Personal Responsibility

This is the collection's primary theme, a concern with individuals taking responsibility for themselves for their own well being, for their own futures, and for their identities. Over and over again, the fables explore situations in which individuals hand over responsibility for their lives to other people such as "The Bridge," define themselves by how others respond to them such as "The Wallflower," or become focused on external circumstances to the eventual detriment of their own self-worth and well being such as "Caught in Her Own Web." At the same time, both the collection and the stories within it seem to celebrate individuals who take a strong, self-responsible, independent stance such as "Panic," who insist that the voice of their unique personal experience be heard such as "Cinderella," or refuse to give in to the will of others and thereby define their own destiny such as "An...