Ministry of Education and Youth

State Pedagogical University Ion Creanga

English Philology Chair


Theme and by-theme in Short Stories by O. Henry;
R. L. Goldberg; I. Asimov; W. S. Maugham; K.
Chopin and E. Hemingway



Submitted by: Cebotari Tatiana
4
th
year student
Supervisor: Plescenco Galina
Lecturer of English
Chisinau-2013
2

My essay is devoted to the topic Theme and by-theme in Short Stories by: O.
Henry; R. L. Goldberg; I. Asimov; W. S. Maugham; K. Chopin and E. Hemingway.
I had to read short stories to find there the themes and by-themes to understand the
plot of the story and to try to analyze each theme and by-theme very carefully. The
objectives which I have to fulfill are:
1. To read as many short stories as possible;
2. To use various methods of investigation;
3. To identify and analyze the themes and by-themes.
The first short story which I want to present is The Gift of the Magi by O.
Henry. The major theme in this story is Love. This story is about a poor young
couple whose love for each other is the most important thing in their lives. For them
dont matter how rich they are or how poor, in any situation they will find a way to
make gifts to each other.
Sacrifice is one of by-theme, in this story this couple will give up to the most
precious thing they have to be able to afford gifts for each other for Christmas Eve. In
fact the whole story is about sacrifice and it remains unclear because we dont know
how their sacrifice affected them.
Wealth is another by-theme; this story is about what it means for something to
be valuable. For this couple love is the most valuable thing in their lives and makes
them rich. Love motivates them to give up the only things of monetary or personal
value they have to buy presents for each other. Perhaps their poverty is what enables
them to appreciate what really matters.
Women and Femininity is another by-theme because the main character is a
woman named Della. She is loveable, hysterical sometimes overreacting; through
these words we identify her as feminine. Della puts us in front of the question Is
3

the love between them based on a difference in power between the two or it is a true
love which is equal for both?
The second short story is Art for Hearts Sake by Reuben Lucius Goldberg.
The dominant theme here is Art because the whole story is about a rich man who
took up some lessons of art and he painted a picture named Trees Dressed in White.
He exhibited his painting in the Lathrop Gallery. We can deduce that this is the main
theme through this group of words: to take up art, art schools, paper, crayons, draw,
mantelpiece, lines, box of water colors, tubes of oils, the Museum of Modern Art,
exhibitions, galleries, Lathrop Gallery, artist, painting.
Childness is one of by-themes here, because we see in the beginning of the
story that he behaves like a spoiled child when he says Nope! to his nurse. His
actions were so childishness because he was a rich man over 70 and he had no family,
just friends and money with which he stated that he can by everything and he may
behave how he wants.
Medicine is another by-theme. Here we find that the main character Mr.
Ellsworth had suffered a heart attack and was in depression, and the doctor saw that
no medicine helped him with his depression, so he advised him to take up art. We can
see that the Medicine is one of by-themes through the words: doctor's orders,
doctor, professional calm, no ordinary case, suffer, heart attack, health, stethoscope,
abruptness, patient's heart.
Another by-theme is Wealth. Mr. Ellsworth is a man of 76 and he painted the
picture Trees Dressed in White which later he exhibited it in the Lathrop Gallery,
where he won the First Landscape Prize of 1000$. And his friends were very
surprised that at his late 70 he found his talent. But everything changes when he tells
to his friends that he bought the gallery and of course because of this he won the
4

prize. We find this by-theme through Mr. Ellsworths words Arts nothing. I bought
Lathrop Gallery last month.
Next short story is The Fun They Had by I. Asimov. It is a story about future
technology and future education. Its a look in the future through the eyes of Asimov.
The main theme here is Education and Technology because the whole story is
about the differences between the schools from the past and the schools from the
present, and we must pay attention that the present is in 2157. The main characters
are two children, Margie and Tommy, who found a real book and began wondering
how funny there were in the past, reading words that stood still. We see in this
story that the technology had developed in such a way that everything was different;
there were no schools, no teachers. Children were taught home by a mechanical
teacher, a computer. And through this development of the technology the education
was not the same, there were no fun in future. We deduce this theme through such
words as: school, mechanical teacher, geography sector, and book.
The Book, I think that is a by-theme here because it is in the center, the action is
placed around it. They read the book which was very old. It had yellow and crinkly
pages. The children were so amazed when they looked at the words and they didnt
move like on screen.
Future is another by-theme. From the very beginning we find out that the
action is happening in the future through the words May 17, 2157 when Margie
wrote in her diary and when Tommy said the words Centuries ago.
Fun is one of by-themes also because Margie thought that people who lived in
the past had more fun at schools than they have now. And it was also funny when the
words and letter didnt move when they turned the pages. She thought that there were
more fun at school than now, thats why she hated her school. She would like to be in
5

such a school to experience that fun and to feel that to have a man as a teacher is
more interesting than a mechanical teacher.
The fourth short story is The Luncheon by W. Somerset Maugham. It is a story
which has as the central theme Appearance vs. Reality. The protagonist, in The
Luncheon, wishes from the beginning that his date would be a beautiful woman. He
imagines a portrayal of a graceful lady in his mind. But, when he goes to have a lunch
with her, she appears as a surprising blast, a total opposite to his imagination. Not
only her appearance but also her dialogues express that she is an extremely fat, food-
loving and ravenous woman who does not even think a bit about the costs the writer
would have to pay for the lunch. She has a very good appetite, and gobbles a lot of
money also. The most interesting part is the verbal irony hidden in the lines she utters
to the writer, like she does not eat too much etc. The irony concealed in her speeches
helps to develop the main theme. These ironies make The Luncheon a comic story
in the true sense.
Human Relationship is a by-theme. This story is about a poor writer and a
woman, how they had a luncheon. Here we see the relationship between two classes
of people, how they behave with each other because all human relationships are
different.
Another by-theme here is Food. We can see than the woman is not shy at all
and all she thinks about is how to keep her stomach full. A luncheon is not a lunch
itself, but it is just a light snack. But the woman always was keeping saying that she
is not hungry and that she shall eat only one thing but till the end she eats a whole
lunch.
Selfishness is another by-theme because here we see a selfish woman who cares
only about herself and she never eats luncheon and never spends much of her
6

money on food just others money. The writer was such a gentleman that he couldnt
say to her nothing to be impolite, but till the end he got his revenge in a way when he
saw her after 20 years her weight was more than three hundred pounds.
Through these words we may say that there is another by-theme, Revenge,
because after 20 years the writer was famous enough and wealth enough to live a
decent life, not like the woman who was living only for food and for herself. It was
like a relief for the writer because that luncheon was like a lesson for him that people
are different and may use you for their own purposes.
Another by-theme here is Wealth. At that time the writer didnt earn so much
money just to keep body and soul together. The woman thought that if he is a
writer he didnt have problems with the money, but he did. He was at the beginning
of his career and for the woman it didnt matter, for her mattered only the food. And
we see that till the end of the luncheon that he had the whole month before him and
not a penny in his pocket, it meant that his financial state was not so good.
Another short story which I want to present is The Story of an Hour by Kate
Chopin. It is a story about a woman, Mrs. Mallard, who received the news that her
husband died in an accident, but till the end it founds out that he is very alive. Here
we find that the major theme is Death, it is so powerful in this story that even news
of someone else's death, if told the wrong way, can be lethal. Finding out someone
hasn't died can be almost as powerful, and deadly, too. This story is unusual in that it
allows a character to explore the feelings beyond grief or loss that one might have if a
loved one died. Mrs. Mallard's complex reaction to the news of her husband's death
speaks to the terrible, almost welcome freedom a tragedy can bring. Through the
death of Mrs. Mallard, in the end, her freedom dies also.
7

One of the by-themes here is Language and Communication. In this story how
you tell someone what happened is almost more important than what actually
happened. The biggest concern isn't whether someone lives or dies, it's how you tell a
person with a weak heart bad news without killing her. In other words,
communication or news can be lethal. Surprising information doesn't just have the
power to shock it can actually kill someone. In this case, the surprise that a husband
isn't dead after all is more deadly than a railroad accident. Ideas have to be
communicated carefully, with preparation and delicacy. Otherwise, the listener may
very well end up dead.
Next by-theme which I found is Freedom. It seems like a terrible thing to Mrs.
Mallard, who's restricted in lots of ways: through her marriage, by her bad heart, and
even inside her home, which she doesn't leave during "The Story of an Hour." On the
other hand, though, she has considerable freedoms as an upper-class, married lady.
She can tell freedom's coming for her, and she dreads it. Once it arrives, though, it
fills her with an overpowering joy. Yet, she experiences this mental and emotional
freedom while being confined to a room. As soon as she leaves that room, the
freedom she'd only just barely begun to understand is taken away from her. She dies
of heart disease of the joy that kills.
Another by-theme is Time. The events in this story happen quickly, and the
author herself does not mince words in relaying them. Yet it seems like life can
change drastically, and a person can change dramatically, in under an hour. Mrs.
Mallard spends less than an hour processing the news that her husband has died. In
doing so, she moves rapidly through her grief to arrive at a dream or story of
what life by herself will be like. In less than an hour, she's gotten used to the idea of a
whole different future a future she's excited about, instead of a future that she
8

dreads. But the work of a few seconds seeing her husband alive and well proves
her wrong and blows up that new dream of a possible future path.
The last short story which I analyzed is A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest
Hemingway. It is a story about two waiters and the caf where they work. The
major theme here is Life as Nothingness. The author suggests that life has no
meaning and that man is an insignificant speck in a great sea of nothingness. The
older waiter makes this idea as clear as he can when he says, It was all a nothing
and man was a nothing too. When he substitutes the Spanish word nada (nothing)
into the prayers he recites, he indicates that religion, to which many people turn to
find meaning and purpose, is also just nothingness. Not everyone is aware of the
nothingness, however. For example, the younger waiter hurtles through his life
hastily and happily, unaware of any reason why he should lament. For the old man,
the older waiter, and the other people who need late-night cafs, however, the idea
of nothingness is overwhelming and leads to despair.
One of the by-themes is Dissatisfaction. In "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,"
Hemingway offers a fairly pessimistic view of the world, suggesting that even
people who are young, happy, and totally content will someday end up lonely,
drunk, and dissatisfied. By showing us three characters in different stages of life
(young, middle aged, and elderly), Hemingway depicts the way in which life grows
increasingly unsatisfactory, until the only viable options are suicide or
drunkenness.
Another by-theme is Mortality. The real conflict of the story is between man
and time. The story deals with characters that all have different visions of the
meaning of time the youngest man values it, but the older characters don't. The
oldest character, a man near the end of his life, is simply passing the time until he
9

dies. The point is, the older you get, the more time wears upon you, and the more
you feel your mortality.
We know that in all the stories Ernest Hemingways characters are always
drunk, from this information we can deduce another by-theme Drugs and
Alcohol. Hemingway's characters drink to escape from everyday life. In this story
one of the characters drinks every night to escape from himself and his loneliness.
And the last by-theme which I identified in this short story is Old Age. In this
text, the process of aging makes the characters feel their mortality; the Old Man's
attempted suicide demonstrates his willingness to escape the loneliness that comes
with age. Hemingway implies that, no matter how much money we have, or how
successful we have been in life, we are all ultimately end up as lonely individuals.
In this loneliness, what matters above all is simply to have some means of escape
from this loneliness, whether that's suicide, drunkenness, or simply a clean, well-
lighted place to sit and still feel like part of the world.
In conclusion I can say that I analyzed six short stories by different authors.
After analyzing and describing them I can tell now that the theme in a short story is
an important element. It can tell us about what is the story, the important elements.
I can say that the theme is the heart of the story because it contains the most
important information that we need to know. I also identified that every writer has
its own style of writing and his own point of view and our task is to understand
what he wanted to tell us through his story. My goal was achieved; I read
interesting short stories and identified many themes and by-themes which helped
me to understand better the plot of each story.