Names and naming : the thematic and symbolic significance of names in three selected modern American short stories

Abstract EN

In the modern American short story the name of a character often illuminates certain associations ~ symbolic and otherwise.

As the title reveals, it is the purpose of this paper to briefly analyze the significance of certain names in three selected American short stories written after World War I to see how, and in what capacity, names of characters contribute to the thematic and symbolic subtlety of the works in which they appear, and simultaneously to see how they help us understand the human characters themselves.

I have thus sharply limited myself to a selected aspect of the subject as illustration of my argument Referring specifically to Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny WeatheralT (1930), John Steinbeck's Flight" (1938), and Eudora Welty's "Liwie" (1942), the ensuing discussion will, therefore, concern itself mainly with specific choice based on individual discretion.

The selection of the present works under analysis is, then, subject to individual choice; rather than being general and exhaustive, this paper, it is hoped, is selective in scope.

It should, however, be made clear at the very outset that this study is not an historical survey but an indepth analysis of a literary phonemenon, which I deem worthy of critical attention and assessment, even though the works to be considered hereinafter appear in chronological order.