Short Story Analysis

I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the short stories because it not only gave me some new inspiration on how to write my short story, but each one of them had their own unique characters and plot that were really interesting to read about. I realized that irony is a big part of the writing of a short story, particularly one in the view of the monster, which is quite unusual in itself. The authors of the stories use a lot of irony in describing the original "heroes" of the stories themselves in the view of the monster. The irony used seems to have been done to satirize the heroes and that they are no better than the actual monster. For example, in "The Hollow Man", Partridge uses irony because the monster categorizes its victims depending on how much it likes them, since it says that it "instantly liked him best." It's ironic because monsters don't usually "like" their victims. In the "Creature from the Black Lagoon", the narrator uses its awareness of its lack of evolution as irony, since it didn't evolve at all since the beginning of time, even though it was born to swim, the narrator was "out of his element." In the "Rakshasi", the narrator says resentfully that her contract could have been "over anytime [Jonathan] chooses." It shows that while she kept her contract alive by doing her master's bidding, the master himself did not keep his own promise to her. There are many other instances of irony throughout all three short stories.
Another thing that I learned from reading the short stories is that they use dialogue to explain or show a specific experience or event. For example, in "The Hollow Man", “"Tomorrow mornin’,” blurted Redbeard, “we’re gettin’ away from here. I’m not dealin’ with no crazy hermit."” It shows the unwillingness of Redbeard to confront the "hermit", or the monster, which gives the monster a motive to mind control Grizzly to kill Redbeard. In the "Creature from the Black Lagoon", there is dialogue between the human characters, but the most important is the internal dialogue that the monster has with himself, in his reflection of his behavior towards Kay: “What was less saddening, finally, than a narcissist’s solitude? I'd been drawn to Kay the way insects singled out the younger shoots or leaves not yet toughened or toxic.” This is also a form of irony, since it's unexpected that the creature would have such thinking skills, able to reflect on his actions. In the "Rakshasi", the author includes dialogue to foreshadow some future events. For example, as Amrita is talking to Catherine, her isha's wife, she tries hinting at obtaining her freedom, but Catherine replies with “‘I know. But his obligation...’”. This foreshadows a later realization as the narrator admits to planting the seed of doubt into Catherine's mind in order to put her plan for obtaining her freedom into action. In fact, at the end of the story, Amrita does get her freedom with the help of Catherine.
In conclusion, irony and dialogue are two among many particular devices that the authors use in their short stories, which were important in driving the story forward.