American Literature

The need to feel free is inherent in every person. As Fra Lippo Lippis song implies, people will sleep and avoid trouble if they are free they will not work or do anything to bother themselves. This idea of evading pain or suffering is reflected in escapist literature, particularly in Nathaniel Hawthornes (n.d.) Wakefield and Washington Irvings (2001) Rip Van Winkle. With escapist themes in their stories, both authors exude the troubles borne by people in the 19th century and their various attempts...

Literature in the 19th Century The Era of Realism, Naturalism, and ImpressionismThe 19th century marked a series of historical events the American civil war, the abolishment of slavery and the expanding base of middle class in the US as a result of rapid industrialization. These historical events had a profound impact on the masses who found themselves going through a sea of change and without any medium to air their feelings. The American literature at this time adjusted itself to strike a connection...

Time is past, present and future which may be illustrated as a continuum.  Being a continuum, one may shuttle backward, forward, or even stay at a particular point in time.  Ones thoughts enable an individual to do this, either at will or perhaps dictated by a need.  When an individual goes back in time, the individual actually retrieves his memory or memories. Shuttling backward, forward or even staying at a particular point in time, through our thoughts, may be liberating. ...

Sustainability and eco-friendly trends are most evidently associated with industries related to products such as metals and chemicals. Of course, such industries are of vital importance and may be considered as core components of technological stability and progress. However, it is for a fact that movements geared towards sustainability have been present within the textile industry as well in relation to the numerous environmental concerns associated with the industry. Specifically, issues such...

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini fulfills many universal themes that explore some of most fundamental issues of humanity, themes that are timeless and mostly familiar. Themes are universal that includes family relationship particularly father and son, inhumane realities of class system, the horrific brutalities of war, the life in America as an immigrant and the real meaning of friendship. Those themes will be perceived after you are being swept with the emotions caused by violence, human rights...

The theme of tragedy in literature has never been new, even the Ancient Greeks and Romans regularly played tragic dramas for the eager public in the early civilizations. Plato and Aristotle, two of the formidable philosophers in the world even analyzed and scrutinized the impact and purpose of such tragic dramas. Plato believed that tragic drama is mimetic, or a mere illusion that deceive people of the real tragedy of life (Ahrensdorf 158). Aristotle, on the other hand, believed that tragic dramas...

Langston Hughess poem, Harlem is not only the epigraph of Lorraine Hansberrys famous play, A Raisin in the Sun, but it is also its title. The poem and the play obviously deal with the lives of black people, with their grand dreams and innate capacity to survive the terrible reality of their lives. Though there are quite a few similarities between these two works, this essay focuses on the usage of the themes such as dream, race, poverty and pride. Hughess poem, made up of a series of rhetorical...

E. L. Doctorow s novel entitled Ragtime is composed of a dynamically different experiences, themes, and characters that unexpectedly meet. As their lives become intertwined, the events in their life contribute to the whole plot. Doctorows novel is a very interesting story that depicts a picture of the American social setting during the early 1900s, before the First World War. Ragtime has a complex plot that centers on the theme of liberation, change, and mans search for meaning. Characters, either...

Personality traits are the behaviors that human beings display in their daily activities and as they interact with others. These are the characteristics of human beings that describe a persons approach towards life. Each individual has particular way of responding to different stimuli within the environment. This is controlled by exposure and experiences in a persons life.Conscientiousness    This is the trait whereby an individual is self-disciplined, acts dutifully and aims to achieve...

Leo Tolstoys The Death of Ivan Ilych written at the end of the nineteenth century and Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis published during the first part of the twentieth century are both not only timeless masterpieces but also testaments of the physical and mental suffering that coexisted with bourgeois lifestyle. Both authors were once participants in this suffering and, just like the protagonists in their works, they have gone through a significant period of existential crisis in their lives and have...

One of numerous ruinous effects of human conflicts, war is one such consequence which not only has a detrimental impact on the lives of the victim but also a negative effect on the lives of the soldiers who are fighting this war. Numerous conflicts arise in the mind of the soldiers, as they start to realize that they are risking their own lives for the fulfillment of the other peoples wish. The novel Catch 22 by Joseph Heller depicts the conflicts experienced by the soldiers in course of the war...