Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving – Focus on Characters and Settings

RIP VAN WINKLE. A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER. By Woden, God of Saxons, From whence comes Wensday, that is Wodensday. Truth is a thing that ever I will keep Unto thylke day in which I creep into My sepulchre—— Cartwright. [The following Tale was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old…

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca DAPHNE DU MAURIER ISBN U 582 419379 First published in the Longman Simplified English Series 1957 Contents Introduction V Chapter 1 Maxim de Winter 1 Chapter 2 Manderley 7 Chapter 3 The Cottage in the Bay 11 Chapter 4 The Shadow of Rebecca 19 Chapter 5 Rebecca’s Room 23 Chapter 6 The Fancy-Dress Dance…

Powder by Tobias Wolff – Focus on Character

Powder is a short story written by Tobias Wolff, who also wrote This Boy’s Life, which is Wolff’s memoir that later became a motion picture by the same name. “Tobias Wolff writes prose that is clean and honest. He deals with the gritty realities of experience, sometimes relying on his own years as a soldier…

Songs As Literature – Focus on House As Theme

Flies On The Butter (You Can’t Go Home Again) Wynona Judd Old tin roof, leaves in the gutter A hole in the screen door big as your fist And flies on the butter Mama baking sugar cookies, we were watching cartoons I heard her holler from the kitchen “Which one of you youngen’s wants to…

The Flowers by Alice Walker – Focus on Plot

Alice Walker wrote the eye-opening, life-changing novel The Color Purple. The story is epic but it is brutal. Notice the climax in the following scene of The Color Purple: Alice Walker is a consummate storyteller. Let’s study her very short story The Flowers. The Flowers By Alice Walker It seemed to Myop as she skipped…

Setting in Literature – Focus on Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

“Setting – The physical and social context in which the action of a story occurs. The major elements of setting are the time, the place, and the social environment that frames the characters. Setting can be used to evoke a mood or atmosphere that will prepare the reader for what is to come….” Meyer &…