Newest Literature Essays

In both Seamus Heaney’s 2004 play The Burial at Thebes and Kamila Shamsie’s 2017 novel Home Fire, strict borders are heavily enforced by oppressive governmental institutions that seek to homogenize collective identity through restrictive forms of...

In Sheridan Le Fanu’s short story, “Carmilla”, innocent love and deceitful lust are intertwined throughout the tale, so much that it is difficult for the narrator, Laura, to distinguish between the two, even years after the events of the story....

Throughout The Book of the Duchess, we are urged to tackle the question of whether the Dreamer or the Man in Black is the more hopeless lover. While both the Man in Black and the Dreamer are hopeless lovers, the Man in Black is closer to...

The original German fairytale “Snow White” was published in 1857 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm that features the 7-year-old Snow White, and her evil stepmother who the king marries after the child’s biological mother dies from childbirth. This tale...

“Parkinson’s Disease” by Galway Kinnell was originally published in 1994 in his collection of poems titled Imperfect Thirst. This poem describes a man with Parkinson’s Disease who is being cared for presumably by his adult daughter—the whole poem...

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson published in 2014 is a split non-chronological narrative of twins, Noah and Jude, that follows their separate perspectives during adolescence. Although Noah and Jude are incredibly close at thirteen, they...

Banned and challenged books and their explicit content for adolescents have always been a controversial topic of debate among education and relating communities in which certain texts may be challenged or banned due to their content being “...

Confronting new phases and experiences assist in the development of growth, maturation and internal progression. This concept is undoubtedly evident within J C Burke’s novel ‘The Story of Tom Brennan’, the interview titled ‘2 of us’ by Dani Valent...

Noah Baumbach is often recognized as a great screenwriter. He writes dialogue that is simultaneously realistic but also dramatic. However good, dialogue only gets you so far. Thankfully, Baumbach can also handle the rest brilliantly in Marriage...

Adam Smith, an 18th century economist, coined the term “Invisible Hand” as a metaphor for the unseen forces that move the free market economy. In Mr. Smith’s opinion, it is beneficial for individuals to pursue their own interests, as he believes...

Since the start of the 21st century, the paradigm of fighting a war has been turned completed on its head by a technology capable of obliterating anything at the flip of a switch by an operator thousands of miles away and by someone who has never...

Beast-bridegroom stories have been around for centuries. They can be traced back to the story of Psyche and Cupid, written in the second century as a side story of The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius. In these stories, a young maiden falls in love...

Maria Irene Fornes was a renowned director, playwright, and a painter whose works have been a powerful influence in the development of Hispanic theater, among an ensemble of writers such as Luis Valdez. Furthermore, her creations have been an...

Adolescence alone, as a transitional period from child to adult, marks a challenging time in an individual’s life. Often times, factors outside the mind and body seem to exist solely to aggravate this tremulous, question-filled period. Poet X’s...

Jackie Kay once wrote in an article for ‘The Guardian’ newspaper that ‘being adopted is like having a double life. Being a writer is like having a double life. You live in two worlds at once…when you’re adopted and you trace your original parents,...

Though it spans back centuries, nonconvention is often regarded by people as a trait belonging solely to the present day. Famous playwright William Shakespeare’s works exemplify this truth. In particular, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice...

What a worthwhile life entails remains unknown, but not undebated. For instance, Leo Tolstoy’s 19th century novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich features Ivan Ilyich, a Russian man devoted to living his life in accordance with the wills of his...

Let who says

‘The soul's a clean white paper,’ rather say,

A palimpsest, a prophets holograph

Defiled, erased and covered by a monk's,—

The apocalypse, by a Longus! poring on

Which obscene text, we may discern perhaps

Some fair, fine trace of what...

In every system of cultural meaning-making, there occur certain words and names which are connotatively "loaded," which have an "emotional valence" in excess of their denotations. Such was the word "Salome" in late nineteenth-century western...

Peter Pan was originally written by James Barrie, in play form. Later on, he converted it into the children’s book that is popular today. There have been many adaptations of this book, including a movie of the same title made in 2003 by P.J....

Belonging is an essential part of life, without belonging we experience a lack of understanding which evolves into the establishment of separation and alienation from our communities. Our connections between people around us and our communities...