CHARACTERISTICS OF A SHORT STORY
In Octavia Butler’s “Speech Sounds”, the story deals with multiple events. First, there’s the dispute on the bus, which leads to Rye meeting Obsidian. After driving around, they later meet the man and woman who are fighting. Obsidian is shot and the man dies. Then Rye meets the children. These are multiple different events, each of which is important. This refutes Matthews’s claim that “a short story deals with … a single event”, because it doesn’t always happen. Of course, it is possible, though, for a short story to consist of a single main event. For example, in “There Will Come Soft Rains” the main event/climax is the fire at the end. Matthews also states that a short story must deal with one single character. This isn’t the case in “Speech Sounds” (or other stories we’ve read). The story is in a third-person limited point of view, following Rye, but Obsidian is another main character. Besides them, there are the children at the end, the bus driver, and other civilians. In “T