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

85147 total results

The Life and Career of the Author in Alaska in Find the Good, a Book by Heather Lende (889 words, 3 pages)

Find the Good, a book by Heather Lende, shares a personal story about the authors career as an obituary writer in a small town in Alaska. Through Find the Good, Heather shows readers that the stories are not a collection of her obits but rather her reflections, which derive from ... Read More

The Jurists’ Trial in Judgment at Nuremberg, a Play by Abby Mann (1364 words, 4 pages)

Abby Manns play, Judgment at Nuremberg, depicts one of the Nuremberg Trials that was conducted by the governments of the Allied victors United Nations, Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France to put the surviving prominent German leaders on trial for various war crimes during World War II. Manns play portrays ... Read More

A Feminist Message of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in The Yellow Wallpaper (3330 words, 11 pages)

The Yellow WallpaperSeveral scholars who analyze The Yellow Wallpaper have concluded that Gilmans message of the story is simply feminist. What these scholars fail to see is that although there is an oppression towards the narrator from her husband, it is not necessarily patriarchal. John is in an awkward position ... Read More

The Great Adventure in Heir Apparent, a Novel by Vivian velde (409 words, 2 pages)

Heir Apparent The novel Heir Apparent, by Vivian Velde, is a great adventure for the reader and characters. There is an imaginary world out there and the king has died. He has chosen you to rule, to be his heir to the throne but there is trouble, competing with your ... Read More

A Short Review of The Fault in Our Stars, a Novel by John Green (1131 words, 3 pages)

The novel, The fault in our stars by John Green is about two young adults diagnosed with cancer who fall in love with each other. When they are in love they learn the value and morals of life, until the story ends with a tragic ending when Augustus dies from ... Read More

Skin Colour and Beauty in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1988 words, 6 pages)

In Toni Morrisons book, The Bluest Eye, which won the Nobel Prize in Literature, is a great example of how ones loss of innocence becomes their own mental disorder. The story is about three girls who lose their true purity during the late Great Depression Era. Claudia Macteer is the ... Read More

The Life of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, a Novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne (524 words, 2 pages)

In Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, we meet very interesting and detailed characters, including the main protagonist, Hester Prynne. Hester goes through quite a few changes throughout the novel, both emotional and physical. From the start of the book, we dont know much about Hesters life, except that she was married ... Read More

Gender Limitations as Shown in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1042 words, 3 pages)

In 2014, most women can vote, have a career and family, and may have sex before marriage without being considered impure. This is a stark contrast to the gender dependent culture of the 1950s shown in Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar. While women still dont receive equal pay and bump ... Read More

The Gothic Perspective in The Imp of the Perverse and The Importance of the Single Effect of a Prose Tale by Edgar Allan Poe (2698 words, 8 pages)

Perversity in Human ImaginationEdgar Allan Poe is most well-known for his Gothic short stories and poetry. Two of his works that really illustrate the Gothic perspective in literature are The Imp of the Perverse and The Importance of the Single Effect of a Prose Tale. In these works, Poe explains ... Read More

The Use of Violence in Invisible Man, a Novel by Ralph Ellison (1521 words, 5 pages)

Violence that exists for the sole purpose of violence is simply just wasteful. Violence is used as an attempt to gain worldly power, material objects, or desired relationships. In literature, violence is often used in the same way, but more often than not, violence in literature is present to serve ... Read More

Goodness and Sacrifice in the Actions of the Man and Boy in The Road, a Novel by Cormac McCarthy (1379 words, 4 pages)

In The Road, the actions of the man and the actions of the boy work together to reveal the major themes of goodness and sacrifice. The mans actions reveal that his only goal is to survive in order to keep the boy alive, and the boys actions reveal that he ... Read More

The Contrasting Locations in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (543 words, 2 pages)

In Death of a Salesman, there are several contrasting locations that contribute to the plot and the theme of the play. Arthur Miller uses the setting of New York in contrast to Alaska, Africa, and the Midwest to emphasize the differences in what they each represent. Willy Lomans simple home ... Read More

Esperanza’s Self Actualization in the Novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (430 words, 2 pages)

The novel The House on Mango Street tells the story of a young Hispanic girl named Esperanza. As Esperanza matures throughout the novel she discovers several truths about herself. When her family finally earns enough money to move into their own home Esperanza learns to derive new meaning in her ... Read More

The Loyalty and Commitment of Parson Hooper in The Minister’s Black Veil, a Short Story by Nathaniel Hawthorne (866 words, 2 pages)

Nathaniel Hawthorne tells a story titled The Minister's Black Veil, of a minister that views himself as a representative of God. Hawthorne instills the qualities of loyalty and commitment in his main character, Parson Hooper, because although he is being shunned by the community, he fulfills his vow to God. ... Read More

The Condemnation of Capitalism in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1395 words, 5 pages)

Capitalism Kills Good CharacterOne of the most widely read novels in American literature, The Great Gatsby, can be interpreted in various ways through its many characters, symbols, and themes. One of the interpretations of The Great Gatsby can be seen as the condemnation of capitalistic ideology. The condemnation of capitalism ... Read More

A Review of Passages in The Catcher in the Rye, a Novel by J. D. Salinger (555 words, 2 pages)

The first quote I chose happens in the beginning of chapter two, when Holden is at the Spencers house "Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right - I'll admit that. But if you get on theotherside, where there ... Read More

The Gradual Unfolding of Madness in The Tell-Tale Heart, a Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe (899 words, 2 pages)

In Edgar Allan Poes The Tell-tale Heart, Poe seeks to show the slow unravelling of madness, as he describes an unnamed figure descend into a complete physiological breakdown. The lack of description for the narrator himself, and the ambiguous ending ensures that the true meaning of his short story is ... Read More

A Response to Looking Backward, a Science Fiction Novel by Edward Bellamy (371 words, 2 pages)

In Julians America of the 1880s the defining feature is clashing. There are strikes due to the wages earned by the builders. There is a big discrepancy is the haves and the have-nots. Striking for higher wages is a step toward wage equality that the workers lust for. These features ... Read More

A Critique of Bartleby in Bartleby the Scrivener, a Short Story by Herman Melville (1876 words, 6 pages)

The protagonist of Herman Melvilles mid-nineteenth century work Bartleby, the Scrivener is characterized by how he passively asserts his refusal to perform a series of activities throughout the story. The young scrivener is known for his consistent use of the sentence I would prefer not to to express his lack ... Read More

The Symbols in the Story in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a Novel by Ken Kesey (317 words, 1 pages)

Throughout the book One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, the author has implanted many symbols into the story in order to help characterize the main characters. One is Harding saying to McMurphy that he felt that he was being accused of having relations with male friends of his. The author ... Read More

The Different Perspectives of Racism in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (871 words, 4 pages)

Racism in Different PerspectivesThere has been an uprising in the African-American community due to the Confederates waving the Confederate flag in African-American neighborhoods. Unlike the past, African-Americans now have gained civil rights therefore, causing a riot and fighting these Confederates. The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark ... Read More

Various Literary Works Describing the American Dream and How It Relates to Freedom and Wealth (1010 words, 4 pages)

I Dream of FreedomWhat is the American Dream? Well, to some it may be as simple as owning a small cottage with a little family and being happy, to others it entails owning a mansion and throwing wild parties every night. Whether a person is minimalist or extravagant, the same ... Read More

The Empowerment of Women in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Jane Eyre and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (2063 words, 8 pages)

Women, Power, Time The University of Minnesotas Gender, Women Sexuality Studies moodle explains gender is the social status assigned to men and women. Gender is a set of practices, behaviors, and expectations we have of men and women which are not natural but socially constructed. From young ages, little boys ... Read More

The Use of the Setting of Starkfield to Portray the Crippling Emptiness of the Protagonist in Ethan Frome, a Novel by Edith Wharton (422 words, 2 pages)

Wharton craftily uses the barren setting of Starkfield to depict Ethan Frome as a man suffering from crippling emptiness. Whartons choice of a desolate setting accentuates the feeling of daunting hardships of Ethans adolescence described by Harmon to the narrator in the quote on page 5, Sickness and trouble thats ... Read More

The Fall of the American Dream in Fences by Augusta Wilson and Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1235 words, 4 pages)

A Destroyed American FantasyThe American Dream consists of an ideal that individuals make a bargain with life in America so long as an individual works hard, America will present avenues to economic success and social respect. The American Dream represents an idealistic country where there is a lack of racism, ... Read More

Presenting Plight of Humanity and Women in an Oppressive Society in Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour” and Robert Browning’s Poem Of “My Last Duchess” (870 words, 3 pages)

Regionalism author Kate Chopin and Victorian poet Robert Browning have masterfully created literature classics depicting the plight of humanity. Chopins short story Story of an Hour and Brownings epic poem My Last Duchess have effectively presented the reader with women within their oppressive society however, the authors present unique techniques ... Read More

Seeking Exercise towards Autonomy in a Patriarchal Society in Daisy Miller by Henry James, and Edna Pontellier in the Awakening by Kate Chopin (682 words, 3 pages)

Mankind will never be satisfied. Satisfaction for mankind can only be attained when there is harmony between the self and the relationship with others, including society and their role within society even when mankind achieves autonomy, mankind will achieve full happiness due to their inner conflict, however microscopic, between their ... Read More

Character Analysis of Sarty in Barn Burning, a Short Story by William Faulkner (779 words, 4 pages)

Potential Free-Will Sartys Choice Being the son of a pyromaniac involves a vast amount of trust and requires protecting the family at all costs. In William Faulkners Barn Burning, Colonel Sartoris Sarty Snopes, son of the pyromaniac Abner Snopes, is a young boy who must make a difficult decision stay ... Read More

Racism and Social Injustice in To Kill a Mockingbird, a Film by Robert Mulligan (1074 words, 4 pages)

The 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, based on the novel of the same name by Harper Lee, follows Scout in a classic bildungsroman narrative, allowing racism and social injustice to be explored through the eyes of a six year old girl who experiences these issues for herself through her ... Read More

An Analysis of the Setting of the Short Story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner (1406 words, 4 pages)

In William Faulkners short story, A Rose for Emily. He sets the town in a fictional post-civil war, creepy town by the name of Jefferson in Mississippi, in a county by the name of Yoknapatawapha. A small town in the south of the United States. Faulkners use of this certain ... Read More

American Literature Essay Examples