Literary Criticism essays

1178 samples in this category

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4 Pages 1851 Words
There are always consequences to bad choices in one way or another, just as committing a crime results in imprisonment. William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet shows a pair of star-crossed lovers who make dangerous and risky choices they would not make otherwise in hopes of being with each other, ultimately leading to their deaths. This tragic story takes place...
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5 Pages 2123 Words
Introduction In this thesis, I am going to analyze a book called 'THE HATE U GIVE', a 2017 novel written by Angi Tomas and published on February 28, 2017. This book is the auteur's first book which is expanded from a short story to a novel that Angie wrote in college, in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant...
DramaLiterary CriticismThe Hate U Give
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2 Pages 1004 Words
Romantic love stories always end up with a happy ending, but sometimes they probably wind up in a tragedy such as the loss of a loved one. These horrific tragedies like the loss of a loved one can be caused by a person’s actions. The tragic love story, ‘’Romeo and Juliet’’ by William Shakespeare explains how rushed ‘’love’’ can turn...
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2 Pages 1112 Words
The Relevance of Romeo and Juliet in Today’s Teens The play Romeo and Juliet is written by William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare in 1597, depicts a romance between the teenage star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. The story takes multiple twists and turns as we follow the two teens through their romance and eventual downfall. The actions...
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3 Pages 1225 Words
William Shakespeare's play 'Romeo and Juliet' is a tragedy play about two star-crossed lovers. Aware of his Elizabethan audience, Shakespeare creates men that are in vastly different contrast to current beliefs. Because the ideologies of masculinity in 13th century Italy differed from the modern term's definition today. Men are represented as arrogant in Romeo and Juliet and challenge the gender...
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2 Pages 718 Words
The internet defines love as an intense feeling of deep affection. So why does Romeo fall for Juliet after being let down by Rosaline? Romeo knows that love can be tragic, but it makes him happy. Romeo and Juliet are so happy together, Juliet would rather die than not be with Romeo. Readers also learn from the friar that love...
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1 Page 646 Words
“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.” “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas is a young-adult novel about racism. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this novel puts us in the shoes of Starr Carter, a memorable girl who was faced with adversity and choices...
DramaLiterary CriticismThe Hate U Give
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2 Pages 985 Words
In modern-day society, protests are happening due to injustice and violation of human rights as seen with police brutality, predominantly in the black community. In the novel written by Angie Thomas The Hate U Give, an African-American teenage girl, finds herself in a difficult situation, not knowing what to do with her life or her purpose. In search of her...
DramaLiterary CriticismThe Hate U Give
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2 Pages 1061 Words
In our generation, various different people see Shakespeare as either relevant or irrelevant. If I’m going, to be honest, I dread Shakespeare, none of the work made sense to me particularly the way that they spoke. I would sit in class looking at the work my teacher has assigned in confusion wondering how much longer I would have had to...
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3 Pages 1515 Words
The American Dream or a False Promise? Countless generations have been dreaming of an equitable America… but, as Rehnuma Tarannum writes, it’s time to wake up. The American dream apparently captures our faith in progression, opportunity, and prosperity. It represents hopes for a large and stable middle class. Every single person, would go to college, and become a homeowner and...
American DreamLiterary CriticismPerspective
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2 Pages 833 Words
The fear of what is inside you, your desire for revenge, your lack of control over your impulses, and your dark side, is the greatest fear presented in the story Beowulf, a book by Robert Nye. Grendel’s mother, Cain’s wife, a female without a name, represents what is dark inside ourselves. She is filled with cruelty, hate, and revenge; a...
BeowulfLiterary CriticismRevenge
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1 Page 606 Words
My book was The Odyssey by Homer. The Odyssey is a widely popular ancient Greek epic poem written nearly 2500 years ago in Europe. It tells of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, on a long journey home after the Trojan War. It tells of his battles with monsters and encounters with gods, his son's desperate attempt to bring him home...
Literary CriticismPerseveranceThe Odyssey
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2 Pages 741 Words
Freedom and Choice A utopian society has been created for people in the book so that they have no rights and no individual thoughts. Every individual is much the same. Daily, everybody takes a pill that erases all memories, pain, and tension. Jonas, the protagonist, is selected to inherit all the world's memories and discovers that anyone he cares for...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismThe Giver
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3 Pages 1570 Words
In Sophocles’ Antigone, the two characters of Creon and Antigone represent unreflective and polarising moments of Greek life, highlighting the conflict and divide between male and female, and “polis” and “Oikos”. Throughout the drama, Creon displays a near-existential fear of female transgression. He first introduces the theme of a male-female conflict when he says. Indeed, now I am no man,...
AntigoneCharacterLiterary Criticism
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5 Pages 2334 Words
The idea of conflict between the state and individuals and the theme of civil disobedience remains prevalent throughout society today. Despite 'Antigone' and 'Fahrenheit 451' being written nearly two thousand years apart, both texts share the same societal issues of conflict between the state and the individual but in different contexts. Both Sophocles and Bradbury are influenced by the political...
AntigoneConflictLiterary Criticism
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2 Pages 1090 Words
The upper class is responsible for creating friendships, initiating invitations, and more importantly, being charitable to those in a lesser position. When someone violates these social norms, they are met with indignation as evidence of Mrs. Elton not understanding entirely her social position in society. Mrs. Elton is insufferably conceited about new money and only has money because of her...
EmmaJane AustenLiterary Criticism
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3 Pages 1464 Words
Pride and Prejudice is a novel on manners, social customs, and etiquette based in early 19th century England. One of the most notable themes in this novel is, of course, reputation and impressions. Austen originally titled this novel as First Impressions. While Austen does make numerous references to the importance of first impressions, this essay will primarily focus on the...
Jane AustenLegacyLiterary Criticism
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2 Pages 990 Words
In the science fiction book, The Giver by Lois Lowry, the protagonist, Jonas, lives in a community that is excruciatingly controlled. The members of the community could not even make most of their own choices. Almost everyone who lived within the confines of the community never had to experience anything gruesome like pain or hunger, nor did they understand the...
Critical ReflectionLiterary CriticismThe Giver
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6 Pages 2855 Words
President Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States of America, once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismThe Giver
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1 Page 484 Words
Sirens, synonymous with their seductive and tempting voices in Greek mythology, which bewitch men causing their deaths, is one archetype intertextually present in both O Brother Where Art Thou and Homer’s Odyssey which the film is loosely based on. Through strategic employment of diegetic sound, the careful and thought-provoking composition of the mise-e-scene, and numerous camera shots, the archetype is...
ArchetypeLiterary CriticismThe Odyssey
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3 Pages 1164 Words
The concept of “a new beginning” is a recurrent theme that prevails in African American literature, predominantly, in the geographical form of The South. Used as a literary terrain, The South is more than a characterization of the savagery that African Americans endured during the period of slavery. It is within this landscape that African Americans advanced society and culture...
3 Pages 1151 Words
The Odyssey is a classic ancient Greek poem credited to Homer, following the Greek hero Odysseus and his extensive journey home after the fall of Troy. In his absence, his wife Penelope “is sieged by suitors who want her hand in marriage and with it her kingdom” (Morford, Lenardon, & Sham, 2019, p. 520). Despite having over one hundred wilful...
Literary CriticismLiterary DevicesThe Odyssey
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2 Pages 907 Words
Introduction In S.E. Hinton's seminal novel The Outsiders, the character of Bob Sheldon is often overshadowed by the more prominent protagonists. However, a closer examination reveals that Bob's role is crucial in understanding the socio-economic tensions and interpersonal dynamics that drive the narrative. Bob, a privileged teenager from the affluent 'Socs' (short for Socials), serves as a foil to the...
CharacterLiterary CriticismThe Outsiders
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2 Pages 974 Words
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, a novel that tells the story of the conflict between two rival gangs, Greasers and Socs, captures the voice of Ponyboy and his friends to talk about stereotype threats. In Ponyboy’s role as the narrator and main character in the story, he talks about the expectations of Greasers being violent delinquents, which sways his internal...
CharacterLiterary CriticismThe Outsiders
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1 Page 479 Words
S.E. Hinton wrote the novel The Outsiders, which is realistic fiction. It shows key events demonstrating the respect Dally deserves. Some might think that Dally doesn’t deserve respect for the way he treats people, but he acts this way because he came from a neglectful family and wasn’t shown love. One place this is seen is when Johnny and Ponyboy...
CharacterLiterary CriticismThe Outsiders
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2 Pages 798 Words
When the odds are stacked against you, find a way to preserve and fight as your life depends on it. Emmellie Lyon discovers how a young boy did just that. Imagine this, your parents both are killed in a tragic car accident, leaving you to be raised by your inexperienced, bitter 20-year-old older brother, Darry Curtis. Darry doesn’t care for...
CharacterLiterary CriticismThe Outsiders
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2 Pages 866 Words
Hero. A hero doesn’t always mean outstanding powers to be significant. A hero has many meanings to different people. Some people see superheroes in capes or webs coming out of their wrists. But a hero that should be more recognized are the ones who do small things that stand out from the rest. Saving lives and cities from villains is...
CharacterLiterary CriticismThe Outsiders
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3 Pages 1451 Words
Antigone as a character within Jean Anouilh’s modern re-creation of Sophocles’s Greek classic, ‘Antigone’, is surrounded by ambiguity. Within Sophocles’s version, Antigone is presented with clear, rational, and understandable motives for defying Creon and the oppressive state in which he struggles to uphold. However, unlike Sophocles, Anouilh teaches us nothing of Antigone’s motivations and instead creates a depiction of an...
AntigoneCharacterLiterary Criticism
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2 Pages 1061 Words
In Book XI of The Odyssey, in the underworld, Tiresias describes to Odysseus a final journey he must take to 'have a gentle, painless death... with all [his] people there in blessed peace around [him]” (Homer, XI. 155,157). Tiresias says that Odysseus must walk inland with an oar until he gets to a place where people mistake it for a...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismThe Odyssey
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1 Page 457 Words
The Harlem Renaissance was a period in which female African Americans could educate society on the gender inequality of this era and discuss the importance of individuality through their works. Many of these pieces still serve as a tool for people today to learn about the oppression of women during this time. In the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching...
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