Novel

It is no wonder that the bees are the most important symbolic element in the novel, when the title features bees as well. The bees serve as Lily’s guides. They inspire her to struggle for what she believes is right. It is them who urge her to leave her home...

Jim Lynch’s 2006 novel, The Highest Tide, is a young adult book with an insightful twist on growing up. Told from the perspective of 13 year old Miles O’Malley, it serves as a means of following the young protagonist through a series of events much like those that one would...

In the novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole, the author uses both low and high comedy. The effect of using both in this novel is that it makes it accessible to an audience who may not understand all of the literary allusions. It also serves to make...

The character of Harry Houdini, based upon the famous magician and escape artist of the early 20th century, is introduced early in the novel when his car breaks down near Mother and Father’s home, and he has lemonade in their parlor while it is being repaired. Although Houdini is extremely...

Playwright Theater in its depiction of the In the Time of the Butterflies depicts the occurrences in Julia Alavarez’s popular novel with a similar name. In the play, as first shown by Video 1, the characters provide a fictionalized account of the courage shown by Mirabal sisters. The audience in...

In many works of literature, the setting, or “place” provides an important aesthetic. In many of the works assigned and discussed in this module, place has been crucial in the various stories and works. However, it appears to offer a great importance in the novel Fair and Tender Ladies by...

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, is a classic Gothic romance, focusing on Jane, the young governess, and Rochester, her employer and eventual husband. While the character of Rochester’s first wife is important in the novel, she’s not a main character. Jean Rhys changed that in Wide Sargasso Sea, a novel...

The Scarlet Letter is a story that brings to light many social and religious issues. Although the time period for this film was set deep into America’s past, there are instances today whereby a person may be alienated by society for holding on to their convictions. The problem with religion...

“It had begun with Christmas and the gift of dolls. The big, the special, the loving gift was always a big, blue-eyed Baby Doll. From the clucking sounds of adults I knew that the doll represented what they thought was my fondest wish. I was bemused with the thing itself...

The main character in Mount Misery, Dr. Roy Basch, encounters many different characters during his journey as an intern. Through the voices of these characters, he provides a look at the fallacy of the psychiatric field and the theories behind it. The following examines three of the characters that stood...

In Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy presents two future societies. One is a dystopia, where an elite class of citizens lives on space platforms and possesses the power to induce the psychology of the mass population. They also alter the women, enhancing their sexual features, and valuing...

Mishima, the author of the book The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, writes about a current conflict between the western and eastern values. The antagonism occurs in Fusako's home and the contrasting settings of the sea. The author negatively portrays Fusako as a character, who succumbs to...

Richard Meehan writes an account of the story that Thomas Worcester tells him. The story starts out with a preview of sorts. Its tells the reader that engineers face a lot of ethical problems. The way that engineers secure deals can be mixed up and not really make any sense....

In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, Ursula K. Le Guin describes an imaginary city called Omelas, where everybody is constantly happy and satisfied. In Omelas, the summer solstice is a very important event which the local community celebrates with joyful processions, music, food and horse races. Despite Le...

Within the novel Devil in a Blue Dress, the story is told about a black man in the 1940s who is trying to establish himself in the American Dream - owning his own home and making a comfortable living for himself. However, given the time period and the cultural situation,...

Elsa Morante’s novel “History” includes the concept of Catholicism and Catholic elements, but it mainly focuses on the individual development of the protagonist, Ida. Ida suffers a crisis identity throughout the book. Her father was baptized as a Catholic, but her mother was a Jewish woman. Therefore, Ida has a...

One of the values of the American Dream is freedom, and this is perhaps the value most explored in the film, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, in regard to the protagonist, Duke. This is because Duke essentially does whatever he wants without thinking, and this includes taking heavy amounts...

The strip never sleeps. I remembered those words as I stood outside of Caesar's Palace rubbing my eyes and trying to remember how long I'd been awake for. I thought it had been forty eight hours, but it could have been closer to seventy two. I looked down as trousers,...

Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, follows the lives of four Chinese women and their four daughters. One of the mothers is dead, but her story is told through the memories of her daughter and her friends. The mothers immigrated to the United States as young women in the...

Rationale Stargirl is a novel that addresses themes of both individuality and conformity in schools. The novel's protagonist, Stargirl, is unique because she presents herself in a manner unlike any other student. She dresses differently, chooses her own name (her real name is Susan), and although she eventually becomes a...