In this enigmatic story from Franz Kafka, a man who works hard as a traveling salesman to support his parents and younger sister wakes up one morning having metamorphosed into a giant bug. The father brutally confines the man/bug to his room, and for a period he/it is treated with consideration and compassion by the mother and daughter. However, as the family struggles to deal with their new financial situation, he/it gets less and less attention and ultimately suffers a rather cruel end. Themes include family, identity, self-sacrifice, alienation, transformation, isolation, betrayal, and the absurdity of life. More…
Tom Tit Tot
The protagonist in this folktale is a lazy girl who doesn’t appear to be good at anything except eating. Her mother lies to the king by saying she is a whiz with the spinning wheel. For some reason this is just the kind of girl the king is looking to marry. The poor girl can’t even spin a top, so in order to avoid losing her head she accepts an offer of help from a small magical creature. As the creature helps the girl, she must try to guess its name. If she can’t, she shall become its. More…
Cheap at Half the Price
The questionable message of this story by Jeffrey Archer is expressed in the opening line: Women are naturally superior to men, and Consuela Rosenheim was no exception. The beautiful socialite is nearing the end of the third of the four or five marriages she is planning on to become independently wealthy. After searching for a birthday present, she has her heart set on a million pound diamond-and-ruby necklace. Knowing her husband’s weaknesses, she hatches a plan whereby the deluded man thinks he was clever enough to buy it for half the asking price. Themes include materialism, sexuality, manipulation, deception, infidelity. More…
Minutes of Glory
This Ngugi Wa Thiong’o story highlights the human cost of progress in developing countries such as post-independence Kenya. Its main themes are exploitation, class differences, identity, loneliness and appearances. A young woman leaves her village in search of a better life in the city. She is poorly educated, and ends up working as a hostess in beer bars. Unhappy with the life, the money she makes and her appearance, she dreams of something better. Cut off from her family and alone in the world, she steals money from a customer and uses it to experience a few minutes of glory. More…
A Problem
In this Anton Chekhov story, wealthy family members consider what to do about a nephew who has issued a false promissory note (IOU) in one of their names. Do they repay the debt to preserve family honor and avoid a scandal, or let justice take its course? On learning of the decision, the unscrupulous young man uses it to extort further money from an uncle trying to help him and, in the process, grudgingly admits an unfortunate aspect of his character. Themes: crime and consequences; justice/civic duty vs. family honor; nature vs. nurture, hedonism of the young upper-class, pride, despair. More…