5931 samples of this type
Balzac’s short tale “The Unknown Masterpiece” contains several allusions to art. Porbus and Frenhofer have rationally presented two diametrically opposed concepts in the most aesthetically reflective manner imaginable. The two facets of an artist’s existence are depicted, namely love and art. Thus, this conflict is exemplified in the novel Gillette,...
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...
The theme of the suppression of black people and the restoration of their rights is especially popular among African-American authors. In particular, this topic often refers to how Black people have experienced injustice in the past and are currently forced to fight for their freedom. The poem Still I Rise...
Introduction “Parsifal” is the last of Richard Wagner’s operas, which is considered the most beautiful and, at the same time, the most enigmatic of his works. Its creation occurred during almost all of the composer’s conscious life. While working on Lohengrin in the late 1840s, learning the legend of Parsifal...
Brother, I’m Dying, a memoir by a famous Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat, first published in 2007, is an outstanding literary work that pushes the boundaries of the genre. The author skillfully applies various elements of the memoir, conveying the life story of her family emotionally and consistently, alternating the course...
“Beowulf” is one of the perfect examples of a heroic epic. The poem describes the ancient Germanic legends dating back to pagan times. The action of the poem takes place on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and its plot is borrowed from Germanic mythology. Apart from having a great...
Hamlet can be considered a literary character whose procrastination leads to gruesome consequences. The main hero’s level of procrastination can be considered extremely high, as he is exceptionally likely to delay completing urgent tasks and frequently misses necessary deadlines. Hamlet’s inability to fulfill the responsibility of killing Claudius is an...
Introduction “Fences” is an American play composed by playwriter August Wilson in the year 1985. The play examines the progressing African-American life experiences related to cultural practices and races among other themes. It is important to analyze the play fences and understand how different perceptions of the characters regarding their...
James Baldwin is a novelist, publicist, playwright, and human rights defender. Born to a priestly stepfather, he was the oldest of nine children. Baldwin never knew his father and partly suffered from it. Nevertheless, he followed in his stepfather’s way and helped him in the church until he graduated from...
Native language is usually taken for granted in most communities; however, the situation changes drastically after changing the scenery to that one of a different country with its own language, traditions, and culture. The challenges of immigration and the struggle to find a voice in a new community while retaining...
Despite its shortness, the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne contains a number of educative lessons. One of them is the possibility to understand the nature of evil better. On the one hand, all people are free and happy due to many options and choices. On the other hand,...
Alice Munro’s “Royal Beatings” is a story that describes the life of a poverty-seeking society and families at the time of the Great Depression. The main characters of the tale Rose, her father, her stepmother, and her half-brother, present the image of the average family occupied by all hardships of...
Dylan Thomas’s villanelle named “Do Not Go Gentle In To That Good Night” is an instance of valuable, from a psychoanalytical point of view, piece of literature. The work contains deep and meaningful imagery, which contributes to the dismal but fascinating atmosphere created. Potentially, this work evidences the presence of...
“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...
And Tango Makes Three is a real-life story that was shaped into the literary form by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. The book tells the readers the story of two penguins from the Central Park Zoo, who hatched an egg together and practically gave birth to another penguin named Tango....
Introduction Postcolonial theory claims that the members of decolonized cultures develop a specific postcolonial identity, shaped by the unequal power dynamics of their colonial past. This identity is based on the collective trauma and exists in response to the oppression the identity holders had experienced in the darker parts of...
Definition of the Concept of “Restorative Justice” At the present time, there are different approaches to justice, although restorative justice is considered one of the most effective ones. In fact, this model is based on the idea that it is crucial to arrange a meeting between the victim and the...
The subject of feminism is among one of the subtle and underlying themes of Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, the author of the story, primarily emphasizes the issues of male oppression and patriarchy through the use of subordinate women imagery. In addition, the fear of femininity and the power of womanhood can...
The tragedy is named after the main character. Polyneices, brother of Antigone, the daughter of King Oedipus, betrayed his relatives Thebes, took part in the Campaign of the Seven against them, and died in the struggle with his brother Eteocles, the defender of the homeland. King Creon forbade the traitor...
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 –...
“To His Coy Mistress” by Marvell is a carpe diem poem that calls young women to enjoy the pleasures of life. There are many literary devices used by the author to make readers believe in his philosophy. I want to note two devices that are metaphor and simile. Metaphors appear...
The narrative Hills like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway commences in a valley in Spain. The story is about a protagonist, the American, and the antagonist is the girlfriend, Jinn. The narrative revolves around the American man’s suggestion to the girlfriend to have an operation that she later agrees with...
Introduction Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zara Neale Hurston is a novel about Janie Crawford, an African-American female. Even though the literary piece depicts post-slavery Florida, meaning that people like Janie experienced many social issues during that time, the book focuses on her inner experiences. In particular, it centers...
Overview Judith Thurman’s “A Loss for Words” is a detailed lament for languages that die out every day since the Western civilization spread into Northern America. In contrast with renowned dead languages like Latin and Ancient Greek, the mother tongues of the indigenous population have never undergone a stage of...
Abstract My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult, looks at the medical, legal, ethical, and moral issues that come with long-term illness, as well as some of the bioethical problems surrounding the experimental process known as the preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Preimplantation Genetic diagnosis is the process of analyzing the genetic makeup...
Introduction Morality does not exist in a vacuum; moral beliefs, judgments, and acts are only possible within the context of interpersonal relationships. The various forms of human relations can at once reflect and influence morals. Throughout his writing career, Nathaniel Hawthorne pays close attention to the questions of morality. Hawthorne’s...
Outlaws of the Marsh or Water Margin is a classic 14th-century Chinese novel written by Shi Nai’an. The plot of the story, which has four volumes and from 100 to 120 chapters, tells about the adventures of 108 demons that incarnated in the form of people and became noble robbers...
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...
The spirit of renaissance stirs through many literary works from the last quarter of the 20th century, rejuvenating African American’s will to defy an oppressive system. One such invigorating creation is Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise. This paper analyses how Angelou’s poem criticizes racism and marginalized conditions that have perpetually...
The characteristics of a good individual have been an essential topic of philosophical and literary discussions for several decades, as such attributes as moral conduct and benevolent attitude often distinguish a virtuous person. The epic poem Beowulf, translated by Lesslie Hall, presents a prominent example of a good individual. The...
No species is more deserving of accolades than humans for consistently executing the dual role of creating problems and solving them. While some challenges predate humanity, many wrongs people seek correct are artificial. Mired in the endless maze of thanatophobia, the fear of death, people have grown overly preoccupied with...
“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson, describing the events in an unnamed town where villagers gather for a mysterious annual lottery that ends unexpectedly, tragically, and meaninglessly. “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story by James Baldwin that presents Sonny, a blues musician and heroin addict, and his...
In Americanizing the White Man, Felix S. Cohen uses the term “Americanizing” to mean transforming immigrants from Europe into the American people. The author uses this term to raise a question about what kind of traditions and culture America heritages. For example, traditional American food and products such as corn,...
Introduction Young adult literature is a genre of fiction explicitly aimed at adolescent readers. The target audience for this category of literary works is between 12 and 18 years of age, and the novels focus on problems and issues relevant to the teenagers facing new challenges of adult life. Thus,...
In the short story “Salvation,” Langston Hughes talks about the concept of faith through a child’s lens who loses his belief in Jesus due to the compulsion of surrounding people. Young Hughes did not get up to be saved as others did, but he remained in his seat to see...
Love is probably the most discussed and misunderstood concept of human relationships. From early childhood, people learn that it is an essential component of life. Yet, very few really understand the complexity of love. Sometimes, people are ready to accept and forgive some extremely inappropriate behavior because of the belief...
The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall down by Anne Fadiman is one of the highlights of the Hmong culture and the challenges socializing a family from Laos faces in American society. Misunderstandings and disagreements manifested in day-to-day interactions reveal distinctive values and norms in the two cultures....
Introduction It is impossible to imagine the world without literature and its advancements. It is so because all peoples create some writing pieces, meaning that this field has many universally acknowledged features. Archetypes are one of them, and Carl Jung developed this term to denote a pattern or model that...
In Nadine Gordimer’s short story “A Company of Laughing Faces,” Kathy Hack’s dynamic character reflects many teenage girls’ lives in contemporary society. Kathy is provoked by the life around her; she seems lost in the struggle to tap fantasy while embracing reality. She reflects many young people blinded by ambitious...
An American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown.” The story’s setting is 17th century New England, which was predominantly Puritan. Hawthorne bases his work on the criticism of puritanism and its central premise that all people are responsible for the original sin. “Young Goodman Brown” is a literary criticism...
1958 in Truman Capote’s work was marked by the publication of the novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in which he described the world of Holiday (Holly) Golightly and her friend – the writer whose name is unknown. It is full of various symbols represented in literary devices. In 1961, the novel...
The Overview In Neil Gaiman’s short story Other People, a person finds himself in Hell, and his greatest torture is to relive his life through the eyes of those he hurt. It is a circular narrative in the sense that it ends just like it began: an arrogant person enters...
The gender concept is clearly out of its traditional context in Macbeth’s storyline. For example, in Macbeth’s marriage, Lady Macbeth’s usurpation of the dominant role is often reflected in disruption because she controlled and dictated her husband’s actions on various occasions. Furthermore, through the couple of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth,...
Introduction Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery” was published in 1948 during the rebuilding of the world after World War II. Almost all the post-war period literature is, to one degree or another, devoted to understanding the consequences of what happened during 1939-1945. One of the cruelest and most inhumane episodes...
Introduction Mrs. Hale is the protagonist of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, and her actions as such constitute the main driving force of the plot. She is involved in both person vs. person and person vs. society conflicts, as she opposes patriarchy on an individual level and then realizes the need for...
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;...
Interpreter of Maladies is included in the collection of short stories of the same name. The plot of the story is built around the trip of the couple Das and their children – Indian immigrants of the second and third generation, who grew up in America – to the Sun...
Beowulf is a famous epic poem that was created between the end of the 7th and the first part of the 8th century. At that time, the Anglo-Saxons were already experiencing the emergence of feudal ties (Heaney 1). The poem, however, is characterized by an epic archaization and depicts reality...
“The Ones Who Walk away from Omelas” is a fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin. Through the elaborated imagery of reflective narration, the author explores urgent moral issues still relevant to our society. This paper aims to apply Le Guin’s short fiction to the cultural analysis of our modern society....
Tragic heroes often embrace unconscious irony, leading to their downfall. In any literary work, it becomes fascinating when some of the characters are self-denial after engaging in different heinous actions unknowingly and later face the consequences after realizing the truth. Denotatively, unconscious irony is when various characters within the play...
Jennifer Egan’s “The Black Box” has emerged as a unique short science fiction about future citizen espionage. Published in 2012, the story is a bold and triumphant experiment of narrative presented in new media. Besides Egan’s ability to embrace the wide-ranging virtues, forms, and pleasures that accompany traditional storytelling in...
“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 The Divine Narcissus employs religious symbolism to highlight important Christian ideals and teachings. The play is considered to be one of Sor Juana’s masterpieces because it employs allegorical narratives to explain complex theological ideas. The play uses American themes to explain the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and describes critical...
The Prosecuting Attorney’s Closing Argument Your Honor, the case presented to the court today is one of paramount malice and sadism. It is obvious that the defendant has planned the cold-blooded murder of the plaintiff conscientiously and thoughtfully. Firstly, Mr. Montresor exploited the victim’s proneness to enjoy high-quality alcoholic beverages....
The rhythmic picture of the poem aims to convey the words of a little black boy as if it were a direct speech. For this purpose, William Blake constructed the stanzas of the poem as quatrains with the rhyme pattern “ABAB,” and most importantly, used the iambic pentameter. According to...
The emergence of books once revolutionized the teaching process, allowing people to transfer knowledge indirectly, making it more accessible. People can develop new skills independently of others or learn more about the world by merely reading the material on a topic. Written history invites a reader to imagine life before...
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...
Scott Fitzgerald is a famous American writer, and most of his works are devoted to the jazz era. He elaborated this term, which means a happy decade between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Depression. This era involves the rebellion of the young generation against...
Introduction Books 17-20 of Homer’s The Odyssey concentrate on Odysseus’ arrival to his palace in a beggar’s disguise and the adventures surrounding his unannounced return. There are several critical ideas reflected in these parts of the epic, including loyalty, pride, patience, a strategic approach, and Athena’s involvement. However, it seems...
Neighbour Rosicky is a short story written in 1928 by an American author Willa Cather. As an immigrant herself, the writer explores the experience of people who devoted their lives to this country. The story of Anton Rosicky is not an exception as he emigrated from the region of Bohemia,...
Introduction As the title suggests, the novel ‘Great Expectations’ is about the expectations of a young man as he moves into the harsh cruel world of reality outside his home. His tryst with destiny, first at the hand of a golden hearted criminal, Magwitch, and then at the hands of...
Introduction A special place in world literature is occupied by works belonging to the genre of utopia and dystopia. The authors of utopian novels tried to predict a beautiful future, promising immense universal happiness and social harmony. Anti-utopians have debunked the myth of the possibility of global equality, brotherhood, criticizing...
In Lynn Nottage’s play Sweat, there are no characters that do not play a vital role in storytelling, even the minor ones. For instance, Jason’s interactions with a parole officer Evan become significant in his development. The author manages to successfully use this character to advance the drama in the...
Authors often utilize symbols to signify the importance of events, objects, or relationships in their works. Indeed, the majority of the great poetic or literature works use some degree of symbolism to allow readers to visualize the writers’ messages. Correspondingly, in the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses symbolism to portray the...
Introduction Literature has a unique connection with the real world as, through literary works, writers reflect the complexity of human nature and relations. Especially through a first-person perspective, readers have an opportunity to understand a different mindset and culture better. In particular, in Alexie’s short story What You Pawn I...
Introduction The term “supernatural” has several meanings and is used in both everyday speech and scholarly works on philosophy, psychology, and literature. In its most general meaning, the adjective “supernatural” means something not explained naturally, which is not subject to the laws of nature. In the field of fiction, the...
The compositions left a profound trace in the literature of the XX century. Even though the stories are short, they contain significant ideas. The narratives are modernist since they describe the individual’s thoughts, not the social environment. The paper below represents a brief overview of the narrations. It also explains...
Introduction Chinua Achebe is a renowned author not just in Africa but also in international literature. With the help of his writings, Chinua Achebe thrills readers across the globe with the creative application of language, structure, form, and precise insider accounts of modern African history and way of life. With...
Introduction As well as the theme of love, the theme of life and death is frequently preferred by many poets for their great works. The main challenge is the impossibility to avoid death or prolong life, and authors try to find out additional ways to calm down, motivate, and support...
Introduction The limitation of short stories prompts authors to focus on the essential contents of their narrative, stripping away unnecessary descriptions and explanations. One of the best examples of such a prudent approach to writing is the short story by Ernest Hemingway, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” written and published in...
Central Idea The narration centers around the correspondent, the captain, the cook, and the oiler, who are lost in a boat in the middle of the sea after a shipwreck. The central idea of the story is to show the place of a man in the world and to demonstrate...
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 Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri is a novel that demonstrates all the difficulties of adapting a person to a new cultural environment, as well as the search for his or her identity. The older generation has its problems because they need to accustom to the differences of the new culture...
Introduction Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake expresses a complex combination of the emotions and feelings of the main characters who are trying to understand their places in society and identify themselves. The author shows an immigrant father, Ashoke, and his son, Gogol, who, despite different upbringings and cultural affiliations, go...
Introduction By “I, too sing America” the author means that he also sings the anthem of America as he is a full-fledged citizen of the country, has the right to be a patriot, and can be proud of his homeland. Hughes “sings” and tries to convey the main idea of...
The Snowy Day by Keats Ezra J. is one of the pioneer writings among stories for children that depicted an African American child as the main central character. The story was published during the Civil Rights Movement era by an author of Jewish heritage. Although it is a children’s book,...
The importance of love and affection in literature is permanently reinforced by secondary ideas that emphasize the eternal influence of higher feelings on the human race. The idea of pure love has been investigated by many authors, and Shakespeare’s Othello and Kalidasa’s Shakuntala may be considered rather similar in terms...
The poem “The Garden of Love” by William Blake dramatizes the conflict between official religion and human instincts and emotions, such as love and sexuality. The feeling of love is treated as a path to God, while the institutionalized Christian church as an obstacle for spirituality due to its hostility...
Love of the parents tends to be appreciated after a long period of time, sometimes when it is too late. Those Winter Sundays is a poem by Robert Hayden, in which he describes the relationship between a father and his son. The writing is made from the son’s perspective, where...
Love has always been an eternal resource of inspiration for poets. Sentimental and flattering, love helps to reveal the most hidden feeling and emotions. Therefore, the narrators use vivid poetic elements to describe this flourishing phenomenon. This paper seeks to explore how love is addressed in the poems “The Passionate...
Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is her debut work and the most popular one among the connoisseurs of literature. The author has a success in the depiction of India in the postcolonial period with all its social problems. Roy depicts the inner world of the main characters and...
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...
Introduction The manner in which Eliezer struggles with his faith in God is portrayed throughout the novel. In the beginning, the faith he has in God is strong. This is evident when he asks himself, “Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” (Wiesel). This shows how absolute his faith...
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...
Introduction Every woman wants to be graceful and refined, beautiful and elegant, admirable and fascinating. Though the appearances can be deceptive, it is natural for people to pretend to be what they really want to be. Women are considered to be more deceptive than men because they use their natural...
Introduction In the myth of the Latin woman; Judith Ortiz explained how she grew up under stern observation, since virtue and humility were equated to family honor by culture. From her story it can be seen that as a teenager, she was required to conduct herself as a good ‘senorita’....
Some people say that men are born to rule, while women must stay at home and raise children. Even nowadays, this idea is very popular with a lot of people, mostly men, but some women as well. However, women’s role in the society has been well discussed and grounded enough...
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...
Introduction Christian is the main character of the story The Pilgrim’s Progress written by John Bunyan. This young man is searching for a way to Heaven; this journey of a soul is presented as a physical journey from his native city of Destruction to the Celestial City under which the...
Hills like white elephants, is a sort story written by Ernest Hemingway. It is an important piece of Ernest’s work from his second collection of short stories Men without women. Hills like white elephants could be tagged as one of the best writings by Earnest’s. What makes Ernest’s Hills like...
The short story Mimsy Were the Borogoves, written by Henry Cutter and Catherine Moore, has always been considered as one of the most prominent examples of American science fiction. The main reason, why this novella attracts so much attention of critics is its deep symbolism, and intricate ideas, which the...
The Beggar’s Opera is the first of a new form of opera that was developed by John Gay in the early 1700s as a reaction against the superficiality of the popular Italian opera and its effects upon his culture. This form of entertainment came to be known as the ballad...
Almost every joke contains a hint of truth. For this reason, comedy can be the perfect medium to effect social reform. Clearly, Aristophanes understood this concept quite well when he penned his farcical-humored play Lysistrata. Lysistrata focuses on the story of a young woman of the same name who attempted...
Nathan the Wise is a dramatic work by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing which is outstanding for its close relation to the epoch of the Enlightenment. It is an outstanding German play in five acts that discloses most of the ideals of the era. The theme of rationality in relation to religion...
“Macbeth” is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in 1605 or 1606 and published in 1628. The story of the play is no figment of the author’s imagination. Macbeth was a real king – a king of Scotland, nephew of Molom II, and ruler of Moray. He married Grunch, granddaughter...
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...
Realistic fiction Similarities between the Realistic and Historic Historical fiction Realistic fiction is the outcome of the real situation which happens in one’s life. Both in realistic and historical fiction the characters and settings resemble the real life Historical fiction is the outcome of the story which happened in the...
Introduction The overall situation in America from a political, educational, and religious was distinguishable. Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass were iconic American figures able to accomplish their life goals and express their life road through their biographies. Through the reading of the book, the similarities between the two have been...
“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen is the most famous novel and it may be considered as a classic of English literature. The novel, like the most part of Jane Austen’s novels, discloses the theme of marriage. Thus, the first sentence of the novel reveals its whole idea: “It is...
Flannery O’Connor(1925-1964) is one the most acclaimed American short story writers of the twentieth century. She was born in Savannah and brought up in Milledgeville, both in Georgia. With 31 stories and two novels to her credit, she died at the age of 39, almost 12 years after she was...
A reader who makes serious effort to analyze the short story The Chrysanthemums,/can comprehend the signs of the autobiographical elements of the writer John Steinbeck. The story is considered one of Steinbeck’s most gifted short stories. Author builds up the story through the eventful life of woman named Elisa Allen...
“The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin (1894) tells us the transition of a woman from shock to grief to joy and then again to shock within a span of an hour or so. But it should be mentioned in the initial stages that there is no change of...
Jack London, in his short story, To Build a Fire, narrates the tale of a lone, unnamed man who embarks on a mission of travelling along the banks of Yakun, on a treacherously cold winter morning, to a base camp where his boys are waiting for him. He is comparatively...
Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” depicts the inner struggle of a woman unbalanced by post-partum depression, a problem for which even today’s doctors have no treatment. Her husband and brother are both doctors who have her best interest at heart but whose recommended rest cure is based on the accepted...
Literature has a way of continuing to explore many of the same themes that seem to plague mankind throughout history. One of the common themes that continues to appear throughout much of earlier literature is a representation of women as nearly hysterical creatures that needed the guiding and calming hand...
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...
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....
In all societies and all epochs, judging individuals by their appearance was a prevalent tendency, which normally allowed creating a first impression about the person, their possible nature, lifestyle, and behavior. However, there is a negative side to such practice, which consists of prejudices against those, who look different in...
Introduction In the modern world today, the term education is viewed differently than in the past centuries. This versatile word today was limited only to one aspect, which is mostly meant the process of gathering information. However, education was considered. Differently, a statement the audience can authenticate reading novels that...
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...
The focal point of the paper is to explain how “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Marquez can be regarded as a biblical allegory and what this reveals about Marquez’s views on religion. For this, the first measure would be to understand the biblical allegory presented in the...
Introduction Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane is one of the most famous realist novels, which stands in line with masterpieces like Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina. This book tells the story of a girl who enters into an arranged marriage and eventually becomes its victim. The novel’s plot is centered...
The beauty of literature is that it is one of the disciplines able to reveal already existing characters from different angles. King Arthur is present in many literary works and has become a cult character. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a Middle English poem by an unknown author...
Introduction Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the work of the unknown poet written approximately in the late 14th century, contains multiple topics for a discussion. The poem is referred to as an alliterative verse and medieval romance. Special interest of the work is the notion of the magical creature...
Homer’s Iliad is somewhat unique among the ancient tales because of its tendency to include human features in its heroes. Although it displays the same sort of adherence to the early ‘heroic code’, the heroes in this tale retain many of their human frailties and concerns. Each character displays a...
The play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Johan Ibsen is one of the few literary works that openly fought for the rights of women in the 19th century at the time, when women were still considered inferior to men, especially in a family setting and in the corporate world (Farfan...
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...
Introduction “Sweat” is a fictional short story in Southern American literature written by Zora Neale Hurston. Telling an unfortunate and dark story of domestic abuse, the focus of this fiction focuses on the struggles and perseverance of the hardworking protagonist Delia. “Sweat” demonstrates a feminist perspective of overcoming abuse and...
The famous saying “Know Thyself,” which is written on the temple at Delphi, is one of the main messages of the Sophocles’ play “Oedipus the King.” Taking into account the historical context, it is easy to explain the problem that appeared at the end of the fifth century. “Know Thyself”...
Introduction Detective fiction is known to focus on the figure of the detective; however, supporting roles are also of extreme importance for readers. Such characters may have several functions, including plot advancement, the introduction of subplots, developing themes, heightening the conflict, and development of the main character. In Devil in...
Introduction The American Dream is a major ideal based on the ideas of liberty and equality of opportunity. It promises the possibility of success and happiness to everyone who works hard to achieve them. However, the American Dream is often presented in art as an impossible or corrupted ideal that...
Introduction Moby Dick: Or, the White Whale by Herman Melville, or just Moby Dick, is an unusual book. It was written contrary to all the existing ideas about the laws of the genre and is not similar to any work of world literature. Melville combines the features of adventure, science...
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...
In the late part of the 19th century, short stories written by female authors shared certain similarities with reference to the topics they addressed. Thus, it is possible to compare literary elements in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” when determining similarities...
Introduction The idea of society is conditioned to violence is established immediately in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” To represent the concepts of violence and murder, stones are used and mentioned numerous times throughout the story. By using stones as the symbol of violence in “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson represents the...
Introduction “A Good Man is Hard to Find” was published in 1953 and may be considered a compelling narrative about the importance of personal religious and moral integrity. Flannery O’Connor, the short story’s author, remains an influential American writer who honed a uniquely grotesque style that brought to life realistic...
Introduction There are many reasons for people to love or hate Emily Dickinson, but her passion for writing about death can hardly leave any reader indifferent. This author is strong due to her confidence and the desire to find out what happens before and after death and formulate clear emotions...
Introduction People can find symbolism everywhere in their daily life and, especially, in literature. Each person can interpret symbols in their own way, depending on how they look at them. In books, symbols are utilized to make the story deeper and allow a reader to understand the author’s purposes and...
Ch 5, Pg 38 “That’s all,” she replied, returning the bottle to the cupboard. “But you mustn’t forget. I’ll remind you for the first weeks, but then you must do it on your own. If you forget, the Stirrings will come back. The dreams of the Stirrings will come back....
Introduction It does not make sense when someone calls Anton Chekhov’s poem The Cherry Orchard a comedy, but as one progresses to analyze the book, this idea becomes a reality. The play is centered on Lyubov Andreyevna whose irresponsible mannerism leads their family into a tragedy of financial collapse and...
According to Joseph Campbell myths typically have four functions. In this paper, we will examine two of the four functions by examining how these functions are emulated in three myths. The three myths that will be used for this examination are “Ages of the World”, “King Arthur” and “Gilgamesh” as...
In his short story, The Chrysanthemums John Steinbeck describes a person who at one point understands that her life lacks meaning and value at least in the eyes of other people. The protagonist Elisa Allen feels that her life is deprived of emotional and intellectual intimacy. To some degree, this...
Examples of Foreshadowing in The Lottery While not immediately obvious, there are instances of foreshadowing in the story which seems to imply that some form of auspicious practice was about to occur. The most obvious example of foreshadowing was the emphasis the author placed on how the various characters in...
Introduction In this paper, I compare two prominent heroes in contemporary literature – Odysseus and Maximus. Based on the portrayal of the latter from the movie Gladiator and the representation of Odysseus in a book with the same title, I argue that both characters had more similarities than differences. In...
Ximen Qing was born to a family of a person who sold medical herbs (Roy, 1997). Very often Ximen assisted his father in his shop and as a child he was accustomed to work. Nevertheless, his father was not a very rich man, and since early childhood Qing understood that...
The characters of Macbeth and Smeagol/Gollum in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings seem at first glance to be drastically different characters. Macbeth is a relative of the king, in line for leadership. Smeagol is a cut-throat of dubious, possibly Halfling origins with none but himself and his...
Elie Wiesel’s “Night” is a detailed description of the processes that happen in a young boy’s heart, soul, and mind, when he observes people being tortured, starved, and burnt alive, when he gets betrayed, insulted, and humiliated. This short but shocking book contains preserved images and evidence of how far...
The Fortunes & Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe is a novel that already includes the main plot in the title since it tells about the whirlwind life of a criminal – Moll Flanders. Written as a collection of Moll’s memories, the novel follows the main character...
Advancements in the Humanities In 1922, Eliot wrote The Waste Land, a long poem, which imagery occupies the minds of scholars to this day. Various themes explored by the author in this writing include despair, stillness, and futility of life. Researchers focus on different topics of the work and often...
Introduction Sinking is a chef-d’oeuvre piece of classic literature written by Yu Dafu. The story revolves around an alienated and depressed nameless protagonist whose life is sinking and he cannot seem to rescue himself. However, the author’s subtle message addresses a crisis that many Chinese intellectuals have continued to face...
It is a good idea to compare and contrast Maupassant’s The Necklace and Olsen’s I Stand Here Ironing, because of the way the authors examined the subject of poverty. They share the same interest as manifested in their desire to explore the meaning of poverty in the lives of young...
“The Necklace”: Analysis In One of the Opening Paragraphs of the Story, We Are Told that Mme Loisel “Suffered Intensely.” Why Did She Suffer? As someone who had the appearance, demeanor, and ambitions of an upper-class woman, yet belonging to a comparatively less wealthy class, Mme Loisel must have felt...
Introduction Dramatic events associated with death have always been a compelling topic in fiction. However, in addition to creating a straightforward appeal, they can be used as devices for the exploration of deeper themes. In “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin uses the theme of death to successfully reveal...
Introduction Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most outstanding works. Feigned and real madness, incest, revenge, treachery, and moral corruption are some of the societal vices that the play depicts (Shakespeare, 19). Driven by a singular goal to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet lets his emotions cloud his judgments. This led...
Character and motivation of Antigone and Creon In the play, Antigone is mainly motivated by love for her family, respect for the gods, and belief in the afterlife. When she is faced with a difficult choice concerning new law, which challenges Theban traditions, she opts to disobey because of her...
Introduction As an avid reader, I have read numerous books covering various fields, including history, sociology, business, philosophy, medicine, and psychology. All of them had an impact on my life by the insights they provided. However, none of them was as transformational as “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz....
Introduction: Relevance of the Topic to Early Modern Literature Although most of the early modern English plays seem innocent to the present-day audience, in fact, exploration of sexuality, ranging from playful and comic to tragic and taboo, was one of the most popular topics among playwrights. Sexuality in the early...
“Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv’d 35 The Mother of Mankinde, what time his Pride Had cast him out from Heav’n” (Milton Lines: 34-37) The monster created by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein (henceforth mentioned as Frankenstein) and the character of Satan...
A short story The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges is written in the genre of magic realism and contains such characteristics of this genre as a mix of unreal events and reality and emphasis of mystery that can be found in usual life. Being in jail, Jaromir faces the...
