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Reading comprehension review of literature
Essays on reading comprehension
Essays on reading comprehension
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Jumping Mouse
The story of Jumping Mouse may seem simple at first. But it is far more than just a story about a small rodent. There are so many underlying themes that reflect society, faith, generosity, personal growth, and many other aspects of a person’s daily life.
The story starts out with a seemingly simple mouse, who hears what others do not. He dares to question what is out of the ordinary, and seeks out the truth instead of dismissing it as nothing. He shows curiosity, which leads him to new ideas. When he has his experience at the river, he is given a new name, which signifies his own personal growth. When he takes his newfound ideas back to the mouse society they don’t believe him because it is far too different than what they already know, and they decide that he is harmful. The society of mice reflects society in how they didn’t understand something so they pushed it away. So many times people don’t accept or understand things because they are out of the ordinary, so they shun it. It happens every day; with racism and conflicts over human sexuality. Most people don’t understand that there is no way to define normal. All around the world things are different, and one needs to be open minded enough to understand it. Now look what being open minded did for the mouse. His willingness to listen and his faith in the frog allowed him to see into the rest of the world, even deeper into his own mind. There is a fine line between being open-minded and being gullible. Both will listen to anything to try to understand it, but gullible people lack common sense. The mouse seemed kind of gullible, in how he’d risk his safety by jumping in the water all because the frog said to.
Jumping mouse is like many people, always seeking a better way of life. The other mice were quite content with their busy life, because that was the way they have always known. But Jumping Mouse had a taste for what else the world had to offer him. When Jumping Mouse met with the old mouse, he found a perfect place to live, free from harm and lots of food. He was told he should stay but somehow, he knew that he could have better. Even later on his journey to find the mountains he discovered a small “mouse utopia” with an abundant supply of food and shelter, everything a mouse could want.
When the mice moved to America the cats represented the nativists. The native born Americans pictured their country as a melting pot. A melting pot is a mixture of people of different cultures and races who blended together by abandoning their native languages and customs. The only problem was these new immigrants wanted to keep their cultural identities. The cats were the nativists who tried to force the mice into these cultures and beliefs.
Burns talks about the mouse in sympathy and is sorrowful that he had taken the mouse’s home away from the mouse by accidentally destroying its home for the winter, and that the mouse’s dream was to dwell in their cozy home, and even though the mouse had prepared everything Burns says that “The best laid schemes of mice and men go often awry.”
“Of mice and men” is about people who are lonely, sad and in search of
Fievel Mousekewitz and his family (who are mice), who are from Russia run away from their homeland in the late 1800s, and board a boat headed for America to escape the Czarist rule of the Russian cats. Fievel, however, is separated from his family upon his arrival in New York Harbor. While he’s searching for his family throughout NYC, he discovers that there are cats in America too (his father said there weren't). Fievel meets a variety of friendly and hostile mice, and learns the ins and outs of NYC and how to survive as an immigrant. Eventually he makes friends with a cat named Tiger and together, along with others, Fievel finds his family and lives happily ever after.
Both “To a Mouse” and Of Mice and Men are very interesting and intriguing well-developed works by two distinctly different authors. The authors have different writing styles, as well as different ways of formatting their works. However, they share the same message. This message is that no matter what one does to prepare, they should always have a Plan B. Things can and often do go awry. By comparing both subjects, the reader can gain a better understanding of the similarities and differences between the two. They also learn precisely why the inquisitive author Steinbeck found inspiration in Burns’ detailed and symbolic poem.
A vital symbol used throughout the story is the color green. Numerous times in the story the color green is used to describe Gatsby’s wants even though they may be unattainable. The most evident use of this symbol is the green light found on the end of Daisy’s dock. Various times in the story Gatsby is found gazing at the light located at the end of Daisy’s dock. It’s obvious that the light has a very significant meaning to him. It represents his extreme desire to win Daisy over and his willingness to do anything to do so. This devotion for winning Daisy over will fuel the decadence during The Great Gatsby. In chapter 5 it says “Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever.” Upon winning over Daisy, Gatsby realized that his desire to be with her was becoming a reality r...
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck brings out the themes of Lonliness and companionship, and strengths and weaknesses through the actions, and quotations of the characters. Irony and foreshadowing play a large roll on how the story ends. Lennie and his habit of killing things not on purpose, but he is a victim of his own strength. George trying to pretend that his feelings for Lennie mean nothing. The entire novel is repetitive in themes and expressed views.
In The Great Gatsby, the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock is a symbol for many things which is left up to the reader’s interpretation. One of the most prominent connections to this green light is the association it has to a green traffic life. A green light on a traffic light signals for a person to go, move forward, just as Gatsby is lured in and signaled by the light to reach for his future hopes and dreams of winning Daisy back. The light across the bay provides as a constant reminder of Gatsby’s ultimate goal and encourages him to strive in order to achieve it. Nick describes this ever-present optimism at the end of the novel when he says, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (Fitzgerald, 187). The light, being the color green also symbolizes what is important to people during this time, which was money. The color green is widely associated with money. During the 1920’s money and wealth was the primary focus for most American’s as they experienced a booming postwar economy. Therefore the use of the green light also suggests that it is not only a symbol for Gatsby’s goal of winning Daisy over, but also the goal of obtaining money and riches for all other people during the Roaring
At the beginning, the green light illustrates the great distance between Gatsby and Daisy, and also his hope to be with her again. Nick spotted Gatsby as, “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far way, that might have been the end of a dock” (21). In this quote, Gatsby is actually physically reaching his arms across the bay, towards Daisy, at the green light and shows the symbolism between the green light and Daisy for the first time. The color green is often associated with envy showing Gatsby’s lust and envy to relive the past and be with her once again. Later on in the novel, we find out that "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay" (149). This quote shows that the only reason Gatsby purchased that house was to be able to see Daisy and in hope for them to be together once again. Gatsby threw extravagant parties only inspite of his optimism that Daisy would one day wonder in and they would be reunited once again. Every decision and move that Gatsbys makes is for a reason; everything that Gatsby does is to regain his relationship with Daisy.
Lack of funding was the main reason the mouse's existence was in jeopardy. While working on the preliminary research and development of the mouse, Engelbart discovered that they could not afford to bring in outside experience and resources that were necessary for the project. The funds that he had...
The green light signifies Gatsby’s hopes and dreams. Nick thinks back to when Gatsby observes the green light across the bay from West Egg and says, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us” (180). The “orgastic future” represents the American dream in which everyone has the equal opportunity to live in prosperity and happiness through hard work and success. Gatsby’s dream is full of potential, but the memories in his past end up against him and his potential diminishes as his life
Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson, is a parable that shows how individuals deal with change differently. In this story the four characters, two mice named Sniff and Scurry and two little people, about the size of mice, named Hem and Haw. These four are in a maze searching for cheese; the cheese is a metaphor for the things that make feel complete. The maze represents the environment such as the earth, employment, home, family, or whatever is associated with the change.
On its surface, Martel’s Life of Pi proceeds as a far-fetched yet not completely unbelievable tale about a young Indian boy named Pi who survives after two hundred twenty-seven days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. It is an uplifting and entertaining story, with a few themes about companionship and survival sprinkled throughout. The ending, however, reveals a second story – a more realistic and dark account replacing the animals from the beginning with crude human counterparts. Suddenly, Life of Pi becomes more than an inspiring tale and transforms into a point to be made about rationality, faith, and how storytelling correlates the two. The point of the book is not for the reader to decide which story he or she thinks is true, but rather what story he or she thinks is the better story. In real life, this applies in a very similar way to common belief systems and religion. Whether or not God is real or a religion is true is not exactly the point, but rather whether someone chooses to believe so because it adds meaning and fulfillment to his or her life. Life of Pi is relevant to life in its demonstration of storytelling as a means of experiencing life through “the better story.”
Society’s refusal to accept differences drives the creature toward violence. The standards of normal and abnormal are established at an early age, and no individual is left untouched. The creature, as a living being, has the right to be accepted and loved. However, the instant he tries to integrate in society, someone notices that he does not fit society’s definition of normal and revokes his rights. The creature tries to find food in a village to survive, and encounters a man in a hut: “He turned on hearing a noise; and, perceiving me, shrieked loudly, and, quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly appe...
The idea of the “American Dream,” has been widely addressed by the famous writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, in his several novels, especially in The Great Gatsby. Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby reveals a particular example of those who are devotees of pursuing the American Dream but eventually end up by sacrificing themselves. The concept of the American Dream can be totally different for people, all of whom have their own understanding of these words. In brief, the major essence of American culture has always emphasized on the value of the individual, the pursuit of freedom, the improvement of competition, and the promotion of realism. The common truth of this novel is that each character has their American Dream, which gives them the opportunity