Build A Killer Story Analysis

Tim O'Brien was right when he said “Stories can save us”. They saved him. Writing stories helped Tim turn into Timmy and also into a solider when he was retired and forty three years old. When O'Brien says “Stories can save us”: he lets us know that his stories helped him through the war, they also helped him stay psychologically relaxed after the war, and helped him create better versions of his memories as Timmy and Tim the soldier.

The literary critic Bryan Aubrey further discusses Carver’s work in a “Critical Essay on a Small, Good Thing”. The critical analysis explores how Carver uses minimalism to emphasize menace in people’s lives. The short and condensed sentences provide a realistic and serious tone for the reader, a good example of this is shown in the short story “A Small, Good Thing”. The tone that is present throughout the story is sadness. Sadness helps create the theme of the story that the world we all live in is a tough one. Carver use’s this theme as a reminder to his readers that life can be cruel at times, and the only thing people can do is reach out to each other as the Weiss family did with the Baker after their son’s death. The minimalistic style used in this short story synthesizes the underlying reality that bad things can happen to innocent people at any given moment. No matter who you are and how many good deeds you may have done, we still all share the same fate called death. Carver use’s death as his source of hidden menace because many people are paranoid that their lives may suddenly end, no one fully understands what life and death is. This is a smart way to provide a necessary tension

Short stories often develop a theme in a short time frame. Their authors must do this with limited settings and characters. The short story Killer, written by Paula Goslings, contains many themes with the main one being deception. One of the ways the author expresses this is through the narrative convention of style or mood. In this piece the convention of plot is also utilised by the author to develop this idea. Characterisation is another narrative convention successfully utilised to explore this theme. By themselves these elements are nothing, but when together, they effectively portray the theme of deception in the fantastic short story Killer.

Lacking a wider variety of stories on any given topic can lead to dangerous misconceptions and casual racism. In her TED Talk, The Danger of a Single Story, Ms. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award winning Nigerian novelist and public speaker, uses personal encounters with the effects of a single story to normalize her experiences with her audiences so that they may internalize them and act upon them easier. Ms. Adichie's use of pathos, as well as her comedic tone and understanding of who her audience is makes it significantly easier for her to accomplish the aforementioned goal.

Popular culture is often a reflection of society; both literature and the media have the capacity to cement ideas in the minds of readers and viewers. In many cases, the notions and stories glorified by the media refrain from sharing a true depiction of society and are narrow-minded in their focus. Recently, the feminist movement has denounced popular culture for its ignorance, fighting for a more realistic portrait to be painted by those with the power to reach millions. Specifically, both Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” share how the classic gender stereotypes seen in popular culture are unable to capture the full spectrum of stories that define society, and are limiting in their portrayals of women. Moreover, both authors share personal stories, reference prominent world figures, and cite relevant statistics in their works. Therefore, in both Bad Feminist and “The Danger of a Single Story”, Roxane Gay and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie appeal to readers pathos, logos, and ethos in order to construct the argument that the single story of women in popular culture is stereotypical and restrictive.

Though this work is like many of Carver’s other works with dialog, average hippi, working class people only this one illustrates his own new forsight in how to write. Yet this work still leaves you hanging in the moment as with all his literature

There is more to know about a person besides the single story that most people believe is true. A single story is something we hear about another person, culture, or where they are from. This can lead to critical misunderstanding of how their lives actually are. In the book, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. His writing makes sure that most of his characters don't fit into the group of having one single story this is how.

Ever since Hunter Jordan died, Ruth and James were heavily affected. In order to combat this, they both use different ways to grieve over his death. To begin, Ruth, James’ mother, rides her bike to grieve for her husbands death. To show proof, James says, “She would ride in slow motion across our street… It was her way of grieving,” (7). As one can see James believes his mother rides her bicycle to grieve for her deceased husband. In addition, James also notes, “it was something [the bike] my stepfather found on the street in Brooklyn and hauled home a few months before he died.” (5). To explain, James says that his stepfather found the bike and brought it to Ruth a few months before he died, so Ruth uses it to remind her of her husband. Furthermore, another way Ruth grieves is in church. James says, “she would occasionally do something in church that I never saw her do at home… she would bow down her head and weep.” (50). As one can see, Ruth cries in church to grieve for her husband because if her kids see her, they would think she is crying because God makes her happy.

In the “Story of An Hour”, the main character, introduced as Mrs. Mallard, is traditional good girl that gets her first taste of freedom leading her diverging into the path that allows her to be free of the subjection she feels, however, these feelings are not lasting as society tries to make her return to her previous status before this taste. From the very beginning, Mrs. Mallard is illustrated as a faint hearted woman that needed to be protected from shocking events in fear of her health. In account of this in a slow way, her sister and her brother in law explains that her husband is in fact dead. Mrs. Mallard listens to this, “She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would not have no one follow her” ( Chopin 1). This basically uncovers the underlying feelings that Mrs. Mallard has of having to act a certain way in front of society to meet their expectation, considering that within this situation the her sister is society, and she is the suppose to be a good wife that should feel sad about the fact that her husband has just died. With the way she acts specifically exclaiming that “she did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance”, it infers that she already has understand what the

“Share our similarities,celebrate our differences.” by M. Scott Peck.When authors write about their lives, what do they expect? David Burkowski, the author of “A Shot Story” was such an author. David had a very stressful life. At the end of his life, he reached his goal which was success. David faced a lot of hardships but he still understood the positive aspects to his life. As years passed, David turned his life into a story so just like Peck’s quote, David wanted people to share the similarities and celebrate the differences. Today, readers like me read David’s story and ask “How can I relate this to myself?”

First of all, I want to state my interest in this single-story issue, because I has been exposed to it from the History course I took last semester. Single-story is basically information or story we trust because the information had been taught for years. So, when it comes to single-story, the truth is not about the real events or history, but more to the common information we share and believe for years. I believe single-story is a pretty common issue in our live and since we are very accustomed with them, we do not realize the effect of believing solely in single-story. However, I find that single-story is not the only problem we have when we try to deal with history or events in the past. I also think that perspective have great influence in creating the story. As an event usually involve more than one side, there are more than one perspective can be built upon the event. Nevertheless, we usually only stick on one side of the perspective and believing it 100 percent, so it is indirectly limiting our information about the event. That’s why I believe single-story and single-perspective is very related and both bring the same disadvantages.

Bo’s line of “This isn’t my story,” on page 67 is currently one of the most illuminating and stimulating in the script. The, “changing of your story,” or the notion of deciding your own future should be explored further and interlock into our theme. Just because something is written, doesn't mean it has to happen. Both brothers could be on a one-track future set by their father, but with the help of Toyland, they realize what they care about most in life. Thus, creating their own future, changing their “story”, choosing their own destiny. Similarly, the brothers should change Toyland in return through their interactions with our characters. Let’s make it clear as to why there’s the rule of no humans allowed – they change things, complicate things, but is this complication a bad thing?

   To a reader unfamiliar with his work, Raymond Carver's short story, "Little Things" may seem devoid of all literary devices owning to good writing. Fortunately, these people are mistaken. With his minimalistic style, it is what Carver doesn't write that makes his work so effective. Most of Carver's short stories describe situations that many people could find themselves in and that is why his work is so appealing to readers. They are not restricted to harsh explicative details or over-dramatized language, but are allowed to create their own rationale for the actions of the characters and the consequent results.

Short stories can share themes, motifs, symbols, consequences, and plot lines, even if there is never any intention to share a common element between the stories. The stories can be written close together or in different decades and still be linked to the one another. They can also be worlds apart with different meanings in the end, but that does not stop them from having similar ideas expressed within them. The following three stories, “Lagoon” by Joseph Conrad, “The Rocking Horse Winner” by DH Lawrence, and “The Lady in the Looking Glass” by Virginia Woolf, are three totally different stories that share common threads that make them the stories that they are.

How does the writer use language and structure to convey her opinions about The Danger of a Single Story?