MELTING POT...of SHORT STORIES

a.        Songs :

       Brothers Four  “Turn around”

       The Beatles  When you’re eighty Four 

 Cindy Lauper Girls want to have fun 

 Bob Dylan  Forever Young

b.      Stories summaries:

Should Wizard Hit Mommy? The title refers to a line of a short story daddy is reading to her four-year-old daughter Jo. She loved being read the same stories at bedtime. The familiarity of the topics and characters made her feel comfortable and reassured. One day, dad changes the happy ending of the story. He wanted to show her daughter about the difficulties and unpleasant realities of life.

The End of the Party: It deals with twin brothers and how fear affected one of them in particular. Having a particular connection one supported the other emotionally, though in the end of the story the brother’s help proved to be not enough.

Poor Little Black Fellow: It deals with the topic of discrimination against black people in America and how a person can find other horizons where he could fit and develop in a comfortable way, away from home.

The Open Window: It is the story of a teenager who has a vivid imagination and creativity and makes no division between reality and fiction. She expresses a series of lies to Mr Framton who because of his poor nerves suffered a lot. And then she lied to her aunt about the poor man. Black humour could be expected from an early age.

Sophisticated Pets The story depicts is a romance between two women of different age and backgrounds. The pets of one of them serve well in the story as metaphors about the sophisticated situation the characters are experiencing.

c.     

      Authors: 

Born on July 21, 1899, in Cicero (now in Oak Park), Illinois, he served in World War I and worked in journalism before publishing his story collection In Our Time. He was renowned for novels like The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea, which won the 1953 Pulitzer. In 1954, He won the Nobel Prize. He committed suicide on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho.

He was born on September 13, 1916, in Llandaff, South Wales. In 1953, he published the best-selling story collection Someone Like You and married actress Patricia Neil. He published the popular book James and the Giant Peach in 1961. In 1964, he released another highly successfuly work, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was later adapted for two films. Over his decades-long writing career, he wrote 19 children's books. He died on November 23, 1990, in Oxford, England.

He was born on March 18, 1932, in Reading, Pennsylvania. His famous Rabbit series—including Rabbit, Run (1960); Rabbit Redux (1971);Rabbit Is Rich (1981, Pulitzer Prize); Rabbit at Rest (1990, Pulitzer Prize); and Rabbit Remembered (2001)—follows a very ordinary American man through the decades of the late 20th century. The most recent installment of the series, Rabbit Remembered, centers on characters from the earlier books in the wake of Rabbit's death. He died on January 27, 2009, in Danvers, Massachusetts.

d.      KEY phrases:

·         Each new story that Jack told was a slight variation of a basic tale: a small creature, usually named Roger had some problem and went with it to the wise old owl..

·         What’s the matter?- Peter asked. I don’t think I’m well. I oughtn’t to go to the party- answered Francis.

·         Arnold!- said Grace Pemberton. “I think we’d better go home to America”

·         I don’t want to go- he replied.

·         A most extraordinary man, a Mr Nuttel- said Mrs Sappleton. Could only talk about his illnesses, and dashed off without a word of goodbye or apology … One would think he had seen a ghost.

·         They shared a fragrant kiss and prepared for the day’s events.

·         The American picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks…..He could not see the train.

·         Two tall glasses, soda water, whiskey. Fresh cubes in the thermos bucket. Mary was waiting for her husband to come back from work.

·         I shall be with you- he told Kathleen-sooner or later. You won’t forget that. You need do nothing but wait.

·         Sandy: He gets on my nerves! I tell people I’ve got me granddad staying because he’s been poorly. And they say: Oh! That’s nice!, just assuming he’s a lovely old gentleman like in the telly advert….

e.     QUOTATIONS:

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die

 so that you may live as you wish.” ― Mother Teresa   

“I am the Love that Dare not Speak its Name”― Alfred Bruce Douglas