Category: Literary Criticism

Psychologist Emma Kenny once said ‘The world is a scary place, knowing how to confront fear is a good thing. Risk and fear are something we need in our childhood.’ While fear can be a scary thing, reading things that may enforce feelings of fear can be essential to a middle schooler. I believe that…

Have you ever said something you shouldnt have? In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the novel tells the story of two young children coming of age, with this being said, the key to maturity is controlling your emotions. Jem showed this throughout the novel as he started to grow up and…

Social Hierarchy has existed for decades. The societal construct based hierarchy places people into categories defined by their financial standing across a scale, ranging from upper class down to the poverty level. The upper and lower class are often segregated, living in different parts of town and having different experiences due to the opposite lifestyles…

During the Elizabethan era, men and women had distinct and varying roles that disempowered the female gender. This is challenged in William Shakespeares Elizabethan theatrical performance A Midsummer Night’s Dream. During this context, a woman was required to be obedient to the male figures in her life, specifically her husband and father. Contrastingly, men were…

Introduction: Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar explores the downfall of a great leader, highlighting the consequences of pride and unchecked ambition. Julius Caesar, the titular character, possesses a tragic flaw that ultimately leads to his demise. This essay critically examines Caesar’s tragic flaw, its manifestation throughout the play, and its significance in shaping the tragic events…

When in war different variables lead a soldier to remain in a mentality that is unmistakably filled with uneasiness and fear. Whether it be the fear of death or being seen as prey by the opposing side, the final subject on ones mind is the gear they carry with them. Within the novel The Things…

Although OBrien is unclear about whether or not he actually threw a grenade and killed a man outside My Khe, his memory of the mans corpse is strong and recurring, symbolizing humanitys guilt over wars horrible acts. In The Man I Killed, OBrien distances himself from the memory by speaking in the third person and…

In countries all across the globe, you can see disputes between political powers, causing the health and general wellbeing of the rest of the population to be offset, or cause it to differentiate in some way. William Golding saw this when he marched into Nazi Germany. He saw an entire population allowing the mistreatment of…

The Visit, written by Fredrich Dürrenmatt shortly after World War II, in 1956, depicts the life and death of the protagonist, Alfred Ill. Ill is Güllen’s most respected citizen and is soon to be given the title of major. However, Ill’s future is quickly altered by Claire Zachanassian’s Visit to the impoverished town. Claire used…

Dylan Thomas’ Do not go Gentle into that good Night is a Villanelle, a nineteen-line poem in a set format, it is an old French format, first written in 1606 by Jean Passerat. The structure is severe with two lines being repeated at the end of alternate stanzas and then making up the final two…