Literature Essay Examples and Topics. Page 20

8,502 samples

Symbols in “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty

On the other hand, the principles of new criticism do not consider such factors, limiting the area of analysis to the text itself, i.e.the verbal meaning of the words, the language, the structure, and the [...]
  • Subjects: Aspects of American Novels
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1120

“China Shakes the World” by James Kynge

An the introduction to the book, the author traces back at some of the events in the past about the rise of some of the developed nations.
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1739

“Theme for English B” by Angston Hughes

According to Hughes, his voice cannot be white because he is black, but his relationship with the instructor does not allow his voice to remain black either.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2596

American Literature: Death Comes for the Archbishop

When the novel "Death Comes for the Archbishop" begins, one can see that the setting is the Great Rome in 1848 where the cardinals and the American missionary Bishops were indulged in a talk about [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1960

Robert Bolt “A Man for All Seasons”: Corruption Theme

The 16th century was a period of political conflict and corruption in England; the theme is presented through the statesman Thomas More who is considered to participate in the struggle between the state and the [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 569

The Road as the Cave: Concept in Literature

This progression toward enlightenment can be most clearly seen by making a comparison between Plato's Allegory of the Cave and the situation in which the man and boy find themselves within McCarthy's novel, particularly in [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2450

Charles Dickens: “Great Expectations”

'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens deals with "the aspirations and ambitions of the protagonist and narrator, Pip, to improve his status in life and create conditions for better living"..
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1840

“In Time of Plague” by Thom Gunn

This paper will provide an explication of the poem, as well as a personal analysis regarding how it makes the writer feel, as well as his personal opinions of how the subject matter of the [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 947

Tragedy and Comedy as Literary Forms

The main differences between tragedy and comedy are in their content and the effect they produce on the audience; Greeks used these literary forms as the embodiment of their faith, history, and culture; they are [...]
  • Subjects: Dramatic Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 835

“The Return of Merlin” by Deepak Chopra

The approach is helped by the legends of Arthur and the royal knights like Lancelot and Guinevere. The book is a journey of murder and mystery to spirituality and hope at the end.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 541

The Reunion by John Cheever

The plot of the story is simple. The narrator of the story is a boy, Charlie.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 558

“The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank

Anne Frank has compiled several versions of her diary, and one of them was directed at the readers of the future who should know about all the misfortunes of civilians during the Nazi occupation of [...]
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 742

“The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold

Susie is portrayed as displaying feminism in the true sense in her actions pertaining to the detailed account of her rape and murder, mostly from the female perspective and does not delve into the details [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1949

Comparing Dr. Faustus and Hamlet

Hamlet kills numerous characters in the play and this goes to show his excessive pride or in other words his sin of pride.
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 783

Blind in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” Book

The narrator admits from the very beginning of the story that he is nervous about having a blind man in his house, suggesting that he himself is actually quite blind to the reality of the [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1008

Rasism in “No Telephone to Heaven” by Michelle Cliff

This complexity comes even more difficult when the topic of race and identity is involved in literature."No Telephone to Heaven" by Michelle Cliff is the piece of literature dealing with this topic, and the present [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 572

Moral Complexities in Things Fall Apart by C. Achebe

In spite of the fact that he was one of the greatest men in Umuofia and a leader of his community he was hence not given the burial ceremony that he deserved as an Umuofian [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1629

“On the Road” by Langston Hughes

First of all, it is necessary to mention, that the poem "on the road" by Langston Hughes is the narration of the periods of the Great Depression.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 536

Cofer’s “Silent Dancing” and Sedaris’s “Ashes”

Analyzing and comparing "Ashes" by Sedaris and "Silent Dancing" by Cofer the reader is enabled to understand the course of relations in two different families and to undertake the idea of two different life paths [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1102

Analysis of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

Although the innocent black man is killed while attempting to break out of prison when he might have gone free had the case proceeded to a higher court, Atticus and the town's sheriff conjure a [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1484

Finding Oneself. “In Search for Epifano” by Anaya

The name is derived from the Epiphany which is a feast day among Roman Catholics, celebrating the manifestation of Christ to the Wise Men of the East...the Magi's quest for the Christ-child like that of [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1621

The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Ancient Egyptian Culture

The Epic of Gilgamesh and the culture of the ancient Egypt have their own similarities and differences based on the historical events that took place in this cultures and the religious beliefs of the two [...]
  • Subjects: Mythology
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 679

“The Unredeemed Captive” by John Putnam Demos.

In his book "The Unredeemed Captive," author John Putnam Demos depicts a fascinating contest of cultures, featuring the English Puritan Protestants of New England, the Roman Catholics of France and the Native Americans against the [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1422

“Swarm” by Bruce Sterling: Plot and History

As an outcome, it appears that though it is a century of the highest technologies and the story set is way far in the future, the main values remain the same.
  • Subjects: Concepts in American Novels
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 563

“Lord Jim” by Joseph Conrad

The life of Lord Jim seems to be surrounded by certain signs and symbols; in particular, colors have a deep and important meaning in the understanding of the nature of every character.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1678

Marginal Characters in Medieval Literature

Marginal characters thus may be claimed to play a crucial role in literary work and in the first place of its conceptual realization.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 2650

“The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope Review

Here Pope states the epic question or the primary concern of the poem: how a "well -bread lord could assault a gentle belle?" and in return how a "gentle belle" could reject a lord?
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1891

Hesitation and Indeterminacy of Hamlet

There is no denying the importance of the fact that the whole fabric of Shakespeare's tragedy unfolds in Hamlet subjective perception and interpretation of his uncle and mother' treason.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 920

“Sonny’s Blues”: Perspective and Plot Correlation

How might descriptions of places and characters be influenced by a particular narrator's perspective and the attitudes he holds? "Sonny's Blues" written by James Baldwin is a story that deals with very real aspects of [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1809

The Importance of Paintings in Hamlet

The play revolves around the two opposing forces: truth and deceit, and we see a contrast between the importance of being true to one's self and the importance of being truthful with others.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1211

“Desire Under the Elms” by Eugene O’Neill

Besides all differences between the three sons of Ephraim Cabot, the owner of a large and prosperous farm in New England, they have much in common, and this is hatred, resentment, and envy for their [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1352

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

Symbols in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by C. P. Gilman

Gilman uses such important details as the smell of the wallpaper and shades of color to depict her feelings: "the only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1459

John Keats’ Comparison of Odes

Finding a paradox in nearly all that he finds, it is as if Keats examines both sides of every coin using the urn as a base of perfection and the mortal desires of man and [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1427

The Mill on the Floss by Maggie Tulliver

The Mill on the Floss tells the story of Maggie Tulliver, the daughter of a miller in Victorian England, and reflects the values of society.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 14
  • Words: 3915

Teiresias in Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex”

Teiresias was from the city of Thebes and played a major role in the story of Oedipus; when Oedipus asked him how to lift the pestilence from Thebes, Teiresias replied that Oedipus was the cause [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1199

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

Henrik Ibsen’s History of “A Doll’s House” Drama

While I desired Nora to become a type of Everyman in the exploration of the development of the individual as a real and valid human being, this type of exploration was only possible within this [...]
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2470

Opportunities and Dreams in Keegan’s Essays

Despite the presence of many opportunities and positive dreams and goals, most of them fail to be realized due to misleading values and aims set by surrounding society; this idea is present in almost all [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1438

Happiness in “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury

In the first chapter Guy Montag, the protagonist finds himself in a position that allows him to recognize the lack of genuine happiness in his life, viewing those around him as uncompassionate and disinterested shades.
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 676

Maggie’s Journey in Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss

However, in exploring Maggie Tulliver's character and peculiar experiences, Eliot attempts to convey her ideas about the place of a woman in society, giving the character a critical role to play in the novel.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1702

“The Vastness of the Dark” the Book by Alistair MacLeod

It is possible to say that the character's aspiration for escaping Cape Breton and pursuing another path in life could symbolize a reduced significance of the mining industry at the national and the global scale, [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 621

Feminist Perspective in “Ruined” Play by Nottage

This is a story about the issues of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the civil war. The comments of 'Anonymous' published as a response to the review of Jill Dolan, demonstrate the [...]
  • Subjects: Gender in Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 625

“My Papa’s Waltz” Poem by Theodore Roethke

The literary styles influence the interpretation of the poem by the target audience. In the poem "My Papa Waltz," the author has employed, vivid descriptions, figurative language, and unique poetic tones to communicate the meaning [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 615

William Bradford as a Colonial American Writer

The book's attempt to explain the difference between the two and the encouragement to alter one's bad habits were some of the reasons why the book was highly esteemed.
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 844

The Poem and the Sign by Ferdinand de Saussure

The basic idea of a new approach to the structure and function of the language was that language is a system of signs which can be distinguished and studied separately, "Language is a system of [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1125

“Harrison Bergeron” a Short Story by Kurt Vonnegut

He argues that egalitarianism calls for the suppression of the bright and hardworking in order for them to be equal with the rest; that it assigns much importance to peaceful living at the expense of [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 796

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

Language in “Pardon” Poem by Richard Wilbur

The tension comes from the fact that he knows that is his dog, but he really does not want to see it too close, and the dog has been missing for five days, so now [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 650

Dialogues in O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

The dialogue aspect of A Good Man is Hard to Find is the story's key component for delivering the characters' thoughts, their personalities, their points of view on the events described in the story, and, [...]
  • Subjects: American Novels Writing Style
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 643

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

The Theme of Shame in “Anna Karenina” and The Idiot

Although the theme of shame is central to both Anna Karenina and The Idiot, the nature of this feeling is explained differently: Tolstoy regards shame as the result of a person's actions, while Dostoevsky considers [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1092

Lynching in Ellison’s “A Party Down at the Square”

What is even more because of the story's allegorical clues, concerned with the author's portrayal of "Bacote nigger's" burning by the crowd of White Southerners, readers are hinted at what may be the ultimate consequence [...]
  • 2
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1936

The Poem A Letter to White Queers, A Letter to Myself

Andrea Gibson's poem "A Letter to White Queers, A Letter to Myself" is a fabulous example of passionate expression of the author's hatred towards those inglorious individuals who think that they are better than others [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 665

Victorian Poetry and Its Characteristics

One of the most prominent traits of Victorian poetry was that most poems portrayed the themes of isolation, alienation, and the distinction between love and life.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1102

“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

“Stones and Switches” by Lorne Simon

The main hero of the novel, a young man, named Megwadesk, is plagued by misfortune following him around, and struggles against it as his perceptions of right and wrong are shifting between Christianity, spiritualism, and [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 681

Word Choice in “The Curse” by Arthur C. Clarke

When I read the story for the first time, it hardly drew my attention to the words chosen by the author to depict this scene. And why earlier in the text the author used the [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1695

Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” Poem

With Eliot's description of Prufrock's thoughts and consciousness, the reader observes that Prufrock's personality and character are a representation of what most people experience as they advance towards old age.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 610

“Slut” Word in Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl”

In my opinion, "a slut" remains to be the most important word in Kincaid's story because it could perform several functions in the girl's life: it helps to create a goal for a girl that [...]
  • 5
  • Subjects: American Novels Writing Style
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 557

“The War of the Worlds” a Novel by Herbert Wells

1 The ongoing process of Globalization, which is being aimed at elimination of national borders, and the rise of Internet as a form of virtual reality, which makes possible to instantly transmit huge amounts of [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 50
  • Words: 15302

“Learning to Read and Write” and “The Library Card”

Frederick Douglass' "Learning to Read and Write" and Richard Wright's "The Library Card" are the stories of perseverance and resolve in overcoming the obstacles that prevented the marginalized black people from the most basic and [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1385

Romanticism in Wolfgang Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther

It is the fruitless reconciliation of the impulsive and sensitive to the society that makes Young Werther's journey so powerful. What is even more interesting is that this general tone is what led to the [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1255

“Trifle” a Short Play by Susan Glaspell

This is tangible evidence that could have assisted the prosecution and the eventual conviction of Mrs. Wright's guilt on the basis of evidence that they have.
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 925

Silence versus Articulation in “Obasan” by Joy Kogawa

The author uses the phrase 'to live in stone' to signify the magnitude of Obasan's silence. In the course of the unfolding story, Naomi is torn between adopting Obasan's silence and embracing Aunt Emily's articulacy.
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1418

Anthem by Ayn Rand: Discrimination Theme

In the book, the theme of liberty is presented as the opposite of discrimination, and there is a category representing liberty in this book.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1729

“The Maid’s Daughter” a Book by Mary Romero

The book, The Maid's Daughter: Living inside and outside the American Dream, is a historical study and it covers the history of a woman, Olivia Salazar - the daughter of Carmen - an immigrant working [...]
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 2773

Women in Literature: Oedipus the King and The Odyssey

Two major works of literature, 'Oedipus the king' and 'The Odyssey', provide some of the best examples of how the role of female characters is portrayed in different ways and how these women influence the [...]
  • Subjects: Gender in Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1190

“In an Antique Land” a Novel by Amitav Ghosh

The author starts with citing the physical changes in the village, which provides the reader with insights enough to note that the village, representing the whole Egyptian community, was benefitting from the revolutions in the [...]
  • 1
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2097

American Culture in the Novel “The Great Gatsby”

In The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald documents these changes through an in-depth exploration of cultural changes such as the rise in consumerism, materialism, greed for wealth, and the culture of loosening morals in the 1920s [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2215

“Cat’s Cradle” a Book by Kurt Vonnegut Literature Analysis

In particular, the novel's plot encompasses the different examples of madness including the fabricated religion, the lie, and madness of Bakonon and McCabe, madness in power, crazy invention, and the whole life in the island.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1289

The Story “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes

She makes the boy sit after washing his face before she tells him to have supper with her.Mrs. Bates's approach makes the boy attentive and he gets to learn that he needs to make the [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 558

John Donnes’ Poetry Literature Study

In the poem Death Be Not Proud, death assumes the role of a tyrant without real power. To the poet, death is a brief rest, and when we wake up we will live eternally and [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 677

“The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” by D. H. Lawrence

The storyline is romance and love; however, after Jack saves Mabel, the story transitions dramatically and defies all the expectations of such a story."Lawrence cuts through the romanticism inherent in such a plot line to [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 623

“Musui’s Story” by Katsu Kokichi

The Samurai were the strongest of the classes. According to the Samurai, the Bushido code was also known as the "way of the warrior".
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1674

“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Dunbar

The poem is a classical piece of the hurt and anguish that black Americans experienced towards the start of the 20th century.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 588

Literature Analysis of Charlotte Mew Poems

Being different in their structure and stylistic devices, these three poems, however, are devoted to the exploration of the motif of death, destruction, and renewal which are integral parts of the war. It is devoted [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1124

Literature Studies: “Wise Blood” by Flannery O’Connor

The question of the "right" beliefs and they ways of being the good and devoted believer keeps occurring in the novel when Hazel travels to Taulkinham, meets a prostitute, a young and lonely zoo guard, [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1681

Literature Studies: William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

In spite of the fact that during the period of the English Renaissance the concept of gender was socially constructed and associated with a range of conventions, in Twelfth Night, Shakespeare reveals the social distribution [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2227