What exactly is poetry? Poetry is one of the oldest means of remembering and maintaining history. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to give a precise definition of poetry, but this doesn’t necessarily matter as we can have a perfect understanding of what something is without being able to define it. Poetry itself is…
Simon Armitage uses imagery that relates to guilt and sorrowfulness to explore grief in the two poems, the Parting shot and Remains. In Parting shot, for example, the soldier has survivor’s guilt which relates to him having grief for his friend who died on the battlefield, he also goes to his dead friend’s funeral, which…
Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations was written during great social change. The novel appealed to the middle and working classes of the Victorian Era and was highly critical of the class system and social inequality. Pip represents the social change of the time, constantly wanting to better themselves. Pip was very much content with life as…
Whose woods these are, I think I know. 1 His house is in the village, though; 2 He will not see me stopping here 3 To watch woods fill up with snow. 4 My little horse must think it queer 5 To stop without a farmhouse near 6 Between the woods and frozen lake, 7…
In the story, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Vern, Phileas Fogg, an eccentric Englishman gentleman, must travel around the world in eighty days. This is the result of his making a bet with the members of the Reform Club. As the story advances, Phileas Fogg is faced with the difficult task of traveling around…
In the novel, Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Vern, Phileas Fogg is in conflict with time in a man versus nature conflict. Phileas Fogg is a very precise and honorable Englishman who made a bet that he could circumnavigate the world in eighty days. He is in a conflict with time, trying to…
Wilfred Owens, a former soldier in WW1, defies the perception of war in his poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by unraveling a sample of the horror that comes from warfare, on and off the battlefield, to denounce the ‘old lie’, that is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. Owens’s poem contrasts the expectations…
In Greek Legend, Antigone is the daughter born of the inadvertent relationship between Jocasta and her son Oedipus. The tragedy by Sophocles is narratively anteceded by Oedipus at Colonus and Oedipus Rex and forms the third installment of the Oedipus trilogy. Over the years, there have been multiple adaptations of Antigone, including musical compositions, stage,…
Gina Berriault’s story The Stone Boy prompts readers to consider how much parental involvement influences a child’s actions and behavior. The story tells of how 9-year-old Arnold accidentally kills his older brother Eugene but decides to pick peas for an hour instead of informing his parents about the incident. His family, relatives, the sheriff, and the callers…
Many novels about the middle class in the nineteenth century are mainly about the struggles of common citizens and the struggles of the lower class. Precisely, the novels feature the struggles of the lower citizens’ efforts to gain upward mobility, which gave rise to the social realism subgenre. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Sense and…
The Adventure of Crooked Man is among Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories about Sherlock Holmes. The short story is the twentieth of the Sherlock Holmes stories, written for the Strand Magazine edition, after The Adventure of the Reigate Squire. The story was later republished and included in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes omnibus in 1893.…
The Tell Tale Heart is among Poe’s most famous short stories. It provides a dark and bleak exposition by an unnamed character who narrates how he successfully murders and their ultimate delirious confession from guilt’s torment. The narrator’s motiveless action arouses the readers’ curiosity about the storyteller’s mental state and the relationship with the old man…
The two characters of Othello and Iago are gradually revealed to the audience as the first act unfolds. Othello is the protagonist in the play, which revolves around his corruption by Iago, the antagonist, and his increasing jealousy. Both protagonists and antagonists are linked to one another from how they address each other and talk…
People often seem different by the decisions they make and the actions they take making. One can easily be judged by their values and the vision and goals they pursue without others considering their inner characters. Nonetheless, despite these differences, two people can have similar personalities. For example, in Sophocles’ Antigone, Creon and Antigone have…
Although the book was not familiar during the lifetime of Behn, currently Oroonoko of the year 1668 is among the broad read books of Aphra Behn and most respected work. Oroonoko, also known as a loyal slave, remains critical as it impacted the English novel development, establishing females’ narrative voice and handling anti-colonial and abolitionist…
‘No adults mean no future’. In The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys become stranded on a desert island and must fight to survive. Almost all the boys change because the surroundings are different and there are no adults. Fascinating character changes can be seen in Ralph, Jack and Piggy.…
Harbisson, Neil, “Humans Should Challenge Technology by Becoming a Cyborg”, New York Times, 05 December 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/12/05/is-artificial-intelligence-taking-over-our-lives/humans-should-challenge-technology-by-becoming-a-cyborg OP-ED In his newspaper opinion piece, (Humans Should Challenge Technology by Becoming a Cyborg), Neil Harbisson suggests that if we do not want technology to become more intelligent than humans, we need to become technology: i.e., cyborgs. Harbisson…
The novel, Tomorrow When the War Began was written by author John Marsden and published in 1993, entails the story of a group of teenagers put into a precarious situation. Upon returning from a short camping trip to the nearby mountainous areas of Wirrawee, they discover themselves in a new world. A world overrun by foreign soldiers,…
Countless things impact moral growth in a person, with some forms being more effective than others. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, three factors that can influence an individual’s moral growth are shared. The three significant elements that impact an individual’s moral development are the environment lived in, maturity, and parental guidance.…
During World War II, women did not play any significant role in the allies’ efforts or victory. This statement could not be further from the truth, as in the novel Jackdaws written by Ken Follett, the story starts with Major Felicity, the protagonist, also known as Flick fails to break into the German-occupied Grand Chateau in France…