Excerpt Essays

  • Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    children experience in one form or another are easily recognized in Richard Rodriguez’s autobiographical excerpt from Hunger of Memory. Rodriguez’s childhood was particularly unique given the fact that while he was born and raised in the United States, he was strongly influenced in the ethnic environment of a Spanish family. Although the reader is introduced to only a short excerpt from the autobiography, he learns a great deal about Rodriguez’s family and his relationship to it,

  • Symbolism of the Conch in Lord of the Flies by William Golding

    629 Words  | 2 Pages

    hold. The Conch's power is presented in the very beginning on pg 22 as the children vote for Ralph to be chief just because he was the one with the Conch. ' "Him with the shell." "Ralph! Ralph!" "Let him be chief with the trumpet thing" ' this excerpt from pg 22 shows how everybody seems to think that power, responsibility and leadership skills comes from the Conch. Another Example of the Conch's Power is the fact that through out the book the conch is the only tool that can call a meeting and

  • The Mark Twain Thesis

    688 Words  | 2 Pages

    seem to be striving for excellence is quite unique. In an excerpt from Life On The Mississippi Twain tells us of a man with a dream. As imperfection has it this man's dream did not come true. But his friend's similar dream , however, did. The narrator tells us through a blanket of jealousy how this man was perpetually annoying, and how, 'there was nothing generous about this fellow and his greatness.'; Like many of Twain's writings this excerpt shows us a man with convictions as he looks at a seemingly

  • Secondhand Smoke and Cancer

    639 Words  | 2 Pages

    developing cervical      neoplasia." excerpt from Second hand smoke, cervical cancer linked. UPI NewsTrack, Jan 5, 2005 2.      The CDC said secondhand smoke exposure is on the decline across the United States but that it remains a public      health      hazard. It contributes to      approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths and more than 35,000 coronary heart disease      deaths      annually among people who have never smoked, the agency said. excerpt from Laws reduce second hand smoke

  • Free Essays - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Essays

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    beginning of the book Alice gets distracted from her "boring" work, and chases a white rabbit down a hole. This excerpt describes Alices curiosity, "Alice started to her feet, for it flashed in her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket". When Alice is at the bottom of the hole she find a bottle labeled "Drink Me", she wants to see what it tastes like, this excerpt describes the event "...this bottle was not marked `poison', so Alice ventured to taste it, finding it very

  • Edna O’Brien’s Country Girls Trilogy

    2654 Words  | 6 Pages

    Baba’s, but at least that had each other in the end, when the rest of the world seemed to have forgotten them. The excerpt in Colm Toibin’s anthology, The Penguin book of Irish Fiction, is from the first book in O’Brien’s trilogy called The Country Girls. For purposes of this paper, I will discuss the excerpt itself, and then the rest of the first book of O’Brien’s trilogy. The Excerpt from The Country Girls was taken from chapter fourteen. In this passage, Baba and Caithleen have just moved to Dublin

  • Skunk Hour

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even if the occupants of those cars knew they were being observed, chances are they would not associate themselves with the speaker. In addition, Robert Lowell portrays his character as something akin to a stalker, illustrated in the following excerpt. 			 One dark night, 			my Tudor Ford climbed the hill’s skull; 			I watched for love-cars. ...

  • Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - The Character of the Reeve

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Chaucer’s introduction of the Reeve, he immediately begins with the Reeve’s physical makeup, as shown in this excerpt from The Canterbury Tales: “His beerd was shave as neigh as evere he can; His heer was by his eres ful round yshorn; His top was dokked lik a preest biforn; Ful longe were his legges and ful lene, Ylik a staf, ther was no calf yseene (590-594).” This excerpt shows the attention to detail Chaucer selected to introduce the Reeve.  Chaucer also gives the Reeve a name, which

  • The Little Mermaid

    2428 Words  | 5 Pages

    little tongue that I may cut it off as my payment; then you shall have the powerful draught." "It shall be," said the little mermaid. (Andersen 50) The passage quoted above is an important excerpt from "The Little Mermaid," a famous work by the great Danish storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen. This excerpt marks the turning point of the story, when the little mermaid adamantly resolves to trade her voice for a pair of legs with the sea-witch, a decision that adversely changes her fate. From here

  • Seventh Heaven

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    Seventh Heaven Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1991. Many characteristics of magical realism were expressed in an excerpt from this novel. From reading this, I have learnt that magic appears to me as being real. My comprehending of this novel was more because or realism. Alice Hoffman's attitude in this book seemed to be that she set it as an example of magical realism and she made the readers curious about what was going to happen next. Hoffman made this

  • Simulation

    569 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the excerpt from “Biosphere Politics” by Jeremy Rifkin. I found something very interesting. He states “The separation of human beings from nature and the parallel detachment of human consciousness from the human body has transformed western man into an alien on his own planet” (Rifkin). If people could take trips to other places with out leaving the sanctity of there own home it would be an amazing experience. I also was amazed with Rifkins idea of downloading the human consciousness into a machine

  • A Tale Of Two Schools: How Poor Children Are Lost To The World

    509 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Tale of Two Schools: How Poor Children Are Lost to the World Jonathan Kozol wrote a book titled Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. A Tale of Two Schools: How Poor Children Are Lost to the World is an excerpt from the book. The excerpt tells the story of two high schools in the Chicago area. The Chicago area has a variety of high schools. Du Sable High School in Chicago and New Trier High School in a Chicago suburb are at different ends of the spectrum when speaking of the overall

  • Tender is the Night

    1132 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hemingway…quarrel with Bunny Wilson…quarrel with Gerald Murphy…breakdown of car…tight at Eddie Poe’s…sick again…first borrowing from mother…sick… ‘The Fire’…Zelda weakens and goes to Hopkins…one servant and eating out.” (Mayfield 207) A short excerpt from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Ledger provides a small sample of the many hurdles Fitzgerald struggled to overcome while slaving away nine years with Tender is the Night. The labor which accompanied Fitzgerald’s fourth novel was not anticipated by

  • Passage Commentary From The Sound Of Waves

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this excerpt from The Sound of Waves, Yukio Mishima’s use of descriptive diction and imagery depicts the tumultuous island during the storm and helps the reader visualize the milieu and events of the passage. The reader feels an understated, ironic excitement and anticipation that is established in this passage because of the author’s diction. This simple but illustrative passage from The Sound of Waves altogether creates an enhanced experience and familiarity with the backdrop and atmosphere

  • Understanding Chopin's The Awakening

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    about how to flirt (just keep asking, “What do you think?” and you will be praised everywhere for your intelligence).  (116) The sarcasm and wit of Kate Chopin can be seen and heard through the character of Edna Pontellier.  Just from this small excerpt in Chopin’s diary, we can hear the similarities.  In The Awakening, Edna seems to move through the Creole social scene in a daze, possibly because she despised all of it. But when she was alone with her thoughts, she appears quite aware of what she

  • Social Acceptance and Its Consequences

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    peers and developing morals. It is usually caused by the metamorphosis from a completely dependent person to a social being where there is an increased pressure to fit in. The fictitious narrator in Alice Adams’ "Truth or Consequences" – itself an excerpt from her book To See You Again – was unique in that she could pinpoint this defining moment. Her experience with Carstairs Jones was a mixed blessing that she was not able to overcome and, in light of how her life turned out, was a foreshadowing of

  • Letter from a Birmingham Jail and The Declaration of Individualism

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's anti-religious laws." This excerpt shows that King encourages protest because in some situations he deems it necessary, be it in Hitler's Germany, a Communist country, or any situation in which injustices are occurring.  In the last sentence of the excerpt King openly admits that he would protest against established laws or traditions.  King was against the traditional views and unjust laws

  • Chronicle of a death foretold

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    shared. There were two main themes that I noticed. The main theme was how unpowerful the women are in the story. This is shown when Marquez writes "The brothers were brought up to be men. The girls were brought up to be married.” This excerpt shows the severity of the lives women lead in the reserved Colombian culture of the town. A woman's worthiness as a wife was measured by her beauty in conjunction with her ability to gracefully run all aspects of a household. The idea that the

  • Huckleberry Finn ( Huck Finn )

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    Huck Finn5 The concept of what truth is, is a prevailing theme in both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the essay excerpt by Andrew Lang. Lang writes about truth as being found in lack of distortion from the actual world. Lang’s idea of truth is certainly found in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. For Twain, morality is a larger part of his concept of truth than likeness to nature. Truth, for Andrew Lang is factual, precise, and objective. He admires The Adventures of Huckleberry

  • The Allegory of the Cave by Plato

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Allegory of the Cave by Plato "The Allegory of the Cave," by Plato, explains that people experience emotional and intellectual revelations throughout different stages in their lives. This excerpt, from his dialogue The Republic, is a conversation between a philosopher and his pupil. The argument made by this philosopher has been interpreted thousands of times across the world. My own interpretation of this allegory is simple enough as Plato expresses his thoughts as separate stages. The