5176 samples of this type
Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out—” (1916) is a single stanza poem describing the accidental death of a young boy who cuts his hand off when sawing wood. The poem has powerful imagery and rhythmical structure that creates a vivid picture of the accident. When describing the scene, the author uses...
Belief in Gods was part of the culture and religion of Ancient Greece, which was reflected in sculpture, art, architecture, literature, and traditions of the population. Nevertheless, often the images of the Gods in the art are the representation of the author but not of the entire people, since rituals...
Although slavery is abolished and the characters are legally free, they do not feel their freedom. The main characters are free to do what they want, but they do not let themselves do so because of their moral obligations or past experiences. The play also mentions the mill workers who...
Introduction Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is oftentimes seen as an allegorical, psychological, and quintessential exploration of the author’s inner state. However, despite the core of the story centering on the physical transformation of Gregor Samsa, the real metamorphosis occurs in his family which demonstrate a dramatic shift in attitudes at his...
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 The poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by Thomas Sterns Eliot is full of imagery that is used by the writer to create a specific atmosphere and affect a reader. The work introduces a speaker who is full of various fears and feels miserable and useless. 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 The theme of patriotism and honor is a crucial element in understanding the literature and film created to depict World War I. The poem “The Absorption” in particular focuses on the ideas of patriotism because Sassoon contrasts the horrors of wartime with the soldier’s changing attitudes towards the battlefield...
Introduction Philip Barry wrote Holiday in 1928. The stock market crashed in 1929 leading to the Great Depression of the 1930. Perhaps these events brought out better what Barry’s work criticized about the American society of that time – the affluent and nobles had a false face. Additionally, the play...
Edmund Spenser firstly published sonnet 75 in 1595, and it was devoted to his second wife, Elizabeth Boyle. The verse was a part of the book Amoretti and Epithalamion, which included love poems and a wedding song. In his work, Spenser presents a straightforward idea that love is immortal and...
The compositions left a profound trace in the literature of the XX century. Even though the stories are short, they contain significant ideas. The narratives are modernist since they describe the individual’s thoughts, not the social environment. The paper below represents a brief overview of the narrations. It also explains...
Introduction 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...
Introduction This paper will be focused on analyzing, comparing, and contrasting two short stories. The first one is “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and the second is “The Destructors” by Graham Greene. The pieces share some similarities in terms of their approaches and themes, making them well-suited for comparison. The...
“To His Coy Mistress” is a well-known poem by Andrew Marvell, in which the speaker addresses his lover, who is reluctant to be intimate with him. Even though the speaker seduces his lady, it is mostly a carpe diem poem full of profound contemplation about the brevity of life. “Had...
Literature has always been a tool used by authors to attract people’s attention to a particular aspect of their lives of problems topical for society. At the same time, some issues have always been topical for communities because of their universal character. These include love, relations, faith, morals, and values...
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...
Society’s influence on people and their way of life has two outcomes: liberating or oppressing them. It all depends on which standards one accepts at any given time. Most women live unsatisfied lives full of oppression in patriarchal societies that believe in male dominance and female inferiority in marriage. This...
Introduction Even though many readers consider the American Dream as one of the core ideas in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, there is always a chance to find some new interpretation. In his article, Majid Salem Mgamis explains the American Dream as a part of social values “that...
Freedom is the power to act, think, or speak as one wants. One universal quality of liberty is the ability to change without any constraint. Freedom allows people to make different decisions in their lives without facing any consequences. The short stories “The Bet,” “The Feather Pillow,” “Story of an...
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...
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...
Setting The first part of the book focuses mainly on the theme of identity and introducing the characters. The identity of the main character, Poirot, is not presented in the first chapters. Perhaps, the author used this method to emphasize his detective capabilities instead of merely stating his talent. Poirot...
Introduction Mythology is a critically important element of any culture. It represents values and ideas that attract people and contribute to the creation of inspiring stories. Myths also reveal the current state of society’s evolution and issues that are important at the moment. At the same time, there are still...
In the twentieth century, many artists paid great attention to existentialism. In addition, the theater of the absurd became a remarkable phenomenon, which described in colors all the strangeness and meaninglessness of life. A striking example of such a work is Endgame by Samuel Beckett. One of its theatrical performances...
“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...
Many modern poets are quite different from the classical representatives of the genre. They have more freedom of speech and do not need to conform to an societal rules, they prefer not to restrict themselves by any rhythmical patterns, and frequently, they do not take much care to choose flourishing...
Poems “We Old Dudes” by Joan Murray and “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks are going to be the primary focus of this essay. It might be easy to draw comparisons between the pieces as the poem by Murray derives its leading themes and literary elements from “We Real Cool.”...
Romeo and Juliet are one of the famous tragedies by William Shakespeare. The selected performance for this analysis is the one by Douglas Booth, Paul Giamatti, Damian Lewis, and Hailee Steinfeld of 2010. The producer of this work relies on the use of a grave and balconies to stage the...
«Out of the Dust» is a touching and tragic tale written by Karen Hesse which tells the story of the childhood of a girl named Billie Jo. She lives in Oklahoma Panhandle with her family and experiences the hardships and cruelty of life. Billie Jo’s mother and brother die in...
Introduction This book is characterized by a horrific mystery that makes it very fascinating and thrilling for the audience. In the book, Laura Wexler gives a detailed insight on lynching, which was so rampant in 1946. As she describes the events that took place, Wexler connects with the readers by...
“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas tells a story of a 16-year-old black girl, Starr, who witnesses her friend being killed by a police officer after returning home from a party. As the riots spark across the community, Starr finds her voice and decides to be vocal about the...
Introduction The Bell Jar is almost entirely an autobiographical work, the only thing Plath did was that she changes the names of the characters in action. Most things that happen to the main character in the novel had happened to Silvia Plath. Esther Greenwood is 19, and she comes from...
Although Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is a fairly short story, it manages to wrap the reader completely in its narrative and recreate the microcosm of the author’s life by using a myriad of intricate details. Tan incorporates quite many descriptive details in the text, primarily, adjectives and adverbs, to add...
Class Time Cruelty from one party spreads it to others where there are no alternatives left. Such was the case demonstrated in George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant,” where the main topic of discussion is the author’s inner conflict of serving the British Empire, which he despised with all of his...
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, a famous Russian writer, was a short story master who dreamed that people should be free and happy. Unfortunately, in real life, Chekhov had to deal with rudeness and callousness, which he called vulgarity. Chekhov made fun of philistines, stupidity, and the writer especially did not like...
Introduction to mythology Myths are the basis of our cultural construct. Myths are based on gods and heroes who narrators of myths insist should be emulated. Myths provide insights about the cultural past of modern society. Theories of mythology Euhemerism The euhemerism theory explains how myths are actual accounts of...
The Epic of Gilgamesh of ancient Mesopotamia introduces to the reader two outstanding characters. The protagonists of the epic are Gilgamesh himself and his best friend and companion, Enkidu. The latter is one-third human and two-thirds beast, which explains his lack of caution in tablets three through eight. By nature,...
Introduction “Acquainted with the Night” is a poem written by an American poet, Robert Frost. He is a famous figure in the literary world because there are no other poets except for him who managed to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. In this essay, the answer to the question...
Frankenstein is a novel written by British author Mary Shelley in 1818. The novel describes the story of a young gifted scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who created a living creature as an unorthodox experiment. Frankensteins creation occurred to be hideous and, therefore, rejected by the scientist and humanity (Shelley 28). This...
Introduction Kingsolver addresses various issues in this best-selling novel. Using a young Kentucky woman as the main character, the writer explores several concerns facing middle-class Americans in their daily survivals. A brief overview of the writing points out Taylor Greer as a woman with strong intentions. She had made up...
Introduction Literature is one of the greatest ways through which important messages are passed to millions of people all over the world. The audience may be fascinated by the title of a story or novel and decide to buy it while another may be interested in reading anything that will...
The first two poems are good pieces written by Carl Sandburg. The First poem is titled “A Fence” and the second one “Onion Days”. The third poem is a very interesting piece by Robert Frost titled “Mending Wall”. The three poems have apt language of metaphorical compositions. The themes in...
Introduction According to American history, Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist and an American author. She lived during the Ohio period at Cincinnati which was across the river from where the slave trade took place. Therefore she got first-hand information on the slave trade. These incidences galvanized her to write...
“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed hr had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug” (Kafka 1). This is nonsensical! Kafka uses this ‘metamorphosis’ scene symbolically to achieve some assorted themes of the story. To understand why Kafka uses Gregor...
The book ‘Montana 1948’ reflects themes of; the importance of family, loyalty, guilt, law, and order, and justice. The book is told from a third-person perspective of David Hayden, who recaps the events of his childhood Bentock, Montana in the summer of 1948. The issue of identity and decision-making are...
Introduction The story of the song of Roland is an old one that portrays the struggle between evil and good. This is clearly seen between the Christian franks led by Charlemagne who represents good and Gods will while Muslim Saracens representing pure evil. Main Body In this story, Roland is...
Introduction The narrative opens with an exposition of the protagonist. The author describes the persona’s background as being one of discontentment characterized by envy for a better life. (Maupassant 4). However, the persona is only able to dream of her objects of envy as her life provides limitations. The opening...
The dichotomy is the division of opinions that are contradicting in their meanings and application. The poem sir Gawain and the Green Knight is about testing the morals that people uphold. The poem revolves around Gawain and the Green Knight. The Green Knight is the challenger who puts sir Gawain...
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’....
Introduction The ancient Greeks were well-known for their tragedies. These tragedies played a big role in the process of carrying out investigations about the nature of man and the position man held in the world and also the powers that served to control man’s life. Tragedy in most cases involves...
Introduction Death is like a change, it is inevitable, and however much people can avoid it, they must encounter it at all costs. Religious teachings are dominated by the issue of life after death, a life that theoretically stands out to be better than the current but ironically, though, all...
Introduction Conscience functions as a judge in one’s mind and thus plays a great role in defining individuals’ behavior. It also helps one to differentiate what is right and wrong. Conscience is a universal inner feeling that shows one the standards of laws required of them, which gets embedded in...
The author, Anne Bradstreet, who is a Puritanical woman from the 17th century, views her literary work of art as a child being born. The metaphor of the piece as a child being conceived and nurtured is the overwhelming image of this poem. It is in keeping with the author’s...
There is much written on the issue of “how to train Dogs”; but there are questions and problems addressed better in this book than in any other book on the same. This review is an analysis of how useful this book is in the practice of Dog training. The book...
Introduction Stitch is an eye catching short story by Terry Dowling. The story is set in a home back ground of aunt Inga who is described as Bella’s Aunt and her husband. It quite a lovely old couple where ,that besides of their old age they are happy to be...
Freedom and enslavement are patterns adopted in the literature that rarely hinders the expressive manner of writers. The conventions that govern the presentation of works like poetry and anthology are not limited to one style or literary appreciation method. The writer moves beyond the unknown. A social world with no...
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...
While the reader can certainly enjoy Cesar Vallejo’s poetry on first reading, it is impossible to fully understand or appreciate it in isolation. It is necessary to know something about his life and the history of his time to fully grasp the content and to read much of the rest...
Literary works have been instrumental the world over in initiating wide ranging changes in human affairs. Alan Paton’s Cry the Beloved Country is one such striking work of fiction that had sought to bring about positive social change in South Africa and has been assiduously studied and debated by scholars...
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”...
There are many early feminist writers who wrote prolifically in the late 19th century up to the early phase of the 20th century. In this study the focus will be on early feminist writers that came from the South. This means that they are female writers who are not only...
Introduction Written by Dante Alighieri in the fourteenth century, The Divine Comedy is considered to be one of the most captivating epic poems in literature. Dante’s Inferno paints an edgy and imaginative vision of the Christian afterlife by combining classical Christian influences with a classic touch of Renaissance culture. The...
Early American Poetry Poetic tradition in America followed that in Britain for nearly 200 years. The Puritan poets, like Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, likened their work to the British metaphysical poets, and followed in the footsteps of Milton, Spenser and Donne, among others. Their poetry was highly didactic, mostly...
As humankind was developing and progressing in its cognition of the world and self, the views of human essence varied depending on the time and place: some saw man as a tabula rasa, acquiring all the characteristics in course of life; others insisted on the inborn virtuousness of man, which...
Nathan the Wise is a dramatic work by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing which is outstanding for its close relation to the epoch of the Enlightenment. It is an outstanding German play in five acts that discloses most of the ideals of the era. The theme of rationality in relation to religion...
Terry Teachout says that in Flannery O’Connor’s world “unbelievers living in a fallen world tainted by modernity suddenly find themselves irradiated by grace, but… they struggle in vain against its revelatory power.” In “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” Tom T. Shiftlet lives in a fallen world tainted...
Overall, any work of literature should be analyzed from various standpoints such as for instance, cultural, social, historic etc, certainly if it is possible. It seems that only one approach cannot reflect all the complexity of art. Thus, it is difficult to single out only one method of criticism. However,...
Traveling as the Core problem in the Compared Books Traveling notes have always been interesting and exciting for both, the writer of them and the reader. Different people, visiting the same countries may write absolutely different works about these countries as personal perception in traveling is one of the main...
While reading this amazing creation of Shakespeare, I have always thought of corruption its effect. The more I read the more I realized and understood the undesirable effects of corruption. I wouldn’t say ambition is the effect of corruption but it’s rather one of the factors. Supporting my finding and...
Introduction Poems at most always appear enigmatic for ordinary readers. They remain just a puzzle of words that at most must have been written by madmen and women who had nothing better to do. But for the many who have come to understand and appreciate the importance of poems for...
The problem of tension between duty and conscience has always been the center of the discussions. This problem is more painful in the war times when these two notions have frequently appeared in situations when a person had to kill his/her friend only because of the feeling of duty before...
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...
Science fiction is successful enough to convey the message that human behavior changes under political and scientific changes. It is important to note that most of these changes are not very encouraging. Human beings lose all the considerate thoughts for their fellow beings and turn into inhuman beasts ready to...
In the vast literary heritage left by one of the world’s unique poets, Emily Dickinson, the topics of death and immortality appear to occupy a prominent position. Among multiple poems dealing with that issue, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is notable for the author’s fearless attitude to death...
Introduction Nora is the main protagonist in The Doll House, a masterpiece written by the Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen. Nora is married to a struggling young lawyer, Thorvald Helmer, by whom she has three lovely children. The couple belongs to the middle class as shown by their home, described as...
Human society has gone through multiple numbers of epochs and stages in its development, and on each of those stages, human beings have coined certain rules and laws to regulate their lives. In the modern world, the rational mind seems to rule the creation of laws, but in the ancient...
Decision making in ‘The Iliad’ by Homer is provided by mostly by Gods, as they were the most powerful creatures, who could construct peoples’ lives and change their destinies according to their fads. Life is created in such a way, that people should always make decisions. The decision making process...
Mary Flannery O’Connor authored the short essay “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” in a style and manner that is not often seen in women writers. She chose to deal with the real-life issues of parent-child relationships and violent murders. Certainly not a genre that women authors are known...
Flannery O’Connor is best known for her obscure, but thought-provoking short stories unlike most of the other 20th century American writers. She makes use of tragedy and brutality in her works to create an atmosphere of terror to deal with the subject of spirituality. The theme of ‘A Good Man...
Characters are the main issues in the understanding of the whole written work of any author. The author’s opinion, theme, and ideas are delivered through the characters of the story. It is significant to notice that characters are the main device in the author-reader communication, and an author usually tries...
Introduction Love is inextricably linked to women in both Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” and Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” so much so that a serious discussion of one cannot be complete without the other. Daisy Buchanan and Brett in both books respectively are the agents that symbolize love, or the absence...
In contrast to other characters in The Great Gatsby, Nick goes through a number of changes from the beginning to the end of the novel. The entire novel depicts flashbacks made by Nick in revealing a detailed account of the mysteries surrounding Gatsby. Nick is the character who puts together...
Introduction The book under consideration is called “Bad Leadership” and is written by Barbara Kellerman (US: Harvard Business Press 2004). The book is a kind of warning for those who blindly follow the false leaders and are unable to differentiate the qualities of a full-fledged leader. In addition, the book...
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...
Bruce Chadwick’s book, I am Murdered: George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson and the Killing That Shocked a New Nation is about the murder of George Wythe, who was a noted law professor. Wythe was a towering figure and had pupils such as Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay and James Monroe. He died...
Sophocles, the great Greek tragedian, presented one of the most delightful literary works, the tragedy “Oedipus Rex” or Oedipus the King. Sophocles reveals before the reader a question of a universal scale: who decides the destiny of the person – Gods do, or the person does? In search of the...
Introduction Ethical relations became the core problems of the modern world as the increase of educated people leads to the rise of the morality and improvements of the relations. The interconnection of education and ethics in the society is objective as knowledge is the power, which gives people understanding of...
The problem of the behavior of the teenagers is the problem of the schools and their teachers, who should follow and correct this behavior. The book “Nothing but the Truth” by Avi is a good example of the conflict between teenager, whose behavior was awful, and a teacher who wanted...
Introduction Literary works dealing with serious subjects such as woman rights, discrimination and oppression can be completely different in genre and style, but nevertheless sharing a mutual theme, each approaching it from a different perspective. In Everyday Use by Alice Walker and A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell,...
Introduction Symbols are the types of stylistic devices which writers use in order to extend people’s perception of the story. Symbolism is a very frequently used way of text representation. This special type allows the writer not to express his/her ideas directly. The expression of the plot and author’s thoughts...
Introduction The ancient Greeks had a worldview that established a close relationship between the world of the gods and the world of mortals, typically expressed as a close relationship between the natural world and human activity. This was because it was felt the will of the gods was expressed through...
Edna Pontellier, the heroine of “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, lives in the United States during the 1800s. During those days, men dominated U.S. society while women were considered inferior to them. The Feminism movement that demanded women should be treated equally as men, having the same political, economic, and...
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 book Persepolis I and II, reflects on the life of Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian girl who fled to Vienna in Australia after the Islamic revolution in 1979. This occurred after the Iranian warfare augmented the government’s authority over its people. Satrapi’s parents saw the need to send their...
The short story Happy Endings written by Margaret Atwood is considered to be a selection of possible human relationships experienced between loving people. Margaret Atwood managed to create a story in which the readers are the mover of the plot. John and Mary, the protagonists of the tale, experience various...
The book The Yellow Wallpaper portrays the values and social traditions of Victorian women, their problems, and their social position in society. Gilman attempts to demonstrate care and love by freeing women from the individual home and developing a unique approach to domestic tasks, such as child-care, As a feminist...
Introduction and Thesis statement Siegfried Sassoon is regarded as the preeminent war poet of the 20th Century. His works offer graphic narratives of the violence and brutality of war. What is ironic is that his background of wealth and privilege was about as far from the destitution of war that...
Introduction Ihara Saikaku is now viewed by many literary critics as one of the most prominent Japanese poets. He was the offspring of a prosperous merchant; when he was fifteen, he started to take interest in heikai and soon became very popular in this genre. However, the authors talent should...
Introduction. Books are an integral part of our life. Develop imagination, transfer to the world where magical things are possible. “Haroun and the Sea” is written for a ten-year-old boy, Rushdie’s son. Reading is not just amusement. There is a couple of reasons why reading is important. They are sources...
Introduction The Afro American poets Countee Cullen and John Milton are closely connected with the so-called Renaissance of the African literature. The best known poem “yet, do I marvel” by Cullen is often been misinterpreted and consequently, it was regarded as just one more lament of a defeated soul as...
Among the African writers of world recognition one name that is often mentioned has been that of Nuruddin Farah. His work deals with effectively and in detail the social life and the characteristics of the culture in Somalia. All his works leave a significant impression of the life and culture...
Introduction In different epochs and changeable cultural values, different restrictions are put by the society on its members. In that sense, absolute freedom of choice was not a term that was known for any ordinary person in any chosen time or space. The main issue of contradiction is to what...
In the novels, Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel and One Hundred Years of Solitude by García Marquez, the authors depict an impotent role of women characters in the life of their families and destinies of the generations. Both worlds represent a unique mixture of reality and the spiritual...
Introduction The issue of insanity has often been uncomfortable, for the average human being as well as for the writer. It often provides a fascinating subject for drama, as has been demonstrated brilliantly by William Shakespeare as insanity plays a key role in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. In this play, the...
Introduction It is a common knowledge that African-American experience due to its being sad and this is why dramatic always attracted attention of writers and playwrights as well as other people who could disclose to the world the reasons of oppression due to racial factor, depict, describe or portray the...
Introduction The book by Scot Fitzgerald is hailed as a criticism on the period of materialism during the post-war America when people seemed to pursue relaxation and individual satisfaction. It was a time when alcohol was controlled, and through this, a plot was begun: a bootlegger becoming rich in the...
The character of Ulysses is very famous and it is mainly associated with two epics namely the Iliad and the Odyssey both these great epics were written by homer. Ulysses was a Greek king who went on an expedition in the later parts of his life leaving his kingdom, his...
Rita Dove was born in Ohio in 1952. Their family was neither rich nor poor and had four children. Rita’s father had a master’s degree and worked as a chemist for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron. When she finished school she was put on the list of...
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...
Introduction For many readers who have acquainted themselves with Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, prior to reading critical reviews that praise this book as the work of genius, it often does not make a whole lot of sense that for her “masterpiece”, Lee was being given a Pulitzer...
As a form of literature, poetry is quite difficult to define and even more challenging to analyze, especially when attempting to decipher its original meaning and defining the author’s original intent. Expected to elicit an emotional response first and at the same time leaving enough place for thoughtful contemplations, poetry...
More than any modern genre of fiction, science fiction is predominantly written with a social purpose. Such a goal is rarely to explicitly to predict the future, especially since in many cases the predictive features of science fiction are at best mediocre. While in hindsight, it is easy to select...
Janice Mirikitani’s “Suicide Note” and Robert Burns’ “My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose” are both poems that are extremely simple to read and understand. Yet, on comparison, the wide contrast between them is more glaring than the similarities. The context behind Janice Mirikitani’s “Suicide Note” is included within...
During a lifetime, each person witnesses a large number of events. Whether pleasant or unpleasant, these instances become an inseparable part of the individual’s life. Because of the ability to memorize things, people keep many events in their minds forever, digging them out under various circumstances. Sometimes, one may desire...
Introduction In the modern world, many people like discussing the theme of true heroes and the required qualities. Ancient literature is probably one of the most frequent sources of information to be applied to find out good examples and evidence. During the last centuries, The Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer’s...
Introduction William Faulkner is a master craftsman in the history of novel tradition who spins the masterful artistic pieces by conjoining very similar parts of the whole tied together to form the strong webs in the form of novels that attract the readers to rule their fictional world with the...
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a 14th century poem by an unknown author, describing the adventures of the knight Sir Gawain, nephew of King Arthur. The work continues the tradition of Arthurian chivalric romances and most fully reveals Gawain as a character (Florschuetz 158). In addition to the...
The story compares commonplace details of current life with a barbaric ceremony known as the “lottery”. The setting is a small American town where the inhabitants display a commemorative mood as they meet on June 27 for their annual lottery. After an individual from each family draws a small piece...
Thesis of the Book The undeniable strength of great leaders has always governed world history. From the religious point of view, Moses is shown as such a special leader in the Holy Bible. His actions, perception, and knowledge make him a role model for current leaders, as well as for...
Fences is a play by August Wilson, an American playwright, a Pulitzer’s laureate, who wrote about the life of African Americans in different periods of the 20th century. He chronicled the African-American experience through a series of 10 plays. In the 1950s, the South was still officially segregated, and in...
The White Book is a novel written in 2016 by a South Korean writer, Han Kang. The unique and unconventional way of narration that is usually used by the author ensures the popularity of her books that are recognizable in different parts of the world (Hartanto 265). In 2018, the...
The Yellow Paper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and published in 1892. The text is written in the first person, and it reports the inexorable plunging of the narrator into dissociation and madness. The Yellow Paper lends itself to several interpretations, and it reflects the cultural...
It is important to note that there are significant similarities between Amanda and Jim, and Jim and Tom in various regards. Jim O’Connor is introduced by Tom as a person with a successful past but who undergoes daily struggles in the main timeline of the story. It can be compared...
Introduction Literary plots in which national identity and commitment to traditions are described are fascinating works that make it possible to immerse oneself in other cultures and their features. Alice Walker’s story Everyday Use is an example of such a genre, and despite its humor and irony, the essence of...
The Main Idea of I, Rigoberta Menchú The book titled I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala is an autobiography of Rigoberta Menchú that is written in the form of the testimonio. The narrative was dictated by Menchú during interviews and then transcribed by Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. Rigoberta is a...
Introduction Shirley Jackson was an American author who was born in 1919. Over the course of her career, she completed more than two hundred short stories, as well as several novels and memoirs. Her literary career began during her education at Syracuse University, where she wrote for the literary magazine....
Introduction Moby Dick: Or, the White Whale by Herman Melville, or just Moby Dick, is an unusual book. It was written contrary to all the existing ideas about the laws of the genre and is not similar to any work of world literature. Melville combines the features of adventure, science...
Eudora Welty is considered one of the most sophisticated prose writers of the US of the 20th century. Her stories began to be published in the 1940s and immediately marked the emergence of a new and genuinely distinctive voice in literature. Moreover, the author gained a plethora of medals, honorary...
In her work, Johnson analyzes the poem by Hayden in detail and resorts to evaluating both the general idea and individual thoughts expressed in specific language constructs. According to the critic, the text in question cannot be considered complete since it lacks both a univocal introduction and ending (Johnson). In...
Back in 1968, Philip K. Dick made its readers consider what it truly means to be a human being with the help of the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The central theme of the book, the struggle between people and artificially developed androids, is relevant for showing how...
A profound part of ancient literature, dreams have long served as signs, omens, or portents conveying important information about the future. When analyzing the texts of the Old Testament (Jewish Bible) and Epic of Gilgamesh, literary experts concluded that the two books contain interconnected topics, such as mortality, sin, and...
In the tragedy, Oedipus the King, the writer Sophocles poses one of the most important issues of his time — the will of the gods and the free will of humans. The mythology served as the basis for ancient poetry, especially for tragedy written by Sophocles. The writer used the...
“Moving Mountains” is a work by Erik Reece devoted to the exploitation of natural resources in the United States and related human casualties. The article is a part of the collection of essays published by Orion Magazine. In the source, Erik Reece provides a thorough discussion of the unwanted consequences...
In “Night,” which is a semi-memoir dedicated to Elie Wiesel’s harrowing experiences in concentration camps, the topic of a father-son relationship and its development is very important. Elie, along with other Jewish people of his town, falls victim to the German occupation of Hungary. In 1944, Elie and his family...
Poets tend to explore various aspects of human life and draw people’s attention to the most relevant issues. Hence, many poems may contain similar themes, but the emphasis is likely to be unique for every work of art. In this paper, a common theme in two poems by Robert Frost...
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates, and A&P by John Updike are both short stories that explore the subject of rebellion. The key conflict in Oates’ text is between Connie’s freedom to explore her beauty and sexuality and the views of people around her....
Introduction The Summoning of Everyman is a medieval morality play that is more often referred to as Everyman. When called by Death, Everyman cannot persuade anyone, Beauty, Kindred, or Worldly Goods, to go with him. Only Good Deeds agree to accompany Everyman to his grave. The present paper discusses the...
Ruth Reichl felt a need to re-title her book from “Not Becoming My Mother” to “For You Mom, Finally” because she finally came to an understanding about who her mother really was and that she had actually grown into the independent and self-reliant woman that her mother had always wanted...
Introduction Disgrace is a 1999 novel by J. M. Coetzee, written from the perspective of a middle-aged white South African professor living in Cape Town, who loses his job and, consequently, his usual life after his black student files sexual harassment charges upon him. David relocates to his daughter’s farm...
In his short story, The Chrysanthemums John Steinbeck describes a person who at one point understands that her life lacks meaning and value at least in the eyes of other people. The protagonist Elisa Allen feels that her life is deprived of emotional and intellectual intimacy. To some degree, this...
Kafka on the Shore Telling two entangled stories that seem irrelevant to each other but later on prove intertwined, the book is split into two parts. While the odd chapters lead the reader down the life path of a boy of fifteen named Kafka, the second one narrates the story...
“The Disinherited” by Jack Conroy mixed an early version of social commentary and fiction into a compelling informant narrative that delved into the life of a poor low wage worker within the U.S. during the early 1900s. The book delves into how non-skilled workers within the U.S. attempt to live...
The article “The Awakening: an authoritative text, biographical and historical contexts, criticism” kicks off by giving the novel The Awakening appreciation for being among the few fiction publications that front a female protagonist. The author then goes ahead to explain how the gender of the main character causes her to...
The article The Real Raymond Carver by James Campbell opens by confirming that Carver usually went through various drafts of all his work before settling on a final copy for print. Campbell claims that the joy in reading Carver’s work comes from enjoying the strange scenarios that the author presents...
The tone Christopher Columbus used in his letters to the Queen and King of Spain is very official, professional, optimistic, and positive. Christopher Columbus as a person, who was directly involved in the process of discovering new lands had the best level of education and was very well informed about...
While reading the critical response on Ha Jin’s short story Saboteur, I’ve realized that the critic Nicola McAllister has a low opinion of the Chinese government and knows nothing about the policy of China. On the other hand, he is just ignorant of the historical changes that took place in...
Flannery O’Connor’s short story A Good Man is Hard to Find has always attracted the attention of various critics since this literary work can give rise to various interpretations. Moreover, it is possible to identify various themes that the author explores, for example, one can mention religion or social change....
“All the world’s a stage,” wrote Shakespeare (Shakespeare, 2010), and that is true even when behind the wheel. Driving is not a solitary activity but involves many interactions, with passengers, fellow drivers, gas station attendants, and, in most unwelcome fashion, for the most part, the highway patrol. The experience of...
