Analysis of Erasure by Percival Everett
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Throughout reading Percival Everett's Erasure, many conclusions can be made about Thelonius Ellison's character development, one could argue, even possible digression. Everett's title Erasure, itself signifies the act of devolution, to complete non-existence. Not only does the content of the text...
Langston Hughe's "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain"
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
During a time when Black culture was developing and creating its place in history, Langston Hughes wrote “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, which became the manifesto of the Harlem Renaissance, and urged Blacks to not be ashamed of who they are; to take pride in their...
The influence of the Disney Princess
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Most girls grow up watching Disney films, especially the films that have story lines where the protagonist is a princess. Included among these films are classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin. Although many people see these films as harmless...
Ernest Hemingway: A Pursuit Race
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
‘A Pursuit Race' is a short story in Ernest Hemingway's ‘Men Without Women' which is narrated from an omniscient point of view and which incorporates more precisely a heterodiegetic narrator. Here, the author knows everything and reveals to us the motivations, thoughts and feelings,...
Same sex desire as demonstrated in Art and Literature in antiquity
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Many artists use their medium to express their thoughts or feelings on a particular subject. Often this material has to do with a current event, trend, or mindset that they have noticed. Some choose to portray things in a very realistic light, and others were more inclined to put their own...
The Reflection of Robert Louis Stevenson's Paternal, Religious and Moral Conflicts in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, published in 1886, was an instant bestseller in both Britain and the United States. Journalists and the public were eager to learn of Stevenson's inspiration for the story, and Stevenson responded to their inquiries with his essay...
Bertrand Russell's Criticism of William James' "The Will to Believe"
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
William James, the late 19th and early 20th century American psychologist and philosopher, turned against the modern philosophical tradition with his philosophy of pragmatism. Specifically, James disagreed with the well-established philosophical theories that one can build existential truths from...
Gynocriticism and 'Jane Eyre': The conflict of the female identity in language
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
When reading a novel like Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre', with both a female author and narrator, a series of implications arise by the structuring of a feminine language within the constructs of a patriarchal society, and thus, a masculine discourse; such an oppression innate to language...
The Presence of Language and Metaphysical Conceit in John Donne's 'The Flea' and 'The Good Morrow'
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
In her essay “Poetry as Language Presentation: John Donne, Poet, Preacher, Craftsman,” Anca Rosu writes, “In representing, revealing or reflecting, language becomes absent, imperceptible. It can be kept present only if it is not made to reveal or reflect” (Rosu, 14). Rosu...
The Structure of Sound: Edmund Spenser's 'Epithalamion'
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Edmund Spenser's “Epithalamion” is a certain divergence from the well established themes of grief and mourning over unrequited love so commonly embraced by Renaissance sonneteers. The departure from the expected brooding and pining voice is vividly divulged in a refreshingly sincere...
Oppression and limited discourse in Melville and Alcott
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Herman Melville's 'Bartleby, the Scrivener' is a first person narrative of a lawyer's attempt to satiate his curiosity concerning Bartleby, a scrivener employed in his law office. His interest in the scrivener is the direct motive behind the lawyer's narrative, to the extent of a theme;...
The Writer and Nietzsche
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Throughout both 'The Birth of Tragedy' and 'The Genealogy of Morals', Friedrich Nietzsche explains the role and power of the artist. The artist, in particular, the writer, is a creator of illusions. Due to the increase in electronics and technology in the modern area, illusions...
Waiting for a Miracle: Waiting and its many forms portrayed in 'Largo Desolato', 'The Polish Complex', and, 'Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light'
Essay - 6 pages - Literature
“The typically human act of trying to see oneself is always fascinating, agonizing, comical, for we can never turn fast enough to see all sides at once in the mirror. And the greatest trick remains seeing how we see” ('The Polish Complex' Intro, page V). Throughout 'The...
Themes throughout 'The Wasteland'
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
Within 'The Wasteland' by T.S Eliot, there exists a vast array of literary elements used to turn this poem into something more than just a jumble of mixed up phrases and quotes. While this jumble builds the poem, it also makes it hard to identify a single meaning or purpose that lingers...
Why we need the system: Hobbes, Locke, and 'State of Nature'
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Thomas Hobbes and John Locke have each compiled an elaborate explanation of society, as they believe it ought to be. Hobbes in 'Leviathan' and Locke in 'Second Treatise of Government', have recorded their differing interpretations of the state of nature, the logic behind...
The homes of Catherine in 'Washington Square' and Frado of 'Our Nig'
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
The homes of Catherine in 'Washington Square' and Frado of 'Our Nig' are essential to the development and understanding of these heroines. Each novel places emphasis on different aspects of the homes as they relate to the most involved characters of the novel, particularly...
A Close Reading of "Trifles"
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
When reading any work of literature, one can miss many of the work's underlying aspects simply by not reading it carefully enough. A thorough and close reading of a work should yield much more satisfying results—the reader should understand themes and ideas that were important to the...
Parent/Child relations in American Literature
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Throughout American Literature, one can notice many writings focus on either mother/daughter relationships or father/son relationships. These relationships are described in various ways, but one very common way involves parental love towards sometimes unappreciative children. This parental love...
Mission: Character analysis of Raskolnikov
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Should the character of Raskolnikov be considered a madman or a mentally disturbed person? Throughout the novel, Raskolnikov displays many symptoms that can be considered crazy. On the other hand, there are several mental defects that fit with Raskolnikov's behavior. Analyzing Raskolnikov...
'Night' at the Core of Elie Wiesel
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Elie Wiesel is an internationally renowned writer and Holocaust survivor. His expansive collection of work is all derived from his first book, which is called 'Night'. It is the foundation for all of Wiesel's works and shared ideas. His ideas, which centralize around a bluntly honest look...
Night: An open minded perception
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
Elie Wiesel is a Jewish American author and Holocaust survivor. Wiesel's first book, 'Night', is an account of his experience in the concentration camp Auschwitz. This personal and vivid account launches a stream of consciousness, enlightening the reader to a new perception of various...
Dickinson's 'Meditation on the Future'
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
The belief in any sort of prophecy is contingent on the idea that the human psyche holds the potential to, at any degree, know the future. 'This World is not Conclusion', a poem by Emily Dickinson, promotes the impermanence of our state of being. Rather than predicting a specific future,...
Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Book review
Essay - 8 pages - Literature
In the book 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', Nietzsche provides the reader with a fictional account of a Persian prophet named Zarathustra. He takes this historical figure and turns him into a libratory prophet for the modern world. Nietzsche argues that Zarathustra is the first individual to...
Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber': A revision of social fictions
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber' comprises a collection of short stories, all of which, in some sense or another, exemplify a variation or reworking of popularized fairy tales. Her writing style, rather than taking the form of any one genre, crosses the boundaries of all of them;...
The neo-Romanticist underpinnings of Roberts's 'Tantramar Revisited' and Lampman's 'Heat'
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Canadian poets Roberts and Lampman, both affiliated with the school of Confederation poetry, found themselves writing amidst a “new world” full of beauty and prosperity and were thus eager to capture this essence of the Canadian landscape. Hence, their turn towards the Romantic poets of...
Identity Construction in Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' and Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest'
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Both Henrik Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' and Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest' depict the constant conflict between the individual and the society in which they live; and, more specifically, the struggle of the individual to construct his or her own identity in light of...
Wrath of the Gods in the epic 'The Odyssey'
Essay - 1 pages - Literature
The dictionary definition of an epic is “An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.” In the epic, The Odyssey, the narrator takes the reader on a journey with the epic hero, (or traditional/ legendary hero)...
Post-structuralism and deconstruction
Essay - 8 pages - Literature
Literary theory has penetrated all spheres of modern day life. It has shifted from being a prerogative of Academia to being a part of a popular culture. Yet, how can the term "literary theory" be defined lucidly? According to McLaughlin, literary theory is the "debate over nature and function of...
Commentary ' the chimney sweeper ' by William Blake
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
This poem, written in 1789 by William Blake, was published in “Songs of Inno-cence”. Like its fellow poems, it deals with childhood as an epitome for innocence and purity; here, the poet chooses to look into the life of the poor young boys who used to sweep chimneys in London in those...
Analysis of Ode on Melancholy by John Keats
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Ode on Melancholy is an example of a Pindaric ode, i.e., it is composed in iambic pentameter (we have some occasional spondees too), while the rhyme scheme is a b a b c d e c d e for the first two stanzas and a b a b c d e d c e for the third and last one. We have three stanzas, the first one...
