ENG1001 Diagnostic Essay

Write a brief essay on the central characteristics that, in your view, contribute to a successful or satisfying story. Use any or all of the Module 1 stories as examples to illustrate your ideas. You may, if you wish, refer to other short stories you’re familiar with, but be sure to use at least one story from the required readings. You’re free to borrow or adapt any of the ideas introduced in Module 1, or you may introduce your own. You’re entirely free to select the story features you want to write about.

 

Satisfying Story and Elements

The genre of short story has emerged as one of the most important ones within the cannon of the modern day Literature. The major reasons for the popularity which this particular genre of Literature has attained in the recent times can be attributed to the facts that they are not short pieces that can be easily competed within one single sitting but at the same time they are rich with the elements that make up a satisfying story (D'hoker and Eggermont 58: 291-312). Some of the major elements that make a satisfying story for the readers are empathy, realism, discussion of contemporary issues, well contrived plot and others (Reid 43-57). They are essential elements of a satisfying story because of the fact that most of the readers look for them in a well written story and they also add to the pleasure of the readers. This essay will discuss about the concepts of empathy and realism which make a satisfying and also an enjoyable story.

One of the major expectations of the various readers from a short story is the fact that they would be able to not sympathize with the protagonists but empathize with them (Shaw 78-91). This is generally considered to be one of the major elements of a satisfying story because of the fact that the majority of the readers are of the viewpoint that if they cannot empathize with the protagonist or put themselves in their shoes then it is not worthwhile for them (Shaw 78-91). This is one of the major reasons for the success of the story “Araby” by James Joyce since at one point of time or another each of the readers had felt the same kind of sensations for some girl and also similar kind of frustration (Rokeya and Ahammed 8: 140-144).

The second element which contributes in a significant manner to make a story a satisfying one is the concept of realism. Most of the readers do not like to read the kind of stories that have unrealistic elements or entities in them (DeMarinis 45-65). Thus, it is generally seen that the majority of the short stories of the present times try to take the help of this particular element to make the stories much more satisfying (DeMarinis 45-65). One of the most common examples of this particular element is found in the short story “Royal Beatings” by Alice Munro wherein it is seen that the author instead of telling an unrealistic story narrates the tale of a family which is redolent with not only love but also hatred (Fiamengo and Lynch 89-104).

To conclude, a story needs to have diverse kinds of elements like empathy, realism and others in order to make it appealing to the readers. These satisfying elements have become an integral part of the short stories and contribute much to the fun or the satisfying elements of the stories. Thus, the writers need to incorporate them within the framework of the story to make it more satisfying.

Reference

DeMarinis, Rick. The Art & Craft of the Short Story. Open Road Media, 2016.

D'hoker, Elke, and Stephanie Eggermont. "Fin-de-Siècle Women Writers and the Modern Short Story." English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 58.3 (2015): 291-312.

Fiamengo, Janice, and Gerald Lynch, eds. Alice Munro’s Miraculous Art: Critical Essays. University of Ottawa Press, 2017.

Reid, Ian. The short story. Vol. 34. Routledge, 2017.

Rokeya, Ms, and AK Zunayet Ahammed. "A Shattering Epiphany in James Joyce’s “Araby”." Advances in Language and Literary Studies 8.5 (2017): 140-144.

Shaw, Valerie. The short story: a critical introduction. Routledge, 2014.