Literature Essay Examples and Topics. Page 31

8,586 samples

“A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen

He watches and describes the atmosphere of all-absorbing illusion in the society, drawing attention to the rights and destiny of a woman in it. The core of this illusion is a woman's position in society, [...]
  • Subjects: Dramatic Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1789

“A Sound of Thunder” and “Nethergrave”

Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" has better descriptions of the characters and the book overall, it also concerns a more relatable theme and familiarizing with the setting. In the story "A Sound of Thunder," [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 667

Dante’s Circles of Hell: Sins and Punishments

In Dante's Inferno, the second circle of hell is dedicated to the deadly sin of lust, which is the final destination for the individuals who used to be lustful and adulterous during their life.
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 322

Formal Structure of the Poems

In the poem The Pardon is used four-line stanza which is called a quatrain. The rhyme of this poem looks like abba which is known as envelope rhyme.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 669

“The Road Not Taken” by Frost

Robert Frost wrote "The Road Not Taken" at the beginning of the 1900s to underline the difficulty of choices that people have to make. Symbols make it possible to develop the reader's imagination, and alliteration [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 296

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The value of the composition lies in the progressive moral it brought to the world of literature as well as social views, redirecting the social mind from the old patriarchal foundations to the recognition of [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 942

Main Theme of “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller

The purpose of this paper is to find out what Willy believed to be the key to successful selling and to identify whether Willy fits the typical profile of a successful salesman as presented in [...]
  • Subjects: Dramatic Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 587

The Tale of Despereaux: Chiaroscuro

The queen died of stress at the sight of a rat on her plate, and the King outlawed all rats in his kingdom and ordered to strictly punish all those who sympathize with him.
  • 5
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 290

“The Guide” by R. K. Narayan

Marco's and Raju's mother's characters are to be considered further in order to research the differences in western modernity and Indian traditional values.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1123

Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame”

Life is both a scene of nothingness and one of infinity, and it is this duality that drives the characters in Beckett to desperation: "Endgame is a despairing study of despair".
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 837

The Salient Traits of the Romantic Hero

Lord Byron was the one to create a perfect model of the romantic hero for his contemporaries and next centuries. And though the romantic hero is the caring one, Byron made his character a representation [...]
  • Subjects: American Novels Writing Style
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 554

“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood

In interpreting the book, the main area of discussion will be supporting the meanings of the work whereas in evaluating the book, the focus will be coming up with the literary merit of the book [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1235

“The Western Heritage” by Donald Kagan Review

Gradually we get to know about the powerful influence of globalization on the century and its culture in general, about the relationships between Islamic world and the Western culture; and the most interesting is how [...]
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 618

Bradbury’s The Veldt & Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper

At the beginning of the story we immediately know that something is wrong with the nursery, and we find out about the African Veldt and how it seems to be stuck in a rather wild [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 4572

Narrative Poems and Their Interpretation

A narrative poem is supposed to be a narration of a definite story in the form of a poem; it is a piece of literature where a plot of the story is more important than [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 598

Frederick Douglas: Learning to Read and Write

Learning to read and write was Douglas' ticket out of slavery but this is not the main point of the story, it was the process of learning that opened his eyes to slavery in America [...]
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 954

The Problem of Hero and Villain in Literature

As shown by the examples of Prometheus from Prometheus Bound, James Stark from Rebel without a Cause, and Barry from Barry Lyndon, being a hero and a villain is possible for one and the same [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1670

John Donne’s “Holy Sonnet X”

The poet confirms that death is "Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so". Donne refers to a world of privacy and solitude when it comes to the existence of the death.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1142

Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Followed the Petrarchan Ideal

Shakespeare changes the content of the traditional sonnet in this particular poem by placing the focus on the true permanence of the image rather than the physical 'permanence' of the woman herself.
  • Subjects: Dramatic Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 987

“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Fadiman

In the book "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman, the author shows such cultural dilemmas by telling the story of the struggles of Hmong family and the girl Lia Lee, [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1285

Amy Tan’s Story “Mother Tongue”

She became a famous writer in Oakland and in this story, she narrates her experiences about the English she uses and about how the people around her influenced the way she conversed.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1065

Primo Levi: The Survival in Auschwitz

In narrating his good fortune he writes "It was my good fortune to be deported to Auschwitz only in 1944", and explains that when he reached Auschwitz "the German Government had decided, owing to the [...]
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 820

The Reason for Journeys in Literature

The purpose of this potion was to provide the scientist with a means of separating the good portion of his nature from the evil and it is successful, but the evil proves too strong and [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 12
  • Words: 3399

A Cinderella for All Cultures

She prevents the girl from attending the Festival, forcing her to do her household chores instead, and the African Cinderella is saved by a frog who repays her kindness to him in the past by [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1364

“The Monkey Wrench Gang” by Edward Abbey

The novel became very popular and created the idiom of monkey wrench in referring to the sabotage activities that damaged machines and led to violence in America in order to protect natural habitat and conserve [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 567

Fairy Tales and the “Folklore of the Human Mind”

Since the characters and the basic events of what happens to them remain relatively constant, it is helpful to study the characters of fairy tales in terms of the archetypes they represent.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2480

Moliere’s Schemes and Counterschemes in “The Miser”

However, in plays such as "The Miser," he also demonstrates he had a fine sense of the comic and had justly earned his contemporary reputation as France's jester."The Miser" is considered to be a romantic [...]
  • Subjects: Dramatical Novel
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1368

Aeneid, an Epic Poem by Virgil

The Trojans were the ancestors of the Romans according to the Aeneid, and their enemies were the Greek forces who had besieged and sacked Troy; yet at the time the Aeneid was written, the Greeks [...]
  • Subjects: Mythology
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2677

Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Renaissance

Among these is the new emphasis on private piety that develops with mysticism; the new literacy of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that encouraged the recording of private ruminations, the autobiographical emphasis of authorship in [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1773

Analysis of “Sonnet 130” by Shakespeare

Firstly, the author of the article mentions that the message of the poem is simple i.e.that the dark lady's beauty cannot be compared to the beauty of a goddess or to that found in nature.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 672

“Hills Like White Elephants”: Argument Comparison

Bernardo and Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" and the tradition of the American in Europe by D. The early versions of that story put Jig and the American man on the train for which they [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 930

“Allegory of the Cave” by Plato

As Plato was a disciple of Socrates and the source of much of the information we have regarding much of what this man had to say, Socrates' concept of ethics is relevant to an understanding [...]
  • 1
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2807

“The Glass Menagerie” the Play by Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams, a prominent playwright of his own epoch was born on 26 March 1911 in Columbus where he lived with his family consisting of his grandfather who was a religious man in the church, [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1004

“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

Jamaica Kincaid’s Short Story “Girl”

In noticing that the author is female, we begin to think that this is her story and that she has risen above the choices she was given after all, so it has a happy ending.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1056

“Everyday Use” Short Story by Alice Walker

Despite Dee's overwhelming presence, Maggie is the first girl to be introduced in the story as it is she who has apparently helped her mother to make the yard "so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon....
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1114

Parker’s Back by Flannery O’Conner

The central theme of the story is the reflection of the biblical features on the characters' actions and morality. Parker, the protagonist of the story, depicts the features of the biblical concepts burning the tree [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1204

Marked With D’, an Adaptation of ‘Pat-a-Cake’

The first two lines of the poem reveal the picture of an actual corpse being burned in the process and providing the readers with ideas regarding the subject of the poem; namely, Harrison's father the [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 920

Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”: Facing the Darkness

It is not difficult to realize that Hawthorne's intention in "Young Goodman Brown" is to force the reader to experience the temptations which Brown himself must endure and that he is made to see the [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1759

Writing: A Reflection of Living

In High School, my only claim to "literary acclaim" was a short poem that got published in the school paper, probably due to a lack of contributions from other students.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1034

How Poe Builds Suspense?

The use of language and stylistic techniques enriches the suspense and horror of the actions being described. For instance, in The Masque of the Red Death, the prince is depicted as a madman who enjoys [...]
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1760

“The Taming of the Shrew”: Petruchio and Katherina

The play The Taming of the Shrew was written at a time of renewed interest in marriage, in the way relations between the sexes were being redrawn by the consequences of the Reformation and by [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1143

Aeschylus’ Oresteia and Shakespeare’s Hamlet

One such device in Hamlet is Shakespeare's placing of the Danish prince in the context of Fortinbras and Laertes as the characters that, like Hamlet, find themselves in the role of having to avenge their [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 998

Eliot and Okigbo: A Comparison of Poets

Okigbo spoke the language of his people in Nigeria, and Eliot spoke American English. Okigbo learned English in school and university as the language of the colonial government of Nigeria at that time.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 12
  • Words: 3364

Kate Chopin’s Feminist Short Stories and Novels

Two short stories were written by Chopin, A Story of One Hour and The Storm well as her brilliant novel Awakening should be regarded as one of the best examples of the feminist literature of [...]
  • Subjects: Gender in Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 294

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: 7
  • Words: 2470

“The Monster” Story Analysis

The identity of the character is not clear, and although the writer tries to engage the reader into understanding the uniqueness of the featured characters, there is still some aspect of ambiguity, which makes the [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 573

Bhagavad Gita as a Spiritual Book

Lord Krishna is believed to be the inspiration behind the book known as the Gospel of the Lord. From this knowledge, the history of the Gita, the purpose of yoga, and a guru becomes significant [...]
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 783

“Babylon Revisited” by Scott Fitzgerald

The crash of the stock market that results in economic depression is a result of the sinful extravagance of the wealthy and can be related to this prophecy.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 692

Ideas in “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant

Just the same way that the necklace deceived her that it is a real diamond, she also managed to deceive everyone at the party that she is wealthy and beautiful.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 700

Themes and Experiences: “I Am Malala” by Malala Yousafzai

In telling her story, Malala emphasizes the importance of education for girls, the differences in culture and religion she experienced growing in Pakistan, the dangers of being an education activist, and the beginnings of the [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1117

Odysseus’ Personal Qualities and the Epic Hero Image

However, despite the need to win the audience, Odysseus also uses rhetoric to establish his authority; in his storytelling, he is always somewhat distant from the listeners: "Odyssean charisma, in both the personal sense attached [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 11
  • Words: 3042

Shakespeare’s Universality: Here’s Fine Revolution

Finally, this essay will try to persuade that the startling uniqueness of mind highlighted in the struggle to find the balance between "utopian possibility and dystopian reality" is what made it possible to render the [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2209

Religious Gullibility in Molière’s Tartuffe

The cunning behavior of Tartuffe, the credulous nature of Orgon, and the rational perspective of Cleante represent different sides of the author's argument against hypocrisy and blind trust.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1406

Japan in “The Pillow Book” by Sei Shonagon

The author of The Pillow Book is Sei Shonagon, a Japanese writer who served as a court lady to the Japanese empress in the 1000s. Sei Shonagon was a part of the upper class, which [...]
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 679

“The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough

The purpose of this critical analysis is to explore the author's description of the targeted characters in the book. The emphasis of the book is that the brothers were always determined, focused, and intelligent.
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 853

“Legends of the Fall” by Jim Harrison

S, the horrors of the First World War, and the atmosphere of the beginning of the 20th century America. Legends of the Fall tells the readers about the fate of the Ludlow family, consisting of [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1206

Satire in “Breakfast of Champions” by Kurt Vonnegut

These would lead to destruction of the environment and consequently to the death of humanity. This shows that everyone is to be blamed for the destruction and the existing conflict in America and the world [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1296

Jungian Mother Archetype in Children’s Literature

The books "Charlotte's Web", "The Root Cellar", and "The Secret Garden" explore how the restoration of the loss of the feminine ego can have nourishing implications on the lives of the affected individuals.
  • Subjects: Concepts in American Novels
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1656

“The Lottery” a Short Story by Shirley Jackson

When going over the reactions of the various individuals who wrote to the New Yorker regarding the story, their main reasoning for sending letters to the publication was simply due to the relative "strangeness" of [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 562

“Pieces”: the Poem Explication

Moreover, the reader can understand the attitude with references to the changes in the poem's tone which is melancholic in the first lines and rather optimistic in the ending lines in order to represent my [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 594

“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

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

Alienation Theme in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

This indicates that Gregor's alienation after the transformation was not a result of his appearance; it was his inability to contribute economically to the family.
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  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1402

“A Peacock Southeast Flew” a Poem by Anne Birrell

For instance, we get the impression that the mother of the clerk notes that the clerk's wife is not compliant, and hence, she wants her to leave because she has gone against the designated behaviors [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1915

Cardinal Virtues in The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh enables the reader to identify the cardinal virtues that could be valued in the ancient world. The author of this poem highlights the importance of fortitude through the words of Enkidu [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 548

Frank Conroy’s Memoir: Life Experiments

To emphasize the stop and to draw the readers' attention to it, Conroy uses the present tense, and the readers become involved in the situation because of observing it through the eyes of a boy [...]
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 852

Human Soul in the Story “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad

The atmosphere that is created, very much adds to the general theme and the relationship between the characters and the surrounding environment."Heart of Darkness" is a story where the setting plays a great role in [...]
  • Subjects: Dramatical Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 848

“I, Too” by Langston Hughes

He is considered one of the most influential agitators for change in the social order in the history of activism in America. The poem highlights the plight of the Negro in the USA.
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 569

“Talpa” by Juan Rulfo

In addition, the reader would expect the narrator to provide a larger coverage of the scenes at the Shrine, the miracles of the Virgin and evidence of her work.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 664