Newest Literature Essays

"Opposites attract" may be a modern adage, but the concept has been present in many incarnations throughout history. In Chinese philosophy, the yin and yang are presented as opposing dynamics. To understand one, it is requisite to know the other....

Despite recent questions concerning Hemingway's future relevancy in mainstream Modernist studies, there can be little doubt that the man with the shotgun carries a hefty literary load well past beyond his grave. While it is true that he never...

The Role of Women in "A Doll's House" and "Ghosts"

The role of women has changed significantly throughout history, driven in part by women who took risks in setting examples for others to follow. During the Victorian era, women were beginning to...

In his short story "The Metamorphosis" Franz Kafka examines the alienation from society that turns a human being into a bug. At the same time, he also examines how not being alienated from society and how corroborating with society can turn human...

Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren once said, "Mere unorthodoxy or dissent from the prevailing norms is not to be condemned. The absence of such voices would be a symptom of grave illness in our society." This message combined with the...

With a few straight lines, perhaps a dot, and an occasional squiggle, Word is born. Despite its humble beginnings, Word holds the possibility of greatness: the ability to cause war, to make peace, to express love, to describe fear. While many...

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" (Albert Einstein). When encountering the inexplicable, people's visceral reactions often oscillate between fear and awe-nevertheless establishing the subject in terms...

"Don't judge a book by its cover." Everyone knows this hackneyed quote, but people still judge others based on outer appearance. By doing so, these people ignore the possible inner greatness of those they so quickly set aside. The character Hester...

Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine suspends time for both the protagonist and the reader, with the escalator serving as a symbol of the productive and consumptive postmodern society. Because of the escalator, the story's narrator and other...

"You may say that I am a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one." John Lennon's "Imagine" has reached far beyond the bounds of his time to embrace the sentiments of an ageless audience....

Her beauty defied comparison. Her joy in life's simplest pleasures endeared her to all who knew her. Her insatiable curiosity drove her to constantly explore, examine, and engage in the world around her. All these qualities make her loss seem all...

Perhaps William Shakespeare is right: all the world may very well be a stage, with all the men and women being but mere players. What happens when, despite their exits and entrances, these actors play but one part? For lack of a complete character...

He claims that it is better to have loved and lost. She claims that it is better to never have loved at all. He spends his free time pining for her. She spends her time with him longing for freedom. While modern stereotypes tend to portray men as...

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

~ "Song of Myself"

He praises nature. He hails civilization. He upholds silence. He calls for unchecked and unformed sound. All of these tendencies are...

Picasso once said, "Art is lies that tell the truth." Art requires the suspension of reality or rather the ability to transcend the expected. In suspending that reality, however, greater truths can be addressed without the restrictions established...

"We're people, we're just like the birds and the bees, We'd rather die on our feet, Than be livin' on our knees" ("James Brown Lyrics"). These lyrics for James Brown's classic soul hit "Say It Loud (I'm Black And I'm Proud)" could have easily been...

A torrid lesbian love affair. An acerbic commentary on the commercialization of sex. A dire struggle between physical temptation and spiritual good. A child's nursery rhyme. "Goblin Market" encompasses a wealth of interpretations, some of which...

But if, Sir Knight, you let me know

The cause of this tremendous ill,

As sure as God gives help, I will,

If power is granted to me, remove it...

"The Book of the Duchess" 548-551

Throughout the study of medieval literature, certain trends define the...

Pastoralism as a literary device thrives on the juxtaposition of city life and country life. Pastoralists often stress that the burdens of the city can be alleviated and clarified by a trip into the country's therapeutic environment. A sense of...

Romeo and Juliet - as characters, as symbols of love, and as symbols of innocence torn apart by a hardheaded society - are cultural icons so ingrained in society that they are often synonymous with the very concepts they represent. After centuries...

Their love is like a virtuous man at death. Their love is like the planets in their orbits, not earthquakes. Their love is like a sheet of flattened gold. Their love is like a compass used in math class. These sentiments as they stand would do...

As William Shakespeare wrote As You Like It, "All the world's a stage,/ And all the men and women merely players./ They have their exits and their entrances;/ And one man in his time plays many parts." Shakespeare further adds to this philosophy...

Right or wrong, black or white, good or evil. Some aspect within the human psyche commands that specific and rigid classifications exist. There is a yearning to categorize every aspect, object, and experience ever encountered-once categorized, it...

"The victimization, I saw, was universal. It didn't depend on poverty, on lack of education or on tradition. It didn't depend on any of the things I had thought it depended on" (Dangarembga, 115). These ideas, which had been ingrained in Tambu...