Newest Literature Essays

Matigari by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o follows the eponymous hero in his search for truth and justice for his oppressed kinsmen, from the moment he puts down his arms to when another freedom fighter takes them up. The narrative is almost cyclical, and this...

Writing from the late 1880s to the dawn of modern Ireland in the first two decades of the 20th century, Yeats and Synge penned their works during a period of national liminality; or what critic Seamus Deane refers to as “the long process of its...

For many stories, the meaning changes drastically when read through different lenses. Looking at the context in which Thucydides writes might lead one to see it as a warning to the Athenians not to repeat the mistakes of the past, while looking at...

When the Overlords in Arthur C. Clarke’s novel Childhood’s End descend over mankind, humanity is immediately awestruck and completely humbled by their scientific and technological prowess. As the Overlords become more active in human society and...

Suzan-Lori Parks once explained that her play Topdog/Underdog “isn’t just confined to a man’s experience,” furthermore, “I think it’s about what it means to be family and, in the biggest sense, the family of man, what it means to be connected with...

Through their choice of textual form and features, authors subjectively represent their views on the connection between people and landscapes. This is exemplary of Alain De Botton’s postmodern, multimodal text “The Art of Travel” (2002) which...

“Once upon a time, someone decided that we were the losers. But there are two sides to every story. And our side has not been told!” says Prince Charming to a room full of “villains” who are left to rot after their adversaries were given “happily...

T.S Eliot's The Waste Land begins with a latin epigraph that refers to the story of the prophetess to Apollo, Sibyl of Cumae. Apollo wanted to take the prophetess as his lover and offered her anything she wanted in return. Sibyl asked to live as...

The legends of Coyote go back hundreds of years, finding their beginnings in ancient Native American roots. In fact, the tales of Coyote have no real origin; many American Indian tribes have their own perspective of him. However, one of the most...

J.D. Salinger's novel Franny and Zooey features various members of the Glass Family, and, while the two stories were originally published independently, one cannot ignore their combined significance. Seven years after the suicide of their eldest...

In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a variety of allusions to other works of literature arise, suggesting to the adept reader their significance to the plot and in our understanding of many characters and themes. Two books of special...

In “Cape Breton,” Elizabeth Bishop describes a landscape for the rigid cliffs and water that compose it, but also for its representation on a grander scale. The landscape is a representation of the peaceful world and how it is inevitably...

The climax of Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire occurs in “Scene Ten,” when Stanley ultimately rapes Blanche, his sister-in-law. Many audiences and readers have debated whether or not this act was premeditated or done impulsively, as to...

Both C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea tackle the idea of the child-protagonists having to go on a type of journey to defeat their respective foes and partaking in a search for their...

When it comes to works of fiction, it is always most interesting to see where the author draws inspiration for the major characters from and what the underlying message of the story at hand. Disillusioned from faith as a child, C. S. Lewis would...

Daphne du Maurier’s gothic romance novel Rebecca touches on a young woman, who remains unnamed throughout the novel, and her self-inflicted life of misery. Being recently married into a high social class, the protagonist, Mrs. De Winter, faces...

A memoir is typically a written account of a personal experience. It varies from an autobiography in that it usually focuses on a single, monumental period in the author’s life. When Mitch Albom penned his touching and insightful memoir, Tuesdays...

Nathaniel Hawthorne is notorious for portraying characters whose past largely affects who they are and how they act in the future, and The Blithedale Romance is no exception. The interesting thing about The Blithedale Romance is that much of the...

Across generations, language barriers, and cultures, there is one question that has stood the test of time: does the intent of our actions really matter if our actions have the impact of furthering the marginalization or oppression of those around...

Arguments are the pinnacle of progress, development and change. People with conflicting ideas and beliefs engage in this activity constantly. However, did you know that arguments actually come down to a science? In 4th century B.C.E, Aristotle...

Since its publication in 1978, Ai’s thirty-two-line dramatic monologue poem “The Kid” has shocked and intrigued readers with its brutal subject matter of a murdered family. Within the poem, the speaker, who identifies himself as a...

Since its 1987 publication in Chicana Creativity and Criticism: Charting New Frontiers in American Literature, Helena María Viramontes’s short story “Miss Clairol” has provided outsiders a look into the Chicana culture, and has also sparked a...

Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian author and illustrator who grew up in Tehran in a middle-class family. Both of her parents were political activists and supported a Marxist ideology in contrary to the beliefs of the monarchy of the last Shah....

The epic poem of Gilgamesh is recognized as one of the earliest works in literature, originating back to the existence of ancient Mesopotamia. Since then, numerous versions of the story have been published, including one by David Ferry, called...