English 201 Midterm

William Faulkner

A Rose for Emily

Round Character

Add dimension to a story and are susceptible to change depending on desires and needs.

Paul's Case

Paul has been suspended from his high school in Pittsburgh. As the story opens, he arrives at a meeting with the school's faculty members and principal. He is dressed in clothes that are simultaneously shabby and debonair. The red carnation he wears in his buttonhole particularly offends the faculty members, who think the flower sums up Paul's flippant attitude. Paul is tall and narrow-shouldered, with enlarged pupils that remind one of a drug addict's eyes. The faculty members have a difficult time articulating their true feelings about Paul. Deep down, they believe that Paul loathes, feels contempt for, and is repulsed by them. They lash out at Paul, but he betrays no emotion. Instead, he smiles throughout the barrage of criticism. After Paul leaves, the drawing master says aloud that Paul's mother died in Colorado just after Paul was born. Privately, the drawing master remembers seeing Paul asleep one day in class and being shocked at his aged appearance. As the teachers depart, they feel embarrassed about their viciousness toward Paul. Paul goes straight to Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh, where he works as an usher. Because he is early, he goes to the Hall's gallery and looks at paintings of Paris and Venice. He loses himself in one particular painting, a "blue Rico." After changing in the dressing room, where he roughhouses with the other ushers, Paul begins to work. He is excellent at his job, performing every aspect of it with great enthusiasm. He is annoyed when his English teacher arrives and he must seat her, but he comforts himself with the knowledge that her clothes are inappropriate for so fancy a venue. The symphony begins, and Paul loses himself in the music. As he listens, he feels full of life. After the performance, he trails the star soprano to her hotel, the Schenley, and imagines vividly that he is following her inside the luxurious building. As if awaking from a dream, Paul realizes that he is actually standing in the cold, rainy street. He dreads returning to his room, with its ugly knickknacks and pictures of John Calvin and George Washington. As he reaches Cordelia Street, where he lives, Paul feels depressed and repulsed by the commonness and ordinariness of his middle-class neighborhood. Unable to face his father, Paul sneaks into the basement, where he stays awake all night imagining what would happen if his father mistook him for a burglar and shot him—or recognized Paul in time, but later in life wished that he had shot his son. The next day, Paul sits on the porch with his sisters and father. Many people are outside, relaxing. It is a pleasant scene, but Paul is disgusted by it. His father chats with a young clerk whom he hopes Paul will emulate. This clerk took his boss's advice: he married the first woman he could and began having children immediately. The only tales of business that interest Paul are those of the iron magnates' expensive adventures in Cairo, Venice, and Monte Carlo. He understands that some "cash boys" (low-level employees) eventually find great success, but he does not enjoy thinking about the initial cash-boy work. After managing to get carfare from his father by pretending that he needs to study with a friend, Paul goes to see Charley Edwards, a young actor who lets Paul hang around his dressing room and watch rehearsals. The narrator notes that Paul's mind has not been "perverted" by novels, as his teachers suspect. Rather, Paul gets pleasure solely from theater and music, which are the only things that make him feel alive. At school, Paul tells outrageous lies about his close friendships with the members of the theater company and the stars who perform at Carnegie Hall. Paul's effort to prove that he is better than his classmates and teachers winds up alienating him from them. In the end, the principal speaks with Paul's father, and Paul is forbidden to return to school, Carnegie Hall, or the theater where Charley Edwards works. The theater company's members hear about Paul's lies and find them comical. Their lives are difficult, not the glamorous dream worlds that Paul imagines. Paul takes an overnight train and arrives in New York City, where he buys expensive clothes, hats, and shoes. After purchasing silver at Tiffany's, he checks into the Waldorf, paying for his rooms in advance. The eighth-floor rooms are nearly perfect. All that's missing are flowers, which Paul sends a bellboy out to buy. The narrator explains what has happened to make all this possible: Paul got a job with Denny & Carson's, and when asked to take a deposit to the bank, he deposited only the checks and pocketed $1,000 in cash. He is using this stolen money to fund his spree in New York. After a nap, Paul takes a carriage ride up Fifth Avenue. He notices banks of flowers, bright and vibrant, protected by glass from the snow. He dines at the hotel while listening to an orchestra play the Blue Danube. He feels utterly content. The next day, Paul meets a rich boy who attends Yale. The two of them enjoy a night on the town, staying out until 7 a.m. The narrator notes that although the boys begin the evening in a happy mood, they end it in a bad one. A lovely week passes, and then Paul finds that his theft has been discovered and reported by the Pittsburgh newspapers. According to the stories, his father has paid back the $1,000 and is headed to New York to find his son. Paul enjoys one last dinner at the Waldorf. The next morning, he wakes up, hungover, and looks at the gun he purchased on his first day in New York. In the end, he takes cabs to a set of railroad tracks in Pennsylvania and leaps in front of an oncoming train. Before he dies, he recognizes "the folly of his haste" and thinks of the places that he will never see.

Willa Cather

Paul's Case

Dimensions to Character (4)

Personal (physical description) , Contextual (background information), Psychological (desires and needs), Conflict

Kate Chopin

Story of an Hour

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Yellow Wallpaper

Conflict

any struggle between opposing forces

Setting

includes the historical moment in time and geographic location in which a story takes place, and helps initiate the main backdrop and mood for a story.

Protagonist

the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work.

Byronic Character

An antihero of the highest order. He (or she) is typically rebellious, arrogant, anti-social or in exile, and darkly, enticingly romantic.

Fall of the House of Usher

An unnamed narrator approaches the house of Usher on a "dull, dark, and soundless day." This house—the estate of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher—is gloomy and mysterious. The narrator observes that the house seems to have absorbed an evil and diseased atmosphere from the decaying trees and murky ponds around it. He notes that although the house is decaying in places—individual stones are disintegrating, for example—the structure itself is fairly solid. There is only a small crack from the roof to the ground in the front of the building. He has come to the house because his friend Roderick sent him a letter earnestly requesting his company. Roderick wrote that he was feeling physically and emotionally ill, so the narrator is rushing to his assistance. The narrator mentions that the Usher family, though an ancient clan, has never flourished. Only one member of the Usher family has survived from generation to generation, thereby forming a direct line of descent without any outside branches. The Usher family has become so identified with its estate that the peasantry confuses the inhabitants with their home. The narrator finds the inside of the house just as spooky as the outside. He makes his way through the long passages to the room where Roderick is waiting. He notes that Roderick is paler and less energetic than he once was. Roderick tells the narrator that he suffers from nerves and fear and that his senses are heightened. The narrator also notes that Roderick seems afraid of his own house. Roderick's sister, Madeline, has taken ill with a mysterious sickness—perhaps catalepsy, the loss of control of one's limbs—that the doctors cannot reverse. The narrator spends several days trying to cheer up Roderick. He listens to Roderick play the guitar and make up words for his songs, and he reads him stories, but he cannot lift Roderick's spirit. Soon, Roderick posits his theory that the house itself is unhealthy, just as the narrator supposes at the beginning of the story. Madeline soon dies, and Roderick decides to bury her temporarily in the tombs below the house. He wants to keep her in the house because he fears that the doctors might dig up her body for scientific examination, since her disease was so strange to them. The narrator helps Roderick put the body in the tomb, and he notes that Madeline has rosy cheeks, as some do after death. The narrator also realizes suddenly that Roderick and Madeline were twins. Over the next few days, Roderick becomes even more uneasy. One night, the narrator cannot sleep either. Roderick knocks on his door, apparently hysterical. He leads the narrator to the window, from which they see a bright-looking gas surrounding the house. The narrator tells Roderick that the gas is a natural phenomenon, not altogether uncommon. The narrator decides to read to Roderick in order to pass the night away. He reads "Mad Trist" by Sir Launcelot Canning, a medieval romance. As he reads, he hears noises that correspond to the descriptions in the story. At first, he ignores these sounds as the vagaries of his imagination. Soon, however, they become more distinct and he can no longer ignore them. He also notices that Roderick has slumped over in his chair and is muttering to himself. The narrator approaches Roderick and listens to what he is saying. Roderick reveals that he has been hearing these sounds for days, and believes that they have buried Madeline alive and that she is trying to escape. He yells that she is standing behind the door. The wind blows open the door and confirms Roderick's fears: Madeline stands in white robes bloodied from her struggle. She attacks Roderick as the life drains from her, and he dies of fear. The narrator flees the house. As he escapes, the entire house cracks along the break in the frame and crumbles to the ground.

Anxieties of Literature (3)

Anxiety of fate and death, Anxiety of guilt and condemnation, and Anxiety of emptiness and meaninglessness

James Joyce

Araby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Babylon Revisited

T. Coraghessan Boyle

Balto

Alice Munro

Child's Play

Jamaica Kincaid

Girl

In Media Res

In the middle of things

James Baldwin

Sonny's Blues

Guy De Maupassant

The Jewels

Allusion

When a work or story refers to other stories (commonly the Bible)

Conflict Types (4)

conflicts with: God, Society, Nature, and Self

Foreshadowing

events elude to upcoming events

Realism

the faithful representation of reality

Child's Play

"Every year, when you are a child, you become a different person. Generally it's in the fall, when you reenter school, take your place in a higher grade, leave behind the muddle and lethargy of summer vacation. That's when you register the change most sharply." This is the story of one summer vacation that locks two girls in time. Marlene and Charlene meet at summer camp and become fast friends. Alice Munro details the initial comparing and then sharing that accompanies all female bonding - the expected transactions that proceed the intimacy of friendship. "The kind of intimacy I'm talking about - with women- is not erotic, or pre-erotic. I've experienced that as well, before puberty. Then too there would be confidences, probably lies, maybe leading to games. A certain hot temporary excitement, with or without genital teasing. Followed by ill-feeling, denial, disgust." Here it is the exchange of confidences: Charlene tells of walking in on her brother having sex with his girlfriend. "His thing slapped...his bare white bum had pimples on it. sickening." Marlene counters with Verna, the mentally handicapped girl who she grew up in a duplex with. Marlene believes that there is a kind of evil power that Verna haunts her with - "Something that clings, in the way of love, though on my side it felt like hate." Verna arrives at the summer camp with a group of "special kids" for the final weekend. Between them, Charlene and Marlene heighten the sense of drama and victimization that Marlene spoke of in memory. It becomes the driving force that leads them, in their one and only confrontation with Verna, to quickly and quietly push her head beneath the water and hold it there. "Charlene and I kept our eyes on eachother then, rather than looking down at what our hands were doing...This could have been an accident. As if we, in trying to get our balance, grabbed on to this nearby large rubbery object, hardly realizing what we were doing. I have thought it all out. I think we would have been forgiven. Young children. Terrified." But the reader does not know of the guilt that binds the two friends through the rest of their lives, though they never see each other after camp. The second half of the flashback - the drowning scene - comes at the very end, after Marlene receives a cryptic letter from her friend on her deathbed, wanting her to seek a Catholic priest in her hometown. We are baffled by this last request, and assume Marlene is also, until we see her try to fill it and learn the truth. Marlene: "I am sure we never said anything as banal, as insulting or unnecessary as Don't Tell." Alice Munro is a master of the short story framed by a flashback - this is a great example.

Plot and Its Components

The progression of events through a story. (Components: Exposition, Inciting Incident, Rising Action, Climax/Crisis, Falling Action, Resolution (Denouemeut)

Greasy Lake

Greasy Lake is a story about 3 teenaged boys, or young men. Their general attidutde is that they are big and bad, one anothers actions encouraging this thought pattern. Late one summer night the trio goes to Greasy Lake, a late-night, summer hang out for teens in their town. As they arrive in one of the teen's mother's car, they notice no cars are really there on this particular night. They then see a familiar car of one of their friends, or at least that's what they think. The trio drives behind the car and flashes their lights. They then realize the car is not their friends, but an actual big, greasy man, which they don't know. This man is pissed that these "kids" have interrupted the actions between he and his lady companion. The man then attacks them. In shock and under attack, the driver of the trio loses the keys in the car. Initially the man is winning. Then the driver of the teens grabs a tire rod and beats the man, knocking him unconscious. The lady companion then comes out and tries to attack the boys. The boys turn on her and begin their attempt to rape her as a car pulls up and sees what is going on. The boys flee, all in seperate directions. Now from the driver of the teens point of view, we hear the passengers in the new car cry out that they will get the monsterous teens, he also hears the man he beat with a tire rod. While hiding in a swampy area, the driver bumps into a floating dead body. Frustrated that they cannot find the teens, yet still seeking vengence, the men and lady companion trash the car the teens arrived in. The group of men and the lady companion then leave the area. Still in fear for their lives, the teen boys don't come out of their hiding places until the next morning. In shock, fear, and unbelief, the three clean out the car and prepate to leave. But as they do, a car pulls up; two girls looking for their friend, unablt o find him, one woman questions the boys. They tell her they havent seen him, although the driver suspects he may be the dead body he found earlier. The woman then offers the boys "a good time," but they quickly turn her down and head home. The plot is complex, linear. All actions occur in chronological order, but through the course more than one main course of action takes place. Initially the boys sought a good time. Then they are in a fight for survival. The characters in this story were not vividly depicted; however, they are given distinctive characteristics. The boys are dynamic characters. Initially they are in search of a good time, but the are in a fight for survival. In the beginning, they also feel as if they are a force to be reckoned with; however, at the end of the story they are hiding in fear for their life. At one point, the teens attempted to rape a woman, but later on sex was freely offered and they almost instantaneously refuse. Coming of age seems to be an issue. When at first the teens felt as if they were adults and even make a very adult decision in the fight to grab a tire rod and then to attempt to rape a female; however, they are very unwilling to face the results as adults. Maybe the lesson to this is not to try and grow up too quick. The point of view is first person, from the perspective of the driver within the group of teens. The setting plays a role in the story. Being late at night when they arrive at night almost unable to recgonize what was before them, which relates to the teen boys as they tried to venture off into adulthood without knowing clearly what was in store for them. As once the fight is over, the protagonist hides in a swampy setting. This may illustrate the mugginess of his thoughts; the clouded confusion which he encountered.

A Rose for Emily

The story is divided into five sections. In section I, the narrator recalls the time of Emily Grierson's death and how the entire town attended her funeral in her home, which no stranger had entered for more than ten years. In a once-elegant, upscale neighborhood, Emily's house is the last vestige of the grandeur of a lost era. Colonel Sartoris, the town's previous mayor, had suspended Emily's tax responsibilities to the town after her father's death, justifying the action by claiming that Mr. Grierson had once lent the community a significant sum. As new town leaders take over, they make unsuccessful attempts to get Emily to resume payments. When members of the Board of Aldermen pay her a visit, in the dusty and antiquated parlor, Emily reasserts the fact that she is not required to pay taxes in Jefferson and that the officials should talk to Colonel Sartoris about the matter. However, at that point he has been dead for almost a decade. She asks her servant, Tobe, to show the men out. In section II, the narrator describes a time thirty years earlier when Emily resists another official inquiry on behalf of the town leaders, when the townspeople detect a powerful odor emanating from her property. Her father has just died, and Emily has been abandoned by the man whom the townsfolk believed Emily was to marry. As complaints mount, Judge Stevens, the mayor at the time, decides to have lime sprinkled along the foundation of the Grierson home in the middle of the night. Within a couple of weeks, the odor subsides, but the townspeople begin to pity the increasingly reclusive Emily, remembering how her great aunt had succumbed to insanity. The townspeople have always believed that the Griersons thought too highly of themselves, with Emily's father driving off the many suitors deemed not good enough to marry his daughter. With no offer of marriage in sight, Emily is still single by the time she turns thirty. The day after Mr. Grierson's death, the women of the town call on Emily to offer their condolences. Meeting them at the door, Emily states that her father is not dead, a charade that she keeps up for three days. She finally turns her father's body over for burial. In section III, the narrator describes a long illness that Emily suffers after this incident. The summer after her father's death, the town contracts workers to pave the sidewalks, and a construction company, under the direction of northerner Homer Barron, is awarded the job. Homer soon becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, which scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. As the affair continues and Emily's reputation is further compromised, she goes to the drug store to purchase arsenic, a powerful poison. She is required by law to reveal how she will use the arsenic. She offers no explanation, and the package arrives at her house labeled "For rats." In section IV, the narrator describes the fear that some of the townspeople have that Emily will use the poison to kill herself. Her potential marriage to Homer seems increasingly unlikely, despite their continued Sunday ritual. The more outraged women of the town insist that the Baptist minister talk with Emily. After his visit, he never speaks of what happened and swears that he'll never go back. So the minister's wife writes to Emily's two cousins in Alabama, who arrive for an extended stay. Because Emily orders a silver toilet set monogrammed with Homer's initials, talk of the couple's marriage resumes. Homer, absent from town, is believed to be preparing for Emily's move to the North or avoiding Emily's intrusive relatives. After the cousins' departure, Homer enters the Grierson home one evening and then is never seen again. Holed up in the house, Emily grows plump and gray. Despite the occasional lesson she gives in china painting, her door remains closed to outsiders. In what becomes an annual ritual, Emily refuses to acknowledge the tax bill. She eventually closes up the top floor of the house. Except for the occasional glimpse of her in the window, nothing is heard from her until her death at age seventy-four. Only the servant is seen going in and out of the house. In section V, the narrator describes what happens after Emily dies. Emily's body is laid out in the parlor, and the women, town elders, and two cousins attend the service. After some time has passed, the door to a sealed upstairs room that had not been opened in forty years is broken down by the townspeople. The room is frozen in time, with the items for an upcoming wedding and a man's suit laid out. Homer Barron's body is stretched on the bed as well, in an advanced state of decay. The onlookers then notice the indentation of a head in the pillow beside Homer's body and a long strand of Emily's gray hair on the pillow.

Sonny's Blues

The unnamed narrator of the story discovers from a newspaper that his younger brother, Sonny, has been arrested for selling and using heroin. As he prepares to teach his algebra class, the narrator remembers Sonny as a young boy. His students, he realizes, could someday end up like Sonny, given the obstacles and hardships they face growing up in Harlem. At the end of the school day, the narrator heads home, but he notices that one of Sonny's old friends, who is always high and dirty, is waiting for him by the school. The two men walk together, talking about Sonny. The narrator simultaneously hates and pities Sonny's friend, who, despite his problems, makes it painfully clear to the narrator just how difficult Sonny's drug-addicted life has been and how difficult it will continue to be. Time passes, but the narrator never writes to Sonny in prison until the narrator's young daughter, Grace, dies. Sonny writes a long letter back to his brother in which he tries to explain how he ended up where he is. The two brothers then stay in constant communication. When Sonny gets out of jail, the narrator is there for him. He takes Sonny back to his own family's apartment. In an extended flashback, the narrator recalls how Sonny and their father used to fight with each other because they were so similar in spirit. He remembers the last day he saw his mother while on leave from the army, when she told him to watch out for his brother. She told him that when his father was a young man, he watched his own brother get run down by a car full of white men who never bothered to stop. The experience traumatized and damaged the narrator's father for the rest of his life. After that conversation with his mother, the narrator went back into the army and didn't think about his brother again until their mother died. After the funeral, the two brothers sat and talked about Sonny's future. Sonny told his brother about his dream of becoming a jazz pianist, which the narrator dismissed. The narrator arranged for Sonny to live with his wife's family until Sonny graduated from college. Sonny reluctantly agreed to do so. He didn't want to live in the house and spent all his spare time playing the piano. Although Sonny loved the music, the rest of family had a hard time bearing his constant practicing. While living with his sister-in-law, Sonny got into trouble for skipping school. He tried to hide the truancy letters, but one eventually made it to the house. When his sister-in-law's mother confronted him, Sonny admitted to spending all his time in Greenwich Village, hanging out with musicians. The two fought, and Sonny realized what a burden he'd been on the family. After two days, Sonny joined the navy. The narrator didn't know whether Sonny was dead or alive until he received a postcard from Greece. After the war, the two brothers returned to New York, but they didn't see each other for quite some time. When they eventually met, they fought about Sonny's decisions in life. After one especially difficult fight, Sonny told his brother that he could consider him dead from that point on. The narrator walked away, telling himself that one day Sonny would need his help. The flashback ends there. After having Sonny live with him for a few weeks, the narrator debates whether he should search Sonny's room. As he paces back and forth, he sees a street-corner revival occurring outside his window and thinks about its significance. Eventually Sonny comes home and invites his brother to watch him perform later that evening. The two brothers go to a small jazz club where everyone knows and respects Sonny. Sonny and the band get on stage and play, and as they play, the narrator watches Sonny struggle with the music. He watches all his brother's struggles come pouring out as he plays, and only then does he finally realize who Sonny is and what he's made of.

Babylon Revisited

Part I opens in the middle of a conversation between Charlie Wales and Alix, a bartender at the Ritz. Charlie asks Alix to pass along his brother-in-law's address to Duncan Schaeffer. The narrator says that Paris and the Ritz bar feel deserted. Charlie says he has been sober for a year and a half and that he is now a businessman living in Prague. He and Alix gossip about old acquaintances. Charlie says he's in town to see his daughter. Charlie gets in a taxi. The Left Bank looks provincial to him, and he wonders whether he's ruined the city for himself. The narrator tells us that Charlie is a handsome thirty-five-year-old. Charlie goes to his brother-in-law's house, where his daughter, Honoria, jumps into his arms. Marion Peters, his sister-in-law, greets him without warmth, although his brother-in-law, Lincoln Peters, is friendlier. In a calculated remark, Charlie boasts about how good his finances are these days. Lincoln looks restless, so Charlie changes the subject. Marion says she's glad there aren't many Americans left in Paris, and it's clear that she doesn't like Charlie. After eating dinner with the Peters family, Charlie goes to see a famous dancer named Josephine Baker, then to Montmartre, where he passes nightclubs that he recognizes. He sees a few scared tourists go into one club. He thinks about the meaning of dissipation and remembers the vast sums of money he threw away. After ignoring a woman's advances, he goes home. Part II begins the following morning. Charlie takes Honoria to lunch. He suggests going to a toy store and then to a vaudeville show. Honoria doesn't want to go to the toy store because she's worried they're no longer rich. Charlie playfully introduces himself to her as if they are strangers. He pretends that her doll is her child, and she goes along with the joke. She says she prefers Lincoln to Marion and asks why she can't live with Charlie. Leaving the restaurant, they run into Duncan Schaeffer and Lorraine Quarrles, two of Charlie's friends from the old days. Lorraine says she and her husband are poor now and that she is alone in Paris. They ask Charlie to join them for dinner, but he brushes them off and refuses to tell them where he's staying. They see each other again at the vaudeville, and he has a drink with them. In the cab on the way home, Honoria says she wants to live with him, which thrills Charlie. She blows him a kiss when she is safely inside the house. In Part III, Charlie meets with Marion and Lincoln. He says that he wants Honoria to live with him and that he has changed. He says he drinks one drink per day on purpose so that he doesn't obsess about it ever again. Marion doesn't understand this, but Lincoln claims that he understands Charlie. Charlie settles in for a long fight, reminding himself that his objective isn't to justify his behavior but to win Honoria back. Marion says that Charlie hasn't existed for her since he locked Helen, her sister and Charlie's wife, out of their apartment. Charlie says Marion can trust him. As it becomes increasingly clear that Marion simply doesn't like Charlie, he begins to worry that she will turn Honoria against him. He stresses that he will be able to give Honoria a good life and then realizes that Marion and Lincoln don't want to hear about how much wealthier he is than they are. He craves a drink. The narrator says that Marion understands Charlie's wish to be with his daughter but needs to see him as the villain. She implies that Charlie was responsible for Helen's death. Lincoln objects. Charlie says that heart trouble killed Helen, and Marion sarcastically agrees with him. Suddenly giving up the fight, she leaves the room. Lincoln tells Charlie that he can take Honoria. Back in his hotel room, Charlie thinks of the way he and Helen destroyed their love for no good reason. He remembers the night they fought and she kissed another man; he got home before her and locked her out. There was a snowstorm later, and Helen wandered around in the cold. The incident marked the "beginning of the end." Charlie falls asleep and dreams of Helen, who says that she wants him and Honoria to be together. Part IV begins the next morning. Charlie interviews two potential governesses and then eats lunch with Lincoln. He says Marion resents the fact that Charlie and Helen were spending a fortune while she and Lincoln were just scraping along. In his hotel room, Charlie gets a pneumatique (a letter delivered by pneumatic tube) from Lorraine, who reminisces about their drunken pranks and asks to see him at the Ritz bar. The adventures that Lorraine looks back on with fondness strike Charlie as nightmarish. Charlie goes to Marion and Lincoln's house in the afternoon. Honoria has been told of the decision and is delighted. The room feels safe and warm. The doorbell rings—it is Lorraine and Duncan, who are drunk. Slurring their words, they ask Charlie to dinner. He refuses twice and they leave angry. Furious, Marion leaves the room. The children eat dinner, and Lincoln goes to check on Marion. When he comes back, he tells Charlie that the plans have changed. In Part V, Charlie goes to the Ritz bar. He sees Paul, a bartender he knew in the old days. He thinks of the fights that he and Helen had, the people out of their minds on alcohol and drugs, and the way he locked Helen out in the snow. He calls Lincoln, who says that for six months, they have to drop the question of Honoria living with Charlie. Charlie goes back to the bar. He realizes that the only thing he can do for Honoria is buy her things, which he knows is inadequate. He plans to come back and try again.

Ernest Hemingway

Hills Like White Elephants

Girl

"Girl" consists of a single sentence of advice a mother imparts to her daughter, only twice interrupted by the girl to ask a question or defend herself. She intends the advice to both help her daughter and scold her at the same time. Kincaid uses semicolons to separate the admonishments and words of wisdom but often repeats herself, especially to warn her daughter against becoming a "slut." Besides these repetitions, "Girl" doesn't move forward chronologically: there is no beginning, middle, or end to the stream. The mother dispenses much practical and helpful advice that will help her daughter keep a house of her own some day. She tells her daughter how to do such household chores as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, sweeping, and washing. The mother also tells the girl how to do other things she'll need to know about, including how to make herbal medicines and catch a fish. These words of wisdom suggest that the women live in a poor, rural setting, where passing on such advice is essential for daily living. Alongside practical advice, the mother also instructs her daughter on how to live a fulfilling life. She offers sympathy, such as when she talks about the relationships her daughter will one day have with men, warning that men and women sometimes "bully" each other. She also says that there are many kinds of relationships and some never work out. The mother also tells the girl how to behave in different situations, including how to talk with people she doesn't like. Often, however, the mother's advice seems caustic and castigating, out of fear that her daughter is already well on her way to becoming a "slut." She tells the girl, for example, not to squat while playing marbles, not to sing any Antiguan folk songs in Sunday school, and to always walk like a lady. The girl periodically interjects to protest her innocence.

Hills Like White Elephants

"Hills Like White Elephants" opens with a long description of the story's setting in a train station surrounded by hills, fields, and trees in a valley in Spain. A man known simply as the American and his girlfriend sit at a table outside the station, waiting for a train to Madrid. It is hot, and the man orders two beers. The girl remarks that the nearby hills look like white elephants, to which the American responds that he's never seen one. They order more drinks and begin to bicker about the taste of the alcohol. The American chastises her and says that they should try to enjoy themselves. The girl replies that she's merely having fun and then retracts her earlier comment by saying the hills don't actually look like white elephants to her anymore. They order more drinks, and the American mentions that he wants the girl, whom he calls "Jig," to have an operation, although he never actually specifies what kind of operation. He seems agitated and tries to downplay the operation's seriousness. He argues that the operation would be simple, for example, but then says the procedure really isn't even an operation at all. The girl says nothing for a while, but then she asks what will happen after she's had the operation. The man answers that things will be fine afterward, just like they were before, and that it will fix their problems. He says he has known a lot of people who have had the operation and found happiness afterward. The girl dispassionately agrees with him. The American then claims that he won't force her to have the operation but thinks it's the best course of action to take. She tells him that she will have the operation as long as he'll still love her and they'll be able to live happily together afterward. The man then emphasizes how much he cares for the girl, but she claims not to care about what happens to herself. The American weakly says that she shouldn't have the operation if that's really the way she feels. The girl then walks over to the end of the station, looks at the scenery, and wonders aloud whether they really could be happy if she has the operation. They argue for a while until the girl gets tired and makes the American promise to stop talking. The Spanish bartender brings two more beers and tells them that the train is coming in five minutes. The girl smiles at the bartender but has to ask the American what she said because the girl doesn't speak Spanish. After finishing their drinks, the American carries their bags to the platform and then walks back to the bar, noticing all the other people who are also waiting for the train. He asks the girl whether she feels better. She says she feels fine and that there is nothing wrong with her.

Balto

Angelle, like every character introduced, acts impulsively based upon on her self-absorbed wants. She wants her mother to return home, for her father to become a stable member in her home, and for her well-doing in school to be admired. She wants reaffirmation, just as: -her guilty drunk father, Alan, wants an escape from the guilt in which he is encompassed; -her young sister, Lisette, who is understandably selfish at nine, wants to be jovial; -Marcy, the flippant and beautiful girlfriend who does not belong, wants an entertaining time; -Martine, the selfish mother who left for Paris after becoming overcome with frustration with her drunk husband, wants no obligations regardless of the family she left; -Mr. Apodaca, whose role is to merely play another reminder of one whom believes has control of a situation, wants a win-- all are just as guilty as Angelle. But Angelle is twelve, almost going on thirteen, and refuses to be talked down to. And when the weight of her father's actions is finally understood, Angelle lets him have it. TC Boyle utilizes this metaphor to tell the tale of a father who's conflicted with an alcohol addiction and the commitment of being a stable parent in a sticky situation. Alan, the overworked father, meets his beautiful and flighty new girlfriend for lunch on the marina in order to ease the stress of the week. After ordering too many bottles (and a cognac, just for the taste), he regretfully realizes he has to pick up his two daughters from soccer practice after school. Typically this is not his responsibility, for even as a single father, he makes a sufficient enough wage to afford an Au Pair whom nannies his daughters. Unfortunately, it is her day off, and Martine (his estranged wife) "is off in Paris, doing whatever she wants." He chooses to drive his car to retrieve his daughters. It was at the point immediately after the conversation with the valet that Alan succumbs to his own drunkenness. He manages to pursue the drive to the school, but upon arriving, asks his twelve year old daughter to drive the car home. He acknowledges that it's a straight shot home, and that even though Angelle should not be driving, she is mature for her age.

Foil Character

Character that illuminates the protagonist.

Edgar Allen Poe

Fall of the House of Usher

Young Goodman Brown

Goodman Brown says goodbye to his wife, Faith, outside of his house in Salem Village. Faith, wearing pink ribbons in her cap, asks him to stay with her, saying that she feels scared when she is by herself and free to think troubling thoughts. Goodman Brown tells her that he must travel for one night only and reminds her to say her prayers and go to bed early. He reassures her that if she does this, she will come to no harm. Goodman Brown takes final leave of Faith, thinking to himself that she might have guessed the evil purpose of his trip and promising to be a better person after this one night. Goodman Brown sets off on a road through a gloomy forest. He looks around, afraid of what might be behind each tree, thinking that there might be Indians or the devil himself lurking there. He soon comes upon a man in the road who greets Goodman Brown as though he had been expecting him. The man is dressed in regular clothing and looks normal except for a walking stick he carries. This walking stick features a carved serpent, which is so lifelike it seems to move. The man offers Goodman Brown the staff, saying that it might help him walk faster, but Goodman Brown refuses. He says that he showed up for their meeting because he promised to do so but does not wish to touch the staff and wants to return to the village. Goodman Brown tells the man that his family members have been Christians and good people for generations and that he feels ashamed to associate with him. The man replies that he knew Goodman Brown's father and grandfather, as well as other members of churches in New England, and even the governor of the state. The man's words confuse Goodman Brown, who says that even if this is so, he wants to return to the village for Faith's sake. At that moment, the two come upon an old woman hobbling through the woods, and Goodman Brown recognizes Goody Cloyse, who he knows to be a pious, respected woman from the village. He hides, embarrassed to be seen with the man, and the man taps Goody Cloyse on the shoulder. She identifies him as the devil and reveals herself to be a witch, on her way to the devil's evil forest ceremony. Despite this revelation, Goodman Brown tells the man that he still intends to turn back, for Faith's sake. The man says that Goodman Brown should rest. Before disappearing, he gives Goodman Brown his staff, telling him that he can use it for transport to the ceremony if he changes his mind. As he sits and gathers himself, Goodman Brown hears horses traveling along the road and hides once again. Soon he hears the voices of the minister of the church and Deacon Gookin, who are also apparently on their way to the ceremony. Shocked, Goodman Brown swears that even though everyone else in the world has gone to the devil, for Faith's sake he will stay true to God. However, he soon hears voices coming from the ceremony and thinks he recognizes Faith's voice. He screams her name, and a pink ribbon from her cap flutters down from the sky. Certain that there is no good in the world because Faith has turned to evil, Goodman Brown grabs the staff, which pulls him quickly through the forest toward the ceremony. When he reaches the clearing where the ceremony is taking place, the trees around it are on fire, and he can see in the firelight the faces of various respected members of the community, along with more disreputable men and women and Indian priests. But he doesn't see Faith, and he starts to hope once again that she might not be there. A figure appears on a rock and tells the congregation to present the converts. Goodman Brown thinks he sees his father beckoning him forward and his mother trying to hold him back. Before he can rethink his decision, the minister and Deacon Gookin drag him forward. Goody Cloyse and Martha Carrier bring forth another person, robed and covered so that her identity is unknown. After telling the two that they have made a decision that will reveal all the wickedness of the world to them, the figure tells them to show themselves to each other. Goodman Brown sees that the other convert is Faith. Goodman Brown tells Faith to look up to heaven and resist the devil, then suddenly finds himself alone in the forest. The next morning Goodman Brown returns to Salem Village, and every person he passes seems evil to him. He sees the minister, who blesses him, and hears Deacon Gookin praying, but he refuses to accept the blessing and calls Deacon Gookin a wizard. He sees Goody Cloyse quizzing a young girl on Bible verses and snatches the girl away. Finally, he sees Faith at his own house and refuses to greet her. It's unclear whether the encounter in the forest was a dream, but for the rest of his life, Goodman Brown is changed. He doesn't trust anyone in his village, can't believe the words of the minister, and doesn't fully love his wife. He lives the remainder of his life in gloom and fear.

T. Coraghessan Boyle

Greasy Lake

Story of an Hour

Louise Mallard has heart trouble, so she must be informed carefully about her husband's death. Her sister, Josephine, tells her the news. Louise's husband's friend, Richards, learned about a railroad disaster when he was in the newspaper office and saw Louise's husband, Brently, on the list of those killed. Louise begins sobbing when Josephine tells her of Brently's death and goes upstairs to be alone in her room. Louise sits down and looks out an open window. She sees trees, smells approaching rain, and hears a peddler yelling out what he's selling. She hears someone singing as well as the sounds of sparrows, and there are fluffy white clouds in the sky. She is young, with lines around her eyes. Still crying, she gazes into the distance. She feels apprehensive and tries to suppress the building emotions within her, but can't. She begins repeating the word Free! to herself over and over again. Her heart beats quickly, and she feels very warm. Louise knows she'll cry again when she sees Brently's corpse. His hands were tender, and he always looked at her lovingly. But then she imagines the years ahead, which belong only to her now, and spreads her arms out joyfully with anticipation. She will be free, on her own without anyone to oppress her. She thinks that all women and men oppress one another even if they do it out of kindness. Louise knows that she often felt love for Brently but tells herself that none of that matters anymore. She feels ecstatic with her newfound sense of independence. Josephine comes to her door, begging Louise to come out, warning her that she'll get sick if she doesn't. Louise tells her to go away. She fantasizes about all the days and years ahead and hopes that she lives a long life. Then she opens the door, and she and Josephine start walking down the stairs, where Richards is waiting. The front door unexpectedly opens, and Brently comes in. He hadn't been in the train accident or even aware that one had happened. Josephine screams, and Richards tries unsuccessfully to block Louise from seeing him. Doctors arrive and pronounce that Louise died of a heart attack brought on by happiness.

The Yellow Wallpaper

The narrator begins her journal by marveling at the grandeur of the house and grounds her husband has taken for their summer vacation. She describes it in romantic terms as an aristocratic estate or even a haunted house and wonders how they were able to afford it, and why the house had been empty for so long. Her feeling that there is "something queer" about the situation leads her into a discussion of her illness—she is suffering from "nervous depression"—and of her marriage. She complains that her husband John, who is also her doctor, belittles both her illness and her thoughts and concerns in general. She contrasts his practical, rationalistic manner with her own imaginative, sensitive ways. Her treatment requires that she do almost nothing active, and she is especially forbidden from working and writing. She feels that activity, freedom, and interesting work would help her condition and reveals that she has begun her secret journal in order to "relieve her mind." In an attempt to do so, the narrator begins describing the house. Her description is mostly positive, but disturbing elements such as the "rings and things" in the bedroom walls, and the bars on the windows, keep showing up. She is particularly disturbed by the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom, with its strange, formless pattern, and describes it as "revolting." Soon, however, her thoughts are interrupted by John's approach, and she is forced to stop writing. As the first few weeks of the summer pass, the narrator becomes good at hiding her journal, and thus hiding her true thoughts from John. She continues to long for more stimulating company and activity, and she complains again about John's patronizing, controlling ways—although she immediately returns to the wallpaper, which begins to seem not only ugly, but oddly menacing. She mentions that John is worried about her becoming fixated on it, and that he has even refused to repaper the room so as not to give in to her neurotic worries. The narrator's imagination, however, has been aroused. She mentions that she enjoys picturing people on the walkways around the house and that John always discourages such fantasies. She also thinks back to her childhood, when she was able to work herself into a terror by imagining things in the dark. As she describes the bedroom, which she says must have been a nursery for young children, she points out that the paper is torn off the wall in spots, there are scratches and gouges in the floor, and the furniture is heavy and fixed in place. Just as she begins to see a strange sub-pattern behind the main design of the wallpaper, her writing is interrupted again, this time by John's sister, Jennie, who is acting as housekeeper and nurse for the narrator. As the Fourth of July passes, the narrator reports that her family has just visited, leaving her more tired than ever. John threatens to send her to Weir Mitchell, the real-life physician under whose care Gilman had a nervous breakdown. The narrator is alone most of the time and says that she has become almost fond of the wallpaper and that attempting to figure out its pattern has become her primary entertainment. As her obsession grows, the sub-pattern of the wallpaper becomes clearer. It begins to resemble a woman "stooping down and creeping" behind the main pattern, which looks like the bars of a cage. Whenever the narrator tries to discuss leaving the house, John makes light of her concerns, effectively silencing her. Each time he does so, her disgusted fascination with the paper grows. Soon the wallpaper dominates the narrator's imagination. She becomes possessive and secretive, hiding her interest in the paper and making sure no one else examines it so that she can "find it out" on her own. At one point, she startles Jennie, who had been touching the wallpaper and who mentions that she had found yellow stains on their clothes. Mistaking the narrator's fixation for tranquility, John thinks she is improving. But she sleeps less and less and is convinced that she can smell the paper all over the house, even outside. She discovers a strange smudge mark on the paper, running all around the room, as if it had been rubbed by someone crawling against the wall. The sub-pattern now clearly resembles a woman who is trying to get out from behind the main pattern. The narrator sees her shaking the bars at night and creeping around during the day, when the woman is able to escape briefly. The narrator mentions that she, too, creeps around at times. She suspects that John and Jennie are aware of her obsession, and she resolves to destroy the paper once and for all, peeling much of it off during the night. The next day she manages to be alone and goes into something of a frenzy, biting and tearing at the paper in order to free the trapped woman, whom she sees struggling from inside the pattern. By the end, the narrator is hopelessly insane, convinced that there are many creeping women around and that she herself has come out of the wallpaper—that she herself is the trapped woman. She creeps endlessly around the room, smudging the wallpaper as she goes. When John breaks into the locked room and sees the full horror of the situation, he faints in the doorway, so that the narrator has "to creep over him every time!"

Araby

The narrator, an unnamed boy, describes the North Dublin street on which his house is located. He thinks about the priest who died in the house before his family moved in and the games that he and his friends played in the street. He recalls how they would run through the back lanes of the houses and hide in the shadows when they reached the street again, hoping to avoid people in the neighborhood, particularly the boy's uncle or the sister of his friend Mangan. The sister often comes to the front of their house to call the brother, a moment that the narrator savors. Every day begins for this narrator with such glimpses of Mangan's sister. He places himself in the front room of his house so he can see her leave her house, and then he rushes out to walk behind her quietly until finally passing her. The narrator and Mangan's sister talk little, but she is always in his thoughts. He thinks about her when he accompanies his aunt to do food shopping on Saturday evening in the busy marketplace and when he sits in the back room of his house alone. The narrator's infatuation is so intense that he fears he will never gather the courage to speak with the girl and express his feelings. One morning, Mangan's sister asks the narrator if he plans to go to Araby, a Dublin bazaar. She notes that she cannot attend, as she has already committed to attend a retreat with her school. Having recovered from the shock of the conversation, the narrator offers to bring her something from the bazaar. This brief meeting launches the narrator into a period of eager, restless waiting and fidgety tension in anticipation of the bazaar. He cannot focus in school. He finds the lessons tedious, and they distract him from thinking about Mangan's sister. On the morning of the bazaar the narrator reminds his uncle that he plans to attend the event so that the uncle will return home early and provide train fare. Yet dinner passes and a guest visits, but the uncle does not return. The narrator impatiently endures the time passing, until at 9 P.M. the uncle finally returns, unbothered that he has forgotten about the narrator's plans. Reciting the epigram "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," the uncle gives the narrator the money and asks him if he knows the poem "The Arab's Farewell to his Steed." The narrator leaves just as his uncle begins to recite the lines, and, thanks to eternally slow trains, arrives at the bazaar just before 10 P.M., when it is starting to close down. He approaches one stall that is still open, but buys nothing, feeling unwanted by the woman watching over the goods. With no purchase for Mangan's sister, the narrator stands angrily in the deserted bazaar as the lights go out.

Flat Character

Used as a tool to help focus on the round characters

The Jewels

The plot revolves around M. Lantin and his wife. He really loves her and they have a wonderful marriage. The only things that bother him are his wife's fascination with fake jewels and her love of the theater. Even though he really loves his wife more and more, after a time, he begs off going to the theater with her. He tells her that he does not like the fake jewels, but she wears them anyway, saying that she can't help it, she likes them. One cold night attending the theater, M. Lantin's wife becomes ill and 8 days later she dies. After her death, he is grief stricken and he can't bear to look at the fake jewels. In need of money, he decides to sell the jewels and takes them to a merchant who tells him that the jewels are real and very valuable. M. Lantin is shocked when he learns that the jewels were in fact real, he does not know how his wife could have afforded to buy them, he did not buy them, so he realizes that she must have had a lover who bought them for her. Confused by the discovery of his wife's infidelity, he determines to find a virtuous woman if he marries again. M. Lantin finds a woman he wants to marry. He chooses a woman that is without question, very virtuous and will be totally faithful to him. They marry, and his wife is a model of virtue, and M. Lantin finds that he is miserable.

Flashback

Transition in a story to an earlier time, that interrupts the normal chronological order of events.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Young Goodman Brown

Epiphany

a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

Myth

a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.