Đề cương ôn thi môn Văn học anh Mỹ ngắn gọn, chọn lọc

ĐỀ CƯƠNG ÔN THI MÔN VĂN HỌC ANH MỸ
PHẦN 1: TRẢ LỜI CÂU HỎI TRẮC NGHIỆM
KIẾN THỨC CHUNG
1. Writer is consideres to be the most outstanding representative of
decadence trend in english literature at the end of 19th century: oscar wilde
2. The leader of aesthetic movement: oscar wilde
3. The picture of dorian gray is wilde’s only novel and it is considered his
masterpiece.
4. How is dorian gray depicted? Handsome, youngman, kinad, innocent
(generous, humance man)
5. Writer often compared blood to a rugby, the blue sky to a sapphire?
Oscar wilde
6. The writing style of charles dickens? Humorous with exageration
7. Lord henry wotten is a villain character in the novel the picture of
dorian gray
8. Maugham was trained to become a doctor but then he tured to writing
9. Maugham published his materpiece “of human bondage” in 1915
10. The novel “the moon anf sixpence” was written by maugham in 1919
11. Novel is partially an autobiography of somersrt maugham: of human
bondage
12. The important works of maugham: liza of lambeth & clakes and ale
13. The name of charles atrickland’s wife: amy
14. The forsyte saga is galsworthy’s masterpiece. It consists of 3 novels
and 2 interluses.
15. The typical characteristics os forsyte family? Individual, snob, show off,
competitive, contemp for every thing foreign,...
16. John galsworthy was the president of theassociation of writers until he
died in 1933
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17. The novel “the picture of dorian gray” was written in 1891
18. As an artist, he doesnot care for fame or wealth. He never “sold a single
pictureand he wa never satisfied with what he has done”: charles strickland
19. Oliver twist was born in a workhouse
20. Writer in his young used to work as an apprentice priter, a river pilot, a
miner and a journalist: mark twain
21. Writer gained great success with stories about the life of common
american people: mark twain
22. Writer used a lot of american vernacular in his works: mark twain
23. Writer had to work as a family breadwinner before he finished his grade
school: jack london
24. Writer had to do a lot of labour work before hecan earn money from his
pen: o henry
25. Writer was born and died in the year when halley’s comet was visible in
the sky? Mark twain
26. “the call os the wild” by london is typical example of story
27. Writer wrote mostly about the life of common people iin new york city:
o henry
28. Writer used to work in a bank and was imprisoned for embezzling bank
funds: o henry
29. Writer recieved nobel prie for literature in 1954: hemingway
30. Writer took part in many wars and realized the real nature of war:
hemingway
31. Which works helped bring the pulitzer to hemingway: the old man and
the sea
32. “a farewell to arms” written is based on what incidrnt in his life:...........
33. Writer commited suicide with his favourite gun: hemingway
34. “death in the afternoon” by hemingway is a story about: a nonfiction
account of spanish bullfightin
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35. “the nightingale and the rose” by oscar wilde is a fairy tale
36. Artistic method was used in describing the god buck: personification
37. David copperfield is considered to be dickens’ most successful novel
38. The author compares his taking to writing career “as a duck took to
water”: somerset maugham
39. The nightingale sacrifice it life for a red rose
40. Author of such fables as “the crab and its mother”, “the man and the
lion”, “the wolf and the lamb”: somerset maugham
41. “the ballad of reading gaol” was written by oscar wilde
42. John galsworthy came from a well-to-do bourgeois family, thus he
understood very little of the world beyond and beneath his class
43. At the height of his popularity and success, oscar wilde was accused of
immorality anf condemned to 2 years; hard labour at reading gaol
44. John galsworthy is a great master of crating characters, in his opinion,
each character should possess features typical of a certain group of people in
society.
45. In oscar wilde opinion, art is isolated fromlife, art is the only thing that
really exists and is worth living for.
46. “death, the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose
pease and whose refuge are for all - the soiled and the pure, the rich and the
poor, the loved anf the unloved” is mark twain last written statement
47. One of the great losses in mark twain’s life was the breaths of his 3
children before they reached their twenties
48. After the deaths of his parent, somerset maugham had an awfuan
childhood under the care of his childless uncle who understood nothing about
the psychology of a child. Because of his bad english anf small figure, hw was
always ridiculed by friends at school. He, therfor, developed little stammer and
it stayed all his life.

49. In his life, hemingway was awarded 2 prestigious prizes for literature, a
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pulitzer prize and a nobel prize
50. In many of his works, hemingway frequently used coincidences and
surprise enadings to nderline ironies.

PHẦN 2: VIẾT LUẬN VỀ CÁC TÁC GIẢ, TÁC PHẨM
1. Charles dickens (1812 - 1870) was the greatest critial realist in the 19 th
century english literature. Dickens was born in the family of a poor clerk in
Portsmouth, the second of 9 children in the family. In 1821, the family moved to
London, poverty still pursued the family even when they were in the capital and
Charles father was put on into prison for debts. To help the family, charles had
to leave school for work in a factory. He washed bottles and worked from dawn
to dusk. Dickens describes this period of his childhood in the novel David
copperfield. When his father was released from prison, charles was sent to
school again and he stay there for 3 years, learning foreign languages and
stydying literature. At 15, charles left school and worked in a lawyer’s office.
He studied short - hand at that time and soon took up the work of a
parliamentary reporter to a london newspaper. This work led him to journalism
and from journalism to novel writing. Dickens’s life as a literary artist falls into
4 periods. The first period (1833 – 1841) is the period of humour and optimism.
In this period, he shows men and women who remain true to the principles of
honor regardless of external circumstances with some novels such as: sketches
by boz 1833-36, oliver twist – 1838, Barnaby rudge - 1840. The second one
(1842 – 1848) is the period of sarcasm and criticism with americannotes 1842,
martin chuzzlewitt 1844. the third period (1849 – 1860) included the most
famous novels by dickens: david copperfield 1850, bleak house 1853, hard
times 1854,… this is the strongest social criticism on the soulless and

unwholesome nature of competition in an industrial life where “devils take the
hindmost”. Dickens wrote only 2 novels in the fourth period 1861-1865: great

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expectation 1861, our mutual friend 1864-65. this is the period of
romanticization resulting from disillusionment. In 1870, he died. He was not
only the first story-teller of the common people in common place surroundings,
but remained, after countless imitators and brilliant successors, yet the greatest.
He took the trivialities, the little comedies, the little tragedies, erradiated them
with his glorious humour and ever-flowing sympathy.
2. Oscar wilde, one of the greatest literary showmen of the English nineteen
century, was born in Dublin on october 16 th 1854. he was a son of an Irish
surgeon and a Dublin endowed with literary talent. While he was at school,
oscar was always among the best students of the humanities. He was awarded a
number of classical prizes. Under the influence of his teacher, john Ruskin, he
joined the Aesthetic Movement and soon became the most sincere supporter of
this movement. After graduating from the university, he turned his attention to
writing , traveling and lecturing and when the Aesthetic movement became
popular, he earned a reputation of being the leader of the movement and as an
apostle of beauty. His publications, among many others, include: the happy
prince and other tales 1888, the picture of dorian gray 1891, lady windermere’s
fan 1892,… at the height of his popularity, wilde was accused of immorality and
was put to 2 years; imprisonment. He died in paris in 1900. like most writers
and poets, he glorifies natural beauty but at the same time he is the admirer of
artificial color. Though wilde’s claimed the theory of extreme individualism, he
often contradicted himself. In his works, in his tales in particular, he glorities
beauty and not only the beauty of the nature and artificial beauty but the beauty
of devoted love.

3. john galsworthy was a novelish, dramatist, short story writer and
essayist taken together. His works give the most complete and critical picture of
the English bourgeois society at the beginning of the 20 th century. He was born
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at combe, surrey, on august 14, 1867 and died on 31 january 1933. he came
from a well-to-do bourgeois family of a rich layer. He was intended to follow
his father’s career, yet he turned to letters as his profession only 1 year later his
graduation from oxford university. He began to travel all over the world. His
life-long dream was to expose all the evils of society and to reveal the truth of
life. He handed over to mankind a huge heritage of novels, short stories, plays,
essays, letters. He was the president of the association of writers until he died in
1933. he awarded the nobel prize in 1932. galsworthy’s masterpiece is entitled
the forsyte saga. He was a great master of creating characters. In his opinion,
each character should possesses features typical of a certain group of people in
society. His novel are appeals with characters, most of them are alive and fullblooded. The author appeals both to the heart and reason of his readers, yet
there is little sentimentality in his works,
4. William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 in paris, he is the sixth
and the youngest child of an English family. His father is a solicitor to the
british embassy in paris. When he was eight, his mother died. 2 years later, his
father also passed away. He became an orphan and he was brought back to
England to be cared for by his childless uncle. There, Maugham lived through
his awful childhood. At home, his uncle proved cold to him and understood
nothing of his psychology. At school, due to his small figure and bad English,
he was always ridiculed by his mates which made him to become more quiet
and private. Also at this age, Maugham developed stammer and it stays all his
life. Later, he was trained in Germany to become a doctor. He worked as a
doctor in a London hospital for a short time before turning to writing career.
However, experience as a doctor was of rich literature values to Maugham. As a

doctor, he had chances to meet people of “low” sort that he would never have
met in one of the other professions and to see them in a time of heightened
anxiety and meaning in their lives. Maugham wrote about people of all social
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classes in the contemporary society.
5. Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born in
Florida, Missouri on 30 november 1835. when his father died in 1847 the
family was left in financial straits, so 11 years old, he left school and had to do
many job to earn living such as an apprentice printer, a river pilot, a miner,… he
scored great success with stories about life of common American people.
Despite the fame of a brilliant humorist, he made an important contribution to
American literature as a social critic. His social criticism can be found in his
best works. The adventures of tom sawyer 1786, the prince and the pauper… in
1870 he married Olivia “livy” Langdon with whom he would have 4 children.
He died on 21 april 1910. he suffered many losses in his life including the
deaths of 3 of his children and accumulated large debts which plagued him for
many years. Both adults and children enjoys mark twain’s book. His mocking
humour is based on the common sense of common peopke living around him
who he always describes with a warmth of human understanding and sympathy.
6. the American short-story writer William Sydney Porter, who wrote
under the pseudonym O.Henry, pioneered in picturing the lives of lower-class
and middle-class New Yorkers. He was born in 1862. he attended school for a
short time, then clerked in an uncle’s drugstore. At the age of 20 he went to
Texas, working forst on a ranch and later as a bank teller. In 1887 he married
and began to write free-lance sketches. A few years later he founded a
humorous weekly, the Rolling Stone. When this failed, he became a reporter
and columnist on the Houston Post. Indicted in 1896 for embezzling bank
funds, Porter fled to a reprting job in new Orleans then to Honduras. O.henry

had a broad knowledge of the life of common people. They are the main
characters their stories and their fates comprise those unusual and unexpected
plots which never fail to surprise the reader. He was the master of surprise
ending. The work of O henry reflect a specific period in the history of American
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literature: the turn of the 20th century. He occupies an immediate position
between the critical and the romantic tradition in American literature, which
means that in his stories, realism and romanticism mingled. O henry was most
famous as a writer of city-life stories.
7. jack London is the praiser of strong-willed people struggling with severe
nature and tricks of fortune. He was born in 1876 in the family of an
impoverished farmer. His life was one of unending toil. After completing
grammar school, London worked at various odd jobs. By the time he was 22, he
had lived more than most people do in fifty years. He had worked on ships and
in factories, he had traveled across the ocean as a sailor, he had tramped from
san Francisco to new york with an army of unemployed and back through
Canada to Vancouver. he had learned life from his own experience and had
studied it through art, science and philosophy. Many of his stories including
“the call of the wild”, “sea-wolf”,… made him famous both at home and
abroad. His style – brutal, vivid, and exciting distinguished him from other great
masters of world literature. In 1900 he married Elisaneth Maddern, but left her
and their daughters 3 years afterwaeds, eventually to marry Charmian Kittredge.
In 1901 he ran unsuccessfully on the socialist party for mayor of Oakland. On
the morning of November 22, 1916, he died because of taking to much
narcotics.
8. Earnest hemingway, one of the greatest and most influential modern
American novelesh, short-story writers and essayist, was born in 1899 in Oak
Park, a small provincial town near Chicago, Illinois. He started writing when he

yet a choolboy. On graduating from high school in 1917, he took to newpaper
reporting, but left his job within a few months to serve as a volunteer ambulance
driver in Italy during World War 1 1914 – 1918. he later transferred to the
Italian infantry. During one of the attacks he was badly wounded at the Italian
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front. It was there that he realized the stupidity and brutality of war which he
condemned in the works that followed. He covered the war in the Near East for
the Canadian newspaper Star and spent several years in Paris. Some his famous
publications are a farewell to arm 1929, the oldman and the sea 1950, for whom
the bell tolls 1940. hermingway’s style is often to as an expression of the
“iceberg principle” which means that he avoided describing his characters’
emotions. He made the reading of taxt similar to a travel into a world where the
reader has to use his/her own experience to decipher what is unsaid. In 1954 he
was awarded the nobel prize in literature. On july 2 1961 he committed suicide
with his favorite shotgun at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
1. the nightingale and the rose
The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde is a fairy tale in which the
first character that appears is a Student. He is sad because a girl promised to
dance with him on condition that he brought her red roses, but he did not find
any of this colour; there were white and yellow roses, but he could not find red
ones. While he was moaning because her love would not dance with him, four
characters from nature started to talk about him. A little Green Lizard, a
Butterfly and a Daisy asked why he was weeping, and the Nightingale said that
he was weeping for a red rose. The first three characters said that weeping for a
red rose was ridiculous.
The Nightingale, who understood the Student’s feelings, started to fly until
‘she’ saw a Rose-tree. She told him to give her a red rose and she promised, in
exchange, to sing her sweetest song, but the Rose-tree told her that his roses

were white, and he sent the Nightingale to his brother that grew round the old
sun-dial. The Nightingale went to see this new Rose-tree and, after promising
the same in exchange for a red rose, the Rose-tree told her that his roses were
yellow, but he sent the Nightingale to his brother, who grew beneath the
Student's window. So the Nightingale went there, and when she arrived, she
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asked the Rose-tree to give her a red rose. The Rose-tree said that his roses were
red, but that winter had chilled his veins and the frost had nipped his buds, so he
could not give her a red rose. The Rose-tree suggested a solution: he told her
that if she truly wanted a red rose, she had to build it out of music by moonlight
and stain it with her own heart's blood. She had to sing to the Rose-tree with her
breast against a thorn; the thorn would pierce her heart and her life-blood would
flow into the Rose-tree veins. The Nightingale said that death was a great price
to pay for a red rose, but at the end, she accepted.
The Nightingale went to see the Student and told him that he would have his
red rose, that she who would build it up with her own blood; the only thing she
asked him for in return was to be a true lover. The Student looked at her, yet he
could not understand anything because he only understood the things that were
written down in books. But the Oak-tree understood and became sad because he
was fond of the Nightingale, and asked her to sing the last song; when she
finished, the Student thought that the Nightingale had form, but no feeling. At
night, the Nightingale went to the Rose-tree and set her breast against the thorn.
She sang all night long. She pressed closer and closer against the thorn until the
thorn finally touched her heart and she felt a fierce pang of pain. The more the
rose got red, the fainter the Nightingale's voice became, and after beating her
wings, she died. The rose was finished, but she could not see it.
The next morning, the Student saw the wonderful rose under his window. He
took it and went to see the girl to offer her the rose, but she just said that the

rose would not go with her dress and that the Chamberlain's nephew had sent
her real jewels, adding that everybody knew that jewels cost far more than
flowers. After arguing with her, the Student threw the rose into a gutter, where a
cart-wheel crushed it, and he said that Love was a silly thing and that he
preferred Logic and Philosophy.
This fairy tale is very incisive and, despite its apparent simplicity, leaves the
reader with a clear moral message: it is important to remember that some people
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sometimes sacrifice their life or suffer to help others, but at the end they aren’t
returned with the same emotional intensity and their actions are not even fully
understood.
2. soames forsyte is a typical forsyte
3. charles Strickland
In many his stories Maugham reveals to us the unhappy life and the revolt
against the set social order. “the moon and sixpence” was written in this line. It
is a story of conflict between the artist and the conventional society based on
the life of the French painter Pau Gauguin.
The main character of the novel is Charles Strickland, a prosperous
stockbroker, who changes all of a sudden the whole mode of life. At the
beginning of the book he is described by a young artist, the narrator of the
novel: “He looked commonplace…he was just a good, dull, honest, plain man.
One would admire his excellent qualities, but avoid his company. He was a null.
He was probably a worthy member of society, a good husband and father; but
there was no reason to waste one’s time over him…nothing could be more
ordinary. I do not know that there was anything about them to excite the
attention of the curious.”
But the rest of the book shows that the first impression was altogether
wrong. At the age of forty Charles Strickland leaves his wife and children and

goes to Paris to study art. He was aware of the hardships in store for him but his
desire to paint was so strong that nothing was convincing enough to make him
alter his decision to devote his life to art.
“I tell you I’ve got to paint. I can’t help myself. When a man falls into the
water it doesn’t matter how he swims, well or badly; he’s got to get out or else
he’ll drawn”.
The narrator felt that Strickland was possessed by some strange passion:
“There was real passion in his voice, and in spite of myself I was impressed. I
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seemed to feel in him some vehement power that was struggling within him; it
gave me the sensation of something very strong, overmastering, that held him,
as it were, against his will. I could not understand. He seemed really to be
possessed of a devil, and I felt that it might suddenly turn and rend him”.
Strickland’s life in Paris was a “bitter struggle against every sort of
difficulty”, but the hardships which would have seemed horrible to most people
did not in the least affect him. He was indifferent to comfort. Canvas and paint
were the only things he needed. “…when no food was to be had he seemed
capable of doing without…. There was something impressive in the manner in
which he lived a life wholly of the spirit”.
Strickland did not care for fame or wealth. He never sold his pictures, nor
even showed them to anybody. He lived in a dream, the reality meant nothing
for him. “He was never satisfied with what he had done; it seemed to him of no
consequence compared with the vision that obsessed his mind”.
His only aim in life was to create beauty. “It gave him no peace. It urged
him hither and thither. He was eternally a pilgrim, haunted by a divine
nostalgia, and the demon within him was ruthless”.
Not long before his terrible death from leprosy on the remote island of
Tahiti, Strickland realised his lifelong dream. The pictures that he had drawn on

the walls of his dilapidated house were his masterpiece. “…here Strickland had
finally put the whole expression of himself. …here he must have said all that he
knew of life and all that he divined….perhaps here he had at last found peace.
The demon, which possessed him, had exorcised at last, and with the
completion of the work, for which all his life had been a painful preparation,
rest descended on his remote and tortured soul. He was willing to die for he had
fulfilled his purpose”.
Maugham makes his characters neither all good nor all bad. He expects the
reader to draw his own conclusions about them. We can dislike Strickland as a
human being for he is selfish, cruel, pitiless and cynical. He loves no one. He
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ruins the life of Dirk Stroeve and his wife. He does not care for his wife and his
children. He brings misfortune to all people he comes in touch with. But, on the
other side, we can appreciate him as a talented artist, a creator of beauty. His
passionate devotion to his art arouses our admiration.
My personal impression of Strickland is that of a human being. I cannot
appreciate his talent and his art, because I think that the most important part of
life is human relations. And a person who did not care for anybody is not a fullfledged person. But still I must admit that a person who devotes his whole life
to fulfil his dream is worthy of respect.
4. oliver
As the child hero of a melodramatic novel of social protest, Oliver Twist is
meant to appeal more to our sentiments than to our literary sensibilities. On
many levels, Oliver is not a believable character, because although he is raised
in corrupt surroundings, his purity and virtue are absolute. Throughout the
novel, Dickens uses Oliver’s character to challenge the Victorian idea that
paupers and criminals are already evil at birth, arguing instead that a corrupt
environment is the source of vice. At the same time, Oliver’s incorruptibility
undermines some of Dickens’s assertions. Oliver is shocked and horrified when

he sees the Artful Dodger and Charley Bates pick a stranger’s pocket and again
when he is forced to participate in a burglary. Oliver’s moral scruples about the
sanctity of property seem inborn in him, just as Dickens’s opponents thought
that corruption is inborn in poor people. Furthermore, other pauper children use
rough Cockney slang, but Oliver, oddly enough, speaks in proper King’s
English. His grammatical fastidiousness is also inexplicable, as Oliver
presumably is not well-educated. Even when he is abused and manipulated,
Oliver does not become angry or indignant. When Sikes and Crackit force him
to assist in a robbery, Oliver merely begs to be allowed to “run away and die in
the fields.” Oliver does not present a complex picture of a person torn between
good and evil—instead, he is goodness incarnate.
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Even if we might feel that Dickens’s social criticism would have been more
effective if he had focused on a more complex poor character, like the Artful
Dodger or Nancy, the audience for whom Dickens was writing might not have
been receptive to such a portrayal. Dickens’s Victorian middle-class readers
were likely to hold opinions on the poor that were only a little less extreme than
those expressed by Mr. Bumble, the beadle who treats paupers with great
cruelty. In fact, Oliver Twist was criticized for portraying thieves and prostitutes
at all. Given the strict morals of Dickens’s audience, it may have seemed
necessary for him to make Oliver a saintlike figure. Because Oliver appealed to
Victorian readers’ sentiments, his story may have stood a better chance of
effectively challenging their prejudices.
5. love between Robert and maria
Even though many of the characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls take a
cynical view of human nature and feel fatigued by the war, the novel still holds
out hope for romantic love. Even the worldly-wise Pilar, in her memories of
Finito, reveals traces of a romantic, idealistic outlook on the world. Robert

Jordan and Maria fall in love at first sight, and their love is grand and idealistic.
Love endows Robert Jordan’s life with new meaning and gives him new reasons
to fight in the wake of the disillusionment he feels for the Republican cause. He
believes in love despite the fact that other people—notably Karkov, who
subscribes to the “purely materialistic” philosophy fashionable with the Hotel
Gaylord set—reject its existence. This new acceptance of ideal, romantic love is
one of the most important ways in which Robert Jordan rejects abstract theories
in favor of intuition and action over the course of the novel.
6. tom sawyer
Tom sawyer, the main character of the novel tome sawyer by mark twain is
a typical boy of western America. He is playful, intelligent and cunning as well.
He clever and cunning is shown very clearly through the chapter 2 when he
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“slaughters” almost all the boys in the village by his own trick.
Tom is always on the alert to do some mischief, even when being in a
trouble. Tom plays hockey in stead of being at class, thus Aunt Polly decides to
make him to work on Saturday. Tom hates work more than anything else.
Moreover, having to work on Saturday while all the other boys are having
holidays is quite a severe punishment on him. In fact, whitewashing the fence is
not too hard for the children of Tom’s age, but tom considers it as a torture and
thus he feels very depressed and miserable as well. Life to him seems nothing
but a burden and he works without spirit. He becomes dejected because he can
not know when the work is completed. Mark Twain is successful when he
makes a contrast between tom’s mood and his surrounding views. As a result,
tom’s personality is revealed clearly. When “there is a song in every heart… a
cheer in every face…all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down
upon his spirit.
Tom is forced to whitewash the fence whereas other free boys go on “all

sorts of delicious expeditions”. Tom does not want either to lose face in front of
all the boys in the village or to be made fun of. So tom keeps on the idea of
escaping from the task as soon as possible. This can only ne carried out by
buying the boys with his worldly wealth-“straitened means” as he calls : bits of
toys, some marbles and trash.
An intelligent and mischievous boy like tom will never easily surrender. The
more hopeless the situation is, the brighter the idea in his mind appears. He
skillfully turns a hard task into a great privilege and considers it as an honour.
“does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fense everyday?” as for him,
whitewash is not really work but play, “it suits Tom Sawyer”. Tom also pretends
not paying attention to any other things, keeping an yes on his work as a real
artist. He makes his whitewash work sn ornament that other boys wish to do.
Tom absolutely admits “there ain’t one boy in a thousand, aybe 2 thousand, that
csn do it the way it is got to be done”. With his considerable price. In other
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words, he offers his great privilege in trade for a lot of things: marbles, part of a
jew’s harp, a tin soldier, a kitten with one eye,… tom enjoys his own trick
happily.
Being a mischievous but intelligent boy, tom discovers a “great law of
human action” and discovers that work is “whatever a body is obliged to do”
and play is “whatever a body is not obliged to do”. It is a lesson tom masters to
considerable profit in the whitewashing work. Tom himself draws out such a
great law that not every one can do. The nature of work anf play is the same but
in fact work and play are quite different from each other. It is because of man’s
thought and conception.
In conclusion, with his great inspiration in the hopeless moment tom
marvelously turns his awful Saturday into a wonderful day. Apart from not
having to work, tom has time to rest and chance to get wealth. From a povertystricken boy he becomes wealthy, from a boy who hates work than anything

else in the world he finally realizes the nature of work and play. It can be said
that tom’s intelligence is so great for a boy of his age.
7. jordan’s feeling
The protagonist of For Whom the Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan left his job as a
college instructor in the United States to volunteer for the Republican side in the
Spanish Civil War. Initially, he believed in the Republican cause with a nearreligious faith and felt an “absolute brotherhood” with his comrades on the
Republican side. However, when the action of the novel starts, we see that
Robert Jordan has become disillusioned. As the conflict drags on, he realizes
that he does not really believe in the Republican cause but joined their side
simply because they fought against Fascism. Because he fights for a side whose
causes he does not necessarily support, Robert Jordan experiences a great deal
of internal conflict and begins to wonder whether there is really any difference
between the Fascist and Republican sides.
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Robert Jordan’s interior monologues and actions indicate these internal
conflicts that plague him. Although he is disillusioned with the Republican
cause, he continues to fight for that cause. In public he announces that he is
anti-Fascist rather than a Communist, but in private he thinks that he has no
politics at all. He knows that his job requires that he kill people but also knows
that he should not believe in killing in the abstract. Despite his newfound love
for Maria, he feels that there cannot be a place for her in his life while he also
has his military work. He claims not to be superstitious but cannot stop thinking
about the world as giving him signs of things to come. These conflicts weigh
heavily on Robert Jordan throughout the bulk of the novel.
Robert Jordan resolves these tensions at the end of For Whom the Bell Tolls,
in his final moments as he faces death. He accepts himself as a man of action
rather than thought, as a man who believes in practicality rather than abstract
theories. He understands that the war requires him to do some things that he

does not believe in. He also realizes that, though he cannot forget the unsavory
deeds he has done in the past, he must avoid dwelling on them for the sake of
getting things done in the present. Ultimately, Robert Jordan is able to make
room in his mind for both his love for Maria and his military mission. By the
end of the novel, just before he dies, his internal conflicts and tensions are
resolved and he feels “integrated” into the world.
8. the lessons that buck got after the first days
Buck, the dog hero and protagonist of the novel, begins life as a sated
aristocrat. Proud and self-assured, he lives in a big house in the sun-kissed Santa
Clara Valley in California. Although he is pampered by his master, Judge Miller,
and his sons, he is more than a mere housedog. Buck keeps his large body lean
and strong by hunting with the judge and by exercising in the outdoors. Because

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of his tremendous size and ability, he is stolen and sold to become a sled dog in
the Yukon.
On the journey to Alaska, Buck experiences restriction for the first time in
his life. He is tied, caged, and beaten, bringing out the fierceness in him. The
trip also teaches him the law of the club. If he does not obey, he will be hurt.
When he finally arrives in the Klondike, he must quickly learn to adapt or
perish. He soon knows that if he does not follow the directions given by the
driver of the sled, he will be whipped; as a result, he soon becomes a valuable
member of the dog team. He also learns the law of the fang; if he does not
attack, he will be attacked. He watches Curly, a dog that is friendly to him,
being viciously attacked by a Husky. Once Spitz is able to get Curly down, all
the other dogs move in for the kill. Buck is determined that he will never go
down. He also realizes that in the wild, there is not fair play; it is every dog or
man for himself.

Buck rapidly casts off his past aristocratic ways. He learns how to burrow
underneath the snow in order to stay warm and sleep. He learns how to steal
food and eat all kinds of things he would never have touched before. He learns
how to be a member of a dog team, laboring harder than he has ever labored in
his life. Physically, he becomes stronger and more able. The more hardy he
becomes, the more he adapts to the naturalistic environment that surrounds him.
The primordial beast is strong in him, and the "instincts once dead became alive
again."
Spitz is a constant nuisance to Buck and his worst enemy. Buck cannot
forget how he is responsible for Curly's death; he also resents that Spitz is the
leader of the team and must be followed. Even though Spitz torments Buck on a
regular basis, Buck wisely does not rise to the taunts. Then one day Spitz steals
Buck's resting-place; he can no longer hold his anger in check. He attacks Spitz,

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and the fight is vicious. Francois and Perrault have to break it up before both
dogs are dead. Even though the first battle is ended, the skirmishes between the
enemies continue.
One day the dogs are all chasing a rabbit, making a great sport of it. Spitz
takes a shortcut and kills the rabbit for himself. Buck is infuriated and attacks
Spitz with a vengeance; again the fighting is fierce. When Spitz is about to get
the better of him, Buck calls upon his intelligence and imagination. Instead of
going for the throat, he breaks Spitz's two front legs, causing him to go down.
The other dogs quickly come in for the final kill. With Spitz out of the way,
Buck fights for and wins the position of leadership of the dog team. He proves
himself worthy, for the sled goes faster and further each day than ever before.
When Francois and Perrault's trip is completed, they sell the team to a
Scotch Half-breed. Although this new master understands the Yukon and is fair

to the animals, he pushes Buck and the other dogs unmercifully. Although
several of the dogs perish on the trip, Buck survives, even though he is
exhausted and loses weight. When the Scotch Half-breed is through with Buck
and the team, he sells them to Charles, Hal, and Mercedes, three inexperienced
adventurers. They overload the sled and do not take enough food; as a result,
most of the dogs die, but Buck survives from sheer determination. When he
arrive at the camp of John Thornton, the exhausted Buck refuses to go onward.
As a result, he is brutally beaten until Thornton intervenes. The party departs
without Buck; before they are out of sight, they sink beneath the ice, which has
melted so much that it cannot bear the weight of the sled. Buck licks his new
master's hand as if to say thanks for sparing him from such an end.
Thornton is extremely kind and generous with Buck, who learns the
meaning of real love for the first time. Buck is totally loyal to this new mater
who has saved his life and nursed him back to health. As a result, he will do

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anything for Thornton; he saves his life on two different occasions and pulls a
sled packed with over a thousand pounds so that Thornton can win a bet.
Although Buck loves his master dearly, he has a yearning to leave civilization
behind and contemplates returning to his roots, living with the wolves. As time
passes, he spends more and more time in the woods, even getting acquainted
with a timber wolf. Only his devotion to Thornton stands in the way of his
following his natural instincts. Because of the lessons he has learned as a sled
dog, Buck is totally prepared to survive in the wilderness. As a result, when
Thornton is killed by Indians, Buck can finally answer the call of the wild.
9. the picture of dorian gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the story of one beautiful, innocent young
man's seduction, moral corruption, and eventual downfall. We meet our three

central characters at the beginning of the book, when painter Basil Hallward and
his close friend, Lord Henry Wotton, are discussing the subject of Basil's newest
painting, a gorgeous young thing named Dorian Gray. Basil and Henry discuss
just how perfectlyperfect Dorian is – he's totally innocent and completely good,
as well as being the most beautiful guy ever to walk the earth. Lord Henry
wants to meet this mysterious boy, but Basil doesn't want him to; for some
reason, he's afraid of what will happen to Dorian if Lord Henry digs his claws
into him.
However, Lord Henry gets his wish – Dorian shows up that very afternoon, and,
over the course of the day, Henry manages to totally change Dorian's
perspective on the world. From that point on, Dorian's previously innocent point
of view is dramatically different – he begins to see life as Lord Henry does, as a
succession of pleasures in which questions of good and evil are irrelevant.

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Basil finishes his portrait of Dorian, and gives it to the young man, who keeps it
in his home, where he can admire his own beauty. Lord Henry continues to
exert his influence over Dorian, to Basil's dismay. Dorian grows more and more
distant from Basil, his former best friend, and develops his own interests.
One of these interests is Sybil Vane, a young, exceptionally beautiful,
exceptionally talented – and exceptionally poor – actress. Though she's stuck
performing in a terrible, third-rate theatre, she's a truly remarkable artist, and
her talent and beauty win over Dorian. He falls dramatically in love with her,
and she with him. For a moment, it seems like everything will turn out
wonderfully. However, this is just the beginning of Dorian's story. Once he and
Sybil are engaged, her talent suddenly disappears – she's so overcome with her
passionate love for Dorian that none of her roles on stage seem important to her
anymore. This destroys Dorian's love for her, and he brutally dumps her. Back

home, he notices a something different in his portrait – it looks somehow
crueler. In the meanwhile, the distraught Sybil commits suicide, just as Dorian
decides to return to her and take back his terrible words.
Sybil's suicide changes everything. At first, Dorian feels horrible – but he rather
quickly changes his tune. On Lord Henry's suggestion, Dorian reads a
mysterious "yellow book," a decadent French novel that makes him reevaluate
his whole belief system. The protagonist of the book lives his life in pursuit of
sensual pleasures, which intrigues Dorian. From this moment on, Dorian is a
changed man.
Dorian starts to live as hedonistically as his wicked mentor, Lord Henry, does.
The only thing that documents this turn for the worst is the portrait, which
alarmingly begins to exhibit the inward corruption of Dorian's soul; the
beautiful image changes, revealing new scars and physical flaws with each of
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Dorian's dastardly actions. As years pass, the man in the picture grows more and
more hideous, as Dorian himself stays unnaturally young and beautiful. Rumors
start to spread about the various people whose lives Dorian has ruined, and his
formerly good reputation is destroyed.
On Dorian's 38th birthday, he encounters Basil, who desperately asks his former
friend if all the horrifying rumors about him are true. Dorian finally snaps and
shows Basil the portrait, in which the horrible truth about his wicked nature is
revealed. Basil recoils, and begs Dorian to pray for forgiveness. In response,
Dorian murders Basil, stabbing him brutally. He blackmails another of his
former friends into disposing of the body.
Dorian retreats to an opium den after dealing with all of the evidence, where he
encounters an enemy he didn't know he had – Sybil Vane's brother, James.
Through a rather complicated turn of events, James (who's on a mission to
punish Dorian for his mistreatment of Sybil) ends up dead. Dorian isn't directly

responsible, but it's yet another death to add to Dorian's tally of life-wrecking
disasters.
Dorian is relieved that his enemy is out of the way, but this event sparks a kind
of mid-life crisis: he begins to wonder if his vile but enjoyable lifestyle is worth
it. He actually does a good(ish) deed, by deciding not to corrupt a young girl
he's got the hots for, which makes him question his past actions even more.
Seeking some kind of reassurance, Dorian talks to Lord Henry, who's not any
help at all, unsurprisingly. Dorian even practically admits to murdering Basil,
but Henry laughs it off and doesn't believe him.
That night, Dorian returns home in a pensive mood. Catching a glimpse of
himself in the mirror, he hates his own beauty and breaks the mirror. Again, he
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vows to be good, but we find out that his various crimes don't really haunt him,
because he doesn't consider them his fault. Instead, he selfishly wants to be
good so that the painting will become beautiful again. Heartened by this
thought, he goes up to see if his recent good deed has improved the painting – in
fact, it only looks worse. Frustrated, Dorian decides to destroy the picture, the
visible evidence of his dreadful crimes, and the closest thing to a conscience he
has. Dorian slashes at the painting with the same knife that killed Basil, trying
to destroy the work as he did the artist.
A tremendous crash and a terrible cry alert the servants that something very,
very bad has happened – it's even audible outside the house. Finally, they go
upstairs to check it out, and are horrified by what they find: a portrait of their
master, as beautiful as ever, hangs on the wall, and a mysterious, grotesquely
hideous dead man is lying on the floor with a knife in his heart. Upon close
examination, the rings on the dead man's hand identify him as Dorian Gray.
In his plays wilde gives a realistic pictures of contemporary society and exposes
of the bourgeois world.

10. the forsyte saga
The Forsyte Saga is a series of three novels and two interludes published
between 1906 and 1921 by John Galsworthy. They chronicle the vicissitudes of
the leading members of an upper-middle-class British family. Only a few
generations removed from their farmer ancestors, the family members are
keenly aware of their status as "new money". The main character, Soames
Forsyte, sees himself as a "man of property," by virtue of his ability to
accumulate material possessions—but this does not succeed in bringing him
pleasure.The book combines three novels and two short interludes.
part I: The Man of Property focuses on Soames's marriage to Irene, in which
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he tries to buy her affection. He thinks only in terms of possession, however,
and the more he is seduced by her beauty the more she withdraws and becomes
cold towards him. Instead she falls in love with a young architect, Philip
Bosinney, who is engaged to Soames's cousin's daughter, June.
Soames has employed Bosinney to build him a new house in the country, where
he can move Irene and so isolate her from her London friends. He becomes
incensed at the effect the affair has on Irene. Husband and wife have separate
bedrooms, but Soames forces his way into Irene's bedroom one night and rapes
her. She leaves him. Soames sues Bosinney over the building project. Bosinney
is killed in a road accident.
Volume II: In Chancery begins with the funeral of Soames's uncle, Old
Jolyon. The family is slowly disintegrating as the old guard die out. But before
he died, the old man was reunited with his wayward artist son, Young Jolyon.
He bought the house Bosinney built so they could all live together in the
country. He caused upset by leaving a substantial trust fund to Irene, with whom
he kept in touch in the years after she left Soames.
This book is about the legal ramifications of marriage, birth, death and

divorce. Soames and his sister both decide to divorce their partners, a
scandalous decision in nineteenth century London, especially when Soames
names his cousin, Young Jolyon (now widowed), as co-respondent.
This volume ends with the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901. Soames sets
about accquiring a new wife, Annette, who bears him a daughter, Fleur. Irene
marries Young Jolyon and gives birth to a son, Jon.
Volume III: To Let begins in 1920, after the Great War has brought about
the destruction of the Victorian ethos under which the Forsyte dynasty had
prospered.
The hatred between Soames and Irene attains Shakespearean proportions
when their children, scarcely out of their teens, meet and fall in love with each
other. Irene is willing to allow love to take its course, but Soames can't stand the
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emotional conflict it arouses within him. Meanwhile Fleur has another suitor,
the aristocrat Michael Mont.
Fleur and Jon are left as unhappy as the rest of the family.
11, of human bondage
Of human bondage , partially an autobiography was written on 1915. it is
about the life of an Englishman, Philip carey. Like his author, an orphan, he is
left to the care of is childless uncle, a clergyman, who knows nothings about the
psychology of a child and his wife who tried to be in the place of philip’s
mother clumsily and is rejected Philip, a clubfooted boy is thrown into a hostile
world. He is a boy of reading world love for miss Wilkindon is frustrated at
seeing her in her room. His loe for Mildered is not returned. “The reality which
was offered to him differed too terribly from the ideal of his dreams”. The
popularity of the novel lies in the fact that philip’s fate is also the one of many
young Englishmen. He learns much about human bondages, crueltym
unhappiness, grief and pain which so many human beings have to experience.

12, the gift of the magi
The Gift of the Magi is a well-known tale by American short story writer O.
Henry (the penname ofWilliam Sydney Porter). The story first appeared in The
New York Sunday World on December 10, 1905 and was later published in O.
Henry's collection The Four Million on April 10, 1905.
The story tells of a young married couple,James (Jim) and Della Dillingham.
The couple has very little money and lives in a modest apartment. Between
them they have two possessions that they consider their treasures: Jim's gold
pocket watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's, and Della's
lustrous, long hair that falls almost to her knees.
It's Christmas Eve, and Della finds herself running out of time to buy Jim a
Christmas present. After paying all of the bills, all Della has left is $1.87 to put
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