The Leap By Louise Erdrich, And The Trip By Laila Lalami

Authors of great stories often use good technical writing skills. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast two short stories: Where Are you going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates and Hills Like White Elephants by Earnest Hemingway. The comparison and contrast will be done based on their use of plot, point of view and character development.

First off, both of them take place in the future which sets the series of events for the rest of the story’s. The story’s take place in the early 2050’s and instead of there being all these high tech things for people to use, there is just a TV screen that everybody sits in front of (Bradbury 47). That explains the next similarity which is that everybody sits inside all the time. Mead is really the only person who walks outside at night but in the story it’s ok but in the film he’s not supposed to be outside. Therefore these stories are similar but it’s the differences that make these stories even more

The stories “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket”, “The Leap”, and “The Trip” all explore aspects that are drastic for the characters and are thrilling to the audience to read. Common elements can be found in each story. Even though each story is similar, each story has a unique way of hooking the reader that stays true to the theme and plot.

“Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket”, “Ambush”, and “Sniper” are three short stories that all seem to be different but also have similarities. Each story describes a short period of time in the main characters live that make a significant impact on them. Taking a close look at the literary elements of setting, theme, conflict, and characters show the similarities and differences between the three stories.

Throughout all short stories, there can be multiple similarities, and differences. But, more specifically, the three stories, “Harrison Bergeron”, “Liberty”, and “The Most Dangerous Game” share(s) similarities and differences. There can be similarities and differences in setting, character, conflict, and theme.

Currently, a plethora of outstanding stories have been written. What makes a story, though? The answer is the elements that the author includes into his or her writing, such as symbolism and imagery. "Hills like White Elephants," written by Ernest Hemingway, and "A Good Man is Hard to Find," written by Flannery O'Connor, are just two examples of admirable work. Each writer incorporated plenty of elements to improve the story. Since the amount of elements is limited, these two writers exploited several of the same ones. Although the stories have numerous resemblances, they are also remarkably different.

“A Rose for Emily,” “A Worn Path,” and “The Lottery” by William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Shirley Jackson all have similar writing styles in their literature. In these three short stories the authors all use contrasting nature within their literature to predict the outcome and to learn for the upcoming events in the readings. The authors take subliminal phrases and subliminal symbolic text to have the reader become more attached and understand more of what the characters, setting and theme of the story has to offer. Using these three stories the reader of this essay will understand and grasp the symbolic meanings in text of each these short stories.

The world is a massive place full of endless literature, beginning from ancient scrolls to daily news articles, filled with many secrets, perspectives and surroundings that help connect literature to an individual’s daily life. Some writers use the skills of literary elements to express and discuss an event that has happened to them or what has happened to others. This helps others to comprehend the perspectives of the author’s understanding toward an incident that one might experience. For instance in Flannery O’Connor’s short story, she uses many literary elements to express her views over most of her stories. O’Connor expresses her views in her short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by using the literary elements of point of view, irony, and setting.

Stories may be different, but they all have at least one thing in common. Whether they have the same theme or not, all stories are drawn together by interesting topics to keep the reader’s attention. The three short stories used in this comparison are “Killings” by Andres Dubus, “Cons” by Jess Walter and “Greasy Lake” by T. Coraghessan Boyle. Although written by different authors all stories deal with killings and death.

Short stories have fully developed themes but appear significantly shorter and less elaborate than novels. A similar theme found in short stories “Winter Dreams” written by Scott F. Fitzgerald and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner included the social and environmental influences that encouraged and controlled the character’s life and decisions. In “Winter Dreams”, the main protagonist-- Dexter-- fell into a fixation over a young, whimsical blueblood, Judy Jones. His obsession led him to believe that Judy Jones reciprocated his feelings for her, leaving him bare and mortal-- despite prior beliefs. Following her father’s death, Miss Emily fell into a dark obscurity due to the pressure and compulsion of having to carry on the honorable family name. While using a unique point of view (first person peripheral), “A Rose for Emily” followed a mysterious and desirable woman named Miss Emily as her hometown tried to understand her peculiar ways and began to find her disgraceful. By comparing and contrasting these two literary pieces, a similar organization-- including the writers’ purpose and themes-- should become clear. By using literary devices-- such as point of view, dramatic irony, detail, and figurative language-- Scott F. Fitzgerald and William Faulkner conducted two short stories similar in aim and reasoning, probable for contrasting and comparing elements within the parallel writings.

The short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin have many similarities, despite their different societal settings. Both of the stories contain a false display of utopia, the following of traditions, and foul treatment. For example, in “The Lottery” every year a person’s name is drawn from a box and the “winner” is stoned to death, and the townsfolk are fine with it and keep coming back. And in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” Omelas is described as being a perfect society where everyone is happy, but in order for the utopia to thrive a young child is being detained and tortured and the people of Omelas just let it happen because they think that is all they can do. Therefore, in both of the stories the authors are saying that harm can be done from people blindly following tradition and that perfect does not exist because there will always be some type of evil activity being conducted.

Short stories have many different literary elements and, you can compare all of them. All stories have something in common and something different about them, that make them unique. The short stories, Contents of a Deadman’s Pocket, The Leap, and The Trip all have elements of literature in them. The elements that are the most important are theme, characters, setting and conflict.

In the pieces “The Eye” by Alice Munro and “Girl” written by Jamaica Kincaid, both writings go into depth explaining the relationships between mother and daughter on how much it impacts the roles of women in society. In Alice Munro’s story, the mother and daughter's relationship starts to change once she starts to gain siblings in her life. Once this occurs, the mother tells her how she's supposed to feel. Unfortunately, she does not feel the same way that leads her admiring someone else who makes her own choices in life. In Jamaica Kincaid's piece, it shows us on how to follow these specific rules, to be able to live life as a woman that is being told by the mother to her daughter. Both of these pieces show how much these mother and daughter relationships affect their child's on what their women role will be in the future.

Each of these texts explores and shares many similar themes. The common themes present in each of these texts are discrimination, and justice. In each of these stories there are cruel acts done to the main characters that live with each of main characters the rest of their lives and never truly forgive or forget. Some common elements are never escaping the past and moving on could be trying to explain the unexplainable.

Over the history of man, stories have been told in many fashions, but even through all that time some basic elements of storytelling hold true. For example, even though “Oedipus Rex” and “The Kite Runner” were written hundreds of years and hundreds of miles apart, they still have similarities. They both use irony, suspense and other writing methods to present a story in an entertaining and thought provoking way. Also, between the two books they share major themes. “The Kite Runner” and “Oedipus Rex” share the theme of guilt and shame, as illustrated in the stories ironies, climax, and by the protagonist actions.