This story by N. V. M. Gonzalez describes a journey on a Philippine passenger-cargo ship from a small port to its provincial capital. In addition to paying passengers, the ship is transporting a young cargardor (stevedore) who was critically injured during the loading of cargo to the capital for medical treatment. Tending him are his pregnant wife and her mother. Despite a supposed telegraph request for a doctor meet the ship on arrival, as the ship departs the capital they are left stranded on the dock with no sign of help. Themes include suffering, inhumanity, social class, superstition. More…
The House on Mango Street / Those Who Don’t / Alicia and I Talking…
Today we have three short vignettes from Sandra Cisneros’s House on Mango Street. Each deals with an aspect of “place”. The protagonist’s Mexican-American family moves to a new neighborhood. Although far from perfect, their small house is special because they own it. It lies in a Hispanic part of town that most outsiders consider dangerous. However, the only time they feel scared is if they drive through “another color’s” neighborhood. A year later, the protagonist reflects on why the house (of which she is ashamed) doesn’t yet feel like home. Themes: childhood, family, shame, belonging, house vs. home. More…
The Egg
This dark comedy from Sherwood Anderson follows a contented farmhand and his ambitious wife who, after starting a family, decide to pursue the American Dream. In their first venture, a chicken farm, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. More troubles follow when they move closer to town and open a diner. The stressed husband tries to help business by being someone he is not (an entertainer), and ends up “with egg on his face”. The egg, which usually symbolizes the cycle of life, is for them a symbol of the cycle of poverty. Other themes: death, isolation, hope. More…
The Weight of a Gun
In this emotionally charged story by Samrat Upadhyay, a divorced woman tries desperately to prevent her schizophrenic adult son from self-harming or harming others. When she discovers that he has bought a gun and possibly joined Maoist rebels, she seeks help from his father. In the process, she befriends his pregnant, emotionally overwrought new wife who is being shunned by her family. As soon as the baby is born, the new wife does a runner and the husband follows, “temporarily” leaving the baby in her care. Themes include motherhood and motherly love, mental illness, loneliness and isolation, insensitivity, anxiety, superstition. More…
Dusky Ruth
In addition to writing fantasy and horror stories, A. E. Coppard had a wonderful talent for describing nature and human nature through his tales of life and love in the English countryside. Here, a hiker exploring the Cotswolds stops for the night at a village inn. The only lodger, he shares passionate embraces with a dusky serving girl in a downstairs sitting room. Later that night, she invites him to her bedroom where, as she lays naked and crying beside him, he proves to be a perfect English gentleman. Themes include the beauty of nature, isolation, loneliness, sexuality, desire, restraint. More…