6040 samples of this type
Introduction People are often wary and disdainful of anything that differs from their idea of the norm. This relationship also applies to people in difficult life circumstances. Poems by Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas talk about the suffering of two people living on the streets. At the same time, the...
Why Sir Gawain Is a Chivalrous Knight Sir Gawain, the main character in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” is frequently seen as a chivalrous knight because he follows the principles of chivalry. His behavior in the story shows his dedication to chivalrous values like honor, allegiance, and bravery. Nevertheless,...
Introduction Harper Lee, a highly regarded American author, occupies a significant place in the history of literature due to her seminal work, To Kill a Mockingbird. The work has received critical acclaim due to its insightful examination of racial injustice and ethical development in the Southern region of the United...
Introduction The poem “White Lies” delves into the topic of racial identity and the societal expectations associated with it. This text is filled with various images and meanings hidden behind childhood memories. The innocent little lies that the heroine tells are a serious social problem in a world where people...
Introduction In William Carlos Williams brief tale “The Use of Force,” the narrator, a physician, is summoned to examine a sick child, Mathilda Olson. The child resists the doctors attempts to identify her illness, refusing to open her mouth to be examined (Williams). What ensues is a tense and violent...
Introduction In Zombie Love by Earl T. Roske, Kathy represents a character experiencing internal conflict over her friend Emily’s relationship with a zombie named Walter. Although she loves Emily, Kathy opposes their relationship and is worried about Emily’s safety. She believes Emily should establish friendships with a living person, not...
Introduction The art of persuasive writing, a blend of creativity and technique, often relies on rhetorical devices such as pathos, ethos, and logos. George Orwell’s “Why I Write,” Joan Didion’s “On Keeping a Journal,” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “How to Write With Style” exemplify the mastery of these devices to connect...
Introduction The various literary genres that authors use in their works allow them to reveal the text’s central idea uniquely. The genre of satire, which the Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift uses in A Modest Proposal, is an essential tool for conveying the author’s thoughts. The masterful application of satirical literary...
Introduction John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost is a timeless classic exploring the idea of the will and ways of God. It relates the account of Adam and Eve’s fall, banishment from the Garden of Eden, and final salvation. Through his characters and themes, Milton explores and reflects his views...
The satire of “A Modest Proposal” stems significantly from the vast disparity between the speaker’s calm and reasonable voice and the evident obnoxiousness of his proposal. The poor’s young infants are raised as livestock, butchered, and given to the wealthy, who devoured them as a delightful treat. Swift uses irony...
Serpico, written by Peter Maas, may be regarded as a classic story of the confrontation between people who violate all ethical norms of their profession and one person who cannot keep silent. Frank “Paco” Serpico was a police officer in the New York Police Department. He became the first policeman...
Edgar Alan Poe’s “The Raven” is one of his most mystical and complex poems. It was first published in 1845 and immediately caught readers’ attention with its dramatic and musical tone (Poe 2). This poem narrated the story of a young man who lost the love of his life. In...
Introduction To introduce the paper, it is feasible to state that in his short story Sonny’s Blues, author James Baldwin tells the story of African American musician with addiction problems. The author chooses a narrator complete Sonny’s opposition: his nameless brother, who works as a math teacher, follows the rules...
Introduction Life in the late Middle Ages had numerous characteristic aspects to it. By analyzing the characters of The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, readers may sometimes identify common attitudes and experiences of that time. In The Canterbury Tales, three characters satirically embody corresponding medieval life aspects: religion’s perception through the...
Symbolism is a literary device in which symbols, such as phrases, characters, objects, places, or abstract concepts, are used to signify something other than their literal interpretation. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown is entirely symbolic and serves as an excellent representation of an allegory or narrative in which actual objects...
In “Sonny’s Blues,” light and dark symbolize the human struggle between good and evil. Symbols in “Sonny’s Blues” frequently conflict: for instance, ice symbolizes fear and dread juxtaposed against the music, which provides warmth and an escape to Sonny, the story’s protagonist. At large, there is a light-darkness dichotomy, which...
Tolstoy was prompted to write a work on the meaning of life by a spiritual crisis caused by a sense of disillusionment that appeared towards the end of his life. This feeling becomes the subject of reflection in Tolstoy’s first religious-philosophical treatise. His individual problem – the disgust at the...
Hysteria is an anomaly reaction on the exterior sources of irritation that is gradually developing and demonstrates openly only at the final stage of the disease. In this response, there will be considered a specific case was described in Horacio Quiroga’s story “The Feather Pillow,” where the main hero, Alicia,...
Introduction Sammy is the main character in a short story titled A&P by John Updike. However, he is a protagonist whose behavior is not heroic at all. Sammy goes against societal norms to please some girls who do not recognize his gesture. A&P is a narration by Sammy about an...
Introduction Literature is a unique instrument that provides the readers with the power to see others’ thoughts and feelings. “I Love Yous Are for the White People” is an excellent example of such a literary function. This novel deals with a highly important issue of racial disparities and the hardships...
Introduction The Open Boat by Stephen Crane is an endurance tale about four people who have survived a disaster and are now working as a team to locate any piece of land they can discover while only traveling in a tiny boat on the ocean. Nature is on their tail,...
Introduction The Crucible is a fictional play written by Arthur Miller that revolves around witches in Salem, Massachusetts. The events took place in 1692 and address the Salem Witch Trials at a time when New England residents lived in hysteria and paranoia in fear of the unknown. In the 1950s,...
Introduction Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too” is a stirring portrayal of the African American experience in the United States, highlighting the struggle for equal treatment and dignity in the face of pervasive racism and discrimination. The poem speaks to the resilience and strength of those who have been marginalized, and...
The poem I, Too was written in the year 1925, leading to a discussion of the historical background. Primarily, one of the most impactful and devastating events that took place around the time of these works was racial segregation, which started approximately around the 19th century and ended in 1964...
Homer’s Iliad is a full-scale artistic discovery made in the cradle of world culture — Ancient Greece. This is one of the first epic poems in the history of mankind. In the analyzed chapter, the topic of funerals and the Olympic Games in honor of the burial of an ancient...
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the author capitalizes on love and lust in many stories and transformations. He employs two themes to showcase their effects on individuals and the wider world, resulting in numerous transformations (Sharrock et al., 2020). In this piece, the writer illustrates how various characters’ aspirations and affections sway...
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is often analyzed from the point of view of opposing dreams and reality, the spiritual and material world, and the inconsistency of the genre diversity of the novel. The Great Gatsby is usually viewed as a characteristic novel for its era, the main...
Resilient people can quickly overcome adversity, trauma, tragedy, and threats. A person should become more resilient and mentally tough after quickly overcoming these challenges. People get an understanding of life’s obstacles via resilience, so Oedipus and Hamlet both exhibit considerable tenacity, but neither one excels the other. In Oedipus Rex,...
Family relationships are commonly discussed in many literary works to demonstrate different visions of this topic. Fences is one of such stories where the life of an African American family is thoroughly described, addressing the specific living conditions of Americans in the middle of the 20th century. August Wilson, the...
Introduction The Pillow Book and the List of Hateful Things, written by Sei Shonagon, is a portrayal of the Heian culture in regard to elitist approaches to etiquette, social interactions, and gatherings. Namely, one of the hateful elements that the author highlights is “One is telling a story about old...
Today, reading minor literature is a unique opportunity to recognize and learn the gaps between modern citizens of the United States. There is no need to talk about inequality or injustice in interpersonal relationships but to see how the authors of a particular minority group share their thoughts and deliver...
Introduction Gertrude is the mother of the protagonist of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is the widow of King Hamlet of Denmark, the protagonist’s father, and the new wife of Claudius, the new king, brother, and murderer of the protagonist’s father. Her role in the work is significant...
Introduction Ernest Hemingway was a master of short, expressive prose. Moreover, he considered his “best prose” to be the story of a man who never gives up – “Old Man and the Sea.” The harmony of man and nature can be considered one of the main ideas in this work....
Introduction This essay will discuss the novel Song of the Hummingbird by Graciela Limon, which tells the tale of the Aztecs’ downfall from the viewpoint of a Huitzitzilin, a hummingbird. The book’s main objective is to emphasize the parallels and discrepancies between Christian and pagan civilizations, recounting the story of...
Introduction The Old English poem “Beowulf” is a monument of late origin. Radical reinterpretations of the story include Robert Zemeckis’ feature film, Beowulf. This film does not claim complete plot similarity to the original narrative but is a new work based on the famous epic poem. The film and the...
Enrique’s Journey chronicles the lives of a little kid from Central America who is trying to find his mother after she abandoned him when he was five years old, so she could work in the United States. The goal of Nazario’s description of Enrique’s life is to humanize and make...
The poem Daystar by Rita Dove depicts women’s lives in the role of a mother and a wife. The author illustrates the state of loneliness of the protagonist, as well as the peacefulness of her quiet moment of the day. It is also reflected in the title of the poem....
Individuals tend to perceive the meanings of the words ‘dignity’ and ‘confidence’ differently, depending on their nature and nurture. For some people, honour, and certainty can be obtained and restored via power and money. Others believe praise and assurance come from hard work, honesty, and a pure soul. William Shakespeare...
Introduction I agree that we must be cautious when passing moral judgment when. Reading the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is accurate in terms of Offred, the Commander, the Commander’s wife and the Angel, when examining the decisions and actions they take. However, universal laws of human morality...
Introduction Tales are fictional stories that normally tend to offer details concerning the way a given community is behaving or performing its duties. Various authors have developed specific ways of presenting their views. One of the good examples of such authors is Dickens, who is currently recognized as one of...
Antigone’s opponent Creon is a notoriously very arrogant dictator who demands absolute loyalty from his subjects. He displays his conceit from the outset of the performance via both his words and deeds. He claims the inhabitants of Thebes as his own and uses fear to compel them to submit completely....
Existentialism is the philosophical theory identifying a man as the only responsible person for his development. Many pieces of literature and cinematography masterpieces depict a man who dictates his life purpose and decisions by himself, highlighting man’s freedom in actions. Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Kelly’s Donnie Darko are two examples...
Jack London – American writer of a realistic direction. The story To Build a Fire (1908) was written during Jack London’s creative heyday and published in the collection Lost Face. The description of the confrontation between man and nature in the harsh North requires a certain amount of naturalism, but...
The apparent expression of Kafka’s Metamorphosis is the battle to discover and express one’s individuality in a world of constant, all-consuming commitments. For instance, The Metamorphosis discusses a ludicrous occurrence “as Gregor awoke one morning from an uneasy dream he found himself transformed into a gigantic insect.” (Kafka 1), which...
This study explores how binary oppositions in the personality of Jo March, depicted in Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women, deconstruct the character’s writing adventure. This research uses deconstructive criticism to examine Josephine’s material conditions, other characters’ responses to the girl’s writing, and her attitude towards other characters’ stereotypical gender...
The use of water in the three novels Roumain’s “Masters of the Dew,” Danticat’s “Krik? Krak!” and Paul’s “Praise Song for the Widow” has a symbolic meaning. The main innovation of the writers is the image symbol which replaces the traditional artistic image. The early forms of poetry and visual...
In the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, the tale is built on a foundation of betrayal and deceit. There are several instances throughout the play in which significant characters are either directly involved or are the victims of enormous betrayals. The most atrocious acts of treachery and dishonesty are...
Today, family abuse is a severe problem affecting numerous people throughout the world. Women from developed nations face the problem, meaning that the population of developing countries suffers from the issue even more significantly. That is why there emerge many non-profit organizations that aim to reduce the prevalence of the...
Introduction An author’s main objective while composing a literary work is to communicate a specific message to his audience. Factors such as historical occurrences, political ideologies, and global economic status are among the factors that influence an author’s message. One such work written at a historical time described as the...
Introduction The poem Caged Bird written by Maya Angelou follows the same theme as Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Sympathy. Thus, both poems focus on the theme of freedom through the perspective of a caged bird. However, despite using similar imagery of the bird in the cage, the poems can leave a...
Cimalová, Natalie. “Feminism in the Poetry of Adrienne Rich: A Comparison of Her Early and Late Poems.” (2015). The present article is devoted to the development of feminism in the poems by Adrienne Rich. The author states that it was strictly formal at the beginning of the 1950s and only...
Introduction Gender roles have long been a predominant issue in society. The male sex is expected to be virile, aggressive, risk-taking, and the breadwinner of the family. The female sex is presented as caring, responsible, gentle, polite, and amiable. Anne Sexton, in her poem Cinderella focuses on the position of...
Author’s Main Message Brain on Fire – My Month of Madness touches on several important themes related to mental illness and the treatment process. Susannah Cahalan writes about the love and care demonstrated by her parents and her boyfriend, Stephen, which were vital for her recovery. She exposes the unprofessionalism...
Introduction Widely reputed for his mastery in infusing understatements in his short stories, Raymond Carver (1938-1988) is considered to have reignited the art of writing by the time of his death in 1988. As a poet and a writer of short stories, his works were characteristically multi-themed and could explore...
Introduction Few writers inspire as many controversial thoughts as Flannery O’Connor does. Yet, the sense of controversy is exactly what distinguished her writing. O’Connor wrote stories that were filled with violence, despair, and loss. These themes are not accidental, as she viewed violence as having the capacity to uncover the...
Introduction ‘On The Run’ is a book released in 2014 by Alice Goffman; it is the most potent piece of ethnography. The narrative of how it came to be is almost as fascinating as the story at the center of the literature. This is a description of some of the...
In the poem “The Pied Piper,” Natasha Hooper uses various literary techniques to convey her emotions of anger and frustration to the audience. In this regard, most metaphors and symbols are related to the sphere of music, sometimes with specific references to R. Kelly’s works to deliver the main point...
Introduction The Issei, Nisei, and Sansei experienced many hardships in identity formation as being connected with two cultures: Japanese and American. One of the most popular resources reflecting the culture and problems the Japanese experienced is the Nisei Daughter memoirs. Using the biographical format, Kazuko Monica Itoi describes her own...
Introduction The Cinderella Tales are one of the most popular types of fairy tales known today. The most popular ones seem to be Charles Perrault’s Cinderella and Aschenputtel by the Brothers Grimm, although both versions are essentially different. For example, the Grimm story is known for its cruelty, while Perrault’s...
In Greek mythology, Oedipus, the king of the land of Thebes, portrays a king who brings disaster to himself and to the people he governs by killing his father and making his mother his wife. In search of the truth, Oedipus cares less about the danger his actions are about...
As a rule, observing people in a courtroom in reality is beyond boring. Once the realm of the place where justice is supposed to serve is deprived of its mystery veil, it is rendered nearly mundane. However, “Monster” takes several steps further to examine the courtroom events, people, and even...
My topic is the emotional trauma described in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. My main point is that the physical belongings of the soldiers depicted in the book represent their emotional states and priorities. I argue that the author depicts each item to reveal exact traumas American soldiers...
In “Earth Poem,” Darwish shares his love, grief, and expectations for the future in these Palestinian poems with other world peoples. Through his perceptive metaphors and detailed descriptions of the country, the author sounds the voice of the Palestinian Resistance. The main themes of his poetry are his nation and...
The Wars, written by Timothy Findley in 1977, is a novel that narrates the personal experiences of a young Canadian soldier amid World War I. As the narrative opens, we are introduced to Robert Ross. Following the tragic loss of his sister, Rowena, he decided to enroll in the army....
The civilization of Ancient Greece marks one of the most important chapters in the history of the world. This period has provided humanity with an array of important achievements, including the principles of democracy, theater, art, and sciences. These accomplishments have had an immense impact on the development of the...
“To Winter” and “After the Winter Rain” are both related to the same topic of the winter period. However, they display this season from different aspects: Claude McKay expresses his desire for winter to stay and Ina Coolbrith explains how spring comes after winter. In addition, the poems are visibly...
Introduction The history of slavery in the United States is long and unsavory, starting with the arrival of the first black slaves in the 17th century and only ending with the emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Before the passing of the 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, most of America’s bonded...
“Out, Out” is a poem by the US poet Robert Frost published in Frost’s Mountain Interval collection in 1916, and based on the actual incident which occurred to the son of Frost’s friend. The poem starts in remote Vermont, where his sister calls a young boy chopping firewood with a...
Frederick Douglass was a notable abolitionist and social reformer who escaped from slavery and depicted his experience in his memoir Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. He strongly believed in equality and shared his ideas in a direct and intimate fashion through his own story. Throughout...
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton is one of the iconic novels of the science fiction genre and is considered Crichton’s magnum opus. The book is generous in providing detailed depictions of various dinosaur species and explaining how the park came to life in the modern world. Some of the descriptions...
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an interesting work to analyze on the topic of life and death. It is one of the oldest literary works that have survived to this day, extremely psychological in its essence. This epic is composed of old material, but the old legends were woven into...
Reliance on clear language and direct visual images separated the works of the Imagists and Emily Dickinson from the late Victorian poetry. Instead of the elaborate verse where images served as decorations illustrating the text’s main idea, the exacting visual image articulated with painstaking clarity became the poem’s essence –...
Even though justice is a very straightforward idea, its execution in many cultures remains a challenge. Dante Alighieri depicts a man’s journey through Hell in his famous epic poem, Inferno, a microcosm of society. A book depicts Hell as a place where many humans- historical, mythological, or contemporary-are incarcerated for...
Poems can be a successful and interesting avenue to explore new ideas, as well as to comment on the daily necessities of life and its various events. In particular, ideas can be utilized very efficiently in communicating meaning across individuals and being used for their informational value. For the purposes...
Introduction The great epic poem of Gilgamesh explores a vast number of themes, but the one that sets the epic into motion is the subject of friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The effect their friendship imposes on the reader has to deal with the unusual circumstances of their acquaintance –...
The character of Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello is one of the most unique and multi-faceted villainous characters from all of Shakespeare’s works. The mysterious and deceitful aura of the character makes the play more thrilling to the viewer or reader, who is aware of Iago’s untruthful motives, and makes the...
Introduction The poetic legacy of Robert Frost, as one of the foremost American poets of the 20th century, is rich and imbued with images and vivid stories. As an example, his poem “Birches” can be analyzed as a work that captivates the reader with its philosophical ideas about eternity and...
“The Broken Spears” is a fascinating and captivating book that provides an engaging and graphical account of the annihilation of Mexico by the Spanish. The book provides a more expressive and human perspective of the events of the military confrontation between the Spanish and Aztecs (Leon-Portilla 1992). This literary text...
Introduction One of the primary purposes of literature is to deliver meaningful messages through artful images and plots. While some literary works may have a mostly entertaining function, some pieces prove to be seminal in the broader context of topical issues of society. Toni Morrison is one of the authors...
Human relationships are never simple and are usually predetermined by a variety of factors. In Lawrence’s “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” the theme of family relationships is described through the vision of a little boy, Paul, and his mother, Hester, and the impact of such issues as money and personal needs. Despite...
“Romeo and Juliet” was written by William Shakespeare about two young people deeply in love. It is set in Italy during the 16th century, and it has been one of the most debated narratives. Love is an archetype that is evident across the piece. The story relates to my chosen...
J.D. Salinger is one of the most intriguing figures in 20th century US literature. His only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is a worldwide bestseller. It is easy to read and understand, so readers can learn something useful from this literature even at a young age. The book covers...
One of the most famous works of William Yeats is “When You Are Old,” which is the poem addressed to a woman Yeats loved. The poem can be summarized as a plea with strong arguments. The author urges the woman to think of the future as not to regret her...
Drama is one of the most vital forms of art and may be considered as the heart of literature. It developed simultaneously in Ancient Greece, China, Japan, and other countries, and since then a significant number of theatres, tragedies, comedies, and dramas were created (“A brief history of tragedy,” n.d.)....
Kindred significantly contribute to the character, values, beliefs, identity and status of an individual. When kindred suffer loss due to divorce, illness or death of an individual the impact is felt by others. In Toni Cade Bambara’s short story, “Raymond’s Run,” the protagonist shows how she relates with her brother...
This poem dramatizes the conflict between the fight for women’s empowerment and rights. Rich’s oeuvre is characterized by the extended metaphor at the heart of this poem. She speaks about the struggle for women’s empowerment by using the image of a woman training for a deep-sea scuba dive and discovering...
Justice is a concept studied by all the ancient peoples: Scandinavians, Goths, Europeans, and Greeks. The nature of revenge and whether it is just to kill somebody as an act of vengeance is a central issue of the trilogy The Oresteia. Throughout the novels, the concept of fairness evolves onto...
In his arguably the most illustrious artwork titled “Funeral Blues,” first printed in 1938, Wystan Hugh Auden presents a morose, sorrowful elegy that brilliantly outlines the feelings linked to grieving. The poet mainly talks about the immensity of pain through an unmentioned speaker experiencing great discomfort after his extensively cherished...
“The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him ” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Verses 21–25)....
Introduction The short story The Lottery is one of Shirley Jackson’s most famous works. Its concept revolves around an annual draw in a small village. Although the lottery is usually associated with a winner getting a grand prize, in the story, it is a process of selecting a victim for...
German myths have always been different from the overall European mythology. Aside from the setting, probably the most remarkable distinction is the hero. A shining example is Siegfried, who is a controversial figure in the medieval German narrative. He definitely acts with valor, fights the dragon, and dies at the...
Shirley Jackson wrote “The Lottery” as a short story, and it was published on June 26, 1948, in The New Yorker. The first readers of the story were surprised by it because, in the past, works of the magazine were not identified as fiction or as events happening in real...
Introduction The essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day”, written by a famous American humorist David Sedaris tells the story of a man on his way to learning French in a Paris school at the age of 41. The essay is full of emotions, personal struggles, and growth that speak to...
Introduction Lorraine Hansberry’s acclaimed play A Raisin in the Sun narrates the struggles and prejudices suffered by black families in the America of the 1950s as they endeavor to improve their financial wellbeing. The piercing drama draws its title from Langston Hughes’ poem Montage of a Dream Deferred and follows...
The relationship between humans and strange beings is a separate literary genre that is filled with symbolism. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a legendary novel that is considered one of the pearls of Gothic and science fiction literature. The main character in the book is Victor Frankenstein, who designed the...
Homer’s Odyssey has made an indisputable contribution to all Western civilization’s development and remains relevant in the modern world. In addition, the protagonist’s personal qualities, such as courage and strength, make him famous and reflect the spirit of the society of Ancient Greece. These stories are an excellent illustration of...
Notwithstanding that both William Golding and Mary Shelley created hypothetical situations to explore the nature of humans, their approaches and motives significantly differ. However, the given paper will prove that simultaneously they share the research on how the environment influences people and on what the inner nature of these creatures...
Introduction Arguably, William Shakespeare’s works are a critical way of thinking about the different contemporary subjects existing today. In Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, various issues affecting society during the 16th century are discussed. Writers, historians, sociologists, linguists, and the public, in general, use Shakespeare’s works as a vital reference point and...
It goes without saying that there are multiple symbols in the short story “The black cat,” written by an outstanding American writer Edgar Allan Poe. As a matter of fact, the symbol of the black cat may be regarded as the most significant, and its changes throughout the story support...
Introduction A series of well-known essays by a renowned Irish writer Brian O’Doherty under the name of Inside the White Cube gives his thoughts on the art space, mainly focusing on the work of modern galleries. The design of the White Cube galleries has affected and permeated art and exhibition...
The Things They Carried is a book that consists of fictional stories about soldiers’ experience during the war in Vietnam. The writer reflects on his participation in the military conflict by using a fictional hero – Tim O’Brien. Through storytelling, the author manages to explore his own feelings to convey...
Introduction There are many themes discussed in Ancient Greek and other myths – love, hatred, true wisdom, loyalty, and the creation of the world. One of the most critical topics in most of the stories about deities is depicting a family conflict that may arise from jealousy, betrayal, competition for...
Baldwin’s “A Talk to Teachers” explores the reality of growing up and being brought up as an African American in the United States of the 1950s. Yet even though race features prominently in the text, the essay is about more than just racial matters. At the core of “A Talk...
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a depositary of themes that continue to fascinate readers and make literary critics argue about their expediency. The main hero’s desire for immortality is grounded both in the fear of decay and the man’s arrogance. Anticipating the failure of his struggles to find the secret...
Argument The key argument that Michel-Rolph Trouillot sets forward in Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History is that history in itself is created by historians, while reality is what is produced by events and processes. History represents the human narration of reality that is viewed subjectively from...
Introduction Little attention has been devoted to the captured Africans’ experiences during the Middle Passage when they were shipped across the Atlantic to be sold into slavery. More importantly, few texts have attempted to capture the African spirit of resistance during the long journey from the shores of West Africa...
Introduction Dickens and Wilde were both writers gifted in portraying human conditions in an individualistic and unique way focused on correcting residents in the Victorian period. By 19th century, these literature artists had become famous in articulating Britain’s societal aspects. The 19th century remains a memorable time for Britain, in...
Relationships between family members, as well as childhood memories, have always served as one of the most popular subjects of many literary works. Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” are poems written in the middle of the 20th century, with about 20 years of difference in their...
Many people do not even imagine how they are dependent on decisions they make, either it is a necessity to wear a new suit or an intention to get married. Decision-making may be a serious topic for discussion at a different age, and Robert Frost was one of the American...
Amy Tan is an American writer of Asian origin who is passionate about languages. She had to grow up in a difficult situation, being the daughter of a Chinese immigrant. Her circumstances were also complicated due to the communication issues that her mother had to endure. For this reason, she...
Naturally, mention of participation in war is viewed with indifference because it often points to atrocities and other inhuman acts associated with it. Homer’s epic poem however contradicts this not by showing how magnificent war is but by presenting possible glory associated with involvement in the war. Homer forces the...
The ways of how a person’s psychological state and attitudes to everyday situations change in response to traumatic experiences, such as war or violence, have been an inspirational topic for multiple generations of writers. “Soldier’s Home,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway, is an excellent example of works that reflect...
Introduction “A&P” is a short story written by John Updike, an American novelist, poet, and literary critic. The story was initially published in 1961 in The New Yorker. Updike tells the story of Sammy, a nineteen-year-old working in a small-town grocery store. The central conflict in the plot revolves around...
Greek mythology includes numerous outstanding and influential figures worth researching. Besides, the details of this vibrant world imply many fascinating insights that can be translated into modern society. One of the Greek gods is Hades, “the god of death and the dead,” who was also called “the King of the...
The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother The whole story that is written by Gabriel Garcia Marcia Marquiz is a very interesting one that embraces three concepts, that is realism, naturalism, and magical realism. Realism Erendira who was fourteen years old was living with her...
Introduction As the adage goes, ‘…two things are certain in this life: Death and Taxes.’ Although one can escape the latter, the former is like a change, it is inevitable, and inasmuch as people continue to hate it, they must encounter it anyway. Everybody has an assigned day of answering...
“We are living in a material world”, says the famous line from Madonna’s song “Material Girl”. Materialistic pursuits seem to be discussed everywhere throughout the whole course of art and culture for centuries. In this vein, the theme of materialism which is so important in western culture is often addressed...
One cannot say that the book “Life of Pi” is devoted to animals, like, for instance, the books by Seton Thomson or Gerald Durrell, who express their love of wildlife in books. In contrast to them, Martel presents a philosophic and religiously oriented account of the life of a human...
In the book Celia, A Slave by Merton McLaurin the question of slavery and oppression of women is raised. The laws of the land do not protect the women against atrocities committed against them in this patriarchal society. The book is set during the slavery era in America. Therefore, McLaurin...
Published in 1922, “Mother to Son” was one of Langston Hughes’ early poems. Simple language and a powerful message created by the author make it accessible and meaningful to all readers. While Hughes captures the inspiring persistence of an aging mother, he also represents the struggle of African-Americans inherent in...
“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed hr had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug” (Kafka 1). This is nonsensical! Kafka uses this ‘metamorphosis’ scene symbolically to achieve some assorted themes of the story. To understand why Kafka uses Gregor...
Chaucer’s goal in “The Prologue” of his famous work The Canterbury Tales was to demonstrate, with some humor, the common figures of the day, and how they mix and intermingle when thrown together. As Dryden stated: “it is sufficient to say, according to the proverb that here is God’s plenty.”...
Introduction The poem has been written in the form of a Petrarchan sonnet, fashioned on the lines of Italian poetic traditions, influenced in its form and meter by the work of Petrarch – one of the famous Italian poets of the early renaissance era. Like a classical Petrarchan sonnet, it...
Introduction In Shakespeare’s play Othello, the character Iago is the most well-known and multifaceted. To the characters in the play, he is a trustworthy and honest person who everyone in the community is willing to confide in. The audience on the other hand can note that he is the evilest,...
Poet Gwendolyn Brooks compresses a lot of meaning in a few short lines, in her poem “We Real Cool”, on page 649 of The Bedford Compact Introduction to Literature. Following a student review of Chapters 18-20, one can appropriately analyze this poem. The author utilizes various poetic devices to get...
Emily Dickinson was a famous American poet. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a brilliant family with respectable community ties. Despite that, she lived rather a solitary and isolated life. After graduating from the Amherst Academy, she entered a Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and returned home to Amherst. She...
Iago is no doubt the personification of evil and takes contentment in destroying virtue in him and others. The first and most significant thing we note in Iago is that, in comparison with the other characters of the play, he is highly intellectual and strong –willed. The fundamental attribute of...
Introduction Homer’s poem “Iliad” uses a concept of “therapon” which is not typical for any of other writers of those times and of modern times as well. The concept concerns the character whose actions are described in the lines “Three times he charged with the headlong speed of Ares, /Screaming...
Background “One Flew over the Cuckoo´s Nest” is a story of lives within a group of people with different psychological approaches. The characters in the book are definitely with peculiarities as of their psyches and Billy Bibbit is a great example of a man with a psychiatric disorder. Ken Kesey...
The idea of excessive pride plays a monumental role in Greek tragedy. Pride in itself can be seen as a positive attribute, but when it is expressed in arrogance and defiance of fate and the gods, it becomes a fatal flaw that leads to downfall. Aristotle stated, “the tragic hero...
Supplication or petitioning can be considered a kind of prayer where a person asking his superior for something. This prayer can be for himself or for someone else. The person who is making the supplication is referred to as a supplicant. Normally the supplicant is the inferior of the person...
The literature inheritance leaves many works that reflect the history and culture of people that lived in that period. While studying the cultural and social conditions we come across some peculiar feature of each peoples and subconsciously identify them with new character traits of the modernized society. In that regard,...
Tim O’Brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried,” begins as a highly literal enumeration of objects soldiers in Vietnam carry, each thing valued not only for its utility but also according to its weight because every object has to be “humped” and therefore each soldier eliminates whatever is not needed,...
Every literary genre is unique and marvelous in its way, but the genre of drama stands apart from other genres of literature, as it possesses certain features that are characteristic for it only. These characteristic features of drama will be analyzed in this work using the example of an outstanding...
In the novel Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad fully explores the concept of imperialism and the effects it has on everyone who is involved with the process. He does this while employing a new modern means of characterization and expression. It is difficult to describe this new form of expression...
Introduction The novel “Midaq Alley” by Naguib Mahfouz is a novel with many characters that live in a poor neighborhood called Midaq Alley during the Second World War. Among the protagonists are Umm Hamida, a marriage broker and bath attendant, her daughter, who was pimped by Ibraham Faraj; Hussain Kirsha,...
‘That Evening Sun Go Down’, a short story written by William Faulkner, portrays the pathetic condition of African Americans in South America. One can identify the hidden hatred that the white men harbour towards the Negro community in America. A Unique Feature of the Story is that it can be...
Introduction “The Secret Agent” by Joseph Conrad is based on the Greenwich Bomb Outrage of 1894 when a man named Martial Bourdi, had, like Stevie Verloc, the main protagonist of “The Secret Agent”, killed himself setting off a bomb in Greenwich Park near the Royal Observatory. Thus, the terrorists in...
Introduction and Thesis statement Siegfried Sassoon is regarded as the preeminent war poet of the 20th Century. His works offer graphic narratives of the violence and brutality of war. What is ironic is that his background of wealth and privilege was about as far from the destitution of war that...
Introduction If there is a novel that can be closer to haiku, in terms of deep meanings that can be extracted from descriptions and short ordinary phrases, this would be “Snow Country” – a novel by Yasunari Kawabata that tells the story of love between a man visiting hot springs...
Introduction While analyzing any work of literature, especially prose, it is of the crucial importance to give extra attention to the role of the narrator, because, the reader perceives the events through the eyes of this person. As a rule literary critics single out several types of story telling, like...
Introduction The novel “The Chronicle of a death foretold”, written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is a novel based on a real murder that occurred in Columbia on January 22, 1951. The main characters in “The Chronicle…” and their actions, fate and intentions resembled that of the people in the actual...
Introduction The Handmaid’s Tale narrates about the events in the Republic of Gilead, a State, which was proclaimed on the territory of the contemporary USA after nuclear, biological, and chemical pollution, which made the most citizens infertile, and after the terrorists killed the president and all the members of Congress....
The ancient Greeks, with their pantheon of gods, had deep religious convictions that reinforced many values we continue to hold sacred today, such as honor and loyalty to family and loved ones. Bravery was typically measured by one’s performance in battle or their ability to stand up to strange mythological...
The role of women in the ancient world is generally accepted to be that of possession and house-servant, mother and decorative status symbol, but not human, not thinking and not individual enough to act upon her own volition. This impression comes from a long line of ancient texts and documents...
In the history of classical literary pieces, Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes enjoys one of the prominent positions among the masterpiece works and it is rightly considered as the foremost piece of fiction ever to be written by any important authors. The piece also holds the credit to be...
Symbols have a special significance in Death of a Salesman. Recurring images of the rubber hose, diamonds, and stockings help to convey the play’s main message. This essay studies the symbolism in Death of a Salesman and uncovers the meaning behind the imagery used by Arthur Miller. Symbolism in Death...
The Iliad belongs to a number of the most famous ancient poems devoted to conflicts between states. Numerous references present the work’s characteristics, making it a popular research subject in cultural studies to Greek legends. Among the codes that are related to the events described in the Iliad, there is...
The Glass Menagerie is a play about a dysfunctional family, each caught in between their feelings and dreams. The conflicts experienced in the Wingfield’s family primarily lie deep within themselves, but also intertwine with each other. This essay will analyze the complicated relationship between Amanda–the mother and Laura—the daughter and...
Introduction Death of a Salesman is a stage play that was written in 1949 by Arthur Miller, an American playwright and literary activist who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play is a famous piece of art, which is considered as one of the best theater works of...
