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Authors often write literature to have an emotional impact on the reader. These effects vary from work to work, and they may include happiness, sorrow, anger, or shock. Even authors who try to achieve the same effect may go about it in very different ways. This paper discusses three short stories written to shock the reader, but each uses a different method to achieve its effect. While Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" uses …

…to shock the reader. They can achieve this effect in a variety of methods and at different rates. Whereas "The Yellow Wallpaper" achieves its effect through lengthy character development, "The Lottery" and "The Story of an Hour" rely mostly on rapid plot development. "The Lottery" builds up the reader for a shock ending, but "The Story of an Hour" is more sudden. It is not shocking, however, that all three stories successfully impact the reader.