... . This year, predictions for holiday spending were very low, but analysts were surprised: Spending was actually even lower than expected. A division of MasterCard showed holiday spending this year was down by as much as 4% over the same period last year, making this year the worst holiday season for them in modern times. Even retail behemoths such as Gap experienced a drop in sales ... be a very real threat to more and more of us. To help encourage spending and inject life back into the economy, the retail industry recently asked the government for tax holiday periods, periods during whi...

• Word Count: 431
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography

... were already there, within him. At one point in Chapter 4, this is quite evident. This quote explains the feelings he had: "Far more potent were the memories of his heredity the instincts, which had been lapsed in later days, and still later, in him, quickened and became alive again." Other examples are the visions that Buck has of the "different man", who seems to be some ancient ... ". He was adapting to his surroundings with ease, and soon became the leader for Francois and Perrault. Buck's primal intuitive thoughts were another way he was becoming more like his wild ancestors. One il...

• Word Count: 505
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... commit acts that go against his morals. Most of the time he is able to overcome and conquer the temptation, but not always able to resist the amplitude of temptation, he sometimes gives in. To overcome temptation, one must have self discipline and a very strong will. Like the great saying goes mind over matter. Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, is the story of Wang Lung having to life on a very ... curvy road. One of these curves is temptation. Wang Lung has to overcome temptation all throughout the story. One example when ... he must overcome the temptation is when he wants to marry a b...

• Word Count: 782
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... were suddenly being changed to darkness? In The Call of the Wild, a twisting novel by Jack London, the author uses the main character's experiences to show how his living from civilized shifted to the dark and gloomy savage. In chapter one, Buck lived with his owner in a positive, well balanced, environment, it was described in the novel as " good living and universal respect ," which simply means ... a lifestyle that is very good, almost perfect. " The whole realm was his- Buck ... , in his original home, felt like his own person: a ruler and in power. As the story continued, this chang...

• Word Count: 338
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... every scene with Hester, rarely by her side. However her character remains somewhat in the shadows at all times. She is difficult to understand, she is passionate and wild, and she does not obey any rules but those she wishes to. Her moods seem to change quickly, at times she seems as if she were put on earth to torment her mother for ... her acts of adultery. At other times she is sweet and loving of her mother. Pearl is said to "react according to her particular feeling of the moment" possibly paralleling the passion of her mother and Dimmesdale. Hester describes Pearl as a " face, fi...

• Word Count: 549
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Perrault were angry at this. One night, Spitz and Buck fought. Spitz lost his edge and Buck threw him to the ice where the other dogs killed him. Buck fought his was to leadership and the team became one. Buck was known for his teamwork and great leadership. They over worked the tired dogs, making them slower. At night, Buck would dream of Judge Miller, killing Spitz, and his ... and overfed them, and were clueless about caring for dogs. Nine dogs died and they finally quit at John Thornton's house. As Buck was going to get the whip, John stopped them. They moved on and fell in the ice ...

• Word Count: 609
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Pearl's father being Arthur Dimmesdale. The hint is made stronger when Pearl places the Reverend's hand upon her face, an intimate gesture not commonly made between strangers, moreover by Pearl who Hawthorne describes often as devilish. In the following chapter, "The Leech", which marks the midway point in the novel, Hawthorne gives one of the largest hints of Dimmesdale's paternity as he writes the whole chapter from the perspective of Roger Chillingworth. Roger, by ... this point, has concluded that Dimmesdale is in fact the father of Pearl and has set out to enact revenge ... ...

• Word Count: 582
• Approx Pages: 2

"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne The extract from "The Scarlet Letter" gives a good view of what life in Salem was like and the way people act towards people's personal issues. The language used in the extract keeps the reader in captured in the wait for the confession from the Reverend to take place. The morals and ways of life in Salem were quite different from now, and because of this, the extract has a huge ... was too lenient. They punish her by making both Hester and Pearl social outcasts. They avoided interaction with either of them and also gave suspicious looks and threw i...

• Word Count: 755
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... looked really well in that it was set in the perfect scenes and places. The scenes have some really cool shots too. They have the big Hawaiian trees in some shots, and the movie also shows some of the old battle ships that were lost in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The movie also had some really good actors in it like: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna ... Reed, "Frank Sinatra", and Ernest Borgnine. The cast in the movie look very young too since the movie was made in ... 1953. The clothing they wore was perfect ... ...

• Word Count: 398
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... of New York, Holden finds a problem with just about anyone who he comes in contact with. He seeks out the bad things about people rather than search for the good qualities in them. In Ordinary People, Conrad has the challenge of facing his classmates after he was in a mental hospital. This is one thing that would not be easy for any teenager. He always ... want people there he hated, like were Allie's. Conrad lost his older brother Buck too. Buck was a very gifted boy who excelled in school and athletics. Conrad often got visions of the day Buck died. He was holding on to Buck's hand in...

• Word Count: 976
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... , original relation to the scarlet letter. She is not only the letter as Hester might conceive it, but its instrument in a scheme that is quite independent of her. It is Pearl's role to enforce the mother's guilt and represent her rebellion. She does this simply by making it impossible for Hester to forget the letter. As a baby, the letter is the first object that Pearl becomes aware of, ... and keeps it at the center of Hester's life. In the forest scene, Pearl becomes the enforcer of the letter during the one and only time that Hester throws ... the letter away. Oblivious to her mothe...

• Word Count: 549
• Approx Pages: 2

... year of High School. You've been a person who has always been a dating person. But, at the same time, you've also wanted to date in order to find the brightest pearl to throw and break and break the glass around your heart. You date all sorts of girls. Every type of personality you can grasp. ... is starting to wind down. The big move to college is starting to lurk its way into the future. The glass is piecing itself back together, and you are starting to get lonesome again already. Time goes by, and the next thing you know, moving day is here. Time to pack up your pearl and move it 63....

• Word Count: 998
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... of Alaska in 1849 during the time of the gold rush and tells the story of Buck, a dog abducted from his home and thrust into the merciless world of an Arctic north consumed by a quest for gold. To survive on the outer edges of civilization, Buck must endure many hardships, including bitter cold, the savagery of a life rules by the laws of club and fang, and the lure of a strange age- ... old call. I think that The Call of the Wild is an exciting book that keeps the reader glued to the book in suspense waiting to see what may happen next. "The Call of the Wild" is told from the point of v...

• Word Count: 541
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... events in The Pearl The first major event in The Pearl is when the baby is stung by the scorpion. If Kino can't get enough money to pay the doctor then the baby may die because the doctor refuses to treat the baby without payment first. In the hope of finding a pearl in the lake near the town to pay for the doctor's services, and after all of his and his wife's prayers, he found "The Pearl of the World ... ". Kino tried to sell it the ... next day but the ... ...

• Word Count: 436
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... is, to pretend that it never happened would mean denying a part of herself. This is reinforced in chapter twelve in a conversation with pearl: Hester character represents the very few people in the society who are brave and strong enough to step out of the cave and refuse the roles society as assigned them. Instead they create their own identity though their experiences whether a sin or not ... all human, and sin is part of what makes us human and that individuality and strength are gained by quiet self-assertion and by a reconfiguration, not a rejection, of one's assigned identity. The...

• Word Count: 1049
• Approx Pages: 4

... wife Jauna is quiet, respectful and cheerful. Jauna believes that the doctor in town can save her son from a scorpion bite. The doctor only is interested in the money he will be paid and tricks them into believing he has cured the baby. Not very long after leaving the village for the capital the family is tracked by three men with guns. They run up a mountain and hide ... in a cave. The people following them camp right below the cave that Kino and his family ... and Kino ends up killing all of them. The very first shot that was fired killed the baby. The next day Kino and Juana go home...

• Word Count: 408
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... us then we can go ahead and throw garbage on the ground or spill oil down the drain. Well too many people have that theory and they are killing off our Earth and also physically harming themselves from the air they breathe and the water they swim in. Our Earth is fragile like a human and people don't realize that ... environmental pollution can be stopped if we all use our heads and just think before we throw a piece of trash on the ground, instead throw it into a nearby garbage can. We should look at our Earth as a precious human being and treat it like it is a child of our own. We shou...

• Word Count: 306
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... something unbelievable. A fusion of the two styles of writing. In Chapter 5 of the "Call of the Wild", Jack London shows, and doesn't tell you about the beautiful spring weather that Buck and the rest of the characters are traveling through. "From every hill slope came the trickle of running water, the music of unseen fountains." That is just one example of the hybrid blend of 2 writing elements. The striking and vivid almost ... passage on Pgs. 64-5 that inspired me. I believe the fusion of prose and poetry is something not to forget. I hope this book continues to be a classic, and tha...

• Word Count: 477
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... be in love." "Do you think so?" her eyes looked flat again. "I don't mean fun that way. In a way it's an enjoyable feeling." "No," she said. "I think it's hell on earth." (35) Neither Jake nor Brett appear capable of a committed love partnership between them because Jake cannot fulfill Brett's sexual needs because of his injury, and Brett can't forget her first ... love. On yet another occasion, Brett, who is with another gentleman, Count Mippipopolous, meets up with Jake at a hotel. After Brett sends the count on an errand, Jake asks, "Couldn't we live together, Brett? Couldn't we just...

• Word Count: 1202
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... his Fathers favor, he rushes to the child's aid. The Priest, who epitomizes virtue and good nature, also becomes an antagonist at this point. He also attempts to become closer to Kino and his family, realizing the importance of the fisherman's find. The climax is the peak of excitement and the turning point of the novel, in The Pearl this is when Coyotito is shot accidentally by the Trackers. Coyotito, too young to ... realize the danger of the situation was an innocent casualty of the destructive nature ... ...

• Word Count: 275
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... this novel treats Griet differently, so she reacts differently to them. She does what she has to do in order to survive in the Vermeer household, and in the process she learns a lot about living. In the book, Girl With a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier, Griet enters into many new relationships with different women, and in each she learns something, and she grows as a person ... helping Vermeer because that is one less stress she has to deal with while being a maid in the Vermeer house. Griet learns to be thankful for the slightest good things that happen to her because she feels so al...

• Word Count: 805
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... be inside the Earth. In some part, scientific flaws are blatantly obvious. Example is when the people experienced sudden heat in the Golden Gate Bridge, the bridge started to melt yet the roof of the car still stay the same which should be melted easily. If we talk about the elements of the story, the plot is well-sewed and consistent. The characters are quite good and relatively engaging and the idea or the solution ... is really amusing. The scenes are also absorbing but ... ...

• Word Count: 583
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... himself in Paris. Coyotito was healed when the doctor finally came to their straw hut. He deceived Kino by giving the baby a white powder that made him go into convulsions. An hour later he came and gave Coyotito the remedy and immediately wanted to know when he was getting paid. The evil in the pearl had reached the heart of the doctor. The pearl's evil did not restrict itself to infecting ... a butcher. (742) Juana saw through the outer beauty of the pearl and knew it would destroy them, but Kino's vision was blurred by the possible prosperity the pearl brought. The malignant evil the...

• Word Count: 453
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

In the chapter Fire Balloons, a small group of the Church's best priests take off for Mars, to find new sins and leaving old ones behind. Mars is twice Earth's age so there is lots more sin collected they say. They plan to build a church and bring God to them. When Father Peregrine asked about the Martians beforehand, the mayor says the second race are "not quite human", round ... balloons lifted them and saved their lives, meaning that proves they have souls. Later on in the chapter, Father P. tries to convince Father Stone by shooting himself 3 times and all the bullets just drop to the gro...

• Word Count: 370
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... would pay after he sold his pearl and the doctor noticed he had hidden it in the ground. That very same night someone broke into their house and was going to steal the pearl. They could never sell the pearl for how much they thought it was worth so they went away. On their journey they were being followed by trackers. At the end they hid in a cave and ... juana waited with coyotito for Kino to attact the trackers. While Kino was making his way down to the trackers, the baby started crying. The trackers thought it was ... a coyote and shot at the cave, killing the baby ... ...

• Word Count: 328
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School