WHAT MAKES A SHORT STORY A SHORT STORY?

D.M. Reyes ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY

IT’S NOT THE PROSE.

• Non-fiction also uses prose.

• Some stories have been written as poems. (e.g. Vikram Seth’s “The Golden Gate”)

IT’S NOT MAINLY THE PEOPLE IN IT.

• At least 1 short story (“Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains”) has no characters in it.

NOT SOLELY THE SETTING

• Yes, a story requires grounding in time and space

• But even poems and essays do

IT’S THE CONFLICT THAT MAKES A STORY.

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He learnt about this from someone and decided to make the move.

Somehow he got a basket of blowfish and carried it home quietly.

Three successive years of disastrous harvest left him with barely enough grain to pay the landowner and little to feed his family of five. It had been excruciatingly difficult for him, all alone, to pull the family through from last winter to early spring. Now, all that was left was hunger.

But how could he let his family suffer hunger?

When his family saw him back with a full basket, they all jumped for joy, as if he were an angel.

The kids met him at the door, half dancing.

“Pop, Pop! What is it? Let’s eat it!”

At this tears welled up in his eyes.

“Eat,” he mumbled, terrified by his own voice, terrified for the lives of his kids; his heart nearly froze.

He told his wife to cook the fish and then left on the pretext of an errand. Not that he didn’t want to die himself, but that he didn’t want to watch with his own eyes how his family would die. So he wanted to stay away for the time being.

It was well past noon and he was still not back. The kids had been pleading with their mother for the fish.

Now, his wife, who had been through a lot with him and loved him dearly, would never let the kids eat or taste anything before he had the first bite.

By the time the sun began to set in the west, the blowfish was still being cooked in the wok. It was then that he came back home, as if walking on air, dreading each step, his mind filled with pictures of his family, all dead, sprawled here and there.

Remembering his resolve to end the family’s suffering, he quickened his steps. Even from a distance he could see the glistening eyes of his children waiting outside; then he heard a chorus of their voices welcoming him home.

“Why, not dead yet?” he thought aloud softly.

“Pop! We’ve been waiting for you to eat together!”

“Oh!” He now knew.

The family scrambled to the table and ate with gusto. They hadn’t had any fish for so long and every tiny bite tasted delicious. Afterwards, he lay in bed quietly and soon fell asleep, waiting for the Dark Angel of Death to descend.

The blowfish, however, had been cooked for so long its poison had all disappeared. So the family lived and would have to suffer hunger again, day by day.

He woke up and sighed: “Why is it so hard even to ask for death?” And tears welled in his eyes.

CONFLICT PUTS 2 FORCES TO SLUG IT OUT.

• A very hungry family

• A basket of deadly blowfish

TYPES OF CONFLICT

• Thing versus thing

• Man versus something

• Man against an enemy

• Man against himself

Man versus something

• The farmer going against hunger

• A limiting primal condition that could trump even the most determined people

CONFLICT MEANS THERE’S SOMETHING AT STAKE.

• To beat the hunger

• But more seriously, to get rid of a pressing burden

CONFLICT TILTS THE BALANCE.

• All alive soon wiped out

THERE ARE MANY WAYS OF SETTING UP CONFLICT.

• Everyone gets sick and dies.

• They devour each other.

• The wife sells her kids and runs away.

• Wife goes mad, chops up the kids, and turns them to Chinese buns.

PRESUMABLY, THE WRITER GOES FOR THE BEST CHOICE.

• Wang Renshu chooses the blowfish

• The writer’s donnée

• The unalterable given or basic assumptions of the story

THE READER IS THRILLED BY JUST OR DUBIOUS WAYS

OF WINNING THE GAME.

• A caring husband/father

• A very frightening and treacherous man

CONFLICT COVERS ACTION AND OUTLOOK.

• The farmer brings home some blowfish

• To farm people, the blowfish seems safe

• Hard times and hunger warp the man’s mind

• The blowfish serves as his sly murder instrument

ACTION AND OUTLOOK REVEAL MOTIVATION.

• The farmer’s unbroken hard luck

• A sense of weariness and defeat

• His flagging sense of duty

• Worn out concern

• Exhausting hardship takes a toll on his sanity

CONFLICT CREATES HEROES AND VILLAINS.

• A scheming farmer

• Innocent wife and children

• Protagonists and antagonists

CONFLICT PEAKS TO A CLIMAX.

• The cowardly farmer runs away

• The dutiful wife takes over

• The dinner is postponed

• The hungry children set aside their hunger to wait and wait

THE CLIMAX IS THE FIGHT AT ITS HEIGHT.

• A matter of best moves

• The build-up drags the runaway man back to the scene—to the field of the great

• His best move was to run away

• On the other hand, his wife is a miracle worker

• She is also a square peg

CONFLICT LEADS TO A RESOLUTION.

• Nobody dies

• Back to the start

LOGIC RESTORES THE BALANCE.

• The wife with homely skills

• She turns something awful into something edible

• She waits dutifully for her husband

• She has a well-placed sense of right and wrong

• Her homely skills save the day

THE RESOLUTION IS A CRUCIAL WINDOW TO CHARACTER.

• The seemingly simple woman is clever and skilled

• The unknowing characters beat the odds

• The wife’s sense of right and wrong are in place

“It’s not my cooking that will kill us but your shameless schemes. Die from your own poison if you must.”

A MAJOR, MAJOR CHARACTER MAKES SENSE OF THE RESTORED BALANCE.

• The farmer does.

• It’s his story.

• The relief that he is asking for is unearned.

• He is miserable—without wits, shame, or dignity.

• He knows this, at least.

• Right from the start, the wife was never the loser.

A SUMMARY OF KEYWORDS

• Conflict

• Action & outlook

• Motivation

• Protagonists & antagonists

• Climax

• Resolution

• Illumination