Essays and Research Papers on American Literature

A 5 page essay exploring the novel for class an gender influences on the outcome -- that Bone's mother abandons her raped and abused daughter in favor of the man who raped her. Bibliography lists 1 source.

This 6 page paper discusses the two novels of Nella Larsen: QuickSand and Passing for themes of race and gender. Quotes cited from both texts to support the thesis. Bibliography lists 2 sources.

A 3 page paper which examines the presence of gender issues in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." Bibliography lists 3 sources.

A 4 page paper which examines how education is one of the themes within “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Bibliography lists 3 additional sources.

A 3 page paper which examines the role of education and women in Washington Irving’s story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. No additional sources cited.

This 4 page essay discusses how Donald Barthelme's "The School," Zitkala-Sa's "The School Days of an Indian Girl," and Toni Morrison's "Recitatif" present representations of American education that are quite different but bear the similarity in that in each case, the vision presented is negative and demonstrates deficits in that system. Only the primary sources ...

A 5 page paper which examines the episodes described in Chapters 1 through 22, which contribute to Huck’s education, both formal and in life. No additional sources are used.

This 5 page paper reviews the first five chapters of Dewey's book "Democracy and Education," and answers the question "What is education?" Bibliography lists 2 sources.

A 4 page paper which examines the education, or lack of education, as it relates to a life of crime as seen in the character of Moll in “Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe. No additional sources cited.

A 5 page paper which examines education, as well as philanthropy and political activism in Ralph Ellison’s “The Invisible Man.” No additional sources cited.

This is a 3 page paper that provides an overview of the connection between Brown vs. the Board of Education and To Kill a Mockingbird. Secondary texts are examined to support this claim. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

Various images are identified in this 3 page paper. The paper explains why the various images are used and what it says about the protagonist. Bibliography lists 2 sources.

A 5 page paper which discusses how the character of Emily was severely controlled by the gender conditions inherently possessed in the time period and the region of the South. Mention is made of Judith Fetterly's essay titled "A Rose for "A Rose For Emily." Bibliography lists 4 additional sources.

This 7 page report discusses a short story written by of Sarah Orne Jewett (1849 - 1909) demonstrates her deep connection to the natural world and her understanding of the relationship between humans and their environment and how that relationship has an impact on the self. Upon a first reading of “A White Heron,” ...

To say that gender roles are merely the subjugation of women as 'irrational' would not be true. However, oftentimes women are depicted in literature as irrational and powerless. This 5 page paper explores the characterization of Desiree in Kate Chopin's story of Desiree's Baby; for the grandmother in Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard To Find and ...

A 7 page paper analyzing the reason for the lack of communication between the sexes in three of Hemingway's stories: 'The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,' 'Hills Like White Elephants,' and 'The End of Something.' The paper concludes that the Hemingway code does not give much room for softness, sensitivity, and self-articulation. Bibliography lists ...

A 5 page paper which examines how patriarchal gender relations are depicted in the novel, specifically the way in which gender roles are presented in a way that implicitly benefits men and harm women, and explores what, if any, alternatives to traditional gender relations are proposed. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

In 5 pages the author reviews 'Written on the Body,' which is a novel by Jeanette Winterson. The thing about this book, and the item that makes it different from all the other books in the bookstore, is that the narrator of the story is gender-less. In most books, the reader is given insight ...

This 5 page paper provides a quick definition of inductive and deductive reasoning and then reviews Faulkner's Dry September from the perspective of gender roles, inductively arguing that Dry September presents William Faulkner's criticism of social power systems based on gender through his presentation of Miss Minnie's complacency in a false representation of miscegenation. Bibliography lists 6 sources.

This paper uses Deirdre N. McCloskey’s book “Crossing: A Memoir” to explore the idea that gender can be learned. Bibliography lists 1 source.

In three pages, this paper considers how the social patriarchy of the Victorian era influenced nineteenth-century medical practices as they pertained to women with an examination of the female protagonist in Gilman’s short story with emphasis upon the so-called ‘rest cure’ and ‘neurasthenia.’ Three sources are listed in the bibliography.

5 pages. In numerous stories, novels and media there is very evident gender tension and conflict. In examining this occurrence as it appears in short stories, this paper will look at three examples: Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway; The Catbird Seat, by James Thurber and The Unicorn in the Garden, also by James Thurber. Bibliography lists ...

A 5 page research paper/analysis of gender criticism's interpretation of Kate Chopin's The Awakening. The writer argues that this position, which focuses on lesbian aspects of the novel, does not properly acknowledge the complexity of this psychologically oriented narrative. Bibliography lists 2 sources.

This 4 page paper examines Virginia Woolfe's, "To the Lighthouse" and Graham Swift's, "Waterland" in order to examine the way in which gender conflicts are handled in these works. This paper furthermore provides insight into the basic plot of each story in order to illustrate how the issue of gender manifests in each instance. ...

A five page look at the way tension between the sexes is depicted in James Thurber's two stories "The Catbird Seat" and "The Unicorn in the Garden", as well as in Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants." The paper suggests that Thurber tends to subvert traditional stereotypes about men and women, while Hemingway tends to ...