The Secret Sharer

The Secret Sharer: Short story by Joseph ConradThe term secret sharer in this Joseph Conrad adventure could apply to both the protagonist (a young ship’s captain preparing for his first sea command) and his fugitive cabin guest. The similarities between them in terms of age, appearance and background suggest that Conrad is using the guest as a foil to highlight the captain’s strengths and weaknesses. Unlike the guest, the captain is unsure of himself and does not project the self-confidence and authority needed to gain the respect of his older, more experienced officers. Themes include leadership, isolation, identity, duality, self-awareness, self-mastery, and the power of the sea.

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At the Pitt-Rivers

At the Pitt-Rivers: Short story by Penelope LivelyIn this story by Penelope Lively, a sixteen-year-old boy regularly visits the Pitt-Rivers museum to “mooch around and be on his own”. One day, he notices a woman of about thirty waiting for someone. Although ordinary looking, her face glows in a way that makes him feel good. His views on “correctness” in relationships are challenged when she greets a man in his fifties she obviously loves. The couple meet frequently at the museum. He watches as their relationship grows and, one day, crumbles. Her glow fades to a look of despair. Themes include beauty, teen dating, non-traditional love, disillusionment.

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Birthday Box

Birthday Box: Short story by Jane YolenThe main theme of Jane Yolen’s Birthday Box is the need to make the most of one’s life, no matter what happens. The protagonist (Katie) is puzzled by her dying mother’s final birthday gift – an elaborately wrapped empty box. She takes her mother’s mouthed words “It’s you” as meaning “It’s for you” or “It’s yours”. A year later, she realizes her mistake. The birthday box is a symbol of herself: beautiful on the outside, but still empty inside. Her mother’s challenge is to metaphorically fill the box. Not with things, but experiences and achievements. Other themes: compassion, thoughtfulness, motherhood, death.

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The Looking-Glass

The Looking Glass: Short story by Anton ChekhovIn this story by Anton Chekhov, a young woman dreams 24/7 about getting married and settling down with the perfect man. One night, while sitting in front of her looking-glass, she has a vision of what the future may hold. She sees the reality of living and raising a family in rural Russia in the late 1800s. The vision encompasses many of Chekhov’s common themes: love, hope, disease, fear, financial struggle, the challenges of parenthood, death and despair. The woman’s cry of Why is it, what is it for? introduces a final theme: disillusionment. Her dream has become a nightmare.

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Absalom’s Hair

Absalom’s Hair: Short story by Bjørnstjerne BjørnsonIn this story by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, friends and family are dismayed when an intelligent, independent twenty-one-year-old woman marries a dominant, sixty-year-old recluse. When she tries to leave, he cruelly confines her and their one-year-old son to his seaside estate. On his death, she moves with the then twelve-year-old boy to England and spends the next ten years trying to control every aspect of his life, including separating him from any girl/woman he shows interest in. His love/hate relationship with her almost destroys his life. Themes include power and control, the struggle for independence, vulnerability, desire, societal norms, mother-son relationships.

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I’m Your Horse in the Night

I'm Your Horse in the Night: Short story by Luisa ValenzuelaIn this story by Luisa Valenzuela a woman describes a visit by her lover, an Argentinian resistance leader, after a mysterious six months’ absence. After a night of passionate lovemaking, when she wakes up he is gone. Arrested and tortured to divulge his whereabouts, she copes by telling herself the visit didn’t happen. She is so successful that by the end of the story she (and readers) are left wondering whether the visitor was real, a dream, or her dead lover’s spirit. Themes include love, sexuality, gender roles, oppression, paranoia, violence, memory and imagination, the supernatural.

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The Ghost of Michael Jackson

The Ghost of Michael Jackson: Short story by Ngugi wa Thiong'oThis story by Ngugi wa Thiong’o satirizes attempts to instill Western & Eastern religious values in post-colonial Kenya. In the process, it lampoons some widely documented scandals of the modern church and the growth of contemporary megachurches with fallen celebrity pastors. A charismatic parish priest flees when a psychic boy reveals some of his vices. His loving flock are so upset by the disappearance that they overlook the boy’s revelations and are overjoyed when the priest mysteriously reappears in the form of a resurrected Michael Jackson. Themes: childhood innocence, the supernatural, superstition, culture clash, religious rivalry, zealotry, hypocrisy.

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The Three Sillies

The Three Sillies: English folktale from Joseph JacobsNot all folktales are designed to teach or explain. Some, like this one, were popular for their entertainment value. In this story, a rich young man finds that the woman he loves and her family are not very clever. He decides that he will only marry the girl if he can find three people sillier than they are. A woman trying to push her cow up a ladder, a man who can’t get his trousers on, and a whole village trying to rescue a shadow from a pond prove that there certainly are sillier people in the world.

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