Study Like a Boss
Comedy, Courtly Love, Drama, Fiction, Novel, Poetry, Protagonist, Tragedy, 1984, A Raisin in The Sun, Animal Farm, Beowulf, Fahrenheit 451, Frankenstein, George Orwell, Hamlet, Into The Wild, Lord of The Flies, Macbeth, Of Mice and Men, A Modest Proposal, All Quiet on The Western Front, Allegory, Antigone, Between The World and Me.
In D.H. Lawrence’s ‘The Man who Loved Islands’, the plot is used as a vehicle for an allegory about different ideals in life – ‘community, marriage and independence’ (Franks 121), as represented by the three islands. Through the use of an allegory, Lawrence delivers a cautionary tale that goes beyond the plot of simply a … Read more
In Doris Lessing’s short story, “Through the Tunnel”, growing up is a difficult and sometimes painful process. Jerry shows he wants to be independent through the symbolism of the way he moves on from the safe beach, enters the wild rocky bay with uncertainty, and finally goes through the tunnel. At the beginning, Jerry shows … Read more
Dr. James Knoll, a forensic psychiatrist, says, “The paranoia exists on a spectrum of severity. … Many perpetrators are in the middle, gray zone where psychiatrists will disagree about the relative contributions of moral failure versus mental affliction.” Dr. Knoll mentions that, in murderers, the line that defines their motives tends to be rather grey. … Read more
The book “Operation Solo”: The FBI’s Man in the Kremlin was written and narrated by John Barron with the help of Eva Childs, the wife of the main character, Morris Childs. It is a soft bound copy of 400 pages and is the paperback (second) edition published in 1996 by the Regnery History, an imprint … 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
John Cheever’s cynical ruminations on man’s loss of humanity in the modern world are artfully articulated in his short story “The Five-Forty-Eight” (Kennedy, 316). A brief recollection of an average man’s flight from a jilted, seemingly psychotic ex-lover in New York City to the suburbs allows Cheever to admonish the indifference, disdain, and lack of … Read more
Death can have different meanings to a person. Sometimes people get joy from it and most of the times they do not. Most widows would respond in a sorrowful way towards their husband’s death, but Louise responded in a untroubled mannered. The main character gets overjoyed from her husband’s death because she believed she gained … Read more
Chekhov’s stories often describe the little intricate moments in Russian life, focusing in on one character’s experience of a normal event and in doing so commenting on the character themselves. Agafya is one of Chekhov’s longer short stories, and is told from the perspective of a man who returns to his old village to spend … Read more
While I was reading this story, I imagined Andrew living in present time in a rural, urban city. The bus is always jammed full, and Andrew never has enough space to be comfortable. He rarely gets a seat, and if he does it always ends up being more uncomfortable then standing up. I would describe … Read more
We were in a hurry. I had less than an hour before the race and we were still stuck in Melbourne CBD traffic. Breathe. Sigh. My dad tried to get us through the gridlocked streets surrounding Albert Park. We were going to be late. Breathe in, breathe out. The roads displayed on my phone were … Read more
People must make sacrifices every single day. Whether such sacrifice serves to benefit them, those around them, or society in general, people find that decisions to give up aspects of their lives are prevalent in human nature. Both spectrums of this theme are thoroughly explored in Grace Ogot’s The Rain Came. Often, in tribal cultures … Read more
Aye and Gomorrah is a short science-fiction written by Samuel R. Delany that dives into the themes of sexuality and social norms. The story highlights the abnormal relationships between two marginalized communities and the struggles they undergo trying to understand their situations. Although the novel was written a while ago, the author and reader can … Read more
Societally, most individuals enjoy believing that they are without bias. Whether it be gender, race, disability, or religion, everyone has preconceived notions about select people groups. While this can be difficult to admit, Toni Morrison constructs her short story, Recitatif, in a manner which forces her readers to face their biases and stereotypes. Through the … Read more
The Other Woman, by Virgilio Samonte, is a short story that set out a fray-like relationship between spouse and mistresses. The Other Woman is written in narrative form, where the author used excessive aesthetic words to define the situations, emotions, and the settings effectively, which able the author to portray a catchy story. Also, Samonte … Read more
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, is considered one of the first detective stories. The story opens with the discovery of the violent murder of an old woman and her daughter. No gruesome detail is spared in the description of the crime scene as it is discovered by … Read more
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a tale of suffering. Placed in an environment that is “encircled by disaster” (Baldwin 1615), the narrator constantly attempts to escape from the suffering around him. He avoids all contact with those around him and becomes disconnected from who he truly is. However, it is through his brother, Sonny, that … Read more
Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story “Sur” lends itself easily to feminist literary criticism. As a fantasy of alternate history about polar exploration, the story tells of nine women arriving at the South Pole over a year before Roald Amundsen’s all-male team gained the Pole on 14 December, 1911 (Encarta, Amundsen article). However, the women … Read more
In the short story, “Roman Fever,” Edith Wharton portrays a daily life situation between two wealthy middle-aged women talking in Rome. The morals and struggle of upper-class women to succeed and stand out at that time period are revealed in the story. This story fits with the literary movement of Realism due to the realistic … Read more
James Joyce wrote two versions of his short story “The Sisters,” the first one under the pen name of Stephen Daedalus. Both versions tell the story of a boy and a priest, Father Flynn. The latter dies, and the people around him react to the loss. They share memories, they speculate about his morality, and … Read more
Nia and her family were eating their final dinner, the last meal they’ll ever eat. Everyone was quiet, even her sister Emily. Their aunt Nora in a sort of hysteric joy started serving food, heaps of food, food they’ll never see again. Aunt Nora called for everyone to gather at the table in a weak … Read more
“A sex symbol’s currency lies in her youth, her curves, in the suggestion that a sexual encounter lurks around the next corner.” (Sharon Krum, The Guardian) The power struggle between genders in society is something that can be seen every day, particularly in the media. The importance of female celebrities to stay in the spotlight … Read more
William Dean Howells’ short story “Editha,” published in 1905, revolves around ideals about war and the romanticized vision of it. Through each character, Howells presents a contrasting view of war. Editha, and her view of God-intended glorious war, is able to push her fiance George into joining the battle. When he dies shortly after leaving, … Read more
Humans are made of the tangible; flesh and blood, muscles and bones, cells and nerves. The survival of man can be dissected into the purely scientific, the emotionless, the artless. The value of the anatomical can clearly not be understated, as such is the basest foundation of existence. However, when unaccompanied by that which offers … Read more
Dorothy M. Johnson’s short story “A Man Called Horse” transgresses some of the conventions of the classical Western genre. In this sense, Johnson’s text can be read as a “revisionist Western”, in so far as Johnson does not merely adhere to the dominant norms and tropes of the Western genre, but instead tries to subvert … Read more
” He would come back some day; they couldnt make him pay forever. But he wanted his child, and nothing was much good now, beside that fact. He wasnt young any more, with a lot of nice thoughts and dreams to have by himself. He was absolutely sure Helen wouldnt have wanted him to be … Read more
When reading Pynchon’s “The Crying of Lot 49” one is flooded with a deluge of historical references (dates, places, events) and, unless a historical genius, probably feels confused as to the historical accuracy of such references. As critics have shown, Pynchon blends factual history with fiction and manages, as David Seed writes in “The Fictional … Read more
Written in 1893, Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Black Monk” is one of the most potent and revealing works of the writer. It reflects the profound philosophy of the author, as well as the feelings of worry and anxiety which, according to the memoirs of him contemporaries, pursued Anton Chekhov at that time. The author … Read more
To understand art, one must first understand the artist who created it and their motivation in doing so. In Willa Cather’s short story “Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperance” the protagonist, Paul, is a unique and complex character, which gives insight into the complexity of his creator. Understanding Cather’s personality and her purpose in the … Read more
Bret Harte’s fiction contributed largely to the development of the Western as a literary genre. One of the earliest authors to fictionalize the American West, he spun humorous yarns depicting the offbeat gamblers, prostitutes, miners, and outright outlaws of 1850s California. These social deviants take central roles in his short stories: “The Luck of Roaring … Read more
The Sun and the Moon passed each other as they did every day when day turned to night. “Goodnight Sun.” the Moon would say as she rose above the earth. “Protect our people well, Moon.” the Sun would say as he left the sky to sleep. Moon would admire Sun’s rays and Sun would admire … Read more
Mark Twain’s, “The Five Boons of Life” is a very interesting short story in which life gifts are offered to a man, describing the effects each choice has on his life and where those choices led the man. I was intrigued by how often the fairy warned the man to choose wisely and the description … Read more
Two people, one name: an inconspicuous, plain woman versus a poised young girl. A line is drawn between imagination and reality, but that line is blurred. In “Miriam” by Truman Capote, symbolism is incorporated to show that Mrs. Miller is living through the past in the present. A mere child is used to represent the … Read more
Edgar Allen Poe is, perhaps, the most popular Gothic author in American history. Many of his stories show the darker side of humanity and provoke a sense of eeriness in the reader. But what exactly makes his stories creepy or uncanny? To answer this question one can look upon Sigmund Freud’s, “The Uncanny”, wherein he … 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
In Sherwood Anderson’s “Mother,” Tom Willard takes centre stage as the role of the obnoxious, vain husband who shamelessly blames his wife, Elizabeth Willard, for his own unhappiness. He views her with blatant contempt and finds her existence unbearable to the extent that her very presence is regarded as “a reproach to himself.” But for … Read more
The Dutch Historian Pieter Geyl once stated that “Imagination plays too important a role in the writing of history, and what is imagination but the projection of the author’s personality.”(1) If we were to replace the word ‘history’ with ‘a historically based story’, is this not also the case with Nam Le’s novel The Boat? … Read more
Often, the elements of the mind and past developments play a key role in understanding events and writings. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories “Ligeia” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe crafts tales that reveal the inner cravings that motivate action and perception. In “Ligeia,” Poe orchestrates his story to comment on … Read more
Post-colonialism is concerned with the effects of colonization on the colonized. In fact, Richard Schur argues “that there can be no simple escape from the effects race, racism, gender, and sexism without some sort of decolonization” (277). One affect involves how language is used to form racial categories. Contemporary ideas of race include the belief … Read more
In his story “The Sun, the Moon, the Stars”, Junot Diaz presents to the reader a couple going through a tumultuous time in their relationship. News of Yunior’s infidelity had just come to light via a letter that his mistress sent to his girlfriend Magdalena. Reacting to the situation, Yunior confesses and goes on a … Read more
Along with stone tools, the Paleolithic Era brought on the division of labor according to gender. This division eventually created the inequality between men and women, which caused the endless battles women had to fight to regain their birth rights. Scant progress had been made before the mid to late 1800s; gradually, women earned their … Read more
Walker Brothers Cowboy, a short story written by Alice Munro, presents the pivotal (and perhaps formative) experience of a young, unnamed, female narrator. Munroe filters the girl’s visual and olfactory-enriched memories through the present tense thoughts of a markedly matured voice, creating a nostalgic effect which foregrounds the significance of this childhood story to the … Read more
The Scarlet Ibis is a heartbreaking story by James Hurst about two brothers; one brother is physically fit (narrator), while the other is physically disabled (Doodle). The story focuses on the idea that the older brother’s greediness, arrogance, and self-consciousness led to the death of his younger brother. To help us draw and anticipate Doodle’s … Read more
In “She Wasn’t Soft”, T.C. Boyle uses dynamic and static characterization in his portrayal of an unhealthy relationship. Dynamic characters are characters who change throughout a story, the dynamic character in this story being Paula, while static characters do not change, like Jason. Jason and Paula have a relationship that does not contain mutual respect … Read more
Marxist philosophy believes that society views the world through a completely economic lens. Marxism dictates that society is separated into two classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie utilizes ideology to suppress the proletariat mainly by manipulating their perceptions of their free agency. One ideology that the upper class perpetuates onto the working class … Read more
In the works of Daisy Miller and The Beast in the Jungle, author Henry James provides readers with multiple explanations as to why it is important for one to live a full life. These two novellas share many broad similarities, including central thematic focuses, a flawed main character, and a hamartia that makes the stories … Read more
The sum of the parts the vignettes of townsfolk of Winesburg, Ohio is greater than the whole novel. Winesburg, too, is only one town in all of Ohio, which is one of a host of states in the U.S. This magnification is at the heart of the novel, in which synecdoche is the main lens … Read more
Much of Dubliners revolves around the weary contemplation of mortality, the apex of which appears in the novel’s endpiece, “The Dead,” which serves as the perfect counterpart to “The Sisters,” bookending the collection of stories with a cyclic emphasis on the intersection between life and death, recapitulating the central recurring themes of poverty, political division, … Read more
Written by master realist Anton Chekhov, “Misery” is the story of an old man’s grief for having lost his son. He keeps looking for somebody with whom to talk about the death of his child. Throughout, the use of the old man’s narrative perspective enables the reader to understand misery of Iona, the old man, … Read more
Both stories are similar because they explore the theme of personal identity. Kingston’s “No Name Woman” explores the narrator’s struggles to connect her American identity with the Chinese Identity. Similarly, Cisneros’ “Woman Hollering Creek” explores how Cleofilas’ Chicano identity affects her marriage and relationship. Therefore, the protagonists in both stories are women and they are … Read more
Sherwood Anderson, in his masterpiece Winesburg, Ohio was “writing against the notion that stories have to have a plot which reveals a moral idea or conclusion” (Prof. Fisher, lecture). Like the “tales” that Doctor Parcival tells George Willard in “The Philosopher,” Anderson’s short stories also seem to “begin nowhere and end nowhere” (51). We as … Read more
