Last Reviews on Graham Greene's Short stories

Brother

This short story is a critique on both Capitalism and Communism. Graham Greene, experience both systems. Once you experience enough things, you became a skeptic. Basically, a Barkeeper was closing down his joint because some communist were approaching. He hated them because they never payed for the drinks. Once they got inside, he resigned himself to sharing with his "comrades". Among them was a sister and her injured brother. He had a bullet in one of his legs. His sister was supporting. 

The barkeep was waiting for the police to arrive. However, something happened while he waited. He started to like the whole comrade thing. It felt nice to "belong" to their click,  even though they had just met.When the police arrive they made a major shooting. The barkeep survive because he heard them coming. While he was looking around he saw the dead body of the injured youth. He felt bad for him. While the cops (or army men, I forget) where taking check of the damages, they kept telling how much better they where than the communist. They said ,"We pay for the things we break". The barkeep was annoyed at money this, money that. When the officers ran into the youth, they asked who he was.



The barkeep ,looking down, said that he was his brother. The cops uncomfortably started shifting around for their wallets. They had the intention to pay recompense for the dead brother. As you can tell, communism is filled of freeloaders (or lazy SOBs). The problem with capitalist is that they think that money solves all problems. However, no money can amount for the life of someone. That's it in a nutshell. He could have written a long essay on the matter. However, he took the four page short story express. In any case, this short story deserves 5 star rating.

Proof Positive

The Proof Positive is kind of a weird short story. Basically, an old veteran is giving a speech to his colleges from the army. One of the soldiers was noting that the old man had a real sweet smelling hankie. The veteran kept smelling it and waving it around. At a certain point, the old man said he had proved that the soul existed. The soul was stronger than the body. It could still exert its influences, even after death. He started making less sense as his speech went along. It ended with him making some weird hissing sound. When the doctor went to check on the old man he saw that the old guy had been dead for weeks.

The soldier noted that the old man did proved that the soul existed. However, the old man also showed that whatever the soul was, its mind made less sense as time passed. This short story is a real bummer. Its kinda magic realism. I never read British magic realism. Magic realism is realism, but with weird things occurring from time to time. Works pretty well. In any case, this short story by Graham Green deserves 5 star rating.

The End of the Party

I decided to end my short story Greene blogs with "The End of the Party".  This was the first of anything that I read of Graham Greene. The story is about twins. One weak and the other strong. The strong twin senses the fears of the younger. One day, they go to a party. In the party, they used to play hide and seek in the dark. The weak twin did not want to go. The strong promised to protect him during the game.

When the lights fell, the Strong Twin looked around for his brother. He touched his face first to recognize him.  The Strong one wondered how his brother had managed thus far. When the lights turned on he realized that his twin was dead. He had died of fright because of the hand that had touched his face. His twin wondered why in the place without fear(heaven) he could still feel his brother's anguish.

This short story puts into question the ideas of heaven. A pure child instead of finding peace in death was still frighten. The dead twin did not find the Garden of Eden in death. No, his fright just seemed to be prolonged till the ends of time. For all eternity, it would seem. It really is quite the grim prognostic of death. Life after death, never seemed so bleak in this tragic short story. This last short story of Greene deserves 5 star rating. The others are just peachy, however, the one's I mentioned are my personal favorite. Tata and Goodnight.