Cool Christian Couple Drama

 Genre Study of Good People by David Foster

Good People by David Foster Wallace is a traditional short story, meeting every requirement to fit under the genre. Throughout the story, we follow the life of a young Christian couple who are navigating an unwanted pregnancy. As they process their situation the couple begin to rethink their relationship and its strength, realizing that they do not love each other. A short story, as said by Brander Matthews, follows “one action, in one place, on one day. A Short-story deals with a single character, a single event, a single emotion, or the series of emotions called forth by a single situation.” Along with various other aspects of the short story, Good People meets all the requirements to perfectly fall under the category of a short story.

One important quality of a short story is that it usually starts off with little background information, dropping the reader right into the action. In Good People, we start the story with a scene of the couple discussing how they are going to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. Despite the fact that we slowly get more and more information and background on their relationship, we still start off the story not knowing much about the main couple's relationship.

 

Another aspect of a short story is that it “follows one action, in one place, in one day”. Good People focuses on the main couple's conversation in the park, detailing their thoughts, emotions, and actions while in that moment. Throughout the story we get to understand Lane Dean's perspective on the situation, his evolving emotions toward Sheri, and his understanding of their relationship. Good People follows the reactions of two people (Lane and Sheri) to one fixed situation (unwanted pregnancy), in one place (the park), in one day, causing it to fall under the genre of a short story. 


Good People throws us into a conversation between a Christian couple, Sheri and Lane, about their unwanted pregnancy with little background information, and then shows us how their perception of each other and the situation at hand evolves throughout the story, slowly giving us more details on their past and their feelings toward each other. Because of these characteristics that Good People possesses, it falls perfectly into the short story genre.

Comments

  1. EdieMay 26, 2022 at 4:48 PM

    This is a good breakdown of exactly how well the story fits into that definition. I think it's interesting that this was also the first short story we've read that actually did fit the definition so well, which maybe is a sign that it's too narrow. Great post!

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  2. Amalia BolleroMay 27, 2022 at 3:34 PM

    Hey Andrea, wonderful post! I think that discussing this story as a genre study is interesting especially because Matthews definition of short stories is very narrow, yet this story first into it. When I did a blog post on genre studies, one of my complains was that the definition was too restrictive and I think that this story is an example of how it works for some short story and not all. Great Job!

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  3. Emma MurawskiMay 27, 2022 at 4:45 PM

    This is a great post. I like how you not only gave a general description of the short story genre, but you explained that the story fits well while also clearly referencing the text in context. Your post structure is really good as it clearly identifies the features that are most noticeable. For me, I definitely agree that it felt like we were put right in the middle of a serious situation between the two characters right off the bat. Great post!

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