Today's Date:
January 15, 2025
Common Themes in Romanticism, The Enlightenment, and the Renaissance
When considering three major movements in world civilization and history; Romanticism, the Enlightenment, and the Renaissance, one theme that runs throughout is that of rebellion. More specifically, this rebellion in all three movements was against past traditions and each of →
Analysis and Summary of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston
The short story by Zora Neale Hurston “Their Eyes Were Watching God” the reader has its setting in a small village in the South, and the story picks up as the townspeople watch a strange female figure as she makes →
Analysis and Summary of “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston
As the short story by Zora Neale Hurston, “Sweat” begins, the reader is introduced to the protagonist, Delia, as she is sorting clothes on a spring night in Florida at her home. The main character in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” →
The Yellow Wallpaper : Gilman’s Techniques for Portraying Oppression of Women
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the author uses a number of literary devices to express the political theme of feminism and the oppression of women. To achieve her goal of expressing feminist sentiment in The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman creates a narrator who is at →
“Turn of the Screw” by Henry James as a Psychological Thriller?
At its core, and for several reasons that will be explained in more detail in this analysis of the narrator and nature of the story “Turn of the Screw” by Henry James, it is clear that this story is psychological thriller →
“Sister Carrie” by Theodore Dreiser: Naturalism, Capitalism and the Urban Sea
Theodore Dreiser’s novel Sister Carrie is an example of a naturalist text because it integrates the ideas behind the American literary realism movement, particularly in terms of precise descriptions and rational observations, yet also contains elements that make the reader understand →
Identity, Race, and Disguise in “Puddn’head Wilson” by Mark Twain
Throughout Twain’s “Puddn’head Wilson” disguises are employed not only in the literal sense, but also in a more slippery rhetorical manner. These numerous instances of concealed or confused identity function on the level of narrative and plot certainly, but more →
The Significance of Land in “O! Pioneers” by Willa Cather
In Willa Cather’s “O! Pioneers” the setting itself melds into a quiet but omnipotent and omniscient main character alongside other central characters such as Alexandra, her brothers, and her neighbors. The land is not just the backdrop for the action, →
Short Analysis and Summary of “Neighbors” by Raymond Carver
The short story “Neighbors” by Raymond Carver has a plot that follows the exploits of Bill and Arlene Miller who are left to take care of the Stone’s apartment. The plot is chronological and despite a few memories of the →
Multicultural Writers and the Quest for Identity
American literature written by authors from different backgrounds than the standard white majority often revolves around the difficult struggle to solidify and define identity. Writers such as Amy Tan, Anna Raya, and Langston Hughes continually explore how complex the search for identity →
