Literature

Three Dimensions Of Power By Steven Lukes

In the reading A Radical View, Steven Lukes provides three dimensions of power. He describes the second dimension as a person or group that creates or reinforces social and political values and institutional practices that limit the scope of the political process to public consideration. The third dimension is described as getting someone to do … Read more

Analysis of the Story of Odyssey vs. Rapunzel

The Tangled Odyssey “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” —Joseph Campbell. Campbell means that in order to live the great life that is ahead of us, we have to finish up the loose ends of our life that … Read more

The Guiltiness of Hamlet’s Mother Gertrude

Elizabeth Fowler Drama Essay / Eng 113-700 April 28, 2006 In William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Queen Gertrude’s culpability of King Hamlet’s death has been the subject of much debate. Although her guilt or innocence in this matter is arguable, her culpability of many other deaths is also a subject worth investigating. Queen Gertrude is a woman … Read more

The Duality of Book Four of Gulliver’s Travels

During the early 18th century, an explosion of satire swept through British literature. This period, often called the “Age of Reason,” was highly influenced by a group of the elite of society, who called themselves the Augustans and were determined to live their lives according to “truth” and “reason.” Likewise, they often found themselves the … Read more

Women Liberalisation Achieved by Kate Chopin

Twenty-first century domestic statistics scream with divorce. Although the relationship between husband and wife is far more equal since the days of Kate Chopin’s “The Dream of an Hour,” rampant divorce and single-parent families still make it difficult for today’s children and teenagers to trust they will marry happily. While cases of marital infidelity, alcoholism, … Read more

The Abidance of an American Dream in Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Serving in Florida” and Adam Shepard’s Scratch Beginnings

A national ethos of the United States, the American Dream, is the ideal that all U.S. citizens should have an equal opportunity to achieve prosperity and success through persistence, determination, and hard work. There are countless stories, nonfiction and fiction, that shape the American Dream today. However, due to unequal opportunities and lack of education, … Read more

The Stranger Inquiry Essay

Isolation can affect anyone. But how can it affect relationships? The novel, The Stranger, by Albert Camus, is about an isolated character named Meursault. His relationships are heavily affected by his isolation, but he still chose to be isolated. Isolation can affect relationships because it can cause a person to block off emotions, feel indifferent … Read more

The use of repetition as a literary device in A Farewell to Arms

In his novel A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway uses parataxis extensively. With this structure, he avoids making causal connections in his narration, which is one of the most famous aspects of Hemingway’s writing. But the unpredictability that the anti-causal nature of the narrative suggests is counteracted by another, less apparent, narrative tool of the … Read more

What Can We Learn From Cherry Orchard

Anton Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard” is labeled a comedy, however, it has a handful of meaningful lessons that can be learned from the characters featured in the play. These character’s debacles and actions act almost as a social commentary for the industrial era in which the play was written. One of the characters that … Read more

The Meaning of the Structure in Vonnegut’s Novel

One of the most distinguishing aspects of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five is the structure in which it is written. Throughout the novel, Billy Pilgrim travels uncontrollably to non-sequential moments of his life, or as Vonnegut says, “paying random visits to all events in between.” (23). In order to exemplify this for the reader, Vonnegut uses … Read more

The Ineffectiveness of the Film Adaptation All Summer in a Day Through the Analysis of Language Elements, Physical Elements and Casting

”All Summer in a Day” Translating a fictional text into a film is an art in its own. It’s a whole process, seeing the creation of one art into another one. The goal is to recreate the same feelings and emotions of the story into something visually appealing. The director tries to conserve the main … Read more

Mediocrity vs. Mediocracy in Zone One

Colson Whitehead has written an inordinately compelling post-apocalyptic science fiction novel centering around the zombie archetype. In Zone One, he deftly uses the zombie model to create a mediocracy—a populace of dependent thinkers who accept, without question, a system of existence that is not favorable to them. In so doing, Whitehead turns the undead into … Read more

Main Ideas in "The Song of Roland"

In Song of Rowland, the author tells the story of Charlemagne’s attempted takeover of Saragossa, a land controlled by the Muslim king, Marsilla. The poem covers the feud between Rowland and his stepfather Ganelon, as well as the disastrous consequences that come from that feud, including the betrayal of their lord and kinsman, Charlemagne. Through … Read more

The Ending of Passing: Making Sense of Chaos

Nella Larsen’s novella Passing tells a compelling story about two mixed-race women, Irene and Clare, from drastically different outcomes who shape contrasting perspectives on the notion of “passing” as one race over another, as Irene is content with being her black self while Clare grew up as a white woman. This crescendo narrative escalates exponentially … Read more

The Social Commentary of O Pioneers

Willa Cather’s 1913 novel O Pioneers! is very much a work of its time, providing social commentary regarding a number of significant issues of the nineteenth into early twentieth century. This commentary presents a variety of frameworks for critical analysis: from the perspective of reform movements, immigrant culture, Populism, and especially women’s rights. One possible … Read more

The Importance and Poetic Mean of Fragmented Structure

Juan Rulfo employs a fragmented structure in Pedro Paramo to provide information about the plot and characters from the point of view of different characters at different times. This allows stories to be echoed and reechoed throughout the novel. Often times, this structure creates a sense of ambiguity and confusion because Rulfo leaves interpretation up … Read more

The Analysis of M.Moore and E.Bishop Characters

It is no secret that Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop were close friends. Although written decades apart, poems titled “The Fish” were created by both authors. Upon reading Bishop’s poem against Moore’s, we can see that both of the poems deal with themes of endurance against a greater force and of the unpredictability of life. … Read more

Admiration in Carol Anne Duffy’s ‘ Before you were mine’ and Seamus Heaney’s ‘Follower’

Both ‘Before you were mine’ by Carol Anne Duffy and ‘Follower’ by Seamus Heaney present the theme of admiration through their poems. As they both capture the parent-child relationship through the child’s perspective showcasing how they each viewed their parent as a role model whilst growing up. Both poems express the admiration they have for … Read more

Describing the Era in "The Lady of Shalott"

“The Lady of Shalott” was published in 1832, during the early Victorian epoch. It explores a series of themes that trigger the reader to question the societal prejudices that occurred during Queen Victoria’s reign. In order to stimulate thought, Tennyson paints a romantic picture of Camelot and uses an array of literary techniques to lure … Read more

Colonialism, Discourse, and (Re)Writing the Self in Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”

Jamaica Kincaid has portrayed troubled mother-daughter relationships extensively throughout her work, but her 1978 story “Girl,” from her first short story collection At the Bottom of the River, remains her most succinct depiction of this theme. Her fraught relationship with her own mother, Annie Richardson, undoubtedly fueled Kincaid’s preoccupation with mothers, daughters, and their often … Read more

Subjugation under Supposed Freedom in Catch-22

In the midst of World War II, apprehensive soldier and antiheroic bombardier John Yossarian endures the perpetual torment of war with a tenacious desire to escape. Witnessing a number of horrendous events and ceaseless bureaucratic absurdity, Yossarian and his companions struggle against the surreal parameters that define life in constant battle, and attempt to understand … Read more

The Valuable Lessons on the Journey of Maturity in The Catcher in the Rye, a Novel by J. D. Salinger

The Values of Holden’s Journey “Maturity comes from experience, not age” (Ziad K. Abdelnour). The coming of age story, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger takes some of life’s most valuable lessons like overcoming adversities and the journey of maturity and wraps them all up into one novel.. Holden Caulfield endures more than … Read more

Farrah Lynn Abraham – An American Reality Television Personality, Singer, And Writer

In 2008, while she was getting ready to appear in the reality television series, 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, then 17-years-old Farrah Abraham found out that she was pregnant for her boyfriend. Farrah’s pregnancy news was such a difficult one to bear as it even sparked a dispute between her and her mother, who … Read more

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire’s: abstraction, notions, and hypothesis concerning education

Introduction Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a nonfiction political philosophy book written by Paulo Freire that addresses concepts, ideas, and theories in relation to educational pedagogy. Initially published in Portuguese and later in English, the book addresses sources of oppression, identifies the keys to liberation, and proposes theories for the reform of modern education. Freire’s … Read more

O’Brien as a Dehumanizing Villain in 1984

“Nobody is a villain in their own story. We’re all the heroes of our own stories.” According to George R.R. Martin, an estimable American novelist, an individual’s perspective ultimately decides whether he views himself as a protagonist and deems his doings morally correct. These seem to be the circumstances of O’Brien in George Orwell’s 1984. … Read more

Silence and Language in “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”

Maxine Kingston’s The Woman Warrior wrestles with the importance of language for Chinese-American women, using Kingston’s own life experiences as the novel’s foundation. In the book’s final chapter, “A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe,” she details her developing relationship with silence and language. Kingston voices her frustration and mistrust of Chinese tradition in that … Read more

Bob Ewell: A Journey into the World of an Alcoholic

To Kill a Mockingbird is many things: just to name a few, it is a comment on racism, class, and the mob mentality. In this brilliant novel, there are a lot of well defined characters whose goings on in the fictional Maycomb County help to propel the story along. One of the most interesting characters, … Read more

Depicting the Time Gone by in the Seafarer and the Wanderer

The poems The Seafarer and The Wanderer are both elegiac in nature: each speaker delivers a reflective monologue about their journey from the past they have lost to the solitary present they face, although there are limitations to the past’s disappearance, as it clearly lingers in their memories of ‘days of toil’. The ‘ubi sunt’ … Read more

Discussion of The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister and Confessions

Robert Browning ubiquitous examination of religious authority and its shortcomings becomes apparent within the very title of The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church. The religious reference to Saint Praxed carries ironic connotations, as whilst Saint Praxed herself was chaste, the monologist subverts his priestly requirements and engages in sexual acts. Therefore Browning … Read more

Cat on a Four Post Bed

Space is an important element in drama and is embodied by the stage itself as a representation of a space where action is presented. Plays differ significantly with regard to how they present space and how much information about space they offer the audience. The analysis of place and setting in plays can help the … Read more

Good relationship with one another

Race played a huge role in determining a relationship with the police in London after the mass migration of non-caucasian individuals. The poem ‘Sonny’s Lettah’ by Linton Kwesi Johnson provides a clear representation of how the black race was treated on the streets, and their relationship with authoritative figures. The poem also portrays the relationships … Read more

The Dynamics Between Concepts of Love and Duty

In Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello is presented as a man of stature and distinction, so much so that others oft precede his name with the word “valiant” (1.3.50). He is someone who, despite prejudices attached to his skin, is found worthy of love from the fair Desdemona due to the merit of his service to the … Read more