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.
Sandra Cisneros, the author of Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, uses perspective in an adolescence context to explore and develop her ideas of the raw Mexican-American experience in the opening of her novel. Cisneros threads a theme concerning coming of age and growing up...
Expectation is a two way thing, you either meet it or you don’t. High expectations are often unmet and for men, failing to meet certain high expectations leaves a negative effect on them. The feeling of inadequacy is one negative effect and in the short...
Have you ever heard a crazy ghost story? A scary story that sounds so crazy that a child may have made it up? When you think of ghosts, you might often think they are embodiments of people who have died, which appear in a somewhat...
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is told by a mentally unstable murder who is going insane and is trying to prove that he is completely normal. He does this by saying he has an immaculate sense of hearing, ‘I heard all things in the...
In “The Storm,” Kate Chopin uses the characters Calixta and Alcee to break away from the expectations of the cliché love represented in most stories or films. By encountering in an adulterous affair, their relationship is symbolized by the storm throughout the story which would...
Introduction Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges is celebrated for his profound exploration of extensive diction and magical realism within his short stories. His journey into the realm of magical realism commenced after a life-altering head injury in 1938. Through his captivating narratives, he weaves elements...
James Joyce wrote two versions of his short story “The Sisters,” the first one under the pen name of Stephen Daedalus. Both versions tell the story of a boy and a priest, Father Flynn. The latter dies, and the people around him react to the...
In “The Monkey’s Paw,” author William Jacobs delivers a cautionary tale about unexpected consequences and how achieving what we wish for might prove catastrophic in ways we would not expect. This terrifying story follows the White family who receive a talisman, a monkey’s paw that...
Introduction In the book “The Devil and Tom Walker,” written by Washington Irving, many different themes are explored. All themes in the story can connect to choices we all could make and the consequences we might regret in our lives today. Greed and wealth are...
In Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, Mann explores the struggle between impulse and logic through the symbolism of luggage presented throughout. The luggage Aschenbach clings to represents the dominance of logic over his impulses, and the effects societal restrictions exert upon his natural instincts. The...
One character in the love triangle described in the novella “The Ballad of the Sad Caf?,” by Carson McCullers, is unworthy of love. Miss Amelia, a businesswoman with manly characteristics and little compassion, gains joy and happiness from Lymon at first and comes to trust...
“The Island At Noon” by Julio Cortazar follows main character Marini, who works as a flight attendant flying over the Aegean sea and wishes to travel to an island he observes out the window. However, when he makes it to the island, while he finds...
The literary compositions of Edgar Allan Poe, especially his short stories of terror based on supernatural or psychological manifestations, continue to be highly praised by a select group of readers who relish the dark, nightmarish worlds of human existence with their roots firmly established in...
“[H]e would sit on his big rocking horse, charging madly into space, with a frenzy that made the little girls peer at him uneasily.” This passage, from D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” describes the “mad little journey” of Paul as he searches for the luck...
Habasha and the Negus It was a Christian autocrat in an essentially Christian point who gave the related, abused clean of short Muslims in the dormant of the Prophet Muhammad’s powers that be security. May Allah’s prepare and blessings obliging the Prophet. Made-to-order essay as...
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, her personal experiences with postpartum depression was used to create powerful fictional short story which has broad importance for women. When the narrator recognizes that there is more than one trapped, creeping woman, Gilman indicates that the...
There was a king named Tuan Rio Mangkubumi. He died in a battle with Palembang Kingdom. He was buried in Cakat Monasow Village in Pagar Dewa. Before he died, he talked to his son, Minak Pati Pejurit. “My dear son, you have to defeat Palembang...
Thomas King’s short story “Totem” is a symbolic attack on Canadian colonization and the struggles faced by the Aboriginal people. He has used symbols to narrate the story,” Totem poles” as a symbol to describe the Aboriginal community of Southern Alberta, “Museum” as land, “Director...
Honoreer Fanonne Jeffers’s 2000 story “Sister Lilith” it is a story about female character who was created from the mud together with her husband Adam, then they were blessed with little son known as Cain. According to the text Lilith describes their “Skin darker than...
Introduction Centuries dissever two of the most entangled records to human society. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” might seem dissimilar in theme and moral alignment. However, a detailed analysis of the stories...
The theme of childhood is typically presented as one of happiness and youthful freedom. James Joyce takes a different approach, however, as he exposes the vulnerability that naturally comes with childhood but is often not expressed in literature. He does this through his use of...
Within “Dharma” by Vikram Chandra and “The Twenty-Seventh Man” by Nathan Englander, the concept of the journey forms the central structure around which the rest of the narrative is built. While the two stories are contextually very different—“Dharma” takes place in mid-1900s India, and “The...
Near the end of Thomas Pynchon’s 1965 novel The Crying of Lot 49, the protagonist Oedipa finds herself at a crossroads after trying to unravel the mystery of W.A.S.T.E., a conspiratorial underground postal system, without finding many tangible results. “It was now like walking among...
Edgar Allan Poe is known for his thrilling tales of madmen, cunning murderers, and intense, claustrophobic situations. “The Cask of Amontillado” is one such tale. From the very beginning of the story, the narrator’s unreliable nature shines through his over exaggerated descriptions of how honorable...
The desire to escape, to break free from confinement or control, emerges in William Dean Howells’ short story “Scene,” where the actual tragedy of a suicide victim appears secondary to the importance of the diversion it creates for the characters involved: the Contributor and the...
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, is considered one of the first detective stories. Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences + experts online Get my essay...
Thomas King’s “Borders”, written in 1993, is a short fiction story showing an indirect characterization about Mother. The story allows the reader to understand the difficulties Mother encounters, of not disclosing the citizenship of the country she belongs to. However, taking the pride, of showcasing...
The light shining through the chapel’s stained-glass windows illuminated their goldenhighlights perfectly. Our breaths escaped our bodies as we watched them pick up the bottle ofwhiskey as they put it up to their mouths to taste. We watched in a sort of twisted excitement,almost wishing...
This essay looks at how the interlinked concepts of time, memory and history feature in the short story “Let’s Go to Golgotha!”. The definition of the three concepts and the direct interlink is stated using refences from the novel itself. At the end its shown...
William Faulkner’s story “Barn Burning” presents us with this story showing ideas that follow the same pattern as those in Marxism. The idea Karl Marx presented is that what social class you are born into is the one in which you are influenced to become...
