Isaac Asimov was born in 1920 in Petrovichi, Russia. When he was three years of age, his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn, New York. Asimov turned to full time writing in 1958. This accomplished writer is best known for his novels dealing with science fiction. However, his works extend to…
In October of l989, Macaque monkeys, housed at the Reston Primate Quarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia, began dying from a mysterious disease at an alarming rate. The monkeys, imported from the Philippines, were to be sold as laboratory animals. Twenty-nine of a shipment of one hundred died within a month. Dan Dalgard, the veterinarian who…
Characters The main character in the book is Ian Malcolm, a middle aged mathematician and a little bit of an explorer. The man who set up the exploration, Richard Levine, is a rich and reckless yet well known adventurer who spends a lot of his time and money exploring different places around the world and…
CHARACTERIZATION The main characters of Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov are, as the title suggests, the members of the Karamazov “family,” if it can indeed be called such. The only things that the members of this family share are a name and the “Karamazov curse,” a legacy of base impulses and voluptuous lust. References to…
This story starts off with the Dorking Drama Group who are making a play everything is going well until gruesome accidents start happening but the group ignores it until a prop falls down and kills someone. The police do an investigation but conclude that it was a accident so the play goes on, but everybody…
Reading about individuals whose ways of life are dramatically different from our own provides readers with fresh insights into their own experiences and ideas. A reader of A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt, may not be accustomed to the actions of the play’s characters. Though, it is important to figure out and understand…
Frederic Ogden Nash was an American humorist who lived from 1902 to 1971. He was born in 1902 in Rye, New York, where he grew up with well educated parents. Microsoft Encarta 95 said that his parent’s names were Edmund Strudwick Nash and Mattie Nash. During his childhood years, Nash was educated at several private…
Samuel Clemens based his works on things that occurred throughout his personal life. He gained many interests and talents while on the Mississippi River that contributed to his writings. Samuel Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. He was two months premature. At the time of his birth, Haley’s comet was in…
Guy de Maupassant was born on August 5, 1850 at Chateau de Miromesnil in France. He was a descendent of a very old French family. As a boy, Maupassant went to school at Yvetot in Normandy, and then attended Lycee at Rouen. During his childhood and youth in Normandy, he picked up a great deal…
Arthur C. Clarke, a science fiction author, has had a very interesting life. Arthur was born on December 16, 1917, in Minehead, England. He was the oldest of four children. His two brothers were Frederick and Michael, and his sister’s name was Mary. As a child, he enjoyed science very much. He lived on a…
In every author’s life, there is an event or sequence of childhood/ early adulthood events that have shaped the author’s life and general point of view. These events often color or influence the author’s outlook and filter their way into the author’s work. In Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, this is clearly shown. The reader…
In the novel, Billy Budd, by Herman Melville, Captain Vere is the “tragic hero”. He is neither good nor evil, but rather a man whose concept of order, discipline, and legality forces him to obey the codes of an authority higher than himself even though he may be in personal disagreement. Captain Vere is sailor…
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” written in 1797, has been widely discussed throughout literary history. Although critics have come up with many different interpretations of this poem, one idea that has remained prevalent throughout these discussions is the apparent religious symbolism present throughout this poem. “The Ancient Mariner” contains natural,…
John Steinbeck always makes it a point to know about his subjects first hand. His stories always have some factual basis behind them. Otherwise, he does not believe that they will be of any value beyond artistic impression. Therefore, most of his novels take place in California, the site of his birth and young life. …
The Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf is the most important work of Old English literature, and is well deserved of the distinction. The epic tells the story of a hero, a Scandinavian prince named Beowulf, who rids the Danes of the monster Grendel, a descendent of Cain, and of his exploits fighting Grendel’s mother and a Dragon. …
When he arrived at the Danish land, Beowulf was a young man seeking adventure and glory. Beowulf was distinguished among his people, the Geats, for his bravery. As a young man Beowulf fought in many battles and as a result showed his great character to others. Beowulf had many characteristics which helped him to succeed…
She is dead. She does not appear physically but haunts mentally. She is Codi and Hallie’s mother Alice, the late wife of Homero Noline. Throughout the novel Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver, Alice impacted the characters, action, and theme(s). When Alice passed away she took part of Homer with her. What she left was a…
In Macbeth, a play by William Shakespeare, Banquo’s soliloquy at the beginning of the third act explains some of his present feeling towards Macbeth. He believes that Macbeth killed to become the King of Scotland. He explains that he is the one who will start a chain of kings, not Macbeth. Strangely enough, Banquo makes…
In “Babi Yar”, Yevgeny Yevtushenko pays tribute to the victims of the Holocaust in general, and particularly to those who perished in his homeland of Russia. Although he himself is not a Jew, Yevtushenko writes this poem with hopes of bettering his country’s society by deprecating anti – Semitism. In achieving this, Yevtushenko uses various…
“There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportions” (Biography on Poe 8). Edgar Alan Poe endured a very difficult life and this is evident in his literary style. He was once titled the “master of the macabre.” One of the aspects in his life with which he struggled was social isolation. He…
