‘And whatever I touch, it’s sand sand sand.’
The unnamed narrator in ‘The Kangaroo Communique’ is a very lonely person. He becomes obsessed with a woman who sent a complaint letter to his company, and starts recording a message for her telling her about himself and his thoughts. As part of his thoughts, he tells her of the story of Egyptian Sandman, saying that the Sandman was born to a rich Egyptian king but was left in jungles to die as he was very ugly. The Sandman grew up among animals and whatever came into his contact turned into sand. He later jokes that he created the whole tale. But, he can resonate with what that Sandman could have felt had he been real. This symbolizes the feeling of being alone and miserable and everything coming in his contact becoming as unfriendly or lifeless as sand.
‘See, then, you little monster, you have no idea what a woman is.’
In ‘The Little Green Monster’, the unnamed narrator is trapped by a green monster in her own house. The monster could communicate and listen to her thoughts. He also could get affected by her thoughts. As he comes, he professes his love for her, but she gets scared. She also comes to realizes the power her thoughts have on him and decide to use them as a means to kill him. She tortures him brutally with her thoughts. He claims he doesn’t want to harm her, but she says that he came without permission, unlocked her door, began to lay a claim on her as if she was an object. The story symbolizes the struggle of a woman to live by her means and consent, irrespective of the person professing love to her.
Letters
In ‘A Window’, the narrator works as a trainer at a letter-writing school, where he teaches women of different ages to write good letters. Soon, he realizes that most women were actually better than him and the only reason he was popular as a trainer, because the women liked to talk to him. The letters symbolize the loneliness and the monotony in the lives of women.
Lack of sleep
The narrator in ‘Sleep’ is a dutiful wife and mother. Her husband isn’t very conservative but has a strict code of conduct and in taking care of her household duties, she realizes that she doesn’t invests as much time in the things she liked as she did when she was a young girl. After she develops insomnia, and realizes that she isn’t affected by the lack of seep as people usually do, she starts reading books, drinking alcohol, having night-time soirees. For her, lack of sleep became a way to live her life the way she wanted to. The lack of sleep symbolizes the lack of purpose in her life.
Dancing
In ‘The Dancing Dwarf’, the narrator is living peacefully in a dystopian society where everyone has to work on manufacturing real elephants. To help him seduce a girl, he allows a dancing dwarf to possess his body. However, looking at his ‘dance’ he is realized to be possessed and a man hunt is issued for him. He escapes but is constantly lured by the dwarf to let the dwarf possess his body. The story is left in a cliffhanger as the soldiers approach him. The dance is symbol of an art form that a feudalistic government wants to cover or hide so as to not let dissent in the public. The narrator is in a fix as the dwarf won’t let him be, but make him do it and the government won’t leave him alone in hopes to kill any dissent.
