Southern Literary Messenger

Like White Elephants” A typical well-written short story incorporates various literary elements into building up an underlying message from the author. Specifically, an author would strive to deftly utilize the essential structural elements of a story such as a well-developed plot, detailed characterization, and concrete settings in creating a compelling narrative. Or, an author may put emphasis on one particular literary element to convey the theme. In “Hills Like White Elephants”, a story that…

Throughout writing, authors occasionally use contrasting characters to make their story more interesting or dramatic, and this strategy is often utilized by many great authors in many classic books. They create characters with opposing views to add dimension to the novel. One of the authors that took advantage of this plan is Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451. During his work, he writes about his main characters, Beatty and Montag, and uses contrasting views to add interest and depth to…

Notable authors in literary work understand that to keep their piece enticing and not dull, various methods must be employed. One of the more important methods is theme. Frankly, themes are so intrinsically incorporated in literature's the main and sub-plots of that without it, books would be nothing more than an abundance of meaningless of words on sheets of paper. William Shakespeare, for example, utilizes themes as the main component in The Merchant of Venice. The themes William Shakespeare…

Dialogue is a writing style that present the conversations between two or more characters on certain topics. Writers often use dialogues in literary works as a narrating technique. Dialogues can bring readers into the setting of the story and make them feel personally involved. The use of conversations also can reflect the major theme of the story through narrators’ exchange of ideas. Dialogues are also prevalent in African and Caribbean poems and stories, as seen from “Girl”, “Miguel Street”,…

In the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, villagers of a small town gather together on a beautiful day for the annual town lottery. This lottery requires that all the members of the community draw sheets of paper to determine a “winner”. The person who pulls the card with the black dot is the “winner”. The winner of this lottery ends up being stoned to death by the entire community due to an ancient ritual that says their crops will grow better when someone gets stoned (human sacrifice)…

The Fate of Tessie Hutchinson The term lottery creates a vision of winning something of value. In the short story, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, Jackson took the meaning of the lottery and put a dark twist to it. Jackson gives an everyday feel to the story as if the annual ceremony “the lottery” is a peaceful day for the townspeople. The reader infers that this is a positive outcome based on society’s understanding of what a lottery is; however, the lottery takes an unforeseen twist that…

Found texts are comprised of various genres that contain a plethora of categories, but in particular, receipts. Receipts have increasingly gained recognition over time for a multitude of reasons. Similarly to greeting cards, receipts have a formulaic appearance which makes them recognizable and visible to the public eye. A receipt obtained from Hard Rock Cafe resembled the pieces by Dennis Baron, Roland Barthes, and David Levy. Receipts have become a powerful measure of determining emotional,…

Style: A Critical Study Abstract This study entitled “Jack Kerouac’s Fictional Style: A Critical Study” aims to explore the ways in which his thematic, linguistic and structural pattern dealt in his fictions. This research shows Jack Kerouac’s literary influences. It also shows Kerouac’s fictional style and its narrative design. This further study presents Jack Kerouac’s employment of automatic writing style and his spontaneous methods. (Keywords: Experimental Prose, Spontaneous Writing,…

Literature has served as a catalyst for varying conversations over time. Psychoanalytic examinations have often come from great literary works. One significant author that focused on psychological incorporation throughout his works was Hermann Ungar. His novel, The Maimed in particularly had a large focus on psychoanalytic aspects. Through these fictional works, one can notice and analyze the several psychological symbols. Herman Ungar’s work was largely based upon dark tones, combining…

feeling a reader gets while reading a work of literature is called mood. Furthermore, a writer may also produce a unique mood with the usage of literary devices such as irony, similes, and personification, which are inserted throughout the story. For the most part, these literary devices help enhance a reader's experience while reading the story. Also, literary devices help act as guides to find the author's purpose in reading the work of literature such as for entertainment, persuasion, or to…