Astronomer’s Wife
A respectable short story ought to be curious from the start by using phrases or sentences which draw a reader into the tale. Tension and excitement should be built to urge a reader to reach the ending to determine that outcome of the characters in the story. Furthermore, an effective story will also impart some sort of lesson upon the reader to which one would find a strong emotional connection with. These qualities to a short story will leave the reader believing that it was worth not just reading, but also leave them pondering in its meaning.
Kay Boyle’s “Astronomer’s Wife” opens with Mrs. Ames greeting a plumber who was called due to a small flood in one of her bathrooms. Mrs. Ames, described as a generally quiet individual as a result of her husband’s never ending questions, which only lead to more questions, never any answers, finds immediate solace in the plumbers pointed questions and statements. The plumber appears to be slightly annoyed to be talking to a woman regarding such business but discovers that the man of the house is not one that follows traditional values that he is used to.
When one person feels the loss of love in a relationship, that unhappy person will seek the affection elsewhere therefore people should learn to carefully balance lofty ambition with realism or risk getting their head caught in the clouds.
Mrs. Ames husband, an astronomer, is characterized as a man with his head in the clouds. Often staring up at the stars from a mountaintop or from behind a telescope, his head lives in the heavens and dismisses the life that exists around him opting instead for the possibilities that might exist above. Mrs. Ames on the other hand, is also young but quiet due to her husbands never e...
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...hip, they will seek fulfillment elsewhere in life, including the affection of another.
This short story contains a lot more than meets the eye. The story itself is simple, yet there is much detail within. The commonality of a relationship gone awry is extensively written upon, but this piece glorifies the action that takes place by the individual who is suffering. This entices one to continue reading in order to uncover the resolution. Each sentence within the story has more to say than just what is on the surface helping to create the tension as one reads between the lines. The opposition in each characters words due to their dialogue leads them down two different paths; one which focuses on what the character is saying, and one which focuses on what is meant by what the character is saying. This enriches the story which is exciting and thought provoking to read.
Elements that make for the best literary short story are character, meaning, tone and tension. These four literary elements make your story have a plot. These elements also contribute to your story’s purpose and ambition. The short stories we have read this semester integrate these elements, making successful and literary filled works.
"Unit 2: Reading & Writing About Short Fiction." ENGL200: Composition and Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 49-219. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Boyle, Kay. "Astronomer's Wife." Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 619-623.
What qualities make a short story short? Well, as stated above by, Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi, a short story is called short because it is not as long, in the number of pages, and therefore tends to focus on a contained story. Why is this, personally this is due to keeping the reader’s attention and to provide/cram as little detail, that may not be necessary.
In the commencement of the story, the narrator is shocked and in disbelief about the news of his brother’s incarceration, “It was not to be believed” (83). It had been over a year since he had seen his brother, but all he had was memories of him, “This would always be at a moment when I was remembering some specific thing Sonny had once said or done” (83). The narrator’s thoughts about Sonny triggered his anxiety that very day. It was difficult to bear the news of what his brother had become, yet at some point he could relate to Sonny on a personal level, “I hear my brother. And myself” (84). After the news had spurred, the narrator experienced extreme anxiety to the point of sweating. Jus...
Short stories are temporary portals to another world; there is a plethora of knowledge to learn from the scenario, and lies on top of that knowledge are simple morals. Langston Hughes writes in “Thank You Ma’m” the timeline of a single night in a slum neighborhood of an anonymous city. This “timeline” tells of the unfolding generosities that begin when a teenage boy fails an attempted robbery of Mrs. Jones. An annoyed bachelor on a British train listens to three children their aunt converse rather obnoxiously in Saki’s tale, “The Storyteller”. After a failed story attempt, the bachelor tries his hand at storytelling and gives a wonderfully satisfying, inappropriate story. These stories are laden with humor, but have, like all other stories, an underlying theme. Both themes of these stories are “implied,” and provide an excellent stage to compare and contrast a story on.
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
A good story is one that isn't demanding, that proceeds from A to B, and above all doesn't remind us of the bad times, the cardboard patches we used to wear in our shoes, the failed farms, the way people you love just up and die. It tells us instead that hard work and perseverance can overcome all obstacles; it tells lie after lie, and the happy ending is the happiest lie of all. (85)
Derricotte’s conclusive paragraph begins with, “My mother helps me. She sends me signs: her African violet bloomed for the first time on my windowsill three years after her death, on the first day of her death month…I love my mother now in ways I could not have loved her when she was alive, fierce, terrifying, unpredictable, mad, shame-inducing, self-involved, relentless, and determined by any means necessary” (53). The timing of her love for her mother became insignificant. It wasn’t about when she finally reached the point of loving her mother but the mere fact that she loved her. The utilization of descriptive writing and the emotional implementation in “Beginning Dialogues” are a couple of ways Derricotte enraptures her readers in this short story. Regardless of a painful past or a traumatic childhood she allows herself to see that love truly conquers
...seful miscommunication between men and women. Lastly, when looking through the imagined perspective of the thoughtless male tricksters, the reader is shown the heartlessness of men. After this reader’s final consideration, the main theme in each of the presented poems is that both authors saw women as victims of a male dominated society.
Nonetheless, this really is a tale of compelling love between the boy and his father. The actions of the boy throughout the story indicate that he really does love his father and seems very torn between his mother expectations and his father’s light heartedness. Many adults and children know this family circumstance so well that one can easily see the characters’ identities without the author even giving the boy and his father a name. Even without other surrounding verification of their lives, the plot, characters, and narrative have meshed together quite well.
What elements are needed to create a good short story? As John Dufrense quoted "A good story has a visionary quality, a personal voice, a signature gesture(1969). The elements used should be used so strongly that it pulls you in; forcing you to connect to the people in the story. Not every story is written well enough to be capable of doing this. This also creates a connection with the reader; leaving some type of effect or impacting the reader along with the characters’ lives. Although there are many elements in writing but one of the greatest things of writing is the ability to make the reader empathize with the characters. This goes beyond than just a connection with the characters; when the reader is able to apprehend with the characters he or she is truly relating and reaching out to them. The author has accomplished something truly special when the reader has the ability to feel the agony that a character is feeling.
...the story he is inviting the reader to condemn the mistreatment of women and lack of freedom in the family particularly under the institution of marriage. The attitude of the author gives the story a condemning tone. The tone is appropriate for the theme which is a strained relations in the family and specifically in marriage relations.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
She defines her idea of what is right in a relationship by describing how hard and painful it is for her to stray from that ideal in this instance. As the poem evolves, one can begin to see the author having a conflict with values, while simultaneously expressing which values are hers and which are unnatural to her. She accomplishes this accounting of values by personalizing her position in a somewhat unsettling way throughout the poem.