In this story by Krys Lee, loneliness drives a South Korean gireogi appa (goose father) to take in a tenant after six months’ living alone. The tenant, an enigmatic young man half the landlord’s age, arrives on his doorstep with a goose he believes to be his reincarnated mother. As the mismatched pair get to know each other, sexual tension builds between them. Something unexpected occurs when the landlord finally comes to terms with his sexual inclinations and is about to express his feelings by kissing the younger man. Themes include family, loneliness, sexuality, love, betrayal, guilt, forgiveness, the supernatural. More…
Big Black Good Man
In this story by Richard Wright, an elderly man working the night desk at a seedy waterfront hotel is used to handling rough customers. However, when the biggest, strangest, and blackest sailor he had ever seen asks for a room, he is irrationally terrified. Living in constant fear, he meets the sailor’s demands (whisky and a woman) for six days. As the sailor checks out, he playfully puts his hands around the man’s neck, causing him to wet his pants in fear. A year later, the sailor returns. Themes include appearance and stereotyping, racism, fear, alienation, hatred and revenge, misjudgment. More…
The Difference
A more apt title for this story by Ellen Glasgow would be The Differences. It explores differences in attitudes to love, marriage and infidelity between men and women, and between women born in the Victorian era and those born in the early 1900s. A middle-aged woman’s calm existence is shattered when she receives a letter from the much younger mistress of her husband of twenty years. She meets the woman, confronts her husband, and initiates a discussion about who loves whom and what is to be done about it. Themes include gender roles, love and adultery, the generation gap, sacrifice. More…
The Storyteller
This story by Saki satirizes the way many traditional children’s stories had become so “sanitized” during the prudish Victorian period that they lost much of their original appeal. A major theme of the story is pride. The outer or “frame” story highlights the Aunt’s false pride in thinking that a bachelor couldn’t possibly tell a better children’s story than she could. The inner story illustrates the meaning of the English idiom Pride comes before a fall. Other themes include childhood, curiosity, control, “goodness” vs. reality (not all good people/things in life end happily!) More…
The Celebrated Jumping Frog
The humorous frame story of this unlikely tale by Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) satirizes the way late nineteenth-century American “Easterners” looked down on their supposedly less sophisticated Western compatriots. In the inner story, a man named Jim loves gambling so much that he will bet on almost anything. He finds a frog he believes can leap further than any other in Calaveras County, and learns an expensive lesson when a passing stranger bets against his frog and wins easily. Themes include regional stereotypes, storytelling (tall-tales), gambling consequences (there’s no such thing as a sure bet), trickery and deception. More…