Newest Literature Essays

The turn of the 17th century prompted a rolling new age of skepticism, in which individuals began to question unequivocal prior beliefs regarding the validity of the Catholic Church, and even the nature of reality. In response to an age echoing...

The growth of feminism’s influence in American society during the mid-20th century paralleled the rise of strong, independent female characters over the traditionally weak women of Hollywood western film. The shift of female character types in a...

Human relationships to space are perceived through memory, language, and emotional ties. Because Selma Lagerlöf’s Nils: The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and The Further Adventures of Nils Holgersson and Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and both deal...

Many deities are invoked and discussed throughout Moby-Dick. Yet, despite some vivid allusions to Gnostic theology, the overall impact of these allusions generally go unnoticed. However, understanding how Gnostic theology is explored in the novel...

In his book Twelve Million Black Voices Richard Wright asserts that:In the Black Belts of the northern cities, our women are the most circumscribed and tragic objects to be found in our lives […] Surrounding our black women are many almost...

What is the outcome of letting one’s duty subconsciously interfere with one's life? Some may say duty is a part of one’s life; others consider it inappropriate to combine the two. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro follows the life of a...

The portrayal of the white male traveler in classic film is best described as serenely calm, yet also seemingly superior to any person of another gender, class, and or ethnicity. Through the classic Hollywood film Black Narcissus (1947), the...

Victorian author Sarah Grand, recognized for her work concerning the New Woman ideal, wrote during a time when women were inundated with prescriptive literature on what was deemed the ‘proper’ conduct, appearance, and behavior for women (Frawley,...

Elinor’s mind is pulled in conflicting directions by her desires and obligations. Elinor loves Edward and wants to be with him, but after hearing about Lucy’s engagement to him, she withdraws her feelings. However, Elinor is aware of Lucy’s...

Characters might seem different at a glance, but if you pay enough attention you can see how alike they are. People can look different based on perspective. A thief from the city with nothing and a farm boy from the country with a decent life have...

World War II was a time of great emotional upheaval and change. Because men were drafted to fight in the war, women became more involved in industry and created the image of Rosie the Riveter to represent strong women in the workplace. Both “To My...

Societal expectations motivate the characters of Jane Austen’s Emma. Because societal perception plays such a large role in the lives of these characters, many concern themselves with how they should behave; a fact which Austen underscores by...

The rastaman never gets involved “with the muddy affairs of land”, he would rather proudly explore his Jamaican roots in order to overcome the constant clash inside hybrid beings. The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion is the epitome of the...

Jeanette Winterson uses fantastic and glorified imagery throughout her novel, Written on the Body, to discuss the human body. The images represented are mostly the bodies of women, in which she calls attention to the various elements of...

In Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Our Society at Cranford,” the residing women are a group heavily opposed to change. The men in this story exist as instigators of change, and as such, rarely last long in Cranford. The most adamant opposition to these...

Though the New Testament is meant to lead people onto the path of following God’s will, it details many events in which God’s most loyal followers such as the apostles, and even his son Jesus, hint at doubting God’s will and even betray their...

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...