Newest Literature Essays

One Thousand and One Nights: A Retelling (hereafter 1001 Nights) is Hanan al-Shaykh’s reinterpretation of the popular oral tales that continue to enchant and inspire audiences today. Through her re-imagining of Shahrazad’s story and the...

Throughout history, women were perceived as inferior to men socially, economically, and intellectually. In modern society, the majority of people would call out this statement for its blatant misogyny and inequality. However, such a claim would...

The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, both explore the ambiguous nature of human morality through the lens of mystery. Both texts are set in an urban environment, the...

‘A Christmas Carol’ is a novella written by Charles Dickens in 1843, the novella follows the journey of a stingy protagonist -Scrooge- and his many epiphanies that lead him to eventually understand the paramount role of family, joy and social...

Devoted to the concept of text, or écriture, French theorist Roland Barthes departs from academic criticism’s emphasis on the author (Leitch 1317) in his essay “The Death of the Author” and reorients his focus on the construction and content of...

In Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, there is a shift in Part Two of the novel as Antoinette’s narrative voice is traded for that of her unnamed husband, presumably Mr. Rochester of Jane Eyre. As he chronicles the events of their honeymoon leading up...

The introduction of Strawson’s seemingly novel categories—namely the “optimists” and “pessimists”—is indicative of the way in which he presents his argument. Rather than argue on the battleground prior, Strawson disregards the “...

Saint Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages whose ethics concerning the idea of a virtuous person were comparable in many respects to Chinese neo-Confucian ethics about the superior man. In regards...

In Gayatri Spivak article, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” she argues that there is danger in academics attempts to write about a people without actually letting the people speak for themselves. She says that this doesn’t give a voice or power to the...

The idea of pleasing the majority of a population has long been engrained into our decision-making processes. In the United States of America (US), the government itself is built on a platform that gives the power to the majority. The essay “On...

My Ántonia by Willa Cather is a nostalgic look into the past that forces readers to feel as if they were a part of the story. Cather uses Jim Burdens voice to narrate how life during this time was viewed by someone who was a young innocent boy....

As James Baldwin asserts, “People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them”, highlighting the recurring notion through history in that humanity is incapable to detach or learn from their past in order to create a newer future....

Animal Farm, a book by George Orwell, begins with a leader, an old, wise boar that delivers a speech after their tyrant owner, Mr. Jones, goes to sleep. He speaks about how the animals are oppressed at the farm, and allows them to see how badly...

For years, the criteria for true knowledge has been a topic of debate among many philosophers. After all, the rise of skepticism created a sweeping wave of doubt that caused many to question previously held beliefs and even the validity of...

Franny Burney’s Evelina concerns itself with many issues, and it seems most scholars look to focus on its elements of feminism and societal criticism. However, the issues surrounding familial relationships and bloodlines are apparent throughout...

Martin Luther King once said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope,” He is known for being a beacon of hope when times seemed hopeless. Survivors Club explores themes of keeping hope alive when it seemed like it was...

The theme of death and afterlife is a common trope in many works and different poets interpret it in multiple ways. The poem "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" by Mary Elizabeth Frye talks about the theme of life after death, but in a very...

In Lydia Davis’s short story “On The Train,” the narrator is depicted as a judgemental individual capable of doing no wrong, who is surrounded by mannerless people while riding the train. In “A Story of Stolen Salamis,” an Italian landlord’s...

In science fiction, composers challenge traditional perspectives on humanity in order to investigate the way in human form influences power dynamics within texts, which is conveyed through the use of a variety of forms and features in response to...

One of the most celebrated novels in the entire American literary canon, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is often noted particularly for the way in which it handles slavery and race-relations, both in its successes and its...

As American radical feminist, scholar, lawyer and activist Catharine MacKinnon once said, “Women and men are divided by gender, made into the sexes as we know them, by the social requirements of heterosexuality, which institutionalizes male sexual...

During the Elizabethan era, religion and social status were important characteristics of English culture. England’s rich culture and beliefs during the Elizabethan era were often displayed in many of William Shakespeare’s plays. From folklores to...

In Milton’s Paradise Lost, the species of man has been given free will, and is best illustrated through Satan and Eve due to their choices. Milton define free will as a way to become closer to God, for choosing God makes a person superior, as...

D. H. Lawrence’s “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter,” is the story of Mabel Pervin, the daughter of a late horse dealer who has cared for her three brothers since the death of their mother. After the death of their father, the siblings are left in...