Every now and then, evil comes to light from the most ordinary and unpredictable situations and everyday surroundings. ... People growing up in this small village come to think of the lottery as a common part of their lives. ... They don't seem to think of it as anything out of the ordinary, let alone as something bad and evil. ... These people act as if they were in fear, as if that box stood for some great power. ... This emphasizes the author's essential point - that ordinary people in everyday circumstances are still capable of real evil. ...

• Word Count: 1240
• Approx Pages: 5

Not many people fulfill there dreams. ... The story The Immortals by Martin Amis, is a prime example of an ordinary person who has never felt fulfilled. ... This story shows a different perspective of looking at humanity, no boundaries for the human imagination and an ordinary person looking to be special. ... He is representing the ordinary man who strives for more, more answers then a book can give and experienced people can describe. ... Sure, it may seem funny but that's the mentality of people. ...

• Word Count: 932
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

All of these stories are about ordinary lives and Carver puts these lives through quiet drama. ... In "Cathedral," Carver creates an encounter between two very different people which starts drama. ... The narrator displays how immature and stereotypical he is about people with disabilities such as being blind. ... He reveals that his view of blind people came from movies. ... His technique of writing short stories by creating drama from normal situations with ordinary people using simple language has captivated many readers. ...

• Word Count: 1227
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The two works are also different because they people they talk about the models in different mediums. ... The Monarchs act, dress, and think the way they do for social status, when they really are just middle-class people. Miss Churm and Oronte, the artists' other models, seem to be ordinary, low-class citizens. ... An artist paints what he sees in everyday life, ordinary things. Miss Churm and Oronte are ordinary people. ...

• Word Count: 896
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The minister in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil- wears a black veil because Hawthorne is trying to communicate to the reader that all people, whether we can actually see it or not, have a veil that separating them from eternal goodness. ... A minister, a man of God, is just as "fallen- as an ordinary person or a person who isn't a minister. ... Further, the minister alludes again that all people, himself included, are sinners and plagued with a darkness of which there is no escape, save in Christ: "If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough an if I co...

• Word Count: 288
• Approx Pages: 1

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 ). ... Perhaps one of Tyler's greatest family novels is If Morning Ever Comes, a story about a home that is "cluttered with people and objects and becoming the place characters often leave and always miss" (DISCovering Authors). ...

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

Well hopefully not, because this is not an ordinary thought to run through a person's mind. The people in the short story and movie The Birds, not only feared the bloody peck of a bird, but feared that this small creature could take their life. ... So you see, the thought of everyday birds pecking at your body is not so unrealistic to the people of these stories. ...

• Word Count: 383
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

One of Bradbury's most praiseworthy abilities is to turn ordinary situations into the extraordinary. ... Bradbury characterizes the town as modern and urbanized in order to stress again that this is an ordinary situation. ... "For "October" in this early fiction is both a season of the year and a state of the soul, an atmosphere of sudden winds and dying leaves in which the marvelous and monstrous revelations come to lonely people." ...

• Word Count: 1033
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The use of irony can easily captivate us or excite us. Many times in order to understand the moral or theme of the story, you need to be able to recognize irony. In the short stories, "Lamb to the Slaughter- by Roald Dahl and "By the Waters of Babylon- by Stephen Vincent Benét we have fine exampl...

• Word Count: 634
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

He also feels that the people who live in the house are safe from the father. ... By his use of symbols, such as the four described above, Faulkner is able to use seemingly ordinary objects that contribute to the story's meaning. ...

• Word Count: 536
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

By Hooper, wearing this shroud across his face is only showing the dark side of people and the truth of human existence and nature. ... For instance, these people, being very sincere about their religion, are likely to see anything out of the ordinary, such as a black-veiled minister, as a serious issue that undermines their faith. ... Without even the slightest bit of investigation into the issue these people have brewed in their imaginations all sorts of theories as to what is so wrong with the minister. ... By donning the black veil the minister realizes his fear that the people of his c...

• Word Count: 810
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

A hundred years ago, people did not see the world in quite an open manner, as they do today. ... He wrote often of fallen humanity, the unforgiving consequences of war, and emotional and intellectual responses of people under extreme pressure. ... " It was narrated by a soldier's loved one and expressed the untold story of the Civil War, the people waiting back home for their soldiers to come home. ... His realism depicted ordinary people coping with everyday realities. ... Instead there are characters that better represent the way real people act and how they live their lives dealin...

• Word Count: 765
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

He takes a walk through the woods, but this is no ordinary stroll through the woods this is a eye opening experience that will change the rest of Goodman's life. ... In this passage the author criticizes at religion and the way that society believes that religious figures are good moral people but in some cases they are the exact opposite like pointed out in the story. ...

• Word Count: 890
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

This is a scary thought considering that it can be an uncontrollable feeling that makes one commit out of the ordinary actions... Actions such as Sammy's are made by people everyday based purely on lust and ending in regret. ...

• Word Count: 778
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

"The Lottery" The publication of Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery," resulted in quite a stir, upsetting many people. ... Jackson claims that she wrote the story primarily to illustrate an example that even ordinary individuals have the ability to do monstrous things. Circumstances, pressures from social groups, such as friends, family, or mere acquaintances can negatively affect people. ... The people think it is alright to do this horrific thing because the tradition has gone on for so long, never being forgotten. ... Although at the beginning of the story many of the p...

• Word Count: 940
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

You've got all kinds of people who make a living and support themselves, but who psychologically are not grown up. ... In the essay, she reflects on sad stories of quote, "ordinary people, with yearnings as old as humanity -- for children, for health, for a long and healthy life" (Fatalist Attraction 934). She relates it until the very end to how people just want to be happy, and how she doesn't think we really know how to be happy. ... Along with her emotional and personal credibility she has great references to other credible people which supports her essay with good...

• Word Count: 1235
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The black box was mentioned several times in the story, in detail, and people did not want to get a new box even though it was shabby and worn out. ... Tessie Hutchinson symbolizes the mass of people who never question injustice in society, until it affects them personally. ... It has become such an ordinary thing to her, that she completely forgot about the day of the lottery. ... Tessie Hutchinson symbolizes the people who do not question traditions, no matter how inhuman they are, until it affects them personally. ...

• Word Count: 975
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Women had their infants taken from them, they were locked away in isolated rooms, and kept away from other people and the things most familiar to them. ... She is seeing people who are not actually there, and overall, she is behaving in a strange manner. ... She does not feel threatened until later, when she senses something out of the ordinary about the house. ...

• Word Count: 996
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

The mood of the people shifts from friendliness, to false boasting, to relief and finally nervous release as they fulfill the obligation of stoning the victim. The village, by all appearances, seems to be a normal and ordinary place with its inhabitants meeting in a square with festival like intentions. ... The atmosphere is casual, but the people seem to by waiting on bated breath. ...

• Word Count: 1008
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Irving writes, "Its limbs were gnarled, and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air."(Irving) going on, "The common people regarded it with a mixture of respect and superstition, partly out of sympathy for the fate of its ill famed namesake, and partly from the tales of strange sights and doleful laminations told concerning it."...

• Word Count: 1020
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School