Set in the aftermath of India’s Partition, this story by Saadat Hasan Manto highlights how a total breakdown in law-and-order led to many predatory attacks against women. A father, separated from his seventeen-year-old daughter as they fled after his wife was disembowelled in front of them, desperately searches for her in a refugee camp for Indian Muslims evacuated to Pakistan. Some camp volunteers agree to look for the girl. They are successful, but do not return her. When found, her corpse displays a shocking conditioned reflex. Themes include displacement, chaos, gendered violence, depravity, fatherly love, despair. More…
Raymond’s Run
Raymond’s Run by Toni Cade Bambara is about a feisty school girl nick-named ‘Squeaky’ who helps take care of Raymond, her mentally challenged older brother. Squeaky is a very talented runner. She trains hard and desperately wants to win this years’ May Day race to show up an annoying and over-confidant new girl in town. During the race she sees Raymond running along the outside of the track keeping pace with her. She suddenly decides that winning races doesn’t matter as much as it used to. Themes: responsibility (care-giving), identity, independence, alienation, pride, rivalry, personal growth, respect. More…
A Fish Named Dog
Like many children, the girl in this story by Christyne Morrell for Spider Magazine dreams of having a pet dog or cat. Unfortunately, this is not to be. Her parents give her a goldfish instead! To make sure her mother and father know what she really wanted, she names the fish “Dog.” This must have hurt the fish’s feelings because, much to the girl’s surprise, it begins to live up to its new name. By the end of the story the girl and fish are happy, her friends are amazed, and some readers may never want to eat fish again. More…
Death by Scrabble
You know that a story which begins It’s a hot day and I hate my wife is not going to end well for one of them. In this story by Charlie Fish, a bored couple sit down for a “friendly” game of scrabble. As the competition intensifies, the man notices something strange. The words the couple put down on the board seem to be coming true in the room around them. To test the theory, he puts down the letters Q-U-A-K-E. As the ground begins to shake, he realizes too late that his wife has made the same discovery. More…
The Veldt
In this chilling story by Ray Bradbury, frantic parents who try to rein in their spoiled children by shutting down the hi-tech games room in their “HappyLife” home become a “HappyMeal”. Although written in 1950 to question the rising influence of television, the story serves as a warning to modern parents who let their children build their lives around social networking and/or game play. The story’s major theme is the alienation, dehumanization and breakdown of family values that can arise in a household through over-reliance on technology. Other themes include consumerism, poor parenting, illusion vs. reality, dystopia. More…