Short Stories

I found it interesting that both the short stories featured a plot about wealth. Neither The Lawsuit or The Long Term Plan depicted the possession of wealth as a positive element. In fact there is a line in TLTP where the widowed servant-woman says "idle hands are unclean" (172). I think this means that he is a dishonest man for not having employment. al-Bagli "loathes" work and chooses instead to pester his mother who is elderly and supports her son with her pension. When she dies the house remains and once al-Bagli is in his seventies he sells the property to a company for half a million. The enjoyment is short lived because the man dies later that day. In the Lawsuit a "pretty young wife" is suspected of taking their father's money after his death. The narrator gets a good education and makes a sustainable living. However the wife that had married his father is asking for support from the son whom she says should be responsible for her. The son finds out that she too was robbed and she has grown unattractive and poor. Once he discovers this it seems to change his attitude about the situation. Both stories feature wealth as their primary obstacle within a lifetime. The Lawsuit might be likened to an alimony situation here in the United States, but I think The Long Term Plan captures an easily understandable situation for a Western audience.