"Discuss how the passage of time is presented in the first chapters of The Mayor of Casterbridge. What effect does it have on the characters?"

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE. "Discuss how the passage of time is presented in the first chapters of The Mayor of Casterbridge. What effect does it have on the characters?" This essay will answer the preceding question by discussing how the key characters and places develop and are affected by the passage of time in the first few chapters of the book. The author of the book is Thomas Hardy, a very descriptive writer, although this is one of his faster paced books. It was written in the 1880's and is set in the 1830's. The book begins with Michael Henchard walking along a dusty road with his wife Susan. She is carrying a baby called Elizabeth -Jane. After getting to the fair taking place in the village Henchard becomes drunk and sells his wife. The next day he regrets what he has done and consequently swears an oath that he will not touch a drop of liquor for 21 years. At this point in the book (chapters 2-3) there is an 18 year gap in the book. The book is set in the summer of around 1830 we know this because "before the 19th century had reached one-third of its span." As it was set in the 1830's the landscape would have been very different from today. This is demonstrated from the start of the book. Michael and Susan Henchard are "plainly but not ill clad" This tells us that they are not badly off. On the other hand they are covered in a "thick hoar of dust" telling us that

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How is Curley's Wife presented in 'Of Mice and Men'? Do you find her portrayal a sympathetic one?

How is Curley's Wife presented in 'Of Mice and Men'? Do you find her portrayal a sympathetic one? In of mice and men, Curley's Wife is presented in many various ways. At first impression, she comes across as the seductive, troublemaker the ranchers see her as. However, as the story progresses, we learn that this is only one of many sides to a very lonely woman. The readers sympathy for this character also changes throughout the novel, as her secrets are revealed and the real Curley's Wife is found. Curley's Wife is a very complex character. The reader's first impression of her is created before she actually appears in the book. We find out what the workers think of Curley's Wife through Candy when George and Lennie first arrive at the ranch. Candy, who considers Curley's Wife to be the reason for everything wrong in the whole of Soledad, creates an image of Curley's Wife in the reader's mind as a flirtatious tramp who's "got the eye." Candy calls her a "tart" and warns George against her, causing George, Lennie and the reader to see Curley's wife through Candy's eyes on their first encounter. When she finally appears for the first time, she certainly seems to live up to the image the reader expects from Candy's gossip. "She had full, rouged lips and wide spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red.... She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of

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Animal Farm - Snowball's Diary

Animal Farm Snowball's Diary 8th March Old Major died in his sleep today. He had known that his time was near. He gathered us all into the barn only 3 days previously and spoke openly of the wisdom he had gained over the years and of the strange dream that he had. He spoke of how we are all comrades. He asked what kind of life do we have? 'Miserable, laborious and short.' We are given only so much to eat that will keep us breathing and give us the strength to carry out a days work and no more. We are pushed to the limits and when we are not capable of carrying out our duties we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. Most animals do not know the meaning of happiness because they do not live beyond 1 year. The life of an animal is misery and slavery. Remove man from the scene and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever. Man is lord of all the animals, he makes them work, gives food enough to prevent us from starving and keeps the rest for himself. He is very selfish he is our enemy. He spoke of Rebellion and how we must fight when the time came for future generations to carry on the struggle until it is victorious. Little did we know the Rebellion was going to start so soon. 1th March Napoleon and I decided to hold meetings during the, week to discuss and prepare for the Rebellion if it was to happen. Today I was talking to my comrades about how we

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How does Harper Lee convey her emotions about racism?

How does Harper Lee convey her emotions about racism? In the book 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee, Lee conveys her emotions about racism in the small county of Maycomb through the eyes of the Scout, the narrator of the novel. Harper Lee conveys her emotion about racism through the language the white people refer to the black people; calling them "nigger" and not talking to them in person. The white people of Maycomb talk about black people using negative language. The only person who didn't talk about black people in a negative way was Atticus Finch and he taught Scout, Jem and Dill not to call them "niggers" as it was a pejorative term that should not be used. However, other people like Mrs Maudie and Miss Stephanie would still call them "niggers" because of it being passed down through generation to generation. There are also characters such as Mrs Dubose and Aunt Alexandra who are straight minded in their ways and refuse to change their opinions on black people. Mrs Dubose treated Jem and Scout differently because their father was working to defend black people; she shows this by shouting "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" which shows that the racist views have been embedded into the Maycomb community. Aunt Alexandra shows her racist view about black people by talking to Atticus about sacking Calpurnia. "you've got to do something

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How does the character of Stanley Yelnats change in "Holes"?

How does the character of Stanley Yelnats develop within the novel? Throughout this essay I am going to show how Stanley's character develops within the novel. 'Holes' is about a boy called Stanley who is sent to a Young Offender's Institute, wrongly accused of stealing a pair of trainers. During his stay lots of things happen like making new friends, running away and even finding some treasure. Also digging lots of holes! At the beginning of the novel, we find out early on that Stanley is overweight, because it is mentioned that , "He was overweight and the kids at middle school often teased him about his size." Because of this, he is very sensitive and self-conscious. Later on in the book, however, the reader discovers that Stanley has lots a lot of weight by the time he has found Zero under the boat. We know this because Louis Sachar writes, "A couple of months ago, he would never have been able to fit through. He'd lost a lot of weight." This shows that his experiences digging holes and eating smaller meals from cans have made him thinner and fitter. His fitness has improved throughout the novel. Stanley and his father have always been very discouraged with luck, sometimes so much that they became, "so discouraged that they actually started to believe in the curse." Stanley relies on the curse as an explanation for all of his bad luck. The curse has

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To Kill a Mockingbird: How Harper Lee presents the character of Atticus Finch

To Kill a Mockingbird was a book written in 1960 to portray the corruption in the USA's southern states specifically the state of Alabama. The book is a microcosm reflecting a wider range of thought in America in the 1960's. The book is a 'Bildungsroman', it follows a girl called Scout Finch who tells us about growing up in Maycomb county, a fictional county in Alabama. A 'Bildungsroman' is usually a book written in an autobiographical style and follows a specific characters rite of passage. The book is told in circular narrative the author Lee uses this to emphasise certain themes throughout the book. The book is told from a mature Scout's perspective describing her life's events. In this essay I will further discuss how Lee represents Maycomb County and discuss the methods and techniques used by Harper Lee to present the character of Atticus Finch. Arguably the most important aspect of Atticus is his maxim. His maxim is that if you attempt to stand in another's shoes you will be able to understand their point of view, this eventually leads on to appreciation and tolerance rather than prejudice and discrimination. "Atticus, when they finally saw him... he was real nice."This quote shows that Scout realises when you get to know people without judging them beforehand they are nice people. This is also shown when the children discover Arthur Radley is a normal person the

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George Orwell ResearchEric Arthur Blair was born in 1903 at Motihari in British-occupied India

George Orwell Research Eric Arthur Blair was born in 1903 at Motihari in British-occupied India. While growin up, he attended private schools in Sussex, Wellington and Eton. He worked at the Imperial Indian Police untill 1927 when he went to London to study the poverty stricken. He then moved to Paris where he wrote two lost novels. After he moved back to England he wrote Down and Out in Paris and London, Burmese Days, A Clergyman's Daughter and Keep the Apidistra Flying. He published all four under the psuedonym George Orwell. He then married Eileen O'Shaughnessy and wrote The Road to Wigan Pier. Orwell then joined the Army and fought in the Spanish civil war. He became a socialist revolutionary and wrote Homage to Catalonia, Coming Up for Air, and in 1943, he wrote Animal Farm. It's success ended Orwell's financial troubles forever. In 1947 and 48 despite Tuberculosis, he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. He died in 1950 (Williams 7-15). This essay will show and prove to you that George Orwell's life has influenced modern society a great deal. BIOGRAPHY In 1903, Eric Arthur Blair was born. Living in India until he was four, Blair and his family then moved to England and settled at Henley. At the age of eight, Blair was sent to a private school in Sussex, and he lived there, except on holidays, until he was thirteen. He went to two private secondary schools: Wellington(for one

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The Outsider (Of Mice and Men)

The Outsider Of Mice and Men is a classic novel written by one of the world's most illustrious writers, John Steinbeck. John Steinbeck wrote a naturalistic novel which dealt with many powerful and universal themes including the value of dreams and goals, friendship and also "outsiders", which means individuals who do not fit into the mainstream of society. The novel also illustrates the significance of moral responsibility, the veracity of social injustice and also solitude. His novel "Of Mice and Men" is a story taking place around the 1930s during the Great Depression in California where the New York Wall Street stock market collapsed, and the rate of unemployment was very high. The great depression affected everyone, including both the rich and poor, industrial workers, farmers and so on. This novel however, portrays the life of two farmers, George Milton and Lennie Small. The themes of the novel are important because they depict human life in a remarkable and comprehensible way relating to the dreams and constant struggles faced in life. All the characters played in the novel "Of Mice and Men" are lonesome, living an empty life everyday consisting of mainly hard labor. The characters all live a very disheartening life, with the lack of happiness, love and affection in their lives. This can be seen also when George mentions that 'ranch workers are the loneliest people

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1984 - What does Orwell do in the opening two pages of the novel to unsettle the reader?

What does Orwell do in the opening two pages of the novel to unsettle the reader? In the novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', the author, George Orwell employs a range of different techniques such as similes, metaphors and symbolism to unnerve and keep the reader in anticipation, impelling them to read on. The novel is in a third-person narrative style, this technique employed by Orwell creates a distance between the central character, Winston Smith and the reader. This vagueness adds tension and mystery to Orwell's depiction, only allowing the characters emotion to be revealed through dialogue. The narrative viewpoint also allows the reader to grasp an unbiased view of the character and his circumstances. Throughout these first couple of pages Orwell purposefully refuses to expand on things which confuse the reader. For instance, "The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats", and simply doesn't give an explanation why. This deliberate omission is employed to purely keep the reader on edge and impel him/her to read on. Another example of this is towards the end of the second page, "The Patrols did not matter, however. Only the Thought Police mattered". This line immediately grabs attention and creates suspense, but Orwell leaves it here. The reader is now left feeling insecure and leaves us questioning ourselves through mere confusion of what may be happening in this

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How does Mary Shelley make the description of the monster waking in chapter five of "Frankenstein" powerful and dramatic

"How does Mary Shelley make the description of the monster waking in chapter five powerful and dramatic?" Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley, in the year 1816. It was decided upon, one stormy night in Geneva, that her, her husband and two others would all write horror stories for each other. Mary then got her inspiration from sciences at the time, like Galvani's theories of electricity's effect on animal bodies and muscles reaction to a stimulus. The type of gothic literature that Shelley wrote is a prime example of the dark and dismal writing of that period. Shelley went on to write the epic piece of gothic horror - Frankenstein. Chapter five is a very important chapter in the play, Frankenstein's struggle is finally over, and the monster finally lives. However, not everything turned out the way Frankenstein wanted to, and answers to his questions such as "where does life begin" have not been found. Shelley uses lots of informative adjectives to make the chapter seem more dramatic, for example, she says the monster has "watery eyes" and "black lips". This tells us how Frankenstein had tried to make the monster beautiful, but in the process had made the monster grotesque by bringing the different body parts together. This creates a very powerful image in our minds of what the monster looks like. Shelley also creates a very dramatic atmosphere by using pathetic

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