Cabuliwallah - Rabindranath Tagore Setting: Calcutta, India Characters: 1.

Rahman the Cabuliwallah: the fruitseller from Kabul who comes to Calcutta to sell his wares in the streets. 2. Mini: a small girl who became a very good friend of the Cabuliwallah. 3. Mini's father (the narrator of the story) who learns at the end of the story that all fathers in the world are same like him (a scholar and a writer) and the Cabuliwallah (a poor uneducated fruit-vendor). Plot: The story starts when Mini, a talkative 5-year old girl, meets a Cabuliwallah. At first, the innocent child thought that the Cabuliwallah kidnaps kids. Mini's parents also have doubts about this Cabuliwallah. But as time goes on, the two, far apart in age, became very good friends. Mini felt closer to this unknown fellow who gave her lots of almonds and raisins. But everything changed when Rahman was sent to jail for murderous assault. Time passed by and Mini is now getting married. During the wedding night, Rahman paid a visit to see Mini only to find out that she has forgotten him a long time ago. The Cabuliwallah explains to Mini's father that he also has a daughter like Mini. Rahman misses his daughter so much and that's why he felt close to Mini. Touched by the Cabuliwallah's story, Mini's father realized that all fathers are the same-- whether you are a writer or a Cabuliwallah. Theme: A fathers love for his child is one of the central themes of the story. Cabuliwallah always carried an imprint of his daughters little hand close to his heart which reminds him of a loving touch, as he comes year after year to Calcutta to sell his wares in the streets. This description of action shows Rahman, the man from Kabul, as a loving father. Another theme of the story is friendship. The story shows how to establish a good relationship with the people you meet. We should stop judging by mere appearance and learn how to look on whats within. Point of view: The story is in the first person point of view because Minis father is the narrator. He actually saw the events and took part in it.(The narrator explicitly refer to themselves using words and phrases involving "I" (referred to as the first-person singular) and/or "we" (the first-person plural)) Tone: Rabindranath Tagore uses a positive tone. Even though there were sad parts which shows the struggles of the characters, happiness still reigns in the story. It is because at the end, the characters had overcome all of the difficulties. Mood: story. The the story Cabuliwallah is heartwarming. The author showed us a fathers sacrificial love through his

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

Setting: An underground catacomb, somewhere in Italy, during the carnival season Characters: 1)Montresor: our narrator, is Mr. Sinister. Hes the guy you dont want to meet in an underground graveyard, or anywhere else. Hes a cold and ruthless killer. He not only enjoys killing, but also thinks its necessary. As the narrator, hes telling the story fifty years after it happened. This raises a whole host of complicated questions. Well cover the main ones in a moment under Bragging of Confessing, but first, lets look at some other aspects of his character. 2)Fortunato: At first glance, Fortunato seems easier to identify with than Montresor. Its much simpler to relate to the victim than to the victimizer. But, in some ways, he seems even more foreign to the reader than Montresor. Part of this is because Montresor is telling us the story, and he doesnt give us much information on his prey. As you surely noticed, Montresor doesnt tell us how Fortunato hurt him, nor how he insulted him. So we cant really say whether Fortunatos punishment fits his crime. If we get hung up on trying to figure out if Fortunato deserved to die that way, we might miss out on one of the storys biggest riddles: just what are Fortunatos weak points? Montresor gives us his opinion Fortunatos a little too conceited about his knowledge of wine but thats not his only fatal flaw.

Why would we want to identify Fortunatos weaknesses? Because, on some level, they probably mirror our own. If we can see ourselves in Fortunato, maybe we can learn something from the story. Luckily for us, Fortunato seems to be weak points personified, so his weaknesses are easy to spot. Here are a few of them, but we bet you can add to the list. Theme: 1)Freedom and Confinement 2)Betrayal 3)Drugs and Alcohol 4)Mortality 5)Foolishness and Folly Point of View: First Person (Central Narrator) Tone: Creepy,Elegant and Funny Plot: Initial Situation An insult, and a vow of revenge Fortunato and Montresor have a history, and a painful one at that. Fortunato has wounded Montresor a thousand times. Montresor never complains. But one day, Fortunato goes too far: he insults Montresor, and Montresor vows revenge. Conflict How to make things right forever For Montresor to revenge himself for Fortunatos insult, he has to get away with it if Fortunato can revenge him back, then Montresor has lost. The punishment must be permanent Fortunato has to feel it, and he has to know its coming from Montresor. Complication Its almost too easy There really isnt much complication. After a few carefully dropped hints from Montresor (think Amontillado and Luchesi), Fortunato insists on following Montresor down into the underground graveyard of your worst nightmares. Montresor baits him and plays with him, but Fortunato never considers turning back until its way too late. Climax Trapped in a conveniently man-sized space! Montresor brings up Luchesi, Fortunato calls Luchesi an ignoramus, and boom! Hes chained inside an upright casket in the foulest depths of the catacomb! Thats the storys big, explosive moment. Suspense Brick by brick by brick Montresor is building a wall of suspense, especially if you are Fortunato. Fortunatos watching himself being bricked in, waiting, breathlessly to see if this is some kind of really creepy carnival joke. Denouement The final brick After Montresor puts in the final brick, the suspense is dissolved. Hes heard the pitiful jingle of Fortunatos bells, and it means nothing to him. As soon as the air is used up in the tiny brick casket, Fortunato will be dead. Conclusion Looking back Its impossible to know how old Montresor is when he kills Fortunato, but in the second to the last line of the story, we learn that the murder happened fifty years ago. So Montresor is probably pushing eighty when hes telling the story. And he could be far more ancient. More importantly, this conclusion lets us know that Montresor has gotten away with his crime so far. His vengeance has been a success, and he wants us to know it. Mood: suppress madness, vindictive, ghastly.

THE JEWELRY By Guy De Maupassant SETTING:

The story was taken place at Paris. CHARACTERS: The story revolves around two characters. The main character is Monsiuer Lantin while the other one is his wife. MONSIUER LANTIN chief clerk at the Minister of the Interior. He is the husband who spent his life with his wife happily but after some years the wife passed away resulting for his depression and being shorted with money. WIFE (FIRST) she was daughter of provincial tax collector who happened to passed away, So she and her mother moved to Paris. She was a beautiful and virtuous woman and a fan of watching operas and fake jewelries. The author had not given her name in the story. The other characters have their minor parts; the MOTHER who planned an acquaintance party when they have moved to Paris, hoping that her daughter can look for her future husband. The Jewelry Shop owners, Monsiuer Lantins SUPERVISOR where he announce his retirement for he inherited a money and an ARISTOCRATIC MAN, where Monsiuer Lantins had said that he inherited a four hundred thousand francs. PLOT: The story begins by telling us how M. Lantin meet his wife at the house of the office-superintendent, and how he immediately fell in love with this young innocent girl who "seemed to be the very ideal of that pure good woman to whom every young man dreams of entrusting his future". The story's plot is very interesting and can be thought of as two different stories combined into one. The writer first walks us through the six years of happiness they lived together and clearly notes Mr. Lantin's wife's passion for theaters and fake jewelry. She was a good housewife who maintained her household very well and provided her husband with a luxurious life style. On one cold winter night, his wife went to the opera and came back home freezing, she had a "bad cough and died eight days later from pneumonia". Mr. Lantin was heartbroken and spent endless nights remembering his good wife. He wouldn't touch or change any of her belongings as they reminded him of her. The story could have ended here and would have made a sad ending; however the writer goes on describing the change in Mr. Lantin's life. The author explains to us that Mr. Lantin was unable to continue living comfortably on his income. Finding this very odd since his wife was able to manage the household for both of them and that they lived a very luxurious life. This was the first warning sign that struck us as a reader and got us to think more about Mr. Lantin's wife. The part that interests the most was the "one morning that he happened to find himself without a cent in his pocket and that he had to wait a whole week before he could draw his monthly salary". This clearly shows the reader that the wife had some kind of income coming in besides the income from Mr. Lantin's. Broke and in debt, Mr. Lantin finds no other alternative but to sell his deceased wife's fake jewelry. After going through her belongings he decides to take her favorite piece of jewelry, the big pearl necklace that she use to tease him with and tries to sell it. He goes shamefully into a jewelry store to sell what he believes is an exquisitely well made fake pearl necklace. To his surprise the jeweler tells him that the necklace is worth between twelve and fifteen thousand francs. This came as a huge shock to Mr. Lantin has he thought that the jeweler's estimate was inept, and moved on to the next store. This is another clue since the author clearly tells us that Mr. Lantin's yearly salary was only three thousand and five hundred francs; a typical midlevel bureaucratic wage. As Mr. Lantin goes into the next store the jeweler confirms that the necklace is real by telling him that it was sold from his store for twenty five thousand francs and would buy it from him for eighteen thousand francs. The jeweler looks up his register and affirms it by telling him that it was "sent to the address of Madame Lantin, 16 Rue des Martyrs, on July 20th, 1876." The jeweler asks that he keep the necklace for a day for inspection. He wandered aimlessly through the streets, his mind in a state of dreadful confusion. He tried to reason, to understand. His wife could not afford to purchase such a costly ornament. Certainly not. He fall down and recovered his sense in front of pharmacy. He was brought home by the person who helped him. It becomes clear that Madam Lantin was a courtesan; even though the writer does not clarify that, but he begins to describe Mr. Lantin's feelings as being betrayed by his love of his life and the suffering he went through. On the next day, Mr. Lantin wanders around the streets in grief and the thought of becoming rich begins to fiddle his mind. Being broke and realizing he had not eaten since his shock at the jeweler's, his feet carries him back to the jeweler's to sell the necklace and collect the money. The jeweler welcomes him with a smile and offers him the money. On his way out he turns back and tells the jeweler that he has some other jewelry to sell, right when the jeweler acknowledges and accepts the offer "one of the clerks rushed out to laugh at his ease while another kept blowing his nose as hard as he could" as in a way of hiding a laugh. That part struck readers and showed that the jeweler and his clerks were either on to his wife through research, or they knew all along about his wife's secret life. The story clearly makes the reader believe that Mr. Lantin was oblivious to how his wife could acquire such expensive jewels and that his concern was basically on the money. We see Mr. Lantin returning back to the jewelry shop with all the jewelry the next day. Mr. Lantin receives a hundred and ninety six thousand francs for all his wife's jewelry. He was extremely pleased with the financial security this fortune brought him and concordantly resigned from his job. The story ends by telling us that Mr. Lantin remarried and that "his second wife was the most upright of spouses and had a terrible temper. That she had made his life very miserable." This is the complete opposite of his first wife.

THEME

The theme of the story is the direct moral lesson which is that looks can be deceiving. We read that Mr. Lantin's wife whom everybody praised turned out to be unfaithful and obviously had done anything for precious jewelry. We can say that Mr. Lantin, by enjoying the wealth that his wife accumulated through dishonest means made him as fortuneblinded as she was. We saw Mr. Lantin turn from this upright man who was ashamed to sell a fake piece of jewelry, to a man who sold his deceased wife's jewelry ignoring the fact that it could have been received by filthy means. The closing also makes one wonder what the author meant; was he questioning morals versus happiness by saying that his presumably unfaithful first wife made him happy and his second upright wife made him miserable. The themes of deceiving, unfaithfulness and selfishness have seen also in the story. CONCLUSION The story emphasized that looks can be deceiving and that sometimes we are blind to what really is going on. We can question if being happy by dishonest values is worth the financial gains or if the unhappiness from honest values is worth the pain. POINT OF VIEW The narrator tells the story in first person point of view because the narrator tells the story directly to the readers. TONE The story shows us a positive tone for it gives us readers a life learning values which can be seen in its theme. MOOD The mood of the story revolves around two things happiness and sadness. Happiness when Lantin is with his first wife and living happily while sadness as his wife died and the event that he married another woman where his life became miserable.

Mateo Falcone by Prosper Mrime Setting: Corsica, 1800s Characters:

Mateo Falcone, the father who killed his own son for the honor of the family. Giuseppa, Mateo's wife, mother of Fortunato. Fortunato, Mateo's ten-year-old son. His father regards him as "the hope of the family." The name Fortunato, meaning "the fortunate one," reflects his father's pride. Sanpiero, the smuggler who was being helped by Fortunato. Gamba, a sergeant, Mateo's cousin. A few soldiers [i.e., gendarmes]

Plot: The boy Fortunato is outside of his family's house, playing a horn while his parents are away. Shots ring out in the distance, and Sanpiero runs in, wounded. Fleeing the police, he asks Fortunato to hide him. Fortunato asks for and gets some money in return, and hides Sanpiero, the smuggler. The police arrive, led by Gamba, who is a distant cousin of Mateo. They search the house and try to get information out of Fortunato, who resists with juvenile evasions until Gamba tempts the boy with an enamel-encased watch. Fortunato takes the bribe and reveals Sanpiero. Mateo and his wife return. After Gamba tells them of their son's help in capturing Sanpiero, the wounded man curses the Falcone household for betrayal as he is carried away. Mateo has only one thing to do to preserve the honor of his family: he takes his son away from the house, says prayers with him, and kills him with a single gunshot. Theme: Betrayal and honor, savagery and civilization, vendetta and law, and custom and morality. Point of View: First Person, because the author is the one who tells the story, he did not took part in the story. Tone: Cruel and horrible. Mood: Concentrated and allusive. The story may consider as disturbing and unforgettable.

A Question of Dowry by Siew Yue Killingley Elements of Literature Settings The story takes place on the Ramachandrans household. Characters Mrs. Ramachandran A very noisy and boastful mother whose hobby is talking. The wife of Mr. Ramachandran. Mr. Ramachandran The husband of Mrs. Ramachandran and Sivasothie and Tamby are his children

Sivasothie Sivasothie is the one who is going to be engaged and soon to be married. Sivasothie portrayal in the story is very quite, dutifully, always obeying her parents and never go beyond the Indian community traditions. There is nothing much information given about her physical appearance or education background. Tamby Tamby is the youngest child of Ramachandran family. Thiruchelvam Thiruchelvam is chosen by the Ramachandran to be their daughters to be. Plot A Question of Dowry is about an Indian girl named Sivasothie was going to be engaged and married to a young man named Thiruchelvam that is choosen by the family. In the beginning,Sivasothies parents were preparing dowry, whereby a sum of twenty thousand dollars and a necklace as to give it to the bridegrooms family, the money and necklace serves as o dowry for Thiruchelvam. Then, the problem arises when Sivasothies father Mr. Ramachandran told his wife that they cannot afford to give the dowry they agreed to give because of the disvalued of his wifes piece of land to sell, which given as dowry when she got married to Mr. Ramachandran. After that, the future son in -law came to their house when Mr. Ramachandran telephoned him to come. As Thiruchelvam come, Mr. Ramachandran told him the truth about the dowry matters. Then, it ended up Thiruchelvam reject the marriages with his daughter because couldnt give the dowry promised. Sivasothie feel sad and hurt because she has to forget him to become her husband after while she liked him so much. Theme It is about an situation of arrange marriage happening in India where the parents are the one choosing the partners of their daughter. Arranged marriage is a tradition that have being followed strictly by the Indians. In the story,Mr. Ramachandran and Mrs. Ramachandran choose a bridegroom named Thiruchelvam for their daughter Sivasothie. They did not ask her opinion about the bridegroom and said Sivasothie, you are a very lucky girl. Youll have a doctor for your husband. Sivasothie agrees to the marriage because she has to follow whatever her family have decide for her life as she has no rights to voice out her opinion. This shows that young women in the Indian society do not have freedom to choose their own life partner and also to decide their own future life. It is also about the dowry that is promised by Ramachandran family for the bridegroom where dowry plays a major role in an Indian wedding. Dowry is a traditional practice where the father of the bride gives a part of his properties to his daughter and son in law as the gift of the wedding. This practice turn to be a cruel action because if the bride's family fail to give the dowry that demand by the bridegrooms family, then the wedding will be cancel off. In country India, which happens to be modernized, seems to keep up to the tradition of arranged marriages. Indians believe that young people are unable to make such important decisions such as marriage on their own, so instead the parents search for specific traits in a partner. Point of View The narrator tells the story in third-person point of view where he relates all action in third person, using third person pronouns such as "he" or "she." Here is an example of the narrator's third person commentary: Just then, Mr. Ramachandran came into the kitchen and beckoned to his wife. She went out dutifully, for she managed her husband well Another third person commentary : From the mess of glitter, she extracted a heavy gold chain carved rather much in detail. She sighed with contentment. Tone Siew Yue Killingley uses a bitter tone. Bitter tone in a way that Sivasothie as an usual Indian girl is controlled by her parents and she is just following whatever her family have decide for her life as she has no rights to voice out her opinion.

he Gift of the Magi Setting The narrator calls our attention almost immediately to the two most important details of the story's setting: it takes place on a Christmas Eve, and its two main characters live in a very unassuming flat. The action of the story depends on the fact that Christmas is sufficiently close that Della needs to buy a present now, even with her small amount of money. The Gift of the Magi Characters Della Young: Pretty young woman who cuts off her beautiful long hair and sells it to buy a Christmas gift for her husband. James Dillingham Young: Husband of Della. He sells his gold watch to buy a gift for Della. Madame Sofronie: Shop owner who buys Della's hair. The Gift of the Magi Plot Its Christmas Eve, Jim and Della wants to buy a gift to give to each other. Left with only $1.87, Della sold her hair for $20 to buy Jim a watch chain for his watch. Its $21 and she buys it. Jim arrives to find Della waiting by the door and stares fixedly at her, not able to understand that Della's hair is gone. Della can't understand quite what his reaction means. After a little while, Jim snaps out of it and gives Della her present, explaining that his reaction will make sense when she opens it. Della opens it and cries out in joy, only to burst into tears immediately afterward. Jim has given her the set of fancy combs she's wanted for ages, only now she has no hair for them. Jim nurses Della out of her sobs. Once she's recovered she gives Jim his present, holding out the watch chain. Jim smiles, falling back on the couch. He sold his watch to buy Della's combs, he explains. He recommends they put away their presents and have dinner. As they do so, the narrator brings the story to a close by pronouncing that Della and Jim are the wisest of everyone who gives gifts. They are the magi .

The Gift of the Magi Themes Love: "Gift of the Magi" is the story of a poor, young couple whose love for each other is the most important thing in their lives. Such is their love that they're led to sacrifice their most valuable possessions to find Christmas gifts for each other. Sacrifice: The two main characters in "Gift of the Magi" are a husband and wife who give up their most precious possessions to be able to afford gifts for each other on Christmas Eve. The story seems to be all about sacrifice. Wealth: In many ways, "Gift of the Magi" is a story about what it means for something to be valuable. Does something's value lie in how much money it is worth? Or are other things more valuable than money? The Gift of the Magi Point-Of-View When Della opens Jim's present to find the combs, we understand why Jim was so shocked. It also becomes clear now that he's not angry with Della, and he assures her he'll love her no matter how she looks. Although the climax doesn't fully "predict" the ending, it is the first half of the twist. And if we do get to thinking about where Jim got the money to buy those combs, we might be able to guess what happens next. The Gift of the Magi Tone The Gift of the Magi Mood

A Rose for Emily William Faulkner Settings: This story A Rose for Emily held only at the Griersons House (Emilys House) in their town Jefferson. Events in the story take place in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Characters: Ms. Emily Grierson the main character in the story. Miss Emily is an old-school southern belle trapped in a society bent on forcing her to stay in her role. She clings to the old ways even as she tries to break free. Homer Barron- A foreman from the North. Homer is a large gay man with a dark complexion, a booming voice, and light-colored eyes. A gruff and demanding boss, he wins many admirers in Jefferson because of his gregarious nature and good sense of humor. Judge Stevens - A mayor of Jefferson. He attempts to delicately handle the complaints about the smell emanating from the Grierson property. Mr. Grierson - Emilys father. He is a controlling, looming presence even in death, and the community clearly sees his lasting influence over Emily. Tobe - Emilys servant. He is the only lifeline that Emily has to the outside world. Colonel Sartoris - A former mayor of Jefferson. He absolves Emily of any tax burden after the death of her father. Old Lady Wyatt- Emily's great-aunt, who went insane.

Plot: In the initial scene. We move from a huge funeral attended by everybody in town, to this strange little story about taxes. The taxes seem tame compared to what comes next. In Section II, we learn a lot about Miss Emily: when her father died she refused to believe it for four days the summer after her father died, she finally gets a boyfriend (she's in her thirties); when worried that her boyfriend might leave her, she bought some poison and her boyfriend died, but there was a bad smell around her house. In the complication stage it might be helpful to think of this story as the town's confession. This section is what complicates things for the town's conscience. The town was horrible to Miss Emily when she started dating Homer Barron. They wanted to hold her to the southern lady ideals her forbearers had mapped out for her. She was finally able to break free when her father died, but the town won't let her do it. When they can't stop her from dating Homer themselves, they sick the cousins on her. According to Faulkner, Homer probably was a bit of a rat, one which noble Miss Emily would have felt perfectly in the right to exterminate. Yet, she also wanted to hold tight to the dream that she might have a normal life, with love and a family. When she sees that everybody the townspeople, the minister, her cousins, and even Homer himself is bent on messing up her plans, she has an extreme reaction. That's why, for us, the climax is encapsulated in the image of the skull and crossbones on the arsenic package and the warning, "For rats." he story winds down by filling us in on Miss Emily's goings on in the 40 years between Homer's disappearance and Emily's funeral. Other than the painting lessons, her life during that time is a mystery, because she stayed inside. And the conclusion of this story is the townspeople enter the bedroom that's been locked for 40 years, only to find the rotting corpse of Homer Barron.

Theme:

The theme of this story A Rose for Emily is to let go of the past. Because Emily did bad things because she always remembers what her father told her and he is in prison in that.

Point of View: The narrator tells the story in third-person point of view. However, he or she switches to first-person point of view, using we, when reporting the community's reaction to developments involving Emily. Here is an example of the narrator's first-person commentary: We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that. We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will. Tone: Faulkner uses a tone that has a sentimental longing for the past; what has happened previously in a persons life that they yearn for. Mood: The mood of Rose for Emily is nostalgic, then suspenseful, and then alarming.

Enemies (Anton Chekhov) Theme The theme of Enemies are responsibilities and betrayal Tone/ Mood Anxious Worried Foolish Depressing Characters Kirolov(Kirilov) The Doctor who just lost his child Aboguin(Abogin) A husband of a fake patient and left him alone Settings Russia Point of view First and Third Person Plot Kirilov is the district doctor. His six-year old son has just this moment died of diphtheria. He stands watching his wife caress the body as the doorbell rings. It is a wealthy stranger (Abogin) who begs the Doctor to come treat his wife who is in great pain. Kirilov says that he cannot possibly leave his wife at this time. Abogin insists, however, claiming that the doctor must know how terrible it is to witness the illness of a loved one and that his home is close-by. Kirilov relents. But when they arrive at Abogins house, his wife is not home. She has pretended to be ill so that her husband would leave the house allowing her to run away with her lover. Abogin is crushed and begins to complain to Kirilov. Kirilov is fiercely angry that he has been dragged from his sons death-bed to hear Abogins love troubles. They scream at one another and the doctor returns home, with a firm and undying conviction that all those with money deserve his hatred.