Daniels went to lunch with his best friend, Jonathan Walker, to celebrate the completion of his first solo job. Walker noticed Daniels seemed very distant. He asked what the matter was. Daniels stroked his chin, ran his hand through his bushy, black hair, took another drink of scotch, and looked straight into the eyes of his friend of 20 years. “Jon, I think I made a mistake with the budget.”…
Finally in Chapter 8, the reader is given insight into the types of letters Krakauer received, after having previously written an article about McCandless, with most of the incoming mail giving harsh criticism on the young traveler's story for being mentally ill, and unprepared. Yet McCandless isn’t the only one to go off on to a far fetched adventure out into the Alaskan wilderness, as one school teacher put it, with Krakauer offering three other examples of others with stories like McCandless. These other stories of Rosellini, Waterman, and McCunn, also prove Christopher McCandless’s uniqueness despite there being similarities between him and of the many others who shared the same philosophy as McCandless. Different in a sense that McCandless,…
Tobias Wolff’s “Hunters in the Snow” centers on the actions and personalities of Kenny, Frank and Tub as they embark on a hunting trip during the winter. Each character faces problems (in character or otherwise) which they attempt to cover up through deception – the central theme in this short story – in order to accept their respective actions. The consequences of these cover ups profoundly change the power of each character over another. Furthermore, the characters don’t realize how their lies influence others around them.…
In the “red convertible”, by Louis Edrich, tells the story of two Native American boys, henry and Lyman. Lyman the youngest brother is a hardworking, optimistic, and a loving brother. He has a natural talent for making money and because his eye for business he was able to buy and become owner of his own Café by the time he was sixteen. He worked hard constantly pushing himself and striving to achieve new goals and finally he could own his own place, but within a year the worst storm the reservation had seen in years had destroyed the building. But even with such a loss, Lyman was smart and was able to make a nice profit from the insurance money.…
The short story by Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is a story of many different feelings. The story causes the reader to visualize the preciousness of life itself and takes the reader on a roller coaster of different feelings on as to what is going on and in doing so, Bierce’s style tells the story through visual aids and highly descriptive language. The story begins on a railroad bridge, where many northern troops stand with Peyton Farquhar standing on the edge of the bridge on a plank of wood in his last moments of life.…
“He stirred as I came through the curtain. His weight was such that the bunk was bowed in the middle almost to the floor. It looked like he was in a hammock. He was fully clothed under the covers. The brindle cat Sterling Price was curled up on the foot of the bed. Rooster coughed and spit on the floor and rolled a cigarette and lit it and coughed some more. He asked me to bring him some coffee and I got a cup and took the eureka pot from the stove and did this. As he drank, little brown drops of coffee clung to his mustache like dew. Men will live like billy goats if they are let alone,” (Portis 89).…
2. Distinguish between novel and short story by referring to more than one feature of either…
In the beginning of the story, he was arrogant and didn’t care about what the weather was like, even when the old timer told him that when it’s fifty below, travel with a partner. “The mysterious, far-reaching hairline trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all -- made no impression on the man”(1). During the middle of the story, he found himself getting frustrated. “He had never experienced such cold, walking he rubbed his cheek-bones and nose, and the following instant the end of his nose went numb”(3). Soon he started to realize that he should’ve listened to the old timer. Towards the end, when he finally grasped that he was going to freeze to death, he was first fearful of dying, but then panic started to set in. Which made him run around in a frenzy to keep his warmth. But after a while, he comprehended that, that wasn’t going to help, so he calmed himself. “He was bound to freeze anyway, and he might as well take it decently. With his new found peace if mind came the first of drowsiness. A good idea, he thought, to sleep off to…
The “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and the “The Raven” are both captivating pieces of literature because they capture the imagination and illuminate the mind, while creating darkness. Meanwhile decades later, both stories continue to captivate readers all over the world earning the reputation of being two of the best American folklore stories. Although Washington Irving and Edgar Allen Poe in their respective works “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Raven” use protagonists to describe events of the story, Irving’s text is the better of the two because his protagonist, as the underdog, is able to overcome physical and emotional abuse while becoming a legend.…
Unlike novels, short stories require an author to tell an interesting story with fleshed out characters. To create such a piece, the author must have a methodical approach to the words they choose. So how can the author's choice of words shapen the devolvement of the story? Richard Ford's story, "Under the Radar," and T.C Boyle's, "Greasy Lake," are great examples of how astute word choice provide depth in establishing the setting, developing characters, and as a catalyst for how the events will unfold.…
Despite plenty of pleasant descriptions—White’s father comically rolling over in a canoe, the reverence for the silent lake in the early morning, the young waitresses, the walk to the farmhouse for dinner, the pleasures of boating and fishing, the taste of soda, the laughter of other campers clowning around in the rain—little hints of melancholy and uncertainty emerge as the essay develops, and lead toward the chill of death at the end.…
Throughout “Plow Man” the narrator is struggling to ward away guilty feelings since his wife, Jenny, has passed. His remorse is conveyed in a humoristic manner, particularly when proceeding to take on the elements. The narrator amusingly views the winter setting as a villainous system, one that he feels is overpowering and out of his control. To relieve his guilt, the narrator plays a victim to the winter storm, instead of taking control and shovelling his driveway. The reader is able to view the comedic flair of the narrator, as he challenges the storm, by stating, “It aims for your chest. It picks a fight. If I’m inside, it unleashes its fury on the driveway…Come out here… No. Fuck you” (95). The reader’s overview of the situation, knowing a blizzard does not consciously take out frustrations on people, creates the entertaining conflict. However, by forfeiting control of the situation, the narrator is able to reduce the guilt that he feels for not shovelling.…
“If it is any use to know it, I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows.” Ernest Hemingway is known for using this unique style of writing, in which he presents the story in a way that something as simple as the scenery conceals a deeper meaning. Hemingway’s famous short stories “A Canary for One” and “Hills Like White Elephants” are two perfect examples that display Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory at it’s best.…
Ozersky, Josh. "Critical Essay on 'Rip Van Winkle'." Short Stories for Students. Ed. David M. Galens. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.…
Ward, Alfred C. "Edgar Allan Poe: 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination '." Aspects of the Modern Short Story: English and American. University of London Press, 1924. 32-44. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson and Marie Lazzari. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.…