will u help me plez!?

Question

I NEED A SHORY STORY TO DO A REPORT ON

Answer 1

The Dead
a short story by James Joyce.


The story centers on Gabriel Conroy on the night of the Morkan sisters' annual dance. Typical of the stories in Dubliners, The Dead develops toward a moment of painful self-awareness, what Joyce described as an epiphany. The narrative generally concentrates around Gabriel's insecurities, his social awkwardness, and the defensive way he copes with his discomfort. The story culminates at the point when Gabriel discovers that, through years of marriage, there was much he never knew of his wife's past.
Upon arriving at the party with his wife, Gabriel makes an unfunny joke about the maid's marriage prospects, after which he fidgets, adjusts his clothing, and offers her money as a holiday present. Typical of his unsure behavior, Gabriel decides he wants to quote a Browning poem to the group but ends up saying nothing out of fear that he might seem pretentious to the others. Not long after that, he gets flustered again when his wife pokes fun at him over a conversation they had earlier, in which he had suggested she buy a pair of galoshes for the bad weather.
Later in the evening, when giving the traditional holiday toast/speech in front of the guests, Gabriel characteristically overcompensates for some of his earlier statements. His talk relies heavily on conventions, and he praises the virtues of the Irish people and idealizes the past in a way that feels contrived and disingenuous (especially considering what the past will mean to him once he hears his wife's story).
When preparing to leave the party, Gabriel sees his wife, Gretta, on the stairs, absorbed in thought. He stares at her for a moment, not recognizing her. Once he recognizes her, he imagines her as a painting called "Distant Music." Her distracted, wistful mood arouses sexual interest in him, and when he tries indirectly to confront her about it at home, he finds her unresponsive. Trying to make ironic, half-suggestive comments to his wife, Gabriel learns that she was feeling nostalgic after having heard Mr. D'Arcy singing The Lass of Aughrim at the party.
Upon being pressed further with his ironic line of questions, Gretta tells Gabriel that the song had reminded her of the time when she was a young girl in the town of Oughterard in Galway, when she had been in love with a young boy named Michael Furey. At the time, Gretta was being kept at her grandmother's home before being sent off to a convent in Dublin. Michael was terribly sick, was ordered to remain bedridden and was unable to see her. Despite being sick, when it came time for her to leave Galway, Michael came to Gretta's window, and although he got to speak with her, he ended up dying within the week.
The remainder of the text delves into Gabriel's thoughts after he hears this story, exploring his shifting views on himself, his wife, the past, on the living and the dead. It's ambiguous whether the epiphany is just an artistic and emotional moment or whether Gabriel will ever manage to escape his smallness and insecurity.

Answer 2

Here's a wild one for you.
Published at Rice University 1997 in an artistic
format that makes fun of literary conventions.
"My Life as a Performance Art Piece"
http://www.houstonprogressive.org/life-art.html
"The University Blue" 1997, Emily Nghiem