"Flowering Judas" (1930) a short story by Porter in which an idealistic young woman is betrayed by the group of Mexican revolutionaries when she fails to see them for who they really are.

"A Rose for Emily" (1931) by William Faulkner, a short story about the death of an eccentric Southern woman.

"The Death of Ivan Ilych" (1886) by Leo Tolstoy, a novella in which a dying Everyman tries to justify his actions and beliefs during his life.

"A Worn Path" (1941) by Eudora Welty, astory in which an aging African-American woman persistently continues on a difficult trek into the town of Natchez, Mississippi, in order to obtain medicine for her sick grandson.