Short Stories

Marcus had a bemused look on his face that melted into one of pure incredulity. First she refused to come down, and then , she wandered off without leave? As a naval commander and ship's master, the penalty for any slave who left the person of any officer without leave was to be lashed to the deck for a half day and get 10 strokes of the Cat. And yet, this brazen cocotte with the copper tresses felt free to so disrespect her own Master in his own household?

While listening to the StoryCorps stories, three of the five that I chose to focus on all have something in common. Each story depicts in some sort of way that hard work goes a long way in life. The stories I listen to were, “Anytime they had a stunt to do with a black actor, they would paint these white guys in blackface.” “The way that I look at my job as a vendor, I am a professional athlete.” and “All of a sudden Dr. King drove down the street.” These three stories showed that when you work hard, good things come to you. The “black actors” story talked about two men who wanted to become stuntmen for real actors. These two men were rejected from many films but continued practicing in parks, and on the streets. They would dive off park bleachers

Throughout the story, the theme of darkness is largely prevalent: everything from the “dark muddy lanes,” the “dark dripping gardens,” to the “dark odorous stables” (Joyce). The boy is surrounded by darkness and gloom. In the midst of all this is Mangan’s sister who the boy is deeply infatuated with. She represents hope for the boy.

constantly picked flies out of my milk pail and had to be careful that one wouldn’t land in my opened mouth. I once killed a fly by smashing it between my lips. I became desensitized to the tingling of their legs dashing up and down my skin. Maybe that’s how I built up an immune system that tolerated germs and made me less susceptible to getting sick. Like how a child would hold out a finger for a butterfly to land on, I would do that same with my hundreds of fly friends. The continuous buzzing sound of the flies throughout the farm almost became therapeutic to me.

I saw beautiful, white smiles across the room. There were couples kissing and others counting down as the senseless crystal sphere in New York slid down a giant metal pole. With red wine for Grandma and sparkling grape juice for the younglings, a joyful celebration began. This was a new beginning for some, and for others, a continuation of what came before. Regardless, the community of friends and family laughed and rejoiced together as one.

Irony, satire, parody, humor and epigrams are deeply connected by having one main thing in common: they are usually meant to hurt the intellectual self of someone. We use it in our everyday’s life to make fun of people, or simply because someone is annoying and we would like them to stop, without being “too” rude.

Then faster than any of us could blink, he’s in front of Jeen with a hand through her chest and out her back. His fingers squeeze a chunk of spine as she gasps and drowns in her own blood. He tosses her as if a broken rag doll. She bounces once, blood splashing into my face as she lands at my feet, dead.

All of their corpses lay upon the ground. At eternal rest they lay silent. The remains are bloodied and sliced to the point of no recognition. Time is still, and I stand in the room adjacent from the carcasses. My head is spinning, my breath is quick. The knife in my hand suddenly feels as if it’s one thousand degrees. The smell of iron creeps into my nose and shakes me to the core. I become so shaky that the seemingly ablaze knife comes loose and falls to the ground. A crisp three clicks fills my ear, and I suddenly am standing with a revolver to my head.

Inside the yellow plastic cage, a few mice laid down and looked like they were drifting off to sleep. Others rolled onto their backs and kicked their little legs frantically in the air. One snapped at the hunks of corncob bedding as if they were to blame. One slid bonelessly off the little plastic clubhouse inside and crumpled in a heap. The cage fogged with their dying respirations, and the air filled with the tang of urine. As one gasped for air, it thrust its paw, pink and hand-like, against the side of the cage and glared at her accusingly.

The sun glimmered through the treeline, and set slowly, casting a deep orange and pink shadow over the mountains. A soft breeze made the strands of pine dance on their branches ever so slightly. The world was quiet. There were no voices, no distractions. Just the light trickling of a stream not far from the cabin. Just the quiet rustle of the trees in the wind. Sage relished in the silence, clinging to it like a new born cub to its mother.

He continued to talk with no expression on his face, “She was my everything. No one understood me like her. When everyone turned their backs on me, she was there.”

Ryder stared up at the Snowbelle gym, his heart racing in his chest. Liepard gave off a growl as she looked up at her, a smirk of determination on her face. Emma stood beside him as she looked up at the gym as well.

Kyle’s friend goes up for a layup, but it gets smacked against garage door. Kyle gets the rebound because there are no outs in this 1vs1 and shoots a three and it’s nothing but net. The score is a blowout Kyle’s demolishing Jacob. He gets another rebound after Jacob misses his shot and while Jacob is trying to get his own rebound, but Kyle easily gets it over Jacob because he’s taller than Jacob is. “Hey Kyle how about letting me get a rebound for a change?” asks Jacob.

One of the evenings, the boy is delighted to be approached by his Mangan’s sister. She asks whether he would be attending the Araby, “ I forgot whether I answered yes or no. It would be a splendid bazaar” The narrator is shocked by the first time he is approached by the sister, as she tells him that she cannot attend. At this moment, it is learnt that the sister reveals, “She could not go, she said, because there would be a retreat that week in her convent.” This response suggests that she is bound by her religion. She “turned a silver bracelet round and round her wrist”, as she held onto the rail. An imagery that appears as if she is behind bars. Mangan’s sister is visualization of a innocent, beautiful woman in the boy’s mind. As a result, enticed by the revelation promises to buy his love a present. It is apparent that the sister is aware of the boy’s love, she uses her beauty as an advantage in order to receive something materialistic. Once again, blinded by love the boy wishes to please his loved one. He is deceived to the point of dreaming that he cannot stop thinking about the sister during the day. Eagerly, the boy reminds his uncle that “[the boy] wished to go to the bazaar in the evening” However, when the uncle appears it may be too late for the boy. He rushes off in a hurry and boards a train, much to his annoyance, the train experiences a delay. This is the point of the story when the boy

Until now, holidays in the Colorado Rocky Mountains had always been her favorite time of the year, but that was before the money ran out—before the likelihood of eviction.