Korb has a master's degree in English literature and creative writing and has written for a wide variety of educational publishers. In the following essay, Korb explores the contrasts that Marshall presents in the story.

Marshall's short story "To Da-duh, in Memoriam," revolving around a rivalry between a grandmother and a granddaughter, functions within a series of contrasts as each female tries to prove that her world is superior. "I tried giving the contests I had sensed between us a wider meaning," Marshall notes in her introduction to the story when it was included in Reena, and Other Stories . "I wanted the basic theme of youth and old age to suggest rivalries, dichotomies of a cultural and political nature, having to do with the relationship of western civiliza tion and the Third World." Marshall infuses "To Da-duh, in Memoriam" with small, careful details as well as large...