Newest Literature Essays

Humbert Humbert, the narrator of Vladimir Nabokov’s infamous yet beautifully written Lolita, is considered by most readers to be a pedophile due to his adoration of underage girls, whom he calls “nymphets.” The eponymous nymphet, Lolita, is, of...

Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, both African American authors active in the middle of the twentieth century, took on the challenge of exploring and exposing the adversity that African Americans faced through their writing. They brought to light...

Sylvia Plath’s "Mirror" explores the impact of time on individuals, specifically within the realities of aging and losing beauty; here, Plath speaks from an implied autobiographical perspective. As readers, we know that much of Plath’s oeuvre of...

Religious symbols, narratives, and language play prominent roles in both A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. In the Portrait, religious symbols and language permeate the consciousness of Stephen, such that...

Wole Soyinka once said, “History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice”.A Nigerian playwright, Soyinka, was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. A Dance...

Carter’s characters in The Lady of the House of Love (LHL), Wolf-Alice and The Werewolf differentiate between being victims of their own nature and victims of circumstance. These characters that are classified as ‘victims’ are often portrayed as...

The suicidal eldest, the special needs middle child, and the youngest, incapable of love: these are the three Compson brothers, each haunted by their own demons and howling for everything they have lost. In his novel The Sound and the Fury,...

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a narrator is: “one who tells a story. In a work of fiction the narrator determines the story’s point of view.” If the narrator is the person that determines the story’s point of view, then what happens...

Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction epic, Metropolis, recalls the Christian creation and apotheosis narrative through a dystopian lens. The main characters in Metropolis personify Jesus and his apostles and close associates in a postmodern society....

In R.C Sherriff’s Journey’s End, the theme of heroism is mainly presented through the characters of Raleigh and Stanhope in addition to their relationship with one another. Despite the fact that Stanhope is much a changed man now he has been...

An individual's personality is quite often determined by the actions and remarks of another person. One can become timid because another person has caused one hurt or worry. One can become brave because another person has made one fight for...

An ancient world re-created on a private island. Plants and animals genetically engineered in secret. Man-made dinosaurs – living – towering as tall as buildings. Every once in a while comes a novel so enchanting that even the most skeptical of...

What do you think of when someone says “children?" Sweet, innocent, and naive are just some of the adjectives that today’s society has placed on the common image of society's own youngest members. Yet in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the...

Plays are often written to make a statement about the world, or to provoke deeper thought from the audience. While many playwrights share the same overall goal, each playwright adopts his or her own style of writing. After adopting a certain...

Craig Silvey’s Australian novel Jasper Jones stresses the importance of truth and justice in formulating human experiences, shaping understandings of oneself and world. It highlights that events aren’t always positive; justice isn’t dealt out...

What happens to a dream deferred? According to James Joyce, perhaps nothing. Illustrated in his short story Eveline, this Dublin-born author both poses and responds to the age old-question of comfort versus risk. In a time of upheaval throughout...

A key concept to masculinity is being a strong protector, that one should protect one's family and nation. Yet the texts, 'Regeneration' and 'How Many Miles to Basra?' present the argument that warfare promotes a distortion of masculinity; a...

The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a first-hand account of one of history's lasting figures in the long-standing struggle for racial equality. Throughout the honest and unfiltered autobiography, we are given a chance to peer into the mind and heart...

The world is full of predispositions that favor the majority and hinder minorities. James McBride’s memoir, The Color of Water, and Richard Wright’s autobiography, Black Boy, both address the disadvantages that minorities face. In these...

Charles Darwin is known for his profound influence of the study of evolution. However, his contributions to 19th century society go beyond his scientific theories; it is undeniable that Darwin affected what writers wrote about life and what...

Trauma is a ghost, and memories can be haunting. Each has the ability to drive a person to madness, or to inspire a certain enlightened strength in him. The capacity of someone to act with resilience, despite the severity of his detriment,...

It is no secret that Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop were close friends. Although written decades apart, poems titled “The Fish” were created by both authors. Upon reading Bishop’s poem against Moore’s, we can see that both of the poems deal...

The story of Lanval is an uncommon one for its time. A helpless, outcast knight meets a beautiful, magical woman. The one term of their love, set down by the unnamed woman, is that Lanval can tell nobody about her. When he breaks that rule and...

In Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, readers may find it easy to view Sophie Mol and Velutha as the Gods of Colonial circumstances. However, by viewing the characters solely as the embodiments of colonial circumstances, readers fail to see...