There is a fairly large group of authors that fall into the short story genre. These
authors use these short stories to show people things that they might not have seen
before, or maybe something they should look at in more detail. These short stories can
often show the countless sides of human nature. With the introduction of certain tools,
authors can show their readers certain sides of humanity, and oftentimes certain sides of
the readers themselves.
In the story "The Most Dangerous Game," the author Richard Connell shows that
oftentimes, when man is given the opportunity to change, he will not. Rainsford is
considered to be a static character in this story in that we the audience do not see a
change in his mentality towards hunting: he still feels the same. The author also uses
the Man-to-Man conflict of Zaroff hunting Rainsford to contrast what Rainsford was going
to the Amazon to do.
Thomas Wolfe shows in "The Child by Tiger," that dealing with the pressures of racism in
the rural south can cause ones barrier against it to finally collapse. In this story,
Thomas Wolfe uses the repeated symbol of the cat to show that Dick Prosser was like a
caged animal that wanted to lash out at the world, and when pushed to the edge, the
symbolic cage opened, and he was set loose. The use of Man-versus-Society conflict is
also evident in the fact that Prosser lashed out against the whole society and not at one
part in particular.
In the story "Paul's Case," Willa Cather tries to show that not sharing ones personal
feelings can be destructive to a persons subconscious, and cause him/her to do things to
get away from their feelings. The use of Man-versus-society conflict is evident in that
Paul is always getting in trouble for what he does. No one understands why he does the
things that he does, so he suffers suspension from the school, or other forms of
punishment. The use of symbolism is also shown in the red carnation that Paul wears in
the beginning of the story, and the dying carnation that we see at the end of the story.
It symbolizes the dying feeling that is inside him, that no one could ever really
understand him, and he was foolish for thinking that he could give them a chance. With
the Omniscient point of view that Willa Cather uses, we are able to see the teachers
thoughts on Pauls' behavior, and are able to understand why he is feeling that no one is
able to understand him.
These three stories are only a few selected out of a vast variety of stories, but even
in these few stories, the tools used in their writing are evident. From the
characterization in "The Most Dangerous Game," to the point of view in "Paul's Case," the
tools help in the understanding of the story. With the use of the literary tools such as
point of view, conflict, and characterization, we are able to understand what the author
is trying to tell us in the theme of the stories that they write.
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