Introduction M Butterfly is a play written by David Henry Hwang and is a rewriting of the Butterfly myth by Puccini. The main characters of the story are Gallimard, a French diplomat, who falls in love with Song, a Chinese singer and actor, whom Gallimard sees as a woman, but,...
One of the dynamically developing literary genres is a travelogue, describing characters’ travels as part of the discovery of new knowledge and personal development. The basis of this genre was travel notes of travelers, which later transformed into a formalized narrative of fiction with a plot and some morality. The...
Introduction In the poem “Borderlands,” which is the key work of Gloria Anzaldua, the poetic elements that give the work a special meaning and content deserve to be considered. This author is a distinguished researcher and practitioner of Chicana theory, which studies the intermediate mixed-racial people of the Spanish American...
The book In His Steps by Sheldon remains one of the most well-known examples of religious fiction that presents and solves social dilemmas with the help of Christian thought. The novel follows the lives of many characters and narrates how they change because of the simple phrase, “What Would Jesus...
Introduction It is important to note that human progress is a process conducted through a new framework of thought, innovation and collective effort. The Renaissance was a major turning point in human social evolution, where new forms of art, literature, and philosophy emerged. Thus, the printing press birthed and catalyzed...
Introduction Milton’s political context and political poetry are essential for many reasons. Firstly, they help contextualize the work by assisting readers in understanding the historical and social setting in which these works were produced. Secondly, it can also give an understanding of some of Milton’s points within the text. Milton...
Introduction In this novel, In His Steps, Charles Monroe Sheldon shows the readers how different people perceive the city of Raymond. The shabby man sees the city’s residents as hypocritical liars who pretend to be good people. Norman wants to perceive people as truly interested in Christianity, who are innocent...
Despite an overall intention to demonstrate how the role of women in Frankenstein is diminished and minimized, Shelley cannot ignore the fact that gender inequality underlines female impact in society. The story of Victor Frankenstein is based on multiple attempts to challenge women by creating new creatures and recognizing male...
Introduction Women’s empowerment is an ongoing social movement founded on the notions of equality, fairness, and justice. Within the past three centuries, numerous issues have emerged that reveal that such a journey has been a risky and challenging one. From the mid-19th century, these members of society encountered numerous predicaments,...
In the story of King of the Bingo Game, Ralph Ellison talks about twists of fate and the ability of people to control it. The image of a bingo wheel is a metaphor for a person’s life path, where there are ups and downs, and it is as unpredictable as...
Toni Bambara tackles many themes in his short work Gorilla, My Love. If you perceive the story from the point of view of Hazel, the main character, you can understand that the main idea is betrayal. The girl concludes that adults cannot be trusted as they do not tell the...
Introduction Literature can be considered a collection of all written works but narrowed to view the artistic forms of writing such as stories, poems, drama, and plays. They were meant to serve a different purpose with most considered education and entertainment such as folk songs. However, the literature was spread...
An alternate ending is a story conclusion considered, written, or developed but was ultimately rejected in preference for a different resolution. Alternative endings are frequently assumed to have minimal impact on the standard plot. Consequently, whenever critics and test audiences disagree with the filmmaker’s concept, the producers may create other...
Among the variety of dramatic genres that gravitate towards one of the two poles, joy or deep sorrow, tragedy is the apotheosis of the latter. If the genre of tragedy and drama originated in Ancient Greece, then the very nature of this phenomenon should have much in common with the...
In the book Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, Robert T. Kiyosaki presents two opposing perspectives on financial wellbeing. He writes that the main difference between Rich Dad and Poor Dad is the former’s attention to...
Introduction The medical community in the past did not adequately recognize postpartum depression, and this problem was presented in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” It was a short story about a woman who recently gave birth to a child and developed psychiatric issues. She lived in a mansion rented...
Introduction In the literary works of J.K. Rowling, many magical narratives have been handed on to new generations. In the Harry Potter series, the author has produced one of the most well-known and eye-catching storylines in which mythical entities only found in myths are real (Potter, 1998). J.K. Rowling’s Harry...
Metamorphosis is Franz Kafka’s famous work published in 1915 in German and later translated into English in 1933. Kafka’s literature work provides readers with an unexpected persona transformation into a bug and the impact it creates on his family, identity, and state of awareness. The technique used by Kafka has...
Introduction One of the seminal literary works of the past century remains Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. The widespread public popularity and academic acclaim of this work make the play particularly important in the context of literary analysis. Miller based the plot on the tragic story of Willie...
Introduction A reliable narrator is a character whose authority is not questioned. The question of the authenticity of a work of art is essential for the correct interpretation of the author’s intention (Yacobi 113). The feature of unreliability can be endowed with a character of any age and social status....
The European reputation of the playwright Richard Sheridan was based primarily on his top work – the comedy “The School for Scandal.” The main aspects of Sheridan’s play were the portrayal of gossip and slander as a widespread social vice, revealing their role in the life of society and the...
The narrative, A Rose for Emily, is about an eccentric spinster, Emily Grierson, the protagonist of the novel. Emily’s peculiar situations and unusual interactions with her parent and her companion, Homer Barron, are recounted by an unknown storyteller. Emily is seen purchasing poison that the residents believe she plans to...
Introduction It is important to note that the short story “Trifles” was written by Susan Glaspell. The plot is centered around a murder event of Mr. Wright, where the local men investigate the scene separately from their wives. The selected character of interest is Mrs. Peters, the wife of the...
A Doll House play written by Henrik Ibsen focuses on the complications of life and marriage of women at the end of the 19th century. The play explores the conflict between the old world, where women valued for beauty and obedience were treated as objects by their husbands, and the...
In & of Itself is a lyric poem by Derek Delgaudio. The performance details the events that characterize a man’s quest through the illusion of his identity, which the adapted performance reveals, is also an illusion. The piece chronicles Delgaudio’s struggle to find out who he is. The acts depicted...
The book Post-Truth by Lee McIntyre is a fascinating and engaging read. “Is this a post-truth globe, with ‘alternative facts’ replacing genuine facts while feelings are being taken more seriously than proof and how did the world reach here?” (McIntyre, 2018, p. 6). The author traces the evolution of post-truth...
Joyce Carol Oates’s story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” dates back to America’s fringes in the 1960s. It is a story that begins with a teenage naïve girl known as Connie. In the story, Connie is struck with boredom in mid-summer, with that effect making her loiter...
In her work “Moral Saints,” Susan Wolf discusses the issues of striving to achieve a morally perfect state of being and approaches the topic of personal values from various perspectives. A moral saint, in her words, is a person who has achieved the best possible state of moral worth; such...
Introduction The stories of Herman Melville anticipated much that shaped Franz Kafka. The protagonist Bartleby refuses everything: work, food, pleasures; it leaves the reader with a mystery. Franz Kafka’s short story The Metamorphosis accompanies young Gregor Samsa until his death after turning into a giant beetle. The Metamorphosis and Bartleby,...
“A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner is a nostalgic story focusing on the dysfunctional life of Emily Grierson, a character representing the traditional culture of people in the South in the town of Jefferson in Mississippi. “A Rose for Emily” sheds light on critical societal issues and pressure from people’s...
The tragic story of the main character in “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is narrated from the perspective of the town’s inhabitants. This approach adds mystery to the narrative while also contributing to the understanding of the cultural underpinning of the described events. Therefore, the selected point of...
Tom and the play’s author, Tennessee Williams, are very similar as they both have serious drinking problems. Tom gets drunk almost every night, going out at midnight and returning home at 2 a.m. Amanda says to Tom: “I think you’ve been doing things that you’re ashamed of. … Nobody goes...
In his article entitled “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” Thompson traces the change in societal attitudes toward time and examines its relation to the development of work discipline. Based on this publication, this paper aims to explain how people’s perception of time changed in the 18th and 19th centuries and...
Introduction The Dream of a Ridiculous Man is a short story written by Russian classic Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in 1877 in a periodic edition, “The Writer’s Diary” (Dostoevsky 5). The writer defined the genre of the narrative as a fantastic story. The plot is twisted around a...
Introduction Oedipus the King is an Ancient Greek tragedy written by Sophocles. The main protagonist is Oedipus, the King of Thebes, who manages to solve the riddle of the Sphinx and save the city from destruction. However, Thebes suffers from a devastating plague, which concerns the King. Oedipus visits oracles,...
“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke can be interpreted differently according to the readers’ point of view. This poem may be a happy and slightly sarcastic dance between father and son, or it may contain a message about the father’s abuse, his alcoholism, and mother’s unhappiness. For instance, the poem...
The American writer O. Henry is an unsurpassed master of the short story. His works are imbued with subtle humor and have unexpected plot denouements. O. Henry’s story The Gifts of the Magi is a classic example of such a writer’s individuality. Another famous work of the author is The...
Today people are shaped by society’s notions; the culture shapes them into what it believes to be ideal. Nowadays, people continue to comply with new trends while following the traditions of the world around them. Through his opening lines, “I celebrate myself, and sing myself/ And what I assume you...
Geoffrey Chaucer was an English novelist, poet, philosopher, and diplomat who is best known as the author of The Canterbury Tales. The author is considered the father of English literature and often the English language itself. In the Middle Ages, the novelistic trend is most fully manifested in the genre...
Summary Tupac Shakur’s life is summarized in a few powerful and significant sentences in this third-person poem. He came from a hardscrabble community where people were afraid to pursue their dreams and did not have much faith in him or trust in his ability to succeed. Tupac compares himself to...
Don Quixote was so enthralled in his imagination that it was the only thing defining him. His actions mirrored what he believed were the true aspects of knighthood and signified his loyalty. The imagination highlighted in the excerpt clearly explains how much Don was invested in standing up for what...
The story Where are you going, where have you been? tells about a young girl named Connie. She lives with her parents and older sister, and their relationship is hardly ideal. Connie is constantly in dreams about what to argue with her mother about. She likes to go out with...
As individuals, people are hasty in making judgments about other people’s appearances in an attempt to make a mockery of them. When someone behaves differently than others do, society calls them nicknames or makes a mockery of them. the narrator of the poem sonnet 130 is Rude to the mistress...
The story about Edmond Dantes is one of the most famous novels by Alexandre Dumas, a nineteenth-century writer from France. The plot of the story presents many ideas related to justice, revenge, retribution, and forgiveness. The novel begins with a betrayal of a sailor Dantes by those who were jealous...
Antigone tackles a wide range of themes and lessons that Antigone and Kreon must grapple with throughout the play. In this play, Antigone and Kreon both learn essential tasks, such as ways in which Antigone must adhere to the law of the land and how Kreon must honor Antigone’s need...
Poe’s “The Raven” describes how the man hears a mysterious knocking at night, and opening the door allows the raven to fly into the room to remind him of the death of his beloved Lenore. The raven repeats the word nevermore, alluding to the idea that people cannot return what...
The poem exudes a paradoxical phenomenon in comparing upcountry girls with town girls. One of the major verbal ironies, in this case, is the argument by the town girl that when you are ruined, you gain some status of being polished. From stanza one, it is notable that the persona,...
The story of Honey Boy hits the reader to the heart and provokes much thought. The author describes how much the old mother loved her son, Honey Boy, who was named so because of a mole in the shape of a beehive. The story ends with an unexpected twist –...
Seeing that in a work of fiction, be it a movie or a book, everyone usually roots for the positive protagonist, creating an anti-hero and placing him or her directly in the middle of the plot might seem to be a risky idea due to the possible low demand for...
Different literature characters trigger different emotions in the reader’s mind. Some characters are likable and induce empathy, while others can cause irritation and aggression. However, there are characters who have controversial personalities and storpes. For example, Blanche Dubois from A Streetcar Named Desire can be a sympathetic and even admirable...
The atmosphere of Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Lady with the Dog’ is dictated by the tone and mood of the exposition. It begins with a narrator that depicts the events of the story with realist and detached language. However, there are segments in which one of the main characters, Gurov, emotions...
The poetry of American Modernism should be seen as an avant-garde field of experimentation. In modernist poetry, authors are looking for new ways of self-expression, departing from forms that are considered outdated and crisis. In modernism, the attitude to the poetic word and the space of verse is rethought, which...
The second most important character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the beast-man Enkidu, has almost as much significance within the plot as the titular hero. The scene in Tablet VII, when delirious Enkidu laments his grave illness, not only invigorates Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality but also highlights Enkidu’s own journey...
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is an artwork written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In the novel, the author aimed to illustrate the inequality of the rights of men and women, as well as a closer look at the problem of psychological tiredness and traumas. In addition, topics of madness, and feebleness are...
Introduction The era of slavery was one of the most controversial and sad pages in American history. This period was associated with the lack of social freedoms and the violation of the human rights of thousands of people. A personal assessment of this topic is presented in the book by...
In her novel From Scratch, Tembi Locke documented her tragic love story with Sicilian chef Saro. Locke claims that in Sicily, every story begins with a marriage or a death. Saro’s death and the tragedy of this story served as an incentive to start the novel (1). The woman has...
Introduction Native American poetry has begun to emerge from the anthology, allowing literary historians to consider it in all of its complexity and diversity. America was densely inhabited with Native peoples before European traders and colonists arrived. This paper will analyze and evaluate poet Johnson E. Pauline and her poem...
Introduction Richard Rodriguez may be considered one of the most controversial essayists as in his most famous autobiographic book Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez he depicts his life as a Mexican immigrant with honesty. As mentioned before, Ricardo Rodriguez was born in a family of Mexican immigrants...
Introduction The objective of evil is one of the motives for deception in the play. Don John, Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother, is the play’s most malevolent character. Don John devises a plan to sabotage Claudio and Hero’s wedding by having one of his men, Borachio, engage in sexual intercourse with...
Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” examines the themes of the American dream, self-sabotaging behavior, and insecurities caused by the lack of the traditional success. The salesman in question, Willy Loman, obsessively and unsuccessfully chases after money and professional advancement, destroying his family and himself in the process. The play...
Walt Whitman, in his poem Pioneers, O Pioneers!, which was first published in 1865, talks about revolution, unification, and perseverance. The revolution is meant as a contrast between the older and younger generations and different races. The enthusiasm of young pioneers is emphasized, who are in unity and support of...
Thomas Jefferson is rightfully considered to be one of the most influential figures in American history. He was an advocate for democracy and stood behind the country’s foundational text – The Declaration of Independence. However, when reflecting on his views through contemporary lenses, one might decide that Jefferson should not...
Satire is a literary form involving irony, exaggeration, humor, ridicule, and parody to uncover individuals’ follies, shortcomings, vices, or stupidity and initiate change, especially in social settings. In her poem, Barbie Doll, Marge Piercy adopts various forms of satire to criticize behavior that girls depict at a tender age, ending...
In his poem, William Wordsworth uses the lake as a mirror to reflect the night stars and to reflect the dancing daffodils. Precisely, in the second stanza of the poem, he likens the flowers to the stars that continuously shine, and “twinkle on the Milky Way” (Wordsworth). Furthermore, dancing daffodils...
“A Clean Well-Lighted Place” is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway. At first glance, it may seem to be unemotional, simple, and even unfinished; however, it eventually addresses highly essential topics, and the main one is the meaning of life that changes with age. The author presents three characters...
Introduction The poem “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks is a four stanza and eight-line piece that talks about youthful rebellion. In line two, “We Left school” clearly reveals the defiant nature of the youths who seem to think leaving school makes them stand out from others (Holnes 53). There...
In his revolutionary novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell presents a dystopian world firmly controlled through class segregation, mass surveillance, and prominent censorship. However, Orwell gives the main characters, and the readers hope, partly embodied in the love story between Winston Smith and Julia. Throughout the plot, their relationship evolves parallel...
Introduction Magical realism combines transcendental feelings, sensations, and thoughts with inherent reality. Using the “irresistible element of magic,” the authors of this literary movement create works that defy the usual logical analysis and criticism (Faris 7). The world is perceived differently by both readers and characters: “The descriptions in magical...
Known for its complex narration, vivid language, expressive imagery, and the horror-like quality of its last scene, A Rose for Emily is arguably one of Faulkner’s most famous and popular works. While the story’s plot is fairly simple once the reader gets a full picture and can view it from...
Introduction The experience of Native Americans facing the Great Depression is seldom put into context. This book review explores the novel Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell published in 1932 by the University of Georgia Press (Caldwell 1932). The author’s goals in writing the books were to expose rural America’s socio-economic...
Introduction In the play, The Glass Menagerie, Tom, Laura, and their mother live in a simple apartment after Mr. Wingfield abandoned them. Tom works in a warehouse and assumes the role of the family man. He pays rent and all family expenses but still has to endure the life frustrations...
The literary pieces addressing the times of the American Civil War bear significant information about the lives of African American population and the struggles they had to endure. Several works present a detailed account of black American slaves, including the actions perpetrated by their white masters in order to deprive...
Introduction The interest in detective works is conditioned by a person’s desire to learn something new, unknown, or reveal a secret. Of course, the works of Arthur Conan Doyle belong to the world literary classics. People have appreciated the intertwined qualities in Sherlock Holmes at all times. These are both...
Introduction Each literary work combines the author’s ideas and concepts developed by previous generations of writers and thinkers. Some novels, short stories, and poems become the foundations of new genres and literary movements. This paper will identify and analyze such literary movements as romanticism, realism, and naturalistic determinism in Willa...
In Darren Aronofsky’s short story entitled “A First Kiss,” the narrator recalls his experiences related to his first kiss. This story is part of the collection 110 Stories: New York Writes After September 11, which comprises short literary works written to help people recover from the tragedy. This paper aims...
The Epic of Gilgamesh is considered to be the earliest surviving piece of literature in the world. Even though it was composed thousands of years ago, it is still read and analyzed by millions of professionals and individuals all around the globe. This is probably due to the fact that...
Throughout Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, the main characters often get exposed to deception. Nevertheless, the play is set up in a way to have the audience understand that the most deliberate deceptions could be either spiteful or benevolent. The key strength of the play is that it presents deceit...
Introduction The philosophy of poetry has always been concerned with the process of creating poems and the ultimate purpose of poets’ labor. Since writing poetry relates to intellectual work rather than physical, the distinction between these two types of labor is at the core of the analysis of the philosophy...
Between the World and Me is a true-life-based book by Ta-Nehisi Coates, written in 2015. It is a letter from Coates to his fifteen-year-old son about racism faced by blacks in the USA. It is a nine-chapter book describing the incidences that happened in the immediate environment of the writer....
After Tom Joad, the protagonist of John Steinbeck’s masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath, gets freed from prison, he goes through a series of upheavals in his personal life. The character arc is defined by slow but steady, step-by-step transformation of values. Tom Joad was a pessimist who did not concern...
The tail of the Heike is an epic war tale that describes the battles of two clans in the late 12th century in Japan. At this time, two opposing families were fighting for power. The first was Genji, and the name of the second was Heike, after whom the fairy...
In the large complex Universal Orlando Resort, there are several amusement parks with different themes, and one of them is “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter”. In two parts of Universal Park, locations from the novels of Joanne Rowling have been recreated. Both parts are the representations of events, locations,...
The turn of the century views on marriage and divorce was marked by the ongoing liberation of women in home and professional life. While earlier it was appropriate for a woman not to work and do virtually nothing about the house, the turn of the century opened several professions in...
The short story “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara was first published in 1972. This story follows the thoughts and actions of Sylvia, a teenage girl with a sassy attitude toward everyone she meets, and her best friend Sugar, who serves as her right hand. Despite Sylvia’s bad mood, she...
Introduction Slavery and the struggle for freedom by African Americans have been commonly debated topics for centuries. However, based on the general knowledge known by lots of people regarding these issues, it is clear that the constitution of the United States greatly aimed at fulfilling its promise as well as...
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb tells the story of a young woman, Lily, who, despite her multicultural identity, feels like an outsider. This story describes how, in today’s global society, representatives of different cultures not only interact with each other but also share the same problems. The author...
The Haunted Palace is a poem within Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. The piece is a traditional example of gothic horror, detailing the demise of a family home and the descent of its remaining members into a paranoia-induced madness. The poem, included as...
It is hard to find a work that will be as chilling to the soul and inspire an overwhelming sense of dread and anxiety as Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. Despite its brevity, it is sure to leave an imprint on the memory of every person who chooses to...
The Tale of Genji is a unique example of Japanese literature written by lady Murasaki Shikibu and is considered the first novel in human history. It was written at the beginning of the 11th century during the Heian period in Japan, which have significantly influenced the plot. Despite the book’s...
Ruth Hall is the first fiction novel by Fanny Fern, one of the most famous American newspaper writers. This work is based on Fern’s story of a struggle for finding her way when she was a widow with children. The story follows the life and difficulties of a woman called...
Introduction The legend of King Oedipus belongs to one of the most ancient legends of the Greeks. Even Homer wrote about him, and later the myth of Oedipus appeared in the retellings of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides. Many ancient Greek poets chose his story as the plot of their tragedies because...
Introduction Are heritage and tradition different for people who belong to the same culture? The story Everyday Use, written by Alice Walker, portrays two various overviews of one’s heritage under the circumstances that the two polar viewpoints belong to people within the same family. On the one hand, Mama is...
Making the right choices is often a tough decision to take in certain circumstances. As human beings, we are most of the time faced with the dilemma of upholding what seems to be lawful and what is socially agreeable. In the play ‘Trifles’ by Susan Glaspell, a man is found...
The event in the story when the narrator describes young brother Sonny as a drug addict helps the reader understand the character of Sonny as a troubled person. Sonny’s heroin addiction has an impact on his worldview and personality traits. He feels imprisoned by his decisions and, therefore, must live...
The theme of freedom and its acquisition is a key one for all African-American literature. This is due to the cultural trauma that slavery inflicted on the entire black population, taking away the human status of slaves and turning them into victims deprived of the power of speech and thought....
The story was popular among the White readers in the North because it dramatized slavery. Between 1861 and 1865, Americans were involved in different battles, killing one another in huge numbers. Killings were partly because some Americans believed they could not live in a nation that endorsed slavery. Slavery in...