This story by science-fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut is about a future world in which the government tries to make everyone equal. The strong must carry heavy weights, the beautiful must wear masks, and the clever are subjected to distracting sounds to stop them thinking clearly. As is usual in totalitarian worlds, those in power are excused from all this… especially the Handicapper General and her “H-G” men. A powerful, gifted fourteen-year-old boy tries to change things as his parents watch on in confusion. Themes: control (forced conformity through oppression and violence), identity (equality vs. individuality), rebellion, media power. More…
Big Brother / Bade Bhai Sahab
This story by Premchand contrasts two Indian bothers attending boarding school. The older (by five years) is studious, disciplined, serious about his responsibility to look after and guide his younger brother, and consistently fails his grade. The younger brother is the opposite: fun-loving, undisciplined, irresponsible, and consistently tops his class. The major messages of the story are the danger of arrogant pride, and that irrespective of one’s level of education, there is always something to learn from those with more life experience. Themes include education, self-discipline, responsibility, pride, work/life balance, respect for one’s elders. More…
Through the Tunnel
This coming of age story by Doris Lessing takes place as a British mother and her eleven-year-old son holiday at a foreign seaside resort. While the mother enjoys their regular “safe” swimming beach, she allows the boy to explore a nearby rocky cove. There, he watches local teenage boys as they dive from rocks and appear to navigate their way through a long underwater tunnel. Determined to match the dangerous feat and prove he is no longer a child, he practices for several days before trying himself. Themes include identity, isolation, independence, determination, courage, self-discipline and self-control. More…
The Elephant Vanishes
The major theme of this surreal mystery by Haruki Murakami is how commercialism and modernization have upset Japan’s traditional social order. Other themes include unity, perception, disillusionment, alienation, paralysis, isolation and connection. An aging elephant and keeper symbolize the old ways, destined to vanish when displaced by urban development. The city’s absurd responses to the disappearance signify the uneasiness and confusion brought about by the changes. The narrator, a loner used to unity and balance in his life, becomes so disoriented by what he saw on the night of the disappearance that he is unable to make important decisions. More…
King Thrushbeard
The Brothers Grimm would have us believe that this folktale teaches a valuable lesson by documenting the fall of a spoiled princess who judges potential suitors by looks alone and is so ill-mannered that she says cruel things about them to their faces. Through her punishment (being married to a beggar street musician), we also learn that she has almost no household or practical skills. I’m not sure though about the central idea that the best way to teach humility is to publicly humiliate a person. Isn’t this what the princess was punished for at the beginning of the story? More…