... is given a real name and not a job title or social group. The main subject of The Tax-Gatherer is concerning the underdog which is Martha Williamson; this is done partly through the use of characterisation. The first chance we are given to build a picture of the woman is from ... reader begin to think that the woman is weak, inadequate, possibly malnutrition setting in and a general sense of vulnerability can be observed. When Martha Williamson is questioned about the possibility of court she still clings to the door as if supporting her frail body from collapse or supporting herself fro...

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

... tasting the sea salts and moisture." and " but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha carrying nothing." Jimmy also carries the weight of command and the responsibility for his men's lives. After one of his men dies the author writes this ... . "Lieutenant Cross felt the pain. He blamed himself." There are two main supporting characters, Martha and Ted Lavender. Martha is a junior a Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. The lieutenant dated her a few times before he left for Vietnam. She is a poet ... quite real a po...

• Word Count: 1022
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... face in the short story lead up to what we know as the plot. The main conflict in this story is the conflict between Lieutenant Cross and Martha, his letter lover. When the Lieutenant doesn't take part in his duties at the war, they loose men. He realizes that his problem is fantasizing about ... Martha all of the time. When one of Jimmy's closest and best men dies he is left to make a difficult or even impossible choice, known as dilemma. This ... focus more directly on his job as the first Lieutenant of the Vietnam War. Instead of letting his mind drift off into a daydream over Martha...

• Word Count: 313
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... weight of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross" rucksack and the things he carried could not even compare to the weight of his love for Martha and his responsibility for the death of one of his men because of his love for Martha. This, along with his responsibility for the rest of his men, caused him to choose between the two. He symbolically threw away ... the burden of his love for Martha by burning her letters and throwing away the pebble she gave him. Doing this did nothing in ... removing the burden because he knew them by heart already and his love for Martha would not change. He would still t...

• Word Count: 1072
• Approx Pages: 4

... were "things men carried inside" (O"Brien 972), so they were much harder to bear throughout the conflict. Lt. Jimmy Cross had to rely on his memories and fantasies of Martha to get him through this frightening ordeal and he "humped" "two photographs of Martha because he loved her so much" (O"Brien 961). Though, at one point in the story Jimmy Cross "burned ... " (O"Brien 971) to try and relieve the load because he felt that it was an unattainable fantasy as well. Unfortunately, Lt. Cross was focusing on Martha when he should have been concentrating on his men, "Lavender was dead. You cou...

• Word Count: 461
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... mean more to the reader when Strangeworth comes into contact with more of the townspeople. While Adela is in the grocery store another character, Martha Harper enters to buy some sugar. Miss Strangeworth immediately takes notice that "[Martha Harper] had not been taking proper care of herself" and that "[she] was not as young as she used to be." Strangeworth's judgmental personality ... ...

• Word Count: 1363
• Approx Pages: 5

... did not come easy. After spending time painting and attending writing seminars to improve her hobby, she came to terms with her next goal. Judith Guest states in her personal biography, "I made the decision that I was going to finish a novel, and then get some outside opinions if it was interesting to anyone other than myself" ("Judith Guest" ... published in 1976. Many people would give up after being denied of their dreams over and over. What made Judith Guest continue with her passion? As Guest stated in her biography, she had become deeply rooted in her characters, seeing them f...

• Word Count: 2059
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... understand the story. His characters are very interesting to analyze as they are mysterious.1 Many critics have written many articles on his writings and also biography about him. After reading some of his short stories and his biography I found his characters more interesting and I decided to write my paper on a few of them. In my paper I will focus on some of Edgar ... ...

• Word Count: 2343
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... , Where Have You Been? Joyce Carol Oates is no doubt one of the greatest authors of her time it is obvious that her writings endure even today. Upon reading her biography and descriptions of her works it is inferred that Oates is a bit strange in the way she chooses to write. For example, the author explains that: There have been changes ... . Oates seems to be a very deep thinker and she incorporates this into her writing when she writes of the murders in Tucson. It is decided from this research of Oates biography and study of her story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" that Oat...

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

Shirley Jackson (1919-1965) Biography Shirley Hardie Jackson was born in San Francisco on 14 December 1916 to Leslie Hardie Jackson and Geraldine Bugbee Jackson. She spent her early childhood in Burlingame, California. She started ... James Harris (1949). Two more children were born: Sarah in 1948 and Barry in 1951. Jackson died of a heart attack when she was 48. "Shirley Jackson," in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 234: American Short-Story Writers Since World War II, Third Series. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Patrick Meanor, State University of New York College at Oneon...

• Word Count: 1406
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... to him the story of Lazarus, and Sonia does so for the sake of Raskolnikov, despite her hesitation of reading to a non-believer. Lazarus is the brother of Mary and Martha, who were good friends of Jesus. When Lazarus died, Christ raised him from the dead. In the novel, this story seems to act as hint of hope for Raskolnikov while ... ...

• Word Count: 1095
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... plot comes when Ted Lavender is shot and killed. Boom. Down. After Lavender dies, Jimmy Cross has a profound change and is all business. Cross sacrifices his love and fantasy for Martha for the protection and safety of his men. Everything that fantasy represented is lost. At this point, Jimmy Cross understood. "It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried ... ...

• Word Count: 459
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... to work out his own inner conflicts and psychological struggles. This can relate to mood in that the readers are experiencing a taste of his own life. In a critic written by Martha Womack, she explains how the narrator's "nervousness" is a frequently used literary device of Poe to establish tone through heightened states of consciousness (Womack, Poedecoder). Womack also speculates that the narrator ... ...

• Word Count: 882
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Throughout the Canadian Prairies many people experience loneliness and isolation. This seclusion can be attributed to many different factors. In Martha Ostenso's novel, Wild Geese; these influencing dynamics are presented strongly through the characters of Ellen Gare, and her father Caleb Gare. As each character develops, the segregation each individual experiences ... ...

• Word Count: 516
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography

... on its own (Straus 651). The theory that Kafka's novella, "The Metamorphosis" refers to the metamorphosis that occurs in Gregor's sister, Grete, can be supported by analyzing Kafka's biography and early life in Prague. Kafka was the eldest of six children, three of whom were his sisters named, Gabriele, Valerie, and Ottilie (Nervi, "Kafka's Life"). Kafka was ... ...

• Word Count: 3072
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . 2007: 2827). Consequently, we found it interesting to analyze the story literarily and support our discussion with evidences from the context and the critical opinions about Carver and his works. Biography Born in Clatskanie, Oregon, Raymond Carver in 1938, at the age of three with his parents moved to Yakima, Washington, where his father found a work as a sawmill worker. In his ... ...

• Word Count: 3978
• Approx Pages: 16
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... humanized into Tong's amnesia. The loss of Tongs family could also be viewed as a reference to China's Cultural Revolution, comparing the change of culture to a loss of uniqueness and heritage. A biography of Ha Jin sates "Jin's plans for returning to China changed in 1989, however, when he saw Chinese protesters confronting army troops in Tiananmen Square in Beijing; the results ... ...

• Word Count: 1019
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Abraham Zamicku (°1964, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an artist who works in a variety of media. With Plato's allegory of the cave in mind, Zamicku makes works that can be seen as self-portraits. Sometimes they appear idiosyncratic and quirky, at other times, they seem typical by-products of American superabundance and marketing. His artworks are saturated with obviousness, mental inertia, cliches and bad jokes. They question the coerciveness that is derived from the more profound meaning and the superficial aesthetic appearance of an image. By parodying mass media by exaggerating certain forma...

• Word Count: 1452
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Story That Told a Greater One Woodstock immediately comes to mind; Jackie Robinson as the first African American Major League Baseball player for the Brooklyn Dodgers; Gandhi. All throughout history, there have been times in which a moment or event nearly summed up a generation: what happened during that time period, what the people were experiencing, the emotional state of a country, the impact of a single person all merely examples of stories that helped share a larger one. More often than not, an explanation is not even necessary. Nadine Gordimer may not be a household name here in the ...

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

... , "Cathedral" ends with hope; although there is no proof that the narrator will overcome his isolation, for the moment, he is in communion with himself and another human being. Author Biography Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, on May 25, 1938, to laborer Clevie Raymond Carver and homemaker Ella Beatrice Carver. At an early age, Carver moved with his family to ... ...

• Word Count: 11148
• Approx Pages: 45
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the mid-1800's, Poe worked as a writer, creating stunning detective stories such as "Murders in the Rue Morgue", and beautiful poems like "The Raven". According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography, "It is not hard to see the connection between the nightmare of Poe's life and his work. Behind a screen of sometimes substantial, sometimes flimsy "reality", his fictional work beautifully resembles ... ...

• Word Count: 820
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... in history, each of those novels is very unique. The reason for that is that each novel will try to convey something different to the reader. It could be a story, a biography, or something as simple as teaching one how to count. Whatever the purpose of it maybe the novel is an intricate part in shaping society and the world in order ... ...

• Word Count: 1195
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... are readers who prefer to read non-fiction books that are based on truth and facts, and real-life situations. Some examples of these types of writings include essay, history, biography, autobiography, and diary. Readers expect the writer to take them away from their stressful lives. They want to put themselves, as a character, inside the books that they read. They want ... ...

• Word Count: 496
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... were buried in the James family cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Henry James work was remarkable and outstanding in his lifetime he put out 112 tales, 20 novels, 2 columns of auto biography and part of a third, travel essays and books, 3,000 pages of literary criticism, and 16 plays. Some scholars criticize James works because of its slow development and deliberate withholding of ... ...

• Word Count: 847
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... . Cather espouses is simple enough for the peasant to understand, and too complex for the wisest scholar. This book just baffles me: it's not a novel, per se, nor is it a biography--it's more like an etching of time and place; of ideas and people who travel through the arid, beautiful dreamscape of New Mexico. Ms. Cather wrote part of this novel ... ...

• Word Count: 7335
• Approx Pages: 29
• Grade Level: Undergraduate