Featured Stories

The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket

The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket: Short story by Yasunari KawabataIn understanding this story from Yasunari Kawabata, it is important to know that in Japan, grasshoppers are considered common insects whilst bell crickets are highly prized because of each male’s unique cry. In calling out Does anyone want a grasshopper? several times until Kiyoko responds, Fujio signals that he knows which of the two he has caught and who he wants to give it to. To me, the major themes of the story are love and perception: what some may mistake for a grasshopper, others will recognize as a bell cricket (and vice-versa!). Other themes: childhood innocence, individualism, destiny, beauty.

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Yellow Fish

Yellow Fish: Short story by C. S. Lakshimi (aka Ambai)On the surface, this story by C. S. Lakshimi (aka Ambai) is about a grieving mother who arranges the rescue of a discarded fish dying on the shore because its struggles remind her of those of her premature baby Jalaja before she died. The story also reflects the cycle of life (the vibrant colors and frenetic activity associated with return of the fishing fleet), death (Jalaja’s passing and the yellow fish flapping on the sand) and rebirth (the fish’s return to the sea). Themes include loss, grief, insensitivity, maternalism, the cycle of life.

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The Dead Past

The Dead Past: Short story by Isaac AsimovIn this story by Isaac Asimov a young physicist, indignant at apparent government suppression of research in a fringe area of science, secretly builds a home “chronoscope” that can look back in time up to one hundred and fifty years. Too late, the government learns of this and tries to censor his work, pointing out the potential for his machine to destroy an important aspect of life everyone takes for granted. Themes include scientific curiosity and freedom, government disinformation and control (in this case for the greater good), privacy, guilt.

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What Men Live By

What Men Live By: Short story by Leo TolstoyIn this story by Leo Tolstoy, God punishes a disobedient angel by casting him out of Heaven to live as a man. The only way he can get his job back is to learn the answers these questions: What dwells in man? What is not given to man? and What (do) men live by? He learns the answers from the family of a poor but compassionate shoemaker, an imperious rich man, and a kind, charitable woman who has adopted the two orphaned children of a dead neighbor. Themes: humanity, compassion, kindness, arrogance, duty, death.

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April in Paris

April in Paris: Short story by Ursula Le GuinThe central theme of this Ursula Le Guin story is the alienation and loneliness brought about by obsession with work and lack of companionship. A 15th century French scientist, frustrated with being unable to prove a theory he had developed, decides his work is a waste of time. He experiments with black magic and is surprised when his first spell is a success, allowing him to teleport kindred spirits from the past and future to join him. Those who come are so happy in his reality that they have no desire to return. Other themes: the occult, connection.

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Araby

Araby: Short story by James JoyceIt is tempting to think the central theme of this story by James Joyce is an adolescent boy’s infatuation with a friend’s older sister. However, the title gives it away. The main theme, brought about by the boy’s wish to impress the girl, is his obsession with visiting the Grand Oriental Fete (Araby). The story helps us vicariously re-live our own Arabies. Whether it be a relationship, work opportunity or important event, we all have experiences where something much looked forward to greatly disappoints. We know how the boy feels! We know how the boy feels! Other themes: alienation, loneliness, religion, vanity, disillusionment.

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Priscilla and the Wimps

Priscilla and the Wimps: Short story by Richard PeckIn addition to this being Richard Peck’s first young adult story, it is one of his most popular. This is undoubtedly because it not only follows the age-old success formula of a victorious underdog, but does so in the context of humiliating a school bully. Another plus is that the denouement is left to the reader’s imagination. Does Pricilla come back later in the day to release Monk? Do her or Melvin’s parents phone the school and arrange for the locker to be opened? Or do they come back in a week’s time and find that Monk is an ice-block?

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The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum: Short story by Edgar Allan PoeIn this story by Edgar Allan Poe, a man in a dreamlike state of consciousness swoons upon being sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition. He wakes to find himself tied to a wooden frame in a chamber housing three forms of horrific death: a deep, water-filled pit; a slowly descending, razor-sharp pendulum; and contracting, red-hot walls. After almost giving up and welcoming death, he finds the will to live and devises a plan to escape the pendulum. As the walls close in, an unexpected visitor saves him. Themes include injustice, sadism, fear, time, the will to live, inventiveness, salvation

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