Alice Walker's story Everyday Use is intriguing after a first read. Simplistic in its plot, it conceals a deeper inquiry into what ties objects to abstract concepts people hold so dear: tradition, family, our roots, awareness of self, social standing. And why would someone find it intriguing, you might ask? Well, because many wouldn't see the idea of lending value to a discussion of mundane objects put to everyday use as something worth writing a story about.  Notwithstanding, Walker takes us down the road of careful contemplation, turning our eyes and minds to those things that make up our daily lives, whether passed down from generation to generation or bought to fill homes (with what residents deem) a sense of happiness. What Walker possibly wants to bring to the fore is the question: "Why do we have what we have and how do we treat it?" Are possessions in the service of aestheticism and decor, or does our toil give them the needless beauty we nonetheless asc...

Nadine Gordimer -- An Intruder That Dratted ... errm ... Enigmatic Ending           So I said to myself one day, “When are you going to sit down and deal with what you fear the most – not being able to come up with a plausible interpretation for the “incident” or ending to Gordimer’s short story “An Intruder” that wouldn’t make readers laugh their socks off?”           That dratted ending. It escaped me the first time I read the story, then again the second and third time, till I finally got pen and paper and jotted down all the facts in a manner that Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot would never have had the idiocy to acquiesce to, given their superior powers of recollection. At any rate, seeing the facts before me in note form did make certain words stand out above all else, enabling me to draw conclusions about what Gordimer may have intended for the reader to deduc...

This is part 2 of the analysis of Koriyama's "A Loaf of Poetry". Read a brief introduction of mine and find facts about the poet's life, the poem's structure (rhyme, meter, sounds, divisions, turning point), persona, and the first half of the poem here: Naoshi Koriyama - A Loaf of Poetry (Overview) This part completes the analysis of the poem's content and discusses the symbol ism found in it as well as the title and overall message.

This is the last part of the overview to Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Havisham" which covers stanzas three and four of the poem in terms of content , namely: the puce curses, power of words and degeneration to an animal state, t he i ncubus image and vampirism, the white veil, wedding cake, honeymoon, red balloon and necrophili c thoughts and final stutter presen t in a poem that comes full c ircle through the choice of words used at the begin ning of each stanza . P art 1 g a ve a brief biography, discusse d the poem's structure (meter and rhymes), the sounds present in the poem and analyze d the persona of Miss Havisham (what is known about her from Great Expectations and how Duffy treats her case). P a rt 2 dealt with various points present in sta nzas 1 and 2 (enjambment , inability to escape, the notions of time and ageing, Miss Havisham's homicidal thoughts, green pebbl es, ropes on the back o f her hands, the conc ept of the spinster, the ...

A paragon of betrayal, vengeance, self-pity and idiosyncrasy, Miss Havisham is Dickens's most memorable and intriguing character. She was the woman who stayed fossilized in my mind the moment I finished reading the chapter in which Dickens first described her. She mesmerized me in the guise of Martita Hunt in the legendary 1946 film adaptation of Great Expectations starring iconic Sir John Mills, Finlay Currie, as well as a young Jean Simmons and Sir Alec Guinness. Being thus prejudicially inclined, it was with immense joy that I discovered that a poem had been written to recapture the sound of a shattering heart. Miss Havisham lived on in her agony, yet this time round her thoughts were open to further interpretation not limited to details set down by Dickens's 19th century novel.  Carol Ann Duffy's 1993 poem does Miss Havisham justice, indeed. So much so, in fact, that I've spent hours drawing up my overview which at 3 A-4 sized sheets of paper is nowhere near ...

This is the fourth part of the overview to Monica Wood's short story "Disappearing" which covers the story's themes: body image, assistance, silence, and acknowledgment. If you want to read an introduction which includes a link to the story, a short biography of the author, the setting of the story as well as the characters that interact in it, click here .  Part two deals with the plot and the "growth" process through which Wood intimates how destructive others can be and how -- as traumatizers -- they can permanently stunt development (to read that, click here ).  Part three about the story's point of view and symbolism can be found here .

This is part three of the overview to Monica Wood's short story "Disappearing". It covers the story's point of view and symbolism.  If you want to read an introduction which includes a link to the story, a short biography of the author, the setting of the story as well as the characters that interact in it, click here . Part two deals with the plot and the "growth" process through which Wood intimates how destructive others can be and how -- as traumatizers -- they can permanently stunt development (to read that, click here .)

This is the second part of the overview of Monica Wood's short story "Disappearing". Before reading, please take a look at the introduction I've written here which includes a link to the story itself, a short biography of the author, the setting of the story as well as the characters that interact in it. This second part will cover the plot and deals with the "growth" process the story describes. Through this process, Wood intimates how destructive others can be and how -- as traumatizers -- they can permanently stunt development. In part 3 ,  the point of view and sym bolism are discussed.

People's cries for help often go unnoticed because as a society we have either become immune to other people's plight or we have become too self-centered to notice others at all. Monica Wood captures this feeling of insignificance, a kind of nullity of human existence imposed by others by dint of their disregard for their fellow man (and woman, naturally), in her short story "Disappearing".  The title says it all. The passage from one existence to a non-existence is depicted in a matter of pages. Twenty-eight paragraphs is all it takes to erase one's physical identity. Yet how much longer it takes to erase an individual's entire existence -- both body and mind -- is what lies at the heart of this story. The answer to this question is a terrifying "few people, a few comments, several reactions" rather than a specific time period. In fact, I would contend that this is not a story just about anorexia --  anorexia is simply a by-product of a great...

I've loved books ever since I can remember. They're the only thing I've consciously made a choice to collect. I love how they smell, how the pages feel, the different textures of their covers and the way they look as they stand, motley-colored and neatly arranged on bookshelves. If I hadn't become a teacher, I'd work in a library or a bookstore, such is the extent of my obsession. My love of books is so great that I can't imagine why others don't understand their importance.  This is what brought me to write this post, in fact. A few weeks ago, I'd seen a question posted by someone online (no doubt a desperate student who was assigned the question by a teacher) asking how Literature instructs, and wondered why on earth anyone would ask such a self-explanatory query. After all, the reason I revere books doesn't merely come from the satisfaction I get as I turn pages over or capture the scent of a book the minute I open its cover. I've always...

Read part 1 of this overview which includes a brief introduction, includes a link to the full text of the story, some details about the author's life as well as an analysis of setting and plot. Part 2 contains an analysis of the characters that appear in the story and the point of view. Part 3 discusses the symbolism found in this complex short story while this final post deals with the themes and the title of the story. 

This poem is a classic. It is taught in English-speaking schools to demonstrate how similes work in favor of descriptions and students are often assigned to write their own poem which should include a number of similes. This is an activity I heartily applaud as it introduces poetry to a younger audience, enabling every imaginative dreamer to experiment with novel ways to express their creativity and inner world. Merriam's gift is to balance her thoughts perfectly as she weaves her argument, sweeping us with her objective and inventive comparisons, making us think this is a neutral, matter-of-fact exposition of two trees, then hitting us with an emotional viewpoint to draw the matter to a close.

Murder will out. It always will. Well, not quite in the way we anticipate it will in this story by Ray Bradbury.  Taught in schools at a somewhat earlier age than expected, it is a tale of revenge, self-loathing and reconciliation you'd bank on adults to fathom to its fullest extent. However, it's never to early to make young adults aware that their actions tempt fate, and fate is never kind to those who snub it. When a 48-year-old man comes up with the insane idea on his birthday to return to his hometown and kill his so-called friend of 36 years ago, you expect the short narrative that ensues to be insanely interesting. 

If there were ever a more trite statement made about literature, it would be that r eading stories from different literary cultures enriches p eople's experience of the world. However, " b ooks take you places " isn't just another platitude rehashed by publishers, Reading teachers or something you'd find pasted on a cardboard sign in a Fox Books megastore from Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail . It's a n o b servation , albeit somewhat hyperbolized due to its dependence on personifying books , founded on readers' e scapades with every book cover opened.  This feeling of being transported to a new kind of reali ty is what I sensed after reading Hwang S un-won 's "C o nversation in June about Mothers", a short story born out of the Cold War which present s facets of the m ystery that is motherhood. 

When a wife dies and leaves her husband her diary, all is possible. In Gil bert Clandon's case, the legacy his wife leaves him is much more than he could ever have imagined.  Virgi nia Woolf signs an exceptional short story which questions the foundations of marriage, people's need for communication by any means possible a nd their inclusion in a mutually beneficial partnership . When one reneges on that contract, the other will seek new outlets to grow , as p ersonal d evelopment in any marriage is inevitable. If that development is undertaken without any consideration for one's spouse, then problems will unavoidably ensue.

Some stories you know will be great the minute you read their title. Combine this fact with the name of their author and the result is a fireworks display.  Roald Dahl has written some of the most memorable stories in the last century because of their quirkiness and deep sense of raw reality disguised in simple, straight-forward prose. And like any good classic short stories, his behave in a way that make readers search for an alternative reality that will explain the whys and wherefores of human behavior. Patrick Maloney tells his pregnant wife he's leaving her. "What will Mary do about it?" is the question in a reader's mind and how is this tied to the title of the story? As is plain, from the get-go, questions arise that grow in number as the story progresses and leave us either giggling at the end of it alongside Mary or wriggling uneasily in our seats.

As you might have come to realize, short stories are my favorite literary genre because they are like little cans of double concentrated tomato paste that add that extra zing to narratives other genres are incapable of delivering. In fact, the shorter the story, the grander the zing.  Well, Kate Chopin's story is as short as good short stories come and she manages to deliver the goods quicker than the title she chose for her piece . The advan tage of such crisp little tales is that they're easier to dissect because of the limited number of words they contain. Every sentence and paragraph can be analyzed al most ad nausea m , a task too g ruelling to undertake when reading a novel. Because of this comprehensive examination, the full extent of an author's powers is appreciated and though ma ny would be prone to co nclude that restricted tales offer very few developments , angles and insights, the reader's knowledge that every word written was mindfully selected ...

Poetry is an acquired taste. The more you sample it, the more flavors you extract.   -- Elle Greco Reading a Kashmiri poet for me is a first , and first impression s when it comes to poetry mean the world to me.  A li's poem troubled me . N ostalgia and lo neliness exuded from the poem as a whole, but I had trouble realizing this until the very end , when in a worl d full of paper, the p oem's persona has yet to hear news from a loved one . The trouble was decoding the choice of words in the firs t six verses. Read in g and re-reading still couldn't provide me with definite motives that would help me build a definitive story which brought on such nostalgia. And then , when you think the poem e ludes you, you remember the one universal law embracing it : poetry is felt, and when f eelings enter into the picture , the picture becomes subjective for each person.  I suppose t he biggest question is w ho "you" refers to.

Native American culture had become synonymous with axe-wielding, bow-and-arrow-carrying savages chasing after homely pioneers to scalp them, as early Hollywood productions of the 20th century would have us believe.  Fortunately for the world, those days are long past, and Native American writers have reclaimed their cultural heritage much in the same way as other writers from colonies struggling  for independence successfully did whilst "writing back to the Empire" through works we now come to categorize under the term post-colonial literature. Louise Erdrich has captured the torturous existence of individuals trapped within themselves and stripped of their very foundations in this story. To top it all, one of these characters is further stripped of his serenity as he is used by politicians and warmongers to fight in their stead, then cast aside to suffer the harrowing effects of modern-day warfare unassisted by a system willing to ship his remains back home in a b...

Ferris Wheel is an unexpected play in that it seems too simple on the surface, but when you sit to analyze it, more things become evident about the characters, their background and the lives they lead: all this in the space of 10-15 pages. One could say this is a short story disguised as a play. The plot is basic, the dialogue is uncomplicated, the setting minimalist. But like the surface of a calm sea, what lies beneath is more than the eye can see at first glance.  So dive into the depths of this play and discover the lives that reside among the seaweed and coral reefs. This play is the new land and funfair version of ships th at pass in the night, fleeting , meeting, on their way again.