SHORT STORY
SUMMARIES
Stories for Literary Analysis Paper
“THE PEDESTRIAN”
RAY BRADBURY
• In this story we encounter Leonard Mead, a citizen of a televisioncentered world in the year A.D.2053. In the city, roads have fallen into
decay and people only leave their homes during the day. It is revealed
that Mead enjoys walking through the city during the night, something
which no one else does. On one of his usual walks he encounters a
robotic police car. It is the only police unit in a city of three million. The
police car struggles to understand why Mr. Mead would be out walking
for no reason and decides to take him to the Psychiatric Center for
Research on Regressive Tendencies.
“THE CASK OF AMANTILLADO”
EDGAR ALLEN POE
• The first-person narrator, whom we later discover to be named Montresor,
announces immediately that someone named Fortunato has injured him
repeatedly and has recently insulted him. Montresor can stand no more;
he vows revenge upon Fortunato. The remainder of the story deals with
Montresor's methods of entrapping Fortunato and effecting his revenge
upon the unfortunate Fortunato. Foremost is the fact that Montresor has
never let Fortunato know of his hatred. Accordingly, one evening during
carnival time, a time when much frivolity and celebration would be taking
place, Montresor set his fiendish, mad plan into motion with full
confidence that he would never be discovered.
“CHARLES”
SHIRLEY JACKSON
Young and free Laurie has recently started kindergarten, and his mother laments that her "sweetvoiced nursery-school tot" is growing up. She also notes changes in his behavior: he no longer
waves goodbye to her, slams the door when he comes home and speaks insolently to his father.
During dinnertime conversations, Laurie begins telling his parents stories about an ill-behaved
boy in his class named Charles. Charles throws things, yells and hits his teacher and classmates.
Though in a way fascinated by the strange boy, Laurie's mother wonders if Charles' bad influence
is responsible for Laurie misbehaving and using bad grammar.
Over the ensuing weeks Charles seems to be going from bad to worse until one day at the
beginning of the week Laurie tells his parents that Charles behaved himself and that the teacher
made him her helper. By the end of the week, however, Charles reverts to his old self when he
makes a girl in his class repeat a bad word to the teacher. The next school day, Charles mumbles
the word several times to himself and throws chalk. Laurie also says that he misbehaves quite
often.
When the next PTA meeting rolls around, Laurie's mother is determined to meet Charles' mother.
She closely examines the other parents and sees nothing but pleasant faces and is surprised when
Charles is not mentioned at all.
“GIFT OF THE MAGI”
O. HENRY
• Mr. James Dillingham Young ("Jim") and his wife, Della, are a couple living
in a modest flat. They each have only one possession in which they take
pride: Della's beautiful long, flowing hair, almost to her knees and Jim's
shiny gold watch, which had belonged to his father and grandfather.
• On Christmas Eve, with only $1.87 in hand, and desperate to find a gift for
Jim, Della sells her hair for $20, and eventually finds a platinum fob chain
for Jim's watch for $21. She found the perfect gift at last and runs home and
begins to prepare dinner, with 87 cents left.
• When Jim comes home, he looks at Della with a strange expression. Della
then admits to Jim that she sold her hair to buy him his present.
“THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS”
RAY BRADBURY
• Set in August 4, 2026 in the city of Allendale, California, There Will
Come Soft Rains details the daily tasks of a robotic house after its
inhabitants (Mr and Mrs McClellan and their son and daughter) have
died in a nuclear war. The house is still undamaged, fully automated
and sensitive to its owners and their requests and needs. It continues
to serve the dead family, unaware of their absence, though aware of
other external and internal disruptions such as the weather and birds
attempting to land on it. Throughout the story, the house makes
breakfast, disposes of it uneaten, and performs various domestic tasks.
The house communicates via a set of recorded and synthesized voices.
“THE INTERLOPERS”
SAKI
• The Interlopers involves two families that have been feuding over a strip of forest for decades.
The courts ruled in the Gradwitz family's favour but the Znaeym family never accepted this.
One night, Ulrich takes a group of men into the forest with him searching for his enemy as he
suspects he is hunting game on his land. When they finally come face to face, a lightning bolt
strikes the tree and it falls, pinning them both to the floor, right beside each other.
As they sit talking, they speak of what is going to happen when their men reach them first, how
they will kill the other when their men release them from this massive tree. Ulrich drinks his
wine flask and after a while he offers it to Georg. He wants to end their feud and Georg
agrees. They offer to be friends after this ordeal.
They decide to shout for their men to find them. After shouting for some time, they hear
footsteps and noises in the distance. They shout louder as what they think are men come
closer. When they get close enough, the men realize that these are not men, but are hungry
wolves on their way to eat the two defenseless men
“ALL SUMMER IN A DAY”
RAY BRADBURY
• This story is set on the planet Venus, where the sun shines for only two
hours once every seven years. It opens on the day that the sun is due to
make its appearance once again. Margot and the other children in her
school on Venus are nine years old. Margot came from Earth to Venus
five years ago. Therefore she accurately recalls the sun and the way it
looked and felt as it shone on her when she was back in Ohio. However,
this is not the case with the other children. They were far too young to
remember what the sun was like when last it shone upon them. They can
only imagine the warmness of that sun upon their arms and legs. Margot
tells the others that the sun is round like a penny and hot like a fire in the
stove. The other children accuse her of lying, and they show their
resentment of her seeming superiority by locking her in a closet.
“THE NECKLACE”
GUY DE MAUPASSANT
• "The Necklace" tells the story of Madame Mathilde Loisel and her husband. Mathilde
always imagined herself in a high social position with wonderful jewels. However, she
has nothing and marries a low-paid clerk who tries his best to make her happy. Through
lots of begging at work her husband is able to get a couple of invitations to the Ministry
of Education party. Mathilde then refuses to go, for she has nothing to wear.
• Her husband is upset to see her displeasure and, using money that he was saving to buy
a hunting rifle, gives Mathilde 400 francs to use. Mathilde goes out and buys a dress, but
even with the dress she is not happy, as she is without any jewels to wear with it. The pair
does not have much money left, so her husband suggests that she should buy roses to
wear with it. After Mathilde disagrees, he suggests borrowing something from her friend,
Madame Jeanne Forestier. Mathilde picks out the fanciest diamond necklace that she can
find. After attending the party, Mathilde discovers that she has lost the necklace. She
tries to find a quick way to replace it. She goes to a shop and discovers the price of a
similar necklace to be 36,000 francs. She gets the new necklace after borrowing the
money, but the long path of her financial struggles begins.
“THE LOTTERY”
SHIRLEY JACKSON
• On June 27th in a small town, the villagers gather together in the square for the town lottery. Village children run around
collecting stones and making a pile of them in the square. The men arrive next, followed by the women. Parents call their
children over and families stand together. Mr. Summers is the man in charge of the lottery. He arrives in the square with
the black box, followed by Mr. Graves, the postmaster. Mr. Summers mixes up the slips of paper in the box. He and Mr.
Graves made the papers the night before; before the lottery can begin a list is made of all the families and households in
the village. Mr. Summers is sworn in. In the past there used to be a song and salute, but these have been lost. Tessie
Hutchinson is late due to the fact she had forgotten that today was the lottery. She joins her husband and children at the
front of the crowd and people make jokes about her tardiness. Mr. Summers asks whether anyone is absent, and the crowd
responds that Dunbar isn't there. It is decided that Mrs. Dunbar will draw for him. Mr. Summers then asks whether the
Watson boy will draw, and he answers yes. Mr. Summers also ensures that Old Man Warner is present. Mr. Summers
reminds everyone of the lottery's rules: he’ll read names, and the family heads come up and draw a slip of paper. No one
should look at the paper until everyone has drawn. Each person then comes up and draws a paper. Mr. Summers finishes
calling names, and everyone opens his or her papers. Word quickly gets around that Bill Hutchinson has got it. Tessie
argues that Bill didn't have enough time to make a fair draw. Mr. Graves dumps the contents of the box on the ground, then
puts five papers in for the Hutchinsons. Each member of the family then draws another paper.