A prevalent theme of three notable short stories is loss. In the short stories Gwilan’s Harp, The Washwoman, and The Last Leaf. Written by Ursula K Le Guin, Isaac Singer, and O Henry respectively, these amazing short stories somehow convey huge amounts of depth and emotion to their stories without needing hundreds of pages. Written in the 1900s, all stories are set in completely different settings. Gwilan’s harp takes place in the Middle Ages, The Washwoman occurs in pre-WWII Poland, and the Last Leaf hails from early 1900s New York. These different settings do not mean the stories are completely unalike, as all of these short stories have the same themes of love, hope, despair and loss.
