History of the Development of the Short Story.

O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard To Find." A Good Man Is Hard to Find, and Other Stories. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1955. N. pag. Print.

In 1955 O'Connor produced her first collection of short fiction, A Good Man is Hard to Find. The title story of this collection is one of her best known works. O'Connor eventually died in August 1964 having produced many contributions to American literature history.

Introduction A short story is “A prose narrative too brief to be published in a separate volume – as novellas and novels frequently are. The short story is usually a focused narrative that presents one or two main characters involved in a single compelling action.” (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, p. 1493) Short stories have all the dynamic characters, interesting settings, suspenseful plots and conflicts, and the surprising resolutions as full length novels.

A short story is a work of literature that is shorter than a novel. Although some may believe the length may not be enough to develop a noble story, in these few pages an author can pack a tight punch that will leave one in awe, disgust, or utter sadness. Whether there is a moral of the story or it is simply for the reader’s enjoyment, each author has their own style of conveying a message through their work in very diverse ways. Through Flannery O’Connor and Chuck Palahniuk’s works we can see this very evidently.

Short stories have been written for a long time for many reasons. Whether the reason be for getting a point across, persuading someone or just for the pleasure of the reader. The creation of short stories has been a privilege for the writers especially because of every writer has a purpose and they can portray it through their literature and show how it has evolved from when it was first created. Many critics also think that short stories can teach more than novels because of the fact that author’s get their point across quicker than an author in a novel. Through the stories of “Paul’s Case,” “Bartleby the Scrivener,” and “To Build a Fire,” American authors present many themes for the readers to consider.

“Fiction has been maligned for centuries as being "false," "untrue," yet good fiction provides more truth about the world, about life, and even about the reader, than can be found in non-fiction,” says Clark Zlotchew, a renowned author. This begs us to question, how do short stories portray relevant issues in society?

The article “American Short Fiction and World Story” by Alan Cheuse compares the old tales to the modern short story. To start the article he talks about the old type of stories by famous writer Homer. Here talks about how these books are written by the culture of the time. With that being said, he makes the assumption that the old time tales are only applicable to the time in history they were written. This is pretty obvious because in today’s world we rarely see the events that happened in such ages. Next after talking about the period before modernism he starts to contemplate the creation of the modern short story. Here he makes a surprising claim, where he says that the modern story actually started in the United States with the famous poet Edgar Allen Poe. This is surprising to many because in the literature world most people associate modernism with European writers such as Chekov and Flaubert. He actually states the this modern sense of writing started in North America, then went to Europe and finally arrived to the res of the world including North America again. So we are left to ask, what is the modern short story like? Well, Alan Cheuse compares the modern short story to the art story. He says the perfectionists of it such as Hemmingway; owe their credit to writers like Poe because he in fact started it. The art story is a story that is written and can be applicable to any situation within real life. That is Alan Cheuse argument, and main ide of the whole article.

Short stories form a different way of writing. Like all other type of literary genres, short stories are created with a distinct message, but a much more powerful one that is convey in such fewer pages. They convey a meaning and message that hits the reader in a profound yet questionable way that leaves the reader, sometimes, confused. Short stories allow for a conversation, an argument, and/or a thought as to what is actually being conveyed. The message is not always directly expressed, but sometimes conveyed in such a way that the reader must figure it out. A great example of such writing is Balthazar's Marvelous Afternoon, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

“Short Story refer to “a story based on a theme; however shorter than a novel (Kirszner, & Mandell, 2012 p.95).”

Short stories are a bit like baby carrots. They have the same flavor as your basic carrot, but they are shaved down, polished. Baby carrots the same core as their former, bigger self. But they decide to showcase the central theme, or idea rather than hiding it under layers. By trimming the excess, the short story and the baby carrot gives us the ability to grasp a deeper understanding of itself. They both confine themselves to the richest and most valued parts. Short stories are shaved down and let a single plot to shine rather than be mixed in amongst other storylines that take some of its glory. Short stories allow us to analyze precisely and get to the root of the conflict easily. Much like how baby carrots evidently display the core elements

A short story is a work of fiction and it focuses on 1 or 2 main characters and on a single problem or conflict. To understand a short story you can look for four elements to help, setting, character, theme, and plot.

A short story is a form of storytelling that does not waste space. It serves the reader details only relevant to the storyline. It aims to engage the reader immediately, by not filling the story with useless details but only that to which is necessary and holds their attention. A short story contains very little to no background information. It only provides that to which is required for the story. Each sentence helps develop the storyline and begins as quickly as they end taking the reader from the start to the end on a roll-a-coaster of emotions as they read. What brings a short story to life, is how the story flows and makes the reader feel grabbing their curiosity with little background information, catching their attention with each detail, and bringing them in with the quick developments of the storyline.

Thesis and Introduction: A short story is an elaborate work of fiction. It compromises on one or two main characters and on a singular dilemma or contention. To better comprehend a short story you must search for its main plot, including its characters, its theme, and its setting.

Every story must start somewhere, but not every story has to have a complete ending, or even a clear one. With the development of the short story, the variation between short story endings has gradually increased as time has gone on, like the difference between a final ending in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” or John Cheever’s “The Swimmer.” However, the endings of some short stories also depend on the style of how the story is written, like Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” which is a part of a larger novel, and Kate Chopin’s “The Blind Man,” which is a new branch of short fiction writing called microfiction. The ending also comes about based on the subject matter found in the story. For example, Tan is a second-generation Chinese-American like her character, June, in “Two Kinds.” Cheever lived through the Great Depression, and his family went through a similar fall from grace like his character Neddy did in “The Swimmer.” They say to write what you know, and these authors come to their endings through their own experiences and the type of style that they write in.

The short story is a concise form of narrative prose that is usually simpler and more direct compared to longer works of fiction such as novels. Therefore, because of their short length, short stories rely on many forms of literary devices to convey the idea of a uniform theme seen throughout the script. This theme is illustrated by using characteristics that are developed throughout the story such as, plot, setting and characters. The three main components are developed throughout the story in order to guide the reader to the underlying theme, which is necessary as a short story lacking a theme also lacks meaning or purpose.