This story from Zhang Jie challenges the traditional (1970s) Chinese view that a woman’s duty is to marry and raise a family. The protagonist has concerns about her relationship with a seemingly “ideal” man, questioning both their feelings for one another and the poor guy’s intelligence. After reflecting on memories of growing up and insights gained from her deceased mother’s diary, she reaches the progressive conclusion that remaining single and waiting for the right man is better than a loveless marriage. Themes: social pressure, marriage, the nature of love, mother-daughter relationships, courage, Communist ideology. More…
Happy-Endings
The six “mini-stories” in this short meta-fictional narrative from Margaret Atwood satirize a common element of the story form. In the process, they touch on a myriad of themes including marriage and romance, family life, self-gratification, desperation, suicide, murder, virtue and compassion. The message seems to be that the ultimate denouement of a story matters little; the key is in its exposition and “How and Why” of events in between. The story also provides a lesson in life: What people will remember most about us after our book is closed is the how and why of the way we lived. More…
A Day’s Wait
The message of this story from Ernest Hemingway is the importance of two-way parent-child communication. A doctor attributes a boy’s high temperature to influenza and prescribes medicine. Over the course of the day, the boy remains “detached” and begins to act strangely. He is sure the doctor and his father are hiding something more serious from him. Had the father taken the time to make sure his son fully understood what the doctor said, or the son raised his concerns immediately, both would have been spared a lot of anxiety. Themes: father-son relationships, innocence, misunderstanding, fear, masculinity, stoicism. More…
Festival of Eid / Idgah
In this well-known Indian children’s story from Premchand, a young orphan foregoes the pleasures enjoyed by friends at a festival to buy a pair of tongs to prevent his poverty-stricken grandmother from burning her hands when cooking. The most obvious themes are related to the boy: poverty, innocence, hope, love, selflessness, temptation and willpower. However, at around 5,000 words, the story also highlights several additional issues. The boy’s friends display materialism and greed, while other themes include religious devotion, superstition (Jinns), village vs. city life and, through the fate of the dolls, the fall of British colonialism. More…
Defender of the Faith
This story by Philip Roth raises questions about the conflict between integrity and loyalty to one’s community group. A Jewish-American army sergeant returning from the European battlefields towards the end of World War 2 is assigned to a training unit in which there is an entitled Jewish recruit. The recruit exploits their common heritage, scheming, lying and manipulating the sergeant to receive special treatment. When the self-serving recruit goes behind the sergeant’s back to avoid serving in the Pacific, he is quickly put in his place. Themes include identity, integrity, “Jewishness”, antisemitism, manipulation. More…