On The Road by Jack Kerouac 1957 Sal Paradise, the narrator of the story, is miserable and fed up with his mundane life when he meets a young man named Dean Moriarty during the winter of ... and Dean hitchhike to Denver and stay with a poor family there. Later on, Dean gets into an argument in a bar and loses control. He begins stealing and wrecking random cars. One of the cars he crashes belongs to a police detective, so Dean and Sal leave Denver, running away from the authorities. At a travel bureau, they find out that a man needs someone ... ...

• Word Count: 757
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... anti-gay hate crimes in New York, while a ninth suspect is being pursued. The Latin King Goonies gang, as they call themselves, tortured two teenage boys and one man after discovering a rumor that one of their recruits was gay. They found the alleged gay recruit and then proceeded to strip him, beat him, and sodomize him with a plunger handle until he confessed ... to the rumor. The Goonies then moved on to another recruit that they believed to be gay and tortured him as well. Then, they invited the man, who one of the recruits confessed to having had relations with, to a house party. W...

• Word Count: 502
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

It Happened One Night is a black and white movie set in the time period after the depression. The plot of this movie follows two main characters. The first character is named Ellie. Ellie ... left without her. She also sees that Peter has gotten off the bus to wait for her and give her the bus ticket that she had accidentally dropped. This is one of the pinch points of the movie because Ellie and Peter are now stuck together and the audience is left wondering what is going to happen to them next. As ... we follow the two characters on their journey we discover their secret attraction towar...

• Word Count: 916
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... African-American community and of African-American women especially. According to Alice A. Deck in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, the author was "one of the best representatives of the group of Afro-American writers who, during the 1960s, became directly involved in the cultural activities in ... urban communities across the country." Deck also pointed out that "Bambara is one of the who continued to work within the black urban communities (filming, lecturing, organizing, and reading from her works at rallies and conferences ... African-American community and of African-American w...

• Word Count: 1387
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... call his own. He has definitely changed from his years of crime to preaching what he believes in. Him and his follower are known as black supremacists. When JFK was shot, Malcolm was asked to comment about it and he said" the chickens come out to roost". He is then suspended from the Nation of Islam which saddens him deeply. Elijah ... without question. He went back to America with a totally new name(El Hajj Malik El Shabazz.) and a totally new perspective. Instead of preaching separatism, he preached unity. In the last chapter of the book he predicts his death. He says "And if I can di...

• Word Count: 1499
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... . When they are put together they show a whole life and not just parts of it. In this novel, Vonnegut changes the way one would normally think of the climax and pacing. At the end of chapter one, readers are told the first and last words of the novel. This eliminates some of the suspense usually attributed to endings. Also, Vonnegut is wrong about the climax ... of his own book. He tells O'Hare in chapter one, "I think the climax of the book will be the execution of poor old ... a real living and breathing person, even if it sounds incredibly ridiculous. Another "rule" of writing Vonneg...

• Word Count: 990
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... but, Huck Finn was a child, and he only did what he had grown up doing. Religion is a key theme in the novel, but the sacrilegious views of Huck Finn are one on the reasons why the book is banned. From the beginning of the book, Huck is rejecting the religious views of Miss Watson ... MA, library banned Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a month after its publication, calling it "trash and suitable only for the slums." Other libraries followed suit. Also, in the novel, Huck rejects religion as a means to help Jim become a free man. He had been taught all his life that not telling about a run...

• Word Count: 905
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... with what Lefferts says in the above quotation although I think that he misses something. He believes that marrying Beauforts bastards' is something unquestionably bad. Reading this novel now, I see it as something perfectly normal. Lefferts is disgusted by this prospect, but fails to see that it is the future and he is ... her to do that is to let him go. I think the most important influence in this sacrifice is society. Society has been personified in the novel and almost becomes a character. Wharton presents us an image of this character coming between Ellen and Archer. Society ralli...

• Word Count: 2558
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... Junior. I think it's fair for me to do John Updike some justice and take a second to spread some insight on the life and death of one of the most accomplished authors of the recent century. John Updike was born on March 18th 1932 in Reading, Pennsylvania. He spend the early portion of ... medal of art from President George H. W bush in 1889 and then received the National Metal for the Humanities from President George W Bush in 2003. One of on the limited list of people to receive both of these awards in their lifetime. John Updike spent his later years in Beverly farms, Massachusetts ... ...

• Word Count: 899
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... buy her dresses and a new home. The narration of the film depicts the "Old World" as being very strict and uninviting to change and progression. One instance is after Jack had been gone for several years chasing his dreams and returns to his home town to begin his Broadway career. He stopped by his parent's home and ... him. "You're the old world, if you grew up here you'd feel the same as I do," responded Jack. All Jack wanted was for his Dad to accept who he had become, he was hopefully that one day his Dad could accept that him growing up in America made it impossible for him to live u...

• Word Count: 1489
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... , and made him a much happier person in life. Dalton's view of his surrounding community and America changes. When his family's economic situation gets better after his mother sells her first novel, they take a family trip to Columbia. Dalton describes his experience by saying he fascinated and disturbed by the local poverty, and that the Columbian villagers seemed to endure much more ... own neighborhood in New York City, he realizes what a nightmare it is to grow up in the crime-ridden neighborhood. He personally experiences crime when his best friend Jerome is shot by a stray bullet a...

• Word Count: 1008
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... scat singing, using the voice to imitate a musical instrument. toasting, traditional African-American entertainment, long, rhymed tales of great heroes, Stagger Lee and Jack Johnson among others (see dub) Dirty Dozens, stylized exchange of insults. "Signifying Monkey", long series of rhymed tales in which the weaker monkey triumphs ... middle of the night, Two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other. Doo wop, using voices to imitate an entire band. Individual performances that prefigured rap While rap as a musical genre ... ...

• Word Count: 656
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Half Lives" focuses on the plight of the poor on the lower east side of Manhattan. The novel focuses on what Riis calls the "other half," indicating the division between the poor people he writes about and his audience. The chapter emphasizes the unfortunate living conditions in tenement housing. He details the gruesome day-to-day lives of the ... been making mischief. This allows any reader who does not particularly like the Irish to connect with Riis and trust what he is saying because they agree with at least one point he is making. He also draws a line between the natives and the se...

• Word Count: 1082
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Steinbeck's characteristics with a broad range of literary accomplishments, rather than to judge the "correctness of his position regarding contemporary urgencies and controversies" (Tedlock 20). In George Snell's chapter on Steinbeck in The Shapers of American Fiction: 1798-1947, he notes Steinbeck's strengths and weaknesses: "an enormous gift of story-telling", "catholicity of sympathy" and "'common touch ... subsequently shifted his ground of interpretation and with a desperate earnestness grasped at the most superficial but convenient ideational strategy available to him in the 1930s...

• Word Count: 2015
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... sought revenge. With the help of the Libyan government Asad went into training to seek revenge. To seek revenge for his 2 brothers, 2 sisters and mother, Asad shot an American lady and her four kids at a bus stop in London, England. He then turned himself in to the American embassy in Paris, France to be ... took offense to this and decided to try and kill John Corey by taking shots at him with a sniper rifle. He was unsuccessful, even though he shot off 58 rounds at Mr. Corey. So that explains why Asad Khalil hates all Americans and why he went psycho and killed over 200 people. Throug...

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

... people to help him strategize plans for success. The new knowledge I gained from McCullough's 1776 could be helpful in class whenever the chapter is not only of course over King George III or George Washington, but for King George III to realize what he put American ... effectively hints at what is being talked about in chapter 3 rather than "Dorchester Heights ". This is because, almost everyone agreed Dorchester Heights was an area needed for security; however, there was only one conflict at the small area in Boston. Chapter 3 is not just focused on just the small ... portion of Dorc...

• Word Count: 714
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... America itself" (Rhapsodies). "As well as being a crucible for new musical styles, The Cotton Club can also be seen as a lightning rod for Harlem history" (Wolfe). Started by heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson at the corner of 42nd Street and Lenox Avenue, it was originally called Club De Lux. Failure of the club resulted in the selling of it in 1923 to ... ...

• Word Count: 755
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... be committed without a gun. Four airplanes were used as mass fatal weapons to kill an innumerable amount of people. Should we ban airplanes? And box-cutters were used to hi-jack these airplanes, should we then ban box-cutters? As tragic as these examples are, they are excellent examples of showing that terrible acts of violence can clearly happen without the ... ...

• Word Count: 280
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... of humorous stories about Monterey paisanos(John Steinbeck). In 1936 Steinbeck wrote, "In Dubious Battle," this story dealt with the strikes of migratory fruit pickers on California plantations. Steinbeck's next novel, " Of Mice and Men," in 1937 became his first big success. Steinbeck followed " Of Mice and Men," with a series of short stories entitled " The Long Valley."(John Steinbeck) In 1939 ... Grapes of Wrath," was the story of tenate farmers who moved to California, because they was unable to live off the land in Oklahoma. To get the idea for this novel Steinbeck had traveled ar...

• Word Count: 402
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The Pine Barrens John Mcphee's "The Pine Barrens" is a unique descriptive novel, the novel deals with nature and all it's beauty. The story is easy to follow and easy to understand because it is being told through the eyes of a non-partial naturist. The novel was intriguing because it was so relatable to Philadelphia, the fact that the actually Pine Barrens are only about fifty miles away meant that whatever Mcphee experienced throughout the book was not far fetched form what I"d experience. The proximity on which Mcphee relates the Barrens to New York City meant that I've been past that value...

• Word Count: 191
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... Carrie" takes place around 1889. Chicago and New York have as much important role in the novel as the characters. These cities not only provide an environmental setting for the novel but also influence its characters in very powerful way. Carrie Meeber takes the train from Columbia City and set for Chicago to start a new life with her sister. Columbia City ... ...

• Word Count: 662
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... the specific situation and context, dialect, a local symbol, becomes the social cultural symbol. In order to reveal the characters that have different language habits representing different social positions, in the novel, Flags in the Dust, William Faulkner compared the spelling variation of pronunciation in American southern dialect with the standard spelling of the standard pronunciation in American English. Characters can be ... divided into three types according to their language habits in this novel. The southern upper-class persons spoke standard English, the following dialogue be...

• Word Count: 682
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets" (Fitzgerald 91). Although Gatsby refuses to relinquish his obsessive dream of Daisy as the ideal girl, events throughout the novel portray to everyone except an oblivious Gatsby that Daisy possesses a true nature of raw carelessness. After Daisy hit Myrtle with the car on the way home from New York City ... society in Louisville, yet she does not quite belong to the same superior class as the Buchanan's. Nick, the narrator and Gatsby's neighbor, carries on a relationship with Jordan throughout the novel. As much as he cares...

• Word Count: 591
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... around last Christmas. Holden gives his account from a mental institute somewhere around Hollywood, where he has been for several months. At the start of the novel Holden makes it clear that he is not writing his life story, about his childhood, or, as he puts it, "all that David Copperfield kind ... Holden does seem to admire his cleanliness and ease with girls however and refers to him as a hot-shot. This is an important aspect of Holden's character which he reveals in bits and pieces throughout the novel. Holden is not a very popular or attractive person in society and he expresses, ...

• Word Count: 1626
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... patrolman days up to his retirement. He laid the groundwork for the NYPD detective bureau, which is still in existence today. Teddy Roosevelt, one of our U.S. Presidents is another man who was portrayed in this book. Roosevelt was the police commissioner of the NYPD until April of 1897 ... gambling joints. At the peak of his career, Becker was offered an opportunity that he could not pass up. He was asked to protect Jack Rose, the most prominent gambler and fixer in New York at the time. Becker made close to 640,000 dollars equivalent to10 million dollars ... Becker and Rosenthal's rela...

• Word Count: 1516
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School