A means to an end: Reconsidering the use of stereotypes in the graphic narrative
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
After reading the first fifty-two pages of Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese, one may wonder if the reviews that appear on the back are even referring to the book on which they are printed. While Derek Kirk Kim proclaims, “As an Asian American, American Born Chinese is the book I've...
America: No place for free blacks? Navigating "freedom" in Uncle Tom's Cabin
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
Since my first experience with Uncle Tom's Cabin in high school and in further studies, I've struggled with the question of abolitionism and the societal value of the African-American characters in the novel. More broadly, one of the reasons I enrolled in this course was my interest in...
The politics of race and female empowerment in wide Sargasso Sea
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
Miscegenation, an act that was illegal in America until the 1967 ruling of Loving vs. Virginia, is not uncommon in literature and not limited to the human species. We know of Moses marriage to an Ethiopian woman (King James Bible, Numbers12:1); in the Arabian Nights we know of King Shahryar's...
Split personalities and an odd love triangle in Ford's The Broken Heart
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
John Ford's The Broken Hear t has been said to be written as homage to Sidney's Astrophel and Stella and to his love affair with Penelope Rich. While this could be true, Ford offers a similar love triangle between Orgilus, Penthea, and Bassanes. Orgilus and Bassanes have clear parallel roles to...
Classical cannibalistic myths: Revenge as an appetite in Titus Andronicus
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
Vengeful acts, especially in Renaissance drama, are often countered by a more heinous act of violence. Titus Andronicus plays by this common rule with its climatic scene involving a mother forced into cannibalizing her children. The mode of this final vengeance is inevitable due to the fact that...
The plot against people: Critical analysis
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
In “The Plot Against People,” Russell Baker writes about inanimate objects and the three major categories they can be classified in; those that don't work (A), those that break down (B), and those that get lost (C). The way this essay works is that Baker describes various objects with...
How the ex-colored man's identity is constructed
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
From the beginning of his tale, the ex-colored man admits to a vague feeling of “unsatisfaction, of regret, of almost remorse.” As the story is told, it becomes clear that these confused emotions are the result of a confused identity. The narrator struggles not so much under the...
Reginald Rose biography
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
Understanding Reginald Rose's life goes a long way toward understanding the recurring themes within his work. Indeed, most biographies on Rose focus almost exclusively on his work. Considering how prolific of a writer he was, it is safe to say that in many respects his life and his work were...
An essay on Chess by Rosario Castellanos
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
In this essay I will be analyzing and interpreting the poem “Chess” written by Rosario Castellanos. The analysis will explore the elements of poetry found in the poem as well as the style and structure of the poem. The interpretation will cover the poem's theme, emotional tone, and...
"I Am We": The duality of being one
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
Who am I? Asked, the response begins: “I am…,” followed by the concept upon which the individual forms his or her identity. America has built itself upon this exchange, accenting the importance of the “I,” of the individual, and his or her ability to construct his or her...
Through space and time: Reality and experience in the modern age
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
Modernism marked the collapse of structures that had defined the individual and the relationship of that individual to the world. Rapid changes in religion, science, and politics revealed the gaps in society's ideologies. The institutions that had once provided the foundation of English society...
Catcher in the Rye
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
On the surface, Holden Caulfield, a dejected surly teenager, from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye and Oskar Schell, an outgoing nine-year-old boy, from Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close could not be more different. However, both boys have undeniable connections to...
Lolita in book and film
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
The difference between the character Clare Quilty in book and film of Lolita are huge. In the book by Vladimir Nabokov, Quilty is hardly seen or heard of until the very end of the book. However, in the film directed by Stanley Kubrick he is anything but subtle. The reasons for Kubrick wishing...
Hierarchies, judgment, and god in their eyes were watching God
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
In Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the world which she portrays is one revolving around hierarchal order. Hurston illustrates the city of Eatonville as a self-contained black community; however, the exclusion of white characters from the novel does not elicit a lack of...
The importance of conflict in the short stories we have read
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
Conflict is the opposition of persons or forces that gives rise to the dramatic action in a drama or fiction, (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary). A conflict is the fire that drives a story; it develops the characters and draws the reader into the story. Without a conflict a story would be a...
Black Othello: A question of definition
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
Is William Shakespeare's Othello really black? That depends. It depends on the specific definition of the word "black." Taking the word at face value in our contemporary society, the word tends to describe a specific cultural community of peoples derived from or near the continent of Africa....
Thaddeus Lowe and his work on aerial reconnaissance
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
His parents were named Clovis and Alpha Green Lowe. Only people with such idiosyncratic and anomalous names could name their child Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe. Consequently, his friends called him Thad (Sims). Born August 20, 1832 in Coos County, New Hampshire, Thaddeus Lowe was a...
Remate and autobiography in Islands in the stream
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
There are countless examples of the overlaps in characters, settings, and events that make the case for the connection between Hemingway and the characters he creates in his literature, and Islands in the Stream is no exception. Of particular interest for this essay is the author's...
Mario Conde, Hamlet, Padura
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
González traces out the minimalist treatment of historical time in Padura's Four Seasons, while also highlighting the “residue of trauma” issue that runs through Padura's novels. In addition, González makes a keen comparison between Padura's Mario Conde and Shakespeare's Hamlet as...
Morella, her name and the spirit-death game
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
In chapter eight of González' “Cuba and the Tempest” (2006), the author takes an innovative look at Poe's Morella and extricates one of its hidden ideas, the More-of-Her complex. His founding wordplay based on the story's title to describe the theme may prove to be insufficient though,...
George Kennan's Crystal Ball
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
George Kennan (1904-2005) was an American advisor whose writings served President Truman and his administration. In his writings, “Sources of Soviet Conduct” and “America and the Russian Future,” both published in Foreign Affairs, he shed insight into the thinking and motives...
Alfred Hitchcock's 'Shadow of a Doubt'
Thesis - 1 pages - Literature
Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt is an indictment of the American middle class lifestyle. This is evident in two scenes which together act as a sort of point/counterpoint of lifestyles. One is the opening sequence of the movie, in which we as viewers are slowly introduced to Uncle Charlie,...
A review of Things fall apart
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart brilliantly relates to the reader the story of one man's life and chronicles its disintegration. This man's name is Okonkwo; it is his journey and his trials that are followed, most significantly those in which he interacts with his family. From the beginning,...
The Martian chronicles: A review
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
The plot description in the back of this book fascinated me. It is a philosophy or ideal from the mind of the author, which is really almost a palindrome. This is a science fiction book with the idea that there is life on other planets but that they are just as skeptical of our human existence as...
The Iceman cometh: Review
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
The Iceman Cometh is an American tragedy set amidst the desolation of a saloon crowded with the marginalized elements of society. While Eugene O'Neill, the playwright, may not have been the most talented author in his ability to pen the most realistic, eloquent, or beautiful dialogue, he was...
The house of the seven gables: A review
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables is a story more akin to a moral fable than the gothic writing one might expect from a piece of nineteenth century horror. Set across two centuries, and varying between the present and past, Hawthorne captures the peculiar nature of the...
Ayn Rand's The fountainhead: A book review
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
I chose to read The Fountainhead based on a couple of recommendations. Written by Ayn Rand, it is an astounding piece of literary work that follows the life of a young architect, Howard Roark. The Fountainhead takes place in New York beginning in the mid-1920's and continues into the 1930's. In...
Ruth Rendell's The crocodile bird: A review
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
I came across this book at random when I needed something for a book check. After reading the first few pages I was hooked. The book seemed mysterious and provocative in its own slightly twisted way. This story takes place in a very small town in England in the nineteen eighties and early...
A review of The confessions
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
For this book club I spent a lot of time looking into all of the books on the list that I had never heard of. I read the summary of each of the books on the list and eventually settled on The Confessions by Saint Augustine. I chose this book because it seemed like the Catholic equivalent to...
Koren Zailckas' Smashed: Review
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
I had seen a recommendation for this book along with an interview of the author more than a year ago in a magazine. It had always looked interesting to me as I am interested in a career in addiction medicine, so when I recently saw it in a store I jumped to buy it. This is the memoir of a girl...
