5 Short Story Summaries

Hello class! These are my 5 Short Story Summaries:

  1. Classical Aristotelian:

A Cherokee Native American named Water Fox returns home from a three-year trip with the Light Horse Guard. He discovers his entire village is empty and finds evidence of federal soldiers being connected with the village disappearance.

This beginning will set the story off as Water Fox attempts to track and find his people along with those responsible for their disappearance. He will meet a variety of characters on his journey including other tribes of Native Americans, both friendly and hostile. Water Fox will recruit some of his friends from his Light Horse Guard to go along with him.

The middle of the story follows Water Fox finding his people in federal custody and in a much smaller number than he remembers three years prior. He will discover that the federal government took control of his people’s land and are relocating them to Oklahoma. In a surge of emotion and pain, Water Fox will seek out vengeance on the leaders responsible for carrying out the order to relocate his people.

Leading into the end of the story, Water Fox will find the leaders responsible for executing the migration order and will spare them as a show of mercy, knowing his people wouldn’t want more to die at the hands of this tragic event. This historical fiction takes place during the Trail of Tears, a dark period in Cherokee history where Native American tribes, including the Cherokee, were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands, and relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). This tragedy resulted in the death of thousands of Native Americans and the loss of their homes and communities.

 

  1. Kishōtenketsu

This story takes place in a small town where a hardworking blacksmith named Fae and a creative florist named Mo reside. The town is divided in half, with one side displaying a passion for botany and the other displaying their love of metalworking and weaponry. Fae and Mo lead separate lives, each following their own routines, with Fae constructing magnificent buildings and Mo decorating the town with flowers from his vast garden. They’ve barely acknowledged each other, passing by one another day after day. However, one afternoon, Mo approaches Fae and asks her to build him a metal arch for his garden.

Fae and Mo work together to create the metal arch, but they soon find themselves at odds over their design vision. Mo wants the arch to symbolize tranquility, while Fae believes it should represent power. This conflict reflects the division within the town. They argue for many hours and even days, eventually discarding both of their project visions.

Years pass, and the two cross paths once again. To their surprise, they find that their project visions have combined over time. The metal arch is now covered with a mixture of metal and greenery, and both Fae and Mo realize that this is the perfect arch for the garden. They apologize to each other and express their gratitude and appreciation for each other’s passions.”

 

  1. Episodic Structure:

In the year 2570, the PNW Dominion is a technologically advanced society ruled by a corrupt band of leaders named P, N, and W. A band of rebels, consisting of the fearless leader Ana, the tech-savvy hacker Luka, the former government agent Jinn, and the skilled marksman Kai, sets out to overthrow the leaders.

Mini Plot 1: The rebels steal a military hovercraft and use it to infiltrate the government headquarters. They soon discover that the hovercraft is equipped with a self-destruct mechanism and face a race against time to disable it. With time running out and not wanting to blow their cover, Luka sacrifices himself to ensure the mission continues by flying the hovercraft out of blast range.

Mini Plot 2: During their infiltration, Jinn is confronted with a dilemma when they come face to face with his former colleagues who have been brainwashed by the corrupt regime. Instead of helping his fellow rebels, Jinn turns against them and captures the rebels to have them interrogated by the government leaders.

Mini Plot 3: Ana and Kai eventually escape their confinement and search for the leader’s location. At last, they run into P, N, and W where a battle ensues. They manage to take out all three leaders until Jinn stands in their way. Refusing to let his once rebel friends continue their mission, Jinn activates a button and is then taken out by Kai.

Mini Plot 4: Ana mourns Jinn as their victory is short-lived. They realize that button Jinn activated released an advanced AI system called Dominion that assumes control of the government. Ana and Kai fight their way out of the headquarters and are about to leave via the government leader’s personal hovercraft when Ana is struck by a bullet from soldiers rushing to their positions. Ana orders Kai to leave her and escape, telling Kai to let the other rebels know what has taken place at the headquarters.

 

  1. Surrealist or Fantastic:

This was one story plot that I had the most difficulty creating.

Elo is a college student who works at a movie theater. Despite her busy schedule, she doesn’t pay much attention to her schoolwork or job. One night while cleaning a theater room, she finds a pair of glasses next to a note that reads, “Take what you need, put it back when you don’t. It knows if you still have it.” The glasses allow her to view a blank white room with a table, and whenever she needs an item, the glasses flash white, revealing the item on the table.

Elo initially uses the glasses to cheat on her schoolwork by requesting papers that will give her an A, but she soon realizes that she must return the papers when she no longer needs them. This becomes a problem when one of the papers is so well-written that it is sent off to be published, and Elo can no longer return it. The glasses start to behave strangely. The table shifts positions each time she wears glasses and there’s an eerie sense that Elo is being watched, leading her to realize that the “it” mentioned in the note is coming after her.

Elo goes on a journey to find the paper, and she discovers that the glasses are controlled by a mysterious entity. In a race against time, she must find the paper and return it to the glasses before the entity can punish her. In the end, she succeeds and narrowly avoids the punishment. She then destroys the glasses ensuring whatever it was coming for her cannot find her again, and is left with a newly forced work ethic that will never allow her to take the easy way out ever again.

 

  1. Personal Anecdote:

This story is based off of a trip my family and I took to Arizona in 2021. My girlfriend was an animal magnet the entire drive to and during our whole trip.

Mel is an adopted boy of Margret and Hudson, with a unique gift that he’ll soon discover as they go on vacation for the first time as a family. With each stop, Margaret and Hudson each notice at different points strange occurrences happening with their adopted boy Mel. These instances involve Mel interacting with animals.

Starting from the drive to their first stop, Hudson notices a flock of crows flying directly above and to the side of their SUV that hold their position with each lane change and U-turn. Next, Margaret catches Mel sitting with a pack of six reservation dogs when they stop for food. Mel behaves almost exactly like one of the dogs, from the tilting head to the panting and barking. Lastly, when they reach their vacation spot and unpack, both parents find Mel sitting in a tree surrounded by a dozen or so cats with collars and name-tags meowing to each other into the night.

Margaret and Hudson sit down and talk to each other about what they’ve seen on this trip about their Mel and decide to confront him to understand what’s going on. Mel reveals that he was raised by animals and has been gifted the ability to communicate with them. He has been hiding for years from scientists who want to experiment on Mel and discover a way of communicating with animals for themselves. Both Margaret and Hudson must deal with protecting Mel from those who wish to take him away and use Mel for their own personal gain.

 

Thank you for reading! Here are some links to sources I used for these summaries:

https://hendersonheritage.com/cherokee-1808-present/

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/lighthorse-police/

These works are of my own creation with the assistance of ChatGPT to ensure they followed their relative plot structures.

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