Although this story by Leslie Marmon Silko takes place over a single evening, some of the events described span three generations. An aging Native American woman searching for her alcoholic husband reminisces about her life. Although her childhood memories are pleasant, her adult memories are full of loss and tragedy. Her husband has been exploited by a “white rancher” and, having lost at least three children to natural causes and one to war, her last two were removed by “white doctors”. Themes: memories, tradition and change, language barriers, racism, oppression and exploitation, motherhood, death and loss. More…
Zlateh the Goat
It is easy to see why this story from Isaac Singer is said to be derived from Jewish folklore. Zlateh, an anthropomorphic goat, is about to meet the fate of many farm animals. No longer producing enough milk to justify her keep, she faces a final trip to the town butcher. Fortunately, a freak snowstorm interrupts the journey and gives her a chance to redeem herself. Themes: (general) love and loyalty, obedience, trust, resourcefulness, inter-dependence, survival; (religious) sacrifice, faith, acceptance: We must accept all that God gives us—heat, cold, hunger, satisfaction, light, and darkness. More…
Thus Were Their Faces
In this surreal, rather abstract story by Silvina Ocampo, a seemingly confused (or perhaps mentally disturbed) narrator describes the bizarre behavior of children at a boarding school. The students begin to act as if they want to become equal, and increasingly lose their individuality. Seemingly directed by a collective consciousness, they strive to look and act the same and develop a strange fascination with wings. In the “miraculous” climax, we learn that all children attending the school share a common characteristic: it is a school for the deaf! Themes include identity, equality, freedom, the supernatural. More…
Women in Their Beds
Gina Berriault’s protagonist is a struggling young actress who has just begun a day job as a social worker in the women’s ward of a city hospital. With no qualifications or experience, she finds it hard to maintain clinical detachment and begins to identify with the suffering, often troubled women in the ward. She reflects on turning points in her own life, and concludes that women are shaped by the beds (a metaphor for common life experiences) they have chosen, or someone else has chosen for them, to lie in. Themes: empathy, choice vs. superstition/destiny, identity, aloneness, connection. More…
Private Lies
This story by Bobbie Ann Mason reveals how events of the past can resurface and have a significant effect on the present. A seemingly happily married man with two children becomes obsessed with finding the soon-to-be eighteen-year-old woman he and his previous wife gave up for adoption at birth. The quest causes him to look up his ex-wife, who has changed significantly in looks and character. This leads to a steamy affair that is on the brink of destroying his current marriage. Themes include marriage, teenage pregnancy, control, loss, regret, deception. More…