can anyone give me a brief summary on the book "ship of fools" by katherine anne porter?
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cheating out of school doesn't help either!!!  OK  i've never heard of the book or i would help you!!!!  sorry
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Try www.angelfire.com/me2/camelot/page4.html\n\nIt looks pretty good.  Also, you might want to try sparksnotes and sites similar.
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Well, I'm reading that book now too, but my class is only on chapter 14.  Sorry and good luck!
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I love that book.  Anyway, in the "Voyage to Lilliput" section, that nation is at war with Blefuscu over the proper manner to eat a hard boiled egg, obviously a trivial matter.  \n\nThere are many layers of satire in "Gulliver's Travels", and one of them here concerns the Catholic-Protestant problems which have often plagued Britain.  Swift was basically claiming that bloodshed between Catholics and Protestants over their theological differences made just as much sense as going to war over the correct way to eat eggs.\n\nI hope this helps.  "Gulliver's Travels" really is a great book, the later parts are, in my view, even better than the more famous voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag.
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Do you know the author?  If so, let us know.\nDo you have any classmates you can ask?
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History\n\nThe ship is named after the short shirt worn by the fleet-footed witch featured in the poem Tam o' Shanter written by Robert Burns. She was designed by Hercules Linton and built in 1869 at Dumbarton in Scotland, by the firm of Scott & Linton, for Captain John Willis, and launched November 23 of that year.\n\nThe Cutty Sark was destined for the China tea trade, at that time an intensely competitive race across the globe from China to London, with immense profits to the ship to arrive with the first tea of the year. However she did not distinguish herself in this trade; in the most famous race, against Thermopylae in 1872, they left Shanghai together on June 18, but after two weeks Cutty Sark lost her rudder after passing through the Sunda Strait, and arrived in London on October 18, a week after Thermopylae, for a total passage of 122 days. Her legendary reputation is supported by the fact that her captain chose to continue this race with an improvised rudder instead of putting into port for a replacement and still managed to be beaten by only one week.\n\nIn the end, clippers lost out to the steamships, which could pass through the recently-opened Suez Canal and deliver reliably, if not quite so quickly, which as it turned out was better for business. The Cutty Sark was then used in the Australian wool trade, and did very well, posting Australia-to-England times of as little as 67 days. Her best run, of 360 nautical miles in 24 hours, was said to have been the fastest of any ship of her size.\n\nIn 1895 Willis sold her to the Portuguese firm of Ferreira, where she was renamed after the firm, then in 1916 she was dismasted off the Cape of Good Hope, sold, re-rigged in Cape Town as a barquentine, and renamed the Maria do Amparo. In 1922 she was bought by Captain Wilfred Dowman, who restored her to her original appearance and used her as a stationary training ship. In 1954 she was dry-docked at Greenwich.\n\nCutty Sark is also preserved in literature in Hart Crane's long poem "The Bridge" which was published in 1930.
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good luck....\n\nhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/greatex/\n\nNext time read the book....it is pretty good.
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Handmaids Tale is a great book with great concepts.  I have taught this book along with Orwell's 1984 and others for my senior english lit class.  \nThe book has a great deal to do with takeovers of society, the impact of inaction/action in society, and women's rights.  I enjoy teaching it to seniors because they are all turning 18 at the time (voting age) and they are inspired to vote to prevent government from taking over, or even burning books like in Bradbury's Farenheit 451!  \nIt is also great to use in debating!  Have fun.
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Synopsis:\nThis "Publishers Weekly" Best Book of the Year tells a story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever. \n\nSynopsis:\nStargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first. \n\nThen they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.\n\nThen in:  www.quakerbooks.org/get/0-375-82233-x -   you have the following:\n\nJerry Spinelli has yet again masterfully created a realistic fiction story with which all young adults should identify while seeing themselves in the characters. Spinelli's easy writing style and use of teen friendly dialogue make this selection an easy read for almost any young adult no matter what their reading level or ability. The story begins with the arrival of a new girl in school as told through the eyes of fellow 10th grader, Leo Burlock. Whispers and rumors run wild as the new student, Stargirl Caraway, begins to make her way through the school. Stargirl is a 10th grader who has just arrived at Mica Area High School in Mica, Arizona (it could have been Anywhere, USA), wearing pioneer type dresses, kimonos and strumming a ukulele and carrying her pet rat! This shocks the school, which is not exactly a "hotbed of originality". In time the student body gives away to her free spirit and friendliness. They begin to rejoice in her extraordinary and impromptu antics such as singing Happy Birthday to everyone in the school cafeteria and her spectacular acrobatics as a cheerleader. However, soon the popularity begins to wear off as Stargirl carries it a little too far in the eyes of the student body. Leo Borlock befriends Stargirl and ultimately becomes his first love. Leo is torn between the conformity issue at school and truly expressing his individuality and love for Stargirl. This plot, while chronological in nature, moves very smoothly as the relationship between Stargirl and Leo intensifies. The characters in the novel are related to the reader through the eyes of sixteen year old, Leo Borlock. Leo seems to a typical teen in every way; he honors the unspoken rule of teendom: "don't stand out - under any circumstances". Leo is both attracted and repelled by her. Leo's character changes as he realizes that Stargirl seems to like him. He eventually braves up enough to go to her house and befriend her, while also being seen in public with her. As the popularity slows to a stop and eventually turns into Stargirls emeny, Leo has to make decisions about his friendship with Stargirl. Stargirl Caraway is fun loving, free-spirited and totally impromptu. She marches to the beat of her own drummer and does not seem to notice the ways others react her. The changes in her character occur after a long talk with Leo about the way "they" see her. She changes her clothing and her way of dealing with people. In essence, she becomes a regular teen at Mica High in order to please Leo and fit in with the crowd. She eventually finds she is better off to be her true self. Person versus society is the obvious conflict in this novel. Both Stargirl and Leo are in conflict with society and the option to conform or not conform. Although they handle the conflict in different ways, both feel the need to conform. While Stargirl chooses the road of nonconformity, Leo eventually chooses to confo
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I read the book myself about 5 years ago at school. Its all metaphors and political commentary. The link below will provide all the information you could need.\n\nAs to the above answer "do a google", you will find the 95% of the questions on here coud be solved quicker are more effectivly with a google search by the user.
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Try this, it might give you enough info to squeek by:\nhttp://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780440129264&view=excerpt
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i havent read it, but ive heard that it is really good. im going to either check it out from the library or buy it soon, and read it.
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We are talking Ibsen here, right? OK, how about this.\n\nIn A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen raises the question of happiness still relevant in our time. The author presents a situation where one of the female protagonists is forced by society to sacrifice her personal fulfilment on the altar of social conventions.\n\nThat was so far the formulation of the question. Now we proceed with the analysis. \n\nFrom the first pages of the book, the reader witnesses the efforts of the female character to follow her duty. Yet no matter how hard she tries, she fails. At the end, she finally comes to the realization that her misery stems from misapplication of her talents. Expected to be a mother and a wife, the woman forgets about her own happiness. This is not the way, the author seems to tell us. The young woman's depression creates an unpleasant atmosphere in the house which affects even the well being of the little children.\nThis is essentially the reason for the mother leaving her children at the end. Only by declaring her independence from the patriarchal society, can she find her own happiness. And only then, will she be able to give her offspring what they deserve, a peaceful atmosphere in the house, genarated by the contedness of each individual.\nAs Ibsen  unequivocally shows us, one has to follow his won dreams and raise the new generation according to similar ideals of self fulfillment and independence. This, according to the author, is the key to happy society in general, and family life in particular.\n\nOk, this is the gist of it. You can change what doesn't fit your thoughts, and add, to present your own opinion.\nHope this helps.
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This website should help you out:\n\nhttp://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm?book_number=1152
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Its a Book by Dan Brown\n\nwww.danbrown.com
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Oh! I love that story. We read it last semester. Have you read the story? It's really funny to read it and then think in the gutters. Our sub, Scott, taught us that. lol Anyway... okay... hm... thesis statement. \n\n"There are stories about fish and the like, but none quite like this. The boy in the story learns to grow after learning that his beloved Sheila is not what he thought she was. In the story the boy struggling with what he loves and what he thinks he is in love with. ([The story teaches about letting go, forgetting and growing up] <-- thesis)." \n\nOkay, to clarify the thesis:\n\nLetting go: Letting go of the fish and moving on.\nForgetting: He forgets that he can't very well catch a fish without her seeing, so he loses it. \nGrowing up: After he learns that Sheila Mant is not what he thought she but, but in fact a skany who9re (lol) he learns to move on and grow up. \n\nI hope this helped.
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Go to Yahoo or Google and do a search for the title.  You'll get a lot of hits.  This one is really good, from an online review at amazon.com:\n\n "Black Dogof Fate" Is a Fuzzy Grey Beast at Best , May 24, 2005\nReviewer:Bedros Afeyan "Bedros Afeyan" (Pleasanton, CA) - See all my reviews\n(REAL NAME)   \nPeter Balakian's book, "Black Dog of Fate," tries to be too many things\nand sadly fails at many of them. In essence, it is an attempt to tell a\nsort of Armenian-American story which I find not overly interesting or\ncompelling. I wish the author had done a bit more in-depth work to learn\nabout his people and their rich heritage before embarking to represent it\nor explain it or share it with non-Armenians, for he has much more to absorb\nand understand himself first. I find the Armenianness in this book to be\ntentative, unengaged and unconvincing. Pity, since the author seems to\nhave a lot of passion in his pursuit of other aspects of his life such as\nfootball, the Yankees, modern poetry, and exposing Turkish attempts to\nbuy (among others) Princeton professors to act as mouthpieces giving\nlegitimacy to their vile historical revisionism, practiced by the\n"modern" Turkish state and its organs.\n\nIt seems to be all the rage these days to elevate personal histories and\nfamily testimonials into the realm of fiction and novels. The "I" and "we"\nand "us" occupy center stage and the reader is invited to enjoy the\nintimacy that must surely be in place via this artifice. But is it realy?\nSince in order to make this legitimate, the writer must distance himself,\nat least initially, from all this old world exotica, and like the reader,\nquestion their validity or relevance in present day North American\nsociety. What are all these old world, old fashioned ghosts and traditions?,\nis the first cry of writer and reader alike, only, ofcourse, to be followed\nby a sharp bank turn where the writer steers the satisfied and in-place\nreader towards the opposite viewpoint wherein *this* culture and *this*\nlifestyle become suspect in light of some tentative spotting of cultural\nwealth that has been traded in or abandoned in order to swim swiftly towards\nmaterialistic, memory-free, self-redefining, "comfort" seeking and buying\nmores.\n\nIn the Balakian tale, one encounters suburbia instead of substance,\nworldly goods acquisition instead of deep roots that steady the soul,\nimmediate family and relatives running away from their true identities either\ntowards surrealism, the abstract and unemotional, or else towards medicine,\nrespectability and detachment. Young Balakian observes but never\nunderstands "the grandmother" for she is shielded culturally from being\nable to reach him by her very offsprings who can not and will not instill\nthe Armenian identity he will eventually seek but never quite find. Their\ncrime is self-denial and a march to the tune of America's mixmaster\npiper. "Be unlike your past and your future will be brighter," seems to be\nwhat America promises, at the very least. The intermediate generation listens\nand adopts this credo and Peter is left to find out but never quite\nunderstand just what cost his ancestors have paid to remain Armenian and\nto preserve our culture before the final denials on New Jersey pateos while\nenjoying, as if to serve sweet irony, full course Armenian meals and the\nmixing aromas of delicacies from the old country every Sunday.\n\nPeter is lost alright, but as the book sadly shows, he remains lost.\nParaphrasing or quoting Ambassador Morgenthau does not an Armenian genocide\nexpert make. Personal family testimonials of the Turkish atrocities does\nnot a genocide history make (For that, read Vahakn Dadrian's "The History\nof the Armenian Genocide" Berghahn Books, 1995). Episodic accounts can be\ndismissed by the Turks as hear-say and as mere isolated incid