Essays and Research Papers on American Literature

A 5 page paper which discusses the story "that Evening Sun" by William Faulkner in relationship to the character of Nancy. The paper discusses Nancy's character in general as well as her evident problems. Bibliography lists 2 additional sources.

This 5 page paper examines the idea of a 'quest' within Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Mark Twain's The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. No additional sources are listed.

This 3 page paper argues that the paranoia that the protagonist, Oedipa Maas, experiences is a reasonable reaction to the world that is reflected in the postmodern setting of the sixties as well as the very structure of the story which is based on a series of confusing and somewhat sinister representations of labyrinths. Bibliography lists 3 sources. ...

(5 pp) It is doubtful that the reasons behind the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 can tidily be bundled up in one relative cause. However one influence, that has only recently been suggested is" ergot poisoning," a fungal mutation present on rye grain during certain climatic and land conditions. This paper will ...

(5 pp) What is in the human condition that prompts us to enjoy being scared? Ghost stories at Halloween; escaped criminal stories around the campfire; or creatures rising from the dead, all serve that part of us that tingles with frightening tales. Gothic stories, are, that group of literary works, ...

A 5 page character analysis of the complicated relationship between Hemingway's unrequited lovers. Bibliography lists 6 sources.

"The Scarlet Letter" was first published in 1850, in a time of much more rigid societal standards which exist today. It is a classic, however, because it touches on a number of impropriety which are just as unacceptable today as it was over one hundred and fifty years ago. The most central of ...

This 5 page paper considers the book 'Dawn, Xinogenesis', by E. Octavia, Butler. In this science fiction post nuclear war novel we see the human race 'saved' and reborn by the genetic engineering needs of an alien race, Lilith is the main human, and is seen as a saviour by some and a traitor ...

5 pages in length. Illusion and reality eventually meld into each other by way of Daisy's shallowness in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." The most provocative of all the characters in Fitzgerald's classic tale is that of Daisy Buchanan -- the materialistic, selfish, party-loving woman who puts a price on everything in her ...

(5 pp). On one level this book is about society's dislike for, and eventual destruction of the unrepentant non-conformer. But on another level it is exactly what the story line portrays - a brilliant look at the abuse, oppression and even murderous nature of the modern "mental-health" system. Action plays out through ...

This 5 page paper not only reviews this author's first novel, but looks at the author's life and times to find out where the racism inherent in this work begins. John Grisham's life is discussed and the book is explored in depth. Racism in society is discussed. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

A 6 page paper which presents an examination of the author Harper Lee. Bibliography lists 10 sources.

A 5 page review of the fictional novel depicting the problems faced by sixteen year old Steve Harmon, a black teen being prosecuted for the fatal shooting of a drugstore owner. Recapitulated highlights of the novel and ties the fictional message into the very real societal warning that problems we are currently experiencing in ...

A 5 page paper which compares the portrayal of madness and fear in "Hearts in Atlantis" by Stephen King and "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe. Bibliography lists 4 additional sources.

A 5 page overview of a one-time Marine hero's fictional account of the Vietnam War, from the perspective of young members of a Marine platoon. No additional sources are used.

(4 pp). A narrator, seven centuries down the road tells us of a "manuscript" he has found. "(In it there are not ) errors of fact, but errors of interpretation." Looking back across the seven centuries that have lapsed since Avis Everhard completed her manuscript, events, and the influence of events, that ...

A 14 page paper which presents a book review of Jonathan's Harr's "A Civil Action." The paper presents an overview of the story, an examination of Harr's narrative style, a discussion of the political and social injustices within the story, and then finally a presentation of the aspects in the book which concern human conditions. Bibliography lists 1 additional ...

(5 pp). Bernard Malamud's (1914-1986) first novel, The Natural, an allegory about the rise and fall of a baseball player, was published in 1952. According to Rothstein (1986), it is different from most of his work in that there are no Jewish characters. After the book was made into a movie starring Robert Redford ...

(5 pp) John Ashbery is the only American poet to win all three major annual literary prizes - the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award - for one book Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. This is the book which will play the primary role in this ...

A 5 page overview of the underlying theme of femininity in these two short stories. Suggests that in many ways these depictions vary somewhat from the stereotypical vision of male writers depicting weak and inferior women and female writers presenting a more factually accurate portrait of their female characters. In many ways Poe ...

(6 pp includes 0.5 pp outline) This discussion will examine Machiavelli's statement "The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way, necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous" and its relationship to Robert Penn Warren's novel All the Kings Men (1946), which won the ...

A 5 page paper which examines the themes, symbols, images and characters of each story. No additional sources are used.

A 6 page contention that the story revealed in James Fennimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" is essentially the same as that revealed in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Both authors, although sympathetic to their respective characters plight, tend to employee stereotyping to convey their points which in reality is little different ...

3 pages. in length. In developing the American identity we can best get an idea of how the identity has evolved by looking at the work of several authors. Within their works we can see how America, although comprised of individuals from many other countries, slowly developed its own identity as people let go of the customs and beliefs of ...

A 10 page paper which discusses how Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is still a valid story today. The paper discusses the subject of parenting and abandonment, and of how people often do not take responsibility for their own actions. These are issues that clearly involve mankind, no matter the time period, and as such are valid conditions that make Shelley's ...