The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is the story of moral corruption by the means of aestheticism. In the novel, the well meaning artist Basil Hallward presets young Dorian Gray with a portrait of himself. After conversing with cynical Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian makes a wish which dreadfully affects his life forever. “If…
In the book the Outsider by S.E. Hinton Ponyboy is the main character, in the book he is mostly referred to as Pony. Pony has two brothers, Sodapop and Darry. Pony is fourteen and doesn’t have any parent’s; they died in a car accident. Pony and Soda and Darry all live in the same house,…
The story of Silas Marner is a beautiful, eloquently told story which gives the reader a vivid depiction of the period in which it takes place in a rustic village in England in the 1800s. The story evokes many emotions from the reader as well as teaches some moral lessons about life which are timeless.…
In The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway describes an old fisherman and the unfortunate trials he faces as his “luck” runs out. Through the novel, the fisherman, Santiago, replicates Hemingway’s ideal man, a noble hero. Hemingway had a Code of Behavior that he himself followed. He had morals that were strict and an…
The Mill on the Floss is a book written by George Eliot, whose real name is Mary Anne (later Marian) Evans. There is a great deal of autobiography in this book. The facts of Mary Anne’s life do not match Maggie Tulliver, but there is an obvious reflection of her own life. Book One: Chapter1-13…
In The Martial Chronicles, Ray Bradbury provides a glimpse into the future that not only looks at people from a technological standpoint, but from a human one as well. His well crafted, almost poetic stories are science fiction in setting only. They put much more emphasis on the apathy and inhumanity of modern society, rather…
Shirley Jackson’s insights and observations about man and society are reflected in her famous short story “The Lottery”. Many of her readers have found this story shocking and disturbing. Jackson reveals two general attitudes in this story: first, the shocking reality of human’s tendency to select a scapegoat and second, society as a victim of…
Everybody has read a horror story before at some point, but a story from Alfred Hitchcock is different because at the end he leaves the reader thinking what has happened. In “The Knife” he uses Plot, Setting, and Conflict to do just this. Edward Dawes and Herbert Smithers are just two friends having a drink…
Setting The setting takes place in two major places. Reston, Virginia which is a suburb of Washington DC. and the second major area is in Kenya, Africa. The story takes place in the 1980’s. Characters Charles Monet: He was the first host to the deadly Ebola virus breakout in Africa. He was 56 years old…
Daniel Smith’s, The Great Departure illustrates very well the United State’s evolution from a traditionally isolationist nation to an interventionist nation. WWI literally dragged the U.S. out of its isolationist shell and placed the U.S. at the forefront of international politics. The pressure to join WWI was resisted greatly by the Wilson administration and the…
The Grapes of Wrath was written by John Steinbeck, in 1929. Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. Steinbeck did not like to narrate any of his novels in which he had no background information in. That is why he would often live the life of his characters before he wrote his…
In The Good Earth, by Pearl S, Wang Lung the main character is a poor peasant who buys a wife and moves up in the social ladder during the peasants’ revolution. This story displays many major ideas of ancient Chinese culture, such as the social order, the treatment of women, and the role of the…
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart makes the reader see that Merlin is not just a magician, he is first and foremost a man. Throughout the book the author sucks the reader in to the life of this man, and using imagery and characterization makes him feel that he is actually there watching the life…
The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, is a book about friendship between two boys from vastly different religious Jewish backgrounds. Their initial distrust and hatred for each other because of their differing backgrounds gives way to r, and develops into a deep friendship. Danny Saunders is brought up in a Chasidic environment. His father is the…
Robinson was a young man of 18 and had a dream to be a sailor. He asked his father for permission. His father thought that he should stay home and take over the family business or study law. Robinson asked his father again to let him have just one sail. His father disapproved once more.…
Red Storm Rising is a book about the Soviet Union and Russia’s attempt to overtake the Atlantic so they can launch an offensive against the United States of America and maybe other NATO countries such as England and Germany. The story begins in 1980 at a very productive but old, Soviet oil refinery in Nizhnevartovsk.…
Setting The setting changes all throughout the book as Raptor Red migrates from one place to another. In some settings she is in thick rich mossy forests looking for plump Iguanodons to eat, to other desert like lands where the sun is so hot she must sleep through the midday and hunt late afternoon when…
Our Town, by Thornton Wilder is a play that takes place in a small fictional town of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire; beginning in 1901 and ending in 1913. The play takes the audience through the cycles of life, with the purpose of getting a universal message stating that life shouldn’t be taken for granted. Emily…
Ordinary People by Judith Guest is the story of a dysfunctional family who relates to one another through a series of extensive defense mechanisms, i.e. an unconscious process whereby reality is distorted to reduce or prevent anxiety. The book opens with seventeen-year-old Conrad, son of upper middle-class Beth and Calvin Jarrett, home after eight months…
Setting The story takes place during the Revolutionary War from about 1775 to 1779 in Redding, Connecticut, with some parts taking place in New York and other small towns. Main Character Even though the book is named after Sam, the story is told by his younger brother Tim. We learn everything from Tim’s point of…