Newest Literature Essays

The English language contains more words than any one person could ever hope to know, and they all have slightly different meanings. Detest, dislike, and hate are all similar, but one would never want to use the wrong one. By comparing three...

Anti-War Sentiments in Trojan Women

In the year 415 B.C.E., the Greeks had been fighting a long and bloody war with Sparta for over a decade. It was in this year that Euripides, a well-known playwright, wrote Trojan Women, a tragedy about the...

Death knows no age, culture, social class, or gender. It is the inevitability that defines equality between every soul and meaning to every life. This idea is prominent through the poem, “Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun”, written by William...

In his Sources of the Self, Charles Taylor writes of the epiphany, by which he means the “notion of a work of art as the locus of a manifestation which brings us into the presence of something otherwise inaccessible” (419). Epiphanies occur in...

Gender may be defined as ‘the personal traits and position in society connected with being male or female’.[1] The binary genders then, are the male and female which John Carl contrasts simply: ‘wearing high heels is associated with the female...

Profuse similarities between texts are often exposed by examining the way that authors react to their surrounding society. This notion is regularly expressed between Jane Austen’s novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’, (1813) and Fay Weldon’s text, ‘Letters...

The fantasy, science-fiction movie The Martian is based on the the fascinating novel The Martian by Andy Weir. The movie was directed by Ridley Scott, and was released in 2015. The story is about an astronaut (Mark Watney) who is left behind by...

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief follows the life of the once illiterate Liesel Meminger and her progression into literacy set primarily during WWII in Molching, Germany. Liesel is adopted by a German couple in Molching, Germany after the death of...

Horror can be defined as the feeling excited by something shocking or fear-inducing[1]. The physical or represented form of the body certainly can induce these feelings given the appropriate circumstances and contexts. The present paper will...

The concept of the forbidden fruit has held constant since Biblical times; are the consequences worth the enjoyment? It is a concept that can link books that otherwise hold little to no relation to one another. Hence, when comparing the novels...

Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” was written in the 1950’s at a time where women were mostly homemakers. O’Connor herself was profusely talented and graduated from the most prestigious creative writing program at Iowa State...

Are forms of escapism like technology and social networks hindering us from living a fulfilling life or enhancing the experience of it? Many would argue that technology has started to distract us from reality and inhibit us from living in the...

Humans have not yet achieved perfection in regard to performance, appearance, or character. The definition of perfection is subjective. To determine author Ayn Rand’s view of perfection, one would need only to observe the character of Howard Roark...

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Daemon Lover” is nowhere near as omnipresent in the American zeitgeist as her cautionary tale about conformity taken to its ridiculous extreme, “The Lottery.” Nevertheless, in its own modest fashion, “The Daemon...

Throughout human history, people have been much more influenced by individuals that can bring the situation down to a more human and relatable level. Whether it be in politics or on a daily basis, those who can relate with whom they wish to...

One of the most prominent and widely recognized dramatists of the ancient time, Aeschylus was a master of the depiction of conflicting situations. His works always perform the main function of the drama work in terms of touching the mind and...

The issue of male dominance has long been one of the most prevalent issues in history, male elitism dating all the way back to the beginnings of humanity. Similar to most communities, Native American tribes are no exception to the blatant misogyny...

In his 1976 essay “A Modest Proposal: Swift’s Persona as Absentee”, Robert Willson examines Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal through analyzing and discussing the meaning behind his offensive proposal, revealing a clear message from Swift - “…to...

Ancient Greek poet Sappho authored poems exploring various concepts of female sexuality and romantic experience. Many of her poems and the fragments of them that remain explore the theme and experience of marriage in women’s lives. While many...

Often times when we read or analyze texts, we ask simple, broad questions that are at the root of larger, deeper questions. For example, why does a particular character act a certain way? What are the motivations behind those actions? These...

Aristotle’s triangle of rhetoric: ethos, pathos, and logos, is often regarded as the basis for a rhetorical argument. The argument must employ each edge of the triangle in order to be persuasive. However, sometimes it can be beneficial to...

Throughout literature, nature imagery is used to depict a deeper meaning, and often insight into the protagonist’s thoughts and inner self. Nature imagery in the novel Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse reflects the evolution of Siddhartha’s self...

Much of Shakespeare’s work revolves around forgiveness, redemption, crime, or freedom, making it the perfect canvas for inmates to pour their feelings into. Working with directors allows them to be seen as valuable, capable individuals rather than...