Short Story Essay Examples - Free Research Paper Topics on StudyDriver.com

Short Story about Drama Romeo and Juliet

A drama well known by William Shakespeare is Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare’s play about the doomed romance of two teenagers from feuding families is the most famous love story written. This play was first performed around 1596, Romeo and Juliet has been adapted by ballets, operas, the musical West Side Story, and a dozen other films. The forcefulness of love, love is the play’s most dominant and most important theme. The play focuses on romantic love, specifically the intense passion […]

Short Story Shooting an Elephant

The short story Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell takes place in British controlled India. Orwell was a police officer for the British, located in Lower Burma, and tensions between the Natives and the British ran high. Without Britain’s involvement in India, Orwell would not have felt the societal pressures to shoot the elephant. The British had established themselves in India by the early 18th century, primarily from the British East India Company, whose primary exports were cotton cloth, opium, […]

Short Story Analysis of “The Lottery”

Tradition is very necessary because it introduce our own culture. It is a strong believe what we would like to maintain and would like to follow in our society. Each and every society would like to follow some of their cultural rituals. According to the short stories, the lottery byShirley Jackson describes in her stories, how rituals affect whole village and can cause of loosing people life. In the stories, villagers believe following rituals is more important than their own […]

Short Story “Rip Van Winkle”

Washington Irving, in his short story Rip Van Winkle, uses allegory to represent the relationship of America and her new beginning as a nation with England and her old way of life. Washington Irving uses the characters in his story to represent different ways that the American people changed before and after the Revolutionary War. Irving also adds in a few of his own beliefs about how England viewed America. Irving uses the technique of allegory to get his opinion […]

Short Story “The Gift of the Magi”

There is something almost beautiful in belonging to someone who sees you as a part of him. This eye-opening story about a beautiful relationship between these two people who were placed in a grimy and poverty-stricken setting shows what is truly valuable. In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” the setting becomes an essential aspect of who these people are, proving that poverty does not define the value of a gift or a person. When the story begins […]

Short Story Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

Elaine Potter Richardson is a Caribbean American writer, born May 25, 1948 in St. John’s, Antigua. At the young age of seventeen, Elaine left her home in St. John’s to live in New York City. According to the Britannica, Elaine worked as an au pair before winning a photography scholarship in New Hampshire. In 1973 Elaine took the name Jamaica Kincaid, she did this, so she could remain anonymous in her writing. After submitting articles to The New Yorker for […]

Short Story ‘Rikki Tikki Tavi’

Characters in all books,short stories, poems, and movies want something and will do lots to achieve this thing whatever it may be. In the short story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi there are many examples of people wanting something and achieving it through completing certain tasks. A motivation is defined as “the reason behind a character’s actions or behavior.” The following three examples show this. Teddy’s parent have a motivation that keeps on showing up as you go along and sometimes it may be […]

Short Story ‘A Haunted House’

I read Virginia Woolf’s short story A Haunted House. This story is very interesting, though very short. A Haunted House follows the story of a ghost couple living in the house of a married couple (alive), the ghostly pair are in search of something in which they lost. They search the house going to the garden, the loft, and opening and closing doors in order to find what they have lost. The couple currently living in the house know that […]

A Short Story

Once upon a time there a lived a barbarian king who loved his daughter so much that he did not want her to date, anyone. Whenever he finds any man near her daughter, he would execute them. He was a deranged man who had no empathy for anything or anyone. He triumphed in blood since he loved conquering neighboring other kingdoms and take over as an empire. After many wars, the king builds up the city and makes the empire […]

Gilmans Short Story Characterization

Gilmans short story characterization and plot development, explores her diagnosis and treatment to express a womans perspective and frustration with eras prevailing definition of gender roles in a biased society where stereotypes equated femininity to weakness. The difference in intellect between men and women is accepted across the society hence women are denied the power and opportunity to exercise their choices in the community. Compared to their male counterparts, female members in Gilmans community are classified as the ?other gender. […]

A Short Story Written by Charlotte Perkins

Yellow wallpaper “Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who is facing a dark world where a woman falls into severe after birth depression. Charlotte deals with society’s expectations of women and evokes the notion of finding her identity. Perkins provides an explanation of the traditional gender female role and women’s struggle to escape. So, the main character creates his own life. In the 18th and 19th centuries, women were considered inferior to men. They are […]

Controversial Short Story “The Lottery” by Shirly Jackson

Shirly Jackson was an American author whose stories took on horror and mystery. She wrote of her childhood and experiences that included memoirs, short stories and novels. One controversial short story she wrote was published in the New Yorker on June 26, 1948 called The Lottery. It depicted a rural community shackled by tradition with origins that time has erased. Jackson foreshadows the conclusion but confuses and even tricks the reader with characters who lack normal emotion that brings irony […]

The Short Story “To Build a Fire”

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a short story about a man who is hiking through Alaska to find a camp and meet a group of people who the author refers to as “the boys.” Along the way, the man comes across a dog who follows the man for an unknown distance because the man seems to offer protection from the cold as well as food. At one point the man tries to kill the dog to use […]

Lovely Short Story “The Gift of the Magi ” by William Sydney Porter

‘The Gift of the Magi” is a short story written by William Sydney Porter. In ‘The Gift of the Magi,” Della Young, a young woman intends to buy Jim, her husband, a Christmas gift, but she is struggling financially as she only has one dollar and eighty-seven cents. In order to afford the fob chain for Jim’s prized watch, Della decides to sell her long beautiful hair that her husband loves. When Jim comes home, he is surprised and sad […]

The Short Story “Two Kinds”

The short story ‘Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, is a story about a conflict between a Chinese woman and her Americanborn daughter. Before immigrating to the United States, the mother lost everything in China and moved in hopes of a better life. The mother viewed the United States as a land of opportunity where a person could have prosperity, fame and anything else they desired. The mother finds a new husband in America and they have a daughter named Jing-Mei […]

Daniel Keyes Short Story “Flowers for Algernon”

There are a lot of people in the Daniel Keyes short story “Flowers for Algernon.” Some are nice. Some are not. Charlie Gordon is the main character in the “Flowers for Algernon” story. He is the protagonist as well as the narrator. He is a 37 year-old guy who has an IQ of 68, meaning that he has serious limitations in areas such as learning and reasoning, and severe limitations as well in adaptive areas such as communication and self-help […]

Amy Tan’s Short Story Two Kinds

In Amy Tan’s short story Two Kinds, the story describes a conflict between the narrator, a Chinese American girl and her mother a Chinese immigrant. The narrator is caught between two cultures and her mother’s traditional beliefs on how to raise a daughter in the United States, which can cause their relationship to be dysfunctional. In Amy Tan’s short story Two Kinds, the author used the story to tell a story of her own family. Many of the characters in […]

Ernest Hemingway’s Short Story a Clean Well-Lighted Place

The end of Ernest Hemingway’s short story, A Clean Well-Lighted Place is significant to the story on the whole because it vaguely but poignantly describes the personal and existential sense of self that defines the human condition for some. Hemingway accomplishes this through expert use of short and vague transitions and parallels between the older waiter and others in the story. One of the hallmarks of Hemingway’s writing style is this extreme conservation of words to the point of deliberate […]

Suzan Glaspell’s Trifles and the Short Story

Suzan Glaspell is an American writer and actress who formed a playgroup known as the Provincetown Players. This was considered as the very first theatre organization in co-temporal America. Suzan is famous for her play and short story known as the Trifles and A jury of her peers. Trifles were published in the year 1916 after which A jury of her peers was written. The aim was to reach a larger scope of audience. The Trifles story tells of a […]

The Young Girl is a Short Story Written by Accredited New Zealand Author

The Young Girl is a short story written by accredited New Zealand author, Katherine Mansfield. The story tells about a woman addicted to gambling and the negative effects it has on her relationship with her son and daughter. Those same negative effects can be applied to all types of addictions. Addiction is a disease of the brain that causes dependency, an irresistible urge to engage in an activity despite the harmful consequences(Sternberg). Social Media has been around since the early […]

The Relationship between Fiction and Metaphysics in Short Story “The White Stocking”

Explore the relationship between fiction and metaphysics and/or ethics in D. H. Lawrence’s short story “The White Stocking” D.H. Lawrence was well known, arguably notorious, for advocating the doctrine of romantic vitalism both in his life and in his writings. Originally a scientific term, the Oxford English Dictionary defines romantic vitalism as “The doctrine or theory that the origin and phenomena of life are due to or produced by a vital principle, as distinct from a purely chemical or physical […]

Essay on Black Dog by Penelope Lively

Essay on Black Dog By Penelope Lively Brenda Case is a mid-age housewife with personal problems. The English modern short story “Black Dog”, written by Penelope Lively, portrays Mrs. Case as being a frustrated woman with a peculiar manner, besides this she has difficulties to adapt within the society’s norms. This is probably because Brenda Case is going through the largest crisis in her life; the mid-life crisis. This gives Brenda some difficult factors to deal with. She is going […]

Poe’s Story “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Short Stories + Terror = Poe American Romanticism brought a new era to America and American literature. Within literature of the Romanticism era came the development of the gothic novel. Edger Allen Poe is one of the well-known gothic authors which arose from this era. Throughout Poe’s career he wrote many short stories following one theory which he created – that every aspect of a short story should lead to one single effect. For Poe many of his stories have […]

Stephen King’s Novel the Man in the Black Suit

Several elements in stories have cascaded across several generations of literature and the implications of new perspectives have evolved into decedents with passed down literal elements that manifested into different storylines. As the audience, we have become familiar with different types of themes, moods, tones, and other literary elements that can be made on a spectrum of different genres and storylines. Stephen King’s novel “The man in the Black Suit” king uses several symbols, and literary elements like characters and […]

“On the Rainy River” (Textual Analysis)

In the story “The Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien, you could review it in numerous different ways. Though in my opinion, I believe that it is a story about overcoming guilt and uncertainty. Why is this story a memoir? O’Brien’s interpretation of his dilemma, following his impulses, how this story is a paradox, knowing if something caused all of Tim’s issues, and why he changes his mind about fleeing to Canada are all parts that need questioning and answering throughout […]

About Billy Weaver from “The Landlady”

Billy Weaver is an energetic young man looking for somewhere to stay in a town called Bath, London. As he’s walking down the street, looking for a hotel called The Bell and Dragon, he spots a neglected old building with cracked and faded paint and a peeling door. There’s a sign in the window that says “Bed and Breakfast” and a vase of yellow chrysanthemums. Inside is a cozy little scene, with a parrot in one corner and a little […]

“The Lottery” Shirley Jackson (foreshadowing)

In the short story “The lottery” Shirley Jackson establishes a theme of following tradition blindly. This story is basically about the people in town refusing to let go a tradition that was called the lottery and, they would sacrifice somebody from their village every summer to keep the numbers down so there would be enough food. Also, the town was caught up in a tradition that was not in their best interest. The villages would gather together and await for […]

“The Tell-Tale Heart” (gothic Elements)

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” has a common theme of psychosis. Psychosis is a very prominent theme seen all throughout the story. It makes the whole story have plot twist after plot twist. The reason for such psychosis is because the narrator lets it completely take over, to a point where he can only become more psychotic. In “The Tell- Tale Heart”, the narrator simply commits a crime due to the fact that he cannot stand the […]

Gothic Elements in ‘The Black Cat’

Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be one of the greatest gothic writers in literature. From his works such as the tell-tale heart to the cask of amontillado and ligeia to thefall of the house of usher he is a master at bringing horror and suspense to writing. Anotherstory which parallels the tell-tale heart is the Black Cat. In it the narrator becomesderanged and obsessed with a Black Cat that he has as a pet. Eventually it gets to the […]

“The Landlady” of Roald Dahl

In “The Landlady”, Roald Dahl emphasizes the idea of not always judging a book by their cover and that everything is not always as it seems, by creating a suspenseful and astonishing tone that keeps readers on edge.. For instance, when Billy rung the doorbell, the Landlady forces the door open. Shocked, Billy thinks, “…Normally you ring the bell and you have at least a half-minute’s wait before the door opens. But this dame was a like a jack-in-the-box. He […]

Short Story Essays