Essays on Literary Genres

3630

Laughing Bitterly at Poverty: Satire by J. Swift and J. Gay

3 pages / 1359 words

Writer and satirist Jonathan Swift stated that “satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own” (Swift). Such beholders, as Swift mentions, use satiric narrative to convey social and political plights. In his satire A Modest Proposal, Swift...

Satire

3631

Determinism, Love, and Motivation in ‘the Beast in The Jungle’

2 pages / 1029 words

Henry James is considered the master of subtle psychological fiction, and in The Beast in the Jungle he demonstrates the powerful extent in which determinism can reach and bar an individual from any consideration of free will. This situation will be especially probable if such...

Short Story

3632

Analysis of Daisy Miller and The Beast in The Jungle in Regard to Satisfaction

3 pages / 1201 words

In the works of Daisy Miller and The Beast in the Jungle, author Henry James provides readers with multiple explanations as to why it is important for one to live a full life. These two novellas share many broad similarities, including central thematic focuses, a...

Daisy Miller Short Story The Jungle

3633

The Battle of Maldon: How to Describe a Man of Honor

2 pages / 1064 words

The Battle of Maldon uses linguistic tools to glorify the military capabilities of the Saxons, who are in reality the losing side, while minimizing the victory of the invading Vikings. Through use of language the poem eternalizes both individual heroes and traitors, while also reasserting...

Poetry

3634

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman: Role of Characters' Opinions

2 pages / 1041 words

One of the most distinctive and immediately impressive things about Ernest Gaines’ novel, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, is the way the author opens his story with an introduction of a collective of speakers, his cast of character/narrators, so to speak. Gaines weaves his...

African American Culture Novel

3635

The Meaning of Honor in The Battle of Maldon

2 pages / 870 words

When reading The Battle of Maldon, I found myself attempting to grade the noble Byrhtnoth using the heroic code as a rubric. Initially, I doled out poor marks, labeling Byrhtnoth as a failure according to the heroic code. However, after reexamining the poem and critiquing...

Poetry

3636

The Fiction of Stevenson and Mccullers: Stylistic Peculiarities

4 pages / 1719 words

Over the course of several centuries, grotesque imagery has played a vital role in the arts, literature, and cultures all over the world. Attempting to attribute a clear-cut definition to the word grotesque has proven to be a challenge for historians and literary scholars since...

American Literature Short Story The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

3637

Lymon’s Character in The Ballad of The Sad Café

1 page / 436 words

One character in the love triangle described in the novella “The Ballad of the Sad Caf?,” by Carson McCullers, is unworthy of love. Miss Amelia, a businesswoman with manly characteristics and little compassion, gains joy and happiness from Lymon at first and comes to trust...

American Literature Character Short Story

3638

Symbolism in The Art of Travel

2 pages / 840 words

Distinctive representations of the symbiotic relationship between natural landscapes and people are reinforced through personal and socio-cultural contexts. Such representations can be brought about through travel, often renewing an individual’s relationships between real, imagined and remembered landscapes, also their identity. Alain de Botton’s non-fiction, multi-modal...

Novel

3639

Portrayal of Individuals and Scenes in The Art of Travel and Wild

2 pages / 1026 words

Representations of authors’ experiences of particular landscapes hold great significance for their audiences, as they portray the multifaceted relationships between people and landscapes, such as how interactions with landscape shape awareness of identity. This is potently represented in Alain De Botton’s postmodern collection of essays...

Journey Novel

3640

The Assault: How to Recover from Trauma

3 pages / 1502 words

Trauma survivors often cope by investing their entire energy into silencing and suppressing the harrowing events of the past. One such survivor is Anton Steenwijk, the protagonist of Harry Mulisch’s 1982 novel, The Assault. Especially in the first chapter after the “incident”, set during the...

Book Report Literary Criticism Novel

3641

The Overwhelming Feeling of Mortality in Early Literature

3 pages / 1361 words

The Inevitability of Death as Shown by Early Literature Since the beginning of written literature, death, and the evasion of it, has been a prevalent theme. Furthermore, outside of literature, humans as a species have an instinctual fear of death and the unknown that lies...

Fairy Tale

3642

Code of Honor and Class Relations in The Arabian Nights

3 pages / 1209 words

Social hierarchy is a civilization’s categorization of people into ranks of political power and social influence based upon factors such as one’s occupation, wealth, and social prestige (Oxford). The Arabian Nights: One Thousand and One Nights is famous for its series of tales primarily narrated...

Fairy Tale

3643

What Does Mercy Cost: a Comparative Analysis of Two Tales in 1,001 Nights

3 pages / 1458 words

The 1,001 Nights, also known as Arabian Nights, has frequently and loudly been lauded as the quintessential storytelling experience. Although the actual number of tales varies by edition, there seems to be little doubt that not only are the stories themselves veritable treasures, the consistent...

Fairy Tale

3644

Development of Feminism in The Arabian Nights

4 pages / 1708 words

Feminism in a general sense, is a motion promoting equality for women in all aspects of life. In the Islamic faith, feminism has a slightly different modified meaning. Islamic feminism supports the same attitude, basing it on slightly different beliefs, causing the outcome to be...

Fairy Tale

3645

Analysis of Sindbad’s Traits of Character

4 pages / 1961 words

The story of Sindbad the Sailor, found in “The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments” and filled with countless economic transactions, can be understood through the application of different economic models to reveal the motives and driving forces of the principal character. By evaluating the actions of Sindbad...

Fairy Tale

3646

Meaning of Selflessness: Examples from Classic and Modern Literature

3 pages / 1238 words

While being selfless is often thought of as a good personality trait, sometimes selflessness can bring unexpected consequences in our own lives as well as in the lives of those around us. In both the collection of stories known as The Thousand and One Nights...

Fairy Tale

3647

The Meaning of Being an American in Henry James' Novel

2 pages / 761 words

The American by Henry James is a masterly crafted novel that explores the differences between the American and European cultures. Through the main character, Christopher Newman, the author is able to articulate a clear and distinct criticism of American culture in that Americans have no...

American Literature Literature Review Novel

3648

Man Vs Society in "The Age of Innocence"

3 pages / 1438 words

One of the main themes that is recurrent throughout Edith Wharton’s work The Age of Innocence is the ongoing struggle between the individual and society. This is an issue that Wharton was quite concerned with in the novel, and it is reflected in the characters...

American Literature Novel The Age of Innocence