Analysis of Four Short Stories - Essay Example

An Analysis of Four Short Stories Many use imagery as a way to keep the reader involved and interested in their writing. In each of the four short stories for this assignment imagery plays an important part in how the reader interacts with them. "Barn Burning" is the first of the four short stories that we examine in this paper and it is true to Faulkners short stories. There is a family that is terrorized by the father and he is in conflict with his younger son. The story begins with Abner Snopes, the father, on trial for burning down a barn. The reader is immediately brought into the story with the words, "The store in which the Justice of the Peaces court was sitting smelled like cheese" (264). The imagery of the "smell of cheese" immediately brings the reader into the middle of the action because the first question is "Why?" As the reader continues the entire scene opens to the reader and they are both inundated with the smells and events of the court. A technique that Faulkner uses in this first scene is that he mixes the smells of the store with the smells of the people as Sarty, the youngest son of Abner, experiences them. This allows the reader to be engulfed in curiosity and want to read on. As the story continues the reader finds that Abner is a very angry man and Sarty is in conflict with his father and with himself. Faulkner uses small scenes or as Skei says, "small episodes" and details to bring the reader further into the story. We have the scene in the beginning with the court trial, later we have the seen at De Spains, another court scene, a young boy who makes a remark that Sarty hits him for and several other scenes that help the reader get to know Sarty, his father and the rest of the family. One of the most poignant scenes is when Abner deliberately in the horse manure: "Watching him, the boy remarked the absolutely undeviating course which his father held and saw the stiff foot come squarely down in a pile of fresh droppings where a horse had stood in the drive and which his father could have avoided by a simple change in stride." (270) The reader can actually "smell" this fresh manure and knows that since this is a deliberate act, Abner is up to something. Skei writes that the reason this short story was so well received was because Faulkner wrote about a place that he knew intimately (58) and this is evident because the reader is able to cheer for Sarty at the end and feel that Abner has finally received what was due him. In the short story, "Hills Like White Elephants" Hemingway uses imagery to let us know what is happening, however upon first reading it is difficult to tell what the two people are doing at this train station. The first aspect of imagery is actually given in part of the title, "white elephants." The reader found that this was a common phrase used for something unwanted. As an investment, a white elephant is something that no one wants because it will not bring a profit. As a possession it can be rare, but it has no value and is usually financially difficult to maintain. From Webster, it is " an object no longer of value to its owner but of value to others" (Merriam-Webster Online). Although the reader does not know this initially this definition adds to the story because we now know that the American man in the story sees the baby that his female companion is carrying as a "white elephant." Hemingway uses a technique of microscopic vision for the reader that creates the scenes as if the reader was eavesdropping at a table next to the couple. An example of this is at the beginning of the story. The reader gets only a small amount of descriptive narrative at the beginning of the story and then is taken into the story with one of the characters asking what they should drink. It is as if we are sitting in the theater and watching a play. Throughout the short story, we are given a very anxious American who is trying to talk Jig (the only character in the story who has a name) into having an abortion. Phrases like, "Its really an awful simple operation" (283) and "I know you wont mind it Jig. Its really not anything" (283) show the reader that this man has no concept of what abortion is or how it will affect his partner. According to Rankin, the use of "really" and "awful" show that the American is attempting to sell something that he does not think will go well (235). The reader immediately takes the stance that this man is wrong to push this woman into something that may be detrimental to her health. Throughout the story the reader gets a glimpse of the fact that Jig may be thinking something different than what the man wants. The statement, "Doesnt it mean anything to you? We could get along" (285) lets the reader know that she is not necessarily going to allow him to manipulate her into the abortion. The reader gets the image of a calm, assertive and young female who is listening to this insecure, angry man and deciding what she will do. At the end of the story she says, "theres nothing wrong with me" (286) indicating that she knows this man may not be the right one for her. Rankin suggests, "…we understand finally that the white elephant was never the abortion … it was always the man." (237). James Joyce tells the story of "Araby" through the eyes of a young boy who is experience his first crush during a time when he is moving into adolescence and his hormones are raging. The story starts out in darkness and this seems to be a foreshadowing of what is to come as well as giving the reader the imagery needed to get us through the story. The darkness seems to show the sadness within the young boy and his insecurity at not being able to reach out to Mangans sister and profess his love. From the very beginning, the imagery gives the reader a rather creepy feeling of foreboding. Phrases like, "The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died…", "air musty from having been enclosed", and "…the pages of which were cold and damp…" (198) all point to the fact that this story is not going to be happy. The language that Joyce uses also plays a part on what the reader "sees" through the story. The boys anguish when he thinks he cannot take the distance from her is a good example of the poetry of Joyces writing: "All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves, and feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together…" (200) This phrase lets us know that this boy is in terrible anguish and seeking relief. He gets the relief because the girl talks to him and this totally changes his focus to finding a present for her at the bazaar called Araby. The story gets darker in that the boy has to wait for his uncle to get home and we can see his impatience. He finally gets to Araby but it is closing and he stands there, in the dark, as he says, "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity" (203) and he begins to cry. Now the reader understands that this boy has come of age in that he understands that live is not like his fantasy. According to Coulthard, "He now knows that dark is right and no longer believes in beacons of hope, feminine or otherwise" (99), which brings the reader into sadness for the boy. OConnor is a wonderfully expressive writer and from, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" the reader understands that she absolutely is intimate with the characters of the old south. Historically OConnor was a Catholic and most of her short stories have this theme throughout them. In "A Good Man" she paints the picture of good, evil and redemption as she sees them. For the reader, it is an example of how information can be misconstrued and how evil can prevail in a situation and still be redeemed. Central to the story is The Misfit and the grandmother. From the beginning of the story the grandmother seems to know that going to Florida is not such a good idea. She has two unruly children, a mother who does not really care about these children and her son Bailey who she is desperately trying to stop from going to Florida. The image of the grandmother is given as the "good" for the story in that she "settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and removing them and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in front of the back window" (398) and the rest of the description shows us that this is a good, upstanding southern belle who comes from the old south. OConnor paints a nice picture of the countryside, the family and its dysfunction and the impertinence and impatience of children. The family takes a wrong turn, get lost and now will have to deal with The Misfit with the grandmother as the central character who deals with him. The challenge for the family is that the grandmother recognizes him. The Misfit is at first a very evil character as he kills the family members in a particular sequence --men first, women and children and then the grandmother eventually. The conversation between The Misfit and the grandmother makes the reader believe that he will not kill her. She has "accused" of being good and he swears to her this is wrong. However, just as in a Catholic confessional The Misfit bears his soul to the grandmother. "My daddy said I was a different breed of dog from my brothers and sisters" (408) suggests that he was always a misfit. The relationship of the man to the grandmother comes through the imagery of one scene, when the grandmother touches The Misfit in her last act of kindness. The horror at the fact that he shoots her three times, cleans his glasses, picks up the cat and goes on his way. The reader is horrified at this sequence and yet at the end he says, "Its no real pleasure in life" (412) which seems to indicate that he has to keep his cold exterior but he was affected by what he does to the grandmother. Desmond states that although The Misfit seeks redemption through the story, he does not want to get it through Jesus as the "savior" so instead, he goes into "moral self-sufficiency and isolation" which does not work for him (131) but in some weird way makes him feel better. Works Cited Coulthard, A R. "Joyces Araby." The Explicator 52.2 (1994): 97. ProQuest database. (Document ID: 1639449) 16 Sep. 2008. Desmond, John. "Flannery OConnors Misfit And The Mystery Of Evil". Renascence, 56.2, (2004)128-137. 16 September 2008, ProQuest database. (Document ID: 527732511). Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." Ed. Ellen Wynn. The Short Story: 25 Masterpieces. NY: St. Martins Press, 1979. 264-281. Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills Like White Elephants." Ed. Ellen Wynn. The Short Story: 25 Masterpieces. NY: St. Martins Press, 1979. 282-286.. Joyce, James. "Araby." Ed. Ellen Wynn. The Short Story: 25 Masterpieces. NY: St. Martins Press, 1979. 198-203. Merriam Webster Online. "White Elephant" Definition. 16 September 2008 . OConnor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard To Find." Ed. Ellen Wynn. The Short Story: 25 Masterpieces. NY: St. Martins Press, 1979. 397-412. Paul Rankin. "Hemingways Hills Like White Elephants. " The Explicator 63.4 (2005): 234- 237. ProQuest database. (ProQuest document ID: 898997851) 16 Sep. 2008 Skei, Hans H. Reading Faulkners Best Short Stories. South Carolina; Univ of South Carolina Press, 1999 Read More