5783 samples of this type
Life It is important to note that Walt Whitman is among the most well-known and influential American poets. His life began with his birth in West Hills, New York, on May 31, 1819, and during his adolescent years, he studied and read Bible, Shakespeare, Dante, and Homer. As a boy,...
The poems that resonate with most people are always about love and human relationships. One of them is a piece called “Poem for Haruko”, written by June Jordan (2005). Despite the poem’s concise nature, it exposes a deep and emotional story. The vivid images the author portrays with the help...
Introduction The first scene in Hamlet is one of the most profound first scenes in the history of drama. It starts when one of the guards asks, “who is there?” (Shakespeare, 1602, p. 5). This depicts a revealing of one’s identity. The answer the other guard gives is quite strange....
Paul’s Case by Willa Cather is a short story full of temperament lessons. It is a narration of a few months’ events in Paul’s life. Paul is a student at Pittsburg High School, who prefers theater and music to class. The story begins when Paul is suspended from school; he...
“The Ark of Bones” is a short story written by African American author Henry Dumas. The setting of the story is in the 1900s at the shores of the Mississippi River, a place with myths and misconceptions among the African Americans and the whites as well. The story involves two...
April 23 is a special day in the history of world culture. On this day, according to the few testimonies and legends, William Shakespeare, a connoisseur of history and explorer of the human soul, a wise philosopher and an intriguing playwright, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. Philologists, art critics, directors, actors,...
Blues for Mister Charlie is a play in three acts by James Baldwin. It revolves around the murder of Richard Henry, a black man, committed by Lyle Britten, a white store owner. The play addresses the theme of institutional racism and injustice African American community faced in the 1960s United...
Shakespeare’s last plays belong to the genre of tragicomedy – plays devoid of genuine tragedy, which, while slightly disturbing for the audience, were still mainly intended to entertain them by delivering a sharp and entertaining experience. Nevertheless, Shakespeare brings an exceptional tone to them, switching them into the fairy tale...
“For There is Nothing Either Good or Bad, Thinking Makes it So.” William Shakespeare’s statement is partially wrong as it contradicts the possibility of either good or bad occurrences happening. There cannot be a dispute that good or bad exists because a human being can experience that they feel happy...
Alvin Toffler is an American philosopher and futurologist, one of the authors of the popular concept of post-industrial civilization, author of many books and articles. He holds honorary doctorates in literature and natural sciences. In the late 1960s, Toffler was commissioned by IBM to research the social consequences of the...
The theme of loneliness has been explored countless times in numerous works of literature, yet the ones that address the specified issue most authentically are “Hamlet” and “Odysseus.” Although each of the specified pieces of literature approaches the concept of loneliness from a different perspective, the overall sense of loneliness...
The lives of people in the past and, more specifically, their relationships were primarily guided by material considerations. This world is portrayed in the novel “Sense and Sensibility,” written by Jane Austen, which demonstrates the rigid social hierarchy of the time leading to human greed. It is especially applicable to...
A raisin in the Sun and Fences are two plays that show African-American families dealing with their daily hardships and tensions. Both families face discrimination, and both have internal problems as well. The storylines of two main characters are in many ways parallel to each other: Troy Maxson and Walter...
Introduction Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus is a novel written by Mary Shelly that was first published in 1818. The author tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who artificially animated a body assembled from parts of corpses. Although Victor intended to create a beautiful creature, the result...
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...
The Epic of Son-Jara is an epic set in West Africa in the thirteenth century. It describes the rise to power of Son-Jara, also spelled as Sundiata, who founded the Mali Empire, which was the largest and the most influential state in the region and existed for more than four...
Broken Chains is a story written by Gary Soto, the main character of which is the boy Alfonso, who did not have a sense of belonging to a group he is in. In turn, the short story Fish Creeks, written by Amy Tan, tells a young Chinese girl’s drama based...
Feminist literature has been in existence for several centuries, which allows researchers and lay people to become familiar with how women were treated during different historical periods. Moreover, by analyzing the sources and accounts of previous epochs, one can gain a better understanding of the current situation and establish certain...
Ernest Hemingway and Katherine Mansfield were increasingly influential writers of post-war stories at the beginning of the 20th century. The First World War became a source of inspiration for many authors who tried to convey the mood of those tragic events and their consequences to the public. This paper aims...
The writer created Animal Farm work during the Second World War from 1943 to 1944, but it was published only in 1945 in Great Britain. The book belongs to the genre of satire and is a parody of the Russian revolution of 1917. In the Soviet Union, however, it was...
Introduction The play, which takes approximately ten minutes, was written by Caryl Churchill as a response to the tragic events that took place at Gaza in the recent past. The play, among other issues, shows the extent to which theater is capable of reacting to the global politics. The play...
Shakespeare’s Hamlet has attracted abiding interest due to its aesthetics and the exceptional complexity of the author’s masterpiece. Deep reflections on life and death invariably attract the readers’ attention and push each to their interpretations. Every generation can identify with the problems touched upon in the play. Shakespeare’s work remains...
Introduction Human society is founded on the fact that luck in life is a goal that everyone wants to achieve. From this perspective, in two dramatic short stories, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, the philosophical conflict between luck and its consequences is clearly...
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...
Justice, equality, and fairness are the ideals people from different cultures in different parts of the world have always aspired to achieve. They are the values that not only have inspired people to speak up and fight against oppression, cruelty, discrimination, and abuse but also encouraged innovation and progress, bringing...
Who is the Speaker? Wild Nights is known as one of the most thought-provoking poems written by Emily Dickinson in 1891. This verse has captured readers’ attention and imagination due to its ambiguous nature. It narrates about passion, desire, rapture, and ecstasy; yet, it also describes the powerful natural phenomenon....
Introduction The story Tuesdays with Morrie written by Mitch Albom is considered to be a biographical story disclosing the real-life of sociologists. The novel was written in 1997 and gained recognition as one of the most significant works of the literature world. The work is devoted to the disclosure of...
In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens renders the theme of fate, which is reflected in the three Spirits of Christmas. The Spirit’s demeanor and looks symbolize Scrooge’s life in the past, present, and future implying his fate if he does not rethink his behavior. The first Spirit, the Ghost of...
The works of Edgar Allan Poe are famous for their gothic style, the penchant for depression and melancholy, as well as sinister motives of imminent death and evil fate. So, in the “Black Cat,” the story of alcoholism, madness, and movement towards destruction unfolds. The cat is the main symbol...
The current essay is an analysis of Oresteia based on the book “Aeschylus Oresteia” by Peter Meineck. In this paper, first of all, a brief overview of the trilogy will be presented. Then, the following topics will be addressed and analyzed: the issue of justice and Oresteia’s argument about it;...
Introduction “A Rose for Emily” is a story about the decline of Southern aristocracy during the early 20th century. The titular character, Emily, declines alongside her house, eventually becoming mentally ill, murdering her lover and sleeping alongside his decaying body. However, while she may have been predisposed to such a...
Introduction The short horror stories “A Rose for Emily” and “The Yellow Wall-Paper” have similar and different features, which are manifested through the authors’ use of the elements of gothic literature. “A Rose for Emily” is a short story by William Faulkner that was first published in 1930. The story...
The book review on “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow them and people will follow you” is a subject to criticism based on many view points. First, the title of the book stands to be questioned itself; it shows some sense of rigidity and also some form of forced...
Introduction Literary works require consideration through the lens of various techniques used by their authors, and in the case of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, symbolism is essential. In the book, the author, Alison Bechdel, narrates about her childhood and relationship with her father with the use of a variety...
“Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem written by Wilfred Owen after his experience of fighting in World War I. The title is a Latin clause meaning it is worthy to die for one’s country. However, Wilfred Owen shares the reverse opinion, implying that it is an awful death. Due...
Introduction A reliable narrator is a speaker in the story or test who can be trusted. It means that it can also be a person who has values close to the values of the author of the novel and can offer it to readers and other individuals. Thus, the discussed...
Sherman Alexie’s short stories “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” and “War Dances” portray two native American men, who lead different lives, yet whose narratives share common features and explore similar topics. In the first story, the reader witnesses a day of a homeless person in Seattle who spots family...
Theodore Roethke is a renowned American writer whose poetry is figurative and melodic. My Papa’s Waltz is one of the most known poems by the poet, and it deals with a moment in a boy’s life. The relationship between the father and the son is the primary theme of the...
Ursula Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” in allegorical form addresses the topics of exploitation and social injustice. It describes a city where the happiness of many depends on the suffering of a child, which mirrors the structure of many modern societies founded on exploitation....
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 hero’s journey, or the Monomyth, is a primary component of stories in historical myths. According to Joseph Campbell, the expedition entails a hero venturing on an exploration, emerging victorious in a defining confrontation, and coming back to his home reshaped or transformed (Ross, 2019). Ross (2019) states that an...
Student Name___________________________ Professor Name__________________________ Course________________________________ Date__________________________________ Mythical and majestic phoenix dies under its own power and emerges from its own collapse, which makes its immortality cyclical. Phoenix’s main quest is to ease the pain and suffering of her beloved one. It is important to note the fact that her name...
Today, an Akkadian epic poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh is regarded as the earliest surviving great literary work. The poem describes the life of Gilgamesh who was an actual historical king of an ancient Sumerian city-state of Uruk, deified post-mortem by its citizens. Of special interest for scholars is the...
The play opened on Broadway in 1959 was a success. Despite the mixed reviews it had received before the opening, the primarily white audiences enjoyed it. “A Raisin in the Sun” was the first play by a black female author performed on Broadway and also the first one there directed...
Introduction The Space Merchants extrapolates the highly capitalist world of the 22 century driven by consumerism and greed. The privileged class consists of top traders, business people, and “star class” copywriters who continuously deploy tricky advertisement campaigns to manipulate others, so-called ordinary consumers. The authors mainly show and criticize the...
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...
August Wilson’s “Fences” delves into the lives of African Americans. More specifically, Wilson uses the life of the protagonist Troy Maxson to explore common social conflicts and themes such as love, gender roles, and responsibility. Troy’s conflict with the Whites, as well as Tory’s relationship with Rose, are two dominant...
Introduction The hardships of settling in another state are not known to many people. Most of the population does not have to immigrate and adapt to new conditions; hence, it is informative to learn about the process from the perspective of a person who had to. The paragraph from the...
Introduction The piece written by Alice Walker is a short story about a 10-year-old girl named Myop, who turned from a carefree child into a person understanding the cruel realities of life in one day. The child was walking through the area she was living in to explore the beautiful...
Introduction Differences between poetry and prose are highly noticeable even for people who are not knowledgeable in the forms of writing. The most obvious difference between prose and poetry lays in their structures – while poetry may be regarded as properly structured, the prose is more free and natural. Rhythm,...
Night by Elie Wiesel is one such book where the main character is forced to go through hardships in order to become a different person. It describes the difficult life of a Jewish boy who had to experience a horrifying experience of hunger, violence and losing someone he loves. Since...
Introduction Death is notably one of the universal fears that translates to almost every culture, time, and age. All people eventually face death in their lifetime: either their own or their loved ones. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that dying is a widely researched topic in many literary works....
The Preliminary Chart Evidence from the Poem Inference from this Evidence “From blossoms comes / this brown paper bag of peaches” (Lee, lines 1-2). The poet appreciates nature and its gift – the peaches. He is glad and excited about eating them; this is pure childish happiness. From laden boughs,...
Quotation from Carlos Bulosan’s Short Story “The Romance of Magno Rubio” “Claro looked tentatively at the money. He picked up the crispy bills on the table. He grabbed the jug of wine and went to his room.” (Bulosan, 1979, p. 34). The above quote from the story depicts the hard...
Introduction People have a tendency to develop various attitudes towards the concepts of honor, respect, and loyalty. On the one hand, an idea of honorable behavior pervades human activities, and it is necessary to rely on personal knowledge and skills to demonstrate the best examples. On the other hand, honor...
The Odyssey is an integral part of the ancient Greek epic, and its authorship is usually attributed to Homer. The poem narrates Odysseus’s adventures after returning from the Troyan war. The hero faces many dangers during a long journey and returns home after 20 years. On the way, he loses...
Invisible Cities is a novel that invites the reader to active cooperation and provides erroneous interpretations. It seems that the development of an adaptive metanarrative for this text should not be too difficult since the emblematic nature of its constituent elements presupposes its presence. However, the complexity of perception is...
“Loose Woman” poem by Sandra Cisneros is the last poem in the collection that presents her vision of herself and women in general. In this poem, it is possible to recognize a woman who speaks about how others perceive her, calling her a beast, bitch, and macha. The main character...
The environment plays an essential role in dictating the traits of a person. However, despite the hostility of the surrounding, the individuals who are determined to achieve their life goals always embrace success. The surrounding can make people develop fear even of their closest friends, hence seeing them as enemies....
The novel Sula by Toni Morrison, published in 1973, centers around female friendship and its challenges in the context of black feminism. By describing the life challenges and memories of her characters, Sula and Nel, Morrison encourages women to cherish their friendship and support each other in overcoming every hardship...
Ethnic Diversity The issue of exile and the search for true identity is a significant topic in American culture. People with diverse nationalities and cultural backgrounds live in one country and have to defend their traditions and worldview (Schilb et al. 78). For the authors such as Pat Mora, Chrystos,...
Zora Neale Hurston was a writer in the early 20th century. Her book Tell My Horse was published in 1938, which described the hands-on experiences in Jamaica and Haiti held two years prior. One of the book’s central discourses is the preservation of the traditional African customs in the era...
Summary In the prologue, Craig Welch tells a story about two detectives, Ed Volz and his partner Bill Jarmon, of the Washington department of fish and wildlife trying to track down smugglers of a geoduck, the world’s largest burrowing clam consumed as seafood. One night, they meet dealers with information...
In the world of the 21st century, people seem to have forgotten about the cruelty of being deprived of freedom. With the impression of living as a free man, they have now become more focused on the notions of respect and equality. Only few, however, realize that every human being...
Introduction Short stories and reading overall sometimes seem to be simply a form of entertainment. However, in reality, characters in these writings often provide readers with answers to the questions of the meaning of life or the importance of various values. A story by Ernest Hemingway called “Hills Like White...
Introduction The 14th-16th centuries period received the name Renaissance in European history. As a cultural phenomenon, the Renaissance marked a slow transition from medieval era to modernity. During that time period, a significant part of European states experienced severe changes in their social structures, as well as the rise of...
Art Spiegelman depicts each nationality in his book as a specific animal: Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs. This form of representation shows the absurdity and horror of Nazi ideologies of dividing people into different species. However, the insert Prisoner on Hell Planet differs in style from...
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is the most recognized play written by William Shakespeare and one of the most influential works in the history of world literature. The issue of revenge is the central theme of Shakespeare’s play, which concerns the main confrontation of two protagonists, Hamlet, and...
The concept of involuntary memory has been illustrated in Proust’s Overture by a number of figurative writing styles in the novel. The beginning of the novel is marked by a depiction of involuntary memory. The author ushers in the reader by stating that “For a long time I used to...
All conventional norms established by members of society have a specific purpose and a prevailing ideology as a basis. Generally, rules are created by a hierarchical elite based on an ideology that is either initially shared by the majority as in Orwell’s Animal Farm or eventually imposed on it as...
The European colonists dominated over the Africans by disempowering them by introducing religious ideas that openly challenged their beliefs from an outside perspective. These white settlers managed to cause conflicts between those who are learned and then plant in those new Christian ideas. They also established a government that harassed...
The issue of trust, a well as the process of getting to know each other, is a crucial part of marriage. However, when constrained by the presence of multiple rigid standards and expectations set by society, a married couple is likely to experience severe distress, causing the relationships to disrupt...
“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is a story about an octogenarian lady named Granny Weatherall. The woman suffers from a fatal disease and the whole narrative describes the process of her dying. The author of the story, Katherine Anne Porter, covers the topics of the strength of women, the dichotomy...
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, a famous Russian writer, was a short story master who dreamed that people should be free and happy. Unfortunately, in real life, Chekhov had to deal with rudeness and callousness, which he called vulgarity. Chekhov made fun of philistines, stupidity, and the writer especially did not like...
Love is the ruling force of the evolution. People all over the world consider love as the brightest and the warmest feeling. Love is often the main theme of the greatest works of world literature. The theme of romantic love is also discussed in such masterpieces as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet...
Although there were numerous prerequisites and indications of a military crisis approaching the world in the early 1910s, World War I swept the humankind into massive bloodshed and introduced it to chaos. “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway deserves to be titled as the most prominent of prose pieces...
Robert Frost’s “Birches” is one of the most widely appreciated poems. It is a fine example of the poet’s power to fuse observation and imagination. Frost belongs to the pastoral tradition. Most of his poems reveal the beautiful countryside of New England. They also express the national spirit of America....
Introduction The books Scarlet Letter’ and ‘Moby Dick’ were the most engaging during the literature course. Both books are rich in themes concerning human nature. Although the books have been set in a different previous era, their contents are very appealing considering the similarity of human nature during that period...
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...
I have never read anything more touching than Thank You, M’am by Langston Hughes. There are just two main characters in this story: an old woman Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, and a young boy, Roger, who appeared to be a pickpocket. The last tried to still Mrs. Luella’s purse...
Introduction Ever since Freud’s methodology of psychoanalysis has gained an academic validity, during the first part of twentieth century, it became possible for psychiatrists to get an insight onto the actual roots of their clients’ mental anxieties, which were revealed as such that reside deep in people’s subconsciousness. In its...
Introduction The loneliness and isolation of a person can only be redeemed by loving others and this is fully supported in the novel Great Expectations. Throughout the storyline, we find Pip, the protagonist, being encircled by love and rejection, or hate and affection. The aspect of love in this text...
Dr. Suess’s full names are Theodor Seuss Geisel. The American writer as well as a cartoonist lived in the period between 1904 and the year 1991. Dr. Suess became famous for specializing in children’s books where he has published over sixty books. His writings are notably characterized by the use...
Jung Chang is now viewed by many literary critics as one of the most prominent Chinese writers. Her autobiographical book “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China” several social, cultural, and psychological problems. It should be taken into account that this novel is officially banned in China mostly because it unmasks...
Introduction People are different with a view to their intellect and abilities, features and appearance, beliefs and views. Some people have good intentions and make good actions; other people do not seem to be good at all. Nevertheless, good and bad actions and even thoughts can be argued; it is...
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19 1809 in Boston Massachusetts. He was an American poet, writer, literary critic and editor. He was orphaned at an early age before he was even three years. He was raised as a foster child by John and Frances Allan in Richmond Virginia....
Values are actions that society universally qualifies as good; therefore, the wider community sets them as their goals in life. The play revolves around Atreus’s house in which it seemed there was a revenge cycle. Haunting in the Atreus house by ancient crimes began with the patriarch, Pelops. Atreus invited...
In the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, there is a long discussion of vernacular, The Vernacular Tradition, and how it impacts the meaning and our understanding of the meaning in African American literature, particularly the blues. The article begins with, “In African American literature, the vernacular refers to the...
This essay depicts the self tribulations that two men, Gregor Samsa and Meursault deal with in their separate yet similar lives. It also depicts their tragic ends and their attitudes towards men, law, religion and society. The two gives the expectations that man, religion, law and society have on fellow...
Introduction Within a single lifetime, the United States has gone from a nation that openly and legislatively discriminated against a group of people based upon their race through the upheaval of the Civil Rights Movement to a society that elects a man of mixed races to the highest office available....
“Origins of the Nazi violence” is an attempt by the author to offer an explanation on one of the most horrendous events of the twentieth century i.e. the Holocaust. Generally speaking the book is quite analytical and draws on several schools of thought. It then uses these previous philosophies to...
Literary works have been instrumental the world over in initiating wide ranging changes in human affairs. Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country is one such striking work of fiction that had sought to bring about positive social change in South Africa and has been assiduously studied and debated by scholars...
Introduction Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a world-famous novel about an ambitious scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who finds out the secret of life and creates a monstrous creature from old body parts. The creature lacks perfection and turns against him for not creating a female companion. Victor loses his dear ones as...
Choplin’s story is set in a time when many females were supposed to play the role of a housewife and a homemaker. This was a time where roles for females and males were defined by society such as women took care of the house while the man was responsible for...
Introduction: the wit and sensitivity of “ee cummings” The popularity of Edward Cummings (known as “ee cummings”) and his creative heritage has never been fully consistent with his critical reputation. Some of his readers view him as a genius, whereas the others believe the syntactic complexity of his poems is...
“Omnia mutabantur, mutantur, mutabuntur” as the Latin proverb has it. Antiquity has supplied us with perfect food for reflection since ancient literary sources are the treasury of wisdom, just as the sayings that have lived during centuries to supply humanity of the present with eternal wisdom. Everything changes. It is...
Gossips existed in all societies beginning from prehistoric, probably because of the curiosity inherent to each human being. If directed constructively, curiosity can bring positive results such as professional excellence and expertise, whereas the consequences of excessive interest in others’ personal life are hardly predictable, and the only stable tendency...
Introduction The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People was published in 1989 and is one of the most wonderful books that I have ever come across in my life. It is a self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. This book has allowed me to look into myself and bring...
Introduction Thomas Bell’s book “Out of this Furnace” is a good presentation of five generations of Hungarian family immigrants who moved into the US in the 19th century. One of the characters in the book, George Kracha came in 1881 and settled in Pennsylvania, and started working in a steel...
Throughout history, relations between the East and West have been marked by violence and cultural conflict. However in recent years, disunity the between the West and the Middle East in particular has been exacerbated because of Western foreign policy and increasing Islamic fundamentalism. International terrorism, notably the atrocities of September...
Jamie Whyte is considered to be the author of the book Crimes against Logic reflecting the bogus arguments of journalists, politicians, priests, and many other offenders. The author tried to represent a number of logical fallacies faced in everyday life; he managed to provide a cutting and witty guide to...
“In 1834 poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge described this play as one of three works of literature with perfect plots; in 1900 Freud plucked out the name Oedipus for his theory of a son’s unconscious sexual longing for his mother; in 1974 lyrics to a song in the film...
Introduction Living in this world which is a complex of different processes influenced by people, it is difficult to understand for what people live, how they live. The most interesting thing is that this world is created by people also and people create everything they struggle against after. People create...
Introduction William Faulkner is regarded as one of the leading authors of 20th century American literature (Lombardi). Listed among his many works are the book “As I Lay Dying” and the short story “A Rose for Emily,” both of which depict several similar features that are typical of the author’s...
“Death belongs to the dying and those who love them.” This is a quote from Sherwin B. Nuland’s book How We Die, Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter. Throughout his book Nuland demonstrates this message; he takes us through the significant education he has received in his forty years as a...
The central character in A Doll’s House, written by Ibsen, is Nora. She lives with her husband and her three children. She happened to take a loan with the forged signature of her father, which was kept very secret from her husband. With this forgery as the central plot, Ibsen...
Romeo and Juliet is perhaps one of Shakespeare’s most well known and renowned of plays. It is story of love’s attempts to unite and bring together two lovers who can fathom nothing else but their love (Shakespeare). In Romeo and Juliet, we see two lovers bent on becoming one and...
Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is very simple story. An old man, aged about eighty years, tries to spend his night by drinking brandy in a Spanish café, but the young waiter becomes impatient, as he wants to join his wife at home and enjoy a sound sleep. At the...
The novel “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen is considered to be a masterpiece of classical literature that has gone a long way due to the vivid presentation of the conflicts and interaction of the characters of the protagonists, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. These characters have been the subjects...
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...
Over the past years, the novel “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan has been attracting attention of scholars and researchers interested in cultural studies. A number of scholarly works have been dedicated to the analysis of this novel; the researchers explored such aspects of the novel as mother-and-daughter relations,...
William Shakespeare is believed to have been born on 23rd April 1564 in Stratford near London. Though little is known about the life of this great actor and renowned writer, his parents John Shakespeare and Mary Arden are assumed to have taken him to a grammar school where he read...
It is hard to think of two poets whose lives are more different from each other’s than Langston Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri of mixed-race parents, and was mostly raised by his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. He worked odd jobs, including a six-month...
Introduction This is the story of a green super being that goes to a party with an ax and proposes a game. The Green Knight then demands anyone among the people in the party challenges him on the condition that he would return the blow in a year and a...
Laura Esquivel was born and raised in Mexico and may have written this novel with the hope of portraying to her readers some Spanish background and history. As well, she may have used her novel to show her talent and creativity which she could not portray in her previous screenplay....
The stories “The Purloined Letter” by Edgar Allan Poe” and “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville are absolutely different in content but what is interesting about them is the role of the narrator which is very important in these stories because namely narrators help the reader to find out more...
Ursula K. Le Guin is considered to be an American writer being well known for her outstanding trilogy A Wizard of Earthsea. This book is the depiction of the fantasy world in which the readers are involved through the adventures of Ged, a young wizard. The traveling across the countries...
The novel “Felicia’s Journey” by William Trevor presents a story of a young girl who had a tragic love experience in her life. She had a love affair with Johnny Lysaght who abandoned her when he found out that she was pregnant. Some readers keep to the point that the...
Introduction This poem claims that people who do hard work diligently and enthusiastically are rewarded the most and satisfied the most. She has claimed this by stating again and again that she likes people who do hard work, which can be interpreted as hard work being appreciated by everyone. Main...
The story Araby is included in the series of the so-called Dubliners written by James Joyce. The series still fascinates its readers with epiphany, used in each story. The use of the device of epiphany means that the end of the story is unexpected and abrupt while the plot of...
There can be no doubt as to the fact that the title “Pride and Prejudice” suits Jane Austen’s novel much better than the original one – “First Impressions”, even though that this is not because the revised title corresponds more to the novel’s semantic properties. “Pride and Prejudice” implies high...
As a form of literature, poetry is quite difficult to define and even more challenging to analyze, especially when attempting to decipher its original meaning and defining the author’s original intent. Expected to elicit an emotional response first and at the same time leaving enough place for thoughtful contemplations, poetry...
Introduction The Arabian Nights have always been viewed as the staple of the Arabian folklore and a source of wisdom on which the Arabian philosophy is based. However, apart from addressing the general notions of justice and the battle between the good and evil, the collection of tales also examines...
Introduction In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell explored the topic of governmental overreach and totalitarianism. The novel has been classified under the genre of dystopian political and social science fiction, which means that the themes explored by the author were characterized by a focus on the society that is contrary to...
“The Philosopher” by Sherwood Anderson is constructed to portray a certain multitude of paradoxical and unexpected contradictions as well implicitly as explicitly. This story has the ironic contrasts that illustrate the various emotions which are introduced by the philosopher – Doctor Parcival. That is why I would like to analyze...
Introducion An epic is a long, narrative poem written in a noble, dignified style and telling of exploits perfumed by great heroes. It differs from other narrative poems in that it has greater dignity and sweep and presents more lifelike characters, Beowulf, the national epic of the Anglo-Saxons, relates how...
“Pride and Prejudice” was first issued on 28 January 1813 (Bloom, 1987). This book is considered to be the most well-known of Jane Austen’s works. This novel is related to one of the first works in the genre of romantic comedy. The author of the novel Jane Austen (16 December...
Introduction Arthur Miller dramatizes not only the longings and disappointments of a little man in America and the inhuman attitude of the business world towards a man not useful to the organization, but he focuses readers’ attention on the gap between the American dream and the American reality. One of...
Introduction The Death of a Salesman portrays a life story of Willy and his son Biff, their life expectations and hopes. In this play, Arthur Miller depicts contradiction between industrial society and personal values, false dreams and inability to understand and find his place in this society. Willy Loman is...
A radical innovative strategy in the literary analysis of a text in the modern literary learning and appreciation has been that of the literary experience which insists on the appreciating of a literary work as it is experienced by the reader and the elimination of the intimidating elements of literary...
Introduction Season of Migration to the North is an award-winning novel that explores many socio-cultural themes. Throughout it, the author Tayeb Salih makes direct comparisons and references to other popular cultural works and symbols. The character Mustafa Sa’eed is directly compared to Caliban from William Shakespeare’s renowned play The Tempest,...
Greek legend has it that when it was time for men to be created, it was delegated by the gods to Prometheus, the Titan who had sided with Zeus in the war with the Titans. Prometheus whose name means forethought was very wise, wiser even than the gods. Prometheus took...
The questions of gender equality and the role of women in family and society are central for Isabel Allende’s novel The House of the Spirits that was first published in 1982. Although Allende describes the life of her characters without directly naming the Latin American country they live in, it...
William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” (first published in June 1939 in Harper’s Magazine) is a short story that is notable for underlining the problem of class conflict as well as for reflecting on family dynamics and the role fathers play in the lives of their children. The story is told from...
Introduction When it comes to discussing the discursive significance of Oscar Wilde’s 1895 comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, critics commonly refer to the fact that, despite having been written at the end of the 19th century, the concerned dramaturgic masterpiece continues to enjoy popularity with contemporary audiences. The reason...
Introduction The genre of a detective novel always attracted a large audience with its suspenseful premise and a satisfactory and often revelatory ending. One can argue that this genre has a set of traits that were established once and had not changed significantly since then (Rosenheim 81). Many short stories...
Introduction “Parable of the Sower” is a book written by Octavia Butler. The genre of this work is science fiction, more specifically a dystopia, or a depiction of a society that encompasses undesirable or frightening characteristics, for example, scarcity of resources, inequality, and discrimination. In the book “Parable of the...
Introduction John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums focuses on the theme of gender roles and the discrimination of women based on their gender. The author tells the story of Elisa, who is trapped in her roles and responsibilities of being a perfect wife and housekeeper that is expected to take care of...
Introduction The middle of the twentieth century was the period when the USA underwent major changes in many areas of social and political life. Diverse populations were affected by these shifts, but African Americans could be regarded as the group that went through the most considerable transformations in terms of...
Introduction Philip K. Dick might be one of the most significant authors of science fiction. His Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, published in 1968 for the first time, made a high impact on the genre. Dick discusses many issues through the prism of the atomic war threat making an...
It is a common practice in many nations to create things by hand and pass them from generation to generation. Whether these items are used daily or kept closed in a chest as the most precious possessions, they are meant to bear the history of several generations within them. However,...
The Monkey’s Paw is a short mystical literary piece written by William Wymark Jacobs. In the story, the White family took possession of a mummified monkey paw that, in the words of their old friend, Morris, had magical properties and could make three wishes of three men true. Consistently with...
Introduction The book comprised O’Doherty’s famous essays “Notes on the Gallery Space,” “The Eye and the Spectator,” and “Context as Content,” published in 1976 in Artforum magazine. It also includes the article “The Gallery as a Gesture,” published ten years later. In these writings, the author explores the social and...
Summary of the Book The book, Inside the White Cube, by O’Doherty focuses on the concept of the gallery space, how it has evolved over the years, and its significance in passing a specific message to the audience. In this book, the author explains the relevance of neutral patterns in...
Different cultures and eras have their own perceptions of love that they eloquently communicated through various creations of literature, including poetry, epos, and philosophical pieces. Symposium by Plato is remarkable in this regard because concepts recorded in this work can be traced in multiple poems composed in distinct regions, centuries...
Introduction Literature as art aims at retrieving readers’ emotions by conveying accurately created characters, plots, and symbols. In such a way, those who read a literary work obtain an opportunity not only to receive information but also to relive it through the author’s experience. In its essence, therefore, literature cannot...
Spoon River Anthology is a 1916 collection of short, free-verse poems by American poet Edgar Lee Masters. The universe of Anthology, a small imaginary town on the Spoon River named after a real city in Illinois, contains 212 original characters and 244 accounts of their life plights with their joys...
The end of the Victorian era may be viewed as a period when the movement for female equality gathered momentum. Before that, women enjoyed much fewer rights than men and occupied a lower, subordinate position in society. However, throughout the 19th century, many females aimed to oppose the established situation,...
Introduction The play written by Luigi Pirandello in 1921 under the title Six Characters in Search of an Author is an example of a drama that utilizes the method of theatre-in-theatre. The author is a Nobel Prize-winning Italian writer and dramatist. As the title implies, the play concentrates around six...
