Short stories are a form of fictional prose that typically focuses on a single character or a small group of characters. They are known for their brevity and ability to convey a powerful message in a short amount of time. Short stories often explore complex themes ...Read More
Brief Description of Short Story
Short stories are a form of fictional prose that typically focuses on a single character or a small group of characters. They are known for their brevity and ability to convey a powerful message in a short amount of time. Short stories often explore complex themes and emotions, making them a valuable literary form for both writers and readers.
Importance of Writing Essays on This Topic
Writing essays about short stories allows students and writers to closely analyze the elements of storytelling, character development, and thematic exploration. It helps to develop critical thinking and analytical skills, as well as the ability to express ideas and interpretations effectively. Additionally, exploring short stories through essays can deepen one's understanding of human experiences and societal issues.
Tips on Choosing a Good Topic
- Consider the themes: Choose a topic that explores a specific theme or idea presented in the short story.
- Character analysis: Focus on the analysis of a particular character's development, motives, or conflicts within the short story.
- Narrative techniques: Explore the narrative structure, point of view, or symbolism used in the short story to craft an engaging topic.
Essay Topics
1. Argumentative
Essay Topics
- The impact of symbolism in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson.
- Exploring moral dilemmas in "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe.
2. Reflective
Essay Topics
- How "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman portrays mental illness.
- The use of irony and satire in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor.
3. Comparative
Essay Topics
- Contrasting the themes of love and loss in "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry and "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant.
- Comparing the use of setting and atmosphere in "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway and "The Storm" by Kate Chopin.
Concluding Thought
Exploring short stories through essay writing offers a unique opportunity to delve into the complexities of human experiences, societal issues, and the art of storytelling. By choosing engaging topics and critically analyzing the elements of short stories, writers and students can gain a deeper appreciation for the power of this literary form.
The Sun and the Moon passed each other as they did every day when day turned to night. “Goodnight Sun.” the Moon would say as she rose above the earth. “Protect our people well, Moon.” the Sun would say as he left the sky to...
My grandmother was the first person who taught me how to play games. We played quite a few games, but Rummikub was one of our favorites. My loving and considerate grandmother would turn into this game warrior who always played to win. She refused to...
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“Two Kinds” is a short story, which is a part of the book “The Joy Luck Club” written by Amy Tan. “The Joy Luck Club” was published in 1989. The mother-daughter relationship displayed in the short story, has received criticism for perpetuating racist stereotypes about...
The Anton Chekhov short story titled “A Joke” is an interesting read for the inquisitive readers. Very carefully written, the story allows the readers a chance to dive deeper into the unconscious of the characters and dig out layers of meaning behind the apparently normal...
The frame narratives in Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town provide a profound sense of meaning to the short story cycle. Leacock’s preface presents the reader with a simplified version of the story of his life, in which we can see many parallels to the...
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “The Incredible and Sad Tale of Erendira” is a frustrating story. It is full of beautiful images, fascinating characters, and puzzling events. The frustration lies in trying to figure out why the characters behave they way that they do. Why does Erendira’s...
American Gothic literature arose during the early years of America’s founding, adopting some characteristics from the European tradition and establishing others in order to capture the turmoil and anxiety present in revolutionary America. As with any great literature, it changed with time, and these traditional...
Bret Harte’s fiction contributed largely to the development of the Western as a literary genre. One of the earliest authors to fictionalize the American West, he spun humorous yarns depicting the offbeat gamblers, prostitutes, miners, and outright outlaws of 1850s California. These social deviants take...
In Sherwood Anderson’s “Mother,” Tom Willard takes centre stage as the role of the obnoxious, vain husband who shamelessly blames his wife, Elizabeth Willard, for his own unhappiness. He views her with blatant contempt and finds her existence unbearable to the extent that her very...
“The Passing of Grandison” is told in the third person and primarily limited to the consciousness of Dick Owens, the cynical and lazy young heir to a large plantation in Kentucky. His desire to win the hand of his lover Charity Lomax leads him on...
Nia and her family were eating their final dinner, the last meal they’ll ever eat. Everyone was quiet, even her sister Emily. Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences + experts online Get my...
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin, the author provides two examples of the literary technique of irony to enrich and support the theme, “nothing is as it seems.” Kate Chopin uses both situational and verbal irony in different instances...
Royal Beatings starts in the defective tense with Rose revealing to us what her life resembled. Her mentality and her conditions are instantly uncovered. Her mom had kicked the bucket when she was as yet an infant, thus she grew up with “Flo for a...
Two short stories ‘To Build a Fire’ by Jack London and ‘Solitude’ by Henry David Thoreau demonstrate situations when a person is liaised with nature. However, the approach of the main characters of the short stories to such state of events is exactly opposite. Both...
Washington Irving wrote a short story “The Devil and Tom Walker”. Showing the way people may be on the outside but how they truly are on the inside. An example being Tom Walker he’s a quiet guy but on the inside he is a greedy...
In “Everything that Rises must Converge” Flannery O’ Connor compares the robustness of different methods of maintaining identity. The two identity schemas being compared are those of Julian, the highly individualistic, cerebral main character and his mother, a condescending Southern woman clinging to her fading...
Despite the fact that The Crying of Lot 49 is chock-full of the use of methods of communication, the only time when anything is actually communicated is when a few songs are sung by The Paranoids. Any letters mentioned in the novel are void of...
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Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia was founded on September 23, 1932, by a man named by, Ibn Saud. Ibn Saud was trying to look for his ancestral home city and he tried to conquer that. Later then Ibn Saud found Saudi Arabia where his ancestors were...
Mark Twain’s, “The Five Boons of Life” is a very interesting short story in which life gifts are offered to a man, describing the effects each choice has on his life and where those choices led the man. I was intrigued by how often the...
Introduction The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a compelling story filled with excitement, sorrow, and life lessons. Huckleberry Finn goes on an escapade into the south with a runaway slave, Jim. The opportunity to do what is morally right versus what everyone around you believes...
The short story “How to date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” was written by Junot Diaz, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is centered around a young teenage boy giving instructions about readiness for a date with a“Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie.”...
“Lamb to Slaughter” by Roald Dahl and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell are stories revolving two murderous women, Mary Maloney and Mrs. Wright (Minnie Foster), who murder their husbands under different circumstances. While the two women and guilty the authors manage to...
Many authors use different types of form in order to inform content, enhance their stories, and stress the messages that they are trying to get across. Yiyun Li effectively uses this technique in her short story collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, by using...
In literature authors often attempt to create meaning by causing characters to undergo some form of moral reconciliation or spiritual reassessment. In the case of Dubliners, James Joyce has created a series of stories that center on one central epiphany, that of paralysis within a...
Liminality pervades Angela Carter’s short story collection, entitled The Bloody Chamber, in her characters, physical settings and even her narrative voice. The bloody chamber, as a physical ‘chamber’ can refer to a room where violence and enlightenment occur simultaneously. It is a space of transformation...
