Essays and Research Papers on American Literature

This 3 page paper discusses the narrators in “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton and “The Secret Sharer” by Joseph Conrad and argues that they are both unreliable. Bibliography lists 2 sources.

This 5 page paper discusses some of the themes that Mitch Albom and his “old professor” Morrie Schwartz discuss in the book, “Tuesdays with Morrie.” Bibliography lists 1 source.

This 3 page paper argues that in their two essays, Bharati Mukherjee and Amy Tan explore relationships among women, but the label “freak” cannot be applied to any of them. Bibliography lists 2 sources.

A 4 page discussion of the realities of life in the Appalachian coal mines. This paper compares and contrasts three different perspectives of this life. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

A 4 page paper which examines Jay Gatsby’s fantasy of reconnecting with Daisy after years of separation in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. No additional sources cited.

This 3 page paper discusses three of the women in the Vietnam war novel, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. Bibliography lists 5 sources.

This 5 page paper discusses Gore Vidal’s novel “Creation,” a historical fiction about the 5th century B.C. Bibliography lists 3 sources.

A 3 page essay that examines Abraham Cahan’s 1896 novel Yekl, which tells the story of a Jake, a new Jewish immigrant to the United States who was originally from a town in northwestern Russia, where he was known as “Yekl or Yekele” (Cahan). Within the course of Jake’s personal narrative, Cahan addresses several thematic ...

This 7 page paper considers the quotation "Willa Cather believes human relationships are the 'tragic necessity' of human life" with regard to her book "O Pioneers!" Bibliography lists 1 source.

3 pages in length. Reading Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son" provides a brief but powerful image of a how mother's strength is often the single greatest influence in her young boy's life. A mother's insightfulness comes only with experience, which is precisely the way this mother attempts to redirect her troubled son's ...

A 6 page paper which examines marriage, and whether or not it was successfully achieved, in Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, and Henry James’ The Europeans. No additional sources cited.

This 3 page paper discusses Mitch Ablom's book "Tuesdays with Morrie" and how it changes our perceptions of illness and death. Bibliography lists 1 source.

A 3 page essay that analyzes the Hispanic folk tale “Dona Sebastiana.” As pointed out by G.M. Padilla in the introduction to this story, this tale is a “cuentos morales (morality tale),” whose purpose is to “instill a complex religio-social sensibility in young listeners” (Padilla 1501). The purpose of the story is to convey a ...

This 3 page paper discusses what a writer might do to create an additional chapter for the children’s book “Johnny Tremaine.”

A 3 page analysis of three stories from Herman Melville’s The Piazza Tales. The stories examined are The Piazza, The Bell Tower, and Benito Cereno. No additional sources cited.

A 4 page paper which examines the significance of strangers in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral and Joyce Carol Oates Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? Bibliography lists 5 sources.

This 4 page paper compares and contrasts the characters of Hester Prynne and Edna Pontellier. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

This 3 page paper discusses Iris Vinton’s children’s book about Robert E. Lee. It summarized the work and gives a reaction to it. Bibliography lists 1 source.

In twelve pages the analysis of this 1893 American short story includes a discussion of symbolism, traces a literary theme through several works, examines cultural and historical impacts on the story, considers how it portrays the human condition and depiction of female characters. Eight sources are listed in the bibliography.

A 3 page paper which examines symbolism and various elements in Willa Cather’s story Paul’s Case. Bibliography lists 3 sources..

This 5 page paper discusses two very different books about Vietnam: “The Sorrow of War” by Bao Ninh and “The Necessary War” by Michael Lind. Bibliography lists 5 sources.

This 6 page paper uses Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection in his book “The Origin of Species” as a springboard for a discussion of two other stories, “Fifty Cents a Night” by Michael Gold and “Looking for Mr. Green” by Saul Bellow. Using other supporting articles, the paper argues that nature selects the strongest ...

In six pages this paper considers the journeys of protagonists Huck Finn, Nick Carraway, and Duddy Kravitz in the novels by Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Mordecai Richler, comparing their similarities and differences. Six sources are listed in the bibliography.

This 6 page paper argues that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel, “The Great Gatsby,” praises and condemns the American dream at the same time. Bibliography lists 5 sources.

A 3 page paper which examines the theme in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story My Kinsman, Major Molineux. No additional sources cited.