Search for One's Identity Richard Wright's, "The Man Who Was Almost a Man", is a fictitious short story about an uneducated black boy's quest to become a man. Growing up in the early 20th century was a very hard task for most black people. ... The story centers upon one seventeen-year old boy who has very low self-esteem caused by his peers. ... In the end, he doesn't want to confess instead, he lies about what happened in the field. ... "The Man Who Was Almost a Man", was written about all people in their transition from child to adult. ...

• Word Count: 704
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In this story a young Indian boy feels that he doesn't fit in with white society. ... The boy couldn't live with this society so he left to go back to his own home and village. ... This story is about a Chinese woman who wanted her little girl, Amy, to become a prodigy and leave a mark on society. ... In this story, a lawyer, Atticus, is defending a black man for a crime that Atticus believes he is innocent of. ... The stories are trying to give a message of thinking about the society you live in and if you are happy with it. ...

• Word Count: 687
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In his short story "A & P" John Updike utilizes a 19-year-old male to show us how a boy gets one-step closer to adulthood. ... Sammy is a 19-year-old boy conveying a cocky but loveable male attitude. ... He describes her as being " One of these cash-register-watchers, a witch of about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows, and I know it made her day to trip me up," sarcastically conveying his chauvinistic attitude toward women. We learn about Sammy's station in life through the setting of the story. ... He has changed from a young, immature 19-year-old boy into a ...

• Word Count: 725
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

"How about rounding us up some firewood, Mac?" ... "Andy saw that her mothers swimsuit top had come off, so that her breasts swayed free, her nipples looked like two black eyes. ... Andy reacts more like a little boy, because she didn't want to see that part of a woman's physique. ... Before the doe was spotted by Andy, Charlie heckled her, whether she was a boy or girl. ... A boy or girl?" ...

• Word Count: 704
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The prose fiction "Catcher in the Rye", explores an inner conflict, of a boy, "Holden Caulfield", and his journey from his school to his home. ... Another conflict he has is with women, in his journey he meets many women and when he meets them, he always thinks about the topic, Sex. He wants to experience it but every time he tries he is scared about it or he feels that he is ruining someone's innocence. ... These two put together is like putting diamond to black velvet, the black under the white diamond intensifies the whiteness of the diamond. ... The conflict in this film is mainly ...

• Word Count: 1633
• Approx Pages: 7

What do you personally remember about your adolescence? ... For example, when Arnold first appears at Connie's home, he talks about his car and how it has new paint, but just to illustrate how evil he his, Arnold's name appears on his car in "tar-like black letters"(11). ... Arnold's name is written in "tar-like black letters" to signify that Arnold himself represents evilness and that by persuading Connie through talking about his black lettered name on his car illustrates how Arnold is trying to consume Connie's innocence. ... Her mother warned Connie about being so self-...

• Word Count: 1509
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Chopin is well known for her writing about gender related topics. ... She no doubt saw mixed ancestry in the black communities and realized the cause of it. ... This would also mean certain social destruction for Desiree having given birth to a black child. ... One of La Blanche's quadroon boys was near the baby when Desiree noticed the resemblance of the skin color between the boy and her baby. ... The quadroon boy is one quarter Negro ancestry and so his mother La Blanch is also of mixed ancestry. ...

• Word Count: 1926
• Approx Pages: 8

When someone finally stopped to help, the grandmother went on and on about how familiar he looked. ... For example, she still thinks of black people as slave, so he goes and sits next to them on the bus. ... When the mother offered a little black boy a penny the mother of the boy took offence and shoved Julian's mother to the ground. ... I can see how the southern influences are brought about in the story. ... She had strong religious beliefs and was passionate about the stories she wrote. ...

• Word Count: 1004
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The Man Who Was Almost a Man was a short story that was about a young man who was enamored with guns and felt that he would be respected if he owned one. ... They almost did not care about the gun or notice that he was not ready for one. ... Like Dave, many young black men focus more on the external symbols than the internal symbols. Wright wrote the short story to talk about this problem. ... Society was always teaching them that they would always be considered a boy no matter what they achieved. ...

• Word Count: 614
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Heard the boy cry out as if surprised at each blow" (page 216). ... Richard is presumed to take after his father's personality and characteristic because there is the assumption that William taught Richard about the struggle that they face. ... This does not mean that Richard has a lack of understanding about the events that occur. ... However this difference between the 'whites' and 'blacks' creates the tension in the novel. ... Richard believes that we should not fear the 'blacks' but try to create a bond between 'blacks' and 'whites'. ...

• Word Count: 1151
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

One could assume that the character is being sincere in her speaking, but just the same the reader can be lead to assume that Tessie was merely joking around and is very eager about the events that are about to take place. ... Tessie's character change is very important to the story because it shows her true feeling towards the lottery, and how she feels about winning. ... Tessie's hand tightly seized to the square piece of paper that would surely hold her grim fate waiting in its center in the form of a black dot. ... "Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heav...

• Word Count: 1409
• Approx Pages: 6

In Latifiyah, I met a mother and boy of four who was exhausted by the walk. ... A seven-year-old boy named Saif approached and offered me a place to stay. ... Still, we followed the boy to a tiny dwelling where his family welcomed us. ... I thought about what had happened there. ... The trip usually takes about five minutes. ...

• Word Count: 1514
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Graves, who carries the three legged stool and the black box. ... "The apparent disdain expressed by the villagers is also quite disturbing in that they treat the lottery as a normal daily event taking no time to fully appreciate the actions they are about to perform" (Oehlschaeger, 3). The reader assumes that the lottery will bring about someone's great luck. ... Martin speaks sharply to Bobby when the boy runs back to the pile of stones, and Bobby comes quickly. ...

• Word Count: 812
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Lingle embarrasses the girls, when he confronts them about their artier or lack of artier. ... He dreams about meeting her parents before he ever hears her voice. ... When the story starts, with all the details the reader can see in their mind a boy at the front counter working a cash register watching people as they come in. ... Updike writes "there was this one, with one of those chubby berry-faces, the lips all bunched together under her nose, this one, and a tall one, with black hair that hadn't quite frizzed right, and one of these sunburns right across under the eyes, and a chin ...

• Word Count: 697
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The grandmother, Bailey, his wife, June Star (the little girl), John Wesley (the little boy), and the baby make up five or six people, depending on how you view the baby. ... O"Connor's choice of the town name lets the reader know that the character's lives in the story are about to take a dramatic turn for the worse. ... Hoping for a car to come along, the family does not realize the peril they are about to face when one does come. ... At the very instant one learns of the car headed toward the family, "a big black battered hearse-like automobile" (478), one knows that the confro...

• Word Count: 2114
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

It looks natural, like a yarn being told about bush life without much artistic planning, but in fact it is carefully structured. ... The young boy, Tommy, seeing how drained and distressed his mother is, with a burst of insight exclaims "Mother, I won't never go droving; blast me if I do!" ... In the setting of The Drover's Wife, the reader's attention is obtained through the use of adjectives such as "stunted, rotten apple trees- and "big, black, yellow-eyed dog-. ... The use of these flashbacks or anecdotes is to give more information about the Drover's wife and it create...

• Word Count: 1266
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

All alone like a boy in his room full of imagination. ... Our team colors were green, black, and white. ... As I play my mouth would drool just thinking about going to the stands to get a burger. ... I sometimes still dream about that field and certain defining moments that changed my life. ...

• Word Count: 1836
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Anthony begins as the trim and dapper man-about-town, wearing his attitudes in the same way that he wears his clean, clean clothes. ... She bangs her fist on the table, glares at the waiter, stamps her feet, insults Anthony, complains about the injustice of the universe. ... There is no need to go through every nasty remark made about Italians, garlic eaters, Negroes, Jewish shopkeepers, the millions "swarming like rats, chattering like apes, smelling like all hell monkeys," (p.394). ...

• Word Count: 2828
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School