The plot is written very well, and the conflicts that happen are strange yet intriguing. The plot is interesting because people want to see what robots do under certain circumstances. While it is predictable on how the characters cope with a conflict, it is intriguing to find out what was the cause of the conflict. There are many types of conflicts, such as person vs. person, person vs. world, and person vs. machine. For example, Michael Donovan and Gregory Powell. They are friends, yet they argue a lot, and are hostile to each other, so its person vs. person. An example of person vs. world is when Stephen Byerley, who is running for mayor, has to convince the world that he is not a robot, yet nobody believes him. All the conflicts build up to the conclusion - when robots control many aspects of our lives. The subject is not outdated, in fact, it is thinking ahead. Robots could very well become a huge part of lives soon. There is already a large dependency on machines in the world, for example it is impossible to imagine a world without computers, so the book is accurately foretelling the future, seeing that it was written 50 years ago.

The cast of characters in I, Robot is remarkable, with lots of protagonists, all of them having their own qualities. Protagonists are people like Susan Calvin, Powell and Donovan. All the characters deal with the conflicts they have flawlessly, figuring out dilemmas with sheer mind power. Susan Calvin had to figure out many problems US Robots were having, using her knowledge of robot minds to overcome them. Gregory Powell and Michael Donovan also had to deal with malfunctioning robots, and fixing the problems the robots had with focus on the “Laws of Robotics”. A majority of people today couldn't deal with the situations the characters in I, Robot had to face. Many people can relate to these characters, because they have the same emotions and impulses as us. There are also a variety of robots with different personalities that Asimov created, such as Robbie, a caring robot, and Cutie, a robot who thinks humans are inferior. Isaac Asimov did a brilliant job creating the characters and making them extremely realistic.

The theme in I, Robot was clear and expertly integrated, and with the major theme being not to rely on objects too much. An example of this in the book is how 2 people's lives are in danger just because a robot didn't collect some Selenium. We can relate to this because most people couldn't get work done or have any progress without computers and machines calculating and doing the hard work for humans. A minor theme is that you shouldn't rely on technology too much. An example in the book is how an entire factory stopped production one robot went missing. We relate to this because if our electronics broke down, such as a TV or phone, we would function less smoothly.

I wasn't impressed with the way Asimov wrote this book, mainly because of the lack of images. Many readers would not be able to visualize the characters and settings well, for example I thought that all the types robots would look the same, even though they probably look very different from each other. Readers have to use their imagination to fill in the blanks, because there are no vivid descriptions. And because the book is consisted of short stories, some of the stories seem out of place.

Summary

This book talks about how the world is when robots are invented. In the beginning, there is a little girl with a robot she loves. Her parents take the robot away form her, and she misses him. Later the robot saves her life, so her parents let her lave the robots again. The next part of the book talks about the scientists and robots at U.S. Robots. The robots are constantly malfunctioning, and the scientists have to figure out the robot's problems. The next part of the book talks about an election and how people think a candidate is a robot, and how he proves he isn't. The book ends with a scientist talking with the “world coordinator”, and how they figure out that robots are basically controlling how the human race is going to turn out.

Conrad's decision to use his specific style was influenced by two major factors; the age in which he was living and his diverse ethic background. His work straddled the Victorian age and the post Victorian or modern age. His prose is graphically descriptive and composed of complexly written paragraphs, rarely using single sentences. His sentence structure of piling details onto details then concluding with a statement to finally bring sense to his thought strongly compliments the high expectations of his demanding age. English being Condrad's third language after Polish and French also influenced his style in a number of ways. Consequently, he used techniques common to Polish and French such as triple parallelism and rhetorical abstraction to make a point. This aspect, along with that of his era, influenced his exceptionally detailed sentence structure and his use of intricate diction.

Specifically in his novel Heart of Darkness, the style is unique because of the point of view Conrad incorporated. The novel is a story of a story, his “narrator” serves simply as the framework in which the actual narrator, Marlow, tell his story. This feature has a couple of important ramifications. Simply because the core story is being told out loud, the readers have a chance to be a part of Marlow's mental process; his doubts, opinions, and sensations. Throughout his story, Marlow tries to organize his thoughts and figure out himself what he is saying. Therefore, the prose resembles a speaking voice included with hesitations, repetitions, pauses and other strictly spoken elements of communication.

The undeniable facet of the realistically tragic darkness that is tightly twined throughout the entire novel also assisted in constructing Conrad's style. He paints terrifying images with sinister and mysterious metaphors using dark diction. He reveals horrifying truths of man's easily corruptible human nature as he develops the theme throughout the book. The corruption of man's civility by the untamed darkness of the savage jungle is the core theme and contributes profoundly to the tone of the book.

In contrast to Conrad's, Proulx's style used in The Shipping News is a result of the current changing modern age where people are starting to loosen their grip on ridged rules of strict grammar and writing. The most outstanding attribute of Proulx's style is that subjects are frequently left out, an occasional preposition is forgotten and random single words often serve as sentences. Descriptive paragraphs composed almost entirely of fragments. Curt and crude. Almost all grammar rules broken; untraditional and unconventional. Like a mad scientist experimenting. Unsystematically dripping random chemicals into a test tube. Eccentric. Experimental style hard to grasp but then hard to let go.

The motifs and extended metaphors in this novel help shape the darkly comic style in which it was written. Each chapter's introductory title is an explanatory excerpt from mostly Ashley's Book of Knots but also Mariner's Dictionary and Quipis and Witches Knots. These unusual introductions are used to present a symbolic way into the chapter, assist in carrying the knot theme on with the book, foreshadow upcoming events, and merely draw attention to the reader. The knot theme gives a framework for Proulx to develop her truth revealing, funny-tragic metaphor. The knots, found everywhere in the ropes of life, symbolize human experiences. The shipping theme conveys the human experience in general. This metaphor is further developed by the deliberate style Proulx uses in this novel.

The surrealistic and humorous style of The Shipping News can also be attributed to the omniscient third-person point of view Proulx uses to narrate the story. By choosing this point of view, she has the ability to tell the reader what any given character is feeling at any given moment. The third person view detracts slightly from realism but leaves room for sarcastic remarks and comic exaggerated comparisons about any of the characters. The reader is told things that the characters in the novel aren't, so irony is free to develop in abundance.

Style is an important tool used by all authors to grasp the reader's emotions and mold them according the author's desire. In Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, his exotic, mysterious style pulls the reader into the darkness that creeps from its impenetrable lair, the jungle. In The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, her comically surrealistic style and her cleverly used motifs bring the reader to the coastal life of her main character, Quolye, and give to the reader a chance to personalize with the knots in his ropes of life. By using style, the authors paint the image of their novel to captivate the reader's attention sensations.

C

Among the attributes frequently reproached in Jackson's The Lottery are its ambiguous dialogue and characters that are bluntly presented. The Lottery's character development is indeed indistinct whichever direction you look at it. However, Shirley Jackson used them as an advantage to develop her prevailing theme - the horror of man's evil. As part of the development of this centralizing theme, Jackson omitted the exacting characterization of a protagonist and/or antagonists. She does this by displaying everyone in the story as just an average person. The reader would have never determined from the beginning if it were Mr. Joe Summers or Old Man Warner, Mr. and Mrs. Adams or Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson who was the emerging protagonist. Yet this was for the reason that as supporting theme, all characters must be treated equally to prove that the ultimate sacrificial victim (the protagonist) could be anyone; henceforth to emphasize even more the horror of man's evil as central theme.

The next point to consider is Jackson's imprecise style of delivering the short story. Again, this is purely intentional - the dialogue, tone, and the irony which are all but elusive. The dialogue jumps from expected to unexpected remarks, as with Mr. Summer's suggestions of replacing the black lottery box and the people's reaction including Old Man Warner's mention that it was “Bad enough to see young Joe Summers up there joking with everybody” as there has always been a lottery. The author's tone remains detached, as with showing no instance that anybody heeded Tessie as she kept on uttering, “It wasn't fair… I think we ought to start over… I tell you it wasn't fair” nor describing any reaction in the people as they were going in upon Tessie. And, irony is prevalent verbally and dramatically - as with the two-sided expression of the black box symbolism and the characters' prejudiced and hypocritical behavior - for instance in Mrs. Delacroix, who is supposed to be Tessie's good friend, reprimanding her to be a “good sport” saying “All of us took the same chance” and, in the end, selecting a huge stone for throwing at her; A friend's loud whisper hoping that it's not Nancy; Everyone blandly wanting to have the lottery done with yet (everyone including family) acting naturally towards the result of the draw and at all fervor while getting on with the throwing; Also Mr. Adams who pointed to Old Man Warner that the north village talks of stopping the lottery yet was one in the front line while they all “finish quickly”.

Still, these are all in keeping with the suspenseful theme of the Lottery. The discrepancy in the expression of symbols and the succession of events and the characters' behavior, express the underlying supporting theme - a struggle to keep with the lottery routine because of the fear of change - which necessarily disguises the morbid evils of man, hence making the central theme more horrific.

Lastly, the point of view and plot that Jackson uses aids the development of suspense theme of the story. Although often, the foreshadowing element of The Lottery is not recognized - the use of the other elements mentioned above prove this point that Jackson intended to present The Lottery in such a way that later event, most especially the ending, is prepared for. Moreover, it is the omniscient objective-limited point of view used in The Lottery that obscures the foreshadowing element. On the other hand, it was again preferred for keeping with the detached un-feeling cruelty theme that dominates the entire narrative.

The Lottery's characters, style (dialogue, tone, and irony), plot, point of view, and the interplay of themes, were all developed around the central theme of the story - the greatness of how the horrors of man's evil could be. Shirley Jackson's use or intended lack of use of these short story elements was able to set the atmosphere of the story, to create the suspense/horror theme of The Lottery, and finally to prepare for its shock ending. All these make it an interesting, and credible literary piece, no matter how controversial.