Jess Walter And Killings By Andres Dubus

Short stories tend to cover a plot, a setting, and a small quantity of characters in such a limited amount of time. Two examples of a short story would include “Cons” by Jess Walter and “Killings” by Andres Dubus. Even though these stories contain their own unique storyline with different personas, they both can relate to one another by looking at them from multiple perspectives. “Cons” and “Killings” are very much alike as they are told from a third person narration, both men learn that they are capable of doing terrible things, and two individuals view death as problem solver. In Jess Walter’s short story, it starts off by introducing a character named Kyle. It describes some of his characteristics, and it even mentions how he spent two

This point of view makes the narrator use pronouns such as he, she, it, or they. Because there are three specific types of third person point of view, “Cons” focuses primarily on the limited perspective. Meaning, the person telling the story only knows what another character is thinking and feeling. Usually the main character is the one being observed frequently. The text states, “’Maybe I need to go to prison,’ she said one day. He didn’t say anything and she felt terrible for making such an awful joke” (Walter 80). Since those specific pronouns were used, the readers can infer that “Cons” is a third person narrative. Meanwhile, “Killings” is told from that of the limited omniscient narrator. Matt Fowler tells the events and scenarios from his own eyes, while still including the he, she, it, and they pronouns. There is not much dialogue used. Overall, both stories were affected due to being told in a third person point of view. It causes the readers to not know what every single character is thinking and feeling, thus making it a mystery to

Kyle strongly believes that him being diagnosed with prostate cancer is a form of self-relinquishment for killing the two teenagers. The text states, “When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, it was almost as if he were relieved, as if he’d been waiting for this for years” (Walter 90). As the story goes on, it leaves the readers with not knowing if the cancer fully went away, or if he will eventually die from it. Also, it makes the audience question if whether, or not Kyle will continue to be haunted by his guilty