American Literature

In the story  The Company of Wolves  Angela Carter seeks to retell the tale of Red Riding Hood and her encounter with the wolf. More important than the rehashing of the fairy tale, is the manner in which Carter seeks to blend fact and fiction to illustrate man s ability to combine the unknown and the known within their own imaginations to gain a better understanding of the world around them. The simple facts of the wolf, as a predator and carnivore, are enhanced and dramatized with the...

1. Why was realism an important period in American history Realism was an important period in American history because it drastically changed the lenses Americans used in viewing the world, and their immediate situations. Taking off from where Romanticism has left them, in that world where everything was beautiful, dream-like and nearly perfect, even edenic, Realism brought back the people to reality. It transported them from that very pleasant, purely aesthetic world which Romanticism reinforced...

In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Notes on the State of Virginia, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson both conceive of irrationality as a serious threat to the liberty and well being of the people.  They both advocate moral and historical education, as well as free-thinking, as paramount in avoiding social and political problems stemming from human irrationality.  This can be seen in the fact that, while both thinkers attempt to mold the minds of the population and lead...

The Iliad and the Odyssey are two of Homers greatest works. The Iliad is the story of Greeces siege of Troy to take back Helen from Paris who took her from Menelaus. The Odyssey describes the journey that Odysseus took and the suffering he had to endure to get back to Greece and his return to his household because the Greeks had angered the God Athena who asked for help from the Poseidon.             These mythological stories will then be related to the events concerning...

Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown and Daniel Barthelme City of Churches both deal with the topic of religionspecifically, Christianityyet the perspective of each towards this topic is quite different.  Hawthornes tale, as one would expect from a 19th-century American story, examines Christianity in terms of trials and faith.  An implicit belief in Christianity is the normative view of the story, and so the central drama revolves around a character whose faith is tested when he...

Ralph Waldo Emerson, among all historical literary figures is the one most attached to nature. His poems and other writings are living testaments to his devotion to nature. He had lived in the forest, communing with nature and had come up with various literary works inspired by that experience. But he did not confine himself solely to poetry, instead also ventured into discussing his other thoughts particularly in Idealism and Spirituality and the importance of Nature to the two ideas. This world...

The charm of Miltons Paradise Lost lies in many aspects language, scale, skill, imagery, but more so in the ambiguity regarding who is the real hero of the poem Adam, the Son of God, or Satan. Critics are baffled and divided on this subject and consider Satan to be the kind of hero who has not only challenged the norms of heroism but who has more importantly enthralled the audience. He is not just a hero but has the grandeur of an epic hero. This is because Miltons portraiture of Satan is based...

Hearts Needle and Orpheus by W. D. Snodgrass Reflections of an Era and an Authors Passion and Artistry Peoples personal lives, experiences and trials have always been seen in literature and in several other forms of art such as paintings, music and film. Based on a general observation, it shows that a persons personal feats and trials still serve as one of the most moving forces or influence in his or her craft. A lot of authors in the field of poetry and literature such as Sylvia Plath, Robert...

In his play Pygmalion Bernard Shaw examines the affordability of middle class morality from a variety of perspectives and asserts that middle class morality is selfish, egoistic, restrictive and even hypocritical and hence not really affordable. Alfred Doolittle, who is the writers voice in the play, states unequivocally that he cannot afford middle class morality as it constrains his free roaming spirit and prevents him from living his life fully. When he is declared to be the most original moralist...

Death of the salesman is one the most renowned play by Arthur Miller and is considered to be a milestone in English literature. The play had been published in the year 1949 after the Second World War. The play is based upon the journey of an individual in the pursuit of achieving fulfillment of American dream. The main theme of the play is to understand the crucial path that leads to success. The author Arthur Miller has written the play on the basis of certain assumptions including dignity is worthless...

Then current president of the United States of America, president Barrack Obama argues that through the reformation of the health care, the American economy will strengthen. I do concur with him on the matter. Rising costs of healthcare are stifling Americas small businesses, and the president believes that by reforming the health care system, these businesses and the economy in general will be strengthened. It is clear that these small businesses are the ones creating half of the new jobs in the...