... crystal blue water. A pool that my body sees as a cool heaven. I am refreshed as I peacefully float among the merging waves. I am unaware of the waves that are soon to break over me. A monstrous wave has just overtaken me; its strong force knocks me to the bottom of the ocean. I am awakened as I am carried back to shore. I return to my peaceful little spot back on ... the beach. I quickly find myself once again baking under the warmth of the blistering sun. As I walk along the never ending shore, I can feel the soft smooth sand beneath my tired out feet, giving them a massage ... cryst...

• Word Count: 600
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• Grade Level: High School

... from. Pride is a noble and important characteristic we all humans should have, but sometimes too much pride can hurt us and make us blind. We don't want to believe certain things due to our pride. It is exactly how Oedipus felt once he started to realize his affiliation with Laius and Jocasta. After Teiresias confirms that Oedipus is responsible for ... King Laius, Oedipus' pride won't let him believe it at first. After other events reveal to Oedipus, it finally becomes all clear. Oedipus had carried out the prophecy of him killing his father and marrying his mother. The suffering and p...

• Word Count: 779
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• Grade Level: High School

... Night, is not just about falling in love and making jokes. Beneath all this happiness and laughter lies a considerable amount of hurt and suffering. The Duke Orsino of Illyria suffers from unrequited love. He is in love with Lady Olivia but she has no intention of getting together with him. Duke Orsino lives in a fantasy ... world where Lady Olivia and he are together and happy. Towards the end of Twelfth Night, Orsino feels betrayed by Cesario, his messenger. Lady Olivia is in mourning, for seven years, for her brother. She refuses to have anything to do with ... ...

• Word Count: 254
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... is clear that Montresor has gone insane, and Fortunato is innocent of any crime. This is ironic for a very obvious reason. The whole basis of the story is revenge, but it is not justified. Montresor has no honor to defend but he still feels justice is no being served ... also ironic that Montresor gets away with the murder. There is a sense that he and not Fortunato will, in the end, be punished. We are led this way up until the climax, when Fortunato is chained and we realize that Montresor's revenge will be carried out. The final piece of irony is that justice ... being served is a ke...

• Word Count: 398
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... as there was a window but a small one none the less. This room contained 2 beds for at least 22 people or so I was told. I was astonished to say the least I wanted no more than to get out of here but I stead fast and carried on in my plight. The next room was identical to the first except for the view from another small window. So I proceeded on ... up words The final room I entered if you could call it a room was ... the highest most point the room held 8 people 1 bed and was used to be a sky light the window was smashed all that covered it ... ...

• Word Count: 366
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... talented boy; his works with poetry were astonishing and were very noticeable even at an early age. Unknowingly, later in life, he would become the most popular British poet of the Victorian era. In 1828, Tennyson enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge. Despite his intelligence and good looks, he was excessively shy and was quite ... foam and seems asleep when he returns back out to the depths. Them the end of the day is announced with the evening bell and darkness will be coming soon. He hopes that no one will cry when he leaves, because although he may be carried beyond the limits of t...

• Word Count: 726
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... . When he comes ashore without the spoils from his struggle, Santiago consoles himself with the knowledge that he has been exonerated by his determination. Santiago's pride and fortitude are what earned his glory, not a physical memento from the encounter. Hemingway treats the concept of pride ambivalently in The Old Man and the Sea. Santiago displays a "humility was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride ... " but at the same time is driven by his pride to travel far into the sea and struggle with a huge marlin for three days. Despite a reverece ... for the fish, Santiago ...

• Word Count: 466
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• Grade Level: High School

... 's strange that this is so clear to me, now that summer has long since fled and time has had its way.? Brother begins to recall all the things that he did to Doodle to try to make him seem normal so that he would not be embarrassed in front of his schoolmates and friends. Brothers? ... been alive. Brother treated Doodle as he was a robot, or an object made of stone. He didn't really care about his feelings then, always doing cruel things to him like showing him his coffin, making him fall, making fun of him, and pushing him always to keep going. Determination is a great thing, but too .....

• Word Count: 463
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... , thick film. My eyes were blinded behind the curtain of tears and salt. All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my forehead and, indistinctly, the dazzling spear flying up from the knife in front of me. The scorching blade slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes. That's when everything began to reel. The sea carried up a thick, fiery breath. It seemed ... to me as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire. My whole ... being tensed and I squeezed my hand around the revolver. The trigger gave; I felt the smooth underside of the b...

• Word Count: 673
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• Grade Level: High School

... of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick." This quote was extracted from the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, and exemplifies the power that the war had in exploiting one's innocence. The Vietnam war drastically altered the soldier's American Dreams due to the great abundance of evil which was celebrated throughout the war. The novel The Things they Carried, the movie "Platoon," as well as an actual story from a Vietnam Veteran each, in ... their own ways, allude to the powerful ability that the Vietnam war possessed to change a soldier's thoughts ... ...

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There are many different important things I have learned in college. The one that I chose is responsibility. It is hard being on your own and college is so much different from high school. You don't realize it until you are actually on ... Waking up on my own, relying on myself to eat, doing my own laundry, having to do my homework without being told to, these are all examples of the responsibility I have learned. The hardest thing for me was waking up on my own. Not having to rely on my mom to get me up to go to school. Now I set my ... class. I still have a problem going to sleep early eno...

• Word Count: 263
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... " change in character is just the beginning of The Things They Carried. As the book continues to document what happened to the men O"Brien fought alongside, the reader continues to notice the peculiar way men change when faced with extremes. O"Brien's The Things They Carried probes deeply into the human conscience and presents it in such a way that it stirs the reader. In one chapter O"Brien ... remembers a man he killed. The only man he killed in Vietnam. The book goes on to vividly describe the ... and planes that have forever molded him into something completely different than what he...

• Word Count: 982
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... having problems trying to transfer their jobs to Galatz. That is how I came to consider him very dear to me. He was a tallish person in the year he died and had a really warm-looking face. Surprisingly, his hair wasn't at all white and did not get fattish as most old people do ... shone brightly from behind the mask of his wrinkled face. His nose was quite big and I used to make fun of him, but he never got angry. Though not a very educated man, he did know quite a lot of things which come in handy in the house. He would always know to repair things, from a broken hinge ... to electrica...

• Word Count: 369
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... poems that have something in common. Both poems have different themes, but they both use the same metaphor. The ocean is metaphorically used in the two poems. In "Crossing the Bar", Tennyson uses the metaphor or the ocean to describe the barrier between life and death. In the poem, the speaker heralds the setting of the sun and the rise of the evening star, and hears that he is being called. he hopes that ... the ocean will not make the mournful sound of waves beating against a sand bar when ... for a tide that is so full that it cannot contain sound or foam and therefor seems asleep w...

• Word Count: 365
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... where she lived and her surroundings bothered her, whereas other people where fine with what they had in life, and appreciated the simpler things. Her husband enjoyed the simpler things. When making dinner and sitting at the table, the author points out that the cloth is three days old, and the husband is happy with the home cooked meal that Mathilde makes. However, Mathilde envisions, "delicate repasts," and ... entire lifestyles to pay off the replacement necklace. "She learned the rough work of the household, the odious labors of the kitchen. She washed the dishes, wearing out her pi...

• Word Count: 1085
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... of what lies ahead of her now that she is "free". At the beginning of the story, we are told that Louise Mallard has a heart condition. This is the first sign that something might happen and is great foreshadowing of things ahead to come. Since this is a short story it gets right to the climax. Richards, who is a friend of Brently Mallard, walks through to ... foreshadowing: Louise breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. After reading that I began to wonder what might happen. After her prayer, she opened the door for Josephine and together they began to walk down the stairs. Lo...

• Word Count: 704
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• Grade Level: High School

... household. Jane wants more than anything at this time to be loved and she feels she will not have it because of al the things Mrs. Reed told Mr. Brocklehurst, and she displays her temper again, "I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you but I declare I do not love you . ... is scolded. Jane goes as far to say, "If others don't love me, I would rather die than live." Helen's response, "You think to much of the love of human beings," (69). Through example Helen teaches Jane too. Helen is punished by, Miss Scatcherd because her finger nails were not clean. Jane wonders why s...

• Word Count: 907
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• Grade Level: High School

... Robert Lipsyte, an author of a few novels, became famous for writing interesting stories about human characteristics. Lipsyte wrote The Contender, one of his more famous novels, which has many human characteristics in it, including pride. This novel has several characters who show examples ... James. I was always faster,"(p.3). Alfred means that he has always been able to run faster than James. That is one thing Alfred has pride in. Another of the many things Alfred has pride in, his own ability to fight. This is where Alfred thinks, "Do this in my sleep" (p.78). What Alfred means by thi...

• Word Count: 269
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... show that he is an Adult. As Holden is learning, there are many depressing things in the world. Holden, being the Idealist that he is, searches to find everything that needs to be changed, but never gives an alternative to the situation or thing. In the four total days that the story covers, Holden ends up getting himself from Pencey to New York where he and ... his Sister meet. While with his siter, he sees the little girl in her, so inocent to the world around her, that he thinks is so depressing. He tries to shelter Phoebe from the world by not letting her do things that he is doing....

• Word Count: 272
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• Grade Level: High School

... of his hated uncle, Hamlet exclaims "Frailty thy name is woman!" He leaps from the single example of his mother's impulsive behaviour and condemns all women for all time. This is the first of many comments by Hamlet and others, about the sometimes mysterious ways in which people change. Every thought in Hamlet's first soliloquy is painful. Hamlet reveals his own frailty when ... / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!" Further, we learn that his father's death and his mother's hasty remarriage have turned his world into "an unweeded garden / That grows to seed; things rank and gross in na...

• Word Count: 307
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... me to eliminate an approach that does not work. I certainly learned this from my dad when I helped him with jobs around the house. If we goofed something up, we didn't quit. We learned things together as we tried to repair items around the house or install new appliances, ceiling fans or fences. Ultimately, we always figured out a way to get it done. We ... , failure only occurs if you decide to quit. This experience of learning how to ride my bike and help my dad around the house, has made me not to be afraid to fail. It has pushed me to do things to improve myself and become a better p...

• Word Count: 758
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• Grade Level: High School

... to remind myself that you"re gone, and at other times, I find myself expecting you to be by my side- eager to go outside and "see the world". Yes, the world was such a small place for you- our garden, it was your world! I've never realized until now, but within you lies an inner beauty ... that finds charisma in the simpler, humbler things in life. Splendor to you is skin deep- steeped in innocence and purity- much like those rabbits you keep in our garden. The other day, mother urged me to get rid of those rabbits. I couldn't do it ... . To do so would mean to kill you an added time, wh...

• Word Count: 416
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• Grade Level: High School

... heart, by means of a prayer. This one prayer becomes the root of all deception that was to come but time could only tell if the deceit would lead to life of luxury that was so anxiously yearned for. Many look at the situation of doing harmful things, which sway in their favor, as a way to obtain ... each of their desires a bit faster, but most have learned that in the end, nothing is worth having unless it is truly worked for. Lady Macbeth, ... with her cold heart, was able to push and push for a sense of nobility, by bringing harm to those around her. The ... till this day, no one rea...

• Word Count: 368
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• Grade Level: High School

The Things They Carried The Things They Carried was full of war stories, each one telling a telling a different kind of truth. The author Tim O"Brien refers to two different kinds of truth. The first he calls the story-truth. He says "I want you to know why the story-truth is truer sometimes than the happening-truth." (Pg.179) Telling the happening-truth sometimes doesn't get the point across. The story-truth puts different images into ... exactly what that person was going through. Telling the happening-truth is just going through the motions and most of the time just telling the actual stor...

• Word Count: 854
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Paul came to believe that solving this problem would win him his mother's love. His mother regretted the day she married for love. She hated the very idea of not being rich. She allowed him to misunderstand the meaning of the word "luck". Therefore, Paul strongly believed that to be lucky meant to be rich. Now, ... all he ever thought about was how to make more money. The boy's riding of the rocking horse is ironic. Though it may have brought him "luck" in the beginning, in the end it brought him to his death. Paul did not understand that no matter how much money he ... won, it would ne...

• Word Count: 254
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School