This story from Saadat Hasan Manto takes place during the first Indo-Pakistan (Kashmir) War, which commenced just two months after the 1947 formation of the two countries. The war was a form of “Mexican standoff”. This is reflected in the plot, where soldiers break their boredom with occasional shots towards the enemy camp that have no chance of hitting anyone. The treatment and killing of Jhun Jhun for “refusing” to take sides is symbolic of the suffering of civilians caught up in the conflict. Themes: natural peace and harmony vs. mankind’s propensity for violence, futility, innocence, distrust, cruelty, human suffering. More…
Old Woman Magoun
In this story by Mary R. Wilkins Freeman an old woman takes drastic action to prevent her granddaughter’s father from trafficking her to settle a gambling debt. The girl’s mother had died shortly after she was born. Wary of the shiftless, hard drinking men of the town, the grandmother had raised her in sheltered isolation. Now fourteen and innocent to the ways of the world, her father demands that she be handed over. Desperate, the grandmother turns to nature to “spare” her. Themes include patriarchy and gender roles, overprotectiveness, alcohol abuse, human trafficking, innocence, piety, love, despair, mercy killing. More…
The Last Lovely City
The city in this story from Alice Adams is San Francisco. An attractive young woman invites an aging, recently widowed doctor to a party where he encounters people who bring back unpleasant memories from his past. After fantasizing about a potential relationship with the woman, he learns she is an investigative journalist looking for a story. Disenchanted, he decides to move to Mexico to care for his ailing mother and help in two charity clinics he has established there. At least I more or less understand the corruption there, he argues. Themes: love, grief, memories, loneliness, hope, corruption, guilt/shame, selfishness. More…
Snow
Although this Alice Adams story has little action, a lot is achieved. A middle-aged man initially questions his decision to create a “diversion” for his first meeting with his daughter’s lesbian lover in the form of a weekend skiing trip with his girlfriend. Talking in their isolated cabin that night, the three women reveal things about themselves that not only bring the man closer to his daughter and girlfriend, but also help him understand his initial feelings (jealousy) toward his daughter’s partner. Themes include fatherhood, sexuality, deception, sexual assault, teenage pregnancy, jealousy, love. More…
The Bread of Salt
In this coming-of-age story by N. V. M. Gonzalez bread of salt (pan de sal), a popular Filipino food, symbolizes the racial, social and economic divide between a working-class teen with big dreams and the Spanish plantation owner’s niece with whom he is infatuated. Embarrassed when she catches him pilfering delicacies leftover after a banquet, he finally comes to terms with the reality of his position. He throws the delicacies away, and on the way home stops to buy some pan de sal. Themes include family, naivety, unrequited love, social and economic class, shame, disillusionment. More…