Explores the concept of moralism and determinism in the short story 'The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,' by Mark Twain. Use of training in honesty and stranger's machinations as deterministic forces in the story; Assertion of Twain on absolute determinism; Capacity of the characters in the story to make moral distinctions and freedom to act in accordance with those distinctions.
Discusses how Mark Twain's short story 'The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg' puzzled critics over the problem of reconciling Twain's moralism and determinism. Review of a selection of commentaries on the work; Details on how the story was created; Stylistic analysis of the work; Comparison of the story with the book 'Paradise Lost.'
The article offers a critique of the short story “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston. Particular attention is paid to the character Delia, an American American laundress in the story, and Hurston's use of visualization and allegory within the text. It also compares her work to that of the poets Carter G. Woodson and Langston Hughes.
Discusses the important elements in the short stories 'Death in the Woods,' and 'The Egg,' by Sherwood Anderson. Impact of the clumsiness of perspective on the narrator of the first story; Association of ambition with the egg in the second fiction; Symbolism of the egg for the narrator.
Presents an interpretation of the short story `Hands,' by Sherwood Anderson. Reference to the criticism of the story by Gwendolyn Morgan; Anderson's description of Wing, the main character of the story; What the beating and pounding of Wing's fists represent.
Examines the parallels between the short story 'Hands,' by Sherwood Anderson and the book 'The Inferno,' by Dante Alighieri. Plot of the stories; Similarities of the views of the characters; Concept of suffering in the stories.
Examines different scholarly interpretations of the ending of Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants." Suggestion that the girl will have the abortion but will then leave the American; Suggested interpretation of the outcome that the girl will accede to the man's demands and proceed to Madrid where the girl will have the abortion in order to stay on with the man.
Discusses the symbolism implicit in the short story 'Hills Like White Elephants,' by Ernest Hemingway. Assumption on the comparison to the color and the rounded contour of the hills; Contrast between sorrow and joy depicted in the color symbolism involving the licorice and the hills; Symbolic significance of the title.
Analyzes the resolution of the short story "Hills Like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway. Summation of majority opinion on the story; Modifiers used to describe the understanding of the male character on abortion; Evidence of the inferiority complex of the man.
Analyzes the characteristics of the short story 'Sonny's Blues,' by James Baldwin. Reference on the short story; Use of images of light and darkness to illustrate the theme of man's painful quest for an identity; Descriptions of literary style of Baldwin.
The article analyzes the wasteland created by alcoholism in the collection of personal stories in "Cathedral," by Raymond Carver. It explores the narrative of alcoholism depicted in "Cathedral," including addiction, alienation and bitter self-awareness, and hope of recovery and redemption. It examines four personal stories about alcoholic men, "Vitamins," "Careful," "Chef's House" and "Where I'm Calling From," to reveal the truth about prospect of being freed from their misery.
Examines the existential theme of the short story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?' by Joyce Carol Oates. Assessment of the story as realistic or naturalistic; Depiction about framework of a religious allegory; Insights of the story.
Presents a stylistic analysis of Joyce Carol Oates' 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?,' a story of seduction and where spatial limitations are of crucial concern. Plot and characters of the story; Impact of the work on readers.
Karl Polanyi, historian of the market, describes "belief in the gold standard" during the twenties as "the faith of the age," adding that for believers, "bank notes have value because they represented gold." Departing from tensions within the idea of money (as anatomized by Karl Marx, Slavoj Žižek, and Suzanne de Brunhoff), this essay explores the logic of F. Scott Fitzgerald's choice (in 1922) of the Diamond (bigger than the Ritz) as an analogue for the function of monetary gold within the American postwar economy at a point when, for the sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd, "more and more of the activities of living are coming to be strained through the bars of the dollar sign."
Examines the parallels between the short story 'Rappaccini's Daughter,' by Nathaniel Hawthorne and 'The Diamond As Big As the Ritz,' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Relationship between Hawthorne and Fitzgerald; Comments on the works of both authors; Concept of the stories written by both authors.
Examines the role that Ma Joad played in the novel 'The Grapes of Wrath,' the stark account of the Joad family from the impoverished Oklahoma Dust Bowl and their migration to California during the economic depression received not as a realistic fiction but a moving document of social protest, written by American author John Ernst Steinbeck. Historical significance of the story; Characterization of patriarchy and matriarchy in the novel.
Explicates the novel `The Grapes of Wrath,' by John Steinbeck. Theme of the novel; Appeal of Steinbeck to young people to step beyond the traditions of their parents; Allusions to socialism and unionism.
The writer situates Toni Morrison's short story “Recitatif”' within the context of disability theory, focusing not on the two central characters, one white, one black, but on the more liminal third character of Maggie, the mute and possibly deaf kitchen help. She reads the figure of Maggie as one who is caught within social boundaries reinforced by what Lennard J. Davis calls the “hegemony of normalcy,” yet also as someone who disrupts these specific boundaries. She suggests that by including the figure of Maggie, Morrison's narrative invites an exploration of the intersecting identity markers associated with disability and race, as well as a critique of the social processes and practices that form these constructs.
The article shows that, while the "no pity" position justifiably opposes representations of the disabled that reinforce the perceived weaknesses of the disabled population, there are alternative ways of looking at the role played by sympathy in response to disabled characters in fiction, as is emphasized by an examination of Toni Morrison's short story "Recitatif." While the narrative's dependence on the implicitly disabled character Maggie for its effects suggests that she serves a "prosthetic" role in the development of the protagonists' (and readers') sympathy, the article argues that "Recitatif" makes a significant move in guiding readers toward a more complex view of Maggie's identity, as well as a level of sympathetic engagement that effectively transcends her apparently prosthetic function. Thus, it is demonstrated that a rigid rejection of sympathetic responses to disabled characters denies readers an important opportunity to develop "a cultivated imagination for what men have in common and a rebellion at whatever unnecessarily divides them" (Dewey, 121).
Comments on `Everyday Use' by Alice Walker. How Walker stresses the importance of language and the destructive effects of its misuse; How Walker presents a character's dawning sense of self; More.
Presents criticisms on the short story 'Everyday Use,' by Alice Walker. Theme of the story; Strategy for contemporary African Americans to cope with oppressive society; Mood of the story.