Short Stories Comparison

Good stories don’t have to be writing in the same period of time or in the same place to be compared. A great example of short stories that can be compared ann were not written in the same year are: A Rose for Emily” by William Fulkner and “The Pura Principle” by Junot Diaz. This stories were have a lot similarities and differences. For example they were both a first person narrative, both revolve around characters who are ill and at some point in the story they both had the same elements of tone.

"A Rose for Emily" is a short story by American author William Faulkner. This story is a first person narrative or peripheral narrator which means that is a first-person narrator who's not the main character. We can say this narration is called “first people” instead of “first person because the narrator usually referred itself as “we” For example “We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that.” Similarly to the story "The Pura Principle"by Junot Diaz, which was also a first person narrative, however here the narrators make frequent use of the pronoun "I," talking about himself, and what's going on around him . For example “My mother was checked out in her own way. She wore herself down—between my brother and the factory and taking care of the household (I didn’t lift a fucking finger in our apartment, male privilege, baby).”

The narrative language and the way Diaz story is told is definitely different from Faulkner's. “The Pura Principle” was told in a fast pace, jumping from one scene to another. Diaz uses slang words and writes in Spanglish through out the story, as shown in the following quote “Rafa estaba jodido. By then it was only me and Mami taking care of him and we didn’t know what the fuck to do, wh...

... middle of paper ...

...that “the few times my boys at school tried to bring it up, I flipped. Told them to mind their own fucking business. To get out of my face.” This shows that it bothered him every time people asked him about the situation his family was going through with his brother Rafa.

Overall the stories “ A Rose for Emily” and “The Pura Principle” were two of many good impressive stories that were not written in the same period of time but we are able to find the differences and similarities between this two stories. When stories are written in different period of times and by different authors, we just have to read the stories carefully. Take note of the different tones use in the stories, the setting, the conflict,the language the narrator uses, and how the narrator is involved in the story. After we have this from both stories the only thing left to do is to compared them.