Marion Marion, Rebecca’s mother, died of cancer months before Rebecca and Tom go to Paris. She still has a profound influence, however, on her daughter. Rebecca seems to feel pressure to live an exciting, adventurous life that her mother could not have. When Rebecca buys the devil postcard and muses about how Marion would respond,…
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Paris 1991 – Summary
In the opening scene of “Paris 1991,” Rebecca and her husband, Tom, fly into Paris at night where they hope to conceive a baby. They take a taxi to their room, which is so small that by stretching out his arms Tom can touch the walls on both sides of the bed. Rebecca leans out…
The Necessary Grace to Fall – Analysis
Although Ochsner’s first collection of stories, Necessary Grace to Fall , won literary awards, it attracted little attention from reviewers. This is not unusual for a first collection from a young, unknown writer. However, Ochsner’s second collection of stories, People I Wanted to Be (2005), did attract some notice. Interestingly, many of the comments of…
The Necessary Grace to Fall – Setting
Suicide in the United States Suicide is a widespread social problem that occurs in all human societies. In the United States in 2000, suicide was the eleventh leading cause of death. The total number of suicides was 29,350, or 1.2 percent of all deaths. In 2001, the figure was 30,622. Suicide is more common than…
The Necessary Grace to Fall – Literary Devices
Imagery of the Human Body The story contains much imagery of the human body in its different forms. Leonard’s muscular physique is emphasized, as is the physical presence of the corpse of Svea Johnson. But the main examples are in reference to Howard. Unlike Leonard, who is extremely comfortable inside his own skin, Howard is…
The Necessary Grace to Fall – Themes
Mortality, Suicide, and the Affirmation of Life The characters vary greatly in the extent to which the life force and the desire to live flows through them. Leonard, with his physical fitness, well-defined muscles and constant munching of “energy bars,” has a strong hold on life, as does the aggressive Carla, with her desire to…
The Necessary Grace to Fall – Characters
Carla Carla is Howard’s wife. She has an eight-year-old son, Kevin, by a previous marriage, and she works for the same insurance company that employs Howard. She is an aggressive woman who gets angry when Howard is late for dinner and reproaches him for his unreliability when she sees him in an unfamiliar neighborhood when…
The Necessary Grace to Fall – Summary
“The Necessary Grace to Fall” begins on an August day in an office in the Hope and Life Insurance Company in an unnamed American city. The main character, Howard, works in this office with Leonard, his immediate supervisor, who is a physical fitness fanatic. Howard has only recently switched to his current position in which…
The Middleman by Bharti Mukherjee – Analysis
Bharati Mukherjee is known for her compelling stories about the experience of recent immigrants to the United States from the Third World. Although “The Middleman” takes place not in the United States but in an unnamed Central American country, it features the same theme. Alfie Judah is a naturalized American citizen who found his way…
The Middleman by Bharati Mukherjee – Setting
East Asian Immigration to the United States Immigration to the United States from India and other South Asian countries greatly increased following the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act. By the mid-1970s, there were over 175,000 Indian immigrants in the United States, with four states, California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, developing sizable Indian American…