6090 samples of this type
Introduction Hamlet is a character used in the play, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, to depict the theme of revenge. In the play, Claudius and Gertrude kill Hamlet’s father, the king, due to the quest for power. The murder of the king motivates Hamlet to commence his revenge mission. Evidently,...
Introduction Ancient Greek poets, including Homer, frequently explored themes of genuine patriotism and unity with their homeland, exemplifying the spiritual anguish experienced by their contemporaries through the heroic characters of epic poetry. Homer’s poem “The Odyssey” is no exception: in this work, the author describes the return journey of the...
Introduction Shakespeare is one of the most well-known and prolific European authors in history. With a backlog of poems and plays, he gained a reputation as a renowned and highly regarded figure worldwide. His position as a storyteller and innovator of the theatre play genre has given him immense power...
Introduction Shirley Jackson is a prominent writer, a classic of twentieth-century American literature, and a master of psychological horror. Her literary weapon against injustice and the ugly sides of the modern world is a grim social allegory. The short story The Lottery was written in 1948, and while this fascinating...
Introduction Hamlet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in the late 16th century. Since then, it has become one of the most well-known works of English literature and has been interpreted by countless literary critics and researchers. Hamlet is also one of the most interpreted works in literature, leaving...
Introduction Dante’s “Inferno,” part of the more extensive work “The Divine Comedy,” is a deep allegory and engaging story that follows the structure of The Hero’s Journey, which is archetypal. This journey through Hell makes for an attractive exploration into the hereafter and mirrors Dante’s personal and religious search for...
Introduction Monkey’s Paw is a horror short story by William Wymark Jacobs, first published in England in 1902. The story has quickly become a classic of English literature since then, sparking conversations on various topics. This critical analysis will prove that the short story asks essential questions on fate, greed,...
Introduction In the pursuit of knowledge, humankind devised science as an important tool for unveiling the mysteries of life. Through science, it becomes possible to generate requisite knowledge that leads to the creation of communication devices that permit people to share information in real time, provide vaccines, and/or answer any...
The central narrative line in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian tragedy Oryx and Crake is built around the story of a man named Snowman, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world alongside humanoid-like creatures called Crackers. At first glance, this story may seem to be about a fantastical, unreal world and Snowman’s adventures...
Introduction 1776, written by David McCullough, is a follow-up to his earlier biography of John Adams and is intended to expand the reader’s understanding of the early stages of the American Revolution. The book provides a fresh viewpoint on those events in a clear and exclusive manner. This review essay...
The Age of Enlightenment occurring in the 17th and 18th century England and Europe remains one of the most prominent periods of history and development in human civilization. This period was chosen along with the respective works and their authors because of the changes that occurred in the literary space...
The theme of relations with nature has always been important for society. The attitude and understanding of this concept have been changing along with the development of society and technologies. The idea of the individual as a part of the world was replaced by the belief that human beings are...
Introduction Literature has undergone several dynamic shifts as a field relating to how information is conveyed and structured in a written piece. Character choice is a vital step in narration as it determines the length, style, tone, and literary devices used. In essence, in any work of literature, the relationships...
This Boy’s Life is a story of a young guy growing up struggling with his problems and fears, misunderstanding, and condemnation of others. Notably, Tobias Wolff stays focused on his desire to reinvent himself, to have a different kind of life compared to the one he is living, and to...
Symbolism is a vital aspect of every play, and the author employs symbols to provide greater depth to a space. In Tennessee Williams’ drama, The Glass Menagerie, he explores three unique individuals, their hopes, and the harsh reality they encounter in contemporary society. The Glass Menagerie depicts the lost hopes...
General Summary The Oresteia” is a trilogy by Aeschylus consisting of three tragedies: the Agamemnon, the Hoephores, and The Eumenides. Staged in 458 B.C., Aeschylus’ Oresteia is the only surviving example of a complete trilogy on a single subject (Powers 58). In this case, the trilogy focuses on the story...
Oedipus the King is a well-known tragedy about ancient Greeks and the king of Thebes written by Sophocles. The content attracts the reader’s attention for many reasons, and one of them is the development of the events that result in the main character’s killing his father and marrying his mother....
The short story “After the Denim” begins with an elderly couple Edith and James Packer getting ready to go to bingo. When they get there, they notice that a young couple is sitting in the seats they used to occupy. The Packers have been unlucky that day and James is...
“Harlem” was a poem work written by Langston Hughes in 1951, a time when jazz and blues music was emanating. He wrote the poem to explore the consciousness and lives of the black people in Harlem (Duki 162). The composition took another path of addressing the continuous experience of the...
Introduction The man’s endeavors to get by in the unpleasant cold and his dog’s simple surrender show nature’s indifference in light of human misery. In To Build a Fire, London utilizes literary devices such as symbolism, setting, and character portrayal to make the topic of the work through the formalist...
Eternal love is the main point of Shakespearean sonnet 116. The great poet states that, “Admit impediments. Love is not love/Which alters when it alteration finds” (Shakespeare 251, lines 2-3). Shakespeare also believes that love cannot be shaken or destroyed, and it should serve as the guiding star for the...
Introduction Macbeth is a play, one of the most famous tragedies by William Shakespeare, presented for the first time in 1606. It is based on the true story of the Scottish king Macbeth and reveals an excessive lust for power. In the story, General Macbeth hears the prophecy of three...
Shirley Jackson wrote “The Lottery” as a short story, and it was published on June 26, 1948, in The New Yorker. The first readers of the story were surprised by it because, in the past, works of the magazine were not identified as fiction or as events happening in real...
Introduction The Glass Menagerie was written and premiered by Tennessee Williams in 1944. The play drew the audience’s attention to the author and gained theatrical success (Adler 18-19). The characters of the play, Amanda Wingfield, her son Tom, and her daughter Laura, can be described from different perspectives, but it...
Some of the key questions a first-time reader of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” would ask involve why a sane person would consider sleeping or speaking with the dead and mete violence to their lover. Specifically, in the present-day society, a reader would refer to cognitive psychology to explain...
Introduction Shakespeare belongs to the most renowned and ever-relevant poets for English, and his works are rich in themes, innovations, and framings. Those familiar with the poet on a superficial level could say that love is Shakespeare’s forte, and they would not be entirely wrong. Poet has many romantic works,...
Throughout the decades, various intellectuals had their own view of the universe and understood the concepts of Heaven and Hell differently. The distinction in perceptions depended on various factors, such as the historical period, societal rules, personal experiences, and philosophies. For instance, an English poet and philosopher John Milton viewed...
Introduction Chinua Achebe is a renowned author not just in Africa but also in international literature. With the help of his writings, Chinua Achebe thrills readers across the globe with the creative application of language, structure, form, and precise insider accounts of modern African history and way of life. With...
Katherine’s final speech in Act 5, scene 2 of Taming of the Shrew, is quite surprising and contradictory to her character. A woman who was known for rebellious behavior towards men, including her husband, suddenly speaks as an exemplary wife. Katherina’s husband asked her to talk about a woman’s duties....
Introduction The House on Mango Street is the novel by Sandra Cisneros, the famous American author with Mexican roots. The plot of the novel is based on such well-known concept in the philosophy as the American dream, which means a strong commitment to achievement of better life and the pursuit...
The metaphysical poet John Donne is one of those poets that are deservedly called the pre-eminent and prolific masters of poetry. His poem called A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning written in 1611 was a wonderful reflection of the seventeenth-century metaphysical poetry features. The title of the poem seems very intriguing. The...
Criticizing and evaluating a particular literary work is not an easy task. In doing so, the analysis of such works is addressed toward the reader to whom this work might be interesting. In that sense, such an evaluation is rarely done by the author of the work, where the author...
In the novel Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad fully explores the concept of imperialism and the effects it has on everyone who is involved with the process. He does this while employing a new modern means of characterization and expression. It is difficult to describe this new form of expression...
The epic poems can be regarded as “a beautiful fiction, producing a lovely, apotheosized version of the self with the capability of camouflaging one’s failings and the uncertainties of life” (Weiss 1). Thus works representing this genre of literature could be considered fairytales for children unless they were of great...
Jane Austen’s Emma Overview Emma, published in 1816, like other novels of Jane Austen, deals with one major subject, that is, young lady’s attempts at finding proper husbands. Although superficially this seems to be the storyline of the novel, there is much more than only this at the deeper level....
Themes Fate is apparent in life and everyone has to work hard to realize it. The alchemist is a novel that has the story of a boy called Santiago who had a dream of going to the pyramids to look for treasures. His dream turned out to be true after...
Introduction William Bradford’s “Traveling through the Dark” seems to present its setting in the very title, but further analysis of the poem allows discerning that the “dark” has two shades of meaning. The direct connotation of the dark is the time of the day when the events are happening. The...
Introduction Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter, a short story by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, tells the readers about Mrs. Dutta, an elderly Indian woman who moved to California to live together with her son and his family after her husband died. The story shows how hard it is for the old...
Introduction Literature is an art form that has existed in society for centuries. It serves various purposes depending on the intention of the author of a given work. Some literary works serve solely for entertainment to diminish the stresses of everyday life by clearing the mind through laughter and inspiration....
Are you about to write A Good Man Is Hard to Find theme essay? Then, make sure to check this sample out! Here, you’ll find the story’s summary, moral lesson, themes, and other aspects of the analysis. Keep reading to get some inspiration for your A Good Man Is Hard to Find thesis! ...
Introduction Octavia Butler has authored several novels based on science fiction. One of them is the ‘Parable of the Sower.’ The book was written in 1993. The main character in this text is Lauren Olamina. According to Butler (23), the female character possesses hyper empathy skills. To this end, she...
Euripides Euripides lived and worked in the 5th century BC; he was a tragedian whose plays won prizes at that time and appeal to the readers of nowadays. The tragedian challenged the gender ideology accepted in his society, which attracts many scholars even in the 21st century AD. The author...
Introduction Blood relation is an epic play that revolves around the life of Lizzy Borden. Lizzy is perceived to have killed her parents in an unpredictable maze of circumstances that Pollock (the playwright) explains were beyond her (Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia 2). This paper analyzes blood relations by responding to its...
Introduction Emily Brontë, in her novel Wuthering Heights, explores various life scenarios that lead people to commit both evil and good deeds. The characters selected by Brontë are strategically used to convey the book’s intended teaching. Heathcliff’s actions and deeds help the reader understand the novel’s themes and lessons, as...
Introduction In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, three main characters embody various symbols and aspects of human nature. These symbols are crucial elements for understanding the novel’s themes and plot. It is important to note that the changing symbols throughout the novel are crucial to interpreting the work....
Introduction Todd Schwartz’s “American Jerk” is an outstanding piece of writing that cleverly identifies the key modern problems of American society. Regarding constructive criticisms, the author uses strong narrative elements of diction, style, theme, and tone, but the characters are missing due to their irrelevance to the subject. The essay...
Introduction Thomas King’s Borders is a novel that explores the concept of physical and metaphorical borders and how these borders can affect how people perceive and interact with one another. The novel Borders by Thomas King explores racism, identity, and the idea of borders. Set in Canada, this novel follows...
Introduction William Shakespeare’s novel Othello is a classic tragedy written in the early seventeenth century. The story depicts the dramatic consequences of jealousy and manipulation and how dangerous it is when these emotions become the basis for decision-making. Shakespeare uses elements of drama, such as conflict, dramatic irony, and symbolism,...
Introduction Among the many plays created by Shakespeare, one of the most outstanding was the tragedy of Othello. The play’s conflict is based on feelings of trust, love, and jealousy. The work is based on the tragedy that lies in Othello’s downfall, which consists of the murder of his beloved...
Essentially, a fable is a concise story that usually involves animals, plants, or forces of nature, among others, as characters. Fables often carry moral lessons through the actions and interactions of these characters. I want to describe an example of a fable called “The Wise Condor and the Impatient Rabbit,”...
Introduction Gender norms and expectations have been an acute issue for hundreds of years, with both women and men being limited to the stereotypes as to what they should feel and do. For example, one coming-of-age novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, written by Erika L. Sanchez, explores...
Purpose of the Book In this book, DiCamillo tells the story of a mouse called Despereaux, who is different from the other mice in his community. While his fellow mice spend their days scavenging for food and avoiding danger, Despereaux dreams of adventure and romance. He is captivated by stories...
Introduction Bradbury wrote many short stories and books as a fiction author. Most of the author’s stories are science fiction, explaining scientific phenomena, nature, and technology. “A Sound of Thunder” is an intriguing short story involving time traveling to the past. Many people today would like to know how the...
Introduction Literary devices allow readers to interpret a piece of writing on multiple levels leading to an immersive and engaging experience. These devices can be seen in a wide range of literary works, including novels, poems, plays, and short stories, and their use helps to make these works enduring and...
Introduction Wit by Margaret Edson is a dramatic work exploring incurable diseases, the power of language, and what makes life worth living. In her play, the author explores the inner life of an English professor suffering from an incurable disease. As the woman nears death, she asks tough questions about...
The heroes of the poems can represent entire nations and be the arbiters of human destinies and states. A variant of such correlation is the category of the epic hero. Heroes are endowed with the best and worst sides of their people. Achilles and Aeneas are a reflection of valor...
In Canto 26 of Dante’s Inferno, Dante and Virgil continue their descent into the 8th circle of Hell – the one that hosts all sinners who deceived those who did not trust them. Here, in the 8th bolgia, where to sit counselors of fraud, they meet the famous Greek hero...
Alexander Pope is considered one of the greatest English poets and an outstanding poet of the early 18th century. He is best known for his satirical and discursive poems. In England, at the time of Alexander’s birth, there were still quite strict laws against Catholics. They could not hold public...
Introduction: The American Dream Concept The term American dream refers to the chances available to citizens of the United States and those who come here to live. The American dream is identified as the freedom of speech, entrepreneurship, personality, and the capacity to work hard to accomplish personal objectives and...
Introduction “Canterbury Tales” were written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1392. The basis of the story is the pilgrimage of Thomas Becket to Canterbury. Throughout their travels, no the pilgrims tell stories about their lives or stories they have heard before. Notably, the author never completed his book as not all...
The “Cask of Amontillado” is a short story by Edgar Allen Poe that follows an act of revenge enacted on a man called Fortunato by Montresor. Montresor does so out of the assumption that Fortunato has insulted him, and his revenge is subtle, intricate, and the main driving force of...
Introduction Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too” is a stirring portrayal of the African American experience in the United States, highlighting the struggle for equal treatment and dignity in the face of pervasive racism and discrimination. The poem speaks to the resilience and strength of those who have been marginalized, and...
American dramatist Arthur Miller wrote about the moral predicament of the working class. Playwright David Ives uses the last twenty-four hours of his protagonist’s life as a montage of dreams and recollections to explore the theme of identity loss. The play’s central plot revolves around the American Dream. Many people...
Kate Chopin penned the short story “Story of an Hour” in 1891. The story’s protagonist is Mrs. Louise Mallard, diagnosed with heart illness after learning that her husband, Brently Mallard, perished in a train accident. Even though Mrs. Mallard finally dies from her sickness, her character growth throughout the narrative...
Introduction It is quite common for initial literary works and their further film adaptations to have a number of differences in plots and characters’ behaviors. Such a situation refers to the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl and the short film Lamb to the Slaughter by Alfred...
One of the most striking and unusual poems is Tomorrow at Dawn by Victor Hugo. This author is known for his unusual style and method of presentation, which makes a special impression on the reader (Matthews 682). His work includes several literary devices and features that create a concrete character...
Introduction Heart of Darkness is a novel written by Joseph Conrad and was first published in 1902. It centers around Marlow, a sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz. As Marlow travels, he encounters cruelty and inefficiency in the treatment of the black inhabitants in Congo....
Gilgamesh is the main character of the ancient Mesopotamian epic and he fits the pattern of the hero’s journey. Gilgamesh’s quest is to defeat the evil get wood for building houses. According to the structure of the monomyth, there are three stages in the hero’s journey, including separation, initiation, and...
Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill” portrays humble attempts of a lonely English teacher to aggrandize herself and her surroundings and demonstrates the pitfalls of daydreaming. It reveals the inner workings of an ordinary person’s soul showing that everybody has their passions and dramas. The plot and narrative techniques chosen serve the...
The question of what exactly a woman’s place in the marriage has long been a ground for heated discussions. Our society has come a long way from perceiving women as merely the property of men to today’s development of the feminist movement. However, even though nowadays, emancipation is a must...
Introduction Prince Hamlet from Shakespeare’s Hamlet is considered one of literature’s most complex and intriguing characters. The depths of his emotion, the impact of psychological trauma, and the everbearing moral conflict within him contribute to a seemingly erratic but also highly philosophical character. In finishing Act one of the drama,...
Homer’s Odyssey is an excellent piece of literature that inspires many people to this day. Its story is well-known, but it does not cease to be retold in various forms. Movies, cartoons, books, and comic books appear from time to time, honoring the original Odyssey. The Odyssey: A Graphic Novel,...
The poem “When Lilacs in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is one of the masterpieces of Walt Whitman containing deep symbolism. It is used to convey feelings and emotions and help readers to understand the central message of the author. The star, the lilac, and the bird are the three words that...
To Kill a Mockingbird has faced many restrictions and criticisms since Harper Lee wrote it in 1960. Atticus Finch’s protagonist passes valuable lessons on discrimination to his two children, Jem and Scout. Every parent ought to strive to instill the teaching in their children’s lives to grow up to be...
Jamaica Kincaid’s “On Seeing England for the First Time” is a piece that reflects on her pessimistic view of the country. The narrative of the writing constructs a growing dislike, or even hatred, for England through comparisons to what can be seen as negative metaphors, such as a leg of...
J.D. Salinger’s short story Slight Rebellion Off Madison is a beautiful portrayal of youthful rebellion and nonconforming nature. Holden Caulfield is overpowered with thoughts of leaving everything behind and getting married to Sally in a new city. Hoverer, neither Sally nor the other friends take Holden seriously. The rest of...
Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie portrays a world of illusion to the reader as an escape from the difficulties of reality. Amanda, Laura, and Tom suffer from alienation and the inability to find their place in society, which forces them to focus on their own inner world. Despite being...
“The Double Image” is a rather significant and famous confessional poem written by Anne Sexton. This is an increasingly severe and profound literary work that can have various meanings and interpretations. The poet tells about her most intimate parts of life and her way through post-traumatic stress disorder. It is...
Mark Twain’s quote “God created war so that Americans would learn Geography” humorously depict the levels of American involvement with other countries at that time. Twain lived during the late 19th century when America was repeatedly involved in different wars, for instance, Red Cloud’s War, Mexican-American War, Great Sioux War,...
Petry Ann’s 1945 short story “Like a Winding Sheet” presents the psychological aspect and manifestations of different ordeals which one goes through in life. The challenges that a person faces in society can cause damage to themselves or even to other innocent individuals as evident in Petry’s work. Johnson, the...
Common themes connect many seemingly unrelated works of art and literature. This is true for The Illegal by Lawrence Hill, The Step Not Taken by Paul D’Angelo, and the song Get Up Stand Up by The Wailers. Although they revolve around entirely different stories, the two works of literature and...
Introduction Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles and her short story ‘A Jury of Her Peers’ are the one that shake readers’ consciousness of the woman existence among men in the beginning of the twentieth century. These are the two literary works presenting the same story differently. The both writing are significant,...
Introduction The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer. It seems to have originated based on legends about the Trojan War, and the main character of the poem is Achilles. Dramatic pictures of war, fights of heroes alternate with pictures of peaceful life and with scenes of...
The stories of popular fictional characters are often filled with adventures and challenges intended to entertain the audience. At the same time, their authors mimic real life, exploring internal and external conflicts people face. Thus, such characters are suitable candidates for practicing psychoanalysis – especially if a person displayed has...
“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is a philosophical short story that deserves the public’s attention. In her work, Le Guin describes a utopian city in which all people are happy, but their happiness rests on the misery and suffering of one child. The short story is filled with...
A Worn Path is a short story laden with meaning and symbolism wrote by Eudora Welty. The narrative is about an old African American woman, Phoenix Johnson, walking a familiar path in the rural areas of Natchez, Mississippi, seeking to get medicine for her ailing grandson. The story is written...
Introduction In Arthurian literature, women certainly played important roles. They repeatedly and constantly prejudiced the protagonists of such stories in countless ways and also held a strong sway over the occurrences in the story and, accordingly, over the story line as well. In her work, To the Glory of Her...
The book ‘Montana 1948’ reflects themes of; the importance of family, loyalty, guilt, law, and order, and justice. The book is told from a third-person perspective of David Hayden, who recaps the events of his childhood Bentock, Montana in the summer of 1948. The issue of identity and decision-making are...
Introduction Homer’s poem “Iliad” uses a concept of “therapon” which is not typical for any of other writers of those times and of modern times as well. The concept concerns the character whose actions are described in the lines “Three times he charged with the headlong speed of Ares, /Screaming...
Introduction Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein raises a number of social issues such as the disapproval of the female gender in society. The social class, as depicted in the novel, is split along gender lines that marginalize women as a result of the existence of a predominant patriarchal structure. Also, a...
Introduction In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell explored the topic of governmental overreach and totalitarianism. The novel has been classified under the genre of dystopian political and social science fiction, which means that the themes explored by the author were characterized by a focus on the society that is contrary to...
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is one of the brightest examples of how a sophisticated theme can be transferred within only a few pages of a short story. However, this is not the greatest feature of the piece. In “The Lottery,” the use of narrative techniques favored by the writer serves...
Materialism is the belief that comfort, pleasure, and wealth are the most desirable things in life. Do you agree? I do not agree that comfort, pleasure, and wealth are the most desirable things in life. All of these things are fickle and have temporary value. Focusing only on them blinds...
Introduction While the textbook offers a wide range of captivating, deep poems, fully of effective and meaningful symbolism, few of them are as captivating and current as the poem “Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, which is rightfully one of his more popular works (Frost). This is a narrative poem,...
Background The story has an interesting beginning of a wife is asked by the husband to stop baking the bread and accompany him to a crime scene of a family they knew. Thereafter the story of a jury of her peers revolves around these characters one of them being Minnie...
Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire” is regarded as one of the most brilliant examples of the naturalist movement. London tells a story about a man who freezes to death. The author reveals the idea that humans are too self-assured or naïve if they think they can conquer...
Introduction Poverty is identity in John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, and the main character Kino, a poor fisherman, manifests a transformation in his identity upon discovering a magnificent pearl, one which he believes, initially, can transform him from a poor and powerless man to a rich and self-sufficient one, beholden to...
One of the great things about William Shakespeare’s plays is that he was usually able to offer insight into the psychology of his characters. The dramatic play King Lear is no exception. Intended to be performed before an Elizabethan audience, the main action of the game follows the path of...
Short Story Summary “Sweat,” a famous short story written by Zora Neale Hurston, has often been linked with the biblical perspectives of Adam and Eve. In his book, Zora comes up with a story of a wife, husband, and snake to make up the short story. Unlike Eve, who led...
Memory in Wordsworth In Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey,” the poet reflects on the power of memory and its ability to shape one’s perception of the world. The poem begins with the speaker revisiting a natural landscape after a five-year absence, and he is struck by how the memory of the place...
Introduction John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” gives a vivid description of the Garden of Eden – it is presented as a dynamic place with a prelapsarian setting. The first seven books of the epic poem give an overview of paradise’s purity, emphasizing the relationship between humanity, nature, and divinity (Milton, 2000)....
Introduction Ancient Greece is known for its many traditions and norms that have been preserved for millennia, emphasizing the values of family, dignity, and integrity. However, Ancient Greece is additionally known for its literature and well-known plays that carry powerful messages and illuminate themes that are often debated even in...
The story tells about Safiya and Said, who were forced to leave their home in Haifa in 1948. Haifa became the subject of military conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Jews during this period, which caused the inhabitants to leave the city. However, in the chaos of the escape, the couple’s...
The “Questions of King Milinda” is a Buddhist text written between 100 B.C – 200 B.C. It is a fictional dialogue between the Buddist Sage Nagasena and the Greek King Milinda. Although it is not included in the Pali Canon, it is cherished because it addresses Buddhism’s most complicated questions...
Nigerian culture and literature have long been underexplored by the world academic community and society as a whole. The short story “The Folded Leaf” written by Caine Prize winner Segun Afolabi is a short story that shows the new wave in Nigerian literature heritage. It touches on the critical themes...
Fight Club – The Novel Describe the Narrator’s life before Tyler The narrator’s life before he meets Tyler is characterized with chronic insomnia which has been disturbing him for a while. His condition becomes a problem at his Work place where he works as a product recall specialist and prompts...
The poem The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats is a wonderful and thought-provoking piece of poetry. Written in 1919, following the ordeal of the First World War, one of the deadliest struggles in human history, the poem embodies the uncertainty and anguish of a post-conflict world. Despite being penned...
Introduction The issue of women’s rights has always been an acute topic since while women in developed countries have the privilege of education and a career, having a sense of security and protection, many women in developing countries are restricted in their freedom. The novel A Thousand Splendid Suns was...
Introduction Miller’s Death of a Salesman is iconic and representative since it takes place during a time of national catastrophe, the Great Depression. The author’s imagination was drawn to the seemingly insignificant lives exemplifying central themes, such as family relationships, financial wellbeing, and the shortcomings of the American dream (Churchwell...
Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible,” is inspired by the McCarthyism hysteria which occurred in the 1940s and 1950s due to the inconsistencies in the Salem witch trials. The play is based on extreme behavior when people had hidden agendas and dark desires (Li 116). Thus, the word McCarthyism means making...
The apparent expression of Kafka’s Metamorphosis is the battle to discover and express one’s individuality in a world of constant, all-consuming commitments. For instance, The Metamorphosis discusses a ludicrous occurrence “as Gregor awoke one morning from an uneasy dream he found himself transformed into a gigantic insect.” (Kafka 1), which...
The monster’s mother is one of the three main antagonists of the Beowulf poem, along with Grendel himself and the dragon: different versions have referred to her as both a “female monster,” a “warrior-woman,” and even “the monstrous bride from hell.” This paper examines the episode of the battle between...
This paper analyses the short story “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson (1916-1965). Shirley Jackson is one of the most influential American authors of the twentieth century, mostly known for her short stories and novels excitingly describing different supernatural events. “The Lottery” tells about the annual lottery in a small...
I keep on dying again. Veins collapse, opening like the Small fists of sleeping Children. Memory of old tombs, Rotting flesh and worms do Not convince me against The challenge. The years And cold defeat live deep in Lines along my face. They dull my eyes, yet I keep on...
Edgar Allen Poe is one of the renowned poets whose works have been used by several generations. Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, when most Americans were beginning to embrace literature. He mainly focused on poems and short stories, especially tales. He is among the earliest...
Introduction “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” one of the first works to be associated with the name of William Shakespeare, doubtlessly is more than a story with a moral. It serves to illustrate the common laws of life, which work on human beings even without their understanding of them. In fact,...
The Damned Human Race is an essay written by an American writer, Mark Twain. In this satirical paper, the author reveals a very original and peculiar theory, according to which humankind is not the highest point of evolution, but the lowest. Mark Twain provides very convincing arguments to defend his...
Poems can be a successful and interesting avenue to explore new ideas, as well as to comment on the daily necessities of life and its various events. In particular, ideas can be utilized very efficiently in communicating meaning across individuals and being used for their informational value. For the purposes...
Ernest Hemingway’s famous story “Hills Like White Elephants” is a short work but full of contextual details. The setting in which the events of the story unfold is notable for how much it influences the course of the narrative. Various non-obvious aspects presented by the author allow the reader to...
In “Why Don’t You Dance?”, Raymond Carver tells a story about a man who puts most of his belongings for sale. As he takes the furniture out of the house, cars pass by until one of them stops. A boy and a girl exit the vehicle and start examining the...
“A Pair of Tickets” is the final chapter of Amy Tan’s book The Joy Luck Club in which the author shows readers the importance of self-identification and reunion. This chapter is a reflection of the personal experience of Amy Tan, who, like Jing-Mei Woo, an immigrant girl who traveled to...
The Garden Party is a short story by Catherine Mansfield that depicts the family of Sheridan and their workingmen from the point of Laura, the daughter of Mrs. Sheridan. The events occur in the 20th century in England, where the differences between upper-class and lower-class families were especially pronounced. The...
The stories with the girls as the main protagonists grew popular during the last couple of decades. They traditionally represent the problems girls usually meet during their lifetime (typically, teenage or young adult years). In “Girl” and “Where are you going, where have you been,” there are two protagonists with...
Introduction The problem of the genre of tragedy in the work of Shakespeare as a whole still remains open. It is multifaceted and includes both questions from the field of the history of genres and the question of the philosophical content of Shakespeare’s plays in connection with the category of...
Introduction Poetry can take many forms and use a variety of rhyme types and literary devices. Despite the diversity of forms, poems have one thing in common: they elicit deep feelings from people’s souls and make readers reflect on important philosophical questions. This essay will discuss two pieces of poetry:...
Introduction Human life is surrounded and defined by social issues that happen to people as they attend to their day-to-day activities. As such, authors seek to explore these issues through novels, movies, and other artworks with the intention of understanding or highlighting the underlying principles. Whether in fiction or non-fiction,...
Representing a strictly patriarchal society, where the rights of women are heavily infringed upon, postcolonial Senegal is one of the places where women suffer particularly harsh injustices. In her semi-autobiographical novel, “So Long a Letter,” Mariama Bâ depicts the struggles of Senegal women in a disturbingly vivid and realistic manner,...
The world continuously changes, and the reality existing today differs from the past significantly. However, this past was the main factor that impacted the evolution of society and its acquisition of specific features and shapes that can be seen nowadays. All events, choices, and policies of previous epochs imprint on...
Behold the Dreamers is the novel by novice author Imbolo Mbue. The story revolves around Jonga and Edwards families that are both affected by the 2008 economic crisis. Jende and Neni Jonga are immigrants from Cameroon who desperately try to get American citizenship and stay in the country. Employed by...
Introduction Lewis Carroll, the author of the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, managed to illustrate the fantasy world being full of anthropomorphic creatures through the depiction of morality themes; the tale is considered to be a gradual way to self-recognition and values perception. It is necessary to underline the fact...
While reading this amazing creation of Shakespeare, I have always thought of corruption its effect. The more I read the more I realized and understood the undesirable effects of corruption. I wouldn’t say ambition is the effect of corruption but it’s rather one of the factors. Supporting my finding and...
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...
John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men seems to be a simple story about the Great Depression. The story is essentially about two guys trying to make it in California as they struggle to stay employed as migrant field workers. Their dream is to earn enough money to buy a...
Introduction William Butler Yeats was a master poet in that he was able to convey tremendous depth of meaning within his poetry while keeping the subject relatively tightly confined. Yeats truly understood the modern concept of permitting a poem to stand on its own as a piece of art open...
Cinderella is one of the most popular characters in the history of the world’s fairy tales. This character could be modified in some ways by certain national cultures and in other ways by other cultures but the very essence of the story about Cinderella has always remained unchanged. It depicted...
Reading classic literature provides plenty of benefits to the reader such as a better understanding of other people’s feelings and thoughts and the consequences of their actions. Often, the perception of those benefits directly depends on the narrator of a book. Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights narrated by two characters,...
There are some Knight’s Period stories that everybody knows, or maybe, heard about, but if one strives for a deeper understanding and acknowledgment of their main themes and ideas, it is necessary for him or her to analyze them, compare some of their characters with one another. Therefore, the following...
Achilles and Hector are two heroic characters in Homer’s classic Iliad and both these fearless warriors display honour and virtue in their characters. The personal resolve, decisions, behaviour, valour and the commitment shown by these two act as the key to the development of the plot of the book. Both...
Introduction Community is a critical aspect of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower as it is vital in the struggle for existence for people in a chaotic world. The evolution and adaptation of change, which are common themes in the novel, reflect Charles Darwin’s theories in The Origin of Species....
Introduction The timeless old tale of a little girl who goes to her grandmother and meets a wolf has undergone several changes. They were in accordance with the authors’ social stance and what was politically acceptable in their place of living. Perhaps one of the oldest variations of the fairytale,...
The power of classic literature and dramaturgy is in their ability to withstand the influence of time and remain relevant for society even after years since creation. This assumption might be applied to Henrik Ibsen’s play titled “The Doll’s House.” It was written at the end of the 19th century...
Introduction Shakespeare’s use of two plots in a single play is an important literal structure that appears in several of his works. However, his play ‘King Lear’ is the most important work that provides evidence of this literal structure. Arguably, despite criticisms that Shakespeare confused his audience with more than...
Despite the existing variety of stories and authors, all of them have several things in common. The presence of a theme is usually defined as a major idea of a work that can be stated directly and indirectly (Literary Devices, n.d.). In this discussion, three short stories, “The Cask of...
Introduction The poem depicts a traveler who has arrived at a fork in a forest where two roads diverge. It thus presents his dilemma in deciding which road to continue traveling on. In normal circumstances, such a traveler would have a map with him and it goes to illustrate that...
Introduction Epic heroes are considered to be one of the most important figures in history and literature, who represent the best human qualities and traits, illustrate proper morals and values, and teach the reader what it means to be a fair, honorable, and respectable person. As a rule, epic heroes...
Introduction Modern authors often choose to explore different parts of their ancestors’ history that were unavailable to them before (Maus 37). Many of the writers do not only retell the stories of the past but also use some fictional elements to create a narrative that will show the struggles of...
Home has an emotional connection to each one of us: it is the place where we feel safe, where we grew up, where we go for security, and to find love. It means different things to different people, mostly sentimental and heart-warming. For example, Silas the dying old servant in...
Summary of the story The recess queen story is about recess and playing with other children. The book is about schoolyard bully who is lightened through gentleness and friendship. The Mean Jean is regarded as the recess queen in the story as depicted in the words, “Mean Jean the Recess...
Gail Godwin’s The Watcher at the Gate offers a personal reflection on the myriad manifestation of the critical voice, a voice that typically blocks any and all creative endeavor before the implementation stage. Godwin’s essay recounts the effect of the critical voice on novelists specifically, however her “watcher” refers to...
Myths are interesting for many people because they are based on primitive and common opinions and ideas about the situations and phenomena of the life. That is why, the mythological and archetypal approach with references to the Jungian analysis can be used in order to discuss the piece of literature...
