The Piece of String

The Piece of String: Short story by Guy de MaupassantThis Guy de Maupassant story involves a frugal farmer whose reputation is forever tarnished after a rival falsely accuses him of finding and failing to return a lost pocketbook. Sadly, he is the victim of a stereotype about “Norman craftiness”. No matter how much he protests that he picked up a piece of string, and even in the face of another peasant coming forward with the pocketbook, nobody will believe him. This weighs so much on the proud man’s mind that he wastes away to an early death. Themes: false accusations, stereotyping, injustice, pride, obsession with image/reputation.

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The Madness of Doctor Montarco

The Madness of Doctor Montarco: Short story by Miguel De UnamunoThis story by Miguel De Unamuno highlights the danger of defying societal expectations in culturally backward, late 1800s Spain. When a highly respected physician begins to publish increasingly bizarre satirical short stories as a pastime, his patients express concern over his ability to treat them. Despite assurances from another doctor, they desert his practice and question his sanity. Such talk eventually leads to him entering an asylum where he spends the rest of his life a confused, broken man. Themes include individualism, intellectual complacency (of the Spanish masses), duality (logic and practicality vs. fantasy and satire), the nature of madness.

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Snapshots of a Wedding

Snapshots of a Wedding: Short story by Bessie HeadSet in the mid-1990s, this story by Bessie Head explores two aspects of a Botswanan wedding. The first is the rituals observed at the event and how, as a “modern wedding”, a lot of the traditional courtesies had been left out of the planning. The second is the circumstances leading up to the wedding, with the author seemingly inviting readers to judge whether the groom, who is rich in cattle and loved and respected by all who knew him, made the right choice for a bride. Themes: tradition vs. modernity, marriage, education, hubris vs. humility, money and status vs. love.

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In Search of Epifano

In Search of Epifano: Short story by Rudolfo AnayaIn this story by Rudolfo Anaya, an eighty-year-old woman leaves her loveless marriage and unfulfilling life in California behind to follow her passion (painting) and search for her familial, ethnic and spiritual roots in the Mexican desert. She journeys to the abandoned ranch of her great-grandfather Epifano, who she believes is calling her in her dreams. As she overlooks the ruins of his hacienda, a tall Indian with Epifano’s eyes guides her through an ancient ceremony in which her moan of love is like a new life as a blinding flash fills her body. Themes include heritage, identity, emptiness, epiphany.

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Sunanda

Sunanda: Short story by BanaphoolThis story by Banaphool opens with a young Indian woman dreaming about what might have been… the power and prestige that comes with a good education. The dream ends with her contemplating revenge on a man who had recently rejected her as a prospective bride. We don’t learn the outcome, because she wakes to the grim reality of her miserable existence. Despite excellent grades at school, her father denied her a tertiary education. As her poverty-stricken family desperately tries to marry her off, she takes drastic action. Themes include poverty, the importance of education, rejection, despair.

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Drifting House

Drifting House: Short story by Krys LeeThis confronting story by Krys Lee opens in a remote North Korean village created for those the government called the “wavering or hostile class”. Government food rations have been cut off and two starving, malnourished boys abandoned by their mother struggle across a snow-covered mountain to try to join her in China. The older boy carries their dying infant sister. Unable to carry her any further, he humanely ends her suffering. Despite their dire circumstances, he reveres his country’s “Dear Leader”, and expresses hatred for the American imperialists said to be responsible. Themes include family, abandonment, hunger, despair, guilt, indoctrination.

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The Spinoza of Market Street

The Spinoza of Market Street: Short story by Isaac Bashevis SingerIsaac Singer’s protagonist is an aging philosopher who has struggled for thirty years to write a commentary on the 17th century philosophical treatise, Spinoza’s Ethics. Frustrated, sickly and too weak from hunger to get out of bed, a reclusive spinster nurses him back to health. Her kindness leads to marriage and a wedding night in which he miraculously regains his youthful virility and passion for life. The story’s denouement: Spinoza, forgive me. I have become a fool. could thus be taken several ways. Themes: obsession, isolation and loneliness, renewal through passion, the difficulty in reconciling Spinoza’s views with traditional religion.

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Javni

Javni: Short story by Raja RaoRaja Rao’s Javni highlights the inequity of India’s caste system and how it is so interlinked with religious beliefs that most of those affected accept their lot without question. (A Brahmin is not meant to work. You are the “chosen ones”… you are the twice-born. We are your servants — your slaves.) Javni, a devout servant, accepts the exploitation and indignities suffered at the hands of her employer as a normal aspect of working life. Sadly, being a widow, the poor woman faces even greater cruelty from her family and fellow villagers. Themes: compassion, innocence, religion, fate, superstition, cruelty, sacrifice, love.

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