Shorts

Would you stick up for someone if they were being embarrassed? A brief summary of the short story “A & P” is three girls walk into the grocery store in their swim suits and the cheekier Sammy kept staring at them. He called them Queenie (leader), Plaid, and Big Tall Gonny Gonny. When the manger came he kept embarrassing and being rude to the girls telling them they can’t wear their swimsuits. Sammy got upset at Lengel after the girls left and quit his job. Sticking up for others when they are…

Danzy Senna is a very powerful author who uses her platform to express how she feels about controversial topics of her time. She is a novelist and essayist whose written three novels, a memoir, and a short story collection, along with multiple essays. She has received many awards and praises for her works and creative stories. Senna is a dynamic author with many opinions and views that approach situations that are still issues in today’s society. Growing up in a biracial home, Senna was given…

In the short story “The Giving Tree,” you will find many meaningful quotes, so much so that scholars have long debated the true meaning behind the story. As a reader, this book becomes open to the individual reader’s own interpretation. Someone once said, “Running away from your problems is a race you will never win.” I believe this quote is true to this story and to life in general. About halfway through the story, the boy is old and has been beat up by life and just wants to run from his…

A Separate Peace begins in the summer of 1942, set at the Devon School in New Hampshire. It is told from the point of view of Gene Forrester. During the summer session of 1942, he becomes friends with his reckless roommate Finny, or Phineas. Finny persuades Gene into jumping out of a tree into a river, and the two friends start a secret society based on this ritual. After Finny broke a school swimming record on his first try, Gene becomes jealous of his athletic abilities. Gene suspects that…

The plot of the short story “By the Waters of Babylon” is set in the near future after the destruction of industrial civilization, the story is narrated by a young man, who is the son of a priest. The priests of John’s people, the hill people, are a curious group of people associated with the divine. They are the only ones who can handle metal collected from the homes of long-dead people whom they believe to be gods called “dead places”. The story follows John’s self-assigned mission to get to…

What is domestic abuse? As defined by the dictionary it is acts of violence or abuse against a person living in one's household, especially a member of one's immediate family. This is the main theme in the short story I have recently read called “The day it Happened.” When I first read the short story, “The Day it Happened” my first thoughts were of some drama you would see on television a since the story is written from the perspective of a young girl and it started off with her describing her…

hit the bottom of my lip. My bottom part of my face felt numb, so I didn’t know I was bleeding until I heard Sam and Rowdi screaming, “DJ we need to get you home now!” I asked bluntly, “Why?” Then I looked down and see there was blood all over my shorts and shirt. I had no idea what to do! I was freaking out! As we got to my house my mom and dad had heard the screaming and were already outside. They went and got a wet washcloth and told me to hold it against my lip. It was probably fifteen…

“Isolation”. What kind of scene are you thinking about? Do you imagine being on a lone island? Or in the corner of a room where you actually are isolated from the rest? This type of “isolation” stated as the title of this short story, is something different from the rest. Read this short story to find out. It was a stormy night in summer. The rain was harshly drumming the windows of Bob’s office, who was taking a peaceful break from all this work and tiredness. It was just so tiring that he…

Being paralyzed does not always have to be physical, it could be an emotional paralysis. In “Do Not Disturb” a short story by A.M. Homes, the husband is paralyzed by his marriage. The husband and wife in this story do not have a great relationship and things are only made worse when the wife is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The wife pushes her husband away and grows to be more and more self-centered. The husband is not sure what to do and is unable to leave the relationship. The husband,…

but they can also influence the actions of the reader. Personally, I am moved by compassion, fear, angst, and love. Miriam is a character that encompasses all of these traits. Miriam comes from the short story M&L, by Sarah Kokernot, was first published in West Branch and later in The Best American Short Stories in 2015. Miriam makes the story because of her fantasies, secrets, love, spirit, and forgiveness. Without Miriam, the story would be just…