Title: The NecklaceAuthor: Guy de Maupassant

Characters: Mathilde Loisel - The protagonist of the story. Mathilde has been blessed with physical beauty but not with the affluent lifestyle she yearns for, and she feels deeply discontented with her lot in life.Monsieur Loisel - Mathildes husband. Monsieur Loisel is content with the small pleasures of his life but does his best to appease Mathildes demands and assuage her complaints.Madame Forestier - Mathildes wealthy friend. Madame Forestier treats Mathilde kindly, but Mathilde is bitterly jealous of Madame Forestiers wealth, and the kindness pains her. Madame Forestier lends Mathilde the necklace for the party and does not inspect it when Mathilde returns it.

Brief Summary:

One day M. Loisel comes home with an invitation to a fancy ball thrown by his boss, the Minister of Education. M. Loisel has gone to a lot of trouble to get the invitation, but Mathilde's first reaction is to throw a fit. She doesn't have anything nice to wear, and can't possibly go! How dare her husband be so insensitive? M. Loisel doesn't know what to do, and offers to buy his wife a dress, so long as it's not too expensive. Mathilde asks for 400 francs, and he agrees. It's not too long before Mathilde throws another fit, though, this time because she has no jewels. So M. Loisel suggests she go see her friend Mme. Forestier, a rich woman who can probably lend her something. Mathilde goes to see Mme. Forestier, and she is in luck. Mathilde is able to borrow a gorgeous diamond necklace. With the necklace, she's sure to be a stunner.

The night of the ball arrives, and Mathilde has the time of her life. Everyonelovesher (i.e., lusts after her) and she is absolutely thrilled. She and her husband (who falls asleep off in a corner) don't leave until 4am. Mathilde suddenly dashes outside to avoid being seen in her shabby coat. She and her husband catch a cab and head home. But once back at home, Mathilde makes a horrifying discovery: the diamond necklace is gone.

M. Loisel spends all of the next day, and even the next week, searching the city for the necklace, but finds nothing. It's gone. So he and Mathilde decide they have no choice but to buy Mme. Forestier a new necklace. They visit one jewelry store after another until at last they find a necklace that looks just the same as the one they lost. Unfortunately, it's 36thousandfrancs, which is exactly twice the amount ofallthe money M. Loisel has to his name. So M. Loisel goes massively into debt and buys the necklace, and Mathilde returns it to Mme. Forestier, who doesn't notice the substitution. Buying the necklace catapults the Loisels into poverty for the nextten years. That's right,ten years. After ten years, all the debts are finally paid, and Mathilde is out for a jaunt on the Champs Elyses. There she comes across Mme. Forestier, rich and beautiful as ever. Now that all the debts are paid off, Mathilde decides she wants to finally tell Mme. Forestier the sad story of the necklace and her ten years of poverty, and she does. At that point, Mme. Forestier, aghast, reveals to Mathilde that the necklace she lost was just a fake. It was worth only five hundred francs.

Personal Reaction:Her excessive pride, materialism and shallowness cause her emotional torture as she feels shes been deprived of luxuries.

Lesson:The importance of accepting what one has in life and being happy with it.

Title: Call of the WildAuthor: Jack London

Characters:Buck - a wise gigantic dogSpitz - Buck's harsh contender John Thornton - the considerate caretaker of Buck

Brief Summary:

A gigantic dog named Buck is the son of a Scotch shepherd-dog mother and a St. Bernard father. Buck has incredible power and cleverness, thats why he was stolen and owned by a harsh master in Klondike who teaches him to be a sleigh dog.

Toughened with his brutal surroundings, Buck was trained to battle. He had a bloody and dangerous fight over Spitz, the brutal leader of another team whom he defeated. Buck as the leader of their team headed his members to many harmful ice and snow journeys.

Then Buck realized his self with the hands of a new trainer and Master John Thorton. He is different because he handles the gigantic dog with care and kindness. Buck gives back his fidelity and dedication to Thorton. There are time that John accepts a challenge if his dog can pull a 1,000 pound load on a sled which is equal to ten dogs working. Because Thorton believes in Buck, his dog never fails him. With all his strength and power, he tows and twists and pulled again until he brings the sled to the end line.

Lots of men have interest to buy Buck, but his master never wanted to sell Buck even a thought on his mind. But Throton was killed by Indians. Instead of having another master, the gigantic dog went to the wilds. He searched the killers of John and kills them one by one.

Personal Reaction:We need to love every creature in this world because all of the animals have a feeling like us.

Lesson:

This story shows how a dog responds on the love and affection gave to him. Like humans, they have feelings and mindset.

Title: God Sees the Truth but WaitsAuthor: Leo TolstoyCharacters:Aksenov - young merchant who live in Vladimir.Vanya - the wife of Aksenov.Makar - the man who caused Aksenov sufferings.Brief Summary:One summer day, Aksenov had to travel to a fair at Nizhi. Though his wife doesnt want him to go because of her bad dream, the merchant insisted to go, to have a good fortune and to bring his family rich gifts.When he was gone away, he met a merchant friend of his and they stopped for the night. They drank tea together and went in adjoining rooms. He did not want to sleep long so, he woke in the middle of the night. At dinner time, he went back to the inn. An official went out and begin to ask him questions about the merchant.Aksenov found out that the merchant he stayed last night has been found with his throat cut. The official searched his things and found a knife with a blood on his bag. Though he was really innocent, Aksenov was brought to trial and charged with murder of a merchant from Riazan and the theft of twenty thousand rubles.Her wife suffered because of what happened since, his children are too young. They tried to petition the case but it failed.Everybody suspected him and his wife started to doubt him but he said that only God knows the truth.Fir twenty-six years, Aksenov lived in Siberian servitude. While in prison, he earned to make boots. Through his clean living in prison, other prisons called him "Grandpa" and "Godly one." No one from Aksenovs home wrote him and he did not even know if his wife and children were still alive.One day, new convicts came and one of them is Makar who is from Vladimir and once visited Siberia.Aksenov talk to Makar and asks some questions. On their conversation, he begins to suspect Makar that he was the one who killed the merchant.During his stay in prison, Aksenov found out that Makar is planning to escape but still, he did not tell the official who dug the hole.With that incident, Makar was touched and realized the mistakes he have done. He admitted that he killed the merchant and planted the knife with Aksenov. Makar dropped from the bun and bowed to the ground to ask forgiveness.Makar confessed his guilt. But when they issued the order permitting Aksenov to return home, he was already dead.Personal Reaction:The concept of the story of a man wrongfully accused of murder and banished to Siberia also appears in one of Tolstoy's previous works, "War and Peace", during a philosophical discussion among two characters who relate the story and argue how the protagonist of their story deals with injustice and fate.Lesson:One does not gain anything by seeking revenge. The more one gives in to the thought of revenge, the more it consumes him. And if that goes uncheck, it can mean the death of whatever spark of nobility lies in the human person. The world, for all its cynicism, does recognize that spark when it is given a chance to break through the dark and negative elements that seem to always stifle and put it out. We have proof of that spark in the great men and women, sung and unsung, who graced this side of existence.

Title: Romeo and JulietAuthor: William ShakespeareCharacters:Romeo and Juliet - the lovers who experienced a disastrous love storyFriar Lawrence - the one who help the loversBrief Summary:A long time ago there was a boy and girl who fell in love with each other but, their families were enemies. Because of this very hard situation, they first exchanged vows on a balcony. They even met secretly and frequently and decided to marry. Everyday their love becomes deeper and deeper. But their secret was revealed so, Friar Lawrence advised them to wait for their families to be united.The situation of the lovers becomes more difficult because of the deaths occurring between the feuding families. But, they were really wild with passion.Love cannot be beaten. Man was made for companionship. So, Friar Lawrence, knowing of the young lovers, arranged a cooling off period. However, on the way to the cooling off place, Rome got into trouble and an unexpected death occurred. Romeo killed Juliets cousin and shortly everyone knew about it. Taking revenge, Juliets fathers expelled Romeo and rearranged the wedding of the young lady with another man.Reluctant to get married to someone against her wishes, Juliet took a sleeping potion that rendered her death like. When Romeo knew what happened he thought that Juliet was really dead, he drank some poison and died next to her. Juliet awakened after and found Romeo dead, she stabbed herself. After the tragic story of the two young lovers the warring families realize3d their mistakes and sought to patch things up.Personal Reaction: I can say that their families waited the lives of the two young lovers' lives because they let many lives to be wasted before finding the appropriate solution for the problems of both parties.Lesson:I do not really think that the moral of this story is about parents and obeying. I think that the moral of the story is not to be so stinking impetuous and uncontrolled.In this story, Romeo and Juliet die because they cannot control themselves to any significant degree. They cannot step back from their passion and put any thought at all into what they should do next.So to me, whether they should have obeyed or whatever is sort of beside the point. To me, the issue is that they were not mature enough to think about what to do so they got themselves in trouble.