This story by Roald Dahl is about a newly rich man who tries to buy his way up the social ladder. He employs an expensive butler and French chef and hosts many lavish dinner parties. To impress his guests, he buys some of the world’s best wines and learns a lot about them. What he doesn’t learn about are the things that should and shouldn’t be served with fine wine and how to enjoy it. The butler takes advantage of this, and in so doing puts an end to the rich man’s high society hopes. More…
The Nightingale and the Rose
The major themes of this Oscar Wilde story are sacrifice and the nature of love. A nightingale sacrifices its life in exchange for a red rose to help a love-smitten student. The story contrasts the selfless, unconditional love of the nightingale, the student’s naïve infatuation with a fickle girl, and her materialistic love of another. The student, who only knows things that are written down in books, not only laments that the nightingale’s song doesn’t do any practical good but, angry about being rejected, dismisses love as quite unpractical. Other themes include compassion, naivety, materialism, and intellectualism vs. aesthetic appreciation. More…
The Stone
This story from Lloyd Alexander is about Maibon, a poor farmer who is worried about growing old. His troubles begin when he rescues one of the “fair-folk” from under a log and demands one of their famous “un-aging stones” as a reward. As often happens to those who try magic to defy nature, things start to go wrong. Maibon tries several times to throw the stone away. When it keeps reappearing, he has no choice but to return it. Maibon’s life goes back to normal and he learns that aging gracefully with one’s family can be a good thing.
Drying Out
Drying Out is from Cynthia Rylant’s book Every Living Thing, which contains several stories aimed at school-aged children about how animals can change people’s lives. In this story, the expression ‘Drying Out’ has nothing to do with water. Rather, it is an idiom which means for someone who is dependent on alcohol to stop drinking. The main character (protagonist) is a returned soldier whose life is ruined when he starts drinking too much after his wife leaves him. He is sent to a special hospital where some unlikely friends who visit every morning help him to overcome his problem. More…
A Day’s Wait
The message of this story from Ernest Hemingway is the importance of two-way parent-child communication. A doctor attributes a boy’s high temperature to influenza and prescribes medicine. Over the course of the day, the boy remains “detached” and begins to act strangely. He is sure the doctor and his father are hiding something more serious from him. Had the father taken the time to make sure his son fully understood what the doctor said, or the son raised his concerns immediately, both would have been spared a lot of anxiety. Themes: father-son relationships, innocence, misunderstanding, fear, masculinity, stoicism. More…