Themes
This story explores the idea that excessive rationality can lead to self-destruction.
What is Tell-Tale Heart
I can ‘member Grandma Dee without the quilts.
Everyday Use
This motivates the narrator to kill the old man in The Tell-Tale Heart.
Obsession with the eye
In The Tell-Tale Heart, the heartbeat symbolizes this.
Guilt/conscience
This story critiques small-town conformity and judgment.
A&P
Maybe it's hatred I spew, maybe it's food for the spirit.
Eminem
This story critiques consumerism and social class through a teenage boy’s perspective.
A&P
Villains! Dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!
Tell-Tale Heart
Dee’s desire to take the quilts in Everyday Use is driven by this.
Superficial view of heritage/Desire to connect with her culture in an "academic/performative" fashion
In Everyday Use, the quilts symbolize this conflict.
Heritage conflict
This story reflects anxieties about humanity’s place in nature.
To Build a Fire
I understand the fury in your words, but not the words.
Othello
This story suggests that human attempts to dominate nature often end in failure.
To Build a Fire
You are every human being who has ever lived.
The Egg
Sammy quits his job mainly because of this internal motivation.
Impressing the girls / individuality
In To Build a Fire, fire represents this essential concept.
Survival
Everyday Use comments on this issue within cultural identity.
Commercialization of heritage
I was not born under a rhyming planet.
Much Ado About Nothing
This story explores identity and heritage through conflicting views of cultural preservation.
Everyday Use
This is one of those situations where you get to learn something.
Powder
In We Ate the Children Last, society continues eating children because of this deeper psychological factor.
Normalization / desensitization
In The Orange, the orange itself symbolizes this idea.
Desire/worship/reverence/irrationality
We Ate the Children Last critiques society’s willingness to accept this.
Blind acceptance of extreme norms
The most benevolent king communicates through your dreams.
Wu Tang Clan
This story presents the unsettling idea that morality is relative depending on perspective and survival.
We Ate the Children Last
Not a chance.
The Bear Came Over the Mountain
Grant’s actions in The Bear Came Over the Mountain are ultimately motivated by this realization.
Guilt and love
In The Bear Came Over the Mountain, Fiona’s memory loss symbolizes this broader theme.
Fragility of identity
The Egg offers a commentary suggesting that human conflict is flawed because of this idea.
Humanity is one being
To destroy the beauty from which one came.
Jay-Z