Amatory fiction

The Things They Carried: Truth, Fiction, and Human Emotion         There are many levels of truth in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. This novel deals with story-telling as an act of communication and therapy, rather than a mere recital of fact. In the telling of war stories, and instruction in their telling, O'Brien shows that truth is unimportant in communicating human emotion through stories. O'Brien's writing style is so vivid, the reader frequently finds himself accepting the

The Yellow Wallpaper      In the short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper'; by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator and her husband move to a colonial mansion for three months in order to help the narrator get better. She moves upstairs in this horrid room with yellow wallpaper. Throughout the story she studies the wallpaper because she isn't allowed out of the room that much because her husband, John, a physician, says that it is best that she stays inside. As she learns more

Satire with a funny twist. In the novel The Princess Bride, William Goldman satirizes both fairy tales and the standard literary process through his characters and their actions. Westley, a poor farmer, falls in love with the far from perfect maiden, Buttercup, but has to sail away in order to find his fortunes. Years later, Buttercup, thinking that Westley abandoned her, is forcibly engaged to Prince Humperdinck, a cruel and calculating man. Vizzini, Fezzik, and Inigo, three mysterious kidnappers

The Things They Carried The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, is a generalization of his own experiences in Vietnam although the story itself is a work of fiction there is still much to be learned from it. Through the actions of soldiers in The Things They Carried we can begin to explore the effect war has on the human condition and the toll it plays on their minds. Some of the themes in the book, The Things They Carried, are bravery and what true bravery is, truth and how the manipulation

Babbit The depressing tragedy known as Babbitt, by Lewis Sinclair, accurately portrays the convention of life in the 1920’s. Sinclair precisely evokes the conformity and orthodox life styles that shaped a growing culture. Man, in the 1920’s, is caught in a lifestyle where he is continually fed on what to think. Lewis cunningly explains the constraints of convention that plagued George Babbitt, and mocks society as a whole for its lack of liberal views. Babbitt throughout the novel seems to be

The mysteries of love, hate, and compassion are all part of marriage. The mysteries of the heart are felt in the short story, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin (Clugston, 2010, sec 2.1). This story pulls you in with the suspense of Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition and the idea of her husband’s death. When you first begin to read this story you get a feeling of compassion for Mrs. Mallard having a heart condition. As the reader you receive sadness within you to know the revealing of her husband’s

Anne Bradstreet Anne Bradstreet was America's first noteworthy poet in spite of the fact that she was a woman. Both the daughter and wife of Massachusetts governors, Bradstreet suffered all of the hardships of colonial life, was a mother, and still found time to write. Her poem, "The Author to Her Book," is an example of Bradstreet's excellent use of literary techniques while expressing genuine emotion and using domestic subject matter. Because her father was a studious man, Bradstreet

The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst Foreshadowing, symbolism, and image are all elements which compose style.  All are very important; foreshadowing adds suspense, and symbolism contributes to interpretation.  Image contributes "visual aids" which, also, aid interpretation.  In this classic short story, "The Scarlet Ibis," by James Hurst, foreshadowing, symbolism, and image combine to create a true literary masterpiece. Foreshadowing is one of the elements of style which make "The Scarlet

Jane Austen only ever had six completed novels the last to be published being Persuasion (1818), all of which were based around the realist and novel of manners genre. Persuasion which falls into both these categories follows the tale of Anne Elliott, a character based upon the Cinderella archetype. Romanticism and novels of manners still to this day serves the same purpose, it provides the reader with a window in which to peer into someone else's life, some may have seen their reflections, especially

Romanticism, Realism and Local Color in The Awakening   Kate Chopin is an author who was born in 1851 and died in 1904.  Her father died when she was young, and her husband died when she was thirty-one leaving her with six children.  Due to this, she had little male influence throughout her life.  This may possibly be why she had so little inhibition when writing her novels.  She seemed to concentrate on the oppression of women and presented socially unacceptable ideas