The poem depicts a fantasy machine that could magically do a child's homework. The machine spews out an answer that the child narrator himself knows is wrong, mocking the idea that a machine can do a better job. Imagery in both "Wild Strawberries" and in "Homework Machine" is reflective of a child's imagination: the universal wish that homework would disappear; the tendency to take adult terms literally and therefore

At first the child is presented with a mental image of an ordinary site, such as a person wondering why people are looking at them. But then, with a line such as "I just wink my middle eye," the reader is suddenly forced to alter their normal mental image. The result is the sudden creation of an absurdly funny image that, instead of being scary or grotesque, is humorous,

For instance, in Jacob Have I Loved, a twin comes of age in the 1940s, and finds that she indeed can make ordinary life more than extraordinary. Realistic fiction also tends to be more contemporary in tone, connecting with issues that are relevant to contemporary family situations. Issues such as divorce, dysfunctional families, adoptions, etc. are dealt with in a serious and relevant manner; in On My Honor, a

Children's Literature "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." This adage takes on various meanings according to context -- in the early twenty-first century, it will most likely be used to imply too much seriousness about schoolwork. But in the consideration of children's literature in the nineteenth century, we face the prospect of a society where child labor was actually a fact of life. We are familiar with

This is evident from the first as the poet writes, I am inside someone -- who hates me. I look out from his eyes (1-3). This approach allows him to take a jaundiced view of himself and criticize his own shortcomings, as if they were those of someone else. He says he hates himself, meaning more that he hates some of the things he has done and that he may expect

/ Weakened by my soulful cries." (Angelou, 7) Thus, the overall message of the poem is not very different from that of the first text, Phenomenal Woman. Again, the writer celebrates her own self as an emblematic image of the entire people. Pride and self-esteem are the major ingredients in the writer's cogent and powerful discourse. She declares her haughtiness and the pleasure she takes in her own self, suggesting