Short Story Analysis

The short story consists of both short sentences and long sentences. The sentences are short when something dramatic happens and the short sentences make it more dramatic and interesting to read

Short stories can be bland and boring. As you read some of them, you can feel emotion or just read a boring story about how something changed their life, but these three stories are interesting because they develop horror. These short stories use different elements to create horror. “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “A Rose for Emily,”, and “The Lottery” develop horror/gothic elements.

Source: CAPPELEN DAMM AS, Oslo 2008 – ''Access to English literature, VG3''. Anthony, Burgess, Mikkelsen & Sørhus. Chapter 1, page 23-24.

In Kate Chopin’s 1894 short story The Story of an Hour, a woman processes the announcement of her husband’s death. The story revolves around Louise Mallard, a young, pretty woman who has just received word that her husband, Brently Mallard, died in a train accident. Upon receiving the news from her sister Josephine, Louise immediately bursts into tears, an emotional display that, once spent, prompts her to retreat to her bedroom. After a time, Louise repeats her emotional outburst—this time with excitement at the idea she will be able to live her own life. However, Louise’s joy is cut short when her husband, having been nowhere near the accident, arrives home. Her disappointment is so profound she dies.

Short-stories have made a name for itself through the various accomplished publications by initiating emotions, imagination and love between the characters and the reader. As Harold Goddard in The Meaning of Shakespeare stated “The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in.”

What is the point of any piece of great literature? Or rather, what is great literature? Some would say that accomplished literature is a way of exceptionally telling a story. However, what is the point of storytelling? In many cases, stories are told for entertainment. However, most stories have a moral or theme conveying an important message about life or how to live it. This is the point of great literature, to convey this message beautifully. Some pieces of great literature are The Story-Teller, by Saki, Geraldine Moore the Poet, by Toni Cade Bambara, and Enemy Territory, by William Melvin Kelley. To understand the themes of great literature, you must also understand how to analyze it. The content

ll great writing has a form of suspense. If you were to ask a random person, they would define it as “anxiety” which, has some properties that deal with suspense. Dictionary.com defines suspense as “ a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement, as in awaiting a decision or outcome, usually accompanied by a degree of apprehension or anxiety”. Authors display suspense by adding a weaker character to their writing (“Eleanor and Park” by rainbow Rowell), adding a mishap in their character's life which causes them to have breakdowns (“Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky), displaying the reasoning, thoughts, and plans in a story (“The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe), and putting the characters that are either the main characters or a character that is close to the heart in danger or jeopardy (“The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury). In these stories I have claimed to have those specific types of suspense, “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Pedestrian” by

Horror is fiction that scares the audience or gives an eerie mood. Each short story develops horror is its own way. “The Tell Tale Heart” is about how an old man is murdered because of his evil vulture eye. “A Rose for Emily” is about how an old woman poisoned her lover to keep him from leaving. “The Lottery” is about how this town has a drawing to see who will be the sacrifice to the crops. Horror is developed in “The Tell Tale Heart,” “A Rose for Emily,” and “The Lottery” with many elements of horror.

Every story has been constructed in a unique way. However, there were also ways that authors can use to construct a great story. Saki’s story, “The Interlopers”, and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” demonstrates the elements of tension and suspense, specifically through the use of the techniques like ordering of events, description of settings, and dialogue between characters. Saki and Jackson both used similar techniques when it came to creating the effect of surprise within in their stories. These techniques really help the author write and the reader understand the story.

Many authors of the short story like to focus on the idea of death and or darkness. These traits carry big messages that don’t often require a lot of page space to explain. This is overwhelming important in the genre of short stories when authors have very little page space to work with. At least one of these traits can be seen in the works of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe with The Fall of the House of Usher’s, Nathaniel Hawthorne with The Birthmark, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman in The Yellow Wallpaper.

    Authors often write literature to have an emotional impact on the reader. These effects vary from work to work, and they may include happiness, sorrow, anger, or shock. Even authors who try to achieve the same effect may go about it in very different ways. This paper discusses three short stories written to shock the reader, but each uses a different method to achieve its effect. While Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" uses a sudden shift in plot at the end of a short narrative, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" gives hints throughout the story preparing the reader for a shocking ending; in contrast, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"

In many stories there is a sense of tension and excitement. This is suspense which makes the reader curious of the outcome of the story or future events. Suspense can be found when the author uses repeating phrases, uses vivid words to describe dramatic actions, or explains a character’s anxiety and fear.

“ The Tell-Tale Heart,” a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, is the most engaging short story read by seventh grade English students at Hollis Brookline Middle School.  The Tell-Tale Heart is an amazing story, mostly because of the rising action.  The rising action in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is about when the protagonist hears the beat of his own heart and imagines it is the dead man’s heart, so he freaks out all in front of the police.  The rising action makes the story engaging because it is not all just a nonsense story and that it is starting to become interesting.  The second reason why The Tell-Tale Heart distracting because of the mood.  The mood of the story is scary and makes you want to jump from your seat.  The

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.

Are you ready to analyze three stories? Yes? Awesome! No? Too bad, because here we go! The three stories in question are The Leap by Louise Erdrich, The Contents of a Dead Man’s Pockets by Jack Finney, and Ambush by Tim O’Brien. The authors of these stories use aspects of their stories to shape the plot, show the theme, and to change the views and opinions of the characters in the stories.