Study Like a Boss
Jerome David Salinger, born in New York City on January 1, 1919, may not have written many novels in which he is recognized for. Although, he did write one novel, which brought him fame. In many of Salinger’s short stories and especially his most well-known novel he writes about how the main character falls from … Read more
Homers The Odyssey, a magnificent story of lust, deceit, greed, and heroism, still fascinates scholars and casual readers alike today in the same way it fascinated its audience at the time it was written. The Odyssey, a journey of determination, patience, and virtue, tells the tail of Odysseus, the main character, on his voyage home … Read more
George is described as “small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp strong features”, which immediately draws contrast with Lennie, demonstrating that where Lennie is simple and slow, George is more mentally able and has a dominant position in their relationship. Because of his rle of Lennie’s carer, and hence that much … Read more
Many times in life, people leave our lives and then come back into them. However, we remember them, but they do not remember us. The same thing happened in Emily Bront’s book Wuthering Heights. Linton, taken by his mother to London after his birth, never knew his father, then when things happened, he came back … Read more
For many readers of Robert Frost’s “The Woodpile”, it may be tempting to disregard it as being no more than some strange story about a deserted pile of wood. It is certainly more than that. I found myself thinking that perhaps the wood was left there for the lost traveler to find, (indeed he was … Read more
What is guilt? We all have guilt about something. Maybe forgetting something, lied about something, or even did something that shouldn’t of been done. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne we saw guilt fester in the minds and outward appearance of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. When you hear … Read more
In the novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, the characters have been portrayed effectively. Much of the interactions between characters, and characteristics of the characters have been based on events which have occurred in Shelley’s own life, or they represent what she believes is important. For example, Victor is portrayed as having a strong passion … 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 familys journey to California and … Read more
“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with allegory. “Young Goodman Brown” is a moral story which is told through the perversion of a religious leader. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride in himself interfere with his relations with the community … Read more
Certain parallels can be drawn between William Shakespeare’s plays, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and “Romeo and Juliet”. These parallels concern themes and prototypical Shakespearian character types. Both plays have a distinct pair of lovers’, Hermia and Lysander, and Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Both plays could have also easily been tragedy or comedy with a few … Read more
The authors, Shirley Jackson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, both frequently use symbols within their stories “The Lottery” and “Young Goodman Brown. ” Symbols are utilized as an enhancement tool to stress the theme of each story. Hawthorne uses names and objects to enhance the theme, and Jackson mainly utilizes names to stress the theme, although she … Read more
There are numerous ways to write a story. It is up to the author how he/she wants to portray their story and write in specific tones that reveals to the reader whether it is meant to be read dripping with distain, or read in a gleeful way. In both Updike’s A&P and Poe’s The Black … Read more
“Life is hard, but accepting that fact makes it easier. ” this common phrase has been proven true in many people’s lives, but is also a harsh fact that Boston’s Rev. Dimmesdale, a key character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s the Scarlet Letter, had to face. In this twisted story of deception and adultery set in the … Read more
The Glass Menagerie is a play that is very important to modern literature. Tennessee Williams describes four separate characters, their dreams, and the harsh realities they faced in the modern world. His setting is in St. Louis during the Depression-Era. The story is about a loving family that is constantly in conflict. To convey his … Read more
The short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor could be viewed as a comic strip about massacre and martyrdom. What stops it from becoming a solemn story is its intensity, ambition, and unfamiliarity. O’Connor blends the line between humor and terror. She introduces her audience to the horror of self-love. … Read more
Macbeth(c. 1607), written by William Shakespeare, is the tragic tale of Macbeth, a virtuous man, corrupted by power and greed. This tagedy could in fact be called “A Tale of Two Theories”. One theory suggests that the tragic hero, Macbeth, is led down an unescapable road of doom by an outside force, namely fate in … Read more
The Comedy of Errors was Shakespeare’s first comedy. It is a light yet dramatic play about a family of twins, their parents, and their twin servants, who have been separated for over twenty years due to a tragic accident at sea. The story, following the usual format of Shakespeare’s work occurs and is concluded all … Read more
The classic opener for any fairy tale, which is no different in the case of Beauty and the Beast. Fairy tales were meant to teach our children life lessons that society, at the time, deems important to learn. They teach us the difference between right and wrong, black and white, good and bad, light and … Read more
The development of the male warrior, throughout literature, has a direct relationship with the development of western civilization. The attributes a warrior holds, fall respectively with the attributes that each society held as valuable. These characteristics, started by societies ideals, become the warrior’s only reasons for continuing their heroics. The ideals however do change with … Read more
It is a beautiful spring afternoon. The air is full of the radiance of freshly bloomed daisies and the energizing chill of the periodic spring breeze. Puffy large cumulus clouds fill the azure sky with gray thunderheads looming off in the distance. Looking down from the clouds, one can see a gathering of finely dressed … Read more
John Updike once said, “Man lacks grace because he has retreated from responsibility into sensuality. ” Sammy, the protagonist in Updike’s short story, “A&P”, is a perfect literary representation of this quote. During the course of “A&P”, he runs from every responsibility he has, just to make himself feel better. He gets distracted from his … Read more
“A Modest Proposal” was a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift depicting the horrific conditions of Ireland and the lives of the Irish people in 1729. The author portrays and attacks the cruel and unjust oppression of Ireland by its oppressor, the mighty English and ridicules the Irish people at the same time. However, Swift’s … Read more
Although the poems “Recalling War” by Robert Graves and “Mental Cases” by Wilfred Owen are both concerned with the damage that war does to the soldiers involved, they are different in almost every other respect. Owen’s poem examines the physical and mental effects of war in a very personal and direct way – his voice … Read more
Throughout the novel The Call of the Wild, we follow a dog named Buck through his journey through the Klondike. We experience a transformation in him, as he adapts to the cold, harsh land where he is forced to toil in the snow, just to help men find a shiny metal. Buck seems to almost … Read more
Many people rely heavily upon religion daily. They use it as a source of reasoning, as an explanation for hardships or struggles they may be facing. However, many people only seem to rely upon religion when they feel they need outside support. Hemingway addresses the idea of religion many times in his novel “A Farewell … Read more
Reality and illusions are two words which may be confused among people reading or learning about this sort of topic. Reality is what is real or true and should not be misinterpreted with illusion, which is fake or something a person believes is real. Often people can put an illusion in some ones head and … Read more
The Bronte sisters can without doubt be called some of the greatest romantic writers of all times. Throughout their lives, they have greatly contributed to the English Literature and have written many timeless classics that reflect the lifestyle of the times, and the attitudes of the people. Emily and Charlotte Bronte’s style of writing, is … Read more
The tragedy Othello, was written in a time of great racial tensions in England. According to Eldred Jones, in 1600 just three years before Othello was written, Queen Elizabeth proclaimed an order for the transportation of all “negars and blackmoores” out of the country . It is in this manner that Shakespeare began the masterpiece … Read more
A lighthouse is a structure that warns and navigates ships at night as they near land, creating specific signals for guidance. In Virginia Woolfs To The Lighthouse, the Lighthouse stands a monument to motivation for completion of long-term goals. Every characters goals guides him or her through life, and the way that each person sees … Read more
In traditional Chinese culture, many judgments were made about a person just by observing their sex. The women was looked upon as an inferior being. They had little or no status in society, and little was expected from them. They were discriminated against when they tried to stand up for themselves. Chinese culture was customarily … Read more
Imagine living in a world where you are not in control of your own thoughts. Imagine living in a world in which all the great thinkers of the past have been blurred from existence. Imagine living in a world where life no longer involves beauty, but instead a controlled system that the government is capable … Read more
Dr. Heywood Floyd was sitting in the space station Pasture when he saw Haleys comet and decided to actually land on the surface (by convincing Tsung Corporation that it would be good advertising). So off go Dr. Floyd, Dr. Chant, Clifford Greenberg and the Universes crew to Haleys comet. Dr. Rolf van der Berg was … Read more
Characterization refers to the techniques a writer uses to develop characters. In the story “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner uses characterization to reveal the character of Miss Emily. He expresses most of her character through physical description, her actions, words, and feelings, a narrator’s direct comments about the character’s nature, and through the actions, … Read more
My high school graduation was one of the saddest moments of my life. Although I was excited about graduating, I did not know what I was going to do with the rest of my life. In Maya Angelou’s “Graduation,” Angelou was excited and proud of all that she had accomplished. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Late … Read more
In Herman Hesse’s work Siddhartha, the primary physical symbol of division is the river. One side of the river represents “geist”, or a realm concerned with the spiritual world. The second side represents “natur”, the natural world where the flesh is engorged with pleasure and earthly satisfaction. Siddhartha begins on the spiritual side of the … Read more
The idea Miss Watson has of Huck Finn being a dirty, nasty, vulgar little boy who smokes, swears, and stays away from Sunday school is not a justifiable description of him. Hucks character goes much deeper. Huck is a literal-minded, imaginative, trustworthy boy who is greatly impacted by the inhuman ways of society. His society … Read more
The Scarlet Letter is a novel that deals with the never-ending theme of sin. Throughout history, people have committed all types of sins, and whether they are major or minor, people have been punished. However, the severity of a punishment is very difficult to agree on. Some people feel that sinners should be deeply punished … Read more
Four hundred years ago, William Shakespeare wrote The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, a popular play that continues to capture the imagination and emotions of people around the world. The drama portrays the passionate, violent and often desperate lives of the youth of Verona. Even today, the tragedy resembles a blueprint of the problems that … Read more
There are many sides to this argument. The first is that Shylock does not sin at all, the second is that all the characters sin as much as each other, the third that Shylock is the only one who sins, the fourth that they all sin, but Shylock sins the most making the above statement … Read more
“After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain” (332). This last line of the novel gives an understanding of Ernest Hemingway’s style and tone. The overall tone of the book is much different than that of The Sun Also Rises. The characters in the … Read more
In Shakespeare’s tragedy/history/Roman play Antony and Cleopatra, we are told the story of two passionate and power-hungry lovers. In the first two Acts of the play we are introduced to some of the problems and dilemmas facing the couple (such as the fact that they are entwined in an adulterous relationship, and that both of … Read more
Sudden, Unexpected Interjection “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. ” At one point in his short story, “Big Two-Hearted River: Part II”, Hemingway’s character Nick speaks in the first person. Why he adopts, for one line only, the first person voice is an interesting question, without … Read more
“Mending Wall” is a poem written by the poet Robert Frost. The poem describes two neighbors who repair a fence between their estates. It is, however, obvious that this situation is a metaphor for the relationship between two people. The wall is the manifestation of the emotional barricade that separates them. In this situation the … Read more
Throughout The Iliad, the heroic characters make decisions based on a definite set of principles, which are referred to as the “code of honor. ” The heroic code that Homer presents to the reader is an underlying cause for many of the events that take place, but many of the characters have different perceptions of … Read more
Jane Austen, it appears, seems to be saddened by the decay of England’s aristocratic social order. The study of her main character, Anne Elliot, and her innocent yet intelligent-like persona take her readers further into the core of her foundation of ethics, and the relation of these to the daunting traditions of her immediate family … Read more
With all of the hunting trips that Ike experienced through his many trips, taught him many different lessons about living and many life lessons in which he experienced. On some of these trips he learned courage, self-reliance and conquering his own fear and many more lessons. In William Faulkner descriptive short stories the author use … Read more
Doctor Faustus is a significant and masterful play written by Christopher Marlow. It is a unique play that it written during the beginnings of the renaissance period and therefore neither solely Renaissance nor Medieval in style. It is instead a great story of a man torn between the differences of the outgoing Medieval Period and … Read more
Both F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck wrote about the downfall of the American dream in their famous novels. The attempt to capture the American Dream is central to both novels. This dream is different for different people, for Jay, the dream is that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness, for George and … Read more
Sophocles’ classical Greek tragedy Oedipus the King is one of the centrepieces of Western literature. It also has a broader place in modern Western culture, courtesy of Dr Freud and his Oedipus complex, in which the process of growing up male is bound up with competition for the mother and the symbolic overthrow and supplanting, … Read more
The novel The Scarlet Letter was set in the Massachusetts Bay colony in the 17th century. Hester Prynne, her illegitimate daughter Pearl, her ex-husband Roger, and the town minister, Reverend Dimmesdale are the main characters. Hester Prynne had an affair while her husband was still living in England. Roger then moves to America, and he … Read more