... technique known as stream-of-consciousness, readers are able to relate to the characters, and discover them in a more personal light. The narration of "Just like a Tree," shifts from one character to another. Normally, this style is confusing to some audiences. However, Gaines" use of this technique reveals certain insightful truths about each ... in the story, as well as the feelings of the outsiders: those obliquely effected by the conflict in the story. The discord in "Just Like a Tree," is centered around the reality that Aunt Fe, a well-known and highly respected woman in the commu...

• Word Count: 1382
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... occurs when White Fang, after much attention and coaxing, allows Scott to pet him (London 190). The mood of the story is a good personification, the mood of the novel is cold and frightening. London creates a tale of horror in an unexplored land, pointing out the mysteries of the wild and the fear of the unknown. In the beginning, the Northland Wild ... valuable information in this book but also other avenues to pursue. London primarily aims to supply reader with historical facts and cover key matters of White Fang, Dyer says. The overview is fair and unbiased treating as many perspecti...

• Word Count: 1449
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... a day. "To fling my arms wide in some place of the sun, to whirl and to dance till the white day is done. Then rest at cool evening beneath a tall tree-. The speaker's soul is free and liberated as he rejoices with nature. He celebrates in the sun, and rests beneath the comfort of ... a tree. Nature not only provides man with a means to express the freedom of his soul, but it also gives man relief. In contrast, a different side of nature is depicted in Hughes ... the soul. The black man that is lynched in the poem could not be free in this society, and the girl he leaves behind mourns...

• Word Count: 1518
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... has not worked so well, for the blackness I am in has let me loose and let me be taken hostage by an endless blackness that is far more powerful and cold. I wake up to white light suffocating me, my eyes crying out with watery beads. Something wet is on my forehead, and I know for a fact it is not layers of sweat ... , and I cannot handle this any longer. My heart is pounding as the rush of adrenaline forces its way throughout my blood. I stand from the couch as the room sways like a tree in a slight breeze. Adam miserably looks at me with a sorrowful stare that seems more menacing and t...

• Word Count: 2252
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... forest, the snow kept increasing, causing his handsome black mane to turn white. He walked very slowly, breathing hard; he seemed exhausted. Therefore, I reined him and tied his reigns to a tree. I got-off his back and loosened his saddle. Soon, I was hit by a flash back that reminded me why I was here. I remembered the fall of my empire, the greatest empire of ... to me; the emperor of the Samnites and the executor. The emperor ordered the executor to nail me to the cross; and he did so. He first placed the long cold iron nail below my wrist, on my nerves and then hammered it in my han...

• Word Count: 1322
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... is described as old and wrinkly, but yet with a golden color running beneath it "Her skin had a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles and as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead, but a golden color ran underneath"(55). Her skin tone represents the golden feathers of the Phoenix and her grandson represents the next Phoenix ... the sun to die. Most likely this journey along a worn path through the woods, will be one of her last. We are told of Phoenix's journey into the woods on a cold December morning. Although we are know that she is traveling th...

• Word Count: 1331
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... . The value that we learn from this story is simple, if you do bad things, they will come back to you: "One morning in cold blood, I slipped a noose about it's neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; hung it with tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterness of remorse at my heart;- hung it because I knew that it ... ...

• Word Count: 2283
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... silver-white sunlight, and the meanest of them sparkled"(O'Connor(b)119). O'Connor's use of the adjectives "silver-white" make the sunlight appear harsh and somewhat threatening, "silver" perhaps like the cold steel of a blade. The reader feels almost as if it would be painful to look into such a light, or that perhaps such a bright, illuminating light might be more effective in ... image. The sacrifice is made, and is duly noted in the reaction of the trees when after the first two executions the grandmother "could hear the wind move through the tree tops like a long satisfied insuck o...

• Word Count: 1495
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... net, the spaces in the story give it its form." (Beverley Farmer) There are a variety of different form and narrative structures in the short stories, "Trees Can Speak", "The Persimmon Tree" and "A Double Because its Snowing." All of these are modernist stories with a one sided perspective of reality. The stories also tend to have a prescence of the unsaid in their narration ... , by giving him a helping hand out of the shaft. This story also leaves us wondering a lot of things like who the mysterious man why he does no speak. The "Persimmon Tree" by Marjorie Barnard has no dialogue in i...

• Word Count: 1485
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the details of his neighborhood as if it were a prison he was living in. In addition, he says "The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes". The apple tree was in the middle of the garden, away from other plants. In my opinion, this is similar to the boys life. The boy in this story seems ... isolated like the tree in the garden. The way he described his neighborhood shows that it is a dark, unhappy place to live in. He spoke of the weather, "The space of sky above us ... ...

• Word Count: 1746
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... narrator remembers the washing line "first", with its "silver skeletal arms". This image is the central image of her reminiscence. She describes the garden surrounding it and the "best climbing tree", which was "festooned with socks and knickers and shirts". The nostalgic tone is established as we are caught up in her world of colour and nature as she notes the ... "almond tree", the nectarine tree's "hard, bird-bitten fruit" and other flora. The reader is moved on to an image of an "older, more age warped washing line" that depicts the passage of time ... ...

• Word Count: 1314
• Approx Pages: 5

... the setting to create visions of death and suffering, human worth, and survival. The very first line of "The Shawl" is also the story's very first use of imagery. "Stella, cold, cold, the coldness of hell (Ozick 3)." This first sentence sets the tone for a grim and harrowing story. By comparing the coldness of the outside weather to hell, Ozick emphasizes the nightmare ... in the story, Stella takes the shawl away from Magda, claiming she was cold (Ozick 6). The next line reads "And afterward she was always cold, always. The cold went into her heart: Rosa saw that Stella's heart was col...

• Word Count: 1567
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... terminal cancer and is dying. These nightmares involve Conor dangling his mother over the edge of a cliff and he can't rescue her, but turns out it's not just a nightmare. The tree like shaped monster shows up to his bedroom at 12:07 every night and insists on telling Conor three different stories with the fourth one being up to him to ... into a cry and then a loud wordless yell and he opened his mouth and the fire came blazing out, blazing out to consume everything, bursting over the blackness, over the yew tree, too, setting it ablaze along with the rest of the world, burning it back...

• Word Count: 1423
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 's world seems, and that he is seeking out some sort of light. The first search for light materializes in the boy's description of the "central apple tree" in the gardens behind his home. The apple tree in the garden could be interpreted to serve as Eden's garden and the bareness of the back yard garden seems to reflect the bareness in his ... ...

• Word Count: 1286
• Approx Pages: 5

... and I have to admit that it is my favourite one, is when the man has to build a fire in order to save himself. Because of the effects of the cold, which is part of nature, his hands become numb, making the task to start a fire even harder. Therefore, after several minutes, he ended by achieving this task. ... the man and nature. The following is the progression of the "fight" between the man and nature: at the beginning, he only felt the cold on his face and he thought that he was going to attain his destination by six o"clock. However, as the story progresses, natural obstacles such as ...

• Word Count: 1330
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... are the promises made by the government which is an example of paternalism (fanshawec p. 2). When Henry and Lyman first bought the car and drove to Alaska, they stopped at a willow tree to rest. Here, the author uses a lot of symbolisism. They were lying under the willow and Henry was asleep with his arms thrown wide (Erdrich p.267). The author lets the ... arms thrown wide". This statement is a symbol of Henry dying because the author states that he is on the ground with his arms open wide like a person unconscious. The willow tree in the story also has symbolic meaning. The author wri...

• Word Count: 1471
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... action. We can find supernatural features associated to him: The first thing is that he is personifying Brown's grandfather; he also appears "seated at the foot of an old tree" like the apple tree in the Paradise, carries a black staff like a "snake" and has come from Boston to Salem in fifteen minutes! Later when they meet Goody Cloyse, she recognise him as ... ...

• Word Count: 2367
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... , that thing being Satan. As Goodman Brown continues his walk he meets an old man on the road that acts like he has been expecting him. In the text, "Overview of Young Goodman Brown" by Kathleen Wilson, Kathleen explains that the old man symbolizes a figure of the devil but only appears as an old man in reality (Wilson). The old ... ...

• Word Count: 1921
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The short stories I chose are "The Gift of the Magi," and "Hearts and Hands," by O. Henry, and "The Necklace," by Guy De Maupassant". The reason why I chose these three short stories in particular is because they all involve some sort of situation with money. From "The Gift of the Magi,"" in which the poor, loving couple spend all the money they have to buy each other the perfect Christmas gift, to "The Necklace,"" where the main character loses her friend's necklace and has to pay it off. In contrast, the last story, "Hearts and Hands,"" expresses a plot that is similar to the others (that it...

• Word Count: 1490
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... devour you. We go to the father of souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon." (St. Cyril of Jerusalem). These few sentences provide the reader with an overview of the story's events. This quote about the "dragon" relates to the story in that the anonymous ordinary family sets out on a road trip to Florida, and the passengers are ... ...

• Word Count: 1477
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... reader and it tends to have some interesting parallels within the story itself. The story we will be looking at is The Painted Door by Sinclair Ross; but first, a brief overview of the plot is in order. This is a story about a married couple, john and Ann. They live on a farm in a very secluded area. John works fifteen-hour days on the ... ...

• Word Count: 2012
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... devour you. We go to the father of souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon." (St. Cyril of Jerusalem). These few sentences prpvide the reader with an overview of the story's events. This quote about the "dragon" relates to the story in that the anonymous ordinary family sets out on a road trip to Florida, and the passengers are ... ...

• Word Count: 1439
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... for much rain and cloudy days, so this is usually a good setting for suspenseful stories. Many references are made to the cold. Du Maurier writes, "It was bitter cold," and " the black frost that the east wind brings" (605). The bitter cold helps the reader feel the need for a fire later in the story when the family is shut tight in their house ... ...

• Word Count: 1319
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... ugly as hell, it does not bother Bud and Olla who are filled with pride of achieving something in their lives by having a child. At first, Fran appears to be cold and arrogant towards their hosts but grows warmer as the visit progresses. Something happens inside of her when she sees the obvious self-satisfaction Bud and Olla get from their ... 70s. Alcohol is a natural part of people's lives in many of the stories. It also appears to help people to deal with their misfortunes and ease the encounter with the cold reality. As Duane puts it in Feathers: "Drinking's funny. When I look back ...

• Word Count: 1587
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... begins to think about asking about her. The tax-gatherer's character begins to change throughout the story from someone who is inexperienced and anxious to someone who is sarcastic and cold. This is more easily observed in the tax-gatherer's dialogue. The tax-gatherer's dialogue gives the best insight into the idea of an unfeeling bureaucracy but not ultimately until he ... saying to the colleagues at his work "were as hard as nails", this shows how much they lack compassion and care for everything they drive through. Nails are also hard, cold and heartless which is everything that the ...

• Word Count: 2163
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate