This Gary Soto story is about facing fear. The protagonist is scared of forgetting his only line in his sixth-grade play. In addition to worrying about being laughed at, another student has threatened to “bury his face in the ground” if he messes up. The play is about the infamous Donner Party. The fear theme is supported in its concluding words: You gotta suck it up (endure hardship) in bad times. Interestingly, although intended to suggest that the starving travelers should have been stronger in resisting cannibalism, this expression could also be used to justify eating dead bodies to survive? More…
Boule de Suif / Ball of Fat
Regarded as one of Guy de Maupassant’s greatest works, this story explores the interactions between a prostitute with the unfortunate nickname Boule de Suif (Ball of Fat) and nine other coach passengers fleeing the Franco-Prussian War. Her fellow travelers comprise a cross-section of “respectable” French society: politics, business, the nobility and religion. Maupassant’s sad message about nineteenth-century France is that no matter what shows of kindness or sacrifices people of the lower classes make, they are unlikely to be treated with respect and dignity by those of higher social standing. Themes: social class, patriotism, manipulation, exploitation, sacrifice/moral compromise, ingratitude, hypocrisy. More…
In the Garden
Set during the Philippine’s Marcos dictatorship, this story by Jose Dalisay Jr. takes place in the garden of an isolated one-room school. As the children tend their vegetables, a group of soldiers appears and begins to pull them out. Their orders are to take or destroy all local food sources in retaliation for the killing of one of their number. The younger children are sent home, but the oldest (a fourteen-year-old girl) is ordered to stay to “cook and do the soldier’s washing”. Bravely, the teacher insists on staying with her. Themes include innocence, oppression, intimidation, helplessness, fear, responsibility, courage. More…
The Bog Man
As in an earlier Margaret Atwood story, The Age of Lead, The Bog Man revolves around a long-dead body. A university student’s hero worship of her archaeology professor leads to a torrid affair during which she accompanies him as his ‘assistant’ to inspect a 2,000-year-old body preserved in a Scottish peat bog. As his invisible wife comes between them, she feels “cheap and furtive”. Recognizing his shallowness, she ends the relationship. Like the bog man, over the years he becomes flatter and more leathery, as life goes out of him in her mind. Themes include infatuation, sexual exploitation, desire, guilt, empowerment. More…
Wicked Girl
In this story by Isabel Allende a solitary, prepubescent eleven-year-old tries to sexually arouse her mother’s secret lover. At first the soundly sleeping man responds but, when he wakes and realizes who it is, he violently casts her aside. After she is sent to a convent, the profoundly affected man develops an unhealthy attraction towards young girls. When they meet again fifteen years later, he begs forgiveness for having rejected her in the hope this will cure his poisoned mind. She is speechless, not remembering the event. Themes include solitariness/disconnection, sexuality, obsession, the power of passion, escape, resilience. More…