According to the 18th-century scholar, author, and critic Samuel Johnson, “Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature” (“Preface to Shakespeare”).1 By this Johnson means that no literature will endure the test of time except that which reveals and explores situations and characteristics that are recognizable, that most of us share, that are common to people across boundaries of time and (to some extent) place. With Johnson’s idea in mind, answer the following questions in one well-integrated essay.
1.How does the short story “The Open Boat” by Ernest Hemingway exhibit this quality of being a “just representation of general nature,” and why?
2.How does the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. least representative of common experience? Does its lack of typicality make it a less effective story? Why or why not?
