Study Like a Boss
However, behind all the glitz and glam of a world revolving around fine food, attractive women and fast cars, there seems to be nothing more than a bottomless pit of mediocre writing, shallow ideologies and immoral perspectives. So here I am feeling rather shaken and stirred that Bond has quite literally made the double 0, … Read more
Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit explores the themes of homosexuality and relationships affected by difference. Throughout this novel, it is clear that there are symbols present that carry the overall meaning in this piece. Jeanette, the protagonist, discovers that she is a lesbian, which is complicated by the fact that she comes … Read more
Oblivion and the Adolescent: Fantastical Approaches to Mortality Death is one of the few things in life of which we can be absolutely certain. But how we think about death as humans, as rational agents, as mortal beings, changes over time and circumstance. Once a distant consideration, it becomes vital and all consuming after a … Read more
In many instances works of literature portray real life situations whether it be physical, emotional or mental issues. Humans all experience some form of suffering in their lives. Works of literature use the theme of suffering to portray how people suffer in their own way and how they react to their suffering. Authors like James … Read more
Critical opinion differs about Langston Hughes’ poem, “I, Too, Sing America.” Certainly it’s reflective of Walt Whitman’s poem, “I Hear America Singing” because Hughes’ title clearly alludes to Whitman’s work. However, Hughes’ is a poet of great talent in his own right and should not be depicted as a Whitman imitator. I agree and disagree … Read more
Persian Letters seems like a hopeless account lobbying against female empowerment. Starting from each of the wives’ opening letters to Usbek and continuing to Roxana’s death by suicide at the end of the novel, at first glance, these letters reek of despair and cyclical dread for womankind during this time period. However, while these epistles … Read more
Modernist poet Edward Estlin Cummings (pen name E. E. Cummings) uses diverse poetic structures in “Buffalo Bill’s” and “next to of course god america i” to draw the reader’s attention to the deeper meaning behind the words. Cummings experiments with capitalization, punctuation, and line breaks to lightly veil his personal opinions with humor and disorganization. … Read more
Despite the trajectories and implications Jim Burden may have imposed upon the female characters of My Antonia, each of the “hired girls” winds up successful by their own means, simultaneously demonstrating and defying the stereotypical roles of women during the late 19th century and ultimately cementing My Antonia as a critical work in Early-American feminist … Read more
Shakespeare has always been able to create characters richly dichotomous in nature. In “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” the portrayal of the ghost of Hamlet’s father vacillates through the play from Hamlet’s uncertainty of whether “it is an honest ghost” (144, l.5) or “a goblin damned” (40, l.4). In one sense, the ghost is honest in … Read more
In John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” a despairing speaker overhears a nightingale in the depths of a far away forest. The speaker yearns to leave behind his physical world and join the bird in its metaphysical world. The nightingale sings of a world where there is no pain, there are muted senses, and life … Read more
Terror in the soul of an individual was one of the main topics in the work of 19th century American writer, poet, journalist and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe. Inspired by the English Gothic novel, he tried to depict the horrors and fears in human life. In his case, however, it was not outward places … Read more
William Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear, is not merely a story of the ill effects of aging, but an illustration of a man plagued by pride and arrogance. Initially, Lear deems himself a man worthy of worship by his family and friends, an ill for which he suffers profoundly. ‘The world remains what it was, a … Read more
Walt Whitman’s poetry contains many basic elements that come together to characterize his own stance in 19th century social and political thought. An analysis of Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and “I Sing the Body Electric” specifically highlight Whitman’s concern with the human body. Through these poems, the human body is continually glorified and eroticized by … Read more
It is often observed that William Shakespeare’s comedies feature some uncomfortable scenes that leave audiences unsure as to whether characters are participating in harmless, theatrical farce or a meaner brand of mockery that borders on the cruel. Such scenes involve trickery that seems funny enough on the surface but, upon closer inspection of the jokester’s … Read more
Ernest Hemingway is a profound writer who not only won the Nobel Prize, but also inspired the American writers who came after him to embrace minimalistic forms of expression. Just as Hemingway began writing, other authors also picked up his style and many books had been published with the same type of diction and syntax. … Read more
“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of an imagination all compact” (Act 5, Scene 1, Lines 7-8). This quote by Theseus encompasses the notion of love as being an illusion, a product of the imagination. Love is equated with lunacy and poetry, both intangible qualities, which makes it necessary to question its existence. … Read more
Junot Diaz’s book This Is How You Lose Her provides an insightful look into love and loss, mostly through the eyes of its narrator, Yunior. Within this collection are stories of Yunior’s infidelity and the relationships of those around him; this includes tales of his family’s struggles with their respective partnerships. There is a subtle … Read more
A Walk in Our Stars Is the movie of The Fault in Our Stars a copy of the film of A Walk to Remember? Many people argue that A Walk to Remember and The Fault in Our Stars are basically the same story, while others argue that they are not. Both films have their pros … Read more
In Hughes’s poetry, “racial memory, animal instinct and poetic imagination all flow into one another with an exact sensuousness” – Seamus Heaney “The Horses” and “The Thought-Fox” are two of Hughes’s most powerfully symbolic poems, introducing the author’s extensive examination of the rational actions of humans as compared to the instinctual actions of animals. It … Read more
In his mind’s eye, Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita lives in a world of eternal nymphets and time unchanging, of frozen crystals and glass. But reality is mobile and unfrozen, and try as he may to reject it H.H. is forced to recognize the impermanence of the external world through its mirror projection into … Read more
In the poems Awlad al-Kahba (Sons of a Bitch) by Mudhafar Al-Nawab and Face Lost in the Wilderness by Fadwa Tuqan, there is great commonality in each poet’s personification of Jerusalem as a raped girl. Through the perspective of each poet, both works reflect upon the diminution of Jerusalem through a gruesome occupation that took … Read more
In early African-American literature, there is a consistent theme of gaining freedom through assimilation that as an idea slowly wilts and becomes militant as it continues to be ineffective in the black struggle for freedom and equality. Phillis Wheatley is the first canonical African-American female poet and she is able to write in this time … Read more
Family Life is a semi-autobiographical novel by Akhil Sharma. This is Akhil Sharma’s second novel, which cost him years of hardship and emotional stress to write. It was published in 2014 and was released to widespread critical acclaim. The New York Times described the novel as “deeply unnerving and gorgeously tender at its core.” David … Read more
Internet and social media have brought people closer to each other, laying ground works for new ways of collaborating. One of which is crowdsourcing translation. A practice of engagement which gathers talents from all walks of life for a common purpose. This type of crowdsourcing is usually web-based, so members can post, edit and share … Read more
V.S. Naipaul’s first published novel, The Mystic Masseur, can correctly be described as satirical given the extensive manner in which it employs language in the form of irony, hyperbole, caricature and other techniques to tell the picaresque story of Ganesh Ramsumair, which the frame narrator tells us is the story of Trinidad of that time. … Read more
The genre of the detective story is one of the most remarkable categories of short fiction. The Sherlock Holmes stories are genuine masterpieces created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the usage of the detective stories elements has contributed to their popularity. In “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” the author employs the opportunities of … Read more
Thesis: The Grandfather Paradox is often misrepresented in works of literature and film. However, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the paradox is represented fairly well with only a few errors. The Grandfather paradox is commonly known as the myth of killing one’s grandparents in order to prevent his/her own birth. This paradox … Read more
Class Distinctions in A Journal of the Plague Year Defoe repeatedly returns to how different classes experienced the plague of 1660’s in his pseudo-journalistic account, A Journal of the Plague Year. Defoe contrasts the experience of the poor and the “middling class” with that of the wealthy. His account answers a number of important questions. … Read more
The Panopticon theory. Imagine there is a prison with no bars, no chains, no guards patrolling around, but there is a watchtower which can see into every cell. It has one-way glass so no one can see in, and only zigzag pathways to walk through. The prisoners can be watched at any time and don’t … Read more
At the beginning of Boccaccio’s Decameron, both the male and female narrators hesitate to discuss the seemingly lewd topic of sexual relations. On Day I, the Florentines discuss various topics, yet only one narrator is brave enough to introduce sex as a theme: Dioneo. This male narrator quickly develops himself as the most daring of … Read more
Okonkwo was a fierce warrior with a short temper. He had 3 wives and 7 children, and seemed to never fully appreciate any of them. This character in the book “Things Fall Apart”, written by Chinua Achebe, lived in the small African village of Umuofia, one of the nine making up their tribe. Judging Okonkwo’s … Read more
Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon tells the story of Macon “Milkman” Dead, a character completely alienated from his community, family and heritage. In the novel, readers follow his journey to the fictional town of Shalimar that he takes in order to fully understand the cultural heritage which has been left for him. He begins … Read more
In Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee, Luzan asks Henry, “Who, my young friend, have you been all your life?” (205). It is through the narrative form that Luzan is able to see beyond Henry’s words. Luzan urges Henry “to take up story-forms” (206), and as Henry narrates his dilemmas to the doctor, he also negotiates … Read more
In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Shug Avery introduces the novel’s protagonist, Celie, to the concept of religious embodiment. Critic Anne-Janine Morey, in her book Religion and Sexuality in American Literature, defines embodiment as “the unreconciled relation of body and spirit” (3). In Western theology, God (the Word) and the flesh are conceived as binary … Read more
Cormac McCarthy, the author of No Country for Old Men, said about the purpose of human existence, “The point is there ain’t no point.” This nihilistic outlook on life became common long before McCarthy’s time. The highly industrial and scientifically groundbreaking 19th Century marked a dramatic authorial shift from the optimistic, spiritually centered ideas of … Read more
In “Portrait d’une Femme,” Ezra Pound examines the fragmented nature of the modern woman; cluttered with culture and accumulated intellect, her character exhibits mere parts of a whole that is both inscrutable and alluringly fascinating. Contrasting one feminine archetype, the radiant goddess, the mystifying siren, Pound’s urban lady struggles to configure her identity within the … Read more
In the journey of life Man will often question his or her position in the universe. Questioning ones worth and purpose in the universe will harbor the attention of Man until the end of time. The antidote for the majority of the world comes in maintaining a religion. In Sonnet 7 and Lycidas, John Milton … Read more
History is sometimes told through stories and this is a fact but sometimes, these stories are not a hundred percent loyal to what really happened in history. This relationship between “history” and “story” is going to be the base for this work because I have decided to do my essay about one of the topics … Read more
“Holy Sonnet XIV” written by John Donne is a poem that emphasizes Donne’s desire for a more intimate relationship with God. The words that Donne chooses in this poem insinuates that he wants a platonically intimate relationship with God, but the ambiguous meanings of the words could be grasped as Donne’s desire for God to … Read more
In George Orwell’s 1984, the differences and relationships between the proles, the Outer Party, and the Inner Party reflect different aspects of human nature and the various levels of the human psyche. The most base, savage level of humanity is portrayed through the proles, as they are controlled by nothing more than animalistic instincts. By … Read more
Throughout the collection Skirrid Hill (2005) by Owen Sheers, nature is presented as a significant factor to both the development of personal and cultural identity and to human relationships. In “Mametz Wood” and “Father”, the speaker’s attachment to the earth is apparent. However, moving beyond description of the natural world alone, Sheers calls attention to … Read more
In West African culture, Anansi is a cunning god, who takes the shape of a spider. He is known to be a trickster and very deceitful. He is considered the god of all knowledge of stories. In other words, Anansi owns all stories. In Anansi Boys, the main character, Fat Charlie, learns a great deal … Read more
Why he chose to become an entrepreneur Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump was a very successful man in the real estate industry which is what influenced him to enter that industry and follow in his father’s footsteps. Donald Trump then went on to owning his own properties, hotels, golf courses etc. Throughout his life he … Read more
Scout introduces some of her family heritage and gives details about the Finch’s settlement in Maycomb, Alabama. In so doing, she mentions General Andrew Jackson, who fought during the War of 1812 and makes a connection to her ancestor, Simon Finch. After Jackson’s victory in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, he forced the Creeks in … Read more
In every story, there are characters which serve to give the text purpose and drive the plot. Whether the character is dynamic, complex, round or flat, successful pieces of literature must include well-developed characters to propel the story. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway’s love interest, Jordan Baker, has very distinct characteristics … Read more
What Is an Ethical Dilemma? “A student finishes a Ph.D. working on a problem that has aspects that are directly patentable and solve a major problem in the disk drive industry. His new job could be with Hitachi or Seagate, or some similar firm. He arrives at the new job and discovers that the work … Read more
Eudora Welty once said “Every story would be another story, and unrecognisable, if it took up its characters and plot happened somewhere else…fiction depends for its life on place”. This applies especially to John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice And Men’ (OMAM); set in California during the Great Depression, place is a prominent feature throughout and its … Read more
Kipling’s “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” Essay One of the most famous story in The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling is the “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, has also been published as a short book. Many people read it as the story of a heroic mongoose. But we can also interpret “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” from the angle of post colonialism, which the British family is … Read more
“ The Alchemist is the story of a young man “”Santiago”” who finds a treasure. He is shepherd. He wants to be free to roam with his sheep, to have some wine in his wineskin and a book in his bag. Early into his journey, he meets an old king named Melchizedek or the king … Read more
In ‘Daisy’, Alice Oswald uses the evolving imagery of a narrator considering her actions towards a daisy to symbolise the meekness and conformity socially linked to womanhood- and the poem’s progressively aggressive tone mirrors her desire to reject these feminine ideals. Nonetheless, the constant focus on the image of a flower is able to portray … Read more
