Friday, September 12, 2008

Lucio, Michael, Shaelynn, Roy, and Danielle's Group

What literary aspects draw people into a story? What has been your favorite short story that we've read so far and why? What story has impacted you the most and why?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Personally, I'm drawn to narratives like "The Appointment in Samarra" and "Desiree's Baby" that are focused more on plot. I really enjoyed "The Appointment in Samarra" for its use of a causal paradox between the servant and Death.

james said...

Point of view draws people into a story by showing the thoughts and feelings of the stories characters. Point of view can also show the past of some characters. I really liked reading "A & P" by John Updike. This short story is great because Updike is a master of point of view. He definitely wins over the audience by showing the first person point of view of the store clerk, Sammy. With the first person point of view, there is a dominate main character, and for a short story the first person point of view is great because Updike doesn't have to show his audience every character in a short amount of reading. Updike only has to reveal Sammy to us. With this point of view Updike can really concentrate on his delivery of Sammy to us. If another point of view or literary element were employed in this short story it would not be the same it would be a whole other story due in whole to the change of delivery.

Unknown said...

I have to say that I am drawn into stories that use suspense as an element. My favorite story so far has been "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". In my opinion, it was very suspenseful, and I like that it had a suprise ending. I'm not quite sure which story has impacted me the most, but I felt the strongest connection with "Young Goodman Brown". The character's struggle with faith is something that I can relate to.

Anonymous said...

Much like a lot of things this is a very opinion based question. Everyone is drawn to stories for their own reasons. Even with these three answers, each answer is different. I like stories, such as, Marquez's story. Fantasy and ability to weave a broad, deep story are very high on my reasoning for likely a story. So, the story about an old angel who stays in a chicken coop, is very entertaining in my mind.