When he arrived at the Danish land, Beowulf was a young man seeking adventure and glory. Beowulf was distinguished among his people, the Geats, for his bravery. As a young man Beowulf fought in many battles and as a result, showed his great character to others. Beowulf had many characteristics which helped him to succeed…
She is dead. She does not appear physically but haunts mentally. She is Codi and Hallie’s mother Alice, the late wife of Homero Noline. Throughout the novel Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver, Alice impacted the characters, action, and theme(s). When Alice passed away she took part of Homer with her. What she left was a…
In Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” critics argue whether the character of Arnold Friend, clearly the story’s antagonist, represents Satan in the story. Indeed, Arnold Friend is an allegorical devil figure for the main reason that he tempts Connie, the protagonist, into riding off with him in his car.…
Anse Bundren is one of the most exceptional characters in “As I Lay Dying”. He was the husband of Addie Bunden. In the Story, he portrayed himself as being a very selfish individual. During his journey to the burial site of his wife, he always was worrying about his well-being before the family’s well-being. The…
Kosinski emphasizes social change in his chilling account of the nightmares of World War II. As Hitler uproots Europe, a young boy experiences horrors unimaginable to Western civilization. Despite the unrelentless actions of the villagers toward the strange boy, the reasons for such actions changed from those of fear of the boy himself to the…
This poem is about a man who loves his country dearly. The country is England. He believes that if he should die on a faraway battlefield; that people should remember that he was English. Brookes says in his fourth line, “In that rich earth a richer dust concealed.” This means that if he is to…
The play “Death of a Salesman” shows the final demise of Willy Loman, a sixty-year-old salesman in the America of the 1940s, who has deluded himself all his life about being a big success in the business world. It also portrays his wife Linda, who “plays along” nicely with his lies and tells him what…
Soft Voice of the Serpent, a short story by Nadine Gordimer tells of the most bizarre relationship which a man, who has lost his leg, has with a wounded locust. When the man who is still trying to accept his own injury, notices that the locust has also been handicapped by the loss of a…
John Masefield’s poem “Sea Fever” is a work of art that brings beauty to the English language through its use of rhythm, imagery, and many complex figures of speech. The meter in “Sea Fever” follows the movement of the tall ship in rough water through its use of iambs and hard-hitting spondees. Although written primarily…
In Mary Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” Mother is the typical woman of the late 1890s, who was brought up to be subservient to men, as was common during the era. America was a completely patriarchal society at the end of the nineteenth century. Women had always been perceived as lesser beings than men;…
In Anglo-Saxon literature and most likely in Anglo-Saxon times, men were measured by many of the same aspects of life that men are measured by today. Men of that time period were godless, fearless, fame seeking, and most of all, courageous. Warriors, sailors, exiles, and even gods were in search of these things and often…
In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston shows how the lives of American women changed in the early 20th century. Zora Neale Hurston creates a character in her own likeness in her masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God. By presenting Janie’s search for identity, from her childbirth with Nanny to the…
Catch 22, by Joseph Heller, is a critique of the society that we live in. Whoever is proud of what we have advanced to, and is unwilling to look at it in a negative light, would find this book very subversive. It threatens and criticizes the way of living of most who pride themselves in…
In “Ode to the West Wind,” Percy Bysshe Shelley tries to gain transcendence, for he shows that his thoughts, like the “winged seeds” (7) are trapped. The West Wind acts as a driving force for change and rejuvenation in the human and natural world. Shelley views winter not just as the last phase of vegetation…
John Milton, a poet who was completely blind in 1651 wrote “Sonnet XIX” in 1652; this sonnet is his response to his loss of sight. The theme of the sonnet is the loss and regain of primacy of experience. Milton offers his philosophical view on animism and God. Furthermore, “Sonnet XIX” explores Milton’s faith and…
In the summer of 1960, Carlos Casteneda, a UCLA anthropology student traveled to the southwest to do research on medicinal plants. While at a bus station, he met an extraordinary man. His name was don Juan Mateus, but I will refer to him as don Juan. Don Juan, a Yaqui “brujo” or shaman, decides to…
The differences between eighteenth-century literature and romantic poems, with respect to history is constituted here. This is seen through the influential works of John Keats and Alexander Pope. These works are acknowledged as, “The Rape of Lock” and “The Eve of St. Agnes.” Alexander Pope takes his readers on a hatred filled epic. A robust…
April 2, 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands At 4:30 A.M., helicopters had started to land on Mullet Creek; they were the first of the many invaders from Argentina. At 6:08 A.M., an attack was at full fledge. The Argentina government had claimed that they told their men it was to be a bloodless fight,…
The Crusades were military expeditions planned and carried out by western European Christians. The crusades started around 1095. The purpose of these crusades was to overtake and gain control of the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Holy Land was Jerusalem and the Christians believed that gaining control of it was their fate. The pope…
In May of 1977, Daniel Levinson constructed a model of the seasons of a man’s life. His developmental theory consists of universal stages or phases that extend from the infancy state to the elderly state. Most development theories, such as Freud’s psychosexual development theory or Piaget’s cognitive development theory, end in the adolescent stage of…