This story by Jayne Anne Phillips focuses on the almost sisterly relationship between a young graduate student (Kate) and her fifty-five-year-old widowed mother who is diagnosed with a potentially fatal brain tumor. Kate’s anguish over her mother’s condition is compounded by moral concern over her older brother’s decision not to disclose the unpleasant prognosis of scheduled brain surgery. As Kate struggles to cope with the possibility of losing her mother, the mother eases her pain by reminiscing about their good times together and making a comforting admission. Themes include alienation and loneliness, death and the fragility of life, motherhood. More…
Black Boy
In this story by Kay Boyle, a ten- twelve-year-old girl living with her grandfather in a seaside city befriends an African-American “boy” who pushes rolling chairs by day and appears to sleep under the boardwalk at night. When the girl’s grandfather discovers them talking, he warns her off spending time with the boy because he might do you some kind of harm. The girl’s hobby is horse riding along the sand. When the boy helps her home after a fall, he doesn’t get the thanks he deserves. Themes: childhood innocence, friendship, prejudice and racism, dreams and imagination. More…
The Devoted Son
This heartbreaking story from Anita Desai begins with a working-class Indian father’s proudest moment. His son, always exceedingly respectful to his parents, has topped the country at medical school. The son becomes a highly successful doctor, and fulfills his familial duty by caring for his parents in their old age. As the father’s mental and physical health wanes, their relationship changes. The son ceases to respect his father’s wishes, and implements a harsh treatment plan that includes progressive denial of the old man’s few remaining pleasures in life. Themes: sacrifice, success, respect, envy, rituals/traditions, aging with dignity, devotion vs. duty. More…
The Grave
In this coming of age story by Katherine Anne Porter, a motherless nine-year-old girl defies social convention by wearing similar day clothes to her brother, and wandering the woods freely with him. Two events bring about an epiphany in her life. Trading of an object she finds in an open grave for a gold ring brings about the first stirrings of womanhood. Seeing unborn kittens in the womb of a dead rabbit adds to the picture of what it is to be female. Themes include the cycle of life (youthful innocence, adulthood, birth and death), matriarchy, gender roles, poverty. More…
The Pagan Rabbi
This story from Cynthia Ozick is about a highly respected Jewish scholar who is driven to suicide as he tries to reconcile the strict tenets of his religion with the philosophical (pagan) concept of immortal “free souls” existing in Nature. This so affects the rabbi’s mind that his suicide note refers to several encounters with a dryad (wood nymph). Some of these are sexual, which he clumsily tries to rationalize with: Scripture does not forbid sodomy with the plants! Themes: Jewish identity; marriage and family; friendship; philosophy (search for meaning in Nature); death; sanity/suicide; (lack of) understanding and forgiveness. More…