No matter what kind of work someone looks at, whether it is a book, short story, or even a poem, most every work has a title. Now how you interpret that title might be a different story, but often titles tell us a great deal of information. “They tell us not just what we’re reading, but what we’re writing- about its thematic, metaphoric, or symbolic content” (A Meditation on Titles). From the titles of the two short stories we read, “The Use of Force” and “The Gift of Sweat,” the reader is able to get a feel about what the story is going to be about, and possibly the tone of voice used throughout. When looking more deeply into the titles of these two short stories, we begin to notice something; they look very similar. Both titles have four words, each consisting of a transition and two nouns. However, these two short stories are very different. Therefore, the author’s preference of titles in both short stories, “The Use of Force” and “The Gift of Sweat” set aside readings intended for two extremely different stories: one to be taken literally and one to be taken figuratively.
A strong introduction holding many good, focused, specific observations (as opposed to broad generalizations). A good start.
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