Araby

Araby was a sort of bazar. The writer visited it when he was a small schoolboy. His
visit was a labour of love. He was asked by his beloved to visit the Araby. He was too
small to be a lover, but he fell in love all the same. The girl was his friend Mangans
sister. He loved her madly. Her word was more than a law for him.
So he went to Araby just because she wished him to do so. He was late because he
had to wait for his uncle to get some money. When he reached there the bazar had
almost closed. Only a Chinaware stall was open. The boy stopped. The sales girl
asked him if he wanted to buy anything. He said, no, he did not need anything. He had
a strange feeling of frustration as he came out. He was too young, to understand that
feeling. The boys visit to Araby was fruitless just like his childish love affair. He
undertook this visit as a sacred duty. He only wished to please the girl without
thinking of any other reward for his pains. He also wished to buy something nice for
her. But he was too small to decide what he should buy for her. In his confusion he
could not make any choice. So he came back frustrated. Still he was not angry with
the girl who had sent him out on this useless errand. He is rather angry at his own
adequacy.
Theme
The principal idea of "Araby" is that youthful love is childish and foolish, but that it is also
normal, overpowering, and creative. Ideally, memories like those the narrator is describing
about his infatuation for Mangans sister should be a cause for fondness, mingled perhaps
with wonder and also amusement. Much of the narrators memory exhibits just such beauty. If
the experience of the childhood "crush" produces unhappiness at the time it occurs, a mature
understanding should be able to filter out and eliminate the childhood misgivings to achieve a
celebration of time past. The narrator, however, does not indicate that this process has taken
place, and hence Joyce is presenting a portrait of a narrator who is still a victim of childhood
inhibitions.
Concerning Joyce's "Araby" the enotes Study Guide on the story lists three themes revealed
within the story. I'll list the three and give a brief explanation of each:

Alienation and Loneliness: the boy tells no one about his feelings for Mangan's
sister--not his friends, his family, nor the girl herself. He is isolated in his crush and
in his illusion, and later, in his awakening or epiphany.
Change and Transformation: the boy undergoes significant emotional growth,
changing from an innocent boy to a disillusioned adolescent in an instant. This is a
major step toward adulthood.
God and Religion: the boy at first sees himself as a religious hero and Mangan's
sister as the embodiment of the Virgin Mary. He is unable to separate the spiritual
from the secular. Later, when he experiences his epiphany, it is partly a realization
that he is just a boy, Mangan's sister is just a girl, and also, that Araby is just a

mediocre place to buy crap, sponsored by the church in order to make money for the
church
Once Upon A Time
Nadine Gordimer's "Once Upon a Time" opens with a frame story involving the author
herself. It takes place at a point in her career when she has been asked to compose a short
story for a childrens book as part of her "duty" as a writer. She rejects that idea, however, on
the grounds of artistic freedom: no artist, she thinks, should ever be compelled to create a
work on demand.
After she presents this note of defiance, Gordimer lies asleep in her bed when a strange sound
awakens her. Thinking that an intruder has entered her home, she remains quiet and scared,
staring at the door...the arrhythmia of my heart...fleeing. Contemplating all the possible
options and outcomes, Gordimer eventually realizes that the naturally creaky condition of her
floorboard made the noise and that there was no imminent threat to her safety except for the
one she imagined. Because she is unable to fall back asleep, she begins to tell herself a
"bedtime story."
Gordimer's bedtime story is told from the third-person point of view and concerns a husband,
a wife, and their little boy. She describes the familys great love for one anothera love that
for them is reflected in their financial security, suburban home, material possessions, and
hired servants. As they live out their dream of happiness and material wealth, the husbands
mother, described as a wise old witch, suggests that the family should take all necessary
measures to protect themselves. The family first follows her advice by joining a medical
benefit society, licensing the family dog, and taking out various insurance policies. In
addition, the family joins a neighborhood watch organization that gives them a plaque for the
gates of their home; the plaque reads YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
The family begins to fear for their safety as riots occur in another part of the city, the part
where people of another color live. Although such people are not allowed entrance into the
protected suburb except as hired servants, the wife is fearful of this outside world of riots,
crime, violence, and chaos. In order to soothe her worries.
Theme
There are two dominant themes that arise from Gordimer's work. The first would be the fear
of "the other." The family's drive to protect themselves and essentially shield themselves
from the outside world represents an inherent fear of that which is unknown. This fear is the
driving force behind inwardly drawn communities and also represents a large and underlying
rationale of apartheid in Gordimer's own native South Africa. The attitudes of the family help
to develop this theme of a fear of that which is unknown or misunderstood. The tragic
condition of the family at the end, resulting the death of their child, is a result of this fear.
Another theme in the work is the idea of the dualistic and reciprocal nature of creation and
destruction. This holds the idea that each act of creation is an inevitable step towards

destruction. The family seeks to create a "perfect" solution to their fear of the outside world.
In barricading themselves off, they feel they have "the answer." However, with each
advancing step in this vein, they actually move a step closer to destruction and terror, as they
move farther away from rationality and understanding and closer to a domain where
destruction is the only logical end.
The Nightingale And The Rose
In this story, a young man, a student, is told by a woman that she would dance with him at the
ball the next night if he brought her a red rose. However, he has no red roses, and is
vocalizing his despair when a nightingale hears him. The nightingale is touched by the soul
of this student, and desires strongly to help him. The bird flies around trying to find a red
rose at various rose bushes, but none are red. He finallly pierces his heart on a thorn to bleed
onto a white rose, making it a brilliant red rose, and in the process dies. The student finds the
rose and is thrilled, so he plucks it and brings it to his love interest. The girl rejects the rose
saying it won't match her dress; plus, someone else has brought her jewelry, which is much
better. Angry, the student walks away and throws the rose in the gutter where it is run over by
a cart. He decides that love is ridiculous and logic is better, goes home and reads a book.
Theme
The main theme of Oscar Wilde's short story "The Nightingale and the Rose" explores the
effects of self-sacrifice in the name of what one truly believes in.
In this story, the nightingale is a bird who hears an Oxford student cry for the want of a lady,
who is apparently his "true love". The woman in question had requested specifically a red
rose from the love-stricken man as a token of true devotion. Only with the flower will the
lady respond to the man's request for love.
The nightingale, who is a believer in true and eternal love finds that there are no red roses in
the garden. However, a true believer at last, he pinches his own heart against the thorn of a
white rose and turns it red with its own blood. This, the nightingale does to reinstate his faith
in love and his true believe that love shall always prevail.
We find out in the end that all is worthless. The lady rejects the rose and the Oxford lad
realizes that it was all caprice on his part. The bird, however, is still dead. However, the story
shows us that no sacrifice is too small when one does it with a true mission in mind. However,
the story is (as many works in Wilde's tradition) open-ended: Was it worth it, after all? Who
actually wins in an ultimate demonstration of true faith? Does the nightingale die in vain?
These are the ultimate questions that are subtlety laid to the reader, and it is the reader who
will have the final say after all.
Sub-theme :

1.Love,is,money
2.Love,need,sacrifice.
3. Truth/reality sometimes can make us disappointed.

After twenty years

This is a story about 2 freinds who separated 20 years ago. One went in west to make a
fortune, the other one was a simpleton and a good fellow and stayed in New York. They had
promised each other that they would meet exactly 20 years later at ten pm. So the first arrived.
There was a patroling policeman who enquired about him and got to know about this
appointment. After some time his friend Jimmy Wells comes and they talk, but due to
difference in features Bob realizes as soon as he see Jimmy's face that he is not the real
Jimmy. The speaker mentioned the police as Jimmy as he was no identified because 20 yrs
was a long time. It is then that Bob is told that he is arrested and is handed a note from
patrolling police man who was the actual Jimmy that he reached on time but could not arrest
his freind himself.
Theme
The first one is honesty and responsibility. Jimmy Wells was Bob's best friend and obviously
cared for him a great deal. But even so, he did not look the other way when he found out that
his old friend was a wanted man.
The second one is destiny, or maybe the idea that people go their own ways in life. Two best
friends who cared for each other very much came to be on different sides of the law even
though they started out from the same place.
I'd say one of those is the main theme.
Another theme in the story is about human nature and self-conflicts. The policeman, Jimmy,
goes to meet his friend, but soon sees that his friend is wanted for crimes. He is placed in a
position where he has to make a moral choice. He must determine whether to greet his friend
or to arrest his friend. Imagine the inner conflict that the policeman must have felt when he
made the decision to have another person arrest his old friend. Yet, when the reader looks at
the character of the policeman as described in the beginning of the story, the reader already
sees him of moral character.it would be safe to say that the theme of O. Henry's story "After
Twenty Years" is an old one: Crime Does Not Pay.
A PIECE OF STRING
"Maitre Hauchecorne is an old peasant. On an autumn market-day in Goderville,

Hauchecorne is about to enter the square when he sees a piece of string on the ground and,
being of the saving kind, retrieves it. As he does so, he becomes aware that an enemy of his,
M. Malandain, the local harness maker, is watching. Ashamed to be seen picking up a
remnant of string, the protagonist furtively hides it in his clothing and then pretends to be
looking for something of value on the ground. With his head bent over in his intent search, he
moves on toward the market." Hauchercorne is accused by his enemy Malandain of stealing a
woman's purse. The purse is found and Hauchercorne feels vindicated, but people still don't
believe he had nothing to do with the missing purse. Hauchercorne is so ridiculed and
isolated from this incident that "the protagonist falls ill in late December and is bedridden.
Early in January, he dies; in his deathbed delirium, his denials of wrongdoing are focused in a
single phrase uttered repeatedly: A little bit of stringa little bit of string.
Summary
M. Hauchecome is on the road to the market one day and picks up a piece of string from the
dirt. As he bends down he notices that his arch enemy M. Malandain is watching him from
his shop window, so Hauchecome pretends to be looking for something valuable on the
ground to cover up his shame at being seen picking up the piece of string.
When he goes to the local tavern for lunch, everyone is talking about a purse that was lost on
the road with 500 francs inside. Malandain tells the authorities that he saw Hauchecome
picking up something from the road at the same time, so he is accused of taking the purse.
Hauchecome pleads with the authorities that he did not find the purse, and he only picked up
a piece of string. No one believes him, even though he does not have the purse.
Shortly after, the purse is returned, and Hauchecome is accused by the townspeople of having
had an accomplice who returned the purse to clear his name.
Hauchecome thinks that once the purse is returned that his name will be cleared, however, the
townspeople still suspect that he stole the purse and no matter what he says they don't believe
him. This process exhausts him and makes him ill. To his dying breath, which comes shortly
after his ordeal, he utters, it was only a piece of string.
At the end of the story, Hauchecome dies a broken man, exiled by the town because of
assumed guilt, even though he is innocent.
Theme
The theme of "A Piece of String" has to do with the meaness, cruelty, and injustice of
humanity. Maupassant often wrote stories about human selfishness, wickedness, envy, spite,
greed, and other bad qualities. Here are a few pertinent quotations:
"Everyone is perfidious, a liar and a phony. Everyone wears a false face."---Guy de
Maupassant

Maupassant persuades us to accept his illusion that cunning, ferocity, greed, and coarseness
are more common among men than we hope they are.---Wallace Stegner
The thing that most tormented De Maupassant, to which he returns many times, is the painful
state of loneliness, spiritual loneliness, of man, of that bar which stands between man and his
fellows; a bar which, as he says, is the more painfully felt, the nearer the bodily connection.--Leo Tolstoy
Maupassant was deeply influenced by the pessimistic German philosopher Artur
Schopenhauer, who had an even lower opinion of human nature. In "A Piece of String" an
entire village makes a simple, humble man's life miserable by accusing him of theft. There is
nothinig he can do to convince them that he was only picking up a piece of striing. His
accusers don't want to believe him because they enjoy venting their spite on a defenseless
man.
"A Piece of String" might be compared with Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" and with
Maupassant's famous story "Boule de Suif."