Essays on Literary Genres

3136

The Power of Example: Fantomina and Pamela

6 pages / 2509 words

To act as an ‘example’ is to influence another’s actions. If the effects are, as Johnson claims, ‘powerful’, a responsibility of care accompanies the role of example. This responsibility may seem unnecessary, as the example seizes the ‘memory’, and exists only as a mental influence....

Epistolary Novel

3137

Pamela’s Conflicting Image

2 pages / 1041 words

In eighteenth century England, a prominent social concern arose in regards to one’s social and economic status. Three broad categories of status existed, including the gentry (consisting of aristocrats and nobles), the middle class (consisting of civil servants and merchants), and the lower classes (consisting...

Epistolary Novel

3138

The of Role of Myth in Morrison’s Paradise

6 pages / 2535 words

The power of myth and tradition to shape and control the shared consciousness of communities is a recurring theme in Toni Morrison’s novel Paradise. Morrison uses the residents of the town of Ruby and the nearby Convent to illustrate the irrationality of dogmatic adherence to...

Novel

3139

Nature Imagery in "Out Stealing Horses"

3 pages / 1222 words

After stabbing Captain Hook in an epic sword battle, Peter Pan cheerfully exclaims, “I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg!” This proclamation shows the relationship between adolescence, happiness, and nature. In many ways, Per Petterson’s Out Stealing...

Novel

3140

Doyle’s Manipulation of Language to Create Paddy’s Voice: The Grand National Race

2 pages / 792 words

Roddy Doyle’s novel ‘Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha’, set in 1960’s Dublin, in the fictional suburb of Barrytown, is narrated in first person by Paddy, a 10 year old boy. Doyle effectively crafts the text to reassemble Paddy’s thoughts by manipulating the novel’s non-linear structure...

Novel Voice

3141

Womanhood and Its Implications in Richardson’s Pamela

3 pages / 1395 words

Pamela: or Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson, published in 1740 and set in the first half of the eighteenth century. It is said that this novel went against the aristocratic dimension of the typical romantic themes that the majority of readers...

Epistolary Novel

3142

Tomorrow Will Be Anxious for Itself: a Close Reading of Devotion and Allusion in "Pamela"

3 pages / 1581 words

On page 496 of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, the young woman ponders her account of God’s mysteries. Her story’s strange circumstances provide sight of both personas of Mr. B___: one foul, one noble. Her successful endurance through frightening displays of his physical control over her fuels...

Epistolary Novel

3143

Virtue in Pamela

2 pages / 946 words

In Pamela, Samuel Richardson teaches a religious lesson through Pamela’s pride in virtue, love through purity, and ultimately forgiveness of others. He presents his character as rigorously devoted to God, which often makes her seem vain, manipulative, selfish, and hypocritical. Although she may seem to...

Epistolary Novel

3144

Make Panic Look Fetching: The Eroticization of Rape by Ovid

5 pages / 2476 words

In both the Ars Armatoria and Metamorphoses, Ovid presents highly detailed, compelling scenes of rape, crafting these moments with an almost exquisite attention to detail that reveals their value to him as a writer. Two of the most notable rape scenes in Ovid’s repertoire are...

Poetry

3145

Nature as a Possible Catalyst for Human Connection in "Mametz Wood" and "Father"

2 pages / 980 words

Throughout the collection Skirrid Hill (2005) by Owen Sheers, nature is presented as a significant factor to both the development of personal and cultural identity and to human relationships. In “Mametz Wood” and “Father”, the speaker’s attachment to the earth is apparent. However, moving beyond...

Poetry

3146

Masculinity in The Poetry of Owen Sheers

3 pages / 1552 words

In Skirrid Hill, Owen Sheers explores many themes, one of which is undoubtedly manhood. Throughout the collection, he often focuses in on adolescence and discovering his power as an individual. In this way, it seems clear that Sheers is a poet who explores exactly what...

Poetry

3147

Differences in Perspectives: an Analysis of Oryx and Crake and Maddaddam

2 pages / 1088 words

If one were under a small tree and were hit by an apple that dropped off a branch, the main conclusion one would reach might be that the event was slightly annoying and random. One would then stop thinking about it and go back to...

Novel Oryx and Crake

3148

Plato’s Ideal Society in Oryx and Crake

4 pages / 1737 words

Stories are an important part of society, an element that provides humanity with a way to connect, separate, cry, laugh, be happy or be sad. In fact, life is nothing but a story. Human history is a story. The universe is just a massive collection...

Novel Oryx and Crake Plato

3149

Maddaddam as a Biblical Allegory

2 pages / 804 words

The MaddAddam series by Margaret Atwood serves as a profound exploration of societal themes, with religion standing out as a significant focus. Atwood intricately weaves biblical references and symbols throughout her narrative, evident in names like “God’s Gardeners” and motifs such as the serpents at...

Novel Oryx and Crake

3150

The Stranger Abroad: Ideology and Impotence in Our Sister Killjoy

3 pages / 1202 words

Ama Ata Aidoo’s Our Sister Killjoy: or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint follows a young Ghanian woman known as Sissie and her experiences in Europe.  As Aidoo’s story floats from reflections on Sissie’s sexually charged relationship with a Swiss woman to the emotional letter she...

Fiction

3151

The Transformative Power of Drama in "Our Country’s Good"

4 pages / 1614 words

Wertenbaker wrote Our Country’s Good in order to depict a developmental process for the characters. Through the Howardian theory of redemption, by learning from each other, and by acting in their production of The Recruiting Officer, they transform into what Phillip calls “members of society...

Countries Drama

3152

The Sacrifices of Creating Democracy

3 pages / 1538 words

Brimming with death, destruction, and despair, the plots of Greek tragedies are often considered the darkest of theatrical genres. However, it is this same dismal theme that occurs in one of the most well-known works of ancient Greece, Aeschylus’ Oresteia, working to represent a past...

Democracy Literature Review Tragedy

3153

The Issue of Science Without Ethics as Shown Through Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

5 pages / 2156 words

In the emerging technical age the idea of science without ethics has turned into a center stage issue. Throughout Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake, science without ethics is explored through two dystopian worlds engineered by Atwood all from the eyes of the protagonist Jimmy,...

Novel Oryx and Crake

3154

Approaching Oryx & Crake: The Name Game

9 pages / 3878 words

To narrow the scope of literature, the science fiction genre is a type of storytelling contains different messages from novel to novel. Scholars and literary critics have the right to label a novel in any way they prefer, yet readers have the right to disagree...

Novel Oryx and Crake