Walt Whitman One major theme in Whitman is what he frankly refers to as "the love of comrades…the manly love of comrades." (Whitman, "A Song"). Although Walt Whitman is frequently but inaccurately claimed as a "gay" poet -- even though Leaves Continue Reading...
Dickinson writes in short lines, Whitman in long. Why do these choices seem appropriate for their particular subject matters. Refer to particular poems of each poet to exemplify your points and your own poems to suggest how what you learned in writin Continue Reading...
Jewel Stairs' Grievance: Li PO / Ezra Pound We can assume from the poet's heritage that the speaker is an Asian woman. However, there are further contextual cues that aid in the understanding of "The Jewel Stairs' Grievance." For one, the opening l Continue Reading...
Star Cafe by Mary Caponegro Written in a surrealistic and sexualized style that immediately captures the reader's attention, Mary Caponegro's dazzling short story The Star Cafe was originally published 1990 as part of the author's larger collection Continue Reading...
Along with her psychological behavior, her social behavior was also completely absurd and she proved this when she poisoned Mr. Homer Barron, a Yankee with whom she started dating after Mr. Giererson's death. Faulkner has emphasized on racism and ad Continue Reading...
Locust Nathanial West's novel The Day of the Locust is a dark story about Hollywood and its corrupting influences. Tod Hackett, the protagonist is a set designer recruited out of Yale to work for a West Coast film studio. The first half of the nove Continue Reading...
Fitzgerald and Hemingway The writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway have quite a lot to do with one another. Besides the fact that both men were writing during the same historical period in time, both men were interested in some of the Continue Reading...
Thomas Wyatt's "They Flee from Me" is an enigmatic poem, written in the sixteenth century. The central metaphor is that of wild birds, which have occasionally fed from the speaker's hands. Now, the birds have flown. Because the metaphor of wild birds Continue Reading...
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms take place during tumultuous social and political climates. The Grapes of Wrath features the Great Depression and therefore has the added dimension of economic depression Continue Reading...
Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why What is the speaker's emotional state in this poem? In the poem the poet is clearly melancholy and she frets over the fact that she has had so many lovers and lost them all. There have been so many lover Continue Reading...
Graves, R.N. (1995). Hardy's "The Convergence of the Twain." The Explicator, 53 (2): 96-99. In this essay, the eventual unity of the iceberg and the Titanic is described as a kind of love relationship. Ironically, the supposedly unsinkable ship an Continue Reading...
Europeans call upon Christendom to "applaud their courage and justice" as they persecute the natives for merely defending themselves. This simple, human response of self-defense is seen as evidence of barbarism by the Europeans. Of course, when the Continue Reading...
Nightwood Djuna Barnes's 1938 novel Nightwood is a dark and evocative work of prose that reads like poetry. Barnes's diction includes words like "encomiums" as well as what were at the time new French imports like chic (p. 4). In fact, Barnes's writ Continue Reading...
Watership Down, Psychological Criticisms Psychological Criticisms, Figures & Concepts Psychological critics of literary works approach a novel by looking at it through a psychological lense. Critics will usually look at the motivations of the c Continue Reading...
Clown in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy Of Othello: Comic relief and symbolism The Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare is the author of some of the most famous tragedies every written. The Tragedy of Othello is one of the rawest of all of Continue Reading...
Buddhist Psychology in the Poetry of Philip Larkin Philip Larkin is not ordinarily thought of as a Buddhist. Larkin was -- in the opinion of many literary critics -- the quintessential English poet of the latter half of the twentieth century, and th Continue Reading...
Additionally, the power of this poem is that it is universal; rather than being about two specific lovers, it is about romance and indirect -- the trials and tribulations of what lovers might expect: "Love is not all; it is not meat nor drink." Dir Continue Reading...
There isn't one time in the film that Martin doesn't act out of passion. Unlike Oedipus, Martin does not choose blindness but rather it is a result of his passion and desire for Mini. Watching Mini's First Time, the audience has a sort of god-like Continue Reading...
Moreover, the arena for that very transformation could, because of the inherent nature of technological advancement, achieve something that is beyond the sum of its parts. Cyberspace in Neuromancer becomes more than an expression of human consciousn Continue Reading...
Other characters serve as more direct and specific symbols in the story. Mrs. Mercer, the guest of the narrator's aunt on the evening that the narrator finally manages to get to the bazaar, is one such character. She, like the narrator, has been wa Continue Reading...
For Marlowe, the muse of song and dance are juxtaposed with the senses to inform a larger world -- not of innocent threats and fears, but rather one of coy teasing and delight. Further, this rather flirtatious repartee' leads one to view the symbol Continue Reading...
The anonymity of exile does not provide her with the conditions in which to live the purposeful life she intended for herself. Her spiritedness and independence of mind, which contributed to her erotic rebellion, are displaced, and in many respects Continue Reading...
Tybalt seems to see Capulet as letting the family down with his positive remarks about Romeo and insistence that Tybalt, rather than Romeo, must leave. Finally and perhaps most importantly, the readers learn that Tybalt has a bitter hatred of the Mo Continue Reading...
The only women appearances in the novel are isolate and the characters are all whores that have no precise role in the story. Indians also make their appearance felt in the story, but none of them has a significant role. Blood Meridian has nothing Continue Reading...
Though he achieves great comic effect with this, Ovid could also be underlining the importance of the following poem by his inclusion of such a large portion of the Roman pantheon. There is also explicit evidence that Ovid is not merely -- or at lea Continue Reading...
Charles' mother is a kind of reverse image of Emma -- she believes that all fantasy is wrong, but even though Flaubert cannot sympathize with her ideas entirely, there is truth to the idea that Emma needs some sort of work and occupation. Emma is ke Continue Reading...
Whereas the perception and description of Gilgamesh changed from rash individualism to a more hesitant and socially conscious figure, the perception of Odysseus -- along with the other Greek heroes -- changed from the rather unflattering view that h Continue Reading...
This is seen in entitled "Negation," which is a play on words of the French word for 'Negro" and the English word meaning absence: "Le negre negated, meager, c'est moi:...My black face must preface murder for you." Clarke thus creates his own langua Continue Reading...
So it isn't just about sex, it's about love and appreciation. Readers know the poet is watching because Donna's stomach is white. That is different from an Asian's skin color, and the imagery here appeals to the senses because the two cultures are Continue Reading...
Returning to the theme of freedom, the poet starts off the third stanza with a line about journeys and how women "wait" when they should embark. The line vaguely invokes Homer's Odyssey in which faithful wife Penelope waits twenty years for her husb Continue Reading...
A gift like this should be a time of joy, but with Jody's hard-edged dad, it was more tension than joy. "God's preference seems arbitrary and apparently denies Cain free will," Etheridge writes, alluding again to Cain and Able. And there is also an Continue Reading...
He writes, "Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness" (Stoker 225). It is clear that wantonness is not a characteristic to be admired in Victorian times, b Continue Reading...
H. crushes the bug which was crawling on the door of the wardrobe. However, the cockroach doesn't die immediately, and continues to crawl despite its injuries. The impression produced by this image of the wounded cockroach that tries to crawl despite Continue Reading...
For example, the word "ring" connotes a wedding ring and it also refers more directly to the "ring of boots" at her feet. The word "lifted" also has a double meaning, one literal and one metaphorical. The mother remembers literally lifting her baby Continue Reading...
While "Kubrick's authorial style was viewed by both supporters and critics as an aloof criticism of the social scene" (Staiger 54), it is apparent that none of these supporters cared to question why, in fact, masculinity is so often contingent on "e Continue Reading...
Also strikingly memorable are Tyson's descriptions of Oxford's severely outdated, still-rigidly restrictive racial attitudes. For instance, despite landmark Supreme Court decisions (e.g., Brown v. Board of Education) and the American Civil Rights M Continue Reading...
Thomas could have been much more in-depth and comprehensive in his approach, but perhaps felt that it was not his duty to include to much in his writings. It seems as if he opted to travel the road less traveled by allowing the reader to come to his Continue Reading...
Giaour is cursed to be a vampire as punishment, while Ruthven seems to revel in the power and the role this gives him. He also describes women as adulteresses and worse and treats them as fodder for his needs on every level. Aubrey notes this and do Continue Reading...
In fact, other than her beauty and her high class status, it is hard to see why Gatsby loves her so much. But Daisy's materialism, for Gatsby, is not a negative quality. "Her voice is full of money," he says (94). This indicates that Gatsby sees Dai Continue Reading...
Informal Journal: Graves The poem "The Naked and the Nude" by Robert Graves immediately creates a contrast between the different connotations of words. For example, the word "naked" sounds very harsh. This is why Graves say that the naked "know de Continue Reading...
