... it was evident in every stare in the residents' eyes. They would sit in their living rooms, mindfully watching the evening news on television or at their dinner tables, eating silent meals of penance. And listening, always listening. The wind would brush through the streets blowing the gutters clean of leaves and debris. The wind would bring with it the cool air, the small voice, the lost souls of the past. And they would pass down from street to street, grasping for any living entity that dared to be out after dark. After their time in the light of day that was no longer theirs. Parents would bar and shutter the windows against the curious faces of the ...

... her deep ties to the community and her sex. This loyalty to women follows her throughout the story and shows her ability to look past a situation and tell what is really happening in the lives of others. The men in this story obviously think the women inferior and that allows Mrs. Hale to show not contempt for men, but rather their naiveté toward the true nature and feelings of women. She does this to protect them from things that really do not want to find out about because if they did they would be forced into things that are really not wanted by any, sending a woman whose husband she killed in self defense to her death. This dynamic character goes fro ...

... the U.S. and opened the door to gamblers. The high life so popular in New Orleans spread north which ushered in the era of the riverboat gambler. By 1820, 69 steamboats were operating the western rivers. And by 1860, that number had increased to 735. These steamboats were christened "floating palaces with luxurious quarters, world class food well stoked bars and wealthy passengers. In1937 riverboat travel entered the passenger boat era. Calliopes were used on the boats to let people know that the boat was docked. The name "calliope" comes from the Greek goddess "muse of sound." The paddle wheels were mounted either on the side ...

... Missouri libraries in September 1939. Vulgarity may be prevalent in the book, but it has its purpose. Steinbeck used some vulgar terms to accurately represent the lingo and slang that was used by the people of the 1930's. Most of the terms that were considered vulgar may be a bit distasteful, but is nothing that is not heard on the streets today. Extreme profanity is not extraneous in the novel, in fact, it is tame compared to slang terms used today. Casy, the former preacher that was traveling with the Joads, is not be given the connotation as the most holy man. Casy did not consider himself a minister at the time The Grapes of Wrath takes place. "But I ain' ...

... front of him. And ever since he made a success he was very generous with me.@ This shows just how early that AThe American Dream@ can be instilled in everyone. To add to Gatsby dedication also came his hard work. As a boy he had a schedule of his day with all the things that he needed to do in order to eventually reach his goal. In his time everyone had this AAmerican Dream@ but only those few who took the time to do the work were rewarded with the fulfillment of their dream(Fitzgerald 181). The acquisition of his wealth and material possessions was only the first step in his two-part dream. The second goal was winning back his first love Daisy Fay from Tom Buchana ...

... that can be made from Grendel to the Devil and Beowulf to Christ that seem to suggest that the Christian influence may have been more than just a couple words changed around, but these could have been just coincidental. Throughout the whole poem there are non-Christian practices and beliefs told. Some are the offering of sacrificing to idols, the observations of omens, burning of the dead, the many references to fate, and blood revenge. These are all things that Christians are against and are often considered sins. Though mostly minor things, these are seen quite frequently and show that the author was familiar with knowledge of the bible and Christian t ...

... about it. The Captain totally disregarded Shine’s warning about the overflow of water in the boiler. After Shine told the Captain what was going on, he knew of the outcome of the overflow of water in the ship, and so he decided not to hang around to find out; Shine jumped ship. Even when the Captain’s daughter called out to him, Shine’s ultimate goal was to get safely to shore and leave the sinking ship. Shine swam to shore for thirty minutes before reaching the shore. Since Shine was part of the Titanic crew, he perhaps knew that swimming was his only chance to save his life; he was not going to stay there and drown. As Shine swam to sh ...

... of her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed. At the Reed household, Jane is neglected and mistreated with favoritism being given only to the three obnoxious Reed children. Jane begins her struggle for love here at Gateshead. Her temper and self-will become apparent there. She stands up for herself not only to her cousins, but to Mrs. Reed as well. "You think I Burkhart 2 have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness, but I cannot live so: and you have no pity" (Bronte, 45). Her early life at Gateshead proved to be a rather traumatic period in Jane's life. Jane "dared commit no fault: [she] strove to fulfill every duty; [she] was termed naughty and tir ...

... General Dreedle's nurse in great detail. Descriptions like "nubile breasts", "ripened" and "He drank her in insatiably from head to pointed toenail" (230), Or "He licked his parched, thirsting lips with a sticky tongue and moaned in misery again…" (230), make this Catch-22 dirty. It brought this book to whole other level which when I first opened it was not expecting. This level is almost in a way more humanistic than the level I thought it would reach. The typical war story of courage and bravery seem to have disappeared from Heller's depiction. It shows that while there is a traumatic World War, and these soldiers are fighting for their country an ...

... optimistic elucidations, including magnificent, elegant, radiant, glowing, clean and polished. These words are all heartening, and create an optimistic mood from the beginning of the story. The optimistic mood created by the title carries throughout the story, encouraging the reader to identify other conditions of hope further on. In addition to symbolism in the title, Alice Munro creates hope through characterization. The character who contains the prevailing amount of hope in "The Shining Houses" is Mary. Mary is the only character in the story that has a personal relationship with Mrs. Fullerton. Mary Would "sit on the back steps of Mrs. Fullerton's house, tal ...