Major English (Bachelors in Arts) | Tribhuvan University

I stand here ironing by Tillie Olsen is a short story that first appeared in Pacific Spectator. The story is written in first person format from the point of view of a mother of a troubled child addressed to the child’s teacher. The narrator is recounting her firstborn’s daughter’s troubled and precarious childhood. Hence the story takes a retrospective tone where she is reminiscing about her past and all the challenges faced by single mother in the middle of the twentieth century. The story begins with the narrator ironing some clothes. While doing this task, she is clearly troubled by a summon from the teacher of her firstborn child Emily to discuss about her current situation. It is hinted that Emily possessed high artistic potential but there lingers perhaps a dark side to her that is kept hidden. Hence she goes journeying into her past to the time Emily was born and all the hardships of that time. Emily was raised by the narrator as a single mother when she was herself merely nin...

 "The Dead" is the last and arguably the most important of the short stories in the collection of Dubliners by James Joyce. Born in Dublin himself, Joyce was an Irish poet and novelist, revered as one of the most influential modernist writers. Joyce's "The Dead" is one of the short stories in the aptly named "Dubliners" which is the collection of tales about the people of Dublin from various walks of life. It focuses on the people rather than the place, the people who are the inhabitants of the city. "The Dead" on a superficial level is a simple story that can be encountered in normal life of the people. The majority of the story takes place at a Christmas party in the household of Julia and Kate Morkans. They are older women who seem to belong to upper class society but curiously who give piano lessons and consequently many of the guests are their pupils. They live with their niece Mary Jane and housekeeper Lily. The protagonist, Gabriel Con...

"The Book of the Dead" by Edwidge Danticat is an introspective tale of grief, repentance and the actions of the past as well as the question of possibility to finally move on and forgive. 'Ka', the protagonist is of Haitian heritage who resides in the United States. Her family moved to the USA as refuges during the violent revolution in Haiti. Although living a secure life, Ka notices certain behavior in her family that she finds strange. When the truth about her father's past life in Haiti is revealed, everything starts making sense, throwing her into a mental turmoil. The story begins with Ka and father on a road trip to Florida to the house of Gabrielle Fontanue, a celebrity TV star who too has her heritage in Haiti. Ka is delivering a sculpture she molded after her father to Gabrielle's which was made possible by a mutual friend. She takes her father along as he is a great admirer of Gabrielle. The story takes an awry turn when her father disappears with t...