5820 samples of this type
In Lee Smith’s novel “Oral History,” the character development of Almarine Cantrell plays a large role. It is a dynamic character since the main difference between a dynamic character and a static one is a change in the structure of thought and feeling within a literary work in one or...
Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour raises mixed and confused thoughts. In the short story, a woman experiences the sincere grief because her husband died, but eventually, it turns out that she is undergoing the best period of her life from now on. However, this epiphany turns out to...
Sophocles revealed a deep conflict between ancestral unwritten rules and state laws in his tragedy Antigone. On the one hand, religious beliefs, deeply rooted in the tribal community, dictated people to sacredly honor kinship ties and observe all the necessary rites with blood relatives. On the other hand, every citizen...
Introduction Stephen Aron is a historian specializing in the history of the American West. He has published several books and essays in various magazines and collections. In particular, the collection of essays American History Now is devoted to the modern view of historians on American history. The purpose of this...
Introduction It might be stated that both realism and naturalism played a substantial role in the history of Spanish literature. Hence, the approaches of the founders of these genres are an appropriate theme to discover. It should be mentioned that French authors – such as Balzac and Zola – affected...
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....
Terry Tempest Williams structures her essay so well that it has the flow and exhibits a considerable amount of creativity. She envelops the readers in a heart-wrenching narrative about her family, inducing emotions and developing a sympathetic heart (“The Clan of The One-Breasted Women – Rhetorical analysis,” 2020). Additionally, she...
Identity encompasses the unique signature that differentiates different works of literature. Essentially, this identity can be utilized to differentiate different works originating from different authors. Jack Turner is an author that has created an identity for himself, by not only writing interactive works on wildlife but also incorporating various figures...
The story The Red Convertible was written by Louise Erdrich, who makes Native Americans the main characters in her books and frequently touches upon the topic of family relationships. In this particular tale, the author describes the tragic story of brothers Lyman and Henry, who never get to reconcile after...
Introduction The Odyssey is considered one of the first adventure novels in the history of humankind and a kind of encyclopedia of geographical representations of the ancient Greeks. Odysseus, in folk memory, is represented as a famous and even archetypal traveler. However, often readers forget that the legendary king of...
Introduction Ulysses is a novel by James Joyce, which was published in 1922. This work of classic 20th century Irish literature is known as the Bible of Modernism, and it became a unique phenomenon in the history of the English-language novel. The theme of the novel is one day from...
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...
In his book, “Who moved my cheese?” Johnson (1998) explores change by narrating the story of four characters searching for cheese. He also depicts how each of the four characters goes about finding cheese. All four characters live in a maze where they are searching for cheese. According to Johnson...
David Foster Wallace utilizes his short essay, “Good People,” to depict how individuals receive and respond to unexpected problems, including the role played by emergencies in shaping their thoughts. Wallace starts the story by presenting the reader with a picture of Lane Dean, the protagonist, and Sheri, his girlfriend, seated...
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...
Woody Guthrie composed “This Land Is Your Land” in 1940 with the hope of proving the Americans to diverse views. The poem is well known, and it is considered the nation’s patriotic anthem. While the composition is supposed to promote patriotism, some of the song’s stanzas contradict the tune’s intended...
An analysis of a poetic work is a great way to appreciate and understand poetry more deeply. Qualitative literary analysis involves considering the author’s use of such elements of poems like speaker, tone, imagery, metaphors, similes, figurative language.This paper aims to discuss two poems – “Facing It” by Yusef Komunyakaa,...
Introduction Prometheus Bound contains a plethora of colorful characters, exemplifying the inimitable nature of Greek mythology, where polytheism combines with a very human-centered perspective on the intentions and desires of the gods of the Greek Pantheon. Specifically, the play features a character that readers often barely notice, even though it...
Introduction The peculiarity of Rowling’s books is that, as in life’s reality, good and evil tend to penetrate each other, replace one another and intertwine so closely that it is challenging for the hero to distinguish one from the other. Consequently, the choice of his path is complicated enough as...
The aria “Ev’ry Valley” by Handel is an oratorio with both biblical and historical context, and it can be considered a classic of the modern-day. It fits in the theme of the Messiah because the piece glorifies the fact that no mountain or valley can be a barrier in his...
Introduction After two hundred years of the first publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the book has become an essential read for scientists. Indeed, the book is vital for realizing the responsibility behind scientific discoveries. Frankenstein tries to answer the question of whether humans should do anything just because they can....
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 Cask of Amontillado is one of Poe’s most transparent short stories, every aspect of which in the background adds to the ultimate ironic effect. The unity of the short story and the plot is very straightforward. Montresor seeks vengeance on Fortunato for unspecified provocation by including him in his...
Introduction In the current research paper, the main aim is to answer the question of which conflict does August Wilson uses most to drive all the other elements of the story in his play “Fences.” To address the problem adequately, the following plan is followed. First of all, a brief...
Thesis statement This work aims to study such an aspect of human experience as heroism in Odyssey by Homer and Inferno by Dante Alighieri. Introduction Authors may research and analyze one or several different topics in their literary works. One of the most common themes in the literature is heroism....
Introduction The themes of love, life, death, and belief are commonly discussed in poetry, and people are free to expand their own opinions and judgments. One of the main reasons for poets and poetesses to choose these concepts is their emotional complexity. These issues can be easily coupled with each...
Introduction Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, and Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass are examples of the genre of literacy narrative. In the articles, both authors describe their relations with reading and writing, and their role of them, as well as education in general, in their lives. The...
Ancient Greek plots and motives are commonly reflected in the European literature of the New Age, which makes the heritage of different epochs comparable. One of the plotlines – discovering the reason for the death of a protagonist’s father. One of the aspects frequently discussed in this context is resilience....
Love poems are usually filled with admiration for the author and exaltation of his or her romantic feelings, or vice versa, with the pain and despair of the cruelty of love. However, Shakespeare’s “Sonnet CXXX” has no such elements that make the reader doubt its sincerity. This sonnet can be...
Introduction In her essay “Is a Tree Worth a life”, Sally Christensen illuminates the debate that has arisen regarding the value of environment in comparison to that of human life. Christensen makes a persuasive argument that the yew tree found in the tropical forests of Alaska, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and...
Introduction Earlier Asian immigration to the United States was driven by dreams of a better life espoused in the American dream. Even today, America is among the most preferred destination countries by potential immigrants. For most people, the desire to migrate is to escape extreme poverty locally and build a...
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...
A book called Night by Elie was written out of reflections of events that took place during the Holocaust when many Jewish men, women, and children were killed in what went down as the greatest atrocity in the history of the world. The book is a literary work that puts...
The morality of Christian tradition and its application to real-life problems has always been the platform for debate. People look for the solution in God but often get entangled with the common practical reasons for it. The characters of David Foster Wallace’s short story Good People also deal with such...
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...
Children’s literature about good and evil, about various events, invented or occurred in the past, but simultaneously related to the present, allows readers to take part emotionally, empathize. Such books are an opportunity for kids to learn about many people and hear different opinions, ideas, and thoughts. Such literature is...
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, in the chapter titled “Coffee and the Protestant Ethic,” talks about the consequences of the introduction of coffee for the European countries in the context of the Age of Reformation. He argues that coffee satisfied the needs of the period of Protestantism and rationalism, and had significant political,...
Shakespeare’s “Midsummer’s Night Dream” is a story about the complex relationships between people. Moreover, in this story, the author shows the sophisticated love and challenges one has to face to finally be with their loved ones. The couples Shapespear depicts are Hermia and Lysander and Demetrius and Helena. When portraying...
If there is one universal quality that describes humans, it is the unwillingness to confront or accept harsh realities like death, terminal illness, and loss. This human nature is seen in humankind’s attempt to downplay the seriousness of issues through the use of euphemisms, ignoring painful truths, and the use...
The “Salvation,” a short story by Langston Hughes, describes a young boy’s journey of searching for religion and redemption, which eventually ends unachievable. The boy abandons his pursuit for religion after realizing that the physical deliverance which he is looking for cannot be apprehended easily. The narrator loses hope after...
The given writings’ central theme is a fulfillment of the prophecies in a highly tragic manner, where the main characters learn about their demise beforehand and make attempts to either make it the reality or avoid it. In the case of Oedipus, the prophecy is manifested in the fact that...
Art Spiegelman made his book sound very human, and his characters are real and complicated. Vladek causes controversial feelings during the course of the story. First words about Anja’s personality in his narrative include that she was from a rich family (Spiegelman, 1987). One may assume that if not for...
Introduction Both the poem “Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Thomas (1951) and the song “Tears in Heaven” by Clapton (1992) are imbued with the theme of death and reasoning on this topic. However, the authors use different contexts and take distinctive approaches in their messages. Clapton...
Introduction Change is one of the concepts that appear both thrilling and frightening to people at the same time. However, even during the most drastic change, those who can keep their humanity intact are capable of surviving the challenge of transformation and even turning it into something beautiful. Examining the...
In his poem “My Last Duchess”, Robert Browning narrates a story of a proud man, whose evil nature and wicked character traits become the reason of his wife’s tragic death. The Duke, who is both the main character in the poem, and is its narrator, tries to prove his innocence...
“The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne The main symbol around which the story develops is certainly the birthmark on Georgiana’s left cheek. Initially, the girl seems to be the perfect creation of nature – she is smart, kind, and gorgeous but the mark becomes a trouble for her husband. The birthmark...
The adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a classic bildungsroman that can be relevant for people of all ages. The main theme of the topic is a moral and social maturation that the main character, Tom, goes through. Being away from society as a child who did not...
The Moldau is the symphonic poem of the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. The poem illustrates the flow of the Moldau river from its spring in the Bohemian forest to Prague. The Moldau theme is played five times and could be characterized as proud and playful by the character. Such an...
I vividly remember the day I realized life was too short and unexpected not to wish for more. It was April, and I sweet-talked my mom to take me to the amusement park on the weekend. I was eight years old, and I had never been to the amusement park...
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 Alien presents a short science fiction regarding a strange individual being returned to Earth after supposed abduction by a UFO. Told from the perspective of a blogger that encounters and connects with the man by accident, the short story offers a lighthearted but also tragic narrative of someone being...
Introduction George Orwell’s book, Road to Wigan Pier, depicts the struggles of the British underclass, unemployed, and poverty-stricken nationals in the post-World War 1 period. The authors’ target audience was the wealthy and affluent people seeking to understand the lifestyle of the poor beyond formal reports. The author uses a...
Classics are literary works that are considered the gage and main point of reference for their era or a particular genre. Previously, this term referred to certain authors of ancient literature, and later it was used to refer to all ancient Greek and Roman literature. This concept is now used...
Introduction Love, passion, and romance have always been an inherent part of human history, influencing individual lives and the stories of entire populations. The exploration of various sides of romantic relationships, therefore, lies at the core of the humanities’ research – it helps one understand how people acted towards each...
Narrator’s View of Her Mother in Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is a poem that depicts tough conversations and lessons between a Kincaid and her mother. The narrator describes the mother as a harsh person by the way the literal work is presented. The dramatic monologue provides an...
The American poetry of the twentieth century is marked with many outstanding works that still draw the attention of the public and literature researchers. Sylvia Plath is one of the authors whose profound poems and vivid language brought her posthumous fame. In this essay, one of her most well-known poems,...
War is an essential topic in A Farewell to Arms due to the novel’s setting at the time of World War I. While reading the book, it is particularly interesting to monitor the growth of the main character and the change in his attitudes towards war. In this essay, I...
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...
Introduction The theme of heroes and villains has always been one of the most popular in literature. Whatever the historical period, there were narrations about brave and noble men who courageously defended their lands from enemies. However, the motives those heroes had for fighting were not always dignified. An Old...
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a research done by Rebecca Skloot to unravel the story of Henrietta and her family to know what she underwent because of her cells. Skloot reveals a scenario of one of the most significant inputs to the field of medicine in her book....
African American literature focuses on the description of this population group’s struggles and dreams, and the poem “I, Too, Sing America” written by Langston Hughes, is no exception to the rule. In this piece, the author emphasizes the difference in the perceptions of the place of workers in the house...
Over the course of history, it has become clear that in a world replete with cruelty and mischievous triumph, people crave freedom even if it implies going as far as possible from the established behavioral norms and patterns. The undisputable eagerness to feel alive and find the new connotative meanings...
Introduction Gerard Manley Hopkin’s poem “Spring and Fall” is centered around one’s perception of death and mortality. The central figure of the writing is a girl called Margaret, who is crying over dead leaves and ordinary seasonal changes. However, the narrator understands that the underlying reasons for such an emotional...
Introduction “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a fictional narrative representing rural American culture. The story starts by telling the reader how “the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractor and taxes.” The population and setup of structures highlighted in the narrative reveal...
Introduction It is natural that the relationship between parents and their children is usually composed throughout the period of early childhood. Special attention often has to be paid to the father-son relationship because these two male figures may be both prone to covering their emotions. The deep connection between sons...
Introduction Mary Wollstonecraft, an 18th-century British author and philosopher, was among the first people who openly drew the public’s attention to women’s rights in society. Her fundamental work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, explores several important topics, and education is one of them. The situation in this regard...
Measuring the literary value of a text is a complex process. The worth of a piece of literature to human civilization is a notion that, for instance, the postmodernist worldview negates, as well as the need for literary idols. Nevertheless, some texts became deeply ingrained in social consciousness as those...
Introduction Being one of the most prominent poets of the era does not necessarily make one’s works the most understandable to the public. T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” is a prominent example of such a paradox. Whereas critics consider the work outstanding and influential, many readers find it difficult...
Introduction Almost all modern norms and rules of various cultural elements of the everyday life of modern society, especially Western, were formed in ancient Greece. It applies to the fundamental aspects of philosophy, literature, theater, politics, and general storytelling. Specialists and amateurs of these forms of culture should understand such...
Stylistic convergence is an essential component in any prosaic text system and serves as the most indicative means for expressing the author’s feelings and emotions. Expression with the joint use of individual stylistic devices is superimposed on the interpretation of another, and the overall stylistic effect as a result of...
It is difficult to imagine a person in the world who has never heard about the famous story of Alice in the Wonderland. The address to this fascinating plot about a little girl who appears in miraculous surroundings seems to have its reflection both direct and indirect one in a...
In his compelling masterpiece, the fence, August Wilson describes the lifestyle of blacks amid a foreign land. He focuses on the social life of African-Americans who struggle to improve their status in a country controlled by racism. Troy and Cory are the main characters in Wilson’s story. As a father...
Introduction Reading the poem One Today, I think that the most important phrases start with the word “one.” One sun, one ground, one sky. These lines mean that all people in the USA live in one state, and they are all united by this fact. The author also refers to...
Introduction The works of William Shakespeare have lived through centuries in order to be awarded the title of unprecedented classics. However, with the major change in the overall perception of society and its behavioral patterns, many creators felt the urge to interpret this classic to mitigate the gap between the...
“Lad lit” is a genre of fiction characterized by the depiction of men’s personal lives, and it is usually opposed to the so-called “chick lit.” This trend was started by Nick Hornby, and it allows attributing his works to this genre. One of them is High Fidelity, and this novel...
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,...
Introduction Candide, ou l’Optimisme is an 18th-century novel written by Voltaire, the French philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. Focused on the story of a young man named Candide who was taught by his tutor, Professor Pangloss, in the spirit of Leibnizian optimism, it satirizes religion, the optimistic beliefs of...
Introduction The short story titled “Everyday Use” is written by Alice Walker. “Everyday Use” portrays the different understanding of African-American history. For some, it is a part of their daily lives, while for others – something they learn about from books and college lectures. The three main characters – Mama,...
Lewis’ Screwtape Letters is a novel that provides advice in reverse, presenting temptations and people’s attitudes towards them in the context of religion and faith. Screwtape, the devil, teaches his nephew, Wormwood, to tempt people and make them suffer, which is expressed by means of irony. The author aims at...
Introduction What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a concluding story in a self-titled collection of short stories written by Raymond Carver. It sets to explores various notions humans have about love. The title itself suggests that there are different perceptions people can have about this concept,...
Introduction “A Late Aubade” is a poem by Richard Wilbur, one of the most prominent American poets of the 20th century. The title of the poem suggests that it is a morning farewell song from one lover to another. The poem consists of seven paragraphs and “features a carpe diem...
Introduction The book All That Is Solid Melts Into Air is about Marshall Berman’s views on the relationship between different manifestations of modernity, and the concept of modernism as an approach to understanding the world. This academic text talks about the changes that the world is constantly experiencing and the...
Introduction Gerald Graff is a specialist in English language studies and a researcher in the sphere of education. He wrote more than five books covering controversial and complicated topics, such as conflicts between a pupil and a teacher, the problem of diversification of cultural backgrounds, and the negative consequences of...
The book “Give Me Liberty” whiten by Eric Foner can be acclaimed as one of the best textbooks on the events of American history along with the country’s pathway to liberation existing in the current period of time. Within the book the audience will find a logical and coherent argument...
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin belongs to the number of the most popular science fiction novels by writers from the United States. Thanks to her skillful writing and attention to tiny details, Le Guin creates a unique world with its own conflicting cultures and the various social norms. However,...
The novel Plantation Boy Literature is often a reflection of society as seen through the writer’s eyes. In his works, the author usually tries to convey an idea, his understanding of a particular problem, or the entire worldview. Sometimes, the path of fiction leads the author far back reassessing all...
Introduction Allen Ginsberg and Walt Whitman were both American poets during the 19th century. The end of both the First and Second World Wars resulted in civilization BUT for individuals who had been brought up in the previous century, they seemed to get lost and confused with this so-called civilization...
The style of thinking, reasoning as well as acting changes with time during the process of development. Playwrights have resolved to address the changes or experiences that one encounters during his/her development. For instance, William Shakespeare in his Romeo and Juliet illustrates the process of development through Juliet, the hero...
Introduction The book Military Rule in America is a historic book written by Karen L. Remmer. It talks about the type of government that was present in Southern America, in the 20th Century. The author aimed to pass a message to leaders who believe in a dictatorial type of leadership...
Betty Keller’s essay Tea Party is one of her best works. It demonstrates the talent of the author as far as the reader may observe how many themes may be covered in such a short story (Betty Keller). This essay is like a hymn to the remote love between two...
Raymond Carver’s short stories pens down a world where people constantly struggle for their self-respect and meaning for existence. This rustic feel about his short fictions exemplifies his life. Born in 1938, Raymond grew up in Pacific Northwest in a rustic environment, which had an inevitable effect on his writing...
As it is well-known nowadays, a special artistic technique is meant under the term “defamiliarization”. Its main meaning is that the audience is forced to perceive the suggested things and actions from a distance, in an unfamiliar way, as if they were strangers there. The technique is aimed at the...
Mythology is a term derived from Greek and can be broken into two terms, “mythos” which means narrative and logos which relates to speech or in other terms; argument. Mythology can then be defined as the act of studying myths, which are stories that are held to be true by...
A metaphor of journey has been an important tool for many writers to explore characters, themes, and story of a work of fiction. Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer” is a vivid example of the journey structure as a way to explore society with all of its flaws. Etgar Keret uses a...
“…Also Belmonte imposed conditions and insisted that his bulls should not be too large, nor too dangerously armed with horns, and so the element that was necessary to give the sensation of the tragedy was not there, and the public, who wanted three times as much from Belmonte, who was...
Introduction The work and organization of the medieval society proposed in the Canterbury Tales by Charles Chaucer can be easily connected with the organization of modern society. This is a point that can be established if the two settings were to be compared. Chaucer depicts a society wherein work is...
Odyssey is a Greek poem attributed to Homer; and is an essential aspect within the contemporary western principle. In this epic Odysseus had traveled to fight the Trojan War and due to his return, suitors tried to convince his wife Penelope that he had died in the war so that...
Introduction The book, American Exodus: the Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California, is written by James N. Gregory and it depicts the great dust bowl times which caused major agricultural and subsequent economical damage in American agricultural lands from the years 1930 to 1936. Canadian prairie lands were...
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’....
One of the highlights of Greek mythology is the Trojan War described in the pages of The Iliad and The Odyssey, along with many pieces of Greek literature. The battle was fought between the Greeks and the Trojans. A lot of kingdoms took part in the war and supported Sparta,...
Premiering in 1947, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a play set in the late 1940s about the downfall of Blanche DuBois and the relationship between Stanley Kowalski and his wife Stella. Blanche and Stella come from an upper-class background in Mississippi, where Blanche lived and worked as a...
The Invisible Heart: By Robert Russel The book combines fiction and economic realities found within society. It combines Romance and ideas of economics. The author uses the book to radiate economic polemic in the form of an imaginary tale. The whole book is about a romance story that is intertwined...
The concept of the hero’s journey has been a driving concept throughout Western literature for centuries. It is plainly evident in some of our earliest and most cherished stories, such as the legend of King Arthur in his earlier years, and can even be traced through Beowulf, the earliest piece...
A setting is a very important element of any literature work. Not only does it describe a place where the action occurs, but it also helps the author to describe his emotions, vision of the action described and his attitude to it. It is interesting to analyze how in A...
Introduction In Shakespeare’s play Othello, the character Iago is the most well-known and multifaceted. To the characters in the play, he is a trustworthy and honest person who everyone in the community is willing to confide in. The audience on the other hand can note that he is the evilest,...
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 Mama Might Be Better Off Dead is written by Laurie K Abraham (1994) and depicts a profound and unsettling picture of health care from the human perspective. The book is illuminating as also disturbing in telling the story of the devastating illnesses which have become very common in the...
Introduction “Paradise Lost” – John Milton’s epic poem, visually describing the risen Satan and his overthrow from heaven down to earth, in many respects popularized the representation of Satan as a personality. The live and vivid representation of Satan’s image, as well as other biblical characters drawn by Milton, strongly...
Ever since the application of the notion of political correctness to theoretical and empirical research, in various fields of science, began to undermine its intellectual soundness, we can no longer assume the results of such research as being objective by definition. Reading Francisco Ayala’s article “The Difference of Being Human”...
Literature is a source for human imagination. It is impossible to imagine our world without literature. When people read a book they are involved in the process with such power that it is sometimes impossible for them to tear themselves away from the book. People relax when they read books,...
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...
Ed McBain’s “Sadie When She Died” is one of the stories from the 87th Precinct series which he started writing in the mid-1950s. It presents the story about the officer, Steve Carella, who knew from the beginning the identity of the real murderer but lacked proof to accuse him of...
Introduction The paper is about to discuss the literary elements of inner struggle and meditation in various literary works such as Frost’s poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ Theodor Roethke’s ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ and the play ‘All My Sons’ by Arthur Miller. It begins with a thesis statement. The body of...
Conrad vision of life after death On primary reading of the story, I find Conrad feeling pain and guilt for his brother’s death. He is incapable to overcome this barrier as already experiencing the breath of death; the boy could look at the world in a usual way. Now, Conrad...
The American College Encyclopedic Dictionary defines the adjective “blind” as: 1. lacking the sense of sight; 2. unwilling, or unable to try or understand; 3. not controlled by reason: (blind tenacity); 4. not possessing or proceeding from intelligence; 5. lacking all awareness: ( a blind stupor); 6. drunk – hard...
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most outstanding writers whose works are the guarantee of ultimate pleasure that the reading will provide. The secret of his talent is in the beauty of the figurative language he makes use of. In fact, language is the only means a writer can use,...
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...
A Pale View of Hills is the first novel, written by a prominent English-speaking author, Kazuo Ishiguro. In this book, the novelist explores various themes, and this book can be analyzed from various perspectives, for example, the relationships between family members, the sense of alienation, the hardships, which many immigrants...
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...
The idea of excessive pride plays a monumental role in Greek tragedy. Pride in itself can be seen as a positive attribute, but when it is expressed in arrogance and defiance of fate and the gods, it becomes a fatal flaw that leads to downfall. Aristotle stated, “the tragic hero...
Introduction There can be little doubt as to the fact that Sophocles’ “Antigone” and Shakespeare’s “Othello” are highly emotional dramaturgic pieces: in both tragedies, the motifs of love, treachery, misunderstanding, honor and one’s call of duty, actually define the semantic subtleties of a plot. Both plays represent the very best...
Homer is regarded in the Roman and Greek world as the father of rhetoric. This reputation of Homer is clearly evident from the 9th book of the Iliad, an embassy right from the leaders of the Greek towards Achilles, who is both sour and furious. The speeches framed by Homer...
Even though an old Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf” is assumed to contain motifs that are largely mythical in their essence, many of these motifs do relate to the realities of the time when the poem was written. In his article “Beowulf in Literary History,” Joseph Harris makes a good point when...
The story of the Iliad is a famous one. When the cruel Trojan prince Paris abducts the queen of Agamemnon, Helen, war ensues between the two countries across the seas. Many heroes and gods take sides and fight the war. It is the first famous book written in Europe, written...
Bildungsroman is a German word/term which refers to a coming-of age novel. Coined by famous German philologist, Johann Carl Simon Morgenstern, the bildungsroman novel traverses the psychological, moral and social molding of the main, character/protagonist from childhood to adulthood. In most cases the impetus for such a journey is sparked...
The play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller depicts life and destiny of an American family which dreams about prosperity and high social position in society. in this play, Miller tries to escape social contradictions by using a dramatic form. Fundamental in this play is the fact that Miller...
The focal point of the paper is to explore the Male-Female Relationships in The Great Gatsby by the noted American author of the post first world war era F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Yellow Wallpaper by American short story writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The complexities of men and women in...
“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...
The Modern Fantasy book I have chosen is The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. This book is a timeless tale, which is appropriate for children at the 7 and above age range and offers the children an opportunity to experience a timeless tale and is a...
In the novel Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad fully explores the concept of imperialism and the effects it has on everyone who is involved with the process. He does this while employing a new modern means of characterization and expression. It is difficult to describe this new form of expression...
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...
John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath harshly criticizes American culture during the years of the dustbowls. He suggests the hardships of the people were driven not by the environmental factors as much as it was by the capitalistic fixation on economic profit regardless of the cost to the common...
The work of Handsome Lake How America was discovered is a fiction that bears more ideological and precaution character for a reader. The story of a white preacher who once met the Creator telling him about a country where people would be cruel and corrupt because of money greed and...
The book ‘The Complete Pompeii’ by Joanne Berry brings to light the different archeological treasures of the city in terms of its civilization, and antiquities which have been left preserved for us to see. While many a research has been conducted on the city and the lives of the people...
In his poem “Ithaka,” Constantine Cavafy encourages his readers to go off on a journey that will last most of their life. In the poem, he talks about how the journey needs to be full of adventure and discovery but he also warns against monsters like Laistrygonians and Cyclops, and...
Introduction The Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1950s, when the Communist Party of China came into force to build the socialist country based on fear, absence of freedom of speech, and the need to strictly follow all the guidelines of the Party is one of the brightest examples of usurping...
In the history of the English literature Geoffrey Chaucer is undoubtedly the biggest poetic name up to Shakespeare, where the best of his works — “The Canterbury Tales” is certainly one of the greatest literary works of the English Middle Ages in which Renaissance features are clearly breaking through. The...
Medieval literature is often difficult to understand not only because the English was different in that time, but because the way in which they were written was intended for a more oral audience than a literate one. Within this story, Gawain is seen to be under the care of King...
Introduction George Simenon is French born novelist. He is the deft handler of the detective fiction. He has been acclaimed as its literate writer as well. His name reverberates with the creation of Paris police detective inspector named Maigret. He has brought about dozens of the mysteries of this inspector...
Introduction LaBute’s play The Mercy Seat was one of the first key theatrical rejoinders to the September 11, 2001 assaults. Set on September 12, it disquiets a man who worked at the World Trade Center but was absent in the office while the attack took place – with his love...
Introduction “The Secret Agent” by Joseph Conrad is based on the Greenwich Bomb Outrage of 1894 when a man named Martial Bourdi, had, like Stevie Verloc, the main protagonist of “The Secret Agent”, killed himself setting off a bomb in Greenwich Park near the Royal Observatory. Thus, the terrorists in...
“Who controls the past controls the future. And who controls the present controls the past.” By the above quote, it is meant that Orwell claims those historians to be in power who govern our society. Only such historians who lead the society through their deeds or words are in a...
The key element in horror fiction is its ability to provoke fear or terror in readers with a sense of dread, unease, anxiety, or foreboding. A horror fiction may contain highly improbable and unexpected sequences of events that usually begin in ordinary situation and involve supernatural elements; explore dark, malevolent...
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 Many people take pleasure from reading fairy tales, whose endings are normally happy and which depict the triumph of “the good” over “the evil”. Anne Sexton is among the writers, who have a non-traditional vision of fairy-tales, as she creates her own interpretations of fantasy narratives. As Sexton is...
A Doll’s House is one of the many plays written by a Norwegian playwright and theatre director Henrik Johan Ibsen. Now Ibsen is often referred to as one of the most influential writers of his time and even as “a father of realism”. In this work, the plot revolves around...
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 Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman was a staunch supporter of women’s rights and development and was really not recognized as a major author of fiction and poetry until the 1960s.She was born in 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut and wrote book length non-fiction tracts in support of women. She dies in...
Introduction One of the most common themes in short stories is the theme of coming of age. While this is the chief concern of several writers, John Irving expands outside of this theme just far enough to explore other elements of this critical process of maturation. Children grow not only...
Change is an inseparable part of existence, yet, when representing a deliberate intention, it becomes a strangely difficult step to take. In his 2018 poem, “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin,” Terrance Hayes addresses the necessity to make a difficult choice, conveying the sense of lingering between inconsequential...
