Themes in American Novels Essay Examples and Topics

The main conflict of the novel is built around one of the main characters' awareness of the legacy of evil that he has inherited from his mother and his hesitation about whether he is destined [...]

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald pays attention to the relationships between both Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan and Daisy Buchanan. Scott Fitzgerald's book is mainly focused on the relationship of Daisy with Gatsby and Tom, [...]

The beliefs and norms of the people in Panem are centred on the self-interest; they are obsessed to acquire the comfort and lifestyle of the affluent people.

Jimmy Cross, a lieutenant enlisted to take care of the other soldiers is the victim of the guilt burden. Collectively, these soldiers experienced different forms of emotional torture, which boiled down to emotional burdens as [...]

Also, it is a tragedy of the society the influence of which can be too devastating to heal."The Paper Menagerie" teaches the audience how ungrateful and cruel a child can become under the pressure of [...]

The first evidence to support their ignorance of McCandless is his lack of knowledge and experience to understand and survive the wilderness.

Judging by the way the short story handles the themes, plot, and literary tools, The Last Leaf is a literary masterpiece.

Perhaps that is clearly illustrated by the quote that presupposes that whoever can control the past, has power to control the future; while whoever has the ability to control the present, wields the right to [...]

Thus, although it was a beautiful experience to see the motherly love, it was devastating to see the discrimination and bias faced by the Native American community whose feelings and rights were violated by the [...]

A possible thesis for an essay on this topic could be: "In 'The Wars,' Timothy Findley suggests that adversity plays a crucial role in shaping an individual's identity, as it forces the person to confront [...]

He gives the money to his brother who purchases a corsage for Sally and a new black shoe for the dance.

The story reveals a Western culture, where the narrator exhibits freedom and openness in her conversation with other characters of the story. This is depicted in the conversation of the narrator with her mother in [...]

The misunderstanding between An-Mei Hsu and Rose Hsu-Jordan occurs due to their differences in the views on the roles of females in the family.

The reason why this is important to the main theme lies in the fact that passing is a form of deception that allowed Clare to obtain higher status and more freedom.

It is ironic in the sense that Abner is punished for his injustices to the wealthy yet the justice system does not consider the social injustices of the rich society to the poor.

In the novel Joseph is introduced as the sister of “the illustrious Pamela whose virtue is at present so famous”.

Main idea 2: Social and historical difficulties of migration and slavery. Main idea 3: The search for the main character of identity and place in society.

The present work thus seeks to elaborate the reason behind Hong's valuation of 'Bad English' as featured in the book 'Minor Feelings.' The valuation of 'bad English' by Hong partly purposes to celebrate and appreciate [...]

By showing how the stringent moral and religious standards of Puritanism can result in hypocrisy and the restriction of human freedom, The Scarlet Letter emblem relates to the concept of Puritanism.

Wishing to shed the fetters limited her freedom; at the beginning of the novel, Dellarobia fears not meeting the gender norms of the culture.

The population had to work hard to pay taxes to the state and various fees required by the Church that assured them of the importance of that.

This essay discusses the rhetoric devices George Orwell uses to convince the audience of the credibility of his arguments regarding the ambiguity of political language.

Another one is more of a humorous idea that there are spores in the sunlight that are essentially converting people into self-centered zombies.

The themes of empathy and compassion are actively developed throughout the novel; at first, Lauren realizes that the world is cruel and she must learn to live in it.

Maus, through the comic, explains the Holocaust through his father's experience, and we see that it was not an easy place to come out because of the horrors and mistreatment in the concentration camps.

The play shows the contrast between the representatives of American folk and Yankee on the basis of Jonathan's behavior and manners.

The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the novel from several points of view. The character is a picture of savagery and primitivism.

In the beginning, the readers are exposed to the horrifying experience of Melinda being raped by Andy Evans. The little girl feels alone and has no idea how to deal with her anguish or let [...]

The Devil and Tom Walker depict a corrupted man named Tom Walker, who is eager to sell himself in exchange for the treasure that the devil has promised him.

It contrasts the extravagant and luxurious lives of the wealthy characters in the East and West Egg with the struggles of individuals in it.

The narrator had ups and downs with Sonny, and through the story, there is a significant aspect of racism which is the main focus of this proposal.

The authors were in the middle of events: they worked as editors in the Ramparts, a political magazine popular among the radical audience.

The girl from the new family reminded Alvarez of her own plight when she had moved to the United States and had not yet been accepted completely by the community.

After the release, Malcolm had the tools he needed to change his life and the lives of many others in America.

Through symbolism, O'Connor was able to convey the characters' unique features with their names, connection to parents with Hulga's wooden leg, Joy's mindset with her glasses, and Pointer's non-religiousness with the hollow Bible.

The main idea of the book lies in upholding the Marxist belief of the inevitable collapse of capitalism and the accession of the proletariat, or industrial working class.

This analysis would focus on the essay's Chapter 3 dedicated to fiestas in general and the Day of the Dead in particular, which reflect many national traits of Mexicans.

Even without the name of the main character, the audience can tell how she behaves and relates with others, which brings out the imbalance of power that exists between men and women particularly when it [...]

This phrase is heard on behalf of the author at the end of the story, in the part where the description of the murderer of the protagonist's son is given.

Being the representatives of different literary genres, the chosen stories contributes to the promotion of home as the only place for hope, safety, and empowerment.

The book covers the mid-life of David bringing to the fore the events which he has contributed to himself and some he has not that are set in motion and lead to his near-total destruction.

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 [...]

The novel presents the incompatibility of the "divine law" and human law, and the protagonist's, Joseph K, inability to understand the discrepancy.

In the literal sense, since Alaska's death reinforces the storyline, the first part of the book traces the events of her life, and the second, the aftermath of her death.

Through the symbolism they pertain to, both pieces of work are an undeniably true reflection of the socio-economic and political struggles in the turn of the 19th century, as well as within the New Deal [...]

This was an indication that although his faith had started to change, he still had faith in God. He was able to come out of the holocaust with a stronger faith.

The Back of the Bus by Mebane presents the American South during the era of racial segregation and complex black-white interactions.

West Coast Mafia is a group of youths; Frankie included who are paid to commit the crime and other heinous acts in society.

In the novel, the culprit for the destruction of Okonkwo's personality, the disintegration of the clan, which Elder Mbata speaks of in the second passage, the destruction of family ties and religion, is the person [...]

To be more specific, the consideration of actions and motivations of the protagonists of the stories so that to see what courage meant to them and to the authors.

In the narrative, the lawyer's office is divided into two rooms by a glass folding door, one where Bartleby works and the other where the lawyer's station is.

The primary purpose of Gary Soto's The Afterlife is to show the significance of human life and forgiveness from the perspective of those who lose it.

However, no matter how important the physical map of the city and the wanderings of the heroes is. Nobility, loyalty to the word, decency, and dignity are the distinctive qualities of the heroes of The [...]

A suitable passage to illustrate the author's use of the curtain as a device symbolizing and bringing forward the separation between the main characters is the excerpt when it is first introduced.

Ana brings out the pains of living in exile in America for most of the Cubans, some of whom had a life in their former homes. A new beginning in Miami is the fate of [...]

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 [...]

He also shows the way people responded to the opportunities and challenges of the new times. The girls seem to rebel against the system and conventions of the society, as they dare come into the [...]

One of the most popular portrayals of the novel is the American Dream. Jay Gatsby is one of the main characters in the novel who achieves the American Dream.

Characters and locations in the novel work as potent symbols that draw attention to the struggles experienced by the underprivileged and the monetization of violence as a sort of entertainment for the rich.

The attempt by writers of the nonfiction but documentary literature genres to explore various global phenomena often responds to the claim of certain absolutism, that is, the recognition of the perfect truth of the picture [...]

The essence of the latter is in the opposition of a person to society and its norms. Further, the second conflict in "The Story of an Hour" is the internal struggle and confusion of Louise.

The development of the American dream and its impact on the society of the United States is a pertinent topic of discussion for various authors.

Art Spiegelman magnificently links the past and the present graphically to narrate his father's surviving the Holocaust and his relations with the father.

The surrounding atmosphere and cultural specificities influence the characters' personalities throughout the story and change their attitude towards the particular minorities and races.

Paul is offered a chance to pursue the American Dream and gain huge material riches as a result of hard work in the area of business, for example.

The main characters in Karen Russel's story The Bog Girl are situated on a mythical island somewhere in Northern Europe, where peat cut out of the bogs is the main source of fuel.

This effect is reached by opposing the details and the setting of the traditional human world with the magic of the wild forest.

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.

The main focus of the story is the problem of racism, particularly to African-American people in the United States. In terms of other issues that "Battle Royal" demonstrates and that are further developed in the [...]

The events show that in the conditions of racism, the psychological deformation of a person occurs due to the formation of a feeling of inferiority in him or her and the cultivation of fear.

To transmit the message, Faulkner uses three binary oppositions: death life, the old the new, and the North the South. In this passage, Emily is compared to the soldiers who fell in the Civil War [...]

Through the lens of this novel, McCarthy exposes the relentless brutality of colonial conquest, the dispossession of land and identity, and the dire repercussions of human greed.

It becomes apparent upon closer examination that his fixation on the mystery of life, his neglect of the creator's responsibility, and his lack of empathy for his creation make Victor Frankenstein more responsible for the [...]

A breakdown of the symbolic significance of the concept of "doubleness" in the short story and its exciting aspect forms the basis of this paper.

The Gift of the Magi tells the story of two lovers who sacrifice valuable things for themselves for the sake of their beloved. Love requires sacrifice and compromise, and the willingness to do this is [...]

The story's central irony is that the protagonist is not a good boy. A passage that depicts the author viewing the character as pretentious is the one discussing Jacob's desire to rescue a dog only [...]

The present essay is dedicated to the analysis of the second book of the series, Thunderhead. It thinks about it in the following manner: "when the brutality of the dance overwhelms the beauty.the future is [...]

Kindred is the story of a strong woman from a comfortable but not ideal 1976, who travels back in time to XIX on the estate of slave owner Tom Whalen. The novel shows the reader [...]

This paper aims to briefly summarize the plot and the themes of this short story and relate it to the current problem of homelessness in the United States.

The younger one is in a hurry to go home, the older one hesitates, he clearly does not want to leave, although it is already deep night. There are no human meanings in the world: [...]

The focal point of this paper is to present a symbolic criticism of the play "Fences" by August Wilson with a special emphasis on the significance of Gabriel in the play.

The beginning of the novel is quite inspiring and stimulates for reading in order to recognize the details of a true love story...

Deckard's efforts have been constituted by the feeling of an 'emotion', the making of an intellectual connection, the speaking of an utterance, the passing on of a story in the real world beyond it, or [...]

As for the statement that the power of nature is the symbol of renewal, it is connected to the concept of equality and justice.

It appears that the suicide of the main character of the play "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller can be described within the framework suggested by Durkheim.

The convention of the femme fatale is of great significance for the noir fiction as far as it can reveal the historical and cultural background of Los Angeles in the 1930s.

The intense training depicts the importance of reward to the tributes. Further, the society is in touch with the preparedness of their tributes via media.

Love is a strong feeling filled with tenderness, the heartfelt affection of a man and a woman, which Aparna and her husband lack.

As a result, people use local gossip networks as the source of authority, eventually arriving at a decision that the man is an angel whose mission is to take away the soul of Pelayo and [...]

Regardless of the trauma and neglect caused by addiction problems in the families depicted in "The Distance Between Us" and "The Glass Castle," the only obstacles to accomplishment and happiness are inside the individual.

The author emphasizes the theme of gender roles and their perception in the story of Emily and the rest of the town.

The way a black child is struggling to get the most basic needs in the US. In the story, the twelve-year-old child is not afraid of mistreatment by the people when they realize she is [...]

The main symbols of the story are tortoiseshell hair combs and a platinum chain for a pocket watch the symbols of sacrifice and devotion.

The extension of borders of the tropic, the contraposition between the life in LA and the life in Mexico, the change of events is a typical technique of Magical Realism, namely, hybridity that implies extensive [...]

The setting is the poverty-ridden streets of Chicago and a realistic peep into the lives of the two brothers Lafeyette and Pharaoh.

The sinister nature of the novel is inferred in the title which derives from the Hebrew word, Ba'al-zvuv which means god of the fly, host of the fly or literally the Lord of Flies a [...]

Being the brain and the intellectual reason of the family, the husband wisely guides the ship of his matrimonial unit through all the possible mishaps and traps and takes the necessary precautions in order to [...]

Despite the fact that, throughout story's entirety, Cal is being presented to us as "progressive" educator, who seriously believed that endowing Donny with strongly defined sense of self-respect could have helped Daisy's son to straighten [...]

It is necessary to underline the fact that in the modern world the concept of racial profiling is considered to be common rather than unheard or unknown; the essay under analysis allows evaluating the author's [...]

The main point of the novel is that there is a certain, indescribable element that draws us out into the wild and out of the confines of society.

In the novel, we see April and Frank Wheeler as a youthful, presumably flourishing couple who lives a contented life with their two offspring in a well-to-do Connecticut neighborhood in the middle of the 1950s.

Nevertheless, while it is emotional, having to deal with death, the pain of losing a son, and having to deal with the sympathy of people around them, the story disguised the emotion of the individuals [...]

In the book, "The Song of Solomon" such an obsessive love is found in the passionate desire of Hagar and the friendly love of Guitar.

In spite of the fact that Butler rejected the idea that she intended to discuss the problem of the humans' enslavement in her work, it is impossible to ignore the accentuation of the issue of [...]

People are prone to hunger and starvation, the man and the boy, for instance, are at the verge of starvation when they come across an apple orchard and a well.

In Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises, women are a ubiquitous part of the story, and even central to the plot.

When examining the novel, it becomes clear that the writing style and the way in which the author delves into the Puritan way of life seemingly shows the double standards that existed at the time.

The narrative "Girl" is a piece written by Jamaica Kincaid concerning a mother's attempt to teach her daughter about a woman's role in society.

Therefore, in a strict play of the private incidents such as the death of her father with gangrene and his German lineage are presented in the poem to actually demonstrate Plath's abhorrence for her ancestry [...]

Their communication demonstrates that they can understand one another and find ways to endure the challenges of their lives together. Their communication shows that they are aware of their choices and willing to live with [...]

One of the most famous models of the topic of nature versus society in The Scarlet Letter is the romance between Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.

Through these works, the concept of the blurring of reality and the imaginary world of dreams is explored, showcasing the complexity of reality perception and its nuances.

The eventual fate of the rabbits serves as a metaphor for Robert's character, as their deaths reflect the loss of Robert's own moral values and the abandonment of his faith in humanity.

As a consequence, the constant social pressure added to the stress of strict parental control and further exacerbated the sisters' depression. It resulted in Cecilia's suicide and the tightening of parental restrictions.

In "The Veldt," George and Lydia suffer terrible repercussions from the delegating of parenting duties to the house, which offers all the living luxuries at the expense of the organic relationship between parent and kid.

Still, most of all, it is dark and mocking, in the spirit of Swift, the discourse on science and religion, faith and disbelief, meaning and nonsense.

The insensitivity in this mistreatment and dehumanization of Black people is pervasive to the extent that Jim considers himself "property" and was proud to be worth a fortune if anyone was to sell him. To [...]

The novel 'The Third Life of Grange Copeland' by Alice Walker is dedicated to the highlight of economical and racist oppression suffered by the society; it is a set of lives depicting gradual formation of [...]

There is a powerful cultural perception of the behaviors of the three groups, the father and the brother on one side, the mother and the grandmother on the other side, and the American media and [...]

In the novel, the main character, Clare Kendry, defines herself in terms of her family; she is concerned solely with the welfare of her children and the degree to which her husband's infidelity threatens her [...]