Essays on Literary Genres

2528

Zamyatin’s "We" and The Garden of Eden

3 pages / 1347 words

In Yevgeny Zamyatin’s dystopian novel We, the reader sees what was supposed to be a utopian society. From the characters’ painfully regimented daily lives to the clandestine desire to break free from the monotony of OneState, we see that not all is perfect; freedom does...

Fantastic Novel

2529

The Landscape of D-503’s Mind

2 pages / 738 words

Zamyatin’s excerpt “Evening…. digestible concept, by…” illustrates the landscape of D-503’s shambolic mind, in order to establish the roots as the irrational pursuit of perfection. Zamyatin begins by establishing the metaphor between the terrestrial world and a notion of paradise, in which there is perfection....

Fantastic Novel

2530

Analysis of The One-state Society in Zamyatin's Novel We

4 pages / 1747 words

In Zamyatin’s We, the One-State society is structured to eliminate all aspects of life that may contribute to negativity. A totalitarian government controlled by the Benefactor sets up a world in which people – referred to by numbers – do not have to make choices....

Fantastic Novel

2531

Water Imagery and The Emotional Status of D-503 in We

3 pages / 1348 words

When it comes to innovative stylistic and thematic techniques in We, Zamyatin does not disappoint. Every detail of this novel is deliberate, from the colors of objects to characterization of names. While a heavy emphasis is often placed on the dystopian aspect of We, just...

Fantastic Novel

2532

Effects of Conformity on The Individual and The Society

4 pages / 1758 words

Robert Anthony once said, “The opposite of bravery is not cowardice but conformity”. Zamyatin’s We depicts the advantages and disadvantages of conforming to a small group of people, an authoritative society in general, and to the extreme totalitarian society of OneState. Through the heroic actions...

Fantastic Novel

2533

The Question of Outsiders as Victims: Analyzing The Wasp Factory and We Need to Talk About Kevin

6 pages / 2531 words

Throughout the novels – Iain Bank’s The Wasp Factory of 1984, and Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin from 2003 – the authors depict the protagonists as subversive outsider figures, as they each have only one friend – Frank’s Jamie, whom he can...

Novel

2534

Skipping Church on Sunday Morning: an Examination of The Rejection of Systems of Truth in Wallace Stevens’ Poem "Sunday Morning"

7 pages / 3179 words

Wallace Stevens, it seems, never spoke a great deal about his poem “Sunday Morning.” Because Stevens gives us very little insight into his own thoughts, it is important to examine the thoughts of other critics before analyzing a poem such as “Sunday Morning.” In an...

Poetry

2535

Realism in The Graphic Novel Watchmen

2 pages / 1107 words

In the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, a more realistic depiction of the superhero figure is achieved by allowing genres to be imbedded separately within the thoroughly developed identities of Rorschach, the Comedian, and Dr. Manhattan. Rather than being bound by...

Novel

2536

Analysis of "Nuances of a Theme by Williams"

3 pages / 1157 words

The title of Wallace Stevens’ poem “Nuances of a Theme by Williams” implies that he intends to comment on, possibly celebrate, and almost certainly explore the potential distinctions and variations available in the poem by William Carlos Williams titled “El Hombre.” Stevens includes “El Hombre,”...

Poetry

2537

Comparison of The Novels Brave New World, Watchmen, and The Day of The Triffinds

11 pages / 5067 words

“Brave New World”, “The Day of the Triffids” and “Watchmen” all use their dystopian worlds to engage in moral discussion, critically assessing the morals that the world deems to be ‘correct’. In the face of destruction, the characters in the novels must evaluate their morality,...

Brave New World Dystopia Novel

2538

Heroes and Anti-heroes in Comics: Alan Moore's Watchmen

4 pages / 1657 words

In comics, it’s never hard to find a good villain to go with every hero: Superman has Lex, Batman has the Joker, and Space Ghost has Zorak. In fact, it’s difficult to find a classic comic in which there is not a clear protagonist and...

Novel

2539

Native Births: The Isolation and Independence of New Mothers in Waterlily

3 pages / 1329 words

Ella Cara Deloria’s novel Waterlily carefully considers the role of women, not only as respectful instructors of etiquette, dedicated sisters, and hospitable homemakers, but also as the primal maternal beings responsible for birthing the tribe’s newest generation. One of the supreme duties of these women...

Novel

2540

Imagination Vs. Reality: "The Poems of Our Climate" and "The Snowman"

3 pages / 1374 words

Wallace Stevens is known for his philosophical meditations on the dual nature of existence throughout his poetry. According to Stevens, poetry should not be concerned with either the body or the mind, but rather “an interdependence of the imagination and reality as equals.” It is...

Poetry

2541

The Life of The Party: Hedonism in Wallace Stevens’s "The Emperor of Ice Cream"

4 pages / 1601 words

An event marked by sex and celebration, the wake in Wallace Stevens’s “The Emperor of Ice-Cream” is inescapably bizarre. Though one might expect an air of sobriety, importance, or – at the very least – reflection to characterize a discussion of death, the poem’s language...

Poetry

2542

Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable: Escaping Through Mimicry and Mimesis

4 pages / 1686 words

Untouchable describes a day in the life of a young sweeper boy, Bakha, who has been denied even a chance for a free and open-air walk because of his occupation. The novel introduces the caste system of rural India as the setting, and portrays a...

Novel

2543

Venus in Furs and Freud's Theory of Masochism

6 pages / 2572 words

Within Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch’s novel, Venus in Furs, it is possible to see several aspects of Freud’s proposals about the male and female masochistic fantasies, as well as some congruities with masochistic theories from more modern psychologists. The protagonist of the story masculinizes his aggressor,...

Novel Sigmund Freud

2544

The Forces of Nature in Villette

2 pages / 1037 words

Supernatural events and portents are a major theme in Charlotte Brontë’s Villette. While Brontë never crosses into a truly magical realm, it is clear that Lucy Snowe believes that certain events pertain to the supernatural world. Forces of nature play a large part in Villette,...

Book Review Novel

2545

Moral Obligations in The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Through Thoreau's Ideas

4 pages / 2040 words

Written as an allegory for slavery and the way it affects the people who employ it, Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” questions just how much of an impact living in a society has on one’s willingness to act in ways...

Short Story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

2546

White Guilt and Privilege in Underground Airlines

2 pages / 875 words

Underground Airlines traverses many social and political climates, namely, the tension that exists between privileged whites and oppressed blacks. While Ben Winters’ novel is set in an imagined future where institutionalized slavery still thrives in the South, the novel points toward the systematic oppression that...

Fiction White Privilege