Don’t Call Me by My Right Name (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: James Purdy
- First Published: 1956
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: A mid-twentieth century Halloween evening
- Setting: An unspecified city
- Principal Characters: Lois Klein, Frank Klein
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction
- Subjects: Self, Domestic violence, Names, Size or shape, Parties, Aging, Halloween
- Locales: United States
The Story
Lois Klein decides that although she likes her husband Frank, to whom she has been married for six months, she does not care for his last name. Her maiden name, Lois McBane, by which she was known both professionally and socially, provided her with a sense of identity that she feels she has lost through her marriage. What it is about the name that annoys her she cannot say, but clearly it involves the fact that because she is a large, middle-aged woman, the name “Klein,” German for “small,” is inappropriate for her appearance. How long this discontent has been...
[The entire page is 1477 words long]
