Review of Short Story “A Christmas Tale”

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Short Story: “A Christmas Tale” by SREEJITH1984

Dear Writer, thank you for asking us to review your short story ‘A Christmas Tale’. Please find below our objective review comment based on five key elements of short stories:

Character: Old Joseph is lead character and story builds around him. He is also found reminiscing good time spent with her loving wife. Having only few characters is very important for short story and the same is beautifully done in this story. One more point to be highlighted is use of setting to characterize Joseph’s loneliness. Story starting with portraying the protagonist preparing porridge with only companion a lazy sleeping cat is very effective to show forced solitary existence of old Joseph. Later young Joseph is depicted as a social man participating enthusiastically in Christmas celebrations and falling in love with a girl at first sight during one of the celebrations. He is also characterized to be a loving and caring husband presenting emerald ring to his wife on their anniversary and Christmas Eve. However, after a powerful start, which is supported beautifully by a good setting, story does not maintain consistency and thus characterization of young Joseph and he as loving husband is somewhat felt dull comparatively. Story may perhaps use more detail description of his first meeting with his wife and their Christmas celebration after their marriage.

Setting: As mentioned earlier, story begins with a good setting of house of Old Joseph. Chillness of winter is felt while reading first paragraph. Nonetheless, same details are missing in later parts of the story. Another important point is noticed that many time frames are used as Joseph recalls his past. Use of multiple time frames, if they are not handled properly, create setting dull because each needs to be decorated consistently for the senses same as the main time frame is. However, doing so would add unneeded flabby payloads in short story and therefore story should use as much as possible only single time frame. One should carefully design the plot to keep balance between number of time frames and detail of settings.

Plot: Story uses a simple plot. An old man staying alone is missing his family on Christmas, and is reminiscing beautiful celebrations in the past, and then unexpectedly his son comes with his family, giving a happy ending. It is overall a sweet plot providing a soothing reading experience to a set of readers. On other hand, few readers may expect twists and turns which are missing because of no suitable climax.

Conflict: Conflict is one of five important elements and it must be equally strong as other elements are, or at least support the theme. A sweet Christmas story builds around an old man who is missing his family and then suddenly his son with family arrived unexpectedly. In earlier part of the story, distance between Old Joseph and his sons is shown but briefly, and then without offering any climax or dilemma one sided resolution is offered. Furthermore, although story attempts showing love of Joseph for his beloved wife, offering a scene in which he presents an emerald ring, the plot fails to highlight value of the ring in the story. Such detail is needed in the story to buttress depiction of emotional pain he has been suffering in present time.

Theme: Theme is unambiguous and very suitable for a short story. As needed in a short story, other elements are tightly bound with the theme of a sweet Christmas tale.

Having said the above, we strongly believe that story is an art and every art is invaluable – there is nothing good or bad as art is beyond boundaries of these adjectives. Therefore the creator is the best person to decide whether the creation meets her expectation. We like your story in total and our comments are just objective comparison with the patterns we observed in most liked short stories.

We also recommend you to read 10 Tips for short story writing by our Chief Editor.

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