This dark comedy from Oscar Wilde involves a gullible young aristocrat who believes a palm-reader’s prediction that he will commit a murder. Out of consideration for his fiancé, he decides that he should postpone their marriage until he can get the deed out of the way. Convinced that he is merely fulfilling his destiny, the young man feels no guilt in planning and preparing for murder, or indeed remorse afterwards. When he later learns that the palm-reader was a charlatan, he still has no regrets. Themes: the shallowness and hypocrisy of the Victorian upper class, destiny, murder, morals, karma. More…
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Everything That Rises Must Converge
Flannery O’connor is known for emphasizing her themes through flawed, often thoroughly dislikeable characters. In this story, she has paired a bigoted mother living in the past with a callous, disrespectful son. The son, a college graduate, considers himself intellectually and morally superior to his mother and delights in antagonizing the poor woman. The unfortunate climax comes at the end of a city bus trip when the mother insults her African American “doppelganger” by offering the woman’s young child a penny. Themes include (through Mrs. Chestny) sacrifice, heritage & appearance vs. character, racism; (through Julian) lack of respect, cruelty, self-deception. More…
Toba Tek Singh
This month marks the 75th anniversary of the partition of British India into two countries: Hindustan and Pakistan. Some years ago we featured Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Lajwanti, a Partition story from an Indian viewpoint. In honor of the occasion, we are pleased to provide this story from the Pakistan side by controversial writer Saadat Hasan Manto. This is not your usual Partition story of mass displacement and violence. Instead, it is a clever satire of the governments of the two countries, as reflected in a decision several years later to exchange institutionalized lunatics. Themes: insanity, separation, religious segregation, nationality, confusion, belonging. More…
Great Day
David Malouf’s Great Day takes place over the seventy-second birthday celebration for the patriarch of a large, close-knit Australian family. The story explores some of the differences and tensions between family members, as well as the state of mind of the patriarch. A powerful retired senior public servant with a commanding personality, he is consumed by thoughts of death. Two linked events, the destruction of a family museum and the subsequent moving words of a usually shy, tongue-tied family member bring a sense of peace to the old man and unification to the family. Themes: power, loss, dreams, connection, unification. More…
Scout’s Honor
In this story from Edward Wortis (aka Avi), three bumbling friends demonstrate how not to go about passing a Boy Scout camping test. It is fortunate the story is set in the 1940s. If three nine year-olds were to set off as poorly prepared as they were these days, the ending probably wouldn’t be as happy. The major theme is that taking part in a challenge is more important that completing or winning it. Other themes: friendship, pride, poor planning and preparation, toughness (in this case being prepared to admit when something is too difficult), and scout’s honor (applied selectively!) More…