The environment, which he cannot accept, stifles him. He cannot fit the mold."
Abstract In this paper, Hawthorne provides three different women within three different stories that promote the theme of unattainable love. The women in Hawthorne's shortstories die or are invariably unable to love the central male protagonist, but have varying differences of character and destiny that isolate them from a consummation of love's conjoined ideology. The paper describes the way in which Hawthorne has forged tales of romance that deny love and romance to the men and women involved in these three shortstories.
From the Paper "This literary study will examine the role of unattainable women in three stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this manner, Annie from "The Artist of the Beautiful", Georgiana in "The Birthmark", and Beatrice in "Rappaccini's Daughter" will be compared and contrasted. By examining the role of the unattainable and distant woman in relation to the plots in these tales, Hawthorne imbues the futility of romance in his short story works. In "Rappaccini's Daughter" the theme of unattainable love revolves around Giovanni and Beatrice, the daughter of the scientist Baglioni. The poisonous plants that the scientist creates have immunized Beatrice, and have had a harmful effect on Giovanni. The repulsion to Beatrice is instilled through her inaccessibility in the poisonous garden."
Abstract This paper consists of seven different papers, each dealing with a different issue, ranging from post colonialism, postmodernism, dialect, tone, and other literary issues. The common thread is that all utilize shortstories found in Ann Charters' anthology, "The Story and Its Writer."
From the Paper "Themes are a common part of any literary tradition. These are the embedded meanings and ideological concepts that lurk just beneath the surface of any given narrative. Unearthing these themes in literary works can be both enlightening and unnerving depending upon the intentions of the author (and even of the reader). It should be no surprise, then, that some very common themes emerge in four short stories found in Ann Charters' anthology The Story and Its Writer. In Isak Dinesen's "The Sailor Boy's Tale" we find a clear example of the coming of age theme. In Louise Erdich's "The Red Convertible, the theme of brotherhood is plain to see (and read)."
Abstract This paper explains that the shortstories "The Monster" by Bertolt Brecht, and "Thief" by Robley Wilson, Jr. are very different in terms of their content, the periods and characters they represent. The author argues, through a focus on characterization and plot, that both stories explore a common theme of stereotypes and mistaken identity. The paper relates that both the characters in each story and the events of each plot reveal how mistaken our interpretations of other human beings often are.
From the Paper "The short stories "The Monster" by Bertolt Brecht, and "Thief" by Robley Wilson, Jr., are very different in terms of their content and the periods and characters they represent. However, as this essay argues, through a focus on characterization and plot, both stories explore a common theme of stereotypes and mistaken identity. As is seen, both the characters in each story, and the events of each plot, reveal how mistaken our interpretations of other human beings often are. Bertolt Brecht's "The Monster" is a story told from the perspective of an omniscient narrator of an incident at a Russian film company."
Abstract This paper discusses the various definitions of shortstories that have been put forth over time by authors and experts in the field of literature and considers whether these definitions adequately prove that the shortstory can be considered a genre. The paper discusses the features of a shortstory that these authors and experts describe but concludes that, after all is said and done, there is no definitive feature of a shortstory that puts it in a genre by itself.
From the Paper "A standard definition would allow readers to distinguish the short-story genre from a multiplicity of other genres. Additionally, the definition would enable readers to recognize similarities between genres: tragedy, the essay, the sonnet, but also verse narratives, so-called natural narratives, myths, jokes, anecdotes, or news stories, novels, short novels, annals, long stories, scientific reports, and plot summaries. Still, no such definition seems to exist."
Abstract In this paper, three shortstories are analyzed for character development. Referring to a shortstory by Chinua Achebe and Jorge Luis Borges, the author of this essay discusses a thesis statement. This thesis statement asserts that shortstory development depends on the psychological of the main characters of the three stories selected for this analysis.
Abstract This paper explains that Edgar Allan Poe's shortstories "The Black Cat" and "The Fall of the House of Usher", which explored the inner workings of the mind, were unlike the general style of writing of the time. The author points out that Poe led a troubled life, which may explain why his writing is so complex and filled with tormented characters. The paper relates that many connections have been made between Poe and these two shortstories because he chose to write them in first person thus giving the reader the impression that they are autobiographical; his use of first person narration also aids the underlying psychological subtext because the reader is being told a story and can evaluate the narrator along with the story he is telling.
From the Paper "Poe's characters in "The Black Cat" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" are afflicted with mental instability which, similar to Poe, has been attributed to loss. Poe's father abandoned the family in 1810, and shortly after passed away. Poe's mother passed away in 1811, from tuberculosis which was very early in the author's life. Tomc believed the loss of his mother and wife, later in his career, created a lasting impression on his writing. The mental instability Poe acquired from the loss of his parents is reflected in both the narrator in "The Black Cat" and Roderick Usher from "The Fall of the House of Usher" although both characters react to the instability differently. In terms of mental instability the narrator in "The Black Cat" describes his self as being "more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others.""
Abstract This paper consists of five separate, two page, mini-assignments. Each paper deals with shortstories and ranges across at least twenty different authors. The topics of the essays range but generally have to do with topics such as tone, plot structure, language and dialect, narrative form, and convention. The papers provide textual examples from many of the shortstories.
From the Paper "Five Literature Assignments Study Guide 6: Conventional Versus Experimental Of the following five stories, two can be classified as realistic and conventional, while the three others should be considered experimental or surrealist. This study will examine some of the textual evidence from these stories to demonstrate why I have decided to classify each one as I did. The five stories in question include: "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, "Women from America" by Bessie Head, "Civil Peace" by Chinua Achebe, "Night Woman" by Edwidge Danticat, and "The End of the Duel" by Borges. Four of the classifications will seem relatively self-evident, while my decision to call "Night Woman" experimental might seem a bit more questionable. To begin, consider the two stories that I feel are more traditional and realistic than the others. These are "Woman from America" by Head and "Civil Peace" by Achebe."
Abstract This essay examines the use of imagery in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's shortstory 'The Yellow Wallpaper' as it mirrors the protagonists final descent into insanity. The author describes the use of grotesque in this American gothic-style shortstory revealing the use of symbolism in the tale. The themes in the story are also analyzed.
From the Paper "Throughout Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" there is imagery describing the grotesque. The narrator's descriptions of the wallpaper's florid decorations grow and develop as her mind slowly deteriorates. As the protagonist's insanity begins to set in, the wallpaper seems to develop along with her. The worse she gets, the more she perceives within the design. The wallpaper almost seems to mirror her mood, as it twirls and plunges unceasingly like her racing and confused mind. The element of the grotesque is very important in this American gothic-style tale, as it helps to show, or possibly causes, the mental anguish of the narrator."
Abstract Shirley Jackson is a shortstory writer known for writing disturbing stories that focus not on horrific events, but on normal events that occur in society. The writer shows how her stories add new meaning to common events that everyone can relate to, often also making a comment on our society. Three of her stories which have these features, are examined - "The Witch", "An Ordinary Day, With Peanuts", and "After You, My Dear Alphonse". These stories are compared in terms of theme, style, irony, and characters. The common features of Jackson's work can easily be identified.
From the Paper "In each of the three stories, the theme makes a comment on our society, using everyday events to accomplish this.
"In The Witch, a mother is on the train with her four-year old son. A man enters and noting that the boy needs entertaining, tells him a story. The story, however, is a horrific one and what would be considered an inappropriate one. The mother must then deal with the social situation of reacting to the man's inappropriateness. The aspect of the story that communicates the theme is that the boy is actually entertained by the story, even though it is considered inappropriate. This leads the reader to consider why these types of stories are so entertaining and why the mother is more disturbed by the story than her son. This leads to the questioning of the conventions of society, especially the idea of what is considered inappropriate."
Abstract This paper explores the role of women and their function in society as portrayed in the shortstories, "The Answer is No," by Naguib Mahfouz and "Girl," by Jamaica Kincaid. The stories are set in two different cultures, one Moslem and the other, Antiguan. The themes in Mahfouz's story include sexual exploitation and the negative role of women in Moslem society, while in Kincaid's story discusses how a young women should behave in society in order to attract a husband and keep him happy. Both of these stories illustrate how women are viewed as being inferior or submissive and how the women in these two stories decided to rebel against the norms.
From the Paper "Throughout the story, the readers will learn that the woman is a former tutee of the headmaster Badran Bandawi, and the apprehension and fear that she felt upon learning that he was to be the headmaster of their school was caused by a past experience when she was still a young woman, wherein Bandawi sexually took advantage of her in one of their teaching lessons. Bandawi justified the sexual molestation as acceptable, since he told the young woman that he"d marry her when she reaches the right age. The woman's refusal to marry stemmed from two reasons: she doesn"t love Bandawi and she thinks the man wants to marry her for her money."
Abstract Metaphors not only can be used as literal interpretation of events, but also have metaphorical meanings. A good example would be the black cat in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" and how the narrator in the story implied throughout the story that the cat is of demonic creature. The black cat in the shortstory not only has a literal meaning of a normal household cat but also from a metaphorical-side of meaning, as the narrator's personal demon, which haunts him throughout the story and brings him to the point of near insanity.
From the Paper "The first mention of the black cat in the short story is when the narrator's wife noticed his partiality for domestic pets and "lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind" (894), which includes a black cat. In the beginning, the narrator describes the cat as a "large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to a degree" (894). When he describes the cat in this way, the narrator gave us his view of the cat as an everyday, normal household cat that people who have had an encounter with cats can feel a real connection to. Even though some people might have the superstitious belief that an entirely black cat might be a minion of the underworld or a witch in disguise which his wife did when she "made frequent allusions to the ancient popular notion" (894), the narrator tries his best to also show that this is a normal cat like any other. The narrator also gives the pet the name of Pluto, which is the name for the god of the underworld in Roman mythology. By doing this, he further connects the black cat of his to something from the underworld. He also calls what he sees when he went back to check out the ruins of his house that burned down as an apparition (895) and a "phantasm of the cat" (896). An apparition is a ghost or spirit and by following what the narrator describes, his view of the black cat goes from a normal household pet to something that haunts him for months. The loss of the cat not only brought him remorse at what he did to the cat when he hung it on a rope but also regret at the loss of a fine pet."
Abstract This paper shows that reading Tony Earley's shortstories in "Here We Are in Paradise" is like being able to actually tune into the personal thoughts of an average person as he/she goes about typical day-to-day activities in North Carolina, the author's home state. The paper discusses the story that gave the book its title, as well as the one called "My Father's Heart", which are indicative of the others included in this 1994 collection. The paper examines how the characters narrating these two stories, Peggy in the former and Jimmy in the latter, do not pursue the same direction. One ignores her dreams and lets her husband define them, and the other follows his hopes despite the fact that his mother disagrees. However, they both find a way to resolve these conflicts and find the positive side of life.
From the Paper "While growing up, she never ceased talking about her dead husband. Regardless of Jimmy's actions, it was because of his father's blood within him, and whatever small kindness he performed, it was because ?he had his father's heart.? As a result of these comparisons, at night the young boy Jimmy shook from fear and prayed that his heart would not stop while he was sleeping. This concern was exacerbated by the fact that he really did have a diseased heart, and the doctors said that ?he was lucky to be alive.?"
An assessment of the view that the brevity and compactness of the shortstory form makes it more inclined to be at odds with the conventions of realism than the novel.
Abstract This paper discusses the way in which the shortstory as a literary genre has developed, with specific reference to the works of Chekhov, Mansfield, Hemingway and Carver. It refers this development back to the treatment of realism by these authors, examining how this differs from realism in the novel. It examines the devices of the above authors in order to portray a sense of reality that only the shortstory is capable of doing, through the very compactness of its form.
From the Paper "By exploring the relationship between the subjective absent and the objective present, Chekhov achieved an indistinct reality that did not specify an ideology, yet represented a suggested reality. Hahn states thus: '[Chekhov] saw it as literature's task to depict 'truth, unconditional and honest' - the truth of life itself; but as he conceived that truth, there were no literary models for him to follow.' The Chekhovian short story is governed by a seemingly insubstantial middle ground, comprised of a uniting tone rather than plot; yet, the implied realism arises from the interplay between the tangible and intangible, and between competing temporal spaces within a compact unit."
Abstract This paper discusses Edgar Allan Poe's "Metzengerstein" and "A Tale Of The Ragged Mountains" by examining the relationship between symbolic imagery and the human psyche in these shortstories. The author points out that in "Metzengerstein", Poe's uses the physical object of a tapestry to symbolize the acute madness that is befalling the protagonist Frederick Baron Metzengerstein. The paper then relates ways that Poe's literary techniques and devices are used for specific purposes in "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains". The paper concludes that, in both of these shortstories, Poe is advocating the idea that what may appear to be is not always what it is.
From the Paper "In addition to the short story "Metzengerstein," the similar use of a physical object to allegorize a character's psyche can also be seen in Poe's short story "A Tale Of The Ragged Mountains." Daniel J. Philippon (1998) discusses this specific literary technique of Poe's in his article "Poe in the Ragged Mountains' Environmental History And Romantic Aesthetics." Philippon explains how most of Poe's stories explore the internal landscape of his characters at the expense of the physical world."
