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Theme of Short Stories

             A theme that is covered in various stories is the theme that even if people appear happy on the outside, on the inside there is almost always some sorrow either hidden deep in their heart and soul or being shown to people of the world. There are many different types of sorrow shown or hidden in many different ways in multiple stories, and is sometimes overcome.
             A Secret Sorrow is a story about a woman, Faye, who is sorrowful that she cannot have children. She hides this from her boyfriend Kai at first by telling him she loves him but cannot marry him, and has not "given a satisfactory reason and I'll {Kai} be damned if I'm going to accept your lack of explanations."" This sentence also shows that Kai has sorrow over Faye not marrying him. She is sorrowful also because she thinks that when she tells him that "you wouldn't want me anymore- and that "you'll be disappointed."" When she tells him she cannot have children "her voice was an agonized cry, torn from the depths of her misery."" They worked out the problem and got married and adopted children and she found that "there was love in his embrace and love in his words and in her heart there was no room now for doubt, no room for sorrow."" Faye and Kai overcome their sorrow to live wonderful lives.
             In Class, Edgar has a different type of sorrow. He is unhappy with his life. At the beginning of the story, he is happy. He meets a woman named Susan who he thinks is "the tenth most attractive white woman in the room."" They are married and for the first year everything seems to be fine. He discoverers that she is having an affair after their first anniversary which upsets him which he shows by saying "personal pain should never be made public."" This shows that Edgar is hiding his pain and sorrow. He did get prostitutes whenever he went out of town on business. This shows that Edgar is sorrowful with his married and sex life because if he was not sorrowful about it, he would not get the prostitutes.


Essays Related to Theme of Short Stories

1. Short Story Comparative Essay Through Setting

... initiates in which direction the plot will go, the personality of the characters that will be further developed, and of course, the underlying theme. The physical surrounding including the time of day, atmosphere, mood, and time period are all aspects, which encompass the setting in a story. Setting is used in both the short stories "Sunday in the Park," by Bel Kaufman and " ... The Open Car," by Thomas King as a means of fabricating a larger theme. Although both stories deal with entirely different issues and portray contrasting settings, a comparable theme of stereotypes between the peo...

  • Word Count: 696
  • Approx Pages: 3
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2. Comparitve short stories by mansfield, Lawrence, Anderson

... during the course, showing how particular fictional elements examined during the course contribute to the handling and effectiveness of the theme. Do not write on stories discussed in your seminar paper. The short stories discussed within this paper are; I want to know why by Sherwood Anderson, The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence, The Grave by Katherine Mansfield and My Son The Fanatic ... Hanif Kureishi. These short stories are all associated through the theme of childhood and youth and can be comparatively and contrastively discussed by using this theme as well as different fict...

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3. Similarities in Hawthorne's Short Stories

... almost entirely banish him from society. He is struggling to stay part of the community because of the society excluding him. This theme of self-alienation is very common throughout Hawthorne's short stories, but is most evident in the two stories that I addressed. Nathaniel Hawthorne's most common similarity is his writing style, he consistently wrote his short stories with an allegorical sense. This means that his characters and ideas ... are can be portrayed differently by the reader, he always keeps the reader engaged by his symbolism in a lot of his events and characters. Throughou...

  • Word Count: 676
  • Approx Pages: 3
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4. Aspects of Initiation in Hemin

... at least likely to have permanent effects. (192) 2.2.2 The aspect of movement in stories of initiation The aspect of movement plays an important role in many stories dealing with the initiation theme. Often, the inner process of initiation, the gaining of experience and insight, is depicted as a physical movement, a journey. This symbolic trip of the protagonist additionally supports the three-part structure, which is usually found ... son sitting next to him. The important parts mainly take place in Nick′s mind as he hangs on to memories of his father, who has committed suicide, and e...

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5. The theme of Alcoholism in Sherman Alexie

... Indians staggering around downtown?" (Alexie 94). He is the one who feeds the whites" generalization of Native Americans as violent drunks. The theme of alcoholism can also be found in short stories by Sherman Alexie and other Native American writers. The theme is especially prominent in the short story "Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play "The Star-Spangled ... Banner" At Woodstock", by Sherman Alexie, which can be found in his collection of stories, The Lone Ranger and ... Tonto Fist Fight In Heaven. In this short story ... ...

  • Word Count: 1246
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6. Evolution of Yiddish Literature from 1382 to the Present

... the life of a Jewish shopkeeper. Another theme from this period is illustrated in "The Jewish Muzhik." The author of this story is expressing a desire to return to the old, traditional lifestyle of the Jews. In roughly 500 years of literature covered in this analysis, we see the beginnings of written Yiddish literature with stories from the Torah. This was characterized by short stories, simple ... language and religious and ethical themes. Later we see the development of mysticism in the stories and more descriptive language. The early 18th ... century starts to see a movement away fro...

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7. Short Story Comparison (Hantu Tetek and Cik Jamilah)

... life story. It has no flashback and not a fiction story. It is about the schoolgirl life in a day. About her teachers, friends, school and many things happened in school. Setting of the story took place at the school and small part in the Cik Jamilah car and the girl house. It is happened in a modern life, which is the same as ... The Hantu Tetek Story. Different from The Hantu Tetek Story, Cik Jamilah was written in first person point of view. The main character is the schoolgirl and Cik Jamilah. Other character is the school guard and the girl father. The story reach it climax when Ci...

  • Word Count: 604
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8. Biography of Sherman Alexie

... "American Dream." His theme addresses what happens when the "American Dream" lands on you. Sherman Alexie is Native American, and his stories expose one of America's dirty little secrets. In the paragraphs that follow, I will review Alexie's life, the genre and style in which he writes, and the overall themes of his work. I will analyze the short story, "Every Little ... career in 1990 when his work was published in Hanging Loose magazine. This initial success gave him the incentive to quit drinking at the age of 23, and he's been sober ever since. His first collection of short stories,...

  • Word Count: 1573
  • Approx Pages: 6
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9. Short Story Points of View

... significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel. Short stories can be told in different point-of-views, like first-person, third-person, or even second-person. All short stories have different structures, themes, atmospheres and different symbols. However, some short stories can have the same structure, the same theme, the same, symbols, the same atmosphere and the same point-of-view. "Hunters in the Snow, "The Lottery,"" and "The ... Rocking-Horse Winner,"" are all told from the same point-of-view, third person. When a story is told ... in the Snow"" and "The Rocking-Horse Winner...

  • Word Count: 551
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10. Analysis Of Alice Munro

... novel, she has had another seven books published and they have all been collections of short stories. Born on July 10, 1931 in Ontario, she had her first short story published in 1950. The majority of her short stories are set in southwestern Ontario. A constant theme Munro focuses on in many of her works of fiction is female protagonists that have problems they must deal with as they are struggling ... with life discoveries. In reading several of Munro's works that theme of discovery becomes clear as the plot of those stories develops. In An Ounce of Cure the story begins discussing a ...

  • Word Count: 977
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