Finkelstein Finkelstein is the manager of the Hotel Marie Louise. Rosa is trapped on the hotel’s private beach when she inadvertently trespasses. After she escapes, she rages at Finkelstein for having barbed wire around the perimeter of the hotel beach. Rosa Lublin The title character of the story, Rosa Lublin— who reflexively gives her name…
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Rosa by Cynthia Ozick – Summary
The story “Rosa” is set in 1977, the same year in which it was written. “Rosa” is written in the third person limited point of view, but the reader is allowed only Rosa’s viewpoint on events; letters in the story are, of course, written in first person. Because Rosa’s mental state is unstable, her perceptions…
The Pearl by John Steinbeck – Analysis
“The Pearl of the World” first appeared in Women’s Home Companion in 1945. The 1947 revised version, The Pearl, gained immediate critical and popular attention. During the following years, the novella was attacked by some, such as Warren French in his article on Steinbeck, as being too “sentimental.” Many readers, however, continued throughout the twentieth…
The Pearl by John Steinbeck – Setting
Pearl Diving in La Paz La Paz (meaning “peace” in Spanish) is in the Mexican state of Southern Baja California on the Sea of Cortez. For several centuries, the area was famous for its pearl diving and was known as “The City of Pearls.” The oyster beds, however, became diseased and died out in the…
The Pearl by John Steinbeck – Literary Devices
Parable A parable is a story designed to illustrate a lesson or moral. Steinbeck notes at the beginning of The Pearl that the story of Kino and the pearl has been told so often, “it has taken root in every man’s mind” and “heart.” He characterizes the story as a parable when he explains that…
The Pearl by John Steinbeck – Themes
Greed His obsession with the pearl is prompted by his desire for respect and power, but most importantly for the education of his child. He wants to be able to marry Juana, to buy a rifle that can “[break] down the barriers,” to dress his family in nice clothes, and finally to enable his son…
The Pearl by John Steinbeck – Characters
Coyotito Coyotito, Kino and Juana’s infant son, is the catalyst for his parents’ obsession with the pearl. Both of his parents want the pearl to help pay for his recovery from the scorpion sting and for his education, so that he will not be limited by the same oppression under which his parents have suffered….
The Pearl by John Steinbeck – Summary
Chapter 1 The Pearl begins as Kino, a Mexican pearl diver in the village of La Paz on the gulf of California, awakes before morning. His wife Juana and child Coyotito lie nearby in their brush house. Kino contentedly listens to the waves on the beach and declares “it was very good.” His ancestors had…
Mowgli’s Brothers – Analysis
In “Mowgli’s Brothers,” Rudyard Kipling tells the tale of his celebrated “man-cub,” who is rescued from certain death as an infant and raised by a pack of wolves. Although a human being, Mowgli effectively becomes a “wolf cub” in nearly every other respect and grows to adopt the Law of the Jungle as his code…
Mowgli’s Brothers – Setting
Born in India in 1865, Kipling was a product of late nineteenth-century British imperialism, an expansionist policy that justified the economic benefits to be had in conquering undeveloped lands with a language of paternalism and benevolence. In 1899, Kipling’s poem, “White Man’s Burden” (which was in fact addressed to Americans as they took control of…