American Short Fiction And World Story By Alan Cheuse Essay

The article â€Å"American Short Fiction and World Story† by Alan Cheuse compares the old tales to the modern short story. To start the article he talks about the old type of stories by famous writer Homer. Here talks about how these books are written by the culture of the time. With that being said, he makes the assumption that the old time tales are only applicable to the time in history they were written. This is pretty obvious because in today’s world we rarely see the events that happened in such ages. Next after talking about the period before modernism he starts to contemplate the creation of the modern short story. Here he makes a surprising claim, where he says that the modern story actually started in the United States with the famous poet Edgar Allen Poe. This is surprising to many because in the literature world most people associate modernism with European writers such as Chekov and Flaubert. He actually states the this modern sense of writing started in No rth America, then went to Europe and finally arrived to the res of the world including North America again. So we are left to ask, what is the modern short story like? Well, Alan Cheuse compares the modern short story to the art story. He says the perfectionists of it such as Hemmingway; owe their credit to writers like Poe because he in fact started it. The art story is a story that is written and can be applicable to any situation within real life. That is Alan Cheuse argument, and main ide of the whole article.Show MoreRelatedSummary Of Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?854 Words   |  4 PagesAccording to Barstow, Connie represents American innocence and powerlessness. Connie has a hard time defending herself against Arnold Friend because of her lack of knowledge and the impact of American culture. The mother-daughter relationship plays a significant role in the story because had Connie and her mother communicated better, Connie, who is still a child, would have be pro tected from the evil of the world. Barstow also points out that the modern American is unable to distinguish evil from good