Although initially published in a children’s magazine, this story from Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is equally relevant to adults. Lord Buddha takes pity on a notorious criminal and sends a “life-line” in the form of a spider’s thread to help him escape from hell. For young readers, this is a parable about selfishness and sharing. For older readers, it is also a lesson on compassion. Kandata’s fate was sealed well before he screamed at those following to get off “his” thread. True compassion would have involved finding a way to share the thread with fellow sufferers before he started climbing. More…
All posts by shortsonline
Shhhh
In this story by NoViolet Bulawayo, a Zimbabwean girl is full of hatred when her father returns home terminally ill after years of no contact or family support. He is totally helpless and, because of his condition (AIDS), her mother forbids her to tell anyone he is back. There are few secrets in an African slum and, when her friends insist on seeing him, she fears they will treat him cruelly. To her surprise, they are respectful, gentle and caring, which begins to turn her feelings around. Themes include abandonment, hatred, fatal illness (AIDS), shame, secrecy, compassion, religion, church greed/corruption. More…
The Jogi’s Punishment
The moral of this Indian folktale appears to be that evil will always receive the punishment it deserves. We have a famed holy man who turns out to be not very holy after all, a selfish, gullible rajah who wants to keep the holy man’s talents and blessings all for himself, and an overly curious princess who disobeys her father’s order not to leave the palace grounds. We aren’t told much about the “gallant young prince of Dilaram” but he, too, must have done something wrong to be punished with the disobedient princess as a wife. More…
Monkeyman
W. D. Myers’s Monkeyman is a quiet, bookish senior high-school student who steps in to prevent two “lady” members of a street gang from slashing the face of a girl he knows. The rest of the gang is honour-bound to extract payback. Instead of hiding, he challenges one of them to meet in a park. As a large crowd gathers to watch, Monkeyman does something that surprises everyone. Three weeks later, he is fighting for his life in hospital. At the time, the narrator thinks Monkeyman’s actions in the park were stupid. Years later, he/she thinks differently. More…
The Way Up to Heaven
This story by Roald Dahl is about a wealthy couple. Mrs Foster is a devoted wife who has a phobia about being late. Mr Foster is a dominating husband and likes to play cruel jokes on his wife by trying to make her late. In the end, Mrs Foster has the last laugh as her husband finds his way UP to Heaven. I love the irony in the way Mrs Foster ends her weekly letters to her husband from Paris: Now be sure to take your meals regularly, dear, although this is something I’m afraid you may not be doing… More…