Comparing "A Sound Of Thunder" and "The Monkeys Paw".

Comparing "A Sound Of Thunder" and "The Monkeys Paw" In this essay, I am comparing two stories, "A Sound Of Thunder" and "The Monkeys Paw". Ray Bradbury wrote "A Sound Of Thunder" in 1952 and "The Monkeys Paw" was written in the late 19th century by WW. Jacobs. "A Sound Of Thunder" is set in 2055 and is in the science fiction genre. You can tell this because it is not fictional and is set in the future. It makes us think about future possibilities and even though it is not true at the time it is written, there is a possibility that it could happen in the future. You can tell that "The Monkeys Paw" is set in the future genre because it is made to give you a slight chill down your spine, and is about possibilities of things going wrong. It is set in an isolated position and the weather is bad, giving a tense and isolated feeling. The first contrast which can be seen is at the beginning of each story. The beginning of "The Monkeys Paw" uses very descriptive language such as Without, the night was cold and wet, the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly This is the opening line to A Monkeys Paw whereas the opening paragraph in "A Sound Of Thunder" uses no description, and talks about the sign on the wall, Time Safari Inc Safaris to any year in the past You name the animal, we take you there You shoot it This is a large contrast between the two stories as one is

  • Word count: 869
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Theme of Land - Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry

Mildred D. Taylor's novel 'Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry', is set in Mississippi, a white-dominated society. The Logans were indefatigably fighting to stand up for, and enforce their fundamental rights. This area's main source of income was agriculture, and for agriculture you need land. Most blacks were too poor to own land, and hence share-cropped on white land, which left them very dependent on the whites. The complete control over their lives coerced them to subjugate to the whites and silently bear the all the injustice iniquitously meted out to them. It was arduous to defend one's rights when you lived in constant fear of having your source of livelihood being cut, or even dire consequences. Hence, for the Logans, the land was a source of pride, their only possession that kept them independent of the whites, and gave them the courage to fight for their rights and challenge the whites. In a society where the reminiscence of slavery is still strong, land is a symbol of independence and self-sufficiency. Throughout the book, they repeat the same refrain, "We won't lose the land". Even though they didn't have enough money to pay taxes, mortgage, and live on too, they strived to make ends meet for the sake of their land. David Logan went away from home, to set tracks in Louisiana. Mary Logan taught in school. All the children, Big Ma, and Mama worked very hard picking

  • Word count: 769
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Non-Fiction personal writing.

Non-Fiction Cromer 2002 It was the summer of 2002 Friday 13th July to be exact! I knew a couple of months before that my mum and dad were going on holiday in the caravan, but I was only willinh to go if I could take a friend with me. They eventually agreed to it, so I asked Quinny. Quinny had to work the morning of Saturday 14th July but that was ok, because we werent leaving till after dinner and he had brought all he neede for the holiday up the night before. We were all ready for off at about 1 o'clock on the Saturday, I was expecting a long journey as I had been to the same campsite the year before and it takes about three hours on a good day. But thankfully we didnt get lost on the way so we got there just before tea-time. Quinny and I waited in the car while my mum and dad signed us in and got our pitch number. Number nine was our pitch this time, which wasnt that far away from where we were last year. I'll just tell you one more thing about last year then I will move on, I met a girl called Vicky who I spent most of the holiday with. As we got on really well, I knew she was going back this year but she had a boyfriend so it would be a bit different. We got parked up eventually, I went to get the wated while Quinny, started putting up the tent our sleeping house for the week. After we had finished setting up my mum and dad sent us down to the fish and chip shop

  • Word count: 2270
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Symbols in 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry'.

Mildred D. Taylor's Use of Symbols in 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry' A symbol is a sign, object or picture that represents something in every language to every person. A symbol may mean something different to different people. In the novel 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry' symbols are used to show changes in the characters feelings or the way Blacks in general get treated. There are many different ways Mildred D. Taylor gets her point across and how she changes the whole story line. In strawberry T.J saw a Pearl Handled Pistol he was very eager to show his first impressions of the gun! "That pearl handled one. Stacey, man you ever seen a gun like that? I'd sell my life for that gun for my life." This symbol is used in the Novel to reflect on T.J's greed and how it gets him into trouble. In this instance he doesn't get the gun and it leads him into trouble and it leads other people into trouble. He also gets other people into trouble by the way he phrases things, he uses words to try and get people thinking different things so he can benefit from it. The land represents lots of different things to different things to different people. To the Logans the land means everything if the land is lost then whole family will collapse. The Logans are desperate to keep the land and pay off the mortgage as soon as they can. For Harlan Granger it means another extra in his life and it

  • Word count: 810
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Racism in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Analysis

Racism Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred Taylor's remarkable novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, annotates, portrays, and demonstrates the vivid image of the ugly race prejudice, effectively, that the African Americans experienced in the 1930s, during the American Depression. In Taylor's enthralling novel, racism comes across as a major and influential theme as the novel progresses and revolves around a young girl, Cassie Logan, who matures with racial conflict around her. Racism is apparent from the beginning of the novel. It is depicted from the beginning that African Americans are treated terribly, and they must work extremely hard, to earn the money they need to provide their family, with shelter, and food. Papa must work away from home to earn himself a good salary to keep the Logan's own land, rather than working as sharecroppers on someone else's land. The second example of the callous segregation is evident, as it is seen that the "elite white community" have transport to school, while the harshly treated African Americans are deprived of this service, and are forced to walk to school. Also, the whites are inconsiderate, intentionally splashing mud on the blacks' clothes. The Berry's burnings is a significant incident revealing the cruel manner the white community behave towards the African Americans, burning them taking "a match to them," without any

  • Word count: 824
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Write about the unjust way black people are treated in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Write about the unjust way black people are treated in 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry'. 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry' is set during the Great Depression after the American Civil war. African-American communities were forced into further poverty, banks failed and businesses closed. More than 15 million Americans became unemployed. African-Americans suffered more than whites, since their jobs were often taken away from them and given to whites. The entire story is based around a girl named Cassie who is trying to grow up in an extremely racist Mississippi. She slowly understands why land is so important to her family as well as standing up for your rights. She is slowly revealed to a very racist world, and see's many unjust acts towards black people. Firstly, the Logan children go to Great Faith which is a few miles away from their house. The school has no bus so the children must walk and this takes them one hour. On their way the white school's bus always drives past and the Logan children must scramble up onto the bank as not to get run over. The white children on the bus laugh and make comments towards the children on the road. What's more the Logan children's clothes become dirty with red dust and it goes into their eyes and noses. Secondly, Jefferson Davis County School is the white children's school and is very grand compared to Great Faith Elementary and Secondary

  • Word count: 1420
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Consider the Importance of Land in Mildred D. Taylor's novel, 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry'

Consider the Importance of Land in Mildred D. Taylor's novel, 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry' The novel puts an emphasis on land throughout the story; it is repeatedly mentioned and discussed, and linked to other main themes and factors in the book. It is clear from early on in the novel that land is a main theme and a very important factor. A clear example of this is that by the third page of the story, it is already described in detail how the Logans came to own their 400 acres of land in the first place, and hinted at as to how it is an effort to continue owning 200 acres of it, in the mention of "why" Papa had to "work" on the "railroad"; and the "mortgage". Throughout the book, it is made clear to the reader that the land is important in a number of ways. The constant referral to the theme right through the story emphasises this. There are many links to the land through other themes in the book, such as racism, slavery, inequality, family, and money, as well as bravery and determination. Because these are imperative factors, their association with the land accentuates its significance. Racism and the land tie together through the duration of the book. Because of racism and the inequality that exists between blacks and whites, to the Logans, owning land is a symbol of their freedom, independence and equality - this is put forward in many ways, such as when Big Ma tells

  • Word count: 1760
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Cassie’s Diary.

Cassie's Diary It was still dark when Big Ma woke me up. I looked up at the clock it was 3:30. I remembered it was the market day today. She said she was taking Stacey and me to the market in Strawberry. We got into the wagon at the back. Suddenly we saw TJ hop in the back. I just realised we are only going because of TJ. Big Ma says, " Mr Avery said he needed some things from Strawberry he couldn't get from the Wallace store so he sent TJ" It was a very long trip. I feel asleep for a while. Then Big Ma tugged on me "Well child here we are open your eyes and take in Strawberry" All it was, was a normal town nothing special. We went into the market, down a dirty road and in front of us all these people had set here. I thought we were going to stay here but Big Ma kept on going to the other side, which was a deserted place. Big Ma started setting up, I cried "what are we doing here nobody can see us" Don't worry Big Ma said; we will get our usual customers. It didn't make good business sense to me. Some customers came and brought things like butter, milk and eggs. After we had packed everything up we went into the main town centre were there was a lot of hustle and bustle. We parked up near a Building and on it, it read: Wade W Jamison Attorney at law. Mr Jamison lives here I said, Yes this is his office replied Big Ma. For some reason I liked Mr Jamison, He

  • Word count: 1069
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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In the nineteenth Century, in the United States of America, there was a distinctive division of the northern states and the southern states.

In the nineteenth Century, in the United States of America, there was a distinctive division of the northern states and the southern states. During this time, the North was prospering with New York becoming an important business centre of the world. The North was certainly more industrialised than the South, which was much more agriculturally based. Huge plantations of land were built to harvest products such as cotton and sugar. However, due to the amount of work involved, cheap labour was favourable to most plantation owners. One source of this cheap labour came in the form of slavery, a custom that has existed across the world for thousands of years, but these slaves were obtained by capturing and brutally transporting young Africans from South Africa. Out of every 200 slaves that were sent off from Africa, it is said that a mere 60 survived, and even then, were close to death. They were whipped until they bled and were washed with salt water, which must have been agonising. They were barely fed and locked in the hull of the ship like livestock. Considering the average time for a North Atlantic crossing was three months, the amount of brutality they were subjected to must have been horrendous. Once they arrived in America, the slaves were sold to wealthy families or plantation owners. If they were lucky, they would be sold to a good master, but invariably, they were treated

  • Word count: 2434
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Roll of thunder is set in Mississippi in the 1930's this was farming country at the time growing mostly cotton.

Roll of thunder is set in Mississippi in the 1930's this was farming country at the time growing mostly cotton. Before the civil war this was slave country where the blacks were brought from Africa to the south of America to work for free on the plantations. But the civil war stopped this and the blacks walked free. But the whites didn't like this. They were brought up to think that the blacks were just animals and this was how they treated them. They were thought as massively inferior to the whites. The white people thought that the if there was equality then that threatened their profits and there way of living. And in many ways being free was just as bad as being slaves. The Whites would do anything to keep this old way of living. There were even a group dedicated to keeping this way of living and used to do anything to keep the blacks where they thought they should be. They would torture, humiliate and even kill any blacks that the group thought as a threat to the way of living. This group were called the Klu Klux Klan and are very well known for the terror that they caused. Roll of thunder is based on one well off black family called the Logan's. The Logan's unlike all the other blacks in the book own their own land. They own 400 acres of very good farming land of which 200 is mortgaged and the other 200 is owned by the family. The father David Logan is away most of

  • Word count: 1512
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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