Featured Stories

Immigration Blues

Immigration Blues: Short story by Bienvenido Santos This story by Bienvenido Santos deals with the plight of a Filipino woman wanting to make a future in the United States. Without a permanent visa, her only hope is to gain residence through marriage. Her sister learns of a retired Filipino widower with U.S. Citizenship. In a humorous visit laced with dramatic irony, the two women are initially too embarrassed to raise the topic of marriage. When the old man finally understands their purpose, he thanks God for allowing lightning to strike him twice. Themes include immigration, cultural isolation, hope, fear, pride, the emptiness of growing old alone.

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A Clean Well-Lighted Place

A Clean Well-lighted Place: Short story by Ernest HemingwayThis story by Ernest Hemingway takes place in a cafe. Two waiters (one young, the other middle-aged) talk about an old man sitting alone at one of the tables. A line from each waiter exemplifies three major themes. From the young waiter: I wouldn’t want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing. (attitudes towards the aged). From the older waiter: It [life] was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too. (emptiness and despair). Other themes include aging and death, gender stereotyping, and the fact that money doesn’t buy happiness.

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Pumpkin Seed and the Snake

Pumpkin Seed and the Snake: Hmong Folktale from Livo and ChaThis Hmong folktale is full of broken promises. Three times a widow breaks a promise that whoever removes a large rock from her field can marry one of her daughters. Each time the rock is returned. She finally relents and agrees that the mystery helper (a huge, shape-shifting snake), can marry her daughter “Pumpkin Seed”. Later, over three nights, she breaks a promise to Pumpkin Seed that she will kill the snake while it is sleeping. Forced to accompany the snake to its home, Pumpkin Seed proves just as untrustworthy as her mother before unexpectedly living “Happily Ever After”.

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Three Skeleton Key

Three Skeleton Key: Short story by George ToudouzeLast year we featured Leiningen Versus the Ants, a story in which 400 men try to fight off an army of killer ants. In today’s tale by George Toudouze, three men are trapped inside an isolated lighthouse, surrounded by a horde of starving rats. One of the men is prone to panic and loses his mind when the rats break in to the lower part of the tower. The other two remain calm and, although a serious breach of duty, agree on a desperate course of action that saves the day. Themes: man vs. nature, fear, calmness under pressure.

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The Alienist

The Alienist: Novella by Joaquim Maria Machado de AssisIn this satirical novella by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, a brilliant physician relocates to his hometown in Brazil and convinces the council to build the region’s first madhouse. Rebellion stirs when, having incarcerated all the truly insane, the overzealous doctor begins to lock up townspeople who are eccentric or unusually talented. As the number of inmates reaches 80% of the population, the doctor decides upon a new definition of madness. Everyone is released, new townspeople are taken in and treated, until eventually only one “madman” remains. Themes insanity, ambition, scientific fallibility, abuse of power, self-serving politics, revolution and counter-revolution.

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Because He Loved Them

Because He Loved Them: Short story by Samira AzzamThis story by Samira Azzam highlights the catastrophic effect of the 1948 creation of Israel on the half-million plus Palestinians it displaced. A man working in a government food distribution agency is wrongly suspected of embezzlement. He documents two examples of lives ruined by the partition and the story of a “sonofabithch” camp informer who profited by it, then torches a food warehouse. He believes that if his people are hungry enough they will rise up and rebel, and claims to have done this “because he loves them”. Themes include displacement, corruption, injustice, suffering, violence, betrayal, rebellion.

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The New Food

The New Food: Short story by Stephen LeacockThe climax of this very short story is the gruesome death of an imaginary baby. If you did not know who wrote it, you might attribute the plot to the playful, postmodernist style of an author like Donald Barthelme. In fact, the story was published way back in 1910. It comes from Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock’s first short story collection, Literary Lapses. A fascinating aspect of the story is its modern relevance. Viewed in the context of today’s world, the story is a wonderful satire of heavily processed convenience foods and the contribution they make towards child obesity.

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The Storyteller

The Storyteller: Short story by H. H. Munro (aka Saki)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!)

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