5910 samples of this type
Mother to Son is a narrative poem written by Langston Hughes, an American poet, novelist, and playwright. The poem is constructed in the form of a monologue of a mother addressing her son. She states that life has been hard for her and compares overcoming the struggles to climbing stairs....
Roger Mais’ short story, Red Dirt Don’t Wash, has its setting in Jamaican society but follows the American style of narratives. The story is about a farmworker, Adrian, who is in love with a woman, Miranda. Adrian always stares at her as he admires her prowess in kitchen work and...
The novel Atonement by Ian McEwan is a romantic war tragedy metafiction that follows Cecilia and Robbie’s lives as the protagonist. They experience conflicts trying to fulfill their dream of eternal love and separate, shutting down all their achievements. McEwan intertwines irony and symbolism to explore the theme of love...
His novel The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit Ridge presents the readers with the image of women as the independent backbone of operations and peacekeepers. This essay will focus on the first prompt, discussing the roles of strong Chicana women in Ridge’s novel. It will...
Introduction Literature is a unique instrument that provides the readers with the power to see others’ thoughts and feelings. “I Love Yous Are for the White People” is an excellent example of such a literary function. This novel deals with a highly important issue of racial disparities and the hardships...
Introduction During her short literary race, Flannery O’Connor managed to fall into the spotlight of many influential literature experts and critiques and conquer the minds of millions of people. Her status as a devout Catholic woman dwelling in the predominantly protestant South and the times of World War II and...
Like many other stories addressing the complexity of human nature, Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” introduces a complex moral issue under the guise of a seemingly simple ethical problem. By showing how evil can assume the disguise of morality and, thus, affect unsuspecting people, O’Connor proves that both experiences, when...
Folk tales are an integral part of the culture of any nation. These stories were passed down from generation to generation and were constantly interpreted depending on the time period. It is essential to understand that each folk tale carried a special message, which was instructive in conception. In other...
Thomas King’s “Inconvenient Indian” explores the subject of native Americans and their lives in North America. The idea of “Dead Indians” and “Live Indians” is one of the critical topics King covers. These two concepts capture the experiences of indigenous peoples and how non-indigenous societies perceive and treat them. King...
In his work Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe chronicles the tale of Okonkwo, a strong and respected member of the Igbo society in Nigeria. Achebe uses language and style to develop him into a complex and multi-faceted character. He is presented as someone who is both strong and fragile, self-assured...
“Tess of the D’Urbervilles” can be seen as a straightforward love tale. However, the book covers many topics that Hardy and the society of that time could view as rather debatable. It includes the humanity of people in that society, the social morals, religion, and their conflicts. Hardy only shows...
Introduction The use of literary elements in the short story helps the narrator depict the characters’ state in detail. Metaphors are among the widespread literary features, allowing Kate Chopin to vividly represent the psychological state of the protagonist of “Story of an Hour.” The story’s main character, Mrs. Mallard, learns...
Introduction “B. Wordsworth” is a short story written by V. S. Naipaul, a Trinidad-born descendant of indentured workers shipped from India, and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The story is about the relationship between a young boy (from whose perspective we see the story unfold), and a man named Black...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s literary work The Yellow Wallpaper is often considered an important early work of American feminist literature that illustrates general social and physiological attitudes toward women in the 19th century which are still relevant today, even in spite of their enormous age. There have been a number of...
Introduction The study of the literature of the past centuries is of particular value as it provides an understanding of how their thought represented itself in earlier times. Moreover, this process provides a unique insight into how people perceived the world and what morals and attitudes to culture and religion...
Introduction Tales are fictional stories that normally tend to offer details concerning the way a given community is behaving or performing its duties. Various authors have developed specific ways of presenting their views. One of the good examples of such authors is Dickens, who is currently recognized as one of...
Coyote and Multnomah Fall, a legend of the Wasco people, tells the traditional story of love, longing, and sorrow. The story’s protagonist is the Coyote character, widespread among the North American Wasko Indians. Coyote in the works usually acts as a minor character. It can be used to contrast with...
“My left foot” is an autobiography of Christy Brown written in 1954. Brown was diagnosed with an incurable disability but lived a productive life thanks to intelligence and the ability to control his left foot. Despite being born with the disability of cerebral palsy, Brown, thanks to various attitudes as...
A&P is a comic short story written by John Updike in 1961. The story tells about a cashier guy in a store who was shocked by the appearance of three young female customers who came to the store in swimsuits. After the manager, as the main hero thought, disgraced girls...
Introduction An intensely tumultuous beat runs through the poem Daddy by Sylvia Plath. She composes a poem about her father, Otto Plath, as an experience, including an unsolved complicated relationship. Plath regarded her father so highly that she alluded to him as an idol and a Nazi while comparing his...
Introduction Allen Ginsberg’s 1956 poem “America” recounts the tumultuous Time following WWII when the country’s prospects were bleak. By opening the veil of national passivity, the poem expresses those times of political insecurity and asks for positive change. This poem appears many major subjects, including earlier conflicts, nuclear weapons, and...
Stella passing for white in The Vanishing Half is an act of conformity. The term refers to behaving in accordance with some standard or authority. In the narrative, Stella acknowledges the power that the white population had in the novel which reflects the discussed concept (“Conformity”). She decides to escape...
In The Great Gatsby, many of the characters have questionable ethics. The story, written by Scott Fitzgerald, reflects a society where moral decadence thrives. Although the characters do not directly express their ethical positions on issues, their lack of ethical principles can be inferred from their actions. Additionally, they act...
English Literature, as people know it now, was shaped by Shakespeare. His famous works include “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “Romeo and Juliet,” and many others, and most modern people know Shakespeare’s plays. However, apart from literary contribution, Shakespeare revolutionized literature by setting a standard for other works. Shakespeare’s works created a revolution...
The Lost Letters of Pergamum is a collection of letters in which prominent people from the nobility and churches of the century first communicate and discuss various matters. In general, this book shows people writing letters about how Christianity gradually and appeared influenced the world around. The plot describes the...
The number of monarchies in the modern world has undoubtedly been greatly reduced compared to two or three centuries ago and the Middle Ages. Society has gone through many stages of development and the forms of government used have changed. In The Tale of Sinuhe, the author talks about the...
The Lottery, first published in 1948, remains to be one of the most read stories in American literature. The story revolves around a small village in New England where all the members hold a lottery annually and the person picked is murdered. Shirley Jackson’s main aim of writing the tale...
“To Winter” and “After the Winter Rain” are both related to the same topic of the winter period. However, they display this season from different aspects: Claude McKay expresses his desire for winter to stay and Ina Coolbrith explains how spring comes after winter. In addition, the poems are visibly...
Culture is a vital aspect of every society, depicted through gender roles, power distribution, and the place of men and women in society. Literature serves to highlight the cultural practices engraved in society. The play A Doll’s House is a three-part play by the renowned playwright Henrik Ibsen. A Doll’s...
Rita Dove seems to have an intimate understanding of motherhood and the responsibilities ascribed to motherhood. In the poem, Dove provides strong diction and the female point of view to express the life of being a mother and a wife. In the first stanza, Rita Dove arrays motherhood as a...
In 1997, over the span of one night, Harry Potter took the world by storm when the book sold 11 million copies within 24 hours of its release: 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US. And as of 2021, More than 500 million copies of...
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...
There are many different negative features that are common for people of all times, be it the eighteenth or the twenty-first century. Greed, indifference, anger, corruption, immorality, and the readiness to sin for one’s own benefit destroy humans and everything good in society. To show the full horror of the...
Claudia Rankine is a writer, poet, dramatist, and anthology editor from the United States of America. The author published five collections of poems, two plays, and several articles. The two works of hers that were proposed for the analysis are Citizen: An American Lyric and the poem Stop and Frisk....
In Albert Camus’s The Plague, a classical masterpiece, a deadly outbreak begins with rats and spreads to humans, decimating half of Oran’s population but sparing the least likely: Joseph Grand. Readers meet Joseph early in the novel, just about the same time news breaks about rats supposedly having an epidemic,...
A raisin in the Sun and Fences are two plays that show African-American families dealing with their daily hardships and tensions. Both families face discrimination, and both have internal problems as well. The storylines of two main characters are in many ways parallel to each other: Troy Maxson and Walter...
The Camel and His Friends is a short story, which was written as one of the five chapters of beast fables from India called Panchatantra. The story is attributed to a sage named Bidpai, who is thought to be the original narrator. In India, Bidpai is a legendary figure and...
The writer created Animal Farm work during the Second World War from 1943 to 1944, but it was published only in 1945 in Great Britain. The book belongs to the genre of satire and is a parody of the Russian revolution of 1917. In the Soviet Union, however, it was...
In “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses a great symbolic work to depict fear of death and its inevitability for people. He has shown the unity of effect in the poem. According to Fletcher, he portrayed death in a form that destroys all the lifesaving plans of people...
There is a number of brilliant writers whose genius helps them create truly amazing writings that rarely leave the readers indifferent. One of such masterpieces is the story titled “The far and the near” by Thomas Wolfe. While reading this short text, one can feel various emotions and start thinking...
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, in the chapter titled “Coffee and the Protestant Ethic,” talks about the consequences of the introduction of coffee for the European countries in the context of the Age of Reformation. He argues that coffee satisfied the needs of the period of Protestantism and rationalism, and had significant political,...
Nature and science are intricately linked elements that complement and contradict each other in equal measure. Nathaniel Hawthorne has contributed to this discussion through “The Bench-Mark,” a uniquely written short story that revolves around the life of Aylmer, a scientist whose current mission involves the removal of a birthmark from...
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...
George Elliott Clarke is a multitalented author, offering a unique perspective as a Black Canadian in his works. Poetry is just one of Clarke’s facets, but it allows him to express his identity in a concise and vivid way. However, even a small sample of the works reveals a great...
Introduction Ian McEwan is one of the novelists who touches upon the nature of art and creativity as the act of forming a new world and influencing people who live there. In this Atonement, McEwan parallels the author with a God because of the similarity of their roles and their...
In Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out”, personification plays a significant role. The poet deliberately gives the saw human qualities to impress the reader, for example, it “leaped out at the boy’s hand” (Frost 30, line 16). This effect is used to show the strong intention of the saw to hurt...
Introduction Hemingway’s The Soldier’s Home is a story of a war veteran who faces the dilemma of choosing between being a welcomed member of his old social circle and staying true to his morals and ideals. When the book’s main character Krebs returns to his hometown, he is forced to...
Introduction Short stories and reading overall sometimes seem to be simply a form of entertainment. However, in reality, characters in these writings often provide readers with answers to the questions of the meaning of life or the importance of various values. A story by Ernest Hemingway called “Hills Like White...
Lucy Lurie is one of the supportive characters of J. M. Coetzee’s Nobel Prize awarded novel Disgrace. Despite being a secondary character, she plays an important role in illuminating some of the key points of the novel, revealing some hidden sides of David Lurie, her father, who is the major...
Setting is an element of fiction often used by authors to support the ideas and themes presented in a literary work. Setting refers to the place and time where the story takes place and may include social statuses, weather, historical period, and details about immediate surroundings (Elements of Fiction). The...
“The Return of Martin Guerre” is a book that creates certain controversies in the understanding and analysis of people and historical events. It supposes alternatives that were not possibly considered at the time and raises doubt as to the correctness of the decisions that were made. It also makes the...
Dear Cornelius, I hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirit. Alas, I cannot say so about myself at the moment. I cannot possibly explain what heartbreaking and unfortunate news awaited thy loyal friend Hamlet upon his returning home. You are my kindred spirit and the only...
Love has always been an eternal resource of inspiration for poets. Sentimental and flattering, love helps to reveal the most hidden feeling and emotions. Therefore, the narrators use vivid poetic elements to describe this flourishing phenomenon. This paper seeks to explore how love is addressed in the poems “The Passionate...
Introduction Past experiences, achievements, and challenges will influence people’s lives and the decisions they make. Individuals who acquire appropriate guidance or support will eventually develop a powerful philosophy that can inform most of their actions and aims. Many authors and novelists focus on their past observations and experiences in an...
The “Mother to Son” poem written by Langston Hughes depicts a mother who tells her about difficulties she encountered in her life and continues to overcome them. Based on the example with a stair, the woman emphasizes that her life was not a crystal stair, which means that she had...
Annotation The writer speaks of a force that has tried to limit her ability to write in prose and compares this to a time when she was young and they tried to lock her up in a closet in a bid to silence her and make her still. She goes...
Introduction “Song of myself” is written by American poet, humanist, essayist and journalist, Walt Whitman. Whitman is considered famous among American poets and his poetry collection, “leaves of grass” and many of his works were highly controversial during it’s time. (Carew 545) Furthermore, his sexuality was also unclear and it...
King Lear is a story of an old headstrong king who is often blind to his frailties. This king decides to divide his empire among his three female offspring. However, the division is based on a love recital that the daughters are supposed to make. The daughter who makes the...
Abstract Jane Austen is a woman of her times. She is well known for her piercing social commentary and portraits of courtship and marriage. She also has a deep understanding of family life and the complex interactions between parents and their daughters. Among her best works are the novels Pride...
Introduction A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two dissimilar things are said to be the same. When Sylvia Plath addresses a shoe in the first two lines of “Daddy,” the shoe refers to the metaphor’s tenor, the subject which is likened to the vehicle. This is her...
Comparing characters of Mathilde and Charlotte In these two short stories, Mathilde is portrayed as the pretty and charming wife of Mr. Loisel, a minor clerk in the Ministry of Education. She is disillusioned with her small time life, with no grandeur or high living. Charlotte Prime is a governess...
Rita Dove’s “The Darker Face of the Earth” is a poet reading that narrates the Oedipus drama, fabricated in terms of the African-American experience of slavery. Oedipus the King’s reading is enriched with the beauty and richness of ancient images and distress dynamics of Greek myths. The transcendent power drawn...
Introduction John Webster’s works give an idea that powerful women were an anomaly in the XVI and XVII centuries. Indeed, during the early modern period, powerful women were not welcome in society, they were considered to be unnatural and dangerous. Female dominance could not be accepted as it symbolized social...
Introduction The Death of a Salesman was a tale of broken dreams, aspirations of the characters and unfulfilled promises. The Loman family is portrayed in the play as a dysfunctional family, each member with his or her issues. Willy Loman is sixty-three and nearing retirement, his wife, his two sons,...
Fitzgerald’s magnum opus The Great Gatsby raises an important question about the legitimacy of the American Dream. The novel centers on Jay Gatsby, a millionaire who came from humble beginnings and spends his time trying to reunite with his former lover, Daisy. Gatsby’s warped perception of success makes him see...
Introduction The book “Life of Pi” by Canadian writer Yann Martel, winner of the 2002 Booker Prize narrates delightfully, the story of Piscine Patel, who shortens his name to Pi. An elderly man in Pondicherry, India, tells the author that he has a story that can make him believe in...
Despite multiple attempts at addressing injustices observed at historical, systemic, and structural levels, the problem of race and the struggles that people of color face persists vehemently in the U.S. social context. The tragedy of the African American community is reflected impeccable in August Wilson’s 1985 novel Fences, which delves...
Clothing in a literary work can serve as a detail that communicates certain information about the hero. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales are replete with detailed depictions of various characters’ wardrobes. At the same time, Chaucer’s numerous descriptions of clothing are equipped with varying artistic functions, serving special expressive purposes. The...
The ancient world is often characterized as a world of evil pagan belief systems, full of multiple gods and evil supernatural adversaries. A large part of this characterization may even come from Christian perception of the Old Code as stories of demi-gods, the products of licentious gods and mortal mistresses,...
Fences is a play in two acts written by August Wilson in 1985 and set in the 1950s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The plot follows the life of Troy Maxon, a former African American baseball player who is presently a garbage collector struggling to support his family and manage his relationships...
This is an American story by William Faulkner. It revolves around the burning of barns where this article will major on the burning of the first barn. The themes of this short story are class conflicts, racism, vengeance, betrayal, father influences, etc. The characters of the stories are Sartoris Snopes...
Introduction ‘Trifles’ is a one-act play by Susan Glaspell. It was written in 1916. Glaspell tells a true story about a murder that happened in a small town in Lowa. The narrative revolves around a farmer named John Wright. The man was murdered by a person who strung a rope...
Sissy In the story, Sissy is the protagonist and the narrator. In the first summer (or the first episode of the story), Sissy is a child, accompanying her parents and brothers at a tavern near an unnamed lake. She is dependent on her parents because she is quite young. For...
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...
The book by the title The Plum in the Golden Vase is also known as Jin Ping Mei (JPM). It was originally written in Chinese but it has been translated into a number of languages for the purpose of readers to enjoy the plot and interesting characters. The Plum in...
The War Prayer Analysis: Essay Introduction Mark Twain, officially known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is a celebrated American author whose work and practice both in academic and political fields contributed immensely to shaping American literary history, socio-political environment, and global academic development. The author, a critic of American discriminative leadership,...
The Tempest is believed to be the last play William Shakespeare wrote alone. It was written at the times when a big part of our world was still unknown and European people were fascinated to discover what is hidden in these mysterious faraway lands and islands. Many different ideas and...
Eliezer’s faith in God was something beyond question. He spent time in devotion to God. He frequently prayed to Him and at times he even cried. This was to show how deep his reverence to his creator was. It was made even more evident when Moshe questioned his faith and...
A short story is a very interesting genre because authors are supposed to convey their messages using the limited number of words – therefore, it can be supposed that good short stories have to be revised many times in order to exclude odd details that do not help the reader...
Introduction Written by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart is a captivating novel that was published in 1958. The author lived from 1930 to 2013. The novel offers a response to various European literal works that presented the African people as primitive and ones who required European enlightenment for them to...
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...
Background “American Street” was chosen because it presents a thoughtful and detailed discovery of how a teenage girl adapts to a new country and culture. The author uses her memories of balancing between two cultures since she moved to the US at the age of four with her family. This...
Introduction Frankenstein, a work of gothic literature penned by the renowned Mary Shelley, delves into an array of profound themes, including the paramount significance of familial ties and the enduring human yearning for love and companionship. Throughout the novel, Shelley adeptly portrays the complex web of emotions that arise from...
Introduction In Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” Raskolnikov’s justification for committing murder raises a complex ethical issue. The character is sure that the old woman is malicious, petty, and useless to society and that her money would only benefit dishonest individuals. While this reasoning may hold some truth, it is essential...
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...
Introduction Neil Gaiman’s short story “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” was nominated for a Hugo Award, won the Locus Award, and is now a film, despite being previously seen as a failure and being rejected inclusion in the anthology for which it was written. Reading Gaiman’s books is...
Introduction At a time when everyone is striving for self-improvement and personal growth, Ottessa Moshfegh shows the other side of this process. Her story, Bettering Myself, is not a failure’s path to success but the inner development of a character with varying degrees of success. Moshfegh challenges readers to question...
Introduction Black Boy is one of the most prominent works of Richard Wright. The book is considered a fictional biography because the author, Wright, is both the narrator and the protagonist. The book covers his experiences throughout life, from childhood to adulthood, hence its classification as a biography. The fictional...
The paper shows the story presented by Gabriel Garcia Marquez called “The Most Handsome Drowned Man in The World.” The narrator explains to writers that humanity has created an unhealthy romantic relationship with the surrounding world, and the quote “happily ever after” should not be the source of hope. The...
Mona Lisa Smile tells the story of feminist teacher Kathryn Ann Watson, who leaves her boyfriend in Los Angeles to teach at a conservative private women’s college. Instead of the bright minds of her generation, Kathryn meets girls with the primary life purpose to get married. Watson tries to convince...
“We Wear the Mask” was composed in 1895 by Paul Laurence Dunbar – one of the first African-American writers who attained national prominence. The poem itself is devoted to the lifestyle of African-Americans of that time. Despite the abolishment of slavery in 1865, racism remained an issue in interracial communication...
“The Wife,” a poem by Emily Dickson, reveals the poet’s concerns for the native feminineness in middle-class people by articulating the gender roles of women by applying the term “wife” frequently. Patently, the poem’s persona is a woman, and conservatisms of marriage are articulated from the female perspective. Further, the...
Whether Hamlet actually is insane or not, remains among the most debatable questions in studying Shakespeare’s masterpiece. In one respect, the plot includes his decision to imitate mental illness, to which many appeal as to the main argument that it was not real. On the contrary, the essential specialty of...
“Dulce et Decorum Est” is a poem by English poet Wilfred Owen. Besides being a poet, he participated in World War I, and this writing was devoted to experiences in battles during the war. “Dulce et Decorum Est” was published posthumously in the collection of Owen’s poems (Spacey). The author...
In many aspects, Gilgamesh and Homer’s Achilles, the main figure of the Iliad, are similar. Achilles is a demigod, like Gilgamesh, born of the goddess Thetis and the human Peleus (Homer 10). Hector, the Trojan prince, is defeated by him in single combat, demonstrating his strength and combat prowess. Additionally,...
Introduction Jeanette Winterson is a postmodernist writer whose work blends history, fiction, fairy tales, and feminine romance. Postmodernism allows the combining of different writing techniques and genres. In this sense, in The Passion the author could employ parody, irony, historical rewriting, self-reflectivity, and gothic elements. Postmodernism is often characterized as...
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...
The twenty-line poem “The Pulley” by George Herbert serves as a spiritual parable that describes how man was created by combining the Book of Genesis with the story of “Pandora’s Box” with the composition of the pulley. The underlying theme might be summed up by saying that humankind’s restlessness draws...
Today, reading minor literature is a unique opportunity to recognize and learn the gaps between modern citizens of the United States. There is no need to talk about inequality or injustice in interpersonal relationships but to see how the authors of a particular minority group share their thoughts and deliver...
A sonnet is a special kind of poetry expression dedicated to the inner workings of the heart and mind. They explore what it implies to give love using a wide range of emotions and various tools. To define true love, William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 first explains what it is not...
Puritan faith was defined by several key characteristics that made it unique among other Christian denominations. In particular, the Puritans shared an exceptionally powerful religious fervor, believing that one should strictly adhere to the Bible and live as close to the model of Jesus Christ as possible (Mark). As a...
A heart seeking love and burdened by traditions can open a doorway into madness. The given review and critique will be focused on a short story, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, written in 1930. The plot revolves around a town in the state of Mississippi with central characters...
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...
Introduction Owl Eyes is a minor character from Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby”. While only being present a few times in the story, his character is important to the overall message of the book and to the reader’s understanding of its characters. The audience first meets him in Gatsby’s...
Introduction Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House follows the life of Norah and her attempts to guard the secret about a debt that she took to save the life of her husband, Torvald. On the other hand, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” follows the story of a narrator suffering from...
The Cask of Amontillado is a story that combines horror and humor. The author does that in order to make the story not so horrific for the reader, as the comic effect Poe creates throughout the story alleviates the terror of Fortunato’s death. The humor typical of The Cask of...
Introduction One of the most important themes explored in The Masque of the Red Death is the inherent equality of death. Edgar Allan Poe uses the word “masque” in the title to symbolize a one-of-a-kind celebration where people cover their identities behind masks to foster safety and experience joy. Shortly...
Introduction Inspired by the effects of the World War I on soldiers, Ernest Hemingway, published a short story titled Soldier’s Home, based on the life a soldier named Krebs, who struggles to cope with life after coming back from war. The book was first published in 1925 by the Contact...
An example of free indirect style in Atonement by Ian McEwan can be found in chapter six as the author describes the acts and thoughts of Emily Tallis. The author takes on Emily’s thoughts and expressing that she considered it important not to provoke the pain in his head lest...
In Greek mythology, Oedipus, the king of the land of Thebes, portrays a king who brings disaster to himself and to the people he governs by killing his father and making his mother his wife. In search of the truth, Oedipus cares less about the danger his actions are about...
Balzac’s short tale “The Unknown Masterpiece” contains several allusions to art. Porbus and Frenhofer have rationally presented two diametrically opposed concepts in the most aesthetically reflective manner imaginable. The two facets of an artist’s existence are depicted, namely love and art. Thus, this conflict is exemplified in the novel Gillette,...
Contentment and happiness might be found in front of people rather than in elaborate hopes. “How I Met My Husband,” a short story by Alice Munro, illustrates the infatuation of Edie, a fifteen-year-old girl, for Chris Watters, an itinerant pilot who comes offering paid rides in a close-by fairground. Edie...
Love in literature Love is an obsession: everyone wants it, everyone is looking for it, but few will ever achieve it. True love is hard to find and hard to keep; many spend their lives looking for that one person who makes their life worth living. Novels were the basis...
Classic fairy tale storylines can often be sighted in numerous folktales throughout the world. As such, the tale of Cinderella can be observed in such works as Yeh-Hsien, Lin Lan, and The Three Gowns, common fairy tales from China and Latin America, respectively. Although the environment surrounding these locations and...
Mary Romero’s Life as the Maid’s Daughter is an essential piece of literature highlighting the differences between white upper-middle-class and Mexican working-class societies. The research was assisted by private household workers of color, sharing their experiences and struggles. The narrative follows Teresa’s life, a live-in maid’s daughter, exploring the constant...
In the feature article “My Life as a Muslim in the West’s ‘Gray Zone,’” the author, Laila Lalami (2015), expresses her thoughts and fears regarding the current status of Muslims in the world, specifically in the United States. The article suggests that Muslims are not entirely welcome in the U....
Introduction Sam Shepard wrote the play Buried Child in the year 1978. The play is an extraordinary piece of work, and it received the Pulitzer award in 1979. Buried child is part of a family trilogy by Shepard, and it gives us a clear glance into a broken American family....
“Out, Out” is a poem by the US poet Robert Frost published in Frost’s Mountain Interval collection in 1916, and based on the actual incident which occurred to the son of Frost’s friend. The poem starts in remote Vermont, where his sister calls a young boy chopping firewood with a...
Junot Diaz is among the most artistic, literary writers of all time. Diaz has won many awards for his creative writing, including the innovative 2008 Pulitzer award for best fiction literary works. Diaz’s literary works mainly focus on racial issues, prejudice, Dominican attitudes and immigrant assumptions on U.S culture. Diaz...
Oedipus Rex is the masterpiece of ancient Greek literature attributed to Sophocles. This play is one of seven ones left undamaged, and the work describes Oedipus’s, the king, life path. The author pays considerable attention to the symbolism of different characters eyes and visions throughout the play. It is possible...
Common to many cultures around the world, folklore acts as both entertainment for the children and a way to teach them lessons. “Anansi and the Tar-baby” is one of many Jamaican folklore stories collected by Martha Warren Beckwith (1924). These stories, passed on through generations, were preserved relatively well from...
It is Nathanial Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown that still makes students’ minds and imaginations work hard after reading the short story. The plot is marvelous as per both theological and moral issues. Undeniable, the short story is one that makes one rethink the ideas and values of own life due...
“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...
In the short story “Salvation,” Langston Hughes talks about the concept of faith through a child’s lens who loses his belief in Jesus due to the compulsion of surrounding people. Young Hughes did not get up to be saved as others did, but he remained in his seat to see...
One of the most famous works of William Yeats is “When You Are Old,” which is the poem addressed to a woman Yeats loved. The poem can be summarized as a plea with strong arguments. The author urges the woman to think of the future as not to regret her...
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...
Drama is one of the most vital forms of art and may be considered as the heart of literature. It developed simultaneously in Ancient Greece, China, Japan, and other countries, and since then a significant number of theatres, tragedies, comedies, and dramas were created (“A brief history of tragedy,” n.d.)....
Introduction “The Persian Letters” are detailed accounts of the European experiences of two young Persians named Rica and Usbek. The intellectual tourists explore French manners and morality while their people rebel against the tyrannical authorities that have been subjected to years of misery. The seraglio, as defined in the text,...
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,...
Introduction Flannery O’Connor was known as a devout Catholic, and much of her work reflects this part of her identity. “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” one of her most well-known stories, is an example, as it features religious themes throughout the encounter with the Misfit. Initially, the grandmother...
David Foster Wallace utilizes his short essay, “Good People,” to depict how individuals receive and respond to unexpected problems, including the role played by emergencies in shaping their thoughts. Wallace starts the story by presenting the reader with a picture of Lane Dean, the protagonist, and Sheri, his girlfriend, seated...
In the play “A Raisin in the Sun,” several important themes are explored. George Murchison strives towards assimilationism as a way of addressing consistent racial discrimination, while Beneatha sees assimilation as a manifestation of George’s fear of his heritage. Moreover, George sees heritage as “raggedy-assed spirituals and some grass huts!”...
It is believed that childhood is one of the happiest moments in the life of any person. They are protected by their parents and do not have fears or worries. Unfortunately, there are many cases when the situation contradicts the given stereotypes, and children might suffer from various issues. Thus,...
Introduction The theme of friendship is central to Toni Morrison’s novel Sula. The writer exposes two sides of such a relationship – uplifting and supportive on the one hand and complicated and painful on the other. As girls, Sula and Nel structure their own rules and outline the size of...
August Wilson’s “Fences” delves into the lives of African Americans. More specifically, Wilson uses the life of the protagonist Troy Maxson to explore common social conflicts and themes such as love, gender roles, and responsibility. Troy’s conflict with the Whites, as well as Tory’s relationship with Rose, are two dominant...
Any science is based on the analysis of evidence regarding diverse phenomena, individuals, or events. Historians try to unveil the secrets of the past by extracting information from different types of sources, including specific objects, documents, pictures, people’s accounts, and even literary works. Although the literature is associated with fictional...
Rome and Greece are strongly identified with a culture, which credits heroes. The dynasties in ancient times would create their brave men and make them leaders who they believe in. The gallant notion has been passed on to generations through the word of mouth, to a point where it is...
Introduction Dickens and Wilde were both writers gifted in portraying human conditions in an individualistic and unique way focused on correcting residents in the Victorian period. By 19th century, these literature artists had become famous in articulating Britain’s societal aspects. The 19th century remains a memorable time for Britain, in...
Introduction The short story titled “Everyday Use” is written by Alice Walker. “Everyday Use” portrays the different understanding of African-American history. For some, it is a part of their daily lives, while for others – something they learn about from books and college lectures. The three main characters – Mama,...
Introduction A comparative study of mythology is essential for understanding the specifics of cultural and historical areas in the ancient world. Mythology was not only an arsenal for literature but also a direct predecessor of religious and philosophical thought. Moreover, the evolution of myth-making reflected the main stages of ancient...
Introduction The book All That Is Solid Melts Into Air is about Marshall Berman’s views on the relationship between different manifestations of modernity, and the concept of modernism as an approach to understanding the world. This academic text talks about the changes that the world is constantly experiencing and the...
Modern gothic literature involves the use of terrifying, horrifying, and uncertain death events. A gothic story requires a frightening setting and unusual characters. 1408, a story by King, is a reflection of modern gothic literature. It is composed of elements of terror, horror, death and suspense. Great parts of the...
The concept of the hero’s journey has been a driving concept throughout Western literature for centuries. It is plainly evident in some of our earliest and most cherished stories, such as the legend of King Arthur in his earlier years, and can even be traced through Beowulf, the earliest piece...
There is much written on the issue of “how to train Dogs”; but there are questions and problems addressed better in this book than in any other book on the same. This review is an analysis of how useful this book is in the practice of Dog training. The book...
Introduction Mama Might Be Better Off Dead is written by Laurie K Abraham (1994) and depicts a profound and unsettling picture of health care from the human perspective. The book is illuminating as also disturbing in telling the story of the devastating illnesses which have become very common in the...
To an eager reader works of literary fiction represent an inexhaustible source for exploring and deriving the senses encoded in the texts by writers. For the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding of the text, it is crucial to analyze such fundamental basics as the elements of fiction. In the...
Realistic fiction Similarities between the Realistic and Historic Historical fiction Realistic fiction is the outcome of the real situation which happens in one’s life. Both in realistic and historical fiction the characters and settings resemble the real life Historical fiction is the outcome of the story which happened in the...
Introduction The play “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller depicts life and destiny of an American family which dreams about prosperity and high social position in society. in this play, Miller tries to escape social contradictions and economic situation in society but portrays psychological difficulties experienced by the family....
Jack London, in his short story, To Build a Fire, narrates the tale of a lone, unnamed man who embarks on a mission of travelling along the banks of Yakun, on a treacherously cold winter morning, to a base camp where his boys are waiting for him. He is comparatively...
The Swimmer tells the tale of Neddy Merrill, a rich socialite who has come upon hard times but has a narcissistic view of his condition and he begins to feel that he is young, athletic, and still good-looking. The real fact of the matter is that he is married with...
