... interesting clues such as word choice, tone and mood, reappearing symbols and references that enrich the story and intensify its underlining message. The choice of French names and words reminds the reader of the stories' setting and helps create an irony that is echoed throughout the text. Before the narrator explains the use of the French language and the settlers' origin, it becomes evident ... fourteen years before slavery was abolished so must have had strong feeling on the subject. She no doubt saw mixed ancestry in the black communities and realized the cause of it. This story cr...

• Word Count: 1926
• Approx Pages: 8

... is a musically induced fantasy world. Connie's innocence and self-centeredness ultimately leads to the gateway for a sinister person, Arnold to take advantage of her. In her short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Oates uses symbols such as color imagery and music, and Connie's familiar world to illustrate how Connie is caught between two worlds: adolescence, understood to be ... something physical, in this case it is Arnold Friend's name written in not just any black letters but in tar-like letters. Arnold's name is written in "tar-like black letters" to signify that Arn...

• Word Count: 1509
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... is, perhaps, the reason O"Connor placed such great emphasis on foreshadowing. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is pregnant with religious symbols and metaphors, and fearing that leaving out such violence to protect the squeamish would alter the message of grace and redemption that she was trying to convey, she opted to gradually set the reader up for it by placing clues ... the peril they are about to face when one does come. The reader, however, has been continuously anticipating this very moment. At the very instant one learns of the car headed toward the family, "a big black battered hea...

• Word Count: 2114
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School