American Literature

Death is better than slavery is a famous quote by Harriet Ann Jacobs. Oxford dictionary defines slavery as a condition of a slave. Who is a slave What is slavery Why should one be a slave What are the effects of slavery These questions question not only the biggest thrift in the history of mankind where humanism is concerned, but also questions mans sanity. A salve is a person who is owned by somebody for whom heshe has to work which after a generation generally becomes a habit. The gravity of the...

Albee describes his work as an examination of the American Scene, an attack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peach-keenwww.imagination.commoonstruckclsc44.html, How is this reflected in The Zoo Story Cite quotes from scenes and pages to support your answer. It is true that Edwards Albee uses his 1958 The Zoo Story play...

Question 1(a). What symbolic significance does the unicorn have in the play Answer- Laura had a close bonding with the unicorn because both were special but with the unicorns horn gone it had become ordinary and for a breathtaking moment Laura had thought that she probably had the opportunity of becoming normal like the unicorn, but that was not to be. So she gives the unicorn to Jim as a souvenir and an indirect message to the audience that he had broken her dream of ever having a normal life. When...

In their poems Chicago and The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Carl Sandburg and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow use combinations of poetic devices to paint a picture of their subjects. In the case of Sandburg, the city of Chicago becomes not simply a place on the map but almost human. The citys negative qualities are shown through similes and metaphors that show the raw energy of Chicago. In addition, Sandburg uses synecdoche to bring the city to life, not only in the image of the city as a man but also...

Many poets highlighted freedom and liberty but Walt Whitman has assigned a rather different way to freedom. Issues as slavery, freedom, and politics have been highlighted and put forward by Whitman in his journalistic tone with a touch of rhymes, very different from traditional poetry. Introduction Walt Whitman has been counted as Americas most influential poet of all times. Whitman in literary lobbies is referred to as father of free verse. Free verse is the kind of poetry, which lacks regular...

The American Dream is what every American wants to havea better, richer, and happier life. Its about having the freedom to reach ones goals in life and to achieve economic or social status better than ones parents. This very desire is what Boy Willie in The Piano Lesson has and what Martin Luther King, Jr. wished for his fellow Black men to have as apparent in his I Have a Dream speech. In The Piano Lesson, Boy Willie wants to sell their old piano to claim the Sutters, his ancestors former masters...

Eugene ONeills The Hairy Ape play revolves around Bob Smith, or Yank, showing that the Transatlantic Liner fireman has had an extremely painful past. Having been brought up in an unstable family, Yank nurses feelings of hatred towards society in general and utter desperation. To begin with, Yanks father was abusive, a situation that forced the son to escape following the death of his mother. Yank also explains that his parents used to fight so hard that they usually damaged the family furniture....

Oedipus Rex is a great tragedy. Perhaps the reason why its popularity withstood the test of time is because there are so many factors working in its favor. The technological aspects of the play is one, with the manuscript being short enough to read in one sitting and some lines such as You pray to the godsLet me grant your prayers. The whole set-up of the play is easy enough to set in mind. Additionally, there is the text itself. The story of Oedipus can easily ingratiate itself to many mortal mens...

One of the most famous characters in American tall tales is Paul Bunyan, and one of the most well-loved recounts  the time he discovered his blue ox which he called Babe. It is said that one day during the Winter of the Blue Snow  it was reportedly so cold that the snow turned blue  Paul  Bunyan was walking in the woods when he heard a funny sound between a bleat and a snort. Looking down he saw a teeny-tiny baby blue ox just a hopping about in the snow and snorting with rage...

The 1920s and the 1930s marks a period in American History known as the Harlem Renaissance. It is the time when Blacks showcased their talents in literature and the arts and were somehow able to establish a name for themselves. Among the Black writers of this time was Countee Cullen who wrote A Brown Girl Dead in the late 1920s, perhaps as a positive response to the idea of fostering cultural unity between Blacks and Whites during the Harlem Renaissance. An expanded reading of the poem shows that...

Good Country People is one of the most sought after works of Flannery O Connor. It is said to be the biography of OConnor but she never claimed it to be such. The novel Good Country People seems to reflect the current situation and emotional status of O Connor while she was writing the novel, and if it is not in fact her biography, her emotion at that time has influenced the novel greatly. Flannery OConnor has lived only until her 40s her lupus has taken the best of her and has taken one of the...

People may perceive that a home and a house is the same, but by reading the novel deeply, readers would come to realize that the interpretation of a home in the novel is different from the interpretation of a house to Esperanza. The protagonist name is Esperanza, she was young hen the novel started and as the novel progress, the progress of her creativity and personality is created. The novel doesnt only focus on the protagonist itself, it also wants the readers to know how and what influence...

The 1880s to the 1940s marks a period in American Literature known as Realism and Naturalism. This was the time when most literary works reflected the ideas of pessimism and determinism, and where events and even God oppose human free will or remain indifferent to human desires. One author and poet of this era was Stephen Crane. Crane published A God in Wrath in 1905 in a collection of poems called The Black Rider and Other Lines. The poem, which is about a god torturing a man, reflects the recurring...

As he approached the village, he met a number of people, but none that he knew. The pounding in his head from the ghostly grog was second only to the disorientation he felt seeing the town that was no longer his town. The Inn where he had so often sat and discussed the answers to lifes questions was now brightly lit, with the marquee promoting Motel 6, well leave a colonial lamp lit for you. The streets were filled with British soldiers, in full redcoat regalia, but not in wartime solace, rather...

In Charles Chesnutts The Conjure Woman, Uncle Juliusa character who might be quite at home as a trickster figure in another storyuses humorous tales which are meant to question the narrators notions about race.  It is important that these critiques are often couched in humor not only does this help the narrator receive unpalatable or unflattering information, but it allows racial matters to be turned on their ears for white audiences that may find themselves too busy laughing to be upset. ...