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Preface | |
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the Process of Reading, Responding to, and Writing About Literature | |
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What Is Literature, and Why Do We Study It? | |
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Types of Literature: the Genres | |
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Reading Literature and Responding to It Actively | |
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Alice Walker Everyday Use | |
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Mrs. Johnson, with her daughter Maggie, is visited by her citified daughter Dee, whose return home is accompanied by surprises. | |
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Reading and Responding in a Computer File or Notebook | |
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Sample Notebook Entries on Walker's "Everyday Use" | |
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Major Stages in Thinking and Writing about Literary Topics: Discovering Ideas, Preparing to Write, Making an Initial Draft of Your Essay, and Completing the Essay | |
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Writing Does Not Come Easily-for Anyone | |
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The Goal of Writing: to Show a Process of Thought | |
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Discovering Ideas ("Brainstorming") | |
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Study the Characters in the Work | |
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Determine the Work's Historical Period and Background | |
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Analyze the Work's Economic and Social Conditions | |
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Explain the Work's Major Ideas | |
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Describe the Work's Artistic Qualities | |
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Explain Any Other Approaches That Seem Important | |
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Preparing to Write | |
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Build Ideas from Your Original Notes | |
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Trace Patterns of Action and Thought | |
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The Need for the Actual Physical Process of Writing | |
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Raise and Answer Your Own Questions | |
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Put Ideas Together Using a Plus-Minus, Pro-Con, or Either-Or Method | |
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Originate and Develop Your Thoughts Through Writing | |
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Making an Initial Draft of Your Essay | |
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Base Your Essay on a Central Idea, Argument, or Statement | |
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The Need for a Sound Argument in Essays About Literature | |
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Create a Thesis Sentence as Your Guide to Organization | |
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Begin Each Paragraph with a Topic Sentence | |
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Select Only One Topic-No More-for Each Paragraph | |
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Referring to the Names of Authors | |
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Use Your Topic Sentences as the Arguments for Your Paragraph Development | |
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The Use of Verb Tenses in the Discussion of Literary Works | |
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Develop an Outline as the Means of Organizing Your Essay | |
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Basic Writing Types: Paragraphs and Essays | |
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Paragraph Assignment | |
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Illustrative Student Essay (First Draft): Mrs. Johnson's Overly Self-Assured Daughter, Dee, in Walker's "Everyday Use" (NEW) | |
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Completing the Essay: Developing and Strengthening Your Essay Through Revision | |
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Make Your Own Arrangement of Details and Ideas | |
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Use Literary Material as Evidence to Support Your Argument | |
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Always Keep to Your Point; Stick to It Tenaciously | |
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Check Your Development and Organization | |
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Try to Be Original | |
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Write with Specific Readers as Your Intended Audience | |
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Use Exact, Comprehensive, and Forceful Language | |
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Illustrative Student Essay (Improved Draft): Mrs. Johnson's Overly Self-Assured Daughter, Dee, in Walker's "Everyday Use" (NEW) | |
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Commentary on the Essay | |
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Essay Commentaries | |
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A Summary of Guidelines | |
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Writing Topics About the Writing Process | |
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A Short Guide to the Use of References and Quotations in Essays About Literature | |
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Integrate Passages and Ideas into Your Essay | |
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Distinguish Your Thoughts from Those of Your Author | |
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Integrate Material by Using Quotation Marks | |
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Blend Quotations into Your Own Sentences | |
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Indent Long Quotations and Set Them in Block Format | |
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Use an Ellipsis to Show Omissions | |
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Use Square Brackets to Enclose Words That You Add Within Quotations | |
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Be Careful Not to Overquote | |
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Preserve the Spellings in Your Source | |
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Reading and Writing About Fiction | |
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Fiction: An Overview | |
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Modern Fiction | |
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The Short Story | |
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Elements of Fiction I: Verisimilitude and Donn�e | |
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Elements of Fiction II: Character, Plot, Structure, and Idea or Theme | |
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Elements of Fiction III: the Writer's Tools | |
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Visualizing Fiction: Cartoons, Graphic Narratives, Graphic Novels | |
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Dan Piraro, Bizarro � Art Spiegelman, from Maus (Expanded) | |
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Stories For Study | |
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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge | |
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A condemned man dreams of escape, freedom, and family. | |
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'Mericans (NEW) | |
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Through an evil act, a man learns goodness. | |
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A Rose for Emily | |
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Even seemingly ordinary people hide deep and bizarre mysteries. | |
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the Things They Carried | |
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During the Vietnam War, American soldiers carry not only their weighty equipment but many memories. | |
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Luigi Pirandello War | |
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During World War I in Italy, the loss of a loved one outweighs all rationalizations for the conflict. | |
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Plot: the Motivation and Causality of Fiction | |
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Writing About the Plot of a Story | |
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Illustrative Student Essay: Plot in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" (NEW) | |
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Writing Topics About Plot in Fiction | |
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Point of View: the Position or Stance of the Work's Narrator or Speaker | |
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An Exercise in Point of View: Reporting an Accident | |
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Conditions That Affect Point of View | |
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Point of View and Opinions | |
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Determining a Work's Point of View | |
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Mingling Points of View | |
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Point of View and Verb Tense | |
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Summary: Guidelines for Points of View | |
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Stories For Study | |
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This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona (NEW) | |
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Two old acquaintances friends embark on a journey to recover the body of one of their fathers. | |
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Neighbors | |
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Bill and Arlene Miller are looking after the apartment of the Stones, their neighbors, whose life seems to be brighter and fuller than theirs. | |
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The Lottery | |
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What would it be like if the prize at a community-sponsored lottery were not the cash that people ordinarily hope to win? | |
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What I Have Been Doing Lately | |
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Life develops from the repetition and recirculation of dreams and fantasies. | |
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How to Become a Writer | |
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There is more to becoming a writer than simply sitting down at a table and beginning to write. | |
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Writing About Point of View | |
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Illustrative Student Essay: Shirley Jackson's Dramatic Point of View in "The Lottery" | |
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Writing Topics About Point of View | |
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Characters: the People in Fiction | |
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Character Traits | |
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How Authors Disclose Character in Literature | |
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Types of Characters: Round and Flat | |
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Reality and Probability: Verisimilitude | |
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Stories For Study | |
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Greasy Lake (NEW) | |
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Young men discover more than a way to kill time at this local hangout. | |
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Cathedral | |
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A husband and wife receive a blind visitor who affects the man's way of seeing things. | |
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A Jury of Her Peers | |
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In a small farmhouse kitchen, the wives of men investigating a murder discover significant evidence that forces them to make an urgent decision. | |
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Miss Brill | |
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Miss Brill goes to the park for a pleasant afternoon, but she does not find what she was expecting. | |
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The Necklace | |
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To go to a ball, Mathilde Loisel borrows a necklace from a rich friend, but her rhapsodic evening has unforeseen consequences. | |
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Two Kinds | |
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Jing-Mei leads her own kind of life despite the wishes and hopes of her mother. | |
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Luck | |
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A faithful follower describes an English general who was knighted for military brilliance. | |
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Writing About Character | |
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Illustrative Student Essay: The Character of Minnie Wright in Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers" | |
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Writing Topics About Character | |
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Setting: the Background of Place, Objects, and Culture in Stories | |
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What Is Setting? | |
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The Literary Uses of Setting | |
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Stories For Study | |
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Stephen Crane the Blue Hotel (NEW) | |
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Araby | |
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An introspective boy learns much about himself when he tries to keep a promise. | |
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Lu Hsun My Old Home (NEW) | |
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A man revisits his childhood home. | |
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Swaddling Clothes (NEW) | |
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A young woman confronts the realities of life in the lower classes in turn of the century Japan. | |
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The Shawl | |
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Can a mother in a Nazi concentration camp save her starving and crying baby? | |
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Writing About Setting | |
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Illustrative Student Essay: The Interaction of Story and Setting in James Joyce's "Araby" (NEW) | |
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Writing Topics About Setting | |
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Structure: the Organization of Stories | |
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Formal Categories of Structure | |
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Formal and Actual Structure | |
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Stories For Study | |
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Battle Royal | |
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An intelligent black student, filled with hopes and dreams, is treated with monstrous indignity. | |
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Saboteur (NEW) | |
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Wrongfully detained, a man has revenge as a meal to celebrate his escape. | |
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the Interpreter of Maladies (NEW) | |
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A tour guide learns about a troubled American family on a visit to ruins. | |
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Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? | |
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A teenage girl is visited by an aggressive stranger who does not accept "no" for an answer. | |
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A Worn Path | |
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Phoenix Jackson, a devoted grandmother, walks a worn path on a mission of great love. | |
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Blue Winds Dancing | |
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A Native American student leaves college in California to spend Christmas in his hometown in Wisconsin. | |
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Writing About Structure in a Story | |
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Illustrative Student Essay: The Structure of Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" | |
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Writing Topics About Structure | |
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Tone and Style: the Words That Convey Attitudes in Fiction | |
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Diction: the Writer's Choice and Control of Words | |
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Tone, Irony, and Style | |
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Tone, Humor, and Style | |
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Stories For Study | |
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The Story of an Hour | |
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Louise Mallard is shocked and grieved by news that her husband has been killed, but she is about to have an even greater shock. | |
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Barn Burning | |
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A young country boy grows in awareness, conscience, and individuality despite his hostile father. | |
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Hills Like White Elephants | |
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While waiting for a train, a man and woman reluctantly discuss an urgent situation. | |
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The Found Boat | |
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After winter snows have melted in a small Canadian community, young people start making discoveries about themselves. | |
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First Confession | |
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Jackie as a young man tells about his first childhood experience with confession. | |
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Orientation | |
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A new employee is introduced to the rather unusual and surprising situations in the office. | |
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John Updike A & P | |
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As a checkout clerk at the A & P near the local beaches, Sammy learns about the consequences of a difficult choice. | |
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Writing About Tone and Style | |
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Illustrative Student Essay: Frank O'Connor's Control of Tone and Style in "First Confession" | |
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Writing Topics About Tone and Style | |
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Symbolism and Allegory: Keys to Extended Meaning | |
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Symbolism | |
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Allegory | |
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Fable, Parable, and Myth | |
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Allusion in Symbolism and Allegory | |
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Stories For Study | |
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AESOP: The Fox and the Grapes | |
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What do people think about things that they can't have? | |
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Anonymous The Myth of Atalanta | |
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In ancient times, how could a superior woman maintain power and integrity? | |
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Young Goodman Brown | |
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In colonial Salem, Goodman Brown has a bewildering encounter that changes his outlook on life. | |
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A Hunger Artist | |
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Public interest wanes even in a unique person. | |
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LUKE The Parable of the Prodigal Son | |
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Is there any limit to what a person can do to make divine forgiveness impossible? | |
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A Marquez A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings | |
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How do simple villagers respond to a miraculous visitor who appears in their town? | |
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The Jilting of Granny Weatherall | |
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As the end nears, Granny Weatherall has her memories and is surrounded by her loving adult children. | |
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The Chrysanthemums | |
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As a housewife on a small ranch, Elisa Allen experiences changes to her sense of self-worth. | |
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Writing About Symbolism and Allegory | |
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Illustrative Student Essay (Symbolism): Symbols of Light and Darkness in Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"Second Illustrative Student Essay (Allegory): The Allegory of Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" | |
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Writing Topics About Symbolism and Allegory | |
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Idea or Theme: the Meaning and the Message in Fiction | |
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Ideas and Assertions | |
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Ideas and Issues | |
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Ideas and Values | |
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The Place of Ideas in Literature | |
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How to Find Ideas | |
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Stories For Study | |
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Sonny's Blues | |
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A devoted brother describes how his brother, Sonny, is hurt by racial prejudice, and how Sonny finds fulfillment through love of music. | |
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The Lesson | |
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When a group of children visits a toy store for the wealthy, some of them draw conclusions about society and themselves. | |
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The Lady with the Dog | |
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Bored with life, Dmitri Gurov meets Anna Sergeyevna and discovers previously unknown emotions and extremely new problems. | |
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The Horse Dealer's Daughter | |
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Dr. Jack Fergusson and Mabel Pervin find, in each other's love, a new reason for being. | |
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The Hammon and the Beans | |
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Is American liberty restricted to people of only one group, or is it for everyone? | |
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Writing About a Major Idea in Fiction | |
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Illustrative Student Essay: D. H. Lawrence's "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" as an Expression of the Idea that Loving Commitment is Essential in Life | |
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Writing Topics About Ideas | |
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A Career in Fiction: Four Stories by Edgar Allan Poe with Critical Readings for Research | |
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Poe's Life and Career | |
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Poe's Work as a Journalist and Writer of Fiction | |
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Poe's Reputation | |
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Bibliographic Sources | |
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Writing Topics About Poe | |
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Four Stories by Edgar Allan POE (CHRONOLOGICALly arranged) | |
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The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) | |
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The Masque of the Red Death (1842) | |
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The Black Cat (1843) | |
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The Cask of Amontillado (1846) | |
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Edited Selections from Criticism of Poe's Stories | |
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Poe's Irony | |
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the Narrators of "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" | |
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"The Fall of the House of Usher" | |
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"The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" | |
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"The Masque of the Red Death" | |
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Symbolism in "The Masque of the Red Death" | |
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"The Masque of the Red Death" as Representative of a "Diseased Age" | |