Favorite Short Stories

Hey, guys!

So, it's been a few days and, while I'm still sad, I am feeling a lot better about my grandfather's death. Sad but part of life.

Anyway, since I'm feeling better, I thought that I should start posting some more reviews for this week, which seems like a very smart idea. So, while I prepare for that, I thought I would start off easy by making a new list. And since I've had an idea for a list for a while and haven't gotten to it yet, I thought I should start with that one.

And in case you missed the title of this post, be aware that this is not another post about Disney movies. And I promise I'm not lying. Really, I'm not. This list is going to be about my favorite short stories. I took a course last semester on short stories, so I've got some pretty good ones.

Just kidding! This list is going to be about Disney . . . gotcha, didn't I?

Seriously though, these are my favorite short stories.


1) "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway

Many many things I love about this short story. For one thing, it's short. As in it's only a couple of pages long. And it's mostly dialogue. But it says so much - if you're willing to read between the lines. Otherwise, it will make no sense whatsoever. And that's the beauty of it: it forces you to think about it in order to get it.

2) "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka

This story is significantly longer than Hemingway's, but it's still just as good. It's about a man who is transformed into a giant cockroach and his family has to take care of him. This is such a great example of using metaphor within a short story, because in this case, the conflict is the metaphor. His transformation into a cockroach is a metaphor for falling ill. Very powerful metaphor. Not to mention, it's a very enjoyable read with characters who are easy to relate to.

3) "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This is a short story about a young woman suffering from depression. Her husband is a doctor and doesn't treat her depression like it's an actual illness. In other words, he doesn't take her seriously. And this is a very interesting story, because you can't be sure how much of it is real and how much of it is the young woman's hallucinations. It's the kind of story that distorts reality, the way the main character's reality is distorted by her depression.

4) "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This is one of the first stories I read for The Short Story, and I found it incredibly intriguing. It's by Hawthorne, so if you guys have read The Scarlet Letter, it's basically the same time period. And it's about Goodman Brown taking a walk into the woods one night to join a cult, having some doubts about joining, and discovering that nearly everyone he knew in the town is already a member. Everybody has something to hide; that kind of thing.

5) "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe

Of course I have to include Poe in this list. The father of detective and horror fiction. This story falls in the horror genre. I don't want to give a summary because it is a short story and I can't say anything about Poe without giving the whole creep factor away. Suffice it to say that this story is much like "The Yellow Wallpaper" in that you don't know how much of it is real and how much of it is the ravings of a madman. But like I said: it's Poe.


Well, seems like I'm off to a pretty good start with getting back to blogging. Sorry it's been so long, guys. But you are aware that there has been a death in the family that has been very hard on everyone because my grandfather was so well loved.

Plus, my laptop is no good for blogging anymore, so I have to try to snag the computer whenever my parents aren't using it. And that's hard.

Anyway, I'm past the halfway point with Pet Sematary by Stephen King, so that's up and coming. Be sure to leave comments if there's a specific book out there that you want to read a review about, a list you would like me to write, or if you have feedback about my blog. Don't be shy, now.

Happy reading!!