Essays and Research Papers on (All) Literature

A 3 page paper which examines the theme of military life and training as seen in “Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield. No additional sources cited.

A 3 page paper which examines the communal vision in Kate Chopin’s novel “the Awakening” as it involves human destruction. Bibliography lists 2 additional sources.

A 10 page analysis of short stories in Mary Gaitskill’s “Bad Behavior.” No additional sources cited.

A 3 page analysis of Sandra Cisneros’ short story “Never Marry a Mexican.” No additional sources cited.

A 3 page paper which examines the myth and legend of Antigone. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

A 6 page essay that discusses the short story classic. The writer argues that Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" can be understood as offering a multifaceted reflection of Victorian patriarchal, imperialist sensibilities as a whole. The narrative deals with the journal entries of an unnamed female protagonist, a wife and mother who ...

A 3 page essay that discusses the role of cities as settings in Dante's Inferno. In the notes that accompany the Hollander and Hollander translation of Dante's Inferno, these translators comment that the medieval city provides the "centering image of political life" for Dante's vision of Hell (Hollander and Hollander 56). As this indicates, Dante ...

A 3 page essay-- Alexander Pushkin in his short story "The Queen of Spades," and Juan Rulfo in his novella "Pedro Paramo" both in corporate aspects of the supernatural in order to underscore stories of psychological depth and complexity. In each work, the supernatural aspects of the story is not a primary feature, but rather ...

An 8 page paper which examines the theme or heroism in Eric Newby’s “A Short Walk in the Hindi Kush” and Karen Connelly’s “Touch the Dragon.” Bibliography lists 3 additional sources.

An 11 page paper which compares the autobiographical elements of these novels represented by the protagonists and considers how society’s ills contributed to a youthful loss of innocence in nineteenth-century French and Russian societies. No additional sources are used.

A 6 page essay that looks at T.C. Boyle's novel The Tortilla Curtain and Lawrence Kasdan's film The Grand Canyon, each of which picture male middle-class, white protagonists who undergo a traumatic and life-altering event that has racial overtones. In Boyle's novel, trauma substantiates Delaney's nascent racism into something concrete and compelling, which ...

A 5 page paper which provides examples of possible monologues of the protagonists in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Babylon Revisited,” William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use.” No additional sources cited.

A 3 page essay that discusses the nature of sin in Hawthorne's most famous work. Hester's punishment for adultery--the wearing of the scarlet letter that symbolizes her ostracism from Puritan society--constitutes a principle feature of the narrative. However, beyond this surface meaning of sin equaling adultery, there is a deeper interpretation that indicates Hawthorne's perspective ...

A 4 page essay that discusses the overall framework of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, which features a female protagonist who survives both racism and patriarchy to become a strong, independent woman. Janie Crawford, Hurston's heroine, is first presented as an idealistic, but compliant girl who agrees to marry a man she ...

A 5 page paper which compares and contrasts Desiree, in “Desiree’s Baby” and Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour,” both by Kate Chopin. Bibliography lists 3 additional sources.

This 3 page paper consists of abstracts for two of Ralph Waldo Emerson's essays, "Self-Reliance" and "The American Scholar," and Henry David Thoreau's "Walden." Bibliography lists 5 sources.

A 5 page essay on this Australian novel, which draws heavily on a review by F.C. Molloy (the novel itself is not cited directly). Using this review, the writer develops a thesis for the novel that explains why, despite there being moments of joy and happiness in this novel, the reader ultimately leaves the characters ...

This 7 page paper delves into this novel and looks at how memory functions to look at morality. Several quotes are included. Bibliography lists 2 sources.

This 4 page paper examines the book "The Red Badge of Courage" and the life of its author Stephen Crane. Bibliography lists 5 sources.

A 4 page paper which examines a quote from Homer’s The Odyssey and argues that Odysseus’ words and revenge were justified in his culture. No additional sources cited.

A 4 page paper which examines the humor in John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces.” Bibliography lists 2 sources.

A 3 page paper which examines three aspects of three stories. The stories are “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. No additional sources cited.

A 4 page paper which analyzes the character of Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King as seen through examining the analyses of others. Bibliography lists 10 sources.

This 7 page paper explores Ernest Hemingway's use of rain as a symbol of death in "A Farewell to Arms." Bibliography lists 1 source.

This 3 page paper discusses the function of women in Tayeb Salih's novel "Season of Migration to the North." Bibliography lists 2 sources.