First Marking Period Anderson’s novel Speak begins with the protagonist, Melinda Sordino, on her way to the first day of high school. Melinda is very nervous about boarding the bus, though the reason for her tension is not provided. The school bus is empty when she gets on, but she carefully contemplates where she will…
Tag: Novels
The Scarlet Pimpernel – Analysis – Essay
Baroness Orczy is generally credited with creating the literary figure of the disguised superhero in 1905 with The Scarlet Pimpernel. The character of Zorro was created some fourteen years later, Superman was introduced in 1938, and before long an entire genre was flourishing. The comic book proved the favored medium for superhero stories, which mostly…
The Scarlet Pimpernel – Setting – Historical Accuracy
The French Revolution Within the greater setting of the French Revolution, which began in 1789, The Scarlet Pimpernel takes place beginning in September 1792, a month marked by what became known as the September Massacres, in which raging mobs murdered more than a thousand suspected criminals—many of whom were innocent—held at five different prisons. Orczy…
The Scarlet Pimpernel: Literary Devices
Superhero in Disguise Character Orczy’s most famous work is often cited for giving rise to the genre of the superhero with an alter ego or secret identity. As Sarah Juliette Sasson notes, ‘‘Superheroes had not been invented when the baroness wrote her novel, but the Scarlet Pimpernel’s chivalry, courage, and impressive powers make him, in…
The Scarlet Pimpernel: Themes
Conflicting Loyalties and Moralities The most prominent theme in The Scarlet Pimpernel is that of conflicting loyalties and moralities, a theme that is explored through both individual relationships and interpretation of the broader events of the French Revolution. Those broader events, though historically significant, are given far less consideration than are Marguerite’s particular dilemmas. This…
The Scarlet Pimpernel: Characters
Sergeant Bibot Brash and overconfident, Bibot lets a filthy hag drive her cart unchecked through the Paris gates—but the woman is the Scarlet Pimpernel, and Bibot will surely be executed for his folly. Marguerite Blakeney The plot revolves around the actions of Marguerite, the central protagonist. A clever French actress with Bohemian leanings, Marguerite St….
The Scarlet Pimpernel: Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1: Paris: September, 1792 As The Scarlet Pimpernel opens, the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror is imminent, with dozens of aristocrats being guillotined daily. Sergeant Bibot ridicules the executed Grospierre, who allowed the daring, disguised Scarlet Pimpernel to slip an aristocrat family past his watch, but then Bibot lets a frightful hag drive a…
Reservation Blues – Analysis – Essay
In Reservation Blues, Alexie has scattered magical occurrences throughout his otherwise perfectly realistic fictional world, an approach critics refer to as magic realism. In her essay ‘‘Conjuring the Colonizer: Alternative Readings of Magic Realism in Sherman Alexie’s Reservation Blues,’’ Wendy Belcher discusses how the association of magic with the guitar, a secular Western object, inverts…
Reservation Blues: Setting
Robert Johnson and the Blues Although during his short lifetime his reputation reached not far beyond the bars and roadhouses of the Deep South where his music evolved, Robert Johnson, after his death, as noted by Barry Lee Pearson and Bill McCulloch in their biography, ‘‘rose from obscurity to become an all-American musical icon, the…
Reservation Blues: Literary Devices
American Indian Literature Works that would be classified as Native American fiction, as put forth by Daniel Grassian in Understanding Sherman Alexie, are often marked by a return journey of sorts, where an Indian protagonist ventures out into the world fashioned by whites and, eventually disillusioned or disheartened, returns to reconnect with his tribe. Such…