The Magic of the Horrifying English Class Short Story

I’m having a great day out with a friend of mine who I’ve known since I was 12. We’re having an excellent time; exploring a new city, getting lunch, and dipping in and out of book stores. The only thing is, we can’t stop talking about “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. Weirdly, this isn't abnormal for us. When I spend time with this particular friend, and even other friends from high school, we often find ourselves talking about “The Most Dangerous Game.” I’ve even turned it into a very odd icebreaker question that I like to ask strangers to get to know them. 

If you don’t know what “The Most Dangerous Game” is, you should really read it, but it isn’t a very complicated story. Essentially, a man is washed ashore on an island and uncovers a world-class hunter who has grown bored of the regular hunt. His new pursuit is luring ships to crash on his island so he can then hunting the surviving people. The man must now try and evade the hunter in a fight for his life, eventually coming out victorious. I read this story as part of a school assignment my freshman year of high school, and it has stuck with me ever since. I have also seen a recurring joke on social media about the horrific short stories that high school English class would casually make you read at 9 in the morning. 

This made me think back on other short stories that have stood the test of time and haunted me post high school, and today I will talk about them!

“The Veldt”

“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury is one that has most definitely stuck with me. It is about a family that lives in a smart home that takes care of every task imaginable and comes with a virtual nursery where the kids can create anything they can imagine. The parents get worried that the kids don’t need them and prefer the house, so they decide to move, which deeply upsets the kids. The kids eventually trick the parents into entering the nursery which has been transformed into a safari with lions, and are locked inside. They are implied to be killed by the lions, while the kids peacefully continue their lives. 

This one in particular has stuck with me in particular due to its cultural relevance. With the rise of ‘iPad babies’, this story feels incredibly relevant to today’s atmosphere. Children become addicted to this technology and come to prefer it over their parents, preferring to get rid of their parents than lose the technology. It’s shocking that this was written in 1950, it predicted the future impeccably. I think what makes these short stories horrific is the lack of details. By withholding information from the reader, we are more unsettled and at a loss. The ending is heavily implied. We know that the parents are dead. We know that. But the story doesn’t spell it out for us, which, somehow, makes the deaths that much more horrific. 

While “The Most Dangerous Game” is oddly humorous to my friends and I, partially due to how out there it is, “The Veldt” feels too close to reality. It involves parricide by tech obsessed children, which truly doesn’t feel too far away anymore. This story has only gotten more horrifying with time. 

“Lamb to the Slaughter”

I looked this up because I couldn’t remember the name and was so shocked to find out this was written by Roald Dahl. I’ve only read The BFG by him so this was interesting to discover. This one is honestly not as unsettling, moreso humorous to a certain degree. A pregnant woman named Mary kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, cooks it, and feeds it to the detectives who come to investigate her husband's death. When I read this in English class, I remember people finding it kind of funny as well. It is just so absurd. Because the story is seen through Mary’s eyes, we’re kind of laughing at the detectives with her. It is such a clever murder weapon and the irony of the detectives wondering what could’ve been used to kill her husband while eating it is just incredible. 

The Metamorphosis

I couldn’t write this post without talking about the story to end all stories, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. I can remember the day we read this in class my senior year over Zoom. At the time so many people felt checked out from class, me included, but I read the first line of the story and I was in it. I kept waiting for an explanation, for my teacher to unfurl the story and for everything to make sense, but that moment never really comes which is what’s beautiful about this story.It is so confusing. It is so weird. There are a lot of ways it can be interpreted, and all of them are interesting. 

 If you’ve never read The Metamorphosis you absolutely need to. The story is about a man who wakes up transformed into a giant bug. That is the very first line. When my teacher read that aloud everybody was very confused. It’s such an excellent story.

What’s interesting to me is how beloved Kafka has come to be by people online. People use The Metamorphosis to make jokes, definitely due to the absurdity of the story, and also to make edits and talk about the hardships in their lives and work lives. People talk often about the misery Kafka experienced and wrote about extensively, as they find it relatable. I’ve seen many people discuss his romantic writing style seen throughout the letters he would write to his lovers. Many people are fascinated by Kafka, and I’m so deeply happy about it.

“The Most Dangerous Game”

What exactly made this story in particular stand out to my friends and I? What about all these stories makes them stand out? I believe it is the absurdity behind their plots. These are all wild stories with dark undertones, but the wildness allows them to be picked up as humorous. It allows post high school students to talk about the stories as funny anecdotes, and as fond memories of reading something wild early in the morning. 

The short story format also draws the need for simple stories. These stories don't overindulge or overexplain, they must simply tell the story as matter-of-factly as possible, as there simply isn’t enough time for more than that. I think some of the best political commentary and horror are short stories, because they must be simple. Horror in a short narrative keeps many of the answers away from the reader, and the unknown is truly what scares people. Horror is incredibly effective in a shorter format, there’s a reason horror movies are successful. 

I would recommend a read of all these stories for sure, and if I think up anymore I will definitely make another post like this!