This story by Isak Dinesen (aka Karen Blixen) has an “overall” plot, a “subordinate” plot, and an “incomplete” plot. The overall plot considers how moves towards democracy elsewhere in Europe might affect late eighteenth-century Danish society. The subordinate plot (the tragic story of a mother given a near-impossible task to save her son) illustrates why change is necessary, and the difficulty the ruling class will have in adjusting to it. The incomplete plot (see below) foreshadows a possible affair between the protagonist and his seventeen-year-old love-starved aunt. Themes: culture and tradition, birthright, duty, feudalism vs. democracy, injustice, motherhood, suffering. More…
African Passions
This Beatriz Rivera story blends a serious tale about the end of a dysfunctional relationship with the humorous antics of eight Santería gods. The unfortunate woman in the fourteen-year co-habitation is feeling frisky but being ignored. She invokes the gods with the words I want pleasure! And I want it right away!. Later, after her cowardly partner ends things as they drive around trying to bury a cat the gods threw out their ninth story window, she prays: African Powers … help me get over this man! Themes: love, innocence, spirituality, passivity, moving on (Teresa); social class, exploitation, deceit (Armando). More…
The Key
The major messages of this story by Isaac Bashevis Singer are that there is a lot of kindness in the world for those who open their hearts to it, and to live life to the fullest. An elderly widow who has lived alone for almost twenty years has become a recluse. With no family or friends, she distrusts everyone and lives in poverty despite having a fortune hidden in her house. A broken key that causes her to spend a night on the streets is her “key” to understanding and redemption. Themes include ageing, isolation and loneliness, paranoia, redemption. More…
The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
The major theme of this story from Stephen Crane is the taming of America’s ‘Wild West’. The instrument of change is the railroad, which brings ‘Eastern’ ways to previously isolated communities like Yellow Sky. The town’s Marshall, who returns from a city visit with a new wife, symbolizes the transition. As the couple approach their new home, where things will certainly be different for the Marshall, they are confronted by the town drunk spoiling for a fight. When the ‘showdown’ doesn’t go as the drunkard expects, he realizes the old days are gone forever. Other themes: community, marriage, fear, violence. More…
The Man of the Crowd
This story by Edgar Allan Poe opens with a man in high spirits after recovering from an illness sitting in a London coffee shop watching people go by in the street. He is absorbed in classifying them by occupation and social class until a “decrepid old man” with a fiendish expression unlike any he has seen before commands his attention. Curious, he follows the old man for twenty-four hours, learning nothing other than that he seems to want always to be part of a crowd. Themes include social class, obsession, curiosity, hidden secrets, urban alienation and loneliness. More…