Newest Literature Essays

Brian Friel’s “Philadelphia, Here I come!” is essentially a social commentary outlining Ireland’s problems during the 1960s. It explores the theme of failure while presenting the monotonous and predictable life of the citizens of Bellybeg,...

In the film ‘Looking for Alibrandi,’ the director Kate Woods shows how the concept of perfection can play an influential role on an individual’s characteristics and desires. Woods portrays the idea of perfection as destructive and unattainable...

Statistics and research have always focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) being one of the psychological disorders associated with war-related stress. It’s not until recently that research has begun to focus on moral injury, which...

Percy Shelley as a Romantic and Ronald Barthes as Post-structuralism have contrasting ideas regarding the function of literature and figure of the author. Despite this, they both view a literary textual object such as a text or a poem as an “...

Andy Mulligan's novel “Trash” illustrates the numerous concepts based around an impulsive world full of exploitation and corruption. Where there's a major imbalance in the society, where the poor have to endure a world of suffering, danger,...

By the time Judge Danforth appears in Act III of The Crucible, the audience has become acquainted with a host of characters, each of which are motivated, in turn, by a desire to better their position, need for attention, saving of reputation, and...

Water, in a purely chemical sense, is one of the most important molecules for life, as its various chemical properties, allow all living things to survive. Because of water’s ubiquity in the scope of human survival, novelists and playwrights do...

Honor Thy Father is a 2015 film by Eric Matti that tackles religion, morality, and family. It centers on Edgar whose family is involved in a Ponzi scheme primarily because of Kate, his wife. They lose everything because of this, especially their...

In a variety of the works we have read so far in class, there have been evidence of unhealthy attachment and obsession in characters, specifically with those who have lost a love one. This ultimately results in a loss of identity in the...

Hidden truths were a motif that was set from the beginning of the romantic era; the romantics lived in secrecy, and places hidden away from society. A common example was in 1816 when the romantics, Lord Byron, Percy Shelly and Mary Shelly stayed...

Sarojini Naidu, the Nightingale of India, and a Freedom Fighter who fought for India’s independence, wrote ‘The Gift Of India’ from the perspective of Mother India and from the perspectives of thousands of mothers who had sent their sons into...

Throughout Cloud Atlas, Mitchell heavily emphasizes the theme of humanity and its innate flaws, the inevitability of our eventual fall. Even with the greatest intentions in mind, we tend to encounter a fatal obstacle, stumbling despite our best...

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1642, while Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame takes place in Paris, France in 1482. Despite their vastly different settings, Hawthorne’s heroine Hester Prynne and...

In Miguel Piñero's theatrical play, "Short Eyes," we are introduced to the prison life and the different relationships formed within the Prison. The play opens up with a guard doing roll call in which the leading group of characters is introduced...

Solomon Northup is the author of the literary story 12 Years a Slave, which was set up in New York and Washington DC in the 1840s. He was kidnapped and forced into slavery, where he worked as a slave for 12 years before the government freed him....

In Josefina Lopez's play, Detained in the Desert, we are introduced to Lou and Sandi, two individuals from different backgrounds who end up crossing paths in the desert. Lou Sanchez, a 50s Anglo-conservative talk show host who criticizes...

Gender roles are a set of societal norms that dictate the type of behavior that is deemed to be acceptable and desirable from people based on their sex. Considered to be a part of traditional roles, by some, gender roles have been used to raise...

Jean Toomer’s Cane was written in response to the author’s time spent in Georgia teaching in rural black schools. Toomer, born and raised in affluent areas of the North, was surely surprised by many elements of his stay in the black rural South,...

Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “kitchenette building” was published in 1945 and written in the South Side of Chicago presumably a few years before that, during a time when African-Americans—especially those in Northern urban centers, which were supposed...

The Spanish Tragedy is a play written by an English dramatist called Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592 when the first known performance was conducted. Kyd was a popular dramatist in his day, although most of his plays have been lost. The Spanish...

The idea that the pride displayed by tragic heroes elevates them rather than diminishes them can be proven in relation to Shakespeare’s “Richard II” and Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” In both texts the protagonists display a great deal of pride...

Serving as the final act of the main Star Wars franchise, the sequel trilogy has so far received mixed reviews and reactions, with the last movie of the trilogy being the most disparaged and criticised one. A majority of the negative reviews...

Dying for one's belief is the most selfless act known to man. Those who die for this very reason are granted martyrdom and become respected for many generations by the descendants of the martyrs. However, if a person plans to die for his belief in...