... "There is only one lesson to be learned from life... That there's no lesson to be learned from life." -Gloria Patch (p. l34) F. Scott Fitzgerald began his second novel in l920. It was published when he was just twenty-five years old in l922. It moves from prewar days through the First World ... to prose narrative and dialogue for the most part, and he keeps a consistent tone and point of view throughout the novel. Fitzgerald tells a wonderful story and in this novel, the story is quite easy to follow. In the first book, the couple (Anthony and Gloria) meet and fall in love. We are ... t...

• Word Count: 2828
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... sold at 1 shilling the installment (1836-37), and opened up a market for similar inexpensive books. Many of Dickens's following novels first appeared in monthly installments, including OLIVER TWIST (1837-39). It depicts the London underworld and hard years of the foundling Oliver Twist, whose right to his inheritance is kept secret by the villainous Mr. Monks. Oliver suffers in a poorfarm ... into screen a number of times. The character of Ebenezer Scrooge, the "squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching" miser, has attracted such actors as Seymour Hicks, Albert Finney, Michael...

• Word Count: 6746
• Approx Pages: 27

... it is, but it is also what we make of it. What we call history" is not a thing, an object of study, but a story we choose to tell about things. Thus all history writing requires a fictive or imaginary representation of the past"." Richard Slotkin Gunter Grass, in his novel ... for writing historical stuff, he says "Well, because of Mother's incessant nagging Because I wanted to cry the way I did at the time Because for the true story " (1). In the third paragraph he makes things clearer saying "If I really have to settle my own historical accounts now, everything I messed up is going to ...

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... within." (11) Hawthorne describes the house as symbolic of the Pyncheon family that resides within, with its "shadowy and thoughtful gloom," and its "scattered shavings, chips and shingles." (17) The story begins in the 17th century, when the Pyncheons settled in Salem under the attentive watch of the covetous Colonel Pyncheon. The property on which the house stands didn't originally belong ... food, or starve! And we have stolen upon Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon, too irreverently, at the instant of time when the patrician lady is to be transformed into the plebeian woman." (39) Her financial...

• Word Count: 2986
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

... protagonists are anti-heroes. Moreover, the difference between the authors' choice of diction used to portray their protagonists' characteristics in the two works also contributes to the development of the story. The diction evokes the murderers' desire and is also used as a tool to reflect the other characters' perspectives upon the monstrous side of each protagonist. With regard to this exploration ... is fear being manipulated by literary elements in the horror and thriller genres, as illustrated in Patrick Suskind's Perfume and Bram Stoker's Dracula? " Character Development Perfume ...

• Word Count: 4287
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... what society deems acceptable and appropriate. We see similar patterns in displaying the ignorance and limitations of a romantic perspective in Henry James' "Turn of the Screw". In this story the protagonist, similar to Emma Bovary, is a young unexperienced girl inspired by her own "romantic" mindset and lack of exposition to realistic life interactions, and circumstances. ... why Gregor has become this "monstrous - vermin" is a completely untraditional way to begin a novel and leaves the reader with the same confusion as the characters in the story themselves. Another distinguishing fac...

• Word Count: 3767
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... age 45, Lafferty began to explore his interest in writing. The New Mexico Quarterly Review published "The Wagons" in 1959, his first short story. In 1968 his first novel was published, Past Master. Lafferty wrote over two hundred short stories and over twenty full-length novels. Lafferty ... ago, he more than likely would have been one of the champions of Native American rights. Lafferty also possessed a comic sense. Some of his story worlds were almost a "Looney Toon" world. Every character understood each other perfectly. In Nine Hundred Grandmothers, for example the Proavitoi understo...

• Word Count: 2850
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... days went by, Robby would ask and wonder where his father was. This led Robby feeling unwanted, lonely and abandoned. Consequently, Robby began picking up characteristics of Bret. Throughout the story, Robby becomes more and more distant from Bret. He is disgusted with Bret, constantly staring and glaring at him. Throughout the novel, Robby will casually say "You're crazy ... continues to expose his feelings towards Bret, saying that he "didn't like it" and that Bret scares him. Bret has a conversation towards the end of the novel about a story he wrote as a child. He was "just about Ro...

• Word Count: 3723
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... jealousy" (House 1). In the beginning the narrator, whose name is never mentioned, feels like she could never replace Rebecca, but as the story unfolds she begins to see that Rebecca was potentially maleficent. The character's lack of name reflects her lack of identity caused by Rebecca's strong presence ... It not only was a best seller in England but in America as well. I would say this book is worth reading. "Rebecca is a lowbrow story with a middlebrow finish" (Charques 1). Every critique that I have read about this book has been nothing but positive. The book was well thought out an...

• Word Count: 3228
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of Toni Morrison's inner thoughts and beliefs which were highly impacted by her various life experiences. Throughout her writing, Morrison continuously focuses on her readers being emotionally connected to the story, as she believes that it reminds the reader about their heritage and most importantly, place in society. She does an excellent job of pairing the challenges her family has faced ... largely benefit from Morrison's informative and emotionally connective reading material. It opens our eyes to the challenges of the past while allowing us to experience an absolutely wonderful an...

• Word Count: 2626
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... use of irony in the last chapter blurs the boundary between civilization and savagery and implies that the two are more closely connected than the story has illustrated. Ultimately, the boys' appalling savagery brings about the rescue that their coordinated and purposeful efforts were unable to achieve. Much of ... of the West. Ultimately, there is some validity to each of these different readings and interpretations of "Lord of the Flies." Although Golding's story is confined to the microcosm of a group of boys, it resounds with implications far beyond the bounds of the small island and ...

• Word Count: 11237
• Approx Pages: 45
• Grade Level: High School

... As a reader, we need an outsiders perspective on House Of Leaves. This novel is separated into four levels which tell the story from four points of view. First, there is the story of Will Navidson and his wife Karen Green, along with their two children, Chad and Daisy. In the next level, something ... , underscore, his debt to the work of Borges. " Danielewski's novel is split into four levels. The first and lowest level of the novel is the story of Will Navidson and his wife, Karen Green, along with their two children, Chad and Daisy. They attempt to fix their relationship which is fall...

• Word Count: 3245
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

... Rights Movement. It tells of the struggles women must go through when they reach menopause; the big change. However, the main plot line tells the story of two women, Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, and the trials and tribulations of their life in the 1920's and 30's. Idgie and Ruth are ... time in which he was truly content. The most obvious example of a character that uses nostalgia is Mrs. Threadgoode. Through the entire novel she narrates a wonderful story, of love, hate, joy, sorrow and even murder. She recollects the days that she and he! r entire family were together and all t...

• Word Count: 2942
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

... as an immigrant in Canada, but focused instead on the uneventful lives of a group of Parsis who live in a ramshackle Bombay apartment block. While some readers interpreted the collection's final story, "Swimming Lessons," as a forerunner to future fiction about the immigrant experience, their expectations fell short when Mistry's first novel, Such a Long Journey, appeared in 1991. This complex tale of corruption ... Dubliners and to Chekhov's work-again, fiction that focuses on a limited company but manages to unfold into a larger world. Early on, Mistry attracted the attention of the f...

• Word Count: 4673
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... as an immigrant in Canada, but focused instead on the uneventful lives of a group of Parsis who live in a ramshackle Bombay apartment block. While some readers interpreted the collection's final story, "Swimming Lessons," as a forerunner to future fiction about the immigrant experience, their expectations fell short when Mistry's first novel, Such a Long Journey, appeared in 1991. This complex tale of corruption ... Dubliners and to Chekhov's work-again, fiction that focuses on a limited company but manages to unfold into a larger world. Early on, Mistry attracted the attention of the f...

• Word Count: 4675
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Separate Peace was written by John Knowles and was published in 1959. The genre of this selection can be described as both a coming-of-age story and a tragedy. The strongest feature of this selection is the development of a love-hate relationship that can be easily related to by the reader. ... that take the lives of innocent men. The characters in this selection mature and change throughout the course of the novel. Although most of the story occurs between the years of 1942 - 1493, the reader can easily tell that the boys are maturing and leaving infant ways behind. Firstly, ... first...

• Word Count: 3096
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

... problem which is the production of a work." (Eco, 1984) Eco explains how the historical fiction writer must become immersed in historical evidence: to tell a story, "you must first of all construct a world, furnished as much as possible, down to the slightest detail." In his case, this required committing him ... "`exists, but cannot be reached'" (Eco, 1983), in the south tower. Adso's experiences of linguistic confusion in the abbey remind him of the biblical story of the building of the tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9; Rose 30, 47), in which the Lord "confused" human language lest man cont...

• Word Count: 4697
• Approx Pages: 19
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... but does not become foolish. He created a work that included gothic conventions but also had value and meaning to those who read it. When first reading the story seemed as if it were contradicting itself. Jane Austen stood up for the novel when she says, "Yes, novels- for I will not adopt that ungenerous ... and the types of literature that was being read. Jane Austen is showing that Catherine is not the ideal reader. Henry is the real protagonist in this story. He is the person that we as readers should strive to be, not Catherine. He is well read, and she is not. In the novel we ... muc...

• Word Count: 2803
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... is a broad term that headers novels, drama, poetry, prose, and even film and television, but they are all very different. Novels tell a story much like any other form of literature but much of the imagination is done for the reader. In a novel there is no need for the reader ... literature, including the historically oral (i.e. poetry, some prose, and drama), follow many of the same conventions of a novel, for example the telling of a story including setting and characters, but not all of them have the same affect on a reader/listener/watcher. Through literature, people meet characters ...

• Word Count: 3148
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

... little postage stamp of native soil," into Yoknapatawpha County, the mythical region in which he sets the novel (76). In addition to setting, another influence on the story is Faulkner's own family. He had three brothers, black servants, a mother whose family was not as distinguished as her husband's, a father who drank a lot, ... portrays Mr. Compson as a alcoholic, and names the children's grandmother Damuddy who also dies while they are young. Perhaps the most important influence on the story is Faulkner's education, or lack thereof. He never graduated from high school, let alone col...

• Word Count: 2695
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

1. INTRODUCTION It is truth universally acknowledge that a good novel in possession of a good love story must be in want of a screen adaptation. Yet no work of Jane Austen reached the big screen before 1940's Pride and Prejudice – which, though highly popular, was the last ... picture." Such a significant limitation shift of a film adaptation has its peculiarities of reproduction. The main task here is to capture the essence and spirit of the story. The through-line and major sub-plot of the story are determined in a film and the rest features of a novel have to be viciously cut out. So-ca...

• Word Count: 3105
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography

... the combination of her love for him as a son is too much to bear, and this is the point where her love crosses the line. Through the course of the story you can see the constant battle between the parents begin to have an adverse effect on the children's upbringing. Though in true heroic manner Mrs. Morel does not let her ... 's love and affection. Naturally at the age that Paul was in his life, a mothers control would soon begin to slip away into the hands of her son's wife. Within this story it is not the case at all. The more that Paul tries for freedom the more she becomes controllin...

• Word Count: 2691
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... unyielding love, Charlotte's representation is much more romantic and socially acceptable. Emily, contrastly, portrays a passionate love that is also destructive and hurts everyone involved. The general public neglected Emily's love story; many were horrified at the way she presented the emotions and characters. "The moral of Wuthering Heights is that it shows what Satan could do with the law of Entail ... . For every similarity, however, there were equally as notable differences. The characters are not only similar but drastically different especially the two main characters Heathcliff ...

• Word Count: 2660
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... . Fateful incidents, overheard conversations and undelivered letters work against her ability to control the path her life takes. Tess's future seems doomed from the beginning of the novel. As the story opens, we first meet her father and learn of Tess's ancestry: "Durbeyfield . . . are the lineal representative of the ancient and knightly family of the d"Urbervilles . . . that renowned knight who came ... . Later, her marriage with Angel Clare is wrecked because by her code of honor she must take a "chance" and tell him of her affair or seduction with Alec. What a different story this wo...

• Word Count: 3297
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

... is a classic example of Joyce's belief that an epiphany can dramatically alter the human spirit in a matter of just a few seconds. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man tells the story of Stephen Dedalus, the main character of the novel. Growing up, Stephen goes through long phases of hedonism and deep religiosity. He eventually adopts a philosophy of aestheticism, greatly valuing beauty ... drunk and sentimentalizes about his past. Joyce paints a picture of a man who has ruined himself and, instead of facing his problems, drowns them in alcohol and nostalgia. Returning to the story, ...

• Word Count: 4998
• Approx Pages: 20
• Grade Level: Undergraduate