Newest Literature Essays

In American literature and culture throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the signs of wealth and poverty are often indicated by an individual’s appearance. The belief that one’s exterior reflects their class is demonstrative of the...

The women of the Victorian era were considered to be property of their spouse; their wealth and societal standings being determined by that of their husbands. It was vital for a woman to marry, have children, and remain committed to her family to...

Shakespeare brings Othello with the audience being thrown into the middle of an argument between Iago and Roderigo. This opening leaves the reader mildly confused as they don't know what the argument is about for several lines. Only around 40...

The mood of 1984 is extremely sorrowful and full of despair for the situation that the characters are going through. The government is controlling all aspects of their lives and it is dreary throughout. The reign of the totalitarian government is...

When uncontrolled passion is released in a world which has strict restrictions of class structure and rigid social expectations, it can allow an individual to become inspired and empowered. Yet as this individual becomes inspired and empowered,...

The Damned Human Race is satirical essay where the author discusses his perceptions of mankind’s impractical morality. He argues that “Indecency, vulgarity, and obscenity (these are strictly confined to man); he invented them” (Twain). He...

A Response to “Mississippi Burning”

To say that religion has affected nearly every aspect of life in the South is to state the obvious. The history of racial strife is no exception. Historically, racists have used Biblical scriptures to buttress...

Contemporary American society expects that a person reaches specific destinations as they move through their life’s journey. Gender is the major factor that determines these “normal” destinations for people, which are so ingrained in every aspect...

Albert Camus’s L’Étranger or The Stranger is a psychological study of a character Meursault, the novel’s first-person narrator who has recently lost his mother, or his Maman. Originally written in French, it has been translated into in English by...

Philosophy is defined simply by Oxford English Dictionary as “knowledge, learning, scholarship,” but can also be defined as the pursuit of knowledge; whereas philo- means to have a liking of, and –sophy is translated as wisdom (philo, comb. form;...

Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now, a loose adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, shows American MACV-SOG Captain Benjamin Willard’s journey in terminating rogue U.S. colonel Walter Kurtz. Bao Ninh’s 1993...

George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion in hopes that people would see what change can happen in an individual person. While reading this play it is easy to see it as being focused on Eliza Doolittle. However, it is important to understand and observe...

Dating back to early history, vampires have persevered through different languages, kings, and cultures as vessels for the parasitic nature of man who preys upon the innocent. Victorian writers, who originally created the vampire, or the original...

The Shah's replacement by the Islamic Republic in 1979 was a difficult time for all the Iranians especially Marjane’s parents. This new regime rejected all the “Western values” and focused instead on Islamic fundamentalism. Many Iranians were...

When it comes to dystopian stories, the conclusion is expected to be tragic due to the pessimistic nature of a dystopia. However, in Anthem by Ayn Rand and Welcome to the Monkeyhouse by Kurt Vonnegut, the authors go a different route because they...

In Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, which is regarded as the first true English detective novel, the story of a priceless Indian diamond is told through a series of changing narrators. The diamond is stolen three times throughout its’ recorded...

In Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, it shows how one person can go from living in bliss to living in a dungeon. But how could this happen you may ask. Slavery. The people would become enslaved after being taken from their families. “The Asante had power...

Even the title of Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich oozes themes of death and dying, but what makes this piece of writing one of extraordinary kinds, is not simply the descriptive way in which it depicts the process of death and dying for...

Each of these poems comprise of motifs prevalent throughout Duffy's anthology, 'Mean Time'. Mortality and nostalgia are exemplified, in which Duffy often writes about –with love, with heartfelt feeling but never with sentimentality, and she...

Charlotte Smith’s late poem ‘Ode to Death’, published in 1797 in her collection of Elegiac Sonnets, draws on the idea of accepting death as a ‘friend’ (l.1) rather than fearing it. The ode carries a deep sense of desperation and sorrow, as it...

In Jane Austen’s epistolary novel Lady Susan and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, the concept of gender remains a key aspect throughout both of the narratives in regard to plot development and characterization. Whilst Lady Susan was thought to be...

The recently famous novel Jasper Jones, written by Craig Silvey tells a tale of a young boy named Charlie Bucktin and his friend Jasper Jones finding the killer of a girl named Laura Wishart. As Charlie searches for his identity, he faces racism...

The American political climate of the 1980’s is wrought with capitalistic fervor, the end game being victory over the constant battle for self-improvement. This victory can manifest itself in myriad forms; in ever-symbolic heaps of steaming cash,...

In everything we do, we seek to find happiness and meaning. While they aren’t necessarily what we always find, we strive to find it even if it’s the smallest shred of it. That couldn’t be farther from the truth in the gripping film American Beauty...