Protagonist Essays (Examples)

Protagonist's Progressions the Novel Since

The other characters in the novel are also used very effectively to illustrate the growing self-awareness of each of these characters. In Emma, the characters of Mr. Knightley and Harriet Smith are especially important in this regard. Emma's misguided attempts to find a "suitable" husband for Harriet make her own prejudices and weaknesses of mind and spirit very clear (Austen, 1815). The great irony of the novel occurs when Emma, who has considered herself outside the possibility of marriage, learns that Harriet has set her eyes on Mr. Knightley, and realizes that she herself is in love with him (Austen, 1815). In Huckleberry Finn, Huck's transformation would be almost impossible to observe without the appearance of many famous characters, including the King and Duke, the Widow Douglas, Aunt Sally, and of course Tom Sawyer, just to name a few.

Tom especially reveals the extent of Huck's character change from the…… [Read More]

Protagonist Antagonist Short Story Called Killings Andre

protagonist antagonist short story called "Killings" Andre Dubus

It is difficult to defend the position that the protagonist and antagonist of Adre Dubus' short story "Killings," Matt and Strout, are alike in any sort of way. Virtually the only similarity they have is their mutual admiration and appreciation for the way that Strout's ex-wife, Mary Ann, looks. Nonetheless, both of these men are fathers and they are both murderers. Still, a prolonged analysis of Dubus' tale reveals the fact that there are significantly greater differences between these two than there are similarities.

One of the more pronounced differences between the two is the way that they go about carrying out their respective murders. Strout is much more reckless in doing so. He kills Matt's son Frank in broad daylight, in front of a plethora of witnesses (including his children and his ex-wife), almost as though he has no disdain for…… [Read More]

Protagonist Is Portrayed as a Victim of

protagonist is portrayed as a victim of circumstance andsomeone who has the ability to control his or her own life.

The character of Santiago Nasar in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" is provided with little attention when considering the fact that he is unable to express his perspective regarding the circumstances of his death. It is difficult to determine whether or not he has a say in this because the narrator is unclear concerning the man's relationship with Angela Vicario. One might be inclined to consider that he is, in fact responsible for his death because he took Angela's virginity even though he was familiar with traditions in his town.

The fact that the narrator provides no information concerning the moment when Santiago deflowered Angela makes it difficult for readers to assess the man's condition and his culpability. In spite of the fact that he is a…… [Read More]

Protagonist of the Book The Scarlet Letter

protagonist of the book "The Scarlet letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in one of the most painful but meaningful moments of her life. The woman we get acquainted with is "characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate evanescent and indescribable grace which is now recognized as its indication" (Chapter 2).

Hester Prynne is in an ignominious state, after having been proved to have committed adultery and is waiting for the sentence, standing before the crowd, holding her four-month-old baby in her arms. We are told that she was married to an elderly scholar who sent her to America two years ago and did not come to join her since.

At the beginning of the book we meet her going through one of the most horrible experiences a woman could go through: being exposed in the public with the living proof of her adultery in her arms,…… [Read More]

Prospero A Dark Protagonist the

This is a point that many critics miss. One cannot decide if Prospero is a protagonist or antagonistic based on his actions. Neither can we determine whether Caliban is a victim or a foe. Shakespeare raises a very important social question for people of the enaissance, one that is still valid today, "Should we forgive the actions of those less fortunate than ourselves, simply due to their handicap?" As the play progresses, the audience shifts their opinions back and forth about Caliban as a foe or a victim of Prospero's harassment. They must constantly struggle with whether Prospero is only protecting himself and his daughter from an evil villain, or whether he is himself a "bully" picking on one who is less fortunate.

Shakespeare wished to make the audience uncomfortable and create an inner struggle in them. He engaged that audience as a participant in the play, rather than as…… [Read More]

Winston Smith the Protagonist in

Likewise, the Nazis also employed state agents and encouraged citizens to inform on one another to the authorities for speaking out against the Nazi regime. Obviously, the author wrote the work as a caution about the intrusion of the state into the psychological autonomy of the individual. In the West, that type of state domination is not an issue in contemporary society. On the other hand, there are very recent reports of North Korean citizens being arrested and sent to re-education camps for failing to mourn the death of Kim Jong-Il "sincerely enough" suggests that Orwell's concerns are still legitimate in other parts of the world. Even in Western society, there are questions about the objectivity of news media and the degree of influence that business entities have on government.

The main issue in All Quiet on the Western Front is still a problem in contemporary society. Throughout the second…… [Read More]

Lean on Me the Protagonist of Lean

Lean on Me

The protagonist of Lean on Me is Joe Clark, an African-American male in his early forties. The film, based on a true story, shows how Clark, played by actor Morgan Freeman, used unorthodox methods to bring about much-needed change at Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey. Although Clark is in almost every scene in the film, the audience sees only the professional side of this character. We learn nothing about his religion, marital status, or living situation. With respect to educational level, we know he must have at least a bachelor's degree to teach in the public school system and at least a master's to be a principal. Clark is extremely articulate and speaks formally at times, using vocabulary designed to emphasize his status as both educated and an educator.

The film opening is set at Eastside High in 1967. Clark is in front of a…… [Read More]

Welty and Hughes the Protagonists of Both

elty and Hughes

The protagonists of both Eudora elty's short story "A orn Path" and Langston Hughes "The Negro oman" are elderly African-American woman who sacrifice themselves in order that their offspring will have better lives. elty writes a touching story about a woman who everyone rebuffs because of how she looks and dresses, but who is so much stronger than all those who would ridicule her. Even with all the odds stacked against her, Phoenix Jackson holds out hope that her efforts will eventually pay off and her grandson will be well again. Hughes's narrator, on the other hand, is angry at her suffering and warning those who live freely now not to forget her and her misery. On the surface, the stories are about an old woman making a very long journey on foot through the south in order to get medicine for her ailing grandson and one…… [Read More]

Human Agency Kate Chopin's Protagonist

In prison, Malcolm X learned how to direct his will, his human agency, towards personal empowerment. Personal empowerment and self-education led to his forging ties with powerful Black leaders. Therefore, Malcolm X presents human agency as being instrumental to creating positive social change. As the author points out, genuine anger was transmuted into the ultimate goal of achieving universal human rights.

Universal human rights was also the main concern of .E.B. DuBois, as Garth E. Pauley points out. .E.B. DuBois was keenly aware of the devastating fact that many who supported the 14th and 15th Amendments were also willing to denigrate women. It was as if Americans felt the need to distinguish between racism and sexism. Supporters of the 14th and 15th Amendments held backwards views about women, and were willing to accept the outlandish notion that women were incapable of voting. Excluding fifty percent of the population from political…… [Read More]

Sympathy Toward Skeeter as the Protagonist of

sympathy toward Skeeter as the protagonist of the story, because she is caught between two worlds. She is desperately and earnestly attempting to understand the world of the African-American maids that have helped her. Her loe of Constantine drives her to understand, and to possibly help by writing her book. Her sincerity is what makes me most sympathetic toward her. At the same time, it is easy to relate to Minny. Minny's anger and resentment is understandable given her situation and what her family and friends have been through, and therefore necessary for engendering the reader's sympathy for the underclass African-Americans.

Hilly is a character who is easy to dislike but she is also a fairly one-dimensional character. There is no sense that Hilly has a conscience at all, and maybe she does not. She has an abrasive personality that represents the worst of American culture. There is no other…… [Read More]

comparing the protagonists in chopin and'steinbeck

Elisa Allen is the protagonist of John Steinbeck's short story “The Chrysanthemums,” and Louise Mallard is the protagonist of Kate Chopin's “The Story of An Hour.” Both Elisa and Louise are products of their social and historical contexts, particularly when it comes to gender norms. Elisa and Louise are passive protagonists, because patriarchy has stripped them of political agency. By creating passive protagonists in their respective short stories, Steinbeck and Chopin make powerful social commentary about the role of women in their private and public lives.

Both Elisa and Louise feel stuck in their marriage, but perceive liberation as impossible within the confines of their culture. In both short stories, nature symbolizes wasted potential. For example, Elisa is capable of so much more than gardening: "The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy," (Steinbeck). Similarly, Louise realizes that she has wasted her life when she sees nature…… [Read More]

Kitchen God the Main Protagonists

..I ask you, isn't that fate meant to be?" Now, Pearl realizes that Winnie's fatalism is not all negative. That, too, she has not understood about her mother and what keeps her going. Pearl recognizes the strength never left her mother. For the sake of her daughter, she kept on going. Her greatest fault: becoming disillusioned with life. But now, she can perhaps work on those feelings, because she will not be bearing them alone. She will also have Pearl's strength to help her as she becomes older.

As she tells Pearl her life story, Winnie feels so much weight being lifted off her shoulders. She first apologizes for not having told Pearl about how her grandmother abandoned her six-year-old daughter. This has to be the most difficult thing for Winnie to talk about, since she, like Pearl, did not want to admit things to herself that were too hurtful.…… [Read More]

Arrogance in Hawthorne S Male Protagonists

Minister's Black Veil" and "The Birth-mark:" Hubris

Many of Nathaniel Hawthorne's works are seen as a critique of Puritan ideology and the dangers of having a judgmental attitude. "The Minister's Black Veil" illustrates the Reverend Hooper's vindictive and narrow-minded attitude not to others but to himself. He punishes himself in perpetuity for some unnamed sin although at the end of his life, right before his death, he proclaims that all human beings wear a black veil of sin, not just himself. "The Birth-mark," in contrast, depicts the dangerous overconfidence of a scientist who is certain that he can render God's creation better than God himself in his attempts to change his wife's appearance. But while Aylmer's actions are more obviously arrogant, both men are essentially acting as judge and jury over others on earth, rather than leaving that judgment to God himself.

At the beginning of "The Birthmark," Aylmer's quest…… [Read More]

Extra-Credit Questions on Readings There Are Different

Extra-Credit Questions

Questions on Readings

There are different kinds of peril that a person can find himself (in this case) in, and Macready and Macon Detornay find themselves embedded in several of them, in large measure because of their own actions, including their own attitudes about the position that they hold in the world in which they spend their lives. Detornay is more clearly culpable for the problems in which he finds himself because these are dangers into which he places himself. Lacking what he perceives to be an authentic life, he casts off the superficial markers of the community in which he has been raised and to which his life has accommodated him, he pretends that he can live a more authentic life by becoming what he sees as an urban black. Not only does this place him at occasional physical risk but on a consistent basis in moral…… [Read More]

Chinese Wuxia Prompt 2 the

Indeed, the trajectory of the narrative involves exacting revenge on those who prevented her marriage from taking place.

Although the Bride's marital aspirations might suggest that she holds a conservative sensibility, this is far from the case and she is ultimately more aggressive than Jen. While Jen also exhibits physical prowess, her sacrificial gesture at the film's conclusion signifies how she maintains a strong reverence for the Confucian moral code, assimilating her within the wuxia genre. Physically, the Bride resembles a dominatrix; she is taller than many of the characters and fights in a relentlessly savage manner (even going so far as to bite her adversary in one scene.) in contrast, Jen is more diminutive and her face and eyes are softer and less predatory. Where the Bride looks much more imposing than an average person, Jen has an average size that is not dissimilar from the other characters. Indeed,…… [Read More]

Modern Heroine

Heroine

If there is anything that we as a society love deeply…it's a hero. Both children and adults alike are drawn to heroes in both reality and fantasy. Children grow up being regaled by stories of the prince saving the princess and adults beam over happy endings in movies where the hero saves the day. Most people would describe the role as hero as someone, who defies the odds, is a champion for the people, and who physically or possibility even emotionally or spiritually rescues others. A hero may even possess unconventional ethics and approaches, but the constant is that a hero looks out for the greater good of others, particularly the minority whose voices have been silenced by the majority. This paper will provide a subjective definition of a "modern heroine" as well as present a discussion of an protagonist I deem a hero in Alice alker's novel "The…… [Read More]

Exile Literary Characters in Exile Can Be

Exile

Literary Characters in Exile

Exile can be the self-imposed banishment from one's home or given as a form of punishment. The end result of exile is solitude. Exile affords those in it for infinite reflection of themselves, their choices, and their lives in general. Three prominent literary characters experience exile as part of the overall narrative and in that, reveal a great deal about themselves to themselves as well as to the readers. The three narratives in questions are "The Epic of Gilgamesh," "The Tempest," and "Things Fall Apart." All of the main characters of these narratives experience exile as a result of actions taken by the protagonists at earlier points in the story. The protagonist in each respective story are exiled because of their choices and the exile forces each character to face consequences that ultimately bring their inner character to the surface in a more direct manner…… [Read More]

Desire to Enjoy the Sexual

As in the first story, culture is not just a sub-theme; it is defined in the setting, in the conflict, in the characters and the tone of the story. In this case it involves leaving one culture (low income) and joining the high-tone community of wealth. Mrs. Jordan did not have to start suckling babies for a living, although when her son Leo, her own flesh and blood, becomes wealthy, and shuns his mother. Leo leaves his poor mother just a thousand shillings a month for her subsistence. It is obvious that Leo -- due to his rise into the cultural stratosphere of great wealth -- has become aloof, selfish, and lost his interest in family matters, or perhaps his humanity per se; he's been giving his aging mother a thousand shillings for twenty years without a raise to cover inflation. Notwithstanding the shabby treatment, Mrs. Jordan is in denial…… [Read More]

Beaux Stratagem

Beaux Strategem by George Farquhar is about two greedy and recently broke men who plan to seduce heiresses to steal their fortune. The main characters are Aimwell and Archer who pose as a well-to-do gentleman and his manservant. The cast of characters include: Aimwell, Archer, Count Bellair a French officer, prisoner at Litchfield, Sullen a country blockhead, brutal to his wife, Freeman a gentleman from London, Foigard a priest, chaplain to the French officers, Gibbet a high-way-man, Houslow, his companions, Bagshot, Boniface the landlord of the inn, Scrub a servant to Mr. Sullen, Lady Bountiful an old civil country gentlewoman, that cures all her neighbours of all distemper, Dorinda Lady Bountiful's daughter, Mrs. Sullen her daughter-in-law, Gipsy maid to the ladies. The 2013 production is directed by Adam Simon and keeps quick pace and crisp dialogue to allow this latest production breathe new life to a 200+ year old play.…… [Read More]

Fantastic Literature Todorov Revised Fantastic Literature in

Fantastic Literature

Todorov revised

FANTASTIC LITEATUE IN "THE DEAD LOVE"

The hesitation of characters when confronted with questions of reality is clearly depicted in The Dead Lover and becomes the driving force of the plot through the experiences of the protagonist omuald as recounted by him at the age of sixty-six. The hesitation of omuald to confront the question of which of his experiences -- the ones as the priest or the one as Seignior omuald of Venice -- are real forms the basis of much of the plot. This hesitation is built into the constitution and personality of the protagonist as he is a young priest recently ordained and is not mature enough to deal with the temptations of the world that he comes across for the first time since his education in a cloistered environment is complete.

omuald's Hesitation to Accept the eality of his Vocation

The plot…… [Read More]

Motif in How to Date a Browngirl a Blackgril Whitegirl or Halfie

stapled) analyzing: Focus main character/protagonist/Narrator

The primary motif that drives the action in Junot Diaz's short story, "How to Date a Browngirl, a Blackgril, Whitegirl, or Halfie" is the concept of race. This fact is certainly suggested by the title of this narrative, and is one of the central concerns of the protagonist, a young man only referred to as Yunior. Like most young men of school age who live with their parents, Yunior desires physical intimacy with a girl -- as much as possible, in fact, during an evening's date. However, the author is deliberately ambiguous as to whether or not Yunior achieves his objective, by composing the narrative as a set of directives that do not include a definite "ending" in the sense that most short stories have. Yet it is quite obvious that everything in this short story (aside from Yunior's objective) -- such as what factors…… [Read More]

How the Character Development Relates to Larger Theme in the Work

Character Development in Sula

"the friendship was as intense as it was sudden. They found relief in each other's personality."

~from Sula, "1922"

Toni Morrison is an African-American, female author with a well-respected and known reputation among literary and academic circles. The main characters of her novels often are African-American women caught in normative, yet arduous life circumstances. Her novel, Sula, will be the focus of this paper written by this prolific author who has, among the many accolades of her career, was nominated for the National Book Award for Sula, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature for Beloved. The primary characters of the novel belong to the Peace family, who live in a mostly black neighborhood called The Bottom, in Ohio. The novel traverses several decades in this town and in the lives of a number of the inhabitants. While Sula is the main character (protagonist) in the…… [Read More]

Junot Diaz's Drown Is a

On a wider scale, the struggle of these immigrants would be familiar to many immigrants around the country. Many of them come to this country to contribute their talents and ideas. On a personal note, for example, my girlfriend's father Farouk is a West Indian immigrant from Trinidad & Tabago. After years of taking night classes, he earned his associate's degree in Electrical Enginnering. Today, Farouk is an engineer working with EMC. He is earning a good salary and holds seven patents with EMC.

Diaz's stories are an argument for keeping the American Dream open, for Farouk, for his characters and for the vast majority of immigrants who choose to come to the United States. After all, much of the progress of this country stems from its historical openness to immigrants. Thus, to safeguard the American Dream means to keep its ideals open to all.

eferences

Diaz, Junot. Drown. New…… [Read More]

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni the Disappearance

find me a quiet, pretty girl, he wrote, not brash, like Calcutta girls are nowadays, not with too many western ideas. Someone who would be relieved to have her husband make the major decisions. But she had to be smart, at least a year of college, someone he could introduce to his friends with pride (Divakaruni).

This quotation shows how superficial and self-absorbed the narrator is. He does not desire an equal, or even someone he is compatible with. He wants a mate who will not oppose him ("quiet"), traditional, and who will not embarrass him in front of his friends due to an inferior intellect. This "pride" the author has referenced is truly the downfall of the narrator, who proves extremely dull-witted for believing if a woman can fulfill those limited requirements denoted in this quotation that she will love him, or stay with him. This quote also proves…… [Read More]

Characters and the Way They

y the final chapter, although Huck has come to like Silas and Sally, he knows that they are still a part of the society he has come to distrust and fear so, before the dust from his adventures is fully settled he is already planning to detach himself again:" but I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before" (chapter 43, Electronic text center, University of Virginia Library).

In Austen's novel the theme is to show the violation of the moral and social codes and its disastrous results in a humored way. While human follies and stupidities lead to the violation of the code and only the self-knowledge can prevent the human error, Jane Austen's main theme becomes to know yourself. Through self-analysis Emma changes…… [Read More]

Woman Who Has the Qualities

This meant that men held positions of power and authority in all the public spheres including economics/business, politics/the law, and the bearing of arms. Men also possessed social status that women did not have, enabling the perpetuation of a patriarchal society.

y applying Freudian psychoanalysis and feminist theory, I will analyze the personality of the independent, strong, risk taker, and smart Alexandra ergson in Willa Cather's O Pioneer! As Smith points out in Freud's Philosophy of the Unconscious, the psychoanalytic model lends insight into the underlying psychic forces promoting personal and collective change. With regards to a singular female like Alexandra ergson, psychoanalysis takes into account the protagonist's family background, tracing her ego development across the course of her lifetime starting with childhood. The significance of my research is that it studies the possibility of female's success in life under certain circumstances and refutes the outmoded opinion that suggests the…… [Read More]

Tom Shulich Coltishhum a Comparative Study on

Tom Shulich ("ColtishHum")

A comparative study on the theme of fascination with and repulsion from Otherness in Song of Kali by Dan Simmons and in the City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre

ABSACT

In this chapter, I examine similarities and differences between The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre (1985) and Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (1985) with regard to the themes of the Western journalistic observer of the Oriental Other, and the fascination-repulsion that inspires the Occidental spatial imaginary of Calcutta. By comparing and contrasting these two popular novels, both describing white men's journey into the space of the Other, the chapter seeks to achieve a two-fold objective: (a) to provide insight into the authors with respect to alterity (otherness), and (b) to examine the discursive practices of these novels in terms of contrasting spatial metaphors of Calcutta as "The City of Dreadful Night" or "The City of…… [Read More]

Huckleberry Finn Emma Woodhouse and

sher, Emma, Huck Finn, they all have a mentor at some point in their lives. Huck is guided by Jim, who although described like a child who needs constant guidance (like all the slaves were thought to be in that time), is often sounding like the voice of reason. sher is helped to follow his love for art by his mother first, then the Rebbe steps in and brings him under the guidance of Jakob Kahn, an experienced and famous artist who will act as his final mentor.

The protagonists in all three novels are very strong willed, intelligent young people who are willing to sacrifice a lot for their personal freedom and for their right to remain true to themselves. They are prepared to go a long way to find their vocation or the meaning of their life. lthough acting in their own interested, they are also dedicated to…… [Read More]

Families in Fiction Family Plays

His new wife wants to be Yuki's friend, but essentially, Yuki misses her mother and the loving relationship they had, and she is very unhappy. Her mother is portrayed as loving but weak and fragile, while her father and stepmother worry more about what other people will think than they do about Yuki. They also do not let her visit her mother's family as often as she would like, and that bothers her. Essentially, she grows up without love after her mother dies, and she has to come to terms not only with losing her mother but also with her own maturity and dreams for the future.

Two of these protagonists are immigrants, and they are all caught between two different worlds. How they react and how they manage to combine their cultures is the central point of all these books. Their families all hang on to their home culture,…… [Read More]

Chinatown Roman Polanski's Chinatown Roman

Claude Mulvihill could also be a major subplot character. His confrontation with Gittes leads to Gittes getting his nose slashed.

Ida Sessions, the woman who was hired to play Evelyn in the beginning of the film, would be considered a supporting character in Chinatown. She does not play a major role in the narrative, but she is there at key moments (it is her clues, for example, that allow Gittes to pursue the water scandal.) Walsh and Duffy, Gittes's partners, are also "helping characters" in this respect.

Part Four

With a film as complex in its plot as Chinatown, it certainly helps to reconstruct events chronologically when evaluating the plot of the movie.

As Chinatown is essentially a detective movie, there are numerous clues dropped throughout the movie that the viewer is expected to pick up on and draw inferences out of. One example is the fact that Gittes, who…… [Read More]

Short Film Review

Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf filmmaker Susan Yousseff presents the self and subjectivity of Marjoun, a young Muslim woman and daughter of immigrants. I will speak of Marjoun as though she were a case scenario. Marjoun in depicting her own self as the protagonist is dependent upon the headscarf of the film's title, a hijab which she insists on wearing even indoors (to her mother's derision) and which becomes a crucial symbol at the climax of the story, but which overall represents her own greater outward religious observance in front of her parents.

Marjoun's mother and father are in conflict with Marjoun and her vision of herself in crucial ways. Marjoun's ostentatious religious display of wearing her hijab indoors -- which her mother criticizes -- mostly bewilders her mother and sister, who seem more assimilated than Marjoun. Yet Marjoun's father is in conflict with that observant Muslim woman's commitment to…… [Read More]

Classic Works of Literature and

In the morning when he saw first his footman, then his wife, then his daughter, and then the doctor, their every word and movement confirmed to him the awful truth that had been revealed to him during the night. In them he saw himself -- all that for which he had lived -- and saw clearly that it was not real at all, but a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death. This consciousness intensified his physical suffering tenfold. He groaned and tossed about, and pulled at his clothing which choked and stifled him. And he hated them on that account (Tolstoy, 1981)."

The above passage is a common theme to many as they pass through the acceptance of the inevitable, death.

In Hesse's work however,. The protagonist is not a boring quiet average Joe as Ivan appeared to be. In this work, Siddhartha, is a…… [Read More]

Instant He Knew He Ceased to Know

instant he knew, he ceased to know.

hroughout the history of literature, authors have used their works to underscore beliefs that they hold dear. his can happen whether the work is fiction, non-fiction or a combination of both. he work of the author can illustrate a point by using obvious comparisons and angles or it can use a more subtle approach such as metaphors or other methods of illustration.

Even when the work is fiction, often times the true feelings and beliefs of the author are interlaced throughout the story. When someone writes a story their life experiences and events come into play even if it is on a subconscious level.

Jack London was an author whose work was originally taken at face value and it was only after his death that the world began to analyze and see the underpinnings of his meanings. He wrote books about things he…… [Read More]

Arthur Miller the Tragic Existence

Willy suffers from the consequences of the internal and external conflicts in his life. One of the antagonists in this story is the false promise of the American Dream, not another person per se. Willy is unable to become rich and show his family his own worth through material possessions, despite his hard work and perseverance, which is a conflict to him because he believed that would happen. He believes that the company he has been employed by for decades will promote him, but instead he is fired. He has worked hard and struggled to provide for his family, yet his sons reject him. Willy learns that the truths he has believed in life are actually false promises. These conflicts are all caused by the antagonist of the play, and losing his job and income and therefore perceiving himself to have let everyone, including himself, down are his external conflicts.…… [Read More]

Willa Cather's O Pioneer

The psychological strength of Alexandra is clearly visible when her dying father entrusts her with the family's land. According to father, she is supposed to be take care of the family's estates when he dies. The father seems to have developed more confidence in Alexandra in comparison to her other brothers, Lou and Oscar. It is for this reason that he makes a will stating that the Alexandra would be the caretaker of the family's estates once he dies. Surprisingly, the father's trust in her seems to pay-off when she manages to preserve the land three years after his death during a famine (Freud 23-25). The great strength of the female character is demonstrated in this portion of the story when she manages to intellectually apply her abilities to preserve the family's estates. The crafting of this character by the author to exhibit great personality to earn the trust of…… [Read More]

Tis a Pity She's a Whore by John's Ford

Tis Pity She's a hore

Genre: hat is the Genre of the Play? How did it exhibit the characteristics of a tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, or melodrama?

Tis Pity She's a hore is an example of a tragedy play. It is clear that it is a tragedy because the two main characters Giovanni and Anabella have an incestuous sexual relationship which results in their deaths as well as the deaths of many others.

Plot: How did the plot work? here in the play did the exposition occur? here was the climax? here was the crisis? hat instances of foreshadowing, discovery, and reversal are present? as the plot a significant part of the play? hy?

The plot of the play is that two people, a brother and sister fall in love and have a sexual relationship. She is forced to marry because she is pregnant which is the crisis because she cannot…… [Read More]

Female Ways of Identity Shaping

" Emecheta uses metaphors, similes and allusions with appropriate timing and tone in this book, and the image of a puppet certainly brings to mind a person being controlled, manipulated, made to comply instantly with any movement of the controlling hand. In this case Ego seems at the end of her rope -- the puppet has fallen nearly to the floor and is dangling helplessly.

The Emecheta images and metaphors are sometimes obvious, as this one is, but always effective. The reader is clearly aware of Ego's initial identity, and Ego's swift feet of lightness and intensity running in the misty darkness, presents a fluid sensation -- a hoped for escape. She is running towards a new identity and when she hits the gravel road the color is of blood and water and she runs like this will be her duty forever, like someone is following her. The image of…… [Read More]

Huckleberry Finn Emma My Name

Huckleberry Finn's violent, alcoholic father, after Finn escapes from the Widow, is an extremely negative paternal force of socialization. Finn, rather than be integrated into society like Emma, must leave society and find his own values, rather than the hypocritical values imposed upon him by others. The most fundamental of these values are his friendship with Jim, an escaped Black slave, who is his truest friend in the novel. Jim follows Huckleberry Finn everywhere, and Finn saves his life on several occasions by lying. Huck feels guilty because he has been taught this is 'stealing' another person's property, because Jim is 'owned' but Huck's natural humanity tells him otherwise. Unlike Emma's natural, ungoverned impulses, which led her to play with the fates of others, Huck's natural inclinations are the best part of his character, unlike his friend Tom Sawyer who is more socialized in morals and books (the sort of…… [Read More]

Emma Bovary and Dorothea Casubon

Madam Bovary & Middlemarch

Emma and Dorothea

Considering the degree of bitter social commentary involved in the two novels in question, it seems obvious that both authors used female protagonists because the issues of the respective societies addressed would be most clearly seen from the female prospective. At the time these works were written, they would have been rejected out of hand if male protagonists had behaved as these two women did.

Even in today's world, anybody acting like Emma, with her perceptions that happiness was something others owed her and were supposed to create for her, would be considered a really selfish self-centered flake. It is not pleasant to contemplate but it is true that even today these behaviors would be more accepted in women then in men and, therefore, in a female protagonist.

In the day of Emma Bovary and Dorothea Casaubon, "gentlewomen" were expected to be ornaments.…… [Read More]

Raymond Carver's Cathedral Which Is

"

This essay is well-written and well-constructed. The writer refers to the primary source material liberally and provides in-text citations as well as a bibliography. However, the writer could use active voice more often. For example, the sentence "The use of different point-of-view for the narration of the story has great influence on how the elements of characterization and setting are presented" could be rewritten and presented in active voice: "...great influence on how the authors present elements of characterization and setting." The sentence that follows is also slightly clumsy and would be improved through using more parallel verb forms. It reads: "The first person narrative can use more direct characterization to establish the people in the story while the objective point-of-view relies on indirect interpretation." It could be changed to read: "The first person narrative uses direct characterization to establish the people in the story, while the objective point-of-view…… [Read More]

Archibald the Arctic the Cathedral

The narrator in "Reunion" has an optimistic understanding of life and feels that it would be impossible for him and his father not to have a good time going out. Even with the fact that he is aware of his father's drinking problem, he feels that their relationship is stronger than his father's need for alcohol and that they are probable to overcome their issues as a result of communicating. Alcohol is actually one of the reasons for which Charlie opens his eyes and sees the horrible truth regarding his father. It is then when he realizes that his father cannot get rid of his alcohol problem and that it would be best for him to avoid ever seeing him again.

Charlie virtually experiences rebirth as he sees his father drinking heavily and behaving aggressively. He realizes that this is who his father is and that this person is never…… [Read More]

Smashed the Perks of Being

Most viewers are likely to feel that it is important for them to adopt defensive personalities in order to avoid being drawn in a group that seems to act in disagreement with society's values. While this is not necessarily bad, the sincerity in these films induces intense feelings in viewers, making individuals consider that the whole world is damaged and that all that one can do is to try and cope with the miserable conditions that people sometimes come across. Whip and Charlie both initially seem determined to let go and stop fighting for their personal well-being. Similarly, Kate has a tendency to party regardless of the effects that her attitude has on herself and on people around her. This makes it possible for viewers to understand that it is not at all easy to overcome a serious trauma and that individuals are even likely to suffer throughout their lives…… [Read More]

Neo-Confucianism Is a Philosophy Which Was Born TEST1

Dracula

The novel "Dracula" was written by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897. Set in nineteenth-century Victorian England and other countries of the same time, this novel is told in an epistolary format through a collection of letters, diary entries etc. The main characters include Count Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Dr. Van Helsing. Count Dracula is the antagonist character of the novel, and is a vampire. The group of men and women led by Dr. Van Helsing are the main protagonist characters. The novel talks about Count Dracula's endeavor to relocate from Transylvania to England, and his demise. The story begins with an English lawyer, Jonathan Harker, visiting Dracula's castle to assist him with some real estate issues. During his stay in the castle, Harker discovers that the Count is a vampire and barely escapes with his life. Then the narrative turns into…… [Read More]

Journey Motif Is Pervasive in Global Literature

Journey motif is pervasive in global literature, attributed to the existence of collective symbols common to all human societies as archetypes (Zhang, 2008). Both Homer's Iliad and Shakespeare's Henry V incorporate the journey motif as a literary technique. This serves to elevate the status of the protagonist to the heroic level, as the character struggles to meet challenges and overcome obstacles without the familiar trappings of home, family, and social status. War is one of the reasons that heroes undertake journeys, and war indeed figures prominently in both the Iliad and Henry V, driving the plot and transforming their respective protagonists. Journeying occurs on actual and symbolic levels in both these texts. In Homer's Iliad, Achilles undergoes several changes of heart during the war. His journey is introspective, taking him from a point of habitual action through a stage of vengefulness, and finally, onward to spiritual, social, psychological, and political…… [Read More]

Earl of Rochester Aphra Behn Masks

Earl of Rochester / Aphra Behn

Masks and Masculinities:

Gender and Performance in the Earl of Rochester's "Imperfect Enjoyment"

and Aphra Behn's "The Disappointment"

Literature of the English Restoration offers the example of a number of writers who wrote for a courtly audience: literary production, particularly in learned imitation of classical models, was part of the court culture of King Charles II. The fact of a shared model explains the remarkable similarities between "The Imperfect Enjoyment" by the Earl of Rochester and "The Disappointment" by Aphra Behn -- remarkable only because readers are surprised to read one poem about male sexual impotence from the late seventeenth century, let alone two examples of this genre by well-known courtly writers. In fact, Richard Quaintance presents ten more examples by lesser-known poets as he defines the literary sub-genre of the neo-Classical "imperfect enjoyment poem," written in imitation of Roman poems on the same…… [Read More]

Blue Winds Dancing Symbolic Words

And indeed, this is a man without a country, because he not only doesn't fit in with the white man, he doesn't mesh with the older people within his culture.

The antagonist in this story is the white man's world of greed and "civilization." The values that the white man holds certainly clash with the Indian. The white man's beauty is in palm trees of California (that stand "stiffly" by the roadside while a struggling pine tree on a rocky outcropping is more beautiful), and the white man's beauty is also rows of fruit trees like military men all lined up perfectly. That is a man-made world, made by the antagonist in this story. The antagonist in this story is also the sociology professor "and his professing"; this professor won't have to worry about his student anymore and the student won't have to worry about "some man's opinion of my…… [Read More]

Fate Society & Determinism In

hen Edith harton tells us that "it was the background that she [Lily] required," we understand that both Emma Bovary and Lily have a very important thing in common. They are first of all women in the nineteenth century society, fettered by social conventions to fulfill any kind of aspirations or ideals. A woman, as it is clearly stated in both novels, had no other means of being having a place in society than by acquiring respectability and money through a good marriage. To marry was the only vocation of a woman, as harton tells us.

Of course, there interferes a great difference between the two heroines here, because Madame Bovary, as her very title proves it, is already a married woman, while Lily in harton's book is in constant pursue of a redeeming marriage. But, essentially the frustration of the two heroines is the same, as Emma is as…… [Read More]

Lost Illusions by Honore De Balzac Was

Lost illusions, by Honore de Balzac was meaningful to me because I identified with Lucien Chardon. He overcame and humiliation and provided life lessons about the world and human nature. The Red and the Black, by Stendhal touched me through the class struggle of Julien Sorel. He improved society during the Bourbon Restoration. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky influenced me through Raskolinkov. I identified with his conscience, notwithstanding that his applied only retrospectively.

(These were all the progressively shorter working drafts that were too many characters. I'm including them in case you want to make any changes on your end to the shorter version above using anything I had to delete to fit the character maximum.)

1000+ Characters

Lost illusions, by Honore de Balzac was extremely meaningful to me because I identified with Lucien Chardon. A poet full of ambitions, he fought hard to succeed and to overcome the…… [Read More]

Canebrake Night Woman Sex in the Canebrake

Canebrake Night Woman

Sex in the Canebrake and Night Woman

On the surface, "The Canebrake" by Mohammed Mrabet and "Night Woman" by Edwidge Danticat are two completely different stories. The former is about a disgruntled housewife; the latter is about a prostitute. However, there is a fundamental theme that ties these two stories together. That is, each story explores how female sexuality can be exploited to gain power and control. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss how the female protagonist in both stories use sex to get what they want.

In "The Canebrake," Kacem's wife is not very pleased with her husband. He drinks too much and he shows little interest in her. Moreover, he won't even let her leave the house. She is a prisoner of sorts, "No matter how much she entreated him and argued with him, he would not even let her go to…… [Read More]

Lust to A& p Girl and a Sorrowful

Lust" to "A&P," "Girl" and "A Sorrowful Woman" both similarities and differences can be seen, with these noticeable in relation to the themes present, the protagonist character of each, the perspective and the way the story is told.

The main obvious difference between "Lust" and "A&P" is the nature of the protagonist. In "Lust" we have the female and in "A&P" the male. The character in "Lust" takes the place of the girl in the supermarket which Sammy lusts after. Sammy and the girl in "Lust" are looking at the situation from opposite angles. The similarity between the works is that they both focus on the same situation, that of finding one's place in society and especially finding one's place as a man or woman. In "Lust" the character remains almost unaware of the man's viewpoint, she simply reacts, giving them what they want as it is easier than refusing.…… [Read More]

Paradise Lost in His Epic

332-333, 336-337). The fallen angels' response to Satan's call is the final confirmation of his character, because it demonstrates how he is able to maintain the respect and interest of his followers even though it appears as if they have been stripped of everything. In this sense, Satan is a kind of idealized revolutionary leader, outmatched by the "Almighty" but unwilling to give up, all the while maintaining the respect and loyalty of his followers.

In Paradise Lost, it seems almost inevitable that Milton, whether intentionally or not, was on the Devil's side, even if the narrator of the poem was explicitly not. This is evidenced by the discrepancies between the narrator's account of Satan's character and what is revealed in Book I, when Satan first interacts with the other fallen angels. here the narrator suggests that Satan's actions were born out of vanity and greed, Satan argues otherwise, claiming…… [Read More]

Miller's Death of a Salesman

Biff deliberately gives up all chances of graduating from high school, and leaves his college dreams behind.

For a long time, Biff feels some anxiety about his chosen lifestyle out est. He enjoys the freedom of his rootless life, but feels somewhat guilty that he has given up so much, after so much was expected of the early promise he showed. His cousin Bernard, less athletic but more studious, has distinguished himself as a lawyer. His Uncle Ben, illy's idol, found diamonds while wandering in the wilderness, while Biff has only, in his view, wasted his time doing very little, and making very little money.

hen he comes back to see his parents, Biff contemplates going into business with his unethical brother Happy, who is very much like a younger version of illy. But after a certain point, Biff realizes that this would simply be, in his words, "trying to…… [Read More]

Edgar Allen Poes Story The Cask Amontillado

Edgar Allen Poes story "The Cask Amontillado" You write, setting, theme story, point veiw, plt, language signifagace story. THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO Edgar Allan Poe (1846) THE thousand injuries Fortunato I borne I, ventured insult I vowed revenge.

Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" - analysis

Edgar Allen Poe's 1846 short story "The Cask of Amontillado" puts across an account involving a vindictive character who tries to reinforce his self-esteem by luring the person he considers his enemy into a situation that would do him justice. It is difficult to determine whether the aggressor actually has the reasons to punish his enemy or if he is simply insane and uses an unspecified event as a motive to go through with committing his crime. However, his insanity is controversial when considering the complex nature of the plot and the obvious feeling of satisfaction that the protagonist experiences as he acknowledges that his…… [Read More]

Theatre Art

Blood by Suzan-Lori Sparks expands on the main theme of society's unfair disregard for its people of low condition in general, for women, and for adulterers. Hester La Negrita, the protagonist, is an African-American woman who struggles to survive in poverty along with her five base-born children. The family's outcast status is portrayed as a direct inducer and accelerator of emotional suffering, poverty, lack of education, and sexual exploitation.

(A) From a structural perspective, In the Blood is constructed in two acts and nine scenes, employing a linear plotline (ush, 2005). In this sense, the play debuts with the equilibrium of Hester striving to provide for her children in meager conditions, the inciting incident represented by the suggestion to seek help from the available former lovers and fathers of her children, the major dramatic question of whether or not she will attain it, the developing action as Hester approaches everend…… [Read More]

Historiographical Debate Into the Effects of Santa Anna's Reign in Mexico

Santa Anna Dictatorship

In his self-described revisionist biography Santa Anna of Mexico (2007), Will Fowler has courageously taken up the defense of the Mexico caudillo, fully aware that he is all but universally reviled in the historiography of the United States and Mexico. From the beginning, he made his intention clear to vindicate the reputation of a dictator whose "vilification has been so thorough and effective that the process of deconstructing the numerous lies that have been told and retold" is almost impossible.[footnoteRef:1] Timothy J. Henderson asserted that he had a great talent for exploiting and manipulating political divisions but none for governing a country. In U.S. history and popular culture, he has always been portrayed as a corrupt megalomaniac, the 'Napoleon of the West', responsible for the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad. As John Chasteen and James Wood put it, even his autobiography was an "extraordinary work of…… [Read More]

Cathedral by Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver, "Cathedral"

Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral" is narrated in the first person by the unnamed protagonist, and tells a deceptively simple story: the narrator's wife (also unnamed) has invited her former employer Robert, an older blind man recently widowed, to come for dinner and stay the night. The husband is resistant to the social occasion, but goes through with it -- although his narration makes us privy to his thoughts (which are occasionally marked by a low-level hostility) or else offers wry and laconic descriptions of his own statements and behavior. Eventually after consuming several scotches and some "dope you can reason with," the wife falls asleep on the sofa leaving the protagonist in conversation with the blind Robert, eventually leading to the muted but bittersweet conclusion of the story. Yet Carver carefully employs the first-person perspective of the narrator to demonstrate -- almost beyond his own self-awareness…… [Read More]

Heroic Archetypes Hamlet Oedipus Beckett's

He kills his father as he flees his home and marries his mother after solving the riddle of the Sphinx. His end is inevitable, but Sophocles clearly shows the role negative character traits play in Oedipus' tragedy, while Hamlet's supposedly negative traits of doubt are not necessarily evil.

Thus Hamlet could be classified as a kind of nascent anti-hero, a man who mourns "the time is out of joint/oh cursed spite/that ever I was born to put it right," and never succeeds in 'putting it right' because society offers him only one, ineffective mechanism for pursuing a brutal type of justice (1.5). The failure of heroism to 'put things right' is manifested starkly in Waiting for Godot, where the heroes famously wait for the final 'solution' of the arrival of the presumably heroic Godot, who never comes. These characters are not so much heroes or even anti-heroes -- rather they…… [Read More]

Juno and the 3 Act

If we consider the fact that Juno's goal, although not known to her at this point, is to end up in the end with Bleeker, this midpoint makes the character seem farthest from reaching her goal.

I think that this midpoint divides the first and second act because of the relationship between Juno and Bleeker. As mentioned, at this point, their relationship seems to no longer have any potential future, while the first act has always left this possibility in the open, as we could still see them interacting in the same manner and getting along.

5. The break-up in the adoptive couple is also essential and we can probably identify this as a second plot point, despite the fact that the previously presented midpoint is also important as a plot point (I have selected this, however, as the plot point because it seems to have more influence on the…… [Read More]

Imagery & Symbolism in the

"She relaxed limply in the seat. "Oh, no. No. I don't want to go. I'm sure I don't." Her face was turned away from him. "It will be enough if we can have wine. It will be plenty." She turned up her coat collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly -- like an old woman" (Steinbeck).

There are a number of fairly eminent points to be made about this quotation -- the first of which is that Allen's husband has taken her away from her source of power -- her garden. Away from that source, she is described by imagery that is rather enervating and in opposition to the vivacity she previously personified. The imagery of her sitting "limply" and weeping "weakly" is strongly contrasted with the images of her cutting through plants and powerfully gripping handfuls of earth -- which symbolizes the source of her…… [Read More]

Unifies and Permeates an Entire

Short story -- A brief story where the plot drives the narrative, substantially shorter than a novel. Example: "Hills like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway.

Allusion -- A casual reference in one literary work to a person, place, event, or another piece of literature, often without explicit identification. It is used to establish a tone, create an indirect association, create contrast, make an unusual juxtaposition, or bring the reader into a world of references outside the limitations of the story itself. Example: "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot alludes to "Paradise Lost" by John Milton.

epetition -- The repeating of a word or phrase or rhythm within a piece of literature to add emphasis. Example: The story of Agamemnon in The Odyssey by Homer.

Blank verse -- Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents, most closing resembling the natural rhythms of English speech. Example: "The…… [Read More]