Essay

Solomon Gursky Was Here is an epic novel spanning nearly a century and a half, from the mid 1800’s to 1980’s. It is the story of the obsession of Moses Berger, a Rhodes scholar turned alcoholic, with Solomon Gursky, the charismatic son of a poor immigrant. Solomon, with his brother Bernard and Morrie, built the … Read more

Voltaire’s Candide is the story of an innocent man’s experiences in a mad and evil world, his struggle to survive in that world, and his need to ultimately come to terms with it. All people experience the turmoil of life and must overcome obstacles, both natural and man-made, in order to eventually achieve happiness. In … Read more

Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy, “Hamlet,” critiques the society of Denmark using powerful monologues and dramatic action. On the other hand, Wilde’s comic drama pokes fun at the high morality of Victorian Society. One serious theme that I noticed in “The Importance of being Ernest” was the consistent act of deception throughout the entire play. However this … Read more

David Hume, in An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, discusses how we cannot predict the future. Even though our experiences and our reasoning tell us that objects act in a predictable way, we still cannot prove how objects will act in the future based upon previous interactions. After biting into a piece of pizza we expect … Read more

Marijuana is a preparation of dried, shredded leaves from the Indian hemp plant Cannabis sativa, which means “useful hemp”. Preparations made from Cannabis include marijuana, the dried plant material; hashish, the dried resin from the flowers and associated leaves; and hash oil, an oily solution of resins and other plant juices extracted in alcohol, filtered, … Read more

When the topic of the beliefs of the Native American culture arises, most people have generally the same ideas about the culture’s beliefs: they are very strong. Being part Native American myself, from the Cherokee tribe, I was raised to know my culture pretty well and follow the same beliefs that they teach and follow. … Read more

This book was a story about a Nigerian family and the tradition of the bride price. Part of the story takes place in Lagos where Aku-nna, the protagonist, grew up. After her father dies she is forced to move to Ibuza to live with her father’s brother in a whole different culture from her own. … Read more

The Odysseus we know from the epic poem The Odyssey is very different emotionally than the same character described by Alfred Lord Tennyson (under a different name) in his poem Ulysses. Tennyson’s Ulysses is melancholy about the state of his home and wishes to return to the open sea, while Homer’s Odysseus is happy to … Read more

As the young prince of Denmark, Hamlet, tries to uncover the truth of his father’s death, he has no one to turn to. Many of the characters within the play appear to be genuine and honest but are really infested with evil. Not knowing who is actually genuine and honest, Hamlet trusts no one. Shakespeare … Read more

The Epilogue of the Tempest by William Shakespeare is an excellent — if not the best — example of Shakespeare’s brilliance. In 20 lines Shakespeare is able to write an excellent ending to his play, while speaking through his characters about Shakespeare’s own life and career. Even more amazingly, he seemlessly ties the two together. … Read more

Why the Great Pyramid of Giza was built is a question that has been challenging archeologists, philosophers, and historians for hundreds of years. What we do know is that the Egyptians built it during the fourth dynasty under the rule of King Khufu in the area known as Giza. (i) The amount of people that … Read more

Bernie Marcus and Author Blank founded Home Depot in Georgia in 1978. The first few stores were attached to Treasure Island stores and stocked around 25,000 products. What started out as a small neighborhood hardware store soon sprouted as the largest home improvement store in the nation. It wasnt before long that Home Depot (HD) … Read more

When the Spanish began to arrive in Mexico and in Central America in the early 15th century, one of the many civilizations they found was the Maya. The Maya, building upon the Olmec culture, were located in present-day Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, southern Mexico, and the Yucatan Peninsula. Even though they had many similarities, the Maya … Read more

Life in the 1900’s was depressing and was an era filled with extremely hard and strenous work that didn’t offer any future for the average canadian in doing better. If you were an average wage earner you would be virtually stuck in the same job for the rest of your life, while rich maintained their … Read more

Through out history man has made many journeys, far and wide. Moses’s great march through the Red Sea and Columbus’s transversing the Atlantic are only, but a few of mans great voyages. Even today, great journeys are being made. Terry Fox’s run across Canada while having cancer is one of these such journeys. In every … Read more

There are many similarities between Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet. Was this Intentional or Accidental? Even though Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy, and Romeo and Juliet, is one of his saddest tragedies, the two plots share many common incidents. Did Shakespeare mean to have these coincidences or did they … Read more

There are many unanswered questions concerning the novel Absalom, Absalom! , what exactly its author intended to get across through it or what he actually did with it. Many critics believe he just never reached a single and final intention, so he just left the final authorities in question, and he may have liked it … Read more

“My Last Duchess” One of the greatest Victorian poets and masters of the dramatic monologue, Robert Browning was born in London on the seventh of May in 1812. His father was a clerk at the Bank of England and mostly educated Browning at home. He attended London University in 1828, but withdrew after his second … Read more

Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, felt that the Puritans were people who believed that the world was a place where the battle between good and evil was a never-ending one. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict this battle among the characters Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Roger … Read more

In Shakespeare’s tragic tale of Hamlet, destiny is viewed as a predetermined course of events, which lead to the outcome of one’s future. Morals, values and beliefs reflect one’s destiny, since they affect the decisions and choices that are made. Based on experience and development of knowledge one discovers their likes and dislikes. These discoveries … Read more

The most extreme precursor to the Reform movement was a man by the name of Samuel Holdheim. He was born in 1806 in Kempo in the province of Posen. At a young age he studied at a yeshiva and received a Talmudic education. He began to study German and secular subjects after his marriage to … Read more

William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, is mainly based on the assassination of Julius Caesar. The character who was in charge of the assassination was, ironically, Marcus Brutus, a servant and close friend to Julius Caesar. But what would cause a person to kill a close friend? After examining Brutus’ relationship to Caesar, … Read more

Women have been an inspiration for many writers for centuries. They have been celebrated as symbols of beauty, affection and strength, and we usually connect them with motherhood and raising children. The works about women very often reveal not only lives of women, but they also describe the times and problems they had to face, … Read more

The film, Dead Poets Society, is a story of a English professor who instructs a group of eager boys in a highly accredited and traditional boys academy. Professor Keatings, played by Robin Williams, introduces his students into the world of poetry. Throughout the school year, the professor inspires the students to seize the day and … Read more

William Shakespeare was a great English playwright, dramatist and poet who lived during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest playwright of all time. No other writer’s plays have been produced so many times or read so widely in so many countries as his. Shakespeare was born to … Read more

Raymond Carver, poet, essayist, and short story writer, was very different from some other writers in that he clipped his writing until only the essential remained. ” Carver not only acknowledged the effect that fiction could have on readers, he proclaimed that it should affect readers. “( Bonetti 58) Thus, when Carver writes about intimate … Read more

On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay flew over the industrial city of Hiroshima, Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb ever. The city went up in flames caused by the immense power equal to about 20,000 tons of TNT. The project was a success. They were an unprecedented … Read more

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was a novel that epitomizes the time in our history known as the roaring twenties. It was a time of great extravagances and frolicsome attitudes. The novel also revealed the darker side of this time with its underlying themes of greed and betrayal on the part of many … Read more

Through the character of Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Sophocles shows the futility and consequences of defying the divine order. In going to the oracle at Delphi, he was informed that he “should lie with [his] own mother” and “breed children from whom all men would turn their eyes” (42). In addition, he is told … Read more

On February 21, 1907 Wystan Hugh Auden was born in York England. Auden was a poet, dramatist, and literary critic whose everyday language and conversational rhythms has had a major influence on modern poetry. Auden was initially a science major but after several years at Gresham School he realized science was not the career for … Read more

Technology has always made an impact on our society. Over the last few decades, there have been many inventions that have changed our lifestyles. Cellular Telephony has, by all accounts, modified how we interact with others; but at what cost? Are there health issues associated with this technology? More explicitly can cell phones cause cancer? … Read more

In William Faulkner’s story, “Barn Burning”, we find a young man who struggles with the relationship he has with his father. We see Sarty, the young man, develop into an adult while dealing with the many crude actions and ways of Abner, his father. We see Sarty as a puzzled youth who faces the questions … Read more

William Shakespeare attained literary immortality through his exposition of the many qualities of human nature in his works. One such work, The Merchant of Venice, revolves around the very human trait of deception. Fakes and frauds have been persistent throughout history, even to this day. Evidence of deception is all around us, whether it is … Read more

In many stories, settings are constructed to help build the mood and to foreshadow of things to come. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a story in which the setting sets up the reader to think of positive outcomes. However, this description of the setting foreshadows exactly the opposite of what is to come. In … Read more