This very short science fiction tale from Edward Hoch is an excellent story to illustrate the meaning of point of view in literature. A traveling zoo makes annual visits to world cities. But this is no ordinary zoo: it is a space ship displaying strange creatures from different parts of the universe. The story can be interpreted from three perspectives: the people who visit the zoo, Professor Hugo’s (the zoo’s owner), and the creatures behind bars inside. Each sees the zoo differently, and benefits from the visit in a different way. More…
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A Haunted House
If you read Virginia Woolf‘s A Haunted House expecting it to be a horror story, you will come away disappointed. Rather than scary, the best word I can think of to describe it is bittersweet. Sweet because two ghosts are still very much in love after hundreds of years; sad because the ghostly couple appear to be anxiously searching for something. Although the central theme of the story is the immortality of love, it also carries the message that life is short, and we should treasure each moment with those we love. Other themes include loss, time, memories, the supernatural. More…
Aunty Misery
In this Puerto Rican folktale retold by Judith Ortiz Cofer, a lonely old woman has only one love… a beautiful pear tree growing outside her door. Her one hate is mischievous children who climb the tree and steal its fruit. A wish granted by a travelling sorcerer solves her problem with the children and, when Death comes for her, allows her to capture him. Her trick on Death causes so many troubles around the world that she finally releases him in exchange for immortality. The message of the story: there will always be misery and death in the world. More…
Poonek
In this story by Lim Beng Hap, a young man returns to his riverside village in Sarawak after ten years absence at school. The only thing that has changed is that a girl who had been his constant childhood companion has grown into a beautiful woman. When the girl’s father offers her to the young man in marriage, he initially declines. The belief among his people is that refusing such an offer makes him Poonek (likely to suffer a disaster), and he soon has a warning encounter with a crocodile. Themes include tradition, superstition, patriarchy, love. More…
Life in the Iron-Mills
Set in the 1830s, this story by Rebecca Harding Davis highlights the desperate plight of mill and factory workers during the early stages of the industrial revolution. A young furnace attendant, ostracised by other iron-mill workers because of his mild manner and artistic leaning, lives in squalid conditions with his father and a mildly disfigured female cousin. The cousin, whose love for the man is not reciprocated, destroys both of their lives by stealing money to try to help him. Themes include social inequality, exploitation, poverty, artistry, lack of opportunity, unrequited love, crime and punishment, despair, redemption. More…