Newest Literature Essays

Ana Castillo’s So Far From God explores the ways in which Chicano women are forced to exercise resistance to the existing male and anglo dominated society. In the story, Sofi and her four daughters, Esperanza, Caridad, Fe, and La Loca, as well as...

There are two types of illusions: optical and perceptual. Optical illusions are objects that are distorted due to the anatomy of the eye. Perceptual illusions are objects that are distorted due to the nature of the brain. A child hears a monster...

In all societies exists some sense of spirituality. This may be religion or simply a sense of mindfulness and connection. While this aspect may be beneficial for communities, it may oppositely corrupt depending on in which ways it is enacted and...

Familial relationships are the principal driving force behind the plot of Shakespeare’s last play, The Tempest. For example, the sole reason Prospero, the protagonist, is on the island is because of his brother, Antonio, usurping him. Despite the...

Human rights activist Alice Walker is one of the most highly noted authors of the twentieth century. Her stories and poems are inspiring to many people. “Everyday Use” is, by far, one of the most motivational and controversial of her works. Many,...

The Dream of the Rood is a poem that deals in riddles and paradox, yet a sense of unity pervades the piece. It is iconic for its depiction of the actual crucifixion of Jesus, told by the crucifix itself through the poet’s use of prosopopoeia – the...

Marilynne Robinson's epistolary novel Gilead takes place during the Civil Rights Movement when racial issues are at their apex. After realizing that he is dying of a heart condition, the main character John Ames writes an account of his life for...

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible and Geraldine Brooks’ novel Year of Wonders are both works that explore the treatment of individuals under oppressive theocratic ruling. Both Miller’s and Brooks’ works are aligned with key themes of superstition,...

“Freedom equals the parts of our natures not determined by our genes.” (Ridley, 302)

Free will is not an illusion. It can be defined in many ways; perhaps the most cohesive of its many definitions would be “an individual's ability to choose or...

Community is as life sustaining as food and water. It provides human connection, a sense of identity, and support. However, human nature leads individuals to seek experiences separate from their communities. In Alice Walker’s story “Strong Horse...

In A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid forces the reader to take on the role of a tourist as she brings them through the town of Antigua, criticising the moral ugliness of tourism and the negative consequences of European Imperialism as she does so....

In today's society, almost anything is possible to achieve, a fact that makes it so that nothing is ever as it appears. Things change constantly, whether we agree with such changes or not. This idea is especially notable in the people of the...

Equivalent exchange, an absolute law in nature, dictates that one must give up something so that one may gain something that is equal in value. By this logic, sacrifice is, at its very core, a necessity in life; however, it is also a gray area...

John Bunyan’s work The Pilgrim’s Progress, is one of the most renowned Christian books to read, but it is not in fact within Christian rules, according to the Bible, thus unveiling a logical fallacy. With careful analysis of The Pilgrim’s Progress...

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. However, that can only go so far before it is criticized as lacking originality; some might even claim it only creates a worse version of something that may have been praised as being the best....

What attributes qualify someone, or something, as a monster? Despite the fact that the answer to this subjective query fluctuates immensely among individual persons, for centuries we have attempted to construct a universal definition of the word ‘...

A poet who energetically contemplated the world around him, Dawe wasn't just a devoted Australian wordsmith with a dream that his work would one day be analysed. He was a book full of ideas, complex ideas, often about the essence of life and...

Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North was first published in 1969, and has come to be regarded as outstanding in its genre. Originally written in Arabic, the book features notable parallels to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which it...

Thanks largely, if not entirely, to Shakespeare, audiences today can immediately recognize the promise of a romance in any title featuring the names of two characters. “Before Romeo and Juliet, there was Tristan and Isolde,” croons the leading...

David Mamet’s short, two-character play Oleanna deals with the shifting linguistic power dynamics between professor John and student Carol over the series of three separate meetings. Both characters continually trail off, interrupt one another,...

In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard (under the pseudonym Johannes de Silencio-- despite being quite the opposite of the meaning his Latin name gives), shares his rather lengthy take on the story of Abraham. Kierkegaard ultimately decides that...

Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger is a representation of the India that is not often displayed among the media. It is an India that, in its core, incorporates all aspects of political, social and economic injustice. Balram Halwai, the protagonist,...

In “Part One” of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s famous 19th century novel Crime and Punishment, the beleaguered former-student Raskolnikov feverishly contemplates committing a “vile” crime, which is eventually revealed as the murder of local pawnbroker...

Identity is not something that can simply be explained in a few words. There is a variety of factors that can make up someone’s identity - family, friends, culture, environment, hobbies, interests, and gender are just a few. Many people use these...