Hills like white elephants
by Ernest Hemingway
Summary
A couple is in north Spain discussing a future decision on an operation and their future relationship. The woman leaves while the man stays waiting in a train station.
Commentary
The story is very realistic. Is based almost entirely on dialogue and it has a "James Bond" kind of atmosphere that makes it very stylish and fancy. I think that the characters' feelings are evident by their words and the rythim is very hooking. It is more bohemian than the rest of the stories but I liked it.
The monkey's paw
by W.W. Jacobs
Summary
A family received a visit from and old friend. This person carries a magical object that has the power to grant wishes. Despite the warnings the previous owner did, the family keeps the object and starts asking but as the wishes come true terrible things happen. Asking for money ended in the loss of their only child.
Story map
Commentary
The story is very appealing due to its exquisite building of a dark and mysterious setting. The atmosphere is very well built by the author. The argument is kind of cliché, yet particular. In some moments I felt it was too dense by the excesive use of formal English or high vocabulary. However the development is interesting and the images at the end were beautiful.
The man who married himself
by Charlie Fish
Summary
A guy decides to marry himself as the best option, despite the social and familiar pressure. Soon he starts to experience all the shenanigans a married "couple" live, going through the regular activities other couples do. After a while, he gets bored and decides to marry a woman, building a socially accepted relationship.
Story map
Commentary
The
story is entertaining, full of irony but in my opinion very mature and reflexive. The abitlity of the narrator consits in showing plain facts in a totally twisted way, considering social dogmas from a careless perspective, making this facts very shocking. At some passages it may sound absurd, but I think is very rich and a different way to reflect or wondering about an apparentely normal tradition as marriage.
Death by Scrabble
by Charlie Fish
Summary
A married couple starts a Scrabble match. The man, acts as a renator and shows terrible hard feelings for his wife. At some point of the match, words that are being formed start turning into reality. He wish his wife was dead, but the events cause him a backfire.
Commentary
The story is very appealing from the title. The language is quite dinamic and the actions happen in a short and pragmatic way. It envolves the reader in the actual game and gives us an amazing and surreal turn of events. The ending is hilarious and the irnoy is present through the whole text. I enjoyed it very much.
Professor Panini
by Matthew Grigg
Summary
A scholar is developing a machine to interchange people's minds. The events take a twist when an accident happens and provoques a total change in the events, deshumanizing the professor.
Story Map:
Commentary
In my opinion the story is very bizarre but I found it very creative. The science fiction is sometimes quite elaborated or serious, but in this case the imaginarium of the author builds a cartoon-type situation that results in an entertaining story though ridiculous.
Zippo
by James Ross
Summary
A man named John is having this dream in which he is about to be burned alive. The dream ins turning more dramatic as the time goes by making him feel an unbearable fear. He tells the story to a friend.
I find it interesting because it's very realistic and even though it doesn't follow a restrict order, thorough a narration can develop an anecdote that evolves step by step and catch my atenttion. The ellipsis present in the narration is a good resource to develop an alternative story inside another. The open ending is not what I was specting but it works.
The cricket war by Bob Thurber
Summary
A
regular family in a plain rural environment has an issue with
crickets. The spouse pushes her husband because they're driving her
crazy. The man does what he can but in the rush he burns his own house.
Story Map:
Commentary
The
story is appealing and the narration makes it very esay to follow. The
actions are concrete and the facts develop very fast. The ending is
tragic but funny. It may be a metaphore on mankind vs nature issue, but it also could be perceived as a funny tragic-hilarious situation of modern families.
Star
by Esther Claes
Summary
In an apocalyptic scenario a famous but
spoiled artist fights until the end to keep herself in her own perfect
and simple world while her own parents try to convince her that everything is about to end.
Story Map:
Commentary
The story is direct, raw and pragmatic. Claes left aside any complicated set or innecessary description in order to anchor the narrative line on a group of ironisms that evokes our daily glamour/violence post-modern pop culture: cult on beauty right beside bleeding scary zombies.
Hi Hector,
ResponderEliminarApart from the story map, remember that you also have to write the summary and comment/evaluation of the story.
Hi Hector,
ResponderEliminarYour summaries are very direct and very "to the point" and you manage to get the gist in a few lines. Just a few comments:
In some of the commentaries it would have been nice if you had offered more explicitly your interpretation. For instance, what surgery is the girl in Hills like White Elephants undergoing? or what do you think happens in the end of Zippo? What is it that John and his friend are going to do? And there are really no zombies in the star, although if Hollywood made a film version, i am sure they would include them as a by-product of the radiation.
Great way to insert the story maps using slideshare.
In some of the summaries/comments you have these little mistakes, some in vocabulary and some in spelling. If you want check them:
provoques = provoke
renator = I guess you meant narrator
thorough= I think you meant through or throughout
envolve= involve
specting = expecting
spouse = spouse is "cónyuge" and it might refer to either wife or husband. In this context where it is clear you are talking about the woman, the word wife is simply more suitable.