Short story reviews

I’d like to take today off from my usual philosophical and political topics to discuss some short stories I have read recently.

The first is William Faulkner’s Barn Burning. This story follows Abner Snopes, an angry, reclusive pyromaniac in the South through the eyes of his son, Sartoris Snopes. Abner does not fit in well with those around him, and he takes revenge on people for trivial incidents. At the end of the story, Sartoris can no longer put up with his father’s vengeful acts, and he decides to warn the person his father is about to exact revenge on. Faulkner writes the story in such a way that the reader is meant to sympathize with Sartoris, even though he is betraying his family. I found Faulkner’s writing style somewhat frustrating, as his long-winded sentences only added to his already boring tone. Overall, I would not recommend this story to anyone, unless they have already read something of Faulkner’s and enjoyed it. .

The next story I would like to talk about is Flannery O’Connor’s Everything that Rises Must Converge, a story about class struggle and racial differences in the 1960’s. The story follows Julian, a 20 or so year old man who is struggling to get a job, and his mother, who is fairly rich but cannot cope with racial integration. Most of the story takes place on a bus, where Julian’s mother sits next to a black woman and her young son, who can now sit at the front of the bus because segregation has just be outlawed. As Julian’s mother interacts with the little black boy, Julian secretly hopes that his mother’s condescending attitude will create trouble, which might teach her a lesson. At the end of the story, Julian’s mother offers the black boy a penny, causing the boy’s mother to explode at this obvious display of condescension. Julian then tries to hammer home the lesson the incident taught, but his mother still is unable to change her outlook.

I was fascinated by the subtlety of the scene on the bus, which reflects what Robert Heinlein calls America’s “reverse-racism,” by which he means that fact that we are not open about the fact that we are racist. This story can be used as a window to observe a particular period of history, as it captures the sentiments of certain groups of people during the 1960’s. The story’s title comes from a line in the story, in which Julian’s mother states that blacks should “rise, but on their side of the fence.” The title refutes this claim, saying that it is inevitable that people put aside their differences because white and black culture will eventually collide.

Next, I read Alice Walker’s Everyday Use. The story describes the interactions of a black mother and her two daughters, who live in a rural area in the 1950’s. When one daughter returns with a new name and a husband after living alone, conflict between the three ensues. This story discusses aspects of southern black culture, including many black’s desire to shun white culture. The daughter who has just returned, Dee, decides to change her name to Wangero because she doesn’t want to be named after “the people who oppressed her.” Though I am not entirely sure, I believe that the author is criticizing this, since the mother—who is by far the most sensible character—cannot understand why she is doing this. Near the end of the story, an argument between Wangero and her mother takes places over a few quilts that are family heirlooms. Wangero wants to frame the quilts so that they may be preserved; her mother wants to use them like her maker intended. This raises the question of how to treat heirlooms—should they preserved, or put to “everyday use?” I found this story very interesting, especially its main theme, culture and roots.

After that, I read Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. The story focuses on a man’s struggle to come to terms with his wife’s friend, a blind man. When this blind man visits their house, he must overcome both his sexual jealously and his aversion and irrational fear of blind people. At the end of the story, the blind man struggles to understand the concept of a cathedral, so the protagonist attempts to explain it to him. I did not enjoy this story nearly as much as some of the others—though it was interesting, some parts of it were quite bizarre. I also felt that the main character develops too much in the last few paragraphs—he is cold towards the blind man for most of the story, but after drawing a cathedral his outlook changes suddenly. The story’s main themes, tolerance and acceptance, were predictable from the onset, but they were presented in an interesting way. The use of first-person perspective helped to develop these themes, but at times I found the main character’s voice annoying.  

Lastly, I would like to talk about Lorrie Moore’s How to Become a Writer. This ironic and humorous second-person narrative satires self-help books, rambling on about how the path to becoming a writer is filled with pain and drama. Moore is obviously mocking the self-help book that make becoming a writer sound easy, as she explains the painstaking steps it takes to develop one’s writing. The narrative repeatedly mentions the fact that it is necessary to fail at everything else before becoming a writer, as if it were a last resort. Furthermore, I suspect that some of the story is based on Moore’s own life, since events like “deciding to become a child psychology major” and “deciding to go to law school and then not going” are very specific. Because of this, I believe that Moore sees the way she discovered her writing career very similar to the trail of failures she describes in How to Become a Writer. This makes the story both humorous and serious, but no less captivating to read. Overall, the story was quite entertaining, as its extensive use of dark humor makes for very enjoyable narrative.