Maxis Secrets, By Lynn Plourde

Thesis: In the short stories The Charmer, Love Must Not Be Forgotten, and The Address, one’s past experiences have a profound effect on their development as an individual.

This book is called Duke. Its genre is Historical-Fiction. The story takes place during WWII. It is about a kid named Hobie who is always with his dog Duke. When he hears that the Army needs dogs for the war he realizes that he should be brave like his father, who is in the army, and lend Duke to the Dogs for Defense program. Hobie then regretted sending Duke after he realized that Duke could be in danger, get hurt or die. So he tries different methods to get Duke back such as send a letter saying that Duke always chases squirrels and that they should send him back because of that weakness. To find out whether Hobie gets his dog back or

"The Charmer" by Budge Wilson is a short story about a Canadian family that finds misfortune and conflict within their lives. Conflict being the predominant theme which directly affects all the participants in the family. The story is written in third person and narrated from the young girl Winifred's point of view. Budge Wilson uses Zack's smothered childhood, charming personality and irresponsible behaviour to create emotional conflict between members of the family.

The methods in which men and women communicate are eminently different. This being so, their external state is an indicator of their inner state, but men and women have different external states to express themselves. This is especially evident among children and individuals in relationships, and altered between a couple who tries to adjust their behavior. Deborah Tannen, the author of “Sex, Lies, and Conversation,” argues that boys are girls are taught to have a differ inner state, that males and females usually have the same inner state but express them differently when communicating, and that individuals in romantic relationships can alter the way they present their outer state to represent their inner state in a way their partner can relate to.

The most important lesson for Rachel that comes out of this situation is that after wearing the disgusted sweater she has become even older, and it was tied to the experience instead of the birthday itself. She understands that it is the challenge she needs to grow up faster as she will receive additional benefits of behaving the way she wants and resisting to the outside irritators. As for the literature techniques, the author applies language, diction and symbolism to reveal the issues of experience, aging, knowledge, power, authority and freedom. The discovering is gaining age are conveyed with the help of the memories of eleven-year-old girl on her birthday. Rachel resists her humiliation from Mrs. Pierce, and that is the exact moment when her “smart eleven” comes as well[2].

In today’s American society, lying has become something that we are accustomed to using almost every day without even realizing it. In “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson, screenwriter, advertising copywriter, and writer, elaborates on the act of lying and how it is used by everyone on a daily basis. She comes up with a list of the common, different kinds of lies that we all have told. Furthermore, the text goes in depth about the significance of lying and how it is an essential part of every human’s life. Ericsson’s essay effectively conveys this idea through the use of pathos, logos, ethos, personal examples, rhetorical questions, and analogies which helps the reader better understand the reasoning behind lies and how it affects our

Angela Carter wrote in various forms, she wrote novels, poetry, film scripts and she also translated the fairy tales of Charles Perrault and edited the Virago Book of Fairy Tales1. The Magic Toyshop is Angela Carter's second novel and winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (1969)2. The Magic Toyshop is a Bildungsroman, it follows the coming of age of Melanie, as she becomes aware of herself, her environment, and her own sexuality. The Magic Toyshop can in many ways be seen as following the conventions of a fairy tale and has been categorised as some as 'Magic Realism'. In a Concise Glossary of Contemporary Literary theory this has been defined as “involve the sudden incursion of fantastic or 'magical' elements into an otherwise realistic

In the essay The Ways We Lie, author Stephanie Ericsson writes in depth about the different types of lies used by most people everyday. While listing examples of them, Ericsson questions her own experiences with lying and whether or not it was appropriate. By using hypothetical situations, true accounts, and personal occurrences, she highlights the moral conflicts and consequences that are a result of harmless fibs or impactful deceptions. In an essay detailing the lies told to ourselves and others, Ericsson points out one bold truth; everyone lies. Through her writing, Ericsson causes the reader to look into how they’ve lied in the past and how to effects others and the general greater good of society.

Accused witches were forced to admit to various practices believed to be witchcraft. Details from the French Court of Rieux and the insanity that ensued are jaw dropping by today’s standards. Suzanne Gaudry’s judgement confession was no different, being forced and tortured into confessions including having given herself to the devil, renouncement of God, lent and Baptism. Moreover, Gaudry was also forced to confess that she had cohabited with the devil as well received the devil’s mark on her shoulder and being at dances. Of note however, the judgement confession seems to acknowledge Gaudry having technically only confessed to having had killed by poison, Philip Coine’s horse. Nevertheless, Gaudry’s confession was made

At some point in their life, every person has been told to “walk in somebody else’s shoes” because they need to be aware of the struggles that other people face, but it is often tough for people to understand things outside of the scope of their own practical knowledge. In her memoir, Lucky, Alice Sebold suffers from this same problem. Throughout the course of her narrative, Sebold thinks of her experience as something that is accessible to be understood by outsiders; in addition to this, Sebold paints her reactions and experiences as a model that she can apply to other victims of sexual assault. Even though Sebold’s story is one of strength in the face of horrible occurrences, her lack of acknowledgement in regards the ways in which other people’s consciousness and coping mechanisms differ from her own makes it far more difficult to sympathize with her than it should be considering the content of her memoir. Evidence of her closed world understanding can be seen from the beginning of the memoir, when she reports her sexual assault to the police (Sebold, 3), later in the narrative, when other people react to her experiences and related feelings (Sebold 146), and finally, and perhaps most significantly, when her close friend Lila undergoes a sexual assault (Sebold 220).

I opted for this book, because I needed an alluring tale to do a book report over that wasn’t too elongated. After laying eyes on this beauty, I resolute to comprehend this book, and surprisingly enjoyed it so much, that I did a book talk in English over this same book to publicize it. “A Dash of Magic” is a novel that teaches a moral, or lesson, in the end. Containing this magic little ingredient caught my interest, occurring to me that not many young adult or teen fiction books teach a sensible lesson, mostly just a dilemma and a solution.

In “Brad Blanton: Honestly Tell the Truth” , an article by Barbara Ballinger reports that you should honestly tell the truth rather than lying. Ballinger supports her idea by reporting that Blanton says “Because it keeps you locked up in the jail of your own mind”, which means lying can sometimes trouble you when the guilt hits you. Ballinger also states “Delivering the truth is easier, takes less time, and is less stressful.” This quote means that when you lie or keep the truth from someone then it causes a lot of stress and it just takes less time to tell someone the truth rather than lying. Ballinger wants to report that telling the truth is better and less time consuming than telling a

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan follows multiple Chinese-American women who struggle with their self-identity and creating a balance between American and Chinese culture. Because of their immigration and many hardships in life, many of the women feel like they cannot truly tell who they are anymore, and throughout the novel these women are portrayed as ghosts. Ghosts are used to symbolize these women because they share many parallels including being only a remnant of who they once were, or who they could be. Ying-ying St. Clair is one of the women, who has a daughter named Lena St. Clair, she has had a troubled past in China, which has made her lose her fighting spirit, and her spirit in general. Ying-ying is fully aware of her loss of spirit and is embarrassed because she considers ghosts to be shameful and weak, and wants to save her daughter, Lena, from her fate.

Claire Standish or “the princess” portrays the stereotypical popular teenage girl in The Breakfast Club. She is in detention with everyone else because she decided to skip class and go shopping, which also plays into the stereotypical teen girl image. It can also be assumed that she is spoiled and rich since her father tried to get her out of detention but failed, and she mentions to the group that her parents only use her to get back at the other one. She brings a fancy lunch of sushi while the other teens either have nothing or the standard lunch one’s parents might pack for them. There are a couple of times in the movie that she brings up her social standing and could even be considered as looking down on those who are not as popular as her. Even closer towards the end of the movie she informs the others that if they were to say hello to her in the hallway in front of her friends, she would have no choice but to ignore them. By the end of the movie, she has opened up to everyone else about her fears of letting her peers down and has formed a close relationship with Bender.

In “Chanda’s Secrets”, by Allan Stratton, the topic of focus is HIV/AIDS. A historical event I have studied relating to HIV/AIDS is the black death, also known as the bubonic plague. Although HIV/AIDS and the bubonic plague are very different diseases, they have many similarities as well. HIV/AIDS is a rare, opportunistic infection that cannot be cured. It is a chronic condition that spreads through sexual contact. Whereas the bubonic plague is a very rare, short-term, treatable bacterial infection that spreads through animals or insects. HIV/AIDS has killed roughly 35 million people, and the bubonic plague has killed between 75 and 200 million people. Symptoms of HIV/AIDS include loss of appetite,​​ night sweats, sweating, ulcers, sores, white