11th Grade

Tartuffe

The play Tartuffe has many aspects of reason and foolishness. It was written during the Age of Reason, so Moliere writes this play to teach us about morality and the importance of developing a good character. Throughout the play we see that reason...

College

Theodore Roethke: Poems

“The whisky on your breath could make a small boy dizzy;”. This is how renowned poet Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) opened up his poem “My Papa’s Waltz”. A exuberant child, a mother whom is unamused, and a powerfully intoxicated father are just the...

College

L'Ingenu

Voltaire’s work L’Ingenu follows the main character, the Ingenu, across the Atlantic into England and then shortly thereafter chronicles his travels into the province of Brittany in northern France. There are various examples of the spirit of the...

College

Astrophil and Stella

Phillip Sidney’s sonnet, ‘Because I oft, in dark abstract guise’, was published posthumously in 1591, and occurs as part of Sidney’s most critically acclaimed work, Astrophel and Stella[1]. Consisting of 108 sonnets and 8 intertwined songs, the...

12th Grade

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

“There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth” (Twain, 3). When a novel is told in first person perspective, as evident in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Handmaid’s Tale, the knowledge of the reader is restricted...

11th Grade

The Crucible

Drama is the performance of a narrative by actors on stage, and differs from prose fiction in that it is interpreted and presented by others rather than the individual viewer. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a drama that illustrates a...

8th Grade

The Golden Compass

Dust is a vital element that supports the overall themes of innocence and sin in The Golden Compass, connecting to the religious and moral philosophy in the world and how it may be more harmful than beneficial to humanity. Throughout the story, it...

College

The Bible

Wisdom as defined in Ecclesiastes is somewhat of a paradox: the pursuit of Wisdom is a vain “pursuit of wind” (Ecclesiastes 2.11). The repeated mantra that Ecclesiastes offers is “All is futile!” (Ecclesiastes 1.2) and thus “there is nothing...