The Things They Carried is a novel written by Tim O'Brien in the late 1980's in Massachusetts. It is a collection of interrelated short stories, mainly about the Vietnam War. The story took place in Vietnam in the late 1960's and in Massachusetts in the late 1980's. The time and...

The use of literature as a learning catalyst is not a new approach. As early as 1993, researchers Kathy Short and Junardi Armstrong pointed out that literature should be used as more than just a way to get facts. Rather, literature could be "an integral part of children's inquiry and meani...

The late 1800s were a time of repression for women. A woman was expected to conform to her husband's ideals and accept a life of his control. Even today, the relationship between men and women sometimes seems unequal. There is hardly ever an equal and fair relationship between a female and ...

Ethan Frome By Wharton                       When Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote his novel, The Scarlet Letter, he was praised as being the father of the psychological novel. Since the completion of his landmark story, many other authors have taken their work in similar directions, ...

William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" was originally published in Forum. It is first short story published in a major magazine. The narrator is unnamed and tells the story in first person plural. This person may possibly be a neighbor or gossiping townsperson, but somehow seems t...

Upon opening the novel Ceremony, it is immediately evident that it is unlike any other traditional American or European style of writing. Leslie Marmon Silko, the author of Ceremony, describes Pueblo Indian stories or expressions as a kind of spider web, "with many little threads radiating fro...

Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron" is a beautifully descriptive story told in the third person omniscient narration. This is about the protagonist, a young girl named Sylvia. This short story is made up of two main elements being conflict and symbolism that revolve around the main ...

Ever wondered why death sometimes brings us happiness. To some it may cause pain, to other tears of joy, but through it all people always go through one, joy or sorrow. Through "The Story of an Hour" we see how death brings joy to the life of a woman who has been unhappy all her life by her husbands...

The Rose of Southern Gentility Never Withers Strictly speaking, the plot of the short story "A Rose for Emily" may seem to suggest that the story is a mystery story. It is the tale of a woman who kills her lover when she is jilted. But the character of Miss Emily and the character of the...

"The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is a fabulous short story written by Ernest Hemingway which was published in 1936. The story is a tale that introduces a new technique and style that Hemingway was not accustom to writing. Author Philip Young remarks that the piece, "pres...

"Free! Body and soul free!" Those are the great words written by the great American author, Kate Chopin in "The Story Of An Hour" in 1894. Her real life stories were her biggest influences in her literature and her unique themes. Perhaps one of her most famous works was her ...

Flannery O'Connor begins her story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by introducing the grandmother. The character of the grandmother is a very domineering and manipulating one who attempts to engineer her family's vacation to Florida according to her need for attention. This cheery vacati...

My Dear Beloved In Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, there are many characters mentioned in the book. Some of the main characters are mentioned throughout the whole story while other supporting characters are only mentioned once or twice. They all play a key role in the plot formation though ...

Born May 15, 1890, in Indian Creek, Texas; Katherine Anne Porter has written numerous short stories and a novel. Katherine Anne Porter uses autobiographical information and symbolism to relate the story of Miranda's maturation into adulthood in her short story "The Grave." In &qu...

Irony Created The use of irony has been used in countless literary works to create a story theme where the author writes a story with a surface plot, but is really trying to convey something else that has a different underlying meaning. The word, "irony", came into English language in th...

Realism represents life as it really is or was. It can be identified in terms of the effect on the reader. That is, realistic fiction is written to evoke the feelings of the reader and give the sense that its characters and their experiences are a part of reality. The novel Fly Away Peter by David M...