Short Story Essays

Kate Chopin’s The Story of An Hour is an intriguing work that leaves the reader wondering whether Louis Mallard’s awakening was spiritual or physical. Many critics like to pick one side of the argument and stick to it, however the reader must realize that it is a combination of the …

The Aeneid is an epic poem written by Virgil from around 30 to 19 BC that tells the story of the founding of Rome. The protagonist and epic hero, Aeneas, is a Trojan captain who escaped the fires of Ilion to lead a group of refugees to establish the Latin …

The novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” isn’t just a young autistic boy’s story. Whilst it does describe the protagonist Christopher Boone’s “reality”, the narrative is much deeper. The issues that surround Christopher are vital to the storyline, providing a complexity that suggests the “The Curious …

Identity is whatever makes one definable and recognizable, in terms of possessing a set of qualities or characteristics, that distinguishes one from others. One’s identity is unique and ever-changing, interpreted dissimilarly from different points of view and influenced subconsciously by a number of exterior factors rather than consciously by oneself. …

When people are lonely and bored, they tend to reflect on their lives and the issues they have. This is precisely what happens in Sinclair Ross’s “The Painted Door”, where the author explores adultery, a topic which was taboo back in the thirties, the time when the story takes place. …

At the beginning of the story all of the information about Rinconete and Cortadillo is given to us by the third-person narrator who is omniscient and descriptive. The boys are described in detail without us yet knowing who they are. They then start a conversation with each other and the …

Text 1a) is an extract from a short story named “The Test”, written by Njabulo Ndebele (1983). It is about a young boy called Thoba and its passion for playing street football with his friends, before he heads home. Text 1b) is a newspaper article (sports report) from the New …

Chapter 1 Augustine and his friends are doing bad stuff, running through fields, and taking people’s fruit. He and his best friend Alypius get caught behind and have to hide out. Then, they meet up with the others at the center of town they called the Hollow. Here, Augustine told …

The short story ‘This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,’ has various locations or settings. These include different locations on the reservation, the airplane, the trailer in Phoenix, and the long road through Nevada. Do these settings have any influence on the character actions? To further understand how …

In two of Flannery OConnors short stories, Revelation and A Good Man is Hard to find we find a lot of similarities in the authors portrayal of the characters as well as themes. OConnors stories are challenging because her characters, who initially seem radically different from people we know, turn …