American Literature

Literature has been known to contain hidden profound messages, meanings and symbolisms that are actually significant or reflective to society. Such symbolisms are the archetypes which frequently occur in the myths of people widely separated from time and place while having a common meaning which tend to elicit comparable psychological responses and to serve similar cultural functions (Guerin et al., 2005, p. 184). In short, archetypes are important because they serve to mirror the collective psyche...

Modernist poetry opens up a whole new world of experiencing poetry in terms of structure, tone and meaning. William Carlos Williams This is Just to Say and Theodore Roethkes My Papas Waltz are no exceptions to this rule. Both poems describe different situations, but both address an offense and ones experience surrounding an offense.  This is Just to Say depicts the offense of stealing plums. My Papas Waltz, depending on the interpretation of the poem, depicts the offense of accidental hurting...

The manner in which John Smith described the increasingly important land now a formal part of the United States, in A Description of New England, intended to entice further settlement and it also reflected his genuine amazement and vision for the future.  The strength of these descriptions is grounded most fundamentally in Smiths ability to weave together his descriptions of separate places and things in such a way as to predict or to envision the rise of a great colony or nation in the future. ...

The greatness of a writer lies to a great extent in his image making capability and the creativity of a writer is exposed in the metaphors he coins. Here, Ernest Hemingway, in his short story The End of Something, shows great originality through a number of similes and metaphors. Contributing greatly to the significance of his imagery he achieves a new meaning and richness. Hemingway has wonderfully blended the form and idea of the anecdote through his skilful handling of the imagery. In this...

Literature has always been part of human life and culture. It exists to inform or entertain people, to satirize or argue social issues, to emphasize or to deconstruct certain themes we encounter in our lives. Generally, a literary piece can be classified according to its function and this function has a lot to do with the authors motive in writing a literary material. In Washington Irvings (2009) The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow, it is very clear that above anything, the authors motive is to provide...

The 1897 published  The Open Boat written by Stephen Crane, originated on a real incident from his true life, that was on January which is in the same year. During  his travel going to Cuba to labour as a newspaper letter-writer throughout the Cuban rebellion opposed to Spain. The Commander (Commodore), become submerged off the seaboard of Florida Crane, and the other three men were all compulsory directed their route closer to the shore in a small boat. He was grounded at the sea for...

Tim OBrien scrutinizes the connection between the narration on the story and the experience of war. How to tell a True War Story is something like distinguishing the truth of the story from a fiction. Basically, the story comprises of a story telling by the author and putting him into one of the characters. A true war story is a clear reflection of the story to describe obscenity and immorality that provides the principle of courage. It depicts the idea that sometimes stories are even more realistic...

After learning about the Art of Rhetoric, it was finally understood that arguments actually take on different forms, and these varying forms also hold corresponding effects and impacts on the effect being made upon the audience. Each of these forms also goes with related objectives that set them apart from each other. To recall, the logos, was said to be the logical argument of persuation (Huber and Snider 177). This style of argument focuses on facts and logic which made it useful for business...

The manner in which John Smith described the increasingly important land now a formal part of the United States, in A Description of New England, intended to entice further settlement and it also reflected his genuine amazement and vision for the future.  The strength of these descriptions is grounded most fundamentally in Smiths ability to weave together his descriptions of separate places and things in such a way as to predict or to envision the rise of a great colony or nation in the future. ...

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is considered to be one of the successful masterpieces that satirizes human weakness and is recognized as the greatest satirical piece of writing. This is succinctly captured in how the novel traces Hucks moral developments as he encounters a seemingly haphazard array of people as well as situations (Nash, 1999 102-105). Essentially, the novel embodies the search for freedom and given the idea that it was written during the post Civil War, Twain...

John Smith in A Description of New England portrayed an extraordinarily optimistic and ambitious portrait of the new land and the lives that people could live were they to fully recognize and take advantage of the rare benefits the new land offered.  The scale of this optimism was buttressed by the fact that Smith had a great deal of international experience and that he was able to compare the perceived riches of these new lands, both in terms of commercial and philosophical possibilities,...

Through a short story, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was able to demonstrate the strong desire he possessed for staying and teaching in a Russian interior. During the earlier parts of the narrative, Alexander mentioned that he was set to go back to one of the big cities but was lured into moving to an inner town in Russia. He has experienced days spent on a series of jobs he did not like. To him, the goal of becoming a teacher remained as one of the most important objectives he had. Together with the...

The concept of prison and the deeper meaning of it is both manifested in the novels. The concept of prison in both books is illustrated in the society where the main protagonists belonged to. Prison is defined by the fact that the characters experience lack of freedom due to the moral standards given by the society to its members. Institutions specifically government and religion restrict them in their different forms of human tendencies. The world in both novels is indirectly defined as a prison....

Some people believe words cant hurt.  Fortunately, for historys sake, words do hold much power that can be used for positive changes even when they have negative emotions attached with them. During antebellum slavery, the words of speeches, articles, songs, and narratives present the real depiction of slave souls. Although these words carry the same heavy burdens as the slaves during this horrific time in history, they presented arguments to prove the injustice that was holding slaves in bondage...

Notwithstanding the fact that he has been considered as the fierce Greek champion who was able to win thousands of battles, Achilles was considered to be problematic in terms of being a Greek warrior and hero because of the flaws that he exhibited not only in his decisions in most of his battles but also in his love affair.    One of the lapses that Achilles has perfectly shown in the story was his bursting outrage to Agamemnon when the Achaean king had finally took the control over...

Prison as a Metaphor in the novels The Stranger by Albert Camusand One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovichby Alexander SolzhenitsynPrison can be defined as a place wherein people who did not follow the law is usually put in detention. These people are usually the ones convicted of different crimes. Weather on the other hand is a factor we usually consider before doing something like going out or doing something outdoors. Weather can be used as a metaphor for prison as used in the novels The Stranger...

Chapter one of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about a young man who has to completely change his lifestyle and how he deals with and thinks about that.  At the beginning of the chapter he says, You dont know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer but that aint no matter.(Twain, 1999). He talks a little about the previous book for those that had read it and lets the rest of us know who he is talking about, such as Aunt Polly and Mary. ...

Often, the question for most beginning literary critiques when evaluating or analyzing a poem would be, Who is speaking in the poem.  The answer to this question asked by most contemporary critics is what the literary community knows of as the voice or the I in the poem.  Contrary to popular belief, the poet is not always equated with the I of the poem because many pieces of contemporary poetry now assume a different persona, and hence, it is unfair to assume that it is the poet speaking...