In Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, Milkman’s progression from an immature teenager to an adult possessing moral rectitude is displayed through encounters where Milkman learns about and pursues knowledge about his past. We first meet Milkman as a young man who goes about life without...
Nineteenth century novelists used physical descriptions in their narratives to impose a thematic integrity onto their characters. Flaubert, it could be argued, likewise followed the traditions of realism and moderated Frédéric’s inclinations towards romanticism with an ironic and oftentimes pessimistic tone. Many characters in A...
The Collector by John Fowles examines a battle for power and control between the introverted character of Clegg and the audaciously articulate Miranda. Power is defined as the possession of control, authority, or influence over others (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) that Clegg has been cheated of his...
The Many Doubts of Hamlet C.S. Lewis once said that “the world of Hamlet is a world where one has lost one’s way.” This statement has many truths to it for the play opens at midnight, which represents a world where man is essentially lost...
The defects of the general psychological characteristics, behavioral traits, and emotions of humankind all impact a society. In William Golding’s allegory “Lord of the Flies”, a group of schoolboys stranded on an empty Pacific island make way into savagery because of humankind flaws. Golding asserts...
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, the author, Wiesel tells his story of his life experiences during the Holocaust through the narrator Eliezer. Wiesel wrote this memoir to show people what his experiences were like to survive the concentration camps during the Holocaust. Also...
Children, similar to mirrors, reflect images of what happens around them. They reflect the gestures, wisdom, and personality traits of the adults at an early age, then later carry them into adulthood. This analogy proves that the character of Merlin has a significant impact on...
An experience can allow an individual to gain knowledge and skill in a certain area. It helps people understand the consequences of behaviours and lose their innocence in the process, but also gaining wisdom and maturity along the way. As well, it is a way...
In harsh circumstances, people try to hold onto a thought or memory of a person or idea that gives them long lasting hope. This inspiration lets the hopeless party believe that their situation will improve. In the novel The Handmaid’s Tale written by Margaret Atwood,...
In Henry V, Shakespeare presents the king as a man who is exceptionally deft with his use of language and politics. Henry conquers France in a relatively short amount of time with a small army, and after his victory he declares, “Let there be sung...
Balram Halwai is a protagonist in Aravind Adiga’s epistolary novel The White Tiger, in the sense that he is the primary driver of events in the story, and due to the fact that he faces great challenge and adversity, and overcomes the difficulties in his...
At times, a novel can communicate the most with the stories it chooses not to tell, rather than the ones it does. In Sandor Marai’s moody, claustrophobic drama, Embers, such is the case of the Henrik’s wife Krisztina, a woman who is already long dead...
I believe that Linda is weak for several reasons. Looking into perspective, I realize that a woman in this era would have to deal with the fact that their husband is cheating on her in order to keep the support that he provides for the...
Author Libby Hathorn has drawn on family history and done extensive research to write a fascinating book that profiles two young protagonists, both seventeen years of age, who are related. Maurice, who went to Gallipoli and the Western Front and his great-great nephew, Oliver, who...
Disgrace is a novel written by John M. Coetzee, a novelist born in South Africa, which greatly influenced both his worldview and his creative activities. The fame brought by that particular literary work, Disgrace, is rather contradictory, though. On the one hand, it is the...
The character I chose for this essay is SpongeBob Squarepants. SpongeBob is a very positive, outgoing, and a well- dressed sea sponge. He lives in the Bikini Bottom with his pet snail Gary. His neighbors are his best friend Patrick Star, and Squidward Tentacles. He...
Stephen and John Kumalo are brothers that play a major role in the novel: “Cry, The Beloved Country”. Throughout the story, we learn many different things about these two characters on how they react to different situation and their overall personalities. Unlike normal brothers, Stephen...
Death is not an end, but a new cycle of life through which the deceased get an opportunity to have a more thorough understanding of their life. In The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, Eddie’s meeting with five different people provides...
The Death and the King’s Horseman play is based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria when it was under the British colonial rule, where a Horseman of a Yoruba King was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities. In growth...
In the play ‘An Inspector Calls’, the character of the Inspector is used as a dramatic device in a number of different ways which all help the play to become more interesting and gripping. In this essay, I shall aim to analyse and explore these...
Introduction Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go allows for glimpses into some hidden dimension of a dystopian reality through the eyes of the protagonist’s life; Kathy H. The anecdotal, narrative form of the novel permits Ishiguro to present the protagonists memories and recollections of a...
In William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia seems to be the strong woman, while Helena is seen as weak and easily dominated. In Gohlke’s article, for example, she describes the “exaggerated submission of Helena to Demetrius” (151), thereby voicing an opinion that is common throughout...
In The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton paints an intimate view of New York culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Wharton does this by masterfully presenting a slice of New York, focusing on a few intricately developed characters in New York’s aristocracy....
Anne Frank once said, “We all live with the objective of being happy, our lives are all different and yet the same.” Sometimes we may face a difficult situation such as a death, divorce, or foreclosure that will make life very difficult but in the...
Chapter two of Questions of Character by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. discusses moral codes and how leaders develop their own. Badaracco uses the story Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe to illustrate his message. The story centers around the leader of an African tribe named...
Powder by Tobias Wolff: summary Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is best known because of his short stories and memoirs based on his own life. The famous author was born on June 14, 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama from Rosemary Loftus and Arthur Samuel Wolff, when Wolff’s...
One story that challenges the role of Machismo in men is “Never Marry A Mexican”. In this story, a woman named Clemencia exudes some of the characteristics of Machismo by being compared to La Malinche. La Malinche, in a quick summary, is an infamous figure...
In the novel The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, the author enlightens the reader on the history of a war in America and the “savages” who fought within it by introducing a cast of colorful characters and their journey through the bloody...
Jane Eyre is considered a classic for many reasons: it goes beyond what is expected as a standard, it travels through time, and has a universal appeal. The significance of her character, in both the film and the novel, is unparalleled to any other female...
Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” is a domestic tragedy that centres around the dysfunctional Loman family, most notably Willy Loman – a failed salesman so captivated by the American Dream and his desire to be a good father that it ultimately leads to his...