Kevin's Short Story Blog

Throughout “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler, there are many important moments of plot and character development. One line of character development follows Gan’s thoughts as he decides whether he should take on the burden of being impregnated by T’Gatoi. A meaningful line that displayed Gan’s decision reads “‘Don’t do it to her, Gatoi.’ I was not Qui. It seemed I could become him though, with no effort at all” (Butler 2527; 58). These sentences are significant because it highlights the contrast between Gan and Qui’s characters, while also drawing the line of similarity between them too. The sentences are a concrete indication of Gan’s personality and character development. After witnessing Lomas’ disturbing birthing ritual, Gan (rightfully) did not want to be impregnated with Tlic eggs either and tried to distance himself from T’Gatoi. However, T’Gatoi still needed to deposit her eggs to someone though, so Gan initially offered up his sister Xuan Hoa, who would have happily done it. Short...

At its core, short stories are those that can be read within one sitting. However, there are many other subcomponents that characterize short stories. Some of these pieces include a small number of characters, few major events, and a minimal or underdeveloped setting. In addition, short stories can have more abrupt introductions and conclusions than other forms of writing may have. Another characteristic many short stories have is some sort of concrete theme or takeaway for the readers. Many short stories include these general ‘criteria’ that comprise the short story genre, and “First Person Shooter” by Charles Yu is no different. The story fits most of these qualities but also deviates from some components as well. Starting with the story setting, Brander Matthews characterized a short story as one that “shows one action, in one place, on one day”. While all of these qualities may not be present in every short story, they are certainly present within “First Person Shooter”. The story ...

Does ‘The Machine Stops’ have an optimistic or a pessimistic ending? I think the ending to ‘The Machine Stops’ represents an optimistic ending. Although it’s pessimistic in the sense that most of humanity has just died, in the grand scheme of things it marks a fresh start for people to live outside the constraints of the Machine. There are just so many things about the depictions of the lifestyle within the Machine that indicates a need to massively reform society. At the current state people were living in, it would have been hard to spark any sort of change within the environment the Machine had fostered. People had grown weak and generally satisfied with their lives, so only a forced massive reform would have been able to save humanity in the long run. The beginning of the story depicts a world where the majority of people are complacent and content, but any outside perspective can immediately identify the monotonous lifestyle the people are living. Their lives are highly regulated,...