Betty Wehner Smiths unique ability to capture the reality of American society in the early nineteen hundreds is seen in the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn The setting of the novel stems very much from the authors own childhood Society can truly relate to this story as it has a place in every American familys roots The time defying novel evokes sympathy by telling the story of a young impoverished family comparing their rough lives to a relentless tree native to Brooklyn New York Betty Smith was
Wide Sargasso Sea Summary Wide Sargasso Sea begins in Jamaica after the Emancipation Act of 1833 under which Britain outlawed slavery in all its colonies The first part of the novella is told from the point of view of Antoinette Cosway a young white girl whose father a hated former slaveholder has died and left his wife and children in poverty The familys estate Coulibri is quickly falling into ruin and Antoinettes mother Annette is rapidly sinking into a deep depression Since her mother freque
This Side of Paradise by F Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that tells the story of Amory Blaine from his youth to his twenties As a youth Amory travels through out the country with his high class and extravagant mother Beatrice After living a life like no other he leaves his mother and enrolls in St Regis prep school in the Northeast There Amory tries very hard to fit in but with his unusual childhood it is very hard He is very intelligent but an underachiever in his work From here Amory attends Pr
The Swimmer The short story The Swimmer by John Cheever is a story that takes place in the 1950s in a classic suburban town situated in New York The story allows a glimpse into a time period that was very surreal filled with cocktail parties sex and the attempt to achieve the American dream Throughout the story the reader witnesses the emotional downfall of the main character Neddy Merrill who at the beginning appears to be an affluent in shape man who has a family and many friends to match As
THE SCARLET LETTER The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an exceptional novel based on sin forgiveness and deception Hester the main character has committed the sin of adultery to an unknown man She lives in Boston and is a puritan which does not accept sin and lives by the strict Puritan code Hesters sin is unveiled when she bears a child by the name of Pearl and has no husband at that time Hester punishment is not death because her husband is gone and temptation over ran her he
Santiago against the World For as long as man has roamed the earth he has tried to conquer nature Whether it is massive dams withholding entire lakes or tall steel skyscrapers defying the laws of gravity man continues to challenge this great force Unfortunately through the long and tiresome process of trial and error history shows that man will ultimately find himself at the mercy of nature A perfect example of this is Santiago the protagonist from Ernest Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea The
T en years have passed since the fall of Troy and the Greek hero Odysseus still has not returned to his kingdom in Ithaca A large and rowdy mob of suitors who have overrun Odysseuss palace and pillaged his land continue to court his wife Penelope She has remained faithful to Odysseus Prince Telemachus Odysseuss son wants desperately to throw them out but does not have the confidence or experience to fight them One of the suitors Antinous plans to assassinate the young prince eliminating the onl
The Joy Luck Club presents stories about four Chinese immigrant women and their daughters Each of the women views the world differently and they try to share their visions with their daughters hoping that their relationships with their daughters is just as strong as what they had with their own mothers One of the mothers Suyuan Woo forms a club in China called the Joy Luck Club in order to distract her friends from their problems during the Japanese invasion during World War II She moves to San
Trees of Thought Four skinny trees To most they would be of little importance and not spared a second thought But for one young girl they are a symbol of hope and inspiration The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros narrates the life of Esperanza a Mexican American girl desperately trying to find her place in the world Told through vignettes Four Skinny Trees is one that is significant because it shows much about Esperanzas character and the authors writing style This passage allows the rea
Lyra Belacqua SILVERTONGUE 11 year old a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Jordan College in Oxford England It quickly becomes clear that Lyras Oxford is not precisely liked our own nor is her world In Lyras world everyone has a personal dmon a lifelong animal familiar This is a world in which science theology and magic are closely intertwined These ideas are of little concern to Lyra who at the outset of the story One day she and Pantalaimon pan an animal formed shape shifti