‘Instructor’s name’
Short fiction is one of the oldest forms of literature and has been there throughout most part of the human civilization in the form of fairy tales, parables and myths. The current model of short literature took form sometimes during the early nineteenth century in North America, and was popularized by the periodical journals. All through the history of art many forms of literature were famous during a given era, like the drama in the sixteenth century and essays in the eighteenth century. But throughout most of the nineteenth century, novels and short stories were the most popular forms of literature. Over the past two centuries, like many other disciplines of art, short fiction too has developed with addendums and modifications. The aim of this essay is to trace these changes that occurred in short stories, with reference to content, structure and tone, by ways of analyzing three short stories written during various periods.
Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be one of the crucial figures who contributed to the development of short fiction. His story "Fall of the House of Usher", first published in the year 1839, is one of his most anthologized works, and is an epitome of the earlier definitions of short story. Poe popularly opined that, a short story should be readable in a single sitting and its structure should be like poetry, with all its elements unwaveringly travelling towards the primary emotion the author intends to evoke in his readers. And this story meets all the requirement of that definition with its plot, imagery, dialogues and characterization aimed at evoking, psychological horror and a sense of heightening suspense in its readers.
The plot revolves around the Usher house, to which the narrator pays a visit, on the request of his friend, Roderick Usher, who like many of Poe’s characters suffers from a psychiatric condition, characterized by excessive worry about health and fearing almost anything extraordinary. Few days into his stay, Roderick says that his twin sister is dead and asks his friend to help him place her body in a vault in the house for two weeks before burying, as it is the custom of their family to do so. Next week Roderick comes to the narrator’s room, which is situated directly above the vault, in the middle of the night looking very agitated and the narrator reads a story to calm him. Narrator then finds out that the twin sister is actually not dead and she breaks into the room falling on her brother and both of them die. The narrator runs away from the house and once he is outside the house breaks into two.
As we see the plot of this story confirms to the horror genre and is aligned with the overall theme of the story. But apart from the plot all the other elements too are aligned in the same direction, like we do not see any lighter moment shared between the characters and all the dialogues between them only serve to increase the suspense effect of the story. Both Roderick and his sister are portrayed to be gloomy and fear invoking. Roderick’s appearance is described to be ‘The now ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things startled and even awed me’ (Poe, 1939) and while referring to Madeline the narrator says ‘I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread’. (Poe, 1939) Even the setting, which is the Usher house, is described using gloomy expressions bringing the readers into the mood of a horror story. Thus we see Poe’s ‘fall of the House of Usher’ is an example of the nineteenth century short fiction, which had a singular theme(usually inspired by a real life event) and all the elements of the story is arranged in sync with this theme.
The dawn of twentieth century can be considered the golden period for short stories, and Anton Chekov (1860-1904) emerged as the most influential writer of this period. His writings almost started a new trend whereby the stories did not always have good triumph over evil, and did not contain any moral messages such as virtue will bring success. His narration was random and the incidents of the plot were not always chronologically presented. His characters were with faults and he never tried to justify their actions nor did he judge them. By not working towards a climax (unlike the works of earlier writers like Poe), his stories were more lifelike, with no beginning or ending, and were just a narrative of a phase of life in his characters.
A typical example of this style is ‘The Lady with the Pet dog’ which was published on the penultimate year of the nineteenth century (1899) and almost ushered in the new millennium with a new variety of writing. Gurov, a married man who is unfaithful to his wife with frequent affairs with many women, is attracted towards Anna, while he is vacationing in a place called Yalta. Anna too is stuck with an unhappy marriage and they both get involved in a passionate affair with each other. After the vacation they return to their respective homes, but are not able to forget each other. Later Gurov unable to resist anymore, finds Anna in Moscow and they two meet secretively. Gurov realizes that he has for the first time fell truly in love, and Anna too reciprocates his feelings and both of them try to work out a plan for their future.
“It was clear to both of them that they had still a long, long road before them, and that the most complicated and difficult part of it was only just beginning. “ (Chekov, 1899)
As discussed earlier this story encapsulates all the new developments that crept into short story writing, like a bolder theme, more real life like characters with moral follies and weaknesses. There is no specified ending and the story does not travel towards a climax.
The twentieth century brought with it a breed of writers famously known as the ‘lost generation’. These are writers who came of age during or immediately after the World War I era, and they mostly rejected the established American values. There was a cynicism prevalent in the society due to the huge life losses that took place in the course of the war and many things changed, including short stories. This period, also known as Jazz age, saw a lot of experimentation and denial of the established Victorian styles. Writers used new themes such as self-exile and spiritual isolation. The florid prose favored during the nineteenth century gave way to clear prose styles, and a famous phenomenon to emerge in this period was leaving out important details in the story and thereby forcing the reader to guess them, which in a way gave more strength to the plot. These writers had a profound effect on the mid twentieth century short stories and the writers that followed them introduced more elements like, grotesque characters, religious messages, violence, humor and social issues, to bring more reality into the short fiction domain. The short stories of this era came a long way from Poe’s style of pre-designed writing, with each part of the story shifting and wavering with the mood of the author.
‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ by Flannery O’Connor, written in the year 1953, is particularly famous for its disturbing ending. The story which starts with humorous undertones and high spirits of vacationing ends in a violent way, thus the structure of the story is far from linear. A family which is on its way to spending holidays in Tennessee takes a diversion on their way and meets a wanted serial killer, known as misfit. After having a religious debate with the character called ‘grandmother’, the misfit finishes off the entire family. Being a devout Catholic, O’Connor always wrote stories which had religious undertones. Her stories used grotesque characters and through their experiences she asserted the grace of the supreme power. She delineates her visions not by gentle explanations but by shocking the readers into reality.
In this story the two main characters are the Grandmother and the Misfit, and the entire plot revolves around their beliefs and convictions. The story is more like a contest between the Grandmother’s religious beliefs and the convict’s cynical view of Jesus Christ’s actions. The story is filled with many aspects such as Southern Humor, the unease of influence, Christian Humanism, Social stratification and Existentialism. The Misfit believed the mistakes done by him are trivial and he did not deserve the punishments incurred by him. He claims that there is no balance between guilt and penalty. The Grandmother, on the other hand, proclaims herself to be a religious person, but is actually nothing but a self-centered person who has little regard for others. She repeatedly says, “Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady” (O’Connor, 1953) It is these two misguided belief systems which guide the story, and the finale of the story aptly captures the clash of the personalities of the Grandmother and Misfit. Through these two characters O’Connor has tried to convey how different people perceive ‘being good’ in different ways. Thus, we see that short stories in the 1950s had more grotesqueness and psychoanalytical themes, with radical experimentation in both structure and content of the stories.
Coming to the late twentieth century short stories became even more psycho analytic, self searching and dealing with protagonists who were mostly severely flawed and searching for identity. Troubled youth, wavering ideals and narcissism were some of the important themes dealt. Minimalism occupied central stage and themes generally circled around the complex nature of human personality. An example to this phenomenon is the Jesus' Son collection, which is a compilation of short stories written by Dennis Johnson, published in the year 1993.These stories though are seemingly incoherent, filled with ramblings of the narrator who is a drug addict, but conveys beautifully crafted messages. For example in the story ‘The Other Man’ the narrator tells how he met a Polish man in a ferryboat and the conversation that took place. Later he conveys how when he told the story before to others, they speculated that the Polish man made a pass on him. He then observes the patients at a hospital and ends up in a bar with a woman. Though there seems to be no obvious plot there are insights about human nature sprinkled all over the story. For instance, the narrator is not able to assess the Polish man’s flirtations, which displays his inability to interpret his situations. On the other hand he is able to understand the patients, thereby suggesting he has an understanding of other people’s situations.
“This man and this man, they don't have their health. Their solitudes are fearful. And then they find one another. But do you think one is ever going to visit the other one's grave?” (Johnson, 1993)
This story would make Poe rethink his definition for short story, as it neither has the unity of themes suggested by Poe and witnessed in ‘Fall of the House of Usher”, nor does it has a free flowing narration. It also varies widely with Chekov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog” which had a central plot and dealt with the life of two main characters and though it did not have a singular theme like Poe’s work, it still had a direction. Johnson story is closer to O’Connor’s work than the other stories of our discussion, as this story too depicts grotesque characters. Like the Grandmother and Misfit, the narrator of this story too is, self centered and seemingly without any morals. But Johnson does not aim at religious messages but just narrates a scene in the life of the narrator with very realistic character portrayals and settings. The minimalistic dialogues and lack of elaborate descriptions, whereby the entire story is conveyed through the exchanges between the characters rather than through the author’s thoughts and descriptions, accentuate the contemporary style of short fiction in the Jesus’ Son collection.
Short stories, unlike the novel, have a major constraint in terms of their brevity. So writers have to possess clarity of expression and instead of giving out facts should mostly guide the readers into assessing the characters and the message of the story. For this to happen the structure, content and tone of short stories should remain contemporary and evolve with time, as it had done during these past millennia.
Works cited
Chekov, Anton. The Lady with the Pet dog. 1899. in The Art of the Short Story, Edited by Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.Print.
O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. 1953. In The Art of the Short Story, Edited by Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.Print.
Johnson, Dennis. The Other Man. In Jesus’ Son. New York; Harper Perennial, 1993. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. Fall of the House of Usher.1839. In The Art of the Short Story, Edited by Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. Print.
