Roses, Rhododendron

Roses, Rhododendron: Short story by Alice AdamsThis enchanting story by Alice Adams is about friendship, love (for people and places), and marriage. The narrator recalls how, after she and her mother moved from Boston to North Carolina, a lifelong friendship developed after she fell permanently in love with a house, with a family of three people and with an area of countryside. She forms a strong bond with each member of the family, and later learns that their shared fondness for her may have been the only thing that kept them together. Themes include friendship, mother-daughter relationships, marriage, city vs. country living, the beauty of nature.

Continue ReadingRoses, Rhododendron

I Go Along

I Go Along: Short story by Richard PeckA major theme of this story by Richard Peck is the benefit of occasionally stepping out of one’s comfort zone. When junior high schooler Gene “goes along” to a poetry recital with students from a higher English class, he doesn’t “go along” with the students in his own class who ignore the opportunity. Although it isn’t clear whether Gene gains an appreciation for poetry, he is lucky enough to sit with, and starts to “get along” with, the hottest girl in his grade. Other themes include independence vs. conformity to peer pressure, and friendship.

Continue ReadingI Go Along

The Kitemaker

The Kitemaker: Short story by Ruskin BondThe major themes of this Ruskin Bond story are change and the isolation/loneliness of the aged. An old man in a once rural Indian village lays back and reflects on his life as a professional kitemaker and how much the world has changed. The village’s traditional social structure, sport of adult kite flying, open spaces, and once close community spirit are no more. His only joy in life is spending time with and making kites for his grandson. A torn kite carried by the wind far above the city symbolizes release of his soul. Other themes: tradition, nostalgia, pride, mortality.

Continue ReadingThe Kitemaker

The Garden of Stubborn Cats

The Garden of Stubborn Cats: Short story by Italo CalvinoIn this Italo Calvino fantasy, a bored man spends his lunch breaks following a neighbourhood cat on its afternoon rounds through his rapidly growing the city. Thanks to the cat, he discovers a secret world within the city known only to its feline inhabitants. The story takes a grim turn when the cat steals a fish and leads the man to an overgrown garden that provides the last sanctuary for stray cats in the city. When progress tries to claim it, the cats and other animal residents fight back. Themes: social class, the negative aspects of progress, adaptivity, rebellion.

Continue ReadingThe Garden of Stubborn Cats

Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies

Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies: Short story by Salman RushdieThis story by Salman Rushdie satirises several aspects of life in post-colonial Pakistan. When an attractive woman steps off a bus outside a British Consulate for a visa interview, wily “advice expert” Muhammad Ali sees her as any easy mark. However when they meet, he is so struck by her beauty that he offers to help for free. Muhammad is confused when the woman rejects his assistance, attends the interview, and comes back into the street very happy, having failed to get her visa. Themes: power, emigration, deception, tradition (women’s subservience, arranged marriages) and change (women’s growing independence and freedom).

Continue ReadingGood Advice is Rarer than Rubies

Valediction

Valediction: Short story by Sherman AlexieThis coming-of-age story by Sherman Alexie was extracted from The Rumpus website. Valediction means the act of saying farewell, and in the story two boys who have been close friends for years break up over an act of shoplifting. They had shoplifted together several times, but when guilt and fear cause the narrator to stop, his friend continues and is caught. Disappointingly, instead of thanking his friend for telling authorities he wasn’t involved in the previous thefts, the narrator cuts him off without a word. There is no valediction. Themes include choices and consequences, crime and punishment, reputation, shame, ingratitude.

Continue ReadingValediction

The Horse Dealer’s Daughter

The Horse Dealer's Daughter: Short story by D. H. LawrenceAt a simplistic level, this story by D. H. Lawrence can be looked upon as a traditional love story. However, with Lawrence’s reputation as a writer who explores human nature through psychological insight and sexual descriptions, it is highly unlikely he would write a story with such a straightforward message. Alternate interpretations include: 1) a tale in which a desperate, calculating woman tries to seduce a vulnerable man; and 2) a religious fantasy in which a near-death experience results in an epiphany that awakens feelings of love and desire. Themes include family relationships, patriarchy, misogyny, despair, death, rebirth, passion.

Continue ReadingThe Horse Dealer’s Daughter

To Da-duh in Memoriam

To Da-duh In Memoriam: Short story by Paule MarshallSet mostly in 1930s Barbados, this memoir by Paule Marshall explores the rivalry between a feisty nine-year-old American girl and her eighty-year-old Barbadian grandmother. During the girl’s first visit to her parent’s homeland the two engage in a process of one-upmanship. As the grandmother extols the natural beauty and bounty of her country, the girl counters with the modern wonders of New York. Despite the conflict, the two become so close the girl later feels that the grandmother’s spirit continues to live within her. Themes include pride, rivalry, connection, contrast (age vs. youth, rural vs. urban living, progress), colonialization.

Continue ReadingTo Da-duh in Memoriam