A Good Short Story
What Elements Makes Up A Short Story? What is a short story? What are the criteria necessary for a short story? What makes a good short story? After lengthy debates between many groups we¡¦ve decided that it can not be decided by consensus, but by what we feel a short story must contain; different people may have different perspectives of this. This essay is devoted to portraying my group¡¦s conclusion to what a short story is. With reference to our critical criteria: plot, suspense, object and timeline; I will discuss whether the stories: Mr. Know All, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and By the Rivers of Babylon meets them. The plot is a series of events combined together to form a short story. The events are limited due to the length of a short story. A short story is also viewed as the ¡§storyline¡¨ of the story. Each event occurs according to its order in the storyline. The three stories that I chose to analyze all contain the element of plot. In the story Mr. Know All, Max Kelada, a voyager on the ship traveling from San Francisco annoys all the passengers by entering their conversations uninvitingly. He frequently takes over the discussion due to his vast knowledge. Max was credited to knowing almost ever
Throughout All the King's Men, history plays an important role in the motivations and lives of all the characters. History's importance is most noticeable, not surprisingly, in the story main characters - Willie Stark and Jack Burden - whose lives focus on and, in some cases, depend upon history and how they relate themselves to it. While Willie Stark views history as a tool with which to manipulate people for his own ends, an attitude resulting in his own destruction, Jack Burden's view of history changes over time and eventually allows him to accept his relationship to the past and, therefore, present. Since each man has such a differing view it is no wonder that history becomes important to each in different ways. Willie Stark must...
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