Newest Literature Essays

Daphne du Maurier’s gothic romance novel Rebecca touches on a young woman, who remains unnamed throughout the novel, and her self-inflicted life of misery. Being recently married into a high social class, the protagonist, Mrs. De Winter, faces...

A memoir is typically a written account of a personal experience. It varies from an autobiography in that it usually focuses on a single, monumental period in the author’s life. When Mitch Albom penned his touching and insightful memoir, Tuesdays...

Nathaniel Hawthorne is notorious for portraying characters whose past largely affects who they are and how they act in the future, and The Blithedale Romance is no exception. The interesting thing about The Blithedale Romance is that much of the...

Across generations, language barriers, and cultures, there is one question that has stood the test of time: does the intent of our actions really matter if our actions have the impact of furthering the marginalization or oppression of those around...

Arguments are the pinnacle of progress, development and change. People with conflicting ideas and beliefs engage in this activity constantly. However, did you know that arguments actually come down to a science? In 4th century B.C.E, Aristotle...

Since its publication in 1978, Ai’s thirty-two-line dramatic monologue poem “The Kid” has shocked and intrigued readers with its brutal subject matter of a murdered family. Within the poem, the speaker, who identifies himself as a...

Since its 1987 publication in Chicana Creativity and Criticism: Charting New Frontiers in American Literature, Helena María Viramontes’s short story “Miss Clairol” has provided outsiders a look into the Chicana culture, and has also sparked a...

Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian author and illustrator who grew up in Tehran in a middle-class family. Both of her parents were political activists and supported a Marxist ideology in contrary to the beliefs of the monarchy of the last Shah....

The epic poem of Gilgamesh is recognized as one of the earliest works in literature, originating back to the existence of ancient Mesopotamia. Since then, numerous versions of the story have been published, including one by David Ferry, called...

“Fact or fiction? Which is the best way to handle an event as momentous as 9/11?” – Michael Billington.

In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, media and non-fictional responses were rife; the image of the burning Twin Towers is one which has...

Although Shakespeare’s Sonnet 94 differs in many ways from the other sonnets written at the same time, it has become a popularly studied and explicated sonnet, drawing attention from academics for several reasons, including the strange shift in...

Leadership is a prominent theme in both The Ramayana and Sundiata An Epic of Old Mali. A leader holds numerous qualities, whether they are skills that were developed or traits, that distinguish him or her from others. As and even before they...

“Hunters in the snow” is the story about three friends named Tub, Kenny and Frank. They are friends and they decide to go hunting outside Spokane, Washington. The fail to get any game and Kenny shoots a dog that belongs to an old farmer. Kenney is...

Tom Stoppard is famous for the wit and intellectual appeal of his creations, and Arcadia perfectly fulfills these characteristics. Stoppard has the capacity to exquisitely present the most simple, yet important things in life. The play is uniquely...

In almost every fantasy book or film, the major protagonist is represented as a hero who must struggle to overcome life-threatening obstacles and potential defeat. Peter Beagles novel The Last Unicorn published in 1968, and J. K. Rowling’s novel...

Throughout Harriet Jacobs’ powerful and informative autobiography, Christianity is repeatedly mentioned as a direct and indirect influence on the episodes of her life as an enslaved woman. Jacobs depicts religion amongst the enslaved as an...

The villainous character of Richard III creates an intimate relationship with his audience by giving them a voyeuristic window into his most private moments. This sense of voyeurism is important to recognize when analyzing Richard’s character due...

Defining what it means to be an American is a complicated, daunting, and nearly impossible task, for the nation’s broad geographical landscape makes it difficult to find a common ground for every citizen. While one man may imagine America to mean...

Being a part of an independent worker’s union can risk one’s job; leading a union can often lead lead to worse. It can lead to losing that job, being threatened, or even murdered due to the rebellious views. Unions tend to arise when workers...

In Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, Susannah Cahalan struggles to reconstruct the events during her month of madness in which Susannah’s twenty-four years of normality is suddenly lost in a matter of weeks. As her consciousness and physical...

Literary movements of the early nineteenth century were undeniably, at least to some extent, defined by a backdrop of wartime context. It was a time period not only caught up in the midst of the Napoleonic War, but also still suffering from the...

Existential quandaries remain ingrained within the human condition, where superficial evasions by intellectualizing such concerns are eventually addressed by universal values of humility and compassion within contextual constructs. When confronted...

Hannah, a character from Arcadia, asserts, “It’s all trivial...it’s wanting to know that makes us matter”, a statement which suggests that the need for knowledge is an essential part of human nature. Stoppard and Ackroyd explore this concept...

In the novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, the main protagonist, Oscar de Leon, is introduced to the reader as a despicable and a rather distasteful individual. He is characterized as an overweight nerd who is often...