Short Stories That I Enjoyed in the Last Two Weeks

Hey, everyone! I've been away for a while. I moved into my apartment, started my intern teaching tenth graders at a local high school, did band camp, went to a leadership conference, started school, and started leading a Life Group and intercessory prayer team again. I've been busy. I'm taking eighteen hours and four of those classes are English literature classes, so there will be tons of reading for me in the future. Here are some short stories I've encountered recently that I wanted to share my thoughts on. Two of them we read in class with my high schoolers and one was the introductory text to my Post-Apocalyptic SciFi class (how awesome is that?!?). If you're curious besides the awesome class I've already mentioned, I'm taking Shakespeare, a YA lit class, and a fairy tales class. Lots of interesting texts across the board!

Everyday Use by Alice Walker

3.5 stars

This short story is an excellent study into culture and people's choice to turn their cultural heritage into relics on a shelf instead of items of everyday use. I really enjoyed the narration and the story was beautifully written. I'm ashamed that this is my first experience with Walker, but I will definitely be making The Color Purple a priority in the near future.

The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty

4 stars

The Sniper follows a young man in the Irish Civil War. O'Flaherty uses imagery and the atrocity of war to convey the dehumanization of a young man in a world pitted against itself. The students loved the last line (and I did to!). It's always fun to read a twist in the last line of a short story. It proves the mark of an excellent writer, especially since the buildup and the foreshadowing points to it as a possibility, but it's far too dark for even the main character to consider outright. Highly recommended!

The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion by Edgar Allan Poe

4.25 stars

This short story follows two men (who we can assume to be living in Paradise or Heaven) as they discuss the death of Eiros. Eiros experienced the apocalypse and discusses the fear of hearing the "mighty rushing waters" as well as the impending doom and internal as well as external disarray that humans began to experience. It's interesting in narrative choice as a way on Poe's part to diffuse theology and science together for the apocrypha genre. I'm glad that this was the first piece we discussed in my Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction class. I've never heard of this Poe story before and I'm quite intrigued by it. I would like to revisit this in the years to come since Poe is an author I reread regularly.

Have you read any of these short stories? What type of short fiction do you prefer? Let me know down below in the comments!