Literature

Summary “Tim O’Brien”, the protagonist of The Things They Carried, starts by recalling a specific event that occurred in the midst of his experience in the Vietnam war setting. The novel describes the collection of things that his fellow soldiers in the Alpha Company brought along with them on their many missions. Some, for example, carried with them tremendous guilt or...

From: Literature Guides

Summary Ada is largely in written in the form of a memoir by the character Van Veen as he comes into his nineties. He recounts his love for his sister, Ada, in the form of a family chronicle. The novel contains genealogies, dramatic romances, and duels. Though the novel is posed as a simple memoir, it is fraught with complications, twists,...

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The Awakening was the second and last novel written by Kate Chopin who was originally named Katherine O'Flaherty. Chopin was severely criticized for her feminist writing and especially of her portrayal of a woman having extramarital affairs which was considered outrageous at the time. Kate Chopin was brought up in a matriarchal household and was surrounded by generations of strong women...

From: Literature Guides

Quotations and Analysis “Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England.” Obviously the prophecy which foretells the coming of Arthur as the rightful king. The quotations encapsulates the theme of fate which pervades the story. It also demonstrates some of the pre-Christian, pagan dimensions retained in Mallory’s re-telling of the Arthurian...

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Introduction Albert Camus’s The Stranger was published in France in 1942. Although it is a slender and seemingly simply novel, the underlying philosophical message is quite complex. Camus was one of the leading proponents of existentialist and absurdist philosophy. This was a mode of thinking which arose during and immediately following the Second World War in which philosophers came doubt the...

From: Literature Guides

CONTENTS Introduction The oldest example of Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf really marks the beginning of what we call English Literature. The poem was originally part of an oral tradition in which scops, or bards would recite the poem from memory in order to commemorate special events and to celebrate the culture of ancient Anglo-Saxon life. The question when was Beowulf written...

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Key Facts The critical response to Toni Morrison’s Beloved was overwhelmingly positive. So powerful was the reception of her book that when it was nominated and passed over for the National Book Award, 48 African-American authors wrote a letter of protest which appeared in The New York Times in 1988. Beloved did win Pulitzer Prize for Fiction later that year. It also won the...

From: Literature Guides

"The Waste Land" is T. S. Eliot’s ultimate masterpiece and has long been considered to be one of the most important poems of the twentieth century. Published in 1922, it was meant to be reflection of the devastating after effects of the First World War, revolving around the themes of trauma and dismay. The Waste Land BY T. S. ELIOT...

From: Poem Examples

Key Facts Lewis Carroll, also the author of Alice in Wonderland, cut a section out of the final manuscript of Through the Looking-Glass. It is generally referred to as a “The Wasp in a Wig,” based on the expression “a bee in the bonnet.” The clue that this existed was a short correspondence from the illustrator Jon Tenniel who wrote:...

From: Literature Guides

General Introduction First published in 1959, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is widely read as a quintessential African novel. It is set in the southeastern Nigeria prior to the arrival of westerners and the beginning of colonialism in this region of the African continent. The novel details the customs, language, culture, religion, and family customs of the Igbo people as they...

From: Literature Guides