Closure and Endings found in Short Stories Every story must start somewhere, but not every story has to have a complete ending, or even a clear one. With the development of the short story, the variation between short story endings has gradually increased as time has gone on, like the difference between a final ending in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” or John Cheever’s “The Swimmer.” However, the endings of some short stories also depend on the style of how the story is written, like Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds,” which is a part of a larger novel, and Kate Chopin’s “The Blind Man,” which is a new branch of short fiction writing called microfiction. The ending also comes about based on the subject matter found in the story. For example, Tan is a second-generation Chinese-American like her character, June, in “Two Kinds.” Cheever lived through the Great Depression, and his family went through a similar fall from grace like his character Neddy did in “The Swimmer.” They say to write what you know, and these authors come to their endings through their own experiences and the type of style that they write in. Flannery O’Connor was a writer on rented time. Confined to her house throughout the final days of her illness, critics theorize that she spent a good amount of time thinking about how her life was coming to a close. Andre Bleikasten, author of “Beginnings and Endings in Flannery O’Connor,” believes that the reason why many of her stories end with such a finality
Short stories range from fantasy to realistic plots. They give a full range of emotions and feelings that tell a story. Some short stories have a sorrowful mood, but are filled with hope and persistent characters. The short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, has a sorrowful storyline, but throughout gives you hope. In the short story , “The Scarlet Ibis”, the brother is illustrated as selfish, devoted, and hopeful of his brother Doodle, through the use of figurative language, and diction.
Flannery O’Connor was an American author who often wrote about characters who face violent situations. These situations force the characters into a moment of crisis that awakens or alters their fate. Her short stories reflect her Roman Catholic faith and frequently discuss questions of morality and ethics. O’Connor’s Catholic upbringing influenced most of her short stories, often accumulating criticism because of her harsh portrayal of religion. O’Connor incorporates the experience of a moment of grace in her short stories to contribute to the meaning of her works and to represent her faith.
The short story "Greenleaf" shows us some of the central themes of Flannery O'Connor's literary work.
Flannery O’Connor was a southern belle born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925. She was a Catholic girl living in the Bible belt of the country. She lived in “two different worlds” (Meyer, 421); the fictional world that she created for her stories and her personal life. In her stories, she used exciting characters so that she could live through them and live an “interesting” life. She uses her stories to portray totally unanticipated, but totally plausible things. “O’Connor’s stories present complex experiences that cannot be tidily summarized; it takes the entire story to suggest the meanings” (Meyer, 426). She uses her characters to show irony, private experiences, fears, and diverse parallels into her story “Good Country People”.
The central theme of Flannery O’Connor’s three short stories is irony. Her stories are parables, that is, short stories with a lesson to be learned.
Flannery O’Connor was fond of saying, “When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville.” O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, but spent the bulk of her life in Milledgeville, and it is her Southern heritage that influenced her and made her writing extremely distinctive in the history that is American literature. As a Roman Catholic in the Protestant-majority South, she was often confronted with the differences between the surroundings and herself, a theme that often comes up in her writing. O’Connor was diagnosed with Lupus, an inherited disease that also killed her father, so she was constantly aware of her own impending death. It is because of this that so many of her fiction short stories have to do with death and the grace that
In his collection of short shorties, O’Brien writes in a style that is very vivid and often times causes the audience to find themselves accepting the events and details of these stories as the truth. O’Brien contrasts the truth to fiction by reminding the audience that within these short stories, the details are not the truth and are there to demonstrate the human emotions that can not be communicated as absolute facts.
Flannery O'Connor was noted for her strangely touching stories about the life in the South. O’Connor’s writing was influenced by her southern culture, family and time period. In her work demented comedy and grotesque violence often mask a deeper seriousness of purpose and an abiding religious faith. O'Connor's writing's made people open their eyes to our way of life and beliefs. They may not have changed their ways but at least they thought about it. The world is more open and objective because of O'Connor's moving stories.
In 1950, Flannery O’Connor was diagnosed with lupus. This was an incurable disease, which could only be treated by the use of steroid drugs. She survived the first serious outbreak of the disease, but she had to move out of the apartment and return to Milledgeville. This is where she remained for the rest of her life. She spent much of her days writing, and she even took trips to talk about and read her finished pieces. She wrote many letters to the Fitzgerald’s, Robert Lowell, Caroline Gordon, and many others. She also wrote a great
Flannery O'Connor was a girl who suffer from poor health. She was an American author whose novels and stories were filled with characters who physically emotional disturbed.
Upon initially reading Flannery O’Connor’s work, one would have no problem recognizing her use of shocking, violent, or despairing themes. It may not be as easy, however, to completely accept or understand her style. According to Patrick Galloway, one must be “initiated to her trademarks when reading any of her two novels or thirty-two short stories (1).In many of her works, she paradoxically uses styles that are grotesque and brutal to illustrate themes of grace and self-actualization. As O’Connor herself says, “I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to
Recent trends in literature heavily rely on crossover between genres. Science fiction is becoming more integrated with young adult novels, and even murder mysteries are starting to incorporate romance. This crossover insures authors that they will be able to reach a broader audience, with the hopes that more people will read their books. Short stories have blended countless genres together for a long time, so it’s not surprising to see a short mystery, or a short romance. Poet James Joyce has recently become just as recognized for his prose, especially when that prose is in the form of a short story. His collection, Dubliners, includes a handful of well-recognized stories that have similar themes run throughout. One of the most famous, Araby, quickly melds between a mystery and a love story, famously ending on a cliffhanger that leads readers to interpret the finale for themselves. Throughout the brief entirety of Araby, James Joyce continues to create an aura of mystery and confusion, even going as far as to end the novel in a cliffhanger. This ambiguity allows for the reader to input their own experiences and ideas into the characters, which leads to the extensive feeling of relatability that most readers have with the little boy.
Flannery O’connor is one of the most shinning stars in American literature. Her distinct writing style makes her work recognizable and outstanding from other literature works. Many critics have commented on Flannery O’connor’s narrative voice. Louise Blackwell discovers Miss O’Connor often wrote according to southern tradition by using symbols in people’s daily life to convey the theme in a more profound way. From the perspective of the O’connor’s writing technique, Shirley Foster speaks highly of Miss O’connor’s works: O’connor’s skilled technique establishes the complicity between the readers and narrators. These two evaluations reveal the most important characteristics of Flannery O’connor’s works, directing readers to understand O’connor’s works much easier. Readers can understand the two critics’ comments by exploring the special narrative voices in Flannery O’connor’s well- known stories: “ Everything That Rises Must Converge” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”.
When contemplating whether a work of literature is worth reading, most readers look at the back cover of the book to read a short summary. Some critics look for tone and interesting plot twists, but the common reader looks for a purpose or lesson. Sure, powerful words and phrases contribute, but without the anticipation that one will gain knowledge from the story, it will be put right back on the bookshelf. Long novels with a back cover have hundreds of pages to reveal themes. However, short stories do not have nearly as much time to display a theme. In Guy de Maupassant’s The Jewelry, the main character, Lantin sees and experiences change through his life after his wife passes away. In Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to find, the grandmother’s actions cost an entire family’s life. Both stories contains a similar theme but in different ways. Despite their short time frames, Maupassant and O’Connor both reveal a similar didactic medium- nobody is perfect.
In literature, authors find different ways of expressing themselves by the stories they write. It is the setting, the characters, and the conflicts that keep the reader’s interest. Many readers are only interested in certain types of literature or certain authors. This study is based on an analysis of one poem, and two short stories, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, “A Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, and “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet. Both the short stories and poem show some similarities and differences in their settings, characters, and conflicts. I will examine how the authors have made an impression on me as a reader and how I feel