Death in Venice

Death in Venice: Novella by Thomas MannThis Thomas Mann classic is renowned for its masterful psychological profile of Aschenbach, a jaded, aging writer who develops an unhealthy infatuation with a fourteen-year-old-boy during a Venetian holiday. Although the novella’s central theme (homosexuality) is no longer controversial, other aspects of the story (pedophilia and stalking) certainly are. Sympathy for Aschenbach is greatly diminished when, out of selfishness, he decides not to warn the holidaying boy’s family about a deadly epidemic being covered up by authorities. Many readers see Aschenbach’s fate as just punishment for his actions. Other themes: art and the artist, alienation, obsession, depravity, death.

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The Wedding Dance

The Wedding Dance: Short story by Amador DaguioThe major themes of this touching story by Amador Daguio are tradition, love and courage. Set in pre-colonial Philippines, a villager follows custom and remarries when his wife fails to conceive. Despite their pledges of love, neither challenges this unwritten law. Whether the theme of “courage” has positive or negative connotations for the protagonist depends on the reader’s interpretation as to why she walks away from her husband’s second wedding dance. Is this because she lacks the courage to confront the tribal elders, or because she finds the courage to “let go” and sacrifice her happiness for her husband’s honor?

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The War of the Wall

The War of the Wall: Short story by Toni Cade BambaraThis story by Toni Cade Bambara is about a wall in an inner city neighborhood in the Southern United States. The wall is special to the local community: old people sit in its shade; children play handball and other games against it. Two boys watch in dismay as a strange and seemingly rude woman from New York begins to paint some kind of mural on the wall. When the woman refuses their demands to stop, the boys make plans to sabotage her work. What she paints changes their mind. Themes include community, rash judgement, rudeness, tolerance, respect, remembrance.

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The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild: Short story by Jack LondonSet during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, this story by Jack London chronicles the devolution of a domesticated dog into the leader of a pack of wild wolves. A huge St. Bernard-Scotch Shepherd cross, is dog-napped to meet the demand for sled-dogs. Transported to the Yukon, he soon learns the law of club and fang and the meaning of the maxim survival of the fittest. The story is not for the faint-hearted. True to the times, it includes many examples of human and animal brutality, suffering, folly and death. Themes include greed, survival, violence, mastery, instinct, regression, community, pride, loyalty.

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Inside Out

Inside Out: Short story by Francisco JiménezThis is a chapter from the The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child, a collection of autobiographical short stories by Francisco Jiménez. Here. Jiménez describes his first year at school. Although slightly nervous because of his older brother’s stories about his first grade experience, he is excited to learn. However, his academic progress and relationships with classmates are held back by a complete lack of English. Frustrated, he compensates through daydreaming, artistic expression and interaction with the class caterpillar. Themes include family, poverty, language and communication, isolation and loneliness, persistence, understanding and forgiveness, art, personal growth (metamorphosis).

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Pret in the House / Ghost Trouble

Pret in the House / Ghost Trouble: Short story by Ruskin BondThis light-hearted children’s tale from master storyteller Ruskin Bond reflects a once common Indian belief that ghosts and other spirits (pret) inhabit certain types of tree. If something happens to such a tree, these are set free and must find a new home. There are many kinds of pret. Fortunately, the one that moves into a family’s house in this story is of the mischievous rather than dangerous or hungry variety. When its playful pranks become too annoying, the family decides to move away. This does not prove as easy as they thought! Themes: superstition, progress, family connectedness.

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Wakefield

Wakefield: Short story by Nathaniel HawthorneThis Nathaniel Hawthorne story opens with a newspaper account of a man who ‘disappeared’ after telling his wife he was going on a week’s holiday, stalked her for twenty years, and then returned home as if nothing had happened. The narrator speculates that the man’s ‘holiday’ may have been a cruel joke to see how his wife would cope without him, and that he gradually became so enamoured with the isolated, clandestine existence that he found it difficult to return home to his former life. Themes include singularity, alienation and isolation, resilience (the wife’s life goes on), obsession, insignificance.

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King Thrushbeard

Thrushbeard: German folktale from Brothers GrimmThe Brothers Grimm would have us believe that this folktale teaches a valuable lesson by documenting the fall of a spoiled princess who judges potential suitors by looks alone and is so ill-mannered that she says cruel things about them to their faces. Through her punishment (being married to a beggar street musician), we also learn that she has almost no household or practical skills. I’m not sure though about the central idea that the best way to teach humility is to publicly humiliate a person. Isn’t this what the princess was punished for at the beginning of the story?

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The Sisters

The Sisters: Short story by James JoyceSeveral themes in this story by James Joyce (paralysis, corruption and abuse of authority) are said to represent major issues facing both Ireland and its Catholic Church in the early 1900s. The story, which takes place shortly after the death of a Catholic priest, is narrated by a boy who was friends with and mentored by the cleric. He is angered by insinuations the priest was involved in a scandal but also feels “freed”, presumably because he can resume a normal boyhood. Other themes include religion, secular vs. religious education, fall from grace, mental illness, loneliness, death, “freedom”.

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The Gentleman from San Francisco

The Gentleman from San Francisco: Short story by Ivan BuninIn this story by Ivan Bunin an overweight, fifty-eight-year-old industrialist who had grown rich off the sweat of Chinese immigrants treats himself and his family to a two-year trip around the world. He only makes it as far as Capri, where he dies of a heart attack. The story is a biting satire of the opulent lifestyles and arrogance of the mega-rich, living in their ivory towers indifferent to the “lesser” people who toil to make their lifestyles possible. Themes include greed, social class, vanity, superficiality, moral decay, self-aggrandizement vs. spiritual enlightenment, death as a leveler.

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