... first, but when Nettie's husband starts abusing her, she leaves to become a missionary in Africa and find her roots. In the beginning of the book Celie is telling the story through her diary entries, and later Celie and Nettie are writing letters to each other, so it is like two stories ... views life from what you have read); Give examples from the novel (e.g., is life fun, is she morbid or optimistic, etc.?) The author of this book looks at life optimistically. She never lets Celie lose hope of her sister coming home, and when Corrine (Nettie's friend who she went to Africa with) ... ...

• Word Count: 1071
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... as a just man than as an unjust man. Here, Socrates presents two new descriptions of a just and unjust man to replace the original images set forth in Book II. Socrates goes on to propose that every human lives with three animals inside him: a many headed beast, a lion, and a human being. Each of these ... human soul that need to work together in order to achieve peace. Perhaps with the argument of the tyrannical man, presented in the early part of Book IX, this makes the most sense. It is obvious that a tyrannical man has uncontrollable desires that can never be satisfied. Being unable...

• Word Count: 877
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... is also a documentary. It is a historical account of slavery and of antebellum southern plantation culture, it is also written as a maturation narrative. The book is also a conversion narrative, in the sense that he went from slavery to freedom. The reader is supposed to read this as a confession, it ... is written as if it is spoken testimony, and it is signifying that it is not just speaking but listening. The book is stating that slavery was a system, an institution of rank exploitation. It is a sense of double self elapsed in time, past and present. The selection ... has no less val...

• Word Count: 322
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... a German photographer possessed these eyes and mind. Jane Fulton Alt was able to capture the beauty of smoke and fire in her photo book, The Burn. She opened the different side of fire and how it symbolizes the stages of life and what makes life. The ... book encompasses the cycle of life and the spectrum of emotions a person possess. Incidentally, the photo book tells more about German history and its culture than expected of a book of life. The book is divided into three parts by poems the photographer wrote. The first ... section is "Smoke" - the beginning of the book and the beginn...

• Word Count: 1087
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... about the evils of slavery, the autobiography is an account of a woman's life, what the author calls her adventures. As mentioned above, the book was written to illustrate the depravity of slavery to people living in the North. It is striking to see how humbly the author has used her ... . She has used fake names and concealed the names of places so as not to offend any person, black or white. As you read the book, the author can definitely be identified as a truthful person, and becomes easy to see why the author places so much emphasis on her secrecy. ... a life of constant ridicule is...

• Word Count: 1193
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... And The Important Men, like Horton Hears a Who, aim for several different audiences through their relatable, child-like characters and these character's adult problems. Abina and The Important Men is a book separated into two parts: first, a graphic novel and second a translated, more detailed, historical text. Through both of these approaches to telling the same story, details and voices are lost ... own values and dispositions inevitably influence the underlying message their work provides. In the first part of Abina and The Important Men, Getz and Clarke recreated the past through a c...

• Word Count: 1018
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to write an essay for a Chicago magazine on the subject of children living in poverty. His first book, There Are No Children Here, came about from a series of articles he wrote for The Wall Street Journal. This book has received a number of awards including the Helen B. Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, the ... . Throughout this novel, I believe the two most prominent themes are death and poverty. Death appears a countless number of times all throughout the book, but I particularly felt that chapter 22 displayed the effects of the many deaths that the boys had to face. Though...

• Word Count: 874
• Approx Pages: 3

... also had some nice experiences too. Another thing I believe she is trying to say is they are determined. There are three main African-American women in the book who all struggle in different ways to help their family. All three have similar problems and a difficult path to walk. One woman is Lena Younger or ... end she and Walter get along again and all is well in their relationship and the whole family is thankful for this. Also in the beginning of the book Ruth might get an abortion, though once the get the new house she decides otherwise. Mama's daughter-in-law, Beneatha has, as it se...

• Word Count: 772
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... to be free there were the whites who disagreed with his beliefs because they believe that blacks are meant to be slaves in this world. Throughout this book Charles faces through unbelievable problems that he has never ever encountered in his life before. In Conrad's Heart of Darkness Marlowe, the main character, symbolizes ... been through and the only way is we all work together. The author of the book is Joseph Conrad and his writing style differs to the ones of others. I like how the author has written this book on his own beliefs and experiences because it is really hard to write on ...

• Word Count: 1164
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... essay, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness,"" Achebe contends that Joseph Conrad's portrayal of Africa, and the African people, in his book Heart of Darkness, is that of a racist. However, the points Achebe makes are weak, and he is wrong in his argument that Conrad was a racist. ... taking over just because it was fun. They too suffered hardships while on their missions. In addition, it is widely thought that Conrad wrote this book to bring the horrors of imperialism to everyone's attention. However, he could not openly voice his opinion, because he was writing mai...

• Word Count: 852
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Esther. I want to smash his face in (162)." Chanda struggles with the existence of God and whether or not He's there for her throughout the book. It seems as if it's almost adversity after adversity because by this time, at 16 years old, Chanda has had four different fathers. Her real father ... accepting the fact that her mother had AIDS, Chanda knew her mother would be watching them from wherever she is. Chanda's ultimate goal at the end of the book was to raise AIDS awareness, "Mama said I should save my anger to fight injustice. Well, I know what's unjust. The ignorance about AIDS. T...

• Word Count: 980
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... of the white world. His father married an Indian woman. They then gave birth to children and they were known as half-breeds. The thesis of this book is "a man who moved easily between Cheyenne and white worlds, never gaining full acceptance into either." Halaas and Masich do a good job of ... Yes. Would they allow him to be chief? No."4 No matter what George Bent did he was never fully accepted into either race. This book entails a big part of Colorado History. It tells about the life that William Bent and his son George lived during their lives in Colorado. William ... of Bent's Fort...

• Word Count: 837
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

African History "Weep Not, Child" Over the years, Africans have come to imitate the values of those British colonial rulers that over took their land. The book is in essence about the hopes and dreams of a young boy that was affected by the outside world and how the outside world changes the values and beliefs of a person. ... Njoroge's life, his thoughts and his feelings. However, due to the length of the novel (136 pages) one only gets a superficial explanation of the historical and cultural context of the book. In addition, this novel is a book in translation, so some of the sentence and ...

• Word Count: 1124
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... that I had seen once was very influential; a research was conducted with four children ages between 6 and 8 (2 blacks and 2 whites) with two picture storybooks. Each child was interviewed separately. One book had a picture of a black kid standing and a white kid falling while the other book showed a white kid standing and a black kid falling. When asked who was the "bad" boy, in the first ... book all four kids said that the white kid was good and the black kid had been naughty because he had pushed the white kid. When asked who was the "bad ... " kid in the second book, all four boys s...

• Word Count: 1228
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... 's son Absalom, kills Jarvis" son, Arthur. The two characters delineate a parallelism in the book. Paton breaks his novel in three "books," or parts. He gives each character a distinction. In Book I he describes the journey of Stephen Kumalo and likewise in Book II, he tells the journey of James Jarvis. In Book III, he describes the interrelation. The fact that they are analogous creates many ... ...

• Word Count: 789
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

THE COLOR PURPLE Alice Walker wrote this novel from her own personal experience, growing up in the rural South as an uneducated and abused child. The goal of this book is to inspire and motivate black women to stand up for their rights. Celie, the main character, goes through an inner transformation, from being an abused wife to a confident and ... Purple is a historical novel; it never refers to any factual events. There are no dates, little sense of the passage of time, and very few mentions of characters' ages. This book deals with the harsh reality that the black community especially the...

• Word Count: 441
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... but subservient. He is a leader of an African Tribe, and nobleman of African descent. Oroonoko has social class, and fancy dress. The book does have a small anti-slavery message, but there is still a negative view of slavery in her book. It is unrealistic with Oroonoko running around in nice clothes all the time. Another strange thing is the way that Oroonoko did ... extreeme treatment of the slaves and portrayes them in another extreme as a non-working, good-looking, and well-dressed slave. The book does not talk about the horrors of slavery. "Oroonoko" tries to explain how slavery wor...

• Word Count: 928
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... generations." Memmi documents this evil which is called colonialism as a advertisement to all its shortcomings. Memmi himself admits that he " did not conceive of this book as a work of protest or even as a search for solutions. It was born out of reflection on an accepted failure" (145). He wanted to ... of this system they called colonialism. It has been said that those who forget the past we be doomed to repeat it. That is why this book has gained such importance in our world literature. It is not for its grand solutions to a world problem but just a vast understanding of that very ....

• Word Count: 527
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... a very rich use of symbolism. One of the main subjects in this story is the idea of imperialism - the creating of an empire. There are two main characters in this book. Marlow, who seems to be the hero of the story, is an independent thinker, and a very capable man. Kurtz is the chief of the inner station, whose job is to ... be inferred from this, as sepulchre itself means, grave of a dead body. Brussels is the headquarters for the Company. The phrase whited sepulchre actually comes from the bible, in the book of Matthew. In a passage, Matthew describes whited sepulchres as something b...

• Word Count: 434
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Evidence of the middle passage being the worst experience for African slaves and the vile and inhumane conditions they endured during that period can be seen in the historical text-book; Liberties Lost Caribbean Indigenous Societies and Slave Systems where the writers Hilary McD. Beckles and Verene A. Shepherd state that the conditions during the middle passage was a recipe for a high death ... in tightly confined arrangements below-deck were they were packed as close to one another as possible. Evidence to support that motion can be seen in the text-book; The People Who Came Book 2 written ...

• Word Count: 670
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Cry, The Beloved Country, by Alan Paton, is a book which tells the story of how Arthur Jarvis, a wealthy estate owner, because of his own busy life, had to learn of the social downgrading in South Africa through the death ... 's views through all of his writings, James begins to realize the problem, and starts to think of the problems of others before his own. Jarvis, towards the end of the book, decides that he will help the minorities of Africa. Following his son's death and the acquaintance of Stephen Kumalo, James donates 1000 pounds to The African boys club. Jarvis is ... South Africa t...

• Word Count: 737
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... trade, and trade continued to flourish. During the reign of the Mali Empire, there were three main religions in the world, but only one was the main religion in the book. Hinduism was not mentioned directly, but the prophet Muhammad was mentioned, which is the founder of Hinduism. Sundiata mentioned Buddhism as being polytheistic. These two religions were not discussed in ... great detail, but were mentioned from time to time throughout the book. Islam was the main religion in the book and Islam was spread due to trade. During trade, some merchants would be bowing and praying, facing to...

• Word Count: 1061
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... him to be an educated young man (South). Paton later taught in a school for the youth (Paton). Paton's writing changed many South Africans and the rest of the world. His book still remains popular even close to 20 years later after his death in 1988. His passionate words about the horrors and suffering in South Africa that he and many others ... kind", when those of different races were just the same as they were, despite their skin color. Due to the time period that this novel was written in the book is very special from others about African culture. "Cry, the Beloved Country" was writ...

• Word Count: 511
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

At the beginning of the book, the doctor makes a peculiar request: to measure Marlow's skull "in the name of science ". His significance in this act changes from literal at that point in the novel to figurative ... of that noise "), and also just plain evil (being able to torture the Africans after a prolonged period there). Conrad may have been critiquing Romanticism through this motif and throughout the book. Romanticism's overly enthusiastic views on nature having a cleansing effect and the pureness of human spirit are eventually what lead to Kurtz's demise. He also WAY exaggerates some o...

• Word Count: 834
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... preaching was an extra boost that was needed for leadership ability. "It was the one position of leadership permitted Negroes, and the office carried considerable prestige." (The Black American Reference Book) The black preacher was also able to talk to the slaves in away they understood what was going on. By the preacher being apart of slavery, he could only hope ... way always watched and closely guarded. "Yet from the beginning the church served as the main outlet through the slaves could express their sufferings and dissatisfaction." (The Black American Reference Book) Although it d...

• Word Count: 992
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School