The presence of supernatural elements is a defining characteristic of Gothic literature, serving not only to create an atmosphere of fear and suspense but also to explore deeper themes of human psychology, morality, and the unknown. By integrating ghosts, curses, and other unearthly phenomena, Gothic novels delve into the complexities ...Read More
The presence of supernatural elements is a defining characteristic of Gothic literature, serving not only to create an atmosphere of fear and suspense but also to explore deeper themes of human psychology, morality, and the unknown. By integrating ghosts, curses, and other unearthly phenomena, Gothic novels delve into the complexities of the human mind, societal fears, and the thin line between reality and the supernatural.
Analyzing the role of supernatural elements in Gothic literature offers valuable insights into the historical and cultural contexts from which these works emerged. It allows for an exploration of how authors use the supernatural to challenge readers' perceptions and to comment on issues of their time. Furthermore, such an essay can illuminate the enduring appeal of the supernatural in storytelling and its impact on readers' engagement and imagination. Writing on this theme encourages critical thinking about the ways in which the supernatural influences narrative structure, character development, and themes, making it a rich topic for literary analysis.
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These topics are designed to provoke thought and encourage a deeper understanding of various literary genres and themes. They offer a wide range of exploration opportunities for students and scholars alike, providing a platform to analyze novels from multiple perspectives.
In ancient Eastern society, written novels eventually rose to a prominent place in culture, following upon a long tradition of oral accounts and short works such as poetry. In addition, with strict government policy on content, many authors and poets feared punishment and so avoided...
First acknowledged by Francis Galton in 1874, birth order remains a psychological theory within social sciences today. The theory itself states that the order of the birth of siblings establishes certain predetermined traits for each child. According to psychologist Frank Sulloway, as explained in his...
In Carmen Laforet’s Nada, the orphan Andrea arrives in Barcelona full of optimism about her new life in the city. Many critics claim that the novel is a ‘bildungsroman’, a coming-of-age story where the protagonist, an adolescent, matures into adulthood and finds her identity. However,...
The novel Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Houng is a work that represents postwar Vietnam quite well, with the author holding nothing back in terms of her home nations virtues and ailments. So much is her unbridled frankness that the work has long...
Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road unveils the emptiness of suburban life by incorporating a play into the opening paragraphs and then continuing a metaphor of theater throughout the rest of the novel. The novel opens with theatrical failure that foreshadows the evident downfall of Frank and...
The Namesake explores the themes of isolation, identity, clash of cultures and the immigrant experience. Through the Ganguli family Lahiri looks at how the immigrant experience is different for the two generations of immigrants, Lahiri does this by first introducing us to Ashima’s experience and...
The Thief and The Dogs, an intriguing narrative by Naguib Mahfouz, is the story of a man named Said Mahran who had just got out of prison. He was convicted as a thief and feels betrayed by all whom he was close to. One of...
“Brave New World”, “The Day of the Triffids” and “Watchmen” all use their dystopian worlds to engage in moral discussion, critically assessing the morals that the world deems to be ‘correct’. In the face of destruction, the characters in the novels must evaluate their morality,...
In contrast to many other Depression-era novels, in which the teamwork of the common man is seen as society’s glue, Tillie Olsen’s Yonnondio looks with great admiration at one family’s struggle to keep above water. Through the travails of a coal-mining/farming family, Anna Holbrook becomes...
In The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a young girl discovers the importance of the relationship between humans and the natural world. At the start of the novel the orphaned and contrary Mary Lennox is brought from her home in India to her mysterious...
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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...
Suzanne Berne’s novel “A Crime in the Neighborhood” delves into the complexities of a quiet suburban neighborhood when a heinous crime disrupts their idyllic existence. In this analysis, we explore an excerpt from the novel that captures the moments leading up to the discovery of...
Fiela’s Child is a fiction novel by South African writer Dalene Matthee. The narrative is set in the forests of Knysna, South Africa. This novel follows the story of Fiela Komoetie and her family. Fiela is a black South African, and everyday she work hard...
The novel is set in Berne, Switzerland in the spring of 1905. Einstein is twenty-six years old, working on his theory of relativity in his extra time. The novels portrays Einstein’s dreams on physics, time and relativity. The year 1905 has been referred to as...
Nothing sounds better than a vacation to an island for most people, at least that’s what 10 individuals thought at first. In And Then There Were None 10 people are sent to an island for crimes unfathomable to the regular person; they’ve all murdered someone...
It should be impossible to read a nineteenth-century British literature like Jane Eyre without considering the notions of Imperialism and Colonialism. In that age, both of them were crucial and a part of England’s image not only to the British people, but also to the...
In the set of three arrangements, first novel Divergent by essayist Roth has been for sure a science fiction in its trilogy series. So far we have seen the principal half piece of this book where we recognize that Chicago is a city a long...
Abstract Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus is discussed here as a dialogic novel, with a focus on multiple consciousness and the multi-voiced perspective of the characters, and the interpretation of the characters and the novel based on the ensuing consciousnesses. Bakhtin’s idea of dialogism and...
Worlds of individuals can be shifted by the events of tragedy. In Angie Thomas’s novel “The Hate U Give,” she explains the views and lives of individuals that grow from tragedy. Thomas’s interpretation of tragedy is formed through real-life events in the United States, from...
Many countries all around the world exhibit numerous different cultures. Some countries possess cultures that provide unity and upbringing, while other countries’ cultures exploit diversity and tragedies. However, with the concept of multiculturalism, the differences of cultural or ethnic groups within a country are able...
In contemporary society, the notion of beauty permeates every aspect of our lives, dictating standards and ideals that often leave individuals feeling inadequate or unworthy. Scott Westerfield’s dystopian novel “Uglies” intricately explores this phenomenon, shedding light on the detrimental effects of societal pressure to conform...
In Richard Louv’s novel, The Last Child in the Woods, Louv argues that our society’s advancement in technology is furthering the separation between today’s generation and nature itself. Louv’s use of indirectly implying his main idea, having a narrative that consists of countless thought provoking...
All the Light We Cannot see written by Anthony Doerr uses powerful symbols to create a modern take on a old story and provides his audience with new insights into WWII. This utilisation of symbolism adds depth and complexity to his story by connecting the...
The House on Mango Street is written by the Mexican American writer Sandra Cisneros which is a Very interesting novel. The center character of the novel is a twelve years old girl, Esperanza. She lives in the house on Mango Street Which is one of poor areas of Chicago a lot of immigrants are present there, but she is unhappy with...
Shusaku Endo’s Silence follows the experience of the young Catholic missionary Father Rodrigues and his companion Father Garrpe in their attempt to help the brutally oppressed Christians of 17th century Japan. As a 20th-century novel, Silence presents readers with a historically accurate yet captivating account...
Hope in the face of hardship is a recurring theme in much of literature today. As human beings, it is in our DNA to survive—despite circumstances that make it difficult to do so. A human beings innate ability to survive shows itself in the way...
The narrative of disempowerment is one that is woven extensively through Edwidge Danticat’s postcolonial novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory. Placing great emphasis on the politics of the domestic sphere and the stories told between women, the novel spans the childhood and young adulthood of Edwidge’s main...
In the unfinished novel Netochka Nezvanova, Fyodor Dostoevsky portrays Alexandra’s letter from her former lover S.O. as a parallel for little Netochka and Katya’s relationship/friendship. It is perhaps nclear what a 19th century Russian author intended by this arrangement; nonetheless, this relationship whether romantic or...
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...
When you picture Islamic women, the image that immediately comes to mind is a woman cloaked in black, with not one part of her body visible. Even more so, it is hard to imagine this specter as possessing any sort of sexuality. Yet, in Tariq...