Have you ever thought long and hard about what would be the prefect Christmas gift for someone you love? This story by William Porter (aka O. Henry) is one of the most famous Christmas stories of all time. It tells how a poor couple each sell their most valuable possession in order to buy a Christmas present that they feel is good enough for the one they love. The irony is that neither can use the precious gift the other has bought them. Themes (see analysis): love, sacrifice, wisdom, beauty, generosity, and value. More…
Archives
A Respectable Woman
Kate Chopin’s ‘respectable woman’ is happily married and looking forward to spending quality time with her husband. She is so disappointed when he invites an old school friend to visit that she decides to be polite but not friendly towards him. At first, the two barely communicate. However, there is a growing chemistry between them. This disturbs the woman, who finds an excuse to visit an Aunt for the remainder of his stay. When the woman learns the man will visit again, she tells her husband: I have overcome everything! Overcome what? Does she plan to remain a ‘respectable woman’? More…
Children of the Sea
This story from Edwidge Danticat highlights the plight of refugees the world over who have been (and unfortunately still are) forced to flee their countries for speaking up about illegitimate and/or oppressive governments. The tragic, haunting tale comprises alternating journal entries by a student activist forced to flee Haiti by sea during the notorious Duvalier regime of the late 1950s, and the young woman he leaves behind. As his boat leaks, the girl’s family suffers and Haiti bleeds. Ironically, life on the boat proves almost as savage as on land. Themes: totalitarianism (violence, injustice, human rights abuse), love, sacrifice, death. More…
The Cranes
Peter Meinke’s The Cranes is a story about enduring love. Both members of a frail, elderly couple suffer from serious medical issues that have destroyed their quality of life. The woman appears to be the sicker of the two, and may be terminally ill. They reflect on their lives together as they sit in their car near some isolated marshland. As they talk, they observe two aged whooping cranes feeding along the shoreline. These birds, which are long-lived and mate for life, symbolize the couple. As a shot rings out, the cranes soar into the sky. More…
Eleonora
In this atypical Edgar Allan Poe story there is madness, but not the destructive kind; death, but not the gruesome kind; and a spirit, but not a frightening one. Also unusual is Poe’s extensive use of poetic prose. His description of the idyllic valley may be an allusion to the Garden of Eden, leaving readers to wonder if the couple’s incestuous lovemaking beneath the serpent-like trees was the “apple” that destroyed their paradise. Themes: the beauty of nature, innocence, passion, love, death, moving on. Poe’s message: true love endures; despite the loss of a loved one, life must go on. More…
Snow
On the surface, Anne Beattie’s Snow is a simple story about a woman’s recollections of a romantic winter in the snow-covered countryside. She doesn’t appear to be speaking directly to the man, so one wonders if she might be writing him a letter, looking at his photograph, or simply re-living events in her mind. The major theme of the story is nostalgia and the nature of memory. She recalls the good times they had together and a bitter-sweet return visit after their parting, but suggests that the man may remember the winter differently. Other themes: storytelling, love, loss. More…
Goodbye, Columbus
Major themes of this captivating story by Philip Roth are passion, sexuality, Jewish identity, and social class. When Neil, a twenty-three-year-old man from a working class Jewish family falls for Brenda, a spoiled college student from a wealthy one, the relationship appears doomed. Brenda’s competitive nature, Neil’s idealism, and his daily encounters with her emotionally dysfunctional family, lead to snide comments and constant bickering between them. The glue that holds their relationship together is sex, and readers are left to decide if Brenda ended it accidentally or deliberately. Other themes include family, materialism, manipulation, and control.
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Eveline
A major theme of James Joyce’s Eveline is gender roles in early 20th century Dublin (the limited life choices available to young women from working-class families of the time). Faced with no meaningful job opportunities, they were expected to act as unpaid family help until married. Children may then bring some joy, but the rest of their lives would consist of the same inescapable drudgery and potential abuse as at home. Other themes include duty, domestic abuse and exploitation, escape vs. uncertainty and fear, guilt, and paralysis (conditioned acceptance of her lot). More…
The Blue Jar
In this Isak Dinesen (aka Karen Blixen) story, a shipwreck leads to a quest. A sailor rescues the daughter of an art-collecting nobleman from a burning ship. They spend nine days alone in a lifeboat, during which they become lovers. The nobleman pays the sailor to return to sea, and she spends the rest of her life sailing the world, ostensibly seeking a uniquely colored Chinese porcelain jar. The jar, a symbol of the woman’s lost youth and time in the lifeboat, becomes her final resting place. Themes: enduring love, class, aging, beauty in art vs. the beauty of nature. More…
The Green Door
This story by William Porter (aka O. Henry), provides a mix of adventure, mystery, romance and humor. By day, Rudolf Steiner lives a normal life working in a piano store. By night, he walks the streets looking for adventure. One night, adventure calls in an unusual way. A man is standing outside a building distributing cards promoting an upstairs dentist’s office. The card he hands to Rudolf contains the words: “The Green Door”. Rudolf goes inside and knocks on the only green door he can find. This leads to a series of events that could change his life forever. More…
Yellow Moepels
In this story by Herman Bosman, a young a young farmer riding off to fight the British during the short First Boer War promises the girl he is engaged to that he will be home when the moepel fruit are ripe (yellow). The girl visits a native witch-doctor who tells her the same thing. We learned earlier in the story that witch-doctors can only tell you the things that don’t matter in your life. There is something more important in the girl’s future that the witch-doctor neglected to divulge. Themes: love, superstition, war, “bravery”, memory, racism. More…
Private Lies
This story by Bobbie Ann Mason reveals how events of the past can resurface and have a significant effect on the present. A seemingly happily married man with two children becomes obsessed with finding the soon-to-be eighteen-year-old woman he and his previous wife gave up for adoption at birth. The quest causes him to look up his ex-wife, who has changed significantly in looks and character. This leads to a steamy affair that is on the brink of destroying his current marriage. Themes include marriage, teenage pregnancy, control, loss, regret, deception. More…
The Lady With the Dog
Anton Chekhov’s Lady With the Dog is about a philandering misogynist who meets a much younger woman while on vacation. Both have unhappy marriages; both are open to holiday romance. They enjoy a brief affair, then go their separate ways. After parting, each becomes obsessed with the memory of the other. He tracks her down, and soon they are planning a future together. The story has an open ending, but one suspects that each now looks at relationships and the world in a new way. Themes: love, infidelity, guilt, morality, chauvinism, sexual objectification, commitment. More…
A Haunted House
If you read Virginia Woolf‘s A Haunted House expecting it to be a horror story, you will come away disappointed. Rather than scary, the best words I can think of to describe the story are “sweet and sour”. Sweet because it involves two ghosts who are still very much in love after hundreds of years. Sour because (for me) Woolf confuses the plot with a little too much poetic prose. Although the central theme of the story is love, its message is more focused. Life is short, so we should treasure each moment we spend with the ones we love. More…
Dead Stars
This story by Paz Marquez Benitez is set in a culture and time where honor outweighs love. A young lawyer delays marrying his fiancé for three years because it doesn’t feel right. Although he falls in love with another, he keeps his word, marries the fiancé, and dreams of the other woman for eight years. He likens the dreams to seeing the light of dead stars, long extinguished, yet seemingly still in their appointed places in the heavens. When he sees the other woman again, the light has gone out. Themes: courtship, fidelity, forbidden love, honor, regret, understanding. More…
Dr Heidegger’s Experiment
In this story from Nathaniel Hawthorne, an ageing scientist invites four elderly friends to participate in an experiment ostensibly designed to test the efficacy of the waters of the fabled fountain of youth. The inclusion of several supernatural elements in the plot clouds whether the “water’s” effect was real, imagined or faked by substituting alcohol. However, as each friend had a major character flaw in their youth, it is probable that the experiment had a different thesis, which is proved by their behavior after drinking. Themes: ageing, failing to learn from past mistakes, obsession with youthfulness and appearance, the supernatural. More…