Detail is the basic element of art as a whole, and it is the most basic unit to describe the character, unfold the story and form the environment. It occupies an important position in the whole works of art. "Without details, there will be no vividness of plot, distinctiveness of image and profundity of theme". Although it is only the smallest part of the "story", it "describes excellent details, so that readers can have an intuitive and correct concept of the whole-of a person and his emotions, or of events and times" (Kang Bao Si Tosky). Although short stories are small in length and capacity, reflecting narrow life, successful short stories can also receive good results. This is of course inseparable from the author's artistic expression ability and artistic accomplishment. But more importantly, the author successfully used the detailed description. Chekhov's Chameleon is an obvious example. This detailed description of officer Ralph's military coat is wonderful. He wrote four times before and after the novel, each with a different purpose. The first time is at the beginning, it says, "Ralph wears a new military coat and carries a small bag across the market square." The military coat is a special symbol of the czar's police. With a small bag, it vividly depicts Ralph's swaggering, swaggering and arrogant posture. The second time, when he heard that the dog was a general's family, Ralph Yuzryha Aldrin "helped me take off my coat", which exposed his timid psychology of being frightened, afraid of power, being weak in external affairs and panicking. The third time, I heard that the dog belonged to the general's family. I was shocked and asked the police to "put on my coat", showing a contemptible state of trembling. These two times, although the movements are completely opposite, reflect different psychological States. In addition, Ralph's self-deception and self-defeating concealment (taking advantage of the weather change) exposed his hypocritical and humble psychology. The fourth time was at the end. After Ralph threatened Khrukin, he "wrapped his coat" ... and left ",which shows that although he performed incisively and vividly and his soul was completely exposed, he was shameless, vented his arrogance to the masses and then left. In this novel, although the author pays attention to the description of the characters' language and the four descriptions of the details of military coats, Ralph's personality characteristics of flattery and bullying are vividly portrayed, which profoundly reflects the dark reality of czar Russia in the19th century and mercilessly lashes the ugly soul of czar lackeys.
As can be seen from the above examples, detail description plays a very important role in depicting characters. Only typical and vivid details can portray the characters vividly. The details we are talking about here are often the subtle things in life or the subtle gestures of small people. But because these details are carefully selected and described in detail, they can better express the personality characteristics of the characters, especially in short stories. This means and method of detail description has always been valued by writers, and some typical details can remain in readers' memory for a long time. Lu Xun believes that from the perspective of reflecting life, the role of short stories is to "see the whole picture at a glance, and vividly at a glance." From the perspective of portraying characters, detail description also plays this role. Although it focuses on "a spot" and "an eye", it is a subtle thing in life or a subtle little gesture of a character, its artistic effect is remarkable. Not only that, it can also make the theme of the work more profound and make the work full of poetry and rich flavor of life, which can be seen from Sun Li's masterpiece Lotus Lake. In one place in this novel, there is a fierce ambush in the fragrant and colorful Lotus Lake, and women are on their way home to visit their husbands. The description of this war environment is full of poetry and painting. At the beginning of the battle, several women "gradually heard gunshots only facing outside, and then they exposed their heads with the side of the ship" to look for their husbands. This detail description is very vivid. The husband aimed at the enemy and shot without looking at his wife, but the wife looked for her husband in the intense battle, which made the intense battle full of strong life breath. In the process of salvaging spoils, the author vividly described many details, such as "they began to sink into the water to fish out big fish" and competed to salvage spoils. Here, the author combines the salvage of booty with fishing in daily life. Another example is that after Shui Sheng said that they were a group of backward elements, they "threw cartons on women's boats", and later "several young women threw small packages that fell into the water and fished them out". This description of abandoning the past and the past plays up the happy atmosphere after the victory and shows the feeling of loving each other and joking between husband and wife. In a word, the author uses the details of life to write battle scenes, which makes his works full of poetry and strong flavor of life. Through these vivid details, the author not only makes the plot vivid, but also profoundly reveals the theme of the work, truly reproduces the heroic spirit of the broad masses in Baiyangdian under the leadership of the party, and writes a hymn of patriotism and revolutionary optimism.
Another example is Wang Yuanjian's "Party dues", in which Sun Wong's daughter and girl stretched out their "slender necks", "stared at piles of pickles", "She didn't listen to her mother's coaxing" and "climbed to the mouth of an empty broken jar, put her thin little hand into the jar, dipped her finger in salt water and sucked it into her mouth. Finally, she couldn't help reaching out and catching a pickled bean. Her mother turned around and looked at the child, looked at the dishes in the laundry basket and reached for them. The child cried with a wow. " This touching detail seems to be an understatement, but it vividly shows the psychology and modality of a hungry, thin and drooling child. It does not directly describe Sun Wong's generosity and selflessness, but "ruthlessness is not necessarily a hero", which shows the richest and strongest humanity and human feelings of revolutionary soldiers and reveals the noble spiritual world and selfless and fearless virtues of the characters.
It can be seen that a typical vivid detail description can surpass many other pen and ink, making the characters vivid and the theme of the work profound. Without these details, the work will look dry and tasteless. Although it is some subtle and insignificant things in the work, some of them are even meaningless, but putting it into the specific environment of the work has played a huge role. Therefore, there is no life without details, and there is no literary work without details. As can be seen from the above examples, detail description plays an important role in short stories. Of course, we only pay attention to the position and function of detail description in short stories. Due to the limitation of space, short stories can't depict flesh-and-blood characters without these true, typical and vivid details, and only with the help of typical details can they receive good artistic effects.
The detailed description in short stories can not only make the characters stand out and have profound themes, but also play a role in connecting stories. Ru Zhijuan's masterpiece Lily can be fully proved. For example, the description of branches and wild flowers in the barrel of a rifle appeared twice in the novel. These branches and wild flowers are symbols of life, which embodies a young soldier's love for nature and life, and also shows the innocence of the correspondent and his calmness in the intense fighting life. For example, the description of two steamed buns served to me by a correspondent appeared twice in the novel. The first appearance showed the reporter's care and concern for revolutionary comrades. The second appearance made "I" feel more sad and angry about losing my comrades. Another example is the description of the hole in the correspondent's clothes. This novel appeared four times before and after. Hanging the torn clothes for the first time and not letting the newlywed wife mend them showed the shyness, simplicity and stubbornness of the correspondent, and he was slightly interested in the newlywed wife. The second time, the correspondent "has gone far" and I can still see the torn cloth "fluttering in the wind", which echoes the last article, indicating that this hole is indeed not small. On the other hand, it also shows that "I" has been watching the correspondent go far. The following description of my "regret" mood shows "I" concisely and delicately. The third appearance not only further confirmed that the seriously injured man carried by the stretcher was indeed a correspondent, but also showed that he had been too busy to attend to the hole after returning to the regimental headquarters, and finally even the hole was sacrificed. The fourth time, the new wife "sewed the hole thin and dense." The bread here contains the remorse and guilt that made the correspondent "suffer indignities" at the beginning, and also contains the mourning and love for the martyrs. These detailed descriptions of the front and back care not only play an important role in expressing the characters' thoughts and personalities, but also make the internal relations of all parts of the article closer, make the thoughts and feelings expressed in the works more profound, and thus enhance the appeal to readers. These seemingly unimportant details, like a link in the novel, make the work echo before and after, with a rigorous structure and a sense of rhythm.
In short, the role of detail description in short stories is very important. Any successful work, any major theme, any touching plot, can not be separated from certain details. "A work that lacks detailed description will lose its vitality, and any short story will become a dry stick of smoked salmon as Chekhov said. The fish are gone, only dry wood is left. "