Essays on Literary Devices

The poem “If we must die” by the poet Claude Mckay stood out mostly because Mckay is well known for writing about racism especially when it was towards him. The poem was a response to the Red Summer of 1919, which involved a lot of...

A tool consistently employed by the Greeks was that of imagery, and within the genre of tragedy and the epic they have demonstrated their mastery of the device. Imagery within tragedy adds a necessary and otherwise unattainable sub-story to the play through symbolism, while within...

During the battle surrounding Drona’s death in the Mahabharata, the text frames the violent clash in unexpectedly tender terms. Despite the harsh realities of the conflict, the soldiers’ enthusiasm and regard for war is evident, provided that each side adheres to the parameters of its...

Refreshing yet practical, Jim Wallis’ timely book Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street provides a taut argument and solution for the current state of the nation. Both readable and challenging to the inner psyche of the reader, Wallis strips down all...

Too often in literature, novels surrounding a specific time period lack the authenticity of mise-en-scene for the reader. However, author John Dos Passos commits to unique and innovative writing techniques in his novel 1919 (one of the three entries in the U.S.A. Trilogy) to deliver...

Many literary authors use a number of literary devices in their writings. Some of the most common are devices such as similes, symbolism, satire, and alliteration. Many writers try to express their own ideas through their writing in hopes that others will one day read...

Literary Analysis of The Tell-Tale Heart Edgar Allen Poe was born in 1809 and has become one of the most critically examined authors of his time. Poe was an author of many works and has undergone countless critics and attempts at analyses of his work...

Explore the ways in which two short stories vividly create tension and atmosphere Authors Charles Dickens and Ray Bradbury vividly create tension and atmosphere using several key literary devices. In the short story “The Signalman” Charles Dickens creates a sense of foreboding by slowly describing...

FEATURES OF TECHNICAL WRITING Technical writing is sometimes defined as converting the complex ones into simpler ones. It is the form of writing in which the information is represented in such a concise manner that audience can easily get the point without getting confused. Nowadays...

The short story, The Penal Colony, demonstrates various literary elements within the text. The three that I’ll be focusing on to explain in further detail includes the theme, the characters and imagery & symbolism. Although The Penal Colony was written in the third person, the...

In Philip Larkin’s “This Be The Verse,” readers see a swing of three different emotions and opinions from Larkin, in just a short three stanzas: finger pointing, acceptance, and a suggestion. By instantly roping readers in with a risky first line, the poem “goes on...

“Frostbitten Faithlessness” is a short story about a woman’s lack of decision making, and fidelity. Ann is the wife of John, and they live on a farm, presumably in Canada. She seems to be short tempered, and miserable when it comes to her marriage. John...

An adolescent’s life no matter how distressed or stressful it may seem is always entertaining to watch from the eye of a third person as its packed with drama and is something a reader can relate to and empathize with. In the case of “Leopard”...

Life and death are two sides of a coin that all humans must face. Life is a beginning, but its destination that we all human share, is death which is inevitable. The trip from life to death, is sometimes long and can be, rapturous and...

Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is told from a perspective of a young child who has to experience the drunken actions of his father. This poem touches on the issue of child abuse as the poem goes on to describe the acts of violence...

In “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris, the author spends the first part of the book describing his childhood years in North Carolina with his many siblings. He talks about how he had to go through speech therapy, music lessons, and art school....

To fully understand someone, you must first walk in their shoes. There are things you will never truly comprehend until you experience them for yourself, such as genuine failure or even being pursued by an inevitable threat. Richard Connel emphasizes this theme in his short...

“A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story written by Ray Bradbury, the story follows the protagonist Eckels who pays $10,000 to a time travel company called Time Safari Inc, they conduct dangerous trips which consist of taking people back to any time...

The desire for overcoming corruption became a battle for everyone living in those times. The passion that many had and the hope that wasn’t lost kept them stronger. Now, a day’s corruption is not the most popular subject but it’s still around in many places...

Literary devices are a foundation for any written work, they provide a connection from the writer to the reader through language. Details emphasized through literary devices enhance the conflict within the text and often serve to reference real life problems. In Reginald Rose’s screenplay Twelve...

Introduction The courtroom drama has been present for as long as there has been a concept of justice. From Oresteia to The Merchant of Venice to Law and Order, it has been essential in the public’s understanding of both the law and their rights as...

In the essay entitled, “A Hanging,” the author, George Orwell, writes of a Hindu man preparing to be hanged in a Burmese prison by the warders. Orwell, who himself was part of the warders, had to witness the dreadful hanging and later wrote this descriptive...

John Donne’s metaphysical poetic work A Valediction: Of Weeping explores the emotional ending of a relationship between the narrator and his lover, specifically centered around their outward emotional response through crying to express their adoration towards one another. The poem additionally follows the speaker’s developing...

In Sarah Orne Jewett’s “A White Heron”, a young heroine’s adventure is glamorized by exploring her characters essence before, during, and after her symbolic victory of the great, big pine tree. The adventure of Sylvia from the bottom to the top of the tree represents...

Robert Frost’s poetry style associated with a more traditional approach to expressing himself through his work. How Acquainted with the Night was written was in the iambic pentameter and Italian format which consisted of at least 1-2 vowels in each ending sentences’ word. This poem...

“Blackberry picking” by Seamus Heaney is a poem about time, greed, the limitation and struggles of life and the disappointments that follow. The poem is written retrospectively about an individual’s life. Although seemingly written in first person, Heaney is referring to life’s different struggles and...

Claude McKay’s ‘America’ is a poem published in 1921, which examines the themes of love and hatred towards America within the black community. ‘America’ is a wonderful piece of literature, which uses symbolical imagery and the means of meter and rhyme in order to express...

1919, the year the poem was written, was a very difficult time. World War I had just ended, and several troops were returning home. At the same time the Black community was facing high rates of racially charged brutality. The Negro newspapers were morbid, full...

Claude McKay’s work is an authentic representation of the Harlem Renaissance and the struggles of racism and prejudice in the 1920s. The poem “If We Must Die,” written by McKay in 1919, demonstrates the theme of fighting against oppression by using the symbolism of war,...