... , 1990). This became a much debated topic during the Fall of 2008 in California as the state debates Proposition 8, which sought constitutional support for gay marriages to be recognized as the same as heterosexual ones. Ultimately the ban on gay marriages in California was passed, which was a major setback for gay rights activities in the state. Yet San Francisco, California continues to overrule the federal ruling, honoring gay marriages, performing ceremonies ... , and providing marriage certificates. There is no residency requirement in California to gain a license for marriage and th...

• Word Count: 914
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... his new wife. As he approaches his home, Scratchy Wilson challenges him to a duel. Jack is forced to decline because he does not have his gun and he is in the presence of his new bride. Scratchy Wilson walks away dejected. Characters: Jack Plotter - town marshal of Yellow Sky, returning home with his new bride Scratchy Wilson ... - the town drunk who loves a duel Theme: This is a transition from experience to innocence. A portion of Jack's life is missing which will make him whole - he wants to become a family man. ... that Jack is now a family man with more personal response means he...

• Word Count: 287
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... uses many events that happen, to satirize institutions, and beliefs of the eighteenth century. This book is quite humorous and entertaining, but at the same time it is depressing because nothing good happeneds to most of the characters. Toward the beginning of the book Voltaire makes light of the European aristocratic beliefs of that time. He views the belief of natural superiority belief to be absurd and constantly points ... to talk to me of such a hot-headed notion? Have you no sense of shame?- (67) The second time Candide asks to marry Cunegonde it is after he saved both Cunegonde a...

• Word Count: 407
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... is at once mistress and slave; sword and shield; steel and velvet. Her place is both indoors and outdoors- not mutually exclusive. She is in the constant process of understanding the deeper significance of life summed up in the words- "Be fruitful and multiply." To a complete woman, marriage consists of a master, a mistress two slaves, making in all two! Her tears, when she is ... . One has to be careful about her stubbornness and yielding softness, complementing not contradicting each other. As a wife she has the capacity to love her husband passionately without ever letting it to inter...

• Word Count: 314
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... with trying to be a doctor where though of as radical ideas in the 1950s. Walters" wife is the opposite of Beneatha, she is the stereotypical woman staying at home and attending to the traditional duties of a woman and housewife. Racism also plays a strong role in the story. most obvious would be how the family only associates with black people because interracial relationships were unheard of. ... Another example of racism would be the residents in Clybourne Park trying to keep the Youngers from moving into their neighborhood and the segregation of the city show racism. One of the most ...

• Word Count: 263
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... and numerous possibilities of being a liberated woman to the audience. Her life that was with her husband was thought to be lengthy and full of dread, but almost instantaneously after she hears of his death, that life becomes filled with hope. Kate Chopin uses vivid imagery to convey the solitude and freedom Louise finds as she accepts the death of Mr. Mallard. We picture her weeping ... her breaking free from her troubles as a wife. "When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone." As all storms occur, we know that it will pass. After staring out her open wind...

• Word Count: 1091
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... they are dead. The domination of her husbands was the ultimate goal in all of her marriages, not equality between her and her husband. She would use her experience to get what she wanted. The Wife of Bath finds fault in "The Book of the Wicked Wives" because she feels that the stories are told from the point of view of the clerks and are not valid. The Wife of Bath ... uses her hatred of this book to ... husband. This proves that she is no better than the wicked wives in the book are. Maybe she should have taken the advice she gave the pardoner and learned from the warnings of "The Boo...

• Word Count: 530
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... can't this guy just shut up, allow for a little hope, and not come out with this wave of negativity? A.D. Moody, in his book Virginia Woolf, sheds some light on the different, and opposing roles of the parents: Mr. Ramsay stands for the world of physical nature which is the element of human life, and for the science by which it is understood "for the stark tower on its bare rock above ... got away. Mrs. Ramsay's greatest success is the dinner she orchestrates for fifteen people. Here she achieves coherence and balance. Things start out bad. Mr. Ramsay is sitting at the far end of the tab...

• Word Count: 3254
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan The novel, The Kitchen God's Wife is a true-life story told in flashbacks, by a mother (Winnie) to her daughter (Pearl). She relates the incidents that had occurred in her life when she was in China. The story begins with the memories of a six-year old, about her mother who she loves intensely. At such a tender age she experiences the pangs of separation when her mother suddenly disappears from her life. Till her marriage to Wen Fu, Winnie lives in Tsungming Island where her treatment is no better than that of an orphan. Despite all the sufferings that Winnie ...

• Word Count: 136
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... indirectly doing things for herself. She notes that if she retains her weight, then there is a higher chance of her and Leonard moving back to London, which is what she wants. "The rest cure, these years among the delphinium beds and the red suburban villas, will be pronounced a success, and she will be deemed fit for the city again" (Cunningham, 1999:34). Here, in the beginning of The Hours, Virginia ... Richmond and yearns to move back to London. This desire forms one of the main reasons for Virginia's despair and alienation, which eventually lead to her suicide. One of the reasons fo...

• Word Count: 3710
• Approx Pages: 15
• Grade Level: High School

... reasonable manner. Divorce leaves the children with feelings of anger and confusion. These feelings don't usually stem from the distaste for one parent, but rather from the stress caused by the situation. As the child grows to understand the situation more, strong feelings of anger will decline (Berger 133-134). A more common defense mechanism is acting out by the child. Berger notes acting out as being " ... Any form of deliberate misconduct on the part of the patient" "(135). Children who ... Berger notes all of these defense mechanisms as "an attempt to cope with fear, anger, and sad...

• Word Count: 1922
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... is one that is timeless; we all can relate to it. It appeals to the universal qualities and is able to transcend the here and now, it captures the meaning of an era's burning questions and issues, and creatively uses an artistic medium. The Fiddler on the Roof is one of the greatest examples of a classic movie because it contains all of those elements. It is also ... a great way to understand the hardships that the Jewish Russians went through, and it shows us how tradition was so sacred ... qualities and never goes out of style (transcends the here and now). In this day in age we marr...

• Word Count: 863
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... had an affectionate relationship; however Gatsby became overly obsessed with her and made their relationship dissipate. This is an example in The Great Gatsby of Betrayal. "I want to wait here till Daisy goes to bed. Good night, old sport" (153). In this novel Daisy betrays Gatsby by no longer showing affection. In Hamlet, betrayal is also an important theme. When ... Hamlet's father is murdered in the night, his mother remarries in no time, showing no emotion for her former husband's death. This is betrayal to Hamlet ... by his old friend Stradlater. Stradlater goes off and dates the ...

• Word Count: 451
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... or custom validity or religion or practical validity. According to social customs, marriage is valid to perpetuate human race while showing respect to the religious customs of the time. A decline in religious values has brought about a drop in the importance of marriage. Long ago, there was arranged marriages but slowly diverged to love marriages. Love marriage took a while to be accepted by ... more into live-in relationships. They prefer to create a live-in relationship without even considering the civil or religious aspect of marriage. Hence, due to this, marriage has lost its primary ...

• Word Count: 554
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... love but attracted by their similarities and the ambitions of having what their parents had in hope to fill that cultural void. Gogol's mixed cultural heritage enables him to show his love towards his family, especially his father. It doesn't mean he doesn't love them. His father, gave Gogol a copy of the Book The Overcoat by Nikholai Gogol, for his 14th birthday. At that moment, Gogol ... pay no mind to it, but now finding it again he sees the dedicatory ... from his father towards him, "The man who gave you his name, from the man who gave you your name "(288). His conflictions with h...

• Word Count: 864
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... over time. When you see your partner in the light of reality their imperfections surface. The young girl in "The Hand," wanted to be married and in love to her new husband and almost had herself convinced that she was - until she saw his one, unavoidable flaw; his hand. That love was quickly extinguished, like snuffing out the small flame of a candle, when she realized that ... she was not in love with him, but in love ... with the idea of being in love ... ...

• Word Count: 486
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... submissive and controlled. "Then she concealed her fear, bravely subdued herself, and, beginning her life of duplicity ..she leaned over and humbly kissed the monstrous hand" (Colette 229). As the bride's perception of the hand changed, her perception of the man changed as well. She no longer saw him as her knight in shining armor but as an animal, who"d come to control her ... . She was frightened by the hand and what it represented. The setting reinforces the intrusion of her life. They are lying in their bedroom together. We think of our bedrooms as a sacred place where we can get awa...

• Word Count: 421
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... submissive and controlled. "Then she concealed her fear, bravely subdued herself, and, beginning her life of duplicity ..she leaned over and humbly kissed the monstrous hand" (Colette 229). As the bride's perception of the hand changed, her perception of the man changed as well. She no longer saw him as her knight in shining armor but as an animal, who"d come to control her ... . She was frightened by the hand and what it represented. The setting reinforces the intrusion of her life. They are lying in their bedroom together. We think of our bedrooms as a sacred place where we can get awa...

• Word Count: 421
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... give up hope that her husband Odysseus is still alive. Every night after Penelope has woven the shroud for the day she undoes all that she has done for the day. " But when the season brought the fourth around, one of her maids, who knew the secret, told us; we found her unraveling the splendid shroud. She had to finish then, although then, although she hated it." (223) In book five ... Odysseus is on the island of Oqygqia with the goddess Kalypso. He has ... . " in his stone seat to seaward- tear on tear brimming his eyes. The sweet days of his life time knew running out in anguish over...

• Word Count: 622
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... poem because it is a short poem that expresses the feelings of one speaker, the mother. The words soap, ring, and boots are repeated in the poem. The boots are a part of the son's childhood but the ring used to describe the arrangement of the boots connects to the son's wedding ring and how the mother feels the time she spent with her son when he was a child is slipping away. It is also ... somewhat ironic that the soap that the mother describes as aiding ... her son in escaping her grasp is the thing that ... ...

• Word Count: 362
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... Billie Letts chose to write this book from a nontraditional family standpoint because it would help people "cope- with the fact that a growing number of people come from nontraditional families. Many kids these days come from broken homes. This book shows that despite the fact that homes aren't nontraditional, love is still within them. I think that the traditional family is still frequently portrayed ... as mother/father/children because people are afraid to accept the reality of how common other families are. Despite the fact that people embrace different forms of family life, ... ha...

• Word Count: 419
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... is gaining a better understanding of him. We are beginning to see a turn around in his attitude, as opposed to that which it was in the beginning. Another interesting relationship which is presented is the one between the husband and wife. Not once in the story do we hear him say her name. He continually refers to her as "my wife", which I think suggests a distance between ... them. Robert on the other hand, was the only character to be given a name. I wondered why would the author did this? Throughout the beginning of the story I was also wondering in what way ... the title would play...

• Word Count: 572
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... little impression," that is what Thomas Hardy starts off the book as the title of the first chapter depicting Egdon Heath, the major symbol in the book. Although there are many interpretations of what the heath symbolizes, one the most prominent reasons is that it is a symbol of fate. The person whom is victimized is most by fate is Eustacia Vye. She is the character who tries so hard to leave ... too. She tries very hard to set herself up with the right guy who will help her leave the place which she despises the most. Eustacia craved the glamour and intensity of a fast life that is no...

• Word Count: 590
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... was a very difficult assignment for me because I didn't know exactly what I could leave behind to offer to others and future generations. I was contemplating talking about my terrific experiences with the handicapped or meeting so many different types of people in my life, I finally decided that I want to be remembered as a loving, genuinely kind, and honest person. All of the traits that I hope ... that people see in me I have because of what I have experienced in life due to my family members and my relationships with my friends. The reason that I chose to do my project about the relat...

• Word Count: 310
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... or harmed Morag. They loved her as if she were their own daughter. However in privacy, Morag admired Christie's wisdom and she enjoyed listening to his stories he was telling her. The snapshots of "The Diviners" reveal Morag's past. The entire novel deals with her childhood in a small Manitoba town and later on as a young adult in Vancouver, where she decides to study. Morag ... Vancouver. Both were married to professional men. Laurence married an engineer and Morag an English professor. Moreover, Laurence and Morag were working on a local newspaper. Laurence was born in Manitoba, the s...

• Word Count: 785
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School