Newest Literature Essays

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is critically acclaimed as a masterful portrayal of American crime and is known for the introduction of the concept of a “nonfiction novel.” At such crossroads of true events and storytelling, many criticisms can be...

The rise of British Imperialism during the 1800’s created a new sense empowerment among English citizens and redefined British culture in the Victorian Era. During this time, British imperialists valued personal lineage and emphasized the...

The only ones who can truly see are the blind, this is a popular theme throughout society, especially in Oedipus Rex where Sophocles nurtures the idea that real sight does not require eyes but the ability to better understand the surface of...

Understanding ourselves and the surroundings that shape us is no small feat. Sci-fi novels time and time again have attempted to address such topics by manipulating and distorting the future in a different light. But Kurt Vonnegut takes a...

Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” and Disney’s 1989 film adaptation differ in a multitude of notable ways, from key elements of plot to those of character. Perhaps the most distinct difference, aside from the highly...

Many relationships in life consist of a balancing act between people in opposing roles: submissive and dominant. Sometimes, like with a parent and their child, the dominant person is there to prevent the submissive one from making bad choices so...

Internalization and Externalization of Color

In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Pauline experiences the beauty of life through her childhood ‘down South;’ extracting colors in which translate into her most fond memories. This internalization of...

Philaster, a play written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, was performed in the early 1600’s during the Jacobean period and began the early trend of tragicomedies. The plot revolves around the imprisoned Prince Philaster of Sicily and...

Mill’s “On Liberty” is an academic work examining the presence of –and desire for- liberty in human nature and behavior, as well as the limits imposed upon such. Mill writes this text from a bias of utilitarianism and fallibilism, as he...

Literary Assertions on Women’s Rights in the Middle East

Women’s issues have permeated societies throughout the world for decades, and many authors have attempted to deal with issues such as women’s rights through their own literary works. In...

Sylvia Plath’s Reinvented Lazarus

“The speaker is a woman who has the great and terrible gift of being reborn. The only trouble is, she has to die first. She is the Phoenix, the libertarian spirit, what you will. She is also just a good, plain,...

The question of how to determine what is sane and what is insane is explored in both Kesey’s Novel ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1962) and Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ (1896). The terms “sanity” and “insanity” are often attached to...

In an essay concerning the components of the Romantic novel, James P. Carson frames the difference between Gothic and Romantic attitudes as a “disagreement over values inherent in attempts to represent people” (Matthews). He succinctly describes...

Divides Made By Fences Built

By definition, the structure of a fence is said to be a barrier that controls access or prevents escape from a specific area. In August Wilson's Fences, this definition stands for much larger boundaries being set...

To what extent is social class and wealth perverting to judgment? Jane Austen’s 19th century novel Pride and Prejudice explores the precarious theme of social standing to create an ironic depiction of its relation to love and happiness. Rather...

The question of whether or not Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” conforms to the conventions of the memoir genre is a complex matter quite simply because it is a novel that deliberately blurs the lines of fact and fiction. The stories are...

The Cherry Orchard, a classic of modern theater by Anton Chekhov, portrays the coming of age in a Russian society that is beginning to witness a rising middle class upon freeing the serfs. The characters of Firs (the manservant to Gayef) and...

Children as a whole have a propensity to rebel and cause mischief when they are younger, but this trait tends to disappear as they face challenges and begin to grow up. Mark Twain's classic novel from 1876, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, follows...

In order to truly grasp how John Donne (1572 - 1631) regards and treats the concept of love in his poems, one must be well aware of the fact that his love poems never refer to one single unchanging view of love. Instead, in Donne’s love poems, not...

The main character in Perfume, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, sets on a long journey through 18th century France, which starts and ends in Paris. The changes in the landscape during his travels reflect the inner changes in personality he undergoes...

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel full of individuals, within a tribe, as they deal with the frequently tragic and disappointing events of their lives. Okonkwo, the protagonist, and his son, Nwoye, are two of these individuals who must...

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury presents a recurring theme that individual activism can fight government oppression. An allusion is a literary device in which the writer refers to another work or author, and Bradbury relies on this to show...

“All happy families are alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (1.1.1)

In this famed first sentence of Anna Karenina, Tolstoy alludes to the two kinds of familial happiness, almost comically simplifying the idea of ‘family’....

John Webster’s The White Devil portrays an inherent brutality within the human condition, which, while humanity may strive to do good, ensures its ultimate destruction. He draws on genuine fears of the Jacobean era to attribute immorality to every...