As a short story writer, O. Henry is credited with creating new archetypical fiction characters, employing surprise endings and plot twists, and using language creatively, especially puns. Many of his short stories, including ‘‘A Retrieved Reformation,’’ also demonstrate the author’s prowess with symbolism. Though his stories are often brief, the symbolism he utilizes make them…
Tag: Analysis
An Outpost of Progress – Essay
‘‘An Outpost of Progress’’ may rightly be viewed as a less masterful attempt to explore the themes and setting that would later prove critical to the success of Heart of Darkness . However, the story offers insight into Conrad’s later work because of its relative lack of ambiguity and unmistakable narrative voice. It is also…
An Outpost of Progress – Themes – Colonialism
Civilization Versus Savagery The descent of Kayerts and Carlier seems to reflect the notion that there exists in every ‘‘civilized’’ person a potential for savagery that is kept at bay by the comforts of modern society. The men are described as ‘‘two perfectly insignificant and incapable individuals, whose existence is only rendered possible through the…
An Outpost of Progress – Analysis
It would be easy to simply label ‘‘An Outpost of Progress’’ a tale that depicts the horrors of colonialism and focus serious scholarly attention on some of Conrad’s meatier, more symbolic works. Indeed, the relative lack of critical study of the story suggests there are few treasures to unearth in its comparatively short length. However,…
The Jewels by Guy de Maupassant – Analysis – Essay
Like many great writers and artists throughout history, Guy de Maupassant took an ‘‘outsider’s view’’ of the world around him. That is, he did not subscribe to the prevailing values and beliefs of the culture in which he lived, and he was thus able to observe them from a critical distance. His outsider’s stance is…
Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants – Analysis
Nadine Gordimer’s fiction is widely admired for laying bare how hierarchical structures of social power operate in everyday life. Through her character’s interactions, motivations, attitudes, and assumptions, Gordimer sketches a social landscape bounded by inequality and haunted by the active presence of injustice. In Gordimer’s South Africa, the segregation and oppression of the majority black…
The Garden of Stubborn Cats – Literary Analysis
Italo Calvino is a writer whose work has been variously characterized as postmodernism, neo-realism, fantasy, science fiction, metafiction, and magic realism. Though all these terms are correct, ‘‘The Garden of Stubborn Cats,’’ like the other stories contained in Marcovaldo , fits best into the category of magic realism. The designation of ‘‘The Garden of Stubborn…
The Fence by Hamsad Ringkuti – Analysis
In ‘‘The Fence,’’ Rangkuti explores how artificial boundaries affect humans. In this simply written story, the author poses important and thought-provoking questions about fences— artificial boundaries built with the purpose of protecting something. Rangkuti questions whether a fence is truly protective or offers a false sense of security. He suggests that the principles of faith,…
End of the Game – Analysis
‘‘End of the Game’’is a story about the end of childhood innocence and thereby an end to the rich imaginative, colorful world that the children live in. The reader meets the characters, Letitia, Holanda, and the Narrator as they are in transition between living almost exclusively in their childhood world of fantasy and having to…
A Devoted Son – Analysis – Essay
In a review of Anita Desai’s short story collection Diamond Dust and Other Stories novel Fasting, Feasting , Edward Hower comments, ‘‘In Anita Desai’s fiction, home is both a prison and a refuge. Those who escape face isolation from their families and society, but those who stay risk suffocation. Family tensions make her characters’ attempts…