Montressor states that his "friend accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much.... Montressor lured his friend into the catacombs by using his ego against him promising a taste of a rare cask of Amontillado, which is a very fine, very rare, and expensive wine. ... Using this to his advantage Montressor was able to get his friend deep into the catacombs where no one would be able to here his calls for help, nor find his remains for years, if ever. Poe, known for this gruesome, yet delightful use of puzzling writing uses many other symbols of disguise the true motivat...

• Word Count: 481
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In "The Fall of the House of Usher " It is easy for the reader to become the friend in Poe's story as both the narrator and the reader invite madness, as they are drawn into the underworld of the mind where fantasy becomes reality. ... " However, the narrator escapes, to watch both the tenants and the house of Usher disappear into the tarn, an underworld which is their true home. ... The narrator is a boyhood friend of Roderick. ... When Madeline supposedly "dies " and is placed in her coffin, the narrator notices "a striking similitude between brother and sister " It is at this point th...

• Word Count: 948
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In all these short stories the characters' environment put them to the test, by forcing them to deal with an extreme situation which revealed -their true nature. ... His true motivation for helping Doodle is for his own selfish reason, to save his own pride. ... However, an unexpected crisis changes Mathilde's life: she loses the diamond necklace she borrowed from her upper-class friend, Madame Forestier. Rather than telling the truth that she has lost it; she attempts to buy a replacement without her friend's knowledge, because she is unable to suffer the embarrassment of telli...

• Word Count: 1116
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In Long Walk to Forever', Catharine is also torn by his fiancé Henry Stewart Chasens, and friend and true love Newt. ... Newt is in the army, and has returned to see his long friend Catharine. ... Ultimately, Catharine chooses her true love, Newt, over this Henry Stewart Chasens. ...

• Word Count: 638
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The narrator whose name is unknown has fallen in love with his friend's sister. ... During the rest of the story narrator explains his problems with getting a gift for his friend's sister. ... Readers can imagine right at the beginning of the story after the narrator explains his love interest to his friend's sister that that was his implicit goal; however the story escaladed to a point that the narrator was trying to do whatever it takes to buy that one gift from Araby. ... The concept of the explicit and implicit goal is a good idea due to the fact that it makes the readers th...

• Word Count: 767
• Approx Pages: 3

He said that he used to be able to ask a friend to fill him in on the story; but he could no longer do that. ... When she met Sabrina, she said that she was her first true friend of her life. ... The film never mentioned Sabrina, which left the viewer to believe that she did not have even one true friend her whole life. ...

• Word Count: 1165
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

" Young love is something we all experience at some point in time, but the narrator was describing something more in the story, which was an obsession with his friend's sister. ... In this line it allows the reader to understand the true selfishness of his behavior, and the naiveté of the protagonist. He was thinking irrationally because of his obsession with his friend Mangan's sister. ... The doom and dark would change to light whenever he would talk to his friend's sister. ... His obsession and euphoric feeling when he was around his friend's sister was shatt...

• Word Count: 1079
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography

An example of an idea of the dangers of intellect would be through Frankenstein, to whom "life and death appeared ideal bounds" to be broken through, whom succeeds in his intellectual pursuit but at great cost, because in the end he not only loses his brother, wife, and best friend, he also ends up being the most alienated. ... It is true that Frankenstein is a novel about our pursuit of self discovery because Victor created the monster because he wanted to discover the secret of life and it is true that we want to discover the monster within us because various times people say that no one re...

• Word Count: 626
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

While many of the struggles faced by MacIveys are now the stuff of history, the choices they make, the feelings they endure, the challenges they overcome, and the means by which they overcome them ring as true today as they did in 1984, and 1968, and in 1868, when the story first begins. ... While it is far from being a manual on how to live with truth and integrity, or how to be a good neighbor, one can't help but be inspired to live as a better neighbor, a more truthful friend, and a life of greater integrity after finishing the story of the MacIveys of Florida. ...

• Word Count: 399
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In the short story, "Rosena on the Mountain," Rene Depestre tells the story of a humble man, who on a quest for purity, becomes sidetracked by temptation. The story takes place in the country of Haiti, and there are three main characters: Alain, Father Mulligan and Rosena. Alain is a curious young ...

• Word Count: 398
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Thesis: The elaborate symbolism used by Edgar Allan Poe conveys Montresor's true vindictive personality. ... The elaborate symbolism used by Edgar Allan Poe conveys Montresor's true vindictive personality. ... Poe conveys the setting as this: "It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. ... Clearly he is a character that has a strongly defined public acceptable personality and then we are exposed to his chilling, homicidal personality as we venture down into the catacombs, in their dark and twisted nature, w...

• Word Count: 690
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography

However, his best friend Itzie Lieberman is nothing like this. ... Itzie makes obscene jesters and dirty looks to his mother when her back is turned, Ozzie has true affection for his mother (1862). ... This along with another instance later on, proves that Itzie can also be sort of a good friend to Ozzie. ... The reason behind Ozzie's true love for his religion may be from his family's ability to center their whole lives around it. ...

• Word Count: 1080
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography

" takes place in the early 1960's and tells the tale of fifteen year old Connie who is stalked and evidently abducted by a man who calls himself Arnold Friend. The short story is based on a true story however in this retelling the open ending allows readers' to interpret the meaning individually. ... Connie faces some tough decisions regarding her stalker, Arthur Friend, and goes through a kind of transformation, which in this case is both moral and sexual. ... Connie faces some tough decisions regarding her stalker, Arthur Friend, and goes through a kind of initiation and tran...

• Word Count: 969
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

When the character's friend goes to jail, his enlightenment of the Celtic culture enables him to understand the situation in a more idealistic manner. ... Currently my friend is in prison. ... Earlier in the story, the character was speaking with his friend's grandfather who just related a story to him. ... The stories and heroes that the druids respected illustrate their true values of balance and interdependency. ...

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

In "Cathedral," the narrator's wife invites a friend over. This friend who is a man happens to be blind and the narrator is rather skeptical of him and his handicap. ... While Scotty was walking home with his friend however, he is the victim of a hit and run car accident. ... He now realizes that what he knew wasn't exactly true and that he was blind to what blind people are really like. ...

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

An autobiographical fiction is when an author writes about a true occurrence that happened to him or her but puts a bit of fictional twist on it. ... Once just this past year my friend and I went up to my uncle's cabin. ... Half way up the mountain in the pitch dark my friend's car broke down. ... My friend being a quite good hunter went out and returned back a few hours later with news he got a doe. ...

• Word Count: 1201
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Throughout the story, Chopin demonstrates that in the nineteenth century even women that were in a loving marriages were not allowed to express their true self and voice. ... Mallard learned of her husband's death was she able to let her true self come out and really start to live. ... Mallard has heart trouble and her sister and her friend try their hardest to make sure she learns of her husband's death in a tender manner. ...

• Word Count: 733
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson In the story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, villagers gather together in the center of the town each year for an annual lottery. There is much excitement and interest at the rituals of the event proceeds. The winning family is chosen by ballot, and from tha...

• Word Count: 512
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

This concluding, we can undoubtedly see how the character traits of Gallaher bring out Chandler's true character. ... But despite this we know that he is envious of his friend because of this gaudy behaviour. ... Chandler, who is married with one child, believes that Gallaher would definitely tie the knot if he were to find the right woman, for he shakes his head when his friend mentions the money issue. ...

• Word Count: 923
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

James Joyce uses religious imagery and sexual implications to make us understand how the boy's religious background impacts the way he handles the challenges he faces and how it is very hard for him to find his true self. The main character of this short story is deeply infatuated by his friend, Mangan's, sister. ...

• Word Count: 701
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

He is on the beach talking to his new six-year-old friend, Sybil Carpenter. ... Though the readers know his true feelings, Seymour seems to be in a very energetic mood, when he is on the beach with Sybil. ...

• Word Count: 747
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Richards, who is a friend of Brently Mallard, walks through to the door to alert Louise and her sister Josephine that Brently had been killed in a horrible train accident. ... But I"m still unsure because there is not enough support and evidence in the story to make it true. ...

• Word Count: 704
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

It was only on their death beds that the people realized the true symbolism of the black veil which separated him from the people with whom he once shared reverence. ... In Beatrice's instance, she is quite obligated or predestined to live a life of seclusion because of her father's decisions "though she chooses to drink the antidote alone, and therefore pass into immortality without her former friend, Giovanni. ...

• Word Count: 673
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Throughout the story, Cynthia Ozick used symbolism like life and death, protection, and other things to make us understand the true thoughts and feelings of each character which brings out the true meanings in the story. ... The shawl always serves as a friend which helps Magda meet her needs and gives support and comfort in dangerous situations. ...

• Word Count: 1071
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

This saying is especially true in the collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri. ... In many of her stories the main character is a woman in her thirties, living somewhere in the northeast, and in some way or another is associated with someone of Indian descent, be it themselves, a co-worker, or a friend. ...

• Word Count: 1104
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School