Essays on Literary Genres

3193

Human Characteristics as Depicted by Nathaniel West

1 page / 3100 words

The traditional human condition plagues every individual; each suffers, and consequently, thirsts for personal freedom and utter fulfillment in whatever way possible. While Western culture recognizes this tendency as rooted in religiousness or spirituality, most Eastern philosophy understands this human characteristic as ultimate, drawing no...

Fiction

3194

Effects of Segregation in "Mississippi Trial, 1955"

1 page / 820 words

In Mississippi Trial, 1955 by Chris Crowe, the author tells a story about a boy named Hiram who comes back to Greenwood, Mississippi to visit his Grandfather. When he revisits and goes down memory lane, he discovers that a lot of things have changed since...

Fiction Segregation

3195

Characters and Photos in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

1 page / 987 words

Ransom Riggs, an American filmmaker and writer, first got his idea for a novel with pictures when he randomly ran across some sinister-looking vintage photos. Ransom recalls, “the photos suggest stories even though you don’t know who the people are or exactly when they were...

Fantasy

3196

Necessity and Morality in Defoe's Moll Flanders

1 page / 2259 words

Much of the critical debate surrounding Daniel Defoe’s novel Moll Flanders centers around whether the author makes good on the promise he makes in the preface that the story will be morally instructive. For instance, Ira Konigsberg writes that “One of the book’s contradictions that...

Book Review Morality Novel

3197

Destructive and Heroic Acts in Mister Pip

1 page / 1194 words

The conflict between Papua New Guinea and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army between 1988 and 1998 has been described as the largest conflict in Oceania since the end of World War II. The novel Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones examines the impacts of war on the...

Fiction

3198

Social and Cultural Constraints in Midaq Alley

1 page / 2373 words

The seventy-year-old Moll Flanders who narrates her own life story considers herself a reformed criminal. But to what degree should her perceived transgressions cause her to actually be understood as such? After all, Defoe’s novel makes it clear that a number of different factors ultimately...

Book Review Novel Society

3199

Effect of Flashbacks on The Present in The Novel Monkey Beach

1 page / 748 words

Throughout Monkey Beach, author Eden Robinson effectively alternates passages transitioning between the present and flashbacks of Lisamarie’s life. It is through these flashbacks that Robinson is able to offer the reader a deep insight into Lisamarie’s childhood and upbringing. By placing these flashbacks in between...

Fiction

3200

Black Oppression in Preceding Apartheid as Depicted in Mine Boy

1 page / 1611 words

Peter Abrahams’ Mine Boy illustrates in beautiful and haunting prose the oppression black citizens of South Africa faced in the years preceding apartheid. The country’s white minority imposed its power over black South Africans in several ways, the most significant of which are succinctly listed...

African American Fiction Oppression

3201

Symbolic Levels Stated in Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts

1 page / 3128 words

With its alternately overt and subtle use of symbolism, Nathanael West’s ‘Miss Lonelyhearts’ works on three separate yet interrelated symbolic levels: a simple symbolic level, in which objects, people, and events in a particular scene are representative of one small symptom of the overall weariness...

Fiction

3202

The Order and Meaning as Potrayed in Miss Lonelyhearts and The Crying of Lot 49

1 page / 992 words

In Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts and Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, the protagonists embark on a quest for order and meaning amid the chaos of modern America. While both novels illustrate the potential for meaninglessness within the chaotic landscape of contemporary life, West’s...

Fiction The Crying of Lot 49

3203

Main Character's Battle Between Apollonian and Dionysian Duality in Miss Julie

1 page / 780 words

In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzche discusses at length the duality inherent in the development of art. This duality is caused by two opposing principles termed Apollinian and Dionysian. These two principles are employed in August Strindberg’s Miss Julie through the main character of Miss...

Literature Review Tragedy

3204

Personification of The Sins of Midaq Alley

1 page / 1521 words

Throughout Naguib Mahfouz’s 1947 masterpiece Midaq Alley, the alley’s microcosmic nature turns its powerfully crafted characters into living renditions of sin. More specifically, Mahfouz creates characters to represent the Christian church’s Seven Deadly Sins, with almost each and every character fitting perfectly into a respective...

Fiction

3205

Human's Bird Nature in Symmons Roberts Hitchcockian

1 page / 891 words

Symmons Roberts presents to us the idea of primal instinct and savagery which still is a part of human nature; he is comparing our natural demeanour to that of birds. The poem is obviously not about birds attacking people despite the link to the Hitchcock...

Poetry

3206

Women's Fight for Gender Equality in Midaq Alley

1 page / 2851 words

Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, Midaq Alley, is a story about a group of people living in an alley in Egypt in the 1940’s. Already, from that description, the reader can see that the women of this tale have a significant disadvantage in equality. Surprisingly enough, the...

Fiction Gender Equality

3207

Analysis of Middlesex as a Modern Epic

1 page / 963 words

Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel Middlesex is one full of interesting and somewhat unique themes. There is no question as to why the work has gone so far as to win a Pulitzer Prize: it follows a pattern that has proven successful for thousands of years. Just...

Novel

3208

Impact of The Past on The Present in Middlesex and The Lacuna

1 page / 940 words

Although the past has chronologically been removed from present time, “the past is never dead and buried. In fact it’s not even past,” said William Faulkner. The theme of time is a common expression in American literature, as is seen in The Lacuna, by Barbara...

Novel

3209

The Theme of God and Humanity in "Metropolis"

1 page / 1206 words

Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction epic, Metropolis, recalls the Christian creation and apotheosis narrative through a dystopian lens. The main characters in Metropolis personify Jesus and his apostles and close associates in a postmodern society. The city of Metropolis itself represents the relationship between humanity...

Science Fiction

3210

Technological Impact in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis"

1 page / 2819 words

Shaken by the effects of World War I and forever changed by the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, 1920s Germany found itself in a dilemma: how to cope with increasingly pervasive technology and the rapid evolution present in every segment of society? With technology...

Science Fiction

3211

Oppression of The Poor by The Rich in "Metropolis"

1 page / 1343 words

From the beginning of Metropolis, there is a stark divide between the upper class and the working people. We see working people walk like soldier into huge elevators, heads hanging in clear misery, descending into what we can only assume is their version of hell,...

Movie Review Science Fiction