Literature Essay Examples and Topics. Page 39

8,494 samples

“The Open Boat” Short Story by Stephen Crane

As they struggle to survive through rationing of food and water, fighting off the exhaustion of body and mind, and contend with the sharks that come to investigate the boat, they continuously think about nature [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 261

Coming of Age in “Reunion” by John Cheever

John Cheever's short story "The Reunion" is considered an initiation story because the protagonist of the story shifts from the viewpoint of a child to that of an adult during the action of the story.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 645

“The Awakening” by Kate Chopin

She is the perfect Victorian example of what Edna is expected to be, but Edna is incapable of keeping up the act, which is all her marriage and family really are to her.
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1964

Poems of Robert Burns Review

This is like the letter Burns sent to his father before being a poet and there he stood and proved to all that He is a great writer who strikes in every thing he writes. [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1548

The Theme of Pride in American Literature

The play is made by the author in the way representing the memories of the main characters through the flashbacks along with the real scenes of the play.
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 994

The Poem “The Flea” by John Donne

The analysis of the poem The Flea should be viewed through the author's personal style of writing and world look. The style of the poem writing can be characterized as lyrical and romantic as the [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1281

Eudora Welty: Life and Works

It is not easy to distinguish the most important aspects of Eudora Weltys life, because all of them are closely intertwined, though, while analyzing her stories one should pay attention to her family relationships, her [...]
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 717

Analysis of “Eveline” by James Joyce

Ingersoll in his article "The Stigma of Femininity in James Joyce's "Eveline" and "The Boarding House" analyzes the image of Eveline from the point of view of feminity and oppression of women in those times [...]
  • Subjects: Gender in Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 590

“Flowering Judas” by Katherine Anne Porter

The author of the book employed certain aspects that are interesting in nature and this makes the story capture the minds and the hearts of the most audience.
  • Subjects: Dramatic Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 555

“The Beast in the Jungle” by Henry James

The story is not interesting to read and there is nothing left in the memory to share with others. The Beast in the Jungle is definitely not one of the stories to read twice.
  • Subjects: Dramatical Novel
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 574

“Roman Fever” by Edith Wharton

The women characters in the short story tell each other a series of tales, embedded within the story at different narratives, about the enticements and dangers they face when they were young.
  • Subjects: Gender in Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 560

Literature and History in the American Experience

In the pages of history and numerous literary canons in American experience there lies a terrain of societal upheaval and unrest that addresses the questions of segregation and racist philosophy underlying the mainstream dynamics of [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 2635

Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

However, Shakespeare, being the absolute genius of an artist was able to conceptualize the basic norms of this sentiment and presented his villain of this play as a monster, for the jingoistic mass, and a [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1121

The Literary Works of W. H. Auden

In later years, a lot of his poems were directed through the style of using firm words to express his strong emotions and to depict the ideas of revealing and concealing the tone of his [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2193

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

For example in the chapter on the Great Gatisby she narrates the dreams of people in regard to the future, the dangers associated with fulfillment of such dreams, and the frustration resulting from the dreams [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 835

“Socrates’s Apology” by Plato

The point about his defense is that he wanted to stick to the speech he had prepared and it was planned and was well prepared.
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 565

William Wordsworth: An Example of a Romantic

Occurring as it did from the middle of the 1700s to the middle of the 1800s, the Romantic Period was an age of tremendous change and upheaval.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 3047

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Works and Feminism

The woman's role is depicted ever so poignantly in the works of Divakaruni and this also reflects the importance of reclaiming the understanding of the role of women in society.
  • Subjects: Writers
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1013

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

“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

American Literature and the Two World Wars

They both post-war kinds of literature of America represent the revolutionary transformation in the world view of the literary figure and the employment of the most modern tools of interpreting the war-affected world.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1730

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

Sarajevo Blues Poems by Semezdin Mehmedinovic

The honesty in which the poems of Semezdin Mehmedinovic were written might lay in the fact that for the whole period of the Serbian nationalistic siege he remained a citizen of Sarajevo.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 865

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

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

Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart: Narrative

In the same vein, Joseph Conrad's novella "Heart of Darkness," written in 1899, is about the struggle of two civilized Europeans, Marlow and Kurtz, after they ventured in to the wouldarkness' of uncivilized Africa,' and [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1551

World Literature. Forests in “The Ramayana”

The symbols of nature are various, and have different meanings, depending on the context, but the key meanings of these symbols are life itself, and the beauty of the surrounding world.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1043

Poetry. “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes

The Harlem Renaissance, a period spanning roughly the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, is frequently referred to as a literary movement, but the movement also encompassed a great explosion of African-American expression in many [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 936

The Poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

The beginning of the poem reveals the narrator's feelings toward Annabel Lee, determining the theme and the mood of the verse: "a maiden there lived whom you may know by the name of Annabel Lee; [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 735

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

“Black Rain” the Novel by Masuji Ibuse

Taking it upon himself to complete Yasuko's recollections of the dark days, Shizuma must rewrite the journal to bring to the reader an unmistakable account of the injuries, the horrors and the victimization that was [...]
  • Subjects: Modernist Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 626

The Drawbridge: Short Story Review

It can be presumed that the three the madman, the ferryman, and her friend work according to the dictates of the baron.
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 884

“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 Art of John Updike’s A&P” by Toni Saldivar

Sammy's decision to quit his job is therefore based both on his rejection of the conservative and restricting viewpoint of his manager as well as the free and nonconformist lechery of the butcher as he [...]
  • Subjects: American Novels Writing Style
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1037

Sammy’s Wisdom: “A&P” by John Updike

Sammy's powers of observation and discrimination are clear enough in his description of the leader of the bevy the one he instantly realizes is the 'queen', or, as he later refers to her, "Queenie": She [...]
  • Subjects: Aspects of American Novels
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1549

“Sure Thing” the Play by David Ives

It takes a short time to relax with the switching of scenes, but it is eerie to watch the scene unfold and realize that you could have been in the same situation.
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1205

“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

Ovid’s, Catullus’, and Sappho’s Love Poems

Again, the original rhyme is lost, though much of the original character of the words are intact, due to the close resemblance of Latin and English in much of the inherited vocabulary from French, a [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1807

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

Poetry on Death: Comparison of Two Poems

In this example, death is in the middle of the circle, and is, hence in the power of the person because death settles on to impede, whether the person is pleased with it or not.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1121

Mythology in Humans Life Analysis

His pride in his role is evident in the words he speaks in which he seems to be almost condescending to them for appealing to other forces than himself in their burning of incense to [...]
  • Subjects: Mythology
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2365

Modernism in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn

Huck fears his father and apparently never knew his mother; a homeless waif, he sleeps on doorsteps or in hogsheads; he is troubled by no ambition and steers clear of Sunday school; his life is [...]
  • Subjects: Modernist Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 600

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 Novel “Family” by Pa Chin

Chueh-Hsin's younger brothers do not want to follow his example and try to break away from the influence of the family. He leaves the compound of his family to continue his rebel and to marry [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 873

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

Identification in “Maps” Novel by Nuruddin Farah

It is worth noting that, in the novel Maps by Nuruddin Farah, the writer examines the problems of national identity through a gender-oriented interpretation of the history of Somalia.
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 565

Orientalism and East and West Conflicts

Today, the lines are blurred as to determine whether it should be an east or west conflict as it could also be any form of war against one ethnic group by a whole nation or [...]
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2135

Racial Fire in “We Wear the Mask” by P. L. Dunbar

The "we" in the poem is the black folk collective, the speaker a Dunbar persona, or perhaps the real Dunbar lifting the mask to speak plainly and unequivocally about the double nature of the black [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1093

“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

“My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult: Book Analysis

Anna's ability not to be jealous of her mother's constant attention to Kate distinguishes the girl from other children. Anna realizes that her mother is extremely tired of the life that does not stop to [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 809

August Wilson’s “Fences” Review

At the same time, Troy tries the best way he knows how to direct the course of his own son's life away from the negative influence of the boy's ancestors.
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1267

“Inkheart” by Cornelia Funke

A balance between good and evil is the main theme of this story with its focus on character development, both within the characters of the larger text as well as with Fenoglio and the characters [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1298

“The Once and Future King” by T. H. White

The books referred to were "book 1-The Sword in the Stone, book 2-The Queen of Air and Darkness, book 3-The Ill-Made Knight and book 4-The Candle in the Wind, The author Terence Hanbury White who [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1172

Shakespearean Macbeth as a Tragic Hero

In addition to fighting for his king, Macbeth is quickly and well rewarded for his efforts as King Duncan makes him the new Thane of Cawdor in addition to his already holding the title of [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1105

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” Novel

The theme of sin is depicted through emotional sufferings and experience of the main heroes of the novel: Hester Prynne, her husband Roger Chillingworth and Hester's lover, Dimmesdale.
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 957

Francis Weed in “The Country Husband” by John Cheever

The short story "The Country Husband" by John Cheever reveals the darker side of Suburbia, "the side which traps its residents in a web of conformity," and the protagonist of the story Francis Weed, is [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 641

Characters in “The Scarlet Letter” and “Hamlet” Film

Hester returns to Boston just before her death, in order to be buried in the same grave as Dimmesdale, with 'A' inscribed on their tombstone. Much to her son's anger and disgust, she marries Claudius [...]
  • Subjects: American Literature
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 622

Family Life in Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming”

The third grotesque view occurs {while Ruth is later dressing upstairs ostensibly to go with Teddy back to America} when Max and the others, realizing that Teddy's marriage to Ruth is in shambles, begin discussing [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1129

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

“Far from the Madding Crowd” Novel by Thomas Hardy

The stark contrast between the harsh reality and the peaceful setting of the novel makes the realization of rejection particularly striking. The novel starts with a strong plot line unraveling the drama between Gabriel Oak [...]
  • Subjects: British Literature
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 300

Eve’s Character in the Bible

Eve is the central character of the narrative in Genesis 1-3 and one of the central figures in the Bible. In this regard, understanding the development of Eve is essential, including the analysis of her [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1182

Director’s Notebook for “Pygmalion” by Shaw

In retrospect, the cultural context of the play was that of a period of transition from the Victorian values to the new ones and the desperate search of the ideas that could constitute a new [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 20
  • Words: 5532

“Blindness” the Poem by Krishna Tateneni

The choice of words in the second stanza, the second last line, which reads "glowing at dusk, a shrouded welcome" is a further confirmation of the sorrow in the mind of the narrator.
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1147

Human Condition in Cannery Row

Due to the fact that Cannery Row tells a story of different characters with a range of aspirations it can be argued that Steinbeck showcases various aspects of the human condition in his work by [...]
  • Subjects: World Philosophy Literature
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1659

“The Mountaintop” Play by Katori Hall

Judging by the conversation of the King with a lady Camae, the King indeed is presented as a human being who had feelings, fears, and emotions.
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 408

Irony in “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings”

The news spreads far and quickly, but the creature fails to live up to the expectations of the curious crowd and is soon forgotten. It is likely that the angel's stay was exactly as he [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 217

Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the prominent elements of fiction used in A Doll's House as the most vivid example of Ibsen's approach, analyze the applied dramatic techniques, and describe different layers [...]
  • Subjects: World Literature
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 921

Madness in “Henry IV” by Luigi Pirandello

One of the main reasons for the emergence of such fusion is the desire to show the unique character of the psyche and, from the other hand to emphasize the fact that all people have [...]
  • Subjects: Plays
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1667

1950s in Wilson’s “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit”

Happiness becomes accessible through product attainment, and even the opening of the story deals with the fact that the protagonist and his wife, Tom and Betsy Rath, want to live in a better house.
  • Subjects: Themes in American Novels
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1474

“Smoke They Can’t Resist” Poem Analysis

They call me the cancer stick; I am a gigantic straw, Crack of dawn in just a flick, pleasuring is what I draw, In an attempt so quick, I rip them out of the low, [...]
  • Subjects: Poems
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 635

Gender Roles in “Bridge to Terabithia” by Paterson

The theme of gender roles is consistently present in the novel, starting with character origins and becoming the central concept as they mature to defy archetypal perceptions of feminine and masculine expectations in order to [...]
  • 5
  • Subjects: Gender in Literature
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1448