More than they bargained for
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
The process of maturation from childhood to adulthood, or “coming-of-age,” is a unique experience that often shapes the way that an adult will conduct his or her life in the future. In literature, a Bildungsroman outlines the transformational experiences of a young person as they...
Ethnographies in context and as fictional representations
Case study - 9 pages - Literature
Empirical observation and objective analysis are some of the core tenets of sound scientific inquiry. These processes lead to the recording of data and presentation of findings which confirm or disprove hypotheses, thus renewing the drive for further studies. Particularly in the social sciences,...
Linguistic diversity in Europe: Strength or weakness? - publié le 17/05/2009
Case study - 5 pages - Linguistics & languages
In 1919, after many debates, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George concluded that the Versailles treaty would be written both in French and English. Since then, English has imposed itself in diplomacy, economic exchanges, Medias and so on. Nowadays, it seems that this language has gained...
The drama of discrimination in Henry James' The Ambassadors
Book review - 4 pages - Literature
The Ambassadors is clearly a novel: the novel is free, and has the most elastic form. We could be tempted to say that there is no drama in the work. In fact, drama has different meanings. First, it is the name of theatrical plays of a particular kind or period. Secondly, it can mean a situation...
Kim by Rudyard Kipling - publié le 17/05/2009
Book review - 5 pages - Literature
The theme that interests us is the quest for identity in Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim. The book was written in 1901 and the plot takes place in India during the time of the British colonization. Kim presents several quests: a quest implies that the protagonist has to seek something noble, like the...
Critical evaluation of the respective interpretation of cultural relativism as explained by Bernard Williams and Alasdair MacIntyre - publié le 17/05/2009
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
The moral relativism denies that any moral code has universal validity, and ethical propositions do not reflect absolute and universal moral truths. Morality is relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances. The idea of relativism is not new. Protagoras, a Sophist, claimed...
Robert O.Paxton: The anatomy of fascism - publié le 17/05/2009
Book review - 5 pages - Philosophy
Many authors have proposed definitions for the question “what is Fascism?”, but most of them failed to give a complete definition. The historian Robert O. Paxton answered this question for the first time by focusing on the concrete: what the Fascists did, rather than what they said. To...
The place of the French language in our society - publié le 17/05/2009
Thesis - 11 pages - Linguistics & languages
The French language is one those languages which are spoken all around the world. It's the 11th most used language through the world, the second most commonly-taught second language in the world (after English) and the official language in 29 countries . According to some estimations, more than...
Why did Aristotle believe in natural slavery? - publié le 17/05/2009
Thesis - 3 pages - Philosophy
Aristotle wrote Politics as a criticism of Plato's Republic, after having been his student for 20 years. Aristotle especially disagrees with Plato's view that only knowledge and perfect forms count. He would criticize Plato's view that women and children should be held in the perfect state and...
Philip Roth, Portnoy's complaint - publié le 17/05/2009
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
The text under scrutiny presents us an extract of the confession of a man to his psychiatrist: he talks to him more precisely about his childhood, and the way his mother used to act with him during that period. What is interesting about this text is the manner the narrator presents his memory:...
How Shakespeare dramatized the changes in Lady Macbeth - publié le 17/05/2009
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
“Ambition is the step that can turn a noble-hearted man into a sinner” is the message Shakespeare wanted to convey to the audience when he wrote the play Macbeth in 1606. Lady Macbeth's is the wife of an important nobleman: Macbeth, they are both characterized by their great ambition of...
Plato as a proto-feminist: Tendencies towards the development of feminist thought
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
The idea of Plato's Republic being one of the true first pro-feminist arguments seems to have some steam in modern times. However, there seems to be major flaws with these theories. The fact that modern feminism is not grounded in Platonic feminism is perhaps the most striking issue. For, if...
Plato's Republic V: Women as rulers- A feminist proposal
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
In Book V of Plato's Republic, Plato argues that women should be rulers, raising questions as to whether Plato was an early advocate of feminism. However, an examination of the argument he provides in the text of the Republic does not support this claim, and Julia Anna's' scholastic work...
Are forgiveness and a search for the truth a better solution to heal the minds and bodies of the victims of wars than externally imposed tribunals? - published: 17/05/2009
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
Even after a settlement is reached and a peace agreement is signed, it is by no means the end of the conflict. For a conflict to really end, healing the minds and the bodies of the victims of wars is necessary. Indeed it is the necessary first step to reconciliation to appear and people who have...
Lyrical ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge or the birth of a new literary movement during the Industrial Revolution - published: 17/05/2009
Case study - 4 pages - Literature
Industrialism, expansion, profit, production and individualism were the feelings which took place during the period of the Industrial Revolution in England. People in Great Britain were led by the streams of progress, but the modernizations in technology had some important consequences on people:...
Harry Potter - Translation and analysis - published: 17/05/2009
Book review - 12 pages - Literature
Everybody has heard about Harry Potter, the famous book by J.K. Rowling and the famous wizard. It is, as everybody knows, a very popular novel everywhere in the world. It is particularly popular in the country where it was written. Not only children, but also many grown-ups actually love it. We...
The Third Way by Anthony Giddens - published: 17/05/2009
Book review - 7 pages - Philosophy
Anthony Giddens, director of the London School of Economics and Political Science published The Third Way in 1998. What does “Third Way” mean? For The author, the goal is a renewal of the social-democracy. Through this phrase he refers to a framework of thinking and policy-making that...
Mejdoub by Paul Bowles
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
The short story, Mejdoub, written by Paul Bowles, an American writer who lived in Tanger for half a century, narrates the story of a poor man who decides to make money, playing the role of a mejdoub. A mejdoub is a religious mystic who utters prophecies. The protagonist who seems to have much...
A streetcar named Desire, "Repetition" - publié le 14/05/2009
Thesis - 6 pages - Literature
In most of the classic plays we studied in high school, numerous events and rebounding occurred one after the other that enabled the plot to move forward. At the end of the play, the situations used to evolve and the characters' lives had often changed. However, in this work, the final situation...
Je hasarde une explication: écrire, c'est le dernier recours quand on a trahi.' (Jean Genet - epigraph to La Place) Is this the case for Annie Ernaux's narrator? - publié le 14/05/2009
Thesis - 2 pages - Literature
In Annie Ernaux's La Place, the theme of betrayal is so prevalent that one could say it is the basis of the book. I think it would be fair to say that “écrire, c'est le dernier recours quand on a trahi” when looking at Annie Ernaux's narrator. The narrator feels that she has betrayed...
Parenthood as a Theme in English Literature
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
"Parenthood" has been defined as a process of bearing or adoption, and rearing of children. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the concept as "the state of one that begets or brings forth children". According to contemporary standards, "parenthood" involves a number of daily responsibilities,...
Childhood as a Theme in English Literature
Essay - 3 pages - Literature
In 1960, French medievalist and historian Philippe Ariès advanced the hypothesis that the idea of childhood was practically inexistent before the early modern period. The controversy about the existence or absence of the idea prior to that time in history gave rise to a host of studies on...
Violence and expressionism - publié le 11/05/2009
Thesis - 4 pages - Philosophy
Expressionism is an avant-garde movement in which violence is everywhere in themes, in forms, in the expression of the artist in general. We can define violence by aggressive facts, language immoderation, brutality and provocation. When we talk about violence in art, the violence is not...
Democracy and totalitarism - publié le 11/05/2009
Thesis - 6 pages - Philosophy
Nowadays the term ‘democracy ‘has become a widespread reality which is practically accepted everywhere. Even China's leaders argue that their country is on the path to democracy but “it needs time” (Wen Jiabao, China's Prime Minister). Nevertheless many dictatorships still...
A critique of the Dystopian novel
Thesis - 17 pages - Literature
The Dystopian novel is a strange subspecies in literature. While it shares many aspects with the traditional science fiction novel, it is rarely categorized with science fiction. Whereas it might satirize the Utopian socialist fantasy of the perfect society, the satire is usually exchanged for...
The wilderness in American fiction: Hemingway and Faulkner
Thesis - 5 pages - Literature
Growing up during a time in American history when much of the country was still an unspoiled wilderness, it is no wonder Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner both show a particular awe for nature and a preoccupation with wilderness as a symbol. Wilderness is an important theme in Hemingway's...
We would all be idle if we could', Dr. Johnson
Essay - 1 pages - Philosophy
The relationship between human beings and work or idleness has been widely debated by many philosophers and writers, including the British poet and novelist, Samuel Johnson. The author of the Dictionary of the English language also wrote poems on idleness during the eighteenth century. Advocating...
The use of borders in Richard McCann's "My Mother's Clothes: The School of Beauty and Shame"
Thesis - 12 pages - Literature
Carroll Knolls—the setting of Richard McCann's “My Mother's Clothes: The School of Beauty and Shame”—is a world defined by borders; it is divided by property lines, lot spaces, fences, gates, doors, and all other manners of boundaries and barriers. The author infuses the...
"Nothing that is so, is so": The extent of role of this statement in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night - publié le 08/05/2009
Book review - 3 pages - Literature
“Nothing that is so, is so”, says Feste. He says so ironically, talking to Sebastian, who he is convinced is actually Cesario. This is said for a specific situation, but it might actually be relevant for the whole play: Indeed, this apparently absurd quotation raises the question of...
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley, Chapter 7 reviews - publié le 08/05/2009
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
At the beginning of this chapter, a letter from his father explains to Victor the circumstances of William's murder. He leaves for Geneva immediately to comfort and grieve with his family. But it is dark when he reaches Geneva and gets close to home, during a thunderstorm and Victor is started to...
