Essays and Research Papers on (All) Literature

A 10 page paper which examines elements in three of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories. The stories are “Indian Camp,” “Soldier’s Home,” and “A Clean Well-Lighted Place.” Bibliography lists 3 additional sources.

This 3 page paper discusses Sherman Alexie’s book for young people, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” and what the illustrations tell about the text. Bibliography lists 1 source.

A 5 page paper which examines the transformation of Jasmine, in the book by Bharati Mukherjee, from Indian village girl to Americanized woman through a discussion of various elements within the novel. No additional sources cited.

A five page paper looking at George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' and Richard Attenborough's film version of Gandhi's life in terms of their approaches to social revolution. The paper observes that Orwell's revolution fails because it is unsuited to the needs of the people it claims to support; Gandhi's succeeds because it is precisely suited to ...

A 5 page paper which argues why this story is most important in understanding Nick’s character and experiences. No additional sources are used.

6 pages in length. Childhood experiences - both good and bad - serve to formulate an individual's lifelong perspectives, judgments and beliefs, all of which ultimately construct his personality. Parents toil especially hard to make sure every situation has an underlying lesson to take away so the child realizes the importance of learning ...

A 4 page paper which examines and characterizes the father/son relationships between Daniel and John Smith and Bird Lawrence and Reggie Polatkin. No additional sources are used.

A 3 page essay/research paper that compares Mary Rowlandson’s seventeenth century captivity narrative to the 1990 film Dances with Wolves. On February 20, 1676, a band of Narragansett Indians attacked the home of Mary Rowlandson as part of an uprising known as King Philip’s War (Wesley 42). Rowlandson and three of her children were taken ...

This is a 5 page paper discussing the process of healing of the character Tayo in the novel “Ceremony” by Leslie Marmon Silko. Through Tayo’s interactions with three of main characters in the novel, namely Ku’oosh, Montano and Betonie, Tayo is able to understand that not only do the white man medicines not work on ...

5 pages in length. The book Ramona is considered to be distinctly in the same genre as that of Uncle Tom's Cabin; a book of propaganda of the nineteenth century. The author, Helen Hunt Jackson, in her enthusiasm to explore the efforts of the Ponca Indians to keep their land in Nebraska, was an established author who had ...

Community is a concept that is difficult to define and harder yet to maintain. This 6 page paper argues that Paule Marshall's book, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People, as the title indicates, incorporates two distinctive themes. The first is represented as The Chosen Place and refers to the political, economic and social schema of the West Indian ...

5 pages. This essay focuses on the social system in Spanish America and how that social system is reflected in the novel Assault on Paradise by Tatiana Lobo. The protagonist, Pedro, has many conflicting thoughts and actions throughout the novel, from his underground resistance days in Seville, Spain, to his love affair with "The Mute" up to his last ...

An 11 page review of Polingaysi Qoyawayma’s “No Turning Back: A Hopi Indian Woman's Struggle to Live in Two Worlds”. This paper investigates the life struggle of a Hopi woman who as a child was one of the first Hopi children ever to be educated in white schools and who as an adult had ...

A 3 essay that contrasts and compares feminist issues in Mary Rowlandson's narrative and Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela. In 1675, Mary Rowlandson's home was attacked by Indians and she was abducted. She later recorded and published a narrative that gave an account of her captivity. Roughly a half-century later, Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela also includes ...

This is a 5 page paper discussing Briton Hammon’s narrative and elements which seem to go against the norms of the time. Briton Hammon’s narrative of his thirteen years at sea seems in many ways to go against the norms of society believed to have existed at that time. Hammon, a slave, was released by ...

In 7 pages the author discusses the topic of heroism in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey. In this novel the story is presented through Chief Broom's (Bromden) eyes. Chief Broom is an Indian that has been receiving so-called treatments of electro-convulsion. The protagonist is Randle Patrick McMurphy. McMurphy ...

A 10 page overview of the book by Tony Hillerman. Contrasts Hillerman’s style of objective journalism which is found in this book with that of his who-done-it mysteries with which we most often associate him. Weaving his unique blend of humor and objective reporting, in “The Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other Indian ...

3 pages in length. Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes' 1937 novel El Indio strives to represent many things at once: political mistreatment, ethnic intolerance and cultural ignorance. While on the surface the story appears as yet another narration with regard to Western European overtaking of Indian land, it is significantly much more than that. ...

A 3 page essay that analyzes Margaret Craven's I Heard the Owl Call My Name (1973). This story concerns a young priest, Mark Brian, whom the reader learns immediately has a terminal disease that will kill him within three years. This information is kept from Mark by his Bishop who sends him to his hardest ...

A 5 page essay that discusses Bharati Mukherjee's provocative novel Jasmine tells the story of an Indian village woman's journey from her life in her native village to life in the United States and how this journey incorporates several transmutations of identity. This journey of self-discovery leads Mukherjee's protagonist from the traditional obligations of her ...

A 7 page paper contrasting James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans with Linda Hogan's Mean Spirit from a historical standpoint. The paper concludes that the reflections of the author's historical period determine the content and tone of the works themselves. Bibliography lists 6 sources.

9 pages in length. A complete review of the Merchant's Tale (from the Canterbury Tales) -- covering an overview of the story, the character of the merchant himself, wording, Chaucer's use of sarcasm, and the Tale's religious implications as well. No Bibliography.

A 6 page paper on the character of the Wife of Bath in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The paper particularly centers around her feminist arguments justifying both her aggressiveness and her sexuality. Bibliography cites 4 sources.

A 5 page essay which examines how Chaucer's expert use of physical description contributed to his characterization of the Wife of Bath. The writer shows how Chaucer's description laid the basis for the Wife's characterization and helped establish her as a cultural icon which has endured for over 600 years. Bibliography lists 2 sources.

A 6 page paper providing a chronicle of women's social and legal status during the period of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The paper looks at two of Chaucer's women in particular -- the Prioress and the Wife of Bath -- examining both their social roles and the way those roles were perceived in their own ...