Introduction One of the most important pieces of historical documents about the history of the abolitionist movement is the “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass” by Fredrick Douglass, who was a slave in his early life, and later successfully escaped the life of a slave. In his later life,...
A short story “The Dream of an Hour” by Kate Chopin (2018) describes the events of one day when a very emotional woman with heart disease, Mrs. Mallard, learns about the death of her husband. Mrs. Mallard did not feel grief about this event, instead, she was experiencing a boost...
Alice Walker, an American activist and writer, is well known for her novel The Color Purple. For this book, the author was awarded the National Book Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. Except for this book, Alice Walker has written many other works: essays, short stories, and poems. Her short story...
In her short story, Everyday Use, Alice Walker gives insight into the dynamics within an African-American family in understanding African-American history and culture. The story is narrated by a rural African-American woman, Mrs. Johnson, whose daughter visits her with her male companion. Alice Walker employs quilts as a symbolic instrument...
In her short story Everyday Use, Alice Walker characterizes the daily life of a rural African-American family to show the clashing dynamics between different understandings of African-American culture. The story revolves around Mrs. Johnson’s, that is narrator’s, experience with the visit of her daughter and her male companion. The most...
In The Story of the Hour by Kate Chopin, the main character, Mrs. Mallard, is a married woman with heart disease. Her husband is leaving, and the news comes that he died on a terrible trip. Her sister tells the information to her, and quietly, Mrs. Mallard rejoices. It turns...
In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, various themes begin to develop and they show the experiences in her life. She wrote the novel while she was on a summer holiday in Switzerland with her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley whose wife was expecting a child. Later on Percy’s wife committed...
“The Story of an Hour” is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894. The title correlates with the moment when the main character, Louise Mallard, learns that her husband Brantley died in a train accident, and then she knows that he is still alive. This essay aims to...
The book “Red Azalea” narrates Anchee Min’s life in the era of Mao China prior to escaping this harsh regime and moving to the United States. Min’s story provides her readers with an overview of her early childhood memories and a description of the period she worked for the Communist...
Robert Frost (1874 – 1963) is an American poet whose poems mostly depicted rural life. He is known for such works as Fire and Ice, The Road Not Taken, Acquainted with the Night, and others. Frost has received more than 40 honorary degrees, including four Pulitzer Prizes. During his life,...
Jane Austen’s “Emma” is a comedic interpretation of the social life and interactions between youth who lived in the 19th century. The main character of this novel, Emma, is an iconic character who charms the readers with her easy-going nature. However, she is also egoistical and lacks regard for the...
At first, it may seem that Stella and Blanche are opposites of each other. Blanche is a glamorous diva, popular among men, while Stella is an obedient wife, soon-to-be a mother, and a role model for any housewife. However, despite the differences, the sisters share one defining trait: both have...
Introduction Comparative analysis in literature is one of the most essential and illustrative techniques that allows for an effective demonstration of themes and images in several texts at once. This is particularly true when the pieces the analysis is focusing on were written within the same period and therefore share...
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human being can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind’ (James, 1842-1910): Discussing the quote The underlying concept of the human mind encompasses the complex challenges and aspects that impact and control people’s lives. American philosopher James emphasizes that one...
Introduction The play is called doll’s house written by Ibsen and was meant to deal with social issues. The play appears to be so discordant which has led Ibsen to write a second finale called a barbaric outrage (Blumenfeld 150). The play has used symbolism, where several themes have also...
In the story, A Soldier’s Home, Krebs a soldier returns home from war. He was in the war from 1917 to 1919. Soldiers who return from war find it hard to adjust to normal life again and this is exactly what Krebs is going through. He was picked to join...
Introduction The art of fiction is used extensively in literature because it tends to bring out more aspects than literature based on real life occurrences. Real life writings such as biographies limit writers with respect to the extent to which they can adventure with talent. Literature just like all forms...
Introduction Consisting of twenty-two interconnected stories, the Things They carried by William Timothy O’Brien is regarded as one the best fictional works on the true experiences of the American soldiers in the Vietnam War. The novel has received a huge commendation from reviewers because of the innovative application of memoir,...
Although it was written in 1894, Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is one of the earliest feminist texts popular today. Chopin’s short story narrates Louise Mallard’s life, a youthful woman who struggles in an oppressive marriage. Freedom is the central theme of “The Story of an Hour”. Chopin...
Modern people agree that a person can be satisfied or happy when their needs are met. Notably, this simple truth was widely accepted in earlier times as well. However, the way society saw the needs of an individual varied considerably throughout centuries and across the globe. For instance, development has...
“Sonny’s Blues” is a short story by James Baldwin wrote in 1957. This work talks about the memories of a black math teacher about his brother Sonny and his lifestyle. The story focuses on the most relevant topics of the 50s of the twentieth century: drug addiction, racism, and crime....
“The Lottery” The topic of human estrangement and irresponsiveness to the others’ suffering is one of the issues attracting both general minds and creative genius. What is better, a steady observance of ancient traditions and norms, or a flexible attitude to standards, depending on the level of their humanity or...
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka acts as a prolonged symbol of humans’ alienation in the present society. In this script, Gregor is the main actor, whose experiences reflect Kafka’s modern society’s detachment and separation from human interaction. The concepts of isolation and alienation are central to The Metamorphosis (Kafka et...
Both poems A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne and To His Coy Mistress Love by Andrew Marvell written in the 17th century talk about the topic of love. In the poem, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning the speaker has to part from his love and speaks to her before his...
Fitzgerald models the character of the Dick Driver in the manner of an archetypical hero. He is a bright young man with a degree and position to make a fine psychiatrist one day. Instead, like any of the modern heroes he goes on a quest to cure an incurable mental...
Introduction The Scarlet Letter is now considered by many literary critics as one of the greatest works of Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this novel, the author explored stressing issues of the then-American society, such as the position of women, the impact of religion in the behavior of community members, moral hypocrisy...
Langston Hughes had become one of the most resounding names in American Literature. Of course, the primary reason for his success would be his adept use of words and the message he wants to convey. However, his racial profile could have also come into play in his popularity. But no...
“Woman Hollering Creek”, a short story, written by Mexican-American author Sandra Cisneros, focuses predominantly on the humiliation and suffering Chicano women endure in the patriarchal society. The present paper is intended to analyze the literary work from the feminist perspective, concerned with the interpretation of the works of women writers,...
Literature is a type of art that contains many other different sides of people’s life. Reading any book, people are looking for some relaxation; they want to leave everyday routine life and to appear in another world, full of some advantages and unpredictable situations. People are looking for some answers...
Introduction F. Scott Fitzgerald, in all his novels, recounts the problems that were inherent in the American dream in the aftermath of the Civil War. The style and depiction of the characters in his fictional stories embody the American experience and identity. He criticises the American dream by depicting the...
Introduction Trifles was a play written by Susan Glaspell and has attracted a significant audience so far. The play features various styles of literature, including tragedy and legal intervention. The death of Mr. Wright has its roots in the difficult situations that entangle women. Disregarding women led to serious issues,...
I am, by Allah, fit for high positions. And am going my way, with pride! — Wallada Being a beautiful woman, Wallada created not less beautiful and sensual poems. As Segol mentions, Wallada was best identified for her self-presentation because she showed a heightened appreciation of her body (160). A...
It hasn’t been cleaned In what seems to be weeks, It has changed its color— Used to be blue, now brackish not even green. It had its loyalists Till around ten days ago. Now even they keep away from it As if from an HIV positive. There seem to be...
Introduction Naturalism is a discipline of literature that aims at reproducing the characters of humans with the help of factors such as heredity, environment, chance, and instinct. American literary naturalism is linked with literary realism which is influenced by the behavior of a person who is swayed by heredity and...
Introduction The Industrial Revolution was the cause of a great time of change, also referred to in literary circles as the Victorian period. The comfortable old social and cultural norms were being challenged in ways that had never before been experienced as new technology in the form of machines and...
The main character of Mary Shelley’s novel is the scientist Victor Frankenstein, obsessed with creating a human prototype. Exalting science and knowledge which can be acquired, he works tirelessly to achieve success. However, when Victor manages to make his creation, he cannot control it, which brings him misfortune. It should...
Introduction This manuscript is the single most popular leadership and management book that has ever been published in modern times. The main maxim in the book’s caption is that it is dedicated to people’s well-being. Rather than embarking upon specific difficulties or making outward changes to procedures and schemes, Covey’s...
Fairy tales bring to reality the wishes of an individual. Based on this assumption, storytellers design their script to carry potent messages enveloped with fantasy. The Nightingale and the Rose is a fairy tale of love. In the story, we are introduced to a young student’s passion when he is...
“This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, is a short story that discussed the physical and mental journey of Victor when he traveled from Washington to Phoenix. Victor is a Native American living on a reservation somewhere in the state of Washington. One day he found out that...
The United States of America today is one of the most multicultural countries in the world. The diversity of people living there and the correlation between their cultures, backgrounds, self-identifications, and roots are very intense. Many cultures neighboring the territory of this country have assimilated, changed, or adjusted to the...
Mark Twain Mention the big names of writers of all times and the name Mark Twain automatically comes up in the list. Born in 1835 as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, he adopted the name Mark Twain in his writing career. The most outstanding technique used by Mark Twain in all his...
The short stories created by Edgar Allan Poe commonly present outstanding and complex characters whose feelings and actions captivate readers’ attention and analytical thinking. The short story under the title “The Tell-Tale Heart” presents such a character. The person who committed a seemingly perfect crime is subject to the ambiguity...
Introduction The Lost Letters of Pergamum is a book in the genre of historical fiction penned by the renowned author and professor Dr. Bruce Longenecker. It provides a fictional account of the origins of Christianity in Ancient Rome through a series of letters between Antipus, a Roman civic leader, and...
The story “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich takes place in 1974 when Lyman Lamartine resides with his family and tells a story of his elder half-brother, Henry, a war veteran. Erdrich uses Lyman as the narrator, who successfully accounts for his family relationship with Henry, who was previously deployed...
Leo Tolstoy’s story The Death of Ivan Ilyich is one of the most significant works in the genre of psychological prose. This story is a chronicle of the illness and death of a judicial official, which is preceded by the story of his life. This is a one-of-a-kind piece that...
The American Revolutionary War can be regarded as one of the most tragic periods in the history of the United States. However, it is also the time of great hopes and magnificent personalities who fought for their ideals and beliefs. Numerous artifacts remain primary sources of people’s memory and knowledge...
Literary pieces have always tempted both esteemed critics and layman audience to seek interpretations of their meaning. Robert Frost’s poems are some of the most widely discussed pieces. One of the most notorious poems by Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Day,” has gained excessive attention both on...
Overview and the Summary of the Epic The story takes place in the ancient city of Uruk in the Sumer land. Uruk is reigned by the powerful yet tyrannical god-like king Gilgamesh. He abuses his power, but the people of the land do not oppose his will. He is indeed...
Fear is a universal emotion that has a powerful presence both in life and in literature. It can keep people from danger, and it can shackle them, preventing them from living their lives to the fullest. Most of the characters in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God belong...
Introduction The story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker tells about the relationship between mother and two daughters with different views and beliefs, and how a mother’s attitude towards her younger daughter changed with time. This story also addresses the topic of cultural identity in a way of how this term...
Ernest Hemingway is one of the most remarkable and talented masters of a word in American literature who managed not only to amaze his audience with the beauty of his laconic writing style but also offered important practical lessons to learn. Just like most of Hemingway’s stories, “Hills Like White...
A human being should live in harmony with nature to be happy. We live in the time of the development of modern technologies when nature has become isolated from people. People live in cities that are opposed to a harmonious nature. Arnold Goldsmith points out that nature is absent in...
Introduction Thesis: Focusing on the details of the narrator’s emotional state and feelings, Edgar Allan Poe draws the readers’ attention not to the aspect of the man’s guilt, but to the peculiarities of the narrator’s psychological illness and his impossibility to perceive reality objectively. Thus, the narrator suffers from a...
The play “A Doll’s House,” written by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in 1879, refers to the genre of social drama and reflects problems that go far beyond the limits of family psychology. Contemporaries called Ibsen’s works a new drama since his plays contained entirely personal views on problems of...
Summary This paper develops the argument that the poem The Deserted Village by 18th century British poet Oliver Goldsmith is neither a political tract nor a socio-political statement that seeks revolutionary changes but a work of art. As a pastoral poem, it is a valuable specimen of 18th century English...
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Diaz Junot offers an astounding picture of the modern American experience. The narrator and other characters relate the endless and unfathomable atrocities that the dictator in their country committed. Notably, the unfair treatment compelled Oscar’s mother, Belicia Cabral to seek refuge in...
Tombstone I was interested in a book on an environmental issue concerning sustainability and energy. I found the book and purchased it online. The author of the book is a well-known environmentalist, Anilla Cherian. The most relevant data concerning the author can be formulated as follows: Cherian holds her master’s...
Racial pride and personal dignity Langston Hughes conveyed his willpower to write valiantly, brazenly, and impenitently concerning the life of the black working class regardless of great resistance and opposition. Even after he deliberately broke the political ties, he went on writing bold plays and poems that brilliantly expressed the...
The story A Good Man Is Hard to Find written by Flannery O’Connor has many subtexts that underline the author’s religiosity and the desire to promote peace. Nevertheless, the plot itself is frightening, and the actions that unfold, on the contrary, describe the cruelty and injustice of the world. When...
Introduction Tim O’Brien, the narrator in “The Things They Carried” is very engaging in his definitions and explanations of the various ‘things’ that the soldiers carried. These things ranged from physical burdens comprising of ammunition and other social amenities and necessities such as food and medication to emotional baggage such...
Love in a Fallen City Love in a Fallen Society is one of the outstanding works by Ellen Chang. It is imperative to note that Chang faced a very difficult situation when she was still a teenager. Her father was quite ruthless having been a long-term addict of bhang (Chang...
Introduction Summarily, Clarissa Dalloway is a character in the novel “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf is portrayed as the main character of the novel. She evidently struggles to constantly balance both her external and internal lives reflected in the novel. Clarissa’s life basically revolves around glittering surfaces like parties, high...
Introduction The field of international relations has been evolving since the emergence of new philosophies and theories in the 20th century. The emergence of new philosophies and theories in political circles took a discourse process where realists and utopians differed in the manner in which they perceived international relations. Differences...
Introduction Public speaking involves speaking before a group of people. It is a structured process that has a deliberate intention of entertaining, influencing or informing the listeners. It is almost similar to presentation, normally done in business meetings. People involved in public speaking are leaders and highly influential people such...
Introduction It is often the case that an interpretation of the story “the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” focuses on the nature of good and evil and the ability of a person to be just as evil as they are good; yet, such an examination merely scratches...
Book Summary Brother, I’m Dying is Edwidge Danticat’s memoir about her family’s history in Haiti and the United States. The story revolves around Danticat’s father, her brother and an uncle, Joseph. On one early morning on July 2004, Danticat finds out that she is pregnant, on that same day her...
Introduction Hamlet is a story about love which involves lies and betrayal. Human relationship as a theme is very significant in this story. The natural, intimate or logical association between two or more people could be defined as a relationship. A lot of relationships are interwoven in this story and...
Introduction Linda Brent is a pseudonym for Harriet Jacobs in her slave narrative Incidents of a slave girl. The book is about Linda Brent’s life experience as a slave. The storyline is based on the account of her humiliations as she struggles by living a discontented life. The story also...
Introduction Through the Hamlet play, Shakespeare shows that Hamlet – the main character – is deeply influenced by the concepts of death, The Universe, and life in a very profound way. Indeed, Hamlet has a very close relationship with the aforementioned concepts. To illustrate, the character is inspired by The...
In the Sophocles’ famous play, Oedipus Rex, the protagonist Oedipus cannot be held accountable for committing patricide and incest. From the time Oedipus was born fate had already marked him. No amount of running could save him from his fate. The actions he commits of killing his father and marrying...
Literary figures and critics have widely accepted the fact that Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) explores social satire through the character of a small boy. Twine’s famous work The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) was published in1884 in England and 1885 in the...
Through Brown Eyes is a non-fiction novel written by Prafulla Mohanti. It is a lively account of his ventures in the western world. In the novel, he states how he meets and encounters the wrath of racism, prejudice, and colonialism. As an immigrant, the first words of the first page...
Introduction One of the reasons why the Ballad of Mulan (often translated as the Poem of Mullah) is being commonly referred to, as such, that represents a high literary value, is that the themes and motifs, contained in it, are discursively universal. That is, they are capable of appealing to...
Cathedral, the short story by Raymond Carver has a small number of characters who are nevertheless very interesting. They are have been developed by the author of the short story in an excellent way to the level that it is possible to have a comprehensive view of the traits of...
Introduction The novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is a story in the mental hospital showing the events that resulted in the narrator’s escape out of the institution. A huge Red Indian, Chief Bromden, is an inmate who served for a long time in the mental hospital and hence...
Set in a traditional African village, ‘Things Fall Apart’ is a literary fiction that draws its mettle from tradition and traditional African socio-economics. Fiction can be described as an imagined subject that is discussed in context. Chinua Achebe gathered moral evidence of real events that affected the society during that...
Plot summary The story is a first person narration kind of a story. The main character, Sammy, is a young boy of nineteen years. He had just completed his high school education and was therefore waiting to join the university. Meanwhile, Sammy secured a job at a grocery store in...
Alice Walker had a number of aesthetic goals in her short story, Everyday Use. The most pronounced aesthetic goal in the short story is the cultural heritage of any given community in general and for the African American family that is used in the short story in particular (Eagleton 67-68)....
Introduction Contradictions and questionable paradoxes tend to occur in the decision-making of the organizations. In the context of the presented case, it is vital to portray the fact that logical and rational decisions have a tendency to have an adverse effect on the processes while having a destructive nature within...
Victor Frankenstein is the true monster in the novel titled Frankenstein by Mary Shelley because his effort to assume supernatural status results in a creature that inspires horror and disgust in society. This postulation may be opposed by many readers who believe that the creature victor made is the real...
Introduction The poem is about an inward struggle of the speaker between enjoying a triumph and empathizing with the prey. The speaker has just caught a fish that apparently has managed to break free from the hooks of many fishermen. However, the speaker is unable to enjoy his triumph as...
Introduction Katherine and Petruchio are the major characters in Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew. Katherine is a woman in Padua and she is the shrew in the play. She is a woman that is sharp-tongued and has no respect for the men and insults them. Katherine is also...
The novel was written during the Second World War when many people were going through the aftermath of the war. The writer got the inspiration for the novel from the war. The novel features an important character by the name of Bill whose pilgrim’s tales are narrated. The novel reveals...
“Hills like white elephants” is a story that shows the lives of many couples during pregnancy. The author shows the challenges many women face during the process of bringing up babies; where in this case there are a number of challenges that may lead to the couple deciding to carry...
Abstract The literary world has been spiced with varieties of writers who have come up with a myriad of styles in their works. One such writer is the Nigerian-born Chinua Achebe who not only manages to intertwine the old cherished traditions with the emerging Christian ethics but also wove the...
In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; females are portrayed from various perspectives in which different women come out to possess various personalities, different from others. In this book, Charlotte Bronte introduces a very well-behaved young girl who is an orphan; and one who had been severely receiving mistreatments...
Introduction James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902- May 22, 1967) was an American poet, columnist, novelist and short story writer and was one of the earliest innovators of an art form known as jazz poetry. He was a prolific writer and devoted his life to writing and lecturing, he...
Introduction Nowadays, it became a commonplace practice among critics to refer to the 1872 novel Middlemarch by George Eliot as such that continues to represent much literary value even today. In its turn, this can be explained by the fact that despite having been written in the late 1800s, the...
Introduction The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria deals with issues of global dominance. In this book, Zakaria analyses the role that the US has played in both political and world domination. Zakaria reveals that his book is not about the fall of America. He writes that his book is about...
Introduction Twofold winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award, Tennessee Williams is considered to be a writer of a “new generation”, i.e. postmodern generation, whose books concerned vital problems of the time, such as the difficulty of accepting reality, cruelty and violence, abandonment and impossibility of...
Introduction The Question of Hu is a tale that focuses on the story of two men; Jesuit Jean-François Foucquet and John Hu. It was written by Jonathan D. Spence. Foucquet is a French man who wishes to translate Chinese religious texts. He intends to convince the Christian community that Chinese...
Initially written for an adult readership, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger has become increasingly popular with younger readers and now is regarded as a major profound work concerning teenage angst, rebellious behavior, rejection, incomprehension, and confusion with adult world. Holden Caulfield, both protagonist and antagonist, has become...
Introduction Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerilla Warfare in the West, 1861 – 1865 by Richard Brownlee is a non-fiction work, containing reliable information on the warfare in Missouri and Kansas during the Civil War. This book is one of the most careful analyses of irregular warfare in the nineteenth...
Introduction Most people experience problems in their daily life. However, it does not mean that we have as individuals have the capacity and right to judge others and say that all do have no purpose. Holden, the main character in the book The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger,...
The play, Othello, is full of terrible ironies. At the heart of these ironies is the symbol of a handkerchief. The handkerchief is given by Othello to Desdemona. Othello tells her that the handkerchief was made by a sibyl and it was used by his mother to ensure marital fidelity...
Introduction Churches have doctrines that define how activities are conducted. This has been carried on for years and is considered a predictable culture. Churches have therefore depended on tradition for constancy that guarantees continuity. Change that welcomes innovativeness and passion is not easily welcomed. Michael Slaughter wrote a book that...
Abstract Shakespeare’s literal works are characterized by intricate or hidden meanings, complex vocabulary, and elaborative imagery. The type of writing employed by Shakespeare presents enormous challenges to present-day English readers; it is very difficult for modern readers to extract and understand his works. The inherent difficulties are the reason why...
Introduction ‘This side of paradise’ was written at a time when the jazz age was just beginning; it was thrilling and full of fun. However, the end of this era was characterized by failed expectations. Fitzgerald captured both these extremes impeccably in his two literary pieces by illustrating how those...
Introduction According to John Gottman, emotional intelligence is the key towards the realization of a successful marriage, with the basic argument being that a person who is more in touch with emotions is likely to get along well with other people. Gottman further asserts that emotional intelligence is not acquired...
William Shakespeare presents to us two female characters that are quite weak and dependent throughout the text. Gertrude the queen of Denmark, and Ophelia the girl with whom Hamlet, the prince of Denmark has fallen in love are portrayed as to belittle the feminine gender in William Shakespeare’s text Hamlet....
Background The Trojan War is contained in Greek mythology and is based on a tale that suggests that Paris, the then prince of Troy had traveled to Sparta on a mission to abduct his host’s wife. Unknowingly of Paris’ motives, Menelaus the host gave Paris a royal reception. However, when...
The foremost reason why novels The Unfortunate Traveller by Thomas Nash, The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais, and The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (Old Arcadia) by Philip Sidney are being commonly referred to as such that represent a high literary and philosophical value, is that the themes...