Comparing The Last Day Of The Circus And An Open Heart

Comparative Analysis of The Last Day of the Circus and An Open Heart
All short stories have their own unique twist to them. Whether the twist comes from the storyline itself or how the characters deal with obstacles; there is a twist. This element allows them to be different and have their own unique edge over other stories. It is what surprises the reader and makes them want to keep reading. There are elements, however, that connect stories and make them more similar than different. These elements include the story’s theme, the point of view present and how special devices are used throughout the story.
The theme, when referring to a story, is the overall idea of the story. Themes can be anything from a lesson to a general idea. A lesson

Lisa was in love with Fernando and was planning a future with him, but her parents had forbidden her from going away with him to Mississippi. This broke Lisa’s heart. For years she hoped she would hear from Fernando, but it never happened. It was at that point that she had to move forward in life as best as she could. There are other elements in the story that involve love, such as Lisa’s relationship with her parents; but the major one is her romantic relationship with Fernando. After experiencing love and losing it, Lisa was able to move forward positively on her memories of what once was and the reader sees her do so towards the end of the novel when she states, “I wish I could say I had forgotten him, but I did not do this for a long time. The memory of those tragic yearnings is vague now, but for years I put myself to sleep with romantic fantasies of Fernando” (Ross 207). These themes are also seen in the short story called An Open Heart. The reader sees the main character, Judith, endure a rough childhood and struggle to stay healthy. Her family was living in poverty for the majority of her childhood and by her experiencing this tragedy; she was able to use it as motivation.

Both of these short stories manage to use realistic dialogue, adding to their list of similarities. The Last Day of the Circus has more dialogue between characters, whereas An Open Heart focuses more on inner dialogue, but both stories are successful in revealing character mood and thought. The reader sees the author defeat cliches and stereotypes through the dialogue in The Last Day of the Circus as well as emphasize character emotion and thought. The dialogue is able to defeat the cliche of a teenage girl rebelling against her parents for love because of how strong the dialogue is. The main character does not act whiney and actually represents what it can be like when in that situation. In An Open Heart there is a lot of inner dialogue that occurs which helps the reader see the main character develop in less than ten pages as well as their personal opinion adjust as the story goes along. The main character goes from being selfish to caring in less than a page through her own thoughts. She questioned herself and through the inner dialogue, the reader was able to see this development. Both authors are not afraid to have the main characters have thoughts that people would never admit to. Everyone has a rude thought once in awhile and everyone judges another person once in awhile. It is human nature and both stories were able to incorporate this into