Newest Literature Essays

Until Parasite came along, A Place in the Sun was the most persistent and comprehensive critique of capitalism to ever win one of the five major Academy Awards. Its brilliance lies in its disguise as being merely a doomed star-crossed romance....

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is a controversial text, surrounded by a debate about whether or not it is literature, or merely the writing of a perverse man. Nabokov, himself realizes this, and in 1956, writes a journal article entitled, “On a Book...

Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men follows the story of a drug deal gone wrong. Four Mexican men are found dead at the scene of the crime but the money is nowhere to be found. The novel focuses on Llewelyn Moss, the Texan welder who stumbled...

Self-identity is the personal recognition of one’s individuality especially after a period of ignorance about one’s interests, abilities, weaknesses, characteristics, and motivations. In Malamud’s “The Magic Barrel” and Kincaid’s “At the Bottom of...

Ludwig Feuerbach and James Cone present ideologically different interpretations of religion and its purpose in society. Feuerbach originates his vision of God from a philosophical perspective surrounding materialism. Cone, a theologian,...

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber were the product of similar time periods that, although are presented as very different mediums, emphasize similar messages that are structured in non traditional ways. This defiance of...

When conjuring images of the Roaring’s Twenties, especially if literarily inclined, one inevitably thinks Harlem and invariably thinks the Harlem Renaissance. It is perhaps reckless to say, yet not without the support of arguments bearing to its...

Jack Davis was a poet, playwright, and Indigenous Activist in the 20th century. He was also the member of the Aboriginal Advancement Council, which clearly shows his devotion towards Indigenous matters. He is also considered to be the “grandfather...

A Sometimes Vagrant, a Sometimes PhilosopherExamining the Intersection of Diametrically Opposing Lifestyles in Claude McKay’s BanjoThough subtitled “A Story without a Plot”, Claude McKay’s Banjo (1929) paints an acute portrait of black diaspora as...

Pietro di Donato’s “Christ in Concrete” was originally a short story but later expanded as a novel and published 1939, a decade after the Great Depression. Paul, who is the story’s main character and protagonist, is the eldest son in an Italian...

As humans, the power of love often overpowers the responsibility of thought. In “The Lady, Or The Tiger,” by Frank Stockton, the strong affection that bonded the several characters into relationships drives them apart ending in a scene with two...

In Justin Torres’s poetic novel, We the Animals, an unnamed narrator chronicles his childhood experiences and social maturation through vignettes. Torres portrays the close relationship the narrator holds with his two older brothers’, Manny and...

Connection is a concept that nearly all creatures within our world desperately crave in their lives. This is showcased through dogs, cats, penguins, lions and most certainly human beings. While some individuals may showcase more closed off,...

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s thirteen stanza poem, “The Cry of the Children” presents a passionate plea written in 1843 to reform child labor during the period of the First Industrial Revolution. Barrett Browning displays contrasting voices in...

In “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, Frederick Douglass addresses the hypocrisy of American Independence and calls attention to the fact that a large population of the people dwelling on American soil, African Americans, are excluded...

Whether making gritty dramas or black comedies or even a Biblical epic, legendary film director Martin Scorsese consistently proves over and over against he possesses an absolutely unerring instinct for knowing when his film requires a score, when...

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a product of late 16th- early 17th century England. The Renaissance period was one of change within the worlds of politics, art, culture, societal hierarchy and many other things. Many of the features of the play...

Agatha Christie leaves us, by the end of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in a state of bewilderment and unknowing – to the extent where right and wrong have become incomprehensible. It seems as though the world in which King’s Abbot is situated has...

In one of those examples of incomprehensibly insensible irony that can be excused for believing exists only within the otherworldly sphere of Hollywood, U.S.A, Academy Award voters in 1977 failed to nominate Bill Conti’s work on Rocky for Best...

In Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" and Rosalie Ham's "The Dressmaker", an unbalanced power distribution stemming from an unjust social hierarchy causes much jealousy displayed amongst the citizens of Salem and Dungatar, influencing their judgements...

In Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “the white troops had their orders but the Negroes looked like men”, Brooks writes from the perspective of white troops in preparation for a war who starts to question the rationality of maintaining a segregated mindset...

Anna C. Salter, an author, commented on the act of placing blame on victims of rape saying, “We mute the realization of malevolence-which is too threatening to bear- by turning offenders into victims themselves and by describing their behavior as...

Although not a clear-cut hero’s journey, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss features many - if not all - of the narrative archetypes. To begin, Alma Singer is the hero archetype. The young girl’s entire life is a quest, whether it be a quest to...