Study Like a Boss
Lady Audley’s Secret, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, is a novel of many elements. It has been placed in many different style or genre categories since its publication. I feel that it best fits under the melodrama or sensational genre, and under the subgenre of mystery. It contains significant elements of both types of writing, so … Read more
The Sirens of Titan is Kurt Vonnegut’s second novel. He has written it in 1959, seven years after his previous Player Piano. It has been described as a pure science fiction novel and, after only one reading, it really can be considered to be one. The intricate plot and fascinating detail may obscure the serious … Read more
Writers differ in the purpose for which they write. Some aim to entertain, but the more serious and skilled writers usually have the goal of expressing a serious idea. Writers such as Hariet Beecher Stowe and Alex Haley are writers who write for more than mere entertainment. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, … Read more
The play “Death of a Salesman”, by Arthur Miller, follows the life of Willy Loman, a self-deluded salesman who lives in utter denial, always seeking the “American Dream,” and constantly falling grossly short of his mark. The member’s of his immediate family, Linda, his wife, and his two sons, Biff and Happy, support his role. … Read more
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden views the world as an evil and corrupt place where there is no peace. His view of the world does not change much through the novel. However as the novel continues, Holden gradually comes to the realization that he is powerless to change this. In the book Holden … Read more
In the novel Their Eyes were watching God Zora Neale Hurston portrays a woman named Janie’s search for love and freedom. Janie, throughout the novel, bounces through three different marriages, with a brief stint at being a widow in between. Throughout these episodes, Hurston uses Janie`s clothing as a visual bookmark of where Janie is … Read more
Jane Eyre is the main character in the novel Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte. She is a fictional character along with the book. The book takes place in the mid 1800’s. Jane lives in five different places which greatly affect her life. The first place Jane stays is Gateshead Hall. She then goes to … Read more
In the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer is almost always polite and respectful when he points out the foibles and weaknesses of people. He is able to do this by using genial satire, which is basically having a pleasant or friendly disposition while ridiculing human vices and follies. Chaucer also finds characteristics in … Read more
Many lessons are embedded into Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (Bantam Books 1991), including how society acts towards the different. The monster fell victim to the system commonly used to characterize a person by only his or her outer appearance. Whether people like it or not, society summarizes a person’s characteristics by his or her physical appearance. … Read more
F. Scott Fitzgerald is in many ways one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century. In his first novel, This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald epitomized the mindset of an era with the statement that his generation had, “grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, and all faiths in man … Read more
Albert Camuss novel, The Stranger, and Samuel Becketts play, Waiting for Godot, are both great literary works but has many differences and similarities that distinguish the two. These characters are very different from their society and in that same way the are very similar. To understand in what ways they are similar, there must be … Read more
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, it is the ‘beast’; which is the most important and symbolic. It remains, whether considered real or imaginary by the boys on the island, a significant ‘being’. William Golding has chosen to personify the evil that is inside human beings, in the beast. The beginnings of the idea … Read more
Virgil said, Love conquers all things, let us too surrender to love. Most people have experienced the overwhelming feeling of love, thereby understanding that in the end, nothing will stand in its way. Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, Yzierskas Bread Givers, and Hurstons Their Eyes were Watching God, and dorm life show … Read more
Hemmingway has a unique style of writing. It works on multiple levels. A person could read Farewell to Arms and enjoy it as a tragic love story. Hemmingways concise writing style allows a literal interpretation. At the same time a reader could get involved with the various symbols that he has placed in the novel. … Read more
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway is a story of being apart of the “Lost Generation” in the 1920’s. The Great War had changed the ideas of morality, faith and justice and many people began to feel lost. Their traditional values were changed and the morals practically gone. The “Lost Generation” rejected Victorian ideologies … Read more
Character Analysis Hermia When we first meet Hermia she is the typical girl in love against her fathers wishes. Obviously we see from the start that she is very devoted to Lysander, her love, and she does not like to be forced to do things that she does not want. She does not want to … Read more
The poem Beowulf was written in England sometime in the 8th century. It was written during a time when the society was in the process of being converted from paganism to Christianity. The Christian influences are combined with early folklore and heroic legends of Germanic tribes. Yet, the pagan elements in the epic poem Beowulf … Read more
The story of The Yellow Wallpaper begins with a family going away on vacation. It is revealed later that there are repairs or renovations being done on their regular house. The wife in the story believes at first that the house is haunted since no one has occupied the house for so long, but she … Read more
Male domination in 1916, when Susan Glaspells play Trifles was written, was the way of life. Men controlled most women and women were not very outspoken during that time period. Mr. Wright in her play was no different from the rest, but she made him a symbol of all the men in the community. The … Read more
The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is central to many novels. This dream is different for different people, but in The Great Gatsby, for Jay, the dream is … Read more
When he arrived at the Danish land, Beowulf was a young man seeking adventure and glory. Beowulf was distinguished among his people, the Geats, for his bravery. As a young man Beowulf fought in many battles and as a result showed his great character to others. Beowulf had many characteristics which helped him to succeed … Read more
William Shakespeare is the noted author of a vast array of plays, ranging from comedies to histories to tragedies. Perhaps one of his most famous in the tragedy genre is Macbeth. Though Shakespeare can be considered as a scholar in the sense that he was both a renowned and prolific playwright, look back a few … Read more
Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye will have a better chance throughout life than Will Hunting from Good Will Hunting because of several reasons. First, Holden has birth parents who still care about him and help comfort him when he needs help. Another reason is how Will has grown up already with an … Read more
John Steinbeck carefully molded his story The Grapes of Wrath to encompass many themes and ideas. He included several Biblical allusions to enforce his message of the migrating families coming together to form a community. Steinbeck alludes to Biblical characters through Jim Casy and Rose of Sharon, events like the family’s journey to California and … Read more
In J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the first person narration is critical in helping the reader to know and understand the main character, Holden Caulfield. Holden, in his narration, relates a flashback of a significant period of his life, three days and nights on his own in New York City. Through his … Read more
Religion is an important and recurring theme in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Through his experiences with religion, Stephen Dedalus both matures and progressively becomes more individualistic as he grows. Though reared in a Catholic school, several key events lead Stephen to throw off the yoke of conformity and … Read more
Nora Helmer in a A Dolls House is a women ahead of her time. In order to protect her children from a false life, she inflicts tragedy upon herself by leaving every thing she has by walking away. She puts herself in this tragic situation by not being honest. Nora lies to herself and the … Read more
The story of Antigone deals with Antigone’s brother who’s body has been left unburied because of crimes against the state. The sight of her brother being unburied drives Antigone to take action against the state and bury her brother regardless of the consequences. The concept of the Greek afterlife was far more important and sacred … Read more
The simplicity of the Jacobean Stage and its lack of scenery focused the audiences’ attention on the actors. Discuss how Shakespeare created the grandeur of the Worlds of Rome and Egypt, and the magnificence of the protagonists, through his use of imagery in Antony and Cleopatra’. The play of Antony and Cleopatra’ was written in … Read more
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden views the world as an evil and corrupt place where there is no peace. This perception of the world does not change significantly through the novel. However as the novel progresses, Holden gradually comes to the realization that he is powerless to change this. During the short period … Read more
The Scarlet Letter is a novel packed with religious symbolism, and Hawthorne subtly assigns the role of the devil to Roger Chillingworth. Throughout the novel, there are many references and associations that confirm the fact that Chillingworth is representative of the ultimate evil. First, Hawthorne sets Chillingworth up as the antithesis of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, … Read more
The story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is about a man who created something that messes with nature, and nature came back to mess with him because nature is more powerful than man. Victor Frankenstein was very interested in natural philosophy and chemistry and basically tried to play G-d by creating life. When he found … Read more
According to Aristotle, “tragedy is a representation of an action, which is serious, complete in itself, and of a certain length, it is expressed in speech made beautiful in different ways in different parts of the play; it is acted, not narrated; and by exciting pity and fear it gives a healthy relief to such … Read more
Beowulf is an epic tale that has been changed over time to try and express a christian moral. While this transformation over time has added a new variable to the plot, it is still impossible to try and erase the original pagan plot completely. It has become evident that the original epic was pagan and … Read more
The witches in Macbeth are very important in the plot and develop certain aspects of the play. They make greater the theatrical experience with images of darkness, thunder and lightning that make Macbeth the tragedy it is. Their actions also add to the play, dancing round the cauldron and chanting Double, double’. Their appearance as … Read more
An important ingredient inherent in a successful mother-daughter relationship is balance. Like the scales of justice, maintaining equilibrium requires work. The special bond between mother and daughter is delicate and unlike any other relationship due to expectations of performance on behalf of both women. The female psyche is, characteristically, particular: each woman having a certain … Read more
For hundreds of years, writers have used religion as a principle issue and point of discussion in their novels. Hawthorne expressed his views in The Scarlet Letter, Garcia Marquez did the same in One Hundred Years of Solitude and in other writings, and even Ernest Hemingway used his writing to develop his own ideas concerning … Read more
Caliban the deformed savage on the island from his first appearance in the play is more animal than human. Prospero first refers to Caliban by calling him a, “tortoise” (1. 2. 318). This sets the tone for Caliban’s character in the play as he is labeled as a semi-beast in the play. But interestingly despite … Read more
Family is supposed to be the ultimate support, everlasting, and always ready to forgive. In Antigone by Sophocles, Creon is immersed in a “power trip” that alienates and even kills his family. He caused his son, Haemon’s death, his wife, Eurydice’s death and Antigone’s death. Creon views himself as the perfect leader, believes he is … Read more
It all started when a girl named Jean Louise Finch, (Scout) was telling the story about her brother and how he broke his arm at the elbow. She went back two years to where they had tried to “Make Boo come out. ” Boo Radley, also known as Arthur Radley. Back before Jem and Scout … Read more
Ever since the publications of the good quarto, published in 1599, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, has been one of the classics of Western literature (Evans 1093). In being this, it has been produced many different times, in many different ways. I will be discussing how the production of this great play has changed … Read more
Romanticism, as stated in the American Heritage Electronic Dictionary is, “An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual’s expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and … Read more
There are two levels of apprehension to The Crying of Lot 49: that of the characters in the book, whose perception is limited to the text, and that of the reader, who has the ability to look at the world from outside of it. A recurring theme in the novel is the phenomenon of chaos, … Read more
The setting of a novel or film or any other story is one of the most important and useful ways to analyse a character and to find out what they are like and how they can or could react with their environment. A novelist or a director has to describe to a reader or a … Read more
To what extent did Kafka use comedy/irony to develop his tragic, cynical view of society and family? Gregor Samsa, a young traveling salesman who lives with and financially supports his parents and younger sister, Grete, wakes up one morning to find “himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” or insect. At first, to … Read more
Antigone is a play written by Sophocles that became a classic due to its controversial content. In this play, the Greek dramatist reflected mainly on Civil Disobedience. Antigone believes in the individual rights over the state rights. Creon, however, strongly believes in putting state over religion. The play does not only revolve on the political … Read more
Diamond was designed utterly for my own amusement. I was in a mood characterized by a perfect craving for luxury, and the story began as an attempt to feed that craving on imaginary foods. Craving is a strong, urgent and persistent desire. According to Buddhist teachings, desire is the root to all the sufferings and … Read more
Only the ignorant would deny that the title of a novel or play has no relevance to the play itself. Unfortunately, those ignorant minds have caused the true tragic hero of Shakespeares Tragedy of Julius Caesar, an area of dispute. Brutus seems to be a candidate because he appears more than Caesar in the play, … Read more
“Battle Royal” is the story I chose to write about and it is written by Ralph Ellison. The reason that I chose this story is because the way the author uses symbolism. The author tries to show through symbolism that there is a different meaning than what the story says. In the beginning, the story … Read more
Fitzgeralds dominant theme in The Great Gatsby focuses on the corruption of the American Dream. By analyzing high society during the1920s through the eyes of narrator Nick Carraway, the author reveals that the American Dream has transformed from a pure ideal of security into a convoluted scheme of materialistic power. In support of this message, … Read more