In this story by H. E. Bates, a stop at an all-night café run by an attractive young woman has a disturbing effect on an eighteen-year-old truck driver’s assistant. The young man is new to the job, and driver had warned him that he shouldn’t take any special attention by woman the wrong way: She won’t have it. She’s nice to (all) the chaps because it’s business, that’s all.. Despite this, the assistant is spellbound by the woman. She senses this and flirts a little, raising sexual tension in the naïve young man. Themes include innocence, female sexuality, desire. More…
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Slave on the Block
This early Langston Hughes story satirizes attitudes toward African American music and culture during the Harlem Renaissance. A wealthy, artistic couple seek to improve their social status through paintings and music inspired by their African American servants. Although superficially respectful of the servant’s African heritage, they privately exhibit a condescending tone towards these natural, childlike people who should be left unspoiled and simply enjoyed. A young negro, fresh from the south, learns to manipulate the patronizing couple before orchestrating a metaphorical bid for “freedom”. Themes: freedom vs. slavery, the beauty of black music and art, moral superiority, suppressed desire, racism. More…
Open It / Khol Do
Set in the aftermath of India’s Partition, this story by Saadat Hasan Manto highlights how a total breakdown in law-and-order led to many predatory attacks against women. A father, separated from his seventeen-year-old daughter as they fled after his wife was disembowelled in front of them, desperately searches for her in a refugee camp for Indian Muslims evacuated to Pakistan. Some camp volunteers agree to look for the girl. They are successful, but do not return her. When found, her corpse displays a shocking conditioned reflex. Themes include displacement, chaos, gendered violence, depravity, fatherly love, despair. More…
The (Diamond) Necklace
This Guy de Maupassant story is about a beautiful woman who is unhappy with her situation in life. She has a loving husband with a secure government job, and they have enough money to hire a girl to do the harder housework. Sadly, she sees him as just a “little” clerk and dreams of being admired by richer and more important men. An invitation to a ball and loss of a borrowed necklace teach her how lucky she was, and what it means to be very poor. Themes include appearance vs. reality, class, discontent, vanity, pride, sacrifice, and suffering. More…
Let the Old Dead Make Room for the Young Dead
In this story by Milan Kundera, an “almost old” widow faces a dilemma after a chance encounter with a much younger man she had seduced fifteen years earlier. Talking about their previous (for the man, awkward) lovemaking arouses his passions. She knows that giving in to his desire will almost certainly end in disgust over her aging body. However, she also knows that he is very likely the last young man who appeals to her with whom she will have the opportunity to have sex. Themes include sexuality, memories, aging and death, beauty, loneliness, regret, fulfilment/self-worth. More…