Newest Literature Essays

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s renowned novel Crime and Punishment, the radical theories of Raskolnikov (the protagonist) are a principal point of interest. One theory in particular, that of the so-called superman (a modern appellation, not Dostoyevsky’...

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” written in 1843 is a short story about the psychology of a murderer and his descent into madness. The story is about an unnamed man who proclaims a love for animals from a young age and he marries a woman who...

Homer’s The Iliad is an epic poem written in Ancient Greek times about the conquest of Troy by the Achaeans. It details the heroic tales of many famous Greek warriors and figures such as: Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Ajax. The poem...

Traditionally, the Scriptural collection of non-apocryphal wisdom literature has comprised the four books of Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Job, due to their obvious similarities in style, purpose, and execution. Some, however, have argued...

It is often argued that Owen's biggest typicality within his poetry is not a disdain for war and conflict, but a 'pity' for the soldiers that endure it. This strong sentiment of a united struggle that transcends class, status, and even beyond...

1950s America was a turbulent and changing time for its inhabitants; the combined forces of the post-Depression period, the looming fear of communism and the Soviet Union, the back end of the Second World War and with it a growing need for...

Ursula K. Le Guin’s cyclical chapter structure in The Dispossessed exemplifies the idea that particular events throughout Shevek’s life and upbringing on Anarres shaped his understanding of later experiences on Urras. Of these events, Shevek’s...

Voltaire’s Candideis a critical satire, focusing on the Age of Enlightnement and its central themes, including reason, philosophy, and theology. He specifically critiques optimistic philosophy, which argues that this world is the best of all...

The film Closely Watched Trains is characterized by its humor primarily at the expense of Milos, a young guard at a train station in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. The use of humor along with sexual experiences in the film provide insight into life...

The philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Camus confront the meaninglessness of existence in unique fashions. Nietzsche’s The Gay Science utilizes short paragraphs discussing particular existentialist themes such as the death of god and...

William Shakespeare's The Tempest, and its adaptation, Hag-seed, by modern novelist, Margaret Atwood collides two contexts together into the one tale. The key illusions created by Prospero and Felix with aid of Ariel and 8Handz prompts penitent...

Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose is a drama based on the true systems and ideals put in place within the American Justice system. The 12 characters are all symbolic of the different aspects of western society. The story shows some of the flaws...

The most appealing aspect of the Gothic genre is its ability to scare the reader, without actually having a physical or harmful affect on her. However, in order to inflict terror upon the reader, the author must create realistic settings,...

One’s life is shaped as a cause of on the effect from others. For instance, if a teenage boy’s mother and friend give off a negative effect, the boy, Conrad, will begin to feel depressed inside and begin to reject himself. This means that...

The liberal arts prides itself upon an education rooted in philosophy and literature, taking cues from the earliest subjects and forms of education within the Western Tradition. This tradition has been handed down through the course of over...

In the poem, ‘The Trees’, Larkin uses a cyclical ABBA rhyme scheme within each stanza to contrast the life cycle of trees with the life cycle of humans. In doing so, he is able to explore the fragility of life and the inevitability of death. His...

Rainsford and General Zaroff are the protagonist and antagonist of “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. The story follows the idea of the most dangerous hunting game, where Rainsford must survive three nights of getting hunted by General...

In The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle concerns himself with eudaimonia, the concept of a happy and fulfilling life. Eudaimonia is gained from meaningful happiness, which in turn in achieved through virtuous acts. Greek culture often favored the...

In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter, point of view is used to show Granny Weatherall’s path to death. The people around Granny, such as Cornelia and Doctor Harry, don’t truly understand what she’s going through. Although...

An individual’s behavior and motivations is a complex phenomenon prominently shaping the notion of human experiences incorporated in texts through the use of a character’s expression, paradoxes and inconsistencies reflecting an individual’s drive,...

A comparative study of prescribed texts generates insightful conversations between and within texts. How does the textual conversation between Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Daldry’s The Hours capture the dynamic nature of the individual experience?...

In Hindu culture, it is believed that one is reborn into multiple and varied lives. While reading The Bhagavad-Gita, however, it can become confusing to decipher whether one endurs a never-ending life cycle or if this cycle can be stopped, and...

In her novel A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan addresses the illusion of attaining a falsified variation of reality (a gilded outlook on life's "Point B"), in addition to the impossibility of relinquishing responsibility for a conflicted...

The concept of ‘answering back’ is a loose one which describes texts responding to other texts. It is connected to the idea of “the empire...writ[ing] back to a centre” (Ashcroft et al, p6) which is typically associated with a post-colonial text...