Lit Final

Spoade

A Harvard senior from South Carolina. He once mocked Quentin's virginity by calling Shreve Quentin's "husband."

Deacon

A black man in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to whom Quentin gives his suicide notes.

Uncle Job

A black man who works with Jason at Earl's store.

Old Waiter

A compassionate man in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" who understands why the old man may want to stay late at the café. He enjoys staying late at cafés as well. He thinks it's very important for a café to be clean and well lit, and he sees the café as a refuge from despair. Rather than admit that he is lonely, he tells himself that he has insomnia.

Dalton Ames

A local Jefferson boy who is probably the father of Caddy's child, Miss Quentin.

Louisa Ellis

Main character in "A New England Nun." She is a quiet, orderly lady, and is content with being alone.

Nick Adams

Main character in most of the Hemingway stories.

City

Main character of "Long Division," loses the "Can You Use That Word in a Sentence" competition. Travels through time.

Angela

Main character of "Solar Storms."

Harry

Male character in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." He is suffering from gangrene, and realizes that he will not make it through the night.

Peter Quint

Male ghost in "The Turn of the Screw."

Edna Pontellier

Protagonist of "The Awakening." Female character who becomes "awakened," although this leads to her solitude and suicide.

Shreve MacKenzie

Quentin's roommate at Harvard. A young Canadian man.

Italian Second Lieutenant

Questions Nick's identification in "A Way You'll Never Be."

Adele Ratignolle

Represents the Victorian feminine ideal in "The Awakening." She idolizes her children an worships her husband.

Nick's Son

Rides in the car with Nick in "Fathers and Sons." Asks at the end of the story why he has never seen his grandfather's grave.

Victor Lebrun

Robert's wayward younger brother in "The Awakening." Spends most of his time chasing women.

Louie Marsellus

Rosamond's husband and executor of Tom Outland's patents from which he massed a fortune and is now building a house and memorial to Tom where he and Rosamond will live called Outland. He is generous and very loving to Rosamond. The professor says that he is "perfectly consistent. He's a great deal more generous and public-spirited than I am, and my preferences would be enigmatical to him". Nevertheless Marsellus is named after the French monarch, and the Roman general who fought Hannibal, and the last part of his name, 'sellus' corroborates (mainly) Scott's idea that Louie is only interested in materialism.

Caroline Compson

Self-pitying and self-absorbed wife of Mr. Compson and the mother of the four Compson children in "The Sound and the Fury."

A White Heron - Sarah Orne Jewett

So there's this girl named Sylvia, who lives with her grandmother and her surly cow in the New England countryside. One day, Sylvia meets a hunter, who promptly asks her for a place to stay for the night. He tells Sylvia and her grandmother that he's looking for a rare white heron and is willing to give ten dollars to anyone who could lead him to it. That's big money way back in the day. And guess what? Sylvia has seen the heron before. So the following night, she sneaks to the tallest tree in the forest to get a good vantage point on the bird. She sees the bird, and then hurries home to tell the hunter what she saw. When she gets there, however, she can't speak and the hunter leaves disappointed. Although Sylvia holds her tongue for the sake of the bird, she never is sure that she made the right decision.

Rosamond

St. Peter's elder daughter and wife of Louie Marsellus. She was originally engaged to Tom Outland and he left everything to her when he died. She is now obsessed with her appearance and having all the finest things, likely because Louie showers her with extravagance. The professor admits that "he didn't in the least understand" her.

Kathleen

St. Peter's younger daughter and wife of Scott McGregor. She is sweet and honest and is one of the more genuine characters in the novel. The professor says that "the only unusual thing about Kitty ... is that she doesn't think herself a bit unusual" and that she "has a spark of something different."

The Governess

Takes care of the children in "The Turn of the Screw." Claims to see two ghosts.

Sula - Toni Morrison

The Bottom is a mostly black community in Ohio, situated in the hills above the mostly white, wealthier community of Medallion. The Bottom first became a community when a master gave it to his former slave. This "gift" was in fact a trick: the master gave the former slave a poor stretch of hilly land, convincing the slave the land was worthwhile by claiming that because it was hilly, it was closer to heaven. The trick, though, led to the growth of a vibrant community. Now the community faces a new threat; wealthy whites have taken a liking to the land, and would like to destroy much of the town in order to build a golf course. Shadrack, a resident of the Bottom, fought in WWI. He returns a shattered man, unable to accept the complexities of the world; he lives on the outskirts of town, attempting to create order in his life. One of his methods involves compartmentalizing his fear of death in a ritual he invents and names National Suicide Day. The town is at first wary of him and his ritual, then, over time, unthinkingly accepts him. Meanwhile, the families of the children Nel and Sula are contrasted. Nel is the product of a family that believes deeply in social conventions; hers is a stable home, though some might characterize it as rigid. Nel is uncertain of the conventional life her mother, Helene, wants for her; these doubts are hammered home when she meets Rochelle, her grandmother and a former prostitute, the only unconventional woman in her family line. Sula's family is very different: she lives with her grandmother, Eva, and her mother, Hannah, both of whom are seen by the town as eccentric and loose. Their house also serves as a home for three informally adopted boys and a steady stream of borders. Despite their differences, Sula and Nel become fiercely attached to each other during adolescence. However, a traumatic accident changes everything. One day, Sula playfully swings a neighborhood boy, Chicken Little, around by his hands. When she loses her grip, the boy falls into a nearby river and drowns. They never tell anyone about the accident even though they did not intend to harm the boy. The two girls begin to grow apart. One day, in an accident, Sula's mother's dress catches fire and she dies of the burns. After high school, Nel chooses to marry and settles into the conventional role of wife and mother. Sula follows a wildly divergent path and lives a life of fierce independence and total disregard for social conventions. Shortly after Nel's wedding, Sula leaves the Bottom for a period of 10 years. She has many affairs, some with white men. However, she finds people following the same boring routines elsewhere, so she returns to the Bottom and to Nel. Upon her return, the town regards Sula as the very personification of evil for her blatant disregard of social conventions. Their hatred in part rests upon Sula's interracial relationships, but is crystallized when Sula has an affair with Nel's husband, Jude, who subsequently abandons Nel. Ironically, the community's labeling of Sula as evil actually improves their own lives. Her presence in the community gives them the impetus to live harmoniously with one another. Nel breaks off her friendship with Sula. Just before Sula dies in 1940, they achieve a half-hearted reconciliation. With Sula's death, the harmony that had reigned in the town quickly dissolves. In 1965, with the Bottom facing the prospect of the white golf course, Nel visits Eva in the nursing home. Eva accuses her of sharing the guilt for Chicken Little's death. Her accusation forces Nel to confront the unfairness of her judgment against Sula. Nel admits to herself that she had blamed his death entirely on Sula and set herself up as the "good" half of the relationship. Nel comes to realize that in the aftermath of Chicken Little's death she had too quickly clung to social convention in an effort to define herself as "good." Nel goes to the cemetery and mourns at Sula's grave, calling out Sula's name in sadness. Sula is a novel about ambiguity. It questions and examines the terms "good" and "evil," often demonstrating that the two often resemble one another. The novel addresses the confusing mysteries of human emotions and relationships, ultimately concluding that social conventions are inadequate as a foundation for living one's life. The novel tempts the reader to apply the diametrically opposed terms of "good and evil," "right and wrong" to the characters and their actions, and yet simultaneously shows why it is necessary to resist such temptation. While exploring the ways in which people try to make meaning of lives filled with conflicts over race, gender, and simple idiosyncratic points of views, Sula resists easy answers, demonstrating the ambiguity, beauty, and terror of life, in both its triumphs and horrors.

Damuddy

The Compson children's grandmother, who dies when they are young. Only person Jason ever really feels close to.

Dilsey

The Compsons' "Negro" cook, she is a pious, strong-willed, protective woman who serves as a stabilizing force for the Compson family.

The Patterson Family

The Compsons' next-door neighbors. Uncle Maury has an affair with the woman until Mr. Patterson intercepts a note Maury has sent to her.

Julio

The brother of an Italian girl who attaches herself to Quentin as he wanders Cambridge before his suicide.

Nel

The daughter of Helene, in adolescence she develops an intense friendship with Sula. She marries Jude, and is later abandoned by him.

Caesar

The dog in "A New England Nun." He has been chained up for 14 years, due to a biting incident as a puppy.

Augusta

The family seamstress and friend of St. Peter. She is described as being "a reliable, methodical spinster, a German Catholic and very devout".

Robert Lebrun

This is the twenty-six-year-old man that Edna falls in love with in "The Awakening." He is torn between his love for Edna, and societal constraints that prevent their union.

Bugs

This man is traveling with Ad Francis. He feeds Nick and saves him from Ad's anger.

The Awakening - Kate Chopin

This story opens in the late 1800s in Grand Isle, a summer holiday resort popular with the wealthy inhabitants of nearby New Orleans. Edna Pontellier is vacationing with her husband, Léonce, and their two sons at the cottages of Madame Lebrun, which house affluent Creoles from the French Quarter. Léonce is kind and loving but preoccupied with his work. His frequent business-related absences mar his domestic life with Edna. Consequently, Edna spends most of her time with her friend Adèle Ratignolle, a married Creole who epitomizes womanly elegance and charm. Through her relationship with Adèle, Edna learns a great deal about freedom of expression. Because Creole women were expected and assumed to be chaste, they could behave in a forthright and unreserved manner. Exposure to such openness liberates Edna from her previously prudish behavior and repressed emotions and desires. Edna's relationship with Adèle begins Edna's process of "awakening" and self-discovery, which constitutes the focus of the book. The process accelerates as Edna comes to know Robert Lebrun, the elder, single son of Madame Lebrun. Robert is known among the Grand Isle vacationers as a man who chooses one woman each year—often a married woman—to whom he then plays "attendant" all summer long. This summer, he devotes himself to Edna, and the two spend their days together lounging and talking by the shore. Adèle Ratignolle often accompanies them. At first, the relationship between Robert and Edna is innocent. They mostly bathe in the sea or engage in idle talk. As the summer progresses, however, Edna and Robert grow closer, and Robert's affections and attention inspire in Edna several internal revelations. She feels more alive than ever before, and she starts to paint again as she did in her youth. She also learns to swim and becomes aware of her independence and sexuality. Edna and Robert never openly discuss their love for one another, but the time they spend alone together kindles memories in Edna of the dreams and desires of her youth. She becomes inexplicably depressed at night with her husband and profoundly joyful during her moments of freedom, whether alone or with Robert. Recognizing how intense the relationship between him and Edna has become, Robert honorably removes himself from Grand Isle to avoid consummating his forbidden love. Edna returns to New Orleans a changed woman. Back in New Orleans, Edna actively pursues her painting and ignores all of her social responsibilities. Worried about the changing attitude and increasing disobedience of his wife, Léonce seeks the guidance of the family physician, Doctor Mandelet. A wise and enlightened man, Doctor Mandelet suspects that Edna's transformation is the result of an affair, but he hides his suspicions from Léonce. Instead, Doctor Mandelet suggests that Léonce let Edna's defiance run its course, since attempts to control her would only fuel her rebellion. Léonce heeds the doctor's advice, allowing Edna to remain home alone while he is away on business. With her husband gone and her children away as well, Edna wholly rejects her former lifestyle. She moves into a home of her own and declares herself independent—the possession of no one. Her love for Robert still intense, Edna pursues an affair with the town seducer, Alcée Arobin, who is able to satisfy her sexual needs. Never emotionally attached to Arobin, Edna maintains control throughout their affair, satisfying her animalistic urges but retaining her freedom from male domination. At this point, the self-sufficient and unconventional old pianist Mademoiselle Reisz adopts Edna as a sort of protégé, warning Edna of the sacrifices required of an artist. Edna is moved by Mademoiselle Reisz's piano playing and visits her often. She is also eager to read the letters from abroad that Robert sends the woman. A woman who devotes her life entirely to her art, Mademoiselle serves as an inspiration and model to Edna, who continues her process of awakening and independence. Mademoiselle Reisz is the only person who knows of Robert and Edna's secret love for one another and she encourages Edna to admit to, and act upon, her feelings. Unable to stay away, Robert returns to New Orleans, finally expressing openly his feelings for Edna. He admits his love but reminds her that they cannot possibly be together, since she is the wife of another man. Edna explains to him her newly established independence, denying the rights of her husband over her and explaining how she and Robert can live together happily, ignoring everything extraneous to their relationship. But despite his love for Edna, Robert feels unable to enter into the adulterous affair. When Adèle undergoes a difficult and dangerous childbirth, Edna leaves Robert's arms to go to her friend. She pleads with him to wait for her return. From the time she spends with Edna, Adèle senses that Edna is becoming increasingly distant, and she understands that Edna's relationship with Robert has intensified. She reminds Edna to think of her children and advocates the socially acceptable lifestyle Edna abandoned so long ago. Doctor Mandelet, while walking Edna home from Adèle's, urges her to come see him because he is worried about the outcome of her passionate but confused actions. Already reeling under the weight of Adèle's admonition, Edna begins to perceive herself as having acted selfishly. Edna returns to her house to find Robert gone, a note of farewell left in his place. Robert's inability to escape the ties of society now prompts Edna's most devastating awakening. Haunted by thoughts of her children and realizing that she would have eventually found even Robert unable to fulfill her desires and dreams, Edna feels an overwhelming sense of solitude. Alone in a world in which she has found no feeling of belonging, she can find only one answer to the inescapable and heartbreaking limitations of society. She returns to Grand Isle, the site of her first moments of emotional, sexual, and intellectual awareness, and, in a final escape, gives herself to the sea. As she swims through the soft, embracing water, she thinks about her freedom from her husband and children, as well as Robert's failure to understand her, Doctor Mandelet's words of wisdom, and Mademoiselle Reisz's courage. The text leaves open the question of whether the suicide constitutes a cowardly surrender or a liberating triumph.

Billy

Trudy Gilby's brother in "Fathers and Son." Nick has a flashback to fantasizing about shooting him. It is so vivid, that it makes Trudy upset.

In Another Country - Ernest Hemingway

Trying to regain use of a knee that was wounded during World War I, Nick is in an Italian hospital for therapy, riding a kind of tricycle that his doctor promises will keep the muscles elastic. Nick is dubious of the machine and the therapy, as is a friend of his, an Italian major who is also undergoing therapy with a machine that exercises his hand that was injured in an industrial accident. Four other young men, Italian soldiers, are also using therapy machines, and they brag about the medals that they've received for their valor in battle. In contrast, the major never brags about his own bravery. He is deeply depressed and finally reveals to Nick that his young wife has just died.

Mademoiselle Reisz

Unmarried and childless character in "The Awakening." She devotes her life to music, specifically piano.

Soldier's Home - Ernest Hemingway

When Krebs returns to his hometown in Oklahoma, after having fought in various European arenas, he discovers that he has changed but that nothing in the town has changed. This dramatic difference between the returnee and those who stayed home sets up the basic conflict in the story: the dishonesty that is demanded for survival. It is demonstrated most clearly in the retelling of war stories, for the townspeople do not want to hear the truth about the atrocities of battle, preferring, instead, lies about the heroics of war. Krebs finds himself telling these lies because dishonesty is the path of least resistance, even though it causes a "nausea in regard to experience that is the result of untruth or exaggeration." Alienated from his family and the local people, Krebs spends his days aimlessly, sleeping late, reading, practicing the clarinet, and playing pool. He makes no effort to relate seriously with anyone, including women, because he does not want the complications or consequences of relationships. He is home, but it is no soldier's home to which he has returned. The climax of the story occurs during a conversation between Krebs and his mother. Initiating a discussion with her son about religion and a job—predictable maternal and midwestern topics—Mrs. Krebs leads Harold to tell still another lie. She asks him, "Don't you love your mother, dear boy?" Harold responds with total honesty, "I don't love anybody," causing Mrs. Krebs to cry and revealing her inability and unwillingness to hear the truth. Nauseated by his next statement but believing that it is the only way to stop her crying, he lies and tells her that he did not mean what he said; he was merely angry at something. Mrs. Krebs reasserts her maternal role, reminding her son that she held him next to her heart when he was a tiny baby, reducing Krebs to the juvenile lie: "I know, Mummy. . . . I'll try and be a good boy for you." Mother and son then kneel together, and Mrs. Krebs prays for Harold. After this emotional lie, Harold Krebs decides to leave the Oklahoma town, go to Kansas City for a job, and live his life simply and smoothly. The former Marine leaves his home.

Robert Wilson

White, African safari guide in "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber." He is very loose morally, but strict about his shooting rules.

Madame Lebrun

Widowed mother of Victor and Robert in "The Awakening."

Margot Macomber

Wife of Francis Macomber. She cheats on him with Wilson after Francis shows his cowardice. She shoots Francis at the end of the story, although we cannot say for certain if it is intentional.

Helen

Wife of Harry in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." Tries her best to take care of him and keep him alive.

The Professor's House - Willa Cather

Willa Cather's 1925 chronicle of the 52nd year of Godfrey St. Peter, a professor of history at an unnamed Midwestern university in the small town of Hamilton, which borders Lake Michigan. Professor St. Peter has lately finished his magnum opus, a history of the adventures of the Spanish explorers in North America, and he and his wife Lillian are in the process of moving to a new house built with the proceeds of his completed work. Professor St. Peter, however, has grown profoundly attached to his old house. The first and third sections of the novel are composed primarily of his musings about his early career, which was inextricably linked with his happy early married life, his later career, which was inextricably linked with his mentorship of a brilliant student named Tom Outland, and his family, which comprises, aside from his wife, two daughters named Rosamund and Kathleen. The first section of the novel delineates St. Peter's philosophy of life and scholarship, which is also accepted as Cather's; human civilization is at its best when it reveres art, history and religion, which are all parts of the same desirable whole. Civilization is at its worst when it becomes wrapped up in materialistic considerations and reveres only the creature comforts scientific and technological advancements can bring. Exploring these themes and proving this thesis is the main business of the novel. This first section also paints a portrait of St. Peter's family life. His relationships with Lillian, with his daughters, and with his sons-in-law Louie and Scott are becoming strained as he retreats into himself, musing more and more on his dead protégé Outland. The second section of the novel consists of the Professor's remembrance of Tom Outland's story. Outland was a brilliant scientist and amateur archaeologist with a great capacity to appreciate the very things the Professor reveres: beauty, artistic accomplishment, and historical grandeur. Outland, a native of New Mexico, discovered the ruins of an ancient cliff-dwelling civilization on the Blue Mesa a couple of years before he met the Professor, and this second section of the book is Outland's story of this discovery. Outland revives the Professor's flagging enthusiasm for his work while he is in the middle of writing his magnum opus, and he leaves Rosamund, his fiancé, the rights to his invention, the Outland vacuum, before he is killed in World War I. Rosamund and her future husband make a fortune from Outland's discovery. The third section of the novel chronicles the Professor's slide into an indifference to life and acceptance of suicide. Indeed, the Professor makes only a half-hearted attempt to save himself when he is aware that his own life is in danger, and when he is saved by another, resolves that he is to live the rest of his life without delight. It appears that he has lost interest in life because he has completed the work of raising a family and completed his academic life's work; he has nothing left to accomplish and looks forward to a future marked by a slow, purposeless and joyless decline to death.

Lily Dyer

Woman in "A New England Nun" who Joe Dagget has developed feelings for. However, they both realize that they cannot be together in the present circumstances.

Black Cook

Works in the back of the diner, and gets tied up with Nick and Sam in "The Killers."

Sam

Works with Nick at the diner in "The Killers."

Shadrack

World War I veteran from the Bottom. He spends two years in a hospital after he suffers a traumatic experience in the War. He has a terror of unexpected death, so he institutes National Suicide Day. Every year on January 3, he marches through the Bottom declaring that people should commit suicide or, if they want, kill each other.

Miles

Young boy in "The Turn of the Screw." The Governess is obsessed with him.

Sylvia

Young girl in "A White Heron." Decides to spare the heron's life.

Flora

Young girl in "The Turn of the Screw."

Mariequita

Young, pretty, Spanish girl in "The Awakening." She fancies both Robert and Victor.

Solar Storms - Linda Hogan

a Chickasaw poet and writer (whose first novel, Mean Spirit, was a finalist for the Pulitzer), ties a young woman's coming-of-age to the fate of the natural world she comes to inhabit. Angela Jensen, a troubled 17-year-old, narrates the tale of her return to Adam's Rib, an island town in the boundary waters between Minnesota and Canada. Tucked into a pristine landscape of countless islands, wild animals and desperately harsh winters, it's her Native American family's homeland. As a child, Angela was abandoned by her mother, Hannah Wing, but not before Hannah had permanently scarred half of Angela's face; earlier, Hannah herself had been separated from her family and unspeakably abused. In Adam's Rib, Angela is reunited with her great-grandmother, Agnes Iron, and Agnes's mother, Dora-Rouge; she also spends a winter with Bush, a solitary woman who briefly raised her and, years earlier and also briefly, raised Hannah. Just as Angela discovers through her family's elemental way of life her own blood ties to the land, the threat of a huge hydroelectric dam project ruins her idyll. The four women--Angela, Agnes, Dora-Rouge and Bush--embark on a dangerous journey far northward to visit the homeland, where Hannah Wing is known to live. Hogan's finely tuned descriptions of the land and its spiritual significance draw a parallel between the ravages suffered by the environment and those suffered by Angela's mother. And, as the land is transformed, so are the lives of the characters, often in deeply resonant ways.

Teapot

a neglected, malnourished child living in the Bottom.

Eva Peace

abandoned by her husband, BoyBoy, when their children were young. She struggled to keep her family away from starvation, but she succeeded only through the kindness of her neighbors. She later became the vibrant matriarch over a busy household, which included Hannah, Sula, Ralph, Tar Baby, the Deweys, and a constant stream of boarders.

Gerald Bland

A swaggering student at Harvard. Quentin fights with him because he reminds him of Dalton Ames.

The End of Something - Ernest Hemingway

A teenager now, Nick Adams has been dating Marjorie, a girl who has been working during the summer at a resort on Hortons Bay. This evening, the two of them row to a beach on the bay. After a picnic supper, Nick tells Marjorie that he wants to break off their relationship; being with Marjorie, he says, is no longer fun. After she leaves, Nick feels bad about having to sever his friendship with Marjorie; however, he tells his friend Bill that the breakup wasn't too difficult.

Godfrey St. Peter

Also known as the professor, the novel's protagonist. He is a fifty-two-year-old man of mixed descent "Canadian French on one side, and American farmers on the other". He is described by his wife as growing "better-looking and more intolerant all the time". He is a professor of history at Hamilton University and his book is entitled Spanish Adventures in North America. Godfrey's name comes from Godfrey of Boulogne, the conqueror who took Jerusalem: St. Peter is the rock on which the Roman church was built: St. Peter is writing about pioneers, when he himself is an intellectual pioneer and every bit of his name comes from famous pioneers in history.

Young Waiter

An impatient young man in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" who cares only about getting home to his wife. He is usually irritated with the old man because he must stay late and serve him drinks. He does not seem to care why the old man stays so long. His only concern is leaving as quickly as possible.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place - Ernest Hemingway

An old man sits alone at night in a café. He is deaf and likes when the night grows still. Two waiters watch the old man carefully because they know he won't pay if he gets too drunk. One waiter tells the other that the old man tried to kill himself because he was in despair. The other waiter asks why he felt despair, and the first waiter says the reason was "nothing" because the man has a lot of money. The waiters look at the empty tables and the old man, who sits in the shadow of a tree. They see a couple walk by, a soldier with a girl. One of the waiters says the soldier had better be careful about being out because the guards just went by. The old man taps his glass against its saucer and asks the younger waiter for a brandy. The younger waiter tells him he'll get drunk, then goes back and tells the older waiter that the old man will stay all night. The younger waiter says he never goes to bed earlier than 3 A.M. and that the old man should have killed himself. He takes the old man his brandy. As he pours it, he tells the old man that he should have killed himself, but the old man just indicates that he wants more brandy in the glass. The younger waiter tells the older waiter that the old man is drunk, then asks again why he tried to kill himself. The older waiter says he doesn't know. The younger waiter asks how he did it. The older waiter says he tried to hang himself and his niece found him and got him down. The younger waiter asks why she got him down, and the older waiter says they were concerned about his soul. The waiters speculate on how much money the old man has and decide he's probably age eighty. The younger waiter says he wishes the old man would leave so that he can go home and go to bed with his wife. The older waiter says that the old man was married at one time. The younger waiter says a wife wouldn't do him any good, but the older waiter disagrees. The younger waiter points out that the old man has his niece, then says he doesn't want to be an old man. The older waiter points out that the old man is clean and drinks neatly. The younger waiter says again that he wishes the old man would leave. The old man indicates that he wants another brandy, but the younger waiter tells him they're closing. The old man pays and walks away. The older waiter asks the younger waiter why he didn't let him drink more because it's not even 3 A.M. yet, and the younger waiter says he wants to go home. The older waiter says an hour doesn't make much difference. The younger waiter says that the old man can just drink at home, but the older waiter says it's different. The younger waiter agrees. The older waiter jokingly asks if the younger waiter is afraid to go home early. The younger waiter says he has confidence. The older waiter points out that he also has youth and a job, whereas the older waiter has only a job. The older waiter says that he likes to stay at cafés very late with the others who are reluctant to go home and who need light during the nighttime. The younger waiter says he wants to go home, and the older waiter remarks that they are very different. The older waiter says he doesn't like to close the café in case someone needs it. The younger waiter says there are bars to go to, but the older waiter says that the café is clean and well lit. They wish each other good night. The older waiter continues thinking to himself about how important it is for a café to be clean and well lit. He thinks that music is never good to have at a café and that standing at a bar isn't good either. He wonders what he's afraid of, deciding it's not fear but just a familiar nothing. He says two prayers but substitutes "nada" (Spanish for "nothing") for most of the words. When he arrives at a bar, he orders a drink and tells the bartender that the bar isn't clean. The bartender offers another drink, but the waiter leaves. He doesn't like bars, preferring cafés. He knows that he will now go home and fall asleep when the sun comes up. He thinks he just has insomnia, a common problem.

Harold

Angela's grandfather. Married to Bush. Left her for Loretta.

Agnes

Angela's great-grandmother

Dora-Rouge

Angela's great-great-grandmother, Agnes' mother.

Hannah

Angela's mother

Max

Another mobster (along with Al) in "The Killers."

Versh

Another of Dilsey's sons and Benjy's keepers.

The Sportsman

Asks for Sylvia's help in "A White Heron."

The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

Attempting to apply traditional plot summary to this story is difficult. At a basic level, the novel is about the three Compson brothers' obsessions with the their sister Caddy, but this brief synopsis represents merely the surface of what the novel contains. A story told in four chapters, by four different voices, and out of chronological order, The Sound and the Fury requires intense concentration and patience to interpret and understand. The first three chapters of the novel consist of the convoluted thoughts, voices, and memories of the three Compson brothers, captured on three different days. The brothers are Benjy, a severely retarded thirty-three-year-old man, speaking in April, 1928; Quentin, a young Harvard student, speaking in June, 1910; and Jason, a bitter farm-supply store worker, speaking again in April, 1928. Faulkner tells the fourth chapter in his own narrative voice, but focuses on Dilsey, the Compson family's devoted "Negro" cook who has played a great part in raising the children. Faulkner harnesses the brothers' memories of their sister Caddy, using a single symbolic moment to forecast the decline of the once prominent Compson family and to examine the deterioration of the Southern aristocratic class since the Civil War. The Compsons are one of several prominent names in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi. Their ancestors helped settle the area and subsequently defended it during the Civil War. Since the war, the Compsons have gradually seen their wealth, land, and status crumble away. Mr. Compson is an alcoholic. Mrs. Compson is a self-absorbed hypochondriac who depends almost entirely upon Dilsey to raise her four children. Quentin, the oldest child, is a sensitive bundle of neuroses. Caddy is stubborn, but loving and compassionate. Jason has been difficult and mean-spirited since birth and is largely spurned by the other children. Benjy is severely mentally disabled, an "idiot" with no understanding of the concepts of time or morality. In the absence of the self-absorbed Mrs. Compson, Caddy serves as a mother figure and symbol of affection for Benjy and Quentin. As the children grow older, however, Caddy begins to behave promiscuously, which torments Quentin and sends Benjy into fits of moaning and crying. Quentin is preparing to go to Harvard, and Mr. Compson sells a large portion of the family land to provide funds for the tuition. Caddy loses her virginity and becomes pregnant. She is unable or unwilling to name the father of the child, though it is likely Dalton Ames, a boy from town. Caddy's pregnancy leaves Quentin emotionally shattered. He attempts to claim false responsibility for the pregnancy, lying to his father that he and Caddy have committed incest. Mr. Compson is indifferent to Caddy's promiscuity, dismissing Quentin's story and telling his son to leave early for the Northeast. Attempting to cover up her indiscretions, Caddy quickly marries Herbert Head, a banker she met in Indiana. Herbert promises Jason Compson a job in his bank. Herbert immediately divorces Caddy and rescinds Jason's job offer when he realizes his wife is pregnant with another man's child. Meanwhile, Quentin, still mired in despair over Caddy's sin, commits suicide by drowning himself in the Charles River just before the end of his first year at Harvard. The Compsons disown Caddy from the family, but take in her newborn daughter, Miss Quentin. The task of raising Miss Quentin falls squarely on Dilsey's shoulders. Mr. Compson dies of alcoholism roughly a year after Quentin's suicide. As the oldest surviving son, Jason becomes the head of the Compson household. Bitterly employed at a menial job in the local farm-supply store, Jason devises an ingenious scheme to steal the money Caddy sends to support Miss Quentin's upbringing. Miss Quentin grows up to be an unhappy, rebellious, and promiscuous girl, constantly in conflict with her overbearing and vicious uncle Jason. On Easter Sunday, 1928, Miss Quentin steals several thousand dollars from Jason and runs away with a man from a traveling show. While Jason chases after Miss Quentin to no avail, Dilsey takes Benjy and the rest of her family to Easter services at the local church.

Long Division - Kiese Laymon

Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called "Long Division." He learns that one of the book's main characters is also named City Coldson--but "Long Division" is set in 1985. This 1985 City, along with his friend and love-object, Shalaya Crump, discovers a way to travel into the future, and steals a laptop and cellphone from an orphaned teenage rapper called...Baize Shephard. They ultimately take these with them all the way back to 1964, to help another time-traveler they meet protect his family from the Klan. City's two stories ultimately converge in the mysterious work shed behind his grandmother's, where he discovers the key to Baize's disappearance.

Joe Dagget

Betrothed to Louisa Ellis in "A New England Nun."

Mrs. Tilley

Grandmother in "A White Heron." Sylvia lives with this woman

Miss Quentin

Caddy's illegitimate daughter, who is raised by the Compsons after Caddy's divorce. A rebellious, promiscuous, and miserably unhappy girl, she eventually steals money from Jason and leaves town with a member of a traveling minstrel show.

Wiley Wright

Cecile's grand-nephew and Helene's husband. He is a seaman and is often away from home.

John

Character Nick talks to in "Now I Lay Me." He continuously tells Nick how he needs to get married.

Trudy Gilby

Character Nick thinks about in "Fathers and Sons." She is a Native American of the Ojibway tribe, and it is implied that Nick loses his virginity to her.

Captain Paravicini

Character in "A Way You'll Never Be." Worries about Nick's bouts of craziness.

The Major

Character in the story, "In Another Country." His wife dies, causing him to last out at Nick. He later apologizes.

Baize Shephard

City's daughter in the year 2013.

Shayla Crump

City's love during the novel. They have a child named Baize Shephard in the 2013 time frame.

LaVander Peeler

City's nemesis/friend in the book. Calls city a "White Homeless Fat Homosexual."

Nick's Father

Deliver's the baby in "Indian Camp." He is a doctor, and related to Nick.

Francis Macomber

Described as a trim, fit man in "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber." While hunting the lion, he shows himself to be a coward. However, later on he finds redemption while hunting the buffalo, and finally feels no fear. He is shot by Margot at the conclusion of the story.

Frony

Dilsey's daughter. She is also Luster's mother and works in the Compsons' kitchen.

Roskus

Dilsey's husband and the Compsons' servant. He suffers from a severe case of rheumatism that eventually kills him.

Madame Antoine

Edna goes to this person's home after she feels sick at the Sunday service.

The Colonel

Edna's father in "The Awakening."

Leonce Pontellier

Edna's husband in "The Awakening." Spends much time away from Edna due to work. His relationship with his wife lacks much passion or excitement.

BoyBoy Peace

Eva's husband. He abandoned her when their three children were small.

Mr. and Mrs. Suggs

Eva's neighbors. Not long after BoyBoy abandoned her, Eva left her children with them, promising that she would return within a few hours.

Hannah Peace

Eva's oldest child. She moved back in with her mother after her husband, Rekus, died when their daughter, Sula, was three years old. Like her mother, she loves "maleness." She has frequent, brief affairs with the men who take her fancy. Many women resent her, but they don't hate her. Men don't gossip about her because she is a kind and generous woman. They often defend her against the harsh words of their wives.

Pearl Peace

Eva's second child. She is actually named after Eva, but Eva gave her a nickname. She married at age 14 and moved to Flint, Michigan. She occasionally writes unremarkable letters about the everyday details of marriage and motherhood.

The Deweys

Eva's three informally adopted children, who all share the same name. They become inseparable, and even though they look completely different, people have trouble telling them apart.

Ralph Peace (Plum)

Eva's youngest and best-loved child. He fights in World War I, returning home with troubling memories and a heroin addiction.

Miss Jessel

Female ghost in "The Turn of the Screw."

Luster

Frony's son and Dilsey's grandson. He is a young boy who looks after and entertains Benjy, despite the fact that he is only half Benjy's age.

Mrs. Bland

Gerald Bland's boastful, Southern mother.

Sula Peace

Hannah's daughter. She has a birthmark over one of her eyes. Depending on their perception of her, people think the birthmark looks like different things: a stemmed rose, a snake, or Hannah's ashes. When they are young girls, she and Nel become close friends.

Rekus

Hannah's husband and Sula's father. He died when Sula was three years old.

Loretta

Harold leaves Bush for this woman.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro - Ernest Hemingway

Harry, a writer, and his wife, Helen, are stranded while on safari in Africa. A bearing burned out on their truck, and Harry is talking about the gangrene that has infected his leg when he did not apply iodine after he scratched it. As they wait for a rescue plane from Nairobi that he knows won't arrive on time, Harry spends his time drinking and insulting Helen. Harry reviews his life, realizing that he wasted his talent through procrastination and luxury from a marriage to a wealthy woman that he doesn't love. In a series of flashbacks, Harry recalls the mountains of Bulgaria and Constantinople, as well as the suddenly hollow, sick feeling of being alone in Paris. Later, there were Turks, and an American poet talking nonsense about the Dada movement, and headaches and quarrels, and watching people whom he would later write about. Uneasily, he recalls a boy who'd been frozen, his body half-eaten by dogs, and a wounded officer so entangled in a wire fence that his bowels spilled over it. As Harry lies on his cot, he is aware that vultures are walking around his makeshift camp, and a hyena lurks in the shadows. Knowing that he will die before he wakes, Harry goes to sleep and dreams that the rescue plane is taking him to a snow covered summit of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Its Western summit is called the Masai "Ngàje Ngài," the House of God, where he sees the legendary leopard. Helen wakes, and taking a flashlight, walks toward Harry's cot. Seeing that his leg is dangling alongside the cot and that the dressings are pulled down, she calls his name repeatedly. She listens for his breathing and can hear nothing. Outside the tent, the hyena whines — a cry that is strangely human.

Rochelle

Helene Wright's mother. She is a Creole prostitute in New Orleans. She played little part in Helene's upbringing.

Cecile

Helene's strict, religious grandmother

Mrs. Grose

Illiterate servant who works with The Governess in "The Turn of the Screw."

Jason Compson III

In "The Sound and the Fury," he is the head of the Compson household until his death from alcoholism.

The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber - Ernest Hemingway

It is noon. Francis Macomber is on an African safari; Macomber is thirty-five years old, a trim, fit man who holds a number of big-game fishing records. However, at the moment, he has just demonstrated that he is a coward. However, members of the safari are acting as though "nothing had happened." The natives at camp carried Macomber into camp triumphantly, but the gun-bearers who witnessed Macomber's cowardice do not participate in the celebration. In a flashback, the reader realizes that Macomber and his beautiful wife, Margot, are wealthy Americans, and that this jaunt is their first safari — and that Macomber, when faced with his first lion, bolted and fled, earning the contempt of his wife. Of course, though, she has been contemptuous of him for some time; Francis' running from the lion like a scared rabbit has only increased her dislike for her unmanly husband. She makes no secret of this as she slips off in the middle of the night for a rendezvous with the safari guide, Robert Wilson. Next day, as she observes Francis gaining a measure of courage as he engages in a standoff with a charging water buffalo, she realizes that if Francis continues to prove himself strong and willful and courageous, he might leave her and rid himself forever of her sharp-tongued ridicule. As the standoff with the second water buffalo becomes more intense as the water buffalo's horns inch closer and closer to goring Francis, Margot takes aim at the water buffalo, shooting Francis in the back of the head, and he dies at the most courageous moment of his "short happy life."

Lorraine

Jason's mistress, a prostitute who lives in Memphis.

Evan Altshuler

Jewish person that City and company find when time traveling back to 1964.

Scott McGregor

Kathleen's husband. They became engaged soon after Rosamond's engagement to Louie. He is a journalist and writes a daily prose poem for the two to live off of. The professor describes him as "having a usual sort of mind" but that "he trusted him". Scott and Kathleen are portrayed as truly loving each other.

Doctor Mandelet

Leonce and Edna's family physican in "The Awakening." He Tries to convince Edna to talk to him about her issues before her suicide.

Harold Krebs

Man who has returned from war in "Soldier's Home." He has issues with the constant lying that he does about his war experiences.

Old Deaf Man

Man who is drinking at the cafe in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." Rumor has it that he recently tried to hang himself, but he was cut down by his niece.

George

Manager of the diner in "The Killers."

Bush

Married to Harold. Harold leaves her for Loretta.

Mrs. Krebs

Mother of the war veteran in "Soldier's Home." She prays for Harold at the end of the story.

Uncle Maury Bascomb

Mrs. Compson's brother, who lives off his brother-in-law's money. Benjy is initially named after him, but Benjy's condition and Caroline's insecurity about her family name convince her to change her son's name.

Jude Greene

Nel's husband and works as a waiter in the Hotel Medallion.

A Way You'll Never Be - Ernest Hemingway

Nick Adams has been wounded in Italy during World War I and is suffering from shell-shock, or post-traumatic stress syndrome. He is plagued by nightmares, in which he sees the eyes of the Austrian soldier who shot him. Nick's friend, the Italian Captain Paravicini, believes that Nick's head wound should have been treated differently; he worries about Nick's bouts of "craziness." One hot summer day, Nick bicycles from the village of Fornaci to Captain Paravicini's encampment. On the way, he witnesses the miles of bloated corpses and the hundreds of blowing pieces of military papers. When Nick reaches camp, an Italian second lieutenant questions Nick's identification papers before Paravicini intervenes and coaxes Nick to lie down and rest before he returns to Fornaci; he fears for Nick's sanity and safety despite the young American's valiant attempt to deal with his war-torn memories.

The Battler - Ernest Hemingway

Nick Adams stands up. He is by train tracks, and it is dark outside. He sees a train disappearing into the distance. He is angry with the brakeman and with himself. The brakeman lured him over and then hit him hard. Nick has a black eye, but cannot see it in the puddles. He decides he must go somewhere. He starts walking along the tracks. He is annoyed because he had hopped aboard the freight train a while ago. Now he was far from any town he knew. He is hungry and his eye hurts. He crosses a bridge and sees a fire in the distance. He approaches it carefully and sees only one man sitting at it. He greets the man, who asks where Nick got his black eye. Nick tells him that a man punched him off of the freight train. The man at the fire replies that he saw that man dancing along the top of the train as it passed. Nick becomes more annoyed. The man at the fire tells Nick that he is tough, which Nick initially denies. Then, though, Nick simply says that young men like him need to be tough. Nick notices that this man's face is messed up: The lips are thick, the nose smushed. Then, this man shows Nick that he only has one ear. This makes Nick feel ill, and he starts to move away. The man asks if Nick has ever been crazy. Nick says no and is about to leave when the man introduces himself as Ad Francis, who is a famous boxer. He tells Nick that he won so many fights because his heart beats slowly. Another man appears. It is Ad's friend, Bugs. Bugs and Ad decide it is time to eat. Bugs makes ham and egg sandwiches, warning Nick not to give his knife to Ad. Ad becomes angry and starts threatening Nick. Bugs sneaks behind Ad and hits him, knocking him unconscious. Bugs apologizes for the way that Ad behaved. Nick asks why he gets like that. Bugs replies that his fame became too much. His sister was his manager. Then, they got married, which disturbed a lot of people. Bugs says that they were not actually brother and sister--that was only for publicity. Still, his wife eventually left him because it was too much to handle. Then he went crazy. He met Bugs in jail. Now, he and Bugs travel the country on the money that she sends him. Bugs tells Nick that he should leave so that Ad does not see him when he wakes up. Nick heads toward the next town over.

Bill

Nick Adams' best friend from home, He drinks with Nick in "The Three-Day Blow," and the two often fish and hunt together. He is glad when Nick breaks up with Marjorie.

Marjorie

Nick Adams' girlfriend at home. Nick breaks up with her in "The End of Something," when he says that things aren't fun anymore.

Big Two-Hearted River - Ernest Hemingway

Nick gets off the train near the former town of Seney, Michigan, in a countryside that is more charred than a forgotten microwave dinner. He sees the river and watches the trout at the bottom. Looks like he's planning on doing some fishing. He gets his pack and hikes towards the river, noticing as he does that the grasshoppers have turned black from the burned landscape. Eventually, because he's hiking a long way, he takes a nap. Nick wakes up and makes toward the river. He's looking for the campsite to end all campsites. Once he finds it he goes about doing camp-y things, like pitching the tent and cooking canned food over the fire. Then he makes some coffee, which sends him into a reminiscence about someone named Hopkins. Then it's bedtime for Nick. The next morning, Nick wakes up all excited to go fishing. He goes into a meadow and catches grasshoppers before they are warmed enough to hop away. For breakfast he makes himself some mouthwatering pancakes. Nick gets all of his fishing gear together and hits the river. The first fish Nick gets is too small, and he lets it go. But the next fish is a real doozy, and Nick has to let it go because it almost breaks the leader. This incident leaves Nick pretty shaky. Nick takes a break to smoke a cigarette and then decides to fish near an uprooted tree. There he gets his first fish. He then sees a beech tree hanging down and knows that there will be big fish there, but he doesn't want his line to get tangled in the branches. But just for kicks Nick lets his line wander there, and he hooks a fish that quickly escapes. So much for that. Nick sees a log ahead and casts his line toward it. He hooks a fish, but then the line goes slack and Nick thinks that he's lost it. But then Nick sees him in the current, and reels him upstream into his net. So that's Number Two. Nick decides that two is plenty. Nick goes to the log and sits down to eat his lunch. He looks at the swamp into which the river flows and feels a dark and ominous feeling about it. He doesn't want to fish in it today. So he cleans and guts the fish he has and decides that there will be plenty of other days to fish in the swamp. The end. No really. That's the whole thing summed up quickly for you. Pretty quiet story, right?

Uncle George

Nick goes skiing with this character in "Cross-Country Snow."

The Uncle

Official guardian of the children in "The Turn of the Screw." However, The Governess agrees that she must never contact him.

Quentin Compson

Oldest of the Compson children in "The Sound and the Fury." Subject of the books second chapter. Commits suicide by drowning himself while attending Harvard.

Tom Outland

Once St. Peter's student and Rosamond's fiancé before his death, the story focuses on his memory. The central piece of the chapter "Tom Outland's Story" is Tom's own account of his adventures in the American Southwest investigating a cliff city's remains in the desert while working as a rancher. It is through these stories and his goodness that the St. Peter family fell in love with him and remembers him fondly.

Chicken Little

One day, Sula playfully swings him around by his hands and loses her grip. He falls into the river and drowns.

Indian Camp - Ernest Hemingway

One night, Dr. Adams is summoned to help an American Indian woman who has been in painful labor for two days. The doctor takes his young son, Nick, and his brother, George, to the American Indian camp on the other side of a northern Michigan lake. There, the doctor performs impromptu, improvised cesarean with a fishing knife, catgut, and no anesthetic to deliver the baby. Afterward, he discovers that the woman's husband, who was in the bunk above hers, silently cut his throat during the painful ordeal.

Charlie

One of Caddy's first suitors, whom Benjy catches with Caddy on the swing during the first chapter.

T.P.

One of Dilsey's sons, he gets drunk with Benjy and fights with Quentin at Caddy's wedding.

Al

One of the mobsters (along with Max) in "The Killers."

Three-Day Blow - Ernest Hemingway

One rainy autumn afternoon, Nick hikes up in the north Michigan woods to a cabin to meet his friend Bill. Talking and drinking, they finally discuss Nick's breaking off his romantic relationship with Marjorie. Bill dogmatically insists that Nick did the right thing. A woman, he insists, will ruin a man; a married man is "done for." Nick listens but realizes that he is still free to flirt with the idea of finding the right woman to marry eventually. He is far from being converted to Bill's almost misogynistic view of women.

The Killers - Ernest Hemingway

One winter evening, around dusk, while he is sitting at the end of a counter and talking to George, the manager of a diner in Summit, Illinois, a small town south of Chicago, Nick Adams watches two over-dressed strangers in black (Al and Max) enter the diner. After complaining about the serving schedule, the two men order dinner, joking sarcastically about George and Nick being a couple of dumb country boys. Finishing his meal, Al orders Nick and Sam, the Black cook, to the kitchen, where he ties them up. Meanwhile, Max boasts to George that he and Al have been hired to kill Ole Andreson, an aging boxer, who, they've heard, eats dinner there every night. When the boxer fails to show up in the diner, Al and Max leave, and George hurries to untie Nick and Sam. He then suggests that Nick warn Andreson, who lives in a nearby boarding house. When the boxer hears about Al and Max's plan to kill him, he's unconcerned; he's tired, he says, of running. Nick leaves and returns to the diner, where he tells George and Sam that he's leaving Summit because he can't bear to think about a man waiting, passively, to be killed by a couple of hired killers.

Cross-Country Snow - Ernest Hemingway

The funicular car stops. Nick, possibly Nick Adams, and Uncle George ski out. They take several long hills, intoxicated by the feeling of dropping and climbing. Nick is going too fast and he knows it. He hits some soft snow and tumbles. George calls him "Mike." The two continue, George following Nick. At the bottom of the next hill, the two head on a flat path over to a small lodge. Inside are two Swiss men, smoking pipes and drinking. Nick orders a bottle of wine, which the two men drink. Nick tries to express how much he loves skiing. George says that it is "too swell to talk about." When the waitress returns, Nick realizes that she is pregnant but unmarried (she is wearing no ring). He explains to George that she must be touchy because of those two facts. George orders some strudel. George and Nick are pleased to be sitting with each other. They like each other. George has to go back to school, though. They talk about wishing that they could ski in Switzerland forever. George asks if Helen is going to have a baby. Nick answers yes and says that the two of them will probably go back to the States even though neither of them wants to return. There, he can find no good skiing. George and Nick are afraid they will never ski together again. They get ready to leave. At least they have the chance to ski home together.

Ole Anderson

The man "the killers" are searching for. He has lost the will to fight.

The man with the red tie

The mysterious man with whom Miss Quentin allegedly elopes.

Fathers and Sons - Ernest Hemingway

The narrator, 38-year-old Nick Adams, is driving through a small town with his son and admiring the fall scenery. It is farming and timber country, and Nick speculates where he would find coveys of quail in the thickets. Thinking about quail hunting reminds him of his father, who taught him to hunt and who has recently died. Nick remembers the most striking thing about his father were his deep-set eyes and extremely keen eyesight. He remembers standing with his father on the shore of a lake, and how his father would be able to see things on the opposite shore that he could not. Nick then begins to describe his father, a nervous, sentimental, cruel, and abused man who died in a trap and was betrayed by everyone he knew. Nick reflects he can't write about his father yet because too many people are alive who knew him, but he says that his father's would be a good story to tell, and that he might be able to get his father out of his system if he wrote about him. Nick is grateful to his father for teaching him about two things: fishing and shooting. Nick still harbors a passion for those two activities that he inherited from his father at an early age. Nick says that his father was thoroughly unsound on sex, however, and recounts the older man's advice on the subject by way of illustration.

Earl

The owner of the farm-supply store where Jason works. He feels some loyalty toward Mrs. Compson and thus puts up with Jason's surliness.

Reverend Shegog

The pastor who delivers a powerful sermon on Easter Sunday at the local black church in Jefferson in "The Sound and the Fury."

Lillian St. Peter

The professor's status-oriented wife. She is described as "occupied with the future" and adaptable. Most of her involvement in the novel is to act as contrast to the professor and show the distance between his interests and his family. Their relationship is described as happy but dependent on her inheritance. She tells the professor "'One must go on living, Godfrey. But it wasn't the children who came between us.' There was something lonely and forgiving in her voice, something that spoke of an old wound, healed and hardened and hopeless".

Herbert Head

The prosperous banker whom Caddy marries. He later divorces Caddy because of her pregnancy.

Caddy Compson

The second oldest of the Compson children and the only daughter. Actually named Candace, Caddy is very close to her brother Quentin. She becomes promiscuous, gets pregnant out of wedlock, and eventually marries and divorces Herbert Head in 1910.

Jason Compson IV

The second youngest of the Compson children and the narrator of the novel's third chapter. He is mean-spirited, petty, and very cynical.

The Turn of the Screw - Henry James

The story opens with a framing device - we find ourselves at a holiday party, where ghost stories are being told. One of the members of the party, Douglas, promises rather woefully to provide a chilling, real-life tale once a manuscript containing it arrives. The houseguests are all intrigued and excited - as are we, the readers. Chapter One begins the proper "story." A nameless, young governess (our narrator) is hired by a dashing, rich, and rather odd man to be a governess for his niece and nephew who live at a country estate called Bly. The Governess sets out for Bly, with only the instruction that she is never to contact the uncle. At the house, she finds Mrs. Grose, a kindly housekeeper, and Flora, the younger of the children. Flora is an exceptionally beautiful and all-around wonderful child - too wonderful, perhaps. Things are complicated when the Governess receives word that Miles, the older child, has been expelled from his school. We're not told why - but the school's headmaster sternly states that Miles will never be allowed back. The Governess wonders what the boy could possibly have done to receive such a verdict. Mrs. Grose denies that anything is wrong with Miles; when the boy himself arrives, his incredible beauty and charm convince the Governess that she was crazy to think that he could do any wrong. Everything seems great for a little while, until the Governess sees a strange and menacing male figure on one of the castle's towers one evening. A few days later, the same stranger reappears just outside the dining room window, eerily looking in. The Governess is shocked by his return, and even more alarmed by the idea that he's not there for her - he's there for someone else. But who?... The Governess and Mrs. Grose figure out that the mysterious figure is Peter Quint, a former servant of the children's uncle. The strangest thing is - Quint is dead. The Governess and the housekeeper make a pact to save the children from the ghost's evil influence. This isn't the end of their troubles, though. Another ghost appears one day as the Governess watches over Flora. She's sure that the child also sees the ghost but pretends not to. The Governess is certain that this evil presence is that of Miss Jessel, her predecessor. What disturbs her the most is the possibility that Flora saw the ghost - but actively deceived her new teacher. Alarmingly, the next sighting is inside the house; the Governess sees Quint on a staircase, then a few days later, sees Jessel in the same place. Things are getting majorly scary. The question of the children's innocence is still pressing. One night, the Governess discovers a weird little scene - Flora has snuck out of bed and is gazing out the window at someone on the lawn, who, in turn, is looking up at someone else on top of the tower. The mysterious person on the lawn is not in fact Miss Jessel, who the Governess expects, but is instead Miles. The boy excuses himself, but the Governess is even more convinced that something fishy is going on with the children and the ghosts. From here on out, events escalate fast - the Governess's relationship with Miles grows more and more uncomfortable and strangely intimate, while he tries to use his power over her to get her to send him away to school again. Then, Flora goes missing one day, only to be found at the lake where Miss Jessel was first sighted. Once the girl is found, the Governess loses it and demands to know where Miss Jessel is. Upon saying this, the ghost appears - but only to the Governess. Flora denies having ever seen any ghost, and poor Mrs. Grose certainly can't see the spirit. Flora turns against the Governess for good. It's decided that Flora and Mrs. Grose will leave Bly for London, where they will go to the children's uncle (to whom the Governess has already written). Unfortunately, the Governess's letter never got sent - it turns out that Miles stole it and burned it. Furthermore, we finally learn why Miles was asked to leave school, though we don't get any details beyond the fact that he said "things" to the other boys; we're not sure what the deal is with that. In the midst of this confession, the ghost of Peter Quint appears one last time outside the window. The Governess cries out at him, and Miles attempts to see the ghost - but he's disappeared. This seems like a triumph for the Governess...until she realizes that Miles has died in her arms.

Douglas

The teller of the governess's tale at the Christmas Eve gathering in the story "The Turn of the Screw."

Benjy Compson

The youngest of the Compson children and narrator of the novel's first chapter. Born Maury Compson, his name is changed in 1900, when he is discovered to be severely mentally retarded.

Now I Lay Me - Ernest Hemingway

This early story in a sequence that features Nick Adams as the protagonist takes place in northern Italy during World War I. Nick Adams, like Hemingway, has been wounded and is convalescing at the hospital in Milan. Among the problems he encounters is his inability to sleep. He engages in all sorts of ploys to overcome this condition, but nothing he does helps him sleep. In his restless, wakeful state at night, Nick tosses and turns, mulling over many of life's profoundest questions. He has been face-to-face with death. He gave up his youth in that moment when his life might have ended on a battlefield in an alien land. He is not sure that his sanity is fully intact. The last third of the story is given over to commonplace dialogue, to a conversation Nick has with John, another wounded soldier who is convalescing. As the two talk, one is reminded of the banality of the dialogue in Gertrude Stein's Three Lives (1909), a book in which Stein sought to capture the cadences of the actual speech of working-class women. Such speech, when faithfully recorded, can be repetitious, tedious, and boring, as is much of the dialogue in this story. This is not a weakness, however. Hemingway uses this technique to capture the tedium, the commonplaceness of life, which, aside from those rare moments of heroic action that elicit outstanding individual performance, is a pretty flat affair. In their conversation, John is trying to persuade Nick to marry. Nick's reflections throughout the story, however, make it clear that Nick has many questions to be answered before marriage is a viable prospect for him. He and John live on two vastly different planes, and what John suggests for Nick is what would work in John's world rather than in Nick's. This story, in part, is about the inability of human beings to communicate effectively with one another. Background, upbringing, personal predilections—all of these stand between what is being communicated and what is being received. On one level, a large part of Hemingway's writing is concerned with this problem, and it is reflection on it that kept Hemingway writing, that kept him ever trying to find the way to connect the perceptions of two people into a single, unified, mutually agreed-upon message.

Ad Francis

This is an old boxer who Nick Adams meets when he is punched off of a freight train. This man is somewhat crazy but very tough.

Alcee Arobin

This is the seductive, charming, and forthright male character in "The Awakening." He satisfies Edna's physical desires while Robert is in Mexico.

Helene Wright

the daughter of a New Orleans Creole prostitute, Rochelle. Her strictly religious grandmother, Cecile, raised her until she was safely married off to Wiley Wright at age 16. She lives a comfortable middle class life in the Bottom. After nine years of marriage, she gave birth to her only child, Nel.

Ajax

the oldest of his mother's seven sons. He has many lovers who often fight over him in the streets. He is always nice to his lovers, but he finds them uninteresting. The only true loves of his life are his mother, a conjure woman, and airplanes. At age twenty-one, he is a beautiful, graceful "pool haunt." Other men envy his "magnificently foul mouth." It is not that he curses often, but he has a way of infusing the most ordinary words with power. Lover to Sula Peace

A New England Nun - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

the story of Louisa Ellis, a woman who has lived alone for many years. Louisa is set in her ways, she likes to keep her house meticulously clean, wear multiple aprons, and eat from her nicest china every day. She has an old dog named Caesar who she feels must be kept chained up because he bit a neighbor 14 years ago as a puppy. Louisa promised Joe Dagget 14 years ago that she would marry him when he returned from his fortune-hunting adventures in Australia, and now that he has returned it is time for her to fulfill her promise. When Joe arrives, however, it becomes obvious that Louisa sees him as a disruption of the life that she has made for herself. When Joe arrives on one of his twice weekly visits, Louisa attempts to have a conversation with him, but is distracted when he tracks dirt on the floor, re-arranges her books, and accidentally knocks things over. The two have a cool and slightly awkward conversation when Louisa inquires after Joe's mother's health and Joe blushes and tells Louisa that Lily Dyer has been taking care of her. Clearly, she is only planning on marrying Joe because she promised that she would, since it would mean that Louisa would have to give up the life that she has made for herself. Three weeks later, a week before the wedding, as Louisa is enjoying a moonlit stroll, she happens to overhear a conversation between Joe and Lily. Through this conversation, Louisa learns that Joe and Lily have developed feelings for each other in the short time that Joe has been back, and that Joe is in love with Lily but refuses to break his promise to Louisa. Lily supports Joe's decision, and though Joe encourages her to find someone else, Lily says, "I'll never marry any other man as long as I live." The next day, when Joe comes to visit, Louisa releases Joe from his promise without letting him know that she is aware of his relationship with Lily. Joe and Louisa then part tenderly, and Louisa is left alone to maintain her present lifestyle. The last line of the story is: "Louisa sat, prayerfully numbering her days, like an uncloistered nun."

Tar Baby

white alcoholic who lives in Eva Peace's home. She gave him his nickname as a joke.