Common Theme

There were really several common themes in these stories, but the main one was selfishness. All four involved people who seemed to care only about looking out for number one. In each story, a main character caused dissappointment by being selfish. Normally, being a little selfish is not a bad thing. A little selfishness keeps things going and leaves room for proper competition. These guys took it to extremes. Good grief, look at what happened: A guy marries a girl for a car; A girl insults her family in pursuit of chess greatness; a father lies to his daughter for years to preserve her good opinion of him; and a boy tosses the blame on everyone but himself before running away. These do not seem like your average acts of humanity. Well, okay, maybe in some African countries they may still be socially acceptable, but this is America!
What really bugged me was that no one, in any of the stories, really threw any effort into being a better person. Oh, sure, they tried to be better at their hobbies, or pastimes, but never into themselves. It was almost as if each character viewed the world as "It is me against the universe, I don't need help and I am not going to lose." I hate to inform the characters, but THAT IS NOT HOW THINGS WORK IN REAL LIFE. Maybe in loonyville people can succeed with that attitude, but this isn't loonyville and thes people need to GET WITH THE PROGRAM. End of rant and, for that matter, end of short stories-Yay!