Gothic literature and magical realism are two distinct literary genres, each with its own unique characteristics and themes. While they may appear to be quite different, a closer examination reveals intriguing similarities and differences. In this essay, we will explore and compare these two genres,…
Essays on Literary Genres
Julio Cortázar’s “House Taken Over” is a masterful exploration of the interplay between imagination and reason, where the familiar is gradually usurped by the unknown. In this essay, we will delve deeper into the subtopics, examining the initial sense of security, the invasion of the…
“Lather and Nothing Else” is a thought-provoking short story by Hernando Téllez that presents readers with a moral dilemma faced by a barber. In this tale, the barber finds himself in a unique position of power and responsibility when Captain Torres, a brutal military officer…
Life is a tapestry woven with choices, each one a thread that contributes to the intricate pattern of our existence. In the short story “What of This Goldfish Would You Wish?” by Etgar Keret, the protagonist, Yonatan, is faced with a profound moral dilemma when…
Women’s writing struggling against the internalization of role models thrust on women has learnt to express the untold narrative of being a woman. Women’s writing focuses attention on both the manifestation of a female sensibility, a feminine reality and on its significance as a means…
For one my ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ essays that I have created thia one serves the purpose of criticising adulthood, showing the dangers of people in authority, the unreliability of our elders and revealing the unpleasant side of the North America we live in….
Introduction “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith is a coming-of-age novel that follows the journey of Francie Nolan, a young girl growing up in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of Brooklyn during the early 20th century. The novel delves into themes of resilience, dreams, and…
Introduction “Where the Wild Things Are,” written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, is a beloved children’s book that delves into the imaginative world of a young boy named Max. The story’s seemingly simple narrative conceals a rich tapestry of themes and emotions that resonate with…
Introduction The internet is a place to connect with other people. It is a place to find people with whom we have common ground; a place where we can air out our grievances for the world to see without knowing who we are. It is…
Introduction In Born a Crime, Trevor Noah states “a knowledgeable man is a free man” and explains how Apartheid in South Africa worked by racially segregating education (Noah 61). Black children were not afforded the same quality of schooling as the white children, they were…
Introduction In Trevor Noah’s ‘Born a Crime’, Trevor Noah describes his early life during the apartheid era of South Africa. In his life, he describes being a mixed boy of African and Swiss/German heritage under a government that strictly forbade racial mixing. His mother, a…
Introduction I enjoyed reading the novel, The Hate U Give written by Angie Thomas simply because it can connect to society effectively and relate to teenagers in a humorous way at the same time. Additionally, Angie Thomas successfully portrayed many powerful and relevant themes such…
Starr comes from a family of four. She is a sixteen-year-old girl who lives in a neighbourhood of Garden Heights. She faces many experiences and demanding challenges, she develops a lot of change and finding her voice through the silence. In Angie Thomas’ The Hate…
Introduction I enjoyed reading the novel, The Hate U Give written by Angie Thomas simply because it can connect to society effectively and relate to teenagers in a humorous way at the same time. It effectively communicates the issues of police brutality by showing an…
Introduction In chapter six of Just Mercy, a boy by the name of Charlie, who was only 14 years old was put into prison for murdering a police officer named George. However, he was not placed into a juvenile detention center, he was placed into…
Introduction Throughout Station Eleven art and the history of art is very important for the lives of the characters. In the beginning scene of the novel during “Year 0”, Arthur Leander is performing a famous Shakespeare play called, King Lear, on the night before the…
Introduction Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel focuses on how individuals navigate through the collapse of civilization. The traumatic experiences during the Georgia Flu Pandemic and the transformation of society after it are key aspects of the novel, but what is more significant is…
Introduction Trauma can be thought of as deep distress rooted to unforgettable emotional scarring. Trevor Noah’s memoir, “Born A Crime” gives insight on what it’s like to grow up as “coloured” individual during the South African apartheid. Noah is the illegal product of a black…
Introduction America in some cases gives the opportunity to obtain and achieve the American dream. But this also doesn’t apply to everyone or anyone. So the “American Dream” is basically that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and happiness through…
Introduction Bryan Stevenson’s book, Just Mercy, is very well written, and he puts a very real face to some of the people we in society would like to ignore. Stevenson humanizes those that we as a society have deemed as “criminals”. He challenges his audience…
Introduction If the author of Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly, were to write a sequel she would most likely address the topics of discrimination against people of color in more recent times. Overall, my opinion on this book is mixed feelings. Shetterly had great a…
Introduction Racism and Prejudice is one of the most serious and pernicious situations in our world today. The novel All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely is about two young men, Rashad Butler and Quinn Collins, one black and one white, whose lives…
Introduction Jason Reynold’s and Brendan Kiely’s All American Boys is a book based on several very real social issues that threaten society today. “Police Brutality”, “Racism”, “Prejudice” and “Bias” are just a few of the very serious problems that are all too real in this…
Introduction As of the end of June 2018, 91 black individuals were killed by police officers. This number increases every day. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely is a novel that looks at police brutality from two perspectives: Rashad, who is unnecessarily…
“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…
Both the Wanderer and Seafarer have themes of Spiritual reflection, dissatisfaction, and the loneliness that comes with being far from civilization both physically and metaphorically. In the seafarer, God is presented in contradicting ways. On one hand, God is the cure to the speakers restlessness,…
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…
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…
Lovecraft, Howard Phillips was far more a writer than a poet, and his poetry reflects his want to tell a story more then what would be considered poetry; regardless when he wants to express himself, he knows how to do it. Lovecraft, H.P.’s “Despair” could…
It’s Hard to Be a Vampire, by Viktoria Faust includes eight short stories involving vampires or worlds of a paranormal nature. I was attracted to this book because short story collections are often not as drawn out as full-length novels can be — this way…
Throughout the reading, Marina is conducting many interviews with students from Yale about the real world. It seems as though everyone has a different opinion on their career choices, and what they will be doing in the following year. I think Marina found the career…
In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Prufrock is a man who is emotionally in conflict with himself. Although Prufrock is growing old, he feels the need to attract women but scares of being rejected or having an unstable relationship as in…
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…
Trauma theory focuses on the literary representations of traumatic experiences, and how these experiences relate to the author or characters of a specific work. The narrative of Jesmynn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing traces theoretical understandings of trauma in a myriad of ways. Set in a…
Early modern sonnet traditions carried reasonable indecency, so it’s not astonishing to discover farce, absolute opposite and reference among them. Poem 130 satisfies pundit Harold Bloom’s idea of Shakespeare’s ‘balance … between self-distance and self-affirmation.’. Sonnet 130 is a delight to peruse for its straight-forwardness…
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 depicts love in various manners yet both show the standards of non-romantic love. The three phases of non-romantic love are affection for the mind, affection for the soul and affection of the body. Shakespeare examines the adoration, or need thereof, bod in…
Game of Thrones (GOT) is the most watched, most pirated series with the most awards in the history of television. Television fiction is based on the still unfinished literary work of George R.R. Martin. Directed for David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, GOT is considered the…
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…
Lucille Clifton, known for writing poems about her body, also used her poems to exemplify black heritage and self-appreciation. Clifton’s parents established her fondness of African American literature, even though they were not formally educated. A probable backbone for Clifton’s poet career would be her…
The Harlem Renaissance was the development of a neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, this period is considered a…
Langston Hughes’s poem “Mother to Son” is a poem everyone should read at least a few times throughout their life. Although it’s short it sends a powerful message and that is why “Mother to Son” poem analysis is required for the essay. The poem was…
In “Good Bones” written by Maggie Smith and “In an Artist’s Studio” written by Christina Rossetti uses imagery and personal anecdotes to create different underlying meanings for readers to interpret in their own thoughts. Thereby, in Christina Rossetti’s poem, “In an Artist’s Studio” creates a…
Everyone has their own ways of doing things. We are all curious on how people do things differently than us on a daily basis. In “Us and Them”, David Sedaris, author and playwriter, tells a story of a boy’s perspective of a growing interest towards…
In the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, a mother is relating her own past life experiences to climbing a crystal staircase. She talks about the obstacles that she has had to overcome and then relates these obstacles to climbing a crystal staircase. She…
How does television become part of our life? The televisions had changed from the symbol of high class to the most common device in our life because of the rapid growth of technology. In the article “Us and Them”, the author Sedaris highlights his attitude…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
Imagine living to see your best friend die right in front of your eyes from a huge wave and everyday you thought it was your fault for something you couldn’t control. The seventh man tells the story written by author Haruki Murakuami. The story begins…
A multi-platformed writer, composing novels, poems, and essays, Sandra Cisneros whips up various pieces of literature in order to place the lives of the working class on a pedestal for all to recognize and understand. On December 20th, 1954, Sandra was born in Chicago, Illinois…
Poetry is like a protest: a constant tempo, rhythmic clapping in beat with the march, loud chanting made louder by echoes. Throughout history, poetry has been used as a powerful tool to raise your voice against social injustices. Adrienne Rich knew this well. Rich, a…
In the beginning of I, Too (1926), the speaker explains that he is of darker skin and is not accepted as an equal due to his race; however, the reader can interpret that his message is to explain that he too is America. The reader…
There is nothing more compelling than the dramatic power that the villain holds over drama. In the stories of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and William Shakespeare’s play “Othello” , rhetoric proves to be…
Bullying is a real problem in society today, in the past, and will continue to be an issue in the future. Bullies are people who are either insecure about themselves, or they enjoy putting people down. Sometimes people bully in groups because it makes them…
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…
A poet conveys diverse information, often tackling sensitive topics affecting the public. To communicate, Poets utilize different strategies, for example, through the application of literary elements such as grotesqueness or morbidity, to influence rhyming and structure. However, in trying to integrate these literary elements, a…
Seamus Heaney’s poem “Digging” is an eminent, esteemed and well cherished piece of art. This poem became the primary literary composition in Heaney’s first revealed book, which acted as milestone in his career and he ultimately became one of the world’s most illustrious writer’s. In…
One point that was commonly agreed upon during the Harlem Renaissance period is the idea that art is the only way to break down the seemingly unsurmountable barrier between black and white Americans. As some black Americans rose to prominence, however, they found that their…
When initially reading Life in the Iron Mills, you take note of the pain and agony that these inhabitants of the land go through in order to survive. Hugh, our character of analyzation, finds a different way of grieving instead of just drinking himself into…
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,…
Guilt. You should have saved him… Guilt. You should have helped him… Guilt. You should have…, you should have…, you should have… Guilt is a parasite that overwhelm the person causing to not move on from the past just like the character in “The Seventh…
