Okonokwa was petrified of inadequacy namely because his father was a complete and utter failure. This fear of shortcoming made him hate everything his father loved and represented: weakness, gentleness, and idleness. ... He would discourage "women's stories" and would not commend his sons for a job well done because he felt this to be a sign of weakness. ... We see this when he is commanded by the oracle to kiss his "son" Ikefuma. Originally, Okonokwa falls back in the crowd so that he need not actively participate in his son's death; however, when Ikefuma runs toward him saying ...

• Word Count: 455
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

On the other hand, the progression in McCarthy's story aligns with a father and his son's valiant quest to survive, which is almost constantly thwarted with new dangers. ... The immediate problems of the father and son are  hunger, thirst and coldness, which cause all of their faculties to be devoted to survival. Constantly claiming that "[he] is really hungry" (103), the boy confronts many dangerous situations with his father in exchange for warmth in the stomach. During the darkest hours of their travel, the father and the son share a conversation in which the boy asks &...

• Word Count: 1772
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• 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

Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. ... Furthermore, the journal entries signify a solution to Stephen's wavering feelings towards his father, Simon Dedalus. ... However, in the closing lines of the novel, Stephen finally frees himself from his father's influence. Stephen also resolves his emotional turmoil toward the family by describing his father endearingly, despite his many faults. ... However, as in the story of Daedalus and his son, Icarus, Stephen must take caution to find the perfect medium between com...

• Word Count: 1289
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Lies hurt relationships; this is most evident in Christopher and his father's relationship. ... " He can only have a strong relationship with his father because "Father always tells [him] the truth, which means that he loves [Christopher].... In the denouement, the relationship between the protagonist and his father remains damaged by deceit. ... As he explains, "I said a white lie because I knew that Father didn't want me to be a detective.... It is evident that Christopher's father loves his son dearly and lied in order to help him deal with his wife's affa...

• Word Count: 815
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Morrison's father's family left Georgia to move north as an attempt to escape sharecropping and the violence against African Americans in the South. ... She grew up during the Great Depression, which her father compensated for by working three jobs for seventeen years ("Toni Morrison Biography"). ... They married in 1958 and had two sons, Harold and Slade, before divorcing in 1964. ... She published her first children's book, The Big Box, in 1999, which she worked on with her son Slade, that focuses on describing the ways that well-meaning adults sometimes block their...

• Word Count: 2626
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Throughout the ages, literature has revolved around the personal relationships between people. The relationships between women have evolved throughout the ages possibly as a result of the transformations of society as these texts explore; The Shakespearean era where only men were allowed to act, the Victorian era in which everything must be prim and proper and women should still do their work as a mother and wife to the Post Modern era in which women are free to express themselves in the same way that men are. All three chosen texts explore these relationships differently; Jane Eyre's cl...

• Word Count: 3018
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Seeking and Maintaining Balance: Rohinton Mistry's Fiction. (Critical Essay) Abstract: Balance is an important quality in the fiction of Rohinton Mistry, as suggested by the title of his second novel, 'A Fine Balance.' Mistry was born in India, a member of the Parsi community, and immigrated to ...

• Word Count: 4675
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Seeking and Maintaining Balance: Rohinton Mistry's Fiction. (Critical Essay) Abstract: Balance is an important quality in the fiction of Rohinton Mistry, as suggested by the title of his second novel, 'A Fine Balance.' Mistry was born in India, a member of the Parsi community, and immigrated ...

• Word Count: 4673
• Approx Pages: 19
• 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

Part of the character Emma Bovary, is also based off the true story of Eugene Delemare, who was a student of Flaubert's father and a physician in the French army. ... Forever the romantic, Emma tries to find hope in the idea of a son, through whom she may live vicariously. ...

• Word Count: 1118
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

After she dies, Frankenstein's father "resolved" it "necessary for the completion of" his "education for" him "to be made acquainted with other customs than those of" his "native country" and so he makes plans to study at Ingolstadt. ... Frankenstein grew up around beautiful people, his other and father adopted Elizabeth because of her looks, and Frankenstein even goes on to describe her later on as "bearing a celestial stamp on all her features", this gives the appearance of Elizabeth to be paralleled to that of an angel, because of this upbringing, Frankenstein is unnerved by the "devil...

• Word Count: 2019
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The opening sentences interlace the governmental strands of patriarchy, property and empire: "He- for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it- was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters Orlando's father, or perhaps his grandfather, had struck it from the shoulders of a vast pagan who had started up under the moon in the barbarian fields of Africa; and now it swung, gently, perpetually, in the attic rooms of the gigantic house of the lord who had slain him". ... Denying them is not an option for Wool...

• Word Count: 1793
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Further comical religious incidents involve Father Arsenios; being drunk before sermon and beating burglars and escorting them to Dr. ... The absurdity in which the family cannot distinguish a stranger from their own son is evident, and not only is the family under the illusion that Yossarian is their son, the reader is too, though still well aware of how irregular the situation is. ...

• Word Count: 2754
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate