Short Story Essay Examples and Topics

A little before darkness set in on town of Suame, it rained heavily and before I could barely hold my eyes open that night, the sky was still moody, as if to warn us of a doom approaching. With the clouds colliding, one could sense…

The short story, “Birdsong,” was written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche and takes place in Lagos, Nigeria. It’s about an angry young woman who had an affair with an older, married businessman. The affair proceeded somewhat predictably, but the woman’s anger and her observations about her…

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks is an emotional love story that show the strong connection of two soulmates and their lives after a summer the two cannot forget. Some opine that the novel is not tragic due to the fact that their love is unbroken…

Image your grandmother, little ol’ grandma on twitter. Tweeting her heart away. That is Joyce Carol Oates. However, she wasn’t always the little old lady on twitter. She’s a writer, an editor, a playwright, a professor, etc. Throughout her life, Joyce Carol Oates has gone…

Julio Cortázar’s “House Taken Over” is a masterful exploration of the interplay between imagination and reason, where the familiar is gradually usurped by the unknown. In this essay, we will delve deeper into the subtopics, examining the initial sense of security, the invasion of the…

“Lather and Nothing Else” is a thought-provoking short story by Hernando Téllez that presents readers with a moral dilemma faced by a barber. In this tale, the barber finds himself in a unique position of power and responsibility when Captain Torres, a brutal military officer…

Life is a tapestry woven with choices, each one a thread that contributes to the intricate pattern of our existence. In the short story “What of This Goldfish Would You Wish?” by Etgar Keret, the protagonist, Yonatan, is faced with a profound moral dilemma when…

It’s Hard to Be a Vampire, by Viktoria Faust includes eight short stories involving vampires or worlds of a paranormal nature. I was attracted to this book because short story collections are often not as drawn out as full-length novels can be — this way…

Throughout the reading, Marina is conducting many interviews with students from Yale about the real world. It seems as though everyone has a different opinion on their career choices, and what they will be doing in the following year. I think Marina found the career…

Introduction America in some cases gives the opportunity to obtain and achieve the American dream. But this also doesn’t apply to everyone or anyone. So the “American Dream” is basically that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and happiness through…

Hills Like White Elephants Evaluation Hills Like White Elephants is an expressive and symbolic short by Hemingway, which portrays a failing relationship, caused by a mysterious “operation”. The author illustrates the inevitability of the characters’ separation and the deterioration of their past romance through the…

Everyone has their own ways of doing things. We are all curious on how people do things differently than us on a daily basis. In “Us and Them”, David Sedaris, author and playwriter, tells a story of a boy’s perspective of a growing interest towards…

How does television become part of our life? The televisions had changed from the symbol of high class to the most common device in our life because of the rapid growth of technology. In the article “Us and Them”, the author Sedaris highlights his attitude…

Introduction Alienation is the emotional detachment or isolation from society. Characters that are alienated feel ostracized and do not take part in their society. It can also be described as the loss of hope, a loss of faith, or unbelief. Alienation is not just a…

Margaret Atwood’s Lusus Naturae is a story about a girl who is outcasted by society and her family because of her genetic disorder. The first sentence caught my attention, “what could be done with me, what should be done with me?” (Atwood 240). The opening…