Newest Literature Essays

Traditionally, humans have touted themselves as the most intelligent and compassionate creatures on Earth. In their interactions with other species, humans have used this claim as the basis for their ill-treatment of those species. But does human...

William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch, first published in 1959, stands as a landmark in the realm of experimental literature and provides a profound exploration of trauma and mental health. The novel, often regarded as a challenging and provocative...

Towards the conclusion of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama claimed humanity reached "the end of history." Before defending this assertion, he revealed Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel perceived the end of history as the culmination of society's...

Through East of Eden, John Steinbeck told the story of two families living in the Salinas Valley of California: the Trasks and the Hamiltons, the real-life family of Steinbeck’s maternal grandfather. Multiple generations of the two families...

In the twentieth century, Frantz Fanon wrote Black Skin, White Masks, where he articulates the psychological toll racism and colonialism have on Black individuals. First, he establishes that systemic oppression marginalizes Black and colonized...

The Epic of Gilgamesh is frequently interpreted as a study of the interaction between humans and the natural world. But what does this ancient epic tell us about this relationship when we introduce identity? Contemporary readings introduce the...

“The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.” - Charlie Chaplin

The Good Earth by Pearl Buck is a novel based upon a family that endure many difficult hardships together. Specifically, the main character’s wife, O-lan,...

In Books IV and IX of the Confessions, Augustine grapples with the deaths of his friend and his mother, Monica. Augustine demonstrates that his grief toward his friend stems from loving him like he is immortal and reveals how he finds comfort in...

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is more than just a historical biopic since it embodies a meditation on the ethical entanglements of scientific progress. The film recounts the events leading to the creation of the atomic bomb, unpacking the moral...

‘The Song of Achilles’ is at once a scholar’s homage to the Iliad, and a startlingly original work of literature by American novelist Madeline Miller. Conjuring a world where capricious gods and unbreakable prophecies are simply part of life,...

Race discrimination is still persistent nowadays. Although they come from different reasons (history of a country, systematic inequalities and stereotypes) one main important reason is the lack of understanding among the communities that share a...

One of the distinguishing features of Russia in the 19th century was its rigid class hierarchy, which dominated all aspects of Russian life, but most importantly the way that those from different classes related to one another; the upper class...

Described as “the foremost chronicler of the multicultural New America”, Bharati Mukherjee constitutes her works with the life of South Asian expatriates/immigrants in the United States and Canada. Her novel, Jasmine, explores the process of...

In the annals of cinema, there exists a realm where storytelling transcends the mundane and ventures into the realm of artistry. "Knives Out," directed by Rian Johnson, stands as a shining example of such artistry, a tapestry woven with...

Samuel Beckett’s short play "Act Without Words" is a profound exploration of human existence, communication, and the inherent struggle for meaning in a seemingly indifferent universe. Written in 1956, this minimalist work exemplifies Beckett's...

Films have the ability to shift our perspective about gender roles. Outdated cultural gender roles must be challenged in order to create a fairer society for men and women. The film Whale Rider (2003), directed by Niki Caro, is an exceptional...

The film The Dressmaker, directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse tells the story of a seamstress who returns to her hometown in rural Australia to care for her mother, as well as to exact revenge on the people who have wronged her. Set in the 1950’s, the...

In the education domain and beyond, ethnography has gained a wide array of conceptualizations and is present in numerous forms that reflect divergent associations. In the book "Fresh Fruit Broken Bodies," Seth Holmes provides a captivating...

Sunlight on A Broken Column as a female Bildungsroman

Sunlight on a Broken Column by Attia Hosain is a coming-of-age fiction revolving primarily around the life and journey of the protagonist Laila from her teenage years to the mother of a...

Adversity sets apart individuals who are resilient from those who are not. In The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline resilience is explored physically, emotionally and culturally through the lives of multiple Indigenous characters who face...

Steven Spielberg unabashedly claimed that Francois Truffaut is the man who loves cinema the most than anyone else ever. Which means he himself is included. In many of his interviews, Truffaut explained how the only thing he ever did was either...

In Richard Matheson’s I am Legend, Robert Neville is the last man standing in a world plagued by a vampire virus pandemic. This situation creates an internal conflict for Neville as he grapples with his loneliness as a human and searches for...