Newest Literature Essays

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...

Racism is the main plot theme in the novel ‘Noughts and Crosses’ by Malorie Blackman, through her story of lovers of opposite skin colours in a universe where racism and racial superiority is displayed to the reader through the setting of an...

In the late 1920s, before Nazi occupation, Germany was “crippled” (History.Com Editors) by debt, mainly caused by World War 1 and the Treaty of Versaille; however, the Wall Street Stock Market Crash in 1929 only helped to weaken the already...

The year is 2029. The world has seen no new mutants in 25 years; the few mutants who remain live in hiding, fearful of being found out by a world who doesn’t see outsiders in a positive light. Among those in hiding are 90-year-old Charles Xavier...

Are eyes windows to the soul? In Silas Marner, George Eliot describes the changes in Silas’ eyes in order to metaphorize the changes in Silas’ soul. In the beginning of the novel, Silas’ eyes are nearsighted, symbolizing his narrow view of life....

Poets have long argued over what constitutes real and decent poetry, but how well do these poets exemplify their arguments in their own work? In William Wordsworth’s 1802 “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” the English Romantic poet outlines two major...

The English novel is a mode that is highly sympathetic to the inequalities of sex. At its inception, it was considered a very feminine form, unworthy of serious academic consideration. The novel had to struggle to establish itself as a legitimate...