Tools Used in the Writing of Short Stories

Tools Used in the Writing of Short Stories

There is a fairly large group of authors that fall into the short story genre.  These authors use these short stories to show people things that they might not have seen before, or maybe something they should look at in more detail.  These short stories can often show the countless sides of human nature.  With the introduction of certain tools, authors can show their readers certain sides of humanity, and oftentimes certain sides of the readers themselves.

In the story "The Most Dangerous Game," the author Richard Connell shows that oftentimes, when man is given the opportunity to change, he will not.  Rainsford is considered to be a static character in this story in that we the audience do not see a change in his mentality towards hunting: he still feels the same.  The author also uses the Man-to-Man conflict of Zaroff hunting Rainsford to contrast what Rainsford was going to the Amazon to do.

Thomas Wolfe shows in "The Child by Tiger," that dealing with the pressures of racism in the rural south can cause ones barrier against it to finally collapse.  In this story, Thomas Wolfe uses the repeated symbol of the cat to show that Dick Prosser was like a caged animal that wanted to lash out at the world, and when pushed to the edge, the symbolic cage opened, and he was set loose.  The use of Man-versus-Society conflict is also evident in the fact that Prosser lashed out against the whole society and not at one part in particular.

In the story "Paul's Case," Willa Cather tries to show that not sharing ones personal feelings can be destructive to a persons subconscious, and cause him/her to do things to get away from their feelings.  The use of Man-versus-society conflict is evident in that Paul is always getting in trouble for what he does.  No one understands why he does the things that he does, so he suffers suspension from the school, or other forms of punishment.  The use of symbolism is also shown in the red carnation that Paul wears in the beginning of the story, and the dying carnation that we see at the end of the story.  It symbolizes the dying feeling that is inside him, that no one could ever really understand him, and he was foolish for thinking that he could give them a chance.  With the Omniscient point of view that Willa Cather uses, we are able to see the teachers thoughts on Pauls' behavior, and are able to understand why he is feeling that no one is able to understand him.

These three stories are only a few selected out of a vast variety of stories, but even in these few stories, the tools used in their writing are evident.  From the characterization in "The Most Dangerous Game," to the point of view in "Paul's Case," the tools help in the understanding of the story.  With the use of the literary tools such as point of view, conflict, and characterization, we are able to understand what the author is trying to tell us in the theme of the stories that they write.