Sonny’s Blues

Sonny's Blues: Short story by James BaldwinThe major theme of this rather intense story from James Baldwin is that for many people, life involves a constant cycle of suffering. (I was aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky.) The plot explores the adult relationship between an African-American teacher and Sonny, his musically gifted estranged brother, after Sonny’s arrest and imprisonment for drug trafficking. Other themes include race and racism, substance abuse, alienation, reconciliation, family/brotherly love, and the inspirational and healing power of music.

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The Magic Shop

The Magic Shop: Short story by H. G. WellsThis delightful fantasy from H. G. Wells is about ‘magic’ and perception. A father and son enter a strange Magic Shop. As they begin to look around, the shopkeeper appears and entertains them with some ‘magic’. The innocent boy watches in awe, while his skeptical father looks for the sources of trickery. The pair moves further into the store and witness additional, seemingly impossible wonders. The father, realizing that what he sees may be real, becomes increasingly uncomfortable and begins to suspect the presence of unnatural forces. Themes: childhood innocence and wonder, father-son relationships, trickery vs. the supernatural.

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Tuesday of the Other June

Tuesday of the Other June: Short story by Norma Fox MazerBullying exists all over the world, and can surface in almost any situation where people gather (school, the playground, work, sport etc.) This story from Norma Fox Mazer addresses the difficult question of whether the best approach for the victim is passive acceptance, assertiveness (standing up for oneself), or fighting back. Here, a mother’s advice is to turn the other cheek, smile at the world, and the world’ll surely smile back, while her daughter dreams of kicking, punching, and biting her (the bully) like a dog. Themes: mother-daughter relationships, bullying, fear, the courage to say “Enough!”

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Hominids

Hominids: Short story by Jill McCorkleIn this story by Jill McCorkle, a woman hosting a dinner party for a group of her husband’s old friends is disgusted by the way the men joke about the bodies of women they had encountered at a strip club earlier in the day. She muses about modern man’s obsession with breasts, and the contrast between the privileged life of the wives present and the circumstances that might lead other women to take up such work. She confronts the men, along the way cynically threatening to open her own club called “Peckers”. Themes include machismo, sexualization, misogyny, beauty and womanhood.

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The Snow Child

The Snow Child: Short story by Angela CarterThe main theme of Angela Carter’s Snow Child is feminist gender stereotyping. There are no heroes here. A powerful, dominating and lustful Count humiliates his wife by wishing for a young girl and clothing her in the vain Countess’s furs. His masculinity and dignity are then stripped away as he weeps while defiling the child’s dead body. The usually submissive Countess experiences a moment of power as the Count guiltily hands her the rose that killed the child. This passes when a thorn prick fails to kill her, proving that she lacks the sweet innocence of the snow child.

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Customs

Customs: Short story by Julia AlvarezIn this story from Julia Alvarez, a Dominican American college student makes her annual trip home to reconnect with her wealthy extended family. Set shortly after the 1965 Dominican Civil War, the story contrasts 1960s Western youth counterculture with her country’s traditional social, economic and political values. Although most Dominican youth cling to the old ways, she finds a kindred anti-establishment spirit in her father’s young chauffeur. It takes a disastrous (sabotaged) camping trip to teach her that she still retains some of her family’s outdated ways of thinking. Themes: culture/tradition, misogyny, class, deception, teen rebellion.

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A Pilgrim Yankee’s Progress

A Pilgrim Yankee’s Progress: Short story by Nick JoaquinSet shorty after Philippine liberation at the end of World War 2, this rather intense story by Nick Joaquin deals with the uneasy relationship between a Filipino family recovering from the trauma of the war and an American soldier visiting the grave of an uncle who died during the Spanish-American War. The major theme is cultural relativism: how misunderstandings can arise when people of different races and upbringings interpret events purely from their own cultural perspective or expectations. Both parties fall for this trap. Other themes include connections between past and present, colonialism, Puritanical idealism, self-reflection and awareness.

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Jeeves Takes Charge

Jeeves Takes Charge: Short story by P. G. WodehouseThis story is from Carry on Jeeves, the third of seventeen “Jeeves books” by P. G. Wodehouse. Its significance is that we learn how Bertie Wooster, a likeable but hapless upper-class layabout living off family money, came across and learned to depend upon his wonder valet Jeeves. In his first forty-eight hours on the job, Jeeves saves Bertie from losing his inheritance, and helps him avoid what would have been an even worse fate – marriage to Florence, his dominating, snobby fiancé. Themes include engagement and marriage, social class and wealth, scandal, master-servant relationships.

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Three Thanksgivings

Three Thanksgivings: Short story by Charlotte GilmanIn 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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Contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets

Contents of the Dead Man's Pockets: Short story by Jack FinneyThis exceedingly suspenseful story by Jack Finney is a tale of drive, ambition and the pursuit of quick success taken too far. It also raises an interesting question: At what point does a material object become worth risking your life for? A man climbs out of a window onto the ledge outside his eleventh floor apartment to retrieve a piece of paper. Ironically, what is on the paper is “incomprehensible” to anyone but him, and could readily be replaced with two months of repeated research. Themes: misplaced priorities, risks vs. consequences, determination, fear, desperation, enlightenment.

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