Short Story Essay Examples and Topics

Imagine living to see your best friend die right in front of your eyes from a huge wave and everyday you thought it was your fault for something you couldn’t control. The seventh man tells the story written by author Haruki Murakuami. The story begins…

In Jenny Wolmark’s book, Aliens and Others, she states, “the structure of gender as a social category are shaped by the interactions of gender relations” (Wolmark, 55). Here, the gender relation is involved in multiple issues such as gender inequality. In Octavia Butler’s science fiction…

Everyone has been embarrassed at one time or another. Embarrassing situations are painful and sometimes hard to forget. But when it is successfully overcome, the whole experience becomes amusing moments in our lives, making us stronger and bolder. I have gone through a few embarrassing…

 ‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ is a short story written by a Colombian writer named Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The short story was considered by most as an archetype of magic realism that helps the readers to see reality more closely. The story was…

The first section focuses on our universe and where we fit in. The first chapter details the Big Bang Theory, which suggests that the universe was formed in just a few brief moments, it talks about what is needed to start a universe and how…

The short story “Boy and Girls” takes place in the 1940s. This was era where women were viewed very differently from men. Many of the problems women face in today’s world, in regard to gender stereotypes derive from this time period. The girl in the…

“The Reunion” by John Cheever is an emotionally effective story. The story was short, but fit Poe’s expectations for a short story well. The narrator, Charlie, begins the story by explaining that he is meeting his father, who he has not seen in three years,…

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven The book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven is not so much a novel, but a collection of short stories. The stories in the book focus mainly around two boys growing up on…

A multi-platformed writer, composing novels, poems, and essays, Sandra Cisneros whips up various pieces of literature in order to place the lives of the working class on a pedestal for all to recognize and understand. On December 20th, 1954, Sandra was born in Chicago, Illinois…

There is nothing more compelling than the dramatic power that the villain holds over drama. In the stories of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and William Shakespeare’s play “Othello” , rhetoric proves to be…

Bullying is a real problem in society today, in the past, and will continue to be an issue in the future. Bullies are people who are either insecure about themselves, or they enjoy putting people down. Sometimes people bully in groups because it makes them…

When initially reading Life in the Iron Mills, you take note of the pain and agony that these inhabitants of the land go through in order to survive. Hugh, our character of analyzation, finds a different way of grieving instead of just drinking himself into…

To survive is to continue on with life, even when it seems to be a continuous loop of despair. Authors Murakami, Steinbeck, and Hannaford each bring the idea of survival to life through their work. Murakami’s work focuses on survivor’s guilt, while Steinbeck exaggerates dependence,…

Guilt. You should have saved him… Guilt. You should have helped him… Guilt. You should have…, you should have…, you should have… Guilt is a parasite that overwhelm the person causing to not move on from the past just like the character in “The Seventh…

Since the beginning, humanity has been both animated and terrified by the movement of technology. ‘The Pedestrian,’ a short story by Ray Bradbury, happens in 2053 and pursues a man named Mr. Leonard Mead. Mr. Mead is one of a kind among of a city…

Water wells have been found to be a unique part of America’s past. They have been used in the past as a water resource to supply homes with their water. It is at the well where the children in the story “The Man in the…

When I first heard the title of a short story ‘Puppy’? I thought it was about a puppy as a reliable friend. However, some might also define a puppy as a delicious dish. Why does this one word include so many meanings? In the short…

An abandoned well. Children Playing. One man yelling. With children playing by an abandoned well, the story “The Man in the Well” written by Ira Sher, shows how cruel children can be. The kids were having a fun time and discovered a well, then soon…

Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis is a story about two people living in poverty in an industrialized town that makes iron. What I’ll be focusing on is the portrayal of the Factory town. The town itself is not in the best…

Sandra Cisneros is a Mexican American writer, poet, and artist, born on December 20, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. Her book, Women Hollering Creek and Other Stories, published in 1991, reflects her upbringing of being surrounded by American influences while still being bound to her Mexican…

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos and Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F. Scott Fitzgerald were written in the 1920s in the day of age where young women are starting to embrace a more independent lifestyle away from the patriarchal beliefs society has historically set….

Self-loathing is not something that arises from nowhere, an outside force influence this feeling of inadequacy. This inadequacy can be birthed from personal failure or emotional abuse. It doesn’t matter how much of an impressive specimen one may be, if they are treated inferiorly, they…

‘The Lottery,’ written by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about an obscure village that holds a ‘lottery’ in which an individual of any age is randomly chosen to be stoned to death. The story illustrates the process and which villager was selected to be…

Style, tone, and language are crucial aspects used in writing. It gives the story meaning, or a certain feeling, and helps the reader know what the author is trying to say in a story. The style that the “The Story of an Hour” uses is…

Created in 1905, Mark Twain’s satirical piece The War Prayer was written in reference to the Spanish-American war to condemn the naive prayer of war success. Through euphemistic language showing irony and a tonal shift, Twain makes an appeal to logos to highlight how ignorant…

Abuse exists in many different platforms — whether it be mental or physical, abuse is inhumane and malevolent. Sykes Jones, the antagonist in the short story “Sweat”, creates abusive situations for Delia Jones, the protagonist, with the use of her fears. Delia, who has a…

Ancient German philosopher, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg once said, “Equality which we demand is the most tolerant degree of inequality”. For centuries, humankind has worked towards an equal society, but at what expense and limit? In the short story,” Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. depicts a…

As a famous actress and activist, Susan Sarandon, once said, “When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you”. This meaning that through experience, humans can gain empathy to learn many important and beneficial lessons from…

In life we make many relationships. As humans, we rely on our social experiences to help define who we are. Our relationships with others help define who we are by invoking the fear of despondency, encouraging us to work hard, and by appreciating our values….

After reading “Puppy” by George Saunders, Marie could be described as an almost overly-loving mother who would do anything for the people she loves. She enjoys bringing animals home to her two kids and husband even though they don’t really have the money for some…

In thermodynamics entropy is the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system. The world is full of examples that the universe tends towards highest entropy. For example, a campfire shows solid wood inevitably turn into ash and smoke, signifying the foreseeable end of stability,…

The idea of love’s motivation takes on a nontraditional form throughout Puppy by George Saunders. The internal conflict Marie struggles with was developed as a child when her mother did not show the love for her she believed other children her age received. She tries…

Zora Neale Hurston was a writer of novels, short stories and plays that depicted African Americans living in the South. The short story “Sweat ” is about a woman who is abused and mistreated by her husband. This is a female empowerment story that shows…

Innovation has become some portion of our every day lives in the year 2020, however innovation will turn out to be substantially more refined and solid in the more extended term, and not generally in an incredible way. Inside the short story ‘The Pedestrian,’ it…

An unreliable narrator creates multiple surprises in a story. As a reader, we tend to trust the words of the narrator but their word, at times, can be contradictory. They seem to tell lies within the story and which then shows a sense of rejection…

“The capital-T Truth is about life before death.” This excerpt from David Wallace’s This is Water is a commanding thought which forces readers to assess their own lives and how they in many ways have become a victim to time. It forces readers like myself…

In the excerpt from A Level Playing Field the author includes sources that enhance his voice. Gerald Early purposefully chose his sources to reinforce the historical accuracy of the difficulty faced by Jackie Robinson while being the first black man integrated in baseball. The first…

Throughout the end of time people have based their decisions on the opinions of other people. In a person’s life there might be certain situations where they do not do what they really dream of doing or going outside the box, because they are fearful…