Literary Criticism essays

1178 samples in this category

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2 Pages 859 Words
'I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.' The preceding quote is an excerpt from Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis' which is an absurdist fiction novella about Gregor, a salesman, who unexpectedly transforms into an enormous parasite one morning. 'The Metamorphosis' is an allegoric story that is...
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3 Pages 1256 Words
Introduction The narrative of "The Boys Who Challenged Hitler" underscores a remarkable chapter of youthful defiance amidst the oppressive shadows of World War II. Authored by Phillip Hoose, this historical account illuminates the courageous endeavors of the Churchill Club, a group of Danish teenagers who dared to resist Nazi occupation. Amidst the bleak landscape of war-torn Europe, these boys emerged...
Adolf HitlerBook ReviewLiterary Criticism
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3 Pages 1350 Words
Gregory Corso was one of the many poets during the Beat Generation alongside Allen Ginsberg. He was born to an immigrant couple then the mom sadly died when Gregory was a child (Hoover). Unlike Allen Ginsberg, Gregory was not the most educational poet in the world because of his past with his family. He was put into an orphanage and...
Literary CriticismMarriagePoetry
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2 Pages 777 Words
Janice Mirikitani is an author who wrote “Suicide Note” which is a poem that is filled with many smiles, metaphors, and lines of repetition. Just from reading the title, readers should get the feeling appears to be gloomy and depressed. It almost felt as if the poem got colder after every single sentence till the very end. The use of...
Literary CriticismPoetrySuicide
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1 Page 529 Words
Mary Maloney is the protagonist of Roald Dahl’s short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter”. She is introduced as a typical middle-class housewife who is six months pregnant and is devoted to her husband, Patrick Maloney. She is described as a beautiful woman, with soft skin and lips, and dark and large eyes. She is a docile wife who eagerly waits...
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4 Pages 1935 Words
Women have had to fight to get to where they are today. The right to vote, equal wages, the perception of their status in society... all these victories, whether fully achieved or not, have been, and still are today, a struggle. In a hetero-patriarchal society where men have more advantages than women or at least more social freedoms than women,...
Literary CriticismSymbolismThe Color Purple
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2 Pages 987 Words
When we think of heroes, we tend to associate them with a cape or a mask. This statement has not remained true in both early and modern times throughout history. Odysseus who was King of Ithaca and a hero in Homer’s poem “The Odyssey” was a prime example of an individual with nobility and strength. Now Gilgamesh did not quite...
Harry PotterLiterary CriticismTragic Hero
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3 Pages 1461 Words
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, and Much Ado About Nothing are all plays that are concerned with several kinds of problems like having trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy, trying to separate truth from untruth, and seeing the truth within the truth. The plot of each play relies on the ability of actors to tell convincing lies and have them...
3 Pages 1475 Words
Fiction is a quintessential area of the human experience. Without it, the world would be a dreary place. Imagination is vital for one's sanity and happiness. Fantasy teaches us about suited people. Though fictional characters are spun from the thread of dreams, their underlying natures are in particular based on genuine people. Fantasy teaches us to admire the pinnacle notch...
Critical ThinkingHarry PotterLiterary Criticism
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4 Pages 1820 Words
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a novel, which has been described as a “fresh post-feminist approach to future shock” due to its detailed introduction to the world of sexism committed by the patriarchal society of the Republic of Gilead. It reflects the dystopian male-controlled society, where women are treated inferiorly and unequally while facing sexism and social disparage....
CharacterLiterary CriticismThe Handmaid’s Tale
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3 Pages 1359 Words
 Ashima, the Indian mother of the story, is born and raised in Calcutta, West Bengali which she calls home; that is until her arranged marriage with Ashoke Ganguli causes her to travel across the globe to North America and settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the early stages of this transition, Ashima struggles with leaving her entire family behind to now...
ImmigrantsLiterary CriticismThe Namesake
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5 Pages 2401 Words
Despite 'A Doll's House' (1879) and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' (2007), being written over a century apart, collectively both texts highlight the oppressing nature of a patriarchal society. Henrik Ibsen explores the journey of the main protagonist Nora, who becomes dissatisfied with her sacrifice to become a wife and fulfil her role as a mother. Eventually, she realizes that to find...
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3 Pages 1324 Words
A bildungsroman is an elaborate technique that shapes a novel as a whole, presenting the reader with a way to relate and grow closely involved with events surrounding the protagonist. Rudolfo Anaya leads the audience in Bless Me, Ultima towards the development of a young hero, Antonio, who needs to gain the wisdom of his cultural and religious predicament. Anaya...
Bless Me UltimaCharacterLiterary Criticism
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1 Page 677 Words
Character Analysis Essay Sometimes the greatest conflicts arise when two human beings are comparable to each other in necessary approaches but want very different things. This is the case between Ralph and Jack in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, where a group of puerile boys who find themselves alone on a desolate island endeavor to decipher...
CharacterLiterary CriticismLord of The Flies
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3 Pages 1197 Words
The Lord of the Flies is one of the considered essential books of contemporary literature, written by William Golding. Its title refers to a demon that in some gospels is also called Lord of the Flies for his evil. Early August 1945: the Hiroshima bomb had just exploded, the war was in full swing and a group of English children...
CharacterLiterary CriticismLord of The Flies
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2 Pages 809 Words
'The play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is a superlative play. It is often considered a 'tragicomedy' because it has many impediments like a traditional comedy, but not knowing that the impediments could be disastrous and that there is always a probable chance of it turning into a tragedy. In society, particularly the one portrayed in Shakespeare's play,...
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2 Pages 742 Words
In a way, evil is like a contagious disease. It can be held inside of one person until it has infected someone else. With that being said, it continues to do so until the carrier of the evil dies without passing it to another person. Human nature plays a huge role throughout the play, “Hamlet”. Evil played a part in...
HamletLiterary CriticismSuicide
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5 Pages 2404 Words
Societally, we are approaching a crossroads in terms of the rights of women -- one side leads back to a draconian patriarchal society, and the other leads towards a freer world. In her novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood provides a glimpse of what the future may look like were we to choose the former. Atwood’s use of different colors...
CharacterLiterary CriticismThe Handmaid’s Tale
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4 Pages 1980 Words
Intro The themes of racism, gender inequality and social influence is explored in the novel The Help written by Kathryn Stockett and the film Forrest Gump directed by Robert Zemeckis. Stockett explores the idea of a social influence on a narrow minded society through the three main protagonists Aibileen, Skeeter, and Minny who take turns narrating the story. Zemeckis highlights...
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2 Pages 940 Words
Following Hosseini’s original best-selling novel The Kite Runner, a novel exploring the journey of self-discovery of a young boy named Amir, A Thousand Splendid Suns pictures the stories of Mariam and Laila, two young women who live in the country of women and face heavy discrimination for being women throughout the novel. The country of Afghanistan is portrayed as a...
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2 Pages 1111 Words
Setting and themes are an important part of any kind of story such as a short story, paragraph, or even a novel because they will bring an effect and atmosphere to the story. Firstly, the common meaning of setting itself is the time and place of the story in which the moments or scene happens and is usually introduced during...
Critical ThinkingEveryday UseLiterary Criticism
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5 Pages 2345 Words
Themes Mortality becomes ever-present in the Salmon family ever since Susie’s elbow was found, and she was declared dead. It is because now they can see how ephemeral life is that they start making choices for themselves and their own lives individually, and no longer for the family. Dad engages in a battle for justice, while the mother goes away...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismSerial Killer
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5 Pages 2183 Words
In Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”, the novel depicts a black woman named Celie, who had been raped many times by her father. The author also makes it clear that this man fathered the two children she neared from this rape. Throughout the story, Celie is unfortunately abused many times and the only people who come to her defense are...
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3 Pages 1502 Words
By choosing an unconventional narrator for his text, Haddon provides his audience with a refreshing insight into the different ways people communicate with one another The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Discusses how Haddon’s perspective on personal challenges is conveyed in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. In your response, make detailed reference to...
6 Pages 2943 Words
This paper aims to cover the topic of African American Literature and literacy about the 1982 epistolary novel by African American author Alice Walker. The paper will shed light on literacy and African American education and intellect as well as Alice Walker’s intent behind making the theme of literacy a main one. The paper will also discuss many related topics...
LiteracyLiterary CriticismThe Color Purple
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4 Pages 1812 Words
For years, sociologists have been developing various theories as to when and how an individual becomes an adult. In sociology, the topic of adulthood is very contradictory, as it can be perceived in different ways. Many sociologists believe that an individual must face psychological, biological, cultural-sociological, and environmental factors that will influence a person's development. The author Khaled Hosseini, uses...
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2 Pages 1082 Words
There is regret born from a life destined to be a hostage of ideals that deter free will. In “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khalid Hosseini, taking on a feminist perspective, the way women suffer under an oppressive culture asks the reader, just how does patriarchy affect the lives of women? The answer is fault and blame. The women introduced...
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1 Page 494 Words
The novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, is based upon a totalitarian society that treats women as property and takes their civil rights away from them, forcing them into sexual servitude to replenish the population. The book has been turned into a Hulu original series that shows a view of a totalitarian society within the United States. However, the...
CharacterLiterary CriticismThe Handmaid’s Tale
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2 Pages 743 Words
The Taliban ruled over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Among all the worst things to happen in the world, this was one. With the Taliban in control, this gave every man the right of power to control their wives, but sadly also took almost everything from every female. For every female once had a choice of their own and a...
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4 Pages 1766 Words
Legacy is an essential trait that all people have in themselves. It is what makes families of all ethnicities unique from each other. But as James T. Patterson points out, during the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans had it worse than people of all other races. During the times of the Civil Rights Movement, society was changing for the better...
CharacterEveryday UseLiterary Criticism
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