Common Theme

After reading all four short stories, I was able to pick out one theme. This theme, I thought played a big part in all four stories. This common theme was selfishness. In every single short story one of the main characters showed selfishness in one way or another. In the short story The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Mr. Shiftlet finds himself in a very promising predicament where he can gain a car at no cost to him. Mr. Shiftlet ends up hurting an old woman and her deaf daughter because of his own selfishness. In the short story Rules of the Game, the same incident reappears. Though it is a parent that ends up hurting her own child. Waverly's mother ends up using Waverly's talents to try to kick their family up on the social ladder. This upsets Waverly a great deal that her mother would take advantage of her talents like that. The short story Book of the Dead also exhibits the theme of selfishness, and like Rules of the Game a parent hurts their child. In the Book of the Dead Ms. Bienaime's father hurts her because of how he lied to her all of her life, and how he gets rid of her statue out of selfishness. Out of all four short stories I believe that a Teenage Wasteland exhibited the most selfishness. All throughout the story Donny did nothing except for take advantage of his parents who where only trying to help him. That is why I picked selfishness as my common theme.