The title of this story by Amy Tan refers to both the game of chess and the game of life. A Chinese-American mother’s term for one important rule is the art of invisible strength (self-control). The story deals with a number of themes: poverty, respect (for parents, others and one’s cultural heritage), pride vs. humility, passion and dedication, and mother/daughter relationships. At the end of the story, both fail in exercising the art of invisible strength. The mother’s understandable pride leads to bragging; the daughter’s response is rudeness and running away. Whose wind (willpower) will blow the strongest? More…
A Passion in the Desert
This story by Honoré de Balzac recounts the adventures of a French soldier lost in the Egyptian desert during the Napoleonic conquests. He finds a small oasis, but soon realizes that it is already occupied… by a leopard! He befriends the beast and the two manage to co-exist, with the leopard becoming more and more trusting and playful. Although he describes the (female) leopard in increasingly sensual terms, he later learns that the desert holds other passions: (In the desert there is everything and nothing… it is God without mankind.) Themes: isolation, animal/human bonding, distrust, betrayal, finding God in nature. More…
The Beautiful People
The dystopian civilization envisioned in this Charles Beaumont story has eliminated many of today’s “distractions” such as food preparation, books and even the need for sleep. It has also specified uniform male and female appearances to be adopted by undergoing a “Transformation” (operation) upon turning nineteen. A brave girl resists the change, not only putting her job and family’s social position at risk, but also threatening social stability. As she is frog-marched to the operating theater, she realizes the sinister purpose of Transformation… to remove the population’s sense of individual identity. Themes: identity, body shaming, scientific “advancement”, superficial beauty, conformity. More…
The Decapitated Chicken
In this story by Horacio Quiroga a loving couple has four sons, each of whom soon degenerates into idiocy. The couple become bitter and resentful, each blaming the other for their sons’ congenital imbecility. When a daughter is born who does not share the condition, the parents ignore the boys, leaving them in the care of a servant who brutally mistreats them. One day the boys watch as the cook decapitates a chicken. Fascinated by the sight of blood, they later imitate the act with the only small ‘animal’ available. Themes include mental illness, despair, rejection and neglect, cruelty, violence. More…
Holiday
In this disturbing story from Katherine Porter, a young woman suffering undisclosed “troubles” decides she needs a holiday. On the recommendation of a friend, she visits the farm of a German immigrant family. During her stay, she feels a special connection with a “crippled, badly deformed” serving girl. Later, she is concerned to learn that the girl is the parent’s older daughter who, because of her disabilities, has been consigned to a life of drudgery and is largely ignored by the otherwise loving family. Themes: family, gender roles, the beauty and power of nature, alienation, suffering, life and death, humanity. More…