Essays on Literary Genres

2585

Perception Versus Truth in Roethke’s "In a Dark Time"

2 pages / 866 words

In Theodore Roethke’s poem, “In a Dark Time,” the speaker crosses over into the undiscovered world of insanity and communicates perceptions that others have disproved. Likely representative of Roethke’s own personal struggles with schizophrenia, “In a Dark Time” displays the thought process of a disturbed...

Poetry

2586

Applying School Skills in Life: The Message of The Wednesday Wars

3 pages / 1523 words

In the book the Wednesday Wars, Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader at Camillo Junior High in suburban Long Island in the 1967-1968 school year, with the entire book set in the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Holling’s teacher is Mrs. Baker, whose husband is...

Lying Novel

2587

Coming to Terms with Race in The White Boy Shuffle

3 pages / 1479 words

In his novel The White Boy Shuffle, Paul Beatty conveys what it is like for a young African American male to grow up in Santa Monica, a coastal town heavily populated by chauvinistic Caucasians with social dominance – at least in the eyes of protagonist...

Novel

2588

A Lack of Confrontation: Repression and Evasion in The Work of John Irving

10 pages / 4570 words

In The Cider House Rules, Homer, the protagonist, after stifling all of the uncomfortable situations in his life would “lay awake [at night] because the phantoms of those days were not gone” (312). While Homer liked to think that he was in control of his...

Fiction

2589

Woolf, Eliot, Modernism, and The Faith of Early Feminism Versus Victorian Values

5 pages / 2404 words

The works of T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf represent the eve of first-wave feminism, where traditional Victorian principles have been challenged by controversy in the Royal Family, the more assertive role that women played in the First World War and receiving the vote for women...

Modernism Poetry

2590

Lightness Vs. Weight: Kundera’s Persuasive Argument in The Unbearable Lightness of Being

3 pages / 1234 words

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is as much of a philosophical work as it is a fictional story, not following a typical plotline. The novel includes multiple interwoven plotlines surrounding different characters with the same events being narrated many times from different characters’ points of...

Book Review Critical Reflection Fiction

2591

A Life of Flawed Virtue in The Vicar of Wakefield

2 pages / 948 words

Introduction In The Vicar of Wakefield, although Charles Primrose portrays almost flawless virtue, he retains two major flaws, pride and obstinacy, which lead to many complications in his family’s life. The Primrose family suffers from the retribution of these flaws until they are finally purged...

Novel Victorian Era

2592

The War of The Worlds: a Critique of Imperialism

3 pages / 1524 words

With the close of the 19th century and the dawn of the 20th, much of the world was changing. In particular, world literature was shifting from the ideals of Romanticism to the stark realism of novels written after the Great War. At the beginning of...

Novel Science Fiction War of The Worlds

2593

Martians in Wells’ "War of The Worlds" and Movie Adaptions: Cultural Imperialism

4 pages / 2027 words

The Martians in the book and the movie The War of the Worlds are a metaphor for the evils of cultural imperialism because their arrival severs the most important means of communication and transportation technology, challenges religion, and leaves identity unclear. The Martians in The...

Novel Science Fiction War of The Worlds

2594

Role of Superstition in "The Tiger’s Wife"

3 pages / 1428 words

Fear is one of the strongest emotions experienced by humans, so much so that it plays a drastic role in influencing the actions of men and women. This concept is one that appears frequently throughout Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife, a riveting tale of the...

Fiction

2595

The Search for Male and Female Salvation and Acceptance

2 pages / 1031 words

The Tin Flute by Gabriel Roy is a Canadian fiction set up in the early 1940’s during the Second World War when Canada was going through the great depression. The book revolves around characters who strive to find romance, alleviate poverty and overcome ignorance amidst...

Fiction

2596

Dogs in Cages: The Dangers of City Living in Ann Petry’s The Street

3 pages / 1163 words

In Ann Petry’s novel The Street, even the most simple, everyday objects take on fiendish personalities and shifting, threatening aspects. From the cruel wind in the story’s opening chapter to the hard, bitter street itself, glaring situational cruelty and injustice brings vivid color to the...

African American Culture Novel

2597

The Theme of Church in The Works of Philip Pullman

5 pages / 2069 words

Lord Acton, a British historian, once said “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Over the course of human history, the Church has been the focus of many criticisms, including but not limited to the relationship with the state, the persecution of heretics,...

Fantasy Literature Review Novel

2598

Manifestations of Love and Longing in The World of Tom Ripley.

5 pages / 2236 words

In the book The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, we are introduced to one of the most fascinating and puzzling characters in modern literature; Tom Ripley. Tom Ripley is a character who is both contradictory and simple in his desires. He wants the approval...

Novel

2599

The Uncanny and Diagnosis of Mr. Ripley: a Freudian Approach

5 pages / 2116 words

Patricia Highsmith, the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley, portrays a protagonist on the precipice of insanity. Mr. Ripley shows many qualities of a person with borderline personality disorder, or more commonly called: a psychopath. A book titled, The Mask of Sanity by Hervey Cleckley,...

Novel Sigmund Freud The Uncanny

2600

Infidelity in Victorian England: Double Standards Based on Gender and Class

6 pages / 2553 words

Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wild fell Hall is a novel in which the plights of the female protagonist overlap with the issues faced by the majority of women in the Victorian Era of England. The book raises questions of the Brontës’ family’s sisters own...

Novel Victorian Era

2601

Societal Shifts in The Victorian Era: Marriage, Men, and Domesticity Analyzing Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

4 pages / 1758 words

The Victorian Era is defined by the societal alterations that developed over the time period. This is particularly true when concerning wives, mothers, domesticity, and the like. Throughout portions of Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall the relationship between Helen and her aunt, Peggy...

Novel Victorian Era

2602

Sexual Escapades of a Magical Midget: The Meaning of Oskar’s Encounters in The Tin Drum

3 pages / 1445 words

The narrator and protagonist in Gunter Grass’ novel The Tin Drum is unique in not only his stature, but by his mental progress as well. He chooses to stop growing at the age of three and does not speak, except through the beating of his...

Human Sexuality Novel

2603

Characters' Use of Magical Realism in The Street of Crocodiles and See Under: Love

4 pages / 1786 words

There are a handful of logical approaches and techniques that human beings use to rationalize and understand situations we are not completely sure of. When placed in a situation in which we feel trauma or fear, our immediate reaction is to concoct a way to...

Short Story