American Literature

History has been filled with creative artists in a variety of fields. Much of the contribution has come in the field of literary works. Writers have tackled taxation without representation, civil rights, womens rights, abortion, euthanasia, and numerous religious and political views. Writers have also influenced the creative minds of children through fairy tales, stories of adventure through countless time periods, imaginative accounts of history and culture. Words surround us and have influenced...

Emily Dickinson, one of the enigmatic poets of the nineteenth century in her poem The Brain  is wider than the sky attempts to compare and contrast human brain with three entities namely the sky, the sea and God. This poem provides a deep insight into the creation of God Almighty on one plane and on other hand provides a profound scientific enquiry in simple terms. This essay explores the significance of the creations of God and emphasizes the superiority of God over all His creations....

Sylvia Plaths Mirror presents the truth of the personas functionits ability to reflect what it sees through its glass no more, no less. This is also an inherent function of art and literature. Like the mirrors function in the poem, it has the ability to reflect life as how it happen. Personification is one of the literary devices used in the poem. This is through giving an inanimate object the ability to speak, which is a human trait. In understanding the bigger role of the mirror as a reflection...

Absalom, Absalom is a world renowned novel of William Faulkner published in 1936. It is a tragic novel that revolves around a familys unfortunate demise because of their patriarchs ambitions and mainly racial discrimination and prejudice. Faulkner also presented in this novel the steady decline of the south which his plagued by corruption and discrimination. The novel also touched themes regarding incest, miscegenation and community values. This novel largely helped Faulkner win his Nobel Prize...

Antigones character has a very complex personality as a character in the story. Antigones character is very unpredictable throughout the play. One cannot be sure of what she will do because she tends to change directions all the time. It is because of her being unpredictable that makes her character seem very much hypocritical. She will say something but end up saying the total opposite. Her intriguing character makes people to guess on what her next words or actions will be. Her physique is quite...

In the wake of current events, one cannot help but just assume that America is more violent than it has ever been. However, violence has been in the world as well as in the United States since time immemorial. The only thing that has happened is that it has changed and taken on a new form. Crimes do not choose the group of people they are going to affect they occur to everyone regardless of their religion, age group, ethnic group, and socioeconomic status (Trend, p 17). The current trend in crime...

Tone does to literature what cinematography does to a movie.  Regardless of the kind of literature, tone is important in setting the mood of a literary piece and creating a pseudo atmosphere conducive to the reader of a literary piece.  Why is this necessary  Literature is considered as an elite art form and literary appreciation requires a certain level of intelligence.  Other than this, the only visual input that one would get from literature are the words on the page, or...

Robert Blys poem can be interpreted as an allegory between a student and his teachers. The title boldly illustrates its symbolical narrative by saying directly what his poem is about.  We know from just reading the title what the poem is referring to and where the poem is going to go. The speaker is indicated as, we, which may indicate himself and his fellow classmates, in a general sense throughout his educational experiences. The age of the speaker seems elementary in style but mature enough...

Romanticism sprung from its times.  After the time of classism and Calvinism with its rigidity and tradition, America was ready for Romanticism.  The stern religious beliefs that were dry and cold lead way to the spiritual quality of romanticism.  People were ready to drop the guilt and be ready to believe in themselves. The rise of professional science contributed to that. The stage was also set for the Romantics reaction against slavery and injustice.  The country was experiencing...

Human suffering can be observed to be among the prevailing themes in fiction the highlight of an individuals person becomes a subject of exploration and curiousity, and in fiction, the process of resolving a characters surface requires breaking into his or her issues.  The common thread between these two stories can then be seen in how the characters can be strongly explored with regards to their conflicts, realizations and motivation.  It can be gathered from these two short fictional...

The article focuses on the different phases of life of Nelson Mandela from his childhood as he ascended as one of the most influential persons shaping not only the anti-apartheid movement but also the ability to shape South African politics like never before. It can be seen that his life transcends from the shifts of his beliefs from a radical perspective to that of an advocate of peace and international cooperation.    During his early years, he grew up in a traditional African...

The main characters of Abraham Cahans story entitled A Ghetto Wedding are Nathan and Goldy, a couple who had been engaged for almost two years already but had been postponing their marriage because of the brides wish to be granted a respectable wedding and not be wed in an ordinary way (Cahan, 1898). Though they were not rich, Goldy felt that on this special day, she deserved more special things because it is not every day that a woman is given the chance to get married. She does not want to be...

My father was a second generation Italian. He was fond of telling me real life stories and he always used Italian language to convey his narrations. I remembered that I used to translate his stories to English. Eventually, I always found the translated phrases funny. I knew they were both different languages hence they should not be transcribed literally. I used to write down some of his stories in a notebook. This way, I knew I can always read them every time I wanted to. I became fond of writing...

Christopher Columbus and John Smith will always be remembered for their ego in their leadership. For many residence of Virginia, John Smith is considered as a hero. However, recorded documents provide varying evidence on his leadership and life in general. On the other hand, Christopher Columbus is seen as an explorer who encountered the Americans and was able to achieve immorality to satisfy his egos. He took advantage of every opportunity and is considered to be a leader who did not accept no...

Richard Feynman is a genuine man, enthusiastic with teaching and self-discovery. He is an example of a person who creates great things. Philosophical questions never had the slightest appeal to him (as well as religion). Thus, he was considered as purely scientist, dismissing anything about life that was not reachable by scientific method. He did an admirable work of fighting pseudo-science and paranormal fraud by putting an ordinary religious belief into metaphysical question. Aside from that,...

Characters in a piece of fiction are vital to the plot of the story.  The characters are instrumental in making the story unfold.  Other than just this necessary function of characters in a story, characters also serve to convey various things about their real life counterparts.  IN the story The Passing of Grandison by Charles Chestnutt the author presents a typical slave-feudal lord tale set during the early years of America.  In the story, a young heir to a vast plantation,...