The major themes of this story by Chinua Achebe are political hypocrisy, class conflict, and education as a pathway out of poverty in postcolonial Africa. Other themes include exploitation, child labor and city vs. country life. A government introduces free education for all as an election ploy, but later abandons the policy due to its cost and resultant cheap-labor shortages. The vengeful creditor is a ten-year-old girl subsequently employed by a rich family as a baby-nurse. When they are too slow keeping what she thought was a promise to pay for her schooling, she decides to impose a heavy penalty. More…
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There Was Once
This humorous vignette from Margaret Atwood uses satire to not only highlight the frequent use of stereotypes in children’s stories, but also draw attention to the modern-day obsession with political correctness. A storyteller is humiliated into whittling his twenty-four-word opening sentence down to just one, and then changing it. This illustrates how, taken to extremes, almost anything one says has the potential to offend someone. Atwood’s message is that literature, the performing arts, news reporting and free speech as we know them would be impossible under such constraints. Themes: storytelling, stereotyping, political correctness, freedom of expression. More…
Youth
As is often the case with Isaac Asimov’s longer science fiction stories, Youth includes some profound “earthly” themes. Written in the early years of the Cold War, the first is the danger that atomic war poses to civilization. The second, which is strongly reinforced by the twist ending, is not to judge sentient beings (people) by their looks, no matter how strange they appear. A final theme, as reflected in the title and the Astronomer’s exasperated final exclamation (Youth!) is the naïve innocence of the young, and the responsibility that we as adults hold for their future. More…
A Christmas Story
In this Christmas story from Walter Dean Myers, a shrewd old woman teaches a new police patrolman an important lesson by inviting his family to Christmas dinner. Along with his co-workers, the policeman has a negative view of Harlem (the poor, often violent African American neighborhood in which he works) and doesn’t think it a fit place for a family visit. His wife insists on going, and the visit reveals another side of the community: “regular”, churchgoing families exchanging Christmas greetings on the street and celebrating the holiday together. Themes: Christmas, community, prejudice, understanding, aging gracefully, caring, sharing. More…
Anxiety
In this story from Grace Paley’s activist period, an elderly woman worries about everything from the imminent destruction of the world to the well-being of two children being walked home from school. A father’s shortness with one of the children prompts the woman to call him out. She begins with the alarmist suggestion that people should enjoy life less and think more about the coming doom. She then elicits the cause of the man’s anger (wounded pride), which seems petty compared to the issues she has just raised. Themes: anxiety, global threats, fatherhood, child innocence, adult indifference. More…
Woman Hollering Creek
Cleófilas, Sandra Cisneros’s Mexican protagonist, finds the grass no greener when she marries and moves to a town “on the other side”. Poverty, language and distance leave her with nobody to turn to when her dreams of love and passion become a nightmare. Fortunately, her father has foreseen the possibility and left the home door open. Thanks to a kind woman with a pickup truck and piercing scream, she returns stronger and, one hopes, empowered to strive for a better future. Themes: parental vs. romantic love, cultural traditions (wives as ‘property’), gender roles, isolation, marital abuse. More…
Toba Tek Singh
This month marks the 75th anniversary of the partition of British India into two countries: Hindustan and Pakistan. Some years ago we featured Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Lajwanti, a Partition story from an Indian viewpoint. In honor of the occasion, we are pleased to provide this story from the Pakistan side by controversial writer Saadat Hasan Manto. This is not your usual Partition story of mass displacement and violence. Instead, it is a clever satire of the governments of the two countries, as reflected in a decision several years later to exchange institutionalized lunatics. Themes: insanity, separation, religious segregation, nationality, confusion, belonging. More…
The Red Bow
This dystopian story from George Saunders is often referred to as a metaphor for the post 9-11 Afghan and Iraq Wars. It is also an allegory of a much older, far-reaching problem: ethnic cleansing. A small group of dogs (people) is seen as a direct threat and are eliminated. After this, paranoia sets in. All dogs and cats (minority groups) become suspect and must also be removed. The dictatorial rise of Uncle Max by exploiting fear of the perceived “enemy” is also symbolic of the way many world leaders have come to power. Themes: tragedy, grief, paranoia, protection, authoritarianism. More…