American Literature Essays Examples For College & High School Students in PDF

85147 total results

The Consequences of the Ignorance of People in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (783 words, 3 pages)

...ignorance is never better than knowledge. It is better to have knowledge than to lack it. Not knowing something usually has negative effects. This is a valid statement because a lack of knowledge can have bad results. Ignorance can cause many problems. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses ... Read More

The Twentieth Century Man in To Build a Fire by Jack London and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1616 words, 6 pages)

The Twentieth Century ManThe average twentieth century mans goal was, in a way, to live alone. The era was an age of growing wealth and exploration for the nation. For the first time, it was common for young men to leave their families and the places they grew up and ... Read More

The Sexuality of the Twentieth Century American Woman in Kate Chopin’s The Storm (1632 words, 6 pages)

Twentieth Century American Women A Discussion on SexualityThe twentieth century was plagued by a change of lifestyle. As the economy boomed and population grew, young people could afford to move away from their homes and families and aim for greater goals, such as owning land and creating self-made fortunes. Clearly, ... Read More

The Symbol of the Car in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates (392 words, 2 pages)

The Symbol of the Car as Presented in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?The first time Connie notices Arnold Friend is when she is out with friends. In reality, she notices his car before him. The car is a significant symbol in the work, and helps to display ... Read More

The Delusions of Isolation in Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald and A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather (1898 words, 6 pages)

The Delusions of IsolationThis was...the place he had passed so many times, the destination he had longed for with such happiness. But now that he had found it, now that he was here, why...had the town, the road, the earth, the very entrance to this place he loved turned unfamiliar ... Read More

The Dangers of Heavily Relying on the Past in My Antonia, a Novel by Willa Cather (1466 words, 5 pages)

The Past is PassedI have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that ... Read More

The Death of the American Dream in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1493 words, 6 pages)

The Death of the American DreamWhen others demand that we become the people they want us to be, they force us to destroy the person we really are. It's a subtle kind of murder the most loving parents and relatives commit this murder with smiles on their faces.Jim Morrison, in ... Read More

The Symbolism in the Title of To Kill a Mockingbird, a Novel by Harper Lee (798 words, 3 pages)

To someone who has not read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, its title holds an obscured meaning that in many instances, prove to be misleading. For example, a mere student who has never heard of any remote details of the book may take the title too literally, because ... Read More

The Effects of World War Two in China as Shown in the Works of Amy Tan (2035 words, 7 pages)

The Effect of World War II on the People of China, as Shown in A Pair of TicketsAmy Tan was born on February 19, 1952 in Oakland, California. Tan was born to Chinese immigrants her father, John, was a minister and engineer, while her mother, Daisy was a nurse (Werlock ... Read More

The Major Effect of the Setting on the Mood and Conflict Between the Characters in Twelve Angry Men, a Play by Reginald Rose (845 words, 3 pages)

In the play Twelve Angry Men, the setting has a big effect on the mood of the play, and the conflict between the characters. The jury room that the play takes place is very small, which makes the play seem more tense. The furniture in the jury room is very ... Read More

The Biblical Themes in the Character of Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1044 words, 3 pages)

The Best-Casy ScenarioThe way I see it, hard times aren't only about money, or drought, or dust. Hard times are about losing spirit, and hope, and what happens when dreams dry up.--Karen Hesses Billie Jo Out the DustFor all humans, a time of hardship is very much like a journey ... Read More

The Different Family Types in Plainsong, a Novel by Kent Haruf (1167 words, 3 pages)

Modern FamilyNaturally in Rural America, families are composed of the traditional settings of fathers who serve as breadwinners, mothers who nurture and advise, and children who go to school and later follow in their parents footsteps to become parents in the future. Nowadays, family comes in many forms not simply ... Read More

The Growth and Maturity of the Protagonist in My Name is Mary Sutter, a Novel by Robin Oliveira (728 words, 3 pages)

Mary Sutter DigestIn Robin Oliveiras novel My Name is Mary Sutter, the main protagonist evolves from a midwife to a surgeon during the Civil War. As the novel progresses, Mary experiences growth through the tragedy of losing nearly her entire family, the love and admiration she has for Blevens and ... Read More

The Concepts of Morality, Bad Morality, and Sympathies in The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn, an Article by Jonathan Bennet (1389 words, 4 pages)

English writer, poet and theologian, G.K. Chesterton, once said Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere. Many times in life we may find ourselves caught in a mental battle, torn between our sympathies and moral beliefs. This can be related to cognitive dissonance, which psychologists define as having ... Read More

A Comparison of Men and Women in Trifles, a One-Act by Susan Glaspell (593 words, 2 pages)

Set inside the farmhouse of a woman and her murdered husband, Trifles in one act focuses on the differences between the sexes. From the beginning, A woman is suspected of murdering her husband, his body found strangled with a rope around his neck. At first the mission to convict her ... Read More

Masculinity, Power Struggles and Self-Awareness in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (2115 words, 7 pages)

The early nineteenth-century setting in Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn offers a turbulent landscape for Twain to stage a commentary on the interdependencies that perpetuate his main characters transracial relationship. Focalizing through Huck, a child of twelve, deconstructs the traditional narrative and emphasizes the complex overlap in Jims fundamental identity as ... Read More

The Pursuit of the American Dream by Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1839 words, 7 pages)

Hope for the Impossible The Dreams of Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman Hope and dreams establish passionate ambitions in peoples lives. These motivating factors build upon each other dreams inspire people to set goals while hope provides the perseverance that helps them pursue those goals. Those who pursue dreams beyond ... Read More

A Review of Magic Man, a Story by Sheila Kohler (1317 words, 4 pages)

Literature has, over time, come to reveal various lessons to humanity. Sheila Kohler is no exception from depicting a story in which new morals are introduced. In her work, Magic Man, Kohler constructs a story around a mother who takes her children to South Africa for Christmas vacation. The mother ... Read More

Racism, Ethics and the Conflict of the Industrial Age in Moby Dick by Herman Melville (587 words, 2 pages)

The novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville is considered a classic. The riveting story of a whaling ship capsized by a giant sperm whale makes for an intense and dramatic read. But perhaps what is even more compelling is the true story of the account, from two journals surfaced a ... Read More

The Character of the Governess in Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1544 words, 5 pages)

In Henry James's Turn of the Screw, we are introduced to a vehicle of psychological instability in the form of a nameless governess. This governess is immediately flagged as unreliable upon accepting her position at Bly as a "higher call to duty." In conjunction with Harold C. Goddard's critical essay ... Read More

The Transition from Childhood to the Harsh Reality of Adulthood in The Catcher in the Rye, a Novel by J.D. Salinger (1513 words, 6 pages)

The Importance of Accepting AdulthoodGrowing up is one of the toughest obstacles children face. Changes in physical appearance, personality, relationships, and awareness of the world overwhelm them with problems and responsibilities they never even dreamed of as children. This transition is the embodiment of a dramatic loss of innocence that ... Read More

The Impact of the Roaring Twenties in American Literature (4015 words, 14 pages)

Documenting a time period through literature Fitzgerald in the Roaring TwentiesThe Roaring Twenties had a significant impact on works of literature written during that time period. Between major cultural changes and economic prosperity in major cities, societal customs changed drastically and had an effect on societies literature. When an author ... Read More

Racism and Its Effects on Education in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a Novel by Mark Twain (922 words, 3 pages)

The Portrayal of Racism through LiteratureRacism is a common yet harmful part of human society, described as the biased treatment of a person based on skin tone or ethnicity. It is also an important theme in literature involving African American and white populations in America during its younger years. Mark ... Read More

The Superiority of Felix as a Boxer Over Antonio in Amigo Brothers by Piri Thomas (626 words, 2 pages)

Amigo Brothers Persuasive EssayWe were left hanging, an epic boxing match between two best friends with different advantages, Antonio and Felix, every reader picked a side, but we dont find out who was the winner. The fighters go through a serious emotional and physical battle with the goal of representing ... Read More

The Self-Destruction and Consequences of Revenge in The Scarlet Letter, a Novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne (898 words, 4 pages)

Revenge Acceptable or Condemnable?Living creatures often find themselves at odds with the individuals with whom they associate. In the event of defeat, humans seek revenge on the victor in hopes of satisfying the desire for justice. While this option appeals to ones wounded pride, several drawbacks accompany acts of revenge. ... Read More

How Loneliness and Isolation Affects Us in Of Mice and Men, a Novel by John Steinbeck (1013 words, 3 pages)

Loneliness and Isolation affects how we act, react and how we socially interact with others. Here I am inspecting two characters, Curleys wife and Crooks, to go in depth on how their loneliness affects them in their lives. Steinbeck writes Of Mice and Men to convey the loneliness or isolation ... Read More

The Author’s Use of Language to Show Various Emotions in Death of a Salesman, a Play by Arthur Miller (865 words, 3 pages)

Language EmotionLanguage is an important tool for writers that can be used to demonstrate the emotion of a character. In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Miller uses different types of language, syntax and punctuation to pull the audience into the world and situations of the play. With each ... Read More

Extreme Skepticism of Organized Institution by the Main Character, Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, a Novel by J.D. Salinger (1456 words, 4 pages)

It will forever be mankinds instinct to impose moral codes upon ourselves and those around us. These moral codes are based on subjective ideas deemed important by their creators they have served as the basis for most organized institutions, including but not limited to the government, education, and religion. However, ... Read More

The Symbolic Meaning of the Death of Phineas in A Separate Peace, a Novel by John Knowles (970 words, 3 pages)

Phineas was the first war victim of the Devon School class of 1943. Many others likely followed Finnys fate, but unlike Finny they were killed by World War II. Phineas death was the direct result of the internal war waging within his best friend, Gene Forrester. As told in John ... Read More

A Review of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Views and Intensive Use of Symbolism (796 words, 4 pages)

One who has read any member of Nathaniel Hawthorne's collection of literature might have picked up on the fact that he was very fond of symbolism and allegory. Anyone who has studied Hawthorne to any extent would pick up on the author's particular disdain for the Calvinist Puritan theologies he ... Read More

American Literature Essay Examples