Essay Questions

Elucidate the concealed Biblical Allusion in “A Burglar's Christmas.”

“A Burglar's Christmas” is comparable to the Biblical “Parable of the Prodigal Son”. When Willie resists his mother’s cuddle and kiss, the mother proclaims, "Who is it says I shall not kiss my son? O, my boy, we have waited so long for this! You have been so long in coming, even I almost gave you up." Besides, Willie strives to reveal his mother that he is a thief who does not merit her wholesome fondness, yet her mother avers, “Hush, my boy, those are ugly words. How could you rob your own house? How could you take what is your own? They are all yours, my son, as wholly yours as my great love and you can't doubt that, Will, do you?"

Willie’s inadvertent homecoming is a climax that echoes the Biblical prodigal son’s noteworthy appearance. Willie’s mother’s unreserved elation and reception are equivalent to prodigal son’s father’s resounding euphoria. Instead of rebuking Willie for bidding to steal and for disenchanting the household, his mother unqualifiedly appreciates his astonishing presence. The evolution of proceedings is life-altering since it redeems Willie; otherwise he would have graduated his robbery abilities. Willie’s father sponsors the quintessence of clemency he ratifies his wife’s appeals to safeguard that Willie will not leave. The dictum of “A Burglar's Christmas” is : Empathy is an utter therapy for depravity and previous damages. Had Willie’s parents not pardoned him and disregarded the accountability for their flaws, Willie’s gambles of grace would have incontestably shrivelled.

Provide a Marxist scrutiny of Percy Bixby’s incentive to court and wed Stella Brown in The Bookkeeper's Wife.”

The engagement and matrimony are irrefutably finance-motivated or monetarily- quantified: “It was n't, he told himself for the hundredth time, that she was extravagant. Not a bit of it. She was like all girls. Moreover, she made good money, and why should she marry unless she could better herself? The trouble was that he had lied to her about his salary… It was because he felt himself pitted against this pulling power of Greengay's that Percy had brazenly lied to Mrs. Brown, and told her that his salary had been raised to fifty a week, and that now he wanted to get married.” Percy Bixby purposely fibs about his paycheck to spread the suggestion that he is in a better financial state than is Greengay, who is also smitten by Stella Brown. Mrs. Brown (Stella’s mother) is the prominent in commodifying her daughters; all she is fascinated with is that they espouse well-heeled men who would have the capability to bestow them prosperous regimes. Perhaps, if Percy Bixby had unaffectedly divulged his factual incomes, he would have been spontaneously disregarded from the tournament of conquering Stella.