The vast majority of short stories contain meaning Essays - Fiction

The vast majority of short stories contain meaning that can be described through their use of literary elements. Throughout this unit I have analyzed multiple short stories, three of which I will be analyzing in this essay. These consist of the stories "War", "Road Trip", and "Invitations". Each of these stories use literary elements to build and demonstrate their themes, and I will explain how exactly these are used. The themes in the story "War" are patriotism and parents' love for their children. Despite each character's mourning or anger towards the war and the fact that their children and nephews were risking their lives in the war, each one demonstrated love for their country and willingness to take their children's place. This can proven through the following quote: "Now, at our age, the love for our country is still great, of course, but stronger than the love for our children. Is there any one of us who wouldn't gladly take his son's place at the front if he could?' There was a silence all around, everybody nodding as to approve". In the story "Road Trip" the theme is overconfidence. When Dave offered to take care of Annie's cat, Annie said: "Whenever the cat is around, things seem to go wrong" and Dave responded with "Don't be silly. We can look after a cat" . He had no doubt that the cat would be easy to take care of, but as the story advanced we were shown that this is use of ironic foreshadowing. Although Dave intentionally left the cat at home, somehow the cat, named "Galway", managed to hitch a ride in the family's car, only to be found in the back of the car on a ferry whilst Dave was looking for his sweater. Despite the car becoming extremely hot, they didn't open the windows for fear of Galway jumping out of the car. "...where the alley rejoined the street, there was a crowd of people standing with their backs to him, blocking his way. He honked. And when nothing happened, he honked again. He kept driving down the alley. Honking. No one moved until he was close and then a man, holding two children by their hands, turned and looked. And only then did the crowd part, parents tugging children out of the way. Then they were out of the alley and turning onto the main street.'... this is a parade. We're in a parade' Morley said". In this situation, Dave was overconfident in the fact that he thought the road would be empty. He didn't make the connection that since there was a crowd of people blocking the alley, there would likely be some sort of event preventing Dave from driving past the crowd. The story "Invitations" is a story about how introverts prefer to stay at home. Despite her receiving numerous invitations for events, each scheduled for the exact same time on Saturday evening, she instead decided to stay at home and read a book left in her apartment by the previous tenant. She was flattered by the many invitations she was given, however felt it was a poor use of her time. She was fearful of the attention being drawn to her in the last invitation, which can be proven with the quote: "...The guest of honor, she read, was to be herself. She felt a lurch of happiness. Such an honor! But a moment later her euphoria gave way to panic, and when she sat down to collect herself, she discovered she was trembling not with excitement but with fear.". Most short stories contain meaning that can be described through their use of literary elements. Throughout this unit I have analyzed multiple short stories, three of which I analyzed in this essay. These stories were "War", "Road Trip", and "Invitations". Each of these stories use literary elements to build and demonstrate their themes.