English Midterm
"It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. Bug garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood" (154
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
"They called a special meeting of the Board of Aldermen. A deputation waited upon her, knocked at the door through which no visitor had passed since she eased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier. They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow. it smelled of fist and disuse-a close, dank smell. The Negro led them into the parlor. It was furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture. When the Negro opened the blinds of one window, they could see that the leather was cracked; and when they sat down, a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motion the single sun-ray." (155)
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
"When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral; the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house" (154)
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
"'I can't think of anything I should like so much as to find that heron's nest,' the handsome stranger was saying. 'I would give ten dollars to anybody who could show it to me' he added desperately, 'and I mean to spend my whole vacationhunting for it if need be. Perhaps it was only migrating or had been chased out of its own region by some bird of prey." (231)
A White Heron by Sara Orne Jewett
"Everybody said that it was a good change for a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town, but, as for Sylvia herself, it seemed as if she never had been alive at all before she came to live at the farm." (227)
A White Heron by Sara Orne Jewett
"No, she must keep silence! What is it that suddenly forbids her and makes her dumb? Has she been nine years and growing now, when the great world for the first time puts out a hand to her, must she thrust it aside for a bird's sake? The murmur of the pine's green branches is in her ears, she remembers how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away" (235)
A White Heron by Sara Orne Jewett
"She knows his secret now, the wild, light, slender bird that floats and wavers, and goes back like an arrow presently to his home in the green world beneath" (234-235)
A White Heron by Sara Orne Jewett
"Speak up and tell me what your name is,and whether you think I can spend the night at your house, and go out gunning early gunning early in the morning." (228)
A White Heron by Sara Orne Jewett
"Suddenly, this little woods-girl is horror-stricken to hear a clear whistle not very far away. Not a bird's whistle, which would have a short friendliness, but a boy's whistle, determined, and somewhat aggressive" (228)
A White Heron by Sara Orne Jewett
"Sylvia would have liked him vastly better without his gun; she could not understand why he killed the very birds he seemed to likeso much." (231)
A White Heron by Sara Orne Jewett
"The murmur of the pine's green branches is in her ears, she remembers how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sea and the morning together, and Sylvia cannot speak; she cannot tell the heron's secret and give its life away." (235)
A White Heron by Sara Orne Jewett
"'Bartleby!' No answer. 'Bartleby,' In a louder tone. No answer. 'Bartleby,' I roared. Like a very ghost, agreeably to the laws of magical invocation, at the third summons, he appeared at the entrance to my hermitage. (1102)
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"'I would prefer to be left alone here,'said Bartleby, as if offended at being mobbed in his privacy. 'That'sthe word, Turkey,' said I—'that'sit.' 'Oh, prefer? oh yes—queer word. I never use it myself. But, sir, as I was saying, if he would but prefer—''Turkey," interrupted I, 'you will please withdraw.' 'Oh certainly, sir, if you prefer that I should.'"(1106-07)
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"'Prefer not to,' echoed I, rising in high excitement, and crossing the room with a stride. 'What do you mean? Are you moon struck? I want you to help me compare this sheet here-take it,' and I thrust it towards him. 'I would prefer not to' he said" (1098)
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"But there was something about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed me, but in a wonderful manner touched and disconcerted me."
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"His late remarkable conduct led me to regard his ways narrowly, I observed that he never went to dinner; indeed that he never went anywhere."
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving from his privacy, Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied, 'I would prefer not to.'" (1098)
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"My chambers were up stairs at No. -Wall-street. At one end they looked upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious sky-light shaft, penetrating the building from top to bottom. This view might have been considered rather tame than otherwise, deficient in what landscape painters call "life." But if so, the view from the other end of my chambers offered, at least, a contrast, if nothing more. In that direction my windows commanded an unobstructed view of a lofty brick wall, black by age and everlasting shade; which wall required no spy-glass to bring out its lurking beauties, but for the benefit of all near-sighted spectators, was pushed up to within ten feet of my window panes." (1094)
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"Owing the great height of the surrounding buildings, and my chamber being on the on the second floor, the interval between this wall and mine not a little resembled a huge square cistern."(1094)
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"The yard was entirely quiet. It was not accessible to the common prisoners. The surrounding walls, of amazing thickness, kept off all sounds behind them. The Egyptian character of the masonry weighed upon me with its gloom. But a soft imprisoned turf grew under foot. The heart of the eternal pyramids, it seemed, wherein, by some strange magic, through the clefts, grass-seed, dropped by the birds, had sprung" (1117)
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
The round face of the grub-man peered upon me now. "His dinner is ready. Won't he dine today, either? Or does he live without dining?" "Lives without dining," Said I, and closed the eyes. "Eh, he's asleep ain't he?" "With kings and counsellors," murmured I. (1117)
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"He must have been selling them to the negroes back in there. He was so simple," she said "but I guess the world would be better off if we were all that simple." (1407)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
"Her face was almost purple. 'You're a good Christian!' she hissed. 'You're a fine Christian! You're just like them all-say one thingand do another. You're a perfect Christian, you're...'" (1406)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
"Nothing is perfect. This is one of Mrs. Hopewell's favorite sayings. Another was: that is life! And still another, the most important, was: well other people have their opinions too." (1394)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
"She decided that for the first time in her life she was face to face with real innocence. This boy with an instinct that came from beyond wisdom, had touched the truth about her."(1405)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
"The girl looked at him almost tenderly. 'You poor baby,' she murmured. 'It's just as well you don't understand,' and she pulled him by the neck, facedown against her. 'We are all damned,' she said, 'but some of us have taken off our blindfolds and see that there is nothing to see. It's a kind of salvation.'" (1404)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
"The girl uttered a sharp cry and instantly drained of color...But she was as sensitive about the artificial leg as a peacock about his tail. No one ever touched it but her. She tookcare of it as someone else would his soul, in private, and almost with her own eyes turned away. "No" she said." (1405)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
"When Hulga stumped into the kitchen in the morning (she could walk without making the awful noise but she made it-Mrs. Hopewell was certain-because it was ugly-sounding)..." (1396)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
"You could not say "My daughter is a philosopher." That was something that had ended with the Greeks and Romans. All day Joy sat on her neck in a deep chair, reading."(1397)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
The boy's mouth was set angrily "I hope you don't think," he said in a lofty indignant tone, "that I believe in that crap! I may sell Bibles but I know which end is up and I wasn't born yesterday and I know where I'm going!"(1406)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
To her own mother she had said -without warning,without excuse, standing up in the middle of a meal with her face purple and her mouth half full -"Woman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? God!" she had cried sinking down again and staring at her plate, "Malebranche was right: we are not our own light. We are not our own light!" (1397)
Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
"'May,' he broke out impatiently, 'are you blind? Look at that woman's face! It asks questions of God, and says, 'I have a right to know' Good God, how hungry it is!'" (1234)
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
"Do you know, boy you have it in you to be a great sculptor, a great man?--do you understand?" (1239)
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
"Here, inside, is a little broken figure of an angel pointing upward from the mantel-shelf; but even its wings are covered with smoke, clotted and black" (1227)
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
"I open the window, and, looking out, can scarcely see through the rain the grocer's shop opposite, where a crowd of drunken Irishmen are puffing Lynchburg tobacco in the pipes. I can detect the scent through all the foul smells ranging loose in the air" (1227)
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
"Mitchell started back, half-frightened, as, suddenly turning a corner, the white figure of a woman faced himin the darkness—a woman, white, of giant proportions, crouching on the ground, her arms flung out in some wild gesture of warning"(1237)
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
"There is a secret down here, in this nightmare fog, that has lain dumb for centuries: I want to make it a real thing you [...] this terrible question whish men here have gone mad and died trying to answer. I dare not put this secret into words" (1228)
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
"There was not one line of beauty or grace in it: a nude woman's form, muscular, grown coarse with labor, the powerful limbs instinct with some one poignant longing." (1237) (says 123)
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
"This is what I want you to do. I want you to hide your disgust, take no heed to your clean clothes,and come right down with me, —here, into thethickest of the fog and mud and foul effluvia. I want you to hear this story."(1228 )
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
"Wolfe came closer. He seized eagerly every chance that brought him into contact with this mysterious class that shown down on him perpetually with the glamour of another order of being. What made the difference between them? That was the mystery of his life." (1234)
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
"'No, my son, no' rejoined his companion. 'Let the wish of a dying man have weight with you; give me one grasp of your hand, and get you hence. Think you that my last moments will be eased by the thought, that I have you to die a more lingering death?'" (90)
Roger Malvin's Burial by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"'Reuben, Reuben,' said he, faintly; and Reuben returned and knelt down by the dying man. 'Raise me, and let me lean against the rock,' was his last request. 'My face will be turned towards home, and I shall see you a moment longer, as you pass among the trees.'" (94)
Roger Malvin's Burial by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"'You dug a grave for my poor father in the wilderness, Reuben?' was the question bywhich her filial piety manifested itself. 'My hands were weak, but I did what I could,'replied the youth in a smothered tone." (97)
Roger Malvin's Burial by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Now go, my son, and Heaven prosper you!' he said. 'Turn not back with our friends, when you meet them, lest your wounds and weariness overcome you; but send hitherward two or three, that may be spared, to search for me. And believe me, Reuben, my heart will be lighter with every step to take towards home.' Yet there was perhaps a change, both in his countenance and voice as he spoke thus; for, after all, it was a ghostly fate, to be left expiring in the wilderness" (93)
Roger Malvin's Burial by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Return when your wounds are healed and your weariness refreshed, return to this wild rock, and lay my bones in the grave, and say a prayer over them" (94)
Roger Malvin's Burial by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The battle, though so fatal to those who fought, was not unfortunate in the its consequences to the country; for it broke the strength of a tribe, and conduced to the peace which subsisted during several ensuing years."(88)
Roger Malvin's Burial by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"The mass of granite, rearing its smooth, flat surface fifteen or twenty feet above their heads, was not unlike a gigantic gravestone, upon which the veins seemed to form an inscription in forgotten characters. On a tract of several acres around this rock, oaks and other hard-wood trees had supplied the place of the pines, which were the usual growth of the land; and a young and vigorous sapling stood close beside the travelers." (88)
Roger Malvin's Burial by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"This broad rock is the gravestone of your near kindred, Dorcas,' said her husband. 'Your tears will fall at once over your father and your son" (107)
Roger Malvin's Burial by Nathaniel Hawthorne
"'A huge human foot d'or, in a field of azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel. ''And the motto?''Nemo me impune lascessit.'""Once more let me implore you to return. No? then I must positively leave you. But first I must render you all my attentions of my power."(407)
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
"Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!"(408)
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
"I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my sould, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat." (402)
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
"My heart grew sick--on account of the dampness of the catacombs. I hastened to make an end of my labor."(408)
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
"[...] there remained but a single stone to be fitted and plastered in. I struggled with its weight; I placed it partially in its destined position. But now there came from out the niche a low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head."(408)
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
I must not only, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when in retribution overtakes its redresser. (402)
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
"About ten years ago my wife was in poor health, and our family doctor, in whose skill honestly I had implicit confidence, advised a change in climate. I was engaged in grape-culture in northern Ohio and decided to look for a locality suitable in some Southern state" (254).
The Goophered Grapevine by Charles Chesnutt
"But the house had fallen a victim to the fortunes of war, and nothing remained of it except the brick pillars upon which the sills had rested." (254)
The Goophered Grapevine by Charles Chesnutt
"I bought the vineyard nevertheless, and it has been for a long time in a thriving condition, and is referred to by the local press as a striking illustration of the opportunities open to Northern capital in the development of Southern industries" (260).
The Goophered Grapevine by Charles Chesnutt
"It had been at one time a thriving plantation, but shiftless cultivation had well-nigh exhausted the soil. There had been a vineyard of some extent on the place, but it had not been attended to since the war, and had fallen into utter neglect." (254)
The Goophered Grapevine by Charles Chesnutt
"One end of the log already occupied by a venerable-looking colored man. He held on his knees a hat full of grapes, over which he was smacking his lips with great gusto, and a pile ofgrape-skins near him indicated that the performance was no new thing. He respectfully rose as we approached, and was moving away, when I begged him to keep his seat." (254)
The Goophered Grapevine by Charles Chesnutt
"The luscious scuppernong holds first rank among our grapes, though we cultivate a great many other varieties, and our income from grapes packed and shipped to the North is quite considerable" (260)
The Goophered Grapevine by Charles Chesnutt
"'O-o-o Phoebe! O-o-o Phoebe!' It had a pathetic, albeit insane, ring, and many a farmer or plowboy came to know it even from afar and say, 'There goes old Reifsneider.'" (129)
The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
"His hat was gone, his lungs were breathless, his reason quite astray, when coming to the edge of the cliff he saw her below among a silvery bed of apple-trees now blooming in the spring." (133)
The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
"His old hat was discovered lying under some low-growing saplings the twigs of which had held it back. No one of all the simple population knew how eagerly and joyously he had found his lost mate" (134)
The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
"Old Henry, who knew his wife would never leave him in any circumstances, used to speculate at times as to what he would do if she were to die." (116)
The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
"On she moved before him, a will-'o-the-wisp of the spring, a little flame above her head" (133)
The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
"The orchard, the meadow, the corn-field, the pig-pen, and the chicken-lot measure the range of their human activities. When the wheat is headed it is reaped and threshed; when the corn is browned and frosted it is cut and shocked; when the timothy is in full head it is cut, and the hay-cock erected. [...] Beyond these and the changes of weather [...] there are no immediate, significant things." (115)
The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
"The rag carpet that underlay all these sturdy examples of enduring furniture was a weak, faded, lean-and-pink-colored affair woven by Phoebe Ann's own hands, when she was fifteen years younger that she was when she died." (112-113)
The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
"You perhaps know how it is with simple natures that fasten themselves like lichens on the stones of circumstances and weather their days to a crumbling conclusion." (114)
The Lost Phoebe by Theodore Dreiser
"All right, folks," Mr. Summers said. "Let's finish quickly."Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones. The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box. Mrs. Delacroix selected a larger stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up." (225)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
"Some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this part of the ritual had been allowed to lapse." (219)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
"Some places have already quit lotteries." Mrs. Adams said. "Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools." (222)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
"Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. "It isn't fair," she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head." (225)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
"The black box grew shabbier each year; by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color and in some places faded or stained." (218)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
"The lottery was conducted—as were the square dances, the teenage club, the Halloween program—by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic ideas" (217)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
"The rest of the year, the box was put away, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr. Graves' barn and another year underfoot in the post office, and sometimes it was set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there" (219)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
"They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet, and they smiled rather than laughed." (217)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
"black but splintered badly along one side to show the original wood color and in some places faded or stained" (218)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
"A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it..." (112)
The Open Boat by Stephen Crane
"It is preposterous. If this old ninny-woman, Fate, cannot do better than this, she should be deprived of the management of men's fortunes [...] f she has decided to drown me, why did she not do it in the beginning and save me the trouble?"(120)
The Open Boat by Stephen Crane
"None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waved were of a hue of slate, save for the tops, which were foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks." (111)
The Open Boat by Stephen Crane
"When it came night, the white waves paced to and fro in the moonlight, and the wind brought the sound of the great sea's voice to the men on the shore, and they felt that they could then be interpreters."(135)
The Open Boat by Stephen Crane
"When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important and that she feels that she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks atthe temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples." (128)
The Open Boat by Stephen Crane
"I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I'm sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition. But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control." (173)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. "I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane! And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"" (187)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"I never saw such ravages as the children have made here. The wall-paper, as I said before, is torn off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a brother—they must have had perseverance as well as hatred." (176)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper." (185)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"I really have discovered something at last. Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front pattern does move -and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!"(183)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad." (172)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him it makes me so nervous."(174)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"There is a very funny mark on the wall, low, down, near the mopboard. A streak that runs round the room. It goes behind every piece of furniture, except the bed, a long straight, even smooch, as if it had been rubbed over and over. I wonder how it was done and who did it, and whatthey did it for."(183)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
"A certain fear of death, full and oppressive, came to him. This fear quickly became poignant as he realized that it was no longer a mere matter of freezing his fingers and toes, or of losing his hands and feet, but that it was a matter of life and death with the chances against him."(270)
To Build a Fire by Jack London
"But all this--the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all--made no impression on the man" (260-61)
To Build a Fire by Jack London
"Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little-traveled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland. It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch." (260)
To Build a Fire by Jack London
"Fifty degrees below to him was just precisely fifty below zero. There should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head."(261)
To Build a Fire by Jack London
"It certainly was cold, was his thought. That man from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in the country. And he had laughed at him at the time! That showed that one must not be too sure of things. There was no mistake about it, it wascold." (264)
To Build a Fire by Jack London
"The dog did not know anything about thermometers. Possibly in its brain there was no sharp consciousness of a condition of very cold such as was in the man's brain. But the brute had its instincts."(262)
To Build a Fire by Jack London
"The fire was a success. He was safe. He remembered the advice of the old-timer on Sulphur Creek and smiled. The old-timer had been very serious in laying down the law that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. Well, here he was; he had had theaccident; he was alone, and he had saved himself. Those old-timers were rather womanish." (266)
To Build a Fire by Jack London
"The trouble with him was that he was without imagination" (261)
To Build a Fire by Jack London
"There was no signs of a fire to be made, and, besides, never in the dog's experience had it known a man to sit like that in the snow and make no fire."(271)
To Build a Fire by Jack London
