“The Pearl of the World” first appeared in Women’s Home Companion in 1945. The 1947 revised version, The Pearl, gained immediate critical and popular attention. During the following years, the novella was attacked by some, such as Warren French in his article on Steinbeck, as being too “sentimental.” Many readers, however, continued throughout the twentieth…
Tag: Analysis
Mowgli’s Brothers – Analysis
In “Mowgli’s Brothers,” Rudyard Kipling tells the tale of his celebrated “man-cub,” who is rescued from certain death as an infant and raised by a pack of wolves. Although a human being, Mowgli effectively becomes a “wolf cub” in nearly every other respect and grows to adopt the Law of the Jungle as his code…
Islands by Aleksandar Hemon – Analysis
Uncle Julius scares and traumatizes his nine-year-old nephew in a variety of ways during the short scenes that make up Hemon’s story, “Islands.” His toothless and smelly body, his description of the snakes and mongooses on Mljet, his characterization of the death of his grandfather, his comments about the former pirate island now sporting a…
Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases – Analysis
Gustafsson’s “Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases” says a great deal in a short space about mental retardation and how it was regarded in the mid-twentieth century. It deserves a place alongside other short stories of the century, such as Jack London’s “Told in the Drooling Ward” (1914) and Eudora Welty’s “Lily Daw and the Three…
The Good Shopkeeper – Analysis
Upadhyay’s “The Good Shopkeeper” was chosen for the Best American Short Stories, 1999 , and subsequently was published in the 2001 collection resting God in Kathmandu , which won the Whiting Award for best emerging writers. Some critics, however, have pointed out some flaws. For instance, Kavitha Rao, writing for Far Eastern Economic Review found…
Fleur by Louise Erdrich – Analysis
Fleur Pillager is a symbol of female sexuality and mystique throughout Erdrich’s Chippewa saga. She draws the great practitioner of old Chippewa ways, Eli Kashpaw, to court her; she is rumored to have sexual relations with the water spirit Misshepeshu; she retains some form of magical and sexual power from the spirits; and her daughter…
An End to Dreams – Analysis
Although Stephen Vincent Benét gained popularity for his poetry and stories during his lifetime, little scholarly attention has been paid to his work. Some of his works, however, including his epic poem about the Civil War, John Brown’s Body , and his short story “The Devil and Daniel Webster” are considered minor classics. He was…
The End of Old Horse – Analysis
Men on the Moon , that includes “The End of Old Horse,” is Simon J. Ortiz’s first collection of short stories: Ortiz has published children’s literature, non-fiction, and memoirs, but he is best known as one of the preeminent voices in Native American poetry. When this book was published, Matt Pifer, reviewing the book in …
A Day in the Dark – Story – Analysis
“A Day in the Dark” was first published in the jour Botteghe Oscure in 1955. It appeared in Mademoiselle magazine in 1957 and then became the title story in Bowen’s 1965 collection of short stories. In a review of that collection, F. L. H. Jr. praises Bowen’s detailed descriptions of setting, concluding that “Miss Bowen…
Aftermath by Mary Yukari Waters – Analysis
Like many of the stories in Waters’s acclaimed collection The Laws of Evening , “Aftermath” focuses on the life of an individual dealing with post–World War II conditions in Japan. The protagonist, Makiko, is a young widow whose husband has been killed while fighting the Allied forces during the war, and the plot is driven…