Newest Literature Essays

Marsha Norman’s ‘Night Mother is rife with haunting images and conversations, but no item specified in the play is more revealing than the gun which Jessie chooses to use to end her life. Jessie’s careful decision to use her father’s gun gives...

In Patrick Pearse’s search for recruits to the Volunteer Army, a year before the Easter Rising of 1916, he stated, “Whatever soul-searchings there may be among Irish political parties now or hereafter, we go on in the calm certitude of having done...

As part of human nature, the desire to want more has lead many to a path of self-destruction. By way of illustration, the main character in “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather, Paul, has an obsession with a more luxurious lifestyle fueling his negative...

A key tenet of existentialism is that as humans, we are all surrounded by absurdity. The very world we live in is absurd, and our actions are the only thing that we have complete control over. In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov...

The social contract is the view that a person's morals or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form a society in which they live. The best three known philosophers of social contract theory: Thomas Hobbes,...

Sounds and noises play an important role in any book. All kinds of noises and sounds used by the author are significant in adding “flavor” to the story. Without such noises, readers would perceive the book as “flat” and it may become hard to...

Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening explores the relationship between the reality of a critical situation and the fantastical version of this reality that becomes quite easy to get caught up in, and how this relationship can put...

As a satire of greed and corruption in early postcolonial Nigeria, Wole Soyinka’s play The Trials of Brother Jero revolve around three characters’ markedly different approaches to asserting power for themselves and over others.

Brother Jero’s...

Using inspiration from one’s own personal life experiences is no foreign technique to writers of the past as well as the modern day. Most writers do what that they do because of the trials and tribulations that they have faced in their lives, and...

In Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (1936), Mitchell engages with the concept of white femininity in a number of ways. This essay will consider how, through her characterization of female characters who adhere to, and/or subvert ideas of...

According to The Journal of Literary Technique, the narrative voice in Middlemarch uses “an authoritative system of interpretation adequate to explain the particular experience of each individual character”(Clark-Beattie 199). In chapter 37, Eliot...

It is well-known that throughout history, people oppressed each other because of differences amongst themselves. The most recent situation where this one sees this is in the 1950s and 1960s, where black people treated unequally simply because...

It’s been said that people come into our lives for a reason. They bring change in ways we least expect. “Bartleby, the Scrivener”, by Herman Melville, is the story of a lawyer who hires a new scribe for the office. At first, everything seems to go...

Call Me by Your Name, by André Aciman, is a novel narrated in the form of stream of consciousness by Elio, a seventeen year old. Elio is smart for his age, and he has a vast knowledge of language. Through language, he is able to create atmospheres...

The nature of humankind has been highly explored in literature and film throughout the ages. Whether it be through deception of reality or through over-analyzation of every possible outcome, human thought has been approached in various forms....

Time is the centre-point of Pearce’s novel, particularly the confusion around the reality and reliability of time. This essay will set out to answer Tom’s question; ‘What is Time- I mean, how does Time work?’[1] by researching scientific and...

In Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown and Black Elk Speaks by John Neihardt, both the history of the American Indians, as well as the loss of their land and culture to westward expansion, are examined. In Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,...

William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” is a story of a boy coming to terms with the conflicting expectations of a just society and his place in his family. While that may not seem like too hard a balance to keep, his father does not like society the...

In the film ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’ (2002) (RPF), the director Phillip Noyce has skillfully portrayed strong and independent Aboriginal characters who challenge the authorities in Australian in the 1930s, for the Aboriginal people's human rights. The...

“The American Dream should require hard work, but it should not require 80-hour workweeks and parents who never see their kids from across the dinner table. The American Dream should entail a first-rate education for every child, but not an...

One of the lesser known, but still important, quotes from the Star Wars Enterprise is attributed to the Supreme Chancellor, speaking to Anakin Skywalker. He says, “Good is a point of view, Anakin” (Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith). In...

In Christina Rossetti’s poem “The Prince’s Progress” and William Morris’ poem “Rapunzel,” the princes make choices which directly affect the fate of the princesses that they are pursuing. The princesses are depicted as unable to carry on their...

Hypermasculinity is prevalent in Joe Trace and Paul D. Both of these characters assert unhealthy dominance in their lives, and especially in their relationships with women. They each have past trauma that will lead to their diminished sense of...

Throughout both John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost and Sinclair Ross’ novel As For Me and My House, characteristics and implications of sex are comparable. To elaborate, only sex within wedlock is regarded as righteous as both works support...