Sara Gruen is a Canadian citizen, moved to United States in 1999 for a technical writing job. After she got laid off she decided to be a writer. She is an animal lover and has written famous novels Riding Lessons, Flying Changes, Ape House and Water for Elephants.
Main characters of Water for Elephants
Jacob Jankowski -- The novel's protagonist. He is a ninety or ninety-three-year-old nursing home resident who spent his life as a veterinarian in a circus during the great depression.
Rosie -- An elephant that Uncle Al bought from another circus. She understands commands only in Polish. She is the target of August's rage.
Marlena -- eautiful star performer of the circus, who fell in love with Jacob Jankowski.
August -- Head animal trainer and husband of Marlena. He is a charming and brutal both to the humans and animals.
Uncle Al -- The violent and abusive owner of the circus.
Camel -- One…...
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Bibliography:
Guen, Sara. "Water for Elephants: a novel." 2007. Algonquin Books.
O'Connor, Anahad. "Always Follow the Elephants: More Surprising Facts and Misleading Myths about our health and the World We Live In." 2009. Macmillian.
Vandover and the Brute is a book written by Frank Norris who was an admirable writer who used his characters in a way to show how they were influenced and affected by outside sources. The novel, which was written between 1894 and 1895, was first published in 1914 and has become an exceptional text in modern literature. The novel is about the main character, Vandover, who slowly leads his life into inevitable destruction. Actually, this book is regarded as a rich and entertaining novel regarding Vandover, an artist who graduates from Harvard University but ends up in poverty because of bad habits and ill-luck. Similar to his main character in McTeague, Norris paints Vandover as a very brutish individual. In the novel, the main character is not only shaped by the environment but also the author. Frank Norris does not seemingly give room for Vandover to progress, which helps in…...
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Works Cited
ENotes. "Frank Norris Long Fiction Analysis." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, n.d. Web. 17 May 2017. .
Fusco, Katherine. "Brute Time: Anti-Modernism in "Vandover and the Brute."" Studies in American Naturalism 4.1 (2009): 22-40. Print.
Mitchell, Lee C. "'Little Pictures on the Lacquered Surface': The Determining Vocabularies of Norris's Vandover and the Brute." Papers on Language & Literature 22.4 (2010): 386-405. Print.
Norris, Frank. Vandover and the Brute. Dortmund, Germany: Readbox Publishing, 2012. Print.
Royal Beatings," by Alice Munro, displays an interesting relationship between the main character, Rose, and her stepmother, Flo. The depiction of Flo is one in the middle of the two stereotypical extremes one might expect, either the overly-sweet stepmother or the evil stepmother. Flo's character lies somewhere in between; she is both a good mother and a bad mother. Rose, on the other hand, possesses the stereotypical character of the melodramatic young child, who is not afraid of royal beatings, but rather curious about them (Munro 96), and who sees her father's personality as a stage act when he beats her (109), and therefore retaliates with "self-indulgence" (110).
The relationship between the two is never one of apathy, but always characterized by either closeness or a struggle for superiority. It is obvious from Rose's musings about Flo's past life that they spend time close enough that they relay personal information.…...
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Works Cited
Munro, Alice. "Royal Beatings." Alice Munro: Selected Stories. Random House: New York,
7) There are several subplots in the film. The first of these is Felix Happer, the chairman of the board of Knox Oil & Gas, and Mac's boss. He is extremely wealthy and powerful, but psychologically somewhat fragile. In order to help face his problems, Happer engages an "abuse therapist" to hurl various forms of ill treatment at him. He is also interested in furthering his chances of immortality. He addresses this need by compulsively scanning the skies for a comet to bear his name. This relates to the theme as a whole in its commentary on how fleeting and futile the world of business is. His extreme wealth does not make Felix Happer a happy man, nor does it bring him peace of mind or any sense of contentment. In contrast, the beachcomber/owner Ben Knox lives in complete poverty and utter contentment in the knowledge that no force on…...
Amy is the main character of the case under study and is facing a problem with Joe who agreed to co-teach with her. The problem that Amy faces is that Joe is not clear about the concept and idea of co-teaching and how it is supposed to be carried out. Moreover Joe says things which hurt Amy and she feels insulted by them. Firstly Amy should realize that she is young and comparatively inexperienced. Joe on the other hand is an experienced teacher who has been teaching for a very long time. He is used to his method of teaching and therefore it is hard for him to accommodate himself to this new change of method. Normally a person who has been teaching for twenty years with the same pattern finds it hard to undergo a change. Amy thus should not find his comments to be insulting and she should…...
October 23rd
Big confession here: when I was ten, I had a party at my parent's. Store-bought cake with pink icing, Snoopy paper plates, pinata, games, favor cups, the whole middle-class nine yards. And I liked it.
8. November 3rd
My dad says I'm changing. hile slurping his spaghetti this evening he couldn't understand why I wasn't that excited about some dumb award he won for an article he published in a journal but I thought it was majorly cool that an/the Olsen twin(s) were in his class.
9. December 1st
Sophie M -- at first I didn't know what to think about the Hollywood connection, and I know hitney thought even less about it, but now that she knows that there can be two queen bees (in different ways) at Tate, things seem to be going a bit smoother. Just call me the peacemaker, okay? Hey, maybe someone will send ME a prize…...
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Works Cited
Karasyov, Jill & Laura Kargman. Bittersweet Sixteen. New York: HarperTeen, 2007.
Antonia, the main character of the novel My Antonia.
My Antonia
The magnum opus, My Antonia is a well-composed masterpiece by the eminent author illa Cather who is well-known for her scholarly depiction of life in the frontiers (Back cover). The distinguished novelist in her masterwork My Antonia has portrayed the strong personality as well as the persisting qualities of a young Bohemian girl named Antonia who migrated from United States to settle down in Nebraska.
This marvelous account addressing various issues has been narrated by one of the characters named Jim Burden who is portrayed as the childhood playmate of the protagonist of the novel named Antonia. According to Jim Burden, Antonia was the eldest daughter of the Shimerda's and a healthy as well as a happy girl with the most beautiful eyes that were "big and warm and full of light, like the sun shining on brown pools in the…...
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Works Cited
Cather W. My Antonia Mariner Books Publishers, September 1995 ISBN: 039575514X 244 pages
"(Twain,39). Later on, he witnesses with his friends their own funeral service, because they had been considered dead after their disappearance. Also, Tom pretends to be visionary and recounts his so-called dream to aunt Polly, which was in fact only an account of what he himself had seen: "Tom! The sperrit was upon you! You was a-prophesying -- that's what you was doing!" (Twain, 157)
Finally, Tom emerges as a "real hero," when his concern the others outweighs his concern for himself. Thus, one of his real acts of heroism is taking the punishment in Becky's place, for tearing the teacher's book, and getting the latter's sincere appraisal: "Tom, how could you be so noble!"(Twain, 176). Also, he rescues Becky from the cave, and the fact that he persuades Huck to be civilized, putting it as a condition to him, so as to let him be part of the gang: "A…...
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Works Cited
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. New Yor
The protagonist's resistance is thus effective, psychologically in the sense that the fire-watcher has been given a gift that other members of society and the world might lack, a sense of his own personal ineffectuality, true, but also a sense of the ultimate transience of all human desires for boundaries and possession. This does not necessarily provide a solution to the problem of social marginalization, or of the historical conflicts presence in Israel and waged in the political sphere, but it does provide a certain ideological 'gift' to the marginalized man.
In contrast, Anita Desai's short story is more lighthearted in its analysis of cultural marginalization. In her story, the central protagonist travels to another city in India and establishes a career for herself, quite contrary to how she has been taught to live. The central, female protagonist does not fall into the conventional mode of simply marrying an acceptable boy,…...
character and nature of Frankenstein's creation, the monster. It aims to study the potential nature of the monster's evil deeds and to provide readers with understanding of the monster's "being" as told in the story. eing the creator of the monster, this paper also looks into the nature of Victor Frankenstein having to be able to create a monster that haunted his family, friends, and even his own life.
Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, shows how humans tend to be influenced by the major factors in their lives, such as people and the environment that they are living in. The novel shows how constant rejection can cause someone to become a monster. It also stresses an idea of human injustice towards outsiders, as the monster experienced from humans.
Throughout this paper, I will attempt to point out some factors in the story that made the two characters, Frankenstein and his creation, the…...
The decision of the pilot to crush the plane in the city can have no valid motivation and is deeply painful for Jimmy who feels betrayed by his student. The pilot who decides to crash the plane is a further stereotype, an incarnation of the belief that people belonging to the same cultural space as him are most likely to engage in terrorist acts.
Throughout his transformations, Zits realizes that he has done many mistakes in the past. In fact, he interprets the negative situations in which he is cast as a sort of divine punishment for his bad behavior in the past. He feels as if the violence episodes are supposed to make him learn from his mistakes- a task which he successfully performs.
Looking at the episodes in which Zits plays the main role, the reader realizes that Alexie is actually describing the history of the American people. Regard…...
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Bibliography:
Alexie, S. Flight: a novel, Grove Press, Black Cat, First edition, April 17, 2007
Christie, S. Renaissance man: the tribal "schizophrenic" in Sherman Alexie's Indian Killer in American Indian culture and research Journal, UCLA American Indian studies center, volume 25, number 4, 2001
Cummins, a., Flight: a novel (by Sherman Alexie)- Time traveling boy in the Washington Post Book World, Review a Day, April 20th, 2007, Retrieved April 8, 2011 from http://www.powells.com/review/2007_04_20
Duality of Character in Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown," and in Edgar Allan Poe's story, "The House of Usher," there are main characters who have several characteristics in common. The main character in Hawthorne's story possesses a duality of character and undergoes a life-changing experience. The title character in Poe's story has a similar duality of character; he, too, undergoes a transformational experience that may be seen as representing duality of character as well. Both stories have a dreamlike quality that adds to the atmosphere of the story; it also leads the reader to question whether the events have actually occurred, or if they were somehow the products of a hallucination or dream state, perhaps even supernatural in nature.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, "Young Goodman Brown," the title character is a young, newly married Christian man who lives in Salem, Massachusetts in the…...
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Works Cited
Harmon, William, and Holman, Hugh. A Handbook to Literature, Eleventh Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: 2009. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." In Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry,
Drama, and the Essay, Second Edition, ed. Robert DiYanni. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990. 93-102. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The House of Usher." Retrieved electronically on July 23, 2012 from . Web.
Mrs. Mallard looks with delight upon the long years of freedom that lie before her, now that she is no longer married and therefore dependant on her husband: "But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome."(Chopin, 112) the perspective of so many days of freedom that she would spend at her will is clearly dazzling to her. Her need for assertion is obviously urged by the context of oppression in which she lives. At the same time however, this imperative need for independence demonstrates Mallard's strong character that requires a certain space of its own to flourish.
This aspect of Mrs. Mallard's character is furthermore emphasized by her mixed feelings for her presumably dead husband. From her reaction of joy and liberation upon hearing the news,…...
During her time in Elsewhere, Liz made friends, including a girl her own age named Thandie, and a woman named Betty, who turned out to be Liz's own grandmother. Liz fell in love, brought her grandmother together with her former rock-star idol, and found forgiveness in her heart for the driver of the car that killed her. Liz's life, and death, mattered very much to these people Liz met in Elsewhere.
The book is divided into three parts that represent three stages of grief: denial, anger and sadness, and acceptance. In Part I: The Nile, Liz struggles to understand what happened to her. She finds herself asea, both literally and figuratively. Nothing makes sense and she cannot believe she is dead: "I am dreaming, she thinks, and any moment, my alarm clock will sound, and I will wake up" (Zevin, p. 19). In Part II: The Book of the Dead,…...
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Reference
Zevin, G. (2005). Elsewhere. New York: Square Fish.
The author uses the journal as another way to add depth to the characters, and he begins almost every chapter with the journal. It helps center the reader so they know what they will see in the upcoming pages. It also speaks in a language that would not be appropriate for the entire novel. Instead, it is simply little gems of wisdom scattered throughout the book that the reader looks forward to seeing like an old friend. Starting each chapter with Gideon's words helps keep the novel focused, too.
Finally, Gideon is a thoughtful man. That comes through in his dealings with the other characters, but it becomes even clearer when the reader sees the words of his journal. He has an eye for detail. For example, he writes of the emptiness and sprit-filled plains, "Even now - out on the wide Staked Plain - one can hear the parting…...
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References
Wier, Allen. Tehano. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University Press, 2006.
Remarque challenges the social, cultural, and political notions of war in the way the main characters react to their plight. It is assumed that a nation will rally around its troops, and that the troops themselves will see war as having a great level of value. Since the main characters do not see war that way, they feel cut off from the social and cultural aspects of "going to war." They also don't understand the political ramifications, or why any country would want to invade another. It doesn't make sense to them. Remarque indicates that this may be much more....
There are two main levels of language used in A Streetcar Named Desire. These are the text of the stage directions and the words the actors actually say to one another. The biggest contrast is between Stanley's course, slang language and Blanche's classy, flowery statements. While Blanche's language sounds much more proper, it also sounds very fake and false in comparison with Stanley's speech. This is how Williams wanted it to sound when he wrote the play. By using two styles of writing and language, Williams was able to distinguish the two main characters from one another very easily, which....
The aftermath of the war in All Quiet on the Western Front is most notable in the soldiers who are unable to adjust to civilian life. Paul, the main character, even struggles when he comes home on leave, because he does not really know how to handle family relationships anymore. He feels better when he's with his fellow soldiers, because he knows how to relate to them.
In How Many Miles to Basra, the aftermath is more focused on how the soldiers, translator, and journalist were affected by their attempt to make amends. During war, truth and responsibility can become blurred,....
Dueling Protagonists: Exploring the Roles of Napoleon and Snowball in Animal Farm
Generally, the protagonist of a story is its main character and the center of the action. Many people think of protagonists as the heroes of the story, but that is not always the case. Villains can also be the protagonist of stories, and it is common for the protagonists of the story to view themselves very differently from how the story’s other characters would view them. In Animal Farm, it is difficult to identify a single protagonist because both Snowball and Napoleon play a protagonist....
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