Literature Essays

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Use of Psychoanalytic Concepts in the Treatment of PTSD: Article Review

2 Pages 735 Words
Traumatic experiences are a terrible thing for anyone experience. But they do happen to people. When these events transpire, it is possible that the victim of the incident will start showing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The DSM-5 lets us know that some of the people who are most likely to be affected by PTSD are the “survivors of...

Literary devices in Longfellow's 'Nature' to reveal theme

1 Page 653 Words
Reviewed double_ok
Well-written poetry has the ability to stir up deep emotions, plumb the depths of the human conscience, and even cause for reflection on existence itself. The usage of many literary devices contributes to the greatness of a poem and determine the impact it has, as can be seen in ‘Nature’ by Henry W. Longfellow. Longfellow implies a fleetingness to life...

Use of Irony in Shirley Jackson's Short Story ‘The Possibility of Evil’

2 Pages 965 Words
In his novel ‘Shibumi’, author Rodney William Whitaker writes, “Irony is fate's most common figure of speech”. Irony is present in almost every situation imaginable—from the small talk made while waiting in line to the foundation of some of the most well-known, acclaimed pieces of literature in history. Simply put, irony is a contrast between expectation and reality— when what...

Theme of True Love in Shakespeare's Play 'Romeo and Juliet': Essay

1 Page 464 Words
Using three different types of passion, Shakespeare's ‘Romeo and Juliet’ describes love: the unrequited love between Romeo and Rosaline, the true and sincere love between Romeo and Juliet, and the pessimistic love between Mercutio and the Nurse. Using traditional notions of love specific to the era helps convey the message that it can take many forms. Since Romeo and Juliet...

Power dynamics in 'Kindred' and 'Lord of the Flies'

4 Pages 1650 Words
In the novels ‘Kindred’ by Octavia Butler and ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding, one of the main points portrayed by both authors is how to exert and maintain power over others. Rufus from ‘Kindred’ and Jack from ‘Lord of the Flies’ both use similar tactics to maintain their power over their peers. Both boys attempt at hiding their...

Isolation and Fear in Totalitarian Governments in 1984 and V for Vendetta

2 Pages 804 Words
The novel ‘1984’ and film ‘V for Vendetta’ are both works that explore how totalitarian governments cause isolation and fear through control. They demonstrate how methods such as propaganda, surveillance and fabrication of information assert control over the lives of their citizens and remove the individual freedom to create a mass of people living in a single unified movement. ‘1984’...

Identity Formation in 'Jasper Jones' Novel and 'In the Wild' Film

4 Pages 1760 Words
Memories are the architecture of our identity, designed by our parents. Together the protagonists from the novel ‘Jasper Jones’, and the film ‘Into the Wild’, have grown up with memories built around their parents, and what their parents have emphasized as their identity. Charlie and Chris have had their identities shaped by the way their parents have raised them. Ever...

Theme of Female Sexuality in Rossetti's and Webster's Texts

5 Pages 2065 Words
In ‘Maude Clare’, Rossetti shows a powerful alternative type of woman – Maude Clare. The name is significant as ‘Maude’ derives from the word ‘warrior’ and connotes extreme strength and power, thus presenting women and their female sexuality as a powerful weapon that only warriors like Maude Clare and women possess. However, there are similarities between this poem and ‘The...

Theme of Faith in Elie Wiesel’s ‘Night’

4 Pages 1953 Words
Due to the barbarities that the Jewish people endured throughout the Holocaust, many abandoned their faith in God and humanity. Elie Wiesel’s memoir ‘Night’ recounts how as a 15-year-old boy, he and the Jewish people endure the hardships of the Holocaust. Wiesel was a Romanian-born Jew, whose hometown of Sighet was controlled by the Hungarians for most of the Second...

Control and Authority in ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ and ‘Paradise Lost’

4 Pages 1988 Words
The instinct to control others is indeed natural for characters in John Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ and John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’. Both Webster and Milton explore the control one exerts over women through Ferdinand and Adam’s desire to control the females, the control of those at a lower status illustrated through the religious figureheads of both works, the Cardinal...

Breaking Rules in 'The Breakfast Club' and 'The Wave'

4 Pages 1779 Words
Rules need to be broken at times. As both the 1985 film by John Hughes, ‘The Breakfast Club’, and the 1981 novel by Morton Rhue, ‘The Wave’, discuss why and what can happen when such acts are done. With so much desire to break the rule, there is little room left to see why they need to be disobeyed sometimes....

Relationship between Dana and Rufus in Octavia E. Butler's ‘Kindred’

3 Pages 1150 Words
Reviewed double_ok
‘Kindred’, by Octavia E. Butler, tells the story of Dana, a 26-year-old African American woman from the 1970s, who is constantly called into the 19th century antebellum South by her white ancestor, Rufus Weylin. After learning she must keep Rufus alive to ensure her own bloodline, she explores her family’s roots while at the same time, struggles to witness and...

Nazi Vs the Narrator

2 Pages 690 Words
Why did the unconscious part of the brains of the protagonists seems as if it were put get them? Carl Gustav Jung, a psychoanalyst would call it the collective unconscious; it's a universal shared memory in which mankind seems to repress their true emotions without being aware of it. This concept is easier to make sense of when one looks...

Narrator's Insanity in Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart'

2 Pages 779 Words
The story The Tell-Tale Heart written by Edgar Allen Poe, can be best summarized as a piece of gothic literature in which introduces the idea of a man going insane. In the beginning, it was only a mere obsession with an ‘evil eye’. The obsession itself, however, led to the murder of the man with the said ‘evil eye’. In short,...

Power Dynamics in 'Kindred' and 'The Book of Martha' by Octavia Butler

4 Pages 1682 Words
“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace”, - Mahatma Gandhi. This quote connects to a motif shown in each story, ‘Kindred’ and ‘The Book of Martha’ by Octavia Butler. The motif shown in each story is power dynamics, wherein each, they both develop the motif throughout the books and similarly/differently deals...

Character development in 'Kiki's Delivery Service' and 'Spirited Away'

3 Pages 1550 Words
The transition from childhood to adulthood also known as adolescents (shonen for boys, shojo for females) is heavily shown within the realm of anime. Studio Ghibli is also known as one of the major producers of adolescent films with the help of Hayao Miyazaki, a director, and producer of films such as ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’, ‘Spirited Away’, ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’,...

Irony of Martin Espada's Poem 'Bully'

3 Pages 1170 Words
In ‘Bully’ Martin Espada uses the first stanza to introduce the theme of his poem. “In the school auditorium/the Theodore Roosevelt statue/is nostalgic” (lines 1-3). The statue described emanates a nostalgia for the Spanish-American war, which was considered by many to be a morally reprehensible act of hate upon Hispanic people. The author of the poem, Martin Espada, was introduced...

Interracial Relationship in Octavia Butler's 'Kindred'

3 Pages 1221 Words
In the novel ‘Kindred’, Author Octavia Butler travels back to the time where slavery was the big part of American life. Butler sends the modern characters like Dana and Kevin to experience the past. As Dana traveled back and forth several times and every time she goes there is a new situation behind it. Butler clears up how interracial relationship...

Impact of Narrator Being within a Literary Work

2 Pages 1116 Words
A narrator is one of the most important elements of any literary work, as he, she, or they are the voice that not only shares the story with the reader, but also conveys their thoughts, opinions, and details to make the story more understandable. What is a narrator, exactly? According to the Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, a narrator is “one...

The Great Gatsby: Did Gatsby Really Love Daisy

3 Pages 1212 Words
Reviewed double_ok
Is the love that Gatsby feels driving his relentless pursuit of winning over Daisy? Are all of his schemes to ‘win’ over Daisy worth it? In Gatsby’s eyes Daisy represents the American Dream, wealth, power, fame, and beauty which is the reason why Gatsby is attracted to her. Although Gatsby's fantasies with Daisy never become a reality, his love for...

Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth

2 Pages 923 Words
True love. Romantic or unflustered and usually portrayed in a sexist fictional story. Love. Problematic and hesitant and usually kept in the dark of most cases. “The course of true love will never run smooth”. Author and Director William Shakespeare foregrounded the ‘true love’ stigma in his play ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Telling a story of two young star-crossed lovers who...

Black Female Body in Octavia Butler’s ‘Kindred’

2 Pages 982 Words
Octavia Butler’s ‘Kindred’ traces central protagonist, Dana Franklin’s genealogy by physically ‘returning’ her to her slave past in antebellum Maryland. By deconstructing the body of the female slave Butler uses Dana’s body as the site for historical markings, so that she is literally and symbolically scarred by her ancestral past. As Michel Foucault notes, the purpose of genealogy is “to...

Tensions in 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'Schindler’s List'

2 Pages 777 Words
Tensions are created as the culmination of the audience’s sympathy and desire for the individual’s welfare and survival against the visual testimonies of anti-Semitic abuse and atrocity. William Shakespeare’s play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, and Steven Spielberg’s film, ‘Schindler’s List’, depict the tensions inciting the human experience of change and connection through the insights accentuated by the aspects of moral...

Ted Lavender's Fear in 'The Things They Carried': Character Analysis

1 Page 539 Words
The award-winning author, Tim O’Brien, wrote the novel ‘The Things They Carried’, which was a collection of short stories based on O’Brien’s experiences in the Vietnam War. He elaborates on the brutality soldiers go through during battle and the morals of a true war story. Introduced in the chapter ‘The Things They Carried’, Ted Lavender is a young soldier, who...
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