Short Story Assignment- “A Girl’s Story” In most short stories the author writes a story about an experience they have had or something they have made up. In David Arnason’s, “A Girl’s Story,” the first thing that catches the eye is the title. David Arnason incorporates the readers in the story; he writes a story about the process of the author writing a romance novel. The story is entitled, “A Girl’s Story,” because the author tries to write a novel a female would write, or would want to read. David Arnason begins the story in the first person, then moves back-and-fourth to third person. In this type of writing, the readers have an opportunity to enter the text and understand it and the author more. Arnason uses techniques, such as circular …show more content…
structure, rhetorical devices and stereotypes to create a romantic story that would typically appeal to a girl. Essay Structure The story employs a circular structure. The author, David Arnason, goes back and forth from using first period to third person. He includes the readers in his process of writing his story because he wants to make a “girl’s story”. Author uses first person to start the story and incorporates the readers into his writing. “You’ve wondered what it would be like to be a character in a story, to sort of lip out of your ordinary self and into some other character. Well I’m offering you the opportunity.” (Arnason, page 227) Later in the story the author begins to use third person in order to actually tell the story he is writing. “Your name is Linda...Linda held the ring up towards the light. The diamond flashed rainbow colours. It was a small diamond, and Linda reflected that it was probably a perfect symbol of her relationship with Gregg.” (Arnason, page 229) David Arnason begins the story by creating his characters. He states that he has trouble coming up with the right personalities and looks for his characters in his stories. He then introduces the setting of the story which is at a rock beside a small lake. Next, he creates the plot; he uses simple things around the characters to create suspense. For example, Linda wears a wedding ring which she removes while looking out on the lake. “Linda twirled the ring again, then with a suddenness that surprised her, she stood up and threw in into the river.” (Arnason, page 230) “She supposed that she ought to be happy. Gregg was very handsome, and she did love him. Why did it seem that she was walking into a trap? That sounds kind of distant, but it’s supposed to be distant. I’m using indirect quotation because the reader has just met Linda, and we don't want to get too intimate right away.” (Arnason, page 229-230) Rhetorical Devices David Arnason uses many rhetorical devices to create the story line and to mock “A Girl’s Story.” He uses rhetorical devices such as symbolism, intrusion, satire, combination of forms, entering the story, parody, irony, metafiction, rhetorical question, pathetic fallacy, imagery and foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing- “She has slipped a ring from her finger and seems to be holding it towards the light. You see? I could do alot more of that but you wouldn’t like it. I slipped a lot of details in there and provided all those hints about strange and dangerous things under the surface. That’s called foreshadowing.” (Arnason, page 228) Symbolism- “You’re supposed to ask yourself what the ring means. Obviously it has something to do with love, rings always do, and since she’s taken it off, obviously something has gone wrong in the love relationship.” (Arnason, page 228) Rhetorical question- “You may object that this would not have happened in real life, that the conversation would have been awkward, that Linda would have been a bit frightened by the man. Well, why don’t you just run out to the grocery store and buy a bottle of milk and a loaf of bread? The grocer will give you change without even looking at you. That’s what happens in real life, and if that’s what you’re after, why are you reading this book?” (Arnason, page …show more content…
231) Metafiction- “For this story I need a beautiful girl. You probably don’t think you’re beautiful enough but I can fix that.” (Aranson, page 229) Imagery- He used the imagery of the small diamond to represent Linda’s relationship with Gregg. “Everything Gregg did was on a small scale. He was careful with his money and just as careful with his emotions.” (Arnason, page 228) Irony- the irony in “A Girl’s Story” is all within the title. It is not a girl’s story, but a man’s story because the author is a man and is describing how he is composing this story. He feels uncomfortable portraying a girl in the first person, so he uses third person to portray Linda. This story is more about the author than the girl though. “I’m always afraid to do a female character in the first person. It seems wrong to me, like putting on a woman's dress.” (Arnason, page 229) Pathetic Fallacy- The author wanted to change the tone of the story by making the weather nice and sunny to set the mood. Now the audience would know that there would be a happy event coming up. “Did I mention that it was warm and the sun was shining?” (Arnason, page 230) Stereotypes The title of this short story is called, “A Girl’s Story,” because David Arnason wanted to write a story that a female would read.
Therefore, he uses society’s stereotypes that shape our notions of females to create the characters and the plot. For example, some topics that David Arnason mocked were fairy tale stories, such as Cinderella. Linda resembles Cinderella; long blonde hair, blue eyes, tall and slim. In many fairy tale stories, there are princes ‘save’ the princess and in “A Girl’s Story”, the fisherman comes to the lake and meets Linda, coincidentally. The author makes both of the characters good looking, because people expect people in a love story to be attractive. “Black hair is sexy too, but it doesn't go with virtue. I've got to to deal with a whole literary tradition where black-haired women are evil… So you’ve got blonde hair and you’re this tall slender girl with amazingly blue eyes. Your face is narrow and your nose is straight and thin. I could have turned up your nose a little, but that would have made you cute, and I really need a beautiful girl.” (Arnason, page 228) “Suddenly, she heard a rustling in the bush, the sound of someone coming down from the narrow path from the road above… “I’m sorry, I always come here to fish on Saturday afternoons and I’ve never encountered anyone here before.” (Arnason, page
230) David Arnason also mocked feminism and how females might get offended of what he is writing about. “The feminists are going to say that I’m perpetuating stereotypes, that by giving the impression the girl is full of hidden passion I’m encouraging rapists” (Arnason, 229). Most fairy tale stories or romance stories end with a kiss and David Arnason decided to end “A Girl’s Story” with a kiss as well because he didn’t know how else to end it. “I’m going to end it right here at the moment of the kiss. You can do what you want with the rest of it…” (Arnason, page 231) Lastly, Arnason was the stereotypical ‘drunken’ writer. “A writer’s life isn’t easy, especially if, like me, he’s got a tendency to sometimes drink a little too much. Yesterday, I went for a beer with Dennis and Ken (they’re real life friends of mine) and we stayed a little longer than we should have. Then I came home and quickly mixed a drink and started drinking it so my wife would think the liquor on my breath came from the drink I was drinking and not from the drinks I had earlier. I wasn’t going to tell her about those drinks. Anyway, Wayne dropped over and in the evening and I had some more drinks, and this morning my head isn’t working very well.” (Arnason, page 227) In closing, the theme of this story is to make fun of stereotypes and to mock a few that are common with women. Arnason’s essay structure was different than most short stories because he allowed the reader to enter the story and become the main character, Linda. He would write about his process of writing and he would make a checklist; characters, setting, plot. On the other hand, he would switch into third person to actually tell the story of Linda and Michael. Secondly, Arnason used many rhetorical devices to portray a very playful mood to the story. His rhetorical devices stood out to me the most and they were very helpful as well because he would explain why he would use them in some form. However, the most evident one was irony; Arnason made the title of the story “A Girl’s Story”, however, it was mostly about him making fun of what a girl would read and that’s exactly what he wrote about. Lastly, this story was surrounded by stereotypes; Arnason wanted to write a story that a girl would read so he took ideas from fairytales and romance stories. He made both of the characters good looking and it was a very simple plot where the two characters meet and it ends with a kiss. Arnason’s use of parody and irony help create a postmodern short fictional prose that is very enjoyable to read.
In the short story "Cornet at night" by Sinclair Ross foreshadowing plays a very important role in the piece of literature. Foreshadowing is the slight hint or clue that the author gives the reader to see how they can get the reader to imagine the vast amount of possibilities of what is to come in the future. In this story, foreshadowing is seen at many different times, but there are two instances where they are noted very strongly.
Even when examining Anna’s early relationship with Jeff, when she arranges for him to come up on weekends with Chuck. He protests saying, “Jesus, I don’t even know the guy…why didn’t you call me first” (Wallace, 315). Her insecurity about whether or not Jeff would come up on weekends without this convenience allowed for a lack of communication of feelings between Jeff and Anna. However, of more importance is Anna’s lack of communication with Peter. A large part of what makes Anna herself is her ability and love of creating stories. When her husband does not share this, Anna finds this challenging, and lets it become a barrier for communication. “His face set in the pained expression he wears for conversations like this – “What ifs” speculations. When Jennifer and I sit in a restaurant making up stories about the people around us, he closes his eyes, just as he’s doing now” (Wallace, 317). Peters almost dismissal through the closing his eyes of Anna’s love for story making allows for a distancing and ultimately a deep seeded feeling of isolation and
Everyone remembers their first crush and the majority of the time we were too shy to talk to that person. In the story “Checkouts” it begins in Cincinnati. There was a new girl in town and she was constantly asked to got to the local grocery store. On her first trip to the store, there was a bag boy that had caught her eye. None of them were brave enough to talk to one another. After a few months, they both moved on and went on with their lives; they later saw each other with a date at the movie theaters. Cynthia Rylant reveals the idea that the best writing is personal and revealing through the thoughts of the boy and girl using third person narrator (omniscient), and including a topic that all young readers can personally relate to.
story contains another term that hints to what will happen, foreshadowing. This term is easily
Foreshadowing is used a lot throughout this whole book. Foreshadowing is used to give clues on important events in the future and keeps the readers interested. It is also used to help readers understand what comes next. From the beginning to the end, it is used to make the book for fun for the readers and to make the readers be more thoughtful. It can also be used in symbolism. Foreshadowing is used to hint at how Lennie will get in trouble, because of Curley’s wife, the death of Lennie and how George shoots Lennie.
female subjects are not to be underestimated. . . the narrative communicates a “type” that tells
“Girl, Interrupted” is the story of a young girl’s attempted suicide and her time in a psychiatric hospital. The author tells the story of her experience at McLean Hospital and the people she meets while she is there. In Susanna Kaysen’s “Girl, Interrupted,” the author uses the hospital records to symbolize inconclusiveness of her diagnosis to support the theme of confusion of social nonconformity with insanity. Many of the other patients at McLean Hospital have very obvious diagnosis’ such as psychopath or depressed, but Kaysen’s diagnosis is borderline personality disorder, which has symptoms that most teenages can relate to. Throughout her stay at McLean Hospital and years later when she reads her hospital records, Kaysen struggles with accepting herself and her diagnosis.
The ring represents who Lovisa was before and the life that she lived. This is most
Amy Tan’s classic short story, is a coming of age story as the main character wakes up to her heritage when she travels back to China. It is also a story of internal racial tension, not in the sense of prejudice, but internal racial conflict that exists inside Jing-mei as the battle between what she is by nature and what she is by birth. She suddenly discovers her long lost sisters just a month after her mother dies (Danielle 2014). She goes to China and after her arrival, Jing-Mei sees her two sisters who she has never seen before and finally realizes that both of them are as same as her mother. These discoveries lead her to explore her true Chinese identity and reunite with entire family. In this story there are very important themes: life
Rings also often indicate a promise, vow or bond (for example, a purity ring standing for the vow of abstinence and chasteness). Bonds and promises are a centre point in The Merchant of Venice, and so too the breaking of them. This will be explored in more detail later in the essay.
During Shakespeare's time, the wedding and engagement rings indicated commitment. The rings Portia and Nerissa gave to Bassanio and Gratiano, that they were never to remove, were just that. "I give them with this ring, Which when you part from, lose, or give away, Let it presage the ruin of your love And be my vantage to exclaim on you" (3.2.171-4). The rings stood for the man's commitment to his wife just as rings Bassanio and Gratiano would give to Portia and Nerissa at their weddings would stand for the wives' commitment.
This is done effectively when the narrator reveals her wedding ring to those closest to her for the first time and Carter writes, "My old nurse, who still lived with my mother and me, squinted at the ring askance: opals are bad luck, she said" (9). The importance of the fire opal ring arises due to the suspicions brought forth with it. The opal symbolizes misfortune, and helps to further foreshadow the narrator's inevitable outcome. In similar fashion, Carter uses a second gift, a ruby choker, to help further the sense of foreboding for the narrator by describing the gift as, "flashing crimson jewels round her throat, bright as arterial blood" (11). This wedding gift from the husband symbolizes a slit throat. Although created in defiance of death, Carter uses this gift to foreshadow the danger of death for the
Gender stereotypes are ideas simplified, but strongly assumed, on the characteristics of men and women, that translates into a series of tasks and activities that are assign in each culture. Along life, family, school, and environment, Society thought us what is right and what is not in being men or women. Starting with the form we dress, talk, express, behave, to what we can play or what sport to participate. The margin of the biological endowment differences males and females; the fact of being women or men implies a long process of learning and adaptation to the rules established starting with work, personality, love and desires. In the movie "The Ugly Truth." you can see different situations that reflect what society is teaching us for
The conflict in “Girl” is that of parenting vs the environment. The narrator of the text is a mother giving advice to her daughter. The mother is concerned for the daughter because she believes that the daughter may grow up to be a slut because of the social pressures put on her. This is supported by the lines “on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming,” “you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys,” and “don’t squat down to play marbles,” (74). These lines suggest that by interacting with boys and not being pious will lead the daughter down the path to becoming a slut. It is because of this environment that the mother attempts to steer her daughter back on to the right path by giving her both practical advice for when she has her own home, such as how to sew, iron, cook, sweep, and even make herbal medicines, and general life and relationship advice, such as how to talk to strangers and that some relationships may or may not work out. In certai...
The story is being told from the narrative mode. This can be observed in instances such as “I have to confess that behind his father 's back Phalina joined in their fun” and “But, as I have said before, he loved him with a kind of condescension.”