Newest Literature Essays

“David Copperfield” is an autobiographical novel, a family chronicle, which is written from a child's viewpoint rather than an adult’s. As all things seem to be larger in the eyes of a kid, children tend to be more sensitive to what is happening...

If one looks back on human history, millions of lives have been lost for various fights and disagreements between powers. Although one has the resources and knowledge to learn from past mistakes, humanity still chooses violence to end...

The question of freedom in the character Louisa Ellis in Mary E. Wilkins’ “A New England Nun” is one of ambiguity and argument. On one side, she manages to find her own small freedom in life within this society that restricts women to standards...

The Breton lai Sir Orfeo is an English reworking of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. In contrast to the classical tale, this anonymously authored text replaces tragedy with comedy while also including a didactic function for a medieval Christian...

In the novel The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux, characters Christine and Raoul both suffer from identity issues due to their connection with their childhood. Both characters go through many complicated obstacles trying to figure out who...

In nations around the world, colonialism instilled a racial hierarchy that made whiteness synonymous with prosperity. In places like 1950s Rhodesia, colonialism created a system of mass assimilation, where giving up a part of their culture was a...

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas explores the depths of one sixteen year-old’s life and the struggles she faces daily as a black female who has grown up in an underprivileged neighborhood and developed her emotions, thoughts and feelings through...

In the short stories “Hands,” “Paper Pills,” and “Drink” by Sherwood Anderson in the collection Winesburg, Ohio, Andersen shows that American emotions and sexuality are so repressed that people often choose isolation over human connection by...

The Victorian Age was a time of great changes in English society, economically, industriously, and intellectually. This era brought about prosperity and growth for some citizens, while bringing severe desolation to others. In the midst of these...

Storytelling has become an important literary device found in American Literature. Stories like “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain and “Daisy Miller: A Study” by Henry James use storytelling as the simplest way promote...

In Alfred Hitchcock’s enthralling film, Rear Window, set in Manhattan, New York in the 1950s, Hitchcock draws attention to the way physical immobility is simply an echo of emotional immobility as represented by the protagonist, L.B. Jefferies....

Rasmussen Tinsley of Annie Proulx’s “People in Hell just want a Drink of Water” and Oscar de León of Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao represent male characters who interact with a constructed form of manhood, which this paper...

Set against the political turmoil of Libya in the summer of 1979, Hisham Matar’s novel “In the Country of Men” contains characters who are defined by their relationship with Libya and its culture. Although Suleiman’s story is for the most part...

Sincerely, Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain focuses on Tom Sawyer in order to satirize Romanticism, illustrating adventure and the courageous characteristics that are shown throughout Huck’s life, exhibiting his mindset...

The novel Monkey Beach, written by Eden Robinson, can be called an example of what Thomas King has named "associational literature" (King p.14) because, even though the novel includes issues which are directly connected to the impact and...

Charles Dickens was a famous critic of his time. He took on Victorian ideals and issues that he viewed as social injustices and criticized them, both in public speeches and in his writing. In his novels, these were primarily subjects like poverty...

Freedom is a seemingly simple word. General definition states that it is the power to act, think and speak as one pleases. If one wanted to become less concrete, it can also be suggested that freedom itself, is a state of mind. In addition to...

Composed in 1857, Maude Clare is written as a narrative in which Maude Clare confronts her previous lover on his wedding day. As is common in her poetry, Rossetti uses this fictional event to discuss the theme of male and female relationships. The...

Foucault’s Discipline and Punish reads partly like a historic text and partly like a speculative essay. Its themes revolving around power, knowledge, and authority however, conveys fundamental principles that is innate to human nature. Foucault...

Although a contextual shift may result in changed values and attitudes, some traits are inherent in the human condition and transcend time. This is explored in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Pardoner’s Tale (TPT) and Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan (ASP),...

Peter Weir’s film, The Truman Show (1998), presents a powerful exploration of ideas and opinions, providing a compelling insight into the human condition. The film embodies insights into the fundamental issues surrounding the manipulative power of...

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is a classic novel that tells the story of a man’s coming of age. When the protagonist Milkman truly matures, he is in his mid-thirties, and has lived, up until his journey, a life of privilege, complacency, and...

In many religions, arms and hands are regarded as symbols of divine power and expression. Author John Irving uses this tradition in A Prayer for Owen Meany to illustrate Owen’s power and portray Owen as a deity. A Prayer for Owen Meany tells the...

The intention of Andrew Marvell as to publication and public reception was often interfered with by the necessity of his political circumstances, particularly after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. This interference does however...