This short story... is very much up front about what it is going for here. It wants to tell the reader right off the bat with its title that it is a short, short story. They later go on to sound like a typical sad romantic short story, but they subvert expectations by making the girl only just... having a fling with the guy she was spending so much time and effort on.
However they also don't make her sound evil or anything, they even give her a goal to be married, albeit by accident, to that one special someone. Whether this means she figures she'll get pregnant and be FORCED to marry them, or to actually find someone she loves completely and utterly, is up to the reader.
Sadly the guy in this relationship, after going through so much trouble and recovery end up catching an STD from a person he just met, giving a somewhat humorous vibe to the ending in a way that I can't exactly explain.
What was the purpose of this story? If I had to guess, i'd say that it was to subvert expectations and make it so the reader has to guess as to what's going on everywhere. The reader more or less probably expected another dead bowl of bees or something, but no Hemingway was simpler than that with this ending, they just break up with a dear john letter, and the guy gets gonorrhea.
Was this a parody? A deconstruction? I honestly don't know, and would probably only have a better idea AFTER we discuss it in class, which is why I will be adding more in the comments.
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