.... a popular book among teenagers. One of the first major changes in children’s lives today is the break up of the nuclear family. When Salinger wrote this novel back in 1951, the average family consisted of one mother, one father, and one or more children. Today this is rare and far from normal. Today’s “normal” family is undefined. If one were to look at the average family it would probably consist of a single parent with children. Today in the U.S., there are over 8 million single-parent homes (Holzman). Forty years ago, single-parent homes were few and .....

.... growth and the birth of a new middle class in the early part of the nineteenth century, Northern women were experiencing a total reform of society. Nancy Woloch states in Women and the American Experience “middle class Americans had rising incomes, expectations, and living standards” (p.67). The atmosphere was charged with growth and transformation. It was out of this shift in society that the “cult of true womanhood” was born. This idyllic view of women’s appropriate sphere “celebrated the new status of the middle class woman, along with her distinctive .....

.... lucky. That hope was our only joy." (p. 12) Really, this was their only joy. The mothers grew up during perilous times in China. They all were taught "to desire nothing, to swallow other people's misery, to eat [their] own bitterness." (p. 241) Though not many of them grew up terribly poor, they all had a certain respect for their elders, and for life itself. These Chinese mothers were all taught to be honorable, to the point of sacrificing their own lives to keep any family members' promise. Instead of their daughters, who "can promise to come to dinner, bu .....

.... the ring. BARD: The archer who killed Smaug. He shot the dragon in the one spot it had no protection. The towns people later considered him a hero. What the people didn't know it was Bilbo who discovered the weak spot in the dragon's iron scales. BEORN: An enemy of orcs, he becomes friends with Bilbo and Gandalf. He has th e ability to change forms from human to bear. It is he who determines the outco me of the battle of five Armies. STORY SUMMARY The book begins with Bilbo Ba .....

.... everyday life became issues for Steinbeck. His writings spoke out against those who kept the oppressed in poverty and therefore was branded as a Communist because of his "voice." Although, it did become a bestseller and receive countless awards, his book was banned in many schools and libraries. However, critics never attacked The Grapes of Wrath on the artistic level and they still consider it a beautifully mastered work of art. More than any other American novel, it successfully embodies a contemporary social problem of national scope in an artistically vi .....

.... academic childhood, he was more mature than the others and retained his civilized behaviour. But his experiences on the island gave him a more realistic understanding of the cruelty possessed by some people. The ordeals of the three boys on the island made them more aware of the evil inside themselves and in some cases, made the false politeness that had clothed them dissipate. However, the changes experienced by one boy differed from those endured by another. This is attributable to the physical and mental dissimilarities between them. Jack was first .....

.... characters. In The Birthmark, Aylmer has a dream in which he commits an act of horrendous cruelty to his wife, Georgiana. This dream delves into Aylmer's personality, as the realization that he will stop at nothing in order to destroy the slight imperfection on the cheek of Georgiana. Dreams are often viewed as a perception of a person's unconscious mind. Aylmer is not a selfish man in his wishes for his wife to have her birthmark removed. He is just unable to control himself, much like children do. As a result of this new view of Hawthorne's character, we .....

.... which I thought added to the grave mood of the story. The story of Bilbo's adventures is so dangerous that the many settings of the novel had to be gloomy enough to make up for the danger. There are many outstanding characteristics in this story. With so many excellent attributes in The Hobbit, I found it difficult to find many things that were not good. Tolkien's choice of a conflict was not very creative. The plot of this novel is based upon the traditional "going out and taking back what is yours" story. The many kinks and side adventures made The Hobbit i .....