First-Person Fiction

This narrator is telling us what happened to him in his lifetime as a butler. He seems to have many regrets in life as he follows a new employer that has failed a lot in his career. He also seems to regret letting Miss Kenton the housekeeper leave without telling her he liked her, she […]

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This narrator wants to tell us this story because it has meaning and symbolism to his life. This tree is something that has been there since he was a child himself. Now in his eighties this tree is being threatened to be cut down by a younger neighbor. I feel he is tying the tree […]

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In this story, the narrator has something to say because they want to tell us about this place called the “better place” and how they want to go back there so things will “be better” and full of excitement. They tell us what they have to do to get to this place and things about it. These […]

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The narrator comes out saying that he has a story to tell about a lesson he learned when he was only sixteen years old. Les learned that pain and suffering is an important lesson to learn in life. Whether it be an animal dying and suffering in a pond, his mother’s feelings and heart being […]

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This novel could not have been told in any other form than letters. Werther is such a passionate, heart-first character that I think he would have been incapable to express himself in a structured format, like say, a simple story. There is no censure in his words, no hint of pretense, for Werther did not […]

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“The Sorrows of Young Werther” is a story of Werther who falls in love and it destroys him. However, Werther is not innocent in any sense. The story is limited to the letter Werther writes but if the reader pays attention it is easy to see how mentally unwell Werther truly is. His hyper-fascination with […]

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The Sorrows of Young Werther is a story about a man who is in search of love. Werther goes throughout the story writing letters to a friend. These letters are our source of insight into Werther’s tragic life story. He falls in love with a girl named Charlotte, but she doesn’t return his love because […]

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“Dancing in the Moonlight” features Moshfegh’s specialty: a deeply insecure narrator. This narrator is unlike her other insecure uglies in the way that he is not ugly at all. The narrator in “Dancing in the Moonlight” cares about their appearance more than anything on the planet. Most of the shenanigans that take place in this […]

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The best feature of Oshfegh’s short stories is how utterly grotesque yet riveting they are. She states everything as it is, very matter-of-fact and up close. This writing style makes it even more impressive that she is able to convey the softer side of character; the thoughts inside their head that they are unable to […]

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This story was written in such a unique way compared to a lot of the other stories that we’ve read throughout this term, mainly due to its letter format, and that the immediate perspective of young Werther in these letters justifies the story continuing on to describe his own death. This is a very unique […]

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“The Sorrows of Young Werther” is told through a series of letters, mostly sent to a person named Wilhelm. A young man named Werther falls madly in love with a woman named Charlotte. Unfortunately, Charlotte is engaged to another man named Albert. Even though Werther knows he cannot have Charlotte, he still spends a lot […]

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The theme of stars in “Emperor of the Air” is poignant. Again and again, the narrator returns to the stars, both in his work as a teacher and in his personal life. He knows the name of every constellation, and can track them all through the sky. While the title of the piece refers to […]

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it became overwhelmingly clear pretty early in this novel that Werther is an extremely volatile character. This volatility feels like a ticking time bomb through the story and eventually it is his undoing. Now, I don’t know enough about psychology to throw words around like bipolar, but I hope I understand enough to say he […]

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This was my favorite story that we had to read throughout the class, stories that use the template of the narrator writing letters to ambiguous “friends” as a way to speak directly to the reader are always really personal, and it reminds me of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” in a lot of senses. […]

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One element I found interesting about this story was how wrong the initial perception of Gregorio was. Doctor Xaviva first referneces Gregorio is his museam idea. Initially, this museum is seen as a time-waster by an odd man who has the time to throw away. Throughout the story, we see through the mystery of Gregorio, […]

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The book began once the narrator, Werther, wrote a letter to Wilhelm after Werther left to pursue his dreams. The book was mostly comprised of letters to Wilhelm that explained what was going on in his life and how he felt about the events. In some instances, it appeared that Werther was also writing to […]

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While this story on a surface level appears to be the narrator talking about the lengths he went to save his elm tree, in reality, the story is much more personal. It appears the narrator is telling this story as a way to grapple with the fact he is old and will die sooner than […]

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The author of a better place weaves a complex story of the human condition and the mystery surrounding the human mind. While reading this short story the reader is left confused as to what is reality in this story and what is fabricated by the narrator. As I was reading, I was left asking myself […]

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This story offered a more heartwarming and emotional narrative than we’ve been reading in Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel. Ethan Canin gave us a beautiful story about an older man looking back on his life and contemplating death.Our narrator seems to be worried about the looming presence of death.He looks out into his yard and contemplates whether […]

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I loved how compelling this piece is. It gave a completely bizarre and captivating experience which extremely differed from Ottessa’s earlier pieces. This piece is focused on the present which is a sharp change from the rest of the stories in this collection. It has a more urgent tone and the actions and thoughts of […]

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