Essays on Books

“These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long…mules and other brutes had occupied their skins”: An analysis on Hurston’s message of men dehumanizing women within Their Eyes Were Watching God In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Hurston through…

Memory and time are strange in the novel. “In keeping with modernist explorations of alternative modes of representing time, [the novel encodes] a deliberate refutation of linear chronological time, for the psychological time of memory and speculation extracts the individual from clock time and injects…

Zora Neal Hurston’s critically acclaimed novel, Their Eyes were Watching God deals with various thematic concerns. The most prominent is the character Janie’s journey of self-discovery. My essay will be looking at Janie’s journey of self- discovery, and quest for true love. This growth of…

Less than 20% of all Americans say they are not living the society’s idea of the American Dream. While some may say the American Dream is about having a house and financial stability, it means so much more. Since Americans have this one track mindset…

There are several characters inome that become ill, Ethan becomes ill and so do the people around him. The two main characters who suffer from illness would have to be Mattie and Zeena. Sickness played a huge role in Ethan’s life, he was constantly caught…

The Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is one of the interesting stories that I have read ever in my life. What I mostly liked about the story is that it is full of mystery and irony as it ends up with so many…

To deal with all the death, pain and sorrow thrown at them by the war, the soldiers had to build up defence mechanisms against the overwhelming emotions and losses they battled with each day. One of such mechanisms is daydreaming, where the characters to begin…

In the impassioned, voracious To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee reached new levels of satisfaction in stereotypes and prejudice. These stereotypes helped Atticus , who we will further define throughout the essay, grow and thrive to become the lawyer who fought for the prejudiced and…

Although The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn combats racism through its use of satire, its effect is one that reinforces racism due to its racist portrayal of Jim, its use of the N-word, and its lack of concrete racial enlightenment for Huck. Jim’s portrayal as the…

Most college freshmen are confused when they are asked to read or write academically. They expect what they have learned over the years in their English class to be the same as a college English class. After some time, they realize that what they have…

Have you ever seen someone under terrible circumstances continue to keep going and try as hard as they can, no matter what? This is always a wonder to behold, but how did this person get to be so perseverant? Chances are they have someone that…

Never have I read a book so inspiring as Barbara Kingslovers novel, The Bean Trees. This novel indeed influences young readers by giving them belief of everything is going to be okay. Reading deep inside this book, spreads a powerful message that could be really…

Some of the cultural reasons why women might have their first child earlier in places like Taylor’s (fictional Pittman County) rather than later in places like San Diego is because more women are expected to raise babies when they are younger because they are in…

Both Walker and Ward present protagonists who seek hope and escapism to transcend their hopeless surroundings, concerning Black America. In The Color Purple, Walker creates a protagonist, Celie, living in 1930s rural Georgia; a young black woman living in an extremely racist and sexist society…

In Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Religion plays an integral part in the overall theme of the book, religion governs these characters such as Mr. Brocklehurst, Eliza Reed, and St. John Rivers. Jane experiences and is introduced to many forms/ideas about religion, Bronte wants to show us…

From the 2nd century BC with the Hippocratic Oath to the present day with the dilemma of abortions, ethics and morals have always been at the forefront of discussion in the medical field, and one specific example would be the case of Henrietta Lacks and…

With every person in the world having around thirty to forty trillion cells (Hewings-Martin). How is it that these two people, from seemingly different backgrounds, collectively contribute to one of the largest ethical debates in medical history. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by…

Jane Eyre is a novel written by Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) in 1847, however, the novel was published under the pseudonym of Currer Bell. In addition, the novel could be considered as an autobiographical novel because Charlotte Brontë used his novel as a way she had…

Background Karl Heinrich Marx, born May 5, 1818, Trier, Rhine province, Prussia [Germany]—died March 14, 1883, London, England), revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. Karl Marx, is without a doubt the most influential socialist thinker to emerge in the 19th century. Although he was largely ignored…

The history of colonialism started during the formation of empires and powerful states. It had the aim of widening territories through wars and conflicts. It expanded enormously in the 15th century as Portugal and Spain started the age of discovery which involved controlling and exploiting…

Introduction India ever since the start of 2000s has experienced declining participation of women in the workforce despite increasing economic growth, in the last few years we have experienced an economic slowdown and the participation of women has gotten even worse. Workforce participation among women…

Sovereignty by definition is the ability to have authority of a state to govern itself or another state. This also includes no interference from any outside sources. This term is very important in world politics because it is exactly the goal of many states and…

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is concerned with the unequal status of women in the society that has a direct bearing on the institution of marriage. Women are forced into solitude as per the prevailing conventions of the society. Suffering of women is…

Image your grandmother, little ol’ grandma on twitter. Tweeting her heart away. That is Joyce Carol Oates. However, she wasn’t always the little old lady on twitter. She’s a writer, an editor, a playwright, a professor, etc. Throughout her life, Joyce Carol Oates has gone…

Smooth talk (1985) is the film celebration winning motion picture propelled by the Joyce Carol Oakes’ short story , ‘Where are you going, Where have you been?’ The principle subject of both of the text and film is about a high school young lady, who…

Introduction Alienation is the emotional detachment or isolation from society. Characters that are alienated feel ostracized and do not take part in their society. It can also be described as the loss of hope, a loss of faith, or unbelief. Alienation is not just a…

Margaret Atwood’s Lusus Naturae is a story about a girl who is outcasted by society and her family because of her genetic disorder. The first sentence caught my attention, “what could be done with me, what should be done with me?” (Atwood 240). The opening…

Michel De Montaigne’s book The Essays: A Selection is captivating and bold, especially considering the time that is was written in when hardly anyone would write about oneself due to sounding conceived with oneself, boring, biased, or uneducated. However, Montaigne’s book is neither of those…

Tim O’Brien’s chapter “Speaking of Courage” from his book “The Things They Carried” is very similar to Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Soldier’s Home” when it comes to the way they tell the story of men coming home from war. Although both authors use a different…

Montaigne describes the barbarous people in his essay, `Des cannibales` as noble savages, who live in harmony with nature, share everything, lead a simple but honourable life and practice an uncorrupted religion without being tainted by Western societies. They hold two characteristic in high esteem,…

What does it mean to be an outsider? Perhaps it is someone who simply does not or can not fit in with societal norms. This someone could be labeled as a social oddball or an alien coexisting in a world that they don’t call home….

It was a serious problem that traditional culture was destroyed by the invasion of Western civilization while Nigeria was invaded by Britain in the 19th century. The story “Dead Men’s Path” begins when Michael Obi is promoted to the headmaster of Ndume Central School. He…

And finally, a female author as the source for season titles: Donna Haraway, a feminist intellectual whose popular and much-anthologized “Cyborg Manifesto” perfectly matches Orphan Black’s ethical themes and concerns. Her “A Cyborg Manifesto” considers how a cyborg—an enhanced person with added mechanical capabilities—symbolizes being…

After reading Haraway’s text, A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century and listening to the podcast Small Medicine by Genevieve Valentine, while robots are non-human, their aesthetic judgments and moral compass demonstrate personhood. In the podcast, Sofia who is the…

In the short story “Lusus Naturae” written by Margaret Atwood, a girl is disgraced by her family; treated as an outcast and being seen as a disease or a curse for her differences. The physical and mental challenges the narrator faces through the story, with…

In society today, young girls and women battle between perfecting their image fit society standards and finding their own identity in this world. These social and beautification standards have been around for centuries, leaving women to question their true identity and place in society. Margaret…

The Cyborg Manifesto is consisted of multiple traits brought together to form both human and cyborg. These characteristics will bring amongst many different details towards one another such as appearance, personality, social status, class, and methods used everyday. How would this differ from both human…

The theme of Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway is of fear, experience, loneliness, faith, connection, and conformism. The message of the author in this story is that the experience of war is different for each solider and war isolates soldiers from civil society norms and…

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, USA, and is a writer and journalist. Hemingway has won many awards in his life. He was awarded the Silver Brave Medal during the First World War. Hemingway’s feelings in his life…

In Hemingway’s story, ‘Soldier’s Home,” we read about a young man named Harold Krebs returns from his tour in Europe during the first world war, but not to a hero’s welcome. The story outlines the main character’s inability to connect and feel anything but confusion…

In today’s society of judgement and assimilation, many individuals who stray morality from the path of normality are often shunned for their differences. In Margaret Atwood’s ‘Lusus Naturae’, the discrimination that is placed upon those who are different can be seen through the eyes of…

Traditions have consistently been unaltered, obsolete, and seen today as unconventional, as society keeps on modernizing at a fast pace. Michael Obi, the focal character in the story Dead Men’s Path, endeavors to carry off traditionalism at his new position, while ingraining his convictions of…

The symbolism in these stories both have this colonial theme. In Dead Men’s path, the path represents the importance of traditional beliefs and practices. the path passing through the garden of the school, it symbolizes the way that traditions cuts through the new, modern ways…

In the short story: Dead Man’s Path, Michael Obi emerges as headmaster of a school in Ndume. Michael Obi was a 26 years-old well-educated man. Obi becomes irritated when he sees a lady part through the flowers outside of the school. As a result, Obi…

Rene Descartes’s, Discourse on Method, helps with the understanding of both Michel de Montaigne’s Essay, Catalina de Erauso’s autobiography, as well as Peter Paul Rubens painting, Descent from the Cross. Their ideas added to the ways in which Europe helped conceptualized the New World. Each…

Time continues to pass; and yet with each passing era humanity continually seems to be terrified, and equally fascinated, by the realm of the supernatural. Creations of literary over the centuries have plagiarised what has provided a means for indulging in this fantastical dominion and…

Karen Russell’s story, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” deals with the idea of conformity and formation of identity. Collision often leads to situations of having to adapt to a new culture. This comes with some sort of needing to change, along with…

Karen Russell’s short story, “St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised by Wolves,” explores the idea that culture plays a major role in the formation of identity in each individual. Culture is a synthesis of a particular group’s values beliefs and practices. Since each person’s identity…

In ‘St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,’ Karen Russell utilizes a postcolonial lens to show the consequences of colonization. The story is about girls raised by wolves, who are learning how to conform to a different environment. The readers follow the uncomfortable transformations…

In this essay, this writer will attempt to compare and contrast the topics of isolation and feelings of being an outcast that many young people feel during their journey” to adulthood. In both “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell and…

What is necessary, essential to survive these awful situations? Well, there are lots and lots of examples out there of things people have done to make it out of unfortunate circumstances and overcome obstacles to make their way back home. Whether it’s a film, or…

Man’s Search for Meaning is a book composed by Victor Frankl. He was an Austrian nervous system specialist, analysts and therapists. All the more strikingly, he was a detainee in Nazi death camp. Frankl created a strategy for logotherapy. This strategy turned into a reason…

The draft. It brought many men into a war that they did not understand. It brought them across the Pacific Ocean to a small country in a civil war. This country was Vietnam. The Things They Carried is a fictional book based in Vietnam during…

To survive is to continue on with life, even when it seems to be a continuous loop of despair. Authors Murakami, Steinbeck, and Hannaford each bring the idea of survival to life through their work. Murakami’s work focuses on survivor’s guilt, while Steinbeck exaggerates dependence,…

Medieval literature was a period filled with many characteristics and elements such as extended metaphors, romances, and the Church. In the Canterbury Tales, many different genres took place such as romance, beast fable, religion, and poetry. Iambic pentameter is used in the Miller’s Tale as…

‘The Lottery,’ written by Shirley Jackson, is a short story about an obscure village that holds a ‘lottery’ in which an individual of any age is randomly chosen to be stoned to death. The story illustrates the process and which villager was selected to be…

Style, tone, and language are crucial aspects used in writing. It gives the story meaning, or a certain feeling, and helps the reader know what the author is trying to say in a story. The style that the “The Story of an Hour” uses is…

In The Things They Carried, Tim O’brien shows how symbolism enforces the power of storytelling through the many personality shifts within a variation of characters. Throughout the novel, one is exposed to a various amount of ideas and concepts that all connect together in an…

Ancient German philosopher, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg once said, “Equality which we demand is the most tolerant degree of inequality”. For centuries, humankind has worked towards an equal society, but at what expense and limit? In the short story,” Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. depicts a…

As a famous actress and activist, Susan Sarandon, once said, “When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you”. This meaning that through experience, humans can gain empathy to learn many important and beneficial lessons from…

In some Gothic Literature when women are mentioned as a character it usually has a hidden meaning such as women being hopelessly submissive, significantly absent, or presented in a negative sense. These meanings display many different effects for women through the short stories that teach…

Richard III, a Shakespearean play based on the history of the war of the Roses which took place in England during the late 15th century, showed the political inconstancy of that era. England, as a country united for the first time under the reign of…

Ever wondered how authors and directors translate books into movies? Directors like Tim Burton use cinematic styles to illustrate the tones and moods that authors illustrate using stylistic effects. Tim Burton and his films, Charlie and the chocolate factory, and Sleepy hollow use cinematic effects…

When considering real-world issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder from logotherapy’s viewpoint, individuals with PTSD have haunting, horrific thoughts and recollections of a traumatic experience. They begin to feel emotionally numb, particularly with people they were once closely connected to. PTSD was first publicly addressed…

In thermodynamics entropy is the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system. The world is full of examples that the universe tends towards highest entropy. For example, a campfire shows solid wood inevitably turn into ash and smoke, signifying the foreseeable end of stability,…

An unreliable narrator creates multiple surprises in a story. As a reader, we tend to trust the words of the narrator but their word, at times, can be contradictory. They seem to tell lies within the story and which then shows a sense of rejection…

A line from The Lorax, an infamous book by Dr. Seuss, states, “I am the Lorax who speaks for the trees which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please” (41). Trees and forests exist as vital components of the biosphere. Diverse species…

I read an essay called Once more to the lake by, Elwyn Brooks White. It is a reflective piece on the power of memory and the chill of mortality. He writes about himself suffering from an identity crisis as he revisits a lake that he…

Introduction One of my favourite books is The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. In it, he very wittingly shows what corporate greed and excessive consumerism is doing to our environment, and how it leads to a never-ending cycle of profit that preys on our basic rights…

Playtime is not superficial or shallow at all. To a child, it enhances their brain function and structure. Children need to develop various skill sets in order to manage toxic stress in their environment and optimize their growth or development.  Importance of Playtime In a…

Originally published in 1984, Octavia Butler’s ‘Bloodchild’ tells the story of an alien planet inhabited by ‘Terrans’ (or humans) who have escaped the disasters facing planet Earth. The alien occupants of the planet, also known as ‘Tlics’, are unable to bear their own young; as…

There is a lot of responsibility that comes with being a teacher. You spend 6-7 hours a day, five days a week with 20-120 students (depending on what grade you teach). You are in charge of teaching them to read, write, communicate effectively, and preparing…

Dr. Thomas Fuller once said, “He who plants trees loves others besides himself.” We should all care for the trees. Planting trees shows your community that you care. We can make a big difference if we all help. The Lorax demonstrates more Global and Ethical…

Have you ever witnessed someone getting increasingly uncomfortable in the presence of someone because of an invasion of space or privacy? Or watched as someone made up a lie about something really important? Have you ever just kept quiet because it didn’t seem like that…

We use language to communicate with each other, but sometimes the language itself becomes a barrier and negatively affects the ability of intercommunication. In general, the difficulties experienced by people who have migrated from other countries will probably be the process of overcoming various differences…

Do you ever wonder what would happen if one day all the trees disappeared? Why are trees being used and why are they so important? What can we the people of the world do to help? These are the questions that will be answered in…

This book tells the story of an incoming freshman who struggled with dealing with Ptsd caused by a traumatic event that happened to her over the summer . Melinda Sordino, an incoming freshman at a high school in Syracuse, New York, is raped at a…

In the first marking period it was shown that Melinda is a quiet, nervous and shy girl. She was struggling to find out who is friendly and who the enemies are on the first day of school. The Summer Before, Melinda was at a party….

Introduction The aim of this research was to find out if the environment has an effect on boy’s behaviour. The data for this research was gathered though observations on boys playing in the outdoor environment, interviewing children through drawing and informal interviews with educational practitioners….

“IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding.”The novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is one that moves people and takes people on an adventure into the mind of a teenager. But not just any…