A Study Guide For John Updike S Toward The End Of Time

A Study Guide for John Updike's "Toward the End of Time," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

Set in the near future of 2020, this disconcerting philosophical fantasy depicts an America devastated by a war with China that has left its populace decimated, its government a shambles, and its natural resources tainted. The hero is Ben Turnbull, a sixty-six-year-old retired investment counselor, who, like Thoreau, sticks close to home and traces the course of one Massachusetts year in his journal. Something of a science buff, he finds that his disrupted personal history has been warped by the disjunctions and vagaries of the “many-worlds” hypothesis derived from the indeterminacy of quantum theory. His identity branches into variants extending back through the past and forward into the evolution of the universe, as both it and his own mortal, nature-haunted existence move toward the end of time.

JOHN UPDIKE IS "A STYLIST OF THE HIGHEST ORDER, capable of illuminating the sublime in the mundane, thereby elevating all of human experience." --Chicago Tribune Toward the End of Time "is the journal of a 66-year-old man, Ben Turnbull . . . [which] reveals not only the world but the wanderings of his wits. . . . So what if he jumps from a United States in the next century, disintegrating after a war with China, to ancient Egypt, or to virtual reality? So what if characters appear and disappear like phantoms in a dream? . . . Turnbull's journal is like Walden gone haywire. . . . If Ben's ruthlessness is evenhanded, so is his alarming intelligence; it falls on every scene, person, object, and thought in the book, giving it an eerie ambiance." --The New York Times Book Review "A BOOK AIMED NOT TO RESOLVE BUT TO AROUSE A READER'S WONDER . . . Vintage Updike: marital angst worked out against the chilly backdrop of privilege, rendered with a lyricism and insight and eye for detail reminiscent of the work of Jane Austen." --The Miami Herald "WONDERFUL RUSHES OF NEAR-MELVILLEAN PROSE . . . Toward the End of Time has a force that gets under your skin." --New York Review of Books A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by John Updike, two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction in 1982 and 1991. Titles in this study guide include Rabbit Run and Rabbit Redux. As a prominent voice of literary realism for 1970s American fiction, Updike’s Rabbit novels commented on the changing social and political hierarchies of late modernism in America’s Eisenhour era. Moreover, Updike has been called a “maker of fables and parables,” which can be seen through his use of symbolism and imagery. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Updike’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

A Study Guide for John Updike's "Oliver's Evolution," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

A Study Guide for John Gardner's "Grendel," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

From his first book publication in 1958, the American writer John Updike attracted an international readership. His books have been translated into twenty-three languages, and he has always had a strong following in the United Kingdom and in Europe. Although Updike died in 2009, interest in his work remains strong among European scholars. No recent volume, however, collects diverse European views on Updike's oeuvre. The current book fills that void, presenting essays that perceive Updike's renditions of America through the eyes of scholar/readers from both Western and Eastern Europe--back cover.

Section A : Flamingo (Prose and Poetry) Flamingo : A Prose 1.The Last Lesson - Alphone Daudet, 2. Lost Spring - Anees Jung, 3. Deep Water - William Douglas, 4. The Rattrap - Selma Lagerlof, 5. Indigo - Louis Fischer, 6. Poets and Pancakes - Ashokmitran, 7. The Interview - Christopher Silverster, 8. Going Places- A.P.Barton, Flaming : B Poetry 1. My Mother at sixty - Six - Kamala Das, 2. An Elementry School Classroom in a Slum- Strphen Spender, 3. Keeping Quiet- Pablo Neruda, 4. A Thing of Beauty - John Keats, 5.A Roadside Stand - Robert Frost, 6. Aunt Jennifer's Tigers - Adrienne Rich, Section B : Vistas (Supplementary Reader) 1. The Third Level - Jack Finney, 2. The Tiger King - Kalki, 3. Journey to the End of the Earth - Tishani Doshi, 4. The Enemy - Pearl s. Buck, 5. Should Wizard Hit Mommy- John Updike, 6.On the Face of it - Susan Hill, 7. Evans Tries an O-Level- Colin Dexter, 8. Memoreis of Childhood - Zitkala-Sa and Bama, Section C : Grammar, Reading and Writing 1. Unseen Passage, 2. Case Based Factual Passages, 3. Advertisement, Notice and Poster, 4. Writng Invitaion and Replies, 5. Letter Writing, 6. Report Writing, 7. Articale, 8. Debate, 9. Speech Writing, Board Examination Paper