A Riddle Essay Examples

1011 total results

The Practice of Animism During the Neolithic and Paleolithic Times (867 words, 4 pages)

Over 25,000 years ago, our ancestors across the continent practiced an ancientform of religion known as paganism. During the Neolithic and Paleolithic timeera, our ancestors were in awe of the great manifestations of nature. Due tolack of scientific thought, they were riddled with ignorance and superstition.Everything had a supernatural explanation. ... Read More

A Discussion of the Religious Ceremonies of Paganism (867 words, 4 pages)

Over 25,000 years ago, our ancestors across the continent practiced an ancientform of religion known as paganism. During the Neolithic and Paleolithic timeera, our ancestors were in awe of the great manifestations of nature. Due tolack of scientific thought, they were riddled with ignorance and superstition.Everything had a supernatural explanation. ... Read More

The Life and Struggles of Oedipus (516 words, 2 pages)

Oedipus, ruler of Thebes, murdered his father and married his mother. Such actsare almost always deemed unnatural and criminal they are not tolerated withintraditional society. A person who has committed these illegal acts of murder andincest would be considered a criminal, yet Sophocless character, Oedipus, isnot guilty of either crime. ... Read More

An Analysis of Entertainment and Education in Human Experience (1755 words, 8 pages)

Both entertainment and education have been integrals parts of the humanexperience since the beginnings of time. Many scholars insist that the twoinstitutions often serve jointly, with entertainers and entertainment serving asa main source of education. There is little argument, then, that in addition togenerally appealing to the masses, entertainers have ... Read More

A Comparison of the Philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Thomas Hobbes (1898 words, 8 pages)

How are the philosophies of Nietzsche and Hobbes different on topics ofChristianity, Human Nature, and Morality. The philosophies of Nietzsche andHobbes are radically different, Hobbes philosophy is dominated by loyaltyto the crown, riddled with references to the Christian scriptures, and a beliefthat life is nasty, brutish, and short(Leviathan, 133) whileNietzsches ... Read More

An Analysis of Sophocles Tragedy “Oedipus the King” (824 words, 4 pages)

In Sopohocles' tragedy "Oedipus the King", Oedipus proclaims " itwas I who have pronounced these curses on myself" (Madden 37). With thisannouncement, Oedipus is aware that his pursuit for order has led to a life ofchaos. The central thesis is that the presumption of order establishes physical,intellectual, and spiritual chaos. ... Read More

The Theme of Destiny in The Oedipus Trilogy (1205 words, 5 pages)

Oedipus Rex, or Oedipus Tyrannus as it is in Latin, could be what we call todaya Freudian work of literature. The Oedipus Trilogy was originally written bySophocles and is meant to be told in a story-telling fashion. But this Greciantragedy was revised and translated into English by Paul Roche and ... Read More

The Element of Knowledge in Oedipus the King (839 words, 3 pages)

In Oedipus the King the knowledge that some characters in the play possess isvery crucial in developing the plot. The knowledge in the play is the basicfoundation of Oedipus future, either to remain as the King of Thebes or to besentenced to death or exile forever. The ironic outcome of ... Read More

Oedipus’ Life Journey in The Odyssey (349 words, 2 pages)

Oedipus's life is lived out in many accomplishments and achievements. MountCithaeron symbolizes his journey from the being of his life to the end. It alsosymbolizes the important steps toward or trying to reach the peak, the perfectblend of mind and spirit. Mount Cithaeron portrays how people take a journeytoward self ... Read More

A Review of Ibsen’s Play “Peer Gynt” (329 words, 2 pages)

For those whose only acquaintance withPeer Gynt is Edvard Grieg's hauntingly beautiful opera music, lbsen's playmay come as a shock, especially if one realizes it was written in 1867and presented to a European audience steeped in Victorianism. The dramais a satire on Man. Peer is one of modern drama's first ... Read More

The Racial Prejudice Found Between Those With Light Skin and Those With Dark Skin (833 words, 4 pages)

When a person hears the word prejudice,he or she might think it only refers to the racial prejudice often foundbetween those with light skin and those with dark skin. However, prejudiceruns much deeper than a person's color. Prejudice is found between gender,religion, cultural and geographical background, and race. People have ... Read More

An Analysis of the Titanic’s Fall and the Damage Done to the Ship by Sub-Bottom Profiler (407 words, 2 pages)

Since 1912, when the Titanic sank on herinaugural voyage, there have been many theories behind the mystery of howthis unsinkable ship ended up on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Up untilnow, the theory has been that an iceberg tore open a 300-foot gash in theside of the 900 foot-long ... Read More

The Human Dilemma as Brought out in the Famous Oedipus Rex (1502 words, 2 pages)

THE HUMAN DILEMMATime and time again, humankind finds itself in a tragic predicament. A tragedy can be represented by the famous Oedipus Rex, who defines the term tragic hero, or humans, no different from you or me. A tragedy evokes two emotions in particular, pity and fear. The reader pities ... Read More

The Witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth (788 words, 2 pages)

The play opens with three witches.First WitchWhen shall we meet again?Second witchWhen the hurly-burlys doneWhen the battles lost and wonAllFair is foul, and foul is fair(I.1.1-13)The tone of the entire play has been set. With unsuspecting eyes, the first reading of this, one would not know that this is the ... Read More

Characterization of Oedipus in Sophocles’ Play Oedipus the King (986 words, 2 pages)

Every person has different facets in his or her personality. Generally, the good traits outweigh the bad. However, when this does not happen, the unpleasant aspects break through and hide the favorable conditions. In the play, Oedipus, by Sophocles, the character Oedipus, in a search for the truth, at first ... Read More

A Summary of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat’ and Its Analysis (1663 words, 2 pages)

Chris KitchensEnglish 195315pmThe Black CatEdgar Allan Poe wrote a short story called The Black Cat which first appeared in the United States Saturday Post on August 19, 1843. I chose to write about this story because it is a well-written story by one of my favorite authors. However, the critics ... Read More

A Biography and Life Work of Albert Einstein, a German Scientist (1784 words, 3 pages)

Albert Einstein Recognized in his own time as one of the most creative people in human history, Albert Einstein, in the first 15 years of the 20th century, advanced a series of theories that for the first time asserted the equivalence of mass and energy and proposed entirely new ways ... Read More

An Introduction to Laura Riding’s Suicide Attempt (294 words, 2 pages)

Deborah Baker...In the first seven lines two voices are apparent, the second interrupting the firstto call into impatient question the very dynamics by which meaning is elicited from atext....In the late twentieth century the dominant modes of critical discourse--New Criticism,structuralism, and deconstructionism--would consider the above lines in terms of the ... Read More

A Look at the Life of Tillie Olsen (5911 words, 23 pages)

Constance CoinerTillie Olsen's parents, Samuel and Ida Lerner, who were neverformally married, were Jewish immigrants. They participated in the abortive 1905 Russianrevolution, and, after Samuel escaped from a Czarist prison, fled to the United States.They settled first on a Nebraska farm when it failed about five years later, they movedto ... Read More

An Introduction to the Lives of Elaine Oswald and Robert L. Gale (2610 words, 11 pages)

Elaine Oswald and Robert L. GaleShewas born Marianne Craig Moore in Kirkland, Missouri, the daughter of John Milton Moore, aconstruction engineer and inventor, and Mary Warner. Moore had an older brother, JohnWarner Moore. She never met her father before her birth his invention of a smokelessfurnace failed, and he had ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of the Quids by Jackson (828 words, 4 pages)

Having admired (Riding) Jackson's "The Quids" published in The Fugitive (1924), Robert Graves began correspondence with her. He subsequently arranged with Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press to publish her first collection of poems, The Close Chapelet (1926). Afterwards she apparently was invited to become Graves' secretary or to collaborate ... Read More

An Analysis of the Poetry of Theodore Roethke (634 words, 3 pages)

Karl MalkoffTHE FLIGHT. It is, in Roethke's words, "a terrified running away -with alternate periods of hallucinatory waiting . . . the protagonist . . . is huntinglike a primitive, for some animistic suggestion, some clue to existence from thesub-human." Fishing in "an old wound," the repository of mental scars, ... Read More

An Analysis of the Poem After the Winter (1390 words, 10 pages)

After the WinterSome day, when trees have shed their leavesAnd against the morning's whiteThe shivering birds beneath the eavesHave sheltered for the night, We'll turn our faces southward, love,Toward the summer isleWhere bamboos spire to shafted groveAnd wide-mouthed orchids smile.And we will seek the quiet hillWhere towers the cotton tree,And ... Read More

An Analysis of The Riddles of Emily Dickinson by Rebecca Patterson (614 words, 3 pages)

Anthony HechtThis poem is not usually conceived of as a riddle, but rather asa description of those instinctive preferences and choices, those defiantly nonrationalelections and allegiances, like love, that we all make, without regard to personaladvantage, to rank or to estate. To the degree that the poem has been construed ... Read More

A Literary Analysis of Deliberate Tact and Poetic Strategy by Emily Dickinson (2787 words, 11 pages)

Anthony HechtAgain, this poem has been read as an instance of EmilyDickinson's deliberate tact and poetic strategy "in a generation which did not permither, without the ambiguity of the riddle, to 'tell the truth' . . . she early learned that'success in circuit lies.'" I cannot disprove that notion, nor ... Read More

An Analysis of the Entertainment Value of the Movie Remember the Titans Directed by Boaz Yakin (582 words, 1 pages)

The human race has an unquenchable thirst for entertainment. The need to be entertained can be seen through the ages however, the need for entertainment is greater now more than ever. Because of the use of modern technology, humans have more free time thus, leaving more time to fill with ... Read More

An Analysis of Commercialism in Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson (947 words, 2 pages)

In a society generally shaped by its commercialism, many people will fall into the unfortunate trap of trying to exceed someone elses standards. The catalyst for this maddening condition exists all around us in car commercials, on bumper stickers (He who dies with the most toys wins!), in stores peddling ... Read More

The Themes of Free-will and Fate in Oedipus the King by Sophocles (388 words, 1 pages)

This is the king who solved the famous riddle...Yet in the end ruin swept over him. As a marionette to fate and the prophecies, Oedipus grappled with the most satanic of adversities with steadfast fortitude. Perhaps this primitive search for truth, the origin of pestilence, was a tragic blunder? Or ... Read More

An Analysis of the Poetry of Langston Hughes (1754 words, 2 pages)

The poetry of Langston Hughes, the poet laureate of Harlem, is an effective commentary on the condition of blacks in America during the 20th Century. Hughes places particular emphasis on Harlem, a black area in New York that became a destination of many hopeful blacks in the first half of ... Read More

The Description of a True Hero Through the Eyes of Aristotle (830 words, 1 pages)

Aristotle described a tragic hero as being a person who, through a flaw, in their own character, is brought from a high position and learns to see the light before their own destruction. In the Theban play. King Oedipus, Oedipus is considered to be a tragic hero after his mother ... Read More