Newest Literature Essays

Set in entirely different parts of the world, the two novels The River and the Source and The Pearl both explore the theme of greed in conceptual terms. John Steinbeck and Margaret Ogola not only bring into perspective the implications of...

Like all of Hitchcock’s films, Strangers on a Train is a masterpiece of suspense. The striking visuals, unexpected stabs of dark humor, and masterful editing make it the nail-biting, hair-pulling sort of film they just don’t make anymore....

The San Gabriel foothills rise like tombstones over the city of Duarte, California, their black silhouettes limned against the setting desert sun. In the valley, it’s warm all year, home to avocado, orange, and walnut groves, grown by an older...

In most patriarchal societies that are primarily governed by traditions such as the social order in which Witi Ihimaera’s The Whale Rider is set, most cultural practices and traditions are often used as a tool for suppressing women. The women in...

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.

-John Stuart Mill

The extreme willingness to sacrifice...

Men and nature had shared a very close relationship since the beginning of civilization. Ancient Sanskrit scriptures, Vedas and Upanishads, are a testimony to this closeness with innumerable descriptions of shlokas and mantras specifically...

Stevenson makes effective use of setting in the novel, not only to establish mood but also to develop the novel’s characters and thematic concerns through the use of symbolism. The novel is set in London, and Stevenson creates a menacing...

Petrarch had his Augustinian conversion experience on Mont Ventoux on April 26, 1336 and described it in enormous detail in a letter written to Dionigi da Bo San Sepolcro, an Augustinian monk and Petrarch's confessor. The letter tells of a...

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty follows a romantically shy, socially awkward man who sets off on a quest to find a missing negative for the final cover of LIFE magazine, finding his confidence and self-actualizing through the grand adventure. The...

But why must choice always lie along a linear spectrum, with two poles, instead of, say, among a sphere of possibilities? (Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp: Statues, 7)

As human beings, we spent our whole lives seeking, looking for the ultimate truth...

‘The Tale of Genji’ opens with the conflict generated by the Emperor’s preference for an unnamed consort. From its onset, it appears as if the tale treats its female characters as literary commodities - vessels of conflict, infatuations, and...

Gwendolyn Brooks’ poetry records the lives and moments of the urban, black folk of Chicago city. Brooks notes how, “if you wanted a poem, you only had to take a look out of your window” (Brooks, Report from Part One). She fervently believed in the...

Rachel Lears’ documentary film Knock Down the House creates an authentic portrait of four political candidates by offering intimate glimpses into their most vulnerable moments. The film follows the 2018 congressional campaigns of Alexandria...

The level of intimacy with which the documentary film The White Helmets illustrates the lives of its heroic subjects and their extraordinary work aims to eliminate the barrier that separates distant audiences worldwide. Directed by Orlando Von...

Reality and truths are vague and unclear in nature; hence, their faithful representation inherently requires ambiguity. T.S. Eliot utilises his ‘pioneer’ form in his poems Journey of The Magi, The Hollow Men, and Preludes, in the representation of...

The building blocks of global history is undeniably the history of immigration. From the movements of early humans outside of Africa to the Middle East to the migration of citizens from Europe to the United States in modern history, immigration...

The Pearl by John Steinbeck presents accounts that, when engaged in the milieu, may necessarily mean a complete contrapositive of the depicted situation. In The Pearl, Steinbeck uses the concept of irony to dissimulate benightedness and...

In Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Christopher Boone poses as an innocent eye. An innocent eye perspective means that the story is told through the eyes of a child or someone who is unable to comprehend the world...

Satellites, a 2008 play by Diana Son, examines the lives and relationships of Miles and Nina, a couple who struggle to connect with each other, with their friends, and with their new baby girl Hannah. This tension is developed in a myriad of ways,...

Everybody loves a good teen film, and the genre has a lot of competition. You’ve got John Hughes’ classics like "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off". Nineties teen rom-coms like "Ten Things I Hate About You" and "She’s All That"....

The concept of loss is often viewed as a delicate yet intense matter where one is hit with an unexpected series of events that ultimately sparks emotion and panic. Jesmyn Ward delves into the concept of loss through her memoir, Men We Reaped,...

While Hector and Odysseus in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey are seen as clear heroes, the Argonautica differs in its approach to Jason, as his relatively average abilities are matched by his typically anti-heroic habit of letting others do the...

In the graphic novel “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood”, written by Marjane Satrapi, Satrapi tells her story of her transition from childhood, through adolescence into adulthood. Through Satrapi’s personal story, she is able to educate the...

In Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, (1941) the cinematography utilizes deep focus shots to demonstrate the importance and power dynamic between the characters in the frame, while the heavily varied angles highlight one character at a time. The contrast...