Smart Lit Summary

Langston Hughes was a 20th century American writer, best known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in 1901 in Missouri. Thank You M’am is a short story about forgiveness and compassion. The story begins with Roger, a teenager of 14 or 15 years, snatching the purse of Mrs Luella Bates Washington Jones. Mrs Jones is portrayed as a tough and brave woman who walks home at 11 o’clock in the night. Roger is a naive, adolescent boy who tries to steal Mrs Jones’ purse because he wants to buy a pair of blue suede shoes. Mrs Jones, instead of punishing the boy, drags him to her home and makes him wash his dirty face. She pities Roger as there is no one to take care of him. Roger feels scared that Mrs Jones might take him to the police. So initially, he keeps looking for an opportunity to escape from the house. Mrs Jones does not ask any personal questions to embarrass Roger. Instead, she tells about her young stage when she could not afford what ...

Exile is an Urdu short story written by Jamila Hashmi and translated into English by Alok Bhalla. The story traces the effects of the rape and abduction of women, in association to the partition of India. The narrator is a young woman who was abducted by Gurpal, her now husband, during the partition of India. She is the nameless protagonist of the story and commonly addressed by everyone as Bibi. The partition of India resulted in a lot of violence and bloodshed. It involved the rape, kidnap, mutilation and murder of several Hindu and Muslim women. Bibi is one such Muslim woman who belonged to the other side of the country. After the tragic incident, she keeps thinking of her past and her childhood memories. She feels sad about the unexpected separation from her family and longs to be united with them. Bibi’s parents were murdered by Gurpal. He had forcefully raped Bibi and dragged her to Sangraon to be his slave-wife. Bibi does not know what had happened to her brother and sister-...

A Handful of Dates is a short story written by Tayeb Salih, a renowned 20th century Sudanese writer. This story was translated into English by Denys Johnson – Davies. It is a story about exploitation, greed and injustice. It traces how the narrator, as a young boy gets epiphany about his grandfather in his childhood. The story begins with the narrator recollecting his childhood memory with his grandfather. He adores his grandfather who is also a respectable man in their village. The narrator is so good at memorising verses from the Koran, which the children of his age did not prefer. The narrator does everything possible to please his grandfather. He accompanies his grandfather wherever he goes. One day, the narrator’s grandfather explains how he had come to the village with nothing and at present half the land in the village is his. The narrator asks his grandfather about a man named Masood. His grandfather does not like the mention of his name and says that he is an irresponsible...