The puzzle game is a short story written by Patricia D. Maida and Nicholas B Spornick. This short story explains the reasoning behind almost all detective stories. The puzzle game demonstrates how all detective stories follow a “puzzle tradition” that produce the reader with intrigue and intellectual stimulation. The puzzle games found in detective stories operate on multiple levels with varying complexities derived by an ingenious author. These games follow many variations and rules, but will never allow you to fully comprehend who the victim, the murder, and sometimes even who the sleuth is in the story. Two fascinating detective stories that follow the format of the puzzle game are “Silver Blaze” by Conan Doyle, and “The mysterious Affair” bye Christies.…
In both stories of “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by O’Connor, similarities and contrasts exist in their literacy forms. The characters in both stories are also comparable, although diverse at certain points. Several of the similarities ranges from foreshadowing, character simulation, and even the setting is similar since it envies' and harbor criminal incidences (O’Connor, 121). Characters have similar qualities that originate them advance their heinous acts. It’s evident when the two stories culminates with the unwarranted deaths of innocent individuals i.e. grandmother in cold blood and the Clutters by O’Connor’s story.…
“The Monkey’s Paw” written by W.W. Jacobs was not the best written short story using literary terms including characterization in many ways. For characters, it gives the reader hardly any details about the characters. This makes it difficult for the reader to make a good connection to the story. The reader only knows some of the relationships between the character’s, but barely any personality traits. “The Gift of the Magi” written by O. Henry was not the best written short story using literary terms such as conflict either. The conflict that was identified in this story was not very important. There were many other ways to solve their problem, and also avoid the situational irony that occurred at the end of the story. “Man from the South” written by Roald Dahl was not the best written short story using literary terms such as a strong situational irony as well. For situational irony, it wasn’t shocking that the old man was up to something suspicious. From the beginning of the story, you could tell that the old man was trying to mess with the young boy and trying to fool him and make him do something that he might regret later. It was no surprise to the reader that he was going to do something unexpected and that he would turn out to be hiding…
Many authors have a different approach to creating suspense in their writing. In this essay I will be using examples to show this using 2 different short stories from 2 different authors.…
Recently I’ve read two very good short stories: Always a Motive (by Dan Ross) and Gentlemen, Your Verdict (by Michael Bruce). Always a Motive is about a young man, named Joe Manetti, who is accused of kidnapping. Gentlemen, Your Verdict is about five men who are questioned about the murder of sixteen crewmembers. While both Always a Motive and Gentlemen, Your Verdict are written in third person and pull at the readers emotions, Always a Motives theme is how people tend to see things only from one perspective and things can change in an instant while Gentlemen, Your Verdicts theme focuses on the justification of murder in certain circumstances.…
You are sitting in your living room at home watching the nightly news. The lead story for the night is about a family of four that were murdered. After seeing and hearing about something like that we often ask ourselves, What could possess a person enough to kill another human being? What is it that drives a person to kill? Will we ever know? Many authors use this unique mentality in short stories. They write about what the killer thinks and how he/she acts on his/her thoughts. One of these stories is "A Good Man Is Hard To Find", by Flannery O'Connor. In this story O'Connor's victim, The Misfit, is an escaped convict. He was in the Federal Penitentiary for killing his father. Throughout the story O'Connor builds up this killers mentality through his words and body language. Like many other murderers, The Misfit could not distinguish the difference between fantasy and reality.…
“To me the interesting main character is never the one without flaws,” claims J.J. Abrams, as he explains that perfect characters do not appeal to readers. Readers like to connect to the characters in a story. No one is perfect, which makes connecting to a faultless character difficult. Every character is unique because of the flaws and characteristics that define them. Short stories must quickly develop characters, so the audience can create a connection early. Protagonists contain a narrow mind in a lot of short stories. Closed-minded characters do not consider the other side of a story or argument. Protagonists in the short stories “The Sniper,” “The Scarlet Ibis,” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” are narrow-minded and biased toward…
In the stories, the group-roles of the characters cause them to have different perspectives on killing. In the case of the barber, he is part of a revolutionary group for which he is a spy, but not a murderer: "I'm a revolutionary and not a murderer." (Tellez, 16) Jack on the other hand is part of a group of boys who are stranded on a remote island. His job is to hunt from the beginning of the book: "Jack's in charge of the choir. They can be--what do you want them to be? Hunters." (Golding, 19) As their roles in their groups varied, so did…
Over the years short stories have become popular for readers to be able to read and connect with the story that isn’t drawn out. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” (Oates, 1966) and “Hills Like White Elephants, (Hemingway, 1927)”. Both of these short stories tell about decisions that have to be made through different conflicts and really just making decisions for what is best for oneself.…
Short stories require different styles and features, than regular novels. Single characters, shortened plots, and a conflict with resolution, are some of the key features that make a successful short story. With having a single character, it lets the writer develop their background, which gives the reader much needed description to create an understanding, or relationship with the character. The shortened plot, with a build up to the conflict and resolution, grips the reader, and makes them feel the suspense of the author’s story.…
In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor. Both of these characters in the short stories share similar characteristics - Montresor and The Misfit. Montresor and The Misfit are considered ruthless and cold blooded murderers. They also think killing is necessary. Even though Montresor and The Misfit live in different era and lifestyle, the authors use vivid characters and compelling storyline to exhibit their motivation and the behavior of pride on how they get away with murder as well as having bizarre moral rectitude that allows them to kill people without remorse.…
Even short stories contain evil people. Edgar Allan Poe, the writer of the short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” creates Montresor : a man with intentions of evil revenge. Likewise, the author of “The Most Dangerous Game”, Richard Connell writes of an evil and bloodthirsty man. Poe’s antagonist Montresor is a wine expert who has been insulted one too many times and has sworn his vengeance. Zaroff, Connell’s antagonist, is a big game hunter who got too bored with animal hunts. Rather than giving up hunting due to his boredom, Zaroff hunts and traps sailors instead. Montresor and Zaroff are deceptive and inhumane, and while both hunt, their motives for hunting differ.…
In the short stories: The Black Cat written by Edgar Allan Poe, Prey written by Richard Matheson , and The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving, the gothic elements violence and entrapment are used through the author's tone and attention to detail. Each of the gothic elements listed above are used in each piece of literature.…
The first that I remember is when Richard’s father was sleeping and there was a kitten on their back patio meowing. His father came outside and told the boys to get rid of the kitten. When they tried and the kitten wouldn’t bug, the boy’s father told him to kill it. Because of Richard’s harsh resentment towards his father, he purposely took his fathers orders literally by hanging the kitten from a tree and killing it. For a boy of Richard’s current age during the time of the murder to be committing an act of cruelty towards something as harmless as a kitten is repulsive. There is an underlying psycho-disorder brewing in Richard just directly from this event but also from all of the beatings he received.…
The short story genre is characterized with a short length, few people and a short story line. Short stories often begins in media res. Short stories are fiction and has a composition. This novel is a crime story because it contains a murder. This short story is not a typical kind of crime story because the reader doesn’t know there’s the murder until the end.…