“The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich: Symbolism

As the title shows, “The Red Convertible” is the main fulcrum of the story and the entire plot is built around it. It is used as a symbol of happiness with its color ‘red’ denoting passion and life. At the beginning of the story, the car belongs to both Lyman...

Love and Loneliness in the Works of R. Carver and B. A. Mason

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...

Kakinomoto Hitomaro’s Poems 29 and 30

Conveying the feelings of poets, their works reflect not only the life of the poets’ souls but the state of the culture at a certain period of time. Poems by Kakinomoto Hitomaro included in Man’yoshu implement all the main theoretical achievements of Japanese poetics of the seventh-eighth centuries and illuminate...

“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe

Introduction The story Red Death was written by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is about Fight of prince Prospero against red death, the plague which affected the country. The prince and his companions try to escape from the plague hiding. They stay inside the seven differently decorated rooms. A new...

Creativity in Chopin’s Short Story ‘The Storm’

Artistic creativity may intuitively appear to be simple but in actuality it is a complex phenomenon. Creativity is definitely an elaborate process with the product being an outcome of the implementation of the creativity. It can be stated that art and creativity is fundamentally governed by the flow of emotion...

“The Secret Life of Bees” by Kidd and the “Feast of Love” by Baxter

Two novels under analysis are peculiar for their plot and main ideas. It is no secret that both The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter fuel the problem of love. However, there is a question to be answered: is love...

Camus – “Creation and Revolution”

Given Albert Camus’ strong affiliation with the philosophy of existentialism, it would only be logical to discuss the sub-chapter “Creation and Revolution” from his book The Rebel within the context of existentialist discourse. In its turn, this discourse is being concerned with the exploitation of an ‘alienation’ theme – that...

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner Review

A Rose for Emily is considered to be a short story written by William Faulkner, an American writer. Miss Emily, the central figure of the story, is described as an isolated character living in the atmosphere of totalitarian upbringing. It should be noted that the author creates sophisticated characters perceived...

Honor de Balzac’s “A Passion in the Desert”

Introduction Art is an essential part of human life. Literature is a part of art. Literature entertains people, gives them some information, or offers them some ideas to think over. Literature is very important for modern people, it ennobles, especially classic literature. It is impossible to imagine present life without...

The Art of Losing by Elizabeth Bishop

Introduction Elizabeth Bishop has often been portrayed as being detached from her poetry, partly because she often takes an exterior view. However, this is merely her artist’s eye coming through as she uses very co0ncrete imagery to convey her meaning and expects the reader to create most of the message....

“Mama Might Be Better Off Dead” by Laurie K Abraham

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...

Thoughts from Vallejo’s Pen

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...

Reviews on Gender Articles

When searching the required articles, I followed the necessary requirements. The first article called New Brooms They Say Clean’: Women’s Political Activism on the Ballarat Goldfields, 1854 is a scholarly and peer-reviewed article, as it contains the necessary credentials, namely the information about the author, the author’s Ph.D., and the...

“The Worst Hard Time” by Timothy Egan

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...

Novels by A. Bierce and H. James Comparison

Introduction The short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” written by Ambrose Bierce is about the last minutes of a man who was condemned to hanging. Standing at the Owl Creek Bridge, the place of his execution, he never stops thinking about his family and plans his escape. Another...

Cyber-Science, Fiction or Modern Reality?

In their article From Cyborgs to Cyberbodies: The Evolution of the Concept of Techno-Body in Modern Medicine, Andrea Gaggioli et al. strived to provide readers with the insight into the fact that, due to the recent revolutionary breakthroughs in the field of informational technology and biomedicine, the very concept of...

Plato, Aristotle and Preferable Response to Literature

The wisdom of the past can be a perfect source to resort to when one needs advice on the present situation. Ancient Greek civilization has been a recognized treasury of knowledge and philosophic ideas that are topical even nowadays, many centuries later. The names of prominent Greek philosophers, Socrates, Plato,...

Negativism in “Othello” by William Shakespeare

Introduction Othello is one of the most popular plays by William Shakespeare. It has a lot of themes that intricate the mind of a viewer and a reader as well. The role of this play is really significant for contemporary human beings. It was outlined by William Shakespeare in the...

Main Historical Themes in the Contemporary Literature

There is no denying that history and literature are interconnected in many ways. Undoubtedly, the majority of artists resort to history as a source of inspiration. Extremely sensitive to contemporary and historical events, writers tend to raise the most controversial, vital, and burning questions in their works creating a resonance...

Traditions of Magical Realism in Juan Rulfo’s Short Novel Pedro Paramo

Juan Rulfo’s short novel Pedro Paramo is one of the most eminent Latin American works in literature along with novels by Marquez and Borges. In this respect, the analysis of the novel gives a specific evaluation of it in terms of the traditions of magical realism. The reality which is...

“Cultural Literacy and Critical Literacy” by Donald Lazere

Donald Lazere has devoted his numerous works to the matter of critical thinking in the modern culture. In his Cultural Literacy and Critical Literacy (1992), Lazere focuses on the notion of the critical literacy, which, in his opinion, is rather important for the intellectual potential of an individual. He has...

“The Hero With a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell

A hero strikes one as an individual whose personal attributes elicit admiration both before and after their death. Mythology presents a hero as one with great strength and courage, one who is widely celebrated for bold exploits. Making such a unique character entails a process as Joseph has explained in...

The Theme of Success in “Winter Dreams”

Literary works of F. Scott Fitzgerald are very famous in the whole context of 20th-century American literature; the writer managed to win fame due to his artistic and gentle language, the ability to conform to the views, tastes, and attitudes of the beginning of the 20th century and his skillful...

Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes: Poetry Comparison

Introduction Within a single lifetime, the United States has gone from a nation that openly and legislatively discriminated against a group of people based upon their race through the upheaval of the Civil Rights Movement to a society that elects a man of mixed races to the highest office available....

“The Storm” by Kate Chopin

On 18th July 1898, Kate Chopin wrote a short story titled “The Storm” which played around the events happening in the life of a woman (Calixta) over a stormy afternoon. Calixta was a typical traditional housewife bundled with the task of taking care of the home while her husband (Bobinôt)...

Anna’s Sacrifice in My Sister’s Keeper by Jodie Picolt

This paper analyses the role of Anna Fitzgerald and her character traits in the novel “My sister’s keeper” which was written by Jodi Picoult became the best-selling novel in the United States of America in 2004. “My sister’s keeper” novel is basically about a thirteen-year-old young lady Anna Fitzgerald who...

Myth About the Selkies Narrates About the Seal People

The Ireland is a country of ancient myths and traditions whose magical stories are emotional and appealing. Those narrations are always a mixture of love and hate, sufferings and pleasure, joy and grief. The myth about the Selkies narrates about the seal people who have all the qualities of the...

‘Girl Powdering Her Neck’, Poem by Cathy Song and Painting by Kitagawa Utamaro

Introduction Every poem expresses a certain idea presented by the poet. It could be a personal thought or a story. Sometimes a poem describes a certain scene with certain events. In this case, the poet draws an image. Many poems have paintings to describe their events. The painting helps the...

“Origins of Nazi Violence” by Traverso

“Origins of the Nazi violence” is an attempt by the author to offer an explanation on one of the most horrendous events of the twentieth century i.e. the Holocaust. Generally speaking the book is quite analytical and draws on several schools of thought. It then uses these previous philosophies to...

“The Crescent City Lynchings” by Tom Smith

Tom Smith’s book “The Crescent City Lynchings: The Murder of Chief Hennessy, the New Orleans “Mafia” Trials, and the Parish Prison Mob” is about the some past violent and related events back in 1800. The events took place in New Orleans. In 1980’s New Orleans was a different place than...

Sacagawea: Biography and Book Critique

Introduction The stories about Indian people are always fascinating and mysterious. It does not matter whether they concern the way of life of Indian tribes or explore the life of a separate person, they do it in a way that the readers forget about everything that surrounds them and give...

Peter Lewis on the Beggar’s Opera

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...

Vampires: From Ghoulish Demons to Stylish Icons

Vampires are probably the most popular mythical creatures, having some manner of cultural existence across the globe. In every culture and mythical folklore across the globe there has been some reference to a creature very similar to the vampire. The vampire myth has not been confined to Europe but has...

“One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey

The story is the confrontation of feeling and reason The book has a very interesting heading that transfers into some fictional world with awkward creatures depicted by the author. To my mind, the novel’s goal is to show that what people consider normal is uninteresting. Instead, the author reveals his...

An Independent Woman in American Literature

What is the place of a woman in modern society? Should a woman be a classical housewife and the ‘mother of the family’ or a modern independent businesswoman with a strong position in the so-called ‘men’s world’? Today we have a right to choose. Today we have equal rights and...

“I Too” and “The Ballard Of Landlord”

Introduction In their works, the two poets send out a message that indicates that something is wrong in the society. Discrimination of the human being in any form is an injustice. This is because once someone is discriminated against he is automatically denied a chance to compete and be like...

Anne Sexton’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”

Anne Sexton’s poem “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” has been commonly referred to as such that represents the classical example of so-called “feminist poetry”, in which the motifs of depression and hypertrophied sexuality define such poetry’s semiotics. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of literary reviews of this...

“A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams, is the author of the play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ which was produced on Broadway in the year 1947. The play won many awards and was adapted to a film in 1951. The theme of the play is the decaying South and its arrogance, inability to accept truth...

Gaius Valerius Catullus’s Poetical Works

Gaius Valerius Catullus was Roman poet that lived in the 1st century BC. His works are still popular among the readers due to their liberalism and in-depth perception of love. Catullus was also famous for his “angry love poem”. Catullus creative but short life (84-54 BC) was devoted to the...

“Afterimage” by Helen Humphreys

Literature is a source for human imagination. It is impossible to imagine our world without literature. When people read a book they are involved in the process with such power that it is sometimes impossible for them to tear themselves away from the book. People relax when they read books,...

Emily Dickinson’s Poetry Analysis

Emily Dickinson was a famous American poet. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a brilliant family with respectable community ties. Despite that, she lived rather a solitary and isolated life. After graduating from the Amherst Academy, she entered a Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and returned home to Amherst. She...

The Use of Eerie and Bizarre of Edgar Alan Poe

This paper is an analysis of how the literal tools of eerie and bizarre; settings, characters, and images are used in developing the effect of horror. The literal works to be analyses in this case as an effort to analyze the use of these literal tools in the development of...

“Sadie When She Died” by Ed McBain

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...

Jane Austen’s and Her Works’ Influences

Have you ever thought where the works of imaginative literature come from? The writers create them when inspired, but what is inspiration? It is nothing less than the genius that enables people to commit their thoughts to paper in such a way that these thoughts are embodied in words in...

Gender and Race Factors in ‘My Year of Meats’ by Ruth Ozeki

The first thing that is sure to burst upon the eye when one takes a look at the front cover of the book “My Year of Meats” by Ruth L. Ozeki is the eloquent quotation taken from the book review by Jane Smiley for ‘Chicago Tribune’ that describes Ozeki’s debut...

The Characters Dreams in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry

This paper will study the important characters in the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry in the context of the substance of the dreams that they have. The paper will analyze the character roles from two perspectives; the first is about the American dream regarding material prosperity...

The “Substance of Things Hoped For” by Samuel Dewitt Proctor

A crucial mechanism for survival in the black community’s struggle The “substance of things hoped for” is a crucial mechanism for survival in the black community’s struggle because it is extremely important not only to dream about freedom and prosperity but to follow the dream and embody the plans and...

The Theme of Change in Poetry

“Omnia mutabantur, mutantur, mutabuntur” as the Latin proverb has it. Antiquity has supplied us with perfect food for reflection since ancient literary sources are the treasury of wisdom, just as the sayings that have lived during centuries to supply humanity of the present with eternal wisdom. Everything changes. It is...

Mystic Features in “Don’t Look Now” by Daphne du Maurier

The short tale “don’t look now” by Daphne du Maurier has incredible fright. The story started off at a family home in England. It involved a blissful couple John and Laura Baxter. One day, as a routine, they were seated calmly within their home compound with their children playing. Their...

Anouilh and Levi: Dehumanization and Degradation

Introduction Literature is one of the types of art which charm everybody. Literature may entertain and give some food for thoughts, especially if we take into consideration some serious pieces of writing. Every work of any writer is called to deliver some important information to the reader, any writer inserts...

Analysis of the Novel “Fahrenheit 451”

Introduction “Fahrenheit 451” is a science fiction written by Ray Bradbury. Its publishing year was 1953. It tells about the future of the American modern society. Fahrenheit 451 indicates the measurement of the temperature. Its name is related to the job of the hero of this novel. After reading this...

Gettysburg Battle. “Lost Triumph” by Tom Carhart

There are many books on history written by different historians and scholars, and even by those people who are of little touch with the discussed issue. Some historical events have contradictory nature because of a lack of information that was not properly documented. Such events are doomed to provoke different...

“Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau and “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift

Although Henry David Thoreau and Jonathan Swift in different historical periods, both of them actually address the ways and methods of social change in their respective essays “Civil Disobedience” and “A Modest Proposal”. In the work entitled “Civil Disobedience”, David Thoreau provides the ideas, which could be categorized as the...

Death Concept in “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickenson

Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is surprisingly touching in its depiction of the courtly way in which Death personified escorted her to her final rest. The six stanza poem tells the story of a woman’s experience of death, but rather than being the horrifying thing...

“Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway: Problem of Choice

Introduction People usually appear before the choice: whether to do this or not, whether to go there or not, whether to stay with the person or to leave him/her. Analyzing the story “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and imagining the conclusion of the story, three main developments may...

The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank

Introduction This paper will make a review of the book, The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank. The author has explicitly examined and narrated how corruption becomes uniquely blameable in a democratic setup in violating the basic principle on the part of the government, of serving the citizens of the country....

Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” and Tan’s “Two Kinds”

Outline This paper will compare the style and point of view of the two stories “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. The two different perspectives will be examined in the context of their respective stories and symbols to understand the viewpoints and the...

“The Anabasis by Cyrus” by Xenophon

The dictionary article defines anabasis as “a march from the coast into the interior, like that of Cyrus the Younger against Artaxerxes II, described by Xenophon in his historical work Anabasis (379–371) (Dictionary 1). Thus “Anabasis” is an account by the ancient writer and soldier Xenophon, which depicts the long...

Olfactory Confirmation in Patrick Suskind’s Perfume

The scent of the human body is unique and that plays an important role in different spheres of our life. There is a presumption that spiritual awareness is reached by enhancing the power of scent (Streep 2003) The significance of people’s odor also defines sexual attraction. Moreover, it reveals the...

“The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. DuBois

Biographical Information William Edward Burghhardt (W.E.B) DuBois (February 23, 1868) was an esteemed African American civil rights activist, historian, sociologist, author, editor, and Pan Africanist. A respected and prolific writer, DuBois authored 22 books, including five novels and three autobiographies as well as helped establish four academic journals. Some of...

Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays with Morrie” Reflections

Morrie’s lessons are a guideline to veritable values The professor’s lessons personify communication, love, and moral values. Morrie’s story is rather emotionally charged, through which the reader could perceive the eternal topic of life and death. Those lessons captivated me with the problems they revealed and the amazing solutions taken...

“Cesar Chavez and La Causa” by Dan Labotz Review

In the history of the United States of America there are a plenty of cases connected with the fact of racial segregation and the ignorance of establishment to give work for those who immigrated to the US. Dan Labotz catches our attention on the case of farmer workers strike in...

The Analysis of the Story of Oedipus

The American College Encyclopedic Dictionary defines the adjective “blind” as: 1. lacking the sense of sight; 2. unwilling, or unable to try or understand; 3. not controlled by reason: (blind tenacity); 4. not possessing or proceeding from intelligence; 5. lacking all awareness: ( a blind stupor); 6. drunk – hard...

“Ordinary People” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”: Book Report

Fault and Responsibility Taking People apart in the Ordinary People The major theme of the book by Judith Ann Guest in 1976 is education and upbringing conflicts that follow both parents, Cal and Beth Jarrett. The reason for such discrepancies is first of all their background – Cal is the...

Concepts of Human and Natural Laws in Boccaccio’s “Decameron”

Introduction Establishing new moral and social norms can be a controversial issue, especially if these norms contradicted the social flow in the fourteenth century. A close vision to such breakthrough can be seen through the book “Decameron” by Giovanni Boccaccio – a hundred novels narrated through ten days in the...

A Rose for Emily

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...

Spellbound: A Line to Line Explication

The night is darkening round me. The poet is standing at the edge of a moor. She finds the night turning darker. She gets a sense of being trapped. The wild winds coldly blow; Added to the carpet of darkness thickening around her comes to the blowing wind. She feels...

The Concept of Tolerance in the “To Kill a Mocking Bird” by Harper Lee

Introduction The minorities around the globe have come through a vigorous struggle to achieve equality in the world today. Racial, ethnical and religious prejudice has claimed numerous lives for thousands of years. And to our dismay, such prejudice is the cause of hatred among people of a single society, community...

The Theme of Race Discrimination in Works of Richard Rodriguez

Introduction In the course of life, people have overcome some difficulties transitioning from one stage to another. Sometimes, it is rather difficult to trespass those adversities due to the limits and norms established in society. The stereotypes shaped in our life could determine the fate of those people who are...

The Relations Between the East and West in “Snow” by O. Pamuk

Throughout history, relations between the East and West have been marked by violence and cultural conflict. However in recent years, disunity the between the West and the Middle East in particular has been exacerbated because of Western foreign policy and increasing Islamic fundamentalism. International terrorism, notably the atrocities of September...

“Raisin in the Sun” by Hansberry and “I’m Still Here” by Hughes

The problem of race discrimination has been always a tight corner in the American history. In the course of the migration process, African Americans were fighting for the equality rights and freedoms. Nowadays, skin color still determines the relation between people thus influencing the way and the conditions of living....

Walter Whitman’s Works: Autobiographical Elements

Walter Whitman was a famous American writer and poet. He is also known for his achievements in journalism His works revealed both the transcendental and realistic vision of life. Both periods were presented in his works thus being rather controversial especially in his outright collection of poetry. It goes without...

Old South Social Structure in “A Rose for Emily” by W. Faulkner

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...

William Faulkner’s World Revealed in “A Rose for Emily”

Introduction William Faulkner (1897-1962) is one of America’s favorite authors. Before his death in 1962, he was able to produce 26 books and a difficult to count number of short stories. His tales were full of such character and artistry that he has become recognized as a giant in world...

“Travels With Herodotus” and “Marco Polo Didn’t Go There”

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...

Socrates’ Belief About the Pursuit of Truths

Socrates was a Greek Philosopher who has been credited with founding Western Philosophy. He exists in history as a mysterious figure that is only known through the accounts of other people. There are no philosophical texts written by Socrates himself. His life, knowledge, and philosophy are found in the writings...

The Poetry of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost

Introduction It is not by an accident that such literary genre as poetry requires the possession of strong metaphoric and imaginative skills, on the part of its practitioners – by exposing readers to metaphorically expressed messages, contained in their poems; poets enable them to derive a strong aesthetic pleasure out...

John A Garraty on Great Depression Review

Introduction John A. Garraty is considered to be an outstanding American historian who devoted his life to the presidency of the American Historians Society. He is a significant writer; Garraty is the author of several historical books disclosing the facts of American National Biography. One of the most prominent works...

Human Behavior Depicted in Science Fiction Works

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...

Curriculum as the Philosophical Consideration

Introduction Curriculum is one of the main issues, which directs the educational process all over the world. Combining the curriculum, teachers and tutors create the scheme, according to which the education is going to be led, which books are going to be investigated and which material, in general, will be...

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” : The Book Analysis

Background “One Flew over the Cuckoo´s Nest” is a story of lives within a group of people with different psychological approaches. The characters in the book are definitely with peculiarities as of their psyches and Billy Bibbit is a great example of a man with a psychiatric disorder. Ken Kesey...

“Up from Slavery” by Booker T. Washington Analysis

Introduction The life of Booker T. Washington can very well serve as the proof to the idea that it is namely the strength of one’s determination and his or her industriousness, which define such individual’s chances to attain social prominence, even in society hampered by racial prejudices. Therefore, Washington’s autobiographical...

Essay on a Rose for Emily

“A Rose for Emily” is a beautiful short story written by William Faulkner in which the writer uses new structural devices of story telling. The central character, Emily, is a symbol of changes. She also represents the victimized generation in South America after the civil war. The North was getting...

Poetry as a Great Achievement of the Mankind

Poetry is a great achievement of mankind. Poetical words help people to relax, to think about some problems, which are discussed in the poem, to listen to the melody of rhymes and entertain. Different authors have different styles of writing, their themes and goals of the poems are different, but...

“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini Book Report

Introduction Betrayal is a universal human experience that we don’t typically think about, but that permeates the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Although we are all likely to experience betrayal at some point in our lives, Hosseini also provides us with a means of defeating it through loyalty...

The Unique Writing Style of William Faulkner

Introduction William Faulkner is regarded as one of the leading authors of 20th century American literature (Lombardi). Listed among his many works are the book “As I Lay Dying” and the short story “A Rose for Emily,” both of which depict several similar features that are typical of the author’s...

Characters in A Doll’s House Play by Henrik Ibsen

Introduction Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House (1879) is mostly remembered for its heroine, Nora, slamming the door behind her as she abandons her husband and children to find herself. In this essay, however, Nora will be regarded as a secondary character because she reacts to people more than she...

Ahab from Moby Dick and Prospero from the Tempest

First of all, there is the necessity to explain the choice of the form of the essay and the choice of the characters that present nontrivial development of the comparative analysis of their characters. The work has the form of the panel discussion with two main participants, Ahab and Prospero....

The Phaedrus and The Tempest: Compare & Contrast

Such notions as personal identity or the Self have always been a subject of thorough psychological analysis. It is believed that under certain circumstances, the way in which a human being defines oneself may change. Writers and philosophers have always tried to explore this transformation. This process has been eloquently...

King Kreon in Antinone: Character Analysis

In the play, Antigone, Creon is depicted as a tragic character faced with the harsh reality of life and indifference. The maxims which King Creon proclaims in his first speech as well as further on are the words of a man who takes the principles of ruling seriously. He will...

The Curse vs. Antigone: Compare & Contrast

Introduction “Antigone” by Sophocles is a story about family relations, pride, and death, reason, and passion. The play acquires significance in the development of European consciousness since it reveals the conflict between the individual and the State. This is also a conflict of nature and spirit, where it is difficult...

“Iliad” by Homer and “A Thousand and One Nights”: Comparison

Supernatural power The Iliad by Homer in his character analysis uses supernatural strength to describe the development of the story. He uses Achilles to link a close relationship between humans and the gods. This superhuman strength describes the character as a warrior in the Achaean army. He uses this character...

Homer’s “Iliad”, Its Effect and Relevance

Looking at the world we live in today, we can see that various forms of expression, through media and literary works, use different references to ancient times. It can be seen that ancient culture had influenced the development of many nations in the world. In that regard, the myths of...

The Things They Carried: What Did They Carry?

Tim O’Brien’s short story, “The Things They Carried,” begins as a highly literal enumeration of objects soldiers in Vietnam carry, each thing valued not only for its utility but also according to its weight because every object has to be “humped” and therefore each soldier eliminates whatever is not needed,...

The Bell Jar: Critical Analysis

Nowadays, many literary critics tend to discuss the semantic meaning of Sylvia Plath’s novel “The Bell Jar” from strictly environmentalist perspective – that is, they refer to Esther Greenwood’s mental inadequateness as the result of novel’s protagonist being exposed to America’s “male chauvinistic” socio-political realities in time when women’s ability...

“The Accident, Say Yes” & “The Things They Carried”: Comparison

Introduction The art of literature is many-faceted thing full of expressive stories and means with which they are illustrated. The characters can be compared and evaluated with an author’s own experience in terms of his main idea implemented into text. The culture of reading is needful for every human being...

Symbolism in The Things They Carried

Literature is the means of expressing the feelings and emotions that human being perceive during their lives. It is the form of art that allows people depict the most tragic and the most joyful events in their life, the most necessary and dangerous experiences, etc. The significant occurrences in the...

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place: Critical Analysis

The short story by Ernest Hemingway titled A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is a bright example of the psychological literature in which all sins of human beings are revealed. In this story, Hemingway manages to illustrate the eternal differences between human beings through the short dialog of two waiters in a...

Greasy Lake, Lord of the Flies, and The Lottery: Compare & Contrast

Introduction Weapons of mass destruction (biological, nuclear, etc.) are primarily designed to kill large quantities of humans as well as destroy natural and man-made structures and the biosphere in general. In an age in which technology ranks superior, much emphasis is placed on the actual weapons as opposed to the...

Review and Analysis of ‘A Good Man Is Hard To Find’

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...

A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Critical Analysis

The story A Good Man is Hard to Find written by Flannery O’Connor is considered to be rather tragic through the author’s breakage of traditional “happy ends”. The short story is rich in literary devices and expressive means; O’Connor managed to create a symbolic and imaginative work provoking and stimulating...

Foreshadowing in ‘a Good Man Is Hard to Find’ by O’Connor

Flannery O’Connor(1925-1964) is one the most acclaimed American short story writers of the twentieth century. She was born in Savannah and brought up in Milledgeville, both in Georgia. With 31 stories and two novels to her credit, she died at the age of 39, almost 12 years after she was...

“Death of a Salesman,” Misinterpreting the Concept of the American Dream

The essence of human life consists in achieving something that others do not have, though most people are quite persistent in denying this fact. It is hard to argue with the conviction that striving to achieve more than the others gives hope which sustains life in a dreamer. This is...

Success in Death of a Salesman

The modern world is full of different points of view about failure and success. Different people think that success is a big family with ten children, the others consider success as a financial part of life, and some people think that it is a success when they have achieved something,...

Gender in The Great Gatsby & The Yellow Wallpaper

The focal point of the paper is to explore the Male-Female Relationships in The Great Gatsby by the noted American author of the post first world war era F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Yellow Wallpaper by American short story writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The complexities of men and women in...

The Great Gatsby: Book Review

“The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the bestseller published in 1925. This book is a masterpiece in the writings of Fitzgerald. It’s a classic for the readers and most prominent in the American fiction. It occurred as the milestone as it has been reread by many readers....

Code of Honor in Calderon’s Life is a Dream

Something that seems to have died out of the world today is the strong sense of honor depicted in many of the plays and other literature produced in numerous countries throughout the past several centuries. This code of honor that has been passed down to us through many different mediums...

“Liar’s Poker” by Lewis

Introduction The book Liar’s Poker describes the personal experience of the author and his cooperation with Solomon Brothers. The book consists of 11 chapters devoted to different problems and periods in life of Lewis. The book describes bond sales and trade operations on Wall Street, relations between partners and their...

“I Am Murdered” by Bruce Chadwick

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...

Old West American Literature: Owen Wister’s Virginian

Introduction It is generally understood that while The Virginian is a romance novel, it carefully incorporated the themes of masculinity, vigilante justice, the educated easterner and landscape. The protagonist is simply called the Virginian, introduced and described as an American cowboy, setting a standard for positive image of the previously...

Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King by Sophocles

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...

Ethical and Moral Principles in the Literature

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...

“Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen

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...

Peoples’ Characters and Hopes in Literature: Comparison of Description

Introduction The world of literature is very versatile in facts, characters, events, historical trends, settings, etc. Large deposits of literature heritage describe the wholeness of the literature world and a man, as a provider of creative thought in this art. In other words, people are apt to create something new...

Don Quixote as an Embodiment of Western Psyche

Despite the fact that nowadays, the hawks of political correctness try their best to prompt people to think of Western civilization is being simply a local geopolitical phenomenon, the objective reality invariantly points out to something different – as of today, there is virtually no place left on this planet...

“A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest Gaines

‘A Lesson Before Dying,’ written by Earnest J Gaines, tells the story of two men who have to fight hard to survive in a world that metes out suffering to them through racism and discrimination. Jefferson, one of the men, falls victim to the white people’s indifference when he gets...

Wilderness Allurement in the “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer

The cover of the book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer immediately acquaints the reader with the protagonist of the novel. It says: “In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher...

Emily Dickinson’s Poetry of Privation

The collected poems of Emily Dickinson include joyful ones and despairing ones. Some two hundred of them are regarded as poems of despair, some of them about literary recognition, others about her inability to engage with formal religion but most are about the absence of love in her life. As...

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte P. Gilman

Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” depicts the inner struggle of a woman unbalanced by post-partum depression, a problem for which even today’s doctors have no treatment. Her husband and brother are both doctors who have her best interest at heart but whose recommended rest cure is based on the accepted...

“The Confessions of Nat Turner” by William Styron Review

The novel “The Confessions of Nat Turner” was written by an outstanding American writer William Styron. The most eloquent fact about this book is that it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1967, but it would be just to state, that the response of the audience to the novel appeared...

“On Bullshit” by Harry Gordon Frankfurt

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...

Emily Dickinson’s and William Carlos Williams’ Poems

The focal point of the paper is to present a Comparison and Contrast essay between the poems, “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain“, by Emily Dickinson and “The Widow’s Lament in Spring Time“, by William Carlos Williams. The paper would look into the parameters of the inner world of...

Nature of Name in “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri

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...

Hearing “Sonny’s Blues”, by James Baldwin

James Baldwin spent most of his adult life living in France, but is widely recognized as an essential American writer. Through the experiences of his youth in Harlem and the distance of his adulthood in France, Baldwin was able to both illustrate the unique nature of the black community as...

Short Stories by G.G. Marquez and I. Singer

The well-known short story writer Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez was born on March 6, 1928, in Aracataca, Colombia. He had written a collection of short stories and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a very famous one among them. It is considered a supernatural story with a realistic...

Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare’s Othello

To begin with, from ancient times a theme of inner feelings and conflicts maintained in a man’s soul and mind excite many people by the psychological nature of individuals who urge to find out a specific devotion and predestination in life. Here the extent of dramatic conversations appeared. This gave...

“The Crystal Frontier” Analysis

The story “The Crystal Frontier” of Fuentes is a wonderful narrative about the meeting of two people from different countries with different life situations – the way they found an ideal they imagined in each other and could not overcome the crystal frontier, which was not just a glass but...

Collins and Moore Works on Poetry Review

Despite the fact that poems “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins and “Poetry” by Marianne Moore are concerned with the same subject matter (poetry), they provide readers with diametrically opposite outlook on what, according to both poets, poetry should be all about. Whereas, Moore insists that the key to poetic...

Protagonist Roles by Mark Twain, J. Austin and C. Potok

Today’s world is full of so many flashy, noisy, and sometimes even rumbly forms of entertainment that it seems boring to spend a great deal more time and energy trying to read through the lengthy pages of a book. Reading has no sound, no pictures, and no possibility of shake...

Other Voices: Literature Review

Literature has a lot of different aims: to entertain, to inform, and to convince. The works of Judith Sargent Murray, Samson Occom, and Phillis Wheatley are very convincing, as they try to implement their ideas in society about religion and gender. Judith Sargent Murray is an American writer whose literary...

Personal Narratives of J. Edwards and E. Ashbridge

People should care about their personal spiritual development. Life without God is impossible as people should believe in something, as people should know that there is somebody who cares about them. People’s faith in God helps them to lead a normal life or to cope with problems that appear. There...

“Absalom, Absalom!” Novel by William Faulkner

Sutpen and his intention of building the Sutpen’s Hundred Thomas Sutpen is a mysterious man, in the sense that people never really understood him and his idea of building the Sutpen’s hundred was borne out of the fact that he realized while he was growing up that men are not...

“Lysistrata” by Aristophanes and “The Taming of the Shrew” by Shakespeare

Introduction The contest between men and women has always been one of the main struggles in the world. Both, men and women want to take dominant positions in the society. The times were changing and the influence was also different in different times. Matriarchy and patriarchy were present in the...

“Pool Players Seven at the Golden Shovel” by Brooks

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...

Literature’s Judgment Different Issues

The world of literature is the sphere of entire features and prospects that never die in peoples’ minds. The fact that the literature comprises the wholeness of the experience gained during thousands of years is apparent and presents many themes for discussion. The paper is dedicated to three works by...

Women as Oppression Victims in American Literature

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,...

“The Road Not Taken” Poem by Robert Frost

Introduction The poem by Robert Frost “The Rod Not Taken” tells about a man who had a situation when in front of him two roads diverged. He tried to rally his thoughts and make up his mind what way to choose. First, he made an attempt to look narrowly into...

Symbolism in “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck

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...

“Who Moved My Cheese?”: A Great Allegory for Situations of Changes

People have various visions of changes and usually perceive them differently. Some react aggressively and do not want to communicate with anybody, the others begin to complain about their hard and unfair life. Some people like changes, they look optimistically at them and do not afraid, as think that changes...

Emily Dickenson: Because I could not Stop for Death

The poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” was written by Emily Dickenson and it tells the story of a woman who has died. It seems to tell her story from the time she dies until the time she arrives in her grave. This sounds morbid, but it’s really...

“Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” by Dai Sijie

Dai Sijie and his novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress provide a scope of huge intentions of two young men in China to provide their skills in learning foreign literature in a time when such perspective was banned by the government. The thing is that the events in the...

Heroes’ and Villains’ Views on Money in “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

Introduction “Atlas Shrugged” is a novel which was written by Ayn Rand in 1957. This novel operates with a number of notions which may puzzle the modern reader. It deals with the concepts of objectivism and human achievement exploring a number of other philosophical themes. “Atlas Shrugged” discloses different facets...

“Fighting Auschwitz” by Josef Garlinski

In the 1940s, the Nazi regime started an international program aimed at “purifying” the racial profile of the European population and establishing the rule of the so-called Aryan race. The powerful instruments of such correction were concentration camps, which combined the functions of labor utilization, development of science and technology,...

Stevie Smith’s and Karl Shapiro’s Poems Comparison

Introduction Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning” (1953) and Karl Shapiro’s “Auto Wreck” (1942) differ from each other in form, style and subject. Smith’s poem relates the last thoughts of a drowned man while Shapiro’s reflects on a traffic accident. Smith’s poem is almost light-hearted in the way it reads...

Gay and Lesbian Literature in the United States

Introduction The social conditions make people live according to the moral consent to behave “rightly” not to be blamed or condemned by others. A man still makes up his mind in the American society where to go when it is considered that you are not the same as others. The...