In this very short story‚ Alice Walker tells of a young‚ African American girl who‚ while gathering flowers‚ stumbles quite literally upon the body of a dead man. The atmosphere‚ language and subject matter of the story suggest the southern United States as a setting-sometime in the mid- to late-20th century seems an appropriate time period‚ though this is far less clear. The contrast between the story’s beginning and end is striking. We begin with a light-hearted description of the life of Myop
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“Cathedral” by Raymond Carver This minimalistic story is written by the famous author‚ Raymond Carver. Carver was born in 1938 in the small town of Clatskanie‚ Oregon‚ to an alcoholic father who worked at a sawmill and his mother who worked as a waitress. After graduating from high school‚ Carver and his family moved to California‚ where he did not continue his education until 1958‚ where he started taking writing classes with the writer John Gardner‚ who introduced him to the fascinating world
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HOW TO TELL A STORY (A) From an instant to eternity‚ from the intracranial to the intergalactic‚ the life story of each and every character offers encyclopedic possibilities. The mark of a master is to select only a few moments but give us a lifetime. —Robert McKee1 Stories are all around us. Stories move us‚ make us feel alive‚ inspire us to be more than we would be otherwise. As famed screenwriting coach and author of the screenwriting bible‚ Story‚ McKee says: “Story is not only our
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IT’S THE BUTCHER! An old woman was lonely. She decided to get a pet. She didn’t have much money so she went to a second hand pet shop. She saw many animals: a three legged cat‚ a dog without a tail‚ fish that could only swim backwards and a beautiful bird that could only say one thing‚ “Who is it?”. She decided to buy the bird. She bought a cage for her bird and went home. She put the bird by the door and went downtown to do some shopping. While she was gone‚ a man knocked on the door
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The Compare and Contrast of Two Short Stories: “A Rose for Emily” and “The Cask of Amontillado‚” The two short stories‚ “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe are similar in that they deal with death in a macabre fashion. Both protagonists exhibit narcissistic personalities perpetrating murders to satisfy selfish justifications. The characters Fortunato and Homer Barron were murdered in gruesome manors; Fortunato was encased in a brick wall and
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This extract is from the opening of the short story Araby‚ which is part of a collection of short stories written by James Joyce‚ known as "Dubliners". Irish experiences had a huge impact on James Joyces writing. The settings and the subjects of his stories are all based in Ireland. This short collection establishes a vision of life in Dublin which serves to show the condition of the Irish nation as a whole. In this story indeed Joyce portrays an image of Dublin and its people through themes which
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In Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where is Here” is a piece of Gothic Literature which shows the similarities between the two genres “Gothic Literature” and “Magical Realism”. Both Gothic Literature and Magical Realism both have normal settings with either a supernatural as well as a mystery. An example of this in the short story “Where is Here”‚ “For years they had lived without incident in their house in a quiet residential neighborhood when‚ on one November evening at dusk‚ the doorbell rang
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Two stories that are abundant with feminist views and stereotypes are Cisneros’ Barbie-Q and My Tocaya. In both stories‚ we see characters struggle with what it means to be a woman. Cisneros explores the standards women are held up to‚ and the standards they make for themselves. Cisneros does a wonderful job of bringing out the worries‚ fears‚ and Otherness that women frequently grapple with in their daily lives. She writes her tales‚ all the while reflecting and dismantling stereotypes of women
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and the Short Story The Tell- Tale Heart Convey Gothic themes The Gothic genre is a style of film and literature that expresses themes of madness‚ death‚ darkness‚ romance and obsession. Although Rebecca and The Tell- Tale Heart are fitted to the Gothic genre‚ the composers have conveyed similar themes in different ways. Obsession in Rebecca is that of Mrs Danvers‚ who is obsessed to the point it drives her mad. She would do anything to bring Rebecca back. Whereas in Poe’s short story the narrator
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Maria Bustos Instructor: Ms. Cowart English 102 February‚ 4‚ 2015 Short Story Essay #1 “Where are you going‚ Where have you been” The short story about Connie deals with the experience of a young girl that is haunted by her good looks and cryptic behaviors. Inspired by a Life article of a serial killer‚ Oates created the story to: “It was not the number of murders that intrigued me‚ but the disturbing fact that a number of teenagers –from “good” families—aided and abetted his crimes” (Oates
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