Study Like a Boss
Beowulf is a well-known Anglo-Saxon poem that has been in English classes around the United States for almost as long as there have been schools around. Beowulf is not an actual picture of historic Denmark, Geatland, or Sweden around 500 A. D. , yet it is on a general view, a self-consistent picture, a construction … Read more
“He thought he kept the universe alone,” too most people the thoughts of being alone are very frightening. It is human nature to search for companionship. In the poem “The Most of It,” Robert Frost uses a wealth of strong imagery to tell a story of a person who has lost his loved one to … Read more
When we find a love interest and have an opportunity to commit to him or her, we usually do, not noting the consequences we may face by doing so. The first few times around, however, the outcome is usually not the one we had expected and hoped for. Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie and Zora Neale … Read more
In his drama, The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams uses symbolism in order to develop multi-faceted characters and to display the recurring themes of the play. These various symbols appear throughout the entire piece, and they are usually disguised as objects or imagery. They allow the reader to know the characters’ personalities, and their true inside … Read more
John Steinbeck shows the readers many themes in “The Grapes of Wrath”. One of the most apparent is as Steinbeck stated, “The Joads passage through a process of education for the heart. ” Many characters in “The Grapes or Wrath” exhibit this theme, but it is valiantly apparent in the actions of the Joads as … 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
The Grapes of Wrath was written by John Steinbeck, in 1929. Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. Steinbeck did not like to narrate any of his novels in which he had no background information in. That is why he would often live the life of his characters before he wrote his … Read more
One of the most interesting questions about Gullivers Travels is whether the Houyhnhnms represent an ideal of rationality or whether on the other hand they are the butt of Swift’s satire. In other words, in Book IV, is Swift poking fun at the talking horses or does he intend for us to take them seriously … Read more
In this essay, I will discuss how science manifests evil in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Birthmark. Science is a major asset in the world today. The use and dependence of science is overwhelming. Many scientific experiments are ungodly. Hawthorne brings up many important issues in his story. I will concentrate on how Aylmer puts his love … Read more
Gawain, a knight of the famed King Arthur, is depicted as the most noble of knights in the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Nonetheless, he is not without fault or punishment, and is certainly susceptible to conflict. Gawain, bound to chivalry, is torn between his knightly edicts, his courtly obligations, and his mortal … Read more
“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe The mind is a complicated thing. Not many stories are able to portray this in such an interesting manner as in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”. The haunting story of a man and his sister, living in the old … Read more
In Dante’s Inferno, part of The Divine Comedy, Canto V introduces the torments of Hell in the Second Circle. Here Minos tells the damned where they will spend eternity by wrapping his tail around himself. The Second Circle of Hell holds the lustful; those who sinned with the flesh. They are punished in the darkness … Read more
Gothic is defined as “a style of fiction that emphasizes the grotesque and the mysterious. ” Similar to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, many of Shirley Jacksons stories are considered “gothic” fiction. One such story is “The Lottery” which was first published in 1948. This story focuses on a very grim day in the … Read more
Beneath the surface of the romantic comedy Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen presents an underlying theme of the economic situation faced by women in the early nineteenth century. The best representations of this in the story is how two of the women in the novel approach marriage, and what they hope to achieve or gain … Read more
Novelist Eudora Welty is often studied and adored by many readers; her much deserved recognition comes from her brilliant, deeply compassionate, and lively stories and novels (Ford 36). Like many of her stories, Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” is set in Mississippi. In “A Worn Path,” Welty focuses on an old woman’s journey to Natchez … Read more
Inherent inside every human soul is a savage evil side that remains repressed by society. Often this evil side breaks out during times of isolation from our culture, and whenever one culture confronts another. Joseph Conrad’s book, The Heart of Darkness and Francis Coppola’s movie, Apocalypse Now are both stories about Man’s journey into his … Read more
Hamlet by William Shakespeare is the tragedy of a young man named Hamlet. His fragile idealism shattered by his fathers brutal death causes him to laose faith in humanity. When his late father’s phantom visits him, he persuades Hamlet to take revenge against his uncle Claudius, his fathers true executioner. Hamlet feigns madness, and in … Read more
The Style and Genre of Lady Audleys Secret Lady Audleys 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 … Read more
English author Jane Austen wrote satirical romances set within the confines of upper-middle-class English society. Her books are known for their sharp attention to the details of everyday life, and her skillful treatments of character and situation has marked Austen as an astute observer of human nature. This is highly evident in her treatment of … Read more
The narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilmans short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, is truly insane from the very beginning of the story; she just falls deeper and deeper into insanity as the story progresses. In the beginning of the story she tells of how her husband diagnoses her insanity, a slight hysterical tendency,(633). Later in the … Read more
John Gardner’s novel Grendel gives the reader a new perspective on the classic “good vs. Evil” plot. From the start of the book the reader can tell that there is something very unique about the narrator. It is evident that the narrator is a very observant being that can express himself in a very poetic … Read more
The book begins with Biblo Baggins enjoying a pipe after breakfast. This is one of his favorite pleasures and he feels quite content in doing so. He is middle-aged, and resides in a burrow in the ground. One morning Gandalf, a wizard stops by to talk with Biblo. He tells Biblo that he is looking … Read more
In viewing the various aspects of the island society in Golding’s Lord of the Flies as a symbolic model of society, a converse perspective must also be considered. Golding’s island of marooned youngsters then becomes a macrocosm, wherein the island represents the individual human and the various characters and symbols the elements of the human … Read more
When Wuthering Heights was published it was blasted its contemporaries as obscene. They railed that Catherine and Heathcliff were the most immoral and in general worst people they had ever had the misfortune of reading about. Although Wuthering Heights has taken it’s rightful place as masterwork of 19th century literature and Emily Bront has receive … Read more
The plot of Rape Fantasies by Margaret Atwood is all within the mind of Estelle, who talks to the reader as she might to a new friend. Estelle’s personality becomes exposed to us through the narration of her fantasies and lunchtime work experiences. We are told of Estelle’s workplace where she is with her friends … Read more
There are many forms of imagery in the world today. They usually take on two main forms, those being visual and mental. Word means different thing to different people. The Websters Dictionary defines it as, in rhetoric, representations in writing or speaking; lively descriptions which impress the images of things on the mind; figures in … Read more
The routine of life can bring some people a sense of stability and happiness. For others this routine can be the cause of immense discontent and a feeling of entrapment. The main characters of the books The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton both experience this feeling of being trapped by … Read more
Irony is the general name given to literary techniques that involve surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions. Two stories from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that serve as excellent demonstrations of irony are “The Pardoners Tale” and “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale. ” Although these two stories are very different, they both use irony to teach a lesson. In … Read more
In the novel “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan, the ignorance, the disregard of, and the necessity of love are all introduced as the characters tell their life stories and memories. The characters in “The Joy Luck Club” take love for granted. By ignoring love, concentrating more on material possessions, and hiding their true … Read more
Not so long ago, relative to the world at large, in picturesque Geneva not so far from Lake Leman, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley took part in a not so commonplace “contest”. The contest was to write a ghost story. The outcome was Frankenstein; what is considered today to be a classic, one of the first science … Read more
In all novels the use of symbols are what make the story feel so real to the reader. A symbol as simple as a bird can mean so much more then what you see. Whereas a symbol as complicated as the sea, can mean so much less then what you thought. It is a person … Read more
Uncle Tom’s Cabin “So you’re the lady whose book started this great war. ” Abraham Lincoln said this to Harriet Beecher Stowe upon meeting her in 1862. This quote shows the great influence the novel had on the minds of its readers and on a nation in turmoil. At the height of racial tension in … Read more
The book begins with Bilbo Baggins enjoying a pipe after breakfast. Th is is one of his favorite pleasures and he feels quite content in doing so. He is middle-aged, and resides in a clean warm burrow in the ground. One morning Gandalf, a wizard stops by to chat with Bilbo. He informs Bilbo that … Read more
Revenge is a major theme in the Tragedy of Hamlet. In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the theme of revenge is repeated numerous times throughout the play and involves a great deal of characters. Of these characters, eight are dead by the end of the play by result of murder which was initiated through … Read more
There is a saying that states that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This means that everyone is beautiful in a unique way, depending on how others see them. For Pecola Breedlove, this was not a pleasant thought for her. Pecola is an 11-year-old, African-American girl from Toni Morrisons novel, The Bluest Eye. … Read more
Indeed, Hortentio’s assurance in the taming of the “curst shrow” Katerina seems a wonder to all the audience in the final scene of “The Taming of the Shrew. ” After hurling furniture, pitching fits and assaulting her sister, Katerina delivers a speech that lauds obedience and censures rough behavior. Allegedly, this speech demonstrates Katerina’s obedience … Read more
Stephen Crane is a well-known author of variety of short stories. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of a Methodist minister. After schooling at Lafayette College and Syracuse University, he worked in New York as a freelance journalist. His short stories and experimental poetry, also, anticipate the ironic realism of the decades … Read more
“[Gary Soto’s] power comes from showing, from painting pictures that allow the reader to feel the wonder promise, and pain of everyday life” (Fabiano185). Gary Soto’s writing goes right to the center of the Chicano experience (Dunn 284). In “The Grandfather”, Gary Soto presents the feeling of what everyday life would be like when living … Read more
John Milton was an outstanding poet who wrote sonnets such as “On Shakespeare” and “On His Blindness. ” He also wrote poems such as “Comus” and “Lycidas. ” Milton is most known however, for the epics that he wrote. Some of his major epics included “Samson Agonistes” and “Paradise Regained. ” His most famous work … 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
Agamemnon is only the first play of the great tragic trilogy, the Oresteia. Aeschylus wrote the Oresteia around 458 B. C. E.. It is his sole trilogy to survive intact. Aeschylus probably acted in the first performances of the Oresteia. Plays were judged according to both high aesthetic criteria and the approval of the general … Read more
Human suffering happens every day, everywhere, in many types and ways all around us. We do not always see it, but that does not mean it does not exist. When we do see it exist we commonly ask ourselves, “Does human suffering have meaning? ” I can answer this question easily. Yes, it does have … Read more
Convinced that the Dublin of the 1900’s was a center of spiri-tual paralysis, James Joyce loosely but thematically tied together hisstories in Dubliners by means of their common setting. Each of thestories consists of a portrait in which Dublin contributes in some wayto the dehumanizing experience of modem life. The boy in the story”Araby” is … Read more
The Scarlet Letter involves many characters that go through several changes during the course of the story. In particular, the young minister Dimmesdale, who commits adultery with Hester, greatly changes. He is the moral blossom of the book, the character that makes the most progress for the better. It is true that Dimmesdale, being a … Read more
The book Catcher in the Rye is a story of Holden Caulfield’s thoughts about life and the world around him. Holden tells many of his opinions about people and takes the reader on a 5-day trip into his mind. Holden, throughout the book, made other people feel inferior to his own. I can relate to … Read more
William Shakespeare intensifies the emotion of love and foolishness in the epic tale of four lovers and an enchanted forest in his classic Midsummer Nights Dream. Early in this work, we learn of two young maidens, Hermia and Helena, and their unfulfilled passions. Hermia, the daughter of a gentleman, is cast into the burden of … Read more
The main theme of the novel “The Great Gatsby” focuses on the American Dream and it is portrayed through the life of Jay Gatsby. Through Gatsby’s life we see the withering of the American Dream, a tragedy that struck Jay’s near finished dream. The American Dream is what many have hoped of achieving, it has … Read more
I shambled after as Ive been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me as the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace … Read more
The “Yellow Wallpaper,” is a personal account of the author’s, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, struggle with depression. It vividly documents one woman’s experience with depression and the toil she endured through the treatment of the “Rest Cure. ” The story helps readers to get a mental picture of how society and solitary confinement can both drive … Read more
Jane Eyre is one of the most popular pieces of fiction ever written. At different periods since its publication it has been accused of immorality, of irreligion, of being unfeminine or too feminine, of alarming independence from convention, or too much reliance on it, of rejecting male supremacy or encouraging. It has been called an … Read more