American Novels Influences Essay Examples and Topics

Introduction Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote two stories by the title, “The Scarlet Letter” and “Young Goodman” in which he displays his authorial voice by mirroring the societies from their dark ends as shown by the puritan cultures. In “The Scarter Letter,” Hawthorne employs psychological fiction to display the innate evilness of human beings (Johnson 75). On […]

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale is a main character. In the novel, Dimmesdale comes out as a hypocrite. He is depicted as a kind man, full of wisdom and eloquent speaker. He is a respected clergyman. But he is involved in sin of adultery and he keeps it a secret for […]

As inspiring and honest as they were, the songs that Guthrie sang were a product of its era. This Land Is Your Land appealed to the American citizens that needed cooperation in order to stay calm and united in the heat of the fight. Since modern U.S. citizens are unable to re-live the experience of […]

Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel “The Great Gatsby” is a revelation of the negative impacts of a rapidly growing economy on the society. Specifically, it shows the negative impact of wealth on the lives of the main beneficiaries of the economic growth (Bruccoli 32). Fitzgerald attempts to show how a explosion of economic activities with enormous […]

Samuel Beckett wrote the play by the name Endgame in the year 1958. The play centers on the effects of apocalyptic disaster on Hamm’s family (Beckett 713). In the play, Hamm, Clov, Nagg, and Nell are trapped in single room. Having been trapped, the four characters are forced to carry on with their everyday chores. […]

Book Summary Authored by Pamela Collins and Ryan Baggett, the book Homeland Security and Critical Infrastructure Protection investigates the existing gaps in security systems, the various protection plans, and the projected viable options of ensuring that critical infrastructure of the US is safe and free from any hazard. In the introductory chapters, precise arguments are […]

The interconnection between individuals, society and local communities is a network that defines life and choices people make. Every situation is individual and people and their actions are framed by the conditions and circumstances of their personal lives, as well as those of people in the close circle. “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra […]

The novel breath, eyes, memory is a true manifestation of the medieval and present human society. In simpler terms, it reflects the basic elements that spun our existence. These elements are explained from the main themes of the novel. These themes form the framework of this paper because immigration, love and parenting are discussed as […]

The author of this novel, Kate Chopin, was brought up in an intellectual environment and was aware of the marital problems that were experienced during the Victorian period. ‘The Awakening’ is a novel that is written in the Victorian society which is patriarchal. This is a very strict society that has prejudiced conventions that women […]

Gray, in his book, New World Babel, discusses the transformation of Euro-Americas’ views about Native American languages. He traces the journey of their notion of these languages from as early as the pre-Enlightenment period to the modern period. From the onset, Gray is keen enough to notice the differences in the opinions between different groups […]

It is hard for readers to ignore the many peculiarities that are found in Winkfield’s novel including the rare multicultural heroine and the book’s deviation from the antagonist/protagonist approach in literature. The novel also introduces several facts that are difficult to place in the eighteenth century society including the roles of female missionaries in the […]

Introduction In his novel In the time of the Butterflies, Alvarez presents a recount of events that happened in the Dominican Republic in the 20th century. The story centers on Trujillo, a self-elected leader who is rigid, greedy and dictator. He leads the country into turmoil through brutality. Four sisters join a revolution in opposition […]

Introduction Today, media represents men and masculinity in different ways. Different sources point at how men are required to behave and present themselves in order to appear like male. With time, the different aspects that would associate with masculinity are gradually fading and new ideas quickly emerging to define masculinity. In the past, people used […]

The fundamentals of the novel When speaking about the book Green Grass, Running Water written by Thomas King, I would like to consider some fundamentals of the novel. So, first of all, I would like to point out that the author “begins to extricate his characters’ lives from the domination of the invader’s discourses by […]

In the Bildungsroman Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger provides readers with an interesting topic for debate, through making an illusion on how American wealthy people nurture young men from boyhood to a wealthy adult life. Modern scholars argue that the story is a puerile fantasy based on class assimilation. As the young Dick strives in his […]

The Harlem Renaissance is the famous period in the American culture that includes the years between 1916 and 1940 during which the New Negro movement and the age of ‘the black stars’ developed. The Harlem Renaissance presented a lot of examples of great talents in different spheres of the cultural life in the USA. Jim […]

From the name of the book, it is clear that the cardinal theme of the book is the American dream. This is just but an insight into the many promises that the United States makes to its citizens. It is important, with the changing of times, to be able to comprehend how various issues such […]

Authored by Margaret Fuller, The Great Lawsuit is a must-read captivating chef-d’oeuvre heavy-laden with literary aspects like plot, setting, themes, style, and images among others as highlighted in the paper. Period, as an aspect of literature refers to the time frame a certain piece of work is written. This is important since it gives a […]

The power of consumer culture is capable of manipulating million of minds. Contemporary society, therefore, is reluctant to resist the commonalities and fashions of trends dictating by advertising and consumer-conditioned society. Conformist tendencies are also brightly revealed in the story called A & P written by John Updike. In the story, the author emphasizes the […]

Theodore Wieland’s sister, Clara and who is also the narrator of the novel describes their preoccupation with the death of her father. The narrator links this with the voice that Wieland begins to hear. Wieland wallows deeper into solitude that his dad suffered. He feels like he is torn between two voices: that of the […]

The novel ‘Virgin Suicides’ is a book showing explicit adolescent trauma in a suburban setting in the early seventies. The story revolves around suicides of five sisters aged between 13 and 17 and was told by a collective voice of the neighborhood boys; 20 years after the events had taken place. The boys were fascinated […]

The ‘Wind in the Willows’ is a novel that was published by Kenneth Grahame in 1908. This novel arouses magic and adventure feelings as well as feelings of reflection. Information in this book widens the people’s understanding of the world they are living in. They are also able to comprehend the complicated interactions found between […]

There is an assumption that our society and culture can determine the choices of individuals. However, sometimes people’s choices are based on personal considerations and moral principles shaping character’s identity. Social status, individual characteristics, and moral assets, therefore, predetermine a personal choice. Within this context, Lalami’s book Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits is an account […]

In the novel The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri describes several cultural practices of Indian people. One of them is the so-called mourner’s diet or fasting which is aimed at showing the grief of the entire family at the loss of the father. Yet, at the same time, this ritual is supposed to signify that the Gangulis […]

Introduction The Great Gatsby is a novel of vibrant characters, and paradox is one of the main themes of the book. Nick, the main character, has contradictory feelings when it comes to Gatsby, his rich and showing-off neighbor. He dislikes certain things about him, while, at the same time, he admires him. He represents everything […]

“The Things They Carried” is a short story written by Tim O’Brien to present to the readers his own autobiography and a war memoir. O’Brien complicates the narration by creating the protagonist who actually shares his real name. The story is about a platoon of soldiers from the American soil fighting in the Vietnam War. […]

Introduction In the book The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is the main character and the protagonist who acquires wealth illegally by trading in stolen securities, crime, and illegal distribution of alcohol. According to Fitzgerald, Gatsby is “a mysterious and wealthy thirty-year-old man who holds extravagant parties every Saturday in his Gothic mansion situated in West […]

Carol Padden and Tom Humphries, the authors of the book, “Deaf in America: voices from a culture”, state their intent in writing the book as that of presenting the culture of Deaf people in America. Carol A. Padden was born deaf and both her parents are deaf. She also has one deaf older brother and […]

The ideas of free will and the abilities to choose something in accordance with personal ideas and interests are considered to be one of the major ones in many Sartre’s works and writing. He made wonderful attempts to unite his unbelievable and captivating ideas concerning free will and all those outside sources which may influence […]

Introduction The issue of the American Dream cannot get out of the picture of most Americans and aliens alike. People have come out to criticize or support it; however, Edward Albee gives it a rare treat. The satirical style of lamenting the illusions surrounding the American Dream makes Albee’s work a masterpiece. The essay shall […]

Introduction This essay contains a literary analysis of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. It is known as one of the most horrible but still realistic short stories about human life, traditions, and interests inherent to society. From a Marxist perspective, it shows the objectification of social relations. Due to such unusual ideas and attention to […]

Flannery O’Connor is well-known American short-story writer who revealed religious and moral issues in her writings. She was a Southern writer and depicted the life and traditions of her region. One of her best known stories, Everything That Rises Must Converge, depicts an episode from life of several Southern people, focusing on mother and her […]

Introduction “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is a collection of twenty-seven short stories and sketches that were initially published in several publications around the U.S. during the 1880s. The book, authored by Mark Twain, was initially published on November 18, 1865, and has assumed other titles (Connie, xvii). These titles include “The Celebrated […]

The intricate and subtle meanings in poetry are created not only by figures of speech but also by structural elements, which include form, meter, and rhyme. Despite their outward formality, those structural elements, when organized and arranged accordingly, help to emphasize certain poetic ideas and to bring forth the needed mood and emotion. An example […]

Atlas shrugged is a novel written by Ayn Rand and published in 1957. It is one of Rand’s famous novels and the last one which she wrote during her career as an artist. The idea behind writing the novel was to empower the shakers and movers of a nation in fighting for their rights. The […]

The variety of literary works can easily teach the reader or make to change the reader’s mind and attitude to a situation. On the one hand, the works and their messages differ because of various authors, periods of time, and interests. On the other hand, the similarities between the works of absolutely different authors are […]

Introduction This text is a full and free example of the essay on “Ceremony” by Leslie Marmon Silko. Silko is a famous American writer and the key figure in the First Wave of the so-called “Native American Renaissance.” She was awarded by the first MacArthur Foundation Grant in 1981. In 1994, she received the Native […]

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel written by Zora Neale Hurston in 1937. It is a story about an African American woman, Janie Crawford, her lifelong search for love and self-assertion. In 1937, the times of the Great Depression, the novel did not get recognition as it gets today. Black people criticized the […]

Raymond Carver is now viewed by many literary critiques and scholars as one of the most prominent American short-story writers. Among his most famous works, it is possible to single out the following ones: Neighbors, The Student’s Life, Elephant, and many others. His novella Cathedral can be analyzed from different standpoints, for instance, the symbolism […]

Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver during the First World War, meets a nurse from Britain. When a munitions explosion at the frontline injures him, Henry is hospitalized in Milan where he and Catherine get close. Henry has a different perspective regarding the war from this point onwards. He perceives it as brutality rather than […]

The novel ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ was published in 1940, written by the outstanding and famous author, Ernest Hemingway. A story of a young American man called Robert Jordan is well drafted, signaling International Brigades, particularly positioned at the republican guerrilla section in the Spainish Civil War (Hemingway par. 3). Jordan was a dynamiter, […]

“The Most Dangerous Game” is a short story authored by Richard Connell published in 1924. It is a story about a hunter becoming the hunted. “The Most Dangerous Game” essay shall provide an analysis of the story. The main character Sanger Rainsford accompanied by his partner Whitney set out on a journey from New York […]

Introduction Melville in this novel brings out two strong opposing forces between the good and the evil and how the human race has continuously failed to make the right decision because of the fallen state of humanity (Novel Guide 1). He represents Billy as pure and innocent person similar to the way that Jesus is […]

Introduction Illustrating the plights of African-Americans, Edward Jones’ story, “lost in the city” describes the discontentment of Africans amid the White community. Jones’ masterpiece focuses on the dangerous and poor lifestyle led by the African-Americans. Although the African-Americans know what is expedient for them, they choose unique lifestyles. For instance, Lydia, the main character, lives […]

The Great Gatsby is a classic work of F. Scott Fitzgerald, an American author of short stories and novels. The book was first published in 1925 during a period known as the Jazz Age. The novel was purely creative work of the author. The story was set on North Shore in Long Island in New […]

Harper Lee’s book “To Kill a Mocking Bird” is famous in the American literature for its humor and warmth in communicating serious issues of racial inequalities and rape. The story is told during the Great Depression with the main protagonist Scout Finch living with her older brother Jeremy Jem Finch, their father Atticus Finch, and […]

The Great Gatsby: Abstract This Great Gatsby essay explores one of the greatest novels written in the 1920s. It was created in the days when the society was by far patriarchal, and the concept of the American dream was different. Essays on The Great Gatsby usually explore how much men had dominated society, which led […]