At its simplest, this story by Zora Neale Hurston is about a cheating, abusive husband who got what was coming to him. Everyone in Delia’s poor black community seems to know about her brutal mistreatment at the hands of husband Sykes. However, nobody offers to help. She finally reaches breaking point, and threatens to go to the “white folks” if he touches her again. Sykes wants Delia’s house and devises a plan to kill her but, in an ironic twist, she manages to turn the tables. Themes: oppression, good vs. evil, hard work vs. laziness, domestic abuse, adultery, courage, greed. More…
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A Joke
In this story by Anton Chekhov, a young man plays a trick on a terrified lady-friend by whispering a ghostly I love you as they speed down a mountain on a toboggan. Unsure of what she heard, the woman asks the man to repeat the ride over and over. Each time they do so, he whispers the same words. Soon it becomes an obsession and every day she wants to go up the mountain to listen for the words. Her reaction when she thinks she has the answer is a surprise. Themes include fear, innocence, playful deception, confusion, obsession, regret. More…
Bloodchild
Octavia Butler described this as her “pregnant man” story. A colony of humans fleeing some kind of trouble takes shelter on a planet inhabited by giant, insect-like beings. The insects (Tlics) develop a symbiotic relationship with the humans (Terrans). In exchange for protection, adolescent boys are allocated to Tlic families, where they must incubate a Tlic mother’s eggs. The eggs are implanted in their abdomen, necessitating a rather gruesome but usually successful delivery process. Understandably, the Terran protagonist who has just reached maturity is having second thoughts about this. Themes: exploitation vs. interdependence, gender roles, fear, sacrifice vs. jealousy, love. More…
The Stains
The major themes of this unsettling horror story from Robert Aickman are grief, ‘romance’ and death. With many twists and turns along the way, a grieving widower becomes infatuated with an enigmatic, nymph-like girl he meets in the woods. As their steamy romance plays out, he and everything around him begin to be covered in strange, lichen-like stains. In typical Aickman style, rather than a denouement that ties things nicely together, the abrupt conclusion leaves the reader with more questions than it answers. Other themes: innocence, lust, modern vs. rustic lifestyle, denial (of the stains). More…
Three Thanksgivings
In this story by Charlotte Gilman, a widow faces pressure from three sides. Her married children want her to come and live with them, and the man who holds a mortgage over her large family home wants to marry her. She doesn’t want to move or remarry, doesn’t have the means to repay the mortgage, and has three Thanksgivings to make a decision or find the money. In helping five hundred other women, she builds a new life and solves the problem. Themes include gender expectations, financial independence, self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship, community.
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