Newest Literature Essays

The Damned Human Race is satirical essay where the author discusses his perceptions of mankind’s impractical morality. He argues that “Indecency, vulgarity, and obscenity (these are strictly confined to man); he invented them” (Twain). He...

A Response to “Mississippi Burning”

To say that religion has affected nearly every aspect of life in the South is to state the obvious. The history of racial strife is no exception. Historically, racists have used Biblical scriptures to buttress...

Contemporary American society expects that a person reaches specific destinations as they move through their life’s journey. Gender is the major factor that determines these “normal” destinations for people, which are so ingrained in every aspect...

Albert Camus’s L’Étranger or The Stranger is a psychological study of a character Meursault, the novel’s first-person narrator who has recently lost his mother, or his Maman. Originally written in French, it has been translated into in English by...

Philosophy is defined simply by Oxford English Dictionary as “knowledge, learning, scholarship,” but can also be defined as the pursuit of knowledge; whereas philo- means to have a liking of, and –sophy is translated as wisdom (philo, comb. form;...

Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now, a loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, shows American MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin Willard’s journey in terminating rogue U.S. colonel Walter Kurtz. Bao Ninh’s 1993...

George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion in hopes that people would see what change can happen in an individual person. While reading this play it is easy to see it as being focused on Eliza Doolittle. However, it is important to understand and observe...

Dating back to early history, vampires have persevered through different languages, kings, and cultures as vessels for the parasitic nature of man who preys upon the innocent. Victorian writers, who originally created the vampire, or the original...

The Shah's replacement by the Islamic Republic in 1979 was a difficult time for all the Iranians especially Marjane’s parents. This new regime rejected all the “Western values” and focused instead on Islamic fundamentalism. Many Iranians were...

When it comes to dystopian stories, the conclusion is expected to be tragic due to the pessimistic nature of a dystopia. However, in Anthem by Ayn Rand and Welcome to the Monkeyhouse by Kurt Vonnegut, the authors go a different route because they...

In Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, which is regarded as the first true English detective novel, the story of a priceless Indian diamond is told through a series of changing narrators. The diamond is stolen three times throughout its’ recorded...

In Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, it shows how one person can go from living in bliss to living in a dungeon. But how could this happen you may ask. Slavery. The people would become enslaved after being taken from their families. “The Asante had power...

Even the title of Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich oozes themes of death and dying, but what makes this piece of writing one of extraordinary kinds, is not simply the descriptive way in which it depicts the process of death and dying for...

Each of these poems comprise of motifs prevalent throughout Duffy's anthology, 'Mean Time'. Mortality and nostalgia are exemplified, in which Duffy often writes about –with love, with heartfelt feeling but never with sentimentality, and she...

Charlotte Smith’s late poem ‘Ode to Death’, published in 1797 in her collection of Elegiac Sonnets, draws on the idea of accepting death as a ‘friend’ (l.1) rather than fearing it. The ode carries a deep sense of desperation and sorrow, as it...

In Jane Austen’s epistolary novel Lady Susan and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, the concept of gender remains a key aspect throughout both of the narratives in regard to plot development and characterization. Whilst Lady Susan was thought to be...

The recently famous novel Jasper Jones, written by Craig Silvey tells a tale of a young boy named Charlie Bucktin and his friend Jasper Jones finding the killer of a girl named Laura Wishart. As Charlie searches for his identity, he faces racism...

The American political climate of the 1980’s is wrought with capitalistic fervor, the end game being victory over the constant battle for self-improvement. This victory can manifest itself in myriad forms; in ever-symbolic heaps of steaming cash,...

In everything we do, we seek to find happiness and meaning. While they aren’t necessarily what we always find, we strive to find it even if it’s the smallest shred of it. That couldn’t be farther from the truth in the gripping film American Beauty...

“The problem of half-castes is simply not going to go away”

“The bodies lying like so much fallen timber”

Both the novel ‘The Secret River’ written by Kate Grenville and the film ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’ directed by Phillip Noyce showcase themes of...

“Thank You” by Ross Gay is a concise and powerful poem, in which the poet deftly weaves together Christian themes and Biblical allusions to craft an elaborate ode to the Old Testament. The poem alludes to Biblical passages and stories such as the...

‘Accordingly, he took the paper and lowered his spectacles, measured the space at his command, reached his pen and examined it, dipped it in the ink and examined it again, then pushed the paper a little way from him, lifted up his spectacles...

In Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, one significant recurring image is water. Throughout the book, water imagery surrounds many events, despite having no immediate connection to any of these scenarios. Water imagery occurs in both positive...

Suspense is one of the most effective tools used to grip the readers undivided attention in creative writing. It pulls the reader into the story, and gets them invested in the characters and the story line. It creates the intense feeling of...