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The Jockey by Carson McCullers Short Story Analysis
American writer Carson McCullers published “The Jockey” in 1941, when she was just 24, which seems young, until you realise she’d published “Sucker” at the age of 17 and a novel at age 22. McCullers belonged to a generation who spent their youth living through world war. Surely that affords a measure of maturity. She […]
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The Wamsutter Wolf by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“The Wamsutter Wolf” by Annie Proulx is a short story included in the Bad Dirt collection (2004). The title of the collection comes from this story. SETTING OF “THE WAMSUTTER WOLF” This particular setting can be geolocated. Wamsutter is a town in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 451 at the 2010 census. Wikipedia As of this […]
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What Kind Of Furniture Would Jesus Pick by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?” (2003) by Annie Proulx is the story of Gilbert Wolfscale, whose rabid devotion to his ranch drives off his wife and sons. You can read this one online. SETTING OF “WHAT KIND OF FURNITURE WOULD JESUS PICK?” This story reminds me of Larry McMurtry’s Hud, probably because it’s […]
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The Contest by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“The Contest” by Annie Proulx is a short story from the Bad Dirt collection, published 2004. Like Larry McMurtry, Proulx writes two main types of stories — comical stories similar to those found in dime novels (in McMurtry’s case) and in hunting and fishing magazines (in Proulx’s case). “The Contest” belongs to the comical class, […]
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Man Crawling Out Of Trees by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“Man Crawling Out Of Trees” is a short story by Annie Proulx, included in her Bad Dirt collection (2004). Many of the stories in this collection are in the tall story, brutal, regional, humorous tradition, and readers who don’t share Proulx’s sense of humour haven’t connected to these stories as well as they connected to earlier ones.
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A Run of Bad Luck by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“A Run Of Bad Luck” by Annie Proulx is a short story which explores the nature of luck, and by extension, the nature of fate.
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On The Antler by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“On The Antler” is the first short story in Annie Proulx’s Heart Songs collection, published 1994. This was before Proulx moved to Wyoming, so these are set in an imaginary setting aligned with rural New England. This is where the author spent the early portion of her life (Connecticut, Maine, Vermont.)
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Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“Brokeback Mountain” is a heart-wrenching short story in part because of its density and one-sitting experience. This is an amazing feat. I mean, it’s so short, right? Normally you need the build-up of an entire novel to induce such strong reactions in readers. Or at least the soundtrack, cinematography and expert acting of a film. Annie […]
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Annie Proulx’s The Governors Of Wyoming Short Story Analysis
“The Governors Of Wyoming” by Annie Proulx is a short novella — one of her concise sagas — divided into parts. WADE WALLS Our characters are introduced, as well as the dynamics between them. From the title we know to pay close attention to Wade Walls. Renti — chews fruity gum, a small grubby woman […]
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A Lonely Coast by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
The first thing that feels different about “A Lonely Coast” in the Close Range collection by Annie Proulx is the voice. This short story begins in second person point of view, then switches to first in the second paragraph. The previous stories of this collection were all written by a third-person unseen narrator with an […]
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Annie Proulx’s “Pair A Spurs” Analysis
“Pair a Spurs” is a short story by American author Annie Proulx, published in the collection Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories. SETTING “Pair A Spurs” by Annie Proulx is set on a couple of Wyoming Ranches in the late 1990s SURROUNDING CULTURE Rather than open with landscape, sky-scape and weather, this time Annie Proulx opens […]
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Westerns, Anti-Westerns and Neo-Westerns
Western is a genre set primarily in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th century in the Western United States, the “Old West”. Before WW2, these stories were a celebration of American expansionism.
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The Blood Bay by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
At around the same time Annie Proulx published “The Blood Bay”, an episode of Six Feet Under saw Claire in big trouble for stealing a severed foot from her family’s funeral business and taking it with her to school. That episode, like this story, was darkly funny and made use of someone’s severed foot. It […]
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Job History by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
Reading “Job History” in 2017, I propose an updated subtitle: “The Life and Times of a Trump Voter”. Annie Proulx doesn’t seem to go public with her voting decisions but her interest in the environment and the ideas in her fiction suggest she’s probably not on board with what’s going on in the USA this year: [Annie Proulx’s] […]
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The Mud Below by Annie Proulx Short Story Analysis
“The Mud Below” was first published in the 1998 summer issue of The New Yorker and is the second short story in Proulx’s Close Range collection, retitled Close Range: Brokeback Mountain And Other Stories after the movie adaptation.