The paper proposes to analyze the genre of the short story as a vehicle to portray the surface image of the country. The characteristics of ‘resistance’ and ‘retrieval’ occur in the stories of Murray Bail, Peter Carey, Frank Moorhouse, Michael Wilding, David Brooks and Tim Winton. The stories show the conflict inherent in human relationships. They are voices of resistance against impositions of hostility, which is to be deterred, opposed or controlled. The writers mentioned above have varied interpretation of their past and traditions, due to their varied perceptions of the contemporary present of the East that is South Asia, especially countries like India, SriLanka and Pakistan. What fascinates the readers in these writers is their mytho-poetic imagination, which makes them so different from each other. The paper concentrates on stories rather than authors, because a story maps the geographical, emotional and literary range of a country, from fable to the narration of intimate moments, which is true for all the writers mentioned.