Newest Literature Essays

“To listen is to simultaneously attend to what is present and what is absent”. In “Understanding the Sound of Not Understanding,” Jed Rasula analyses the impact of the spoken word on the understanding of poetry. Historically, poetry, and most...

Petrarch, a passionate poet exemplifying the ideals of “Courtly Love” in his sonnets, rhapsodizes Laura, a married woman he may never touch. Inspired by a Troubadour style of ode, his work is akin to an Hymn of Love, although unrequited. It is a...

Within Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend exist several separate worlds. The lives of the Boffinses are separate from that of Mr. and Mrs. Podsnap, which in turn is separate from the lives of the different members of the Hexam family. The most...

When Satan says “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav’n,” he becomes a true advocate for freewill. He has gone against what he considered a tyrannical leader, lost, and reemerges as a classical tragic hero reminiscent of the likes of...

Wallace Stevens is known for his philosophical meditations on the dual nature of existence throughout his poetry. According to Stevens, poetry should not be concerned with either the body or the mind, but rather “an interdependence of the...

A common theme in children’s literature is the presence of a strange, mysterious, alternate universe only accessible and comprehensible to children. This theme is often used to encourage young readers, especially those of twenty-first century...

Often people make decisions in life that may or may not result in the desired consequence despite their good intentions. In the urge to achieve the best, people become self centered and choose to follow their aspirations without considering the...

People may be self-centered and immature, however, the crisis of certain occurrences in life assists them in molding their personalities. Everyone in life goes through drastic life changing events such as marriage, starting college or traumatic...

Raymond Carver’s preferred method of delivering information to readers in his short story “Cathedral” is one that is entirely coherent with the underlying theme of the impact of alienation and isolation upon those who fail to master the art of...

Thoreau writes that “This curious world we inhabit...is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.” This seems to be a philosophy that Hemingway’s character, Santiago, would adopt....

Christina Rossetti wrote “For there is no friend like a sister in calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, to fetch one if one goes astray, to lift one if one totters down, to strengthen whilst one stands.” Following the century of...

Terry Gilliam’s Brazil is a film so completely embedded with intentionally placed symbolism and plot that it is difficult to pinpoint a single theoretical lense in which to tackle the movie with; put simply, there is just too much going on. Aside...

Bees making a commotion in somebody's brain, a bright red hat, and a water pump in New York City. There seems to be no connection between those objects, but they all in fact have something in common; they are all symbols in the book Chains, by...

By juxtaposing the childhoods of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, Truman Capote shows that although a solid family structure is the most important influence on a person’s character, it is ultimately up to each person to decide what his actions will...

For the modernists, the linear narrative was something of a constraint on the writer’s ability to express their ideas and perceptions of the world. To discard the linear narrative, therefore, seemed the most logical solution to this problem. As...

James Baldwin’s work is often defined by an intersection of nationality and sexuality. In Giovanni’s Room, the motif of culture and country of origin is prominent, but difficult to interpret. A particularly dense passage occurs part two of this...

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street” presents the mentally troubled title character through the perspective of an ignorant narrator. Having only encountered visible, physical disabilities before, the narrator does...

Do the ends justify the means? People have been asking this question since the beginning of time, but often cannot find an answer. The Tempest is about deception and manipulation of the truth, but ends with a morally clear message. Prospero is the...

Literature and psychological theories, even if developed in different time periods or one before the other, may parallel because of both an author and psychologist’s ability to understand the human condition. For this reason, it is possible to...

Is death to be feared as an uncertain end or is it to be embraced as a natural gateway to something greater? This is a question that Emily Dickinson tackles throughout her poetry. In her poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” she acknowledges...

Power and social status is commonly determined by one’s drive and ambition. Successful people are set apart by their willingness to make sacrifices to accomplish their goals. Emotions are often cast aside in order to more easily make difficult...

In an oft-cited review of Alice Munro’s fourth published collection, critic John Gardner asks a pertinent question regarding “whether The Beggar Maid is a collection of stories or a new kind of novel.” While this question is not only germane, but...

Tolkien's colourful world of Middle Earth has been a place of escapist adventure in the minds of many since its humble beginnings in the mid-1950s. Ever since his novel The Fellowship of the Ring debuted, it has inspired minds with its epic tales...

Pamela: or Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, published in 1740 and set in the first half of the eighteenth century. It is said that this novel went against the aristocratic dimension of the typical romantic themes that...