Stories of Ourselves Volume 2: Overview
Stories of Ourselves Volume 2
In Paper 1, Section B (Prose), you’ll answer one question on one story from this selection. You’ll choose between:
- A passage-based question (analyse how the writer creates effects in a printed extract)
- An essay-style question (explore a theme, character, or idea across the whole story)
You’ll need to revise all the selected short stories because examiners can ask questions of any of the following ten short stories from the Stories of Ourselves anthology. Follow the links for dedicated revision notes on each of the stories:
| Story No. | Story title | Author | Date |
|---|
| 3 | Nick | Christina Rossetti | 1850 |
| 14 | The Woman’s Rose | Olive Schreiner | 1899 |
| 26 | The Black Ball | Ralph Ellison | 1937 |
| 30 | The Gold Watch | Mulk Raj Anand | 1959 |
| 35 | When It Happens | Margaret Atwood | 1977 |
| 37 | The Man Who Walked on the Moon | J.G. Ballard | 1985 |
| 38 | A Walk to the Jetty | Jamaica Kincaid | 1985 |
| 40 | Showing the Flag | Jane Gardam | 1989 |
| 47 | Haywards Heath | Aminatta Forna | 2010 |
| 49 | Fluke | Romesh Gunesekera | 2014 |
Stories of Ourselves Volume 2: Summaries
Summaries of each short story
Nick by Christina Rossetti
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| A man’s envious wishes lead to transformations (sparrows, dog, stick, fire, old man) until he learns to be humble. | Envy, punishment and redemption, morality | Fairy-tale allegory, omniscient narrator with direct address, symbolism of transformations |
The Woman’s Rose by Olive Schreiner
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| A young woman recalls rivalry with another girl in a male-dominated settlement, ending in rare solidarity symbolised by a rose. | Patriarchy, rivalry versus sisterhood, solidarity, memory | Allegory, symbolism (rose, light and dark), reflective flashback structure |
The Black Ball by Ralph Ellison
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| John, a Black janitor, reflects on his son’s future, his union struggles, and the metaphorical “black ball” of exclusion. | Racism, injustice, fatherhood, hope for change | First-person narration, symbolism (“black ball”), irony, colour imagery |
The Gold Watch by Mulk Raj Anand
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| Sharma is forced to retire after 20 years of service, receiving only a gold watch as a hollow token of colonial “reward”. | Colonial exploitation, ageism, futility of loyalty, disillusionment | Irony, symbolism (watch, Buick versus train), satirical tone, omniscient narration |
When It Happens by Margaret Atwood
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| Farm wife Mrs Burridge obsessively prepares for a vague disaster, torn between practicality and paranoia. | Fear, isolation, utopia versus dystopia, history and memory | Shifts in tense, symbolism (gun, fortress, food), cyclical ending |
The Man Who Walked on the Moon by J.G. Ballard
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| A drifter befriends Scranton, who claims to be an astronaut, only to inherit his delusional identity after his death. | Identity, delusion versus reality, alienation, freedom | Unreliable first-person narrator, cyclical structure, irony, astronaut imagery as metaphor |
A Walk to the Jetty by Jamaica Kincaid
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| Annie leaves Antigua for England, reflecting critically on family, colonial upbringing, and her own independence. | Adolescence, colonial identity, rebellion, migration | First-person subjective narration, irony, symbolism (jetty, sea) |
Showing the Flag by Jane Gardam
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| Young Philip travels alone to France, clinging to a Union Jack as a symbol of identity and security. | Family separation, cultural identity, childhood anxiety, maternal guilt | Irony, symbolism (flag, suitcase, food), dialogue shaping misunderstanding |
Haywards Heath by Aminatta Forna
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| Attila visits his old love Rosie in an English care home, only to find her lost to dementia. | Memory, lost romance, past versus present, diaspora identity | Omniscient narration, symbolism (Jaguar car, sweets), nostalgic imagery, pathos |
Fluke by Romesh Gunesekera
| One-sentence plot summary | Key themes and ideas | Key language features |
|---|
| Taxi driver Vasantha contrasts his modest business and peace of mind with a businessman’s obsession with status and technology. | Tradition versus modernity, illusion versus reality, nature versus artifice | First-person monologue, humour, symbolism (sea, phone, “good chi”), irony |
Stories of Ourselves Volume 2: Tips for success
Tips for success
- Read the question carefully and highlight the key words
- Use precise quotations (short phrases or single words) to support points
- Focus on the writer’s choices of language, structure, and form
- Avoid just retelling the story — always link back to the question
- Write a short plan, keep responses structured, and end with a personal response to the text
Sources
Wilmer, M (ed.), 2018, Stories of Ourselves: Cambridge Assessment International Education Anthology of Stories in English Volume 2, Cambridge University Press.