Literature Essay Examples and Topics. Page 34

8,829 samples

Italian Sonnets: The Structure and Thematic Organization

While the Italian sonnet is also called the Petrarchan sonnet about Francis Petrarch - great fourteen-century poet- the sonnet is claimed to have existed a century before him. The stanzaic form of a sonnet is [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1013

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

In consequence, the book became a model source of reading that inspired people to further take on the issues of race in the USA and throughout the world.
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 960

“North and South” Novel by Elizabeth Gaskell

This paper is a review of the main character, Margaret Hale and will also look at the social and economical and political transitions/issues that occur in the story.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1863

“The Fish” Poem by Elizabeth Bishop

The speaker, out in a battle-worn, rented boat, catches the old fish and after examining the fish closely and sympathetically, in a spontaneous moment of recognition tosses the fish back into the water."The aesthetic nature [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 977

Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives (1890) Analysis

Particularly within the last several decades of the 19th century, land speculation and the lack of any coherent urban policies have led to unchecked growth and urban sprawl, resulting in the loss of thousands of [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 836

“The Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Thesis: The poem is about the wanderings of the ancient mariner who is permanently traumatized and alienated by his killing of the albatross and his experiences lead him to the spiritual realization that all creatures [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2447

“Rape of the Lock” the Poem by Alexander Pope

In the times gone by, there was a period when scholars and knowledgeable people on the whole, tended to assume the primary half of the eighteenth century as the "Age of Pope".
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1448

Chinua Achebe and His Works

It acknowledged the interdependency of the masculine and the feminine or community values such as the earth and sky. Achebe's stories are also known to use proverbs that incorporate the values of the rural Igbo [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 976

Beatrice From Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”

Even though the main plot of the story is centered on challenges threatening to sabotage the union Hero and Claudio, Beatrice along with Benedick with their constant verbal jousting finds itself quite an interesting counter-plot.
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 568

“And Our Flag Was Still There” by B. Kingsolver

Kingsolver uses everyday examples to unveil importance of the American flag as a symbol of national unity and patriotism. In sum, the flag means much more for American people than a national symbol: it is [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 552

Novels by Conrad and Forster Comparison

The current paper is aimed at comparison of the works through three perspectives: the symbolism of the titles of the two novels, the way colonialism and racism are represented by the authors, and the way [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1479

Search for the Identity in Ellison’s “Invisible Man”

Many critics have generalized the version of the "Invisible Man" as the most influential novel of the Post World War II and the greatest literary work highlighting the extraordinary way the invisible black man strives [...]
  • Subjects: Dramatical Novel
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1783

The Human Part of “We”, Based on Zamiatin’s

Therefore, all real emotional response is suppressed and the perfect regimentation of the way of life in the One State is supposed to overcome this fatal human flaw.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 12
  • Words: 3610

“No One Writes to the Colonel” by G. G. Marquez

The author combined the "objective" prose and philosophical symbolism of Hemingway with the existentialistic prose of Camus and created one of his most famous story "No one Writes to the Colonel".
  • 5
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1697

“Novel 1984” by George Orwell

The specific inspirations for the Oceania society from "1984" were The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany with their inherent propaganda, betrayal of the ideals of the revolution, concentration camps and misinformation.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 953

Kien’s Experience in The Sorrow of War by Ninh

The Vietnam War was perceived as injustice because of the discrepancy between the loose form it took and the form the soldiers had been trained to identify and label as such.
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1414

Emile Zola’s “Ladies Delight” Analysis

He described the promotion of a young country girl Denise who came to Paris in search of a better life, the success of a developing department store business, and the atmosphere of commerce and shopping, [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 681

Discussion of the Play Wit by Margaret Edson

Wit starts with Vivian addressing the watchers: she is presently a patient in a central research clinic undergoing curing for sophisticated ovarian cancer, and she realizes that the prognosis is not consolatory."The Faerie Queene this [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1045

Torture in Shakespeare’s Literature

In its most common use, the word torture refers to "the use of physical or mental pain, often to obtain information, to punish a person, or to control the members of a group to which [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 780

Tennessee Williams: “Glass Menagerie” and Autor’s Life

His sister Rose, the closest person in his life and the prototype of Laura in "The Glass Menagerie", actually suffered from epilepsy and underwent a prefrontal lobotomy in the mid-1930s, which has a clearly negative [...]
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1284

“Howl for Carl Solomon” Poem by Allen Ginsberg

The poem "Howl for Carl Solomon" by Allen Ginsberg is the brightest example of the artistic protest against the humiliating and unfair standards and norms according to which human society lives.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1932

Oedipus the King as a Piece of Classic Literature

This story is nothing short of a treasure in terms of the use of literary devices, and various other techniques employed by the writer to elevate this work to the status of one of the [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1012

Dostoevsky’s and Marx’s Works Review

In the first place, the point stated in the Manifesto is that human nature might, can, and even should subdue a regime of power in a country.
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1067

“Life Without Principle” by Henry David Thoreau

To begin with, it is necessary to emphasize that the central point of Thoreau's "Life without principle" is the necessity to have the aim in every action performed and do not chase the evanescent values.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1049

“Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler

After the death of his mother in 1907, Hitler moved to the city of Vienna, where he hoped to join the Art Academy.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1871

“Shell Shaker” by LeAnne Howe

The style of the novel adds a sense of mystery to the story, which, combined with the representation of the various rituals and the extensive usage of the native language, makes the reading process more [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 553

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London

The protagonist of the story is the man who "was a newcomer in the land, a chechaquo, and this was his first winter" and he is the prime tool at the hands of the writer [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 701

“The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold

Her father attempts to catch Susie's murderer and is crippled in the course of the investigation. The narrator is Susie Salmon, a 14-year-old girl from a usual family with the general expectations and dreams of [...]
  • Subjects: Concepts in American Novels
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1349

“The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair.

In this paper, I am going to analyze the use of the above mentioned writing techniques by the famous writer and scientist Eric Schlosser who wrote the preview in Sinclair's book "The Jungle by Upton [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 617

“The Scarlet Letter”: A Darkened End

For both Hester and for the townspeople, the mere presence of this letter appearing this one time on her dress is enough to mark her as something different from the rest of them and secluded.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1297

Gilgamesh and Oedipus the King

In the case of Enkidu, he uses his strength to undermine all those going against his will and he is not putting in mind what the results will be to other in the society.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1266

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

Christian Ethics in Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park”

However, if one arguing for the spiritual significance of Austen's novels is able to show that the development of Austen's plots, themes, and characters is related to Austen's religious beliefs and standards, he or she [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 19
  • Words: 5261

“Liberty’s Daughters” by Mary Beth Norton

Only in recent decades have U.S.historians begun seriously to evaluate the mobilization of women and to consider the ways in which relations between men and women changed in the era of the American Revolution.
  • Subjects: Gender in Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1270

The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad

Verloc is a particularly unique spy character because he fails where the traditional spy succeeds, and lacks the strength and wit of the spy we are familiar with.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1941

“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

Disintegration for Modernist Writers

Different and sometimes opposite currents within modernism itself make it difficult to create a comprehensive picture of this literary phenomenon in this essay that is why we are going to draw our attention to the [...]
  • Subjects: Modernist Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1930

“Ars Poetica” by Archibald Macleish

This poem, like most of the Cummings' other poems, exists, quite meaningfully exists, in both form and content. Indeed, the form both encapsulates and expounds the meaning of the poem.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 552

Jonathan Kozol’s “Amazing Grace”

Through this book, Kozol tries to reach out to the human conscience and in his thought-provoking style, takes the reader on a journey into the lives of the poorest of poor children, shedding light on [...]
  • Subjects: American Novels Influences
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 749

“1812: The War that Forged a Nation” the Book by W.R. Borneman

Borneman proposes readers an exiting and vivid description of the war of 1812 which led to consolidation of the nation and 'forged America's national identity.' Borneman analyzes the major events of the war and discusses [...]
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 608

Milton’s and Dante’s “Paradise” Analytical Comparison

On the other hand, to hypothesize and expand the concept of Heaven, it was first necessary to create a general framework of life after death and specify such issues as admissions to the various parts [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1608

Novels bu Ghassan Kanafani Review

The present paper looks more closely at "Men in the Sun" and "The Land of Sad Oranges" and argues that the symbols physical disability and road point to the helplessness and powerlessness of the Palestinian [...]
  • Subjects: Comparative Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 994

The Significance of Fences

By naming his play Fences, the plural form of the word even though only a single physical fence is evident in the play, August Wilson brings attention to the symbolism of the fence itself as [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1657

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells

The slaying is the catalyst to a downward spiral of events. Montgomery is forced to kill several of the beasts in self-defense.
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1628

Poetry v. Prose: Their Differences and Overlaps

Fiction can possibly include the happenings of everyday life and is reliant on the person that narrates the happenings, the manner of its narration, and its composition.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 903

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

Marriage in George Eliot’s Novel ‘Middlemarch’

Her "Mill on the Floss" vehemently reveals an indescribable conflict in Maggie's innocent mind; one the one side there was the matter of the Tulliver family's ego and prestige, and on the other side it [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1066

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

Gender Equality Question: “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare

For the past few centuries, the rise of various movements have marked a certain change in the ideas and philosophies of man regarding the true nature of his existence, the pronounced inequalities of not only [...]
  • Subjects: Dramatic Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1333

Pilgrim’s Progress: Allegory Internalized

The purpose of this essay is to point out, in as much detail as possible, the allegorical allusions to the Christian way of life, or in short, the biblical teachings that are vital to the [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1129

“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare: To Be or Not to Be

It begins with supernatural such as the presence of the ghost and Hamlet attempting to glance into Claudius' soul, to the mystery of the crime and the need for revenge. The masterful use of style, [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 827

Gilgamesh Epic: The Life of a God-Man

Both the Eden story and the Flood Story have clear counterparts in the Gilgamesh epic, whose restless hero also has his parallel in Odysseus of the Iliad, even as Gilgamesh fated friendship with Enkidu can [...]
  • Subjects: Mythology
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2018

Irony in Frank O’Connor’s “First Confession”

When she answered in the affirmative, Jackie became sure that he was a terrible boy and a sinner who had broken all commandments all because of his old grandmother."I was scared to death of confession".
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1066

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

Feminism in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler, upon the discovery that her imaginary world of free-living and noble dying lies in shivers about her, no longer has the vitality to continue existence in the real world and chooses self-annihilation. At [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 880

“Empire of the Sun” by J. G. Ballard

In the sky to the northeast of Shanghai, he searches for a flash that temporarily overpowers the dawn and overflows the stadium with a strange light.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 825

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

Representation of the Sophoclean Hero Aspects

Would God no Argo e er had winged the seas To Colchis through the blue Symplegades No shaft of riven pine in Pelion's glen Shaped that first oar blade in the hands of men Valiant [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1360

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

Pablo Neruda, a Great Latin American Poet

In 1920, he had written literary journal "Selva Austral" under the pen name of Pablo Neruda, which he took on in memory of the Czechoslovak poet Jan Neruda.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 958

Mrs. Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative of the Captivity

A peculiar feature of works of this type is that the main characters, women, are not treated as they should be: they see numerous deaths of their dearest people, they are deprived of the fulfillment [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 892

Walker’s “Jubilee”: Oral History in Lyrical Melodies

Margaret Walker's Jubilee is a lyrical novel that captures and shapes the saga of the African American experience by using the lyrics of slave songs and spirituals that give testimony to the legacy of her [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2647

Sharon Olds’ “Rites of Passage” Poem

Having already presented the boys as a group of older men in characteristic business behavior, this comparison serves to bring into focus the concept that while the speaker's son is ostensibly the 'king' of the [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 831

“Jabberwocky” Poem by Lewis Caroll

The meanings in the glossary differed from those in the Through The Looking Glass, therefore, the translation read: "It was evening, and the smooth active badgers were scratching and boring holes in the hill-side, all [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1336

“Jude the Obscure” Novel by Thomas Hardy

Previous to he was able to try to enter the university; the immature Jude was influenced into getting married to a rather uncouth and outward confined girl, Arabella Donn, who left him in two years.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1333

Narrative of Everything Is Illuminated by J. S. Foer

I believe that the narrative style of the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer called Everything Is Illuminated is one of the main factors that determine the never ending interest of the readers towards the book.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1633

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

“To His Coy Mistress” Poem by Andrew Marvell

The title shows the intolerance of the passionate young man to the lady who is hesitant. The literal meaning of the poem is that the passionate man is intolerant of the coyness of the lady.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 640

Virginia Woolf’s Life and Works

The sudden death of her mother in 1895 and the death of her half-sister Stella several years later led to Virginia's first nervous breakdown.
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1227

Human Nature in “Lord of the Flies” by Golding

Considering this, the present paper will analyze the validity of the given statement by drawing on the experiences of characters in Lord of the Flies and evaluating the conditions in which they lived.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 905

“The Pueblo Revolt of 1680” by Andrew L. Knaut

The book's research problem is the intentional failure to recognize the role of Pueblos in the precipitation of the revolt and the ultimate triumph over the Spaniards in New Mexico.
  • Subjects: Historical Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 858

Ritual Performance and Cosmology in the Rig Veda

Despite differences in the interpretation of features text as a whole, the data remained of the most ancient Indian religious texts allows restoring some elements of mythology and cosmology of the Vedic Indians. Altogether, it [...]
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1730

“A Raisin in the Sun” Play by Lorraine Hansberry

This paper is discussing the character of the relationship between mama and her son Walter together with the problems which are brought up in the interaction of these two characters in the play.
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1249

Ghost in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” Play

In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the titular character begins plotting his revenge after he encounters the ghost of his father, who informs him of the murder as well as the culprits.
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 299

Family Dynamics in the Bible and Modern Literature

The topic of family dynamics is necessary and relevant to modern relationships between parents and children. In turn, the poem by Hughes focuses on the metaphor of stairways as a symbol of her difficult life [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 854