Category: Uncategorized

5 Short Story Summaries

Andrew Higgins

Aristotelian Structure:

Exposition: The story takes place in 1940 in Britain, during the time of the bombings of Britain by Germany. The main characters are introduced: George, Andrew, Winston, their father John Parker and their mother Abigail. George is 17 years old and wants to join the war, Andrew is 15, Winston is 14. The father works in a factory and the mother does not work. The family is coping with the death of Jacob, George’s youngest brother who drowned when George was supposed to watch him.

Rising Action: The story progresses and the family is dealing with the pressure of the war, the bombings, and the guilt and responsibility of Jacob’s death. The father is pushing George to enlist and the mother is dealing with her own emotions and fear of the war. George is struggling with his own feelings and decisions.

Climax: The climax of the story takes place when the family’s house is destroyed by a German bomb. This event is a significant turning point for George, as it makes the war and the danger more personal and immediate for him. He may feel a strong sense of responsibility to protect his family and country, as well as a sense of urgency to act.

Falling Action: George joins the war, leaving his family behind. The family is dealing with the aftermath of the event and the absence of George. They may experience a shift in their relationships and emotions.

Resolution: The resolution of the story is the tragic death of George, who died in the war a year later, shot in the back on accident by his own fellow soldier. The family is distraught, the father realizes he pushed George to enlist and feels guilty. The mother is in denial about her role in George’s death. The story could also explore how the family copes with their loss, the father’s guilt, and the mother’s denial. It could also explore the impact of George’s death on the rest of the family, particularly his brothers, as they grieve the loss of their brother and navigate their own feelings of guilt and responsibility. The story could also explore the themes of grief, loss, and the impact of war on families and individuals.

 

Kishōtenketsu Structure: 

Summary: 

The year is 1946, and Bob just got out of the second world war. His girlfriend, Nancy, has been waiting for him to come home ever since he joined in 1943. Bob, although a bit shaken from his time fighting, is happy to be home. He and Nancy get married that year, with both of their families traveling to Georgia where they just bought a new house. 

2 years later, Nancy is expecting a child, and is due in a few weeks. Bob is nervous, but very excited. They are going through their list of things they need to get done before the baby is there, like baby proofing the house and getting the baby’s room ready. The baby is a beautiful boy, and everyone is very happy. Bob also gets a good job around this time and buys a new car/more expensive things.

4 years later, a letter is sent to the house from a French woman addressed to Bob, but Nancy opens it before Bob finds it. The woman addresses Bob as if she knows him, and explains how he has a 7 year old son, and about how hard it was to find him. She asks if he would return to France and see his son. Nancy confronts Bob about it, and he tells the truth, about how he had slept with a woman in France and that this boy is probably his son. He tells her that he has to go, and he leaves. A week later, bob is back and apolagizies to Nancy, telling her that he wants to stay with her and their son, and that his other son would be well taken care of. 

Bob and Nancy live the rest of their lives together, and see their son grow up to be a smart young man. Bob, having still been of fighting age, did serve and live through the Korean war as well. He has many scars at the end of his life, but is content and passes away at the age of 89. Nancy lives on a few more years and gets to see her son have kids, and then watch her grandkids have kids as well before she passes.

Episodic Structure:

Episode 1: A group of five people wake up on an island, with no one remembering how they got there. They are freaked out and are trying to adjust to the new people in their lives. They start out in search of food and drinkable water, and to find a place to sleep. The next weeks are tough, and the characters are pushed to their limits.
They notice that the birds on this island are none they have ever seen, and the only other animals are small, unrecognizable rodents. Tensions are building between the group members. 

Episode 2: A similar structure to the first episode. 10 people wake up on an island with no memories about how they got there. There are crates of food next to them, an assortment of tools, and one gun with a few bullets. This group has a much better time getting on, and often have parties on the beach after they are comfortable on the island. They don’t notice weird birds or rodents, and think this is a normal island. At the end of this episode, we see the original group after they’ve eaten a dinner of rodents. They seem to be sweaty, and acting strangely. They don’t seem to be bothered by the weird twitching movements their arms are making. Eventually we see their eyes go glassy and they all pass out. 

Episode 3: Back at the first group, they are exploring more of the island. A single member finds a stream where they start washing themself. We hear crunching behind her as a few members of the second group lunge at her, and start biting and eating her. This prompts the first group, once they realize they are gone, to go search for the group member. Eventually the 4 remaining members come into contact with the members of group 2. They have a hard battle with very few weapons. Another group 1 member dies, but once the last member of group 2 is dead, fireworks shoot everywhere. It was a show, and they all won. A helicopter type vehicle comes and picks them up and they are paraded through a futuristic type city, although they feel terrible for their friends. They come to find out they volunteered for this contest, and had their minds wiped.

Surreal or Fantastic Mode:

Once upon a time, in a peaceful land long ago, a human girl named Lily lived in a small village that overlooked a beautiful valley. She loved her parents, and often spent time in their garden that bordered the edge of the village. The people of this village lived a quiet life, and everyone was committed to helping each-other. 

One day, Lily was playing near the edge of the garden, when suddenly she was face to face with a small, bright green goblin. They both seemed surprised at first, Lily having heard stories of the goblins in the mountains, but never seen one. They eventually calm down, with Lily asking the first question. They talk for a while, and eventually Lily somewhat trusts him.

What Lily did not know was that goblins age differently, and what looked like a goblin child was actually an adult spy, and he intended to gain her trust so she could aid in the invasion of the village. There is a main gate, and it would need to be opened from the inside. Lily is skeptical about what the goblin wants her to do, but still carries out the task. Goblins rush in, taking the village by surprise. Her father defends their home well with the men who were left, but they are going to be overtaken. Lily, who ran away crying, see’s that she can save the men by opening the irrigation door and flooding the goblins away. 

Lily learned an important lesson, but overall the village still loves her for saving them. Without the presence of goblins, the village had another long time of peace.

Personal Anecdote:

One weekend, my mom, brother, and I went to Diamond lake with my grandpa to go fishing. The weather was beautiful, and we had rented a nice, little cabin. After we had set up our stuff, my grandpa offered to take us on a walk if we wanted to go with him. I said yes, as I didn’t get to spend much time with him. My brother, who was about 7, was indecisive, but told us he didn’t want to come.

My grandpa and I set off on our walk, looking at the beautiful trees and the lake as we went. We talked about a lot of things, and he told me where we would be fishing the next day. We walked for quite a while, until the path wrapped around and pointed us back towards the cabin. The sun was starting to set, and we were both getting hungry, so we decided to head back.

Upon approaching the cabin, my mom saw us and was obviously upset. She told us she couldn’t find my brother, Luke, and that he had been gone for a good couple of minutes. We looked around the immediate area, and my mom even went up to other cabins in search for him. Eventually, my grandpa got on this bike and rode the trail we walked on. He found my brother and put him on the handlebars of his bike, riding all the way back to our cabin.

My mom was very relieved to have luke home, and was also pretty stern with him about how she felt about him walking off like that. Apparently he had changed his mind about wanting to come on a walk with us, and he decided to try and catch up with us. When asked if he had learned a lesson, Luke replied with, “Well, I learned a lot about squirrels.” We all laughed that one off, and proceeded to have a great weekend at Diamond lake.

 

 

 

 

 

Post #6: Cinema Language

celizalde23

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Both film and short story follow the same story. Of course there are some differences between the two that can only be done in certain ways because of the different media used. 

For example, the film was able to show human expressions and actions, setting and environment, something that in writing can be done, but will likely make the writing longer trying to explain everything. Of course, sound is something that differs from writing. You can hear the voice of the main character when he calls out to his wife, or his last sigh when he is hung. The sound of the swirling water, the birds, the guns, all of that makes the film a different experience from reading. The film did not need a narrator to explain what was going on through the main character’s mind, the camera angles and the actors expressions and movements were enough to explain what was going through his head.

For the writing there is more information given about the character Peyton Farquhar and how he ended up being hung. The film did not give any background story for this character, it only showed his family. The writing was able to explain things that the film did not, the audience might have to figure it out by themselves. 

The pacing is different in both medias. The short story can have a slow or a fast pace, it depends on the reader and how they want to process the story. The writing does not feel slow, it feels right for me to be able to read and understand what is going on in the story. The film feels slow in comparison to the short story. The video is about 23 minutes long, and it took me less than that to read the short story. I noticed the film’s pace was slow because the camera was showing the environment around the character. It gave a vast image of what this setting looks like so that we can follow the main character through his journey back home, which ended up only being the character’s imagination.

It is interesting how different both media can be, you can do things to one that can’t do to the other, which makes it fascinating.

Cinema Language

kbrandon23

 

After watching the film adaptation of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and then reading the short story by Ambrose Bierce I noticed a few differences between the two works. The biggest and most noticeable difference between these two is in the beginning, specifically with the background. In the film, there isn’t really any background information. All we see is a sign on a tree that says anyone who messes with the railroads or bridges will be hanged and then the film goes straight to the bridge where we see the soldiers setting up for the hanging. But, in the short story, there is a large section of the story devoted to Peyton’s background telling us what happened leading up to the hanging so we understand why he is being hanged. However, we did not necessarily need all of the background information in the film because we are able to tell a lot about him and his situation based on everything that we are able to see, specifically the way that he dresses.

There were a lot of techniques used in the film that helped to successfully translate the effects in the short story. At the beginning of the film, they do a great job of setting the scene. Everything is moving slowly making us feel anxious about what is about to happen. Additionally, the way that the clips were filmed made us feel like we were seeing what Peyton is seeing, which also added to the anticipation and anxiety.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

abrandon23

When comparing the short film version of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge to the written short story I noticed a few differences. The main difference I noticed has to do with the backstory. In the written version of the story, there was an entire section dedicated to providing background about his life/who he is, and why he is being hanged. However, in the short film version of the story, we aren’t directly told anything about him or why is about to be hanged. At the beginning of the story, we are briefly shown a poster explaining why someone would be hanged. We are then able to connect this poster to the reason he is in the situation he is in. As for his background, we are able to infer things about him from his appearance, like the fact that he is a wealthy man.

As for the film techniques that successfully translated the effects in the short story, I think that pacing was a big one. At the begging of the film when Peyton is being set up to be hanged, it is moving very slowly and we are able to feel the built-up anticipation of his hanging that he must have been feeling as well. In addition, I think that the scene where he was falling into the water was shot and edited in a way that elevated the story. Prior to that scene, we were feeling the same anticipation he was feeling and then we were able to be immersed in the scene with him by seeing what it looked like from his perspective.

Cinema Language

gkipp23

The most obvious difference regarding “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” between both mediums is the implementation of film techniques to imply emotions and story beats that are otherwise explicitly stated in its prose counterpart- Words are transferable to film, but employing its visual language is mutually exclusive to movies. 

The explicit exploration of Peyton’s life is absent in the film, as well as a lot of instances in which emotion is transcribed to the reader. The prose invokes words like “impatience” and “apprehension” as he awaits his fate. The episode uses slow, deliberate camera movements to manufacture a sense of foreboding, and uses cuts to contextualize the point of view of Peyton- his nervous glances and sweat-slicked face and the cuts to the environment are more than enough to get a sense of his thought process. 

The most impressive bit of filmmaking- and divergence from the source- comes at the conclusion, where the locked-down camera and surreal, suddenly synthetically manicured trees foreshadow what’s about to happen. The use of cuts as Peyton reunites with his wife dilate time in a way that written word is incapable of; The two are maneuvering through the same space repeatedly, making their collision seem almost asymptotical, like a lifetime of anticipation and memory building and then flickering out. It’s an effective translation of the story. 

The match cut is a classic cinematic tool, and employed effectively here to translate the gut punch of the final sentence. The sudden head turn and neck snap create a visual synchrony and visual coherence to the prose of the story. 

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Sammy

I believe the film adaptation of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge remained fairly true to the original story. The biggest change from story to film that I noticed was the lack of dialogue from Peyton. In the short story, we got a deeper look into the inner world of our main character. We also got a lot more backstory for the entire plot. The film shortens it to a poster in the first few seconds. It serves its purpose for providing context, but it leaves out the scene with the soldier on his horse at Peyton’s house. I think the director choosing to leave out this scene was a fine choice, but I would have liked to know more about the main character. While watching the film, he just seemed like some guy. I didn’t feel any real connection to him as a character, though I did feel sympathetic to his circumstances (that is, until I read more about his beliefs).

I think the ticking of the pocket watch translated well from story to film. It added a feeling of panic, and the speeding up of the ticking while it got louder, while the very slow and steady shot of his wife lingered, felt suffocating.

I also think the little details of what he saw translated very well into film and were supported by the song choice during the river scene.

 

Overall, I did enjoy both versions of this story! I think I liked the story more though.