Essay

The play The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, Williams uses many symbols which represent many different things. Many of the symbols used in the play try to symbolize some form of escape or difference between reality and illusion. The first symbol, presented in the first scene, is the fire escape. This represents the “bridge” between … Read more

A Good Man is Hard to Find presents a masterful portrait of a woman who creates a self and a world through language. (Shenck 220) At least that is what Mary Jane Shenck thinks of the Flannery O’Connor story. Several different people have several different views of this controversial and climatic work of O’Connor’s. In … Read more

The Odyssey, written by Homer, tells the story of Odyseus andhow he faced misfortune in his attempts to return home after the Trojan War. Odysseus is not famous for his great strength or bravery, but for his abilty to deceive and trick. To his friends, he was a brilliant stragtgist. To his enemies, he was … Read more

The author of Arcadia, Tom Stoppard, uses a lot of irony and incorporates a web of relationships and coincidences into his plays that can get a bit confusing, especially if you are not familiar with the things that he makes reference to. In the play, on page thirteen, Lady Croom, Thomasina’s mother, compares Mr. Noakes’ … Read more

Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, transpires in the trenches of the Nazi Western Front, which is protected by the young German soldiers World War I. Paul Bumer, the narrator; enters the war under pressure to enlist; goes to the front and learns about the brutality of war. Paul witnesses the extreme violence … Read more

Macbeth visualized himself as a forceful, powerful ruler who begins the trilogy in absolute control of the situation. As the story progresses, however , Macbeths power and pride are broken down because he made it his destiny. As for Oedipus, he was a pitiful man who has been crushed by the avenging gods and fate. … Read more

The action of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is simple: Addie Bundren dies; and in answer to her wishes, the body is taken for burial to Jefferson, some forty miles away. But the weather intervenes, and floodwaters require that the cortege take detours. Some nine days pass before the coffin, which before long clearly … Read more

Fairy tales have always been told to us as children; whether to comfort or entertain us, they always seem to be a part of most everyones childhood. When Nadine Gordimer was asked to write a childrens story, she replied with a short story titled Once Upon A Time. Although the title is characteristic of a … Read more

In this book, the main character, Holden McField, tells the story about what happened during his Summer vacation. Holden is a sixteen-year-old boy who has flunked out of a private prep school. Because he is afraid that his parents would find out this fact, he goes to a hotel in Las Vegas instead of going … Read more

Having watched the movie “Grapes of Wrath”, I have been given the opportunity to see the troubles that would have befell migrant workers during the Great Depression. Though the Joads were a fictitious family, I was able to identify with many signs of hope that they could hold onto. Some of these families who made … Read more

Realism is the movement toward representing reality as it is, in art. Realistic drama is an attempt to portray life on stage, a movement away from the conventional melodramas and sentimental comedies of the 1700s. It is expressed in theatre through the use of symbolism, character development, stage setting and storyline and is exemplified in … Read more

Every man, or woman –to be politically and socially acceptable– has buried, within himself, beneath centuries of societal norms and restrictions, a dark side, a savage side. When a man is taken out of society, and left to create his own norms, he must rediscover those primordial instincts which have sustained his species since the … Read more

The Navajos Indians were a peaceful simple people. D. H. Lawrence found this culture a wonder, and he portrays it in “Mornings in Mexico. “D. H. traveled all around the world and found that New Mexico was his favorite place. “Mornings in Mexico” by David Herbert Lawrence reflects upon the culture, religion, and other “white” … Read more

A young boy is waltzing with his drunken father. His mother is unhappy about the commotion they’re making. They danced until the young boy was tired and put him to bed. The time that Theodore Roethke had spent in the greenhouse, owned by his father and uncle, influenced his ability to write. These childhood memories … Read more

When the play opens, we are introduced to a “pretty young woman” who is “shouting. ” This woman, goes by the name of Margaret, and lets the audience know right from the beginning that if ever she has a problem, she’ll let you know about it. As we read through the first Act of this … Read more

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on September 26, 1888, in St. Louis Missouri, to Henry Ware and Charlotte Stearns Elliot. His father was a businessman, and his mother was a poetress. Eliot came from a financially endowed family and was allowed to attend all of the best schools. His education started at the prestigies grammar … Read more

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was a Polish-born author who wrote in English. He became famous for the novels and short stories that he wrote about the sea. Conrad left Poland at the age of 16 and arrived in England at the age of 20, unable to speak English. During the next 16 years he worked his … Read more

Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, originated in the memory of Williams. Williams’ family embodied his father, Cornelius Williams, his mother, Edwina Dakin Williams, his sister, Rose Williams, and his younger brother, Dakin Williams. Cornelius was an alcoholic, always away from home; Tennessee and Cornelius did not have a strong relationship, “By the late 1920s, … Read more

William Faulkner is viewed by many as America’s greatest writer of prose fiction. He was born in New Albany, Mississippi, where he lived a life filled with good times as well as bad. However, despite bad times he would become known as a poet, a short story writer, and finally one of the greatest contemporary … Read more

In the Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler clearly intends to portray his main character as a failure. Duddy understands perfectly well that a man must pursue his dreams, which is why he is one of the most motivated young man of his time. From the moment Duddy hears his grandfather say, “A man without … Read more

In this novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway brings about the evolution of Frederick Henry being converted into a code hero in realistic ways. Frederick Henry achieved the six code hero characteristics by the end of the novel with the help of Catherine, a code hero herself. All the characteristics seem to … Read more