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Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in 1876, and narrates the life of a smart but mischievous boy Tom Sawyer living in the town of Mississippi River. This work is considered as classic American Literature and created a successful sequel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

Tom's age was probably around twelve to thirten years old; as we can see in the novel, he was a jolley prankster young man. He also experienced a normal life of a lad, like making trouble with other boys and whitewashing the fench as a punishment. But later on in his life he met Huck Finn, a vagabond whose father is a drinker. One day when Tom and Huck came across with robbers, and among those robbers were Joe and Dr. Robinson, then the two men got into a fight, and Joe murdered the doctor. At a young age, these two young men were brought into contact with this kind of experience. In normal circumstances, it could be a threat to their mental development and may lead to trauma until they grow old.

A Rose for Emily

A short story written by William Faulkner in 1930, before World War II. His experiences have influenced him to write this story, and one of those is his rejection of Estelle Oldham, his wife. Before they got married, Faulkner courted her, but because of Estelle's parents, they got separated from each other and faced their own lives. However, later on, Estelle divorced her husband, and married Faulkner.

The story focused on the life of Emily Grierson, an old, unmarried woman who walks like a monument to the people of Mississipi. Before she died, when she was yet young, an instance happened that she fell in love with a yankee, Homer Baron, who was not a marrying man. It broke Emily that she bought an Arsenic to kill Homer and locked his corpse in her bedroom until decomposure.

Misunderstood by everyone!

By:John Mark Mendoza

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Henry. He was living in a hut. He is a boy full of dreams, a boy of imagination; he wanted to fly, to sing, to reach the clouds, and even to have a best friend. One day a rain came, and he was watching and waiting for it to cease. When the rain stopped, Henry saw a colorful and beautiful rainbow. His eyes sparkled, and he wondered what was in it. So, he begun to dream to walk in it and reach the other side of it.

One day, after a long, heavy rain, Henry went outside to have a look at the beautiful, clear sky. When he looked up, he saw a rainbow and said, “There will come a day that I can be able to reach the other side of it." And his friends laughed at him and mocked him because they thought inside their minds that it was impossible to happen. But Henry continued dreaming until everyone believed in him. As he walked around, he saw a reddish mushroom. He came closer and took a look at it, and when he was about to pick it up, the mushroom jumped and ran away. Henry chased the mushroom out of curiosity. The mushroom hid himself, but Henry found him out and talked to him, but the mushroom was afraid, and he kept silent. 

While Henry was busy talking to the mushroom, a wolf came hungry and wanted to eat both of them. The wolf jumped on Henry as he was about to eat him, but the mushroom cut a piece from him, made it a sword, and stabbed the wolf and the wolf died. Henry couldn’t believe that he was still alive. He came near the mushroom and saw that it had a part cut off from its head.

The two became friends, and Henry named the mushroom Mush. Henry continued his journey with a friend. 

One day Henry and Mush walk to school, and there are these kids who bully him because they think that his dreams will never happen and seem impossible. No one believes him, not even his own teacher. After their class, a rain came and the skies were covered by thick darkness. Suddenly, after a rain, the blue and clear skies appeared with a rainbow in them; it was a beautiful thing to behold. Henry began to chase the side of it; a little while later, he finally reached the side of it, but Henry didn’t know how to get in there. Not far away, there is an elephant playing with her balloons. Henry decided to borrow the balloons, but because of the elephant’s generosity, the elephant just gave them to Henry without asking for a price. Henry took the balloons and flew them from the ground to the rainbow.

Henry and Mush finally landed on the peak of the rainbow and began their journey there. They walked to the rainbow, seeking what would be on the other side. Is it a new life where people will never judge and hurt Henry again, or will it be the same as his life before?

When Henry and Mush almost reach the other side, there is a great gulf in between the rainbows, and they both cannot go through. So, Mush took a knife and cut his body in half, but Henry tried to stop him, but it was too late. Mush made a long bridge from his body, and he slowly disappeared, looking into the eyes of Henry as he was trying to say that Henry should believe in himself. Henry hugged Mush as his body disappeared. Henry continued his journey alone until he finally reached the other side of the rainbow. The green pasture, grassy ground, fresh mist, and beautiful place were in it.

Henry found a new life where there are no problems or tears anymore, and all he has is a wonderful place where he can freely create dreams and imaginations. Until now, he is somewhere, living the fullness of his life, and whoever follows the rainbow to its other side will find him happily playing and making dreams in that land.

Lord of the Flies is an award-winning work of literature by William Golding; in fact, it won the Noble Prize in Literature in 1983 for its immensely interesting and fascinating substance and plot, particularly because of its symbolism as an eye opener for its reader. This literature is about a group of British youths is shipwrecked on an isolated island, and their attempts to govern themselves are disastrous.

In this story, each character represents something different. Ralph represents civility, Peggy intellect, Jack anarchy, etc. But in all of those characters, there is one character that represents something special, and that is Simon. If we read the story, we may notice that when they got shipwrecked and stuck in an uninhibited island where there is no civilization and rules to follow, they became self-driven and did what they thought was right and built their own community; however, Simon did not conform himself and still chose what was right. As he represents Goodness and Saintliness or innate goodness that man has, Simon stands on a different plane from every other character in the novel, he also represents saintliness and a kind of innate, spiritual human goodness that is deeply connected with nature and, in its own way, as primal as Jack’s evil instinct.

The Paradise Lost is a poem that recreates famous biblical accounts such as the fall of Lucifer (Satan) that can be found in Isaiah 14:12-20 and Satan's plot to destroy men in the form of a serpent (Genesis 3). John Milton produced Paradise Regained as the sequel to Paradise Lost four years later. The poem was published in 1667, after the fire in London, where Milton lived. This masterpiece was recognized and admired by respected poets John Dryden and Andrew Marvell.

The character that I can relate to, as the symbol of humans' natural sinfulness, is Adam. As we read the poem, we may notice Adam and Eve having a close relationship with God before they ate the fruit. But after their disobedience in what God has commanded them along with their expulsion is the loss of their relationship with the Lord. The author wants to emphasize the losses of them as they turned away from God's law; they even lost their precious paradise, the Garden of Eden. Their separation to God and in paradise represents a man's eternal separation to God and in His kingdom, which is the heaven, or, in other words, to suffer in hell. However, God didn't want anyone to go to hell, so He made a remedy by sending His son Jesus Christ as the remission of sin. That is by simply believing in what Jesus did on the cross. So, the poem ended with good news for Christ's sake.