American short stories

Amontillado,” is an American writer best known for writing dark literature such as murder and horror genres. For instance, in this short story Poe writes of a deranged man by the name of Montresor seeking vengeance on Fortunato. The author states “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (14). The reader can foreshadow from the start, a horrible event will occur at some point of the story. Gilman’s short story is…

Germany and France. Edith continued her education under private tutors back in New York. She learned French and German, and she studied literature, philosophy, science, and art which also become her favourite subject. She also started to write short stories and poetry. As a daughter of society, Edith learned the mannerisms and rituals that were appropriate to her social class. She later rebel against this role when she became a celebrated author. In 1885, Edith Newbold Jones married Teddy…

The story I have chosen to base my best of the best essay on is Updike, “A & P” which was written in 1961. The reason I chose this short story is that it quickly arranges a detailed setting which is easily identified in the reader’s mind. This story is written in the first person experience of Sammy who is working in a grocery store which is located in a rural, yet touristy, area that is five miles from the beach. The plot is set when Sammy tells the story of being behind a cash register…

This essay dwells upon a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper”. It analyzes the characters, style, themes and symbols of the story. Also, the essay examines the author’s contribution to the development of early feminism in the 19th century and describes those events in Gilman’s life which could become the basis for this story, which, in fact, is partially autobiographical. The author speaks on behalf of a woman who spends days and nights in a room with yellow wallpaper.…

“I would prefer not to,” is a phrase made famous from Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener. This story is told from an anonymous lawyer’s perspective about the addition of Bartleby to his firm as a scrivener, and Bartleby’s peculiar attitude and mannerisms at the workplace. Throughout the short story, the lawyer continues to ask Bartleby to do jobs for him and he replies with, “I would prefer not to.” It is later found out that on the weekend, the lawyer made a stop by his office and…

Kurt Vonnegut 's short story Harrison Bergeron is a satirical sci-fi story about the dim side of a perfectly equal American culture. Vonnegut 's decision of "uniformities" is vital to the story 's importance by concentrating on the subjective sorts of balance and downplaying the goal ones, he ridicules not the perfection of fairness itself, but rather the American culture 's defective idea of equality. Can an equivalent society genuinely exist? The story, Harrison Bergeron gives one point of…

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American writer who wrote many works from novels to short stories. He is well known for the novel “The Scarlet Letter” and the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”. In the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil” there are many themes that are apparent and help to understand life and how people interact. , these are some that I found very relatable to: insecurity, friendship, and guilt. The most noticeable theme that I took away from the short story would be the…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” displays the irrationality of attempting to form a flawless being, and by doing so, interfering upon the land of the divine. Hawthorne carries this message over the story of the scientist Aylmer and his elegant wife, Georgiana, who has a tiny, hand-shaped birthmark on her left cheek. Aylmer is fixated with this mark that retains his wife from being flawless and is determined to remove the mark by using his experiments. Throughout the telling of “The…

Both Maya Angelou of "Champion of the World", and Amy Tan of "Fish Cheeks" write short stories which express their isolation from the dominant Anglo culture, and delve into deeper detail as to why they feel alienated. Although these stories take place in different time periods and the settings are drastically different, they both share a commonality within the isolation they feel as minorities within the larger communities. While both authors expertly import literary devices such as narration…

A Comparison of “Araby” and “A&P” In the short stories “Araby” and “A&P”, both Joyce and Updike deal with the familiar theme of loss of innocence in a coming of age in a similar vein with a few major disparities. To begin with, both works share a multitude of similarities, from the choice of narrator to the handling of the thematic conclusion. When viewed objectively, the plot points in both stories almost perfectly mirror each other; the exposition follows a young teenage boy, the conflict…