This story is about motherly love taken too far. Joyce Carol Oates uses a trip to the mall to explore the relationship between a lonely, divorced mother and her 17-year-old daughter. At one point, the mother wants to ask her daughter: Why are you unhappy? Why do you hate me? Later, the mother stares at her with hatred. The girl is blossoming into independent womanhood. She has been the sole focus of her mother’s life, and the mother is having trouble “letting go”. Themes include helicopter parenting, loneliness, alcoholism and identity. More…
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The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
This story by William Saroyan describes a nine-year-old boy’s short encounters with a beautiful white horse ‘borrowed’ without permission by an older cousin. The boy’s family is part of an impoverished Armenian farming community living in the United States after being displaced from their homeland. The tribe to which the family belongs is renowned for the honesty and integrity of its members and, as might be expected, these are central themes of the story. Other themes include the refugee experience, temptation in the face of poverty, family values (reputation) vs. desire, rationalizing inappropriate behaviour, compassion, conscience. More…
Dusky Ruth
In addition to writing fantasy and horror stories, A. E. Coppard had a wonderful talent for describing nature and human nature through his tales of life and love in the English countryside. Here, a hiker exploring the Cotswolds stops for the night at a village inn. The only lodger, he shares passionate embraces with a dusky serving girl in a downstairs sitting room. Later that night, she invites him to her bedroom where, as she lays naked and crying beside him, he proves to be a perfect English gentleman. Themes include the beauty of nature, isolation, loneliness, sexuality, desire, restraint. More…
The Busker
Both adults and children have been known to cry at the end of the story within a story in this tale from Paul Jennings. Its major theme is that giving money to people (or in the narrator’s case, spending it on them) doesn’t make them like you. Other themes: folly (the narrator, desperate for $10, searching the beach for a shipwreck), companionship and teamwork (between the Busker and his dog, Tiny), jealousy (when the Busker realizes Tiny is the star of their act), animal cruelty (Tiny in the well), and unconditional animal love (the Busker in the well). More…
The Baby (The First Thing the Baby Did Wrong)
This story by Donald Barthelme may be confronting for some readers because it appears to make light of an example of child abuse. Through exaggeration and humor, Barthelme leads us to his central theme: the coming of a baby can change the whole dynamics of family relationships. Most parents like to think that they are the ones in control. However, all too often they find themselves dancing to their child’s tune. By the end of the story, this baby has totally turned the tables. Some might even say that it has been guilty of a form of parental abuse! More…