The American 1920s in "To Kill A Mockingbird" The twenties and thirties in America presented many problems for the black community all around the nation. They still were not provided the same rights as the white race - they still had no right to vote and were unable to use the same facilities as whites (transportation, restaurants, restrooms, etc.). They were also subject to racial slurs and were often punished severely for crimes that a white could get away with and receive nothing more than...

Lord Of The Flies: Can Someone Be Innately Evil Or Innately Good? The difference in the way humans perceive things is part of the complexity of mankind. What is thought of as evil to one person can be seen as good to another, and vice versa. The issue of good and evil is brought up in William Golding's Lord of the Flies, when innocent boys are set on an island to bear the weight of society on their backs. What happens to them? How do past influences effect them? Are their actions good or...

The Catcher in the Rye: An Innocence Lost The Catcher in the Rye is a book by J. D. Salinger and the story of a boy named Holden Caufield. He is no longer innocent, but exposed to the world. Phoebe, Holden's sister, is the opposite she is quite the innocent, never really being exposed to the world outside her protective bubble. Holden wants to protect such precious innocence only found in the children as a guardian of the innocent a catcher in the rye. The Catcher in the Rye is...

Soliloquies As Tool For Character Development Shakespeare's Hamlet, simply stated, is a story in which the main character, young Hamlet, is on a mission to avenge the death of his father, which he realizes was caused by the hand of his uncle. The majority of the play is centered around Hamlet’s vengeance and the pain and suffering caused by it. From the moment Hamlet learns of his father’s untimely demise he puts on an air of insanity as a clever device used to secretly execute...

The Broken Chain, by MFK, Child Abuse Essay There has always been a fine line between discipline and child abuse. What a parent thinks is right may not always be what is healthy for a child. “The Broken Chain,” by M.F.K. fisher is an essay about a young girls history of child abuse. Though many people feel that disciplining a child physically is acceptable, abuse is abuse! In “The Broken Chain,” M.F.K. Fisher feels she wasn’t abused as a child. She saw being...

In Ann Radcliffe's "The Italian", the very first thing that we see described is a veiled woman: "It was in the church of San Lorenzo at Naples, in the year 1758, that Vincentio di Vivaldi first saw Ellena di Rosalba. The sweetness and fine expression of her voice attracted his attention to her figure, which had a distinguished air of delicacy and grace; but her face was concealed in her veil. So much was he fascinated by the voice, that a most painful curiosity was excited as to her...

The Stranger Albert Camus in his book, The Stranger leaves much to the reader’s imagination in terms of the message that is portrayed by the various elements of the book, especially by the thoughts and words of the mysterious and dismal main character. Moreover, many meanings can be derived according to the feelings that emerge within the reader through his/her experience with the book. Despite the fact that The Stranger left me with depressive feelings of despair and gloom, the...

Critical Analysis of Selige Sehnsucht Although it is virtually impossible to determine the exact intended meaning behind Johann Wolfgang von Goethe words in Selige Sehnsucht, published in 1806, attempting to interpret them provides an avenue for critical thinking as well as opens up a vast number of possibilities for interpretation, a number only as finite as the number of readers and their dispositions as they read this poem. Like many classic poems, Goethe’s Selige Sehnsucht is rich...

Pride can be Fatal in Literature There are many critical mistakes that one can make that have the potential to ruin your life, or possibly take your life. Both William Shakespeare and Sophocles both portray their protagonist’s character flaws through the critical mistakes they make in their plays Othello and Antigone. In Shakespeare’s play, Othello is a noble general who is well-respected by everyone around him. He is happily married to Desdemona. In Sophocles’ play,...

Analysis of the Narrative of Fredrick Douglas The book opens describing an almost blurring view of Douglas’ past. It tells of his family’s separation, and how life on the farm was not based on families, but on groups that could come and go with the blink of an eye. This is different than the views that are often given. Life as a slave was different than one may think, slaveholders felt that the slaves needed to be kept in line, and shouldn’t be given even a slight...