“Father and I” by Par
Lagerkvist (Sweden)
Setting: in a small rustic village
in Sweden, near the railroad tracks, sometime in the early 1900s
Subject Matter: childhood, innocence,
youthful perception, growth/maturation, fathers/sons, nature’s two-sidedness,
ego separation, fear/anxiety, loneliness, darkness and future contingencies
Plot Synopsis: A boy has a panic attack
of sorts along with the first glimmer of an ongoing existential crisis while
taking a nature walk with his father.
Symbolism: nature walk, day/night, sunshine/darkness,
railroad tracks, river, Daddy’s home, flowers, trees and telephone poles, ghost
train, mother-at-home
Possible Themes: Maturity requires a
willingness to face sometimes fearfully new situations. One’s perceptions and
experiences are not completely interchangeable with another’s – even one’s own
parents. Two people can view or interpret the same phenomena very differently
depending upon temperament.
“The Egg” by Sherwood
Anderson (United States)
Setting: near Bidwell Ohio, sometime in the early 1900s
Subject Matter: fathers and sons, parents
and children, depression/anxiety, destiny/opportunity, success/failure,
entrepreneurial ambition, the “American dream,” chicken farms, cyclical
patterns, chickens and eggs
Plot Synopsis: A son looks back on his
father’s ill-fated attempts to make a “success” of himself and follow the American dream.
Symbolism: eggs, chickens, chicken
farms, loaded wagon, bald head, Christopher Columbus
Possible Themes:. Ambition is both a
blessing and curse when mingled with insecurity. The demand for social
betterment at all costs exacts a heavy toll. Certain phlegmatic individuals are
disinclined to upward social mobility; in fact, the relentless aspiration to a
better life will destroy such a person. Children derive their own life-script
from the drama of their parents’ lives. Over and over, it seems, the apple does
not fall far from the tree – i.e. it is difficult to break a vicious cycle of despair.
The American dream does not allow for the possibility of failure.
“Day of the Butterfly” by Alice Munro
(Canada)
Setting: a small town in Ontario,
Canada, sometime in the 1940s or 1950s (?)
Subject Matter: childhood, friendship, peer groups, teasing/bullying,
acceptance/rejection, personal identity, misfortune, birthdays, cancer,
loss/regret
Plot Synopsis: One girl of uncertain
social status debates whether to befriend another girl who has already been
shunned by the popular clique.
Symbolism: Myra’s oil hair and
over-sized dresses, Cracker Jack prize: butterfly brooch, spelling, arithmetic,
comic book characters, birth stones: sapphire and rubies, future plans (help
mother at store vs. become an airplane hostess), birthday party (in March
instead of July), hospital, children playing in the street, the last snowballs
of the year
Possible Themes: Children are often
cruel and thoughtless. Friendship can be dangerous when the person you are
befriending is unpopular. It takes some degree of audacity to be a genuine
friend, as opposed to a “fear-weather” ally. Social outcasts exist to make
other people feel special and superior. The rare moment of insight is when we
see ourselves in others and they see themselves in us. The worst fate perhaps
for a person to fall into in this life: to go completely unnoticed by others,
to fade into oblivion.
“The Black Sheep” by Italo Calvino
(Italy)
Setting: a small village in Italy
in the 1920s or 1930s (under Mussolini)
Subject Matter: politics, small towns,
political corruption, fascism, honesty, thievery, social change/transformation,
morality
Plot Synopsis: An honest man who keeps
to himself unwittingly disturbs the balance of common “thievery” in a corrupt
town.
Symbolism: thieves, homes, skeleton
keys, shaded lanterns, honest man, books, bridge-at-night, water, rich and poor
Possible Themes: Let justice be done though the heavens may fall. All it takes is
for one person to change (or subvert) the existing paradigm. Honest
scruples are not responsible for bad results…or…Disruption of any sort brings
with it its own form of oppression. Sometimes the medicine is just as bad as
the disease. True reform requires first chaos and destruction followed by a new
system of order. Civil society is a form of organized criminality.
“The Doll’s House” by
Katherine Mansfield (New Zealand)
Setting: New Zealand, in the early
1900s
Subject Matter: childhood, peer groups, poverty,
social status, snobbery, class consciousness, personal identity, random acts of
kindness, dolls and dollhouses
Plot Synopsis: A young girl, passionate
about a dollhouse (and its perfect little lamp) wants to show it to everyone in
town, including two young misfits.
Symbolism: green or green dollhouse, oversized parent
dolls, the little lamp, owl eyes, chickens, cats
Possible Themes: Random acts of kindness
are far easier to give out than are random acts of cruelty. The playground is a
microcosm of the adult world with all of its petty hierarchies. The disparaging
of others is a wretched cure for insecurity. Snobbery is a side-effect of
desperation. Awareness of class differences is an unavoidable component of social
identity.
“Poor Fish” by Alberto
Moravia (Italy)
Setting: Rome, Italy in the 1950s
Subject Matter: physical appearance,
personal identity, normality/freakishness, perception and imagination, romantic
love/romantic illusions, character, confronting bullies, the circus as a
microcosm of life,
Plot Synopsis: A man marked by physical
deformity and self-described “freakishness” finds his counterpart in a woman
who offers him unconditional love and a chance to prove himself in front of
some hostile “beautiful people.”
Symbolism: narrator’s small, crooked
rickety, spider-like body, dishwashing, housekeeping, circus, horses circling
the ring, horse-trainer, clowns, acrobats, lions, lion-tamer, wild animals and
tame animals (zebras, elephants, horses and dogs), rows of cages, bear’s cage,
attractive young couple, poor fish, elephant ride, First Aid post.
Possible Themes: Another person views you differently than you
view yourself. Love requires
illusions and flights of imagination. Friendship is a compensation for an
otherwise sordid reality. The “freaks”
of society are more noticeable/eye-catching than the beautiful people. Willingness
to face adversity is the most revealing indicator of character. To lose the
battle is often to win the war. Imperfection and vulnerability are more lovable
than sheer perfection. Embarrassments and
humiliations that build solidarity are nothing akin to failure.
“The Balek Scales” by
Heinrich Boll (Germany)
Setting: a village in Germany in
the 1800s
Subject Matter: village life, family
dynasties, monopolies of power, oppression/exploitation/injustice, systematic
inequalities, political dissent, political repression, social change
Plot Synopsis: A young boy takes issue
with the corrupt economic practices in his village going so far as to accuse
the ruling family of corruption and deceit; the spontaneous rebellion of
peasants that follows his lead, alas, proves to be short-lived.
Symbolism: flax sheds, wild
mushrooms and herbs, the Balek family’s chateau, the Balek scales, the swinging
pointer, poachers (rebels/law breakers), the priest and the reeve, coffee,
lemon drops, five pebbles in a kerchief, high mass on New Year’s Day, wet feet
walking two hours through the forest, villager’s silent protest, attack by the
gendarmes, basket weavers, the outlawed hymn, “The justice of this earth, O Lord, hath put Thee to death”),
basket-weaving, the voice in the traveling cart singing,
Possible Themes: Power corrupts especially
when a monopoly is involved. What is “old and familiar” is oft mistaken for
what is good. The “daily grind” of work discourages curiosity. The poor have
few outlets to make their voice heard. Oppression grows invisible when it becomes
habitual. Society is class-warfare in slow motion. A rebellion cannot succeed
if the authority or ruling power is totally discredited. Bearing witness to the
truth is always a victory, however minor. Civil society is a form of organized
criminality in which entire segments of the population are excluded from
consideration.
“The Last Judgment” by
Karel Capek (Czech Republic)
Setting: a celestial courtroom in
the afterlife, time-frame unknown
Subject Matter: criminality, crime, punishment,
God and the afterlife, final judgment, redemption/forgiveness, ultimate
knowledge, court systems, courtrooms, judges
Plot Synopsis: In a celestial
courtroom, God offers testimony, not
final judgment, concerning the life and times of a killer named Kugler.
Symbolism: recording angel, Book of Life, Marka buying
thread, nine people killed: fellow prisoner (killed in a brawl), an unfaithful
sweetheart, an old man, a night watchman (with a wife and six children), an old
married couple (killed with an axe and who hid $20,000 in a straw mattress), an
immigrant to America, a passerby during police chase, and the policeman that
killed Kugler, drunken beggar, Kugler’s alcoholism, glass-colored marble,
Kugler’s periostitis, God as witness – not judge, hell
Possible Themes: What goes around comes
around. Justice is painfully slow and late-in-coming, but very thorough and
sometimes merciful. To know all is to
forgive all. No one can truly judge of forgive a crime except for the victims.
What we do in this life matters, because on some level, it is never forgotten.
Where there is crime, punishment is sure to follow. Every person is a complex
array of good and evil.
“Saboteur” by Ha Jin
(China)
Setting: China during the Cultural
Revolution (1966-1969)
Subject Matter: police brutality, communism,
ideology, China’s Culture Revolution (196-1968), resistance to oppression,
conformity/non-conformity, torture, corruption, criminal justice system, resistance
to oppression, revenge, disease/epidemics
Plot Synopsis: A professor plagued by
illness, is falsely accused by police officials, and seeks vigilante justice
upon his release.
Symbolism: air like rotten melon,
hepatitis, Mr. Chiu’s liver, spilled hot tea, wet sandals, injured fingers,
police station, cleaver chopping rhythmically, Cultural Revolution, lecturer at
Harbin University, witness statements, fever and chills, heart disease and
hepatitis medication, Fenjin’s torture, jaundiced face, soup-sampling
Possible Themes: Political repression
creates a backlash effect. Those to whom evil is done [will] do evil in return.
You must become the dragon to fight the dragon.
State-sponsored injustice sets a bad example for all and opens the door
to amorality in general.
“Tokyo” by Fumiko
Hayashi (Japan)
Setting: Tokyo, Japan during the
1940s (WWII)
Subject Matter: survival, wartime,
poverty, work, love, empathy, compassion, fate, random acts of kindness,
grief/loss, joy amid the ruins
Plot Synopsis: A desperate street vendor
deals with love and loss during wartime, but is renewed by random acts of
kindness performed by people who share her plight.
Symbolism: windy afternoon,
rucksack, rusty iron, street vendors, Shizuoka tea for sale, stove fire, Shitaya
district, Siberia, Amur River, cabin on the bomb site, Asakusa district,
Goddess of Mercy, garish lantern, “Merry Teahouse,” rain storm/downpour, movie
theater, Rho’s wet hair, two bowls of spaghetti, quilted bedrolls, Ryo and
Tsuru’s embrace, bomb site, accident on narrow bridge, sketchbook, pile of
broken concrete, body of dead kitten, four sewing women around oil stove, busy
needles, feeling of warmth
Possible Themes: Change is the only constant of life. The wheel of fortune keeps turning
for good or for ill. Life keeps handing us “surprises” whether we want them or
not. Kindness and compassion can redeem/make up for the worst situations. The
ripeness [of the moment] is all [that counts].
“The Secret Lion” by
Alberto Alvaro Rios (Mexico/United States)
Setting: southern Arizona, near
Nogales, 1960s or 1970s (?)
Subject Matter: childhood/adolescence, youthful perceptions,
memory
Plot Synopsis: Two boys notice the
changes in themselves and the world around them while stumbling through their
adolescent years.
Symbolism: lion, teachers, girls, forbidden
words, arroyo, grinding ball, sewage water, the color green, picnic, golf
course,
Possible Themes: Everything changes.
Things get taken away. The “heaven” of our youth turns into something more
complicated and less enchanting. Life keeps moving forward; there’s no going
back. You can’t step into the same river twice. You can’t “go home” again.
Knowledge can spoil the magic of childlike perception. Life involves letting go
of the past.
“Gryphon” by Charles Baxter
(United States)
Setting: Four Oaks, Michigan,
1970s or 1980s
Subject
Matter: school, education,
teachers, students, knowledge and curiosity, intelligence, fact vs. fiction,
myth and legend, lies vs. creative embellishments, credulity, change/metamorphosis,
maturation, the process of thinking, death and personal transformation
Plot Synopsis: A wacky, Sphinx-like,
substitute teacher challenges students to sort through the montage of “fact”
and “fiction” that she hurls at them in a major departure from the assigned
lesson plans.
Symbolism: Mr. Hibler’s cough,
Heever the chameleon, terrarium, large-leafy oak tree, chignon hairdo, Broad Horizons textbook, mathematics
(6X1168?), proper spelling of balcony,
Distant Lands and Their People
(geography textbook), pyramids, planets, ancient Egyptians, George Washington,
gryphon (half-bird, half-lion), “humster,” National Enquirer, diamonds,
Beethoven, Mozart, angels, the Sphinx who speaks in riddles, Venus fly trap,
tarot cards, insects in ditches and swamps
Themes: Education involves more
than just remembering “facts.” Students are not passive receptacles, but rather
active participants in the endless task of sorting truth from falsehood. To
learn we must first be inspired – our imaginations must take flight.
Enchantment is the mother of science. A
little bit of unexpected “magic” is necessary to spice up a dull routine.
Preparing someone to face the unsolved “riddles” and uncertainties of life is
the best form of teaching. The awareness of change as the major constant in
life is the beginning of wisdom – enough even to cure the fear of death.
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