This story from Octavia Butler takes place in a violent, post-apocalyptic world. A virus has killed billions and left most survivors unable to speak, read, write or understand spoken language. Governments and the corporate world have collapsed, there are no police or community services, fuel is scarce. People must fend for themselves. The protagonist, whose husband and children fell to the virus, is contemplating suicide. The desperate woman finds and cruelly loses a new lover, but in the process discovers a renewed purpose in life. Themes: the importance of language, isolation, loneliness, fear, violence, hope. More…
Dusk
James Salter’s Dusk is about the loneliness of reaching middle age and finding yourself alone in the world. Mrs Chandler is a cultured woman who once led an active social life. The narrator describes her as a fine woman whom no one now wanted. Her only son is dead, her other children have moved on, her husband has left her, and her lover is reuniting with his wife. It is hunting season, and she identifies with the wild geese being shot for sport: The rain was coming down, the sea was crashing, a comrade lay dead in the whirling darkness. More…
The Difference
A more apt title for this story by Ellen Glasgow would be The Differences. It explores differences in attitudes to love, marriage and infidelity between men and women, and between women born in the Victorian era and those born in the early 1900s. A middle-aged woman’s calm existence is shattered when she receives a letter from the much younger mistress of her husband of twenty years. She meets the woman, confronts her husband, and initiates a discussion about who loves whom and what is to be done about it. Themes include gender roles, love and adultery, the generation gap, sacrifice. More…
Eleven
This children’s story by Sandra Cisneros was initially rejected because the publisher thought the themes were too deep for children. It has since become one of the most widely taught stories in Elementary Schools. A misunderstanding at school over an ugly red sweater spoils a girl’s eleventh birthday. Her teacher is convinced the sweater is the girl’s and demands that she put in on. The girl does so but then breaks down in tears, embarrassing herself in front of the class. This is a “coming of age” story that deals with the difficult concepts of vanity and timidity. More…
Donkey Skin
The lessons taught by many folktales are just as important today as they were hundreds of years ago. Donkey Skin deals with sexual abuse in the form of incest between father and daughter. A powerful king wants to marry his daughter, as this is the only way he can keep a promise he made to his dying wife. Fortunately, the brave girl has other ideas. I find it interesting that the story makes it clear that the king’s actions are wrong, but seems to have no problem with a handsome prince who spies on women through key holes. More…