Essays on Literary Genres

2547

Analysis of White Noise as a Real Dystopia

3 pages / 1247 words

Don DeLillo’s post-modern novel White Noise examines the relativity of meaning in a consumer and media-controlled society. A classic dystopia comments on society’s reliance on the media, and in White Noise, it creates character identity instability and hyperreality. However, White Noise does not completely portray...

Novel Postmodernism White Noise

2548

Confronting The Fear of Death in "White Noise"

3 pages / 1153 words

Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise confronts the primal fear of death much in the way his own characters do– by nullifying or minimizing this otherwise terrifying human phenomenon. What is referred to as “white noise” in the novel is the barrage of modern life that...

Novel White Noise

2549

Reality, Technology, and Simulations; Postmodernism and Post-structuralism in Don Delillo’s ‘white Noise’

5 pages / 2345 words

Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise is a text firmly situated in the modern world. Through the novel, part Postmodernist satire part Post-Structuralist understanding of the world, DeLillo presents an incredibly cynical view of the modern world through his narrator and protagonist Jack Gladney, the head...

Novel Postmodernism White Noise

2550

Don Delillo’s White Noise: Modernity and The Nuclear Family

4 pages / 1982 words

Patched together from different marriages, various mothers and fathers, the nuclear family in Don DeLillo’s White Noise is nothing if not impacted and constructed by modernity. This explication of a typical American lifestyle does not examine the simplicity of daily life but rather the influence...

Novel Postmodernism White Noise

2551

Ritualistic Consumerism: How Consumption Replaces Religion in ‘white Noise’

3 pages / 1442 words

Introduction The concept of consumer culture has garnered significant attention throughout history, with authors and philosophers delving into its various dimensions. In the context of the United States, consumerism often carries a negative connotation, particularly due to the country’s association with surplus and leisure, even...

Novel Postmodernism White Noise

2552

Charles Brockden Brown’s Clara, an Archetype of The Classic Eighteenth-century Woman

4 pages / 1955 words

Although Leslie A. Fiedler calls Charles Brockden Brown the “inventor of the American writer,” and sees the revolt of the European middle classes translating in America to “feminism and anti-intellectualism,” Brockden Brown seems to have a problem imbuing Clara, his narrator in Wieland, with these...

Gothic Fiction Novel

2553

Clara: The Unreliable Narrator

5 pages / 2176 words

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a narrator is: “one who tells a story. In a work of fiction the narrator determines the story’s point of view.” If the narrator is the person that determines the story’s point of view, then what happens when the narrator...

Gothic Fiction Novel

2554

A Fiend in Disguise in Joyce Carol Oates’ "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"

4 pages / 1714 words

A Fiend in Disguise in Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Connie, a 15 year old in Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” is a prideful and churlish girl who has a habit of belittling...

Fiction

2555

The Role of Ambiguity in Literature: Specimen Days

2 pages / 770 words

Art lives in a realm of ambiguity, and it is ambiguity that grants it greater applicability to the average life. In Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham, three narratives lack detail as to draw greater attention to the ideas within the narratives and the idea of...

Fantastic Novel

2556

Anna’s Exploitation in Voyage in The Dark

4 pages / 1703 words

In the novel Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys, we eventually see the character of young Anna Morgan shift from a naive chorus girl to a hardened woman who endures an unending cycle of pain and suffering. At first glance it seems that Anna...

Novel

2557

Convention and Realism in Washington Square

5 pages / 2426 words

Realism, as described by William Dean Howells in the late nineteenth century, replaces the high art and style of the literature of the preceding decades by permitting such characters as Howells’ Silas Lapham to have a distinct place in the pantheon of American literary characters....

American Literature Novel

2558

Morality and Competing Ideologies in Watchmen

2 pages / 1026 words

Despite it being a superhero story, within the graphic novel Watchmen there is no clear assertion of who is to be considered a hero and who is to be considered a villain. Rather, there is a spectrum of morally grey characters, and what is deemed...

Novel

2559

Waiting for Lefty Revisited by Odets

2 pages / 790 words

In his play “Waiting for Lefty” Clifford Odets attempts to stir up the weary American public of the 1930s by providing examples of everyday people who, with some coaxing, rise above the capitalist mess they’ve inherited and take control of their destinies. In his work,...

American Literature Drama Literature Review

2560

Deconstructing Master-narrative: The Postmodern View of History in Volkswagen Blues and Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals

7 pages / 3054 words

History is written by the victorious, the dominating nation, the ruling class, and subaltern voices are overpowered and unheard. Jean-Francois Lyotard, in his The Postmodern Condition, critiques the historical master-narrative, the vision of history as a totalizing narrative schema that reflects a singular perspective: “I...

Diego Rivera Fiction

2561

Burial, Death, and Resurrection in Villette

2 pages / 800 words

Charlotte Brontë’s Villette revolves around the myriad cycles and seasons of life. Lucy Snowe traverses from place to place, witnessing different stages of life and yearning for her own fulfillment of elusive experiences. Lucy’s introspections focus particularly on death, even comparing people to and calling...

Charlotte Bronte Novel

2562

Feminist and Postcolonial Critique of Le Guin "Sur"

6 pages / 2829 words

Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story “Sur” lends itself easily to feminist literary criticism. As a fantasy of alternate history about polar exploration, the story tells of nine women arriving at the South Pole over a year before Roald Amundsen’s all-male team gained the Pole...

Short Story

2563

True Grit: an Alternate Perspective

2 pages / 768 words

What is true grit? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines grit as “perseverance and passion for long term goals.” While the Merriam-Webster dictionary does provide an appreciable explanation of grit, no such definition exists for “true grit.” True grit is far more challenging to place words upon;...

Novel

2564

Identity Controversy and Music in Jackie Kay’s "Trumpet"

2 pages / 873 words

Jackie Kay has created a topic of controversy regarding gender identity in the novel Trumpet. Through the difference in perspectives on the gender of Joss Moody and Millie Moody, the novel contests the absoluteness of one’s identity by proving language’s inability to express it. Kay...

Novel

2565

Obstetric and Narrative Delays in Tristram Shandy

3 pages / 1463 words

Laurence Sterne’s novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is heavily saturated with elements of satire and dark humor. Sterne proposes an argument, through the inclusion of the ‘male’ mid-wife, Dr. Slop, for the restoration of natural delivery methods of infants. His hectic...

Novel