Short Stories

Loose Change: Author + Release Date

• Author: Andrea Levy

• Release: 2005

Loose Change: Main Protagonists + Minor Characters

Main Protagonists:

• Narrator: born in London, single mother, works as a teacher, of Caribbean descent

• Laylor: homeless young woman living on the streets of London with her brother, had to leave Uzbekistan a week before meeting the narrator because her parents, who are journalists, were arrested

Minor Characters:

• Laylor’s brother: interrupts Laylor’s conversation with the narrator for a moment, speaking to Laylor in a foreign language and demanding money from her

• narrator’s grandmother: came to England from the Caribbean, found shelter in England after her arrival, highly prejudiced against new immigrants

Loose Change: narrator form

First person narrator

Loose Change: Plot summary in a nutshell

The narrator urgently needs to buy some tampons in the toilets of the National Portrait Gallery, but does not have any small change. She is helped by a young girl, Laylor. After meeting her again in the museum, the narrator feels obliged to invite Laylor for a cup of tea, but starts to feel uncomfortable around her when learning that she is homeless and desperate. Although she considers helping Laylor by offering shelter for the night, she decides against it and leaves the cafÈ abruptly without saying goodbye

Loose Change: Related Topics

political persecution; displacement; homelessness; first-/second-/third-generation migrants; human perception; othering; empathy vs. fear

The Soldier‘s Tale: Author + Release Date

• Author: Neel Mukherjee

• Release: 2017

The Soldier’s Tale: narrator form

switch between first person narrator and limited third person narrator — narrator relaying what salim told him

Soldier‘s Tale: Main Protagonists + Minor Characters

Main Protagonists:

• narrator: an asylum decision maker working for the British Home Office who processes the case of Salim, is torn between his/her duty to find evidence against granting Salim asylum and his/her emotional reactions to Salim’s plight

• Salim: a man from Eritrea who is forcefully recruited to fight in Ethiopia at a young age, spends six years in the military, is imprisoned when trying to get out but escapes; migrates across Sudan, Libya and the Mediterranean to Europe where he experiences homelessness; makes it to the UK and is put in detention there

Minor Characters:

• Abeda: Salim’s Ethiopian wife, Christian, has a son with Salim, returns to Ethiopia because her family objects to her being married to a Muslim man from Eritrea, leaves their son with Salim’s mother

The Soldier‘s Tale: Plot summary

The narrator is an asylum decision maker trying to reconstruct Salim’s life story from the available documents – only to put the veracity of his story to test. Though the narrator appears to be moved by the gruesome details of Salim’s past, he/she remains in doubt as to whether Salim deserves being granted asylum. The story’s open ending leaves readers in doubt: will Salim be allowed to stay in the UK or will he be deported?

The Soldier‘s Tale: Related topics

• forced recruitment

• migration and human rights issues

• modern-day slavery

• irregular migration

• the plight of refugees

• indefinite detention in the UK

• prejudice against migrants

• social activism

The thrid and findal continent: Author + Release Date

• Author: Jhumpa Lahiri

• Release: 1999

The third and final continent: narrator form

First person narrator

The thrid and final continent: Main Protagonists

narrator: 

• unnamed man from Calcutta who studies in London for five years, then migrates to the US to work as a librarian at MIT

• looks back upon his life on three continents thirty years later, especially upon the first six weeks spent in America, which would impact him for the rest of his life

Mala:

• 27-year-old Bengali woman

• has an arranged marriage with the narrator in 1969

• follows her husband to the U.S. six weeks later and has difficulty adjusting to her new life there

Mrs. Croft:

• the narrator’s 103-year-old landlady

• widowed

• frail

• lives on her own

• used to work as a piano teacher

• eccentric and strict

• the first American the narrator gets to know and comes to like

• has a decisive role in bringing the couple closer together after their reunion in the USA

The third and final continent: minor characters

Helen:

• Mrs. Croft’s daughter going by her mother’s place occasionally to look after her

Mala and the narrator’s son:

• unnamed, born in the U.S., studies at Harvard

The third and final continent: plot summary in a nutshell

Before the narrator emigrates from the UK to the U.S., he returns to his home country India to have an arranged marriage with Mala. Since Mala has to wait for her green card to arrive, the narrator leaves for the U.S. alone, spending six weeks on his own adjusting to his new situation and wondering what life with Mala will be like. He begins to admire his landlady Mrs. Croft for her old age and her life’s achievements. When Mala arrives in the U.S., a meeting with Mrs. Croft manages to break the ice between the couple.

The third and final continent: related topics

• student migration

• Labor migration

• arranged marriage

• coping with culture shock

• cross-cultural communication

• memories of home

• the importance of humor

Exterior Paint: Author + Release Date

• Author: Kit de Waal

• Release: 2017

Exterior Paint: narrator form

Omniscient third person narrator

Exterior Paint: Setting

• manchester

• 1964 until the present

Exterior Paint: Main Protagonists

• Alfonse: newly arrived from St. Kitts, falls in love with Lillian. Witnesses Malcolm X’s reaction to hostile protesters when visiting Marshall Street, which gives him the courage to live together with Lillian. After her passing away he decides to sell the house and move in with his daughter.

• Lillian: barmaid who falls in love with Alfonse and becomes his wife. They buy a house on Marshall Street and live there till she dies.

Exterior Paint: Minor Characters

• The Kang family: Alfonse’s neighbours, who are on friendly terms with Alfonse and who will miss his company

• Mike Baxter: the real estate agent who is commissioned by Alfonse to sell the house

• Lillian’s mother: who is violently opposed to Alfonse and Lillian¥s relationship and who is a member of a protest group that demands keeping Marshall Street white

Exterior Paint: Plot summary in a nutshell

In 1964, Alfonse Maynard, a recently arrived migrant to Birmingham from St. Kitts, falls in love with the local girl Lillian, who works as a barmaid. Alfonse manages to win her heart, and – inspired by Malcolm X – Alfonse finds the courage to marry her despite Lillian‘s family’s resistance to their interracial relationship. In the present, Alfonse decides to put their house up for sale after Lillian’s death as it is full of memories of Lillian.

Exterior Paint: Related topics

• labor migration to the UK in the 1960s

• Windrush Generation

• discrimination

• racism

• the power of love

• interracial relationships

• protest

• activism

The Embassy of Cambodia: Author + Release Date

• Author: Zadie Smith

• Release 2013

The Embassy of Cambodia: narrative perspective

For the majority of the story omniscient third person — switches to friet person at the end of the story

The Embassy of Cambodia: Main Protagonists

• Fatou: young woman from the Ivory Coast. Has experienced abuse and seen death on her journey to London. Works as a domestic servant for the Derawals. Swimming at the Derawals’ fitness club and Sunday church and coffee with Andrew are her only pleasures.

• Andrew Okonkwo: Fatou’s friend; a Nigerian business student at the College of North West London. Educated and religious, he enjoys the Sunday conversations with Fatou on politics and religion. Offers his help when Fatou is let go by the Derawals.

The Embassy of Cambodia: Minor Characters

• The narrator of the story: a lady observing and commenting on what is going on in her neighbourhood from a balcony opposite the embassy of Cambodia.

• Fatou’s father: Takes her with him from their native Ivory Coast to Ghana, where they work in a hotel. Arranges the passage to Italy for her.

• Asma and Faizul Derawal: owners of two mini-markets. Employ Fatou as a domestic servant. They withhold her pay and passport. Immigrants themselves, they show no empathy for Fatou’s plight. When they feel guilty about their treatment of Fatou after Fatou saves their daughter from choking on a marble they fire her.

• The girl at the health club desk, where Fatou swims on Mondays. Hesitant to allow Andrew in as a guest.

The Embassy of Cambodia: Plot summary in a nutshell

This is the story of Fatou, a migrant from the Ivory Coast, who has escaped from hardship at home to work as a domestic servant for a Pakistani family in London, the Derawals. As the story in 21 pieces progresses, her life as a migrant living on the fringes of British society slowly begins to unfold, showing Fatou being tossed around like a shuttlecock in a game of badminton.

The Embassy of Cambodia: Related Topics

• global North vs. global South

• modern-day slavery

• gap between the rich and the poor

• standing on one’s own two feet

• pain and suffering

The Thing Around Your Neck: Author + Release Date

• Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

• Release: 2009

The Thing Around Your Neck: Narrative perrsoective

Second person (You)

The Thing Around Your Neck: Main Protagonists

• Akunna: 23-year-old Akunna from Nigeria wins a Green Card in America’s visa lottery, soon comes to realize that her expectations of what life in America is like are not met, finds herself stuck at the edge of society, feels foreign and becomes more and more homesick, finally returns to Nigeria

• A young American: in his late twenties, a student at state college, who knows a lot about African culture, becomes Akunna’s boyfriend, seems to be open and tolerant, however, Akunna feels more and more repelled by him as his openness towards African culture appears like a pretense.

The Thing Around Your Neck: Minor Characters

• Akunna’s uncle: offers Akunna accommodation, but demands sexual favours in return

• Juan: restaurant manager in the small Connecticut town, gives Akunna a job, but pays her less than others

• Her boyfriend’s parents: make Akunna feel welcome

• Akunna’s extended family: they have big expectations for Akunna and hope she will make it in America so she can send back presents

• Akunna’s father: his death is the final straw that breaks the camels back. Upon learning about his death she returns home to Nigeria.

The Thing Around Your Neck: Plot summary in a nutshell

After winning a visa in the American visa lottery, Akunna, a young woman leaves Lagos for the U.S. to stay with her uncle, whom she leaves after he tries to molest her. Trying to stand on her own two feet, she finds herself a job as a waitress in Connecticut, where she meets an American whom she befriends. The more the two get to know each other, the more alienated the Akunna feels. Upon hearing of her father’s death in Lagos, the young woman decides to return home

The Thing Around Your Neck: Related Topics

• Green Card lottery

• abuse

• alienation

• discrimination

• marginalization

• cross-cultural misunderstandings

• stereotypes

• American nightmares

• false hopes

• return migration

Green: Author + Release

• Author: Sefi Atta

• Release: 2004

Green: narrative perspective

First person narrator → subjective, unreliable

Green: Main Protagonists

• first-person narrator: nine years old, born in the U.S., into reading, Disney and soccer, believes in fitting in, immerses herself fully in American culture

• her parents: immigrants from Nigeria, finalizing their naturalization process to become U.S. American citizens, compared to their daughter, the father, a doctor, and the mother, a university lecturer, still feel connected to their country of origin and are more critical of the United States

Green: Minor characters / mentioned characters

• Areeba and Celeste, friends the narrator has at school

• Mr. Gonzales, the narrator’s Spanish teacher with disciplinary problems

• The narrator’s late grandpa, died one year before in Nigeria, without travel documents his son could not attend his father’s funeral

Green: Plot summary in a nutshell

The narrator accompanies her mother and father to the immigration office in New Orleans where the parents finally receive their legal documentation after nine years of procedure and waiting. Their daughter, born in the U.S. and consequently an American, is impatient to join her soccer team for a match in the evening and does not really empathize with her parents’ worries and consequent joy. Through her train of thought and the bits of conversation between her and her parents their different perceptions of the U.S. and what it means to be American become apparent.

Green: Related Topics

• naturalization process in the U.S.

• assimilation and integration of immigrants

• identity and belonging

The Southside Raza Image Federation Corps of Discovery: Author + Release Date

• Author: Luis Alberto Urrea

• Release: 2011

The Southside Raza Image Federation Corps of Discovery: narrative perspective

Omniscient third person narrator

The Southside Raza Image Federation Corps of Discovery: Main Protagonists

• Junior: junior college students (smart; does all the homework for his senior student relatives; loves reading and explorers’ stories); Chicano (= born in the USA)

• Shadow: Junior’s friend; slightly older than junior and luring him into drugs, fights and adventures

The Southside Raza Image Federation Corps of Discovery: Minor characters

• Junior’ s brother Little Ángel; they both live at their father’s Big Ángel (their mother apparently died recently →“first New Year without Moms”)

• Chango, one of his brother’s friends

• La Smiley and La Li’l Mousey (the Sotomayor sisters), two girls they are taking on a ride

• two “thugs”:two Mexicans they fight with

• border patrol agents

The Southside Raza Image Federation Corps of Discovery: Plot summary in a nutshell

During a boat trip in a stolen canoe Junior and Shadow are stopped by the border patrol. They discover that Shadow is an illegal immigrant, which he didn’t know himself. He was born in Tijuana and his parents secretly took him over the border as an infant. After that, Shadow and his family vanish.

The Southside Raza Image Federation Corps of Discovery: Related topics

• Mexican border and immigration issues (e.g. Dream Act; Title 42)

• friendship

• identity and belonging (culture clash/Junior)

• exploring places

• gangs and gang culture