Unit 5: Short Fiction
Short fiction is a literary genre that can tell a story in a very short amount of space.
These are sometimes called Flash Stories or Short Stories.
Short Fiction usually has a single plot and theme, and it often has limited characters,settings, and time frames.
These are sometimes called Flash Stories or Short Stories.
Short Fiction usually has a single plot and theme, and it often has limited characters,settings, and time frames.
"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant was a master at writing short fiction, especially short stories with his signature "whiplash" ending. He lived in France and most of his writing is set during the same time period of his life. He spent 10 years as the apprentice to the famous novelist Gustave Flaubert, learning the craft of writing. His stories often focused on the conflicts of average people. His writing is also characterized by a detached tone, pessimism, and his use of irony. He is known for his cunning style of writing that employs what he calls a "whiplash" ending. These endings are often ironically surprising and have cruel endings.
What types of Irony can you find?
Situational Irony.
- Matilda's Wealth: From Matilda's initial dissatisfaction with her lifestyle, it would seem that she is quite poor at the beginning of the story; but from the poverty that she and her husband experience after she looses the necklace, it is obvious that they were actually well off despite how it seemed to Matilda.
- Matilda's Reaction to the Invitation: All of the characterization up to this point sets up the audience for this ironic reaction. After all of Matilda's fantasizing about living a luxurious lifestyle, the reader and her husband both expect her to be ecstatic about the news of the invitation; but Matilda is not ecstatic. To the surprise of her husband, she throws the invitation on the floor and complains that she has nothing to where to such a thing.
- Madame Forestier's Wealth: This is Matilda's friend who she had went to school with. This is also the friend that Matilda would visit, and then mope for days afterward in envious jealousy. Both she and her husband believe Madame Forestier to be rich: rich enough to own such an expensive necklace. But Madame Forestier is not as rich as they both expected. The Necklace was a fake, and not even she in her perceived opulence could afford such a necklace.
- The Ball: The ball was supposed to be the doorway to a grander lifestyle; but is was in fact a doorway into a life of poverty. Matilda was a smashing success. She met all sorts of grand, rich people and was beautifully refined.
What types of Irony can you find?
Situational Irony.
- Matilda's Wealth: From Matilda's initial dissatisfaction with her lifestyle, it would seem that she is quite poor at the beginning of the story; but from the poverty that she and her husband experience after she looses the necklace, it is obvious that they were actually well off despite how it seemed to Matilda.
- Matilda's Reaction to the Invitation: All of the characterization up to this point sets up the audience for this ironic reaction. After all of Matilda's fantasizing about living a luxurious lifestyle, the reader and her husband both expect her to be ecstatic about the news of the invitation; but Matilda is not ecstatic. To the surprise of her husband, she throws the invitation on the floor and complains that she has nothing to where to such a thing.
- Madame Forestier's Wealth: This is Matilda's friend who she had went to school with. This is also the friend that Matilda would visit, and then mope for days afterward in envious jealousy. Both she and her husband believe Madame Forestier to be rich: rich enough to own such an expensive necklace. But Madame Forestier is not as rich as they both expected. The Necklace was a fake, and not even she in her perceived opulence could afford such a necklace.
- The Ball: The ball was supposed to be the doorway to a grander lifestyle; but is was in fact a doorway into a life of poverty. Matilda was a smashing success. She met all sorts of grand, rich people and was beautifully refined.
"The Interlopers" by Saki
"The Interlopers" is written by a Scottish writer named Hector Hugh Monroe. He was born in Burma because his father was stationed there while serving as a Colonel in the Bengal Staff Corps. His mother died when he was two, and he was sent to England to be raised by relatives. He returned to Burma as an adult, but his poor health made him move back to England. He made a career as a journalist and short story writer. He took on the pen name "Saki" while writing political sketches. He joined the army at the beginning of WWI. He went to France and was killed within a year.
Situational Irony in "The Interlopers:"
- The generational feud is unexpectedly ended. The families have long hated each other and feuded over this narrow strip of woods. Both men were patrolling it, and both seemed ready to kill the other; but instead of killing each other, they decide to end the feud and become friends.
- They are not being rescued, they are being attacked: They hear something coming, and all of their previous dialogue and thoughts lead the reader to believe that it is on of their groups of men. But it's not men, it's wolves.
- They have decided to live in peace together, but they are only going to die together: The men discuss how their new found friendship and how it will change the course of their lives. They discuss the shock of the town's people. They even discuss celebrating the holidays together. The reader accepts this information and expects this outcome, making the discovery of the wolves a completely unexpected twist.
Situational Irony in "The Interlopers:"
- The generational feud is unexpectedly ended. The families have long hated each other and feuded over this narrow strip of woods. Both men were patrolling it, and both seemed ready to kill the other; but instead of killing each other, they decide to end the feud and become friends.
- They are not being rescued, they are being attacked: They hear something coming, and all of their previous dialogue and thoughts lead the reader to believe that it is on of their groups of men. But it's not men, it's wolves.
- They have decided to live in peace together, but they are only going to die together: The men discuss how their new found friendship and how it will change the course of their lives. They discuss the shock of the town's people. They even discuss celebrating the holidays together. The reader accepts this information and expects this outcome, making the discovery of the wolves a completely unexpected twist.
"The Sentimentality of William Tavener" by Willa Cather
How do people experience a connection to one another? Well, in "The Sentimentality of William Tavener," Cather's story is about a husband and wife reconnecting as people after years and years of their marriage resembling a business arrangement rather than a relationship. This reconnection is brought about by their reminiscing about going to the circus when they were children.
In the beginning of the story, very little conversation ever happens between Hester and her husband and they have grown apart. She is a very good speaker, and he is secretly proud of this, but still they do not exchange ideas when they talk. Either she mentions something in passing and he does it, or she prepares her argument ahead of time and guessing all the possible ways that he might respond. And with this pattern, she talks and he just listens. Their communication remains on a business-like level, and they never get any closer to one another. Instead of growing closer as they raise their boys, they end up on opposing teams. He tries to toughen them up, and she spoils them, and they both hope that their efforts will lead the boys to a place somewhere in the middle. They take opposing sides to the argument about the boys going to the circus; but as they argue, the pattern changes as they share their memories.
The Circus is an experience that they both had in common. It is also an experience of their youth, which was a time when they were closer to one another. The shift occurs when the husband shares that he had snuck off to the circus. Hester never knew that about him. As he shares his experience, she shares hers, and then allows him to share again. Talking about this shared experience reignited their connection to one another.
The circus them symbolizes the connection that they once had when they were young and in love, and it reveals to Hester that they could have shared that connection the entire time. She admits that she feels cheated, that she realizes that her entire marriage could have been light that night. But that realization isn't too bitter, because she also realizes that they still have a connection. At the end of their long conversation, the boys become a point of connection instead of opposition when he gives her the $10 dollars for the boys.
In the beginning of the story, very little conversation ever happens between Hester and her husband and they have grown apart. She is a very good speaker, and he is secretly proud of this, but still they do not exchange ideas when they talk. Either she mentions something in passing and he does it, or she prepares her argument ahead of time and guessing all the possible ways that he might respond. And with this pattern, she talks and he just listens. Their communication remains on a business-like level, and they never get any closer to one another. Instead of growing closer as they raise their boys, they end up on opposing teams. He tries to toughen them up, and she spoils them, and they both hope that their efforts will lead the boys to a place somewhere in the middle. They take opposing sides to the argument about the boys going to the circus; but as they argue, the pattern changes as they share their memories.
The Circus is an experience that they both had in common. It is also an experience of their youth, which was a time when they were closer to one another. The shift occurs when the husband shares that he had snuck off to the circus. Hester never knew that about him. As he shares his experience, she shares hers, and then allows him to share again. Talking about this shared experience reignited their connection to one another.
The circus them symbolizes the connection that they once had when they were young and in love, and it reveals to Hester that they could have shared that connection the entire time. She admits that she feels cheated, that she realizes that her entire marriage could have been light that night. But that realization isn't too bitter, because she also realizes that they still have a connection. At the end of their long conversation, the boys become a point of connection instead of opposition when he gives her the $10 dollars for the boys.
"The Rocking Horse Winner" by D. H. Lawrence
When reading this short story, it helps to look at the themes first. The themes are often demonstrated through the use of a symbol:
Major Themes:
- Neglect: Paul and his sisters are raised by a nanny, and the omniscient narrator states that the mother cannot completely love her children, and the children can some how sense this.
- Luck: Paul finds that luck is allusive, yet strives to obtain a concrete form of it.
- Obsession: Hester is obsessed with possessions, and Paul is obsessed with being lucky and picking winning horses.
- Greed: Hester's greed has left her unable to fully love her children, it has placed a strain on the family's finance's, and it creates a physiological imbalance in her son, Paul.
- Opportunism: Paul's father tries various get-rich-quick schemes, but they never work. Hester mentions that gambling problems run in the family. Paul works himself into a frenzy in the rocking horse, hits his head, and the last words he utters before slipping out of delirium and into death is the name of the winning horse.
- Quest: Paul is on a quest to win money, save his mother, and restore happiness to the home.
- Deceit: Hester lies to herself and Paul about luck being the reason for their financial needs, when it is really her over spending. Paul then doesn't want his mother to know about his luck at the track or his manic riding of the rocking horse.
Major Symbols:
- The Rocking Horse: Luck as the ineffectual Key to solving all of Paul's problems. Paul receives the rocking horse for Christmas, and rides it in the nursery in order to ease the pain of neglect. He learns about luck, and the rocking horse becomes his loyal steed in his quest to become lucky. Somehow, riding the rocking horse gives him the ability to predict the winners. His obsession with the opportunism of winning money seems to be an obsession with fixing the neglect in the home. If he can only win enough money, his mother could stop idolizing possessions and start loving him. But as the story shows, luck cannot bring happiness.
- The Whispering: The home environment that created and killed a psychologically unbalanced boy. Paul and the children constantly hear the whispering: "There must be more money!" Just as the children could sense that their mother's inability to love them, they could also sense that it was her love of luxury kept her neglecting them. Hester would drive the household into debt by living above their means. She grew dissatisfied with her husband because he couldn't make enough money to support her desired life style. Her dissatisfaction and over spending created a toxic home environment. This toxic environment drove her son into an obsession with Luck and money. Paul only wanted the love and attention of his mother, and he wanted to have a happy and content household; but his mother's greed destroyed the family.
Major Themes:
- Neglect: Paul and his sisters are raised by a nanny, and the omniscient narrator states that the mother cannot completely love her children, and the children can some how sense this.
- Luck: Paul finds that luck is allusive, yet strives to obtain a concrete form of it.
- Obsession: Hester is obsessed with possessions, and Paul is obsessed with being lucky and picking winning horses.
- Greed: Hester's greed has left her unable to fully love her children, it has placed a strain on the family's finance's, and it creates a physiological imbalance in her son, Paul.
- Opportunism: Paul's father tries various get-rich-quick schemes, but they never work. Hester mentions that gambling problems run in the family. Paul works himself into a frenzy in the rocking horse, hits his head, and the last words he utters before slipping out of delirium and into death is the name of the winning horse.
- Quest: Paul is on a quest to win money, save his mother, and restore happiness to the home.
- Deceit: Hester lies to herself and Paul about luck being the reason for their financial needs, when it is really her over spending. Paul then doesn't want his mother to know about his luck at the track or his manic riding of the rocking horse.
Major Symbols:
- The Rocking Horse: Luck as the ineffectual Key to solving all of Paul's problems. Paul receives the rocking horse for Christmas, and rides it in the nursery in order to ease the pain of neglect. He learns about luck, and the rocking horse becomes his loyal steed in his quest to become lucky. Somehow, riding the rocking horse gives him the ability to predict the winners. His obsession with the opportunism of winning money seems to be an obsession with fixing the neglect in the home. If he can only win enough money, his mother could stop idolizing possessions and start loving him. But as the story shows, luck cannot bring happiness.
- The Whispering: The home environment that created and killed a psychologically unbalanced boy. Paul and the children constantly hear the whispering: "There must be more money!" Just as the children could sense that their mother's inability to love them, they could also sense that it was her love of luxury kept her neglecting them. Hester would drive the household into debt by living above their means. She grew dissatisfied with her husband because he couldn't make enough money to support her desired life style. Her dissatisfaction and over spending created a toxic home environment. This toxic environment drove her son into an obsession with Luck and money. Paul only wanted the love and attention of his mother, and he wanted to have a happy and content household; but his mother's greed destroyed the family.
Stereotype
Definition: A stereotype is a character, setting, or plot with generalized traits (characteristics that make the character a group representative rather than an individual). These are sometime called flat or stock characters.
In real life we understand that no person is a stereotype and that stereotyping can be harmful and hurtful; but stereotypes do have an important use in the short story genre. A short story can only have a limited amount of round characters, it can only have one plot line, and it has to resolve the conflict in a short amount of space. Stereotypes utilize the reader's preconceptions and background knowledge about stereotypical characters, plot, and settings in order to save time and space.
In real life we understand that no person is a stereotype and that stereotyping can be harmful and hurtful; but stereotypes do have an important use in the short story genre. A short story can only have a limited amount of round characters, it can only have one plot line, and it has to resolve the conflict in a short amount of space. Stereotypes utilize the reader's preconceptions and background knowledge about stereotypical characters, plot, and settings in order to save time and space.
"Enemies" by Nadine Gordimer
Stereotypes and Foils:
Originally a foil was a shiny piece of thin metal that was placed between the jem stone and the setting in order to increase the stone's brilliance. In literature, and especially in the short story, a foil is a stereotypical and flat character who's purpose is to contrast with the main character. This contrast highlights the distinctive characteristics of the main character.
In "Enemies," the unnamed old, fat woman who dies on the train is a foil to Mrs. Hansen. The old woman embodies the stereotype of an old woman, and Mrs. Hansen has been fighting to not become a stereotypical old woman. The old woman highlights Mrs. Hansen's fears and hatred of becoming an old woman. The irony is that even though she tries to avoid being an old woman, she can't; and she realizes this when she guesses that her serving man, Alfred, will think that it was her that died on the train when he reads in the paper that an old woman traveling alone died on the train.
Originally a foil was a shiny piece of thin metal that was placed between the jem stone and the setting in order to increase the stone's brilliance. In literature, and especially in the short story, a foil is a stereotypical and flat character who's purpose is to contrast with the main character. This contrast highlights the distinctive characteristics of the main character.
In "Enemies," the unnamed old, fat woman who dies on the train is a foil to Mrs. Hansen. The old woman embodies the stereotype of an old woman, and Mrs. Hansen has been fighting to not become a stereotypical old woman. The old woman highlights Mrs. Hansen's fears and hatred of becoming an old woman. The irony is that even though she tries to avoid being an old woman, she can't; and she realizes this when she guesses that her serving man, Alfred, will think that it was her that died on the train when he reads in the paper that an old woman traveling alone died on the train.
"Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield
Miss Brill is a stereotypical old maid, but she has never seen herself that way. She goes to sit in the park, on the same bench, and people watch every Sunday. She gets dressed up in her old fox-fur scarf and is excited by the activity around her.
She sits and she stereotypes the people that she watches, never once realizing that she is a part of the scene that she is criticism.
She sits and she stereotypes the people that she watches, never once realizing that she is a part of the scene that she is criticism.
Mood
Mood is the literary device that a writer uses to create an atmosphere or feeling in a work. The author achieves the desired mood through their choice of imagery, setting, details, descriptions, and other evocative word choice.
For Example: A Funeral
A funeral is generally accepted as a sad occasion; but based on variations of the setting, details, and descriptions, the mood can be remarkably different.
Funeral A:
He rests now at the front of the cathedral, shaded by a wealth of flowery wreaths whose buds seem to dance in the candle light. The pews are appropriately filled with black hats and suits delicately dabbing their eyes. The organ drowns out any sounds of morning, yet even the organ can't stop the mourners from sensing the sobs coming from the family in the front row.
Funeral B:
There he lies, the same in death as in life, alone. His only daughter sits in the empty rows of folding metal chairs, and listens to the dirge playing out of a CD player in the back. She stares at the economy casket, angry that this is what she had spent her savings on, and guilty at her own thoughts. She hoped he was happy. This had been what he wanted. He had always told her mother that he just wanted some peace and quiet. Of course, anything but peace and quiet resulted yelling, and they anxiously kept the house as quiet as possible. She stands up and looks in the open casket. She doesn't say anything, she just nods to herself and decides to give him his only wish. She walks to the back and turns off the CD player. As she leaves she tells the manager to end it early. She walks out the door and mumbles to herself, "May he rest in peace. . . and quiet."
For Example: A Funeral
A funeral is generally accepted as a sad occasion; but based on variations of the setting, details, and descriptions, the mood can be remarkably different.
Funeral A:
He rests now at the front of the cathedral, shaded by a wealth of flowery wreaths whose buds seem to dance in the candle light. The pews are appropriately filled with black hats and suits delicately dabbing their eyes. The organ drowns out any sounds of morning, yet even the organ can't stop the mourners from sensing the sobs coming from the family in the front row.
Funeral B:
There he lies, the same in death as in life, alone. His only daughter sits in the empty rows of folding metal chairs, and listens to the dirge playing out of a CD player in the back. She stares at the economy casket, angry that this is what she had spent her savings on, and guilty at her own thoughts. She hoped he was happy. This had been what he wanted. He had always told her mother that he just wanted some peace and quiet. Of course, anything but peace and quiet resulted yelling, and they anxiously kept the house as quiet as possible. She stands up and looks in the open casket. She doesn't say anything, she just nods to herself and decides to give him his only wish. She walks to the back and turns off the CD player. As she leaves she tells the manager to end it early. She walks out the door and mumbles to herself, "May he rest in peace. . . and quiet."
"Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
The "Masque of the Red Death" has a somber and rather grotesque mood that is achieved through detailed descriptions and vivid imagery. The mood helps to define the theme of this short story: humanity's futile struggle with time and mortality.
This is a common theme in Poe's short stories, as characters struggle to avoid an inevitable death. Prince Prospero (catch the irony?) tries to avoid the plague or "red death" by gathering his favorite friends and entertainers and locking themselves away until the plague dies out. Inside the quarantined abbey, they riotously party, but the eminence of the red death out side, and the selfish recklessness of the prince cast an brooding, and somber mood over their debauchery. They party, in hopes of forgetting about time and avoiding death.
Description & Mood = Foreshadowing. The imagery, descriptions, and symbols foreshadow the inevitability of death.
The 7 Rooms: Notice the detailed description of the 7 rooms. Poe goes into great detail to describe each room, as well as the placement of the rooms. The Black room is the most westward room, representing the end of the day or the end of life. If the sunrise is the beginning of life, noon would be the highest point, and then sunset (in the west) would represent the end of life. The coloring of this room, especially the fire-lamplight the shines through the red windows, bathing everyone inside with blood-red light foreshadows the coming of the red death.
The Ebony Clock:
This is a common theme in Poe's short stories, as characters struggle to avoid an inevitable death. Prince Prospero (catch the irony?) tries to avoid the plague or "red death" by gathering his favorite friends and entertainers and locking themselves away until the plague dies out. Inside the quarantined abbey, they riotously party, but the eminence of the red death out side, and the selfish recklessness of the prince cast an brooding, and somber mood over their debauchery. They party, in hopes of forgetting about time and avoiding death.
Description & Mood = Foreshadowing. The imagery, descriptions, and symbols foreshadow the inevitability of death.
The 7 Rooms: Notice the detailed description of the 7 rooms. Poe goes into great detail to describe each room, as well as the placement of the rooms. The Black room is the most westward room, representing the end of the day or the end of life. If the sunrise is the beginning of life, noon would be the highest point, and then sunset (in the west) would represent the end of life. The coloring of this room, especially the fire-lamplight the shines through the red windows, bathing everyone inside with blood-red light foreshadows the coming of the red death.
The Ebony Clock: