Short Story Definition

Features of a Short Story. As a short story is mostly a short narrative and has few features. The standard features include exposition, complication, crisis, climax, and resolution of the crisis. However, it is not essential that all short stories follow the same pattern. Examples of Short Stories from Literature Example #1. The Happy Prince. Examples of Common Types of Diction Different styles of diction impact how a writer expresses an idea or message. In turn, writers utilize diction as a literary device to influence the way a reader understands or interprets the idea or message that is being expressed in a particular style. Experiencing Reality. Once, when my wife and I were meditating, I got into a special state: I had forgotten my name, my history, and anything else about.

A short story is a fully developed story which is shorter than a novel and longer than a fable. It typically takes just a single sitting for reading. Short Story focuses on the incidents bigger or smaller and evokes strong feelings from its readers. A short story often has a few characters in the plot.

Features of a Short Story

As a short story is mostly a short narrative and has few features. The standard features include exposition, complication, crisis, climax, and resolution of the crisis. However, it is not essential that all short stories follow the same pattern.

Examples of Short Stories from Literature

Example #1

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

The Happy Prince is one of the best stories written in English Literature written by Oscar Wilde. The story shows how the elites of that kingdom neglect the poor. And the statue of the Happy Prince takes help of a Swallow to help the poor of the city. One by one, the Prince starts losing his precious stones, rubies, and gold leaves when the Swallow starts plucking them give to the poor that the Prince can see from his high pedestal. The dramatic irony of the story reaches the climax when the city mayor sees the dead bird and the ugly broken statue. When the statue is sent to a furnace, God invites the Prince and the Swallow to live in the City of Gold in heaven.

Example #2

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In the short story of The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte sheds light on the difficulties faced by the narrator of the story, due to depression after the childbirth. Her husband John, a physician, takes her to a countryside home for the cure and assumes that she is suffering from hysteria. He doesn’t allow her to do her favorite activities, like writing which helps her escape reality. She is also distant to her child. After a while, she is obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room and imagines that a woman, like her, is stuck in it and wants to come out. To help the imaginary woman, the narrator starts peeling the wallpaper. By the end of the story, John, sees her creeping around the room and faints. The story also highlights how many women are ignored by their spouses, leading them to depression.

Example #3

Example Of A Memoir Paper

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is another wonderful example of a short horror story. In the story, the anonymous narrator tells about the murder of an old man that he has committed in cold-blood because he had ‘vulture eyes’. The story is told in the first-person narrative and explores the state of mind of a person. The narrator has hallucinations after the murder when he feels guilty. He convinces the readers that he is not insane. By the end of the story, he continues to hallucinate and asks what to do to make the old man’s heart stop. This is an excellent example of a short story having a few characters and a complicated theme.

Example #4

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

This story is an extraordinary piece of its time. Louise Mallard, probably oppressed by her husband, is relieved when she sees the prospects of freedom after the death of her husband. She rejoices and imagines a bright future after receiving the news. However, Brently Mallard, Louise’ husband returns home. The pain of her failing dreams causes her to suffer a heart attack and death. The doctor assumes that she has died of heart failure as she couldn’t absorb the happiness at her husband’s arrival.

Example #5

The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant

The Necklace is one of the best short stories. It revolves around the life of a clerk in the ministry of education and his extraordinarily beautiful wife, Mathilda. She borrows an expensive necklace from her friend for a ball but loses it when they are returning home. They, somehow, arrange to replace it after purchasing the original necklace with borrowed money and spend their lives in the struggle to pay back the loan. After several years, they met the same friend again. To their horror, she tells them that her necklace was fake.

Short Memoir Examples About Yourself

Example #6

To Build a Fire by Jack London

To Build a Fire is the story of an anonymous character who leaves home for a destination on the Yukon trail but faces heavy snow which makes him fall. He tries to kill his dog to keep himself alive, but the dog also senses his intentions. Later, he tries to make the fire but does not succeed and dies. His struggle and his wrong notion about his strength and thinking power prove fatal for him. This is one of the best short stories without the names of the characters.

Short Story Meaning and Function

A short story presents one aspect of the life of a character. It could be an incident, an event, a description of a feeling, or even a simple act. A short story can also impact a reader and even inspire them. For persons who cannot read novels, enjoy reading the short stories. Moreover, in a short story, the characters also share their innermost thoughts, their motives, their feelings, their emotions, and different notions.

Writing a memoir is about more than describing events that have happened in your life; it's also an exercise in writing on a theme. These three powerful memoir examples will demonstrate how to draw people into a stranger's life story. Along with our sample, they will help you craft your own memoir to engage readers and share insights from your life.

Three Memoir Examples to Inspire

A good memoir relays real-life events in an engaging way. Studying memoirs can help you write a personal essay for a college application or an assignment, and it can improve your own storytelling abilities.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a famous memoir by poet Maya Angelou, available from Penguin Classics. It chronicles her experience of growing up amid racial bigotry and personal challenge. It's not just her heartwrenching tale but also the vivid imagery that makes it a page-turner.

The dress I wore was lavender taffeta, and each time I breathed it rustled, and now that I was sucking in air to breathe out shame it sounded like crepe paper on the back of hearses.

Angela's Ashes

Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Angela's Ashes, tells the story of his upbringing in the Irish slums during the era of the Great Depression. Published by Simon and Schuster, this memoir reads like a novel as Frank somehow manages to withstand an unspeakably difficult childhood.

When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while.

All Creatures Great and Small

James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small proves that a memoir doesn't have to deal with triumph over adversity; it can also be about finding wisdom and joy in the everyday. This beloved classic, published by MacMillan, tells the tale of Herriot's life as a country veterinarian in the Yorkshire Dales.

Example Of A Memoir Outline

I lay face down on the cobbled floor in a pool of nameless muck, my arm deep inside the straining cow, my feet scrabbling for a toe hold between the stones.

Short Memoir Examples For Kids

Writing a Memoir: An Example

Imagine you want to write a memoir about your experience as a shy child who had just moved to a rural community. This process can help.

List Real Life Facts

Start with a list of facts and experiences that you may want to include:

• You had no friends except your dog.
• Your dad left your family the previous year.
• Your mom made you join Girl Scouts, and you needed to sell cookies door-to-door.
• People in this town were suspicious of outsiders.
• Because you had just joined the Girl Scouts, you didn't have very many badges yet.

Identify a Theme and Conflict

Before you begin writing, you need to know your theme. What do you want readers to learn from your memoir? You also need a central conflict. Study the types of conflicts in stories and decide which one you want to use.

• Theme - People aren't always what they seem.
• Conflict - You must face your fears in order to grow stronger.

Organize the Story to Build Tension

Now that you know the conflict and the theme you want the reader to understand, you need to organize the story so the tension builds toward the conflict. This is something you can do in a memoir that does not ordinarily happen in an autobiography.

In this example, you could arrange the events as follows:

1. The Girl Scout troop leader hands out the cookies and says that if you sell 24 boxes, you will earn a badge for your uniform. You really want the badge.
2. You load the cookies in your wagon and set off to make some sales. As you stand in front of the first house, you are afraid to knock.
3. You remember a previous experience knocking on the door of a house and having it slammed in your face.
4. You walk up to the house and are greeted by a grumpy old woman.
5. You make the sale.
6. Eventually, you receive your badge for selling 24 boxes.

Sample Memoir Excerpt

Putting all these pieces together, here is an example of how the narrative outlined above might play out in the actual text of the memoir:

The gravel crunched under the wheels of my red wagon. My father had bought it for me the week before he left us, and I'd never used it before. I hadn't wanted to use it, not even today, but I needed something to haul the cookies.

I stopped in front of Mrs. Nelson's house. I could feel her looking at me through the lace curtains, even though I couldn't see her. Now that I wasn't pulling the wagon, everything was silent. There was no wind. Even the birds had stopped their chirping. The curtain in Mrs. Nelson's front window moved a little bit.

Last year, the same month my dad had driven away, I'd had to sell chocolate bars for my old school. Dad had promised to take me, but he didn't. So while Mom was at work, I'd packed up the chocolate bars and knocked on the door across the street. When the door opened, I began to talk about my school. Before I'd even explained why I was there, the lady had slammed the door in my face. I was the only kid who didn't sell any chocolate bars that year.

Now, I took a deep breath and pulled the wagon up Mrs. Nelson's front walk. The paint was peeling on her railing, and her front door was a dirty white. I knocked, and the sound seemed to echo.

She opened the door a crack and grumbled, 'What do you want?'

Difference Between a Memoir and an Autobiography

Both memoirs and autobiographies involve a person writing about his or her own life, but that's where the similarities stop. These are a few of the key differences:

• Scope - An autobiography covers a set period of time in a person's life or often, the entire life. A memoir may skip around or only cover one or two events.
• Purpose - An autobiography's purpose is to inform a reader or record events. A memoir's purpose is to explore a theme and pass on insights.
• Length - An autobiography is generally a book-length manuscript. A memoir can be any length, from a personal essay of a few pages to an entire book.
• Tone - Because the purpose is different, the tone may be different too. An autobiography is often more formal and factual sounding, while a memoir may employ more humor and casual writing.

Get Inspiration From Fiction Too

Rather than just relaying the facts, a memoir is about telling a great story. It needs to have a central conflict or theme, and then arrange the story so the tension builds. In addition to reviewing memoir examples, take a look at some examples of short stories for inspiration. You'll find that even though they are factual, memoirs have a lot in common with fiction.

B.A. English