Chapters 1–4 Kidnapped begins in June of 1751, in a region of Scotland known as the Lowlands. David Balfour, an Essendean boy of sixteen, is left homeless when his seemingly poor schoolmaster father dies. With his mother already dead, David believes himself to be without inheritance or living relative until the local minister, Mister Campbell,…
Intruder In The Dust: Analysis
William Faulkner was a legendary drinker in two senses: He could consume truly enormous amounts of alcohol, and some contended that he needed alcohol as a kind of potion that gave him creativity and inspiration as an artist. However, common sense states that no one could have produced novels as complex as he did while…
Intruder In The Dust: Setting of the Novel
The Antebellum, or Pre– Civil War, South Events in the South during Faulkner’s life cannot be understood without knowing something of the American Civil War (1861–1865). The essence of the situation is that the northern and southern sections of the United States had, over the course of the last two centuries before the Civil War,…
Intruder In The Dust: Themes
Debt and Payment The incident at the start of William Faulkner’s novel, when Beauchamp refuses the seventy-cent tip from Chick, is in fact complex. On one level, the young and thoughtless Chick regards it as an insult to his race. More is happening here, however. The incident swells in his mind in part because he…
Intruder In The Dust: Characters
Lucas Beauchamp Lucas Beauchamp is one of the central characters in the novel, the man accused of murdering Vinson Gowrie. Although still vigorous, he is in his seventies as the story takes place. The black owner of a small cabin and farm on the Edmonds estate, Beauchamp is in fact a direct descendent of Carothers…
Intruder In The Dust: Summary
Chapters 1–2 This classic novel by William Faulkner opens with the news that Lucas Beauchamp, a black man living in the countryside of Yoknapatawpha County, has been accused of murdering a white man, Vinson Gowrie. The novel is told from the point of view of sixteen year-old Charles ‘‘Chick’’ Mallison, and the news reminds him…
Themes in The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers
The Importance of Family and Land One overriding theme of the saga that is The Glory Field is the value of kinship and relations. Myers expresses this idea by emphasizing the importance of the relationships between the generations of the Lewis family and their holding onto the land they own in Curry Island, South Carolina….
Oedipus at Colonus: Summary & Analysis
DATE: produced posthumously in 401, written in 407/6 COMPETITION: unknown CHARACTERS: Oedipus, Antigone, Stranger, Ismene, Theseus, Kreon, Polyneikes, Messenger CHORUS: men of Colonus SETTING: the grove of the Eumenides at Colonus, a village just outside Athens SUMMARY: After many years of wandering the blind and accursed Oedipus and his daughter Antigone arrive at Colonus, near…
Philoctetes by Sophocles: Summary & Analysis
DATE: 409 COMPETITION: first prize CHARACTERS: Odysseus, Neoptolemos, Philoctetes, Merchant, Herakles CHORUS: sailors from the ship of Neoptolemos SETTING: the deserted island of Lemnos SUMMARY: The Greeks have been besieging Troy for ten years and discover that they cannot take the city without the presence of Philoctetes and the bow of Herakles. They (especially Odysseus…
Electra by Sophocles: Summary & Analysis
DATE: a matter of great uncertainty, but 418–410 seem most likely. COMPETITION: unknown CHARACTERS: Orestes, Paidagogos, Electra, Chrysothemis, Klytaimestra, Aigisthos; Pylades (silent) CHORUS: women of the palace SETTING: the palace of Agamemnon at Mycenae SUMMARY: Orestes returns home to Mycenae with the faithful tutor (paidagogos), to whom his sister Electra entrusted him after their father’s…