In this story by Peter Taylor, an aged woman looks back at a traumatic period in her youth that may have shaped her life and led to spinsterhood. Her mother’s religious condemnation of alcohol sets the scene for the story. The subsequent loss of her mother following a still-birth, growing up in a (drinking) male-dominated household, and her phobia about the town drunk at a critical period in her life (as she enters puberty) leave her isolated and in fear of the masculine world. Themes include family dynamics, personal growth, isolation and loneliness, fear, cruelty, sexual conflict. More…
Dominoes
Jack Agüeros cleverly uses a game of dominoes to illustrate two common themes affecting Puerto Rican immigrants living in the United States: fate vs. free will, and the Latin American concept of machismo. Fate is mirrored by the game and its outcome. Is it over as soon as you get your hand, as Tito says, or a game of skill where you can influence the result? Machismo (being seen as a man among men) introduces several sub-themes: pride, patronization of women, competitiveness, protection of honor, success with women, insecurity, and the ever-present prospect of violence. More…
The Tractor and the Corn Goddess
Renowned Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand was well known for his socialist views. These come to the fore in this tongue-in cheek story about a landowner’s progressive son who returns from overseas with such revolutionary ideas as turning his farm into a villager-owned co-operative and importing a tractor to improve the lives of workers. The focus of the story is the tractor, and the landowner’s ingenious method of overcoming the villagers’ fears and indignation associated with the tractor’s “rape” of their Corn Goddess. Themes: social conscience, change, religious and cultural differences, suspicion, pride. More…
When Anklets Tinkle
In this story by Anjana Appachana, life changes for a retired, middle-class Indian couple after renting the barsati [rooftop rooms] of their Delhi home to a likeable “Madrasi man” who plays a cruel trick on them. The detached, opinionated husband and his hard-working, under-appreciated wife struggle to deal with a noisy ghost, their visiting, unmarried daughter who defies tradition and asserts her independence and sexuality, and the idiosyncrasies of their long-time servant and his astute, seemingly ever-pregnant wife. Themes include family, ethnic identity, racism, social class, gender roles, tradition, double standards, sexuality, and superstition. More…
To Room Nineteen
On the surface, Doris Lessing’s protagonist had a perfect life. “Happily” married, financially secure, big house, healthy well-adjusted children, home help; what more could a woman want? The story is a product of its time (the early 1960s). Susan’s anguish about losing her independence and lack of fulfillment in life leads to depression, mental decline, and temporary escape from her demons in Room 19 of a seedy hotel. Too afraid of being ridiculed to confide in her husband and ask for help, she sees only one way out. Themes include loss of autonomy/identity, unsatisfying marriage, depression, communication breakdown, isolation, suicide. More…