They also: challenge our views; let us know we are not alone; and edify us, teaching a moral lesson. ... When he feeds the starving Jew, it could be argued he made a foolish decision as he endangered the life of a younger, healthier man (Max) to offer comfort to a frail elderly man, almost certain to die. ... Or on the man himself, who gets to die 'with the thought that he was a human.' ... Despite being on the 'wrong side' the reader is able to empathise with their suffering, such as Frau Holtzapfel who loses her son in battle. ... Likewise the way her self esteem grow...

• Word Count: 918
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In each story Jody learns an important moral lesson. ... There are many symbols for life and death present throughout the novel. The buzzards, (p 35), the old cypress tree, and the bird he kills with his slingshot. ... Jody discovers there are still lessons he must learn about the ways of nature: sometimes, through death, comes life. ... By the end of the novel, Jody has grown into a young man, able to learn from the older generation in order to be prepared for life. ...

• Word Count: 749
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Entry 1: An important literary motif throughout the novel is the river. ... Trace the river motif from the beginning of the novel to its discussing its importance, role, and meaning. ... Siddhartha becomes discontent with life and leaves his home on the riverbank. He meets up with the Samanas and becomes a severe ascetic. ... The river teaches him many valuable life lessons. ...

• Word Count: 472
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Ordinary People explores the realistic struggles families' face every day while glossing each page with a distinctive style and inspiring life lessons. ... Each member looks for a lesson they can learn from in the loss of Buck, but it is not until they realize that sometimes death leaves a person with no reasoning as to why it happened, that they can truly mourn for the loss ("Ordinary People" 273). ... In Judith Guest's novel, as stated by Authors and Artists for Young Adults (104), the tragic flaw was the family's inability to cope with uncontrollable events. Calvin ...

• Word Count: 2059
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

This message is a very good life lesson as people have to realize that everything is not going to be handed to them. If everything was perfect life would be boring and people would not have to deal with things that actually require action and thinking. ... Although one is a novel and the other is an eight line poem they both carry a very deep and important life lesson that not everything will role someone or something's way all of the time. Both works also prove the same message with very different topics. the novel has a complex plot of two boys which includes jealousy, and many oth...

• Word Count: 682
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Often times this inspiration comes from real life experiences and troubles. This couldn't be more true with Ha Jin, author of The Bridegroom and many other novels. ... Although he emigrated to the United States in 1985, Jin sets his stories and novels in China. ... These experiences have given him the ability to write with a swagger, many life lessons, and inspirations. Communism, while it may be extraneous to the actual plot of the novels, it's influence is always there and haunting Ha Jin. ...

• Word Count: 1019
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The ending of the novel ends with a gut-wrenching showdown between the two. ... Probably the people who could enjoy this book the most would be the faithful followers of Science Fiction and Adventure novels that might enjoy the stranger aspects of life. ... It was such a good novel it has ended up in my personal library. The best lesson I learned from Lord of the Flies is that people cannot let one thing control their whole life. ... Lord of the Flies was a great novel and I know when ever I think about this book, the scene I see is one of a young boy talking to a bloody pig's he...

• Word Count: 882
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

"The victor belongs to the spoils" -Anthony Patch (p.188) "There is only one lesson to be learned from life... That there's no lesson to be learned from life." ... The book is crowded with observations on American social life in the l920's. ... The characters hurry back to life as usual with all its money and booze. ... Racism is introduced in this novel with the character of Joseph Bloeckman. ...

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

Throughout his life he had numerous jobs including: serving with the Indian imperial police at a police training school, a superintendent of police, dishwasher, teacher, clerk, and a sergeant in World War II. ... He once commented on these moments saying, "This was the great lesson of my boyhood: that I was in a world where it was not possible to be good."" Over the course of his life he wrote numerous fiction and non-fiction novels. ... He was a generously angry man, a free intelligence, a type hated with equal hatred. ... Orwell should be fortunate of his past in some ways because, wi...

• Word Count: 1175
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The title of the book had very little significance to do with the plot structure of the novel. ... Theme The theme of the novel was facing up to your past and getting over your old hang-ups in life. ... The life lesson lends to the action because without his psychological problems that were caused by his father he would have never had to deal with the bomb shelter, his brother, or his fear of the lake. ... The theme is about small town life and coping with the family issues that go on there. ... It stood for Paul's unresolved past with his father and it was also what stopped him from mov...

• Word Count: 1542
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

The boys are said to browse through sites about executions, animal abuse, pornography, assisted suicides, and sites that documented every hour of a person's life. ... Children in this world are raised being taught that they will get nowhere in their life if they are not good with numbers. ... In the world today children are taught that they will not get anywhere with liberal studies. ... Towards the end of this novel Jimmy comes upon the Crakers "sitting in a semi-circle " with a "scarecrowlike effigy " chanting something at the image (360). ... The emphasis Atwood places on English and a...

• Word Count: 1036
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School