The Blog of Eternal Awsomeness :-}

For homework we read this article by John Steinbeck, The author of the book we are reading, The Pearl.

Then we answered these questions:

1. What does John Steinbeck say is needed to write a great short story?
2. Tell us about a short story you remember reading. What stands out about the story?

1.  Steinbeck says that the only thing needed to write a good short story is to write a good short story.  That is to say that in reality there is no magic formula, plot diagram, design or model that will help you write a short story.  You, being the author, “had to convey something to the reader, and the power of its offering was the measure of its excellence.”  You had to write an effective short story.  Other than that, there are no boundaries.

2.  The best short story I ever read was Ferdinand.  It was a story about a young bull who lived in the Spanish countryside.  Ferdinand would much rather sit in the clover patch and smell the wild flowers than go jump and kick and rough house with the other bulls.  But one day, some men from the bull fights in Madrid came to buy some bulls.  Ferdinand was sitting down when he got stung by a bee.  His reaction was so crazy the men bought him and hauled him all the way to Madrid.  When he got there he just sat down in the middle of the ring and looked at all the people so he had to go back home.  The most memorable thing about the story was that Ferdinand was so content sitting and smelling the wild flowers that even when antagonized he would not fight the bull fighters.