This paper will discuss The Story of an Hour written by Kate Chopin in 1894. The end of the 19th century became significant for the U.S. society that experienced rapid changes due to the Second Industrial Revolution. However, industrial progress only strengthened the power of gender roles. Only low-class women...
Introduction The story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker tells about the relationship between mother and two daughters with different views and beliefs, and how a mother’s attitude towards her younger daughter changed with time. This story also addresses the topic of cultural identity in a way of how this term...
“Careless Lovers” by Edward Ravenscroft is a comedy that puts forth the wrongs of a society and displays the irony of people’s emotions and morals. It demonstrates how people are led away from the rights that are expected and what is the price they pay later. The characters of the...
Introduction The Devil’s presence can be often seen in a variety of pieces of literature along with pieces of art such as films, songs, paintings, etc. Different descriptions of this mysterious and horrifying person are shown in those pieces of literature and art. In the following paper, the Devil’s presence...
The war in Vietnam…How much pain does this short word combination incorporates. This war can be listed among the strangest and the most unsuccessful military campaigns ever held by the United States. In his book, “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien addresses numerous sad experiences which one of the American...
Caregiving can become a challenging task for a person who is responsible for the well-being of the relative. In her article “Daddy Issues”, Sandra Tsing Loh emotionally discusses her own experience in caregiving. Loh presents her personal story of a caregiver because she was responsible for caring of her 91-year-old...
Ernest Hemingway remains one of the greatest writers in the whole history of literature. This paper discusses and analyses his magnificent creation, which is called “Hills like White Elephants”. Although this novel seems to present a riddle for a non-experienced reader, it describes a widespread situation in today’s world. Therefore,...
Introduction “To be or not to be” — this dictum is one of the most prominent phrases in the world. Hamlet’s famous soliloquy starts with this expression. “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” is a play written by William Shakespeare. The speech under consideration is a representation of Shakespeare’s...
“Death of a Salesman” is a play concerning the disparities existing between the dreams of a New York family and the realism of their lives. This play is a scornful account of the American Dream and of the aggressive, money-oriented American society of the late 1950s. The plot depicts Willy...
Arthur Miller, acclaimed American playwright, essayist, and recipient of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, was a prominent figure in twentieth-century American theater. His Death of a Salesman is considered to be one of the best plays in the history of American drama. The play centers on the common man...
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play retelling a fictionalized version of the famous story of the Salem witch trials. It explores the behavior of the participants and draws parallels with the phenomenon of McCarthyism which was contemporary to the author. The play tells an altered story of the...
Introduction Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is recognized as one of the greatest novels in the United States and the most frequently read classic book in American schools (Levy 15). It depicts American society in the middle of the nineteenth century, showing its low and middle class, and...
The story “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” written by Richard Wright is a vivid example of prose that not only raises the acute problem of social inequality but also conveys a national flavor. Character dialogues are the key means of expressing the main idea, which is likely to...
Introduction The analysis of the literary works of ancient times is the necessary element of the understanding of the culture and the mode of life of people at that time. The plays of Sophocles take an important place in the historic and cultural legacy of Ancient Greece. The plays Oedipus...
Nella Larsen – a novelist of the Harlem Renaissance was a marvelous author to outline and highlight evident and invisible features of the mixed ancestry life. Her book Passing is a very prolific work that showcases the postwar society and what it meant to be born black – possible hardships...
Introduction The Award-Winning author of this book tends to bring to the reader an insight into what took place during the Vietnam War. The book, which was written in the 1960s during the war, gives an analysis of the mistakes made by the American military and the misconceptions by the...
Introduction No wonder tales are sop popular among kids – they tell the fairy stories about magic characters that fill the children’s’ lives with excitement. However, not only the kids are wonderful fairy tales readers, the grownups are frequently involved in tales reading because they bare a meaning much beyond...
Plot This is the story of Oliver, who becomes an orphan soon after his birth. Administrators of the workhouse in which he was born mistreat him and proclaim that he will not achieve anything during his entire life (Dickens, 1). He is taken to a baby farm where he is...
The world is full of different kinds of opposites: water and fire; death and life; winter and summer, etc. But the biggest paradox is that man and woman may appear as the strongest opposition. During all its history the humanity there has always been the contrapositions of men’s and women’s...
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a cultivating play with themes vividly portrayed. From the main character Hamlet to the other characters there is more in what Shakespeare portrays than the actors reveal. Shakespeare wants to express the good and the evil sides of life in the play. In this paper, I will...
Introduction Othello is a very enthusiastic tragedy playwright penned by William Shakespeare around 1603. The play has historical allusion from a short story called “A Moorish Captain”. This historical allusion was written by Cinthio, who was a renowned Italian writer and once a devotee of Boccaccio in 1565. Othello has...
Each nation has great works of literature. If for representatives of the eastern culture the works by George Gordon Byron, Victor-Marie Hugo and many other great writers are considered the works which defined the development of literature for many years, eastern culture was influenced greatly by Confucianism and Buddhism. The...
Introduction There are various names which emerge in history which have been coined together with the Greek tragedy. They range from Sophocles, Euripides among others. Scores of other playwrights also achieved the fame on the same field in the classical antiquity. This has been in the records in very many...
Joy Luck Club is a novel written by Amy Tan. The novel mainly highlights on lives of four Chinese women Suyuan Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Ying-Yingv ‘Betty’ with their daughters Jing-Mei ‘June’ Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong and Lena Saint Clair. They fled from the immense hardships...
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a classic tale from Mesopotamia and among the earliest recorded literary works, some scholars believe that it came out as a string of Sumerian fables and tales about their king (Gilgamesh) who they widely regarded as a hero. The tales are arranged into twelve chapters...
Introduction This essay focuses on The Story of an Hour background. It aims to explain how the short story’s events are connected to the author’s biography. After the introduction, The Story of an Hour background information and short summary are provided. The next paragraphs contain the analysis of the story’s...
Introduction Who is Amanda in The Glass Melangerie? In Tennessee Williams’ play, Amanda is one of the key characters. Despite her difficult circumstances, Amanda in The Glass Melangerie is a strong woman who is deeply invested in her children’s well-being. Still, her interference in their lives often causes conflict. The...
Introduction A tragic hero in a play is a character who plays a major role in the play but later ends up in problems unexpectedly. A tragic hero plays a crucial role in a play by taking a central role in every scene of a play. As a result of...
Introduction The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a book authored by Steve Covey and has 178 pages. This is a form of success literature that mainly focuses on the ways through which one can become more effective. The seven habits of highly effective people is a book that...
Introduction The unforgettable satirical essay “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift is an example of an extremely powerful satire. “It was published in 1729 as an anonymous author’s essay in a pamphlet first” (Go, p. 775). The essay had painted a live picture of the tremendous poverty of Irish people...
Franz Kafka was born to Jewish parents in 1883. He was born in Prague an area occupied by the Germans, the Czech, and the Jews. The Germans were favored by the law and the Czech who made up the largest percentage of the population did not take this favoritism well....
Introduction ‘Gulliver travel’ written by Jonathan Swift has got an important place among the classic of English literature. It deals with the voyage of Gulliver through different countries like Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and Houyhnhnms and he met several people with different cultures. Each of his journeys starts with a storm...
The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin. The protagonist in the play is Louise Mallard, a woman who has been repressed by her husband for many years. The other characters in the story are Louise husband, her sister Josephine and Richards who is a...
Introduction “Cod” by Mark Kurlansky is a story about the enormous impact and influence the cod fishing has had on in the course of human history. Kurlansky observes that, codfish played a key role in the social-economical development of a number of countries and communities in the medieval era. To...
Thesis: William Faulkner illuminates the relations between society and Emily, a typical outsider, a lonely isolated person, whose feelings are hidden behind the walls of her house, while all the connections with the surrounding world are lost and the picture of life distorted. Emily Grierson is the main character of...
Hamlet, by Shakespeare is an example of a tragedy. The story begins with the abrupt death of Hamlet’s father who is the King of Denmark. Immediately after the burial, Claudius who is Hamlet’s uncle marries Hamlet’s mother Gertrude and takes the throne as the King of Denmark. In a dream,...
The clash of different cultures often becomes a subject of literary works. Cultural clash is an interesting and frequently met phenomenon that takes place every time when people of different cultures meet. Dead Men’s Path by Chinua Achebe serves as a bright example of a cultural clash. The matter of...
Oedipus Rex is one interesting story that leaves the reader with mixed feelings about the ill fate that followed Oedipus. The narrative ends with a sad note that leaves the reader wishing that all the effort that Oedipus and Jocasta put in ensuring that they did not end up fulfilling...
Othello by William Shakespeare presents a battle between the black and the white. It puts the symbol of black against white. To start with, black is usually representative of evil while white represents virtue. On another level, it is a struggle between the white and the black race. Moreover, there...
This essay focuses on the point of view in A Rose for Emily. It explains why Faulkner used first person plural in the short story’s narration. In analyzing and understanding works of literature, one of the key factors is the point of view. Point of view shapes the readers’ perception...
Literary critics and researchers have often mentioned that tragedy can arouse pity and fear in the mind of the reader. Hamlet is considered one of the most remarkable tragedies written by William Shakespeare. It is based on Hamlet, a lost play written by an anonymous English playwright. William Shakespeare portrays...
Introduction The play Fences was written in 1983 by the American author, August Wilson. In Fences Wilson examines the trials of black family life in racist America. The family is faced with racial segregation along with unchecked housing and job discrimination forces them to settle for far less than the...
Introduction The focal point of the paper is to compare and contrast the two poems, Theodore Roethke’s poem, My Papa’s Waltz and Andrew Hudgins’ poem, My Father’s Corpse. Though the two poems appear to be on the same plain dealing with the death of father, it is an interesting reading...
Introduction This essay on The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold focuses on the novel’s key message and theme. It contains The Lovely Bones short summary and analysis. The Lovely Bones is the first novel by the American author Alice Sebold that was published in 2002 and that followed her memoir...
Introduction Published in 1906 and set in the early 20th century, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair follows the story of Jurgis Rudkus. He is a Lithuanian immigrant who comes to the United States in search of a better life. Jurgis and his family are faced with a number of challenges:...
Introduction What is the theme of The Story of an Hour? This essay aims to answer the question. It focuses on the theme of freedom and Independence in The Story of an Hour by Cate Chopin. The essay contains summary and analysis of the short story. Kate Chopin grips and...
The three William Shakespeare’s plays, The Twelfth Night, Hamlet and ‘The Winter’s Tale’ share the same theme “gender and sexuality”. In the three plays, the plight of women is addressed (Ralli, 66). Twelfth Night portrays a sexual mess where people go to various heights to win the people they love....
The Idea Of Dreaming In The Play In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, dreaming plays the most important role in the play. The dreams are used throughout the play this is why it is impossible to respond to the question “Who is dreaming?” For instance, if the situation with Hermia...
Introduction Mrs. Mallard is the main character in the short story by the title: The Story of an Hour. Some bad news regarding the death of her husband in a train accidents are received. Mrs. Mallard has a heart problem and telling this news to her has to be very...
Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart” have traits which they share in common, and traits which are unique to one another. Both short stories deal with similar topics, point of views, number of characters, passion, and flawless execution. However, the two short stories differ...
The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley appeared in 1818 and describes the problems of modern science and its consequences for humanity. The uniqueness of the novel is that Frankenstein has literary merits to ‘frighten and amaze’ (Mellor 45). There is much historical interest in the work as an example of...
The novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was authored by the famous Mark Twain and was brought out in 1884. It is normally considered to be one of the Great American Novels and became one of the first of its kinds which opened the door for vernacular American writing, portraying the...
Stephen R. Covey in his number 1 bestseller presents vivid ideas for personal development and effectiveness. It was first published in 1989 and since then; over 15 million copies have been sold in 38 different languages. This essay covers the introductory overview of the book and provides a brief description...
Events in the life of a man are occasioned by circumstances that have been preordained from the start of time. It therefore follows that fate not character is responsible for most tragedies that occur in the life of humans. Generally, human nature has no ability to control the way events...
Leonce and Edna Pontellier live in the United States during the 1800s. During those days, men dominated the patriarchal society while women were considered inferior to them. Leonce faithfully follows societal norms by dominating his wife and restricting her freedom. In one instance, when she returns from the beach with...
There is the popular saying that states – action speaks louder than words. It is the standard that many are judged. There is little value given to words if what a person says does not coincide with his or her actions. But this standard is difficult to apply to Mrs....
Introduction Personal Financial Planning is a very important part of people’s life. It is not a secret that every plant, factory, and other financial organizations have their financial planning departments. Family is also a financial organization, and which budget needs planning. We are not going to speak about week or...
Introduction Chinua Achebe, through his novels clearly depicted the early African society, its culture and traditions, and colonialism which drastically changed the lives of African people. Himself a part of one of the tribal communities in Nigeria, called the Igbo (earlier called Ibo) community, Achebe includes satire in his novels...
Tennessee Williams’s ‘The Glass Menagerie is a play written in the year 1994. The plot of the story figures out the relationships between men and women in terms of their differences of characters and possibilities to express their feelings. The play was entitled like this to show the parallels between...
Introduction William Faulkner, one of the notable American short story writers, was born in an old southern family in 1897. He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi. He joined the Canadian and British Royal air force during the First World War. First volume of his published works was ‘Snopes Triology’. This...
The first part of this essay describes how the main character of the book ‘The Metamorphosis’ reminds the way in which broken or sick people are treated in society. The next part describes how Gregor’s family treats him. Franz Kafka’s ‘ The Metamorphosis’ gives a detailed description of an ordinary...
Revenge An eye for an eye is predominantly seen in Hamlet, the lack of understanding and the impulsive attitude of Hamlet gives the play another dimension altogether. Revenge is not a good thing to pursue but Hamlet chose to do so and together with his impulsive nature, cost him dearly....
In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use”, the author places two sisters side by side for an afternoon of visiting. One of these sisters, Maggie, lives with her mother in a small, poorly built shack on the edge of the country and is planning to marry a somewhat unattractive but...
Introduction As the title suggests, ‘Who moved my cheese’ is essentially a story about two mice and two small people who depended on cheese for survival but eventually realized that their cheese had been moved. The characters reacted differently to that occurrence and their behavior can be interpreted in life’s...
Introduction Fiction can often provide a short synopsis of some significant element of human development. In Joyce Carol Oates’ story “Where are you going, Where have you been?”, the main character, Connie, can be seen to go through a great deal of growth in a short amount of time. Her...
Lorraine Hansberry, an American playwright holds a record for being the first black woman whose drama, ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ was produced on Broadway. She was an author interested in writing stories of individuals, who try not only to defend their dignity but also respect others’ dignity. Born in...
Introduction Edgar Allen Poe both enchants and alarms audiences in “The Tell-Tale Heart.” From psychological mystery to frightening reality, readers are pulled into the narrative of a grisly murder. Throughout Poe’s short story, there remains a rather thin line between imaginative style and downright paranoia. This lends to the ironic...
Poetry has a beautiful ability to pull ideas and emotions out from the depths of one’s being with only a few short lines and a well-chosen metaphor. Through various literary devices, poets are able to paint pictures for their readers that more concretely define the feelings and beliefs that remain,...
Introduction This Ophelia character analysis essay focuses on feminist literary criticism of one of two female characters in Hamlet. The paper offers Ophelia character description, explains its role and importance in the play, and highlights the themes of gender and madness in Shakespeare’s most famous play. Harold Bloom, in “Hamlet:...
Introduction “The Secret Sharer” written by Joseph Conrad is based on the personal memories of the author. The narrator is a young Captain and he himself is the main character of the story. The story begins with a cruise in the Far East. The Secret Sharer is a profoundly interpersonal...
Abstract The Ghost’s revelations make Hamlet vow to take revenge. His vow is strengthened when the play confirms Claudius’ guilt. Hamlet does not to kill him when he is praying but later succeeds in fatally stabbing Claudius with the poisoned sword just before his own death. Feigning madness initially to...
Introduction Nothing makes a story more believable than the life it self. Writing a critique of a book based on a real life story is not an easy task, taking in consideration that some of the judgments willingly or not might consider not the style of the narration but the...
Introduction The issue of the Internet and modern mass media has always been very important since the time when the Internet appeared as a means of communication, conveying information and messages all around the world. In this essay, I am going to consider this issue in respect of the arguments...
Is Romeo a good character? Find the answer in this Romeo character analysis essay. It explains the traits of Romeo and Juliet main character and provide quotes as evidence. Introduction The character of Romeo is the main and the most complex one in Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. The love...
The American theater public initially took notice of “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams when it was staged in Chicago in December 1944. It was presented in New York on March 31, 1945, and ran for over 550 performances. It won popular as well as critical acclaim and is not...
Cathedral is a short story by an American short story writer and poet Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. It was first published in Atlantic Monthly in March 1981. In 1982 it appeared in The Best American Short Stories and in 1983 it became the title story in the Cathedral collection. The...
Introduction Kate Chopin was an American author who wrote feminist theme based short stories. The themes of her stories related to female sexuality, liberation and her works received extensive criticism from moral watch watchdogs of the day and her works were accused of promoting promiscuity. This paper compares and contrasts...
Introduction Troy Maxson is the main character of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences. Troy is a complex character who faces the issues of family, race inequality, and personal responsibility. He is a former Negro League baseball player denied the opportunity to play in the Major Leagues because of racial...
Introduction This essay contains a summary and analysis of Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller. It focuses on sexual abuse as a one of the key themes in Keller’s Comfort Woman. Suffering… Pain… Humiliation…Nightmare… Horror…Hopelessness… All these words can clearly define the novel which goes under the title “Comfort Women”...
Before we start discussing the peculiarities of the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor we should mention that the author is a Catholic and that she tries to integrate her religious beliefs in her stores. Overall, it is quite possible to say that...
The discontent of women over their rights could already be felt as early as the 1800s. However, the nature of a woman’s existence during the time dictated that she remain submissive and keep her emotions bottled up deep within in order to not upset the male populace. This is not...
Introduction One of Robert Frost’s most famous poems, “The Road not Taken” represents a dilemma that is faced by all one that is reflected in our actions and thoughts. This poem includes metaphors that outline the manner in which we decide our fate by aligning ourselves with a certain route....
What starts as a friendly yet competitive conversation about baseball, money, and Cory’s future eventually becomes a display of the generational gap and the different mindsets of the father and son. The two have irreconcilable differences on these issues and while Troy gives logical and pragmatic answers to Cory’s question...
“Hard Rock Returns to Prison…” In the poem “Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane” by Ethridge Knight, the male societies are presented in two settings: in prison and at war. “Hard Rock” is a symbol of slavery. He stands for Black men in general...
Abstract The World Is Flat essay aims at reviewing and analyzing the book of Thomas L. Friedman. The book published in 2005 analyzes the meaning of the concept of globalization in the early 21st century. Primarily, it conveys a comparative figurative language where in the world is flat or level...
Introduction Joseph Conrad, one of the most celebrated novelists of English literature, treats the concept of darkness from the core of his heart in his novel Heart of Darkness. The journey of the protagonist through the heart of Africa, which is the main motif of the novel, suggests how significant...
Introduction ‘The Book of Duchess’ is considered the first narrative poem by Chaucer. It is accepted to be a poem, memorizing the death of John of Grunt’s wife Blanche. The poet tells the story about Ceyx and Alcyone at the beginning. Then the poem moves on to one of the...
Introduction Oedipus the king is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles. It is based on myths, as some of them take place when the play starts. The main character of the tragedy is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. After Laius gets to know from an...
Introduction Huckleberry Finn may be regarded as the most praised single work of American literature. Praised by outstanding critics and novelists, the novel is kept at the stem of the American literature curriculum. In accordance with Arthur Applebee, the work is second only to Shakespeare in the incidence it appears...
Introduction William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” features a strong element of the grotesque as Miss Emily’s secret is revealed. Throughout the story, she is seen as a town oddity, unbending in her ways and adamant about keeping everything the same. This represents a kind of madness in...
Introduction The American Civil War that ended in 1865 did not bring about the expected quick and complete eradication of racism and slavery. Fifteen years later the Reconstruction, specially intended to reconstruct the country, introduce and merge blacks into American society, did not make much headway. Although Mark Twain’s novel...
Holden Caulfield – the main character of the novel “The catcher in the rye” seems to be a nice guy, but he just lost orienting points in his life. He tries to put on the roles of adult life, and in the background of this trying just makes a lot...
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the tragic romance of the 12th century hero, Prince Hamlet who was the lawful successor to the throne of King Hamlet in Ellsinore Castle in Denmark. King Hamlet’s sudden death made his widow Gertrude, the Queen of Denmark, and within two months of the king’s death she...
Introduction The story of Faust while inspiring a lot of modern forms of art and expression, also is known to have inspired a great deal of literature, music, and illustration as well as countless interpretations such as Jungian, Freudian, sociological, alchemical, literary, and classical. Today, many of the classical and...
The Kite Runner is Khaled Hosseini’s stunning debut novel. The Kite Runner is the first novel of the author. Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan émigré living in San Francisco and his novel has received mostly good reviews. Amir and Hassan lost their mothers within a week of their births. It...
The essay involves two famous writers: Elie Wiesel’s author of “Night” and Jean –Jacques Rousseau’s author of “confessions”. We shall discuss their differences in their work using themes or ideas, and also the roles that different styles play in their work. Both writers seem to have a lot in common...
Introduction Edgar Allan Poe, outstanding romantic poet, romancer, and short-story writer, was one of the first professional writers of the United States. From a general point of view the creative work of this singular, original writer belonged to the romantic trend, but the exclusive artistic principles expressed by Poe’s writing...
Flannery O’Connor can most easily be described as one of America’s most distinguished literary artists. She has created a stunning reputation for herself through her novels and the many short stories written during her time. Within each of these pieces of literature are similar styles of writing, techniques, and themes....
A marvelous and breath–taking account of the creation of the universe and the related elements by Timaeus, the dialogue effectively exposes the Greek philosopher’s insight into cosmology. Believed to be a continuation of Republic, Plato’s dialogue, Timaeus – Critias also highlights two connected accounts, that of Atlantis and its defeat...
Introduction Since ancient times, virtuousness and morality were the main qualities of a woman in spite of her age and race. Society supposed that a woman should follow strict moral rules which determined and guided her behavior and actions. Religion clearly stipulated good and wrong behavior patterns, goodness and sins,...
Introduction “It is through a man’s acts that one shall know him.” (Peter Lang, 2000). Judith Butler writes that “identity is performative”, alerting us to the fact that identity can be seen as a series of masks that we present to the exterior world, which hide the self within. Discuss...
Things Fall Apart is considered the first work of literature written by an African writer, which had received acknowledgement worldwide. It is a post-colonial novel, which is widely read both inside and outside of Africa. The reader gets to follow the life of Okonkwo, who is a farmer, a warrior,...
