After reading through the readings, I found out that short stories are straight forward, compressed and that it takes a lot of planning from the characters to the plot. I have read a few short stories but it never did cross my mind on how it was structure. While reading Brander Matthews, The Philosophy of the Short-Story, he talks about “make the beginning all wrong”. Linking Lamb to the Slaughter with Matthews’s reading, the story started off with a stereotypical housewife figure until the end where the tables were turned. She became psychotic. It gave the readers a false sense of security on the character. Making the beginning look like it isn’t at the end pulls the attention of the reader as how fast a character could change in a single event. This will help in building the character as we can give a falsely outlook on the character and slowly bringing out the character true self later on in the story. In McKee’s reading he focuses on building the protagonist and how it should have a bond with the audience. In writing a short story I feel that it all comes down to the character as how the story will evolve. The protagonist action and reaction is the moment where audience will capture what is going on. The protagonist move the story forward by making an event or action and give a series of emotion.
