“Rip Van Winkle” is the quintessential American short story.  It is compact, has an impact, and a beginning, middle and end that you can read in one setting.  More importantly it has humor.  The story is full of meaningful descriptions and imagery.  “Rip Van Winkle” is simply enjoyable and fun to read.  Like other short stories, it is influenced by historical features of the time when it was written.  And, the story has a message.  It is no coincidence that “Rip Van Winkle” is the archetypal American short story.  It was published in 1819 by Washington Irving who created and helped define the characteristics of the American short story.  This short story, because it is such a classic model, is a wonderful vehicle for literary analysis.  In this post I will use “Rip Van Winkle” to illustrate a few literary terms.  These terms are story, narrative, plot and fable.

Story, plot and narrative are related topics that should be discussed together to fully understand the differences.  According to M.H. Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms, story is the series of events that make up any work.  Plot refers to how a work is structured.  A narrative is the details and descriptions of events, places and characters. The three make up the substance of a literary work.

If story is simply the events and characters in the story, the plot is how those events are arranged to create the effect that the writer is going for and narrative is the details that engage the reader and support the build up to a climactic event.  A good analogy for these three terms is planning a trip, plotting on a map all the things you want to visit, and communicating the lovely vacation to your friends back home.  Once you have that visual representation of the things you want to do and people you want to visit (story), you can plan the best route for visiting those things (plot).  When you visit your great-grandmother who has lived in Tuscany all her life she will relate the significance of each thing you saw and any events you experienced in that beautiful region (narrative). 

In relation to Irving’s tale, the story is about a man who avoids household chores, avoids his wife, helps all the other people in the village, spends long afternoons chatting at the inn, falls asleep for twenty years and spends the last years of his life without a wife, without chores and doing all that he loves best.  The events are well plotted out to give the reader a clear and sometimes humorous picture of life in early America.  Life at that time, in this country, was raw and full of potential.  Being able to redefine oneself and one’s country was a heady experience.  Irving, while defining the American short story, was giving a sense of the American experience at the beginnings of this nation for the reader.  It is through the richly detailed imagery in the narrative that the story comes to life for us.  One scene gives us a vivid picture of the characters and life way back then.  Dame Van Winkle “would suddenly break in upon the tranquility of the assemblage and call the members all to naught; nor was the august personage, Nicholas Vedder himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness”. 

In even fewer words as in the “fairy mountains”, where Rip Van Winkle meets the magical beings and their powerful liquor that send him into a very long slumber, we are told many things.  All manner of fey creatures must live in the fairy mountains.  Such beings are never depicted as sharing the morals that humans live by.  They do not even experience the passing of time in the same way.  The reader knows something out of the ordinary is going to happen.  The short story takes on the qualities of fairy tale or fable right in the opening paragraphs.

The fable is a short story that provides a message about how we should live our lives.  Unlike a parable which is shorter and quite often contains religious doctrine, a fable teaches us about morality.  Parents have used fables for time out of mind to teach their children how to behave properly.  Fables ensure a shared sense of morality that facilitates groups of people living together in society.  The tale of “Rip Van Winkle” is such a story, but a somewhat complicated one.  In “Rip Van Winkle”, Irving explores the Puritan work ethic and its desire to become more divine-like through good works.  Then, he compares this to the American desire to be free, to just be, to live fully or as people say today, live large.  This short story was influenced by ideals upon which this country was founded as stated in the Declaration of Independence – the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  The main character represents the American while his wife represents the puritan.  Rather than state outright which is the better way to be or live as fables often do at the end, Irving instead conveys his moral through the telling of what happens to Rip Van Winkle after he awakens from his twenty year sleep.  In the end, Rip Van Winkle has not changed at all.  However, he is happier than ever just being himself and only having to do what he has always loved best.  He doesn’t seem to regret the twenty years he spent sleeping high up in the fey mountains.

As far as fables go, it’s a great one with a good message that has come to signify the individuality and independence typical of Americans.  Be yourself.  It seems that Washington Irving had his finger on the pulse of America.  He really understood the foundations and founding of this nation.  Irving understood the spirit of the country and its people while seeing the lack of this character in our literature.  With his writing, and “Rip Van Winkle” in particular, he helped to characterize and define American Literature and especially the American short story. 

[T]he story demands that you become a fuller participant in said experience. There won’t be any long authorial seduction of the reader; you need to be primed when you show up. And no chapters full of backstory, set-pieces, window-dressing, etc. Of course, all readers should be alert and dedicated all the time, but a novel is more likely to forgive you a brief lapse in attention here and there–a short story will just spit you back out, the end.”

Justin Taylor

A short story is a complete story in a very small package. As a reader of a short story, you fill in the details about the characters and their lives. A good one will have you thinking about it, in different ways, for a long time after you’ve finished reading.

Short stories use the same elements as novels but they tell a complete story with far less words. Because they are shorter, it doesn’t mean they are easier to write. Short story authors revise and rework their stories, looking for the best word to convey their meaning. They have to do more – express more, convey more – with less. In addition to having fewer characters, short stories often cover a very short time span. Some stories cover a few hours or a few minutes. A lot can happen in that small amount of time. Sometimes, but not always, a character’s whole life changes in the space of a few minutes.

Short stories also have some unique and unusual characteristics. Depending on the source you refer to, these works can be anywhere from 1,500 to 30,000 words. That is quite a range. In grad school, I wrote a paper on Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question”. This short story covers several trillion years of history in about 4,500 words. My analysis of the work was several pages longer than the story itself!

Another interesting feature of this type of literature is that they often end in a sudden, dramatic fashion that has a lasting impact. Sometimes there is a moral we are left to consider. This is in contrast to the novel. The ending of a novel is often the anti-climax, also called resolution, where most plot lines are tied up with a nice bow (unless there’s to be a sequel), the climax having occurred in the previous chapter. With the short story, it frequently ends with the climax. No loose ends are tied. We are often left wondering how it all works out (or doesn’t). As readers, we decide that by filling in the gaps with our imagination or by trying to figure out what the author meant. Either way, there is much to think about when reading short stories.

A distinguishing attribute of the short story is that it is meant to be read all at once. Depending on the individual reader, that can be a good thing or bad thing. Some people prefer the slow build up of the novel, while others enjoy the condensed, tight, brief story that can read in under an hour. It is surprising that, in this busy world where people never seem to have enough time, short stories are not a lot more popular. Whatever your preference, short stories continue to be a significant part of American literature.

What have you found to be the most striking aspect(s) of the short stories you have read? Do you prefer short stories or novels? Why? Please comment below.

“Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow that I’ll say good night until tonight becomes tomorrow.“

Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2

Drama imitates. Poetry animates. Short stories fixate.

While these three forms of literature share common elements, they often use them differently, or for a different end. Short stories focus on a small slice of life. You could even say they exaggerate a moment or highlight a defining moment, but leave you to work out what it all means. Poetry brings things to life. Like the kids game of Twenty Questions, poetry looks at the characteristics and qualities of an object that is animal (living), vegetable (growing) or mineral (inanimate), (basically anything). A poem beautifully, lyrically and often rhythmically describes something in such detail that it becomes real for the reader. Drama, again, is a different animal.

Drama imitates life by displaying it in front of your eyes. The audience sees and experiences the interaction (i.e. movement, dialogue), emotions, and background for scenes of life. At the same time, much is left to the imagination. Since the entirety of a play is acted out upon a stage, in front of an audience who can hear stagehands moving props, it cannot provide the same rich detail that is found in a film. The audience fills in the gaps as they watch the action and listen to dialogue and music. This often happens on a subconscious level. As participants in life, we have our own drama – our comedies and tragedies – which makes the watching of plays a partially unique experience for each of us.

It is because of the employment of our imagination, beliefs, and experiences that plays seem so real even though they are really just an imitation of life. Without the projection of our life on the play, it would be lacking, hollow, a fake.

I saw my first professional production of a play during my sophomore year of high school. With our teacher, we took the commuter train to San Francisco, ate lunch and went to the American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) to watch Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. We had already read the play and knew what to expect, but to see it acted out right in front of our eyes was mesmerizing in a way films often are not. It is a shared, participatory experience that actively involves your senses, emotions and intellect. The energy and emotions of the audience influences the players upon the stage. Popular movies, while evocative, lack the reciprocity of emotion that is an essential part of a play.

A good analogy for seeing a play versus watching a movie is listening to music. Even if you’ve never been to a play, I’m sure you’ve had the opportunity to listen to live music. It moves you in more ways than listening to the same tune on an MP3 player or on the radio. Drama, like music, is best experienced live. Give yourself the gift of watching a play today.

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute.  We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race.  And the human race is filled with passion.  And medicine, law, business, engineering – these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life.  But poetry, beauty, romance, love – these are what we stay alive for.”  

Tom Schulman, “Dead Poets Society”, 1989

Like many people, I began writing poetry in my youth to deal with painful feelings I had no other way to manage.  Through sharing my poetry, and reading what others have written, I found that I was not alone in my feelings.  Throughout my life, poetry has been my refuge, my solace, my salvation, my inspiration. 

In college, I took an introductory poetry class.  Regularly, we recited poetry to each other in the courtyard.  Standing closely, face-to-face, looking into the windows of the soul.  Reciting poems to people we knew only superficially had a profound effect on all of us.  If you haven’t experienced this, it may be difficult to imagine the bonds that developed.  Who could imagine that you could learn everything you need to know about a person based on their choices of poems and on the beauty, elegance and, often, passion with which they were recited?  The intimacy of attentively looking into another person’s eyes as they tell you the joys, pains, and meditations that we all relate to was a little uncomfortable at first but it became one of those indelible experiences that alter you irrevocably at the deepest, most fundamental level.  You can take the measure of a human by their poetry, what they read and what they write. It informs about their morality, their truth, their vision, and their fortitude to be true to their artistic vision of truth and beauty.

Poetry can be many things to many people.  The following passage from “Poem in October” resonates with me and speaks to my deep connection with nature, tending and feeding it.  What does it speak to you?

   These were the woods the river and sea
         Where a boy
            In the listening
Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy
To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.
         And the mystery
            Sang alive
   Still in the water and singingbirds (Dylan Thomas, 1934)

When my father was dying, too young, quite before he’d had a chance to live his own life rather than always sacrificing for his family, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” helped me express my unspeakable pain.  How does it make you feel?

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light (Dylan Thomas, 1951).

After a tumultuous relationship ended, I found myself again with the help of Derek Walcott’s Love after Love (1986).  Can you relate?

Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life

“Poetry is the literary vehicle which is not only an aid to living but a means of living. For example, an encyclopedia can offer information on elephants. You can discover where they live, what they eat and how they breed. This information is for practical purposes only. You can grasp the ivory of the elephant, but not its soul. The encyclopedia will not touch on its majesty, wild grandeur, strength or power. The poem can turn the elephant from a museum specimen into the highest concrete visual image that comes alive in the mind of the reader. For the living elephant, we must turn to poetry.” IB Iskov, “Why Poetry is So Important”

From a young age, poetry has been a significant part of my life.  From helping me deal with overwhelming emotions, singing my joy to the world, expressing the deep sorrow and anger at my father’s passing, to helping me learn to love myself again, poems have been a recognition and expression of my humanity.  It connects us all to each other and anchors us to life.  If you don’t already have a relationship with poetry, I hope this inspires you to develop one.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.  (Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”, 1993)