An After Thought Of Short Stories Essay

An After Thought Of Short Stories Essay, Research Paper An After Thought of Short Stories ?Earth may run red with wars. In the midst of battles, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death?. Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899) What exactly was Robert Ingersoll thinking when he wrote that? Was he trying to tell us something that we already knew but were to blind to see? Well when I read the quote I immediately thought of two short stories After the Sirens by Hugh Hood, and Here There Be Tygers by Ray Bradbury. When reading these two pieces of material one can easily decipher that there is no validity to conflicts that end in death because then no one wins. In both of these stories the authors have depicted their philosophy on chaos and disaster even though it was not

said in those exact words. Therefore, because the two stories have no relation there is a contrast in the message being sent to us. ?The Earth belongs to the living, not to the dead?. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) This specific quote by Jefferson creates a mood for the readers to kind of set the setting for the whole idea of disaster. When using settings the authors are very careful to include certain details that will help the reader to picture in there mind what exactly is taking place. Hugh Hood did a very good job at this when he wrote the short story After the Sirens. This particular story took place at 4:45 in the morning, in North America somewhere close to New York City. Hood set several moods throughout the story such as frustration, panic, confusion and hysteria to allow

the reader to feel what the characters felt. In Here There Be Tygers Ray Bradbury set the time frame to a futuristic point of view on Planet 7 of star system 84. In this particular short story Bradbury describes the planet in great detail giving the reader a feel for the great beauty of the wonderland referred to as a planet. One of the characters decides that he wants to use the planet to his benefit and then get the hell out of there, but as he soon finds out things do not exactly go as he plans. Therefore one can tell that the setting is one of the most important characteristics of a story of any kind. A character is a person involved in a play, story, etc used to create personality. In After the Sirens the father of the family was made the main character and was portrayed as

a hero like figure. He knows exactly what to do and how to handle the situation. He stays calm in order to save his family from any major damage. Another of the main characters was the wife. She was the exact opposite of the husband in the fact that she was totally hysterical. She added to the panic and allowed the reader to feel what she was feeling. Other characters in the story included the baby who did not really play a significant role in the whole idea, and the news broadcaster. The news broadcaster was also filled with a huge amount of hysteria and panic and set the whole mood for the reader. In the story Here There Be Tygers the main character was an uncaring, selfish man named Chatterton. He was more concerned of what he could get from the planet than the good the planet

could do for him. Some of the changes that occurred with this character include the major fact that he dies due to his rude and careless behavior that caused the planet to take action and kill him. Other characters that had some what of a significant role include; Driscoll, the man who stayed on the planet after he took a great liking to it, then there was Captain Forester the leader of the whole expedition, and lastly Koestler who was basically just a follower along for the work and not really noticed a great deal. Theme is the whole topic or idea that the author chooses to illustrate to the reader. The message that Hugh Hood while writing After the Sirens was sending to his reader was basically that war is pointless, no one wins and no one looses and the innocent bystanders are