The conclusion to the parable also seems be left open ended since we don't know what happened after the father talked with the older son. ... Another important character is the father, who gives part of the inheritance to the younger son only to see him leave. ... The younger son's words, 'Father, give me my share of the state', is a quite surprising request that not many parents would comply with even in the modern day. ... It seems like the father trusted that if the son misused his fortune, life would eventually give him a lesson that would humble him. On his son's...

• Word Count: 883
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The different apartment complexes mentioned in the story create the image of the father being someone who constantly moves from place to place. As the first few days come to a close, the father, brother, and sister go to the father's first girlfriend's house for a sleepover. ... Shifting from one scene to the next, the pool brings additional information into the picture, giving a generalization of what the father lives like. At his apartment, the pool is "smaller than it sounded on the phone," and the front lawn has "patches of bright-green grass," (pg 32) which the son shamefully p...

• Word Count: 497
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The setting of Bel Kaufman's short story entitled, "Sunday in the Park" is meant to be an enjoyable afternoon at the park, yet because of the ill-mannered father it soon evolves into quite the opposite. ... The distinct division between the two fathers point of view and social class is apparent from the line, "My kid's got just as good a right here as yours, and if he feels like throwing sand, he"ll throw it, and if u don't like it, you can take your kid the hell out of here." This all relates to the underlying theme of stereotypes as the fathers test their wit in order to ret...

• Word Count: 696
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

First, the reader can infer from the grandmother's character that she is simply a caring old woman, living with her son's family, who is unappreciated and ignored. At the beginning of the short story A Good Man Is Hard To Find, the first character introduced is the grandmother, thinking that she wanted to go to East Tennessee to visit old friends instead of Florida with her son, Bailey, his wife and children. ... " Even after saying that, her son did not look up, as if no one had spoken to him. ... When the grandmother tried to persuade her son and daughter in-law, they did not...

• Word Count: 1160
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Hamlet at this point in his life is going through great difficulty trying to cope with his father's murder and his mother's quick marriage to his uncle. ... With Ophelia he changes from the lover to the cruel abuser, "Get thee to a nunnery" With Gertrude he is the loving son, "I shall in all my best obey you, madam." and with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern he is the joker. ... Hamlets age is open to interpretation; however he is often known to be in young adulthood, since he returns from university studies to come home after his father's death. ... For Hamlet this is not helped by...

• Word Count: 1574
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Only later is the reader told that the farmhand was actually the farm owners secret son. ... The true conflict comes in the heart of the main character and his handling of the situation in the aftermath how does this man realistically deal with the loss of his son from such a tragic accident, and equally as important to the anti-apartheid group of people, how does he handle the remainder of the situation with the country in high tension over anything involved in race. The only resolve ever really felt by the reader comes from the truth of the relationship of the father to his son, and why h...

• Word Count: 1018
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Toni Morisson's novel The Bluest Eye is about the life of the Breedlove family who resides in Lorain, Ohio, in the late 1930s. This family consists of the mother Pauline, the father Cholly, the son Sammy, and the daughter Pecola. The novel's focal point is the daughter, an eleven-year-old Black girl...

• Word Count: 609
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The story is told from the perspective of Daniel (the son of the Isaacsons and the brother of Susan) who is now attending college during the historical moment of the radical upheaval of the 1960s in the US. ... Daniel reports the important moments in his life such as the one in which the FBI took his father away accusing him of espionage, the protests he and Susan took part to claim his father's innocence, and other relevant moments of his life. ...

• Word Count: 1122
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The characters of the book each have their own parallels with Rushdie the author, but Rashid (the father of Haroun) most closely follows the strife of Rushdie as he is silenced by the lack of 'story water.' Unable to sleep the night before a big storytelling performance, Rashid paces in his room; his son Haroun then overheard him saying "It's no use - I won't be able to do it - I'm finished, finished for good" (Haroun 53). ...

• Word Count: 1165
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate