Mission: Character analysis of Raskolnikov
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Should the character of Raskolnikov be considered a madman or a mentally disturbed person? Throughout the novel, Raskolnikov displays many symptoms that can be considered crazy. On the other hand, there are several mental defects that fit with Raskolnikov's behavior. Analyzing Raskolnikov...
The Gardens of Oxbridge and Fernham in the first chapter of 'A Room of One's Own'
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
This paper analyzes the first chapter of 'A Room of One's Own', and specifically the gardens of Oxbridge and Fernham. Virginia Woolf uses these two gardens to support her comparison between the status of men 'and women. In effect, they symbolize order versus chaos, rigidity versus...
Willful Monsters: Differences in attraction to Short Story Writing
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
As storytellers, Kelly Link and Aimee Bender each bring a distinctive sense of punch and personality to their writing. Both tackling short stories, they are able to create unique worlds within a few pages that draw in their readers and deliver fresh perspectives through the strangest of stories....
The Destruction of Responsibility: Cromwell vs. Charles II
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
With England left as a leaderless country following the trial and beheading of King Charles I, the country was eagerly searching for a resolution to its problems. Oliver Cromwell emerged as England's leader from the Revolution and strove to have a close, relatable relationship with the English...
Oscar Wilde & the Unwritten Melodrama
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
Victorian melodrama not only served as a literary genre, but it was used to define and reflect on the values of society. Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan takes the expectation of contemporary melodrama, as defined by Peter Brooks. Though the play is based on melodrama and, at times, overly...
'Night' at the Core of Elie Wiesel
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Elie Wiesel is an internationally renowned writer and Holocaust survivor. His expansive collection of work is all derived from his first book, which is called 'Night'. It is the foundation for all of Wiesel's works and shared ideas. His ideas, which centralize around a bluntly honest look...
Night: An open minded perception
Essay - 5 pages - Literature
Elie Wiesel is a Jewish American author and Holocaust survivor. Wiesel's first book, 'Night', is an account of his experience in the concentration camp Auschwitz. This personal and vivid account launches a stream of consciousness, enlightening the reader to a new perception of various...
Dickinson's 'Meditation on the Future'
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
The belief in any sort of prophecy is contingent on the idea that the human psyche holds the potential to, at any degree, know the future. 'This World is not Conclusion', a poem by Emily Dickinson, promotes the impermanence of our state of being. Rather than predicting a specific future,...
'The Cult of True Womanhood Disassembled' by Kate Chopin and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: A review
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
Through the oppressive times when women were meant to be no more than homemakers and pawns to their bread-winning men, the 'Cult of True Womanhood' symbolized everything that the females of America were supposed to be. It stated that they must be pure in mind, body, heart, and soul; for a...
Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Book review
Essay - 8 pages - Literature
In the book 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', Nietzsche provides the reader with a fictional account of a Persian prophet named Zarathustra. He takes this historical figure and turns him into a libratory prophet for the modern world. Nietzsche argues that Zarathustra is the first individual to...
Differences and Similarities between two Creation Myths
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
As its title suggests, a creation myth is the lavish story that lays the groundwork for the life of an epic figure, as manifest through history. The creation myth commonly establishes a trend that becomes commonplace for the subject throughout his or her life, a trend that is based upon and...
The Aesthetics of Comics - 'Transfiguration of the Commonplace'
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
In his work 'Transfiguration of the Commonplace', Danto asserts that philosophy, as a system of thought, is a unique subject-matter in which not everything is appropriate to its nature of inquiry (Danto, Section 3, p. 54). Art, however, he contends, has proven, throughout the ages, to be...
Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber': A revision of social fictions
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber' comprises a collection of short stories, all of which, in some sense or another, exemplify a variation or reworking of popularized fairy tales. Her writing style, rather than taking the form of any one genre, crosses the boundaries of all of them;...
'The Stranger' by Camus - A review
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
In 'The Stranger', Camus expresses his philosophy of the absurd. 'The Stranger' was Camus's first novel, depicting the story of an emotionally detached, unaffected, and seemingly amoral man, Meursault. When first reading the novel, Meursault may seem like an amoral character,...
The neo-Romanticist underpinnings of Roberts's 'Tantramar Revisited' and Lampman's 'Heat'
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Canadian poets Roberts and Lampman, both affiliated with the school of Confederation poetry, found themselves writing amidst a “new world” full of beauty and prosperity and were thus eager to capture this essence of the Canadian landscape. Hence, their turn towards the Romantic poets of...
'Rebecca' as a Gothic Romance: Far from the classic Cinderella story
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
Daphne Du Maurier's novel 'Rebecca' can be interpreted in various lights; for instance, for many, it is commonly held to follow the form of a fairy tale. While there is, no doubt, adequate ground for this interpretation, the novel's characteristics seem to embody more the elements of the...
Hejinian's 'My Life': A Poetic Autobiography of Multiplicity
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
Lyn Hejinian's poetic autobiography 'My Life' crosses over the boundaries of genre and into an indefinable realm of its own. It contains elements of poetry, autobiography, personal narrative, and women's fiction, while simultaneously entering into a continuous dialogue with the nature of...
'Siddhartha', by Herman Hesse, and the 'Metamorphosis', by Franz Kafka: A review
Thesis - 3 pages - Literature
'Siddhartha' by Herman Hesse, and the 'Metamorphosis' by Franz Kafka, are both novels which portray the protagonists, Siddhartha and Gregor, as obedient members of society who undergo momentous, life altering transformations. Both transformations considerably affect the...
Madness Redefined: Plath's Demystification of Insanity in 'The Bell Jar'
Thesis - 8 pages - Literature
Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar' depicts the mental-breakdown of a privileged and educated young woman in 1950s American society. To this day, the literary merit of the novel remains a topic of intense debate. The majority of critics seem to take the stance that its overall worth lies in the...
Analysis of 'The Birth of Tragedy'
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
In his work 'The Birth of Tragedy', Nietzsche argues that, “it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that the existence of the world is eternally justified (Sect. 5, p. 52)”. Simply put, Nietzsche maintains that, without the guidance and creation of art, the terrible truths of the...
Aristotle & the Hellenists
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
In book I (The Object of Life) of 'Nicomachean Ethics', Aristotle sets out to determine what the concept of good represents for man and, more specifically, what the supreme good for man is. Aristotle asserts that, although there are many different relative goods that humans strive for,...
Identity Construction in Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' and Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest'
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
Both Henrik Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' and Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest' depict the constant conflict between the individual and the society in which they live; and, more specifically, the struggle of the individual to construct his or her own identity in light of...
The Scarlet Letter - A review
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
The mind is truly valuable, intrinsic, secure and powerful. No entity can take the mind away from a person, nor can anyone control the way it functions. Thus, a society that seeks total control over its people will never flourish and thrive. Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" articulates...
The significance of age and aging in One Hundred Years of Solitude
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
In the remote town of Mocondo which Gabriel Garcia Marquez vividly depicts in his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, the process of aging plays an important role in the development of the characters, their development and in the plot as whole. Throughout the aging process, some characters'...
Wrath of the Gods in the epic 'The Odyssey'
Essay - 1 pages - Literature
The dictionary definition of an epic is “An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.” In the epic, The Odyssey, the narrator takes the reader on a journey with the epic hero, (or traditional/ legendary hero)...
The Cause of Samuel Death in Grace Paley's "Samuel"
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
The death of the young boy in Grace Paley's “Samuel” was caused by irresponsible behavior, not by the repetitive interference of the passengers in the games of young people. The brave men in the train did not convey a message of absolute disapproval towards the boys' dangerous games,...
"Flying Carpet", Steven Millhauser - "flying up to the sky"
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
Steven Millhauser is a writer of realist fiction. However, his work cannot be limited by labeling it only realistic. Another dimension is added to his short stories. They are full of interpretations. In Flying Carpet, though the story seems to be quite casual, even banal - a child trying to reach...
"From the Diary of an almost-four-year-old", Hanan Ashrawi (1988)
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
The poem, 'From the Diary of an almost-four-year-old' was written by Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi, a Palestinian writer, in 1988. The speaker in this poem is an almost-four-year-old little girl who was fired at by a soldier, during the Israel-Palestine war. She lost an eye and she wonders about...
"They came for the Jews," Martin Niemoller, and "God loves you anyway" Harold Kushnersay - the care of others
Book review - 1 pages - Literature
The first essay is a poem entitled 'First, They Came for The Jews', written by a German Pastor named Martin Niemoller. It talks about what happened in 1939-1945, during World War II, where many people died, due to the nazi government in Germany. The second essay is an extract of a book...
Catch-22 : black comedy or satire ?
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
Catch-22, often considered as one of the literary masterpieces of the twentieth century, is also often analyzed as being either satirical, or characteristic of the theater of the absurd, or even both. At first sight, this appears to be totally irrelevant, given the subtle but still significant...
