He spent his life in voluntary poverty, enthralled by the study of nature. Two years, in the prime of his life, were spent living in a shack in the woods near a pond. Who would choose a life like this? Henry David Thoreau did, and he enjoyed it. Who was Henry David Thoreau, what did…
Hamlet has a tragic flaw in his personality and behavior. His flaw is that he is overly concerned with death and tragedy. This flaw or weakness in Hamlet leads him into a world of chaotic surroundings and madness. Hamlet’s flaw and his mad personality led to the death of several people, including his mother and…
Human beings have certain feelings. The person at fault may feel guilty after the incident happens. A feeling of guilt is the recognition of wrong doing, and the wish that the consequences of the action could be changed. In The Scarlet Letter, Red Badge of Courage, and The Crucible, the main characters all have feelings…
Symbolism adds depth to the story without casting confusion. The representations are presented and sometimes even explained through the characters. Our own society too has many symbols which reflect who we are in a similar manner as the symbols in the novel did. Although there are many symbols in this book, perhaps one of the…
Of the major themes from Charles Dicken’s novel “Great Expectations” to be discussed as to their importance concerning its structure, I have selected “Love” in the context of human relationships, “Isolation” and finally “Redemption”. The loneliness isolation brings can only be redeemed by the loving associate of our fellow man, this is a two-way thing.…
Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations is a story about a boy, Philip Pirrip, who comes to a point in his life where his life changes drastically from the way it was when he was growing up. Whenever this change occurs, he does his best not to let people know about his past life where he was…
The book, Good Old Boy, was written in 1971 and takes place in the small Mississippi town of Yazoo City. The book contains experiences of the author’s childhood in his small town. The story began by telling many of the legends of Yazoo City. One of these legends involved a woman who lived by the…
“The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop is saturated with vivid imagery and abundant description, which help the reader visualize the action. Bishop’s use of imagery, narration, and tone allow the reader to visualize the fish and create a bond with him, a bond in which the reader has a great deal of admiration for the fish’s…
Gold has many different uses. In John Gardner’s novel Grendel, it is used as a motif to symbolize different aspects of a character. Though it has a constant meaning throughout the novel, it also differs according to each character. Gardner uses gold as a symbol of majesty as well as protection, greed and power throughout…
“Nothing to be done,” is one of the many phrases that is repeated again and again throughout Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot. Godot is an existentialist play that reads like somewhat of a language poem. That is to say, Beckett is not interested in the reader interpreting his words, but simply listening to the words…
The Glass Menagerie is a play that is very important to modern literature. Tennessee Williams describes four separate characters, their dreams, and the harsh realities they faced in the modern world. His setting is in St. Louis during the Depression-Era. The story is about a loving family that is constantly in conflict. To convey his…
Gladiatorial contests (munera gladitoria), hold a central place in our perception of Roman behavior. They were also a big influence on how Romans themselves ordered their lives. Attending the games was one of the practices that went with being a Roman. The Etruscans who introduced this type of contest in the sixth century BC, are…
Born in 1876, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Gertrude was the fifth child, and youngest, to Daniel and Amelia Stein, German-Jewish immigrants. She was a bright girl, but was noted for “her lifelong indifference to rules” (Gombar 41), especially in school. The early death of her mother was the cause of this. Her father was the king…
Introduction This story takes place in a state called Oceania. The main characters introduced are Winston Smith who is a worker on one of the four branches of government in Oceania. These four branches are “The Ministry of Truth” where they falsificate or remove all past documents such as books, newspapers, magazines, records, tapes and…
In George Dawes Green’s, The Juror, He summarized the events and, thoroughly explained the pain and anguish Annie had to go through. The woe in which her life revolved after mentioning those lousy words ¨I need a little excitement in my life ¨1, well, if Annie needed to add a touch of excitement to her…
Genesis is the start of a new beginning. In the King James Translation, the book of Genesis explains how everything came to be. Lord God creates meaningful things to establish the Earth. Amongst his creation he creates man and woman. There is always a beginning for everything, but, How does it begin, is the answer…
John Winslow Irving stands out as one of the finest contemporary American authors. Born in Exeter, New Hampshire in July 1942, Irving attended an Exeter prep school at which his stepfather taught history. Although he excelled at English, he was discouraged by the fact that he was dyslexic, a condition which wasn’t recognized back then…
By consistently weaving the theme of motherhood into her literature, Maya Angelou creates both personal narratives and poems that the reader can relate to. Her exploration of this universal theme lends itself to a very large and diverse audience. Throughout Angelou’s works, she allows her followers to witness her metamorphosis through different aspects of motherhood.…
The Author George Bernard Shaw -he later dropped the name George- was born in Dublin in 1856, the third and youngest child of an alcoholic father and an undomestic mother. He developed an interest in literature, music, and painting at a very early age, but was never enabled to go to university. At the age…
My first impression of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café was that it was a “woman’s” novel. This was because the movie, which was more popular than the book, was advertised as a “chick flick”. To say the least, I was wrong. The novel poses many issues that face the people of the…