Short Story Essays

In “Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby,” Donald Barthelme tries to show how inhumane man can be by telling an absurd story of a man named Colby who, “had gone too far.” (Barthelme, 1973, pg. 19) In the story, Colby’s so-called friends decided that they must hang …

According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, “Katherine Mansfield is regarded as one of the masters of the short story” (Columbia). She is known as a talented musician (Columbia). She uses music in her short story “Miss Brill” to help set the stage for the play that is about to begin. In …

In The Monkey’s Paw written by W.W. Jacobs and The Red Room written by H.G. Wells, there are many similarities and differences in the ways the stories are written and suspense created. For example, both stories belong to the horror genre where the supernatural appears due to human interferences, and …

Entry 1 “You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.” Alice Walker, the author of The Color Purple, begins her novel with an ambiguous threat. A fairly powerful, yet unexplained, quote begins a very powerful novel. Before opening this book, I had no idea how it …

This essay will focus on the recent short story we read in class, “The Pedestrian” written by author Ray Bradbury. I will aim to examine various areas, but mainly the conflict between the individual protagonist, Leonard Mead, and the antagonist of society in general. Furthermore, I will look over various …

As human beings, we are changing each and every moment as we are introduced to new ideas, values and challenges by our surroundings. In Alistair MacLeod’s short story, “To Everything There Is a Season”, the author depicts the anxieties and reservations of the narrator’s transition between childhood and the adult …

Throughout four of Washington Irving’s short stories, characters manipulate the beliefs and superstitions of others for self-beneficence. A predominant sub-theme in these stories is romanticism. The four stories that will be discussed are “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, “Rip Van Winkle”, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, and “The Spectre Bridegroom.” …

Through the chosen texts a greater understanding of the crime fiction genre has been achieved. The four authors are all writing in different time periods which is reflected in the content of their respective text. Although, the four texts are all a part of the crime fiction genre, each has …

1. Compare the story “Super Toys Last All Summer Long” with the movie Artificial Intelligence. Do they use the same symbols? Do they have the same themes? Explain why or why not. Adapting literature for the big screen is a risky process, and can yield great results as well as …

“For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry” is a poem Christopher Smart wrote about the cats of another time. Though he makes references to “Jeoffry” his underlying connotation is towards felines in a biblical sense. He will cover both their physical and metaphysical characteristics. He shows their worship of a …