Literary Criticism essays

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3 Pages 1497 Words
On the surface, the Great Gatsby novel is based on the story of Jay Gatsby`s life, in particular describing the tragic love story between him and Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby obsessively pursues her throughout the novel until his death. Beyond this, however, it is clear that Fitzgerald highlights the many themes running throughout the novel regarding the true disparities in the...
Literary CriticismRespectThe Great Gatsby
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1 Page 520 Words
“To be negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time”, is a well-known quote by African-American novelist, playwright, and activist, James Baldwin. James Baldwin was a man whose upbringing, consciousness, and talent in writing put him on the path to becoming one of the best writers of the twentieth...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismNative Son
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2 Pages 963 Words
Symbolism, geography, and irony are brought up many times by Coelho throughout the book. In the book “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, different types of literary devices are brought up, the book is spoken in 3rd person by a boy named Santiago and his Personal Legend. This story begins when they had the same dream over time, he met the...
Literary CriticismLiterary DevicesThe Alchemist
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2 Pages 1077 Words
The novel Blindness depicts an imploding social order as an epidemic scourges society; delineating the oppression of people in a totalitarian style world. Abandoning morality, a city is reduced to savagery by the mysterious plague of sightlessness. Saramago creates a totalitarian state mirroring that of the context in which he lived; in a centralised dictatorial system requiring complete subservience to...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismNovel
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3 Pages 1522 Words
Guy de Maupassant, is a French naturalist writer of fast recollections and novels who is through normal agreement the super French short-story writer. The first large posted brief story at some element of 1880, usually mentioned as his largest work, Â 'Boule de Suif' (translated variously as 'Dumpling', 'Butterball', 'Ball of Fat' or 'Ball of Lard') is the touching story...
Literary CriticismPerspectiveShort Story
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3 Pages 1306 Words
Nonetheless, Keyes stresses another predominant theme: that self-awareness, the ability to acquire knowledge about one’s self, ultimately decides an individual’s identity. As the experiment progresses and Charlie’s academic knowledge, and personal understanding increase, a sense of inner confinement emerges. This interior conflict is apparent when there is a “sharp switch in perception” as the narration alternates between first-person, and third-person...
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1 Page 617 Words
John Updike is viewed as one of the best writers in present-day American history. He is known for the idea that common parts of American life can be very captivating. He desired for the audience to see the excellence and enchantment of life, so he attempted to depict ordinary things utilizing the clearest yet wonderful language conceivable. A significant number...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismShort Story
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2 Pages 1150 Words
Imagine driving to your normal 9 to 5 job. On the way, you observe that many people are going to the local Taco Bell. Since you are a little early, you decide that you could just grab a bite, except that your dietician has told you to hold it off for a while. You ignore the guilt, order a full-course...
Fast FoodLiterary CriticismObesity
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1 Page 452 Words
Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said in a speech during World War II that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. This is agreeable in the sense that people are the only things in the way of their accomplishments. Our fears and emotions are what we have to conquer for us to commit daring acts. Roosevelt...
Literary CriticismRisk TakingSuccess
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1 Page 522 Words
At the right time, a flap of a butterfly wing can create a hurricane. People would oversee the power of the insignificant flap, but the destruction it would cause would leave people shocked. This idea is also represented in the novel 'Everything I Never Told You' by talking about how even the smallest detail can impact the final ending. Celeste...
Literary CriticismNovelPerspective
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2 Pages 892 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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1 Page 465 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...
3 Pages 1510 Words
This fall, I am taking English 200. An assignment for a portion of the class grade is to go see a theatre performance in Bowling Green. I chose to see “Medea” by Euripides. Medea was written in 431 BC. The version of Medea that I saw was translated by Carol Jordan. I saw the performance on Thursday, November 7, 2019,...
Critical ReflectionLiterary CriticismMedea
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3 Pages 1595 Words
Tragedy. A three-syllable word that brings nothing but great suffering, distress, and always the unfortunate unhappy ending. The novel and film, “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, shows a journey powered by a father and a son's love through a post-apocalyptic disaster. A world once full of color is now a grey, cold, barren land that is crawling with few survivors...
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2 Pages 755 Words
The text that my group chose was Maus by Art Spiegelman, which is a graphic novel about the experiences that the author’s parents lived through and after the war and Holocaust during World War II. Art Spiegelman interviews his father Vladek and gets his experience and own perspective of being part of the war and living through it and The...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismMaus
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3 Pages 1262 Words
Dystopian themes where a future society is suffering is a thread that runs through the books ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley and ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’. They both represent a dystopian nature. ‘Brave New World’ is a new society that has been shaped where there is a faultless human. However, an individual called Bernard Marx rebels against society’s...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismMorality
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2 Pages 959 Words
Many works of literature include a character with unusual origins to provide contrast to societal norms and to introduce complex relationships involving clashing morals and values. In his novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley depicts John the Savage as an outsider because of his unusual upbringing and his headstrong morals in both the Savage Reservation and the World State society....
Brave New WorldCharacterLiterary Criticism
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4 Pages 1825 Words
The dystopian book Brave New World interprets the idea of freedom and social control in a society where the government shows freedom to people but when in reality controls their rights without their acknowledgment. Bernard Marx, who is an Alpha male, fails to fit in with his society because of his test-tube mistake which causes him to be short in...
Brave New WorldCharacterLiterary Criticism
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1 Page 348 Words
The other members of Ponyboy’s gang are Dally Winston, Darry Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, Two-Bit/Keith Matthews, Steve Randle, and Johnny Cade. Dally Winston is confident, brave, and mean. Darry and Sodapop are Ponyboy’s brothers, Johnny is Ponyboy’s best friend, Steve is Sodapop’s best friend, and Two is the oldest in the group. During Ponyboy’s conversation with Cherry, one of the topics...
CharacterLiterary CriticismThe Outsiders
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2 Pages 923 Words
Summary In this autobiography, we meet Jade Snow and her Chinese American family, the Wongs. This book starts with Jade in her earliest years as the narrative simply walks us through the Wong family’s whirling world around her. Throughout this book, little Jade grows, and with her grows a more complex and complicated narrative as Jade grows more complex and...
ChineseCritical ReflectionLiterary Criticism
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2 Pages 1080 Words
Issues in urban planning according to Jacobs Jane Jacobs, in her book The death and Life of great American Cities, was keen on learning the Planning principles what restoration practices will foster social and economic development in cities, and what policies and values will diminish those qualities. In this context, she was unhappy about issues such as What kinds of...
Critical ReflectionDeathLiterary Criticism
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1 Page 441 Words
Through the archetypes in the short story Catch the Moon, Judith Ortiz Cofer teaches the reader that love heals all. One archetype in Catch the Moon is The Crossroads, which is a place or time of decision where a real realization is made and change or penance results. The Crossroads is a symbolic archetype for the life-changing decision that Luis...
Critical ReflectionLiterary CriticismShort Story
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4 Pages 1703 Words
The reader – like the soldier – never knows how the day will turn out. O’Brien even adds stories whose veracity is challenged later on, thus allowing the reader to understand that the stories are not the most important thing. Stories are used only to provide insight into the emotions of war; from these stories, O’Brien effectively teases out the...
like 432
6 Pages 2966 Words
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932, presents a world that is completely superficial and wholly controlled by the World State right from the point of human conception. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, published in 1949, portrays a society whereby the people are also entirely controlled by the government. However, in Orwell’s alternative reality, the government controls the...
like 432
3 Pages 1273 Words
Golding utilizes the young men's dread of a legendary brute to show their presumption that insidiousness emerges from outside powers as opposed to from themselves. This fearsome monster at first accepts structure in their minds as a snake-type creature that camouflages itself as wilderness vines; later, they think about an animal that ascents from the ocean or the more shapeless...
Critical ThinkingDeathLiterary Criticism
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5 Pages 2064 Words
Literature and Sports Essay: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” (Wayne Gretzky). Sports can be seen as an important aspect of people’s culture in life. This is seen in all the novels that we have looked at throughout the course. Two books that have sports as an important part of culture are The Loneliness of the...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismLoneliness
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6 Pages 2694 Words
Have you ever felt that your opinions and beliefs oppose the wider set of beliefs held by your society? In the narrative “Shakespeare In The Bush”, Laura Bohannan explores this exact topic — whether the opinions humans hold are universal. Bohannan argues human nature is universal throughout the world in Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. Bohannan gets a chance to confirm this idea...
Critical ThinkingLiterary CriticismShort Story
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1 Page 568 Words
In the 1920’s, racial tensions were high. Langston Hughes grew up during this time and was not immune to discrimination. Hughes was half black and half white, resulting in an intense internal conflict. This is shown in the poem “Cross”, Hughes is struggling with his identity and is unsure where he falls when it comes to race. To feel like...
Langston HughesLiterary CriticismPoetry
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4 Pages 1778 Words
The word salvation is defined as preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss. Most people would naturally jump at an opportunity to save themselves from the aforementioned negative and unpleasant consequences, regardless of the means needed to achieve it. It is the goal of most religions and Christianity in particular, to offer believers salvation from punishment due to their...
Langston HughesLiterary CriticismPoetry
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1 Page 608 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
like 183
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