The major theme of this story by Thomas Aldrich is how well-intentioned deception can lead to unexpected results. A wealthy, self-absorbed young man has difficulty adjusting to being confined to a sofa with a broken leg. His doctor asks the man’s best friend, who is holidaying near the sea with his sick father, to write frequently in order to “distract and cheer him up”. The friend complies, beginning with an innocent white lie about the beautiful girl living across the road. Unfortunately, as is often the case, one lie leads to another and soon the distraction grows into an obsession. More…
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Lazy Jack
This English folktale is about a boy who isn’t very bright and doesn’t like the idea of work. However, thanks to following the advice of his mother, he marries a rich girl and, one imagines, never has to work again. Possible morals? For children: Always do what your parents tell you and you’ll have a good life. For parents: Teach your children the value of hard work so they can take care of you in your old age. For the rich girl: Sometimes laughter is the best medicine. For the rich girl’s father: Be careful of what you wish for! More…
When Darkness Falls
One of Ruskin Bond’s strengths is his ability to portray characters that are so life-like readers can empathize with them. So it is with this tragic story of man so frightfully disfigured by war that he is afraid to leave his room by day, and confines himself to creeping phantom-like around an aging hotel by night. His loves in life are his books and music. The message of the story: before turning away from a grossly disfigured or disabled person, stop to consider the feelings of the human being within. Themes include appearance, fear, despair, the healing power of music. More…
The Night of the Ugly Ones
This story by Mario Benedetti examines the concept of “ugliness” and the feelings of exclusion experienced by people with physical deformities when others turn away or pretend not to notice them. A man and woman, both with significant facial blemishes, meet at a movie and connect over coffee. (You’d like a face as smooth as that young girl’s on your right, even though you’re intelligent and she, judging by her laugh, is a hopeless idiot.) Their lovemaking later that night takes a curious turn, with both ending up in tears. Themes include isolation and loneliness, humanity, internal vs. external beauty. More…
Tell Them Not to Kill Me
Juan Rulfo‘s short stories focus on the violence and hardships of rural peasant life in post-revolutionary Mexico. In this story a farmer (Juvencio) has been on the run for thirty-five years after viciously killing a friend for refusing to share his pasture during a severe drought. The murdered man’s son, now a police colonel, arranges for Juvencio’s capture. Juvencio, showing no remorse, begs for his life on the basis that he has already suffered enough. His grisly summary execution leaves readers to decide whether justice was served. Themes: land reform; endemic corruption; judicial system breakdown; father-son relationships; violence; revenge.
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