6047 samples of this type
Introduction 1001 Nights have several translations, many of which Western specialists make. The author of the collection is unknown, and it is unclear which short stories were included initially and which appeared in later versions. Most readers in Europe and the United States are familiar with Scheherazade’s tales through Western...
In the play Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, the main characters are a group of women who have been friends for almost a lifetime. Each of them has their style of friendship; they all strive to help and support each other. While they are all good in their way, the...
Many literary works assess various aspects of life, and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll‘s House explores important social matters. Ibsen was born on the southeast coast of Norway, and his childhood was not particularly easy (Gundersen). His parents were relatively affluent and had five children, with Henrik being the oldest son...
Introduction From time memorial people worshiped deities considered to run the universe. Expectedly, religion has some social control function that discourages deviance, self-distractive behavior, and delinquency from establishing order (Hood et al. 413). However, some people may pretend that they observe the norm when in the presence of specific people...
One of the most well-known pieces of classical literature is Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour. One of the most evident historical observances that could be made about the story is the telegraph, which plays a great role in the plot as well (Chopin). It is possible to interpret...
Summary Don Marquis is an author of an essay that argues that abortions are immoral from a non-religious standpoint. He begins with a general discussion on why killing is wrong. According to Marquis, killing any human being is morally wrong not because it inflicts suffering on their loved ones but...
Almost from the story’s first lines, Gregor appears to be a tedious and shallow philistine with no interests of his own. However, later it turns out that he is a compassionate person who loves art and is in dire need of the love and approval of his loved ones. Another...
Autobiographical works are unique material because they allow immersing yourself in another era and looking at the world through the writer’s eyes. This feature is essential because it allows readers to experience various backgrounds. In this context, James Baldwin’s collection of essays is a graphic demonstration of personal and racial...
In order to understand “Tribal Ceremony,” the communal feature of minor literature is used because it depicts the tragedy of an entire community. The communal feature can be described as representing the problem of a particular society, not only concerning the author of the poem. In “Tribal Ceremony,” it is...
Introduction Authors often put their ideas and ideals into their works, and Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” utilizes literary devices to share her vision on religious beliefs. God is present in all Rossetti’s works, as her world views are heavily influenced by the Church (Şirket and Alban 27). The literary devices...
Despite the seeming glamor and wealth, the character of Great Gatsby is deeply and inherently tragic. Striving to bury his deep discontent with his life in an attempt to recreate the past, he refuses to acknowledge that the people around him have changed. Furthermore, his pursuit of the material wealth...
The theme of relations with nature has always been important for society. The attitude and understanding of this concept have been changing along with the development of society and technologies. The idea of the individual as a part of the world was replaced by the belief that human beings are...
Flowers in the Attic deeply explores various topics related to child neglect, abuse, unhealthy parental dynamics, and family patterns. However, one of the most prominent themes that had been reflected in the book is the characteristics of the mother-daughter relationship. An evident general pattern related to this dynamic is the...
Introduction “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a Southern gothic narrative that reflects the realities of the American South in the 20th century. According to the literary theory of cultural studies, the author’s background significantly affects their writing, and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a...
Langston Hughes raises a number of philosophical issues in his short poem ‘Mother to Son’. The poem itself, though seemingly small, is capable of surprising even sophisticated readers with its content. Everyone who reads the poem will be able to see themselves in it and try on the role of...
In Antigone, as in our culture today, there is always a conflict between our values and religious obligations. What we think and what we are taught to do are not always coordinated, which can lead to conflict, particularly when others hold conflicting views. Religious obligations, on the other hand, are...
Krutch describes the beauty of snowflakes and crystals with delight and admiration. He describes their diversity and forms and says that only with a microscope he manages to understand what beauty means by looking at crystals. They capture his spirit and amaze his imagination, and it is not for nothing...
Introduction An intensely tumultuous beat runs through the poem Daddy by Sylvia Plath. She composes a poem about her father, Otto Plath, as an experience, including an unsolved complicated relationship. Plath regarded her father so highly that she alluded to him as an idol and a Nazi while comparing his...
Introduction In the play “Death of a Salesman,” written by Arthur Miller, the main themes are portrayed with the help of a variety of symbols. They are intertwined with the memories of the main character, Willy Loman, who reflects on his failure as an employee, a husband, and a father....
Young Goodman Brown and Rip Van Winkle both tell stories of family men, of which each starts their story as one person and becomes completely different by the end of it. The two stories are written in different narrations and settings; however, they have something in common. While it may...
Summary of the Narrative The book “My Year of Magical Thinking”dives into memories of Joan Didion’s life with her husband John and their daughter. She becomes fixated on a phenomenon she refers to as magical thinking and consistently reviewing the events leading up to John’s death’. She consistently reads and...
In his book “Unleash the Power of Storytelling,” Rob Biesenbach presents the readers with the importance of good storytelling and its implications in the wider world. This practical guide, as the author himself refers to it, introduces the reader to the idea of storytelling as a tool for communication both...
This Boy’s Life is a story of a young guy growing up struggling with his problems and fears, misunderstanding, and condemnation of others. Notably, Tobias Wolff stays focused on his desire to reinvent himself, to have a different kind of life compared to the one he is living, and to...
Mary Poppins can be viewed from the point of view of Marxism as there are aspects such as social class, bourgeoisie, and proletariat. Earp (2021) notes that this piece is rife with hidden socialist ideas. The central figure, nanny Mary Poppins, is a representative of the proletariat. Chimney sweep Bert...
Alan Moore’s comic book Watchmen was a phenomenal breakthrough in the production of the comic. It was unexpected but a negative story about superheroes who, at the same time, reject the typical superhero canons and touch readers’ hearts. Many critics rightly consider Watchmen as an independent graphic novel, not a...
Sonnet 18 is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and best-known works. Some people like this poem because of the opening romantic phrase: ”Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” (Shakespeare line 1). Every avid romanticist knows by heart this comparative metaphor and uses this literary comparison towards their beloved....
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is an eternal classic played in theaters worldwide and adapted in movies by multiple screenwriters and directors. One of these films that received an equivocal response from the critics and audience was the 2018 movie Ophelia, directed by Claire McCarthy (Schwanebeck, 2020). It was based on Shakespeare’s original...
In “Night,” Elie Wiesel describes the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. After reading this book, I realized how strikingly different the perception of the horrors of this period was between Jews and people of other nationalities. The fact is that in ordinary life, we do not think...
The video features the award-winning author of poetry, Naomi Shihab, Nye, reading from her work of adult and children poetry that includes 19 varieties of Gazelle such as Fuel, Poems of the Middle East, and Red suitcase. Her collection features a variety of poems about the Middle East and Palestinians...
Melville’s story “Billy Budde” culminates in the death of the main character – an innocent, inexperienced sailor, who through no fault of his, was hanged. While the captain’s Vere decision about the fate of the young sailor can be justified – he did it to avert a mutiny on his...
Being a part of the global community, with its incredible diversity and complicated history of relationships between different groups, is quite challenging, especially for those belonging to minority groups. In her poem “To Live in the Borderlands,” Gloria Anzaldua purports the emotional weight of the struggle that she carries as...
William Shakespeare and his works occupy an honorary place in world literature. At the same time, the play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, briefly referred to as Hamlet, is one of the most famous. The plot reveals complex themes of revenge, mortality, deception, madness, and other issues. The...
Introduction Literary techniques are essential in advancing the meaning that an author intends to portray. The passage Book of Songs (B) is a poem whose main theme is grief and sorrow. The poet used comparison in several instances to reflect the theme of grief. Another passage titled The Works of...
Violence is the intentional use of physical power to threaten or cause harm to oneself or another. The essay features How to Read Literature like a Professor by Foster Thomas, The Things They Carried by O’Brien Tim, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, and Mallam Sile’s works to illustrate the theme...
The diversity of the Islamic culture is vividly depicted in many literary works. An incomparable embedding into Islamic heritage is presented in the Thousand and One Nights tales, also known as Arabic Nights, which have stirred the imagination of generations around the world for centuries. The account comprises 250 short...
Introduction Pride and Prejudice is a romantic comedy novel by Jane Austen during the Regency era in England. It is a romantic story that follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, who is the dynamic character of the narration. She learns about the aftermaths of hasty judgments and notes the...
Poetry may require an immense effort from the reader if they want to grasp the meanings implied by the poet. However, on certain occasions, a poet may strive to convey a direct, explicit message. This case is applicable to Dulce et Decorum est poem by Wilfred Owen. Written from the...
Introduction Notably, Dante discusses how souls are tormented, implying a symbolic link between sin and punishment. He intended to illustrate the concept of damnation and present examples of individuals suffering damnation as a result of the way they lived and the choices they made; ways and choices that were violent,...
Literary works created by African American writers during the era of angry social complaints against racial profiling share many similarities in terms of structure and themes. This interrelationship has resulted in literature characterized by expressive social insight, providing informative evaluations of American histories and identities. Moreover, the black American literature...
A plot is a series of events in a story. The plot in the short story “A Rose for Emily ” is well–developed. A plot must be chronological or non-chronological; chronological means the events happened in order of their occurrence. Non-Chronological implies that there were regressions into the past from...
Introduction In 18 century, Great Britain experienced the industrial revolution due to physicomechanical science’s advancements. In factories, employers started to launch various machines to complete the same tasks as previously but more quickly and require less involvement of workers’ physical power. However, such manufacturers had problems related to the sanitary...
A Rose for Emily is a short story by Faulkner focusing on the life of aristocratic-like Miss Emily. The narration utilizes a first-person plural point of view, representing the town where she lived, although it immediately reveals the differences between the two parties. The author chooses to tell the story...
King Oedipus is the central character of the same name’s play, a bright and significant person with an unshakable strength of spirit and a thirst for knowledge. The literary prototype of King of Thebes is the central character of Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet.’ Prince of Denmark is a multifaceted image, which...
Comparing Tecumseh’s warlike uplifting speech with the poems of contemporary poet Sherman Alexie, one can find seemingly archetypal elements of the representation of the peoples of the Native Americans. Analysis and consistent comparison of these texts allows us to observe the deconstruction of the epic image of the Native American....
Blessed Hope by Frances E.W. Harper Oh! crush it not, that hope so blest, Which cheers the fainting heart, And points it to the coming rest, Where sorrow has no part. Tear from my heart each worldly prop, Unbind each earthly string, But to this blest and glorious hope, Oh!...
The question of what exactly a woman’s place in the marriage has long been a ground for heated discussions. Our society has come a long way from perceiving women as merely the property of men to today’s development of the feminist movement. However, even though nowadays, emancipation is a must...
In 1959, a play by the writer Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, was successfully staged for the first time on Broadway. This play was chosen as a research subject due to its importance for the theater industry and the overall American culture. This work combines well all significant...
Sexuality is a significant aspect of a person. It is never about who he or she has sex with or how frequently they have it. It is basically about one’s sexual feelings, ideas, interests, and behaviors towards other people. Both fiction and non-fiction contexts depict differences in matters of sexuality....
Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of Jerome Salinger’s The Cather in the Rye, may be many things, but responsible is not one of them. Be that himself or other people around him, he rarely has a concern for anything. By highlighting his irresponsible behavior, Salinger contrasts the character’s rather self-absorbed focal...
Introduction Many obstacles awaited Odysseus on their long journey home. Odysseus’s team and himself were suffering, going through difficulties, coincidences, and the influence of other gods. At the same time, it is unlikely that the same path would have awaited him before meeting with cyclops Polyphemus, since it was partly...
In the novel “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, the narration is conducted on behalf of a difficult teenager Alex. He and his friends rob, rape, and arrange brutal reprisals. At the same time, he describes all the actions in an ordinary tone, as if nothing is happening. During one...
Introduction The assessment of poetry is generally conducted with regard to the essential elements that it incorporates. They include characters presented by the narrator and their audience, dialogues, image, setting, themes, voice, style, and tone, and the consideration of corresponding techniques can demonstrate their importance for the message. Hence, poems...
Introduction Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is a short story that tells about a fictional village where people are gathered for an annual lottery, in which all the villagers take part. The lottery has been held for many years as a tradition, and the tickets are drawn to select one person...
Generally acknowledged as one of the most preeminent pieces of Vietnam War Literature, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried portrays the raw and sincere image of war through short linked stories completely refrained from political aspects. Although there is no defined storyline in the book, it is compensated by the...
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,...
The works of Russian classical literature have gained a great deal of popularity around the world over many years. Their main characteristic is the stimulation of intense, often ambiguous feelings in the reader, which make him think. Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” was just such an example. The...
Background Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the most well-known examples of the classic Medieval Arthurian romances. While the poem’s author is unknown, historians and literary scholars have speculated that it was written by the same Gawain-poet who wrote other narrative poems, including Pearl, Cleanness, and Patience,...
Introduction Literature is a great device to explore a variety of themes, ideas, and theories, as it allows people to exercise the creative freedom of expression. Writing is a medium that allows individuals to channel their ideals, beliefs into words, inspire others, and relay messages they consider to be important....
Nightwood is a well-known novel by Djuna Barnes, who had to spend time in Paris in the 1930s living with lesbians to develop the novel’s content. Nightwood was published in 1936, but it took a long time to be regarded as her literary masterpiece. Her book has been considered one...
Introduction In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath authors a story about herself. The life of Esther Greenwood, who aspires to be a poet, is depicted in The Bell Jar as she tries to realize her ambitions via education, using Ladies’ Day magazine as a starting point. She chose a month-long...
Introduction The problem of racism is topical for modern American society. Unfortunately, racism is not only about hatred of people with different skin colors but also about encroachment on their lives and inviolability. One of the most famous victims of racism is Recy Taylor, who was kidnapped and raped by...
Introduction The Song of Myself is a 52-part poem written by Walt Whitman in 1855. In the poem, the speaker praises the human body for its ability to join with self and nature. This union between the body and self provides a religious experience for the speaker and all humanity....
This work presents the 75th sonnet by Edmund Spencer and belongs to the sonnet cycle “Amoretti,” which can be translated from Italian as “admiration.” Spencer’s poetic speech is distinguished by its originality both in terms of national coloring and its form and symbolism. It is an example of an English...
Having been detached culturally from the West, Japan has always been a mystery to the rest of the world with its unique culture and philosophy. However, even though Japan has undergone substantial changes over the course of its development, some of the cultural markers of the bygone era remain essential...
In act III of James Baldwin’s Blues for Mister Charlie, the court proceedings play a crucial role both in the plot’s development and the development of the characters. Two months after Richard’s death, Lyle is on trial, with the audience being presented with a picture of what happened. Jo’s perjured...
Poems are recognized as one of the earliest literature forms that have significantly influenced the field of communication. Since pre-colonial times poems have been used to bring people together, warn, encourage and inform. One of the essential features of poems is their form and structure. While some poems lack a...
In a society characterized by exponential change and gradually increasing complexity, those who act have greater power, especially those who can find self-determination and persistence to do so. Motivation is among the most valuable commodities, shaped by life experiences and inspiring behaviors to explore something new. In Alfred Lord Tennyson’s...
The story of an orphaned girl with a tough life meeting a prince who falls in love with her is universal, and different cultures have their own interpretations of it. Thus, Cinderella, which is inherent to the English tradition, and Adelita, which belongs to the Mexican tradition, share the same...
Introduction Traditionally, women were viewed as less equal, which led to them fighting for their rights. Through different amendments touching on equal rights for women, everything seems to be changing whereby women are now holding prestigious positions alongside men. Besides that, they are receiving almost similar treatment like men. Literature...
Summary “Defender of the Faith” is an original story about a Jewish American Army Sergeant Nathan Marx who resists attempted manipulation by a trainee Jew Sheldon Grossbart to exploit their mutual ethnicity for a particular benefit. The fiction focuses on the conflict between two powerful characters, Marx and Grossbart. They...
Interpretation and understanding of truth is a very ambiguous thing. Everyone has their own unique opinion regarding what is true and what is false. The reason is that language is not a perfect instrument for communication. The language is limited because we can only hear the words. When people listen...
Introduction “A Worn Path” is a short story written by Eudora Welty in 1941 which describes the journey of an old African American woman. The Hunger Games is a novel by Suzanne Collins first published in 2008 that depicts a dystopian world. At first, these two books can be considered...
Introduction William Gibson’s story Burning Chrome depicts an advanced but soulless society where most technological advances are portrayed as distorted by commercialization and human mechanization rather than improving the quality of life. However, the main characters are depicted as completely dependent on technology. Technology is not only a global achievement...
The famous short story The Lottery, written by the American writer Shirley Jackson was published in 1948 in The New Yorker. The work caused a great stir among the population that still not recovered from the sufferings of World War II (Sar and Pradika 2). The feeling of anxiety, masterfully...
As a tool of oppression, gender roles have been affecting the lives of women across the globe. The problem of rigid gender roles and the suffocating effect they produce on women and girls has been studied from various perspectives, including artistic and, particularly, literary works. In her seminal short story,...
The Important Scene One of the most significant scenes in the first act was the conversation between Lyle, his wife Jo, and Parnell. Jo is worried that her husband Lyle may be sentenced for committing transgression long ago. She considers it an unfortunate mistake that Richard was dead, and Lyle...
Anne Bradstreet, born in 1612 in England, was married to Simon Bradstreet and graduated from the University of Cambridge at 16. A couple of years later, after moving to America and having eight children, she became one of the first poets in the American colonies. Phillis Wheatley Peters was a...
Jim and Irene Westcott seem to be ordinary people with no peculiarities. Their lives resemble the lives of their neighbors in many aspects. For example, all of them are married, have two children, go to the theater, and hope to live in a better place (Cheever 1). Westcotts appearance could...
Claudia Rankine is a writer, poet, dramatist, and anthology editor from the United States of America. The author published five collections of poems, two plays, and several articles. The two works of hers that were proposed for the analysis are Citizen: An American Lyric and the poem Stop and Frisk....
Sherman Alexie’s book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a narration about a 14-year-old Arnold Spirit Jr., called Junior in his family and community. The subject of the book is interesting and edifying because it focuses on the coming-of-age story and the feeling of belonging and community....
The poem “Song of Myself” is an epic work of literature as the poet dedicates it to celebrating himself. An interesting aspect of the poem is its length and its free verse nature. It is divided into fifty-two sections, with each part introducing a slightly new concept about celebrating oneself...
There are many issues faced by an average person in their twenties and thirties in the modern era where authenticity is difficult to achieve. It is possible to suggest that the playwright decided to tell this story precisely to draw people’s attention to the fact that young persons may struggle...
Paul’s Case by Willa Cather is a short story full of temperament lessons. It is a narration of a few months’ events in Paul’s life. Paul is a student at Pittsburg High School, who prefers theater and music to class. The story begins when Paul is suspended from school; he...
Introduction The poem “Desert Places” by Robert Frost depicts the speaker’s lonely mind in a deserted place, resonating with the current times; the inevitable return of depression and universal human loneliness. The poet uses simple vocabulary, “the loneliness includes me unawares,” which underestimates the actual extreme loneliness of human beings...
There are two most likely reasons why the author is telling this story. To begin with, since it is a semi-autobiographical drama, the events described in it may be divided into those that happened to Hwang and those that did not. Thus, creating this play is a unique way for...
Shakespeare’s last plays belong to the genre of tragicomedy – plays devoid of genuine tragedy, which, while slightly disturbing for the audience, were still mainly intended to entertain them by delivering a sharp and entertaining experience. Nevertheless, Shakespeare brings an exceptional tone to them, switching them into the fairy tale...
Introduction The book Coraline mainly focuses on courage among children, as depicted by Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman’s children’s novel, Coraline, is about a tale of a child and mother, belonging, and the variances between reality and fantasy. After Coraline moved into a new apartment located in a remote area, she...
Measure for Measure is one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays, as it raises politically sensitive topics such as justice, morality, and corruption. The collision of power, religion, and sex can be perceived utterly differently over the course of time. Even though many literary critics have tried to find the pitfalls...
Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolf is regarded as one of the key English writers of the 20th century who shaped the modernist tradition. She became a narrative pioneer, being the first who discussed topics of gender, feminism, and freedom from the standpoint of a woman. Another innovation that she has implemented...
One of the main plays written by the Athenian playwright and poet Sophocles is the tragedy “Oedipus the King.” Oedipus is one of the main characters of the Theban mythological cycle, the action of which is connected with the city of Thebes. The story of Oedipus is complex, even confusing,...
Introduction The story Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a fascinating piece that focuses on guilty conscience and different issues faced by people in the community. The story involves Brown, who leaves his wife, Faith, to meet a man in the dark forest he identifies as the devil. Authors...
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is an 18th-century novel of manners set in rural England and portraying the relationships between the four daughters of the Bennet family and their neighbors. While accurately and vividly depicting the manners and social norms of that time, the novel also provides sharp observations on...
About fifty lines in the chivalric romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight take over the significant symbol, the Pentangle, displayed on the Gawain’s shield. Each knight had a different design or symbol placed on his shield, which made it possible to identify people in battle when helmets obscured their...
Introduction The theme of clothing and its impact on people has been depicted in various novels, articles, and other publications. Clothes seem to have a significant effect on how people are perceived and even what roles they should act. The mentioned topic was raised in two notable literary works –...
Humanity has been striving for knowledge for centuries which became possible with the appearance of writing and books. Although even primary education was limited in many parts of the world in the past, people still sought education. Dai Sijie’s novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress tells the story of...
The Camel and His Friends is a short story, which was written as one of the five chapters of beast fables from India called Panchatantra. The story is attributed to a sage named Bidpai, who is thought to be the original narrator. In India, Bidpai is a legendary figure and...
It is challenging to understand unique characteristics and shape self-identity when actions are dictated to people and there is no basic freedom. Never Let Me Go is a story about a world where humans are cloned then told to donate organs when they become adults. The main character of the...
One of the most famous works of William Yeats is “When You Are Old,” which is the poem addressed to a woman Yeats loved. The poem can be summarized as a plea with strong arguments. The author urges the woman to think of the future as not to regret her...
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short stories “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister’s Black Veil” reveal a central theme of religion that has played an important role in society. Both stories are filled with dark gothic motives that create an atmosphere and help convey a message. However, the elements of the grotesque in...
The main character of Parable of the Sower, Lauren, is an African American girl who grew up in the family of a priest in a gated community in Robledo, California. The story takes place in a dystopian world experiencing a crisis of society and environment, which fills it with cruelty...
Ernest Hemingway and Katherine Mansfield were increasingly influential writers of post-war stories at the beginning of the 20th century. The First World War became a source of inspiration for many authors who tried to convey the mood of those tragic events and their consequences to the public. This paper aims...
During the semester, several works were studied. “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson were exciting pieces of literature. The “Everyday Use” is a short story that highlights the plight of African -Americas who were trying to redefine their social, cultural, and political identity. It mainly...
The Romantic period was shaped by the social and political events of the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. The French and American revolutions announced a radical break in historical continuity that was accompanied by the birth of democratic and egalitarian ideas (Damrosh et al....
In the short story “The Other Two,” Wharton describes a husband, Mr. Waythorn, whose wife Alice has two divorces. At first sight, it seems that Alice is miserable because she marries and divorces in strive for social prestige. Nonetheless, it is essential to notice that Wharton depicts the upper class’s...
Introduction Human society is founded on the fact that luck in life is a goal that everyone wants to achieve. From this perspective, in two dramatic short stories, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence, the philosophical conflict between luck and its consequences is clearly...
Introduction To be truly happy, an individual should have or, at least, seek a genuine value that makes his or her life full-fledged and gives it a significant meaning. Undoubtedly, one of such worth is unconditional, real, and sincere love that can be manifested in different forms, including friendship, intimate...
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 human body has always been an important topic for people. Its representation and attitude to it changed throughout the history of humanity, and the literature belonging to different epochs proves it. Writers tried to respond to topical ideas and speak about the topic from different perspectives. One of the...
Positive Analysis One of the main strengths of the book is the fact that it provides an invaluable insight into Heian Japan and how regular women lived at that time. It is a well-composed historical document in regards to reflecting the lifestyles and interests of both royal family members and...
Beowulf is an old English story drawn from their native oral literature. Though the author is anonymous, its influence is still felt up to today in many of the works of contemporary writers. The protagonist exhibits all the character traits of a tragic hero as defined by Aristotle. According to...
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,...
In her book “The House of Mirth”, Edith Wharton addresses several values that play an important role in the society of those days. One of the values, she discusses in detail and from different angles, is the value of responsibility to family and marriage. In the following paper, the influence...
Coming of age stories have been prominent in many literary works. Aging and crossing a line between being a child and moving into adulthood is a topic that every single person can relate to. However, growing up is different for everyone and depends on their gender, socioeconomic, and cultural background....
Jhumpa Lahiri tells a story of a female’s life in a new world in her short story “Hell-Heaven”. The author describes the experiences of a young Bengali woman who lives in the UK with her daughter and husband. The woman has to find her way in the patriarchal family with...
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...
Belonging to entirely different cultures and addressing quite different social and psychological issues, “Oedipus, the King” and “Hamlet” might seem quite distant from each other. However, with the advent of psychoanalysis and the development of the psychoanalytical theory, parallels can be drawn between the emotions by which Hamlet and Oedipus...
Introduction In any normal setting, family and society conflicts are inevitable, whereby people misunderstand one another. People have different perspectives on how they view different life instances. Notably, what seems to be correct to one might be wrong to another, leading to a conflict. In playwriting, developing a conflict is...
Introduction Montley Fool Money Guide is a book that has been authored by Selena Maranjian and a foreward by David Gardner. It is an educative book that gives an insight about saving, spending and investing. The author tries to bring out the foolish things people do with their money and...
Introduction There are three critical themes explored in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight Children and Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. The three themes are a myth, fate, and prophecy. The authors of these two novels have vividly presented these themes through actions of the characters like Kafka, Saleem, Amina, Shiva, and...
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 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...
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...
Introduction Flannery O’Connor wrote probably the cruelest and piercing stories in American literature. They addressed a wide range of social topics and revealed peoples hidden tools and behavioral motivation. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, the development of characters is described adequately through the prism of communication to...
“The brain is fundamentally unlike the hardware in our digital computers. Instead, it’s “liveware”. It reconfigures its circuitry. Although the adult brain isn’t quite as flexible as a child’s, it still retains an astonishing ability to adapt and change” (Eagleman, 2015, ch. 6). The quote by the book’s author David...
Shakespeare’s Othello is a play about secrets, plotting and revenge. It tells the tragic story of Othello, who is secretly married to Desdemona and how the people around them plot to end the relationship (Shakespeare 6). Rodrigo’s business with Iago involves the latter helping him to woo Desdemona. Roderigo is...
The history of literature has seen renowned masters of short stories, and Ernest Hemingway is one of them. “Soldier’s Home” is a classic example of such a story, as it depicts the United States of America in the fallout of the First World War (WWI) through the prism of a...
The play Trifles depicts a profound disagreement between two types of attitude and performance. The play’s research exposes a significant contrast between female and male actions, based on a different perception of the environment. As Holstein claims in her paper, “the difference in initial perception ultimately leads to the creation...
On the surface, it is most likely that a reader may understand ‘The Interpreter of Maladies” as one of the simplest stories about a family of five on vacation in a foreign country. However, the introduction of Mr. Kapasi, who is portrayed as a lonely tour guide, makes the short...
The story recounts the friendship of two girls, Twyla and Roberta who meet at the St. Bonny’s shelter after being abandoned by their families. Their relationship experiences both ups and downs highlight the dynamics of their respective characters as well as external circumstances. At first, they dislike each other given...
Mental health is an important aspect of people’s lives that requires immediate attention and careful consideration. However, the topic of mental illnesses has been a taboo to discuss and portray for many years. Today it becomes more and more acceptable to talk about one’s health freely, especially in art. The...
The Nature of Schooling is an essay addressing the issue of economic inequality and its impact on children’s educational achievements. Entwisle, the author, argues with misinterpretation of the critical studies on the issue that were understood as proof that knowledge is more genetically related than based on environmental factors. She...
Introduction The hardships of settling in another state are not known to many people. Most of the population does not have to immigrate and adapt to new conditions; hence, it is informative to learn about the process from the perspective of a person who had to. The paragraph from the...
Introduction Differences between poetry and prose are highly noticeable even for people who are not knowledgeable in the forms of writing. The most obvious difference between prose and poetry lays in their structures – while poetry may be regarded as properly structured, the prose is more free and natural. Rhythm,...
Art Creation There is a significant number of topics that are especially loved by both authors and readers and used in literature rather often. Though all of them were being discussed for many centuries, poets can still find ways of expressing their thought and feelings about such themes in unusual...
“Skylark,” written by an outstanding Hungarian author Dezso Kosztolanyi, is a novel about the change of one senior couple’s life during the impermanent absence of their unattractive and unmarried daughter. At the same time, this work provides essential information about Hungary, especially its political environment, at the end of the...
The Triptych of Dorian Gray (1890–91): Reading Wilde’s Novel as Three Print Objects This article provides the differences between the original version of The Portrait of Dorian Gray and the censored ones. The author analyzes three sources – the typescript, the magazine version, and the first edition of the novel....
The plot of Cormac McCarthy’s novel focuses on two people, the father and his son having a challenging journey across the post-apocalyptic continent. Throughout the novel, there is an idea of carrying the fire. Even in the end, the boy asks a stranger, whether he has been carrying it as...
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is centered on the concept of virtue ethics, which can be approached from different perspectives depending on one’s philosophical precepts. Aristotle advances the view that ethics should be contextualized based on whether an action is informed by the pursuit of excellence. The judgment on whether one acted...
Opportunities to convey one’s ideas to society through literature are effective tools that allow not only leaving a personal mark on history but also indicating an individual position on a specific topic or issue. However, when taking into account modern social norms and foundations, not all the categories of the...
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a long poem that tells the story of the adventures of the brave knight Sir Gawain. This story is a fairy tale that shows the bravery and courage of the knights, which were popular at the time of its writing; however, it also...
The Lottery was written by Shirley Jackson in 1948 and contains many notable themes. It has an exciting plot that, simultaneously, can cause a contradictable sense of averse for the events that take place. It might be rational to suggest that The Lottery is significant and relevant to discuss. The...
Introduction Religion is a contemporary issue influencing civilization, morals, laws, and cultural societies globally. The American Born Chinese written by Gene Luen Yang’s narrates the experiences of immigrants in America using three different tales. This book conveys three major morals, which are resisting the urge to be assimilated, not denying...
There are several elements that can outright describe and reflect Greek drama. The play “Medea” by Euripides is a mythical tragedy that was written in 431 BC. One common element in such plays that is also reflected through the drama is the presence of mythical gods. The story gives relevance...
‘The Laughing Man’ is a fictitious story told by Chief John Gedsudski to the Comanche Club members, a twenty-five-member group of baseball players, in between breaks from their regular sports. The Laughing Man was an only child to a rich missionary couple, abducted in childhood by Chinese bandits. His parents...
Reasons Why The Pursuit of Daisy Buchanan Was Justified “Great Gatsby” is a novel written by F.S. Fitzerald and published in 1925. The book follows the narrator as he enters the world of the American socialite after returning from war and meets the eponymous main character. Jay Gatsby gained his...
“Lusus Naturae” by Margaret Atwood describes an unknown creature that everyone renounces at first glance. It is a girl with specific congenital syndromes that make her appearance strange and intimidating. The author uses Point of View (PV) to describe characters and set up a plot in which the main character...
Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley was first published in 1818. It is now referred to as one of the first pieces of science fiction. The reception of the book was somewhat controversial, and literary critics’ views were mixed. John Wilson Croker’s review, published right after the novel...
Nowadays, mental health is a significant concern in the United States, as more and more people become affected by psychological conditions. However, the discourse around this topic, especially that of schizophrenia, has existed for a considerable time. The main characters of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper and Edgar Allan...
The issue of finding the right balance between personal freedoms and the need for social stability and development has been a pressing one for a long time. Its urgency has further been increased by the spread of terrorism, which resulted in certain measures intended to control and protect citizens and...
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...
