the yellow wallpaper

The story tries to insinuate that the dominant sex ( male ) is sort of abusive when it comes to being in a relationship. It insinuates that males are controlling and do not seem to know when to listen to females in distress. the story left me with a sour taste in the mouth as if we, males, didn't have much feeling when it comes to the weak sex. it was quite an upsetting story.

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." 1894.

This story all starts off with the death of Brently and Richards is one of the first to find out by reading the newspaper. Josephine then went on to break the news to Louise, the wife, who has a bad heart condition. The story goes on by describing all the mixed feelings that the newly widow is experiencing, some sort of joy and sadness all mixed up. Then, finally, she dies..
The themes could be loss, grieve, life and death. This story main characters are Mrs. Louise Mallard, Brently Mallard, Josephine, Richards.

Wolff, Tobias. " Say Yes "

The story begins as an unnamed husband is in the kitchen helping his wife, Ann, with the dishes, as he does every night. In fact, he is happy to help with the dishes because it lets him show his wife how considerate he is, proving that he is sensitive to her needs. As they were doing dishes, the conversation turns to interracial marriage and the fact that the husband is against it.

The wife is rather surprised at the husband's response and wants to know why he thinks that people of color ( Black ) should not marry white people. The husband's explanation is that white people and black people come from different cultures and they would not be able to know each other truly in their marriage.For some reason, she is hurt and the husband feels bad for pitching in into the stupid debate. He goes outside the house to get some fresh air then come back inside and apologizes. He tells her that he will make it up to her by marrying her if she was black. The main characters of the story are Ann and her husband. The themes are race, culture and relationship.

Williams, Carlos William. " The use of force " The Doctor stories 1984

The story begins as the doctor ( who is also the narrator ) is called to the Olson's family house. Their little daughter had been having fever for several days and the parents are worrying. He analyzes the family as he is taking out his instruments from his suitcase. The parents are eager to help even though, they are kind of useless to the doctor. He knows that they will only tell him what he needs to know and let him discover the rest. The ill daughter turns out to be a real prick, hard to deal with. The doctor, even though he wasn't expecting that much animosity from the animal takes the challenge at heart, due to the kids he has seen dying from the pandemic disease. He manages to get what he wanted from the little kid at the end. The only name in this short story is olson. The themes are disease, confrontation, use of force and health.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. " Young Goodman Brown." 1835

This story is about a man who decides to go into the forest to find a mysterious figure, leaving his wife behind. Brown, on the road find this mysterious friend and decide to travel along with him. They discover new things about society in general. Some themes in this story are good vs. evil, and human nature.

Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." The New Yorker. 1948.

This story is about a town, that every year once a year,has this lottery where the winner gets stoned to death. The way the story is narrated easily allow you to guess the outcome of the lottery game. Some characters are Mrs. Hutchinson, Mr. Summers, Mrs. Graves, Mrs. Dunbar, and the children.The themes are luck, fate, shame, life, bad vs. good, apathy.

(Melville, Herman. Bartleby the Scrivener, 1853, Putnam's Magazine)

The narrator is an elderly lawyer that helps wealthy men with their mortgages and offers several other services. He comes into contact with Bartleby, the strangest person he has ever known. He was looking for a job and responds to an ad the lawyer put in. Though Bartleby has good intentions, his past mistakes keeps dragging him down and causing him more troubles. Morality, wealth, gender are the themes of this story. The main characters are Bartleby, the lawyer, Nippers and Turkey.

(Kafka, Franz. A Hunger Artist, 1922, Die Neue Rundschau)

This story is about a artist who starves himself for a public display. He spends most of his time in a cage with a timer clock that show how long he had gone without food. Plenty of people gather and pay to see him as if he was some sort of entertainment. He finally dies and a panther takes his place in the cage. Some themes are society influence, death, hunger, prosperity, and fitting in.

Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Harrison Bergeron, 1961, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)

The story is about this imaginary future where everyone is equal. The handicap general who is some sort of dictator, forces citizens to use handicaps to make sure that no one is above anybody. Harrison, a citizen whose intelligence is above normal, represents a great danger to the balance of the society, based on the current laws and was jailed. He breaks out of jail, bursts into a studio and declares that he is now the emperor and chooses a ballerina as his empress. As they dance the handicap general shoots and kill them. Hazel ( harrison's mother ), even though she is crying over it cannot even remember why because, she, just like every other citizen is being brainwashed. This story sort of warns the reader against what could happen to our generation if we allow the government to have too much control on us. A major theme is equality, mind control, dictation. The main characters are Harrison, Hazel, George, the Handicap general.

(Guin, Ursula Le. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, 1973, New Directions)

It's quite hard to find out whether the narrator is a male or a female. In the society ( Omelas ) he talks about, the sacrifice of a child is essential for the sake of the entire group. A child must be kept in darkness, and misery for the society to keep its balance and fortune. Some themes are happiness, secrets, loss, misery, death and scapegoat.

O'Connor, Flannery. " A good man is hard to find " (1955)

The short story is about a family that is getting ready to leave the house for a road trip to Florida. The granny disapproves the trip , partially due to the fact that a criminal, The Misfit, is on the loose , somewhere in Florida. She prefers going to Tennessee, but nobody seems to want to go. Her son doesn't care about her want and just want to leave.On the road, the granny who doesn't know when and how to shut up, keeps going on and on about how people nowadays don't know how to be respectful toward the elders. Somewhere during the trip, she believes that there is a house she visited a while back around the corner and wants to go visit again. She tricks the kids into forcing her son to drive there. On the way there she realized she made a huge mistake about the location of the house and by the time she tried to say something, they have an accident. They stop a passing by car, with the intention of asking for help. It turns out that one of the passengers in the car is the Misfit and Granny who doesn't know how to shut up, says it out loud. He then proceeds on killing the entire family. The story ends while he orders his gunmen to taker her away and kill her too. The significant characters are the Granny, The misfit, John Wesley and June Star. The themes are family, murder, moral.

Carver, Raymond. " what we talk about when we talk about love" (1981)

Nick is the narrator of the short story. With Laura, his wife, he is having a conversation with Mel and Terri, over at Mel's apartment. They are getting drunker and drunker as time goes by and are just having a good time, talking about anything. Out of the blues, Mel brings the subject of love into the discussion. Each individual gives his/her own interpretation of the word "love". Then Mel proceeds on telling the story of an elderly couple who had been hit by a drunk teenager. He talks about how the love they have for each other saved their life. Then' at some point, Terri reveals that her husband is depressed, reason why he is acting the way he is. The main theme is Love and the main characters are Nick, Laura, Terri and Mel.

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. " A very Old man with enormous wings"

The short story begins as a couple is getting rid of crabs after several days of rain. They are worried about their son's health since he has developed temperature. Pelayo, on his way back to the house, finds an old man with wings, lying in the mud.After consulting with his neighbor, they assume that he was an angel sent from God to watch over their little boy. They take him in and start feeding him. Soon, their house becomes some sort of circus, with all kind of people coming to stare at the creature. The old man stays with the couple for several years and one day, takes off on its own. The main characters of this story are Pelayo, Elisenda and Father Gonzaya. The themes are superstition, curiosity, insensitivity, religion.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." New England Magazine. 1892.

The yellow paper is a series of journals written by a woman, the narrator, who's husband locked her up in a bedroom and doesn't allow her to write or really do anything for that matter. the husband stake on the matter is to her get rid of her "temporary nervous depression." Due to her long confinement, she becomes slowly mentally challenged, crazy I shall say, and becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper. She keeps finding strange things about it and hates it with passion. The story's themes are gender, psychology and confinement.

kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl" The New Yorker 1978

Girl is about a mother teacher her daughter the steps she needs to take to become a lady. This short story is a dialogue between a mother and her daughter where the daughter only intervenes twice. This mother feels like she needs to get her daughter on the right track because she believes her daughter is close to fall over the edge of decadence. The main themes of this story are bond and morality.

Bambara, Toni Cade. " The lesson " 1972

Sylvia, who narrates the story, is a young black girl living in a poor area of New York City. She and her friends are developing their strategies to cope with life as they know it. She has adopted the pose of a know-it-all who can figure out things for herself, and she tells herself that she resents and has no use for Miss Moore, the college-educated African American woman who frequently serves as a guide and unofficial teacher for the local children. Bambara emphasizes classism and the conflict of races in America. The story's themes are race and economy.

Baldwin, James. " Sonny's Blues " 1957

"Sonny's Blues" opens as the narrator learns from a newspaper that his younger brother, Sonny, has been arrested for dealing heroin.He is downright devastated when he hears the news but can only blame himself for refusing to acknowledge the early signs. Now that he is gone, he reminiscences the moments they shared growing up. He doesn't write him until the day his daughter dies but since then they keep in touch. Sonny finally gets out and meed his brother who takes him home to live with his family. As the story goes on, they relearn how to appreciate each other and earn each other respect. Finally, the bother gets to appreciate Sonny's love for music and feel at peace with himself. The main theme of "Sonny's Blues" is suffering, particularly the sufferings of black people in America. The main characters are Creole and Sonny. Stylisticly, the writer was disorganized, jumping all over the time line. At certain point in the story, the reader might get lost, trying to situate him/her self in the story. This could have been a great short story only if he was a bit shorter.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

By sherman Alexie, published in 1993, which received a PEN/Hemingway Award for best first book of fiction.

This short story is about an Indian character, feeling out of place no matter where he goes. He couldn't really belong anywhere in the world other than in his reservation.The story has several themes such as race, belonging and leaving-returning home. In the short story, he just broke up with his white girlfriend and is on his way to a 711 gas station. At the gas station, he is looked at as if he was about to commit a crime then, after the clerk gets to talk to him, the characters somewhat feels like he could to him. He reminiscences the fights he had with his girlfriend, the disappointments he had in life which are few of the many reasons he is going back home.

What is a good story

A short story is the combination of art, the quality of the plot, the description of the characters and the structural features the writer uses to tell the story. The ability of the writer to make the reader experience all sort of mixed feelings is crucial in deciding whether a story is good or not. I read some stories that really left me wondering if the author even wanted a reader like me in his audience because I just couldn't relate to any of the things he tried to deliver to me. It was just as if I was sitting in a conference room, being lectured to, for hours and hours. That's how bad it is when the writer doesn't put much effort into expressing his/her thoughts.
The story also need to have some plausible events that the reader can comfortably relate to. The writer also have the option to include multiple endings to his/her story, empowering the reader to decide on the fate of the story's characters. Once you reach that level of story writing, you've just accomplished a masterpiece.