Charlotte Stephens

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, many characters die, including the main character, Victor Frankenstein. In fact, Victor is the last one to die. Some might call this poetic justice, since...

The short story "Blue Water Djinn," by Tea Obreht, tells of a beach hotel and its residents, particularly a young boy named Jack and a man known only as the Frenchman, who disappears one night...

In the novel Speak, the main character Melinda Sordino becomes the victim of sexual assault at a party after 8th grade. By the beginning of 9th grade, she finds herself a social outcast and an...

In the book Speak, main character Melinda Sordino has been the victim of a rape. Throughout the novel, she is attempting to deal with the social and emotional outcome of the rape and, of course, is...

In "The Black Cat," a short story by famed horror writer Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator realizes that his mental health is quickly deteriorating.  Though he bears witness to his own descent...

In her short story "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson plays on the fact that people are sometimes so far removed from their own ancient customs that they are shocked by their violence. In fact, she is...

In 1963, author Rachel Carson published the controversial and highly influential book Silent Spring.  At the time, she was called upon to testify in court about the findings and observations...

The Progressive Era, which lasted from 1900 to 1917, and the New Deal Era, which lasted from 1929 to 1940, were two of the most influential periods of history for the United States of America....

In The Wrong Category by Ruth Rendell, the main character, Barry, has been stalking the streets at night, visiting the spots where several murders have occurred. This seems to be either a very...

All of the characters in "Harrison Bergeron" struggle to a certain degree. The people in society who have anything special to brag of (beauty, brains, strength, etc.) are forced by the government,...

In the book Hatchet, thirteen-year old Brian Robeson is the only passenger on a tiny plane bound for the northern woods of Canada. At first, he thinks it’s interesting to be flying in the small...

Ponyboy and Darry have many subtle similarities and differences between them. First, they are brothers, and they both have the same experience of losing their parents, though they sometimes deal...

The Declaration of Independence was written in the neoclassical/Age of Reason period in history.  This period of time was defined by the movement toward the belief that people were rational...

"'What story?' He smiled and pulled me close to him as he said this.  I was afraid lying there on the red blanket.  All I could know was the way he felt, warm, damp, his body beside me....

Author Ruth Rendell was a master of writing mystery stories.  In her collection of short stories entitled A Fever Tree and Other Stories, she includes a story called "The Wrong Category." This...

In the book Night, Elie Wiesel reflects on his first night in the concentration camps where the Nazis have taken him. He says, "Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for...

Female slaves in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved suffer more than male slaves, because they are doubly oppressed: first as slaves, and then as women in a patriarchal, masculine society.  Their...

In “Battle Royal,” the narrator is concerned with the question of his identity, in how he relates both to himself and to others. He speaks of having been ashamed of how ashamed he felt to be...

In "The Ominovore's Dilemma," author Michael Pollan discusses many farming techniques and practices which are utilized by one Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in rural Virginia. Mr. Salatin believes...

This quote on page 330 of Gary D. Schmidt's novel "Okay For Now" represents a pivotal point in the life of the protagonist, Doug. In the novel, Doug has just moved to a new town with his abusive...

Though Sir Thomas More's Utopia was written hundreds of years ago, it has become very fashionable to explore aspects of Utopian society within modern day popular culture. In his book, he explores...

Marguerite, or "Maya," has a complicated relationship with her grandmother, who she refers to as "Momma." As a child, she often resents the fact that her grandmother is so strict and religious. It...

There are three major places of importance in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The first place that is important to understanding the story is the Rez,...

One of the major conflicts that Willy Loman faces in Death of a Salesman is his conflict with society, which arguably springs from his own conflict with himself. As his issues with himself develop,...

To be clear, a lot of things happen to Pip's sister, Mrs. Joe, in the book Great Expectations. First, she becomes the sole caretaker of her baby brother at age twenty, after burying two parents and...

Understandably, Gregor's mother has a very difficult time accepting her son's metamorphosis into a giant insect. She is upset when she first sees him. The first time she witnesses what he has...

In The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls writes about her childhood spent moving around frequently, during which she spent a large part of her time homeless. Her parents had strange ideas about the...

In the novel Black Beauty, the horse has many masters, good and bad. In Chapter 12, Black Beauty's master and his friend John had to travel on business and used Black Beauty as their carthorse. It...

In Jane Eyre, Jane feels a strong moral responsibility to God that she has spent years cultivating into a need to do what she sees as the right thing. These beliefs, along with her moral...

Family is extremely important to the three brothers in The Outsiders. Darry, the oldest boy, has custody of his brothers and together they are involved in The Greasers, a gang which is like an...

In the novel The Sea, by John Banville, we follow the life of Max Morden, an old man who returns to the seaside town where he spent a summer fifty years earlier. His wife has recently died, and he...

Perhaps the most important theme in Allison's River of Names is the theme of survival through great hardship. The narrator in the novel experiences a difficult childhood, to say the least. Yet...

In Chapter 21, Holden happens upon his little sister, Phoebe, sleeping peacefully in his brother D.B.'s room. After watching her, he decides that children always look very peaceful when they sleep,...

In The House on Mango Street, Lucy, Rachel, and Esperanza are gifted three pairs of high-heeled shoes by the mother of the little foot family. At first, they marvel over how long and lean their...

In James' "The Beast in the Jungle," both seasonal and "dark" and "light" imagery are used to highlight the passage of time and changing of the physical seasons. This is done in order to evoke a...

There are many important metaphors in the novel "The Healers" by Ayi Kwei Armah, most of which surround the themes of the ignorance of invading colonial forces and the healing power of African...

While the themes of this short story by Roald Dahl can be difficult to identify, there are two which are the most evident. First, it is clear that the father loves the baby very much, which is why...

In the short story "Harrison Bergeron," society has "evolved" to make everyone more or less equal to everyone else. Because in the past equality had been so valued, the people in power thought it...

The character of Mars Bar, from the book Maniac Magee, is an "everyday hero" because he is a very human character who learns an important lesson and grows from it; that is, he is just a regular...

Throughout the novel The Outsiders, it becomes evident that Sodapop is a very social, outgoing person with a huge personality. He can be characterized as handsome, smart, athletic, and hardworking,...

One of the main topics covered in the book Feed is that of consumerism and its effect on the population. In the book, there are many everyday objects, including things which occur in nature, that...

"The Black Cat" is a story which reveals the gradual heightening of guilt that stems from one's actions and its effect on the human psyche. At the beginning of the book, the narrator relates the...

In Medieval times, there were people called Manciples, whose specific job it was to buy and store food for different types of institutions, including schools, monasteries, and Inns. In Chaucer's...

Steve Harmon is a character that wants to understand not only what is happening to him, but how it happened and why. He also wants to understand himself. Throughout the book, he is constantly...

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout definitely struggles with the social expectations that are placed on her. Though she is young, the people around her are constantly attempting to remind her...

In the book "Jane Eyre," Jane struggles with feelings of loneliness and inadequacy. All her life, she has been seen as plain and "less than" her family members and other children. This has caused...

At the beginning of the book, Maniac Magee is rather lost and searching for something that he's not sure exists yet: a permanent place to call his own with people who care about him. His parents...

In the book "Number The Stars," Annemarie Johansen is a ten year old girl living in Denmark during World War II. At such a young age, she has already been called upon to make sacrifices, both for...

Holden Caulfield is an interesting character in that his own actions do not reflect his beliefs about how others should act and who they should be. Throughout the book, he expresses the idea that a...

In chapter 16 of the book, we find out that there was a witness to the crime, Lorelle Henry, who claims that she saw two robbers arguing with Mr. Nesbitt and engaged in a physical altercation with...