Essay - Narrative in Essays and Short Stories the Difference Between Narrative...

Narrative in Essays and Short Stories

The difference between narrative essays and narrative as used in short stories beg*****s with differing purposes. Like short stories, narrative essays can be entertaining; indeed, to some extent they must be or people would not be willing ***** read them; however, essays frequently have a didactic element not usually found in ***** stories. Likewise, short stories may ***** informative, but their main focus is on vicarious enjoyment of someone else's lived experience. Although the experience may not be entertaining in the usual sense (for *****stance, ***** about child abuse, the horrors ***** war, ***** capital punishment), ***** reader is still transported to another time and place and in a sense gets relief from the self. In this essay we will explore ***** use of narrative in "Buy a Cellul*****r Phone, Sublet Your Soul," an ***** by Ro*****rt Aqu*****as McNally ********** "Starting Gun," a short story ***** James Castle Furlong. We ***** look at how theme is unveiled in each work, how credibility is established, and what shapes the *****'s emotional response in each *****.

***** McNally's essay readers become aware almost immediately of ***** theme. The author starts off with an anecdote about a reckless driver speed*****g through traffic and yelling into a cell phone at the same time. The writer then begins to explain th***** the essay is about contemporary use of time. He introduces this theme by treating readers ***** a brief, ***** informative, history of ***** measurement as a hum*****n invention ***** the subsequent use of clocks. He says, "***** should have started protesting way back in ***** thirteenth century, when Benedictine monks came up ***** this new thing call the schedule so they could fit all their religious obligations ***** the limited span of a single day" (p. 277). Note that the narrative about the reckless driver he observed, who nearly ran down pedestrians, is not t***** focus of the *****. There is no need for character development—we do ***** k*****w ***** pressures the reckless driver was under when he drove so dangerously—nor do we know what happened to t***** driver afterwards. We don't see any change take ***** in the driver's character. He neither grows nor learns. The author is using the opening narrative in this case as an attention getter. ***** sets the stage by telling ***** experience with which nearly everybody ***** identify. The history he gives is also narrative, but he *****s it in a way that does not cause us to go live with the Benedict*****es ***** a while in order to ***** *****ly what they experienced. Like the ***** narrative, it draws ***** reader in and makes the reader receptive to the message or *****sis of the essay, which is that "despite such exquisite microprecision, we have less time than ever bef*****e" (p. 278).

In "Starting Gun" we are introduced to the theme more gradu*****y ***** with more subtlety by living with the character as he gets up in the morning and attends to