Revolt of the Evil Fairies”, “A Perfect Day for Banana Fish” and “Bagatelles” each have an invisible presence that is so rumor that it could just as easily be a character. “Revolt of the Evil Fairies” indirectly addresses the theme of racism, while “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” alludes to materialism and “Trifles” touches on the subject of sexism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayIn Ted Poston's “The Rebellion of the Evil Fairies,” a young African-American boy is denied the role of Prince Charming in the school play. Not because of a lack of ability or talent, but because of the color of his skin. Obviously, the invisible presence in this short story is racism. While the narrator, a sixth grader, talks about the play and the events that occur, the short story indirectly addresses racism and the fact that it is almost always swept under the rug and ignored. As in many other real-life situations, where no matter how hard he or another person of color worked, "it was accepted that the absence of pigmentation was a decided advantage" (Poston). The play is ironically called a "modern morality play about the conflict between the forces of good and evil" by Miss LaPrade, as she and the other teachers discriminate against their students based solely on skin color (Poston). After the narrator is denied the role of Prince Charming, he can see that “the teachers sensed my resentment. They were almost apologetic” (Poston). This means that they knew what they were doing was wrong but did not fully regret it. The play is interrupted by a fight between the narrator and the boy chosen to be Prince Charming. Eventually, the whole scene turns into a fight, resulting in the curtains closing momentarily. Shortly after, “they brought up the curtain fifteen minutes later and we finished the play” (Poston). This illustrates how the issue of racism is treated in society. When a problem arises, it is put aside until it calms down and can be forgotten again. Each of these points is relevant because, just like today, racism is generally ignored or accepted without question. “A Perfect Day for Banana Fish” by JD Salinger symbolically addresses the issue of materialism. There are two main symbols of materialism in this story: the greedy "banana fish" and sunburn. It all starts with a phone call between a woman, Muriel, and her mother. The conversation constantly shifts from pointless gossip to Seymour, Muriel's husband, and quickly returns to gossip. Although the two can't stay away from the gossip for long, what Muriel's mother says strongly suggests that Seymour has a serious mental health problem. During the phone call, it is important to note that Muriel states that she is "so sunburned she can barely move" and that Seymour is "pale" and "won't take off her bathrobe" ( Salinger). Although it is obvious that Seymour is not well, the severity of his illness is not because Muriel does not seem worried at all. When they are about to hang up, she says, "Call me as soon as he does or says something funny – you know what I mean," to which Muriel responds, "Mother, I don't "I'm not afraid of Seymour" (Salinger). At the beach, a little girl named Sybil is coated in suntan oil by her mother. The fact that the mother applies tanning oil to her daughter, which will result inprobably a sunburn, represents the way materialism is passed on in an almost natural way from our parents or from people we admire. Sybil is innocent and only allows her mother to use suntan oil because she doesn't know any better. She runs to the beach and finds Seymour, who tells her a story about the banana fish. Seymour says banana fish “lead a very tragic life,” “they swim in a hole where there are a lot of bananas. They are very ordinary looking fish when they swim. But once inside, they behave like pigs. Why, I have known one banana fish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas” (Salinger). The banana fish represents people in society who start out ordinary and become materialistic. Sybil says she sees a banana fish, but it only had six bananas in its mouth. This banana fish represents Sybil – she is young and innocent at the moment but is becoming a materialistic person, just like the tanning oil symbolized before. The two break up and Seymour heads to his hotel room where he suddenly commits suicide next to his sleeping wife. At the beginning of the story, it is evident that Seymour Glass is psychologically damaged by the war, but as the story progresses, it becomes clear that he is not able to cope with the materialism of the company, among other perhaps unnamed things. “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell revolves around the subject of sexism. A woman, Mrs. Wright, is imprisoned for the murder of her husband and while the sheriff and county attorney investigate her home, their wives accidentally solve the whole crime while "worrying over trifles" (Glaspell). The two wives, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, wait downstairs while the men investigate and begin discussing a quilt that Mrs. Wright had begun to put together. Mrs. Hale said, “I wonder if she was going to quilt it or just tie it?” just as the men come down (Glaspell). The sheriff interrupts, saying, "They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just tie it," to which the men laugh (Glaspell). This was an attempt to degrade women who were only there to help. The men come out and Mrs. Hale continues to examine the quilt, “look at this one,” “look at the stitching!” Everything else has been so nice and even. And look at this! It's everywhere!", "Why do you think she was so nervous?" (Glaspell). They then find an empty birdcage and a fancy box. Opening the box, Mrs. Hale finds a bird that has been twisted its neck, as Mr. Wright had been with a rope in his sleep It is obvious that the bird was special to Mrs. Wright and was murdered The men interrupt again and Mrs. Hale hides the. 'bird. This time it's the county attorney who decides to be rude to the two women: "well, ladies, have you decided whether she's going to quilt it or tie it (Glaspell)?" to continue the investigation upstairs Once the men have left, Mrs. Hale continues the conversation about the bird: “[Mr.] Wright would not like the bird – a thing that sang. killed that too” (Glaspell) After marrying Mr. Wright, Mrs. Wright became reclusive, so much so that her friend didn’t even know her pet bird and she stopped singing. Mrs. Hale says, “I could have known she needed help!” I know how things can be – for women, I tell you, it's weird, Mrs. Peters. We live close to each other and we live far from each other. We're all going through the same things – it's just a different kind of the same thing", meaning that the.