For me, the major theme of this Rabindranath Tagore story is the insensitivity towards others under India’s caste system. An inexperienced postal officer from a big city is sent to work in a remote rural village. He lives a lonely, isolated life because class differences and immaturity make it difficult for him to integrate into the local community. His only companion is his housekeeper, a young orphaned girl. The two develop a strong bond, which leaves the devoted girl shattered with her callous treatment when he decides to leave. Other themes: natural beauty, alienation, loneliness, memories, family, companionship, guilt. More…
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime
This dark comedy from Oscar Wilde involves a gullible young aristocrat who believes a palm-reader’s prediction that he will commit a murder. Out of consideration for his fiancé, he decides that he should postpone their marriage until he can get the deed out of the way. Convinced that he is merely fulfilling his destiny, the young man feels no guilt in planning and preparing for murder, or indeed remorse afterwards. When he later learns that the palm-reader was a charlatan, he still has no regrets. Themes: the shallowness and hypocrisy of the Victorian upper class, destiny, murder, morals, karma. More…
The Perfect Match
In this dystopian story by Ken Liu, a powerful cyber system gathers information on the habits, desires and preferences of almost everyone in the world. Through its motherly virtual assistant “Tilly” (Hey Google!), it uses this information to control unfavourable governments and manipulate user’s lives, including autosuggesting products from advertising partners. A member of a rebellious hacking group and disillusioned lawyer caught trying to take down the system are made an offer they cannot refuse. Themes include corporate greed vs. “benevolence”, the dangers of overreliance on AI (blind acceptance and loss of humanity), manipulation and control, rebellion. More…
Liberty
On a superficial level, the speckled dog in Julia Alvarez’s Liberty symbolizes the freedom the protagonist’s family are looking forward to in America, and the freedom the girl hopes to find in her own country when she returns. On another level, it could symbolize the American consul: a seemingly ordinary person who causes trouble. Darker themes include implied American involvement in covert actions against her country’s government, the surveillance and atmosphere of fear that builds throughout, and the fact that the family’s freedom requires a sacrifice… turning their beloved dog loose to fend for itself. More…
Three Thanksgivings
In this story by Charlotte Gilman, a widow faces pressure from three sides. Her married children want her to come and live with them, and the man who holds a mortgage over her large family home wants to marry her. She doesn’t want to move or remarry, doesn’t have the means to repay the mortgage, and has three Thanksgivings to make a decision or find the money. In helping five hundred other women, she builds a new life and solves the problem. Themes include gender expectations, financial independence, self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship, community.
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