Short Story Essay

In the short story, “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson, Mr. Steward and Arthur Lewis represent the theme “good versus evil”. Arthur Lewis represents “good” by being the moral voice who advises that pushing the button would go against all values possessed by him and his wife. Mr. Steward represents “evil” by being the hand that brings temptation into the story. Mr. Steward comes into the house of Arthur and Norma, telling them that “if you push the button… somewhere in the world someone you…

“Isolation”. What kind of scene are you thinking about? Do you imagine being on a lone island? Or in the corner of a room where you actually are isolated from the rest? This type of “isolation” stated as the title of this short story, is something different from the rest. Read this short story to find out. It was a stormy night in summer. The rain was harshly drumming the windows of Bob’s office, who was taking a peaceful break from all this work and tiredness. It was just so tiring that he…

I took slow, steady steps toward the gravel driveway describing the scene: At midnight, on Friday the thirteenth of August Seth and I sprinted for the wooded lane leading to Thornewood Hall. As the lane opened onto a ragged lawn, we spied the two-story mansion perch on a hill. The steps listed. Ivy crept unchecked over its crumbling face. We crouched behind a tree, taking turns peeking at the house. For a moment, nothing happened. Then a piercing shriek sounded from somewhere close. The sound…

Jacob Layton Eng-102 April Dolata October 15, 2014 Short Story Paper The villagers of a small town gather together in the town square on June 27 for the town lottery. Every year on June 27 the lottery is held and everyone must be in attendance if they are physically capable. In other towns, the lottery takes longer, but there are only 300 people in this village, so the lottery takes only two hours. Village children, who have just finished school for the summer, run around collecting stones.…

When does the need for perfection begin to cross a line? In the short story Rappaccini's daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, both Giovanni and Rappaccini get lost in their desire to make things perfect, and along their quest they not only hurt themselves, but also those around them. In this story people try to cure other things’ imperfections through misguided ways to fill the human need to be perfect; but almost always end up hurting the things they try to improve. Moreover, while striving for…

In John Updike’s short story “A&P,” we open in on a scene of three teenage girls entering at local grocery store. Sammy, a young, sarcastic, teenage boy is the narrator, who’s observations push the story to progress along. He observes the three girls in bikinis walking around the store. He is obviously distracted when he rings up an object more than once and an old lady, who “they would have burned over in Salem,” gives him a hard time (Updike 178). Eventually the manager of the store, Lengel,…

Kimberly's POV As the dusty, dirty gravel crunches under the wheels of the car, and radio buzzing lowly with a song, Heidi turns to me. "Wendy and Dave want to know if you want to come to dinner at our place tonight." She tells me. Wendy and Dave were Heidi's parents, otherwise known as Mr. and Mrs. Lane. My own parents had stayed in Chicago for the rest of the summer, so a nice home cooked meal, made by someone other then me, would defiantly beat whatever instant food if inevitably end up…

travels. The pages ripped and crumpled, all held together by two stitches of frayed thread. But no matter. I have read this story a legion of times. I have travelled near and far, spreading the book thief’s words. I have told the book so many times that I could never forget. Now, you may have been wondering throughout all my narrations how I, Death, found out about her story to begin with. I will tell you now. I stared at the beginning of Himmel Street, squinting to make out the houses in the…

Roger marched into the store with his head held high. It’s his birthday and nobody could break him now. Roger pauses and gives attention to the King Size Cookies n’ Cream Hershey bar on the shelf, his hand extends into his pocket before he realizes he has no money, or not any real money at least. Roger pulls out the fraudulent money, and glances at it, he notices he has three, one dollar bills, and 2 quarters, after staring at it he puts it back into his pocket. At the register, the lady’s name…

The story of Xmas Jamaica Plain for the author Melanie Thon, holds a very strong and rich languages, and also contains a unique words of choice; by using a different elements of fictions, like symbolism, irony, and imagery, the author presents us too many themes that we could distract from the “Xmas Jamaica Plain” story. The writer was very diligent in her words of choice, each word in the story carried an additional meaning with it that. For example: The symbolism that the author used to show…