The Unfairness of Life The reader might expect this fantasy romantic/ adventure novel to follow the usual pattern of such stories: good is always rewarded, evil perishes, and the good characters live happily ever after. But this is not entirely the case in The Princess Bride. The author is at pains to show that life…
Tag: The United States of America
The Princess Bride – Story Summary
Introduction The Princess Bride begins with an introduction in which Goldman explains the (fictional) origin of the book. At ten years old, William is lying in bed recuperating from pneumonia, and his immigrant father reads to him from a book called The Princess Bride, written by S. Morgenstern, a great author. Like Goldman’s father, Morgenstern…
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Summary & Discussion
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman is one of the modern classics in the medical anthropology genre. Tracing the immigration and the challenges of assimilation of a Hmong family into the USA, the book is admirable on many counts. Firstly, for medical professionals, it offers valuable insights into the symptoms,…
How did Muslims hide their religions in the slave trade in the Americas?
1. In what ways were enslaved Muslims able to continue practicing their religion, culture and customs upon arriving in the Americas? What practices continued, and how were they able to live their religious lives in the face of extremely difficult circumstances? One of the remarkable features of enslaved Muslims in the Americas is their high…
Cold Sassy Tree – Analysis – Essay
Within the broad category of novels, critics and literary historians identify numerous types, each with its own conventions and each arousing certain expectations in the reader. While readers are usually told that they cannot judge a book by its cover, the fact is that readers begin to make judgments about books on the basis of…
Cold Sassy Tree: Setting
Cold Sassy Tree is one of many works—novels, short stories, and plays—that examine smalltown life in the American South, particularly during the early years of the twentieth century. Chief among American writers who chronicled small-town life was William Faulkner, who created a fictional county in Mississippi that he used in many of his novels and…
Cold Sassy Tree: Symbols, Dialect & Point of View
Symbols Symbolism, a device in which something concrete represents something abstract, can be used in fiction in at least two different ways. Sometimes symbolism occurs in the form of symbolic objects. The symbolism of these objects can be universal, but often it is contextual, meaning that the symbolism derives from how the object is framed…
Cold Sassy Tree: Themes
Death Death plays a prominent role in Cold Sassy Tree. Before the action of the novel begins, Rucker and Will are faced with the death of Mattie Lou, Rucker’s wife. Will himself has a near-death experience when he is caught on a train trestle and the train passes over him as he lies between the…
Cold Sassy Tree: Characters
Mattie Lou Blakeslee Mattie Lou is Will Tweedy’s grandmother and the wife of Rucker Blakeslee. She dies before the novel’s action begins and does not appear directly in the story. She was a good wife to Rucker and earned the respect of the town for her kindness. She was an avid gardener and loved her…
Cold Sassy Tree: Chapter Summaries
Chapters 1–4 In 1914, the novel’s narrator, Will Tweedy, recalls events in Cold Sassy, Georgia, that took place primarily in the summer of 1906, when he was fourteen years old. On the night of July 5 that year, Will’s grandfather, Rucker Blakeslee, arrives at Will’s home to have a drink of corn whiskey; Rucker’s wife,…