For the average person, this may not be the easiest novel to connect with.  However, this novel can be connected to many movies like The Perfect Storm and Titanic, in the sense that they both have to do with being isolated in the middle of the sea, and have to do with the ship sinking. Furthermore, this novel could connect with other stories like The Cay, or Apollo 13 in the sense that they both explore isolation.  But it would be difficult for someone to personally connect with this story.

             Overall In the Heart of the sea story is an interesting story. The plotline is somewhat bland, and after an enraged sperm whale rams the Whale ship Essex, the storyline soon falls apart. However, there are some interesting parts, for example        “With barley a pound of crackers left, the crew dared to speak of something that had been on everyone’s mind, weather they should eat, in stead of bury the body.” This quote is a good example of how Philbrick shows how desperate the crewmembers were after their ship sunk about 1400 miles away from South America.  It is an interesting read, especially at times like this.  There were many exiting parts. For example when the ship was rammed, this go the slow story going.  Before the Essex sunk, the story was quite boring, but soon people started eating dead bodies. Overall the first half of the book is quite boring and bland, but after the climax, the book starts getting tip-of-your-seat, heart-pounding interesting.

            The Heart of the Sea contains many literary devices that make it worthy of literary recognition. Many colorful similes, metaphors, and personifications are used. For example: “ as darkness approached on the first day, the wind built steadily, kicking up a steep, irregular chop.”  In this one sentence, there are three creative personifications that add some pizzazz to the text. There are however, some parts of the story that are flat and bland. Unfortunately this takes away from the novel. At points of interest the story is able to come to life with a plethora of similes, metaphors, personifications, ironies and much more.

            In the Heart of the Sea challenges the thinking of readers.  It makes one think, “What would I do in a situation like this?” it makes them question their actions, and expands their minds. For example: (see quote paragraph 2) it makes one wonder “would I rather eat a dead human, or die of starvation?” this novel puts the structure of the human mind to the test.  The countless taboos that the crew performs are only part of the novel. This novel makes people see life in a new way, and thank that whaling was illegalized. This novel wasn’t only a source of entertainment; it was an experience as well.

All in all In the Heart of the Sea is a well-crafted novel that is known to many as “worthy of literary merit.”

In the middle of a war, a transport plane carrying a group of English boys from Britain was shot down over the ocean and it crashed in thick jungle on a deserted island. Scattered by the wreck, the surviving boys lost each other and cannot find the pilot. The story starts with Ralph who meets with a chubby boy named Piggy. Ralph and Piggy look around the beach, wondering what has become of the other boys from the plane. They discover a large cream colored conch shell, which Piggy realizes could be used as a kind of fake trumpet. He convinces Ralph to blow through the shell to find the other boys. The boys were summoned by the blast of sound from the shell and they staggered onto the beach. The oldest among them are around twelve and the youngest are around six. Then a choir led by Jack shows up and all the assembled boys decide to elect a leader or Chief. Ralph is elected chief but with serious opposition from Jack and in order to satisfy Jack, Ralph appoints Jack and his choirboys as the hunters of the "tribe." He then takes Simon, and Jack to explore the island. They find a mountain and explored the land and they return to the beach.

Chapter 2

Ralph returns and tells everyone that the island has no adults that all have to learn to live together. They also agreed on meetings whenever the couch is blown and that, at meetings, the conch shell would be used to determine who has the right to speak. The boy holds the conch shell will speak, and the others will listen silently until they receive the shell in their turn. Even Jack agrees with this idea. Then one of the little kids claims that he saw a "beastie" on the island, which puts fear and scares everyone. Ralph tells the group to build a large signal fire on top of the mountain on the island so that any passing ships might see the fire and know that someone is on the island. Piggy tries to reason with the group about survival but they all ignored him.

Chapter 3

Jack follows and tries to kill a pig but he fails. He returns and finds that Ralph is busy with building the hut with Simon. Ralph is annoyed that boys are unwilling to work on the huts and Jack promises Ralph that they will have better luck with the pig next time. Ralph implies that Jack and the hunters are using their hunting duties as an excuse to avoid the real work. Jack responds to Ralph's complaints by commenting that the boys want meat. Jack and Ralph continue to bicker and grow increasingly hostile toward each other. Simon goes off by himself and finds a place where he can peacefully stay.

Chapter 4

The little kids now called "Littluns" plays all day long and at night has frightful experiences. Ralph is worried about this. The large amounts of fruit that they eat cause them to be sick in the stomach and get diarrhea. Roger and Maurice torture little kids by destroying their sand castles. Jack who is obsessed with catching a pig goes off with his hunters to get a pig. While they were gone, Piggy and Ralph spots a ships that passes by and finds that while the boys were out for the hunt, the fire on the mountain went out ending with the ship passing by without their rescue. Ralph is angry but the boys brought the pig back from the hunt and roasted it and gave it to everyone. Jack is now resenting Ralph and his leadership.

Chapter 5

Ralph goes to the beach and calls a meeting in order to bring the boys into line. Ralph tells them about their failure in duty and that they should do their duty. Ralph also tries to tell the young boys that there is no beast and that they should not be afraid but it failed. The little ones say that the beast hides at day and at night come out of the ocean to haunt the kids and that these kids are in danger. Suddenly, Jack proclaims that if there is a beast then he and his hunters will hunt it down and kill it. Then the group breaks away while Ralph tells Piggy and Simon that he might cease this leadership but they tell Ralph that he need to be leader or Jack might go on a rampage.

Chapter 6

In the darkness, military planes fight in the air above the island but the boys were sleeping so they miss it and they also miss when a parachute lands with a dead person onto the island. When Sam and Eric woke up, in the flickering firelight, they see the twisted form of the dead parachutist and mistake the shadowy image for the figure of the dreaded beast. They rush back to the camp, wake Ralph, and tell him what they have seen. Ralph immediately calls for a meeting, at which the twins reiterate their claim that a monster assaulted them. They look for the monster and when they get to the place where they did not explore the island, the boys start to play around so Ralph gets angry with them.

Chapter 7

As the boys eat, Ralph look at the sea without hope but Simon reassures him that he will get home safe. The boys go boar hunting as they chase the beast and Ralph gets excited when he get a "snot" at the boar's snout with his spear. The group frenzied with the hunt, reenacts the hunt with a boy named Robert as the pig and he gets almost killed before the boys realize what they are doing. Ralph sends Simon back to Piggy to tell him that the group will be back after dark. The group climbs to the mountain and Jack goes to the summit while Ralph and Roger wait at the mountain. Jack tells Ralph that he saw the beast and Ralph also checks it out and sees a beast too so they go to warn the group.

Chapter 8

The next morning, they call a meeting and Jack tells everyone that there is really a beast. He also goes to tell everyone that Ralph is a coward and a scared loser and he tries to vote him out of power and be the new chief but no one cares to remove Ralph. Then Jack goes off with his own followers. The boys wanted the fire back so Piggy suggests building a fire on the beach and they build one. At night, many boys go off to join Jack and Piggy tells Ralph that it is good that the deserters left. Then Jack declares himself the chief of his tribe and they hunt a pig and impale its head on a stick. Then they raid Ralph's tribe and steals fire while Jack invites them to come to his tribe and eat the feast and join them. Meanwhile, Simon sees the head on the stick and feels as it is talking to him so he faints.

Chapter 9

Simon then comes upon the dead body of the parachutist and he sees how the boys got mistaken about the beast so he takes the parachute to the feast by jack to tell them about it. At the feast, the boys eat and have fun and Jack invites Ralph's followers to join his tribe and many do even though Ralph tries to stop them. Ralph also tells them that in the storm, where will his tribe stay and jack ignore him. As the boys are dancing and reenacting the pig hunt, Simon comes to the party with the parachute but the boys did not see him but sees his shadow and thinks he is the beast and kills him. Then the wind blows the parachutist's body unto the beach and they run off scared.

Chapter 10

The next day, Ralph is feeling guilty over the death of Simon while Piggy claims it as a small accident. Many of Ralph's followers joined Jack's tribe and now Ralph and Piggy are almost alone. Jack made his base at Castle Rock and he is the true ruler. He commands his tribe to be on the guard against the beast since it can assume anyone's shape (they believe Simon is the Beast) and since it is not truly dead. He also tells roger and Maurice to go to Ralph's camp and steal the fire. Jack's hunters steal the fire and Piggy glasses and beats Ralph and his tribe.

Chapter 11

The boys at Ralph's tribe try to light the fire but fails. So they go to Jack's tribe where the encounter Jack coming back from the hunt with a pig. Jack tells Ralph to leave but Ralph tries to reason with him but ends in failure. They fight. Jack them orders the twins Sam and Eric to be ties up, leading Ralph into rage causing another fight. Piggy tried to reason with them but they continued fighting. Roger pushed a boulder at them and Ralph doges them but it breaks the couch and knocks Piggy off the mountainside into the rocks (he dies). Ralph runs into the jungle as Jack and others in the tribe attacks him. Sam and Eric started to get tortured as they were forced to join Jack and his tribe.

Chapter 12

Ralph hides in the jungle and then he goes back to jack's camp. The twins, who were the guards, see Ralph and gives him food but doesn't join up with him. They tell him that Jack is going to send the whole tribe after him tomorrow. Ralph hides in a jungle thicket. The boys try to get through but the thicket was too dense so jack sets it on fire. Ralph come out and fights his way past jack and his hunters. He runs and at last collapses on the beach after frantically trying to find a hiding place. Ralph look up and sees a navy officer standing there. The officer tells him that he saw the smoke and came to check the island out. Them Jack and his boys arrive and Ralph tells the officer everything that had happened and he was amazed how civilized boys turned into nothing more than barbaric savages. They get saved.

The symbolics Hurst uses to portray Doodle is just like that of Christ. For instance, Doodle's tragic death. “He toppled backward onto the earth. He had been bleeding from the mouth, and his neck and the front of his shirt were stained a brilliant red.” This scene in the story is just like Christ when he was crucified on the cross. He was bleeding from many places, like Doodle was when he perished. The only missing item is the halo of thorns, that was bestowed upon Christ's head. Another way of showing Doodle's symbolic ways is that he always believed in his brother. He tried and tried like his brother told him, and “by cotton-picking time Doodle was ready to show what he could do. He still wasn't able to walk far, but we could wait no longer.” Christ also always believed in his fellow mates and deciples. He kept trying and trying to make the world a better place, and eventually succeeded, like Doodle did. James Hurst does a good job showing the symbolics that Doodle portrays as a Christ-figure.

The personality of Doodle made him more like Christ. Hurst uses this characterization is an unique way. For example, Doodle never gave up. He always kept working at the task at hand. He eventually got to the point where, “There wasn't a sound as Doodle walked slowly across the room and sat down at his place at the table.” Christ also never gave up. He kept trying to succeed, and help others. He succeeded too. Doodle's way of making miracles is another proof of his Christ-like character. The doctors, and his mother and father said that he would never walk, but he succeeded. He performed a miracle. Christ performed miracles, like the resurrection. He came back from the dead, to bless others. Doodle's character clearly proves him to be a Christ-like figure.

Doodle is shown in The Scarlet Ibis as a Christ-figure by his actions, symbolics, and character. As Martin Luther once said about Christ, “You should point to the whole man Jesus and say, ''That is God.''”

Kiran Desai "s THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS did all Indians proud by winning the prestigious literary award-The Booker Prize at the age of 35 .Anita won the 50,000 pound prize in her first attempt while her mom Anita Desai remained a three time nominee for the prize. Kiran's sweeping novel “The inheritance of Loss” is a heart stirring saga of a retired embittered judge living on the foothills of the Himalaya set against the backdrop of the Nepalese insurgency. The story finds immense resonance in the heart of every ordinary Indian family and its subtle, tender humour coupled with powerful political events leaves an indelible impression on the mind of every reader.

Desai, who constantly shuffles between her homes in New-York and India faced tough competition from a number of literary heavyweights like Sarah Waters' "The Night Watch," Edward St Aubyn's "Mother's Milk," Kate Grenville's "The Secret River," M.J. Hyland's "Carry Me Down" and Hisham Matar's "In the Country of Men."

Previous youngest Woman Booker prize winner

The previous youngest winner in the prestigious Booker list was India's Arundhati Roy who won the prize at 36 for her hugely popular book “God of Small Things”. Arundhati's masterpiece was a “paradigm of poetry in prose” and encapsulated life in God's own country- Kerala.

Youngest Booker prize winner

The youngest Booker prize winner however was Ben Okri a Nigerian poet and Novelist who swept the award at the mere age of 32 for his empowering work “The Famished Road” .His work popularized the concept of fantasy literature where he writes eloquently of the mundane and the metaphysical. This is the story of a script child who never loses sight of his spirit world.

Booker prize winner of all times:

Salman Rushdie was named the Booker prize winner of all time for his work “Midnight's Children” .Rushdie the popular favorite was chosen from a shortlist of six which included works by works by JM Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Pat Barker, Peter Carey and JG Farrell. This sprawling novel won the booker prize in1981 and the Booker of Bookers in 1993.

Booker Facts

The prize founded in 1969 recognizes and rewards writers from Britain, Ireland, South Africa or a Commonwealth country. The winner is assured instant fame and the “bestseller tag” around the globe. The award sponsored by the futures brokers Man group is also at times identified by the controversies it invariably stirs. A number of readers and writers unequivocally feel that the winner appeals only to the erudite, elite literary academicians.

So for all of you confused about what to read…. considering one of the above mentioned novels could be a great way to imbibe the aromas of the worlds best literary masterpieces. .Do take time out for it.

To help young writers learn not only what makes good literature, but also how they can create it, here's a list of ten books a budding writer should read in high school. These are outstanding examples of certain writing principles that can shape young writers. (Whether or not they'll like these books, however, is another issue.)

For the purposes of this list, poetry and plays (sorry, Shakes) have been excluded. And watch out, a few minor spoilers ahead. If you need to know more about a work or its author, click on it for more info.

And now, in no particular order:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Illustrated Principle: Plot is good. (So are characters with delightfully-odd names.)

One of the most important things in a thrilling, emotional, splendiferous piece of literature is how attractive the title font is. Another is plot. This and other Dickens novels are great examples. Sure, sometimes he goes on too much about facial features or eccentric office decor, but you have to admit, this guy's got pretty awesome storylines.

In huge, soap-operatic strokes of genius, Dickens throws twists in one right after another-"Pip is in love! Pip is unloved! Pip is rich! Pip is still unloved! Wait, what? That guy was Estella's dad! Holy General Hospital!" No one will tie things (characters, mostly) together more neatly than Dickens. Also, this book can help you decide how much detail you like writing-just enough? Or so much that people wonder if you were paid by the word?

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Illustrated Principle: Universal Values = Bestseller and lots of prizes!!1!

Obviously, this is not the only book that features universal values. It is, however, one of the few widely-studied books in America that help the non-Asian majority understand Asians by putting readers smack dab in the head of a Chinese farmer.

Keep in mind that this book was published in 1931 when Americans were not exactly the most China-savvy people on earth. This novel connected with Americans and many others, featuring relatable issues like survival, poverty (see: Great Depression), self-esteem, generational differences, etc. To top it all off, this book showed Chinese life without racism, mockery, or bias.

Any book can have topics all cultures can relate to, but few books can teach one culture to begin to understand another.

The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane
Illustrated Principle: You can't use metaphors as life preservers, even if you inflate ‘em.

For a good laugh, read some of Crane's metaphors and similes. Like "The regiment, involved like a cart involved in mud and muddle, started unevenly with many jolts and jerks." Or this one about a general in the middle of battle: "He looked to be much harassed. He had the appearance of a business man whose market is swinging up and down."

Okay, RBoC has its merits, and some of the metaphors are lovely ("The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer" is pretty charming). After reading this, however, young readers are bound to want to control their urge to compare everything to something as a way of adding description and "color."

(P.S.: Try some of Crane's other stuff; they're better. Like his poem "In The Desert.")

Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell
Illustrated Principle: The nitty-gritty of humanity is a doubleplusgood topic.

Well, that isn't a very good description of this book's greatest quality, but this book is just inconceivably awesome, and not just because it gave us Newspeak, 2+2 = 5, and "rebel from the waist down." Its message is enduring; its internal and external dialogue expose the inner workings of man's mind; and its characters are sympathetic, but real and flawed. 1984 gives young writers a level of meaning and influence to aspire to and encourages them to find a chord of humanity to strike.

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Illustrated Principle: She told me that he told her that structure is important.

E. Bronte's only novel is a wonder of literary construction. Not only is it separated into two halves (Heathcliff's arrival - Cathy Linton's birth and from then - Heathcliff's death), but the narration itself is often likened to a Matryoshka doll (see: Russian nesting doll). At its most complex, it's a guy telling us what several characters said according to a letter from Isabella Linton that was sent to the woman who told him the story. If you haven't read it, don't worry, it makes sense when you read it, but you might need to pause and regroup every once in a while.

WH shows young writers how important planning and structure is and how they can add to a story's irony, meaning and poetic justice. It's also amazing in other aspects (use of doubles, emotion, etc.) and gave us an awesome declaration of love ("I am Heathcliff!")

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
Illustrated Principle: Narration can make or break a story.

Not only is One Flew a crazy story about crazy people, it's also shown to us through the eyes of a crazy person, Chief Bromden. Since he is a paranoid schizophrenic, Bromden can be an unreliable narrator, feeding us his hallucinations and actual hospital events with the same spoon. This novel could have been a surreal disaster, but Kesey balances the storyline and Bromden's perception perfectly, showing that selecting a "different" narrator to be original or avant garde doesn't work unless you back it up.

Kesey was enabled by the depth of his characters. Almost each character's voice, motives, background, etc. are so strongly defined that they shine through any fog Bromden's mind creates.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Illustrated Principle: Some green lights are more special than others.

Anyone who has studied this book for class will tell you, Gatsby's rich symbolism is mad important. Symbols are optional rungs that can make a story's ladder more complete and help it reach higher. They can add another level of meaning to a story.

Fitzgerald is particularly proficient at using symbolism. Other writers tend to use artificial, detached metaphors that seem contrived, but Fitzgerald's are natural to their setting and situation-two locations with different lifestyles; a light on the end of a dock; a billboard. Characters connect better with organic symbols, which makes stories flow nicely.

Black Boy, by Richard Wright
Illustrated Principle: Sometimes the best characters aren't from your imagination.

This is one of the best autobiographies found in high school curricula. Wright makes readers feel his pain and joy as he goes through hardships and occasional good fortune without being whiny, overdramatic, or unbelievable.

Any writers can use their own life story and emotions to make better stories. Even lives that are too "normal" or "boring" to be main plot material can be borrowed from to amplify certain emotions or add detail to stories. Look into your own life and actively find ways you can relate to your characters and their situations.

The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
Illustrated Principle: Omit needless words! (And others.)

Okay, so this isn't exactly a novel like the other books on this list, but it is a must-have for any writer-young, old, or uncomfortable-with-disclosing-their-age. Strunk and White encourage correct usage, consistent style, and strong sentences. This book helps writers become aware of their bad habits and fix them. It's a great reference to keep around the pen and pad, typewriter, or computadora. No writer should be without it!

If you haven't read all these books, now would be a great moment to update your "To Read" list. Of course, these are just some of the great curriculum books young writers can study. Pride and Prejudice, Candide, Fahrenheit 451, A Tale of Two Cities and others come to mind.

Just remember that reading all these books won't necessarily transform you magically into MegaWriter X or anything like that. After you finish a novel, there is still much work to do. If you read, find what you like about each book and figure out how to apply what you've learned to your writing, you just might come up with something great.

Good luck!

A law which pertained to the control of publications intended for the young, and which extended restrictions placed upon books deemed to contravene morality by the 1939 Family Protection Decree, was passed on 16 July 1949, serving as a pretext for proscription. The 1940s and 1950s witnessed a series of literary prohibitions, the objects of which were works of erotic literature. Texts affected included the French translations of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn and Sexus; I Spit on Your Grave (J'irai cracker sur vos tombes) by "Vernon Sullivan" (alias Boris Vian); Pauline Réage's Story of O (Histoire d'O); and some of the works by the Marquis de Sade, published by Jean-Jacques Pauvert.

A further landmark in the battle to restrict the publication of erotico-literary material waged by the French legislature was an administrative edict-an ordonnance, which did not require the sanction of the National Assembly-of 21 December 1958. The ambit of this document, which was modified by the law of 4 January 1967 and was intended, ostensibly, to protect French youth, covered books and periodicals destined not only for children and adolescents but also for adults. It made it illegal to make available to minors any publication that was licentious, pornographic or violent in nature. Between 1958 and 1967, a hundred or so books were banned and, in 1966, both Le Figaro and Le Nouvel Observateur ran into legal difficulties after running advertisements for books subject to proscription. The sociosexual upheavals generated by May 1968 did not, at least not initially, militate against the restrictions to which erotico-literary material had become subject.

In the closing years of the 1960s, erotic texts by authors such as Sade, Henry Miller, Guyotat, Réage and Emmanuelle Arsan were banned. In 1973, a publisher of erotica, Régine Deforges, was fined 10,000 francs for bringing out works constituting an "apologia for perversion". Deforges's trial provoked a storm of protest, which may have contributed to the diminution in literary repression that took place in France during and after the mid- 1970s. This period is generally considered to be one in which, as far as matters pertaining to book publishing were concerned, the legislative status quo bowed to the pressure of social evolution, and to changes in popular conceptions of what did and did not constitute "obscenity". This is not to say that the French legal system has become openly tolerant of erotica. In 1994, the new French penal code included a section detailing the sanctions attendant upon the dissemination (to minors) of pornographic material.

Robert Jordan is an American volunteer fighting against Fascism in the Spanish civil war. His mission was to destroy a bridge behind enemy lines and to accomplish this, he enlists the help of a guerilla band. The guerilla band are “by definition "irregulars," improvising their own expedients to structure a life lived outside of normal socially controlled habits and moves” (Rovit and Brenner 120). Thus, Jordan has placed himself in a situation in which all his decisions are regulated entirely by himself, instead of the social restrictions he would experience in another setting.

One of the most memorable members of the band is Maria, a girl whom Jordan fell in love with almost upon sight. They soon start a complicated, hurried relationship. “The situation of war compounds the urgency of the passion of Maria and Robert, … In such a union, … there is no such thing as appropriate, especially under the circumstances” (Josephs 93). Jordan explained to Maria that in normal circumstances, he would never make such a commitment so quickly and deeply, but Jordan knows that in three days he may not be alive, so he must love while he still can. “The first night spent at the guerilla camp destroyed his cold approach to the mission before him, for he fell deeply in love with Maria. …he knew after she left that he was no longer ready to die” (Hornstein 1240).

Maria's love is not the only thing important about her. Her past history makes her a symbol of the cause Jordan fights for. “[Maria's] past experience as an innocent victim of brutal oppression identifies her strongly with the cause to which Jordan has committed himself…” (Rovit and Brenner 125). As Jordan falls in love with Maria, he is also committing himself further to the country which he loved enough to volunteer his life for. “Maria is a symbol of a country that is being raped by Franco. By falling in love with her, Jordan loves the beauty, honesty, and devotion of the land for which he gives his life” (Stoltzfus n.p).

Another memorable character from the guerilla group is the drunkard Pablo, a man who only faintly resembles the powerful leader he once was. “In Pablo, Hemingway gives us a complex and nuanced[sic] character, weakened by age, events, and wine… . His deviousness is as defined as Anselmo's loyalty and Maria's love” (Trilling 94). At the beginning of the civil war, Pablo led an attack on a town, which ended in the massacre of the resident Fascists. Instead of a dignified shooting, the killings become animalistic, with people being clubbed to death. Pablo watched on with little emotion on his face, but later “[Pablo] shows remorse for what he has done… Pablo uses wine to keep himself from reliving the horrors of his actions” (O'Donnell 68). Pablo is a foil in two ways for Jordan. Pablo kills people brutally and undignified, while Jordan tries to leave them some honor, and Pablo is a coward who values his own life more than the cause, which Jordan would give everything for.

Pablo's cowardice causes problems for the mission from the very beginning. When he had nothing to lose, he was a fearless man, but with his new riches of stolen horses, his life becomes valuable to him and Pablo considers the mission to be a dangerous idea. For the first two days he is constantly whining and complaining; most of the guerilla group wants to shoot him. Before they get the chance to, on the third day, he takes Jordan's detonators- which would enable Jordan to destroy the bridge- and throws them into the gorge that the bridge spans. Surprisingly, Pablo returns after leaving the scene of the crime with recruited help, which emphasizes the idea of commitment to a cause.

With the detonators missing, Jordan now has an even harder task ahead of him.

With Pablo gone and the explosives stolen, Robert Jordan manages to control his anger and apply himself to solving the new, more difficult problem of destroying the bridge with less manpower and fewer explosives. Always supremely pragmatic, Robert Jordan neither dwells on the past nor fears the future but instead concentrates on the present situation.

(Medvedovsky n.p.).

That Jordan never considers abandoning his mission shows his unwavering and admirable commitment to the task assigned to him, even if it risks his life, and the lives of those around him, even more.

So the band continues with their dangerous mission, and manages to successfully destroy the bridge. Their success does not come without loss, however. Anselmo, the man who first showed Jordan the bridge, is killed by falling debris. “For Robert Jordan, Anselmo represents all that is good about Spaniards. He lives close to the land, is loyal, follows directions, and stays where he is told” (Medvedovsky n.p.). Anselmo is devoted to the cause he fights for, and by killing him, Hemingway made the point that commitment often includes death, which becomes increasingly important through the novel.

With the bridge successfully destroyed, the guerilla group flees the Fascists pursuing them. One by one, they ride through an open field, with Jordan going last. His horse is struck by a Fascist bullet, causing it to fall and crush Jordan's leg. Immediately, he realizes he must stay behind and give the others a chance to survive. “[Robert Jordan's] heroism constitutes a commitment to personal responsibility and intimate love in the face of a lost game in a losing game” (Gottesman 1521). Before Maria must leave, Jordan tells her that “… if thou goest then I go with thee. It is in that way that I go too” (Hemingway 463). Jordan has to be strong for Maria, who is distraught at the thought of leaving him. Almost forcibly, Pablo and Pilar lead her away. “Then Jordan must prepare himself to kill and to die, to use up what is left of him for her, to give what is left of him for her, to sacrifice himself for her” (Josephs 152). Jordan's final stand is a combination of saving the girl he loved, and staying committed to his cause until the very end.

While he waits for the Fascists, pain forces him to consider suicide before he can make his last, weak attack on the Fascists. Suicide is a theme throughout the novel, with several people carrying pills or razor blades with them at all times to have ready in the event they need to commit suicide.

…Hemingway characterizes suicide as an act of cowardice by associating it with characters that are vulnerable or lack strength of spirit. Robert Jordan's reliance on inner strength in his rejection of suicide contrasts the other characters' weakness.

(Medvedovsky n.p.)

Jordan's father committed suicide years before, and as Jordan copes with his own pain, those memories come back to him. “The reflections on [Jordan's] father's suicide are dramatically motivated by his own awareness of the pressures that oppose him and the necessity that he places upon himself of performing well” (Rovit and Brenner 122). Jordan is lying on the ground with his gun at ready, waiting for his inevitable death. During the wait, Jordan doesn't express fear of the impending death, only fear that he might faint before he can protect his fleeing loved ones. Jordan does not fear his death because he knew he would have to face it eventually. Instead of focusing on dying, Jordan focused on making the most of his final moments for those he loved and appreciating the life that he had lived as honorably as he could. “Death became… the extreme limit of experience and the final test of the genuine ordeal” (Bradley 1455). Jordan's life and death were equally significant to the main theme. “[Robert Jordan] dies, but he has done his job, and the manner of his dying convinced many readers of what his thinking had failed to do: that life is worth living and that there are causes worth dying for” (Bradley 255).

The life Jordan lived and the death that ended it proved him to be an exemplary hero. “The first real hero in Hemingway's fiction-someone who sacrifices himself… for something larger (the cause), or for someone else (Maria and the band)- is Robert Jordan” (Josephs 84). By committing himself wholly to a cause, and by living his life honorably, Jordan proves death is nothing to fear, if one has lived a rich life beforehand.

 

He says, that not even marble, one of the hardest materials on Earth, nor do gold plated monuments of royal surpass the longevity of his “powerful rhyme”. On lines 7 and 8 he provides another example on the durability of his everlasting poem. He creates an allusion to the Roman God of war Mars, he then explains that neither he nor the fires of war could destroy the eternalness of the poem. He concludes the poem explaining how the poem will last to the end of time. His allusion of revelations, the biblical explanations of the end of the world, helps to show that the poem would last until the end of time, when Christ comes to judge Christians.

In the poem Shakespeare uses thorough imagery and figurative language in order to explicate the scene of the undying poem in comparison to some of the merely “mortal” challenges of life. He creates the scene using diction and setting imagery. For instance on the first line of the poem the poet says not “marble or gilded monuments”, creating the scene of priceless stones of artwork and gold plated memorials. He uses personification in order to reference back to the main idea of the story which is to show the endurance of his poem.

Beatrice is a prime example of a woman who is exploited by the men in the story. She is exploited by Giovanni for love and mere curiosity, Baglioni for revenge on her father, and by Dr. Rappaccini for scientific purposes. Giovanni felt he had a destructive need to dominate and possess Beatrice and as critic Richard Brenzo writes, "[this need for domination] is precisely the quality Giovanni finds most threatening in his idea of [Beatrice] (Brenzo 163)." Dr. Baglioni used Beatrice to gain revenge on her father and because he felt intellectually threatened by her. Brenzo explains, "If Baglioni feels threatened by Doctor Rappaccini, then the thought of a woman being his intellectual superior and displacing him from his position must be doubly frightening (Brenzo 161)." Beatrice does not purposefully harm these men mentally or physically, Brenzo asserts, "All of the men profess a desire to help her, while secretly fearing her ‘embrace of death'. Consequently, they have offered her help in their own selfish, vengeful, scientific ways, and for her, their embrace has meant death (Brenzo 164)."

In contrast to the male dominance concept of Richard Brenzo, critic Kent Bales analyzes Beatrice through historical criticism. Bales explains how Beatrice is based on a woman named Beatrice Cenci who was raped by her father and subsequently killed him. He attests that Dr. Rappaccini did not rape Beatrice, but impregnated her with poison, "The pervading sexual innuendo derives largely from his role as Adam and the curious circumstance that his helpmate is his daughter rather than his wife (Bales 136)." The poison in the story comes from, "the constricting conventionality of male consciousness and manifests itself in sexual and political victimization (Bales 134)."

According to critic Thomas St. John, Nathaniel Hawthorne based this story on a personal, but similar, event that happened earlier in his life. Hawthorne's father-in-law, Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, overdosed Hawthorne's wife, Sophie, using opium, laudanum, mercury, arsenic, and henbane (St. John 3). In Hawthorne's story, Sophie became Beatrice, and Dr. Peabody became Dr. Rappaccini. "By writing ‘Rappaccini's Daughter,' Hawthorne finally exorcised his terror of what it might have been like, had he failed to cure his beloved wife (St. John 3)." Dr. Peabody also had the same purple flowers from the garden in Rappaccini's daughter in his own garden (St. John 3). Another event in Hawthorne's life that St. John said further inspired Rappaccini's Daughter was "Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes created the scandal of the Boston social season in 1942 by attacking popular Dr. Robert Wesselhoeft as a quack, and driving him away to Brattleboro, Vermont (St. John 1)." In Hawthorne's story, Holmes becomes Dr. Baglioni and Wesselhoeft becomes Dr. Rappaccini. They have an intellectual fight, which Baglioni wins in the end by giving Giovanni an antidote which he uses on Beatrice, killing her and Dr. Rappaccini's experiment at the same time.

Besides being viewed as historical writing based on actual events, Rappaccini's Daughter has been interpreted by other critics as based on circumstances of the time period. During his life Hawthorne was an avid anti-transcendentalist. Throughout his stories he constantly mocks transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. In Rappaccini's Daughter, Dr. Rappaccini has all of the characteristics of a typical transcendentalist, "...to learn from nature rather than authority, to rely on observational evidence, and to attempt experiments. And his regard for the ‘creative essence' of his plants appears to correspond to the neoplatonic hermetic mysticism of the Paracelsians (Bensick 60)." Dr. Rappaccini displays these transcendentalist qualities and is the antagonist in the story because Hawthorne disbelieves transcendentalism. Dr. Baglioni, in contrast, is portrayed by Hawthorne as a traditional academic, who bases his decisions on fact and reason, an anti-transcendentalist who Hawthorne agrees with.

Another critic, Michael T. Gilmore, viewed Rappaccini's Daughter as Hawthorne's tribute to his lack of a popular audience for his stories (Gilmore 62-63). He interpreted it as an allegory, where each character represented an aspect of Hawthorne's life at that time. "Giovanni is specified as a reader from the moment he appears in the text (Gilmore 63)," while Beatrice, "The most dazzling creation in the garden...is intended as an allegorical representation of Hawthorne's writing (Gilmore 64)." In fact, Gilmore believes that Hawthorne, "emphasizes his identification with Beatrice by translating his name into French and so making even more evident its meaning as a shrub or plant - aubépine being the French word for hawthorn tree (Gilman 64)."

"If Giovanni corresponds to Hawthorne's reader, and Beatrice to his art, the rival physicians in the story evoke the two kinds of writers whom he characterizes in the preface as monopolizing current taste. Rappaccini is Hawthorne's fictional Transcendentalist, a remote and shadowy creator likened at the action's climax to ‘an artist who should spend his life in achieving a picture or a group of statuary' (Gilmore 64)."

Baglioni, on the other hand, "is Hawthorne's ‘pen-and-ink man'... a native of the sunny south of Italy; his genial manner suggests the hypothetical ‘brighter man' (Gilmore 65)." Ultimately, Baglioni conspires with Giovanni (the reader) to destroy Hawthorne's art and stories (Beatrice). Thus, ironically, "Hawthorne presents himself as its innocent victim, a writer deprived of an audience because the public persists in mistaking his grim exterior for his inner character (Gilmore 68)."

Hawthorne's ironic voice is also apparent, at least to the critic Lois A. Cuddy, in the correlation between Rappaccini's Daughter and Dante's Divine Comedy. Cuddy writes about these similarities, "Thus, examination of Hawthorne's ironic strategies for using Dante and the related setting, narrator, point of view, characters, and religious diction offers us access to an unique garden and a rather gloomy philosophical statement (Cuddy 39)." By writing Rappaccini's Daughter, Hawthorne makes the point that "Man's nature dictates that if he were offered a woman as virtuous as Beatrice - who is the symbol of Divine Truth, Light and Beauty - modern man would not recognize that Truth, appreciate that beauty, or understand the revelation (Stallman 10 citing Cuddy 42)." Cuddy says that, "Hawthorne has offered us an ironic, bleak and unambiguous vision of existence in this tale, and what he says with the help of a medieval garden world and a Dantean vision reversed to make a modern skeptical statement about life and human relations is consistent with the philosophy in his major fiction as well as with life as he observed it (Cuddy 52)." His observations, although bleak to some, are still pertinent to the world today.

The epic opens at Heorot, a mead hall built by King Hrothgar purposely for celebrations - singing and drinking. Angered by the noise in the hall, Grendel attacks Heorot and kills Hrothgar's men. Meanwhile, Beowulf, a young warrior from the nearby Geatland travels to Heorot to help Hrothgar. Grendel arrives while Beowulf and his men were asleep and kills one of Beowulf''s men. In the ensuing battle, Beowulf defeats Grendel by tearing the latter''s arm from his body - the first structure.

The second structure deals with the battle between Grendel's mother and Beowulf. Angered at her son''s death, Grendel''s mother seeks revenge, killing Hrothgar''s most trusted warrior and goes back to her home under a lake. Beowulf goes after Grendel's mother and the two engages in a fierce combat. Beowulf emerges victorious after beheading his opponent using a sword he snatched from the monster's armory. Before returning to the surface, Beowulf also beheads the already dead Grendel.

After his victory over the monsters Beowulf returns home to lead his people, living a relatively peaceful life as king of the Geats until his battle with the dragon - the third structure.

The dragon guarding the treasure was provoked when one of Beowulf's men stole a cup from the treasure. The dragon attacks, spewing out fire, burning everything in its way and frightening all but one of Beowulf's men away. Beowulf himself was badly wounded and although he killed the dragon, he himself died from his wounds.

As per tradition, Beowulf was cremated and was buried with the dragon's treasures.