Summaries | Lecturia

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown. Summary and analysis

Plot summary: One afternoon, Goodman Brown says goodbye to his wife, Faith, and goes into a forest near Salem to meet a mysterious man carrying a snake-shaped staff who seems to know dark secrets about the young man’s ancestors and neighbors. As they go deeper into the forest, Brown discovers with growing horror that respected people in his community — such as his former catechism teacher, the deacon, and even the minister of the church — are participating in a coven. In desperation, he thinks he hears his wife’s voice among the attendees and apparently sees her being initiated into a satanic ritual. At the climax, just as the Devil is about to mark them both, Brown cries out to heaven and wakes up alone in the middle of the forest. On returning to the village, he cannot discern whether what he experienced was real or a dream, but the doubt torments him. From then on, he lives consumed by mistrust, convinced that evil dwells even in the most virtuous. He grows old, bitter, and lonely, never recovering his faith or his peace, and dies cut off from the world beneath a tombstone bearing no words of hope.

Edgar Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado. Summary and analysis

Edgar Allan Poe - El tonel de amontillado. Resumen y análisis

Plot summary: Montresor, a man driven by a desire for revenge, carefully plans the murder of Fortunato, whom he considers responsible for multiple grievances. Taking advantage of his victim’s pride in his knowledge of wines, he deceives him during the carnival by making him believe he possesses a rare cask of amontillado. Using this as an excuse, he leads him to his family’s catacombs, located under his palace. Once there, after a series of deceptions disguised as courtesy, he locks him in a hidden niche and buries him alive, building a brick wall. Fortunato, who at first shows disbelief, ends up understanding his fate, while Montresor carries out his crime with serenity and without remorse. Decades later, he confesses to the murder with cold satisfaction and reveals that he was never discovered.

Jorge Luis Borges: The Interloper. Summary and analysis

Jorge Luis Borges - La intrusa. Resumen y análisis

The Interloper (La intrusa) is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, published in 1970 in the book El informe de Brodie. It tells the story of the Nilsen brothers, rough and lonely men who live together in an isolated house in Turdera. Their life changes when Cristián brings Juliana to live with them, a woman whose presence threatens to disrupt life in the home. The story describes with realism and rawness how the bonds between the brothers begin to change as a silent rivalry grows between them.

Gabriel García Márquez: The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World. Summary and analysis

Gabriel García Márquez - El ahogado más hermoso del mundo. Resumen y análisis

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World is a short story by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1972 in the book The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother. The story begins when some children discover a corpse washed up in a small, isolated coastal village. When the body is brought to the town, the inhabitants are surprised by its enormous size and strange beauty. As they try to understand who this man was, his silent presence begins to awaken a series of emotions, thoughts and unexpected transformations in the community.

Isaac Asimov: The Ugly Little Boy. Summary and analysis

Isaac Asimov - El niño feo. Resumen y análisis

The Ugly Little Boy is a short story by Isaac Asimov, published in September 1958 in the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction. The story revolves around a scientific experiment carried out by the company Stasis, Inc., which manages to bring a Neanderthal child from forty thousand years ago back to the present. Locked up in a controlled space and observed as an object of study, the child is assigned to the care of Edith Fellowes, a nurse who begins to relate to him beyond his appearance and origin.

Octavia E. Butler: Bloodchild. Summary and analysis

Bloodchild is a short story by Octavia E. Butler, published in June 1984 in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. The story follows Gan, a young human living on a reservation controlled by the Tlic, an alien species with whom humans have established a dependency relationship. From birth, Gan has been destined for a unique role within this society: he will be the bearer of the offspring of T’Gatoi, an influential Tlic who has taken care of his family. Without question, he has accepted his destiny until one night, he witnesses an event that forces him to reconsider.