A Rationale of My Own Short Story

My final project explores transformation by considering the following question about change: How does a person change when the seasons start to change? My project’s response to this question is that you might get sad at the beginning but that there is something good about every season and that you will realize that.

I was inspired by Getting Closer by Steven Millhauser. This is evident by comparing the theme of being scared of time passing and things changing with my theme of being sad about the seasons along with other things changing. I expanded on my theme by doing the following: I added different tones into the story. The rather happy tone in some parts of the story highlights the feeling Sydney has in the summer with longer descriptions and sentences compared to when it gets colder and where the tone is darker. The darker tone highlights the feeling she gets when the summer is over and things change. The shift in the tone in the story is shown every time the weather changes along with her mood. My use of setting underlines the theme by adding small details that end up making a big difference in the story and in the understanding of the theme to the reader, an example for this are the recurring trees in the story. I also added characterization into the story which is evident by me describing the character at the beginning of the story. The characterization has the effect on the reader that he/she can relate to her and gets involved in my work in that way. The use of imagery in my story intends to make the audience feel what the protagonist is feeling which depends on the part of the story as the transformation progresses.

My understanding of Imagery is influenced by Steven Millhauser which is evident when you consider these lines: “There are raindrops all over the window running down the glass like tears running down someone’s cheek. They are all running at the same speed except for one. It’s behind them all, by itself.” In these lines I was trying to make the theme clearer. The image portrayed here is close to how the protagonist feels in the darker parts of the story: alone and sad. I also included this in my work which also shows how Millhauser influenced me: “They drive past flower fields with hundreds of pink flowers all together and all next to each other like a huge safe family.” That line is supposed to represent how she feels in the happier parts of the story when she’s with her friends in the summer. Another example for my inspiration is: “The once brightly-green colored trees are now orange and yellow. There are leaves all over the ground.” That example shows that not only the protagonist has transformed but that the nature has transformed along with her.

The three most important creative decisions I made when designing this work are: Including Imagery to show the protagonist’s emotions, adding a tone that matches the section of the story and including symbolism through colors and the weather. These decisions were instrumental in developing my theme because: Imagery made the theme and the feelings of the protagonist clearer to the audience, the tone made the story more exciting and made the feelings included in this story more dramatic and the symbolism made the emotions in the story clearer to the audience.

Literary devices work together towards a common goal. I have made sure to weave together the use of literary devices. My evidence of this is: the link I’ve made between Imagery and Tone. When the mood and feeling of the story got darker, along with the attitude of the writing, the surroundings of the protagonist got darker as well and I used rather depressing images, for example rain, a dark sky and clouds.