English Essays

Romeo & Juliet
Romeo & Juliet Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's plays about tragedy. It is about two lovers who commit suicide when their feuding famillies prevent them from being together. The play has many characters, each with its own role in keeping the plot line. Some characters have very little to do with the plot but some have the plot revolving around them. Friar Lawrence does not have very much time on stage but the time he does have is crucial to the plot line. ...

Madama Bovary & Anna Karenina
Madama Bovary & Anna Karenina Reading provides an escape for people from the ordinariness of everyday life. Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, dissatisfied with their lives pursued their dreams of ecstasy and love through reading. At the beginning of both novels Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary made active decisions about their future although these decisions were not always rational. As their lives started to disintegrate Emma and Anna sought to live out their dreams and fant...

Darkness, Sign of Chaos in Macbeth
Darkness, Sign of Chaos in Macbeth Darkness in our society is indicative of evil. For instance, a black cat, a dark night, and a dark place are all symbolic of diablerie. Authors use these symbols to describe an evil character or setting. William Shakespeare employs the imagery of darkness in Act 4 of his play Macbeth to describe the agents of disorder. The witches, Macbeth, and Scotland are all described as dark because they represent the agents of chaos. The w...

Social Control
Social Control Both Michel Foucault and Truffaut's depiction of a disciplinary society are nearly identical. But Truffaut's interpretation sees more room for freedom within the disciplinary society. The difference stems from Foucault's belief that the social control in disciplinary pervades all elements of life and there is no escape from this type of control. Foucault's work deals mostly with "power" and his conception of it. Like Nietzsche, Foucault sees power not as a...

The Wretched Of The Earth
The Wretched Of The Earth Fanon's book, "The Wretched Of The Earth" like Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" question the basic assumptions that underlie society. Both books writers come from vastly different perspectives and this shapes what both authors see as the technologies that keep the populace in line. Foucault coming out of the French intellectual class sees technologies as prisons, family, mental institutions, and other institutions and cultural traits of French s...

Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies In his first novel, William Golding used a group of boys stranded on a tropical island to illustrate the malicious nature of mankind. Lord of the Flies dealt with changes that the boys underwent as they gradually adapted to the isolated freedom from society. Three main characters depicted different effects on certain individuals under those circumstances. Jack Merridew began as the arrogant and self-righteous leader of a choir. The freedom of the isla...

Ernest Hemmingway
Ernest Hemmingway Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. His father was the owner of a prosperous real estate business. His father, Dr. Hemingway, imparted to Ernest the importance of appearances, especially in public. Dr. Hemingway invented surgical forceps for which he would not accept money. He believed that one should not profit from something important for the good of mankind. Ernest's father, a man of high ideals, was very st...

The Grapes of Wrath - Joads Journey
The Grapes of Wrath - Joads Journey Through out history man has made many journeys, far and wide. Moses's great march through the Red Sea and Columbus's transversing the Atlantic are only, but a few of mans great voyages. Even today, great journeys are being made. Terry Fox's run across Canada while having cancer is one of these such journeys. In every one of these instances people have had to rise above themselves and over come emence odds, similar to a salmon swimming up str...

The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath has left much specifically untold about the authors true intentions on this book. His epic chronicle has been described as being "Written with passionate conviction" (Dorothy Parker). This passionate conviction has led John Steinbeck into mastering bold dramatization. His skills at the art of dramatization in literature was not solely used in The Grapes of Wrath, but also used in another of his twisted and possibly...

Huckleberry Finn
Huckleberry Finn In the novel Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck goes through many adventures on the Mississippi River. He escapes from Pap and sails down the Mississippi with an escaped slave named Jim. Huck goes through the moral conflict of how wrong it is to be helping Jim escape to freedom. Eventually Huck decides he will help Jim and actually steals him from a farmer with the help of Tom Sawyer, a friend. Eventhough Huck and Jim are trying to sail to the Ohio River whi...

The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms. The bank took pos...

As I Lay Dying
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is a novel about how the conflicting agendas within a family tear it apart. Every member of the family is to a degree responsible for what goes wrong, but none more than Anse. Anse's laziness and selfishness are the underlying factors to every disaster in the book. As the critic Andre Bleikasten agrees, "there is scarcely a character in Faulkner so loaded with faults and vices" (84). At twenty-two Anse becomes sick from working i...

Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley Morality. It has been questioned by people, honored by people and revered since the beginning of time. Yet even today not one person can say what is morally right. It is a matter of opinion. It was Dr. Victor Frankenstein's opinion that it was alright to create a "monster". Frankenstein's creation needed a companion. Knowing that his first creation was evil should the doctor make a second? With the knowledge at hand, to Dr. Frankenstein, it is not at al...

Superstitions in Huckleberry Finn
Superstitions in Huckleberry Finn In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, there is a lot of superstition. Some examples of superstition in the novel are Huck killing a spider which is bad luck, the hair-ball used to tell fortunes, and the rattle-snake skin Huck touches that brings Huck and Jim good and bad luck. Superstition plays an important role in the novel Huck Finn. In Chapter one Huck sees a spider crawling up his shoulder, so he ...

Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness In Joseph Conrad's book Heart of Darkness the Europeans are cut off from civilization, overtaken by greed, exploitation, and material interests from his own kind. Conrad develops themes of personal power, individual responsibility, and social justice. His book has all the trappings of the conventional adventure tale - mystery, exotic setting, escape, suspense, unexpected attack. The book is a record of things seen and done by Conrad while in the Bel...

Merchant of Venice
Merchant of Venice Many people are villainous in the way they act, and their villainous acts may be rooted in the desire to destroy others, or in the hopes of elevating themselves. Many people may only act "villainous" in reaction to the way they have been treated in the past. Shylock the Jew is the villain or antagonist in the play "The Merchant of Venice". Shylock mistreats Antonio the Christian, his daughter, Jessica and Launcelot. The first person Shylock mist...

The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye In J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, the first person narration is critical in helping the reader to know and understand the main character, Holden Caulfield. Holden, in his narration, relates a flashback of a significant period of his life, three days and nights on his own in New York City. Through his narration, Holden discloses to the reader his innermost thoughts and feelings. He thus provides the reader not only with information of what...

A Farewell to Arms
A Farewell to Arms The book A Farewell to Arms, written by Ernest Hemingway, is a classic about the love story of a nurse and a war ridden soldier. The story starts as Frederick Henry is serving in the Italian Army. He meets his future love in the hospital that he gets put in for various reasons. I thought that A Farewell to Arms was a good book because of the symbolism, the exciting plot, and the constant moving of the main character. The symbolism in A Farewell to Arms is ver...

A Farewell to Arms - A Love Story
A Farewell to Arms - A Love Story A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, is a typical love story. A Romeo and his Juliet placed against the odds. In this novel, Romeo is Frederick Henry and Juliet is Catherine Barkley. Their love affair must survive the obstacles of World War I. The background of war-torn Italy adds to the tragedy of the love story. The war affects the emotions and values of each character. The love between Catherine and Frederick must outlast long separations, ...

The Sun Also Rises - Heroes
The Sun Also Rises - Heroes The Hemingway Hero Prevalent among many of Ernest Hemingway's novels is the concept popularly known as the "Hemingway hero", an ideal character readily accepted by American readers as a "man's man". In The Sun Also Rises, four different men are compared and contrasted as they engage in some form of relationship with Lady Brett Ashley, a near-nymphomaniac Englishwoman who indulges in her passion for sex and control. Brett plans to marry her fiancee fo...

A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities In the fictitious novel Tale of Two Cities, the author, Charles Dickens, lays out a brilliant plot. Charles Dickens was born in England on February 7, 1812 near the south coast. His family moved to London when he was ten years old and quickly went into debt. To help support himself, Charles went to work at a blacking warehouse when he was twelve. His father was soon imprisoned for debt and shortly thereafter the rest of the family split apart. Charles conti...

Summary of Orwell's 1984
Summary of Orwell's 1984 Summary Chapter 1 and 2 We are introduced to Winston Smith the main character of the story. Works at Ministry of truth. Ministry of truth is one of four government buildings in destroyed London, the main city of Airstrip One, a province of Oceania. Year is 1984 and three contries are at war, Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Oceania is run by the party whose leader is Big Brother. Winston is sick of his life in the ruined city and decides to keep a d...

Great Expectations & Oliver Twist
Great Expectations & Oliver Twist During his lifetime, Charles Dickens is known to have written several books. Although each book is different, they also share many similarities. Two of his books, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist, are representatives of the many kinds of differences and similarities found within his work. Perhaps the reason why these two novels share some of the same qualities is because they both reflect painful experiences which occurred in Dickens...

Canterbury Tales - Chaunticleer
Canterbury Tales - Chaunticleer In the book Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, gives us a stunning tale about a rooster named Chaunticleer. Chaunticleer, who is the King of his domain in his farmland kingdom. Like a King, he quotes passages from intellectuals, dreams vivid dreams, has a libido that runs like a bat out of hell, and is described as a very elegant looking Rooster. He has every characteristic of a person belonging to the upper class. Chaucer's hidden meanings and...

Canterbury Tales - Medieval Church
Canterbury Tales - Medieval Church In discussing Chaucer's collection of stories called The Canterbury Tales, an interesting picture or illustration of the Medieval Christian Church is presented. However, while people demanded more voice in the affairs of government, the church became corrupt -- this corruption also led to a more crooked society. Nevertheless, there is no such thing as just church history; This is because the church can never be studied in isolation, simply be...