6067 samples of this type
Introduction Attitudes to life and death vary depending on time, culture, and society. History knows many transformations in how people saw old age, illness, and dying. These perspectives find their reflections in a culture’s products. Therefore, analyzing the literature of a certain historical period of a particular country allows a...
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is a famous short story by Joyce Carol Oates wrote in the 1960s. The story centers around Connie, an attractive girl aged fifteen that has a relentless focus on her appearance and gets in trouble after meeting a predatory man named Arnold....
Saint Augustine and Boethius, the medieval authors, are famous for the great works City of God and Consolation of Philosophy, where they reflected on philosophy, religion, and fundamental issues of being. This paper aims to analyze the two literary works, their spiritual nature, the writers’ worldview, the direction proposed, and...
Marriage is a complex institutional system in which relationships between partners can be destructive. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a feminist short story in which a woman reveals the subconscious desire to be free from her spouse’s pressure. A husband’s tragic death initially upsets Louise Mallard,...
Sherman Alexie’s short stories “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” and “War Dances” portray two native American men, who lead different lives, yet whose narratives share common features and explore similar topics. In the first story, the reader witnesses a day of a homeless person in Seattle who spots family...
Introduction The Divine Narcissus employs religious symbolism to highlight important Christian ideals and teachings. The play is considered to be one of Sor Juana’s masterpieces because it employs allegorical narratives to explain complex theological ideas. The play uses American themes to explain the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and describes critical...
Relationships The affair between the Wife of Bath and different spouses greatly influenced the development of her character. Of her five husbands, she admits that the first three were good mainly because they were rich, old, and submissive. Being the dominant partner in these relationships, she happily recounts how torments...
Thomas More’s Utopia, written in 1516, gave the name to the corresponding genre in literature. The influence of this book in the following centuries cannot be overestimated. A whole series of works dedicated to the image of a perfect society followed Utopia (Wilde 27). Its legacy can be traced in...
Introduction William Cuthbert Faulkner was an accomplished novelist, poet, screenwriter from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner’s development as an artist was largely influenced by his family, in particular, by his mother, grandmother, and the African American nanny who cared for him from infancy. The women were voracious readers as well as painters...
The symbolism of the poem “I Heard a Fly Buzz – When I Died” by Emily Dickinson is the most striking aspect of this literary work. Stillness stands for the end of human life, which is something grand and frightening. The poet manages to make the reader see the picture...
The Prosecuting Attorney’s Closing Argument Your Honor, the case presented to the court today is one of paramount malice and sadism. It is obvious that the defendant has planned the cold-blooded murder of the plaintiff conscientiously and thoughtfully. Firstly, Mr. Montresor exploited the victim’s proneness to enjoy high-quality alcoholic beverages....
As plays are meant to be performed rather than read, there is a great variety of plays from which one can choose. For the assignment, it was chosen to view The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare as a classic interpretation. The full video of the performance is available...
Despite the fact that Claudius is introduced as the main antagonist in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, he actually posses a number of strong qualities. In the beginning, the character shares his emotions about the death of the king and demonstrates his intention to support the family and “to bear our...
The lecture of Matthew Restall called “When Cortés Met Malinche, and Montezuma Met Cortés: Alternative Facts and Disturbing Truths” is another example of history being written by the victors. The main idea is centered around unveiling the truth regarding the “surrender” of Aztec through its leader Montezuma. Restall focuses on...
Magniloquence tells a story of Faustus Macelovich, an elderly English professor who recently lost his wife and now suffers from her absence. In a short episode of his life, Faustus presented by the author, along with other professors from different departments, had to attend a lecture delivered by a Nobel...
Individual ancient literary texts reveal specific stories in detail and serve as useful guidelines to interpret other works. As an example, one can discuss the role of Livy’s The History of Rome as an epic that contains important historical notes. Comparing his individual ideas with those of Aeschylus in Prometheus...
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor is a tragic story of a family consisting of a grandmother, her son Bailey, his wife, two young children, and a baby going on vacation. They get into an accident during their trip, meet a violent criminal, The Misfit, and...
Perseus has been highly popular in the later mythological tradition, where one can pinpoint various movies and cartoons with the given central character. The main reason is the fact that he is a demigod, which means that Perseus is a half-human (“Perseus,” 2020). In other words, it makes him a...
The author of this writing found both texts suggested for discussion interesting and thought-provoking. A story by Flannery O’Connor, in which the grandmother struggles to soften the heart of the escaped convict but fails, is saturated with religious symbols and may be regarded as a parable. Curiously, the story starts...
Scene 1: The Beach (ROMEO and JULIET find themselves trapped on a tropical island. The sun is shining brightly, and the weather is scorching and humid compared to summers in Verona). ROMEO: (Worried). Where are we? And what happened to the boat? JULIET: (Calmly). I’m not sure about the boat,...
Theodore Roethke is a renowned American writer whose poetry is figurative and melodic. My Papa’s Waltz is one of the most known poems by the poet, and it deals with a moment in a boy’s life. The relationship between the father and the son is the primary theme of the...
The play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller is a story of a salesman, Willy, who is trapped by his daydreams. The story revolves around flashbacks of Willy’s dreams and reality, which reveal a lot of symbolism about Willy’s failure to fulfill the American dream. In the “Death of...
Embedded narration, or story within a story, is a technique widely used in The Thousand and One Nights. This approach implies the inclusion of extra-plot elements in the text that are not directly related to the plot but discuss the main topic. In most cases, the embedded narration is a...
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...
The hero’s journey, or the Monomyth, is a primary component of stories in historical myths. According to Joseph Campbell, the expedition entails a hero venturing on an exploration, emerging victorious in a defining confrontation, and coming back to his home reshaped or transformed (Ross, 2019). Ross (2019) states that an...
In Meditations on First Philosophy, Rene Descartes presents a metaphysical system in which he expands his philosophical view of doubt. Descartes notes that he has been mistaken all along, even on matters he presumed to be certain. The author resolves to abandon his pre-conceptions acquired through the senses in a...
Introduction Miss Emily, the main character of Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily,” is a controversial figure who evokes rather mixed feelings, but pity prevails in this plethora of emotions. On the one hand, she is a mentally ill murderer who kept the body of her victim in her house...
Ancient Greek plots and motives are commonly reflected in the European literature of the New Age, which makes the heritage of different epochs comparable. One of the plotlines – discovering the reason for the death of a protagonist’s father. One of the aspects frequently discussed in this context is resilience....
Introduction Reading poems can always be a daunting way of studying, but can also be fulfilling. I have had a first-hand experience reading Epic of Gilgamesh as part of my classwork. While it was a generally enjoyable experience, I did make certain mistakes during the action. However, I gained some...
Contrary to expectations, life does not always give positive emotions — there are moments when it seems that everything around is destroyed, and nothing can be fixed. The streak of tragedies has a substantial impact on adults, but for children with a more developed fantasy and a naive view of...
The theme of alienation is clearly expressed in the Asian-American literature of the 20th century. Asian writers who immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century lived a challenging life. Most Korean-American and Chinese-American authors were formed in cultural isolation, which influenced their worldview to find their identity....
Human rights are a multifaceted concept that requires subjective respect and documentation of relationships. In other words, the individual has that set of possibilities and freedoms that are generally accepted. Nonetheless, the times of slavery are a notorious period in social existence in which injustice and cruelty were models for...
For centuries, poets have been addressing The Iliad as a source for inspiration. Through poems inspired by the events and characters of the ancient Greek work, they present the acute problems of their time. In the piece “Spoken by the Sentry at Achilles’s Tent”, Doug Anderson, by using situations and...
Introduction The paper focuses on singling out the similarities between two famous short story characters: Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle from “Rip Van Winkle” and Willa Cather’s Anton Rosicky from “Neighbour Rosicky.” The main emphasis is made on such features pertaining to the two men as independence, intelligence, and life...
Introduction The two main manifestations of human existence or two of its forms are life and death. These issues bother people during centuries because they are too complicated to understand them entirely. That is why the most intent contemplators of the world, poets, cannot ignore these categories. Reflecting life in...
The notion of gender has always been a subject for a continuous discussion, formerly claiming a distinct line between the roles of each gender. With this concept considerably expanding its semantic paradigm, people’s perception of gender started to fade. However, while gender roles in the context of society had their...
Introduction In her essay “Is a Tree Worth a life”, Sally Christensen illuminates the debate that has arisen regarding the value of environment in comparison to that of human life. Christensen makes a persuasive argument that the yew tree found in the tropical forests of Alaska, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and...
Introduction Earlier Asian immigration to the United States was driven by dreams of a better life espoused in the American dream. Even today, America is among the most preferred destination countries by potential immigrants. For most people, the desire to migrate is to escape extreme poverty locally and build a...
The plot of “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner involves Colonel Sartoris Snopes or Sarty, a little boy from a poor family, whose father decides to burn barns of the people he works for. The setting of the story is early spring in rural America in the end of the 19th...
The novel The Best Laid Plans is a satirical book about the Canadian political system written by Terry Fallis in 2008. It has won the Stephen Leacock Award for humor and is well-known all around the world. What is precisely lovely about this novel is its language and perfect choice...
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is an autobiography by a former slave Olaudah Equiano first published in 1789 by abolitionists who wanted to end slavery. It is also one of the first slave narratives to reach a wide audience and be translated to German and Dutch....
The phenomenon of allegory can be defined as that one of a hidden meaning within a certain concept. In the movie under analysis, the idea of an allegory is hidden beneath a series of oats since the main character appears to be quite transparent in their general intention, as well...
Children’s literature about good and evil, about various events, invented or occurred in the past, but simultaneously related to the present, allows readers to take part emotionally, empathize. Such books are an opportunity for kids to learn about many people and hear different opinions, ideas, and thoughts. Such literature is...
Introduction In his article The Philosopher Stoned, Adam Kirsch describes Walter Benjamin, his way of life, views, ambitions, and the influence of drugs on his mentality. The author explores certain life periods of Benjamin, observes the progression of his character, and also tries to emphasize his book On Hashish. Kirsch...
A specific issue to discuss in the essay is the portrayal of Penelope’s loyalty and patience while waiting for Odysseus to return from his two-decade journey. Although it is natural for a woman to remain faithful to her man, it may seem that the main female character’s belief in a...
Introduction Kate Chopin was a well-known American novelist and short story writer who was born in the late 1800s. She is considered one of the founders of feminist ideas. Even though at the end of the nineteenth century, this movement was only in a state of formation and was widely...
Known as a Land of Opportunities, the US allows some people to become successful, leaving the rest to survive by themselves and support the few fortunate ones. As a model of capitalism, the country may ignore the needs of those who do not contribute much to money and resource circulation....
Art Creation It is impossible to overestimate the necessity of inspirational poems for people of all ages. Thanks to the works of the greatest writers of all times, persons can find meaning in their lives, strength to hold on, and motivation to continue whatever they are doing. After reading such...
The character of Blanche is not as one-sided as one might think. While the real-life stereotype on which she is based could be, the play’s representation of the Belle is nuanced. Thus, it is difficult to state whether I sympathize with her or agree that she deserves her tragic fate,...
Introduction Poetry about nature and its features occupies a significant part of the world’s poetic heritage. At the same time, in addition to describing the world, many poets resort to the analysis of such a phenomenon as human nature that conveys aspects of people’s characters and their outlook on life....
“Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone” This poem was written in 1938 by Wystan Hugh Auden, an Anglo-American poet. “Stop All the Clocks, Cut off the Telephone” is about the fact that the death of a loved person can deprive one of all the joys, hopes, and desire...
Julius Caesar is known as one of the greatest and most influential rulers of the Roman Empire. With the proclamation of Caesar’s power, Rome quickly started to rise, which scared and simultaneously fascinated many. Before becoming the ruler of the Roman Empire, Caesar showed himself as a talented general of...
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...
Flannery O’Connor created a significant piece of writing that might be considered as one of her most famous works. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a short story that aims to address the never-ending issue of redemption – what it takes to become a good person. O’Connor might...
The story recounts the friendship of two girls, Twyla and Roberta who meet at the St. Bonny’s shelter after being abandoned by their families. Their relationship experiences both ups and downs highlight the dynamics of their respective characters as well as external circumstances. At first, they dislike each other given...
How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my bitter binge! What is a man, If his chief good and passing of his time Be but to cry and feed? A wreck, no more. Sure, during this godly feast I gorged Myself to slumber, and forgot That capability and...
Dear Current Occupant is a memoir by Chelene Knight, a Canadian writer, and it is a mixture of different forms. There are essays, poems, and letters, all telling the autobiographic story of her childhood. Her unique style invites the reader to get absorbed into her writing, empathizing with her experiences....
Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” and John Wilmot’s “The Disabled Debauchee” are two pieces of poetry belonging to different eras and styles. The poems have little in common, diverging in the most fundamental aspects. The first text is written in the nineteenth century to celebrate heroic deeds,...
Despite all the government’s measures to combat drug addiction, this problem remains relevant to this day. Unfortunately, at the moment, it is not possible to cure every drug-addicted person. There is a significant amount of research on this topic. They are dedicated to the effects of various drugs, discuss remedies,...
About Patriotism Who is a real patriot in your eyes? The one who loves his country With all his soul, Or the one who willingly arises When the anthem is playing loudly To prove his role? You can be proud of your nationality. But can you cross that thin line...
Cheating generally refers to unfair practices in whatever activity one chooses to perform. Most of the time, it would include making the work easier or faster without following the rules and laws associated with the deed. While plagiarism means using someone else’s work or ideas without proper referencing, self-plagiarism refers...
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...
Introduction Shakespeare and Sophocles present the audience with two complex main characters who share a particular passion for discovering the truth, which ultimately brings them to their doom. Shakespeare’s tragic hero in Hamlet has an eye-opening encounter with a ghost that leads him to seek vengeance. Oedipus prides himself on...
The most actively discussed topics that are related to The Handmaid’s Tale include power, freedom, identity, rebellion, gender, and the role of language among others. However, little attention is paid to analyzing the concept of enjoyment and its representation in this dystopian novel (Ostendorf, p. 59). In addition to understanding...
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...
The play “NEW MA” by Dora Dee Hunter is a modern performance covering some of the most crucial aspects of people’s lives in the current world. The play may be roughly divided into six acts, each of them including a new twist in the plot. The main characters are a...
Introduction The analysis of the literary works and writing styles of representatives of two different eras is a unique experience that allows comparing individual authors’ approaches and identifying the key factors that influence their creative manners. As an example of comparison, the achievements of two prominent representatives of American literature...
Kant’s ideas about enlightenment and its impact on the human mind are essential views. The philosopher’s thoughts on this topic are clearly expressed in his essay “What is Enlightment?” where the author tells about his view of how exactly the human mind is transformed under the influence of progressive thinking...
Introduction Elizabeth Browning and Emily Dickinson are the most famous poets of the 19th century. While the masculine society insisted that women were not capable of doing poetry, Browning and Dickinson emerged as the refutation of this statement. Elizabeth gained popularity with her works on the abolition of slavery and...
August Wilson is an American playwright awarded for his exemplary work that illuminated the struggles that African Americans faced in the U.S. He wrote the Pittsburgh Cycle of Plays, encompassing ten texts produced during different periods of time explaining the issue of racism in the U.S. Wilson was born in...
The four-day slave rebellion organized by Nat Turner in Virginia is among the most remembered events in African-American history. In his book titled The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion, Stephen Oates, who is an expert in 19th century America, explores the biography of “the most famous slave” (p....
“Go Down, Moses” is a poem that became a folk song, calling for the freedom of slaves in the US back in the nineteenth century. It links the story from the Bible with the situation happening in South America before the Civil War. The work constitutes of several poetic form...
Literature is an essential means of delivering critical ideas regarding the surrounding world and the distinguishing features of society. Authors do not only aim at entertaining their readers but also focus on sharing personal views and opinions on various issues and processes happening in the communities. For instance, a philosophical...
Homer’s work The Odyssey has a vast number of features, which are studied from the literature point to this day. This epic poem tells about the return of Odyssey to Ithaca after the Trojan War. The analysis of Odysseus’ books allows readers to recognize the temper and change the perceptions...
Introduction Writers and artists employ different tools, techniques, and literary devices to pass the intended message to the readers. Individuals should follow such works in an effort to acquire additional insights and relate them to some of the challenges they might encounter in their lives. While analysts and scholars will...
Introduction This paper summarizes the plot of The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus. It also briefly describes the main character and analyzes the main ideas of the story. The book is written from a historical point of view, so it does not focus on a specific issue. Nevertheless, this essay...
Introduction Human destiny has been one of the central subjects in literature at all times, and this theme can be tracked in literary pieces written in different centuries. The novel “Lives of the Saints” by Nino Ricci and the play “Othello” by William Shakespeare share a recurring idea: the destructive...
Introduction Parenthood is one of the central elements of personality socialization, which lays the child’s primary skills in communication and interaction with the environment. For this reason, it is so important to provide effective and pedagogical education and training that stimulates the child’s successful and harmonious development. Otherwise, a parent...
The poems below describe children playing and then one of them getting hurt by the door. Although the first poem starts on a cheery note, it ends with a sad mood because the child needs tending and the games stop. The poems are connected based on the content because both...
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...
War stories are one of the primary sources of historical memory about the significant events of the past wars. However, they regularly contain personal exaggerations, either for dramatic effect or as simple attention grab. Despite that, they provide an insight into one of the most crucial moments of modern history....
Although slavery is abolished and the characters are legally free, they do not feel their freedom. The main characters are free to do what they want, but they do not let themselves do so because of their moral obligations or past experiences. The play also mentions the mill workers who...
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...
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor continues to raise numerous questions. The book represents a great example of the Gothic Fiction of the American South. Nevertheless, it has some distinctive features, such as multiple references to social issues and religion. The book has a darkly menacing...
The literary concept of poetry is one of the most challenging aspects in terms of encoding the writer’s intentions and ideas behind the lines, especially when analyzed decades after their first publications. A prime example of such a challenge would be the poems written by Robert Frost, an American poet...
Introduction One of the most mysterious concepts that has been a topic of interest for numerous poets is death. The fascination with it is explained by the desire of people to grasp the inevitable and view life through the lens of mystery (Daghamin, 2017). One of the poets known for...
The concept of otherness is one of the central issues in James McBride’s autobiographical book The Color of Water and Nadine Gordimer’s story Country Lovers. However, while there are many similarities in how otherness functions in these works, some aspects are fundamentally different. This short essay argues that two authors...
Authors often utilize symbols to signify the importance of events, objects, or relationships in their works. Indeed, the majority of the great poetic or literature works use some degree of symbolism to allow readers to visualize the writers’ messages. Correspondingly, in the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses symbolism to portray the...
“The Scarlet Letter” was written by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne at the end of the nineteenth century. An enormously popular work of fiction, it has been reproduced numerous times as a movie, an opera, and other forms of entertainment. Probably the most famous screen adaptation is “The Scarlet Letter” by...
Hamlet’s Character In Act 2 of his play titled Hamlet, Shakespeare depicts the protagonist Hamlet as the only gifted politician in Elsinore. Although he could read men’s minds accurately, Hamlet is reluctant to respond to other characters vengefully. He only mentions revenge in his last speech despite having the capacity...
Biography Burns’ family was relatively poor, and he had to work at the farm as a child. His father, William Burnes, taught him writing, reading, and arithmetic at home (Crawford 50). Later, he received lessons in French, Latin, and mathematics from John Murdoch, a student hired by his father (Carswell...
Introduction Literature has a unique connection with the real world as, through literary works, writers reflect the complexity of human nature and relations. Especially through a first-person perspective, readers have an opportunity to understand a different mindset and culture better. In particular, in Alexie’s short story What You Pawn I...
‘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...
The story presented in Louise Erdrich’s novel under the title Future Home of the Living God is an example of a hero’s story. Being set in pre-apocalyptic America, the dystopian novel is written from the first-person perspective. It conveys a journey of a pregnant twenty-six-year-old Native American woman named Cedar...
Flannery O’Connor’s essay discussing her own literary piece “A good man is hard to find” is a unique case. She insists as an author that people should not try to dissect stories, trying to analyze every single detail. Rather they should truly enjoy them first, find their own meaning in...
Over the last decades, the conventional retail model underwent significant changes as technological advancement, globalization, and major socioeconomic shifts occurred. Currently, traditional shopping centers yield power to the Internet, and from activity in which word of mouth was authoritative, it transformed into one where influencers impact buying decisions. Doug Stephens’s...
Introduction One of the most amazing things about literature is the possibility of introducing a new world and taking a person out of reality, at least for a moment. Some stories make people change their opinions and discover alternatives to improve their lives. In the majority of cases, literary works...
One influential pair of works presented in class is Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the form of play-script and the television series. The main character of Fleabag is unquestionably flawed; she went through much personal trauma, continually doubts herself and struggles with finding self-value. However, there are various positive traits...
Classics are literary works that are considered the gage and main point of reference for their era or a particular genre. Previously, this term referred to certain authors of ancient literature, and later it was used to refer to all ancient Greek and Roman literature. This concept is now used...
Various literary works were published to enlarge the pool of knowledge connected to literary narrative techniques in epics. The work by Altes called Ethos and Narrative Interpretation: The Negotiation of Values in Fiction explores the interplay of ethos, character, and narrative. The book also covers literary conventions and how they...
The compositions left a profound trace in the literature of the XX century. Even though the stories are short, they contain significant ideas. The narratives are modernist since they describe the individual’s thoughts, not the social environment. The paper below represents a brief overview of the narrations. It also explains...
The world described by Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-four seems cruel and unfair. With its totalitarian regime, full devotion to the Party, and Big Brother constantly watching everyone, the existence of such a society seems impossible in the modern world. Nowadays, although many countries are tolerant and respectful of...
The discussion of the history of Mexican identity in the US is not possible without the mentioning of the Chicano movement. A series “Chicano! A History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement” provides an extensive overview of the movement, and the current paper will address the first episode of...
Historical Background The book of Ruth is set during the time of the Judges, as a family from Bethlehem moves to Moab to avoid famine. The nation of Moab, along with Ammon, had its genealogical roots in Lot’s intercourse with his daughters (Gen. 19:30-38). After the Exodus, the Israelites returning...
At least once in their life – and, in all likelihood, far more frequently – everyone has the reason to think that the universe is unfair. While despicable and immoral actions may yield rewards and recognition, doing the right thing not only does not guarantee those but may even bring...
Walker’s comparison of women to saints means that females have lost their natural form and meaning: they have acquired “shrines” instead of bodies and “temples” instead of minds (401). This description is bad since the writer presupposes that women cannot lead the lives they want, having to bear the status...
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...
Introduction Both of the selected stories, Kawai Strong Washburn’s “What the Ocean Eats” and Bryan Stevenson’s “The High Road,” are interesting to read and focus on important topics resorting to one’s emotions and feelings. However, a detailed analysis of the two pieces allows noticing structural differences and making conclusions as...
Chapter 1: Nick Carraway decides to move from Minnesota to New York. He starts his story by mentioning that his father told him not to judge others because it leads to misunderstanding and wrong interpretations. According to Carraway’s description, Gatsby represents everything for which he had “an unaffected scorn” (Fitzgerald,...
Written by Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial is a historical nonfiction book with a major focus on the African Americans in the United States during the Civil War period. The author spans his story around Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the US, and his life at the height of...
The House of the Seven Gables is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the middle of the nineteenth century. The story revolves around a gloomy mansion in New England, which is believed to be haunted since its construction – this aspect has even made Hawthorne’s work “the father of...
Literary art began to develop in ancient times, many centuries before our era. People recorded the events they experienced, described natural phenomena that they saw, and passed on their wisdom to future generations. Later, they started adding fantasy to literary works to make them more interesting and let impossible become...
The short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien explores the emotional and psychological struggles which soldiers go through in the battlefield. This is evident from first person voice narration O’Brien, who relates the daily experiences of the soldiers in his Alpha Company in the jungles of Vietnam. Even...
Narrator’s View of Her Mother in Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl Girl by Jamaica Kincaid is a poem that depicts tough conversations and lessons between a Kincaid and her mother. The narrator describes the mother as a harsh person by the way the literal work is presented. The dramatic monologue provides an...
Introduction Nowadays, more and more poets are starting to experiment with the possibilities of language. For example, some of them mix prose and poetry or create new genres in literature. Undoubtedly, the genre diversity and the formation of new departments of literature is a significant part of modern writing, but...
The world, where humans will coexist with machines, is coming closer every day. The fast development of artificial intelligence that was almost a miracle a hundred years ago now is considered to be a usual thing. Attempts of science to understand how the human brain works and improve the fragile...
In the current essay, two short stories will be compared and contrasted: “A rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkin. Both stories are focused on female protagonists who experience some form of life-changing isolation. However, two authors use different literary elements in order to...
Mary Shelley’s novel about Frankenstein and his Creature reveals many human vices and cruelty. There is also a place in the story for love and remorse, which opens in both characters in its strange way. However, the complex interweaving of feelings, actions, and the conditions, in which they were committed,...
Postcolonial Theory and Its Benefits for Society The past and ongoing historic processes present invaluable information for future generations allowing them to navigate the world without repeating the mistakes of their ancestors. The combination of such processes is considered under a unified concept of postcolonial theory, which contributes to the...
The story “Everyday Use,” written by Alice Walker, is a complex narrative covering a variety of psychological and cultural issues. One of the most prominent aspects of it is the attitude of the main characters, Maggie and Dee, to their family heritage. The sisters are different in their views regarding...
Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his striking stories that shed light on the darkest aspects of the human mind and soul. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is one of such works that make the reader think of important topics such as the good and the bad, sanity and insanity, crime and...
The narrative is set in a hospital operating room and in-house chapel, perpetuating the atmosphere of democratic conformity that defies morality. The setting serves as the display of the conflict between individual choice and procedures. The author writes, “The on-call room is never dark enough, even with your eye-mask,” indicating...
Introduction As well as the theme of love, the theme of life and death is frequently preferred by many poets for their great works. The main challenge is the impossibility to avoid death or prolong life, and authors try to find out additional ways to calm down, motivate, and support...
Society’s influence on people and their way of life has two outcomes: liberating or oppressing them. It all depends on which standards one accepts at any given time. Most women live unsatisfied lives full of oppression in patriarchal societies that believe in male dominance and female inferiority in marriage. This...
The theme of happiness is derived from the life of Helga Crane, a protagonist whose journey to seek happiness has been disrupted by racial discrimination. Helga’s life is full of phenomenal shifts that leave her unhappy and disgruntled. Nonetheless, the novel conveys that one should act persistently and attempt to...
Introduction It is no secret that Edgar Allan Poe is an iconic representative of the Gothic literature genre. His works are important and exciting not only for researchers in the field of literary criticism but also for amateur readers. It is necessary to understand why his work has earned popularity...
In 2020, the world faced a new virus, which appeared to be a health threat to the population. The disease received the name “COVID-19”, and caused a catastrophic reaction of people, despite the deadly outcomes. Many sources refer to this phenomenon as the “social absurdity” (Banerjee et al., 2020, para....
“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...
The story of young Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrating to New York from Hong Kong told in Girl in Translation crystallizes hardships that immigrants undergo. The family experiences financial troubles, exploitation, and discrimination on its way to prosperity. At first, Kimberly lives in a crummy Brooklyn flat without heating...
The Importance of Literature For every reader, literature opens up the marvelous world of human relationships and experiences. Different epochs and cultures would describe the term literature differently. In its simplest definition, literature refers to a set of written and printed works of a certain people and period. At the...
Trifles by Susan Glaspell highlights perceptions, thought processes, labels, and stereotypes surrounding the inferior perception of women during the early 19th century. The play illustrates repeated neglect and alienation of three females by male colleagues, symbolizing their suffrage at the time of the play. Although the female gender was regarded...
The theme of the formation of the young hero personality is not new in world literature. Most of the major writers have turned to it in their work. A real artist always seeks to penetrate the secrets of the human soul, to find motives that push a person to certain...
A striking example of the struggle between a human and society is the story “Desirée’s Baby”, written by Kate Chopin. The main character, Desirée, is presented to the reader as a beautiful, gentle, and graceful lady. In particular, this is expressed in her love story with her husband, who at...
Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, and the Decade of Greed, written by David Farber, is a history of destructing poor communities of the United States by cocaine. It tells the reader about the roots of crack cocaine and the political response to the drug. It also gives examples from the...
The novel The Old Man and the Sea by Hemmingway is among his most significant writings. The author explores plenty of themes that are still relevant nowadays. Hemmingway forces his reader to reflect throughout the whole narrative, making him or her emphatic with aspirations, struggles, and achievements of the protagonist....
Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote this first-person poem inspired by the Chamonix Valley landscapes near Geneva. The Romantic style of William Wordsworth significantly influenced Shelley’s poetry. The former applied a similar writing style by describing feelings and emotions with physical objects. The young Englishman visited the Arve Valley by Mont Blanc,...
Introduction The limitation of short stories prompts authors to focus on the essential contents of their narrative, stripping away unnecessary descriptions and explanations. One of the best examples of such a prudent approach to writing is the short story by Ernest Hemingway, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” written and published in...
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” written by Flannery O’Connor, quickly became one of the author’s most prominent pieces due to its many definitions and perceptions. First published in 1953, the writing is centered around the themes of good and evil, portraying the writer’s typical style. The following essay...
Introduction Sam Maggs is one of the Master’s students who has achieved a lot in life. She won the 2014 Cineplex Entertainment’s Casting Call contest. In the following year, that is 2015; she moved to Edmonton, where she works up to now as a writer for the different best-selling video...
Death is a controversial topic for many people since its perception varies from person to person. Some see it as liberation from earthly shackles while others dread it and try to postpone the final moment of life for as long as physically possible. Nonetheless, human lives are finite, and at...
Freedom is the power to act, think, or speak as one wants. One universal quality of liberty is the ability to change without any constraint. Freedom allows people to make different decisions in their lives without facing any consequences. The short stories “The Bet,” “The Feather Pillow,” “Story of an...
There are various ways to establish the authority of a source. These include the author’s scope, fame, level of education, professional interests, and other personal characteristics. In addition, it is essential to consider the publisher, possible biases, sources of information studied, and other factors. When working with a source, it...
Song of Solomon is a novel written by Toni Morrison in 1977 and belongs to African American literature. Although this text is one of the writer’s first works, the book brought Morrison great fame. The story of a young African American Macon Dead has raised many questions about black people’s...
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is the first published volume of poetry written by an African-American author Phillis Wheatley (Mulder et al.). Published in 1773, Wheatley had an opportunity to speak out on the tyranny she and her race faced from day to day. Without any fear, she...
This book has comprised several simple truths that help an individual to figure out their main purpose in life. It is addressed to those who burn out at work spending numerous hours doing things they do not enjoy. Those activities do not bring them closer to the desired future. The...
In the story “My Almighty Grandmother” by Gabriela Roy, the narrator is a six-year-old girl who unwillingly spends time with her grandmother in the summer. Through her eyes, I can see an old lady with failing memory. Also, the story revolves around three women who are separated by belonging to...
Introduction In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, magic is described as a supernatural force that defies nature’s laws. These books are popular because they contradict the norms and beliefs that people have been raised to know. Rowling has formed a narrative logic to make these stories believable to...
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince raises fundamental philosophical issues about human life and its actual values. The protagonist undergoes internal evolution and gains an understanding that genuinely precious things are intangible. Instead, they can be perceived only by the heart. Subsequently, numerous other writers have adopted this narrative strategy....
Among numerous contemporary writers, Carmen Boullosa occupies a specific place due to her fascinating use of metaphors and textual objects to convey deep underlying meanings. She is famous for many novels dedicated to the pressing problems of Mexican and American society. Still, she admitted in her interview that she had...
Introduction Residents of the American town gathered for the annual lottery, and as with any other venerable tradition, attitudes toward it vary depending on age. The older men cannot imagine the life of the community without it. Still, the youngers are more skeptical, and they take it without reverence. The...
