Featured Stories
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Set in 1970s Burma, this story by Moe Moe (aka Inya) uses the experiences of a young couple with a four-month-old child to explore the theme of “neighborliness”. Moving to the suburbs after living with family “downtown”, they find the neighbors friendly and helpful but also experience incidences of prying, malicious gossip, quarreling, greed, and pressure to keep up appearances. Moving to an apartment closer to the city, they find an individualistic environment where nobody even talks to their neighbors. This leaves the poor protagonist with no idea what sort of neighborhood she wants to live in.
This Langston Hughes story introduces an often-overlooked element of the American racial debate. A community committee reverses a decision to award an arts scholarship to a promising high-school senior when they learn that she is colored. Her art teacher, who is of Irish descent, describes the discrimination and violence suffered by her people when they first arrived in the country. Although the girl didn’t win the award, she emerges from the experience stronger and even more determined to succeed. Themes: equality, the American Dream (defined in the story as liberty and justice for all), racial discrimination, injustice, resilience, determination, hope.
Annie Proulx’s protagonist begins a four-day road-trip to attend a funeral as a confident, vital octogenarian in full control of his faculties. Foolish mistakes along the way see him finish the journey a desperate, disoriented figure facing a ghostly “half-skinned steer” in a snowstorm. As he drives, he recalls his disillusioned youth on the family ranch. The memories focus on his sexual awakening and the family’s interactions with his alcoholic father’s flirtatious, story-telling, “horsey” girlfriend. The story’s major theme is ageing and its effects on memories and one’s ability to think clearly. Other themes: homecoming, sexuality, man vs. nature, death.
In this story by Vivien Alcock, eleven-year-old Meg and eight-year old William are horrified when their kindly Aunt Janet gets married and is replaced by wicked, cruel Aunt Gertrude. William’s greatest fear is that Gertrude will find out about the short cut to town that runs past the haunted pond in Teppit’s Wood. Everyone knows the story of the ghost but, of course, most adults don’t believe it. His fear is realized when late one evening Gertrude forces the two children to accompany her home through the woods. It turns out to be the last mean thing she ever did!
This story is a chapter from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s acclaimed novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Jesus makes a quick visit to Seville amid the suffering of the Spanish Inquisition. When he starts preforming miracles the Grand Inquisitor, a Cardinal, has him arrested. He visits Jesus in his cell and declares that he is no longer welcome on Earth because his message (spiritual freedom and the right to choose good or evil) is at odds with the teachings of the Church (forced belief through miracle, mystery, and authority). Themes include God and religion, free will vs. Catholic authoritarianism, suffering and human weakness.
In this story by Flannery O’Connor a condescending, highly educated woman who lost a leg in a childhood accident learns a potentially life-changing lesson when she tries to seduce a young bible salesman claiming to have come from a good country family. A message of the story is the danger of judging people by superficial factors such as where they come from, education level and socioeconomic status. Ironically, despite considering themselves “Good Country People”, none of the main characters match the implied qualities of that description. Themes include identity, faith, stereotyping, hypocrisy, disability, appearance vs. reality, naivety, deception.
Samira Azzam is best known for her later stories presenting a Palestinian perspective on the violence associated with the creation of Israel. Her lesser-known earlier stories are marked by entertaining descriptions of pre-war Palestinian life and traditions. In Little Things, a lovestruck college student tries but fails to heed her parent’s advice to remain virtuous and “not be like other silly girls”. Themes include reputation, first love, sexuality, self-determination. In Tears for Sale, a professional mourner who doubles as a beautician for brides learns that grief is easier to fake than suffer. Themes include curiosity, death, grief, marriage, virtue.
In this moving story from Edwidge Danticat, the Haitian-American narrator helps bridge differences between her widowed mother, who still embraces their traditional culture, and younger Americanized sister (Caroline). The mother is uneasy about Caroline’s coming marriage to a non-Haitian. She finds all sorts of problems with the man, the courtship, and the wedding preparations. However, after her traditional magic fails to separate them, she reluctantly accepts the inevitable. Themes: family bonds (mother-daughter, sister-sister, daughter-father), cultural identity (observing and handing down cultural values, traditions and beliefs), cultural differences, the price of freedom (suffering, loss, death).
