English Essays

poetry review
poetry review “The Whipping,” by Robert Hayden This poem is about Hayden who hears a boy being beaten, recalls his childhood when he too was subjected to the same and notices that this form of punishment has been handed down from generation to generation. He uses visual and auditory imagery together to take the reader to different moments in time, where the same event is being played over and is put in six quatrains to add emphasis. In the first quatrain, Hayden hears a w...

ragtime
ragtime E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime and the Rise of Women’s Liberation One of the central themes of E.L. Doctorow’s novel Ragtime is the tranformation of the leading female charactes of the novel from stereotypical repressed Victorian women into liberated and even feminist heroines. Doctorow’s choice of the women’s movement as a theme is appropriate to the period of his novel, which is set in the decade between l906 and l9l5. This was an heroic peri...

rebellion vs conformity themes in One Flew Ovet the CuCoos nest and the Shawshank Redemption
rebellion vs. conformity themes in One Flew Ovet the CuCoo’s nest and the Shawshank Redemption REBELLION VS. CONFORMITY If one believed only in laws or rules that applied to evil, selfish, violent and mala in se crimes and followed only the laws that were for the protection of others, he would still be a criminal. Because he did not conform to some laws that were unjust, even if he hadn’t ever hurt a soul, he might be called a non-conformist at best, as well as a crimi...

religion today
religion today Religion in America Religion in America is very important, over seventy-five percent of Americans claim to be of a certain religious belief. Religion was the building block that started our country, even from the days of the pilgrims, that is the reason why they came to this country. America was started on the basis of religious freedom and it has carried on down today. Today religion is one of the most vital parts of American society. In today’s society man...

romeo and juliet essay 1
romeo and juliet essay Romeo and Juliet essay In the play, Romeo and Juliet, Lord Capulet, the father of Juliet was a good citizen and a good husband, but was quite strict. He was a very strict father because he was selfish and wanted Juliet, who was only 13 years of age, to get married with Paris instead of her innate lover, Romeo. Lord Capulet is an austere father, but he is a good citizen and a reasonable husband. When lord Capulet says “My child is yet a stranger in the...

rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead a play by tom stoppard
rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead a play by tom stoppard Hamlet one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, where the young prince of Denmark must uncover the truth about his fathers death. Hamlet a play that tells the story of a young prince who’s father recently died. Hamlets uncle Claudius marries his mother the queen and takes the throne. As the play is told Hamlet finds out his father was murdered by the recently crowned king. The theme that remains constant throug...

rupunzel
rupunzel Rapunzel I have always enjoyed this fairytale, about a young woman with exceptionally long hair who is kept prisoner in a tall tower by a sorceress. The Grim Bothers and Zelinky’s version is very different from each other. Zelinsky retells the story in another way. He brings the story alive and I was able to experience in a whole new way. One thing for readers to remember is that many fairytales were originally for adults, so that is the why they may not a...

satire in gullivers travels
satire in gulliver’s travels Many of the critics who have critiqued Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels have used the word extraneous more then once. Swift was viewed as an insane person who was a failure in life. But this is far from the truth. Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels, a book that has been assigned to students for years, and it is written from experience. Swift’s experience with the Tories and their conflicts with the Whigs caused him to wri...

smoke signals
smoke signals Smoke Signals 1998 - USA Director - Chris Eyre About the film… Winner of the Audience Award and the Filmmaker’s Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, and the official selection for opening night of the 1998 New Director/New Films, SMOKE SIGNALS is one of the most unique films of the year. Filled with the rich aesthetics and beautiful mood of American Indian culture, Sherman Alexie’s story of friendship, love and loss (based on his award-win...

socretess
socretess A master artisan and innovator of the Greek tragedy, Sophocles’s insightful plays have held their value throughout countless time periods and societies. Through the use of common literary techniques, Sophocles was able to express themes and ideas that reflect all of humankind. On particular idea was that Sophocles believed that hubris is destructive and will eventually lead to one’s demise. Creon, the proud king of Thebes has such a fatal flaw. His hubris a...

street car named desire
street car named desire “There is a little piece of good in every person. You just got to know where to find it.” Said Morgan Freeman. A Street Car Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is set in the Kowalski’s in a poor, yet charming French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. Blanche Dubois, who has been fired from her teaching job, arrives unannounced at the small two-room apartment of her sister, Stella Kowalski. Blanche meets up with Stella and informs her ...

surfie compared to the surfer
surfie compared to the surfer Surfie vs The Surfer two poems, two themes and how poetic techniques develope them Surfie, by Jane Marshall, and The Surfer, by Judith Wright, are quite obviously both poems about surfing. The subject matters in each poem are the same. Both authors have managed to write a poem about surfing, only to create different impressions, formed by their many poetic techniques, within two different themes. these themes are: Surfie - This poem is abou...

the chocolate war
the chocolate war The Chocolate War By: Robert Comier Jerry Renault is not the best-liked kid in his school. He barely had any respect, even though he is the quarterback for his school’s football team. In the beginning Jerry had lots of friends. But no one knew what is in store for Jerry. Jerry had no idea how his life is about to change. It is a tradition at Trinity to have a yearly chocolate sale. It is not mandatory to sell the chocolates, but no one ever refu...

the dentist office
the dentist office The phone rings and I answer, “Thank you for calling Business Systems this is Mandy how can I help you?” The voice on the other end asks for Amanda and I reply, “This is she”. The voice says she is calling to remind me of my 4:00 PM dental appointment. I sigh and tell her I will be there. I enter the building and walk over to the elevator; I push the up button and patientlywait. The elevator door promptly opens and I ge...

transactions in house of mirth
transactions in house of mirth Written by Sonny Elizondo Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth presents an interesting study of the social construction of subjectivity. The Victorian society which Wharton’s characters inhabit is defined by a rigid structure of morals and manners in which one’s identity is determined by apparent conformity with or transgression of social norms. What is conspicuous about this brand of social identification is its decidedly linguis...

Young Goodman Brown 2
Young Goodman Brown Nathaniel Hawthorne comes from an interesting background. He was born in Salem and later returned to live there. He was a descendant of William Hathorne, a puritan judge who persecuted Quakers, and John Hathorne, a puritan magistrate who participated in the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne’s kinship to these two notables of puritan history makes the story “Young Goodman Brown,” all the more interesting. Hawthorne alludes to John Hathorne whe...

Young Goodman Brown 3
Young Goodman Brown “Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with allegory. “Young Goodman Brown” is a moral story which is told through the perversion of a religious leader. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride in himself interfere with his relations with the community after he meets with the devil, and causes him to live the life of an exile in his own co...

Z for Zacheriah
Z for Zacheriah The book I read was called Z for Zachariah. This book was written by Robert C. O’Brien. This story took place in a valley which was most likely one of the only non-radioactive places left on Earth. The rest of the world became radioactive after a war which used nerve gasses in their bombs. This made the Earth unsupportive of life. This most likely happened in the late A.D. 2000’s. The main character in the story was a young 16 year old girl named ...

ZORA
ZORA ZORA NEALE HURSTON In the excerpt from Dust Tracks on a Dirt Road: An Autobiography by Zora Neale Hurston, she uses powerful diction allow readers to get a good, clear sense of her culture during her childhood. Also, she uses manipulations of points of view to present the differing opinions within her household, which give the readers another strong sense of her childhood. Instead of generalizing those early years, Hurston elaborates on specific highlights of her childh...

frankenstein
frankenstein Morality 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 all right 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....

happiness in brave new world
happiness in brave new world Happiness in Brave New World When we look to define happiness, many different ideas come to mind. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary uses three definitions for happiness: good fortune, a state of well being and contentment, and a pleasurable satisfaction. In Brave New World, Aldus Huxley argues that a society can redefine happiness through the government’s manipulation of the environment and the human mind itself. The government accomplish...

hardy
hardy A Question On Hardy: Where Did His Writings Come From Born into an agricultural community and untouched by industrialism, Thomas Hardy’s pessimism and determinism is what made his themes and styles stand out from other contemporary writers. According to Zabel, Schopenhaur inspired his pessimistic nature. Because of Schopenhaur’s influence, pessimism was the primary view of his writings. Zabel had also stated the driving force behind his works was majority influenced ...

identical opposites
identical opposites Two people can be identical in many aspects, yet also have a world of difference between them. Often it is the similarity that is also the contradiction amongst the two individuals. This holds true for two characters in Shakespeare’s “The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of denmark,” the main character of hamlet, son of the murdered king and Laertes, son of the councillor to the king. ...

jekyll and hyde
jekyll and hyde Jean-Paul Sartre writes, in his essay, “Existentialism”, that an individual’s responsibility extends not only to him or herself, but also to all of humanity. He believes that we must take this into account for every decision we make. This extra accountability can cause distress for an individual because of the pressure that it brings. In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, Les Blancs, Tshembe is faced with an important decision that will not only affect his own...

landscape
landscape The arrangement of a landscape brings imagination to life. This startles someone to think if this is where creation was started. The landscape is a single knoll that rises out of the plains of Oklahoma. It is located north and west of the Wichita Range. To look at this landscape, early morning with the sun at your back would make you lose some sense of proportion. In the midst of the vast surroundings of the plain, loneliness is the main aspect of the land. All things ...