" takes place in the early 1960's and tells the tale of fifteen year old Connie who is stalked and evidently abducted by a man who calls himself Arnold Friend. ... One theme out of several in the book is clearly "initiation" as Connie is an innocent teenager on the cusp of becoming an adult who is seduced by way of her own vanity. ... She represents a typical teenager struggling with the idea of coming of age that has dual versions of themselves as Oates put it, "one for home and one for anywhere that was not home." ... When Arnold comes knocking at her home, she reacts wit...

• Word Count: 969
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

By the end, I found the spirit of my nation in roadside tents, modest homes and gifts of food. ... I arrived in Iskandiriyah just after sunset and heard the Sunni and Shiite calls to prayer. ... A seven-year-old boy named Saif approached and offered me a place to stay. ... Abu Saif, a Shiite man in his forties, opened his home to me and 14 other men. ... That night I couldn't find a hotel room; Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims had booked nearly every one. ...

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

Fitzgerald first called it The Flight of the Rocket and later renamed it The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy. ... In the first book, the couple (Anthony and Gloria) meet and fall in love. ... Anthony is broke, drunk, and is returning home from the war. ... War is merely a place to leave. ... When she married Anthony, she hated staying home in the evenings. ...

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

Further more his own home life affected his work. ... John Ramsey Campbell, born in 1946, originates from a town called Liverpool. ... The boys took off and Emily and Jack went home. ... The imagery of "unreal- and "stalks of the streetlamps- forces the reader to see the house as an eerie and unsettling place, almost like a nightmare. ... By emphasizing symbolism, the tone and characterization the reader can come to understand the deeper meaning behind the book, and fully understand the plot infrastructure of the short story....

• Word Count: 1611
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

When reading about the castle, it easy to discount the physical improbability of General Zeroffs having produced such a massive home. ... Near the beginning of the book, Rainsford and Whitney talk about this island. Whitney tells Rainsford that, "the place has a reputation---a bad one" (Connell, 10). ... Even cannibals wouldn't live in such a God-forsaken place. ... Dick Prosser calls all the boys by respective titles: "He called us "Mister" except Randy, and Randy was always "Cap"n Shepperton"-(Wolfe, 724).This showed that Dick Prosser felt not only beneath the adult ...

• Word Count: 2328
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

In other words, in this kind of work an author writes (this process is called 'outer narrative'") about a narrator who is telling a story ("inner narrative"). ... They walk to the subway and promise to call each other after Christmas. ... He puts her number in his address book. When he gets home, he is exhausted, "his wife said that he was so pale that he looked as if he had seen a ghost." ... The young boy and Rebecca are not only trapped by literary conventions, but also by the time and place in which their love story takes place. ...

• Word Count: 2096
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The entire family ignores her except for the little girl, June Star, who easily reads the grandmother like an open book. ... Her suggestions come supported however, as she adds, "Here this fellow calls himself the Misfit is a loose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida..." giving thereader the first clue the family will meet their doom before the end of the story (Baumgaerther 94). ... "She wouldn't stay at home for a million bucks," June Star said. ... When the family resists, she gives the house an element of excitement, telling the children about a secret hiding pl...

• Word Count: 1439
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

The entire family ignores her except for the little girl, June Star, who easily reads the grandmother like an open book. ... Her suggestions come supported however, as she adds, "Here this fellow calls himself the Misfit is a loose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida..." giving the reader the first clue the family will meet their doom before the end of the story (Baumgaerther 94). ... "She wouldn't stay at home for a million bucks," June Star said. ... When the family resists, she gives the house an element of excitement, telling the children about a s...

• Word Count: 1477
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

The book was also Pulitzer Prize nominated book. ... It was published in the United States in 1976 and nominated for a National Book Award in 1977 (Claude Grimal, 1995). ... Plot Summary The narrator's wife used to work for a blind man called Robert whose wife has recently died, and he's coming to visit the narrator and his wife. ... His wife reminds him that the blind man's wife, Beulah, just died and says that if he loves her, he'll welcome the blind man into their home. ... Setting The setting of the story is somehow complicated since the writer has not directly mentione...

• Word Count: 3978
• Approx Pages: 16
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Fed up with how he is being treated at home (or the colonists tired of the British rule), Van Winkle decides enough is enough. ... Quite soon after he starts to walk home, a dwarf-like creature dressed in his towns clothing (Dutch clothing) approaches Rip and politely asks him if he could him carry a large keg of liquor to an unknown destination. ... The last half of the book speaks true to the American tradition, even today. ... One of the Old Inn's which once had a picture of King George, had a flag in its place with stars and stripes. ... The villagers are so upset with this statemen...

• Word Count: 1834
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

The book marked a shift in Carver's fiction away from the bare minimalist prose of his earlier work toward a fuller, more detailed style. ... He married Gallagher in June, 1988, and died at their home in Port Angeles, Washington, on August 2,1988. ... Along the way he will spend the night at the home of the narrator and his wife. ... Then Robert places his hand on the hand of the narrator that holds the pen. ... The unnamed male narrator, called "Bub" by Robert, the blind man, is the protagonist of the story. ...

• Word Count: 11148
• Approx Pages: 45
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Lion (1987) is a novel which takes place in Toronto in the years following the First World War. Ondaatje's next novel, 1992's The English Patient, won the Governor General's Award and the Booker Prize, and was made into an award-winning film. ... In the course of his adventures, Patrick's life intersects with those of characters who reappear in Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning The English Patient. 256 pp. ...

• Word Count: 3985
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School