AP Short Stories (Coady)

*by Washington Irving, 3rd person, frame structure*classicicim vs.

romanticism*summary: goes to woods to get away from wife, meets group, falls asleep for 20 years*relates to Revolutionary Period, which preceded it*man vs man, nature, and supernatural*magic realism*romantic (imaginative) literature*epiphany*local color

*by Edgar Allan Poe, 1st person*classicicim vs. romanticism*summary: puts manuscript in a bottle telling what happened as ship going down, story ends at climax*man vs nature*romanticism*single effect*stream of consciousness *epiphany*interior Monologue

*by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 3rd person*individualism, transcendentalism*summary: wife has tiny, hand birthmark and husband is scientist and wants to remove, she dies at the end*man vs man, society, nature*symbolic*realism*indirect characeriazation*dialectical thinking

*by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 3rd person*individualism, transcendentalism*summary: minister wears veil to symbolize man's hidden sins which separate them from others, it literally separates him because people spooked by it, he dies wearing it*man vs society, supernatural*symbolic*realism*indirect characeriazation*dialectical thinking

*by Herman Melville, 1st person (not Bartleby)*individualism, transcendentalism*summary: boss tells how Bartleby is lazy as a copyist, Bartleby stands by his convictions, dies in the end*man vs man, society*realism*indirect characteriazation*dialectical thinking*single effect*nihilism*epiphany

*by Mark Twain, 1st person (not bluejay)*civil rights, realism*summary: Baker, the narrator, is an expert on blue jays and describes the language of blue jays and other animals in a matter-of-fact way that adds to the humor of the story., a bluejay believes a hole in a roof can be filled with acorns. A whole flock arrives and discovers the first jay's folly and have a laugh.

The site becomes something of a tourist attraction in the blue jay community*theme of determination relates to North and South struggle during Twain's day*local color*epiphany

*by Bret Harte, 3rd person*civil rights, realism*summary: Tennessee, gambler and thief, is captured and tried but refuses to answer questions. His nameless partner appears and offers to pay for Tennessee, but is refused. Tennessee is found guilty and hanged. The Partner buries Tennessee in his garden. Partner freed from guilt, though sanity doubted, and falls ill.

One night he insists on going to fetch Tennessee so that he would not hurt himself when he is drunk. Suddenly he announces that he sees Tennessee coming toward him completely sober. The narrator concludes: "And so they met".*local color*tolerance theme ties to the civil rights movement of the time*indirect characterization

*by Willa Cather, Nebraska author*summary: sculptor's body returned to hometown to be buried, people don't appreciate his success*not everyone so accepting of others*people influenced by environment*dialectical thinking*local color

*by Willa Cather, Nebraska author*summary: Nils returns to his hometown, his old girl (the one in the title) has married brother, town views Nils as outsider now, Nils tries to get younger brother to leave town but he refuses.*not everyone so accepting of others*people influenced by environment*immigrant experience part of American landscape now*dialectical thinking*naturalism*local color

*by Hamlin Garland*summary: Mrs. Ripley has not been home to New York in 23 yrs.

and one night declares she is going. Argues with hubby about funding. He sells two pigs to get train ticket, but she has already saved the money. She is touched by the sacrifice, goes to NY and comes back affectionate and with bundles. "Her trip was a fact now, no chance could rob her of it. She had looked forward twenty-three years toward it, and now she could look back at it accomplished.

She took up her burden again, never more thinking to lay it down."*local color*indirect characterization*realism

*by Ambrose Bierce*summary: Murlock lives alone in the wilderness in a house with a boarded window. Unnamed narrator learned of story from grandfather, who says window was boarded up sometime after Murlock's unnamed wife died. He goes on to describe strange events the night after Murlock prepared his wife's body for burial.

While watching over the dead body, a panther enters cabin. Murlock attempts to shoot the unknown creature in the dark, then falls unconscious. Upon awakening in the morning, he discovers part of panther's ear in the clenched teeth of his dead wife, raising numerous questions for readers.*nautralism - man compared to nature - personification of grief*magic realism*single effect*direct characterization

*by Henry James*summary: A quiet London government official feels that something prodigious will happen to him during his life.

He spends years waiting for it to spring on him, watched over by the one friend, a woman, to whom he has confided his secret. Shortly before she dies, she tells him she knows what the beast is and that he has already been its victim, but he doesn't realize what she might have meant until a year after her death.*dialectical thinking*epiphany*single effect*interior monologue*naturalism

*by Stephen Crane*summary: This is the story about 4 guys who are in a lifeboat after they get in a shipwreck. This is based on a true story. The author (Crane) was on a ship called the Commodore.

On New Years Eve, the ship crashed and he was in a lifeboat trying to survive.*naturalism

*by Edith Wharton*Haskett, Alice's first husband and Lily's father, asks to visit Mr. and Mrs. Waythorn's home on a weekly basis in order to see his daughter. Although Waythorn is initially uncomfortable with this arrangement, he grants Haskett the right to visit Lily.

When he returns to work after his honeymoon, Waythorn meets Varick, Alice's second husband. Waythorn, in spite of his initial biases, becomes quite fond of both Haskett and Varick. Meanwhile, Waythorn's relationship with Alice becomes strained. Waythorn feels like he is just one part, albeit the most important part, of a plan being prepared by Alice's past husbands. In the story's final scene, Waythorn is smoking cigars with the "Other Two" when Alice enters to share tea. She is caught off guard by the sight of all of her husbands together.

Alice composes herself, and she serves tea to Waythorn first.*interior monologue*dialectical thinking*realism*epiphany

*by James Thurber*A man who has a boring life and always dreams about an interesting life rather than a lackluster life with his nagging wife. He always refers to his wife as a "pocketa-pocketa.

'' The author ends the story with a fantasy because he would always go back to his boring life with his wife.*modernism*epiphany*magic realism*interior monologue*indirect characterization

*by Katherine Anne Porter*The story takes place in Granny Weatherall's bedroom, but most of the action occurs in her head. It is the story of the last day for the eighty year old woman, and she ponders her children and her life in her head while she lays in bed. As she nears death, she recollects important events in her life, including the jilting that took place when she was young and about to marry a man named George.

George left her at the wedding, with the cake and guests, and Granny never let go of the memory. This memory is what dominates her thoughts as she nears death. At the end of the story as she asks God for a sign and doesn't get one, she feels that now God has jilted her. She blows out the light, and the story is over.

*modernism*stream of consciousness*interior monologue*indirect characterization*epiphany*single effect

*by John Steinbeck*A biologist, Dr. Phillips, is visited one day by a mysterious woman wanting to buy a male rattlesnake and then she asked to feed the male rattlesnake a rat so she could watch the whole process. The woman left him and never came back again. *modernism*naturalism*epiphany*single effect

*by William Faulkner*The story of three children's reactions to an adult world that they do not fully understand.

The African-American washerwoman, Nancy, fears that her common-law husband, Jesus, is seeking to murder her because she is pregnant with a white man's child. It is a dark portrait of white Southerners' indifference to the crippling fears of one of their black employees. It is also an exploration of terror, vengeance, and solitude.*reflective point of view: adult looking back*prejudices*modernism*local color*dialectical thinking*epiphany

*by Sherwood Anderson*The story begins with a description of the fifteen-year-old narrator's trip to Saratoga, New York. He and his three friends leave without telling their parents; they run away to seek the thrills of horse racing. But rather than expound on the daily adventures of the vacation or the reactions of the boys' parents when they return, the story focuses on a single, sad but important event. The narrator sees the horse trainer Jerry Tillford, a man he greatly admires, drunk and in the presence of a prostitute. The scene disturbs and confuses the young boy. "I Want to Know Why" is the story of a boy's tragic realization that people aren't always as good as they seem.*modernism*realism*coming of age*local color*epiphany