In this confronting story by Joyce Carol Oates, mischievous eleven-year-old twin girls are brutally murdered by Roger Whipple, a supposedly harmless, mentally challenged man. Major themes are power, cruelty and violent revenge. The twins exercise persuasive power by demanding compliance with their wishes from school friends and cruelly harassing and making fun of Roger. The power theme is emphasized through anecdotes about the girls’ antics and dark humor: We liked it that Rhea and Rhoda had been killed … but we didn’t like it that they were dead; we missed them. In the end revenge, and Roger’s physical power, prevail. More…
The Secret Sharer
The term secret sharer in this Joseph Conrad adventure could apply to both the protagonist (a young ship’s captain preparing for his first sea command) and his fugitive cabin guest. The similarities between them in terms of age, appearance and background suggest that Conrad is using the guest as a foil to highlight the captain’s strengths and weaknesses. Unlike the guest, the captain is unsure of himself and does not project the self-confidence and authority needed to gain the respect of his older, more experienced officers. Themes include leadership, isolation, identity, duality, self-awareness, self-mastery, and the power of the sea. More…
The Guilty Party – An East Side Tragedy
This story by O. Henry takes recent events in America, where parents have been found partly responsible when their child commits murder, to a new level. A young man boasts to friends that he will teach his fiancée a lesson by taking another girl to a dance. The fiancée makes good her promise to kill him if he does, then flees and commits suicide. A heavenly court absolves her of the crime, blaming a red-haired, unshaven, untidy man, sitting by a window reading while his children play in the streets.. Themes include guilt and innocence, parental neglect, love, betrayal, redemption. More…
The Celebrated Jumping Frog
The humorous frame story of this unlikely tale by Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) satirizes the way late nineteenth-century American “Easterners” looked down on their supposedly less sophisticated Western compatriots. In the inner story, a man named Jim loves gambling so much that he will bet on almost anything. He finds a frog he believes can leap further than any other in Calaveras County, and learns an expensive lesson when a passing stranger bets against his frog and wins easily. Themes include regional stereotypes, storytelling (tall-tales), gambling consequences (there’s no such thing as a sure bet), trickery and deception. More…
Terrapin
This story by Patricia Highsmith involves a psychologically disturbed woman who cannot face the prospect of her eleven-year-old son “growing up”. The poor boy faces humiliation and bullying at school by having to wear tight, much younger boy’s shorts and is embarrassed at home by being forced to recite children’s poetry for his mother’s guests. When she brings home a terrapin (turtle) to cook for a special dinner, he mistakes it for a pet. The terrapin’s seemingly agonising death in boiling water, including a perceived cry for help, triggers a terrifying response. Themes: child abuse, control, change, identity, escape, insanity. More…