Newest Literature Essays

In literature, a foil character is utilized by authors to, through contrast of the characters, highlight the characteristics of the protagonist. In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid’s Tale, Moira is the college friend of Offred and represents Offred’...

In both The Merchant’s Tale and A Doll’s House, sexual relationships are symbolic of power imbalances, the exploitation of others, and the strenuous relationship between men and women in societies continually determined by gender relations. Sexual...

The accusation that the character “Doc” Franklin Hata lives “a gesture life” gives title to Chang-rae Lee’s novel about the Asian-immigrant experience of displacement and identity when assimilating into American society. A Gesture Life explores...

Animal rights have recently become a topic of interest in contemporary society, primarily due to the endangerment of many species, and the use of animals for types of lab testing. Human understanding of animals in the western world is shaped by...

Boyish haircuts and flat chests were trademarks of the 1920s flapper; as this style spread throughout America’s cities, it marked a dynamic change in women from their traditional appearance and lifestyle of the late 19th century and into the era...

Throughout the ages, many scholars have tried to explore the idea of human dignity and self-respect. Some associate one’s self-worthiness with wealth and social status, claiming that the higher the salary, the higher the self-worth. Some believe...

Rushdie’s text immures the reader in its vortex of referential layers. Like him, his meanings exist “at an angle to reality”, and often, in their profusion, produce beguiling multiplicities of deliberately and carefully crafted connections....

Charlotte Brontë and Edgar Allen Poe use elements of the gothic in Jane Eyre, and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” respectively, to provoke individual feelings of suspense and fear. As is common to the gothic tradition, both writers use choppy,...

Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is an interesting and attention grabbing work of the 17th century based on the issues it depicts, especially the presence of colonization. During this time empiricism permeated literature. This novel shows the...

The aim of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway is to make the reader realize what the most important things in life are by bringing up issues like politics, war, what life exactly is, philosophizing about love and the place where women should be within...

Emilia’s monologue in Othello is the closest to a feminist manifesto that Shakespeare has written, as well as revered as one of the most powerful speeches in the play. As the wife of the villain, Iago, her hidden bitterness boils over when she...

In both McEwan’s Atonement and many of Carol Ann Duffy’s love poems, the use of postmodernist devices such as self-reflexivity and intertextuality aid in the exploration of their ideas and the pertinence of questions their work raises. James Wood...

The world has constructed itself around a mainly patriarchal view. This view of a patriarchy is altered from country to country to country, but it has its roots in the same idea: men over women. This idea forced people to compartmentalize gender...

Out of the Past (1947), directed by Jacques Tourneur, contributes to the classical detective film genre that flourished throughout the 40s and 50s. Kathie Moffat encompasses the elements of the genre’s femme fatale, who falls in love with a man...

The path of any human life is shaped from events encountered and the exploration of certain passions. Inevitably, the mission of an individual has the potential to be impacted from both positive and negative experiences. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a...

In his famous work, A Theory of Justice, John Rawls argues that, as a consequence of his three principles of justice, people are not entitled to reap the benefits of their natural talents in such a way as does not benefit society at large,...

In the preface to the second edition of his book Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth, famed romantic poet, wrote down his definition of romanticism and classifications of romantic poetry. To be considered romantic, in Wordsworth’s eyes, a poem had...

The film ‘Entre Les Murs’(English Translation: “the class”) is a poignant visualization of social justice issues evident in education. Based on the novel by François Bégaudeau, the film tells the story of a young, white, male, French teacher...

Throughout time, countless people have sought to understand what the good life is and how to achieve it. One such person is Saint Augustine, who details in Confessions his path to achieving the good life through God. Throughout the book, Augustine...

Through the manipulation of textual forms and conventions, composers portray unique cultural experiences in their texts. In the short story ‘The Drover’s Wife’ by Henry Lawson, composed in 1892, the writer illustrates the unique, harsh environment...

In Alan Moore’s Watchmen, character Nite Owl is surrounded by the intense personas of his fellow costumed vigilantes. He does not handle situations in either Rorschach’s or Manhattan’s opposing fashions, but has a simple ideology in his viewing of...

Charles Baudelaire’s ‘Parisian Scenes’ is as much an exploration into the role of the poet as an illustration of a man’s wanderings through the streets of Paris. The poems ‘Landscape’ and ‘The Swan’ show a definitive evolution in Baudelaire’s...

M. Lermontov’s novel A Hero of Our Time utilizes the voice of the main character Pechorin, along with the voice of an unnamed traveler to provide an inner glimpse into the workings of Pechorin’s complex mind, along with the often philosophical,...

Mikhail Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time not only represented the movement in which it appeared, known by some as Russian Romanticism, it also developed parallel to what was occurring historically in Russia during the first half of the 19th century....