From the opening line of this Margaret Atwood story (At the outset Verna had not intended to kill anyone), we know someone will die. An woman who has become wealthy by helping four elderly husbands depart not only happy but grateful, if a little sooner than might have been expected, treats herself to an arctic cruise. Everything changes at the pre-cruise meet-and-greet, when she recognizes a man who had brutally raped her fifty years earlier. He doesn’t recognize her, and she begins to plot the perfect murder. Themes include rape, self-righteousness, resilience, seduction and manipulation, anger, violence, revenge, aging. More…
A Perfect Day for Bananafish
The major theme of this J. D. Salinger story is an extension of another we have featured by the same author. In For Esmé with Love and Squalor, a teenager’s friendship and compassion help a young soldier recover from PTSD. Here, a returned soldier is suffering its long-term effects. He copes by trying to avoid the company of adults (including his vain, materialistic wife) and finds pleasure in music, poetry and spending time with young children. Major themes: the effects of war on mental health, alienation, loneliness, childhood innocence, vanity and materialism, suicide. More…
Exchange Value
This story by Charles Johnson explores the theme that wealth brings power. Two brothers break into the apartment of an elderly, reclusive neighbor. The woman, who has been living in squalor, lies dead in bed. In her living room are cash and other valuables worth over a million dollars, which they quickly move to their own apartment. The younger brother looks forward to the better life money will bring. However, he is overruled by his older brother, who suffers the same strange reluctance to spend any of it as the old woman had. Other themes include hoarding, paranoia, isolation, poverty. More…
Interpreter of Maladies
Interpreter of Maladies is the titular tale in Jhumpa Lahiri’s award-winning debut short story collection. The stories deal with different aspects of the cultural and relationship issues facing people of Indian heritage in the modern world. This story contrasts two empty marriages. The Indian protagonist (a doctor’s translator who moonlights as a tour guide) fantasizes that the wife in an Indian-American family he takes sightseeing has a romantic interest in him. Rather than love, she wants his help to find a “cure” for a foolish mistake she once made. Themes include marriage, communication, poor parenting, loss, guilt, loneliness, self-esteem. More…
A Respectable Woman
Kate Chopin’s ‘respectable woman’ is happily married and looking forward to spending quality time with her husband. She is so disappointed when he invites an old school friend to visit that she decides to be polite but not friendly towards him. At first, the two barely communicate. However, there is a growing chemistry between them. This disturbs the woman, who finds an excuse to visit an Aunt for the remainder of his stay. When the woman learns the man will visit again, she tells her husband: I have overcome everything! Overcome what? Does she plan to remain a ‘respectable woman’? More…