... has disrupted the paradise that existed before-a powerful symbol of innate human evil disrupting childhood innocence. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes. Biblical Parallels Many critics have characterized Lord of the Flies as a ... savage boys like Jack and Roger use their power to gratify their own desires, treating the littler boys as objects for their own amusement. Summary & Analysis Chapter 1 Summary A fair-haired boy lowers himself down some rocks toward a lagoon on a beach. At the l...

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

... a Lion with an understanding that there are as many readers, as there are responders, making it a text worth critical analysis. User Comments Historical Obliviousness in Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion Graciela Moreira Slepoy, Postgraduate Student, Laval University, Canada This web essay is based upon a paper the author wrote for Professor Neil Bissoondath's "Postcolonial Literature II" [ANG-64699A], Laval University. Michael ... ...

• Word Count: 3985
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

... , whether deliberate or not, who gives her friends plenty to gossip about. A women who lets young American strangers occupy and destroy her flat; who retains and displays her old lovers literary works; a character who becomes a "mistress" and has an affair with a married man; and gallivants around the Italian Riviera. Gayle Greene defines Lessing's story by stating, "Dorris Lessing's fiction is visionary ... ...

• Word Count: 2580
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... her loneliness. "There was nobody who could help her. Nobody in the world." Oedipa has lost connection with life, as she knows it. She is trapped in the void. Pynchon's analysis of Oedipa's mental condition reveals the terrible effects of searching for the hidden truth. It leaves Oedipa numb, alone, without any chance of help. The Crying of Lot 49 involves ... ...

• Word Count: 3055
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

In the short story "The Birds", Daphne Du Maurier tells us about how humans have a false superiority. They think that they are the most intelligent race in the world but by the end of the story we realize just how small and useless we actually are against nature. This makes me feel genuinely frightened because Du Maurier makes the prospect of nature being able to wipe out mankind, very realistic. This apocalyptic story contains many techniques used by Du Maurier to highlight the themes and ideas behind it. Nature causes the destruction of mankind by attacking people in a way that they thought...

• Word Count: 4405
• Approx Pages: 18
• Grade Level: High School