Life is a gift revealed in this novel that evokes many emotional tears and lots of laughter. ... The novel ends with a surprise gift to that family. ... The second gift in the novel is that of Maribeth, who comes to town and helps bring Tommy back to his normal life. ... Throughout the story, Maribeth tells Tommy that some people are only here for short periods of time, to help other people and to teach them lessons. The entire novel stresses this point and makes the reader believer that it is true in life as well as in fiction. ...

• Word Count: 1146
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The children in the settlement received lessons in subjects such as art, carpentry, and cooking, but Anne Tyler also attended a local public school at Harvard. ... The ordinariness of day-to-day life that families encounter is most often the subject matter of Tyler's novels; many critics ascribe her popularity with reading audiences with the fact that her characters are relatable and ordinary but not simplistic (Concise Dictionary ). ... In her 1982 novel, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the tension of the Tull family is seen from the vantage point of each family member, each with th...

• Word Count: 834
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Montana 1948, a novel written by Larry Watson and published in 1993, describes an embarrassing recollection of David Hayden happened in a small town called Bentrock. ... However, this decision makes Wes's life very painful and miserable, with further accumulating conflicts between these two brothers. ... With these separate powers combined, they have created a dominant social system along with an invisible aura that people can see. ... A lesson should be learned throughout this novel is that long-time unregulated and centered power existed in a family or a society will definitely lead to ...

• Word Count: 868
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Choose a novel or a short story in which a character gains your sympathy because of the situation and how the character deals with it. ... Fleshmarket is a novel written by Nicola Morgan. ... He was thinking about his first violin lesson.' ... In his mind, long as Robbie has the violin, there was still hope that his life would return to the way it used to be. ... To conclude, the reader feels sympathy for Robbie in the novel Fleshmarket for several reasons. ...

• Word Count: 796
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

These are only a few of the words that describe the novel Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns. ... Everyone learns that nothing can stay the same forever and they must accept aht and keep living life. The motif of change runs through this novel. ... (pg.348) Rucker wasn't the only one with these feelings. ... Rucker began holding a drawing and the person's name that was drawn got a driving lesson from Will....

• Word Count: 618
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Anthony's life influenced her in different ways. ... Susan especially loved the novels Miss Perkins brought with her. ... Later in her life, Susan, just like her mentors, became a teacher before turning to woman's suffrage. ... Anthony's mother, Lucy Read, was also an important person in Susan's life. ... The lives of many people and the lessons they showed helped to form Susan's beliefs and values in her early years. ...

• Word Count: 589
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

This relationship is first introduced in chapter two of the novel. ... It is not until the end of the novel that we see the true emotional attachment that Pari truly has for that metal tin. ... When Pari, the younger one, presents Abdullah's sister Pari with the old metal tin, she is in disbelief and begins going through the tin looking at all of the feathers. ... Wahdati was in his final stages of life. ... In all, many life lessons can be learned by the book And the Mountains Echoed. ...

• Word Count: 1073
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Amy Tan writes her books with a social communicational aim towards people. ... Of the four sections of four different narratives; the first section is the mothers telling of how they recall their relationships with their mothers with amazing clarity. ... An-mei realizes that Rose has not completely understood the lessons she has intended to teach her about hope and faith. Jing-mei speaks for Suyuan in the two mother sections of the novel. ... A very well written and explanatory novel, although more towards a more mature audience that can relate; it shows emotion, and movement t...

• Word Count: 579
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Lessons on life are learned by each individual during the first few days of the daughter's life. ... She hopes that her life will be better than her own. ... The relationship between a mother and a daughter is full of complex values and feelings this is evident in the novel The Joy Luck Club. ... From the beginning of the novel, we hear Suyuan Woo tell the story of "The Joy Luck Club," a group started by some Chinese women during World War II. ... When she made June take piano lessons Jing-Mei thought that she was trying to make her become a child prodigy like Waverly, but her mother ...

• Word Count: 2133
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

The novel "Montana - 1948" by Larry Watson begins as a story of a young boy growing up in rural Montana shortly after World War II. Watson's detailed description of the landscape and small town life lead the reader's first impression of the novel to be that of a carefree story with few real life lessons. ... Davy watches and listens as his father, the town Sheriff, wrestles with his sense of justice and his fear of confronting his own father who has controlled his whole life. ... Within the pages of this novel, Watson gives clues to a trait Davy hated in his father, a trait he in...

• Word Count: 1693
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

Regaining one's loss of identity is important for the characters within both novels to undergo. ... This violent event had a detrimental effect on his family's honor, especially his father's pride, which the protagonist valued with his life. ... In this case, our protagonist's identity is connected and linked with his job and the most important person in his life, his wife Sihem. ... He has spent most of his life with her in the form of husband and wife which entitled keeping her happy until death due them apart. ... In the beginning of the novel, the surgeon is busy with h...

• Word Count: 2550
• Approx Pages: 10

In this first of five volumes of autobiography, Maya Angelou tells the story of her life from age three, when her divorcing parents sent her and her brother to live with their maternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, to age sixteen, when, reunited with her mother in San Francisco, she gave birth to her son. Thus her story begins with semi-orphanhood and ends with motherhood. ... Family life in the store included disciplined study of arithmetic; leisurely reading of novels, poetry, and Shakespeare; and lessons on deportment and avoidance of trouble with whites. ... Louis underworld, with the ...

• Word Count: 1226
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

We will see how Willie, an outsider from Putney Wayne with no education and no money, is the one with the greatest amount of character and morality. ... Even Roxanne's love interest Xavier, a successful black businessman, becomes frightened at the thought of falling in love with a black woman, calling it "one of the most terrifying experiences of his life (Naylor 97). ... (Naylor 137) The entire motivation for aligning with them is purely financial. ... Nedeed's own neighborhood stands by and watches out their windows as his house burns with him inside. ... Whatever doubt Willie h...

• Word Count: 2802
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

With the struggle of trying to organize a major life decisions, it's often difficult for a couple to maintain a family-life balance. ... "Gone Girl" is a dramatic film that was created after the novel written by Gillian Flynn. ... At the end of the film, Amy decides to come home and continues to play mind games with Nick. ... This typical romantic comedy ends in a positive way with a big wedding, but left me relating to Toula's overbearing family. ... While this ideal isn't intended to be a negative, it's obstructing Toula's efforts in using the life course a...

• Word Count: 1752
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate