Essays on Book Reports

... any sort of purpose. More traditional philosophies understand essence to precede existence. For example, God created humans for some sort of end. In other words God had an underlying purpose in the creation of human existence. It is from Heidegger’s belief that existence precedes essence, which he finds the question of Being such an important question to come to terms with. He believes that if we have the ability to formulate and pose the question of Being, then we must also possess the answer to it. Heidegger’s term “Dasein” can be understood as meaning “being there.” “Being there” implies that there are a “being here” and a “being-ov ...

... her in the morning when they were walking, he would mention her in his prayers and he would press his hands together until they were trembling and murmur: “O’love, O’love” (Pg. 90). She knew that he liked her that is why she knew he would try to go to the Araby in order to buy something for her. It was only at the end that he realized that he was “a creature driven and derided by vanity” (Pg. 92). Only then did he really figure out how dumb he was and that he was only thinking with his penis (but I already knew that). So my view of him after the ending was reinforced and even added to my views of his horniness and stupidity. In “A Rose for Emily ...

... I had created," (pg.152) says Victor upon looking back at his work. If there is another monster, there will be twice the power and possibly twice the evil, which could hurt or kill his family. "With the companion you bestow I will quit the neighborhood of man,"(pg 142) promises the morally corrupt monster to the doctor upon the completion of his partner. When the doctor, if and when he, finished his first creation's mate there is a chance that the monsters will not keep their promise and stay in Europe evoking fear into townsfolk. The good doctor, trying to act morally, destroys the monster for the good of the world. The monsters can potentially take over wha ...

... of town where no-one knows the truth. Both Emma and Homais followed this practice in their pursuits to really belong. “Madame Bovary” is about a sense of self, a search for personal identity and reality versus illusion. The symbolism throughout the story is clearly indicative of this fact (Barron’s 5). To what social class did the characters belong, in reality, in appearance? Did they move from one class to another during the story? In the following pages I will respond to these questions. Charles Bovary moves between two classes: working and middle. He comes from a middle class home but he does not seem to care what his social status is. Both his mother a ...

... was a vivacious and generous man, but often lived outside the boundaries of his tight pocketbook. Later in life Dickens used his father as the basis for his fictional character, Mr. Micawber and his mother as Mrs. Nickleby in the Brothers Cheeryble (Constable 25). In 1814 John Dickens was transferred from the post in Portsworth to one in London. Three years later the family moved to Chatham to be closer to their father who was working steadily at the post. Charles Dickens's mother taught him to read when he was barely five and for the next few years Dickens lived wonderfully, reading every book he could get his hands on. He quickly read through his father's ...

... spirit. The tribe began to doubt their God. The stories that helped individuals retain their wealth ceased to be told, because the wealth of the tribe was gone. The warriors stopped fighting against the oppressing white man, because the Indians were nearing extinction. Eventually, for survival, the tribe agreed to sell their land to the whites. The Indians were forced to live on reservations. Indians, in the United States of America today, are in a constant battle with the duality of their lives. This duality is a struggle between their traditional culture and the modern day society that surrounds them. In the collection of short stories The Lone Ranger and ...

... chief, Ralph. Ralph is about 12 years old, and has a very sensible, and logical personality. At first, the boys create duties to follow, and they live amicably in peace. Soon however, differences arise as to their priorities. The smaller children (know as littl'uns) lose interest in their tasks; the older boys want to spend more time hunting than carrying out more routine duties, such as keeping the signal fire on the top of the mountain going, and building shelters. A rumor spreads that a "beast" of some sort is lurking in the forest, and the children have nightmares. Jack, (A ruthless, power-hungry person), promising to fulfil the children's des ...

... such a typical soldier type. She fights his charm with her laughter, impertinence and indifference, but he still manages to take her in with transparent deception. Elizabeth is tied to Wickham by her intellectual commitment to objectivity, which translates into superficial bindings. Not at all silly like her ditzy sisters, Elizabeth is simply disengaged and she wishes to see and understand excitement. She finds her wish in Wickham, who provides her with a strange tale that is both shocking and appealing to Elizabeth. Elizabeth perceptiveness fails her in the situation with her friend Charlotte Lucas: she makes a terrible mistake in her judgment of Charlotte. ...

... of reason, Alighieri shows that in order to face evil, morality and intellect are required. As Virgil leads Dante into Hell, he says, "Here you must put by all division of spirit and gather your soul against all cowardice. This is the place I told you to expect. Here you shall pass among the fallen people, souls who have lost the good of intellect." (14-18) With the help of reason, Dante is able to face evil. The author shows that in order to conquer evil, reason, bravery and intellect are required. As he is lead through the Dark Wood of Errors, Dante realizes the circumstances by which souls make their descents into Hell. The manner in which people live thei ...

... or did not want to chose just one of the endings to the novel. It would seem that Fowles is trying to be fair to all of the characters by including the various endings which satisfy all of them. Fowles comments that the job of a novelist is "to put two conflicting wants in the ring and describe the fight", which is essentially what he has done. However it is hard to decide for whom to fix the fight in favor of when one owns both fighters. Fowles also briefly mentions allowing "freedom of characters" in his writing. This concept is somewhat vague. To allow freedom of characters is to essentially allow the characters to do anything that the author thinks of. ...