Short Story List
You may choose ONE of the following stories for your research paper topic with instructor
approval. Choice is “first-come-first-served” and the story chosen is final.
Short Story Selections:
1. characterization in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
2. choose characterization or the grotesque in Flannery O’Connor’s “The Life You Save
May Be Your Own”
3. illusion vs. reality in Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
4. symbolism in Nathanial Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
5. symbolism in Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds”
6. allegory in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”
7. elements of science fiction in Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder”
8. choose symbolism or theme in Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded Six Bits”
9. imagery in Gary Soto’s “The Jacket”
10. theme in “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Leslie Marmon Silko
11. character in “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner
12. choose stream of consciousness, sequencing, or flashback in Katherine Anne Porter’s
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”
13. setting in “Why I Live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty
14. setting in “The Magic Barrel” by Bernard Malamud
15. symbol in “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien
16. choose symbolism or irony “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
17. choose characterization or setting in “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving18. how setting creates mood in “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” by Bret Harte
19. characterization in “A Wagner Matinee” by Willa Cather
20. theme in “Winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
21. symbolism in “The Gift of the Magi” by O Henry
22. choose one element: tone, sentence structure, word choice, or theme “In Another
Country” by Ernest Hemmingway
23. choose archetype or hero’s quest in “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty
24. Author’s style in “The Rockpile” by James Baldwin
25. Choose plot structure, flashback, foreshadowing, or prediction in “Antojos” by Julia
Alvarez
26. thematic concerns in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”
27. choose irony or symbolism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
28. choose satire or theme (dystopia, equality) in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”
29. Tone in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner
30. Conflict (external/internal) “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
31. Tone “The Interlopers” by Saki
32. Mood “In Another Country” by Ernest Hemingway
33. Responsibility for the death of Beatrice in “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by N. Hawthorne34. Importance of color in “The Masque of the Red Death” by E.A. Poe
35. Plot development in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving
36. Conflict in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London
37. Symbolism in “The Egg” by Sherwood Anderson
38. Dark Romanticism in “The Birthmark” by Nathanial Hawthorne
39. Point of View in Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal”
40. Character in “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie
Lower level stories
1. Irony in Jacob’s “The Monkey’s Paw”
41. The grotesque in Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart”