The American dream
The prevailing theme in most of these stories is that of American dream. It is a dream of a better life than most of these characters have, a dream of a greener grass than the one they are looking at in their own country. Some of the characters live the American dream and their expectations are met, like in "A Wife's Story" where she discovers that she enjoys the freedom that she as a woman has, but some are faced with disappointment because their expectations aren't met and are stuck feeling alienated and unable to go back, like in "The Tenant" story. Nevertheless, grass might be greener on the other side, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't take a lot of effort to make it like that.
Alienation of living as an immigrant
Most of these stories center on immigrant lives in America, or in the western world in general. Some of the stories are met with happy ending, like "Buried Lives", and some not as much. But the focus lies on the alienation that all of the immigrant face living in a place that is not their home country. They face the burden of their old tradition and the vices of the modern world; they face racism and judgment because of their different looks and manners etc. In "A Wife's Story" the Indian wife is in theater and has to watch and listen to racist remarks about women from her country, she knows that if she reacts it will only add fuel to the fire. In the story "Orbiting" Renata's boyfriend from Afghanistan is faced with ignorance of her family and in the story "The Tenant" Maya feels complete alienation from both the western society and the society she came from. One important thing to note is that the writer refers to immigrants in most of the stories as "aliens".
