Edith Wharton’s novel The Age of Innocence lends itself as a work of social criticism against the tyrannous ideals of Old New York society through the experiences of Newland Archer and his torn love between two women. Wharton’s plot, set in the late nineteenth century,...
In James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, the narrator presents the story of his life as a black man passing as white, and the different stages he progresses through while doing so. In both his life and the lives of many black...
The Silent Retreat: Indian Removals as Represented by Hobomok and The Pioneers The historicity of the Indian removals that took place during the 19th century in the United States is one that has been embellished in literature and dramatized in film. The most poignant of...
Although Edith Wharton describes a society that had disappeared in order to make way for the progress of a later age, she both criticizes and lauds the unrecoverable culture that helped to define New York City in the 1870s. Throughout The Age of Innocence, she...
Depicting a world where the struggle to survive is elemental, two incisive narratives emerged to describe what life was like during the Dust Bowl. Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time comprises a non-fiction description of life following actual figures and stories of people who had...
The indefatigable spirit of unity emerges as the one unfailing source of strength in John Steinbeck’s migrant worker classic The Grapes of Wrath. As the Joad family’s world steadily crumbles, hope in each other preserves the members, sense of pride, of courage, and of determination....
John Steinbeck’s novels The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men enable readers to capture a glimpse of the time of the Great Depression in the United States. In The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family of Oklahoma, accompanied by thousands of other farming...
In literary history, authors often mirrored the social situation of its time through their works. For this reason, many of the greatest works were seen as representations of some social affairs, wars, political movements and other occurrences of the period of time during which the...
Nourishment as a Symbol in The Grapes Of Wrath In The Grapes of Wrath, families traveling to California suffer starvation and exhaustion because of malnourishment. The Dust Bowl is a physical embodiment of their starvation. Possibly more important than the physical nourishment is the mental...
Reading Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, Toni Morrison thoughtfully explores the importance of African Americans in the American literary imagination. Morrison shares her concerns with American language and the American literary imagination being both characteristically white, and questions the impact of...
Aye and Gomorrah is a short science-fiction written by Samuel R. Delany that dives into the themes of sexuality and social norms. The story highlights the abnormal relationships between two marginalized communities and the struggles they undergo trying to understand their situations. Although the novel...
“And they lived happily ever after.” This picturesque phrase can hardly be described as a typical ending to a Flannery O’Connor work. In a ‘standard’ O’Connor piece, one can expect to find several allusions to religion, sardonic situations, and demented characters. “The Life You Save...
Character List Mick Kelly: A young girl who is always in her own world, constantly thinking about music and wanting to go to a different country. She lives in the same house as Singer, and many other characters. She is tall and thin with blonde...
Love—of one kind or another—is the main motivator of Miller’s characters in this play, and drives the major events of its plot. Catherine’s love for Rodolfo and Eddie’s intense love for Catherine lead to the central problems of the play. But even before this, it...
A family functions like a grapevine; its coarse green vines intertwine from the dusty dirt that conceals the intricate network of roots to the first cluster of sweet grapes that grow in the hot California sun. Similar to the growth pattern of a grapevine, the...
Bret Harte’s fiction contributed largely to the development of the Western as a literary genre. One of the earliest authors to fictionalize the American West, he spun humorous yarns depicting the offbeat gamblers, prostitutes, miners, and outright outlaws of 1850s California. These social deviants take...
The Whitening of Souls: A Note on Shame, Internal Monologues, and White Hegemony In James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the unnamed protagonist lives his life walking the line between white and black. He is a man who can choose to be...
Devastation through Segregation Did you know that the state of Mississippi did not officially abolish slavery until February 7th, 2013? Although slaves have not worked the fields of Mississippi since the Civil War ended, evidence of racial prejudice has far from disappeared. On a recent...
Man’s search for spiritual fulfillment in their lifelong escape from emotional isolation has been a common theme in literature of all cultures. In The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, a feminist American writer, this spiritual search is reflected in the lives of...