Long hours she sat looking in the mirror, trying to discover the secret of the ugliness, the ugliness that made her ignored or despised at school, by teachers and classmates alike." pg. 45 Morrison does not explain what beauty should be associated Continue Reading...
And "civilized" also means being corrupted by rampant economic temptations and in the process, ruining the land; and the narrator goes to great lengths to show that she "...wishes to not be human," which is a linking of "guilt and self-knowledge," Continue Reading...
Fiction's Come a Long Way, Baby The development of fiction from its nascent stages until today's contemporary works is a storied one. Many features mark contemporary fiction and differentiate it from the classics of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries Continue Reading...
" Obviously, I personally wouldn't expect Rita Dove to stick with strict literary conventions without part of her poems' charm to be lost. It is interesting to note her attitude towards her African-American identity, as well as towards her presence Continue Reading...
Connecticut Yankee To most readers of his works in the 21st century, Mark Twain is probably best known as a humorist. He is someone who, by the deft use of language, entertainingly offbeat characters and the more-than-occasional plot twist can keep Continue Reading...
East of Eden by John Steinbeck John Steinbeck's "East of Eden" is a story patterned after the Biblical stories of the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and the sibling story of Cain and Abel. The primary theme of the story focuses Continue Reading...
Bottle Biographical Context Edgar Allan Poe did not have a happy childhood or life. The torment that he faced in his lifetime is reflected in his works. His father (David Poe Jr.) had abandoned the family when he was just 2 years old and his mothe Continue Reading...
precise details of Ralph Ellison's life to see that he is expressing ideas and attitudes if not actual events from his own life in his story "Battle Royal," and a biographical strategy illuminates what Ellison has to say. Ellison shows the reaction Continue Reading...
Ralph Waldo Emerson's idealized and mesmerizing description of the role and life of the poet describes not only the particular calling and obligation of those who choose to follow the poetic muses but also -- because of Emerson's own influence on the Continue Reading...
societal expectations play a part in "The Sorrowful Woman." The protagonist in Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman" demonstrates not only the ways in which people's lives can become compromised and limited by their attempts to meet the exp Continue Reading...
Remains of the Day The Best of England within These Walls The "wall" imagery helps to make a particular point early on in The Remains of the Day. Stevens is up against a wall in a literal and in a figurative way: he is dusting the books (more of wh Continue Reading...
In the novel, Howard is forced to serve as an U.S. secret Agent by the Blue Fairy, a career that eventually led to his own death. Mother Night represents the fictional memoirs of Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American who served as a secret agent for Continue Reading...
" (Line 19) Her art creates joy but she still has to exist in the mundane world of everyday strife and problems. We also find this concern with the strife and woes of the world in the second poem "The Weary Blues." In this poem the art form is music Continue Reading...
Oedipus as Tragic Hero In most dramatic plays, tragedy usually strikes the protagonist of the play and leads him, or her, to experience devastating losses. While tragic instances can be avoided, there are other instances where one's fate and future Continue Reading...
Min enthusiastically goes to the Red Fire Farm in order to prove her willingness as a city girl to do the hard work of the proletariat. (52). While there, she meets a similarly zealous and ambitious woman, Comrade Lu, who continually shows off her k Continue Reading...
Victor Hugo Romantic Writings of Victor Hugo The romantic period was partly in reaction to the impact that the industrial revolution had on the psyches of artists of all stripes. The move toward an industrial culture had moved many people from the Continue Reading...
Generally speaking, the importance of the artist in human society has much to do with helping us to see beyond what we consider as reality and to understand how every human being is connected not only through human emotions but also through culture Continue Reading...
" (lines 20-21) the journalist, the activist... must be the observer and not make the news. Lastly the point-of-view of the unnamed dead, "enemy" whose ears were cut off to use an example of cruelty and to elicit fear, "Some of the ears on the floor/ Continue Reading...
In 1837, Lincoln took highly controversial position that foreshadowed his future political path. He joined with five other legislators out of eighty-three to oppose a resolution condemning abolitionists. In 1838, he responded to the death of the Il Continue Reading...
Thus, the idea of a strong, female leader is created through conceptual blending, and the ultimately oxymoronic pairing of unlike words. Something new is created, through the use of cultural, political, religious, and historical references, and of t Continue Reading...
Barbara Howes' "Looking Up at Leaves" Barbara Howes, who died in 1996, is too little read at present, yet she remains an exquisite lyric poet. One understands why Louise Bogan once judged Howes "the most accomplished woman poet of the younger gener Continue Reading...
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, "To a Beautiful Spring in a Village" represents the Romantic Movement in that the poet expresses appreciation for the "sweet stream." Coleridge is also expounding on his experience of the stream, which is an example of Continue Reading...
Tortilla Flat CHARACTERS IN TORTILLA FLAT Tortilla Flat" by John Steinbeck was first published in 1935. It is set in the Monterey coast of California. This book features the adventures of a group of men of Mexican-American descent called the paisan Continue Reading...
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, but returned home after one year. She continued to live in her family home with her younger sister, mother and father. Her brothe Continue Reading...
Welty vs. Frost This essay serves to compare two literary works. One of those works is a short story by Welty by the name of "A Worn Path." The other literary work to be covered is "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. The forms of the two works are Continue Reading...
O Captain Three Themes in "O Captain! My Captain!" Walt Whitman wrote "O Captain! My Captain!" In 1865 and it serves as an elegy to the President Lincoln, who had just been assassinated. As a patriotic American and the "poet of America" (as he call Continue Reading...
He has to object to it to keep from confronting it in himself. The Oklahoman is not so cynical, however, for he immediately grasps hold of Parr's contradiction and cries out, "Yeah, and how about hanging the bastard? That's pretty goddam cold-bloode Continue Reading...
Orwell Discussion on George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair, who is better remembered by his pen name, George Orwell, was one of the most influential authors of the twentieth century. He is one of the few modern day individuals who has fostered the creati Continue Reading...
Terror of Hospital Bills The Element of Fear in James Wright's "In Terror of Hospital Bills" In his poem, "In Terror of Hospital Bills," James Wright paints a bleak picture of a life in which neither the present nor the future hold much in the way Continue Reading...
In conclusion, it has been sufficiently demonstrated that Welty's recurring motif in "Death of a Traveling Salesman" and in "A Worn Path" is the treating of human relationships, which are inherently founded in human nature and which can be evinced Continue Reading...
Dobozy The Encirclement by Tamas Dobozy is a story in which a Professor, Teleki, makes several attempts to give speeches and lectures regarding a certain series of events all over North America. He is plagued however, by a certain blind individual, Continue Reading...
She is so vulnerable, confessing that she "bloomed under the warmth of [Adam's] interest" (Keyes 111). Her family is so kooky we wonder if they will actually help her regain her crushed self-esteem. Yet, we somehow know that Claire will bee all righ Continue Reading...
The audience has the feeling that O'Brian is presenting them with significant and personal stories from his life. This slowly but surely makes readers feel that they too are connected to the war and to the narrator. It sometimes seems that O'Brian 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...
Both parents must cope with the death of their child, Tad at the end of the book after Tad dies of heat exhaustion in the car where he and his mother are trapped. Cujo operates on both the ordinary and the extraordinary, in terms of its levels of h Continue Reading...
It seems that Lincoln was probably happy. He was doing an important job, and he had a family that loved him. He never had a lot of money, but he seems as if he was content with his life. In this, he was different than Cory. He would not have chosen Continue Reading...
As Yu Tsun himself describes the glum setting of his train trip: There was hardly a soul on the platform. I went through the coaches; I remember a few farmers, a woman dressed in mourning, a young boy who was reading with fervor the Annals of Tacit Continue Reading...
Mark Twain is undisputedly one of the most prolific writers of all times. With an uncanny inability to see things as they were combined with an exceptional sense of humor, Twain's popularity transcended time and space. While all his writings left som Continue Reading...
Firstly secession could not be allowed as it would divide the country politically, morally and economically. This aspect tended to highlight the differences between North and South. The differences in terms of labor and ethics presented two almost d Continue Reading...
Irony in "Soldier's Home" -- Irony is a device used by writers to let the audience know something that the characters in the story do not know. There is usually a descrepancyt between how things appear and the reality of the situation. Often the char Continue Reading...
