American Novels Writing Style Essay Examples and Topics

Introduction “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an intriguing story of a sick woman, Charlotte Perkins, confined in a room for treatment by her husband, a physician. Charlotte is suffering from neurasthenia. Cared by his overprotective physician husband, but instead treats the care and concern as unfair for confinement and a twenty-four hours […]

Character Development (pp. 1-127) Tobias Wolff’s Old School narrates the life of a nameless protagonist in a prep school, when snobbishness is depreciated to its full extent. During literature contents holding three times a year, students, and the protagonist in particular, are visited by famous writers who carefully select the winners. As the visitors attend […]

Pleasures of Eating by Wendell Berry illustrates the role of human beings in care and control of the nature. Berry creates an insight in this topic by asserting that there exists a casual correlation between eating and agriculture. According to Berry “…eating is an agricultural act.” While consumers view food as mere product of agriculture, […]

There are many issues, themes, and underlying meanings in Safran Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The story is told through the perspective of Oskar Schell, a remarkably perceptive, sensitive, and intelligent 9-year-old boy. The age of the boy introduces the irony in the story from the very beginning.  Additional insight is provided through […]

In his book “The New Gay Teenager” Ritch Savin Williams explores the different what being a “gay” adolescent is like in the world today with the media playing a greater role in how being a homosexual is interpreted by society (O’Conner 2005). He explores how the concept of being gay is slowly changing as a […]

The book “Nickel and Dimed”, written by Barbara Ehrenreich investigates the resulting impact of the 1995 welfare program instituted by the U.S. in order to aid the working poor. Set in the perspective of an investigative journalist working undercover as a poor low wage worker, the book delves into how non-skilled workers within the U.S. […]

Paul w. Miller in “Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown: Cynicism or Meliorism” states that critics have shared the feeling that Hawthorne’s story intends to express the move from the relationship between God and man that is brokered through faith to the state of evil taking charge resulting to the damnation of the human soul. He is […]

House of Sand and Fog is considered to be one of the most fascinating and unbelievably interesting stories, written within these ten years. Andre Dubus III, the author of this novel, becomes one of the most recognizable writers; this book is a finalist of the National Book Award, and, it is not a surprise, was […]

Modern fictional scripts analysts stress on strict text interpretation. Assumptions and conjectures regarding a writer’s objectives or booklover’s reactions are unacceptable. The study is dominated by accurate structure and terminology analysis. A writer’s state of mind or how a script is received must not be used as a basis of study. America has had prominent […]

Introduction The Cathedral by Raymond Carver is a short story revolving around three characters, the narrator, his wife, and Robert, a blind man and a friend to the wife. The wife invites Robert in the narrator’s house, something that does not go down well with the narrator. He disapproves this act immediately after he enters […]

Introduction In 1925, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby after many years of academic problems and indifference that prevented him from graduating from college. The Story The Great Gatsby is told by Nick Carraway, who comes to settle in New York from Minnesota to learn the bond business. These events are happening during […]

“The story of an hour” is a literary fiction written by Kate Chopin. Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was well known American writer of short stories. She is best known for her recurrent theme on the status of women in societal affairs, the challenges and problems facing them as well as repression and gender bias. “The story […]

The Journal of Albion Moonlight by Kenneth Patchen is a famous antiwar novel. At 313 pages the novel is a weighty tome and is quite difficult to go through. In addition the novel is written in a very confusing manner and it is hard to get a sense of plot out of it. The novel […]

Flight to Canada is one of the best satirical novels written on the political history. Reed tackles a very serious issue of slavery in such a manner that it becomes comical and poetic. Reed explored the dark history of African Americans in such a way that is not depressing but yet insightful. The book is […]

Historical Background The history of Western civilization, throughout the 19th-20th centuries, can be thought of as the continuous process of people associated with this civilization, growing increasingly aware of patriarchal morality notions’ out-datedness. Whereas; by the beginning of the 20th century, it was considered entirely appropriate for women to be strictly concerned with taking care […]

Introduction The Great Gatsby can be considered as a form of novelized social commentary that delves into the life of Jay Gatsby, an eccentric millionaire with an unhealthy obsession with Daisy Buchanan. There are three distinct characteristics of Gatsby that can be considered his defining traits yet are the source of inevitable downfall. These traits […]

In his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald has several characters play dramatic roles. Daisy Buchanan is one of the characters that drive the novel. Daisy is Tom’s spouse, Nick’s cousin, and Jay Gatsby’s beloved. In her adulthood, she promises to wait for her first love, Jay Gatsby, until his return from the war, […]

In the story, An Occurrence at the Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, the author shows how an individual perceives time. The depiction of time in the story shows the fluid nature of time (Bierce, n.d). The author uniquely uses the nature of time to narrate a story from a present time to that of […]

Synopsis The plot of the book is about two little people and two mice used by the author to illustrate how people should respond to change. The story revolves around two mice, Scurry and Sniff who live in a Maze with two little people named Hem and Haw. he author describes the events that the […]

Fighting for freedom is not an easy task, especially when not knowing whether one truly deserves this freedom and is ready to pay the price that the society demands for it (Jewett 525). While at present, the feminist concept of granting equal rights and freedoms to men and women seems quite legitimate, at the end […]

In his short story A&P, John Updike describes the experiences of a teenage clerk, named Sammy who works in the grocery store. The author focuses on this person’s attitude toward other people, his view of sexuality, and his values. One can say that the protagonist is an individual who wishes to be singled out among […]

Sammy is the main character of the story A&P by John Updike. He is 19 years old and he is working in a store as a cashier. From what Sammy says, does and thinks it is clear that he has a sense of humor and brave teenager. The writer uses a lot of colloquial language, […]

Sammy had faced massive challenges at his workplace before he decided to quit abruptly. In “A &P”, John Updike writes that Sammy quit his job unexpectedly without giving notice. There are people who feel that Sammy lacks substantive reasons to quit his job. They accuse him of providing naïve and immature reasons for quitting his […]

Invisible Man is the famous novel by the American author Ralph Ellison. The novel represents the integral part of the American literature. Invisible Man plot has a symbolic meaning in its background and the definition of the “invisible” should not be understood in a straightforward way. The novel’s plot does not consist of any fantastic […]

Introduction The story The Other Wes Moore: One Name ,Two Fates is one of the modern bestsellers and the most interesting stories. While reading the story we are following the life paths of two individual persons who seem to have only one thing in common: the name. However, later it becomes obvious that although their […]

People rarely create something for no reason. Houses are built for a purpose, and a life-saving station and a house of refuge in Crane’s novel are no exception. Despite the fact that both a life-saving station and a house of refuge in Crane’s novel seemingly share common features, their distinction comes in full blue when […]

Blackberries is one of the masterpieces by Ellen Hunnicutt. The poem narrates the story of a woman and her husband on their camping trip. August, on the other hand, by Mary Oliver narrates the story of a woman who speaks about picking blackberries. She compares the practice of picking berries with the act of reaching […]

Introduction This essay aims to examine two short stories: A Rose for Emily, written by William Faulkner, and Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Both authors examine the relations between physical and psychological confinement. It is possible to argue that Faulkner and Gilman show that physical confinement can be primarily explained by psychological or social alienation […]

Introduction The world of literature is the source of new ideas, thoughts and inspirations. The authors make us think over our life. Undoubtedly, everyone has the right to have their own opinion and the literature encourages us being open-minded and independent in our judgments. The novel A&P by John Updike is one of the works, […]

Summary of the Book The central theme in Toni Morrison’s book, “Song of Solomon”, is the quest for self-identity. In the novel, the author narrates the life journey of a young man, “Milkman” Dead, who lacks enthusiasm for his life, is alienated from his relatives, his cultural roots and his community. At first, Milkman appears […]

Introduction Authored by Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby is a must-read chef-d’oeuvre. It satirizes the events as they unfolded in the 1920s soon after World War I. Fitzgerald seeks to reveal the worthlessness and the futility of the remark ‘great’ as it stood in the Jazz Age, a period dominated by moments of sadness and […]

Despite of her degenerate personality, dissolute desires, frivolous fantasies and her misdoings, Stanley Kowalski does not have the right to show disrespect towards Blanche DuBois simply because of their differences in terms of cultural background, and to set up her ultimate downfall. A streetcar named desire might have never taken us to the capturing experience […]

Introduction Found Objects is a short story by Jennifer Egan that gives an account of a young woman trying to find identity in an ever busy world. Sasha as the name of the young woman goes is in her mid-thirties and has serious issues that have pushed her to consult the services of a therapist. […]

The play Trifles by Susan Glaspell talks about a murder. John Wright is killed in his sleep through struggling. Sherriff Peters, county lawman, Mr. Hale a farm man and George Henderson, the county attorney go to his house to investigate the crime. They look around for evidence of a crime, as the main suspect is […]

In the new wave of globalization, movement across borders has become the norm. Most importantly, children often find themselves in unfamiliar territories when their parents relocate to other countries. In such situations, they experience cultural identity confusion as they try to redefine their identity amidst conflicting cultures. However, while redefining identity may attract challenges for […]

Introduction Malcolm X, Helen Keller and David Raymond are all writers that struggled with self expression, identity and social conformity. These challenges emanated from the lack of language proficiency. However, all three authors succeeded in overcoming insurmountable challenges, and eventually cause audiences to relate to the plight of other people in similar circumstances. How the […]

Introduction Richard Louv is a renowned author of the 21st century. The author has written a number of books that have caught the eye of the public. Perhaps his most successful book was Last Child in the Woods in which he talked about how children of this generation suffer from nature deficient disorder. In this […]

Article Summary Life is particularly intriguing and complicated especially when looking at the choices that people make in life in the light of the story, “Life Is a Smorgasbord”, by Dan Lewis. The title of this story states that, life is a smorgasbord. This idiom makes one wonder why life can be likened to a […]

Pico Iyer was a well accomplished young writer when he wrote this book. His artistic work was well appreciated when he wrote the book entitled “Video Night in Kathmandu” in the year 1988. The setting of this book is Japan and hence, it analyzes the Japanese culture from a foreigner’s point of view. Iyer was […]

In the poem ‘Richard Cory’, Edwin Arlington Robinson depicts the theme of spiritual emptiness. The poet uses traditional form combined with lean modern language, a characteristic of American Literary Modernism. The poem is a simple and dramatic account of rich and famous Richard Cory who is adored and envied by the commoners. The poem artistically […]

Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear It Away is a humorous gothic novel that was published in 1960. The title of the novel is derived from the book of Mathew 11:12 in the bible, where John the Baptist quotes “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away”. The novel focuses on Francis […]

When Francine Prose was invited to a downtown Manhattan eatery for lunch, she came face to face with modern gluttony. Prose is one of the authors who have written the “Seven Deadly Sins” book series. The series includes seven books by different authors and her edition is titled “Gluttony”. Each book focuses on one of […]

Introduction: Shakespeare’s Wisdom and Wit The ideas in Shakespearean plays have never been too on-the-nose; conveyed in an extremely subtle manner, they often hid in between the lines, allowing the readers time to ponder ethical dilemmas. Not necessarily being the focus of the work, the given problems nevertheless stood out on their own, making it […]

Introduction Susan Glaspell was an active feminist in her time, so one may read her work through this lens. The play –Trifles – has numerous feminist connotations. It is a call to reexamine the value of women in a patriarchal society; through their central role in the drama, the female characters challenge traditional notions about […]

Neil Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death is an important book that explores the effects of mass media on modern culture. This paper is aimed at summarizing the first two chapters of this book, namely The Medium is the Metaphor and Media as Epistemology. Overall, in these section of his work, the author argues that […]

The story “A Sweet Devouring” by Eudora Welty is written in a semi humorous but also serious tone. The title suggests that there will be a degree of sweetness, although the noun “devour” creates a confusing effect, making the reader think that not everything is as simple as it seems. In the beginning of the […]

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Stowe tells a story of the time when slavery was accepted and supported. It can be considered a historical account of events that took place in the South. The significance of the book goes beyond mere recollection of events, as it demonstrates the qualities of people. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” represents […]