Like many Luisa Valenzuela stories, a major theme of All About Suicide is the unchecked violence of daily life in 1960/70s Argentina. The story is notable for its unusual plot structure. It begins with a description of a shooting, travels back to (supposedly) irrelevant events in the distant past, fast forwards to the immediate past, and then re-describes the shooting. Thanks to the way Valenzuela playfully misleads readers with ambiguous possessive adjectives, the true nature of the shooting remains unclear until the last sentence. Other themes include treachery, suppression, guilt, courage, exposure, murder-suicide. More…
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The Fish and the Ring
In this Scottish folktale, a rich and powerful man looks into the future and learns that the fate of his son is to marry a girl from a very poor family. He wants a high society wife for his son and does everything that he can to stop the marriage. He unsuccessfully tries to kill the poor girl twice, and is about to throw her over a cliff when she agrees to go away forever. A hungry fish brings them together again and teaches him that, no matter how much you try, you can’t change what is meant to be. More…
The Tale of the Two Oxen / Do Bailon Ki Katha
This story by Premchand has three important themes: kindness to animals, friendship and faith. A series of adventures begin for two oxen (Hira and Moti) when Jhuri, their much-loved owner, lends them to his wife’s brother who lives far away. The brother-in-law mistreats the poor animals and, with the help of a kind girl, they run away. Their friendship gives them the strength to endure an attack by a raging bull, beatings and starvation before being sold to a butcher. As they almost lose hope and begin to question their faith in god, a ‘miracle’ helps them return home. More…
Ghosts
The ghosts in this Edwidge Danticat story are not the spectral kind. They are chimès… gang members of the Haitian slums. The story takes readers into one of these slums, and provides a glimpse of what life is like for young people growing up inside. It helps explain why young men join the gangs, the problems they face with police brutality and corruption at every level of society, and how the only way out for many is a bullet. Sadly, the problems described are not unique to Haiti. Themes include: social breakdown, gang culture, betrayal, parental love and sacrifice. More…
The Good Deed
In this story by Pearl S. Buck, an elderly Chinese woman brought to America by her son has difficulty adjusting to her new environment. With no English and a distaste for American ways she feels isolated, with no purpose in life. Things change when she meets a kind-hearted but “ugly” friend of her daughter-in-law who is worried about becoming Sheng nü (a left-over woman). Despite the language barrier and her inability to get around, she sets out to find her a husband. Themes include identity, tradition, cultural adaption, alienation and isolation, loneliness, respect, the nature of beauty, compassion, kindness. More…