What defines a short story?
According to Wikipedia a short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in a straight forward language in a narrative format. The
website states that short stories are usually less complex than novels and focus on only one event, a single plot, a single setting, a small
cast of characters and covers a short period of time due to restricted length of the story. Wikipedia believes short stories typically start in
the middle of an action, finish abruptly and may or may not have a moral or life lesson.
Cliff notes The Fastest Way to learn webpage states that a short story is a fictional work of a prose (written in straightforward language)
that is shorter in length than a novel. It should be read in one sitting taking from half an hour to two hours and can range from 1,000 to
2,000 words.
The website Answers.com believes a short story is a brief fictional prose narrative. It usually presents a single significant episode or scene
involving a limited number of characters. A short story may concentrate on the creation of mood rather than telling a story.
My definition of a short story:
A short story is a fictional narrative that is written in straight forward language. It is believed that short stories should be read in one
sitting. Due to the length of a short story it usually involves a small cast of characters, a single action or eent, a single plot and a single
setting. Short stories can even be based just on a mood!
MARJORIE BARNARD
The Lottery
The author of The Lottery, Marjorie Barnard (1897-1987) was born on the 16th of August in Ashfield, Sydney and was
the only child of parents Oswald Holme Barnard and Ethel Frances. Marjorie was baptised in the Anglican Church
and was home schooled until she was ten years old. She first enrolled in Florence Hooper’s Cambridge School,
Hunters Hill and in high school learnt at Sydney Girls High School where she completed her leaving certificate. At the
University of Sydney Barnard successfully completed first class honours in history and was offered a scholarship at
the University of Oxford however her father did not allow it.
Marjorie Barnard then became a qualified librarian working at the Public Library of New South Wales to then later
transfer to the position of head librarian at the Sydney Technical College. During this time, Marjorie pursued her
true passion which was writing. Barnard joined a friend from school named Flora Eldershaw and they successfully
created novels with Green Memory (1931), A House is Built (1929), The Home. The Permission Tree and Other Stories (1943) and But Not
for Love (1988). Barnard became actively and involved in the Society of Women’s Writers of New South Wales, Henry Lawson Literary
Society and the Fellowship of Australian Writers. During her time as an author the onset of World War II occurred and Barnard joined the
Australian Peace Pledge and the Australian Labor Party. During the time of World War II which was the years 1939 and 1945 seemed to
have had a huge impact on Marjorie Barnard. She joined political parties, write stories to promote freedom but however the short story
The Lottery doesn’t really demonstrate any significance from the War.
http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A170061b.htm (9.2.2010)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Barnard (9.2.2010)
http://arts.monash.edu.au/blogs/news/files/2009/06/marjorie-barnard.jpg (9.2.2010)
JOHN GORDON MORRISON
The Children
The author of the short story The Children was a man named John Gordon Morrison. John Morrison was originally born in Dunderland,
England in 1904 until he migrated to Australia in 1923. While in Australia John Morrison worked on sheep-stations and as a jackeroo, swag
man, dock worker and gardener in NSW and worked on the Melbourne waterfront for ten years. John Morrison also joined the Communist
Party. Morrison became a full time writer in 1963 and during his life published two novels and several stories and essays. The Gold Medal
of the Australian Literature Society was awarded to John Morrison in 1986 and the Order of Australia in 1989. Most of John Morrison’s
storylines were influenced by the people he met o the tram to work, fellow union leaders and social conditions. These Australian
influences may have contributed to writing a short story about a bush fire in The Children.
http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/collections/pdfs/morrison.pdf(9.2.2010)
http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/5094/John-Morrison-(John-Gordon-Morrison).html(9.2.2010)
ELIZABETH JOLLEY
A Gentleman’s Agreement
Elizabeth Jolley was born in England Birmingham where she was home schooled until the age of eleven.
Elizabeth Jolley went to boarding school at the Sibford School and during the late 1930’s when war became
increasingly turbulent many Europeans refugees lived in her home. In London Jolley began training to become a
nurse at the age of 17 and was terrified by World War II. Jolley’s husband and Leonard and their three children
emigrated to Australia in 1959. Leonard was very supporting of Jolley’s work and together they bought a small
orchard in 1970 in the Darling Ranges. Throughout her life Jolley worked varying jobs and worked as a part time
creative writing tutor at the Fremantle Arts Centre in 1974. Jolley’s work received much rejection until she was
53 years old in 1976. Jolley’s late but successful writing career did earn her the award of The Age Book of the
year Award three times and was the winner of the Western Australian Premier’s Prize in the nonfiction category
in 1993 and the fiction category in 1983. It doesn’t seem that World War II had an influence on Elizabeth Jolley’s writing style and she was
often thought to create quirky, old, lonely, eccentric and poor characters.
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/jolleye/jolleye.html(9.2.2010)
http://www.stateart.com.au/images7/070221_elizabeth_jolley_160.jpg(9.2.2010)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Jolley(9.2.2010)
OLGA MASTERS
On the Train
Olga Masters is the author of the short story On the Train. Olga Masters was born on the 28th of May 1919 in
Pambula of New South Wales. Olga was the second born out of eight children and her childhood was
interrupted with her family moving around the South Coast Region to find work during the Depression. Olga
began to work as a journalist at the age of 15 for her local newspaper the Cobargo Chronicle. Masters married
teacher Charles in 1940 and together they had seven children. The family moved from town to town where
Olga Masters would write for the local newspaper. They eventually returned to Sydney when journalist Masters
wrote for papers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Manly Daily. Olga Masters was a journalist but since a
young age had a passion for fiction writing. However, her first fiction piece was not published until the late
1970’s. Olga wrote several radio plays and short stories. Some of the awards achieved by Master’s include the Tasmanian Literary Award,
Grenfell Henry Lawson Award and the National Book Council Award. Masters work may have been influenced by her life experience
because her work was usually set in urban settings in rural New South Wales between wars.
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2983(9.2.2010)
http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE2883b.htm(9.2.2010)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Masters(9.2.2010)
http://anzlitlovers.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/amys-children.jpg ( (9.2.2010)
TIM WINTON
Neighbours
The author of the short story Neighbours is an Australian novelist and short story writer named Tim Winton.
Tim Winton was born on the 4th of August 1960 in Perth, Western Australia but he moved to Albany during his
childhood. Tim Winton has lived all over the world including Italy, Greece and Ireland but has returned to
Perth and lives with his wife and three children. Winton was educated at the Curtin University of Technology
when he wrote his first novel An Open Swimmer which successfully won the Australian/Vogel Literary Award
in 1981. Some of the other stories that Tim Winton has written are Shallows, Cloud Street and Breath. His two
books The Riders and Dirt Music are both presently being transferred into films. Tim Winton style of writing is
definitely influenced by life experience, landscape and place in particular where he lives in Western Australia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Winton (9.2.2010)
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/wintont/wintont.html (9.2.2010)
http://whisperinggums.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/timwinton.jpg (9.2.2010)
My definition of Metalanguage:
Metalanguage is the language used to describe other people, thinking, feelings and tone.
Define ‘perception’, ‘reality’ and ‘paradox’:
Perception: act or faculty of perceiving, an instance of this, intuitive recognition of a truth, aesthetic quality etc.
Reality: what is real or existent or underlies appearances, the real nature of, real existence; state of being real, resemblance to an original
Paradox: seemingly absurd or contradictory though often true statement, self contradictory or absurd statement, person or thing having
contradictory qualities, paradoxical quality.
Give examples from Neighbours and a Gentleman’s Agreement:
Neighbours
Perception: “The young man and woman had lived all their lives in the expansive outer suburbs where good neighbours were seldom seen
and never heard. The sounds of spitting and washing and daybreak watering came as a shock. The Macedonian family shouted, ranted and
screamed” pg 299 The word structure and language choices of ‘seen and never heard’ and shouted, ranted and screamed’ gives the reader
the perception that the new couple in the neighbourhood came from upper class, polite suburbs and are now scared and horrified of their
neighbours behaviour.
Reality: “In the summer, Italian women began to offer names. Greek women stopped the young woman in the street, pulled her shirt up
and felt her belly, telling her it was bound to be a boy.” pg 301 These quotes describe the setting of the neighbourhood after it is known that
the young couple are expecting a baby. The writer shows the reality of living with such suffocating and constant neighbours.
Paradox: “For a second, the child lost the nipple and began to cry. The young man heard shouting outside. He went to the back door. On
the Macedonian side of the fence, a small queue of bleary faces looked up, cheering, and the young man began to weep.” pg 302 At this
point of the short story, where the plot reaches its climax after birth the writer uses ‘ a small queue of bleary faces looked up, cheering,
and the young man began to weep.’ This quote shows the paradox or apparent contradiction where for the whole storyline the couple
don’t relate and are annoyed with their neighbours but at the time of birth they are overwhelmed and supported by the community
feeling.
A Gentleman’s Agreement
Perception: “Mother cleaned in a large block of luxury apartments. She had keys to the flats and she came and went as she pleased and as
her work demanded. It was while she was working that she had the idea of letting the people from down our street taste the pleasures
rich people took for granted in their way of living”. pg 243 The writers use of ‘people down our street taste the pleasures rich people took for
granted’ gives the reader the perception that the story and character that plot is being told from comes from a poor family.
Reality: “Grandpa was an old man and though his death was expected it was unexpected really and it was a shock to Mother to find she
suddenly had eighty-seven acres to sell.” pg 246 The use of ‘his death was expected’ and ‘a shock to Mother to find she suddenly had eightyseven acres to sell’ gives the reader the idea of the reality of the situation for the family after the death of the Grandpa.
Paradox: “‘I think you should live there and plant your one crop and stay while it matures,’ he said to her. “It’s a gentleman’s agreement’,
he said. ‘That’s the best sort,’ Mother smiled up at him and they shook hands.” pg 248 This situation is an apparent contradiction because
later in the story the Mother plants a jarrah forest which goes against the doctor’s good faith and contradicts the agreement.