I’ve always been a fan of short stories. They call for a great attention to detail, as well as the necessity to read the underlying text. Being limited in length, authors have to be able to create the ability for the audience to develop an emotion connection to a character that in a very brief amount of words. Melville, Walser, and Kafka do just that in their works that revolve around a male character that faces a very extraordinary event in their otherwise almost painfully ordinary lives. Having read Kafka’s “Metamorphosis for multiple classes, I’ve had to look at Gregor’s situation in every different light. Would I react the same way as Gregor’s family if my brother were to suddenly transform into a beetle? What do Gregor’s actions as a beetle say about him as a human? The story evokes these questions, causing the reader to think well beyond Gregor’s demise at the end of the story.
The voice Walse uses in “Helbling’s Story” was very engaging to me. I liked the style of his narrative and found it easy to connect to Helbling. I like the idea of taking a very ordinary person with very ordinary circumstances and using figurative language to paint their life in a much more appealing light.
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