cold comfort

cold comfort utilises the typical features of a short story by starting without a proper opening and finishing with an unresolved ending. This story is centered around the rollercoaster of events that take place after a young homeless man, by the name of Ken, finds some money.

Cold comfort lacks many of the typical features of a short story. It can be argued if this story classifies as a short story or not

Ken is a homeless man living in london ,sleeping under a bridge. One morning Ken discovers a ten pound note stuck between his friend’s cardboard bed, after having no money for such a long time, he has a flashback to the last time he held a ten pound note. It was six months ago, when he recently moved to London. he arrived with only twenty pounds in his pocket. within two weeks he spent all of that money. he was forced to live off garbage and sleep under a bridge. six months later, he is in the same position and after spotting the ten pounds, Ken was feeling lucky and a little selfish. deciding to steal from the only friend he had Ken wanted to make his money grow. surprisingly he won 175 pounds at the local arcade.

Feeling luckier than he had before, he noticed a couple outside the arcade was following him. Feeling scared he decided to go to a restaurant, as this was a safe public place. this is when he was approached by the couple .although he was skeptical at first, they offered to buy him a drink and after a while he felt as if they were old friends. after a couple of drinks the man said that they should bet on horse racing and said that he had inside information about who is going to win. after betting on the horse they returned to the pub to watch their victory on the television. when he realised that they had won, his so called friends were nowhere to be seen. the bartender said that they left soon after they saw the results. with a sudden shock he realized that the girl asked to keep the ticket saying it's for good luck. just like that he was back to square one ,almost broke, and only ten pounds in his hand

For: talk about all the points that makes it a short story. talk about all 5- with examples to prove each

Against points:

what makes up a short story?

short time period no proper beginning - cold comfort began with the main character, Ken, feeling cold and looking at his empty hand. The story did not introduce Ken right at the beginning and did not explain the situation he was in. This structure of a story introduction matches one of the fundamental criterias of a short story. Generally short stories do not have a proper formal beginning.

a twist at the end a few main characters one setting - cold comfort takes place in multiple settings and different time frames, an example of this is when ken has his flashback. short stories normally take place over one setting and in a short time frame. the story shows how ken visits different locations within a period of six weeks. the story exceeds the time limit a typical short story would be written in and has multiple settings.

written in first person- this short story is written in the perspective of a 3rd person, who explores the life of Ken.