This fable-like story by Oscar Wilde begins with a baby seemingly falling from the sky. His life-story unfolds through themes of poverty, social class, narcissism, cruelty, karma, loss, repentance and redemption. Finally, as lord of a great city, he rules with justice and mercy to all. In the last paragraph, the story takes an unexpected and some say disappointing turn. He dies three years later, and his successor rules evilly. Interpretations of this depressing denouement include the futility of one man trying to change the way of the world, and the benefits of democracy over autocratic rule. More…
The Imp of the Perverse
Like two of our earlier Edgar Allan Poe tales (The Back Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart), this story involves an unreliable, unhinged narrator facing execution for murder trying to account for his crime. He blames his actions on an agent he claims to be in all of us called the “Imp of the Perverse”. The Imp, he argues, is an urge that drives people to do things they shouldn’t for the simple reason that they know it to be wrong. Ironically, the Imp that drove him to murder also drove him to confess. Themes include perverseness, obsession, madness, self-destruction. More…
Islands
Set in the 1970s before the breakup of Yugoslavia, this semi-autobiographical story by Alexsander Hemon describes a Bosnian family’s holiday visit to relatives on a Croatian island. The narrator is a nine-year-old boy indoctrinated in communist ideology. He experiences several traumatic events over the week, the most notable of which is his uncle’s account of the brutal mistreatment and torture of children in Stalin’s prison camps. This shatters his view of the world, and challenges his belief in his own government (the Tito regime). Themes include memory, trauma, loss of innocence, self-awareness and identity, disillusionment, birth, death and futility. More…
Désirée’s Baby
Kate Chopin’s Désirée’s Baby Kate Chopin’s Désirée’s Baby reflects the culture of America’s ‘Deep South’ in the mid-1800s. The name Désirée originates from the French word for desire. Armand Aubigny, a young plantation owner who is proud, bigoted and harsh on his slaves, marries the orphaned Désirée for her beauty. He is not concerned about her unknown background until she has a mixed-race baby. His reaction causes Désirée to run from the house and flee with the baby into the bayou. Some weeks later, Armand uncovers an even more devastating secret. Themes (see below) include love, impulsiveness, racism, elitism, shame and/or vindictiveness, and identity. More…
Clean Sweep Ignatius
Jeffrey Archer has come up with an almost unimaginable scenario. Nigeria has a new Finance Minister, Ignatius Agarbi, who decides to clear up his country’s reputation for corruption! He does such a good job, without so much as a breath of scandal, that the country’s President commissions him to find out the names of all ministers and government officials with money hidden away in secret Swiss bank accounts. Diligent as always, Ignatius devises a seemingly foolproof plan to find out just how serious Swiss banks are in maintaining their code of privacy. Themes: corruption, creativity, honor. More…