A strong resemblance between "Lost in the Funhouse" and "Young Goodman Brown"
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
It is truly revealing when one can make a comparison of two completely unrelated stories and find a basic meaning and theme that is analogous to both, despite superficial characteristics. Nathaniel Hawthorne's “Young Goodman Brown” is about a religious man, Goodman Brown, who embarks on...
A review of the book An Unquiet Mind: A memoir of moods and madness
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
Reading An Unquiet Mind, by Kay Redfield Jamison, was much like driving by the scene of a horrible car wreck. We snuck a peek, turned a page, faced disturbing images and soon became entwined with gut wrenching emotions that made us want to run away. As if transfixed by a cavalcade of emergency...
"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," book series; and why it has a deep connection with American teen girls
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
The "Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants," consists of four books. These books have solidified the series as a literary masterpiece that has been heralded as a great work for young people. It has been celebrated as a wonderful literary effort. The books evoke thoughts of serene and picturesque...
The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
One of the most pressing issues of the United States as a whole is that of illegal immigration stemming primarily from Mexico and other South American countries. America is a country built on immigration, then why would Mexican immigration be such a volatile issue of the day? This is due to...
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Book review - 1 pages - Literature
Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep depicts Los Angeles at a time of great unrest. The atmosphere is that of mistrust, deception, selfishness and a slight hint of hedonism amongst some of those who dwell in the city. In stories, or situations taking place in such an environment, we usually find...
Commentary Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck - publié le 20/04/2009
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is known as one of the author's most powerful novels. Even though the story is completely imaginary, the plot takes place in a very precise historical and geographical context: 1930s California. Moreover, one of the main themes of the novel is humanity and...
Analyze of the sonnet ?to sleep' by J. Keats
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
One may get the impression that this poem is about pain and agony and troubles encountered throughout life, yet at the same time one expects a sonnet to possess the qualities of romance, adoration, and themes of love. Although this poem may appear to only deal with dark images about the...
The one sided battled between man and nature
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
As long as the existence of literature, writers have sought to provide insight on the battle between man and nature. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the unyielding power of nature and the dire consequences of man's desire to conquer nature, play out in this cautionary tale. Two examples that will...
De Lacey Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Book review - 6 pages - Literature
In a disconcertingly candid manner, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein offers its readers a sensible critique on the callous superficiality of human social interaction. Shelley imaginatively introduces a repugnant, yet kindhearted monster into the world of man, who is only to be received, and...
Science in action: Review
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
Latour suggests that the construction of facts and machines is a collective process. He argues that there is nothing inherent in a statement that makes it a fact; rather it is the future processes of others who accept it, support it, ignore it, challenge it, etc wherein the destiny of a statement...
Catastrophe and image, international post-modern fiction
Thesis - 11 pages - Literature
I have found two common, linked problems under scrutiny in three short stories by non-American authors. The three stories are “And of Clay We Are Created” (Isabel Allende), “The Laugher” (Heinrich Böll), and “The Street-Sweeping Show” (Feng Jicai), and the problems...
Divided We Fall:Gender, Androgyny, and the troubled union of Adam and Eve
Tutorials/exercises - 7 pages - Literature
The single most important question at the center of John Milton's Paradise Lost is the question of predestination. The poem hinges on the assertion that mankind has been created “sufficient to have stood, yet free to fall” (III.99); if we do not accept this assertion, and instead...
Masquerade in seductive fictions
Book review - 9 pages - Literature
In her Masquerade and Civilization, Terry Castle hypothesizes that the concept of “masquerade” is central to 18th century consciousness, and provides an intriguing insight into how the self was conceived of in “the age of disguise”(Castle, 5). Implicit in the idea of...
Ethics and faith in "Fear and Trembling"
Thesis - 8 pages - Literature
Soren Kierkegaard once wrote about himself, saying “Once I am dead, Fear and Trembling alone will be enough for an imperishable name as an author” (Kierkegaard's Papirer). Undoubtedly one of his most popular works, it is no surprise he could foresee the endless amount of philosophical...
Dorothy Day (Part III): Nonviolent resistance
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
The Catholic Worker Movement founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin whose aim is to “live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ.” As the name indicates, the Catholic Worker Movement was heavily influenced by Catholicism, yet not restricted to simple preaching of...
Machiavellian strategies in Koestler's "Darkness at Noon"
Book review - 6 pages - Literature
What would it be acceptable for a society to sacrifice in order to achieve a utopia? Does this utopia exist, and if so, is it even possible to achieve it? Is it possible to build paradise from concrete? Arthur Koestler, in his novel Darkness at Noon , demonstrates the impracticality of using...
Dual critique: "The American Scholar" and "The Poet"
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
Emerson begins “The American Scholar” by declaring, “I accept the topic which not only usage, but the nature of our association, seem to prescribe to this day - the AMERICAN SCHOLAR” (53). These opening lines are incredibly specific; the atmosphere in which he finds himself...
Is Thomas More's "splendid few book?"
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
Some critics view Utopia as a program or manifesto where as some urge that the mistake lies with those readers who consider the book as "au grand sérieux". Indeed, how seriously should we take Utopia? In Lewis' point of view, the reader of Utopia is the victim of a joke: "Erasmus speaks of it...
The theme of the declining Big House in Bowen's The Last September - publié le 04/04/2009
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
'The Last September', Elizabeth Bowen's second novel, describes the Anglo-Irish life of the provincial aristocracy during the turbulent times of 1920, and deals directly with the crisis of being Anglo-Irish. In this particular context, Bowen makes a combination between social comedy and...
The role of Barthes and Foucault in either New Criticism, Russian Formalism or Structuralism
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
Structuralism defends the irreducibility of literary texts, which cannot be criticized through biographical or sociological context. In his essay, "The Death of the Author", Roland Barthes argues against incorporating the intentions and biographical context of an author in the interpretation of...
Shakespeare's Shylock: A sympathetic portrait of a Jew in an anti-semitic culture
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice plays host to one of the most complex and intriguing characters of the accomplished playwright's literary canon. In the character of Shylock, Shakespeare presents a view of the Jews that is, while still negative by the standards of modern culture,...
"Sisters and Lovers: Women and Desire in Bali ": A review
Book review - 6 pages - Literature
Megan Jennaway's theoretical framework in the first half of Sisters and Lovers: Women and Desire in Bali, fuses feminist anthropology, Marxist power asymmetry discourse, and postmodernist concerns of representation and reflexivity. She posits that sexuality and desire have not been explored in...
A Boy Called H, by Kappa Senoh
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
?A Boy' has written an autobiographical novel. In this novel, A Boy called ?H' ?A Childhood in Wartime Japan.' Kappa Senoh describes his life as a young boy who grew up in the port city of Kobe, Japan. This coming-of-age story takes place between 1937 and the post-war of the U.S....
Greek and Shakespearean influences on Olivier's Hamlet
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
Staging and adaptation is around us everywhere today, but not too many people put much thought into where the origins of our modern television, movies, and theater come from. We as the 21st century have come a long way from the beginning of theater to where we are now but not all the elements...
Reflections of race and American culture in the 'Tom' show
Thesis - 10 pages - Literature
In Martin Scorsese's 2002 film Gangs of New York, the two main characters-Amsterdam Vallon (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Bill "the Butcher" Cutting (played by Daniel Day-Lewis)- attend a 'Tom' show (a stage adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin) in New York City. In this scene,...
The duality of Holocaust literature
Book review - 6 pages - Literature
Other than the odd revisionist, the vast majority of sentient humans will attest to the horror that was the Holocaust. Unfortunately, those who can give first hand testimonies are few in number and quickly disappearing. The story gets even more muddled when psychologists protest that memory is...
Ulysses and Androgyny: Bloom as modernity's new womanly man
Thesis - 4 pages - Literature
"Is he a jew [sic] or a gentile or a holy Roman or a swaddler or what the hell is he?or who is he?" (Ulysses 438) asks Ned Lambert regarding the character of Leopold Bloom to the pub-dwellers at Barney Kiernan's. This appears to be a predominant question that runs through Ulysses and many...
The impact of poetry and literature on the father-son relationship in John Stuart Mill's 'Autobiography' and Edmund Gosse's 'Father and Son'
Book review - 9 pages - Literature
When comparing John Stuart Mill's Autobiography and Edmund Gosse's Father and Son, one cannot ignore the fact that the two are very similar with respect to the strong father-son relationship that both James Mill and Phillip Gosse had with their sons. Mill's and Gosse's primary influence in their...
The quotidian interrupted: The fantastic in the everyday and its familial consequences in Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis';
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
"In front of this monstrous creature I refuse to pronounce my brother's name, and therefore I merely say: we have to get rid of it [emphasis mine]?All you have to do is try to shake off the idea that that's Gregor" (47), cries Grete to her father as tempers and patience flare at the end...
Italian futurism and art: Poetry, theatre, and war
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
“Erect on the summit of the world, once again we hurl our defiance to the stars!” (MASD 253), cries Marinetti in “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism 1909”. A very passionate, yet aggressive statement which, when analyzed, serves as a very pertinent encompassment of...
