These same concerns are evident in his award-winning short-story cycle The Things They Carried (1990), powerful tales so much like memoirs that O'Brien feels compelled to emphasize in a prefatory note that what follows is "a work of fiction." ... Events such as John's terrible experience in Vietnam, his father's suicide, his lifetime hobby as a magician, and his habit of spying on Kathy during college begin to cast light onto what may have happened on that mysterious night. ...

• Word Count: 781
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

This virtue is just one I will focus on, in consideration of length restrictions, but it's important to note that Little Women deals with a broad spectrum of emotions and ideas. ... Whereas Alcott seeks to grapple with the hardships of everyday life, putting her characters through common situations and conflicts, Barrie writes to escape from reality (class notes, 4/3/03). ... Barrie also comments on the ambivalent representations of childhood in the novel, such as this passage concerning Neverland: "Of course the Neverland had been make-believe in those days; but it was real now, and th...

• Word Count: 1473
• Approx Pages: 6
• 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