Final Paper

Why is Short Story Interesting?

I have read several short stories this semester. My professor told me they are called short story. However, when I want to find a definition of the short story, the idea in Wikipedia is “a short work of literature, usually written in narrative prose”. Actually, I don’t think the answer is been specific enough to be a definition. As I has read several stories, I realized some features of a short story, which is the single plot will not be changed, always ended in a new beginning or somethings makes people to imagine and the purpose is that the story will make people deeply think about something.

The plot will not always change. For example, I brought a little city is a story happens after the narrator buy a little city. The whole story is happened in the little city. A very old man with enormous wings also happens in a single plot: the town. The Lament is happening in the city that cabdriver Iona lives.

The ending usually be something can make people imagine. The ending of The elephant vanishes is that the elephant disappears and the feeder is also disappear. It can make us think about what will happen later. Will the elephant be caught again? Will the feeder always be with the elephant? Also in A very old man with enormous wings the old angel flew away. Where will he fly to? Heaven, or another similar small town. Different people has different ideas. In I brought a small city, the narrator moved to another city and realized that he cannot be god. Then, what will happen? Will he live like a normal people, or still do something interesting?

Every single short story is representing one thesis. In The elephant vanishes, elephant represents something pure in people’s mind. However it will finally disappear. At first people are looking for it. They wonder why the elephant disappear, but later people don’t remember the elephant they even think they never have it. An old man with enormous wings means a lot to people who is religious. People belief in it but they didn’t respect it. Or I would rather say they is just religious but not devoted. In The lament, the cabdriver has no body to tell about his son is died and why, which represents the indifferent of people in the city nowadays. It may call for the conscience in people’s mind.

The short story has several features and I list three of them and give some examples. The simple plot of the story happens, the imagining ending and the deeply make us thinking’s thesis of every short story. Those features make an interesting short story.