Literature Essays

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Symbols and Themes in 'The Bluest Eye' Essay

Pecola’s insanity signifies internal and external racism, it is the discourses imposed on black girls that drove Pecola insane as stated within the novel, “she, however, stepped over into madness, a madness which protected her from us just because it bored us within the end”. Pecola Breedlove is the definitive illustration of the persistent damaging effects that internalized racial favoritism has on black girls, and the way it led her to a psychological state. For Pecola, and as for all...
1 Page 632 Words

Essay on 'Lord of the Flies' Pig's Head

Dear Diary, It is my first day on this mysterious island at least that’s what I assume, I don’t have the clearest idea of how I got here. While walking around I bumped into a kid around my age, his name is Ralph. He didn’t state much, answered my questions in short sentences, and kept to himself most of the time. While talking to Ralph I started to recall how we got here, the last few things I remember were...
3 Pages 1550 Words

Essay on 'The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping'

Cultural Identity is an important point of focus in Sam Selvon's 'The Lonely Londoners' and Grace Nichols's' 'The Fat Black Woman's Poems' as both explore the experiences of West Indian Migrants in Postcolonial Britain. After World War Two (1945) black workers were invited and welcomed back to the 'mother country' between 1948 and 1973 to help reverse any environmental or economic damage however, the experiences of the characters in The Lonely Londoners and The Fat Black Woman's Poems gives insight...
5 Pages 2246 Words

Essay on Klipspringer in 'The Great Gatsby'

In The Great Gatsby, jazz music is played throughout the text, adding energy and life to the novel. From Gatsby's extravagantly chaotic parties to the most introspective moments in the book, the jazz style of music seems to weave itself into the text. Like jazz has its exciting ups and mellow downs, the novel seems to follow a similar style, as exciting moments seem to be highlighted uniquely. To add to this effect, the plot structure follows the same pattern,...
2 Pages 714 Words

Essay on 'Macbeth' Corruption

Themes such as war, guilt, murder, and corruption are common within many texts. These themes are always intertwined with each other throughout texts. two texts that contain these themes are ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare and ‘The War Works Hard’ by Dunya Mikhail. The story of Macbeth is in medieval times, about a nobleman (Macbeth) who wanted the mantle of king, which was owned by his friend (King Duncan). At the beginning of the story, Macbeth and his friend Banquo find...
4 Pages 1619 Words

Essay on Imagery in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'

Psychological tests observe emotions and behaviors to help diagnose a patient and create a guide for treatment. However, you cannot be assessed correctly because you are not as important, you’ll be treated like a child, and your emotions are automatically invalidated. In the 19th century, that is what women went through when being psychologically evaluated, if a woman were going through depression, it would be dismissed as part of her overactive emotions or pushed to the side because that isn’t...
2 Pages 998 Words

Essay on Homeric Similes in 'The Odyssey'

The Odyssey, an epic poem by Homer that details Odysseus’ quest for homecoming after the Trojan War, is a work that has remained relevant for thousands of years because of its ability to examine and discuss many different important aspects of being human. The hero of the narrative experiences heartbreak, fear, and eventually victory as he completes this decade-long journey. While Homer employs numerous literary forms to tell this famous story, he uses few epic similes. Therefore, the appearance of...
3 Pages 1211 Words

Essay on Imagery in 'The Bluest Eye'

Humankind’s proclivity to racism, intolerance, and bigotry has provoked an outcry from all levels of society. Toni Morrison and Jodi Picoult typify authors who have sought to represent the victim’s voice. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison a black African American gives a haunting torturous account of Pecola Breedlove, a child, within a culture dominated by racial segregation and prejudice. On the other hand, Jodi Picoult as a white American delivers Small Great Things as a fast-moving, hard-hitting narrative depicting...
6 Pages 2559 Words

Essay on Point of View in 'The Call of the Wild'

Jack's novel The Call of the Wild was released in 1903. The story is established in the Yukon Territory, which is located between Alaska and modern-day Canada. The story takes place nearly after gold was discovered in the Klondike in 1896, during the Klondike Gold Rush. As a 19-year-old, was one of hundreds of young men who hurried north in the hopes of striking it rich. He based this story on his own experiences during the period, which helped to...
1 Page 511 Words

Essay on Dramatic Irony in 'Romeo and Juliet'

Romeo and Juliet, a play written by William Shakespeare based in Medieval Verona during the Elizabethan Era was a play that outlined the tragic romance of two teenagers who risk everything to be together because of their family’s longstanding feud. Baz Luhrman adapted the play to create a modern version based on Venice Beach in Miami in 1996. Luhrman has used Shakespeare’s version of the play as a foundation when creating his more recent version to engage a modern audience...
2 Pages 762 Words

Gender Inequality in Shakespeare's 'Much Ado about Nothing' Essay

The erosion of traditional gender ideologies is expedited by William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing which exposes the role of truth and gender during the Elizabethan Era. With extensive literature on the role of women at this time, the controversial rise of the unruly female has a central impact on audiences, Elizabethan and modern alike. Under strain was the traditional feminine ideology of a passive, silent, gentle, and submissive woman, and with Queen Elizabeth I manifesting an ambiguous female-male...
2 Pages 944 Words

Essay on 'The Bluest Eye'

After reading the novel, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, I believe that the author's intended message is to express the effects of imposing whiteness as an ideal beauty standard on black people. At the beginning of the book, Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl has a deep desire to obtain blue eyes to feel accepted, beautiful, and loved by her family and white dominant society. However, she lives in a society where people of her race are marginalized and...
1 Page 419 Words

Essay on Forrest Gump Summary

Intro The themes of racism, gender inequality and social influence is explored in the novel The Help written by Kathryn Stockett and the film Forrest Gump directed by Robert Zemeckis. Stockett explores the idea of a social influence on a narrow minded society through the three main protagonists Aibileen, Skeeter, and Minny who take turns narrating the story. Zemeckis highlights that history is what has shaped the modern world. Both pieces are of a historical context, The Help’s context is...
4 Pages 1980 Words

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime' Essay on Characters

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - 'was originally a novel and has been adopted by Simon Stephens into play form. This version of the novel is meant to be seen in a performance. The staging of the play is original and contributes massively to how the audience perceives the events and characters on stage. The play has been performed on two diverse types of stages including an 'in the round' and a proscenium arch which means...
1 Page 561 Words

Essay on Benvolio's Role in 'Romeo and Juliet'

The play “Romeo and Juliet” is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in about 1594-1596. The tragedy is set in the Renaissance period in Verona, Italy, involving the fate of two lovers from feuding families. The main themes in the play are love, fate, and violence. To summarise the play, another battle breaks out on the streets of Verona between the Montague and Capulet families. The constant battling of the two families disturbs the citizens of...
2 Pages 790 Words

Essay on 'Much Ado about Nothing': Don Pedro Supports

'The play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is a superlative play. It is often considered a 'tragicomedy' because it has many impediments like a traditional comedy, but not knowing that the impediments could be disastrous and that there is always a probable chance of it turning into a tragedy. In society, particularly the one portrayed in Shakespeare's play, there is a very preeminent idea of how one’s self-respect is often shaped by their reputation, how reputations are often...
2 Pages 809 Words

Essay on Merridew in 'Lord of the Flies'

The Lord of the Flies is one of the considered essential books of contemporary literature, written by William Golding. Its title refers to a demon that in some gospels is also called Lord of the Flies for his evil. Early August 1945: the Hiroshima bomb had just exploded, the war was in full swing and a group of English children returned home to return to their lives when a terrible accident caused their plane to crash in half of a...
3 Pages 1197 Words

Essay on Jack and Ralph in 'Lord of the Flies'

Character Analysis Essay Sometimes the greatest conflicts arise when two human beings are comparable to each other in necessary approaches but want very different things. This is the case between Ralph and Jack in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, where a group of puerile boys who find themselves alone on a desolate island endeavor to decipher what they are going to do. The characters Ralph and Jack both have very vigorous leadership roles but they differ...
1 Page 677 Words

Essay on 'Bless Me Ultima': Antonio Character Analysis

A bildungsroman is an elaborate technique that shapes a novel as a whole, presenting the reader with a way to relate and grow closely involved with events surrounding the protagonist. Rudolfo Anaya leads the audience in Bless Me, Ultima towards the development of a young hero, Antonio, who needs to gain the wisdom of his cultural and religious predicament. Anaya initiates a cultural assertion, otherwise known as Chicano, throughout this novel as a way to connect Mexican-American Heritage to Antonio’s...
3 Pages 1324 Words

Essay on Mariam in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'

Despite 'A Doll's House' (1879) and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' (2007), being written over a century apart, collectively both texts highlight the oppressing nature of a patriarchal society. Henrik Ibsen explores the journey of the main protagonist Nora, who becomes dissatisfied with her sacrifice to become a wife and fulfil her role as a mother. Eventually, she realizes that to find her own identity, she needs to shake off the chains of oppression. Similarly, in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', Khaled Hosseini...
5 Pages 2401 Words

Essay on 'Lord of the Flies' Allegory

Lord of the Flies is a novel by William Golding about a group of boys who are marooned on an island. As the story progresses, the boys slowly transform into savages and lose their civility. The Freudian Theory addresses the three human personalities: id, ego, and superego. The id personality is based on desire and instinct, the ego personality is based on reason and common sense, and the superego is based on what is morally correct. William Golding utilizes his...
2 Pages 1062 Words

Alcohol Essay on 'A Farewell to Arms'

The novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is an engrossing tale that shows the reality of love in war. The novel follows the love between Frederic Henry, a lieutenant in World War I, and the English Nurse Catherine Barkley. While Henry is serving in the Italian ambulance service, he becomes wounded and is relocated to the hospital where Catherine tends to him. As Catherine cares for him they swiftly fall in love and Catherine becomes pregnant but soon...
1 Page 678 Words

Essay on Oprah Winfrey Products and Services

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, is a book taken by Oprah to make a movie in which she completely changes. Some many differences between the book and the movie consist of symbolism and Janie going from weak to stronger in the movie. More changes made by Oprah also consist of Janie and Teacake's relationship and the deleted scenes. Oprah takes a book, makes a movie out of it, and twists it completely. The way Oprah changed...
2 Pages 829 Words

The Namesake' Essay

 Ashima, the Indian mother of the story, is born and raised in Calcutta, West Bengali which she calls home; that is until her arranged marriage with Ashoke Ganguli causes her to travel across the globe to North America and settle in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the early stages of this transition, Ashima struggles with leaving her entire family behind to now live with a man whom she does not know, in a place that she is unfamiliar with. As she assimilates...
3 Pages 1359 Words

Essay on Imagery in 'The Odyssey'

Homer creates a sense of hopelessness and uncertainty in the passage. For example, Odysseus is described as being left in a state of perplexity and distress, which creates a vivid image to the reader of just how confused and uncertain he is. He also says that he 'cannot think of anything better', which suggests he felt helpless in this situation, and creates this sense of hopelessness and doubt in himself and the gods. This makes this an effective passage therefore...
1 Page 461 Words

The Namesake' Character Essay

In The Namesake, different characters have different definitions of home. For Ashima, it’s clear that her definition of home is India, where the rest of her family lives. She never considers Massachusetts or any of the apartments and houses that her family lives in as her home. Unlike Ashima, Gogol does not have one distinct definition of home, and readers see that he is constantly searching for where he feels at home. Throughout the novel, Gogol is not only searching...
1 Page 450 Words

Compare and Contrast Essay: 'The Bluest Eye' and 'Beloved'

Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to examine what the Harlem Renaissance is and the reflections of the Harlem Renaissance in Toni Morrison’s novels: Beloved and The Bluest Eye. This thesis will explore racism, slavery, and black feminism, and how these themes are portrayed in these two books. These investigations will elucidate the traumas of black people due to their skin color and how they have struggled against white oppression. Toni Morrison crafted compelling stories through the sufferings and...
3 Pages 1320 Words

The Bluest Eye' Women Essay

The transition from childhood to adulthood isn't as clear-cut as the physical traits would lead you to believe. The feminine transition isn't an exception. Culture plays a major role in deciding when the modification happens. Some mark a particular age as the purpose of passage whereas others are proverbial to acknowledge physical changes. Regardless, cultures around the world perceive that there's a definite distinction between the two. Toni Morrison’s 'The Bluest Eye' tells a story from the attitude of a...
5 Pages 2416 Words

Freedom from Male Oppression in Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy' Essay

In Plath’s “Ariel” Collection she expresses anger at a patriarchal society and the sufferings patriarchy brings, confining women to their sphere and archetypes. Women are described as “voiceless, confined, dehumanized and dismembered because of patriarchy”, the adoption of the Jewish metaphor to dramatize the collective female helpless response in what is the face of male assertive power. In “Daddy”, Plath uses the framework of her ambivalent relationship with her father- who symbolizes patriarchy-to present a vivid image of female exploitation...
3 Pages 1223 Words

Essay: Is Language an Instrument of Oppression

“Dystopian writers focus on the oppression of their gender and fail to consider the oppression of the other sex within their novels” Explore how far you agree with this view [30] Dystopian literature often suggests that gender plays a pivotal role in one’s freedom, both Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty–Four’ demonstrate the difficulties within different gender divides. Whilst both novelists share the common theme of ‘gender oppression’ both texts approach oppression in separate ways. Writers of dystopian...
3 Pages 1574 Words
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