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Karen Centeno-Casillas
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Life can appear to be a ‘hot mess’, but the mess of life also bears fruit for short fiction. In “Why I Write Short Stories," John Cheever claims the short form is a ‘literature of the nomad’ for narrating our journeys through intense episodes. By conjuring fictional worlds, characters, and points of view, story writers hope to make sense of what’s wonderful or bewildering about the human experience. They achieve this through a kind of ‘unity of effect', the economic use of literary techniques that immerse readers in accumulating details during a brief encounter. But as we become enchanted with these unifying effects, how might we also consider outside lenses to fully leverage a story’s power?
MLA. Cite directly from one of the four stories we’ve discussed. Be sure to use proper MLA format to cite within the essay (author pg.) and in Works Cited.