"Linden Hills", by Gloria Naylor successfully creates a chilling argument against oppressive patriarchal societies and families. She vividly exposes the implications of what can happen to a society when cultural traits, morality and close family and neighborhood ties take a backseat to the attainment of material things and status become ... Willie, an outsider from Putney Wayne with no education and no money, is the one with the greatest amount of character and morality. As Lester and Willie travel throughout Linden Hills in an effort to make a little money, they encounter residents who have...

• Word Count: 2802
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In "The Inheritance of Values" written by Pauli Murray, she discusses how each family member had a part in making her who she is today. Each family member had to work extremely hard to ... Pauli Murray became the person she is today because of her family's work ethics and her drive to succeed in life. In the story, The Inheritance of Tools, by Scott Randall Sanders, the most noticeable trait he inherits that later shapes who he is, is personality. Sander later goes on how to explain how the tools he uses ... owe it to the tree to cut it straight" (Sanders, 507). Sanders takes this lesson and...

• Word Count: 742
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... his views on marriage and relationships. These vary in both view and approach throughout the main characters. There are many marriages and relationships within the play, which are Petruchio and Katherina; Bianca and Katherina; Bianca and Baptista; Katherina and Baptista, and Hortensio and the Widow. The general view of ... , and this means that Baptista is trying to educate her with the best teachers available. It is because of this that Katherina is almost neglected by Baptista, and does not get as much attention from him as Bianca does. This has led to her shrewish personality, and se...

• Word Count: 1572
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... with my new stepmother I could feel the hate from her. I was made to sleep in the laundry room on a broken cot. I was always the last to be able to go play and was always given the most chores to do. The clothing and toys my real mother would buy me would be given to her children. She would always call me ... known David since I was 5 years old. We used to have races at the bus stop before school and would hang out after school, whenever the nazi stepmother would let me play. I was on a bus for like ever, but really 5 days. When I arrived at the station in Melbourne, Fl., I took the lon...

• Word Count: 1129
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The play "Antigone" by Sophocles, is unquestionably a tragedy, however the question remains: whose tragedy is it? In essence, is it a tragedy for one or two characters in the play or is it rather a tragedy for the entire populace of the city of Thebes? It is a tragedy in varying degrees, from somewhat tragic to extremely tragic. Analyzing the play it is easy to see tragedy from ... Haimon, King Kreon's son, and future husband of Antigone. Unlike Thebes and Ismene, we have no previous knowledge of tragedy prior to the play for Haimon, so his place here is earned by the tragedy he faces within ...

• Word Count: 964
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the play "Fences" by August Wilson, the character Troy is shown as a man who has hurt the people who are closest to him without even realizing it. He has acted insensitive and uncaring to his wife, Rose, his brother, Gabriel, and his son, Cory. At the beginning of the story, Troy feels he has done right by ... he put a roof over his son's head and fed him. Cory was scared of his father and he didn't really love him. Troy didn't want Cory to play football. This made Cory dislike him even more. He wanted Cory to work at the A&P. In Troy's mind this was a nice, safe job. He only did ...

• Word Count: 1075
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The play "Stolen" tells the story of five Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their parants and brought up in a tyrannic and forceful children's home. The pain and suffering they experienced is clearly ... , Sandy and Anne helplessly try to fight the Welfare and reach their families but are disadvantaged because of their origin. They struggle to fit in a society which brings them up by telling them that their families are dead and they will never be able to see them. All three characters are angry at the Welfare or at their families, since Shirley ... the Aboriginal families and had th...

• Word Count: 432
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

All By Myself It is a fact that there are millions of single parent homes. In a majority of these cases the father is the absent parent, whether it maybe from a divorce or some ... my little brother, I missed out many of the things that children my age were suppose to do. I could not ride my bike, play kickball, or race on the water slide. It was not fair watching the other kids play from the window. The most important issue of all was money. Although our mother managed to put food on the table and clothes ... ...

• Word Count: 549
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... then consequently becomes overprotective of his only daughter because he can no longer see the good in people. This idea changes in Knemon by the end of the play because of the good deed that Sostratos does for him by getting him out of the water well. However even though he receives the idea that there is some good in people he still ... in Menander's "Dyskolos" does not have a name nor many lines. The main female character in the play, in which the play is ultimately centered around posses the name of Girl. In the play she is addressed as "the girl" or "free girl" throughout the entir...

• Word Count: 1947
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... discussed in Martin Golan's short story called ''The Arena'' from 2008. This short story is about a man which name we do not get to know. The short story goes by in one morning with a lot of flashbacks in time. It is about a man who is going to drop off his son at an arena where the son is going to ... comparing his present life to the other. The text gives a lot of symbols of that; when he drives his new son to the arena, where the son is going to play lacrosse. He is looking much back in the mirrors of the car even though there is no traffic to notice since it is a very early wee...

• Word Count: 778
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... in the Sun," by Lorraine Hansberry is a great example of the racial prejudice minorities faced in the early 50's in the the United States. This play shows the difficult life minorities endured through their hardships. In the end though, a better life will prevail due ... to hard work and determination, overthrowing the negative association colored people have to face. I think the lesson Hansberry wants the reader to take from the play revolved around the fact that a dream can be achieved no matter what anybody says or does. "A piece of paper worth $10,000. Mama got ... "My son said we ...

• Word Count: 654
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... ," has been separated from her culture and society because of her gender and also her race. The time in which this play is based is ancient Greece, a time where women weren't allowed simple rights because they were women. Medea is persecuted duly hard for her crime for she is ... . Murder of family is a tremendous crime. Not only did Medea murder her brother, but she killed her children as well. The deceit of her father was completed by killing her brother and hacking him to pieces in order to escape with Jason, whom she would eventually marry. Seen as a traitor to her own country, she wa...

• Word Count: 638
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... had stepped forward to take care of the girls, which left him all alone with Mother.   Victory! Even when he went to pee, he was seconded in his virility. Salter's play with quality begins with the title. Right from the beginning, the theme of seeing double is cleverly incorporated within the title. The title "Half a Double Sonnet" literally means one full ... anticipation. The boy is removing the patch for the first time since his surgery. To comfort the boy, the family "bought the toy he'd wanted most". The boy is overjoyed by the "two cars" he received. The boy does not realize that...

• Word Count: 888
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In the play, Antigone by Sophocles, Creon and Antigone have distinct conflicting values. Antigone first demonstrates her feministic beliefs when she chooses to challenge a powerful male establishment. This establishment is headed by her uncle Creon, who has just recently been crowned the King of Thebes. Creon poses ... the gods, which dictates that a body be given proper burial rights, was more important than the law of the King. Throughout the play, Antigone somehow manages to retain the traditional role of woman, while at the same time challenging the patriarchal depiction of what a woman s...

• Word Count: 1222
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... matter what their gender is. What makes them seem to have different abilities is the social construction itself. "Primate Studies and Sex Differences", an essay by Sally Linton, tells about her disagreement of the experience done on primates, the "animals that are most like human beings", to reveal the truth that ... some behaviors reflects innate differences between genders. She defends her opinion by giving the fact that "the female primates who did not receive the proper socialization make very poor mothers." This alone can already tell the fact ... "It is not natural (instinctive) f...

• Word Count: 1274
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... of the seven children in an traditional Mexican family. She was the only daughter surrounded by six brothers who despised her for being the only girl in the family. They left her alone because they were ashamed to play with a girl in public. Cisneros always had to find a way to grab attention ... sons" (paragraph). Those words from her father were never to meant to hurt her but it still affected her. Cisneros says, "He didn't mean anything by that mistranslation, I'm sure. But somehow I could feel myself being erased" (paragraph). To understand what Cisneros meant when she said "mistran...

• Word Count: 716
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... in this terrible changed condition; they were sheltering her as if from some evil. He heard that his sister's hopes for the future, to learn to play the violin, were dashed. Slowly, Gregor becomes more at ease with the transformed body and he begins to crawl up walls and the ceiling for fun. ... Gregor is kept confined inside the room. Once he made it to the kitchen only to be seriously injured by an apple that his father threw at him. On another occasion Gregor is spotted by some lodgers. His sight alarms them and they decided to move out without paying rent on the plea that ... the ne...

• Word Count: 1320
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . We are promptly introduced to a young Nel Wright. Her mother is very conventional and proper; she is a regular church attendee and is well respected by the community. Nel's family life is very stable. This is in stark contrast to Sula Peace's upbringing. While she's young, Sula lives with her ... quality and the two soon become inseparable. One day, they play a role in a tragic event that changes their friendship and perceptions of each other forever. They are playing down by the river with a local boy named Chicken Little. Sula picks him up by his arms and swings him around. Chicken L...

• Word Count: 1171
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... has the desire to continue with the skiing but his father coerces him, "He was indifferent to my fretting" (1332). The son was growing impatient and frustrated, "By now I could not see the trail. There was no point in trying" but he latched himself to his father and continued the ride down the mountain (1332). "We ... ...

• Word Count: 674
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Rashad is a short story that deals with struggles of a mother-law using a gift that was given by her son in law while in Vietnam that reminds her of sad moments over the years. The banner seems to have been placed in a dark corner of her living room, ... ...

• Word Count: 647
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... upon the rules of society and always questions the rules of her elders. In Anne Moody's, Coming of Age in Mississippi she differentiates herself from the rest of African American by questioning the way of life she must undergo due to all the restrictions her family and other African American's that surround her. Throughout the novel Moody shows discontent with her ... ...

• Word Count: 1364
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The poem "The Black Walnut Tree" by Mary Oliver addresses the issue of a personal struggle. The speaker (daughter) and her mother are debating whether they should sell their black walnut tree to pay off their mortgage. They ... ...

• Word Count: 585
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... gains your sympathy because of the situation and how the character deals with it. Go on to explain why you feel sympathy for him or her. Fleshmarket is a novel written by Nicola Morgan. It is mainly about a boy called Robbie and his struggles through live in Edinburgh in the 1800's. His life was has been turned upside-down since his mother ... ...

• Word Count: 796
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... potatoes every way imaginable, and always corn from the garden. Even in the winter, we had vegetables from the garden that had either been frozen or canned by using mason jars and a pressure cooker. Most young children do not like sweet potatoes, but Granny could cook the best fried sweet potatoes and I think they ... of the house and the snow was so deep Granddaddy had to stay home from work. After much begging, Granny let Pam and me go outside to play in the snow. Granny was afraid we would catch "newmoni " (pneumonia) so she bundled us up so tight and heavy we could barely move. She ....

• Word Count: 1669
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

There is no doubt that my outlook on everything I have ever encountered has been shaped by my family in one-way or another. Although I do not have a lot of political opinions, I do pay attention to what is going on with our politicians and the current events ... ...

• Word Count: 891
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School