Newest Literature Essays

A carefully chosen title of a literary work can go a long way in selling that work to the common reader. Ambrose Bierce's well-thought-out title reveals little, yet just enough to gain our attention and to have us dwelling on the meaning of the...

Mass incarceration has not only emerged as a racialized form of social control fueled by politician’s strategies to gain political status, but has perpetuated a national epidemic characterized by unequal civil liberties and an endless cycle of...

During the 20th century, the work of nineteenth-century female American writers was often described as “sentimental,” “domestic,” “feminine” and “frivolous,” and considered lacking depth and seriousness. However, more recent critics such as Judith...

Tan begins by sharing a story of how she didn’t want to accept herself and her Chinese culture all because a nice-looking guy and his family came over for Christmas Eve dinner. In this story, she explains her thoughts and feelings before, during,...

People take freedom for granted, on many levels, but have they ever questioned whether freedom is bliss, or a curse? The Lamp at Noon illustrates the protagonist, Ellen’s internal conflicts about fleeing the dust-ridden, barren, prairie farm...

According to 18th-century feminist writer Mary Montagu, “Men, biased by custom, prejudice, and interest, have presumed boldly to pronounce sentence in their own favor, because possession empowered them to make violence take place of justice.” Over...

The House on Mango Street written by Sandra Cisneros is a novel which raises many issues worth mentioning. This essay, however, discusses the importance of adapting to the new surroundings, especially to the use of language. Throughout the book...

From the earliest days of Colonial America, to the end of the Civil War, slavery was an established practice. This brutal, amoral, and dehumanizing system prompted nineteenth-century American writers, black and white alike, to advocate for its end...

Feminine deviance, or the failure to adhere to societal standards set for women of the time, is a concept displayed by characters across many genres and eras, from William Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth to Ernest Hemingway’s Lady Brett Ashley, but...

In her short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor narrates the journey of a complex family and the encounters they face while traveling. While there are many aspects of the story that make it notorious in literature, one concept...

In Old English Literature, the Anglo-Saxon society portrayed is built upon military achievement in battle and one’s respect for their Lord. Despite this focus, heroic action also occurs in other forms and in contexts outside the battlefield. ‘The...

The Greek minstrel Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, is one of the most popular works of literature in history, and for good reason. In it, and its companion poem, The Odyssey, the happenings of the legendary Trojan War as well as certain events...

Since colonists arrived in Canada, there has been discourse between Indigenous people and the rest of Canada. Colonizers forced their way onto Indigenous land, took ownership of it, and tried to take ownership of the people too. Their attempts at...

Feminism often takes many forms depending mainly upon intersectionality. Being a straight white woman and being a gay black woman means two entirely different things. Thus is the case with Chicana women. They have had experiences unique to them,...

David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago (1974) is a postmodern drama that portrays the stereotypical and traditional images about women during that era. This piece of work really concentrates on the power relations based on gender, and the void...

High Fidelity is a well-written and varicoloured novel by Nick Hornby based on the experiences of Rob Fleming, who shows the positive and negative sides of his life to the reader, not to mention his relationships and ways of thinking. The reader...

The original text of Pinocchio, written by Carlo Collodi, is a propaganda filled, politically polarizing, piece of prose. Walt Disney’s 1940 film adaptation, is an Americanized story of a silly little puppet who exhibits questionable moral...

Amy and Nick Dunne in the film Gone Girl (2014) are first seen as a perfect match, where their easygoing, yet still romantic, love seems too good to be true. The plot escalates quickly to a suspenseful sequence of events where Amy flees her home...

Elizabeth Bishop ends her famous poem “One Art” with the lines, “It’s evident the art of losing isn't too hard to master / though it may look like… disaster.” Although “One Art” lists many literal and symbolic forms of loss, the one that becomes...

When analyzing Greek mythology, it is evident the stories exist to legitimize, explain, or provoke interest in the societal structures in place. However, just as Vergil reworked Homer’s The Odyssey, as The Aeneid, to become a political propaganda...

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s, The Lord of the Rings, the natural environment plays an important role as a tool for characterization and personification of the natural world. Readers who have studied Tolkien and know of his respect for nature might assume...

In his “rags to riches” story, Ragged Dick or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks, by Horatio Alger, Jr., we are introduced to the character of Richard Hunter (known on the streets as Ragged Dick), a bootblack working in the rough...

Dante’s Inferno and Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat define their essential beliefs and attitudes regarding sin and the meaning of life. Their contrasting opinions of sin outline the extent to which their values differ and the way they live their lives....

Robert Frost wrote almost solely about nature, exposing his belief in pathetic fallacies, the belief that nature should match internal feelings. Additionally, his style is vertical, meaning he looks up to a higher power or meaning. Both...