... another individual to commit the murder for me. To take the blame and carry the weight of taking a life so I didn't have to. To understand my story, you must believe that I am not lying or crazy or suffering from some type of long-term amnesia. No. I know what I did, as surely as ... I learned a lot of skills in training and curing animals. Later on, I opened a company of my own. After a half way through of construction, I was short of money. During this stressing period of time, a business men called Mr. James asked me for a meeting. On the meeting, he told me that he knew that ... hav...

• Word Count: 1651
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

My name is Amara. I am just recently turned 16 with my twin, Heidi. That day was the start of something extremely horrible. I never thought I would ever hate turning 16, but that was the day Heidi and I were cursed. We ended up haunted. We became pawns in a sick twisted game. I feel that you and the world should know. My name is Amara, and this is my story. October 25, 2011 Happy birthday to me I thought. Plus Heidi, but I'm still older. I officially turned 16 with Heidi this morning at 7:03 AM. We were very hyper this morning. I have a feeling this year's presents will be fantastic. Unfortuna...

• Word Count: 2052
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

I've lived here my entire life, in the wild. My home is the canyon lands of my parents. I trek the steep ravines and eat the sweet grass that finds its home there among the granite rocks and desert cactus. Sometimes I eat the cactus, too. Sometimes I suck on rocks when the rain hasn't come. There's not many of us left, donkey that is. Do you know the donkey? We are a kind of wild donkey, once tamed, now free again. I don't know if it's possible any more, becoming free again I mean. There's not much nature left to feed upon these days. I don't recommend that choice, even for donkeys. There is q...

• Word Count: 1577
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

My name is Tony and I am a stray dog. Ever since I was born, I wanted to be one of those pampered pet dogs who roams in vehicles with good looking ladies and eats good food and sleeps beside them and does everything as good as their master, but not every dog gets what he wishes for. I am six years old and for the first two years I thought I was one amongst those pampered friends of mine because at that age, I was cute, silky and small in size and girls and ladies passing by would come and touch me and make sounds like "Aww, such a cute puppy, chhupi, my baby," and then put biscuits in front of...

• Word Count: 1289
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... "Harrison Bergeron." In extremes of both spectrums, Vonnegut's theme is that of the unshackled mind. Through Vonnegut's writing, it is obvious that he cares heavily for freedom of choice. Each short story comes from a different angle of the unshackled mind but all result in the same message concerning the mind. It is through a step-by-step examination of the ... house. The experiment finally ends and after several people are sent to the hospital, the machine is destroyed. The story finishes with the greediness of one man using the device at will to achieve whatever he likes. The mind in...

• Word Count: 1252
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... on with her grief. The idea of a woman not being owned by a man in the time period this story takes place is revolutionary. The time and her being alone dictate the importance of every other element of the short story. The revolutionary idea behind writing a short story in the setting of the early 1900's and the spring season was the theme of freedom and new ... those times. Without the main theme of freedom and new life, combined with setting, there is no revolutionary thinking and purpose to the story. The character of Mrs. Mallard is extremely important to the foundations of the shor...

• Word Count: 1256
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... how human kind has their own fears and repressed thoughts that would sound crazy if heard by anyone else. This is shown very well in a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe called "The Tell-Tale Heart". We see inner madness brought to the surface because of repressed fears the narrator has. ... In the same aspect when we read the short story "The Lottery", written by Shirley Jackson, we see this inner madness brought out because antics of a group along with this group's need for ritual. ... many others have haunted criminals as well as average people through out all history. The narra...

• Word Count: 1354
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... the couch absolutely everything which was a sign of big paranoia from Acton. The character in 'The Tell Tale Heart' had a lot of conversations throughout the story but all the conversations were to himself. The things that the character talked about were very strange. He talked about how every night at midnight for the ... him. This make Acton look not normal but a bit mad if he looks at a dead body and treats it like a piece of art. As the story goes Acton starts to see fingerprints all over the house. His fingerprints. This is a little bit strange, as you cannot see fingerprints with y...

• Word Count: 2030
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... of evolution, it is assumed that at a certain point he began to ponder the world around him. Of course, these first attempts fell short of being scholarly, probably consisting of a few grunts and snorts at best. As time passed on, though, these ideas persisted and were eventually ... the materialist to formulate his argument of skepticism against him; this idea is that one can never perceive the real essence of anything. In short, the materialist feels that the information received through sense experience gives a representative picture of the outside world (the representative theory of ...

• Word Count: 2455
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

The short story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" is a superb example of local color fiction because it has the following characteristics: a) it is written for popular fiction, b) ... it contains humor, f) it contains the subject of life, friendship, and love, g) it came from personal experience of the author, and h) it contains eccentric characters. The story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" is set in the West near the Sierra Mountains during the year 1850, a year after the 49ers reached California for gold. The townspeople of ... the fictional town of Poker Flat have decided to banish its more sinf...

• Word Count: 1453
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Flowers for Algernon - written by Daniel Keyes Charlie Gordan is in the beginning of this sciencefictionous short story a mentally deficient 27-year old and attends a class for slow adults. Before the operation his I.Q. is about 68, though afterwards it develops to ... awareness of thus, he doesn't bear any regrets at all. He's grateful that he could get a glimpse of the world, even if it lasted only for a short period of time. He knows the operation was a priority cause not many retarded adults get a second chance to be smart, but he's also aware of the fact ... that the operation has change...

• Word Count: 1285
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... I did not need to acquaint myself with the surroundings anymore since barrios and barangays are ever present here in our country. Another reason why I liked the story was because of the Filipino characters. Being a Filipino, I know the culture more or less so I did not have to adjust that much to the characters ... because I am already familiar in a way with them. In short, I liked the story for I could easily picture the events and characters in my head and I was comfortable with reading the story for it was told without using too much flowery words and the narration of events were clea...

• Word Count: 1310
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... so for those of us that have never faced that adversity can really grasp the mental conflict these men were forced to handle. In the story it talks about things that they no longer needed, they just dropped on the trail and walked away. And all the characters struggled with the ... after a while devolves into self-parody; it's the oh-so-powerful simplicity of the true" [ CITATION Joh10 l 1033 ]. And I think that's why this story can hit home with so many, because it's very relatable with everyone, war vet or not, with age not being a factor either. So our main character goes ... do it wi...

• Word Count: 1296
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The short story "The Dead" by James Joyce talks about people and their relationship. One of the major themes in the story is miscommunication. This theme arises throughout the story and is mainly expressed through the relationship of Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta. Gabriel miscommunicates with Gretta throughout the story, does not interpret ... her in the end. The process is influenced mainly by miscommunication on Gabriels' side. He also comes to a realization regarding his marriage. The story takes place at the annual Misses Morkan's dance. Among the invited people we see Gabriel Conroy...

• Word Count: 1393
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... playing and when they fall off the cliff they discover the world. He wants to protect them and keep them pure will. All through the story Salinger used Holden as the catcher on the rye to protect or try to protect the innocents of kids. The biggest and most memorial of this ... and rereading this book to find embedding symbols. I think that's what made it so good. A very important character that is referred to all throgh the story by Holden is Allie. Allie is Holder's younger brother who died of leukemia when he was just thirteen. Holden loved his brother more than anything and when ......

• Word Count: 2230
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

Conflicting Nature Have you ever loaned money to someone only to never get it back? In the short story "The Rich Brother" by Tobias Wolff, the same situation arises when Pete loans Donald some money. Pete says, "You won't pay me back. You can't. You don't know how. All ... over again. Another reason a person should not be allowed to borrow money is because the may use the money for something other then it was intended for. As in the story Pete gave some money to Donald to pay for food, gas, and other expenses that may have come along during the trip. Instead Donald had given the money to Web...

• Word Count: 1275
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... , she would be free to do whatever it was she pleased without having to stop in order to take care of a scraped knee or read a bedtime story. The same line of reasoning goes into why she moved out of her large house with the servants into the tiny pigeon-house around the corner. She wanted ... was the perfect way to do that, and she wanted to rid herself of the house she had been almost prisoner to for a large portion of her short life. This too was another way that she disregarded the societal norms of the day and did what she wanted, when she wanted. Edna's paintings represented her .....

• Word Count: 1285
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... beautiful, and serene by the Southern society? The Grandmother is from the South, yet she is probably one of the most materialistic, hypocritical characters in the story. The Grandmother's actions, thoughts, and beliefs are all in direct conflict with the image that she is supposedly portraying to the world around her The ... to sympathize with Bailey, the family, and the Misfit than it is to sympathize with the grandmother. The actions of the other characters in the story are a direct result of the things said and done by the grandmother. Bailey and the Misfit were not bad men. They wer...

• Word Count: 1902
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... comfort in the last moments of his life, so does the Yukon man. When he fails his second attempt at building the fire he panics and begins to run. For a short moment running puts a tiny flame of hope in his heart, but that flame becomes extinguished by the fatigue and the realization that he will not be able to make it ... Ivan Illich" and "To Build the Fire" place a man in his final moments of life and show his responses to the circumstances leading to death. Though the characters in each story are very different people, the final act of life, the death, makes them so much alike. The s...

• Word Count: 1585
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... car, are often detailed memories that will be etched in our minds forever. Many writers draw upon their own memories or first time experiences as a theme when creating poems, dramas, short stories and even essays. Themes that a reader can relate to or that spark a memory of a similar experience are often enjoyed and are stimulating to the reader. A person looking at the ... order to convey the experience of a young boy's first date to the reader, such as using acute attention to detail and the use of fragmented and run-on sentences, or short sentences for emphasis. Gary Soto seems to ha...

• Word Count: 1251
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... same type of argument happens, when people do not consider the alternative options. Schulz discusses a lot about confirmation bias, where people find information only to support their beliefs. She uses a story about a woman named Elizabeth O'Donovan. O'Donovan and a friend had gotten into an argument on if the constellation Orion was a summer or winter constellation. O'Donovan argues, "That's weird, Orion shouldn ... more debate and pointless arguing. Having unmodified assertions like these prevent us from exploring other options, and restricts us to our one point of view. These convers...

• Word Count: 2037
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography

... also seek out his former half. Here thus, according to Aristophanes, we have an explanation for male and female homosexuality, as well as heterosexuality. In order to explain how this story might shed some light on Aristophanes idea of love, and what he believes are the characteristics of love; we must first acknowledge the difference between physical sexual love, and a deeper ... relationship as a union between two people, where two become one, embedded with virtues of friendship and loyalty that go beyond the physical desire for sexual gratification. His arguments do fall short in sev...

• Word Count: 1564
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... 's sake. Victor, in playing the role of God, brings more horrible results; it causes an innocent girl to be put to death. Now we are toward the end of the story, and Victor still plays the role of God, which brings him madness of the mind. Victor says, "I was hurried away by fury; revenge alone endowed me with strength and composure ... all these strong beliefs against cloning, it is widely believe that cloning is foreseeable. With rats and other small animals already in the process of being cloned, it is only a short time before human beings are being cloned. This planet will once again...

• Word Count: 1508
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... this quote Socrates declares his love for the ability to be mad. The ability to want something so bad, so vehemently, is what Socrates flat out told Phaedrus, is nothing short of god-like. Socrates said this after his first speech when I believe Phaedrus is just starting to "fall under the spell" that Socrates is attempting to blind him with. Speak ... is the main idea of the Phaedrus. Absolute and complete nonsense, and I"ll tell you why. The soul is nothing more than a thought; a blind spirit or a means to "help" is story along; nothing more. I believe the soul is nothing more than a ...

• Word Count: 2193
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... master, called Luis. His name is Chance, but because he is a gardener and dos not offer any other last name, he adopts the name Chance Gardener. "Being There" offers us a story of a man, who did not have any experience from life other than from the Television Programs he has watched. In his contact with people, he lives them with the impression ... of, as in a garden. The impact of decoding of Chance's verbal communication was with a great importance for his role in the society. Because he did not speak much and said short but logical explanations about gardens, everybody though he is s...

• Word Count: 1801
• Approx Pages: 7