Essays and Research Papers on American Literature

A 3 page analysis of the character Chief Bromden in Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Bibliography lists 2 additional sources.

A 4 page essay that discusses the structure and message of this classic novel. In Billy Budd, novelist Herman Melville pictures two archetypal characters, his protagonist Billy and Billy's archenemy John Claggart. These two characters are diametrically opposed in their views toward life. Billy accepts everyone at face value, and wants to believe the best ...

A 5 page book review that summarizes and analyzes this novel. William Wallis' novel Hawk (Stone and Scott Publishers, 2006, 141 pages) is the story of small boy Will Falk and how he copes with an abusive father and an ill mother on a farm in the early 1950s. This text is not a coming ...

A 4 page paper which examines if the Da Vinci Code is entertainment of blasphemy. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

A 5 page paper which compares the life of African Americans in Mark Twain’s story of Huckleberry Finn to African Americans today. Bibliography lists 5 sources.

A 6 page paper which examines the theme of nature in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel “The Last of the Mohicans.” No additional sources cited.

A 3 page paper which examines the theme of the grass harp in Truman Capote’s novel “The Grass Harp.” No additional sources cited.

A 3 page paper which examines the themes of guilt, insanity and evil in Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” and “The Cask of Amontillado.” No additional source cited.

This 5 page paper examines Stephen Kinzer's book "All the Shah's Men" with regard to America's foreign entanglements, and asks whether the nation is well served by a policy of effecting regime change in other sovereign nations. It further discusses Kinzer's book with regard to the promises President Truman made in his speech in Mexico ...

A 3 page report on “The Voice of Bugle Ann” by MacKinlay Kantor. No additional sources cited.

This 14 page paper discusses the roles and struggles of women in the novels "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner and "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin. Bibliography lists 18 sources.

This 4 page paper explores the main ideas in Diane Levin's book "Teaching Young Children in Violent Times: Building a Peaceable Classroom." Bibliography lists 2 sources.

A 3 page discussion of self reliance as it is exemplified by the ideologies of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. This paper explores Emerson's "Self Reliance" and Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience". No additional sources are listed.

A 4 page paper which analyzes structure, mood, symbolism, and style in D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rocking Horse Winner” and Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.” No additional sources cited.

A 5 page paper which examines elements of surrealism in Aimee Bender’s short story “The Rememberer.” Bibliography lists 4 sources.

An 8 page essay that focuses on the character of Nick Carraway as the narrative voice in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The writer argues that Nick Carraway, as Gatsby's friend and Daisy's cousin, is the ideal choice for providing the narrative voice of the novel, for a number of reasons. First ...

Novelists frequently take their readers inside the minds of their protagonists, relating their inner-most thoughts and character. To a realist writer, such as Henry James, this sort of storytelling is unrealistic. The realistic novelist in the late nineteenth century felt that their work should hold up a mirror to reality and reflect the world not ...

A 6 page essay that discusses how in her complex novel Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko presents a conceptualization of the Native American process of individualization has being grounded in an acute awareness of humanity's interconnectedness with the environment. The narrative features a protagonist, Tayo, who has been traumatized by his combat experience during World War ...

A 3 page paper which compares and contrasts Shirley Jackson’s stories “The Lottery” and “After You, My Dear Alphonse.” No additional sources cited.

This 4 page paper compares and contrasts "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner's and "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. Bibliography lists 2 sources.

A paper which considers the moral and ethical issues surrounding conscription, with specific reference to the Vietnam draft, and the way that these issues are addressed in O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried. Bibliography lists 7 sources

A 3 page analysis of the short story “The Man with the Lap Dog” by Beth Lordan. No additional sources cited.

A 5 page essay that examines the theme of love and death in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and "Barn Burning." In these stories, Faulkner uses similar themes about love and death. In both stories, the main characters love very deeply, but also feel compelled to cause the death of the person whom they love. ...

A 3 page discussion of Tim O’Brien’s novel “The Things They Carried.” No additional sources cited.

A 6 page paper which summarizes and analyzes three of Kate Chopin’s short stories. The short stories are “The Storm,” “The Story of an Hour,” and “Desiree’s Baby.” No additional sources cited.