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 “There Will Come Soft Rains” there aren’t any characters unless you count the house. In “First Person Shooter” the main characters are the narrator, Janine, and the zombie. I would revise Matthews’s argument by saying that short stories typically deal with a small group of characters, rather than just one.
Short stories do not necessarily deal with one emotion. In the beginning“Speech Sounds”, the passengers are fearful (“People screamed or squawked in fear”) while the disputants are angry. Later, Rye feels appreciation towards Obsidian. In the end there is sadness when Obsidian and what seems to be the children’s parents die (“This was too much. Rye got up, feeling sick to her stomach with grief and anger … She did not need any more grief”). Matthews says that instead of a short story having just one emotion, it could have a “series of emotions called forth by a single situation”. At the end Rye feels both grief and anger because of one event, which follow Matthews’s claim. However, Rye does feel other emotions earlier in the story.
Short stories do not necessarily deal with one emotion. In the beginning“Speech Sounds”, the passengers are fearful (“People screamed or squawked in fear”) while the disputants are angry. Later, Rye feels appreciation towards Obsidian. In the end there is sadness when Obsidian and what seems to be the children’s parents die (“This was too much. Rye got up, feeling sick to her stomach with grief and anger … She did not need any more grief”). Matthews says that instead of a short story having just one emotion, it could have a “series of emotions called forth by a single situation”. At the end Rye feels both grief and anger because of one event, which follow Matthews’s claim. However, Rye does feel other emotions earlier in the story.
Overall, I’d say that Matthews is right in that some short stories have the characteristics he describes, though he is wrong in that every short story has them. Not all stories deal with one main event or emotion, though some do. Short stories are different than novels in that they are less complex, with less space to build up to major, transformative event.
I see your point and all of the flaws in his argument are disputed with good evidence. Furthermore, in "Speech Sounds" we get many different emotions throughout that are not the result of a single cause. When Rye finds out that Obsidian can read and write she has an almost involuntary emotional response ("[she] felt sick to her stomach with hatred, frustration, and jealousy”). While his claim is true for some short stories like how "The Machine Stops" was mostly only about one character, one cannot apply his definition to all short stories.
ReplyDeletegreat post but i have to disagree with some points you made, while Obsidian is a very important character, we don't know nearly enough about him for him to be considered a main character, and everything we do know about him is from the perspective of Rye. also with the idea that stories deal with one emotion, i don't think that it means they are only happy or only sad, i think it means more about an overarching theme of the story, like in speech sounds i would say the emotion is confusion, because while the people all feel a variety of emotions, the one looming feeling is a confusion. they can never truly communicate what they feel to each other and that confusion is the root of all the conflicts in the story.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about there being more than one central event. Although the argument could be made that stories in general long or short tend to have one moment or character that stands out among the others i don't think that discredits the value of some of the more subtle moments that add to the story and often tie back to larger themes.
ReplyDeleteI like how you summarize that Matthews' characteristics on short stories are true for some short stories but not all. Just like how books within one genre are different because they aren't confined by a set of rules, short stories are all gonna differ in the way they approach the story and in the style they deliver it to readers. I also like how you revise Matthews' generalization of short stories focus on one central character to the idea that short stories instead focus on a small group of central characters. That said, it is important to keep in mind that some stories don't focus on characters at all, like "There Will Come Soft Rains."
ReplyDeleteI had not really thought about how the one emotion part of the definition. In a text like The Fall of the House of Usher, the tone throughout is negative and eerie. But in Speech Sounds, as you said, there are many different emotions throughout different parts of the story. In Speech Sounds, I personally would not consider there to be a main character other than Rye, cause we don't learn much about him, and what we do learn is through Rye. I think there are other stories where there are more than one characters.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is a lot of diversity within the short story genre. I've noticed that throughout the different stories we've read so far this semester. While there do seem to be some common threads, it seems like there can't be a true definition of a short story that applies to all of them. That's one thing that I think makes short stories so interesting, because the genre isn't confining at all. There is a lot of freedom for authors to make a short or long story, one that has a message, or one that just seems to be fun, etc. I like how you took apart Matthew's definition of a short story and analyzed it in the context of "Speech Sounds" which is definitely a short story, but fulfills almost none of Matthew's criteria.
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