Study Like a Boss
Anna Quindlen, Bill Bryson, Tertullian, Thomas Paine, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harper Lee, Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Maya Angelou, Eudora Welty, Kurt Vonnegut, Langston Hughes, William Faulkner, Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury, Sylvia Plath, Shirley Jackson, Walt Whitman, Virginia Woolf, Jamaica Kincaid, Iago, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Homer, Emily Dickinson, William Golding, George Orwell, The Tempest, Jane Austen, Leonardo Da Vinci, Mary Shelley, Alice Walker, Richard Wright, Tolkien, David Foster Wallace, Barbara Kingsolver, Elizabeth Bishop, J. K. Rowling, Malcolm Gladwell, Mary Wollstonecraft, Nikki Giovanni, Peter Skrzynecki, Alexander Pope, Richard Rodriguez, Robert Lynd, Roger Rosenblatt, Sherman Alexie, William Hazlitt.
William Shakespeare’s usage of the trope of courtly love in The Tempest is not what it seems. In The Tempest, a man trained in the art of magic, Prospero, causes a shipwreck on his island. On this ship is his brother, Antonio, who usurped Prospero’s dukedom in Milan and sent him off to sea. The … Read more
Elizabeth Bishop has often been linked to the poetical canon of the ‘confessional poets’ of the 1960’s and 70’s. Confessional poetry focused largely on the poet, exposing his/her insecurities and personal vulnerabilities. Bishop, however, was better known for her insistence on remaining outside of this movement. To be called a confessional poet “would have horrified … Read more
The practice of theatrically adapting Shakespeare’s works has been popular for close to four hundred years (Fischlin and Fortier 1); the high points of appropriation were the Restoration and the second half of the twentieth century. Recent adaptations often adapt his plays to fit other mediums, such as film or the novel. Fischlin and Fortier … Read more
In Virginia Woolf’s book Mrs. Dalloway, a variety of characters with complex, unique personalities are brought to life. Woolf uses vivid imagery and poignant monologues in order to highlight and simultaneously criticize the social structure, political affairs, and economic state of post-World War I England. Many themes, such as the ones aforementioned, are displayed within … Read more
The economic prosperity of 1920s America cannot be explained by one single argument. No doubt the dramatic growth of the motor manufacturing industry was a major contributor to the US economic boom, but it was by no means the only one. Other factors such as technological advancements, new business methods and government policies, as well … Read more
Shakespearian comedies often address the widely-accepted notion in Elizabethan England that suggested that order and balance should prevail both in the world and in performed representations of the world, even if the form of the plays often employed a sense of comic disorder. Social, noble, and spiritual hierarchies are described through language and events in … Read more
In the majority of John Donne’s poetry, it is easy to characterize Donne as a domineering speaker, one who frequently overbears the female voice. Yet in “The Flea,” Donne complicates the prototypical gender roles seen in most early modern love poetry. Throughout the poem, the poet uses symbolism and unspoken dialogue to imply a complicated … Read more
Go Set a Watchman (1-278) In the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird- Go Set a Watchman- we are reintroduced to Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout. Many years have passed in the protagonist’s life; she is now in her mid-twenties, and has come home from her busy life in New York to visit … Read more
In her Prologue and Tale, the Wife of Bath attempts to undermine the current misogynistic conceptions of women. Her struggle against the denigration of women has led to many feminist interpretations of her Tale, most portraying the Wife of Bath as something of a feminist icon. However, through contradictions in action and speech, the Wife … Read more
It is one of the greatest paradoxes in literature: a made-up story is more accurate than a factual story. Tim O’Brien sets out to prove this notion in The Things They Carried. This is a book of short stories, some of his personal war tales, some of his platoon-mates’ rhetoric, and some from when he … Read more
The notion of guilt is very strong in Owen’s poetry. He uses guilt in his poetry so as to highlight the indifference of those back at home as well as the authorities. These should feel guilty for sending their youth to die but they do not feel so. On the other hand, Owen also expresses … Read more
Specifically from a literary perspective, the Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, is often treated as one of the most artistically prolific, localized movements in Western literature, which has produced such writers as Gwendolyn Bennett, Nella Larsen, Esther Popel, and Jean Toomer. No Harlem Renaissance writer has received as much recognition and … Read more
“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.” – Albert Einstein Distinguishing between right and wrong is a skill people learn over the span of their lifetime. … Read more
Langston Hughes Thesis: one country into one non-segregated society. The segregation which happened in the U.S.A should serve as a warning and today’s goal should be to keep our society from any type of racial segregation. Following part of the thesis will be dealing with racial segregation which is depicted in Langston Hughes poems. Like … 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
“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
Loyalty vs Betrayal If people can be honest and loyal with each other about everything, that’s possibly the biggest key to success. But what if one were to get poison in the mind and became suspicious of things with no evidential proof or witnesses? During the entire play of “Othello, the Moor of Venice” written … Read more
The Miller and Reeve’s Tales of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, while being intricately crafted examples of the French genre fabliaux, differ significantly in both progression, resolution, as well as the tales’ overall connotation and voice. While the Miller’s tale seems to follow the more traditional, “good humored” nature of the fabliaux, the Reeve creates a raunchy … Read more
This poem was written by Christina Rossetti and the name of it is ‘What is pink?’. It is basically about colours but on a deeper level, showing us the positive side of it. There is unity in this poem and no stanzas . In lines 1-4, the poet uses the words “pink” and “red”, these … Read more
Thousands of immigrants arrive in America every year with the hope that a new life, a better life, awaits them. The come in search of “the American Dream,” the hope that there are higher paying jobs, quality public schools to send their children to, and a safer environment filled with opportunities and choices. Typically, immigrants … Read more
Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath” has been the subject of much critical attention. Many of the novel’s detractors have concentrated their critiques not upon its literary failings, but rather its politics (Zirakzadeh). At the time of the novel’s publication and in the years since, such critics have condemned Steinbeck’s expression of the failings of … Read more
While The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and The Good Earth by Pearl Buck vary greatly in basic subject matter, their thematic content and general intent are strikingly similar. Both award-winning literary works in their own right, together they provide a unique insight into the United States in the 1930s, when the glitz and … Read more
Walt Disney once said “If you can dream it you can achieve it.” Dreams have a great importance in A Raisin in the Sun, with the play’s name coming from a 1951 Langston Hughes poem titled Harlem. In the poem, part of which serves as the play’s legend the poet asks, “What happens to a … Read more
Thomas Paine in his work, Common Sense (1776) appeals to reason and the employment of human common sense, according to the prevailing age of Enlightenment or Reason. He poses in support for independence from Britain. America’s welfare, in his view, should never be reliant upon Britain. Britain’s attachment to the U.S. springs only from selfish, … Read more
Much of Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse takes place within her characters’ minds. Although, of course, their thoughts cannot stop external happenings, they can and do stop time in one way: through memory. Thus, throughout the novel, Woolf employs certain objects as symbols to instigate memory and transport the mind into the past. One … Read more
“Heaven—is what I cannot reach,” wrote Emily Dickinson in one of her many poems. Again and again, we see the same theme in her works. Her time period was one that emphasized the need for women to play a role as specified by the teachings of the Bible. Emily Dickinson’s poetry reflects her deep desire … Read more
The “Clerk’s Tale” of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales can be seen as a mirror of society, where social classes have very noticeable tensions between them. This essay shall analyze the “Clerk’s Tale” by putting it in a socio-political context and focusing on the interactions between Griselda and Walter, who belong to different social classes. Introduction … Read more
Ernest Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms features the numbing experiences of Lieutenant Federico Henry while serving in Italy during World War I. Despite serving as such a dismally despondent milieu, the war actually acts as a powerful catalyst. In Chapter 4, Frederic Henry, an American, explains to Miss Barkley shortly after having met her that he … Read more
In the memoir Moments of Being, Virginia Woolf reminisces on a sailing trip she experienced when she was younger. She is walking in the boring streets of London when she thinks of something that was more exciting. Afternoon sailing is revealed to be better than the walks she takes, and she begins talking about specific … Read more
Introducing Saul Bellow was a Canadian-American writer of Jewish origin who wrote about the disorienting nature of modern civilization, and the countervailing ability of humans to overcome their frailty and achieve greatness. Bellow interspersed autobiographical elements into his fiction, and many of his principal characters were said to bear a resemblance to him. In his … Read more
In some eighteenth century works, the emphasis on alluding to and drawing inspiration from the past proved to be one of the most effective methods in composing a satirical piece. Appearing in two forms, Juvenal or Horatian, a satire is “a poem, or in modern use sometimes a prose composition, in which prevailing vices or … Read more
Kim is a novel about a young boy named Kim and his maturation into an adult. He goes on many adventures all the while playing the “Great Game” and tying to help the Lama attain “freedom from the Wheel of Things” (Kipling 12). A bildungsroman is a novel that shows the development of a child … Read more
‘A Christmas Carol’ by Christina Rossetti is a devotional poem that has been set to music many times, most famously by Gustav Holst in 1906, and remains a choral favourite today. It is centred around the birth of Jesus Christ, as told from the perspective of a speaker who although is excluded from this biblical … Read more
Ostensibly a tale of the effects of sin and guilt as manifested through successive generations of a New England family, Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables is a richly detailed novel with multiple levels of meaning and ambiguities that have prompted a wide array of critical interpretations. Though frequently faulted for its narrative structure … Read more
It appears that all comedies throughout all ages relies on the accuracy of its meta-commentary, all successful comedies inhabit a illusionary world filled with flickering shadows of truth and mirrors filled with elements of human behaviour. In many ways comedy takes our human experience out of our sheltered reality and into a liminal space that … Read more
Ralph Waldo Emerson is generally remembered as one of the most influential writers of the American Renaissance. He is the father of the philosophical movement Transcendentalism, that is, the American equivalent of the European movement Romanticism. During his career, Emerson wrote several essays and delivered more than 1500 lectures all around the United States. Even … Read more
Many of Shakespeare’s plays contain the structural and symbolic elements of mythology. The inheritance of mythological conventions, which shall be explored in this essay, create an effect that is ritualistic and leads to Nietzsche’s observation of ‘an overpowering feeling of unity which leads back to the heart of nature’. This essay is not claiming that … Read more
Belonging is basically the sense when one feels a connection with their surroundings, and sharing similarities with those around them. When an individual doesn’t belong, they feel a sense of disconnection and isolation from their surroundings. The notion of belonging or not belonging allows individuals to understand their identity with deeper comprehension of who they … Read more
I am currently reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. This book is the 4th in the Harry Potter Series, about a young wizard in training named Harry. In this fantasy novel, Harry competes in the Triwizard Competition, but he never entered his name into the running because he was too … Read more
His name is the subject of countless English teacher puns. His face can be seen on everything from nerdy coffee mugs to hipster tote bags. His work is on every list of great American poetry, not to mention countless summer reading lists. But does anyone truly know the real Edgar Allan Poe? For a man … Read more
“ One of Orwell’s objectives in composing Animal Farm was to depict the Russian (or Bolshevik) Revolution of 1917 as one that brought about an administration more severe, totalitarian, and lethal than the one it ousted. A significant number of the characters and occasions of Orwell’s novel parallel those of the Russian Revolution: so, Manor … Read more
Introduction My report explores the horrors of war across a range of war poems by examining the dehumanisation of the young soldiers in World War I and how war affects their families and society. The poems I chose to use were Anthem for Doomed Youth, by Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est, also by Wilfred … Read more
Ray Bradbury may have chosen Doug to be the twelve-year-old protagonist in Dandelion Wine, but I remain convinced that Bradbury took a pencil and paper to my childhood. Part of the reason why Doug’s character resonates with me so much stems from Bradbury’s use of symbolic language. Because symbolism leaves the audience to interpret the … Read more
“Ligeia”, published in 1838 by Edgar Allan Poe, describes the tale of a narrator who is deeply enthralled by his own imagination and thoughts and is submersed in the act of escaping reality. This cautionary tale warns readers about the dangers of unchecked imagination and the problems that arise from the intertwining between fantasy and … Read more
Pablo Neruda’s “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair” use nature as a common motif to express his feelings of love towards a woman and the loneliness he feels being with her. An example of such work is found in his poem, “Girl Lithe and Tawny”. In each stanza, Neruda uses stylistic imagery of … Read more
Contrary to the optimistic nature of the title, “Easter 1916”, Yeats’ poem speaks of death, sacrifice, rebellion and politics. It is not often that Yeats deals with the subject of the Irish Independence movement. The only other expressly political poem he wrote was “September 1913”, which also dealt with the Irish Independence Movement. Thus, the … Read more
Love and friendship were major themes for Society Drama during the 1890s. An established ‘stock storyline’ of the period was that of domestic life affected by a predicament, concluding in the reassertion of common ideas: fidelity, duty, forgiveness, etc. Although An Ideal Husband adopts these motifs, it also parodies them through the exaggerated conceptions of … Read more
California senator Kamala Harris once said, “The American Dream belongs to all of us.” This idea is what brings thousands of people to the U.S. We are a beacon of hope for the oppressed and less fortunate. Our country is the Dream that people can only hope to achieve and risk their lives to even … Read more
In his essay “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson often radiates an arrogant and self-important tone, writing, for example, “A great man is coming to eat at my house. I do not wish to please him; I wish that he should wish to please me.” Although prideful, Emerson’s work is known for its empowerment of the individual, … Read more
Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Disabled’ concerns a young soldier who returns from the Great War suffering terrible injuries. The title of the poem is significant in creating a sense of pathos as it makes clear that the theme of loss will be explored throughout. Robert Frost’s poem ‘Out, Out’ is about a young boy sawing wood … Read more