6005 samples of this type
Introduction Guy De Maupassant’s story, The Necklace is an example of how a writer uses various characters to develop the plot of the story leaving an everlasting memory on the reader. This essay will focus and determine Mathilde’s character as portrayed in the story The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant....
Introduction The play, which takes approximately ten minutes, was written by Caryl Churchill as a response to the tragic events that took place at Gaza in the recent past. The play, among other issues, shows the extent to which theater is capable of reacting to the global politics. The play...
Summary The poem, “My Last Duchess” was written by Robert Browning in 1842. The work can be described as one that’s the prime example of a dramatic monologue in the form of a poem. The dramatic monologue, as a genre is a self-conversation that is presented from a particular character’s...
The short stories “Mericans” by Sandra Cisneros and “In Response to Executive Order 9066: All Americans of Japanese Descent Must Report to Relocation Centers” by Dwight Okita develop a common theme of cultural differences. Specifically, the differences experienced between the American culture and the home cultures of the protagonists. The...
Justice, equality, and fairness are the ideals people from different cultures in different parts of the world have always aspired to achieve. They are the values that not only have inspired people to speak up and fight against oppression, cruelty, discrimination, and abuse but also encouraged innovation and progress, bringing...
Introduction The Reader, a novel written by Bernhard Schlink, is one of the heartbreaking books in the last 30 years. The author discusses many topics relevant to people born in the 20th century and analyzes one of the worst events during this period, the Holocaust. Topics include first love, male...
An American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown.” The story’s setting is 17th century New England, which was predominantly Puritan. Hawthorne bases his work on the criticism of puritanism and its central premise that all people are responsible for the original sin. “Young Goodman Brown” is a literary criticism...
Introduction Christian stories and parables carry deep meaning and contain valuable discourses about virtues, goodness, and the righteous path that people should follow to live in a healthy and peaceful society. At the same time, in addition to theological texts, works from popular literature also may contain profound truths that...
Who is the Speaker? Wild Nights is known as one of the most thought-provoking poems written by Emily Dickinson in 1891. This verse has captured readers’ attention and imagination due to its ambiguous nature. It narrates about passion, desire, rapture, and ecstasy; yet, it also describes the powerful natural phenomenon....
In Life in the Iron Mills by Davis (1861), the possible function of mixing two modes of fiction is to highlight the moral importance of the story for readers while making it very real to the audience. Being focused on the truthful representations of life, realism supports the author in...
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...
Soldier’s Home and How to Tell a True War Story are short stories written about the wars. In the Soldier’s House, Hemingway narrates the time after the First World War, and O’Brien connects the events with the Vietnam War. In a comparison of O’Brien’s description of war with Hemingway, it...
In the book The Carpenter’s Gift, the author expresses the idea that kind actions do not go unnoticed and make the world better. Rubel (2011) uses symbolism in order to illustrate this suggestion. Symbolism is a literary device when a particular element of the narrative conveys a broader message. In...
Identity encompasses the unique signature that differentiates different works of literature. Essentially, this identity can be utilized to differentiate different works originating from different authors. Jack Turner is an author that has created an identity for himself, by not only writing interactive works on wildlife but also incorporating various figures...
The short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894 raises essential feminist issues. Despite the short form of the literary work, it successfully and powerfully conveys the deprivations American women of the end of the nineteenth century experienced due to the dominantly patriarchal society in which they lived. Meticulously using...
Introduction The novel Paradise was written in 1997, and it was Morrison’s first book after winning the Nobel Prize in literature in 1993. Paradise stresses the affection of God, and it is the author’s third novel focusing on various kinds of love. All the chapters in the book are dedicated...
Holocaust is a sad tragedy that left its terrible traces in the hearts and souls of millions of innocent people. Among them is also Elie Wiesel who shared his sad experience in his book “Night”. At the end of the book, the readers find a very special scene when Eliezer,...
Closing Statement: The Prosecutor Your Honor, the life of a person, no matter what his or her body may look like, is sacred, which is why the Samsa Family must answer for their actions. There is clear evidence that, despite his transformation, Gregor Samsa still possessed the ability to feel,...
Any literary work raises an issue related to a political or social problem in society. An examination of a narrative’s historical context, its literary features, and plot helps identify and understand such societal issues. The poem “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall, the poem “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott...
Tragic heroes often embrace unconscious irony, leading to their downfall. In any literary work, it becomes fascinating when some of the characters are self-denial after engaging in different heinous actions unknowingly and later face the consequences after realizing the truth. Denotatively, unconscious irony is when various characters within the play...
The Greeks are some of the renowned writers who have ever been known. Although most of their works were done in the past, scholars still use their poems up to date. The Greeks seemed to have mastered the art of poetry and tales since the pieces were done in a...
In the play And the Soul Shall Dance, Yamauchi provides an overview of the life of Japanese-immigrants in the United States. The author presents the conflict between the American and Japanese cultures as the immigrants long for their home country. The characters struggle to assimilate into the American culture as...
Juan Boscan is a significant Catalan lyric poet who was at the court of Charles V and was considered the best student of Siculo and Varini. The latter were teachers of Latin culture in the family of the Dukes of Alba. Subsequently, Juan Boscan himself became a mentor to the...
Abstract Thomas Malory’s book “Le Morte Darthur: The Winchester Manuscript” is about the life and death of King Arthur. Apart from ventures and battles, it depicts the disempowerment of women in King Arthur’s Court, an issue which is not so frequently discussed by scholars in frames of the book “Le...
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 themes of love, life, death, and belief are commonly discussed in poetry, and people are free to expand their own opinions and judgments. One of the main reasons for poets and poetesses to choose these concepts is their emotional complexity. These issues can be easily coupled with each...
Introduction The eternal struggle between good and evil living in the same person is a vital theme of literature. Thus, writers usually create literary doubles to introduce the same ideas and make them more apparent to readers by using unique figures incorporating various qualities and showing readers how they affect...
Introduction The sea is frequently the central theme of many authors’ compositions. The poem “On the Sea” by John Keats (1800) illustrates the incredible power and subtlety of the waves, as well as their capacity to treat troubled eyes and torn ears. It demonstrates freedom and solace that can be...
The Europeans’ conquest is one illustration of how people’s desire for power and ownership can subject others to suffering. The results of such actions are oppression and loss of identity since the conquered often have to obey the policies and rules that the conquerors impose on them. These perspectives help...
The themes of oppression, alienation, and identity often permeate the well-known pieces of modern and classic literature. Conflicts that are understood on an instinct level are often engaging for the reader and broad with possible meanings. The basic issue at the core of a story can be expanded and turned...
Autobiography is an exciting and unusual literary genre popular worldwide. Writing an autobiography is an excellent opportunity to declare oneself, tell stories, and teach future generations something new. This allows people to transfer their useful experience to other people, which contributes to society’s development. However, in addition to having an...
Introduction The Namesake is a debut novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri. Originally, a part of the novel was published in a magazine and only later extended to a full-length novel. It investigates the themes of multiculturalism, self-discovery, and isolation common in the lives of immigrants and their...
Autobiographic works do not only help understand the author’s writing better but also do it credibly and convincingly. The Glass Menagerie is a memory play by Tennessee Williams, in which he recollects life challenges his family had to face. This paper aims to prove that the social environment, rather than...
The purpose of this work is to compare journeys of the main characters of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown” and Washington Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle.” The first story takes place in Puritan New England at the end of the 17th century. A young man named Brown...
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...
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...
Introduction William Shakespeare’s play, Othello, the Moor of Venice, describes tragedy using Othello as the protagonist. Othello is a Moorish soldier in the Venetian army who is highly qualified and respected. In the play, he finds himself in several tragedies resulting from racial discrimination, envy, love, and infidelity. Other characters...
Studying the phenomenon of friendship in literary works is quite popular among authors. The writer Sherman Alexie in his story “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” comically approaches the description of friendship between old friends. At the same time, Borges Luis, in the short story “Funes the...
“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...
One of the most effective learning approaches is through fictional and real-life narratives. Short stories have been used in the history of humanity to offer studying materials that allow students to connect emotionally with the texts and relate them with their experiences. The Egg and Bernice Bobs Her Hair are...
The Moldau is the symphonic poem of the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. The poem illustrates the flow of the Moldau river from its spring in the Bohemian forest to Prague. The Moldau theme is played five times and could be characterized as proud and playful by the character. Such an...
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 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...
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...
Introduction The central idea of the Recitatif by Toni Morrison is race and racism, the “black-white” conflict. It must be noticed that the author’s approach to this subject is nonconventional, and the first sign of it is that she makes the reader guess who between the two protagonists of the...
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...
Introduction William Shakespeare is one of the most significant figures of the United Kingdom and the whole world. His contribution to the development of culture and literary and theatrical art is priceless, and the fact that this ingenious writer lived and created literary works is a gift for all humankind....
Introduction The “Odyssey” is an epic poem depicting Odysseus’s ten-year journey after the fall of Troy. The narrative has more than one perspective, following both Odysseus retelling his story and the view of his son, Telemachus. The “Odyssey” is an example of ancient poetry that had a despicable influence on...
“Frankenstein,” the book by Anna Meriano, is a fancy, captivating retelling of the worldwide known legend. The story of a creature seeking love began in the writings of Mary Shelly in the 19th century. Masterful illustrations by Katy Wu make the book look like a personal diary. Victor, the main...
Topic: The Glass Menagerie and its idea of pursuing adventure or sticking to one’s duties. Thesis Statement: The Glass Menagerie suggests that a person should not make a choice between chasing one’s dreams or staying put because it is possible to find the middle ground and do both. Brainstorm: Happiness Comes at...
Introduction Gerard Manley Hopkin’s poem “Spring and Fall” is centered around one’s perception of death and mortality. The central figure of the writing is a girl called Margaret, who is crying over dead leaves and ordinary seasonal changes. However, the narrator understands that the underlying reasons for such an emotional...
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...
Fences written by August Wilson is a play that revolves around the conflict within an African American family that takes place in the year 1957 in Pennsylvania. The play’s title has a metaphorical meaning, and the unfinished fence the audience sees on stage symbolizes the uneasy relationship of the main...
Stylistic convergence is an essential component in any prosaic text system and serves as the most indicative means for expressing the author’s feelings and emotions. Expression with the joint use of individual stylistic devices is superimposed on the interpretation of another, and the overall stylistic effect as a result of...
Introduction Any literature masterpiece is composed of numerous layers and themes, which supplement each other and give it new tones and accents. One can read a book looking for some evident events and the plot lying on the surface. However, this approach will not ensure a profound understanding of the...
Introduction The Street is a novel by Ann Petry, an AAfrican American writer, whose other famous works include novels Country Place and The Narrows. The Street was first published in 1946 and sold more than a million copies. The main character of the novel, Lutie Johnson, decides to build a...
Introduction “Recitatif” is a short story written by Tony Morrisson, which depicts the experience of Twyla and Roberta. The story uncovers many themes, including child neglect and racial tensions of the era. The plot development allows seeing the relationship between two childhood friends and the different life experiences and views...
Introduction “A&P” is a short story written by John Updike, an American novelist, poet, and literary critic. The story was initially published in 1961 in The New Yorker. Updike tells the story of Sammy, a nineteen-year-old working in a small-town grocery store. The central conflict in the plot revolves around...
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is the most recognized play written by William Shakespeare and one of the most influential works in the history of world literature. The issue of revenge is the central theme of Shakespeare’s play, which concerns the main confrontation of two protagonists, Hamlet, and...
The encounter between Gilgamesh and Uta-Utnapishtim teaches the protagonist to accept death’s inevitability and stop searching for eternal life. Afflicted by Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh immerses into thoughts about his mortality and seeks Uta-Utnapishtim, who was granted everlasting life after the Deluge. Uta-Utnapishtim advises Gilgamesh to abandon the idea and demonstrates...
Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” starts jovial and seemingly happy, with the population of a village gathering for the titular event. The event is annual, and the name describes it accurately, with it consisting of the drawing of lots by every resident of the town. However, as the process...
The Sixties by Terry Anderson analyzes the impact the decade had on American society. The book does not simply summarize the events of the decade, but places them into a context that today’s readers can easily understand. It discusses major events such as the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War,...
Modern gothic literature involves the use of terrifying, horrifying, and uncertain death events. A gothic story requires a frightening setting and unusual characters. 1408, a story by King, is a reflection of modern gothic literature. It is composed of elements of terror, horror, death and suspense. Great parts of the...
For my literary research paper, I am going to write about “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. Analyzing this story, I will focus on the characters of two brothers: the narrator and Sonny, and their conflicts. Both brothers lived two completely different lifestyles and yet they both feel spiritually trapped. I...
Lisa Lutz’s The Spellman Files is a novel with disordered episodes which combine some genres. It combines literary work with comedy and mystery in a 300-plus-page book. Despite the problems found in the structure of the book, Lutz’s choice of characters, humor and adept narration makes the book an interesting...
The poem Howl by Allen Ginsberg was written in a highly peculiar period of the Beat Generation. The latter was comprised of a number of authors who reevaluated the established norms of society and adhered to non-conformism. Allen himself was highly opposed to repression, exploitation, and capitalism because he perceived...
The first impression of Jeannette’s mother is very conflicting. It is hard to believe that she is describing her mother. When she describes her emotions and the way she sees her mother going through garbage, one wonders if she is talking about her mother or someone she just calls “Mom”....
The German fairy tale Snow-White and Rose-Red (German: Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot), just as the more famous Little Snow White, is one of the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm, who brought their version of the fairy tale in accordance with the moral norms of the contemporary German society. According to...
Introduction Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus addresses conventional romantic themes like isolation and beauty of the nature and one can find that the novel discusses the ultimate pain of lose. It is often considered as a humanistic critique of technological development or new scientific inventions. Personal...
Run by Ann Patchett is a piece of fiction writing. The book deals with the life of an American family of a former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle, who recently lost his wife, Bernadette. Ann Patchett has chosen a very symbolic title for the novel, Run, for all the characters...
The style of thinking, reasoning as well as acting changes with time during the process of development. Playwrights have resolved to address the changes or experiences that one encounters during his/her development. For instance, William Shakespeare in his Romeo and Juliet illustrates the process of development through Juliet, the hero...
In his book “Night”, Elie Wiesel shares his experience of surviving some of the most tragic experiences in the history of humanity which is the Holocaust. Throughout the book, the audience may see a number of important themes, and one of them is the theme of Eliezer’s struggle to keep...
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...
In the book Celia, A Slave by Merton McLaurin the question of slavery and oppression of women is raised. The laws of the land do not protect the women against atrocities committed against them in this patriarchal society. The book is set during the slavery era in America. Therefore, McLaurin...
Introduction In his work, The Road, Cormac McCarthy creates a quintessentially post-apocalyptic scenario, revolving around the plight of a man and a boy, desperately holding on to a wavering yearning for survival and sustenance, in a world turned upside down by the reasons unknown to the reader (Ryan 152). The...
Wiesel’s intention in writing the novel ‘Night’ was to give a testimony of the horrors that took place during the Holocaust; consequently, the themes from the book reflect these intentions. Themes in the night When Elie was a young boy, he grew up in a sheltered environment where he assumed...
As it is well-known nowadays, a special artistic technique is meant under the term “defamiliarization”. Its main meaning is that the audience is forced to perceive the suggested things and actions from a distance, in an unfamiliar way, as if they were strangers there. The technique is aimed at the...
Introduction In 1739 a slave revolt took place in South Carolina. It is referred to as the Stono Rebellion or the Catos Rebellion. It is not clear what actually triggered the rebellion by the slaves in South Carolina. On the fateful day of 29 September 1739, the slaves in South...
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...
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...
A & P written by John Updike is a short story of a teenaged boy of 19 named Sammy who worked at a local grocery store called A&P. Sammy relates in first person the three young girls in swimsuits who entered the store. He appraises them sexually, until the manager...
Tom Wolf in his book ‘The Right Stuff’ 1979 attempts to talk about the commitment of the pilots in US postwar research with the experimental speed-planes. The title, The Right Stuff dwells around the idea of having the right stuff. Wolfe also documents the tales of the initial development of...
Introduction By portraying the relationship between a young white boy {Huck} and a black slave {Jim} – a relationship that sees the racially prejudiced suspicion of the former dissolve and replaced by a warm friendship with the black slave – Mark Twain does well to depict the gross injustice of...
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce is rather a short story originally published in 1890. The primary characteristic of the story is irregular time spacing and unclear ending. By the end of the story, the reader does not have an understanding of what has really happened with...
This story commences in Manhattan at the beginning of the 17th century but it is written from Paris. It is a very interesting story talking about an American setting with American characters. It has several themes including family betrayal, deception, truth, and imagination, and family domesticity among others. However, the...
Author The author, Joseph John Ellis was born in 1943 and is currently professor at the Mount Holyoke College of History on the Ford Foundation. He wrote the Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation in 2000 and received the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2001 for it. He received his PhD...
Introduction Raymond Carver is considered one of the very few contemporary writers who concentrated mainly on short stories and poems. According to many, Raymond revived a dying profession of literature. His literary works are mainly characterized by middle-class characters. Because he mainly wrote on love and loneliness, Raymond was believed...
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...
National Enterprise Reporter Timothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and the author of five successful books. His books include masterpieces such as The Good Rain and Lasso the Wind. The worst hard time is a story that centers on the people who were present in America’s high plains in...
The short story Mimsy Were the Borogoves, written by Henry Cutter and Catherine Moore, has always been considered as one of the most prominent examples of American science fiction. The main reason, why this novella attracts so much attention of critics is its deep symbolism, and intricate ideas, which the...
In his article “The Beggar’s Opera as Opera and Anti-Opera,” critic Peter Lewis first analyzes the title of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera as something that was not originally intended to be an actual opera in the traditional sense of the word. In making this claim, Lewis is largely in...
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”...
Ed McBain’s “Sadie When She Died” is one of the stories from the 87th Precinct series which he started writing in the mid-1950s. It presents the story about the officer, Steve Carella, who knew from the beginning the identity of the real murderer but lacked proof to accuse him of...
Conrad vision of life after death On primary reading of the story, I find Conrad feeling pain and guilt for his brother’s death. He is incapable to overcome this barrier as already experiencing the breath of death; the boy could look at the world in a usual way. Now, Conrad...
The closer analysis of the character of Chris McCandless, in Jon Krakauer’s novel “Into the Wild”, points out to his personality as such that can hardly serve as a “role model” for young people, due to the fact that McCandless’ “pro-nature” stance appears to have been an intellectual by-product of...
William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” is a story about a woman who is isolated from her town because of the attitudes and beliefs of the Old South social structure. Throughout the story, she is seen as a town oddity because she represents the ways of the Old...
Lord Byron is a romantic poet and Browning is a Victorian poet. Byron is a nihilist and pessimist. Browning, on the other hand, is known for his robust optimism. However, both are very great as poets. Their poems deal with various aspects of love, and their capacity to depict the...
Introduction A Rose for Emily is one of the shortest stories by William Faulkner and it tells the tale of a woman named Miss Emily Grierson living in the southern parts of the country with its depleting social structure. The author narrates his story from the point of view of...
Introduction The overall situation in America from a political, educational, and religious was distinguishable. Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass were iconic American figures able to accomplish their life goals and express their life road through their biographies. Through the reading of the book, the similarities between the two have been...
The story of the Iliad is a famous one. When the cruel Trojan prince Paris abducts the queen of Agamemnon, Helen, war ensues between the two countries across the seas. Many heroes and gods take sides and fight the war. It is the first famous book written in Europe, written...
In the scope of classical literature, the writings of Francois Voltaire occupy a prominent position. Voltaire’s renowned shrewd outlook and sober judgment found reflection in his famous satire Candide, or Optimism – a book which, met with a scandal immediately after publication, has enjoyed great popularity for centuries due to...
“The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin (1894) tells us the transition of a woman from shock to grief to joy and then again to shock within a span of an hour or so. But it should be mentioned in the initial stages that there is no change of...
The book Water for Elephants by Sara Gruenn is full of rich accounts and actions. The reader is attracted into the vast arena of sideshows, elephants and ringmasters. One can also get experience about the conditions of nursing homes as also about old age. Indeed the book is remarkable in...
On Bullshit is a 2005 nonfiction bestseller by acclaimed American philosopher, Dr. Harry Gordon Frankfurt. A compact 67-page philosophical investigation, and emanating his distinguishable blend of philosophical acuity, wry humor, and psychological insight, Frankfurt sketches/develops a revolutionary theory of bullshit – defining the concept and analyzing its application, effect, and...
Introduction The play Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, as all the masterpieces of the prominent writer, raised the themes of love, hatred, betrayal, and honor; the performance transfers the reader into the atmosphere of religious oppression and human portrayal of the central character, villainous Shylock. The play remains relevant,...
Introduction In most cases our backgrounds characterize us, for instance, where we grew up, our beliefs as well as traditions, the forms of education we acquire and the friends we make. It only becomes a problem when your background clash and as a result we are left torn between the...
The poem “Pool Players Seven at the Golden Shovel” discloses a bright and fashionable presentation of the main characters of the poem, namely the street boys whose fate depends upon their luck. In that regard, the poem is also a protest against the goodness of life, which came out of...
It is hard to think of two poets whose lives are more different from each other’s than Langston Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri of mixed-race parents, and was mostly raised by his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. He worked odd jobs, including a six-month...
In the history of the English literature Geoffrey Chaucer is undoubtedly the biggest poetic name up to Shakespeare, where the best of his works — “The Canterbury Tales” is certainly one of the greatest literary works of the English Middle Ages in which Renaissance features are clearly breaking through. The...
Introduction The complexity involved in the working of the human mind is beyond explanations. The flow of thoughts in an individual is Brownian at a superficial level but looking at it from the perspective of a philosopher one realizes the implicit presence of ‘The Stream of Consciousness’. Throughout the history...
Introduction Lanval, TheWife of Bath’s Tale, and The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnel have much in common in the plots and the ideas they suggest. In the current paper, I will look at how satire is used in the works to disclose the problem of gender and chivalry....
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...
“Who controls the past controls the future. And who controls the present controls the past.” By the above quote, it is meant that Orwell claims those historians to be in power who govern our society. Only such historians who lead the society through their deeds or words are in a...
It is a common knowledge that people always thought of something that would make their life easier. Charms and topics related with them have always attracted the attention of different writers who created stories and fairy-tales where people achieved everything they wanted by means of magic not even lifting a...
Introduction If there is a novel that can be closer to haiku, in terms of deep meanings that can be extracted from descriptions and short ordinary phrases, this would be “Snow Country” – a novel by Yasunari Kawabata that tells the story of love between a man visiting hot springs...
The Glass Menagerie is described as more of a memory play which is how Tennessee Williams has portrayed. His directions in the play have gone into great details in explaining the settings and the moods he desired for the play. It is a little unusual for a playwright such as...
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...
In all societies and all epochs, judging individuals by their appearance was a prevalent tendency, which normally allowed creating a first impression about the person, their possible nature, lifestyle, and behavior. However, there is a negative side to such practice, which consists of prejudices against those, who look different in...
“The Barrelmaker Brimful of Love” is a short story written by a famous Japanese poet Ihara Saikaku. In this work, the author addresses several issues: first, the relationships between love and religion, in particular Buddhism. Secondly, he explores the conflict between individual happiness and general welfare within the context of...
“Story of an Hour” was written by Kate Chopin in the late 18th century, and is much different as compared to other short stories. It is a dramatic example of a woman who suddenly finds herself blessed with the long-desired freedom that she internally sought from a repressive marriage. The...
Introduction Shakespeare is a master craftsman who depicted almost all aspects of human life and psyche in his great tragedies. Hamlet is one of his all-time great tragedies that have a carefully drafted plot, characterization, development of conflicts, dramatic ironies, and a setting conducive to the development of pity and...
Introduction To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee is one of the most vehement novels that break the tradition of ‘ part pour l’art’ and proceeds to provide some strong lessons. Racism and classism are one of its major themes, and in course of exploration of such a theme,...
Introduction Antoine de Saint-Exupery, to certain extent, can be compared to Leonardo Da Vinci, who, as one knows from the history, succeeded in painting, architecture as well as in exact sciences. Similarly, Saint-Exupery’s giftedness manifested itself in a number of directions: he studied architecture, worked as a sales manager and...
Slave trading in southern Appalachia Aaron Purcell is the author of the article, “A Damned Piece of Rascality: The business of slave trading in Southern Appalachia” The article has laid focus on Meek, Hayne, and Company, a firm that dealt with slave trading in Southern Appalachia. The article, which was...
Introduction Most feminist literature seems to argue against the traditional conception of woman as she has been envisioned in the white, middle-class suburban ideal. However, feminist issues extend well beyond this narrowly defined world into the lives of women of color, too, although there are slight amendments as to what...
Fitzgerald’s magnum opus The Great Gatsby raises an important question about the legitimacy of the American Dream. The novel centers on Jay Gatsby, a millionaire who came from humble beginnings and spends his time trying to reunite with his former lover, Daisy. Gatsby’s warped perception of success makes him see...
On Theme “The man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want”… – Willy Loman, Act 1 (Miller, 1998) “The American Dream” is the highlight of this story. There is a...
Introduction The Poem Dulce et Decorum Est and the story The Things they Carried are both about war, but more than fifty years apart. The geography and the weapons have changed, but the conditions are not that different. The men are much the same and war is as brutal as...
The Taming of the Shrew is a very light-hearted comedy written by William Shakespeare. It depicts the social attitudes to the institution of marriage as was in existence during the Elizabethan days. The theme of the play can be approached from several angles, but at the surface level, it is...
Introduction Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane is one of the most famous realist novels, which stands in line with masterpieces like Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina. This book tells the story of a girl who enters into an arranged marriage and eventually becomes its victim. The novel’s plot is centered...
The beauty of literature is that it is one of the disciplines able to reveal already existing characters from different angles. King Arthur is present in many literary works and has become a cult character. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a Middle English poem by an unknown author...
As portrayed in the first two parts of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, Sir Gawain, a legendary member of Arthur’s knight, is a paragon of virtue and modesty. He describes himself as the least of the knights both in mental and physical prowess, and at the first glance appears...
Introduction Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the work of the unknown poet written approximately in the late 14th century, contains multiple topics for a discussion. The poem is referred to as an alliterative verse and medieval romance. Special interest of the work is the notion of the magical creature...
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...
Literature is rather a particular topic to write on because it presupposes that the person who writes on it has a profound knowledge not only of the topic he or she deals with but also has a great amount of background knowledge of a certain country’s history, culture customs, and...
Introduction In the short story, Desiree’s Baby Kate Chopin depicts truth of life speaking about social problems of women and role of racial differences. In this short story, a women character of embodies qualities and unique characteristics typical for many 19th century women, and reflects their expectations, values and morals....
Achilles and Hector are two heroic characters in Homer’s classic Iliad and both these fearless warriors display honour and virtue in their characters. The personal resolve, decisions, behaviour, valour and the commitment shown by these two act as the key to the development of the plot of the book. Both...
Introduction The Death of a Salesman vividly portrays a life of a middle-class salesman who tries to achieve the American dream and realize his life hopes. Miller writes that, in Loman, he has attempted to personify certain values which civilized men, in the twentieth century, share. In Death of a...
The play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Johan Ibsen is one of the few literary works that openly fought for the rights of women in the 19th century at the time, when women were still considered inferior to men, especially in a family setting and in the corporate world (Farfan...
Introduction The most discussed subject in the works of Chaucer and Jane Austen is the topic of marriage. It is still a hotly debated subject. What kind of relationship a husband and wife should have, how the domestic duties are to be shared, and whether both are equal, or whether...
Introduction The genre of a detective novel always attracted a large audience with its suspenseful premise and a satisfactory and often revelatory ending. One can argue that this genre has a set of traits that were established once and had not changed significantly since then (Rosenheim 81). Many short stories...
Introduction Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet famous for his Divine Comedy, which is regarded as the most prominent literary work ever written in Italian. The sonnet “All My Thoughts” is a part of the acclaimed narrative poem. The very title of the sonnet resorts to the readers’ attention...
Introduction Anti-slavery is one of the central aspects of Mark Twain’s iconic novel, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Given the years when the novel was written, Twain’s thoughts and beliefs regarding slavery channeled through the book’s main characters were quite revolutionary and ahead of their time. First things first, the writer...
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 Reflections on human essence, the motives of specific actions, and the choice in favor of certain decisions occupy a significant place in the literary niche of art. Both mature writers and authors with little experience address these topics and seek to convey to readers their unique interpretation of how...
Dreams of fantastic technologies of the future usually border on an incredible catastrophe that threatened humanity with extinction. Typically, such ideas are beautifully depicted in dystopian novels. The problem of the post-apocalyptic planet is often reflected in the works of fiction writers, which is typical for the work of The...
Billy Collin’s poem The First Dream is clearly an expression of the feeling one has when one tries to explain an abstract experience. In Collin’s case, the abstract experience is a dream. Arguably, people tend to distance themselves from mystery as human beings tend to prefer real-world occurrences that can...
Introduction The book The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry presents a detailed model for understanding poets’ artistic styles and their precursors. Since its publication in 1973, it has remained a source of argument or debate among literature students and educators. This short essay gives a personal reflection of...
