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Genre Study: "Recitatif"

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Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” is a confusing story for a myriad of reasons, from its name to the ever-changing incident with Maggie. “Recitatif” is also complicated due to its inability to fit perfectly into commonly accepted definitions of a short story. Edgar Allen Poe describes a short story as a “unity of effect and impression,” and Brander Matthews adds to this definition by stating that a short story “shows one action, in one place, on one day. A Short-story deals with a single character, a single event, a single emotion, or the series of emotions called forth by a single situation.” Based on these definitions, “Recitatif” hardly seems like a short story with its multiple characters and events, but I think that if Poe’s and Matthews’ definitions are expanded, “Recitatif” does belong to the short story genre.  The first way “Recitatif” differs from Matthews’ definition of a short story is with its two protagonists: Twyla and Roberta. While the story is narrated from Twyla’s ...
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Reimagining of "The Lottery"

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 Perspective: Bill Hutchinson           I shift my weight uneasily. The Lottery is easily the most barbaric of the year, but there aren’t many folks in this town who’d agree with me. Tessie always says it's human nature, the primalistic instinct in us ripping its way to the surface. If it’s true, that instinct certainly rears its ugly head in this town. I check that Tessie is still standing beside me, chattering away like she always does when she’s nervous. I’m more nervous this year than I’ve ever been before, what with Tessie’s late appearance and all. The punishment for skipping the ceremony is worse than anything that could happen to you here, if that’s possible. But I don’t want to make a scene, so I stand quietly and twist the slip of paper in my hand, round and round again, smoothing the creases that inevitably emerge. There’s so many people here it seems near impossible that my family could be at risk. I don’t suppose I even know what I’d do if...
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Sentence Analysis in "The Comet"

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“He has dared -- all, to rescue me,” she [Julia] said quietly, “And I -- thank him -- much.” But she did not look at him again.  This sentence is extremely emblematic of the events and conflicts presented in W.E.B. DuBois’s “The Comet.” In this scene, Julia has recently been rescued by Jim, and the two have just been reunited with the rest of the world, proving that the comet didn’t kill everyone (as they had originally thought), but only the inhabitants of New York. However, their reunion -- which should be triumphant -- is bittersweet, as Jim and Julia are instantly reminded of how racist everyone around them is, shown through the way that they instinctively blame Jim for harming Julia, when, in fact, he has taken care of her throughout the day. The entire meaning of the story is conveyed in these two heartbreaking sentences.  The dialogue in this moment is extremely important to the story, and this emphasis is exaggerated through the use of dashes. Dashes are typically ...
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Q & A: "The Machine Stops"

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Q:         Given the fact that some of Forster’s predictions have begun to materialize in our modern world, what is the likelihood of the hypothetical future depicted in “The Machine Stops” and should readers be afraid of the possibility of that future? A:      “The Machine Stops,” by E. M. Forster, focuses on the daily life of Vashti and her virtual interactions with others, including her son Kuno. We are introduced to the possibility of an isolated future–one in which each person resides in a hexagonal room with an assortment of buttons and switches to provide anything they could ever want or imagine. After having destroyed much of the natural world centuries ago (via pollution and an overreliance on technology) no one has any desire to leave or reconnect with the world outside the convenience of their protected bubble. Kuno, the one exception to this seemingly universal mindset, disobeys the rules by venturing to the surface of the e...
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