When reading a short story, I find myself diving deeper into each word. I pay closer attention to the small details. When reading a novel we can trust that the author just means what he/she says. We do not think that there are multiple meanings behind a simple statement. When Susan Warner says “to make her mother’s tea was Ellen’s regular business,” (25) she literally means that Ellen made her mother tea. We do not have to add different meanings to all of the words in her writing. Warner has more than enough time to create her plot line. When reading novels I find myself skimming more often and just looking for the more important details. I find myself not worrying about hidden meanings. We place a certain trust in the author to tell us exactly what he/she means.
In a short story, with the lack of time to create a deep plot line, the author uses every single word to it’s greatest potential. I tend to read much more carefully and slowly to pick up every possibility for each word. I have learned to not trust the author to tell me exactly what he/she means. When Charlotte Perkins Gilman says, “I lie here on this great immovable bed—it is nailed down…” (509) we have to look deeper into the meaning of the text. After what we discussed in class, we know that she is either already dead or buried alive. When I take the context into mind I can make that statement mean that the character is in a coffin, and was just comparing it to a bed. I find myself looking for many different details as to what the author is trying to say. I find that I am confused more often by short stories just simply because I do not follow the depth that the author is taking every concept to. I think that when reading a short story that we have to make sure we do not just skim, but instead going ahead and looking at why the author chose each word, and the importance or secret meaning behind the word.
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I think that short stories are harder to read too because we do have to take into account the importance of each word. We can't skim the text anymore hoping that it will tell us the meaning of the story we actually have to read.
ReplyDeleteI also read much more carefully so that I can analyze every word because there are usually hidden clues into a deeper meaning. After the class discussion I realized so many more things about this text than I ever had before.
ReplyDeleteI agree! I find myself having to reread short stories sometimes because the first time through I was reading at the surface level instead of reading deeper into the author’s meaning behind each line. After class I went back to the Yellow Wallpaper and saw many passages in a different light.
ReplyDeleteI also find myself rereading short stories just to make sure i catch all the details! When reading a novel you can almost skip a page and still know whats happening but you cant do that with a short story thats for sure! It is also so helpful that we talk about this stuff in class because I realized even more just from listening to other people talk.
ReplyDeleteI never picked up on the fact that the nailed down bed could be referring to a coffin. That is really close reading, which I did not do when I read the "Yellow Wallpaper" for the first time. I feel like reading short stories is a lot more work because there are always multiple meanings to the same sentence so you have to figure out what the author actually means.
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