Literature Essay Examples and Topics. Page 14

8,494 samples

Elaine Showalter on “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf

In this novel, the author tried to show the whole tragedy and futility of war. Dalloway", Virginia Woolf tried to show the world through the eyes of different characters: those, who were in some way [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1249

Achilles, Odysseus and Aeneas Comparison

Much ado in the Illiad tells of the dishonor he suffered from Agamemnon, his decision to quit the field because of it, and the futile efforts of the Greeks to appease him and draw him [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1623

Vladimir Nabokov’s “Signs & Symbols”

The essay will examine and discuss the usage of symbols and images about the actions and thoughts of the main characters and their meaning for the readers.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1129

Susan Glaspell and the Literary Canon

Some literary genres have lent themselves particularly well to the exploration of women's issues insofar as these were still perceived to be confined to the private sphere in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and the best part [...]
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1416

Albert Camus’ Novel “The Strange”: The Death Penalty

In his role as the principal character in Albert Camus' novel The Stranger, Meursault is a threat to society that upholds the death penalty because he is looked upon as a bad and dangerous example [...]
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 853

Early Chinese Music, Ritual, and Performance Review

Ceramic production and the carving of the hardstones known collectively as jade are part of the earliest horizons of Chinese cultures in the Neolithic period, and the products of these activities have been made continuously [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1723

Wordsworth’s Romanticism in Tintern Abbey Poem

The tone of the poem is calm and meditative and Wordsworth describes the "landscape" and compares it to the "quiet" of the sky: "The landscape with the quiet of the sky"..
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1051

British Literature. “Darkness” Poem by Lord Byron

The poem is filled with bitterness for man and his feeble attempts to control the universe when all of the achievements are swamped out when the sun goes away."The bright sun was extinguished, and the [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1129

Commonwealth in “Utopia” by Thomas More

The comment presents an issue of Utopia, the controversy of More's discussion that affects the commonwealth of the state that will be analysed to argue that the statement is true.
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2564

Sethe’s Slavery in “Beloved” by Toni Morrison

In spite of the fact that the events depicted in Beloved take place after the end of the American Civil War, Sethe, as the main character of the novel and a former slave, continues to [...]
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1201

Feudalism in Europe in the “Beowulf” Poem

The Old English epic poem Beowulf presents a good illustration of the relations and obligations of lords and vassals. God defines the rights and obligations in feudal society.
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 194

Gift-Giving in “Gifts” by Nuruddin Farah

The young woman's reaction to gift-giving is interesting because the discussion of this reaction can add to Peter Singer's vision of the necessity to be generous in relation to the people of the Third World.
  • Subjects: Romantic Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 856

“We Real Cool” Poem by Gwendolyn Brooks

Critics attribute the change in style to the politically charged times that We Real Cool was written in, and the poem also includes a more generous sprinkling of the vernacular that made her work more [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1102

Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”

The Wife's prologue is a reflection of her aggressiveness, which is a reflection of the masculine image. However, this sexual freedom professed by the Wife is similar to the violent rape of the maiden by [...]
  • 5
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 831

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen: Characters Analysis

Pride and Prejudice is, first of all, a profoundly realistic representation of characters and tempers, albeit not of the English society as a whole, but of its privileged groups since the end of the 18th [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1177

“The Wind” a Novel by Dorothy Scarborough

The author focuses on the thoughts of the protagonist, Letty Mason, and shows the world through her eyes. Letty is a young woman that is not prepared to live in the harsh environment of her [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1192

Symbols in “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury

The story contains numerous symbols and allusions to the problems peculiar to the modern society which make it a great dystopian novel and help the author to convey his message to people.
  • Subjects: American Novels Writing Style
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2046

Richard Wright’s “Big Black Good Man”

Therefore, the use of point of view as a literary device enables the reader to understand and analyze the thought process of one person, Olaf, while remaining unaware of the intentions of Jim.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 589

“When the Emperor Was Divine” by Julie Otsuka

The title of the book, current references, tokens that children carry with them to the campsite, the killing of the dog on the eve of departure to the camp, and the experiences of the family [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1425

“My Life With the Wave” by Octavio Paz

Up to that extent, the reader is already in a world that he or she has suspended reality. Up to this extent, the reader is already in a world that the unimaginable happens.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1125

The Novella “Billy Budd, Sailor” by Herman Melville

The work was published in 1924, and one of the reasons for its triumph in America and the United Kingdom was the precision, with which the author portrayed the historical and cultural context.
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1420

Tales of Beowulf: Theme’ Analysis

Considering the peculiarities of Beowulf, the paper aims at exploring particular themes such as family, fame and shame, changes and cycles, and the theme of religion present in the poem to show how the interpolated [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 886

Frank Money’s Character in “Home” by Toni Morrison

These led to the unresolved contradictions and persistence ideologies of racism, prejudice, violence and segregation, which led to limited opportunities for African-Americans as Frank Money shows in the novel.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1944

“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip Dick

Overall, one can argue that the film-makers decided not to focus on the main theme of Phillip Dick's novella, in particular the contrast between the expectations of an individual and his real life.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1385

Poem “To a Sad Daughter” by Michael Ondaatje

The author uses numerous contradictions to demonstrate the complexity of the images and feelings of the main heroes. Such abundance of appropriate literacy devices helped the author to create a vivid and refined text of [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 930

The Outsiders by Susan Eloise Hinton

Therefore, it is crucial to get acquainted with the essence of the novel and analyze its main characters to genuinely comprehend Hinton's view on the challenges of the teenage age within the framework of this [...]
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1206

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

The duality of the conflict between the main character and the world surrounding him is gradually unfolded with every step of the development of the book.
  • 5
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1075

Comparative Mythology. Ugaritic myths of Anat and Baal

Since it was believed that Anat had extra-ordinary powers in matters related to reproduction, war, and harvest, the town of Zoan was expanded and the sanctuary of Anat was renamed as the City of Ramses.
  • Subjects: Mythology
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2525

Mark Twain’s Creative Writing Process

The research focuses on Mark Twain's use of humor persuades the readers to finish the entire novel. Mark Twain.creatively wove the novels to bring the real life issue of racism to the readers.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1712

Gender and Sexuality in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Using the book, the paper will support the argument that it is inaccurate to bind gender and sexuality. Orlando continues to break the convention of sex and gender and find her place as a woman [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1903

Animals as Symbols of the Human Behaviour

The brutality and cruelty of humans to the god and the puppy is laid bare when the puppy dies out of the experiments that are carried on her by the master.
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 2856

Marie de France’s Lanval

The love of a soldier is seen in the way he fights for king and country. He is the son of a king but his father is not the one he currently serves.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1159

The Murder of Helen Betty Osborn

The second volume is supposed to address various issues that were related to the murder of Helen Osborne and the actions that were taken by the police.
  • 5
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 820

The Downfall of Pentheus: The Clash of a Monarch and a God

Although it is traditionally considered that the key reason behind Pentheus's death was his denial of Dionysos as a god, it can also be argued that Pentheus's non-acceptance of Dionysos was only the factor, while [...]
  • Subjects: Mythology
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1138

Killings by Andre Dufus

According to Kant's Moral Theory, the act of killing Richard is morally right since Matt's intention was to get justice for the murder of his son. Even though is aware of the guilt of Richard, [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1356

Modern Tragedy

An analysis of trends in tragedy from the time of Sophocles and Euripides to modern times is therefore important. This could explain the absence of features such as oracles and ghosts in modern tragedy.
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 637

Analysis the story A&P by John Updike

The writer uses a lot of colloquial language, low diction and concrete words in the plot and this use of the informal language, as well as phrasing assist in bringing out and explaining the personality [...]
  • Subjects: American Novels Writing Style
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 840

Persuasion is Better than Force

When a person is forced to do something, he/she is sure to meet the resistance. When one is forced to do something, the natural reaction to resist appears.
  • 2.8
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 537

Sigmund Freud’s “The Uncanny”

From the story, excessive reference to eyes and blindness has a significant contribution to the themes, characterization and psychoanalytic elements. Sandman's target to the eyes is a way of trying to relate a fearful process [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 553

Penelope Is the Determining Moral Agent

She is thinking of her son and she knows that the only way to save the house and even to save her son's life is to betray her love and "quit" the house of her [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 621

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot

The close reading of the poem makes it possible to state that the main idea of the reading is neither the obsession with the fall of the world nor the degradation of the human personality, [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 544

There Is No Word for Goodbye

She noted that it was not that easy for the doctor to take her away from her people as Athabasca's were reluctant to "give up" their people. However, she managed to find the source of [...]
  • 2.5
  • Subjects: Aspects of American Novels
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1091

Francis Scott Fitzgerald & His American Dream

In the novel "Tender is the Night," Fitzgerald describes the society in Riviera where he and his family had moved to live after his misfortune of late inheritance.
  • 3
  • Subjects: Aspects of American Novels
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1995

Book Report on The Scarlet Letter

Though the development of these themes is also a subject of other characters such as Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, Hester is outstandingly the central character since she makes the latter two behave in the manner they [...]
  • 5
  • Subjects: Aspects of American Novels
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1379

The Vietnam War in the “Child of Two Worlds”

Therefore, in the future, he is like to live in the outside world rather than in the inside one. Therefore, Lam wants to start a new life in the US and forgets his roots, which [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 824

Fairy Tale Traits in The Great Gatsby

Basing on the several evident parameters, for instance, the character traits, the behavior of prince and princess, and gender distinctions amongst others, Fitzgerald's masterwork stands out as a variation and sophisticated version of the fairy [...]
  • 5
  • Subjects: Concepts in American Novels
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1199

Theme of the Poem Harlem

S, seems to suggest that the writer intended to invoke a particular image of a particular group of people whose dreams are often deferred."The dream" is a something that the writer of the poem had [...]
  • 5
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 594

The Storm by Chopin

The setting of the story is complex and multi-layered, presenting the life of the rural community and placing the storm into the midst of the story.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1391

The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer has also been able to write quite a good number of poems such as The Book of the Duchess, House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls and The Legend of Good Women.
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1566

“The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop

Consequently, the fish appears as a courageous fighter who has been struggling for existence and is rewarded by the gift of life it that gets from the narrator in the end of the poem.
  • 3
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 961

Thoreau, Socrates, and Civil Disobedience

The striking difference in these two essays is that Thoreau is more rebellious when it comes to the government and he feels that the government is wrong and it must be subjected to criticism to [...]
  • Subjects: Historical Fiction Comparison
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1898

Ulysses by James Joyce

The encyclopaedic narrative does not lead to a climax in a story like the way the narrative style does to give a lesson or meaning of the story.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1407

Different Cultures in Tito’s Good Buy and in the Land of Free

From the very beginning, the author provides a thorough description of Tito's present life including the place he worked, the people he communicated with and the attitude he had towards other people, which emphasizes some [...]
  • 4
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1370

The Way to Rainy Mountain: Analysis of the Text

The way to Rainy Mountain is not a simple description of how the Kiowa people developed, learnt, and protected their knowledge. They got one simple right to live and be the people of Kiowa.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 545

The Relationship between Gods and Humans in the Iliad

The events of the Iliad occur on two different planes: the earthly one, beneath the city of Troy, and the heavenly one, atop Mount Olympus. The story is driven by forces beyond the control of [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 674

Response to Johnson’s “Old Black Men” Poem

Their bubble burst in the air" to mean black men have confronted what others, including the white men, have encountered, only that the black men's experiences are negative.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 309

Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” Book Analysis

Despite being centered on the antiutopian model of the narration, the author strives to show the first step for the person to obtain individuality. Supporting the ideology of the author and the situation depicted in [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1224

The Poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll

As a magician of language, Carroll raised in the poem and in the whole work about the girl Alice, the most ancient folklore layer: the abstruse language is in children's counting rhymes, it was used [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 360

Silent Suffering and Racism in Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”

Right from the demise of the author's daughter to the appalling drug addiction by Sonny coupled with the dreadful murder of the narrator's cherished uncle, the theme of suffering controls the community in numerous ways.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1671

The Poem “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath

The poem's magnitude of metaphors and symbolism does an excellent job of reflecting the poet's state of mind."Lady Lazarus" resembles the biblical story of Lazarus - the person whom Jesus famously resurrected.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 601

The Truth in Chekhov’s “Lady with the Dog”

Chekhov continues to develop the image of a "man in a case," that is, a constant change from the case of family life to the case of secret meetings with women.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 786

The Belief in the Legend of King Arthur

The nature and the story behind these heroes vary depending on the beliefs of the people in that society and what the hero represents.
  • Subjects: Mythology
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 551

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou: A Poem Analysis

The poem does not seem to address anyone in particular, but the "you" in it refers to the people who have oppressed and continue to discriminate against the speaker and the community she represents.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 278