Literature Essay Examples
The play Sense and Sensibility is conceived from a novel written by Jane Austen. The play depicts its context within an era when the 18th century of rationalism was paving way for the 19th century of romance. Its opening intentionally incorporates and appreciates strong feelings and passionate emotions as a...
618 words | 3 page(s)
Kurt Vonnegut’s postmodern work Slaughterhouse-Five is a deeply influential, anti-war novel that focuses on the plight of its anti-hero, Billy Pilgrim, and recovery from his experience being an American prisoner-of-war in the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany during WWII. In order to impart his anti-war message, Vonnegut uses many symbols and...
549 words | 2 page(s)
A short story “Old Man at the Bridge” was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1938. The events of the story take place during the wartime in Spain. The narrator is a soldier whose duty is to cross the bridge and see how quickly the Fascists approach the city. At this...
417 words | 2 page(s)
Not Sure You Can Handle Your "Literature"
Essay? Hire Our Experts!
Order Now
This essay will consider the work of Langston Hughes and Georgia Douglas Johnson. Both of these writers are strongly associated with the Harlem Renaissance, and both may be considered to have contributed to the movement through their literary work as well as through the strength of their own personalities. After...
937 words | 4 page(s)
Milton’s Paradise Lost portrays the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as well as the original sin through the interpretation of the author. The elaboration and alteration of many of the descriptions for a Biblical standpoint allow the reader to also determine the relevance of many of the details within...
609 words | 3 page(s)
Kate Chopin’s 1899 novel The Awakening has been recognized as a forerunner and pioneer of several literary genres, most prominently Southern and realistic fiction. The content of The Awakening reveals a stunningly modern narrative in which the main character, Edna Pontellier, also foreshadows the feminist progression of the twentieth century....
683 words | 3 page(s)
Kafka's story The Metamorphosis makes clear several key aspects about the society in which it was written. I would argue that these aspects can be roughly divided into two areas. The first of these is the importance of work and employment to a sense of person-hood and the second is...
336 words | 2 page(s)
As an ancient Greek poet, Homer must have believed, like many others at the time, that humans had very little control over their lives as fate was a supreme force that nobody could control. In the Iliad, Homer explores the complex relationship between fate and free will in such a...
392 words | 2 page(s)
Mishima's The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea is a complex allegorical novel that can be seen to effectively reflect both the concerns of its author and also the historical period in which it was written. In particular, it is possible to note that novel should be taken...
951 words | 4 page(s)
The Gods have not loved Thebes for some time. First, they threw the city into turmoil because of Oedipus and his forbidden marriage. They made their displeasure quite clear by making the Theban people suffer for the crimes of Oedipus. Once he met his fate and paid for those crimes,...
1126 words | 4 page(s)
Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House explores many social themes such as strict gender roles, social hierarchy, and women’s subordinate social position. The power differential between men and women is evident in how Torvald treats Nora, in Krogstad’s power over Nora, and the characterization of the female leads Nora and...
883 words | 3 page(s)
Judy Brady’s I Want a Wife is her personal take on the value of a companion who is willing to handle a tremendous amount of the daily grind for a man. Brady discusses a conversation that she had with a man who stated that he was looking for a new...
598 words | 2 page(s)
In the opening cantos of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Inferno, Dante sets up the background for the rest of the entire series. It opens with him lost in a dark wood and it shows his attempt and failure to find the sunlight on his own. He then manages to meet up...
662 words | 3 page(s)
Steinbeck uses life on a California ranch to state that mankind is essentially lonely and driven to find companionships. Introduction: John Steinbeck’s work, Of Mice and Men, is one of the great works of literature. It deals with issues that all people deal with, and examines how people try to...
360 words | 2 page(s)
Walt Whitman’s pre-civil war masterpiece, “Song of Myself” is more than just a poem. It is an epic because he goes on a journey and brings the reader along with him. The imagery and message is so incredibly deep and complex that it would take several pages to analytically explain....
439 words | 2 page(s)
In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, a central role is clearly played by the image of Dorian Gray, the painting, which ages during Gray’s life as opposed to Gray himself, in a type of magical realism or fantasy, which contains within it the meaning of the narrative as...
652 words | 3 page(s)
“Between the World and Me” is a book written by Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2015. It is presented in the form of a letter, in which the author addresses Samori, his 15-years old son. He narrates about how he uses his intellection, personal, and historical development to live as black in...
918 words | 4 page(s)
Peter Heller's “The Dog Stars” is a novel that presents a vision of apocalypse and its protagonist's attempt survive it. The novel presents a situation in which an epidemic has wiped out the vast majority of the world's population and in which scattered survivors are forced to contend with barbaric...
592 words | 2 page(s)
Bruce Perry’s The boy who was raised as a dog is a fascinating book that purposefully educates the readers about the main character’s well-being and development. Bruce Perry is a renowned child psychiatrist with his work strongly focused on the effects of trauma and child abuse. Beautifully written, the book...
322 words | 2 page(s)
Charlie Brown’s compelling parody Dog sees God, imagines characters from the comic strip peanuts as degenerate minors. The film revolves around teen identity, suicide, death, afterlife, and the role of social stigma in the life of a teenager. Perhaps, a more developed theme in the book is that of death...
613 words | 3 page(s)
For humans, morality and death are inevitable and something every individual must face at some point in their lives. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh faces a number of struggles, but predominately wrestles with his own morality. As Gilgamesh is part God, he perceives himself to be an immortal creature....
950 words | 4 page(s)
The tradition of Ancient Greek drama attributes all events of characters’ lives to the will of gods. Be it love or hatred, bravery or anger, everything in a nature of a mere human could be reinforced or eliminated by unconscious infusion of god’s intention. A love story of Aeneas and...
295 words | 1 page(s)
In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, arguably the device of irony is crucial to the effect of the entire narrative. Irony can, in essence, be understood as a form of disjunction between the perceived reality of a situation and the truth of a situation. In short, what one believes to be true...
612 words | 3 page(s)
Joseph Conrad’s 1899 short novel Heart of Darkness tells the tale of a river voyage into the depths of the Congo jungle at the height of the European colonial ivory trade in Africa. The narrative is presented in a first person perspective by Marlow, the story detailing the experiences he...
691 words | 3 page(s)
Famously beginning with the line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Charles Dickens’ classic novel A Tale of Two Cities, first published in 1859, begins a story which spans several years and two countries, covering the lives, fates, and deaths of many characters. Some...
1051 words | 4 page(s)
