Several Short Stories & Reader Empathy

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Samuel Johnson makes the statement, "Nothing can please many and please long but just representations of general nature." Johnson is indicating the characteristics necessary to a literary work for it to endure the test of time, and the nature of such a literary work is that it must reveal and explore situations and characteristics that are recognizable, that most readers share, and that are common to people across boundaries of space and time. The meaning of this statement by Johnson could be misunderstood. He is not stating that what is written should be common to the experience of all in terms of events but rather in terms of human nature and its manifestation in a given situation. An examination of several short stories that have endured shows that what appeals in these stories over time and across geographic boundaries is not a story with details that mirror the experiences of readers but characters with characteristics recognizable by the reader and with which the reader feels empathy and shares a sense of reality.

The fact that Ambrose Bierce's story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" includes a supernatural element is not proof that the story does not fit Johnson's prescription, for what is more important is the underlying nature of the main character, the fact that his predicament is understandable to the reader, and the manner in which the author creates this character, conveys his hopes and fears, and demonstrates his humanity. The same is true of the people

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at the bridge and what danger he faced by undertaking this act of attempted sabotage. In the third section, the reader narrator returns to the point of view of the man as he is hanged, of his thoughts and reactions, and of the escape he makes as the rope breaks and he falls into the water. The man makes his way home, seeing his wife once more, before feeling the pain in his neck once more and discovering that he is indeed dead. The story is a ghost story that projects the soul of the condemned man into the future to see his wife once more before his death. Clearly, this is not an experience that readers have had or would even have heard of from other people, yet the reader can recognize the humanity of the hanged man, the strength of the man's drive to see his wife once more, and the reality of the various feelings he expresses as he is hanged. The reader will certainly recognize the humanity of this man and the truth of the experiences reported here. This is true in varying degrees in the other two stories read as well, for all three of these stories have resonance that appeals to readers and that evokes a sense of shared experience. as noted, this is true even for those stories with fantastic or supernatural elements or
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Hemingway's Clean-Well-Lighted, Clean Well-Lighted, Creek Bridge, Samuel Johnson, XJ Kennedy, Harper Collins, representations nature, York Harper, harper collins 1991, Ambrose Bierce's, occurrence owl creek, Literature XJ, Owl Creek, literature xj kennedy, xj kennedy, harper collins, york harper, kennedy ed, literature xj, role observer, york harper collins, collins 1991, owl creek, creek bridge, xj kennedy ed,
Approximate Word count = 1453
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

Several Short Stories & Reader Empathy

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