Short Story Critique: The Last Night Of The World

Keaton Dalquist

Mrs. Holder

English IV

27 January 2016

Short Story Critiques

Short Story: The Last Night of the World

1. Characterization:

a. Main character is only defined as a “man” or a “he”.

i. The central character is clearly defined. The story mostly contains his experiences, like when he was at the office “We just walked on our own, and everywhere we saw people looking at their desks or their hands or out the windows and not seeing what was in front of their eyes.” ii. I do not have sympathy. The main characters and other characters seen completely calm with the fact the world is ending. The man even asked "Do you want to cry?"

b. They are easily distinguishable. The man, his wife, his children, and his coworkers can be told apart.

The plot has been developed well throughout the story, and has an exceptional hook at the beginning “"What would you do if you knew this was the last night of the world?" The characters are not described at all in the story, leaving the image of them up to the reader to imagine. The actions run in a flashback style sequence. The husband and his family are at their house at the end of the day discussing what to do with their night, then the story flashes back to the office where the husband discovered he wasn 't the only one to experience the dream; in fact all of his office seemed to undergo the same dream. The flashback is well placed and adds a lot to the credibility that the world may come to an end. The time span is feasible and realistic. There are no crazy misconceptions with the passage of time in the

Short Story: Adams

1. Characterization:

a. The central character, named Roger, does appear in the first few lines. Roger sees “Adams and then one day he’s standing in my kitchen, in his underwear. Facing in the direction of my kids’ room!”

i. It i clear the central character is Roger, because the story is told from his perspective. ii. I do not have sympathy for him, he seems mentally insane and paranoid, the word choice “I wonk him again and down he goes” makes me believe something is wrong with Roger.

b. There is some confusion who is who, but it becomes clearer as the story progresses.

i. These characters are authentic; they are established well and fit into the story. ii. Yes, it 's easy to see who is in whose family.

2. Dialogue:

a. There is no real dialogue in the story, it is mostly in the mind of Roger recounting the events. Some of the dialogue is “I am what I am, he said.” and “To which Lynn said, Upstairs, why?” The dialogue isn 't very meaningful but is authentic.

3.