What makes the short story "And of Clay Are We Created" a literary piece of writing?

The short story "And of Clay Are We Created" by Isabel Allende is based on a real natural disaster that took place in Colombia in 1985. A volcano erupts, melting ice and burying a village in mudslides. A 13-year-old girl named Azucena becomes trapped to her shoulders in the mud, and a reporter named Rolf Carle finds her and remains with her through the days and nights of her ordeal. He attempts to rescue her, but is unsuccessful, and so he keeps her company while she slowly dies. As he does, he also comes to grips with the traumas of his past.

It is difficult to definitively pinpoint what literary fiction is because various writers, critics, and educators offer definitions that differ. However, unlike general fiction or genre fiction, which is written more for entertainment, literary fiction is character-driven, socially relevant, explores the human condition, deals with emotions rather than action, and explores the depth rather than the surface of situations. From these explanations we can get an idea of why this short story would be considered a literary piece of writing.

First of all, "And of Clay Are We Created" is literary because it does not focus on the disaster itself or even on the attempted rescues of Azucena. Instead, it highlights Rolf's vigil as he tries to comfort the trapped girl and the profound personal changes that he goes through as a result of the experience. It does not emphasize outward action, but rather focuses on inward character development. The story explores the human condition in that it does not provide an ultimate means of escape for the girl. She dies in the end, which is tragic but realistic; she exemplifies the many real victims of disasters throughout human history.

Even the viewpoint and style of the story is literary. Allende chooses to approach the story from the viewpoint of a secondary character, Rolf's lover. Using this technique, she offers insight into Rolf's state of mind, but she also allows readers to see the situation objectively, from outside, as the millions of viewers watching via media would have seen it.

We see, then, that this short story can be considered literary because it has numerous attributes that are attributed to literary fiction.

What characteristics classify "And of Clay Are We Created" as a short story?

While short stories vary widely in length, these works of fiction are generally much briefer than novels and their limited scope is appropriately related to their length. A short story traditionally conveys a single effect. Its limited scope generally contains one or a few significant scenes or episodes, usually corresponding to one or a few settings. Likewise, the plot is not overly complex and there are only a few significant characters.

“And of Clay Are We Created” matches all these criteria. The single effect is achieved through suspense regarding the outcome of the landslide; the focus is on the fate of one central character, the young girl named Azucena. Most of the action takes place in one setting—the mountain outside the village—with a few other scenes occurring in the secondary setting of the narrator's home, where he lives with a foreign journalist by the name of Rolf.

The plot focuses on Azucena’s fate but is well balanced with the psychological interest in the characters. In exploring the interactions between Azucena and Rolf, the author shows how this unusual event alters each of them in different ways. The story also shows thematic integrity, as themes of compassion and personal transformation are developed throughout the whole story.