Rats Saw God This great biography by Rob Thomas is a down to earth book. It is a must read if you like to read biographies. Rob Thomas did a great job on Rats Saw God. Steve York, a straight A student at Houston, at first is doing really good. He has lots of friends and has no problems at home. Later his mom and his dad get a divorce and his mom and his sister move to San Diego. Ste

Girl Interrupted I read the book Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen for my book review. It is a non-fiction story of a mentally ill girl who is admitted into a psychiatric hospital. The book is filled with her own thoughts, which is quite interesting to know exactly what a mentally ill person is thinking about. She talks about how she attempted suicide, takes medication, has hallucina

Animal Farm George Orwell’s Animal Farm takes place on a farm somewhere in England. An all-knowing narrator in the third person tells the story. The action of this novel starts when the oldest pig on the farm, Old Major, calls all animals to a secret meeting. He tells them about his dream of a revolution against the cruel Mr. Jones. Three days later Major dies, but the speech gives the m

A Good Man is Hard to Find Last Rites “Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.” - Jimi Hendrix. The late rock n roll artist summed up one of the most challenging fears to overcome for all humans, preparation for death. Flannery O’Connor uses this concept to show how it can affect people’s behaviors and attitudes. The story begins with the typical

Racism Racism: A Black Man’s Perspective In his essay, “A Black Man Ponders His Power To Alter Public Space,” Brent Staples examines racism and the misconceptions that contribute to it. He writes of how something as simple and innocent as taking a late night stroll subjected him to the racism and fear of others, and of how his everyday life was under continuous scrutiny by

Racism In A Worn Path Racism in “A Worn Path” In Welty’s “A Worn Path”, Phoenix Jackson’s encounters with other characters as well as her thoughts and perceptions demonstrate a theme of impending black equality in the south after the civil war. Throughout the story there are many references to race and racism. Her thoughts and comments on the way to town, the hunter she happens upon, a

Ragged Dick RAGGED DICK Set in the busy city of New York during the 1860’s, Horatio Alger JR’s novel Ragged Dick is the story of an inspiring young boy who had nothing, and made himself into something great. Ragged Dick, or Richard Hunter, is a fourteen-year-old boy. He was completely on his own at age seven. After a few unsuccessful occupations he became successful at shinning s

Ragtime In the classic E.L. Doctorow novel, Ragtime, we see the juxtaposition of many motifs to represent Doctorow’s view of the early century. By combining history and fiction Doctorow allows himself to write a semi-accurate interpretation of the early 1900’s while also being able to strongly express his own biases and opinions of the era. The biggest and perhaps most important theme

Ragtime The novel takes place in New Rochelle in the 1900’s. During this time period a lot of changes were going on. Some of the changes were the women’s rights movement, race relations, and family roles. The main thing that caught my attention was the race relations between the whites and blacks. Through the novel they show how violence isn’t the way to settle issues like racism.

Ramsey Campbell Analyzed John (Ramsey) Campbell, a twentieth century British writer, has been said to be creating “his own patented brand of short horror tale[s],” (“Horror Fiction,” 86). From the 1970’s to present day, the comparisons to H.P. Lovecraft and the examinations of his short stories have been numerous. These findings give evidence to Campbell’s concern with the psychologica

Rape Fantasies Rape Fantasies The author of the short story Rape Fantasies is Margaret Atwood-She is a renowned Canadian writer of poetry and fiction, she is best known for her novel The Handmaids Tail. The short story that I chose Rape Fantasies comes from Atwood’s first collection of short stories called Dancing girls and Other Stories. “Remember no one can make you feel infe

Rascal This was one of my favorite books so far. Sterling and his best friend went fishing one day on the stream that was near their house. As they were walking through the woods, Sterling’s dog, Wowser, smelled something that he liked. He went straight to a stump and pointed as some dogs do. Sterling told him to get it, and the dog started digging at the stump. The two boys also helped

Chrysalids The Chrysalids is a science fictional book of suspense, irony and pathos. The six main characters in the novel are David Strorm, Joseph Strorm, Gordon Strorm, Petra Strorm, Rosalind, and Sealand woman. They have different situations and different opinions in the story which adds more suspense and keeps the reader interested right to the least page. In this novel the differe

Rashoman & Other Stories “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crises maintain their neutrality,” according to Dante Aleghieri, just how seared Ryunosuke Akutagawa is, however, is anyone’s guess. Rarely does it occur in the course of human events that an author of Akutagawa’s analytical genius is able to live without persecution from without, in Ry

Chrysanthemums An Incomplete Woman “Chrysanthemums”, by John Steinbeck is a short story written in 1938. Steinbeck discovered a new way of writing in “The Chrysanthemums”. He began a new approach by displaying his characters traits by their self-image and actions. Elisa is a prodigy of his new approach. She is involved with various character traits that display her true inner feelings.

A Rose For Emily An Analysis of “A Rose for Emily” In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, the role of the community plays a major part in the story. The community’s feelings and viewpoints affect the events that are portrayed in the story. The narrator of this story is a member of the community. Therefore, the reader views Emily through the eyes of the community. Miss Emily is

Catcher In The Rye Catcher in the Rye Essay Holden’s speech is often sarcastic, negative and dismissive to most people he encounters. Occasionally, we see glimpses of sensitivity, gentleness and compassion in his thoughts and observation of the few people he cares about. The way he speaks gives us a clear insight into his character as we see both anger and contempt, but al

Dimmesdale Dimmesdale: Someone from Above or Below' Some people believe that a novel’s central character can be identified within the first few chapters of a novel. This could be no further from the truth when it comes to the Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter’s main character is noticed in the first chapters as Arthur Dimmesdale, the man who is responsible for the scarlet letter ever

Chrysanthemums In John Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemums,” the author uses the flower to symbolize the main character, Elisa. Like the title flower, Elisa is soft and delicate with a tough, protective shell. She worries for herself and her flowers that an insensitive person will be able to get inside the gates and wreak havoc among her feelings and flowers. Both the woman and

Anthem The book Anthem touches on many important subjects that Ayn Rand placed in the book to tell people about. One of the primary purposes behind the book is to project that everyone needs to be themselves and should be different from everyone else. Ayn Rand is also trying to incorporate that people must view things from different perspectives, but at the same time must keep their own

A Good Man is Hard to Find The selfishness of a persons actions The grandmother in "A good man is hard to find," by Flannery O'Connor. dosenn’t value what she has in her life, but instead wants what has been left behind. She is a prim and proper lady dressed in a suit, hat, and white cotton gloves. This woman will do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she doesn't let anyone

Demonic Presence Demonic Presence In Dostoevsky’s The Brother’s Karamazov, all of the characters have inner battles with themselves. Each section of the book is dedicated to the battles each character has. Book XI is a section about different characters, but each one has dealings with a demonic presence. Lise and Ivan both have their own trouble with evil entities. In the chap

Doctorow, Atwood And Tan Brian Ricketts Doctorow’s novel, Welcome to Hard Times is an anti-western novel. Doctorow attempts to debunk the western myth of the American dream. The essential theme in the novel is that the west fails to live up to the hope that civilization can conquer evil. In this way, it was first seen as an un-American story without any real heroes. What it r

Brave New World Independent Study Project George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World are two novels that portray totalitarianism. Hitler used this kind of power to rule Germany during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four are very similar to the totalitarianism used during this regime. Government control is an important topic b

Eveline By James Joyce EVELINE BY JAMES JOYCE The main figure in this short story is Eveline. She is a 19-year-old girl who lives with her father and two younger siblings. She has also an older brother Harry. Ernest, one of her brothers has died and so has her mother. Eveline works at the Stores and because of her mother’s dead she has to work hard to keep the house together. The

Gilgamesh Homer's The Illiad - Hector As The Epic Hero In Homer’s The Iliad there appears to be some controversy over who the true epic hero might be. We have heard many arguments supporting Achilles as the Epic Hero, and since The Iliad does indeed say “The Story of Achilles” I believe that Achilles is an easy character for people to associate as the epic hero. Although many people hav

Good Country People Flannery O’Connor’s Use of Irony in “Good Country People” “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor is an excellent example of irony in literature. From beginning to end it has a steady demonstration of irony, much of it implied in the title of the story, “Good Country People.” As the story opens, we meet Mrs. Freeman, wife of the hired hand. She and her husband

Grapes Of Wrath THE GRAPES OF WRATH The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930’s lived under. The novel tells of a family known as the Joads migration west to california through the great economic depression of the 1930’s. the Joad family had to abandon

Grendel I believe John Gardner gave the book this title because it is short and describes the same character. The word Grendel itself sounds like a monsters name and makes you picture it in your head what Grendel actually looks like. When you think about monster's you usually think about heroes also, so John Gardner wrote the story to make you think about Grendel as the monster, so in

Everything That Rises Must Converge In the story Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’connor, there is question as to why Julian acts so negatively towards his mother. There are many examples in the story that can prove or disprove either side. Julian was disrespectful towards his mother based on different views they had caused by changes in society. Throughout the stor