Newest Literature Essays

Depictions of Asian Americans in mainstream culture tend to reinforce a stereotype of the silent, model minority. Said silence typically results from either a language barrier or the perception that silence equates to respectfulness and abhorrence...

Parents are innately protective of their children. They know that their children will meet struggles in their lives, but at one point the parent must let their child be and simply wish him or “her a lucky passage.” In “The Writer” by Richard...

Perhaps nothing is more frequent in the pages of history books than wars. Since the beginning of time, men have fought to hold their ground and conquer more. Yet the images of war are not always the trumpeting, flag-flying, fresh-faced recruits...

The reality of war unfortunately creates an oppressive system that causes soldiers to struggle with internal conflict and individual thought. In the book Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien, Paul Berlin’s thoughts and emotions are presented...

In order for one to exist in a totalitarian society whose government is successful in its control, one must deal on a day-to-day basis with strong persuasion and propaganda. These totalitarian societies have an iron grip on their people, leaving...

In Sherwood Anderson’s "Mother," Tom Willard takes centre stage as the role of the obnoxious, vain husband who shamelessly blames his wife, Elizabeth Willard, for his own unhappiness. He views her with blatant contempt and finds her existence...

The Picture of Dorian Gray demonstrates a divide between aestheticism and morality that Oscars Wilde depicts by giving each character a very specific persona that either challenges or indulges in the immoral vices of life. This is all while Dorian...

The parallel and overall relation of time is a phenomenon that has been explored from both creative and philosophical perspectives. By forming a connection between the impacts of action, in hand with the various possible outcomes, Tom Stoppard...

Upon first inspection, The Epic of Sundiata seems to be a fantastical tale of witches, super human strength, and a man who cannot be deterred from his destiny. While the epic may not contain the classical makings of reliable historical evidence,...

The course of growing up is always influenced by the people around you, since the people in your environment are vital in shaping the person you will become. Harper Lee demonstrates this reality in the classic tale To Kill a Mockingbird, through...

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson divulges aspects of passing by a “mulatto” man that no other novel had confronted before. Though most novels during the time were treated by the author in a straightforward manner,...

In William Faulkner's novel Light in August, Joe Christmas is often depicted to be an almost Christ-like figure. There are many thematic similarities between the struggles Christmas goes through during his lifetime, and the struggles braved by...

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold and William Faulkner’s "Dry September" are very similar to each other structurally and thematically, despite being separated by fifty years and a regional and linguistic barrier. They both use...

‘Break break break’ is a poem that was published in 1842, during the early Victorian epoch. It explores Tennyson’s feelings of loss concerning the death of his friend, Arthur Hallam. The poem syncretises the perpetual cycle of nature with the...

Although both “D.P.” and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut are situated in starkly different time periods, these short stories touch upon the same idea of the individual's status within society. “D.P.” takes place in an orphanage runs by...

Humans have wrestled with power and morality throughout time, recognizing that the issue is much more elaborate than simply deciding good from evil. Aphra Behn’s narrative Oroonoko: the Royal Slave focuses on the relationship between those in...

Much of the literary work that sprung out of the Romantic period centered around images of nature and the strong emotions that these evoked; the works of John Keats and of Percy Bysshe Shelley are no exception. Both written in 1819 and published...

In the Odyssey, Homer uses architecture and landscape as metaphors for the personalities of the people to which each respective architectural description relates. For this reason, a strong emphasis is placed on explicit details when depictions of...

In both Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger and Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers, a rapidly changing India threatens and deprives those adhering to a traditional way of life, such as Balram’s family in Laxmangarh, and the community of...

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen demonstrates a flexibility of genre in which realism and romanticism are balanced through the novel’s socioeconomic accuracy and the characterization of Mr. Darcy, along with Elizabeth Bennet’s idealistic...

The nature versus nurture debate pales in comparison to the discussion of nature versus animals regarding the future of the human race. Two movies – Jaws and The Birds – are examples of animals turning against humanity in the most tragic ways. In...

As Charlotte Bronte once wrote, “Remorse is the poison of life.” It is true that regret and remorse are inevitable in living a full life, but it also remains true that remorse can indeed be poisoning--so poisoning, in fact, that it can stop one...

Isaac Newton, a prominent English physicist and mathematician, devised his 3rd law of motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the autobiography Black Boy by Richard Wright, a key influence in Richard's life is his...

Sometimes, people have a tendency to disguise their anguish with elements of happiness and constantly tell themselves that they are happy when they truly are not. Bertha Young from Katherine Mansfield’s “Bliss” believed that she was truly happy in...