At the End of the Road
Blanche Colton Williams’s study prompts readers to test whether the methods used for analyzing romantic short stories also apply to “At the End of the Road,” described here as Mr. Muilenburg’s Iowa story. It opens with Clayton Hamilton’s claim that short fiction tends toward romance because writers more readily develop imagined details from a central thesis than derive general truth from realistic particulars. The questions guide analysis of plot structure, the central figure, the nature and ending of the action, and the story’s human struggle. Williams focuses especially on the effects of first-person narration: readers are asked to consider what would be lost if the narrator’s subjective observations and feelings were removed. The study also examines the tragic treatment of the drunkard figure, a lightly handled theme, community-gathering settings, chromatic imagery, contrast, and links with a preceding Muilenburg story.
By Blanche Colton Williams · First published 1919 · Genre: Literary Analysis, Literary Criticism, Non-Fiction · 571 words
First lines
Mr. Clayton Hamilton says in "A Manual of the Art of Fiction" (page 187), " -- although the novel may be either realistic or romantic in general method, the short-story is almost of necessity obliged to be romantic. In the brief space allotted to him, it is practically impossible for the writer of short-stories to induce a general truth from particular, imagined facts imitated from actuality: it is far simpler to deduce the imagined details of the story from a central thesis, held securely in the author's mind and suggested to the reader at the outset. It is a quicker process to think from the truth to facts than to think from facts to the truth. " And in illustration of his statement, he adds that Daudet and de Maupassant, who worked realistically in their novels, worked romantically in their _contes_, also that the great short-story writers of our own language have been, nearly all of them, romanticists -- from Poe to Kipling.
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Genres
- Literary Analysis — The section directs close examination of narration, plot stages, character focus, conflict, ending, theme, and imagery.
- Literary Criticism — It frames the story through Hamilton’s distinction between realistic and romantic methods in short fiction.
- Non-Fiction — This is an instructional study section composed of critical commentary and reading questions.
Tags
Blanche Colton Williams · At the End of the Road · Mr. Muilenburg · short-story analysis · realism and romanticism · Clayton Hamilton · first-person narration · plot structure · central figure · drunkard as tragic figure · community-gathering setting · theme
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At the End of the Road is listed on Textopian as an essay by Blanche Colton Williams, dated 1919 CE.
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- Work type: Essay
- Author: Blanche Colton Williams
- Date: 1919 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Literary Analysis, Literary Criticism, Non-Fiction
- Length: 571 words
- Structure: 1 section, 11 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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