The Laburnum Top

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The Third Level

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Jack Finney specialized in thrillers and works of science fiction. Two of his novels, The Body Snatchers and Good Neighbor Sam became the basis of popular films, but it was Time and Again (1970) that won him a devoted following. The novel, about an advertising artist who travels back to the New York of the 1880s, quickly became a cult favorite, beloved especially by New Yorkers for its rich, painstakingly researched descriptions of life in the city more than a century ago. Mr. Finney, whose original name was Walter Braden Finney, was born in Milwaukee and attended Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. After moving to New York and working in the advertising industry, he began writing stories for popular magazines like Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, and McCall's. His first novel, Five Against the House (1954), told the story of five college students who plot to rob a casino in Reno. A year later he published The Body Snatchers (later reissued as Invasion of the Body Snatche...
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The Rattrap (Critical Analysis)

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The Rattrap is a beautiful story that deals with the themes of love, compassion, the importance of human dignity , and the transformative power of love . Make sure you’ve read the summary of the story before you read this analysis. With its compassionate approach toward the characters, the story acknowledges that one’s actions result from one’s belief system and one’s belief system is largely determined by one’s material condition . This empathic approach is seen at the beginning of the story where we are introduced to the peddler. The inclusion of the peddler’s philosophical thoughts about the rattrap at the beginning of the story is important as it helps us understand his behavior at various points in the story. The narrator is quick to point out that the peddler’s pessimistic view about the world as a rattrap arose from the fact that the “world had never been kind to him” and it gave him some pleasure to think of it in this way. Perhaps this is the reason why he steals the old man...
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