Tara sat cross-legged on her Uncle John's front porch; her favourite rag doll clutched under one arm. The late afternoon sun shone through the leaves of the giant oak tree, casting its flickering light on the cabin. This golden motion of light entranced the girl and she sat with her face turned upwa...

Poetry is a form of writing that usually gives a reader some type of story that has a much deeper meaning than what is simply stated in the text. Most poetry reflects on the author's own personal feeling and experiences. In some cases, an author may take on the persona of another person so a...

Judith Ortiz Cofer is a Latina poet and prolific writer, born in Puerto Rico in 1952 and now residing in Athens, Georgia. She married Charles John Cofer in 1971, and has one daughter, Tanya. She immigrated to the United States with her parents in 1956, and they settled in New Jersey, where she had...

Anne Bradstreet and Adrienne Rich are two of the most important female poets in the American literature, their writing sharing some common features as well. Their poetry seems to be made according to Adrienne Rich's definition of poetry: " I believe that poems are made of words and the b...

Many times when people look to define who they really are they turn to their family for answers. A family not only constructs the physical characteristics of a person, but also the different components that help mold a person's true character. People are confronted daily with evidence that th...

Only a Girl Alice Munro's short story, "Boys and Girls," explores the different roles of men and women in society through a young girl's discovery of what it means to be a girl. A close examination of the elements of a short story as they are used in "Boys and Girls" helps us to underst...

Plot Summary Black Boy (American Hunger) is a fictionalized memoir of Richard Wright's childhood and young adulthood. It is split into two sections, "Southern Night" (concerning his childhood in the south) and "The Horror and the Glory" (concerning his early adult years in Chicago). ...

Parental Influence on the Developing Learning Skills of Children I) Introduction Through the years many psychologists have been interested in the effects that parents have on their children's learning abilities. Several studies have been done and many have found that parents do indeed positi...

Louis L'Amour was born on March 22, 1908, in Jamestown, North Dakota. His father, Louis Charles, was a veterinarian and farm machinery salesman and was also involved in local politics. Charles served as alderman of Jamestown's largest ward for many years as well as deputy sheriff, but he lost his ...