Depending on which perspective someone has, values are either shaped by the crippling society one lives in or caused by human nature’s favoritism for one species of man becoming exalted above the rest. Therefore, to escape the harsh reality of environmental injustice, a beloved pastime includes not only reading literature but being swept away into the story under the guise of fictional characters. Evidently, this experience is prevalent in Judith Cofer Ortiz’s “Abuela Invents the Zero” and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, where Constancia and Tom Sawyer reflect on their actions that were causing family anguish, disputing whether their pride is worth destroying their loved ones’ confidence. Through similar circumstances, Constancia and Tom realize that to make themselves feel justifiable to others, they must reduce their self-assurance to appreciate others, sooner rather than being outcasted again.
Growing up as a Buddhist Chinese Malaysian in an increasingly Islamic Malay-centric Malaysia, I oftentimes feel like an outsider. Consequently, I was drawn to the outsiders and the social Other in literature during my undergraduate years in NCCU.
With the purpose of understanding why writers write, this essay offers an analysis of the short stories of Shirley Jackson and Gabriel Marquez: “The Lottery” and “The handsomest drowned man in the world” respectively. Both writers perpetuate a contemporary literary genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy. Jackson and Garcia Marquez use symbolism in “the Lottery and “The handsomest drowned man in the world” to explore and communicate their perspective on magical realism through the main themes of the stories, the response to change and the importance of rituals.
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates the personal growth of the dynamic protagonist Louise Mallard, after hearing news of her husband’s death. The third-person narrator telling the story uses deep insight into Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and emotions as she sorts through her feelings after her sister informs her of her husband’s death. During a Character analysis of Louise Mallard, a reader will understand that the delicate Mrs. Mallard transforms her grief into excitement over her newly discovered freedom that leads to her death. As Mrs. Mallard sorts through her grief she realizes the importance of this freedom and the strength that she will be able to do it alone.
Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is the longest play he ever wrote and would take an estimated five hours to perform. Viewing Hamlet alongside Jungian Psychology adds an analysis that cannot be seen otherwise. Cowgil describes Jung’s work as therapy that deals with dreams and fantasies and death. The rising and land of the dead represent the unconscious self and the foreground for collective unconscious theory. This is an unconscious that “[could contain] all the dead, not just our personal ghosts” (Boerre 1). The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes and they contain many different levels: shadow,
Most of us have grown up watching Disney films but never really thought of what they exactly mean to us. Our understanding of what it means to be a Disney princess is probably one of the reasons to what made us subject to the regulation of cultural values. Cinderella and other similar Disney princesses may be recognised as a part of an individual’s childhood but the values and ideas it conveyed can still be reflected in our decisions and behaviour as adults. Many young girls perceive Cinderella as a role model and create expectations and beliefs based on what is portrayed through her unfortunately these expectations are not fulfilled and ends in dissatisfaction. The research paper begins with a brief introduction to Psychoanalytic theory followed by an analysis of the Disney film “Cinderella” which will enable the reader to understand and relate to how the film influences and
Plato once said that “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Outsiders, members of illegitimate societies, are shunned because of limitations and restrictions in society. They tend to gravitate towards the light, but very few complete their journey. In Othello, The Great Gatsby, and The Death of a Salesman, heroic ambitions for acceptance and escape from the darkness are combated by societal expectations, shown through the light, which acts as a lure, towards societal norms and goals. Ironically, however, the tragedies that face all the protagonists are because of the darkness, or secret desires that each character makes to overcome their expectations. Need to say how love and American dream are barriers.
An essential element of William Shakespeare 's comedy Twelfth Night is the theme of self-love i.e. vanity and narcissism. Shakespeare likely set Twelfth Night 's action to occur January 5 and 6, the Eve of Epiphany and the day of Epiphany. During the course of these two days, all of the most important characters experience epiphanies, revelatory moments in which they recognize truths concerning themselves, their vanities and narcissism. Using Sigmund Freud 's work on narcissism, the true nature if the characters of Twelfth Night could be well explored by analyzing the moments of epiphanies.
Despite the human form that mankind takes, monstrous qualities thrive throughout the natures of humanity, creating creatures full of spite and savagery. This malformation in mankind is proved dominant in Elie Wiesel’s autobiography Night, William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, and the painting searching for humanity by John Wentz.
The selections Bless Me, Ultima, The House on Mango Street, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream share the common theme of “People often make illogical decisions against reason when they ambitiously pursue a goal and are blinded from seeing reality.” In Bless Me, Ultima the characters illustrate the struggle which arises from the conflict between their personal dreams and their unseen reality. Likewise, in The House on Mango Street, the main character’s hopes and dreams for the future blinds her from seeing and appreciating her current life. Moreover, in A Midsummer’s Night Dream the characters’ actions demonstrate how love and ambition can blind people from the concerns of others and cause them to make irrational decisions. With common themes binding works of different genres and eras, it is mesmerizing to see how certain life truths do not vary, even over great times and
Intro: We surveyed most of you, asking what first came to mind about the city of Paris. The most common given responses were: the Eiffel Tower, romance, and light. While these things may be true, there is a darker secret hiding under the “City of Light”; the empire of the dead. We plan to put Paris into your nightmares rather than your dreams with the history of the Catacombs, scary myths and legends about the underground labyrinth, and the extent of its existence today.
Works of post-modern literature raise questions about life and the human condition. The questions raised by the author not always answered in the text. Juniot Diaz’s novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is an example of this. In the novel the motif of love and violence raises the question, “How closely aligned is love or the lack of it to violence or madness?” The author provides no clear answer to this question and the questions helps to emphasize the meaning of the work as a whole.
Rita Felski’s view of tragedy being the failure “to master the self and the world” is at the heart of Nella Larsen’s Quicksand and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Both texts are concerned with the incapacity of defining and accepting one’s identity and the characters’ attempts to resolve this identity crisis by isolating themselves. This essay will argue that the fundamental cause for this tragedy is the lack of emotional connection from one’s family, which in turn prohibits one to sympathize with anyone, including oneself.
The story of an Hour Critical Analysis through a Psychological Perspective using both Freud and Lacan’s theory approach.
Radcliffe achieves a dazzling success in Europe. In 1970s, she was the best - selling English novelist. Her gothic novels are widely read, imitated and translated.14 Thomas De Quincey, a critic, called her “ the great enchantress” 15 for her power of enchantment and romantic sensibility in describing her characters and landscapes . Although Horace Walpole was regarded , for at least two centuries in the British culture, as ‘inventor’ of the Gothic literary mode in The Castle of Otranto in late (1764), it is Radcliffe who was considered as the perfector of the form by the late 18th- and early 19th-century critics and literary historians.16 Radcliffe was regarded as the founder of the school of terror in gothic literature , in her unfinished