Caring About the Characters

"The novel, because of its greater length and scope, has much more complexity than the short story. Its plot is typically more involved and multifaceted, its description of the social milieu more complete. and its depiction of its characters' motives, feelings, and experiences more complex than the concise short story form allows." (Hamilton 8)

Although I like to read novels because they are so much more in depth and complicated, I like reading and writing short stories as well. Short stories allow you to get a great idea for a plot down on paper without having to write a full length novel. Short stories are quick, to the point, and yet sometimes can create even more powerful messages and meanings than a novel can.

I thought "Trifles" was a great short story. It was quick and open ended which leaves the readers guessing. What I really liked about it though was that it made the readers care about the characters with the smallest amout of detail possible. For example, after reading both Mrs. Pale's and Mrs. Peter's relfections on Mrs. Wright's past, I, as a reader, began to feel bad for Mrs. Wright and to care about her outcome. I also began to feel bad for Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale because they both felt some sort of regret for not having taken the opportunity to have possibly stopped the murder from ever happening. On the other side, I also felt slightly irriated and a little disgusted towards the male characters in the story. The men tended to make remarks to the women present that allowed me to realize that they viewed the women as being unequal compared to them. Combining all these feelings together, its obvious that the writer successfully created characters in a short story that were not as detailed as they may have been in a novel, but they still held my interest because the little detail that was provided was enough for me to care about the characters and their outcomes.