Newest Literature Essays

In Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, one of her character’s notes that “we believe the one who has the power... So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, ‘Whose story am I missing?’” (Gyasi 239). With this in mind, novels of historical...

The God of Small Things follows a series of unfortunate events that unravel the lives of the characters of the novel. One major theme echoed again and again through the novel is the theme of guilt and the effect it has on the decisions the...

It is helpful to know where and what Birchtown is, prior to getting into details about the race riot of 1784. Birchtown is a municipality in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, about 3 miles west of Shelburne. Look up Birchtown in any search engine,...

Shakespeare’s work, “The Tempest”, under the framework of the 21st century, may seem like a normal –even boring– play about a powerful man who takes advantage of a native person in order to conquer his island. No contemporary person would think it...

In George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, linguists Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering attempt to transform a lower-class girl, Eliza Doolittle, into the likes of a duchess. From this story of social transformation, Pygmalion comments on different...

The complication of the individuated self is one of the central themes discussed during the modernist period. Both William Carlos Williams’ Landscape with the Fall of Icarus and T.S Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock identify the problem...

Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy presents a highly detailed first-person account of the afterlife that is rich with imagery. The use of detailed imagery gives the reader a very descriptive and realistic view of the events, creating a strong...

Over the course of time, a person’s life is affected by the various people they have met and the experiences they have endured. As a result, the person -or those around them- may find themselves changed in some way or another, whether it be their...

James Joyce’s “The Dead” is a short story that reflects on the effects of death on the living individual. Toward the end of the story, Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta have just arrived home from a dinner gathering that Gabriel’s aunts had...

Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop is a novel in which each prominent character’s moral standing is clearly defined and changes little throughout the duration of the work. The immoral characters, such as Daniel Quilp and the Brasses, remain...

T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” (1922) and “Burnt Norton” (1935) both discuss the modernist view of post-war Britain, one regarding London and the other using imagery from the country house of Burnt Norton, taking inspiration largely from Eliot’s...

In The Eve of Destruction, James Patterson clearly expresses his opinion on the year 1965--that it was a pivotal, crucial year for America, as well as the turning point for the sixties. While I agree that it was important in the Civil Rights...

In the story “Italian Postcard” by Jane Urquhart, the main character Clara, whose name alone mirrors Santa Chiara, shares many other, deeper similarities with the historical woman. Chiara’s love for St. Francis is mirrored in Clara’s relationship...

Although the primary aesthetic focus in As For Me and My House by Sinclair Ross is on the barren landscape, Philip’s artwork plays an equally important part, even if it is not mentioned to the same degree. Philip Bentley’s artwork acts as a...

Many Americans are distantly aware of the Cultural Revolution that happened during the second half of the 1900s in China. It is one thing to be aware of this historical period but another to read about it from someone who experienced it first...

Conflicts of ownership have been around for centuries, including land disputes with Native Americans and still today with the disputes of oil in the Middle East. In the play The Piano Lesson, the main conflict is between the siblings Berniece and...

The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie, is a detective novel that is centered around the murder of a wealthy, estate owning woman. In this novel, as in all detective fiction novels, the innocence at the Styles manor is soiled by a...

“Disgraced” is a play written by Ayad Akhtar which focuses on the raw spots of race and culture present in modern American society. Specifically, it highlights the struggles of being a Muslim in the post-9/11 era. Akhtar accomplishes this by...

Struggles of Isolation in Vampires of the Lemon Grove

The short stories by Karen Russell in Vampires in the Lemon Grove share many intertwining aspects. While at first glance, the stories seem to have no relation apart from the quirky thriller...

Disillusionment is everywhere from our careers, to a significant other that turned out to be the very person we thought they were not, to the reality that human activity is pushing the earth towards destruction. Brenda Shaughnessy touches on this...

Flannery O’Connor explores ‘generations’ and the hierarchies between them through her short stories, “The Artificial N*gger,” “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” and “Why Do The Heathen Rage?”. To that purpose, she uses the narrator as a giver...

Within the nonfiction narrative The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba illustrates his childhood in rural Malawi and the hardships he and his village endured during this time of his life. Throughout the book, William and the rest of his...

Sarah’s Key takes the reader through a split narrative, that of Sarah, the young Jewish girl experiencing the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, and that of Julia Jarmond, the modern day journalist who becomes enveloped by the events of the Vel’ d’Hiv. This...

W.H. Auden was a visionary writer, portraying myriad themes ranging from the political, social, ethical, moral and individual perspectives of his time and prior to the Modernist period. His work often encapsulates the existential fears of a...