The story from Ron Carlson is a satire of 1960s life and its fixation with science, war, protest and material possessions. Protagonist Reed had a spartan, lonely childhood. His parents (NASA physicist father and poet/activist mother) are eccentric geniuses. His brother and sister are equally intelligent. When Reed discovers he is “ordinary”, he feels a sudden sense of relief and freedom. He gets a low-level job, buys a car, drinks beer and goes fishing for the first time, and fantasizes over a lewd picture he sees in a magazine. Themes: family, materialism, diversity, pressure to meet expectations, work/life balance, sexuality. More…
My Milk Goes Dry
Major themes of this humorous story by Minh Quan include alienation, indoctrination, insecurity, obsession and motherhood. An orphaned Vietnamese girl grows up constantly being told that, because she was brought up on an animal (cow milk) based baby formula, she will grow into a barbarous woman devoid of human sentiment. This and many other evils, her uncle says, is all the fault of the French. The comments not only reinforce her lowest in the household childhood inferiority complex, but also lead to an unhealthy obsession with her breasts and breast-feeding when she has her own children. More…
The Two Brothers and the Gold
In this story by Leo Tolstoy, two devout brothers who have dedicated their lives to helping the needy react very differently to finding a heap of gold. One leaps aside and runs away; the other takes it into town and puts it towards building and provisioning an asylum for widows and orphans, a hospital for the sick, and a hospice for the poor and pilgrims. Returning home penniless after basking in the praise of the townspeople, he is castigated by an Angel for allowing himself to be corrupted by the devil. Themes include religion, selflessness, brotherly love, temptation, hubris. More…
Theft
The major theme of this story by Katherine Anne Porter is loss… a stolen purse, lost friendships and opportunities, loss in love, loss of youth, and loss of hope. The real “robber” in the story is the protagonist, a struggling, ‘not so young’ writer who prides herself on her trusting, easy-going, unmaterialistic nature. After receiving a letter ending a love affair and later having her purse stolen, she realizes that if she doesn’t take charge of her life and stop “letting things go”, she will end up with nothing. Other themes include apathy and self-delusion, alienation, love, rejection, guilt. More…
Diamond Cuts Diamond
In this Thai folktale, a poor man has only plain rice to eat during a trip to visit a sick relative. Along the way, he smells some delicious curry being cooked for a rich man’s lunch. He stops nearby to eat his own lunch, and enjoys the plain rice more than ever because he imagines eating it with the curry. The rich man finds out about this and tries to make him pay for the smell of his curry. Thanks to a village chief who is cleverer than the rich man, things don’t go as he had planned. More…