Chapter One Setting
Washington Irving and "Rip Van Winkle"
John Steinbeck and "The Chrysanthemums"
Chapter Two Character
Langston Hughes and "Early Autumn"
Isaac Bashevis Singer and "Gimpel the Fool"
Chapter Three Conflict
Katherine Mansfield and "The Garden Party"
Ernest Hemingway and "A Clean, Well-lighted Place"
Chapter Four Theme
Nathaniel Hawthorne and "The Minister's Black Veil"
D. H. Lawrence and "The Rocking Horse Winner"
Chapter Five Point of View
James Joyce and "Araby"
William Faulkner and "A Rose for Emily"
Chapter Six Plot
Virginia Woolf and "Kew Gardens"
Donald Barthelme and "The Glass Mountain"
Chapter Seven Style
Mark Twain and "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
W.S.Maugham and "The Luncheon"
Chapter Eight Figurative Devices
O. Henry and "The Gift of the Magi"
John Cheever and "The Enormous Radio"
A Glossary of Terms
Bibliography