Major themes of this captivating story by Philip Roth are passion, sexuality, Jewish identity, and social class. When Neil, a twenty-three-year-old man from a working class Jewish family falls for Brenda, a spoiled college student from a wealthy one, the relationship appears doomed. Brenda’s competitive nature, Neil’s idealism, and his daily encounters with her emotionally dysfunctional family, lead to snide comments and constant bickering between them. The glue that holds their relationship together is sex, and readers are left to decide if Brenda ended it accidentally or deliberately. Other themes include family, materialism, manipulation, and control. More…
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A White Heron
A major theme of this story from Sarah Orne Jewett is exploitation of nature. A young girl (Sylvia) must choose between much needed money and protecting a rare, beautiful bird. Some see the story as a metaphor for industrialization encroaching upon the pristine Maine woods. The repeated references to “whiteness” (the heron, cow’s milk, Sylvia’s pale skin), symbolize the purity of both the environment and the girl. Other themes: temptation, feminism (the right for Sylvia [women] to live as she chooses and not to serve and follow him [a man] and love him as a dog loves!) More…
Diamond Cuts Diamond
In this Thai folktale, a poor man has only plain rice to eat during a trip to visit a sick relative. Along the way, he smells some delicious curry being cooked for a rich man’s lunch. He stops nearby to eat his own lunch, and enjoys the plain rice more than ever because he imagines eating it with the curry. The rich man finds out about this and tries to make him pay for the smell of his curry. Thanks to a village chief who is cleverer than the rich man, things don’t go as he had planned. More…
The Golden Windows
This story by Laura E. Richards is about a poor farm boy who, at the end of most working days, would sit on top of a hill and look at a far-away house that appeared to have golden windows. As he did so, he wished that he could live in a wonderful house like that. One day he sets out to find the house. When he gets there, he is disappointed to learn that the house doesn’t have golden windows. A little girl takes him to the top of her hill and shows him the real house with golden windows. More…
Blood-Burning Moon
Set in the American South during the days of enforced segregation, this story by Jean Toomer involves a love triangle between Louisa, an attractive young African-American woman and two men. Bob (the entitled son a white planter whose slaves were freed and landholdings reduced after the Civil War) picks a fight with his adversary Tom (a poor, quick-tempered black labourer). When Bob pulls a knife, Tom does likewise and kills him. In keeping with the times, Tom is gruesomely executed by a white vigilante mob. Themes: love vs. lust, racism/white supremacy, identity, violence, vigilante justice. More…