Great American Short Stories

For this Boomerang, we’ll focus on:

“The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” by Stephen Crane
“The Egg” by Sherwood Anderson 
“Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather
“A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin

As an alternative to purchasing the book (link below), you can also access all four stories covered in the Boomerang through public domain sources on the internet or through The Project Gutenberg site (links above).

A note about content

These stories touch on mature themes of human experience—love, unexpected windfall, but also danger, stolen luxuries, race, poverty, and death (including suicide in “Paul’s Case”). By using classic literature as a teaching tool to foster understanding and growth, the intimate nature of language and history blend to provide a context in which to discuss these evolving ideologies. You, as the parent, can decide how far you want to step into the room of discourse with your teens as you explore these works. We highly recommend you preread each story before sharing it with your teen and review the content provided in this Boomerang to help you teach these stories in historical context.