... love him with all their hearts. Although they are simple people, they will guide the little boy on the right path. In only one year of his life, Little Tree learns about prejudice, violence and death. But the loving relationships he builds with his grandparents, his friend Willow John, and Mother ... little boy with his ancestors and his family's history. His grandparents will offer him the best gift possible: a normal childhood, in a normal family. At his grandparent's house, Little Tree learns how to "talk- the animals' language and care for them. He learns about the beauty and import...

• Word Count: 1025
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Water For Chocolate is filled with many metaphors and similes. One that is important to the plot and the theme is the simile "She could pick up the watermelon and give it a single blow against a stone, in a particular stop, and like magic the watermelon rind would open like the petals of a flower leaving the heart intact on ... describing Mama Elena and how she cuts watermelon for people who get hot during the night. This is symbolism showing how Mama Elena treats Tita in the story. This simile is important to the plot because it's not only describing Mama Elena cutting watermelon, but al...

• Word Count: 366
• Approx Pages: 1

... Parwana. In one instance, the girls were walking back from school and found that some boys were throwing pebbles at them. Parwana then became angry because they were only throwing them at Masooma. The story then takes us to a time when they were seventeen, playing around on the tall oak tree. While ... sitting on the branch, Parwana tried playing a joke on Masooma by shaking the branch, but backfired and ultimately caused Masooma her ability to walk. After the accident, the story fast forwards to Masooma's wish of going to Kabul. It is at this point that the true test of family ties is d...

• Word Count: 1073
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry The setting of this book takes place in Chicago's Southside, sometime between World War II and the present. The main characters are Ruth Younger, Walter Lee Younger, Beneatha Younger, and Lena Younger. Lena Younger is the mother of ... you is that we called you over here to tell you that we are very proud and that this is my son, who makes the sixth generation of our family in this country, and that we have all thought about your offer and we have decided to move into our house because my father earned it. We don't want to make ... family moves to the neighb...

• Word Count: 443
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... agrees with her daughter, but argues that even if the leaves are getting heavier, there is something more valuable about this tree than money when she said: "But something brighter than money moves In our blood- an edge sharp and quick as a trowel that's want us to dig and sow." The mother ... feel the need to plant, build and preserve that flowed in the blood of her ancestors. According to the mother, the walnut tree means something more valuable to her family than just an economic gain. It represents her heritage that used a tool that is ... "edge sharp" to dig the ground and plant se...

• Word Count: 585
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . This painful heartbreaking experience has taught Nanny a harsh lesson that love cannot always be trusted; more than that, love cannot play a only part in marriage. Unlike her young granddaughter Janie who is youthful and only sees the reason to marry is if is true love. "the inaudible voice of ... bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation". Janie's y...

• Word Count: 834
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... , a mother who works long hours at a factory, and two brothers and two sisters, Zeze does not get much toys to play with, even at Christmas, but has an old fruitless tree in his backyard called Minguinho whom he likes to "talk'to and "play?with. One day, Zeze meets a Portugal man, and soon after they become very close friendsclose enough to make ... only as a joke. Zeze is really a nice person, however, he is too neive to know why people are irritated by his immaturity. In his childish innocence, Zeze can make anything happen in his imaginary world: a useless tree in to a friend, chicken...

• Word Count: 295
• Approx Pages: 1

... The value of literature is immense. Literature exposes readers to new ideas and causes us to think. This is can be done through literature's timeless themes. A Northern Light and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn share the same theme: education is important. These two books include characters with a strong desire towards education for themselves and others. A Northern Light is a book about a young girl named ... about attending college. College will allow her to escape her small town to major in something she loves, writing. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is about a young girl named Francie who lives ...

• Word Count: 800
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... she went off to school. Maggie and Dee have much envy and awe towards each other for many reasons, beginning with Dee letting Maggie nearly die in a house fire to Dee trying to take away the quilts promised to Maggie. At the beginning of the story, the narrator discusses Maggie's nervousness for ... and the reasons for her feeling homely and ashamed of herself. The narrator says, will be nervous until after her sister goes; she will stand hopelessly in the corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe."(6) During ...

• Word Count: 818
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... his readers with each character. By using the literary 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 ... insiders: those family members and close friends directly effected by the conflict in the story, as well as the feelings of the outsiders: those obliquely effected by the conflict in the s...

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

... polite. These are only a few of the words that describe the novel Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns. This story tells about a young boy, an old man, and a coming of age town that experiences progression in the turn of the twentieth century. Everyone learns that nothing can stay the same forever and ... keep living life. The motif of change runs through this novel. Change is something that is all around everyone at all times. Sometimes the biggest change in people's lives can be the death of a loved one, or the arrival of a newcomer. This was definately the case as Mattie Lou, grandmoth...

• Word Count: 618
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... men are and how uc more superior Indians are. Nevertheless, they had to go away because the white soldiers would have killed them otherwise. When True Son arrived in Paxton County, he was immediately brought to his parents, Harold and Myra Butler, his Aunt Kate, and his younger brother, Gordie. He has been informed that ... his white name is John C. Butler. When "John" sleeps in his bed, he feels too far away from his mother earth, and that he is trapped from the natural atmosphere. He doesn't feel right, and that he is ... surrounded by his white enemies, especially when his family com...

• Word Count: 422
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... await the arrive of the new and "improved" Dee. Maggie and her mother have both lived peaceful, simple lives in a house in which the sisters spent a large portion of their childhood. With both of them not having ventured outside of the town they lived ... ." This emphasized her new found liberation from the oppressors that kept her culture restricted while making her sister slightly uncomfortable in the process. She greets her mother and sister in Swahili, showcasing her new-found worldliness. Almost immediately afterwards, Dee begins to snap photos of her family alongside the house ... ...

• Word Count: 710
• Approx Pages: 3

... in the Sacred Edicts it is commanded that a man is never to correct an elder!?" (pg.66). Wang Lung also treats his father with respect. Wang Lung's father, however, does not act pathetically like the uncle. Wang Lung shows another obligation to his father when he buries his father "under a date tree"( ... pg 288) despite that the land promises good wheat. This "was a sign of the establishment of his family upon their own land." (pg 289). Wang Lung lost some of his good land, and thus, he also lost a portion of his income in order to bury his elder father in a good site. ... ; Yet another ...

• Word Count: 803
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... an omen, as well as perhaps despair, but it adds a different element to this story as well; it seems to be a force, perhaps destiny, perhaps a life in itself. As we are introduced into the story, we meet a man and his son apparently on an errand at the local grocers. From a still calm they feel an ... cabins, as if the storm is using its force to procure privacy for the two old friends. As she is watching, a bolt of lightening strikes a chinaberry tree, and sends her stumbling backwards, right into the mans arms. Was the lightening a force of nature, or nature forcing its way? As the stor...

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

... biological for some reason or another. My mother doesn't like her father to much at all, her mother isn't in a much different situation, and I am a soldier of the same battle. But this occurs in my biological father's path as well his father wasn't there for him and he wasn't there for me but he ... with my children. What makes my family unique? This question will be easily answered by me. I believe that my family's uniqueness lies in our independence because this is a trait that everyone in my family has one way or another. I, my sister, and my mother are not dependant upon each other....

• Word Count: 700
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Grandfather Diego Ornido Valdez and Grandmother and Rosario Castillo. I know that my Great Grandfather Diego was a Roman Catholic priest and was very respected in the Philippines regarding the Catholic Church. He served as a priest for many years and all of his family and children (which includes my grandfather) were ... life wasn't over yet, he realized he still had many more tears to recover from sadness. The next year he met my grandmother Josie Figueroa in the Philippines. My Grandma came from my other Great Grandfather Fermin Figueroa and Juana Laguardia. Their past is not remember...

• Word Count: 999
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Grandfather Diego Ornido Valdez and Grandmother and Rosario Castillo. I know that my Great Grandfather Diego was a Roman Catholic priest and was very respected in the Philippines regarding the Catholic Church. He served as a priest for many years and all of his family and children (which includes my grandfather) were ... life wasn't over yet, he realized he still had many more tears to recover from sadness. The next year he met my grandmother Josie Figueroa in the Philippines. My Grandma came from my other Great Grandfather Fermin Figueroa and Juana Laguardia. Their past is not remember...

• Word Count: 999
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Grandfather Diego Ornido Valdez and Grandmother and Rosario Castillo. I know that my Great Grandfather Diego was a Roman Catholic priest and was very respected in the Philippines regarding the Catholic Church. He served as a priest for many years and all of his family and children (which includes my grandfather) were ... life wasn't over yet, he realized he still had many more tears to recover from sadness. The next year he met my grandmother Josie Figueroa in the Philippines. My Grandma came from my other Great Grandfather Fermin Figueroa and Juana Laguardia. Their past is not remember...

• Word Count: 999
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Grandfather Diego Ornido Valdez and Grandmother and Rosario Castillo. I know that my Great Grandfather Diego was a Roman Catholic priest and was very respected in the Philippines regarding the Catholic Church. He served as a priest for many years and all of his family and children (which includes my grandfather) were ... life wasn't over yet, he realized he still had many more tears to recover from sadness. The next year he met my grandmother Josie Figueroa in the Philippines. My Grandma came from my other Great Grandfather Fermin Figueroa and Juana Laguardia. Their past is not remember...

• Word Count: 999
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Grandfather Diego Ornido Valdez and Grandmother and Rosario Castillo. I know that my Great Grandfather Diego was a Roman Catholic priest and was very respected in the Philippines regarding the Catholic Church. He served as a priest for many years and all of his family and children (which includes my grandfather) were ... life wasn't over yet, he realized he still had many more tears to recover from sadness. The next year he met my grandmother Josie Figueroa in the Philippines. My Grandma came from my other Great Grandfather Fermin Figueroa and Juana Laguardia. Their past is not remember...

• Word Count: 999
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... book but I will focus on True Son (Lenni Quis in Indian Language), Cuyloga, and Half Arrow. True Son, an American boy turned Indian, is taken from his tribe to go back to his white family. He highly disagrees with this ... ...

• Word Count: 259
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... missed my dance recitals, my first cheerleading competition, and those first days of school where he and my mother had video taped me walking out the door onto another chapter in my life. He is trying so hard to be all he wasn't and I idolize him for that he made a mistake, he learned, now he has a lot to catch up on ... . He took me shopping the other day and we went to the fair together for the past four years in a row and each time we go into a small photo booth to take a picture and he tells me, "Smile Ashley, you"re beautiful."...

• Word Count: 286
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

My sister-in-law had a miscarriage about three month ago. It was a second time she had a miscarriage. First time was two years ago. She did Not crying at that time. But this time ... with her. That why he felt bad about that. But now we all exercise together. Three times a week. When my brother is busy I run with her. I think she is good in shape now. I want to get marry when I see my brother and his wife. They living happily. I want to live like that. And exercise like them when I get marry. ...

• Word Count: 421
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... home she lives in, a place that is natural, with "tiny, irregular grooves" and is "like an extended living room" where she can "sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for breezes" (Walker 559). She actually lives and uses the yard ... as an integral part to her daily life, but Dee is only able to connect to the yard and the house through photographs. Dee "stoops down quickly and lines up picture after picture of [her mother] sitting there in ... dresses herself according to the dictates of a faddish Africanism and thereby demonstrates a cultural Catch-22: an American who attempts to...

• Word Count: 1672
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography