Sigmund Freud took the legend of Oedipus as a metaphor for the wish of every small boy to get his father out of the way so he could have his mother all to himself. ... The game of Strip Botticelli is particularly illustrative of the plot about to unfold. ... However, the game may be a larger allegory for the broader scheme of the detective story about to begin. When Oedipa goes about trying to solve the mystery of the Tristero, she will quickly find that no matter how many insights she discovers or twists she uncovers, she will never fully expose the conspiracy. ... Instead, however, Oedipa fo...

• Word Count: 2590
• Approx Pages: 10

In novel Lunar Park, Ellis writes about the situations within his life during a two-week time in which many unusual circumstances occur. Lunar Park is a novel about the breakdown of a postmodern American family. ... This haunting becomes the dominant metaphor of Bret's work, as the ghost of his father comes back to warn him of something about his family, and as his son becomes a ghost and disappears. ... " Careless about his son, Bret refused to visit him and pay child support. ...

• Word Count: 3723
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Knowing he was ugly, Baldwin grew up very defensive about his appearance. ... David Baldwin was very enthusiastic about religion. ... He supported himself by performing a variety of odd jobs: handyman, porter, elevator operator, office boy, factory, worker, dishwasher, and a file clerk. ... Both of these novels were about his African American past. ... It is a novel about a young man's search for his sexual identity. ...

• Word Count: 2515
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

There have not been many stories written about homosexuality in the first half of the twentieth century. ... Idgie loves Ruth more than anything in the world, and Ruth feels the same way about Idgie. ... It happens when Ruth is talking to Momma and Poppa Threadgoode about staying in Whistle Stop for good. ... When she goes to Georgia and threatens Frank Bennett in the barbershop, even the barber thinks that Idgie is a guy, "He looked Frank in the mirror and said, That boy must be crazy.- (FGT 189). ... Lesbianism is not a subject that many people wish to speak about or think about on...

• Word Count: 2942
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

Anthony begins as the trim and dapper man-about-town, wearing his attitudes in the same way that he wears his clean, clean clothes. ... She bangs her fist on the table, glares at the waiter, stamps her feet, insults Anthony, complains about the injustice of the universe. ... There is no need to go through every nasty remark made about Italians, garlic eaters, Negroes, Jewish shopkeepers, the millions "swarming like rats, chattering like apes, smelling like all hell monkeys," (p.394). ...

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

Asked about his "sense of audience," Mistry responds rather grandly, "I suppose the world is my audience," then qualifies the claim by adding "At least, I wish it" (146). ... First, are Western readers just plain curious about the Parsis? ... Yet Mistry seems little concerned with such matters, and his three stories about Asians in Canada that appear in Tales from Firozsha Baag lack the immediacy that Mukherjee and Divkaruni attain. ... When I don't have that, I will not write about it. ... It's a Canadian book about India. ...

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

Asked about his "sense of audience," Mistry responds rather grandly, "I suppose the world is my audience," then qualifies the claim by adding "At least, I wish it" (146). ... First, are Western readers just plain curious about the Parsis? ... Yet Mistry seems little concerned with such matters, and his three stories about Asians in Canada that appear in Tales from Firozsha Baag lack the immediacy that Mukherjee and Divkaruni attain. ... When I don't have that, I will not write about it. ... It's a Canadian book about India. ...

• Word Count: 4673
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate