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

85147 total results

The Tragic Hero of Dick Diver in the Novel Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (928 words, 4 pages)

Dick Diver A Tragic HeroAristotle is regarded as one of the most influential philosophers of all time. The main focus on this essay will be on his writings about a tragic hero and how they comply with Dick Diver from Tennessee Williams tragic tale, Tender is The Night. First, we ... Read More

Quentin’s Running Away with Jason’s Stockpiled Money in William Faulkner’s Sound and the Fury (425 words, 2 pages)

In William Faulkners Sound and the Fury, Caddys daughter Quentin runs away from her guardian Jason, taking his money as she leaves. Quentin did not like her namesakes and never appreciated the house staff, and Jason took advantage of his neices payments from Caddy. Quentin is an embodiment of the ... Read More

The Unused Potential of the Hundred Secret Senses, a Book by Amy Tan (2035 words, 7 pages)

Amy Tan's work The Hundred Secret Senses heavily employs magic realism topull the reader in and grab his interest. Despite this, the first personnarration significantly hinders the impact of the supernatural elements inthis story. This would not be such an issue if the narrator's charactersignificantly changed and matured as the ... Read More

An Analysis of the Story in the Book, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (887 words, 3 pages)

In the book, "The Lovely Bones", written by Alice Sebold, the storytakes place in a small town near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The storybegins in 1973 when Susie gets raped and murdered by her neighbor. Afterher death, she is in heaven watching her loved ones and acquaintancescontinue on with their life without ... Read More

On How the Garden of Eden Relates to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (572 words, 2 pages)

Will NortonThe story of the Garden of Eden relates to The Scarlet Letter in several ways, especially regarding Pearl and the idea of the knowledge gained from a sinful action. Hester and Dimmesdales sin results in being both sinners ostracized from society, much like how the biblical original sin results ... Read More

Human Nature in Miller’s The Crucible and Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (731 words, 3 pages)

Human Nature in The Crucible and The Legend of Sleepy HollowThe struggle between an individual and human nature is one that has been explored in countless novels and plays. In both The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, the protagonist fights against human ... Read More

Logic vs. Justice in Poe’s The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart and Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1415 words, 5 pages)

Logic vs Justice in LiteratureThe idea of reason vs. intuition is often seen in literature, but some literature depicts it differently than others. The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Scarlet Letter all have a character that becomes obsessed with justice, and their struggle with justice primarily depicts the ... Read More

A Film Comparison of the Grapes of Wrath and Death of a Salesman (1337 words, 4 pages)

The film version of Death of a Salesman and The Grapes of Wrath both present their directors interpretation of the literature in motion picture form. Both films use the technique of focus with regards to exposure to contribute to their ideologies. Light represents hope and promise and by using excess ... Read More

An Analysis of the Use of Death to Achieve Emancipation in Two Short Stories: Kate Chopin’s Story of an Hour and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark (990 words, 3 pages)

Women in the 19th century were often viewed as solely housewives and did not play much of a role in affairs outside of the household. Thus, besides conducting household common tasks, they did not often go outside of the household. It was viewed as the mans job to venture out ... Read More

The Modern Dilemma of Willy in the Play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1120 words, 4 pages)

The Modern DilemmaAs a flute melody plays, Willy Loman returns to his home in Brooklyn one night, exhausted from a failed sales trip. His wife, Linda, tries to persuade him to ask his boss, Howard Wagner, to let him work in New York so that he wont have to travel. ... Read More

An Understanding of Violence in the Novel Violence by James Gilligan (3110 words, 9 pages)

The cause of violence is the lack of a perpetrators love for themselves and love from others. Our humaneness is defined by love, love from the self and love from others. If we take that love away, the only thing that is left is shame. The feeling of shame towards ... Read More

Achieving the American Dream in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (2303 words, 7 pages)

Throughout the works of literature read in 11th grade English class, the common theme of attempting to achieve the American Dream repeatedly surfaced. The American Dream is defined as coming from disadvantaged or humble beginnings and achieving social mobility through both tangible and intangible ways. The tangible ways would be ... Read More

Sammy’s Sexual Desires in the Novel A&P by John Updike (1080 words, 3 pages)

John Updike, author of AP, creates a story about a cashier who is mesmerized by three girls in bathing suits who shop at the grocery store where he works. During his state of admiration, all that the main character could think about is the girls bodies and how good they ... Read More

The Irony of the Automobile in the Novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (2139 words, 6 pages)

F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby presents a warped image of the potential for a new invention in the 1920s that is not only abominable but also life-threatening the automobile. Fitzgerald shows the irony of the automobile, which is a symbol for new beginnings in a world that is becoming ... Read More

Injustice to the Innocent in the Novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1141 words, 4 pages)

The Mockingbirds of MaycombIn society, the innocent are often unrightly accused and unjustly treated. In Harper Lees To Kill A Mockingbird there are several such occurrences of false judgement. This novel follows a family of four, the Finches, within a small-town in Maycomb, Alabama and takes place over a span ... Read More

The Journey of Tomato Rodriguez in Erika Lopez’s Flaming Iguanas (1167 words, 4 pages)

The Road Narrative Behind the Lens of Tomato RodriguezFlaming Iguanas, written by Erika Lopez depicts the adventure main protagonist, Tomato Rodriguez, goes through traveling cross country in her search of the meaning of life and love. Taking place on the road, Flaming Iguanas can often be seen simply as a ... Read More

The Birth of the Ideology of Communism in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1733 words, 5 pages)

Capitalism has had a rocky and controversial history. It was founded on the beliefs that if one works hard enough then one will succeed. Thus, it was always an ideology that pit man versus man for success. At the start of the 20th century, the ideology of communism was born. ... Read More

An Analysis of Six Essential Moments along the Protagonist’s Journey in Ralph Ellison’s Novel Invisible Man (1952 words, 6 pages)

Throughout Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, IM embarks on a journey that could be accurately described as his and other African Americans destiny. Due to the oppressive world and time period the story was set, African Americans such as IM were looked down upon and discriminated against by whites. Even if ... Read More

The Personal Conflicts of Esther Greenwood in the Novel, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (479 words, 2 pages)

Analysis of "The Bell Jar" "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath is a novel depicting Esther Greenwood'spersonal conflict of her role in society that leads to her mentalinstability. Esther's cynical personality makes it hard for her to conformto the expectations of the conventional 50's woman. Throughout the novel,she is conflicted ... Read More

The Teenage Life of Holden Caulfield in the Novel, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1868 words, 6 pages)

In J.D Salingers The Catcher In The Rye, Holden Caulfield is a presented as a character stuck between childhood and adulthood, in a phase typically known as being a teenager. Holden starts off by getting expelled from his elite prep school, Pencey Prep, then decides to take a voyage to ... Read More

Communism Met by Discrimination and Hatred in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (659 words, 2 pages)

Throughout the 20th century, communism and communists were met by discrimination and hatred. McCarthyism which was a movement started by a Senator named Joseph McCarthy aimed to punish and persecute those thought to be affiliated with communism. Essentially, America feared communism back then just as much as we fear terrorism ... Read More

White Supremacy and Racial Discrimination in the Novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1415 words, 4 pages)

IM in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is surrounded by a world that looks down upon him based off prejudice towards his race and the belief in white supremacy. IM always wants to suck up to the white people so that he will not viewed as somebody out of line from ... Read More

An Analysis of the Protagonist’s Lack of Vision and Blindness in Ralph Ellison’s Novel Invisible Man (1317 words, 4 pages)

Throughout Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man, the unnamed protagonist (IM) undergoes a journey of discovering his identity. Along this journey, he is faced with the dueling tension of vision or blindness. At times, IM would be able to see certain things whereas other times he would be blinded. Unable to see ... Read More

Dealing with Dead Bodies on a Daily Basis in the Short Story Bodies from Phil Klay’s Redeployment (649 words, 3 pages)

The short story Bodies from Phil Klays Redeployment along with the exhibit of the U.S. Army recruitment commercial for mortuary affair specialists highlights the often overlooked job of mortuary affairs in the army. Essentially, mortuary affairs specialists are responsible for retrieving of American soldiers corpses from the battlefield, identifying them, ... Read More

My Personal View on Making Ethical Decisions (1135 words, 4 pages)

Writing Assignment 2Before reading into Ethical Issues in Emerging Technologies, ethics to me was merely just what I thought would be a socially accepted decision. As I explored further into the text I realized there is more to it than just my own point of view. I find that I ... Read More

An Explanation of Eating Responsibly in the Article The Pleasures of Eating by Wendell Berry (1397 words, 4 pages)

In Wendell Berrys article, The Pleasures of Eating, Berry gives a detailed explanation of what it means to eat responsibly. Berry depicts Americans as mindless consumers who, buy what they wantor what they have been persuaded to want (41). Most Americans do not make the connection that food is through ... Read More

An Analysis of the Character of Miranda Sharifi in Nancy Kress’s Novel Beggars in Spain (972 words, 4 pages)

Miranda Sharifi Life on the outside of inside. The novel Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress touches on the fine linebetween the rich and the poor, those who are born with 'advantage' andthose who are born to poverty. The emphasis on how one decision affectsanother is prominent as we follow ... Read More

A Fulfilling Life of Happiness Without Worries (502 words, 2 pages)

Life Without WorriesLife, for most people, is the same. We wake up and go to work or, if youre younger, you go to school. But what if we could live a life without worrying about money or having an education? Could go anywhere and do anything we wanted? Youve probably ... Read More

Character Analysis of John Proctor in the Crucible by Arthur Miller (448 words, 2 pages)

Does The Crucible demonstrate the decisions made by John Proctor are influenced through his relationships with other characters? The Crucible was a play written by Arthur Miller in 1953 and set in 1692 Salem during the peak of the Salem witch trials. Throughout the play Arthur Miller takes us on ... Read More

An Analysis of the Theme of Friendship in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian (585 words, 2 pages)

Most important lessonIn the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian By Sherman Alexie. I think the theme is friendship. Friendship is a very strong bond. The most important lesson I think which was conveyed in the book was that friendship is something that will always be ... Read More

American Literature Essay Examples