The American Short Story Cycle - Doc

INSTRUCTION TO LITERATURE
(ENGLISH COURSE)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
(1) Name of the Story: Why I live at P.O...................................................................................1
Name of the author: Eudora Welty.............................................................................................1
(2) Name of the Story: Everyday Use.........................................................................................1
Name of the author: Alice Walker..............................................................................................1
(3) Name of the Story: To build a fire.........................................................................................2
Name of the author: Jack London...............................................................................................2
(4) Name of the Story: Harrison Bergeron..................................................................................3
Name of the author: Kurt Vonnegnt Jr........................................................................................3
(5)Name of the Story:Cathedral .................................................................................................4
Name of the author: Raymond Carver........................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

(1) Name of the Story: Why I live at P.O
Name of the author: Eudora Welty
1. This story is based on one of the classic works of Eudora which encapsulated the essence
of negative human emotions. It was based on a picture of a woman who was ironing at
the back of a post office. This consists of the protagonist, Sister who ran the small P.O at
China Grove town in Mississippi (Why I live at the P.O., 2019). In this story, Stella-
Rondo stole Sister's boyfriend, Mr.Whitaker and married her but later came back to her
home with a child, Shirley-T. She started posing problems for her which led to bitterness
in their relations. After her return, she was on hidden agenda that brought defame to
Sister's reputation at their residence among Papa-Daddy, their grandfather; Uncle Rondo
and Mama as well. This agitated Sister who already had suspicions on her adoption story
of Shirley, as this child has striking resemblance to Papa-Daddy.
2. One of the striking features here is the easiness by which the writer explained the
situations.
3. It also shed light on Sister's sophistication and elegance throughout this challenging
situation. She was targeted by her own sister, yet she maintained her silence to avoid the
conflicts to manage the relationships.
4. Lastly, she shifted to live in P.O to avoid any further confrontations which infer that she
was internally hurt and disappointed; however, she dint want to exaggerate the crisis at
her home and in her life.
5. Personally, I feel that Sister's response was weak and cowardly and she should have taken
a stand for herself.
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(2) Name of the Story: Everyday Use
Name of the author: Alice Walker
1. This is one of the short stories that described about three women of American-African
origin, who had drastic personalities with body-types. It had highlighted the complexities
of cultural disparities along with educational backgrounds. The narrator, Mama lived
with her youngest daughter Maggie and was preparing to welcome her elder daughter,
Dee who went to complete her formal education. Here, the emphasis is on intertwined
relationships between the sisters and mother-daughter who are trying to find their
identities despite the hardships they faced (Sarnowski, 2012). The mother-daughter duo
were surprised when Dee brought a man home, named as Hakim-a-Barber who rather
looked different from their culture and had a great influence on Dee.
2. One of the striking points is the author's ability to bring an interpretive mannerism while
depicting things. In this regard, “yard” and “blanket” were used to describe the traditional
African cultural indifferences and has signified the relevancy of heritage and family's
values.
3. According to Mama, Dee was educated but lacked respect for her own family's values.
She changed her name and blindly started following man of Muslim descendent. On the
other hand, Maggie with reading incapacities and excessive shyness had more awareness
in treating her culture with integrity and respect.
4. Here, the mother found it amusing that both daughters are poles apart and have no
similarities in terms of spending their lives in a certain way. She herself gave the quilt to
Maggie because of her own sentiments and was agitated by Dee's behaviour towards
them; she was appalled that Dee judged them with biased attitude.
5. Personally, I felt that Dee was unreasonable and treated her mother and sister with
judgemental mind-set. Such behaviour is unacceptable in my opinion.

(3) Name of the Story: To build a fire
Name of the author: Jack London
1. This is a short story about the protagonist's struggle of life by focusing on the
significance of fire. It had been backdropped in the year 1908. There are various themes
attached with this short version of man versus nature. Hereby, it has highlighted the man-
dog relationship which was devoid of any emotions (London, 2018). The dog was
brutally treated by this man. Moreover, it also made evident the man's desperation to
complete the hiking in the subzero boreal forests in the territory of Yukon.
2. The striking element is the author's foreshadowing technique where he made the readers
ready about the protagonist's death since the beginning. For instance, his saliva got frozen
out due to low temperature putting him into great dangers. London's depictions were eye-
opening and gave a different perspective on death which was a peaceful escape from
human pain.
3. The unknown man who went ahead with this hiking despite warning signals from an old
man led him towards his graveyard. He was stubborn and arrogant with his madness in
going for such a travelling expedition. This also emphasized on perseverance of this man
but ultimately led to his death.
4. Internally, the man underwent huge pool of emotions with disliking traits. He never took
his dog's signals and showed that humans lacked basic instincts when compared to
animals. He lacked sense of judgement which resulted to his death.
5. Personally, I felt that human must be more compassionate and understanding towards
others and animals as well. We think that we know everything which is the real deceive
and led us to sometimes darker sides.
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(4) Name of the Story: Harrison Bergeron
Name of the author: Kurt Vonnegnt Jr.
1. This short story is a science fiction which was set up in the futuristic year of 2081. It was
about the changes made in the Constitution through application of 211,212 and 213
amendments. This mainly dealt with giving equality in terms of intelligence, looks,
competencies and individual's abilities. Hereby, Harrison Bergeron was captured and put
in prison for defying the above mentioned criteria. He was a genius and needed to be
under supervision (Gale, 2015). Additionally, this story unfolded the killing of this man
along-with Empress who tried to discard the “handicaps” and tried to take control of the
government- led handicapped policies. The author tried to bring a rationale in dealing
with the prevalent norms of the dystopian society.
2. The striking component is the critique in context to socio-political approaches that
stopped the civilians to live their lives as per their own capacities. This highlighted the
American Egalitarianism concepts by depicting the meaning of “All men are created
equal”.
3. The protagonist is the genius Harrison Bergeron and this story is based on his urge to
freed himself from the handicaps by taking her empress, a Ballat Dancer with him.
Alongside, it described the conflicting behavioural changes between Harrison's and his
parents who were considered as average, a synonym for dimwits.
4. The protagonist was killed with a deadly weapon and led to end of rebellious emotion
against the government.
5. Personally, I felt that the protagonist's rebellious behaviour was appropriate and the
forced amendments were clear exploitation of the constitutional value of the American
society.
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(5) Name of the Story: Cathedral
Name of the author: Raymond Carver
1. This short story is based on the blind man's way of living that transformed his friend's life
and perspectives of her husband. It was mainly about the needs and desires of support and
love to manage one's life. It was one of the progressive stories of that era which displayed
an extraordinary way of understanding things to cross over the undefined and unexplored
territories (Smith, 2018). The narrator, his wife and her blind friend has been included in
this and laid the foundation of mixed emotions like jealously, insecurity etc. that
overwhelmed each character in some connectivity.
2. The striking feature was that the author explained each emotion in the most humanly
manner that grabbed the readers with interest.
3. The protagonist is the married man who was insecure due to the arrival of his wife's blind
friend. His lack of understanding toward this disability with his sense of detachment from
his wife spread the message of his own insecurities in poetic manner. His conflicts were
well-expressive and the irony that due to this man's disability, the narrator found a new
perspective and was at a comfortable point towards the end and understood his own
shortcomings.
4. Towards the end, the narrator emphasized that he started seeing things, rather than
looking.
5. Personally, I found this story refreshing and helpful as well. It gave me a different view-
points on few things in which I found myself in a discomforting zones.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Gale, C.L., 2015. A Study Guide to Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron. Gale, Cengage
Learning.
London, J., 2018. To build a fire. Charles River Editors via PublishDrive.
Sarnowski, J., 2012. Destroying to Save: Idealism and Pragmatism in Alice Walker's" Everyday
Use". Papers on Language and Literature.48(3). p.269.
Smith, J.J., 2018. The American Short Story Cycle. Edinburgh University Press.
Online
Why I live at the P.O. 2019. [Online].Available
through:<https://www.jstor.org/stable/44311062>.
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