Analysis of five short stories

ANALYSIS

The long Exile

After reading this short story, we learn so many things. First, we have many characters, Aksinov, his wife, his children, the merchant, and Makar. Aksinov is a wise and honest old man, he was travelling for work. Before traveling, his wife warned him not to work on his first day, because she had a dream of his hair turning gray and that’s a bad sign. He didn’t heed to her warnings, and he ended up being in prison for the rest of his life. He was accused of killing the merchant he was working with. In addition, they found a knife full of blood in his bag. Unfortunately, they took him to prison. There, even his wife suspected him; no one knew the truth except god. “It seems that only God can know the truth; it is to Him alone we must appeal, and from Him alone expect mercy”. Said by Aksinov, and that is one of the things we learn from the story. We should never give up; even if we’re in trouble no one can help us except God. Moreover, that’s what the old man did, he prayed and asked god to help him. After twenty six years in prison, he met a man called Makar, while they were talking together Aksinov realized that it was him who killed the merchant. The old man felt so angry, he finally saw the man who ruined his life. One day, Aksinov saw Makar digging under the wall in order to escape from the prison, but he couldn’t tell anyone because this criminal threatened him. When they escaped the police asked Aksinov if he knew who did it but he refused to tell the truth. Makar then apologized to the old man and confessed about the crime, but unfortunately Aksinov died before his liberty.

Message:  

In any problem we face in life, the only one who can really help is God. He’s only one who knows the truth.

Theme: 

The theme of this story is patience, and also cruelty from the government’s side.

ANALYSIS

The necklace

THEME:

The theme of this short story is of course poverty.

Message:

We should always tell the truth, if she had taken the decision to tell her ten years ago that she had lost the necklace she wouldn’t have suffered those ten years of her life.

Summary:  

It’s the story of a woman called Mathilde who really wishes to be rich and buy dresses and jewelry. But she married a poor man who works as a clerk. So one day he got an invitation of a ball. He expected to see a smile on his wife’s face, but instead he saw tears on her cheeks. He was surprised, and shocked he felt so disappointed.  “There's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women." That’s what she said when he asked her why she was so sad. Mathilde purposed that he should ask Madame Forestier (his supervisor) to lend him some jewelry. Moreover, she took a diamond necklace from her, went to the ball. She looked stunning and gorgeous. She had so much fun. On her way back she took a cab. Arriving at home she realized that the necklace was missing. One week after they lost hope and decided to buy another one identical to the one they lost. They had to collect 36 thousands francs, so they lent money from people and they paid all their money to get it. Until finally they bought it and gave it to Madame Forestier. After ten years of suffering and hard work, they finally paid all their charges. Mathilde looked back on those ten years and said: “How strange life is, how fickle! How little is needed to ruin or to save!” One day in the Champs-Elysees, she met Madame Forestier again who told her the shocking news that the necklace that they have lost was actually imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs.

ANALYSIS

The bet

We can relate this short story easily to the book called Tuesdays with Morrie because we have two different stories but in the end they have the same moral. We shouldn’t be materialistic; people waste their time in order to get more money. The story started with a flashback, a man sitting there and thinking about what happened fifteen years ago. We have two main characters talking about a very important topic, asking their self weather its better to stay in prison forever or immediate death. One of the characters is a banker, we can see from his job that he is materialistic, and the other one is a journalist, so he’s knowledgeable. The journalist said that it’s better to stay in prison for the rest of our life, if I had to choose between the death penalty and imprisonment for life, I would certainly choose the second. To live anyhow is better than not at all." but the banker opposed his opinion. So they made a bet for two million dollars, if the journalist was capable of staying fifteen years in prison he will take the two million. That’s a huge number since the story was written in 1870. In fact, they started the bet by putting some strict rules in the prison. No one can see him or talk with, no letters should be given to him, he can only receive food and books by a small window. So he kept reading books and learning new languages for fifteen years. As a normal reflection he became much more knowledgeable, until he actually realized he didn’t need the money, he learned that he shouldn’t be materialistic. The banker was really regretting the bet, he was thinking that now the man we be free take the money and get married, since he was still young he was 40 years old "Cursed bet!" said the banker. Consequently, he decided to kill him and keep the money. When he arrived he read what the journalist wrote, he got really influenced, he didn’t kill him. However, the day he was going to be released he ran away and left a note saying that he didn’t need the money. The banker hid the note, to show the people that he won the bet. But in fact, the real winner is the journalist who understood life, and was ready to sacrifice his life to be in paradise. And that’s the best message we can learn from this short story. People think that the most important thing is life, but in fact what is much more important is life after death.      

ANALYSIS

Hills like white elephants

The scene opens on a railway station in Spain where the Barcelona-to-Madrid express is expected in 40 minutes. A man referred to as “the American” and his girl, Jig, sit at a table outside the station’s bar drinking beer. We can distinguish easily the climax of this short story. It was when the girl have had enough, then came the seven pleases. Also, another climax was Jig’s threat to scream. It’s an intense moment, maybe even a little shocking. We might even think that something might have happened if the woman didn’t interfere giving them the drinks.  There’s a simile in the title and the same simile have been repeated all over the short story “hills like white elephants. So, it’s the story of a pregnant woman in the station with her boyfriend-husband they didn’t specify. However, her boyfriend wants her to get an abortion. The writer didn’t specify this either but we can notice it from this sentence: “But I don’t want anybody but you. I don’t want anyone else. And I know it’s perfectly simple.’ Jig, the pregnant girl, for her part, is very hesitant to have the operation, cares to some degree about the baby “Doesn’t it mean anything to you?” The setting of the story is well described; the couple is waiting at a little train station between Barcelona and Madrid. They are sitting outside a bar. They are having a cold drink. It’s warm outside and the view is beautiful, in the distance they see white hills. It becomes evident that the overall subject or theme of this story is abortion. The American, as we can notice, clearly wants Jig to say she wants the operation in order to absolve himself of blame, and Jig clearly refuses to give her partner that satisfaction. The message is also clear; we shouldn’t hurry and make decisions that we will eventually regret. 

         

ANALYSIS

One of these days

Starting with a brief summary to explain the story. Aurelio Escovar is introduced as a poor dentist without a degree. He is busy polishing false teeth early one morning when the mayor arrives to see him. At first he refuses to see any patient, until the mayor, who has been suffering severe toothache for five days and is desperate, threatens to shoot him. Eventually the dentist lets him in, examines him, and then removes the infected wisdom tooth, without anesthesia. As we read the summary we can hardly understand the profound meaning of the story. In this short story you can see how a normal man like a dentist can have power over a politician and important person in a town and make him pay for all the injustice he has done. The dentist wanted the Mayor to suffer and that’s why he didn’t want to welcome him in 5 days. The writer wanted to show us that hurting the mayor will affirm his own power for revenge or political resistance. At the end of this short story when he told the mayor weather to send the bill to him or to the town this meant that in both ways it’s the town that’s going to pays the bills. The mayor's response tells you a lot about the authority he holds.  If the dentist sends the bill to the town, the town will pay for it.  If the dentist sends the bill to the mayor, apparently the town will also pay for it. The response also shows the mayor's attitude at this point in the story.  His refusal to look at the dentist when he says it, and his use of the word "damn," show that he is not necessarily pleased to admit the truth to the dentist.  So he knows he has absolute authority, and perhaps he admits some guilt in this situation, but he is resigned to it. "Dry your tears," the dentist told the mayor, that shows how week the mayor is in this situation. The dentist also removed the teeth without anesthesia to make him feel the pain and get hurt, he wants to displease him.