Ebro, noun: The second largest river in Spain, rising in the Cantabrian Mountains and flowing southeast to the Mediterranean.

Source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ebro

We encountered this word only once while reading “Hills like White Elephants.” It appears about halfway through the story, in the context of the setting. The Ebro is a set piece in this story meant to signify that it takes place in Spain.

“The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.”

• Breadths (noun): distance from side to side : width
  • Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/breadths
  • Taken from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    • “I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I’ve heard of. It is repeated, of course, by the breadths, but not otherwise.”
  • The wallpaper that torments the narrator is the focal point of the story. In her writing she constantly describes what she sees in the wallpaper. The wallpaper per se is a colorful canvas left for her tormenting imagination. By describing these repetitive pattern by the breadths, the reader is able to paint the picture of what she sees.

Vindicated (verb) – to free from allegation or blame

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vindicated

From “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner

I came across this word while reading “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. It appears in the reading when the author is describing Emily’s relationship life and her current circumstances, it caught my interest because I’ve heard the word before but I didn’t really know what it meant so it made me curious to find out what the writer was trying to illustrate in the story and to better understand the text.

“so when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.”

After reading the definition of the word I better understand the context of how the author was using it in that part of the text. As seen in the quote, they are describing being clear of blame.