I believe that Matthews’ definition of the short story - "A short story deals with a single character, a single event, a single emotion, or the series of emotions called forth by a single situation" - is a little too narrow. Largely, it feels like he made the assumption that because a short story is short, it can only deal with one of each element a story has. While it’s true that short stories often work with less than a novel would have in terms of characters, settings, actions, and emotions, it does not mean that the short story is so limited as to only be able to deal with one of each. Perhaps a single focus or message, but certainly not with individual elements. My biggest complaint with the restraints of this definition is the rigidity of the phrase “deals with a single character”. The main antithesis to this that we have read so far is “The Machine Stops”. This may not be an obvious choice, but allow me to explain. “The Machine Stops” relies on the fact that there ar