In this story by Penelope Lively, a sixteen-year-old boy regularly visits the Pitt-Rivers museum to “mooch around and be on his own”. One day, he notices a woman of about thirty waiting for someone. Although ordinary looking, her face glows in a way that makes him feel good. His views on “correctness” in relationships are challenged when she greets a man in his fifties she obviously loves. The couple meet frequently at the museum. He watches as their relationship grows and, one day, crumbles. Her glow fades to a look of despair. Themes include beauty, teen dating, non-traditional love, disillusionment. More…
Category Archives: Short Stories
Here We Aren’t, So Quickly
Many readers find this Jonathan Foer story confusing because of its unconventional style. It comprises a series of short, seemingly random recollections and observations about a couple’s past, often in the form of negative declarations. On the first read, the differences between the two people appear so vast that it is hard to see how they could remain happy together. Themes include the swift passing of time, personality growth as we age, understanding and accepting differences, and the development of a relationship from individuals (”I” and “You”) to a couple (“We”) and then a family (“We” and “He”). More…
The Veldt
In this chilling story by Ray Bradbury, frantic parents who try to rein in their spoiled children by shutting down the hi-tech games room in their “HappyLife” home become a “HappyMeal”. Although written in 1950 to question the rising influence of television, the story serves as a warning to modern parents who let their children build their lives around social networking and/or game play. The story’s major theme is the alienation, dehumanization, breakdown of family values that can arise in a household through over-reliance on technology. Other themes: consumerism, poor parenting, illusion vs. reality, dystopia. More…
Black Boy
In this story by Kay Boyle, a ten- twelve-year-old girl living with her grandfather in a seaside city befriends an African-American “boy” who pushes rolling chairs by day and appears to sleep under the boardwalk at night. When the girl’s grandfather discovers them talking, he warns her off spending time with the boy because he might do you some kind of harm. The girl’s hobby is horse riding along the sand. When the boy helps her home after a fall, he doesn’t get the thanks he deserves. Themes: childhood innocence, friendship, prejudice and racism, dreams and imagination. More…
The Story of a Letter
In this semi-autobiographical story by Carlos Bulosan, a letter written in English in need of translation links two themes: 1) The challenges (language barriers, racism, exploitation and mistreatment) faced by illiterate Filipinos who immigrated to America for a better life during the first half of last Century; 2) The harshness and unpredictability, especially for those on the land, of the life they left behind. Sadly, most of their families at home will rarely, if ever, hear from them again. Other themes include family, community, the importance of education, expectations vs. reality, resilience, perseverance. More…
The King is Dead, Long Live the King!
This story from Mary Coleridge includes some excellent examples of situational irony. A king dies of fever, regretting that he had not lived long enough to finish his work. His spirit dreams his life will be restored if it can locate three people who wish that he was still alive within an hour of his death. The spirit’s findings are not what it had expected, and an even greater insult awaits when it returns to the palace. The story encourages readers to think about what kind of person they think they are, and whether their friends or partner would agree. More…
Victory Over Japan
Today we are featuring the trilogy of “Rhoda” stories from Ellen Gilchrist’s short story collection Victory Over Japan. In the titular first story, set in the final days of World War 2, Rhoda is a willful third-grader living in fear of when her disciplinarian father returns home from the war. In the second story, Music, she is a rebellious fourteen-year-old, obsessed with beauty and romance and constantly at war with her father. In the final story, The Lower Garden District Free Gravity Mule Blight or Rhoda, a Fable, she is a lost thirty-four-year-old at a crossroads. More…
The Man Who Could Work Miracles (A Pantoum in Prose)
In this light-hearted story by H. G. Wells, a man known as a sceptic as far as miracles are concerned suddenly discovers he can make things happen just by thinking about them. After a few teething problems, such as sending a local police constable to Hades, he confides in his parish priest. Once convinced, the priest becomes so obsessed with using the miracle worker’s powers for good that he inadvertently encourages him to do something that brings about global catastrophe. Themes include the supernatural, power and responsibility, human frailty, the danger of interfering with nature, science vs. religion. More…
In a Grove
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa‘s In a Grove, published in 1922, is based on a classical Japanese tale first documented in the 12th century. It comprises seven accounts, including three confessions, relating to the death of a young Samurai. There are differences between each account, and none of the confessions are totally convincing. The story shares similarities with Ambrose Bierce’s Moonlit Road, published fifteen years earlier. Both stories feature unreliable narrators (including the spirit of the victim speaking through a medium) and leave readers to draw their own conclusions about the crime and identity of the killer. Who do you think did it? More…
Mammon and the Archer
Mammon is a biblical term for great wealth. In this story by O. Henry, a self-made millionaire is initially of the belief that money can buy anything. When his son falls in love with a woman from an aristocratic family, he learns there are two things his money can’t buy: love and family recognition among New York High Society. Fortunately for his son, it is able to buy the young man enough time to allow the archer to do his job. Themes include money vs. love, pride, new vs. old money, upper class etiquette, superstition, deception. More…
Charles
Most readers see Laurie, the subject of this Shirley Jackson story, as a naughty boy who tries to gain attention by misbehaving at kindergarten. He creates an alter ego named Charles to tell his parents what happens at school and later, to explain getting home late. In addition to considering issues like parental blindness and/or poor parenting, it is worth asking if there could be other interpretations. For instance, did Laurie behave quite normally at school, and create an imaginary naughty classmate to gain attention at the dinner table? Both are consistent with the teacher’s vague assessment of Laurie’s behavior. More…
The Bog Man
As in an earlier Margaret Atwood story, The Age of Lead, The Bog Man revolves around a long-dead body. A university student’s hero worship of her archaeology professor leads to a torrid affair during which she accompanies him as his ‘assistant’ to inspect a 2,000-year-old body preserved in a Scottish peat bog. As his invisible wife comes between them, she feels “cheap and furtive”. Recognizing his shallowness, she ends the relationship. Like the bog man, over the years he becomes flatter and more leathery, as life goes out of him in her mind. Themes include infatuation, sexual exploitation, desire, guilt, empowerment. More…
The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses
This story from Bessie Head is about a group of political prisoners who unite to survive the harsh South African penal system. Physically, the main character (Brille) is the weakest of the span of ten prisoners. This is reflected in his build, his clumsiness, and his poor eyesight. Brille compensates for these weaknesses with strength of character and insight. A beating from a warder helps him see that he entered politics for the wrong reason; it also shows him a way to manipulate the warder to improve things for the whole span. His glasses symbolize both weakness and perceptiveness. More…
Prey
In this famous horror story from Richard Matheson, a young woman buys her new boyfriend a Zuni fetish doll for his birthday. A scroll inside the box reads This is He Who Kills…. He is a deadly hunter. As she prepares to shower, the doll turns out to be the real deal. It escapes the gold chain designed to keep the hunter’s spirit locked inside, and sets off in search of prey. You get the feeling that both the girl and the spirit are at least temporarily happy with the outcome. However, the girl’s controlling mother may not be! More…
Mariah
In this story by Che Husna Azhari, the men of a Malay village gather in the market square every morning to buy a nasi dish for breakfast. It is not that this nasi is any better than they would get at home, but rather because the vendor is an attractive young widow who mesmerises them with her swinging hips and easy smile. The village Imam is love-struck by the woman, who reminds him of his first, unrequited love, and convinces his devoted wife to let him have another. Themes include religious faith, patriarchy, desire, jealousy, love, polygyny, sacrifice. More…
The Gold of Tomás Vargas
Isabel Allende’s Tomás Vargas is a lecherous, wife-beating, boastful drunkard. At a time when paper money has lost its value, he is wealthy thanks to gold he buried in better times. He enjoys a luxurious, self-indulgent “macho” lifestyle as his wife and children live in poverty. To add to his family’s misery, he brings his pregnant mistress home to live with them. In addition to Vargas’s wife, the “heroes” of the story are the shop-keeper (Riad) and school-teacher (Inés), who take pity on and try to help the women. Themes include greed, cruelty, morality, dignity, compassion, responsibility, and karma. More…
Roselily
In this story by Alice Walker, a woman daydreams through her wedding ceremony about how her life is about to change. She is not sure if she is in love with the man, and is marrying him primarily for the sake of her young children from previous relationships. Although both are African-American, their future faces significant challenges. She is from the rural South, he is from Chicago; she is Christian, he is Muslim. She reconciles herself to a life of ropes, chains and handcuffs away from family and friends. Themes include alienation, loneliness, motherhood, compatibility, religion, change and hope. More…
The Flying Machine
In this story by Ray Bradbury, a Chinese Emperor learns that one of his subjects has invented a “flying machine”. Thinking that the invention could be used against him if the “technology” fell into the wrong hands, he has the man executed, the kite destroyed, and the whole episode hushed up. Written shortly after the end of World War II, by which time the Soviets had already replicated America’s atomic bomb, the story could be considered a parable warning of the risk of developing weapons of mass destruction. Themes: the potential danger of technology, fear of progress, shortsightedness, selfishness/control. More…
Under the Banyan Tree
This story by R. K. Narayan starts by contrasting the village of Somal’s poor utilities and sanitation practices with the almost idyllic existence of its inhabitants. Set before the coming of electronic media, the only regular source of entertainment is Nambi, the village storyteller. As de-facto village priest, Nambi is also the focal point of its culture and traditions. Sadly, he is getting old. He forgets prepared stories, and has difficulty coming up with new material. Fortunately, he has the good sense to make his ‘greatest’ story his last. Themes include storytelling, community, aging, knowing when to stop, spirituality.. More…
The Good Shopkeeper
A major theme of this story by Samrat Upadhyay is pride. Other themes include progress, family, social status, escapism through infidelity, humility, self-sufficiency. Set in Nepal, an accountant in a struggling international company loses his prestigious job to a younger man with better computer skills. He is married with a seven-month-old baby, and seeks help from his shady but well-connected brother-in-law. When nothing comes up, he finds solace in an affair with a housemaid he meets in a park. Through the housemaid’s simplistic outlook and lifestyle, he learns that self-worth comes from within and not a fancy job or title. More…
The Beginning of Homewood
This partly autobiographical story by John Edgar Wideman takes the form of a letter from an African-American man to his brother in prison. The central topic is how their great-great-great-grandmother Sybela escaped slavery with the son of her owner and their two illegitimate children and, after a five-hundred-mile flight across America, established a new community in a remote corner of Pittsburgh. The letter seeks to reconcile Sybela’s flight from bondage with his brother’s incarceration for murder, questioning whether the latter should be mitigated by their legacy of slavery. Themes include race, heritage, slavery, escape, freedom, justice and accountability, the supernatural. More…
Three Elephant Power
Today’s story is by A. B. “Banjo” Paterson, a famous Australian writer best known for his poems and stories about life in the countryside around the time of the country’s independence from Britain in 1900. Despite the title, this story has very little to do with elephants. It is about boys and their toys (men and their cars), and is a wonderful example of Australian ‘bush humor’. Part of the story is about the exploits of a speed-loving chauffeur named Henery, who tries to catch a car that has left the biggest set of tyre tracks he has ever seen. More…
The Laughing Man
This J. D. Salinger story describes the relationship between members of a boy’s club (the Comanches), their youth leader (the Chief), and the imaginary hero of stories told by the Chief (The Laughing Man). One of the major themes is escape from reality through stories. In this context, the Laughing Man symbolizes the imaginary hero in all of us. Another important theme is change. Breaking up with girlfriend Mary results in the Chief “killing off” the Laughing Man, signalling to the boys that childhood pleasures (and life) don’t last forever. Other themes: appearance vs. ability, friendship, death, loss of innocence. More…
Big Black Good Man
In this story by Richard Wright, an elderly man working the night desk at a seedy waterfront hotel is used to handling rough customers. However, when the biggest, strangest, and blackest sailor he had ever seen asks for a room, he is irrationally terrified. Living in constant fear, he meets the sailor’s demands (whisky and a woman) for six days. As the sailor checks out, he playfully puts his hands around the man’s neck, causing him to wet his pants in fear. A year later, the sailor returns. Themes include appearance and stereotyping, racism, fear, alienation, hatred and revenge, misjudgment. More…
Anandi
This story by Ghulam Abbas illustrates how the “world’s oldest profession” can assist in regional growth. Concerned about the appearance of prostitutes plying their trade around the town bazzar, the authorities of a Pakistani city banish them to a bare patch of land twelve miles out of town. A small marketplace develops around them, and over the years the outpost grows into a thriving new city of 250,000 people. Concerned about the appearance of prostitutes, the new city’s authorities banish them to a bare patch of land twenty-four miles out of town… Themes include politics, prostitution, persecution, enterprise, urban development. More…
Magnificence
This confronting story by Estrella Alfon explores one of a parent’s worst nightmares: the sexual abuse of a child by someone they know. An after-school tutor, loved and trusted by his two students, “loses control” and soils the dress of a seven-year-old girl he had placed on his knee. The major theme is the “magnificence” of the mother in confronting and humiliating the man. Set in 1950s Philippines, a secondary feminist theme is gender reversal and empowerment – the need for women to fight back against male mistreatment. Other themes include innocence, motherly love, child abuse, betrayal, absentee parenting (the father). More…
A Conversation from the Third Floor
Mohamed El-Bisatie’s writing is known for its visually stimulating descriptions of setting in which any drama or romance is subdued or inferred. Here, a woman tries to visit her husband in an Egyptian prison. She is allowed to leave a package (cigarettes) but not to see him. As she stands in the street below, her husband calls out from his third floor cell window. They have a brief but superficial conversation in which a lot of things are left unsaid. Themes include loss (of family and freedom), powerlessness, disappointment, uncertainty, struggle. More…
The Wives of the Dead
This early story from Nathaniel Hawthorne seems to have the same effect on most who read it. We think we know what happened to the two recently married and even more recently widowed young women, but are not 100% sure. Their husbands were brothers, and the four shared a small house. After mourners leave, the women retire to their bedrooms. At different times during the night, each wakes to a messenger with news that their husband has survived. Was either of the messages real? Themes include loss, grief and mourning, dreams vs. reality, and consideration for others. More…
Cell One
Some websites describe Nnamabia, the young protagonist in this story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, using terms such as ‘a wayward, rebellious son’. This is treating him too kindly. At the beginning of the story, Nnamabia is an entitled, spoiled, manipulative brat… too weak-willed to resist imitating the petty thefts of his peers, yet so cowardly that the only person he is game enough to steal from is his mother. Although he did not deserve the punishment he received at the hands of the so-called Nigerian justice system, he learnt some important lessons and came out of it a man. More…
Rain Frogs
In this story from Shiga Naoya, the naïve wife of a rural businessman is either seduced by or coerced into having sex with a predatory novelist. Surprisingly, in addition to appearing remarkably understanding, the woman’s husband is sexually aroused by her experience. The woman’s reaction is equally surprising. Initially, she is described as being a pleasure to look at but having no light in her tea-brown eyes. After the encounter, she has a knowing smile and “dreamy” eyes, as of someone experiencing a very sweet dream. Themes: tradition, attitudes to women in Japanese society, lack of fulfillment, sexual predation. More…
The Fall of the House of Usher
This Edgar Allan Poe story is a masterpiece of the Gothic Horror genre. A man visits a childhood friend in his crumbling family mansion to help him cope with an acute attack of depression. An interdependent relationship exists between the friend, his twin sister and the house (some say a shared soul), which ends in the downfall of all three. The story’s most remarkable feature is the almost total lack of physical action. The feeling of terror and impending doom develops solely from Poe’s descriptions of setting, characters, and atmosphere. Themes: isolation, friendship, fear, madness, the supernatural. More…
The Mezzotint
In this story by M. R. James, a bookshop sends a mezzotint depicting an early 1800s manor house to a university lecturer on approval. The methodical don, who is also responsible for collecting rare topographical drawings and engravings for the university library, initially dismisses it as being of little interest. However, he soon changes his mind as the image on the mezzotint changes several times over the next day, finally revealing a heinous crime. Intrigued, he feels duty-bound to find the location of the house and discover its secret. Themes include mystery, crime and punishment, revenge, the supernatural. More…
The Last Class / Lesson
Alphonse Daudet’s The Last Class (aka The Last lesson) looks at the disheartened reactions of Alsatian villagers, children and their teacher to the decision that the French language can no longer be taught at their school. Their part of France (Alsace and Lorraine) has become part of Germany following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, and the Berlin government has ordered that only German can be taught in the school. Themes include language as part of identity, cultural subjugation, the value of education, regret (not only for the changes, but also missed opportunities in learning and teaching), patriotism and community spirit. More…
The Faithful Wife
In this story by Morley Callaghan, a young man working in a railway café is completing his last shift before leaving town to attend college. Shortly before finishing up, he receives a phone call from a customer he has admired but never spoken to asking him to come to her home. When he gets there, she encourages him to sit down, kiss and “make out” for a short time. The woman is married, and this is her way of fulfilling an important desire without being unfaithful to her husband. Themes include the need for passionate human contact, manipulation. More…
A Defenseless Creature
In addition to his tales highlighting serious issues such as poverty, class, death and unfulfilled expectations, Anton Chekhov wrote dozens of comic short stories to support himself through medical school. In this story, a persistent, shrew-like woman wears down a sickly banker. The exasperated man finally pays money the woman claims is owing to her husband out of his own pocket, even though the alleged debt has nothing to do with his bank. Despite the woman repeatedly describing herself as such, readers are left wondering if the harried banker is the titular “defenseless creature”. Themes: bureaucracy, communication, desperation, persistence. More…
A Pilgrim Yankee’s Progress
Set shorty after Philippine liberation at the end of World War 2, this rather intense story by Nick Joaquin deals with the uneasy relationship between a Filipino family recovering from the trauma of the war and an American soldier visiting the grave of an uncle who died during the Spanish-American War. The major theme is cultural relativism: how misunderstandings can arise when people of different races and upbringings interpret events purely from their own cultural perspective or expectations. Both parties fall for this trap. Other themes include connections between past and present, colonialism, Puritanical idealism, self-reflection and awareness. More…
Two Friends
Set during the four month the siege of Paris of 1870-1871, this story by Guy de Maupassant stereotypes (from a French perspective) the patriotism and valour of two Frenchmen and the barbaric brutality of the Prussian (German) soldiers surrounding the city. After a few drinks, two friends on opposite sides of the political spectrum (one a monarchist, the other a republican) set off to escape the deprivation and boredom of the besieged city by going fishing in the “no-man’s land” between the two armies. Themes: friendship, loyalty, patriotism, courage, the brutality of war. More…
The Pale Man
This is a short horror story by little known author Julius Long. A doctor tells a man suffering from nerves to have a long holiday somewhere quiet. The man checks into a hotel in a small town. However, the townspeople are unfriendly towards him and he finds it a lonely, dreary place. His only hope for stimulating conversation appears to be a tall, pale man staying in another room of the hotel. The pale man has some very strange ways, so the man asks the hotel room clerk about him. The room clerk tells him there is no such guest. More…
Marjorie Daw
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…
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…
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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Letter to a Young Lady in Paris
This surreal story by Julio Cortázar is in the form of a letter from an Argentinean man to a friend who has allowed him to stay in her apartment while she is visiting Paris. His concerns about disrupting the compact order of her rooms become a reality when, on the point of moving in, he vomits up a tiny rabbit. This is normally an occasional occurrence, but ten more bunnies pop out over the following weeks. As they grow and begin to trash the place, he contemplates drastic action. Themes include phobia (about moving), obsession (with orderliness), depression, alienation, despair. More…
A Conversation With My Father
This story from Grace Paley uses a meta-fictional approach (a story about storytelling) to highlight generational differences between a writer and her aged father. The father, who is confined to bed, asks his daughter to write a simple story just once more, the kind Maupassant wrote. Instead, she relates a minimalist, open-ended tale with several possible outcomes. These artistic differences reflect the ailing father’s coming death. He has accepted that the end is near; she is not ready to. Her story challenges the father’s views on themes such as family, parenting, addiction, and the ability to change one’s destiny. More…
Smell / Bu
In this story by Saadat Hasan Manto, a refined Indian man sees a factory worker sheltering under a tree outside his apartment during a rainstorm. He invites her up to dry off and, consensual or otherwise, they have sex. As she spends the night he notices that every part of her body emits an at once foul and sweet-smelling odour. This enchants him so much that sex with other women, including the henna-smelling upper-class wife he marries years later, is less satisfying. Themes include social class/ethnicity, exploitation (rape?), promiscuity, sensuality, smell as an agent for memory and desire. More…
Toy Shop
In this story by Harry Harrison, an Air Force scientist buys a trick rocket from a toy fair. A thin piece of string makes the rocket rise and fall, and he plans to entertain some other scientists with it at a poker party. At the party, the scientists discover that the trick only works in certain conditions. They are curious as to why, because it seems that the toy may break a basic law of physics. What they don’t know is that this is all part of a plan for them to help make someone else very rich. More…
Private Lies
This story by Bobbie Ann Mason reveals how events of the past can resurface and have a significant effect on the present. A seemingly happily married man with two children becomes obsessed with finding the soon-to-be eighteen-year-old woman he and his previous wife gave up for adoption at birth. The quest causes him to look up his ex-wife, who has changed significantly in looks and character. This leads to a steamy affair that is on the brink of destroying his current marriage. Themes include marriage, teenage pregnancy, control, loss, regret, deception. More…
In the Garden
Set during the Philippine’s Marcos dictatorship, this story by Jose Dalisay Jr. takes place in the garden of an isolated one-room school. As the children tend their vegetables, a group of soldiers appears and begins to pull them out. Their orders are to take or destroy all local food sources in retaliation for the killing of one of their number. The younger children are sent home, but the oldest (a fourteen-year-old girl) is ordered to stay to “cook and do the soldier’s washing”. Bravely, the teacher insists on staying with her. Themes include innocence, oppression, intimidation, helplessness, fear, responsibility, courage. More…
Old Aeson
In this story by Arthur Quiller-Couch who wrote under the pen-name “Q” (No relation to the James Bond Q!), a very old man almost freezes to death outside a rich man’s house. The rich man takes the old man in and has him cared for. Nobody knows who the old man is or where he came from, and no one can understand his strange language. However, the old man has a mysterious power. He begins to suck the life out of the rich man, slowly turning him into an old man as he becomes younger and younger. More…
Twenty Minutes
There is a saying that your life flashes before your eyes in the moments before you die. In this James Salter story, the protagonist has twenty minutes to think about it. A woman riding a horse in the countryside is paralyzed in a fall. She estimates that she will die from her injuries if help doesn’t arrive within twenty minutes. As the minutes tick by, she recalls recent events in her life. Sadly, the picture they paint is not a very happy one. The central theme is, of course, death. Other themes: family estrangement, marriage, unfaithfulness, loneliness, desperation, unfulfilled dreams. More…
Taking Care
Written at a writer’s retreat in the early 1970s, this is Joy Williams’s first published story. An understandably distracted parish priest goes through the motions of fulfilling his duties as his wife wastes away in hospital from an unknown blood disorder, and he cares for his six-month-old granddaughter and a dog abandoned by his irresponsible daughter. Caring for the baby while his daughter “finds herself” in Mexico provides solace and a reminder that life goes on as he prepares for his wife’s anticipated homecoming. Themes include family, abandonment, responsibility, nostalgia, childhood adaptability, love, marriage, suffering, death, grace. More…