Example Short Answer

Here is the example short answer I had up in class.  It uses the RACE(CE) format: Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain.

What is the theme of “Invasion from Outer Space”?

The theme of “Invasion from Outer Space,” by Steven Millhauser, is that people crave excitement, even if it involves violence.  Millhauser conveys this when the narrator notes that, when it is discovered that the alien invasion is only harmless dust, the townspeople “could sense the swell of [their] disappointment” (Paragraph 3). The fact that the characters are disappointed that the invaders are simply one-celled organisms demonstrates that they were hoping for something more exciting or even violent.  In fact, this desire for violence is directly demonstrated in the narrator’s explanation of what the townspeople had hoped for.  He observes “we had wanted blood, crushed bones, howls of agony” (Paragraph 4).  That the people of the town yearned for an invasion that involved such extreme violent elements as “crushed bones” and “howls of agony” again proves Millhauser’s theme that people crave excitement, even if it is possibly to their detriment.