Note:This thesis consists of a critical introduction and three short Ii stories. In the introduction, an attempt is made to show in what specific ways the stories belong or do not belong to the tradition of modern realism and to the genre of the short story. Three elements are emphasized: the significance of commonplace events, the use of the first person narrator, and the effect of a longer, expanded short story. The stories, themselves, are meant to stretch the conventional limits of the short story not only in length, but also in the impression they make on the reader. Meaning is not intended to rely solely upon a climactic action or a single moment of revelation, but rather to rely upon the accumulation and repetition of actions and mom...