Free Essay Examples on Literature

The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894. This famous piece of literature was controversial for its time, as the story mentioned a female protagonist who felt relieved after her husband’s death. The following The Story of an Hour analysis essay will summarize the plot. The reader will consider an extensive character analysis…

The famous British playwright, William Shakespeare, explored the issue of paternal and maternal love in most of his works. His plays, without any doubt address, a lot of problems regarding family relationships and ties. Both the good and the bad aspects of it. Later in his studies, Sigmund Freud uses Shakespeare’s works to explain some fundamental problems, complexes, and psychological…

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is one of the most recognized short pieces of literature in the US. First published in 1948, it quickly gained popularity due to various psychological aspects of the story. The following analysis of The Lottery is going to talk about it in detail. Introduction The “lottery” in the story is an annual event. Family members…

A&P by John Updike is a short story written in 1961. Using satire and pure comedy, Updike investigates the issue of cultural norms in her story. The following John Updike’s A&P analysis will help you to understand the story in detail. A&P: Brief Summary An effective A&P by John Updike analysis can be conducted after knowing the plot of the…

A great writer Flannery O’Connor has always been a central figure in American literature. Just like her colleague Nadine Gordimer, she covered the moral issues in her bizarre stories. Her short story A Good Man is Hard to Find provides a solid ground for literary analysis. Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find analysis will help you to…

This essay discusses a famous novel about the war in Vietnam called The Things They Carried. It also gives a piece of background information about the writer, Tim O’Brien. In the essay, there is a discussion of the main characters and the underlying themes. The author analyzes some of the literary devices in Tim O’Brien’s The Thing They Carried. Introduction…

A women’s role in society has always been a widely-discussed topic. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin are two stories that explore this issue. Do you want to compare and contrast The Yellow Wallpaper and The Story of an Hour? Check out the following essay and find useful information for…

Shirley Jackson wrote several short stories, but she is broadly remembered because of her short story The Lottery. This story is considered one of the best American short stories of the 20th century. It centers around several themes, such as the role of traditions, parenting, and scapegoating. The Lottery’s Plot The story starts with a very peaceful description, “The morning…

Fahrenheit 451 is considered Ray Bradbury’s masterpiece. The society that he depicted in the novel is so far removed from the one we live in today. At the same time, they are so similar. This is just one of the Fahrenheit 451 essay examples. You can use it as an example for your next school assignment. This essay on Fahrenheit…

In this compare and contrast essay, Oedipus Rex and Hamlet’s characters are analyzed and discussed. Being the creations of two different authors, they still resemble each other in some exciting ways. Introduction: Similarities between Oedipus and Hamlet Oedipus is a character of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. He is in search of the truth but doesn’t care much about the danger…

For those who have done through the nightmare of the war, life can never be the same again. Sadly, it is one of the worst parts of coming back home. Soldiers’ perception of ordinary life and universal values is twisted. Sometimes, it becomes impossible for them to adjust to a peaceful life and switch their vision of the future. It…

A Clean and Well-Lighted Place is a well-known Hemingway’s short story that deals with eternal life questions. The author elaborates on such philosophical categories as age, perception, and the sense of life. Ernest Hemingway is a master of words. He creates rather usual characters – a deaf man, an older and a younger waiter. The purpose of this short story…

The Namesake: Summary of the Book Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake tells us about the life of two generations of immigrants from India. Gogol was born in the US to his Indian parents, who have moved there from Bengali. From the very beginning of his life, Gogol has hated his name. Initially, it was given to him as temporary. His main…

Introduction Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, a sci-fi genre novel, was created by the fantastic mind of Philip K. Dick in 1968. Later it became widely known as Blade Runner. It also became an inspiration to the popular 1982 movie adaptation under the same name, starring Harrison Ford. The focus of the novel is on the most humane feeling,…

Introduction In his captivating must-read chef-d’oeuvre ‘The Necklace’, Guy de Maupassant presents the story of Mathilde Loisel who happens to be a woman from a humble background who ends up doomed into a life of poverty by her dreams of wealth. Mathilde Loisel is the central character in the story who resents her ‘station’ in life. As a result, she…

The Introduction: The Author’s Humorous Tone First of all, I would like to point out that the poem Schoolsville reminded me of my own school life. Of course, it is obvious, that the writer Billy Collins used expressive language devices to impress the readers. In other words, his speech is really humorous and leaves a positive impression. Some characters of…

The World of People’s Sorrows It goes without saying that ballads speak to each individual’s heart as they address archetypal points. Thus, Bonny George Campbell focuses on the idea of war and death. People contemplate these two topics at some point of their life. Of course, the balled also speaks to me as it evokes sad but really profound ideas.…

Everyday use is an allegorical story that intertwines the African heritage and the modern world practices. Written by Alice Walker the story focuses on the lives of the African Americans who struggle to keep the African legacy amid a world engrossed with diverse cultures. Therefore, the narrator struggles to reveal the contemptuous attitude of Dee who is purely engrossed in…

Introduction The Canterbury Tales is perhaps one of the most popular collections of tales from the 14th century. It is a collection of stories told by Geoffrey Chaucer who remains one of the significant contributors to literature in the 14th century. In this collection, Chaucer who doubles up as the narrator tells the stories of a group of pilgrims who…

The play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare is characterized by comedy, farce and humor that are present throughout the play. It is mainly based on love, magic, mistaken identity and the sudden reversal of relationships. Act I begins with a scene where Duke Theseus is conversing with his bride. They are going to get married in four days and…

Introduction Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism is a book that was written in 1982 by Bell Hooks and was titled after the Sojourners Truth’s speech, Ain’t I a Woman. The writer is a feminist theorist, a cultural critic as well as a writer. Her work is a groundbreaking story of the history of the feminist movement, its…

The problem of black slavery described in the story Barn Burning by William Faulkner demonstrates the most significant moments of historical development of the country. Moreover, this novel reminds me another famous story The adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain. The conflict between father and son emphasizes the importance of justice and honesty. The boy, Sarty, has to…

Introduction This paper analyses the comparison between “Catch Poem” of Francis Robert and “Easter Wings Poem” of Herbert George. Indeed, the two poems are significant, although they express concealed implications to readers. Though each poem presented dissimilar information, such ideas are related, imperative, and vital to readers in general. Analysis According to Roberts, the key thing of Herbert George’s poem…

Two poems written by Robert Francis and George Herbert are separated by more than three centuries of the literature process. These aspects influenced the style of writing and the peculiarities of the poetic language. Nevertheless, it is still possible to determine the main differences and similarities in Francis’s “Catch” and Herbert’s “Easter Wings,” which depend on the poems’ themes and…

The story of Henrietta is a classical example of how women are portrayed and thought of in the society. The portrayal of women on magazine covers is exemplary done by the author in her book cover. The author views Henrietta as a beautiful black woman. In fact, pundits argue that the face of Henrietta or rather Henrietta Lacks appeared numerous…

O’Brien, in the short story “The Things They Carried”, captures the predicaments of soldiers during the Vietnam War. Each soldier carries a literal and symbolic object that links the past to the present. The symbols serve to distract the solders from the realities of war in Vietnam and instead allow thinking about other things. For Lt. Jimmy Cross, a letter…

The book “The Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai talks about an important world issue of class division and the differences between the social layers. The Soviet times are analyzed as the period when there was a race for satellite and space control between nations, which created even more division between people and social castes. The people in Moscow are…

Introduction As literature about socioeconomic, cultural, and political differences and bias between genders continues to accumulate, some authors of books seem to change their writing agendas towards focusing on addressing the forgotten women influence in the modern world (McCollum 49). Feminism is a common theme that has dominated modern literature, with most writers incapable of justifying the feminist role in…

Summary of the story The recess queen story is about recess and playing with other children. The book is about schoolyard bully who is lightened through gentleness and friendship. The Mean Jean is regarded as the recess queen in the story as depicted in the words, “Mean Jean the Recess Queen” (O’Neill 10). Mean Jean would intimidate every other classmate…

The two books focus on the social lives of the ancient Egyptians. In the book Voices in Ancient Egypt, Kay presents an anthology of poems and pictures of workers in ancient Egypt (Kay & Moser, 2003). On the other hand, Hibbert in the book Rich and Poor in Ancient Egypt highlights the differences among the social classes in ancient Egypt…

Introduction The book, The Karma of Brown Folk, is the book that presents the history and the life of the minority groups in the United States. Some of the minority groups that the book examines include Asian and Black Americans. According to Prashad, Asian and Black Americans living in the United States have engaged in several struggles in their quest…

Without any substantial maternal guidance, Ophelia is a lost soul in William Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet.” Right from the beginning, it is clear that Ophelia is subordinate to the men she interacts with. On the other hand, the men she interacts with are aware of this fact as exemplified by how her brother and her father address her with veiled contempt.…

Despite being set in a particular time and place, Radcliffe’s story actually transpires in a space of imagination and feeling; it is the moral and emotional state of her characters that form the focus of the author’s attention, with a Cinderella plot underpinning their journey of towards discovery and reward. Radcliffe offers readers an archetypal tale of the orphan heroine…

Introduction One of the differences between Whitman and Dickinson was the thematic elements that were utilized by the poets. For instance, Whitman’s use of slang and “common” language in his poetry greatly contrasted with Dickinson’s overly formal language, however, this difference in the type of words utilized actually embodied a greater difference between the two authors which will be discussed…

Does the life of an author have a significant influence on his work? Do the author’s experience and surrounding wield influence on his writing? How much does an author’s life impact his work? The effect of an author’s life experiences on his writing is often unquestionable. The impact Shakespeare’s life had on his work is important to understand as it…

Voltaire’s book Letters on England can help readers better understand various aspects of the early Enlightenment. The author’s incisive comments throw light on the distinctive characteristics of England at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Voltaire made his observations during his stay in this country in 1729. In his work, he identifies some of the trends that later shaped the…

Night illustrates the life of Elie Wiesel and his father in the Nazi concentration camps during the World War II (Rucco 3). In the concentration camps, they underwent through cruel and brutal situations. The situations affected and changed their relationship in a number of ways. After being taken to the camps, Wiesel and his father portray the conventional father and…

In his poem “Musee des Beaux Arts,” Wystan Auden uses ekphrasis, “a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art” (“Glossary Terms”). Auden provides visual descriptions of a Breughel’s painting, “In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away / Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may / Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,”…

Introduction In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, the relationship between Eliezar and his father appears to be complex. It is shaped by harsh conditions, religion, deportation, and the interaction between the two and other people. In this essay, the author analyzes how this relationship changes throughout the novel. According to this author, the variations are brought about by a…

Introduction Written by Orwell (1), Nineteen Eighty-Four is a celebrated literary work of the 20th century. The author sets the novel in a 1949 totalitarian world, where an elitist group in Airstrip One (formerly Great Britain) used politically manipulative techniques to keep their power by silencing “independent minds.” They controlled all aspects of society, including people’s culture and language, through…

Introduction Although fiction distances itself from reality in many ways, Octavia’s article embraces science fiction as well as the Black culture. Science fiction acts as a powerful figurative tool, allows for making an allusion of the current state of the African American culture in the realm of the present-day U.S. society, at the same time remaining within the boundaries of…

The concept of courtesy in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight features on almost every page of the poem. Taking into account the time during which the poem was written, courtesy implies more than the usual pleasantries of exchange. The virtue of courtesy is presented as an honorable aspect that should be practiced by all people. To the Knights of…

Eliezer Wiesel recounted his life while staying in a death camp and described his early years in the book ‘Night.’ At the beginning of the story, he lived in Romania together with his family. Deportation of the Jews took place later as the story continued. Being a Jewish boy, he was deported together with other Jews. It was after the…

Introduction Hamlet is William Shakespeare’s tragedy play that was written in the late 14th century. It is believed to be the most popular of his literary works owing to the catchy phrases that have found their way in today’s conversations such as “to be or not to be” (Shakespeare 110). The imagery in this play is both entertaining and creative…

Introduction Hamlet is a character used in the play, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, to depict the theme of revenge. In the play, Claudius and Gertrude kill Hamlet’s father, the king, due to the quest for power. The murder of the king motivates Hamlet to commence his revenge mission. Evidently, the quest for revenge emerges when the ghost appears to…

Introduction The book, Orange Is the New Black, and the Netflix series talk about a character who goes to prison for fifteen months. The police arrest her for mistakes she did in the past. There are some differences between the book and the series in terms of characterization, themes, and organization. This paper contrasts the two pieces of literature in…

Night is a story by Elie Wiesel in which the writer accounts for the horrible experience he had with his father during the time of the Holocaust. Throughout the novel, Wiesel reproduces the details of his staying in the Nazi German concentration camp during the Second World War. The protagonist of the story, a Jewish Orthodox boy Eliezer faces a…

Introduction: When Night Falls. Eliezer’s Story Starts Parent-child relationships have never been easy; since the dawn of time, people have been trying to work on the gap between the older and the younger generation, yet with little success; it seems that the solution of the problem is unique for each case, and Eliezer’s case in Wiesel’s Night is no exception.…

Introduction: Back to the Biblical Legends. Job and Eliezer Testing the faith is not a new issue to talk about – it is basically as old as the hills, sine even the Bible mentions the instances when a man was tested to prove that he actually was a hardcore believer. An incredibly powerful means to impress the readers that God…

In the essay ‘Shakespeare’s Virginian Masque’, John Gillies analyzes Shakespeare’s play ‘Virginian Masque’ in reference to the historical events in South America’s around late 1600s. Specifically, he refers to the problems faced by new European settlers in the West Indies, their attempt to control the native tribes and the integration of European immigrants into the native communities. The purpose of…