Newest Literature Essays

In a literary text, imagery enables the author to appeal to human senses through the use of vivid and descriptive language. Kurt Vonnegut incorporates this rhetorical device throughout the text of his novel Slaughterhouse Five, through the use of...

Many people, especially Southerners, willingly deceive themselves when referring to race relations or the way we remember the past by voicing their opinions in the form of “It was not that bad during segregation” or “The Civil War was fought over...

Aristotle dedicates the first book of Politics to discuss households, and argues that to study the larger political community of a city-state, we need to first examine households as its building blocks (Politics, 5). The three major household...

Literature can be viewed as a manifestation of the context it is composed in, whilst retaining universal elements such as the human experience. Whilst human emotions such as jealousy remain universal despite context, attitudes and values must be...

Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road unveils the emptiness of suburban life by incorporating a play into the opening paragraphs and then continuing a metaphor of theater throughout the rest of the novel. The novel opens with theatrical failure that...

In his critically acclaimed collection North, contemporary Irish poet Seamus Heaney reveals a very personal side of himself and of his identity as a writer. Although each individual poem explores its own storyline and employs its own metaphors,...

Deeply entrenched misogynistic attitudes pervaded the nineteenth century. Almost all men expected women to fill the role of mother, sister, or wife. They could not imagine and often actively worked against a society in which females could exist...

Flannery O’Connor’s short story “The River” tells the unfortunate story of a young boy named Harry who finds himself searching for meaning in his life. Due to the neglectfulness of his parents, he is left to figure out his own morals and beliefs...

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, students who graduate from college are more likely to find success in life than those who dropout of high school. Sandra Cisneros communicates the importance of education in a coming of age novel, House...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by James J. Wilhelm and Yvain the Knight of Lion by Chrétien de Troyes are both Arthurian stories that focus in on the chivalrous tales and adventures of two very brave knights, Gawain and Yvain. Although...

Nature often horrifies and frightens us. Whether it is a snake that has the potential to kill with one bite or a raging flood that can destroy an entire town in a matter of minutes, the natural world often causes us to cower in sight of its...

In his book Babbitt (1922), Sinclair Lewis presents George F. Babbitt, a tormented man anchored in the Roaring Twenties. Firstly described as an active citizen who is pleased with his job, his Club and all the thriving technological developments...

One of the defining characteristics of the God of the Bible is that he is often surprising in that he continues to seek out his sinful people despite their many flaws, and can use any situation or person to demonstrate his glory. One would think...

There’s no question that the anthology Fiction 100 does exactly what it sets out to do: highlight carefully curated short stories that represent each aspect of the craft, from short prose to anecdotes. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work, “Winter Dreams,”...

Daljit Nagra’s poem Look We Have Coming to Dover! explores the difficulties faced by immigrants coming into Britain and considers the development of cultures as they mix and sometimes clash in a new country. Nagra, who was born in London but was...

The evolving workplace of 1920s America presented industries and businesses with an innovative new standard of operation: work smarter, not harder. These innovations included the popularization of the assembly line, the right for women to vote...

In The Descent of Man, Darwin starts off comparing the bodily structures of humans and animals and discovering that there are many similarities in structures like bones, muscles, and even the brain. To prove this point, he breaks down the human...

The central conflict in There Will Be Blood (2007) is found in the relationship between the two main characters, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). Daniel’s plain-speaking oilman customs and Eli’s archaic spiritual...

The Complete Persepolis, an autobiographical novel by Marjane Satrapi, tells the tale of Marjane’s childhood in Iran. In this story, Marjane (Marji) is brought up by communistic parents. Evidence of this Marxist upbringing is displayed several...

Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain,” tells the story of a disrespectful literary critic who gets shot in the head by a recounts one last memory before his gruesome death. Wolff’s story probes readers to not only challenge but contemplate their...

Although the claim has been made that the writing of Genesis was influenced by the Babylonian Creation Epic, Enuma Elish, the character and function of Deity in Genesis 1-2 differs greatly than that of Enuma Elish. At first glance, it appears that...

Anguish, hope, and forgiveness may not be the first connections a person makes to the idea of birds. In her novel, Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson is able to transform ordinary birds into powerful symbols. Heavy/controversial topics are discussed in...

There is no shortage of violence and death in the stories and myths adapted to the stage by the Ancient Greek tragedians. However, these actions are almost never depicted explicitly onstage: murders play out offstage while the audience is only...

Someone who is individuated displays signs of maturity and responsibility, in addition to also having a good understanding about the different aspects of themselves and the inner workings of the universe which bestows a holistic healing effect on...