Essays on Mockery

The novella, Heart of Darkness is, in the literature world, considered one of the greatest cultural literary works of the 19th century. Conrad takes us through the experiences of the European colonialists in the heart of Africa. The clash of the European and non-European customs form the basis of Conrad's writings. The book has garnered a lot of criticism from African scholars who argue that the book negatively targets the African nation and the African people. The book, according to Chinua Achebe is a mockery of the African people. It ridicules the customs of the native Africans, terming Africa ...

The poem, “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell was found and published long after his death. The poem is written from the perspective of a young man who is speaking to a young lady. The poem was later rewritten by Peter De Vries. The two are from completely different societies which is evident in their writings. Marvell's poem is based on love and affection while Peter de Vries poem is a mockery of the theme in the poem. The two poets disagree on many levels but the two poems are written using great literary techniques. Peter De Vries ...

What is the Fourth of July to slaves?

Introduction “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” is a famous speech given by an African American slave fugitive at the time by the name Frederick Douglas, which was delivered on the Fifth of July, the day after the day of independence, in 1852. The speech highlighted the plight of the African Americans who were discriminated by the white population. The speech describes the Fourth of July as a paradox since the independence given to the African Americans was paradoxical. To the African American, the fourth of July was a day when the White continued to enjoy ...

Classical English literature studies

Comedy – a professional entertainment consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an audience laugh. Late Middle English (as a genre of drama, also denoting a narrative poem with a happy ending, as in Dante’s Divine Comedy): from Old French comedie, via Latin from Greek kōmōidia, from kōmōidos 'comic poet', from kōmos 'revel' + aoidos 'singer'. ("Comedy: Definition Of Comedy in Oxford Dictionary (American English)"). Aristotle defines comedy as an imitation of men, who is worse than the average, but not in their perversities, but in hilarious sense. Comedy, as a genre ...

Introduction

Harriet Martineau was born in 1802 and is considered one of the first Western sociologist. She taught herself political economic theory and became an expert in the field. She wrote about the relations between morals, economics, politics, and social life. She was also one of the first women in journalism. Several of her ideas about society and the political economy was presented with stories. Over her lifetime, Martineau was known for her strong anti-slavery and feminist standpoints. She believed that in order to understand the status of women, one must do a thorough analysis of society. She also was ...

Edgar Allan Poe is one of America’s most famous writers, arguably the prince of horror stories. His oeuvre covers a wide range of work, from poetry to prose, the Arab world to 19th century America, and detective fiction to horror stories. His 1845 poem, The Raven, made him a sensation and is regarded as one of the genre-defining works of American literature. His life and career were deeply troubled, but his legacy has enshrined him along with the greats. Poe’s stories are stylistically unique – displaying a huge diversity of elements taken from all over English and world ...

Most people especially in the traditional societies considered persons with mental disability as people with incurable illness. As such, people had very negative attitudes towards the mentally challenged. As such, the aspect of mental illness has been a realm of the mental health professionals such as psychiatric workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and related fields. Following the deinstitutionalizing of the mental patients during the 1960s and ‘70s, people did not give much consideration to the subject of mental health and people with mental illnesses (Borinstein 1). The families that had members with mental illness treated the condition as an issue that was ...

The modern South Korean pop culture has formed under the influence of Westernization, improvement of the socio-economic situation and decline of the role of Confucianism in the society. As a result of these changes, Korean people now have more freedoms and opportunities than they ever had in the past, when the economy of the country was still in decline, and old traditions and views on gender roles and the role of a family in the life of an individual were still in force. However, the biggest changes happened during the last half a century in the ideals of female beauty and attitude, ...

The character of Kiowa was the most decent and dignified characters in the book “The Things They Carried”. The character Kiowa was deeply religious by nature and was a devout Baptist. He was a Native American Indian. He always carried an illustrated New Testament, gifted to him by his father, who was a teacher at Sunday school in Oklahoma City. The way he carried his New Testament always and the way he felt Ted Lavender’s death was unchristian and his beliefs in the stories of New Testament confirm that he was a highly religious person. He would roll the New Testament and ...

William Shakespeare was indeed one of the greatest writers ever to live in this planet; he was renowned for being an excellent English poem writer and an actor at the same. His key strength in his work was the use of word and language style. All his plays and poem were difficult to understand even up to date. Shakespeare was also known for criticizing other writers work when in his view it did not deem fit to be produced in the first place. Even though "The Book of the Courtier" was a great book in the 15th century as viewed ...

There can be no doubt that Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best writers in the history of American literature. One of his most well-known short-stories, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a classic that has endured decades of critical research and analysis. Throughout this lengthy scholarship, it immediately becomes apparent that Poe is one of the premier gothic writers of his generation, with his ability to tell a story as if he was his own demented protagonists. Critics and scholars also conclude that Poe has mastered the writing style of the first-person narrator (Ronald 2). In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe uses ...

Barbara Ehrenreich’s presents a clear and concise account of the methods that millions of American uses to survive the economic struggles in American. In addition, the 2001 book, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America” analyzes how individuals survive on minimum paying jobs. Ehrenreich postulates that even though these individuals work under poor economic conditions, there is a strong “work ethic” present. But, this work ethic does not help to provide the basic necessities of transportation, food, and shelter. For those individuals who work in hotels, restaurants, retail stores, and a number of other service jobs the wages are not ...

Many writers have found themselves writing about society in an indirect way through the features and attributes they reflect in their writings. The same can be said about The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay which was a representation of class boundaries and therefore had an impact on the consciousness of the public. The conventions that Gay uses continue to influence society today as it satirizes and mocks what society creates as societal stereotypes. Class boundaries in London at the time had caused major disintegration that became inevitable because of the nature of the problems that the disintegration caused. The ...

Introduction

In almost every country, in the world, it is evident there is gender inequality. Even though, the problem varies in degrees depending on the age groups and across countries. According to Lorber (2010, p.67), there are many good reasons as to why the inequality gap should be closed; this is because it is good for both girls and boys. Gender stereotypes as well as inequalities usually set back Women and girls as well as men and boys. They learn this when they are very young age and a variety of factors influence them. The problem of gender may, however, be ...

Section

The women protagonists in "the story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, "The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck and "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner are deeply repressed. In “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard received the inaccurate shocking news of her husband - Brently Mallard’s death in a railroad accident (Chopin, 213). In the second story "The Chrysanthemums" Elisa, a young married woman who works in an isolated farm is proud of her skills in growing flowers. Her attempts to communicate with the outside world end up in disappointment through the mockery subjected to her by her husband ...

Should the physical, social and emotional differences between Gods own creatures create a great rift between the creatures? The Butter Battle a book by Dr. Seuss elucidates the story of two different races, Yook and Zook, that are in conflict over which side to batter the bread. This conflict rises to greater heights that it creates tension between the two races and each keeps arming themselves ready for any possible attack. Gulliver's Travels a short story by Jonathan Swift explains how Gulliver a surgeon from Nottinghamshire, England traveled to the Lilliputians islands a place where he finds tiny people of about 6 inches height. ...

There are quite a number of actions in the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare that makes the characters look foolish. The foolishness to a huge extent can be attributed to their actions with regard to their love issues. The female characters can be seen to be acting foolish in the name of love. Hermia and Helena do so in their own free will but Titania does so because of the spell that she was put under, Demetrius and Lysander ore epitomes of foolish love when they keep playing around with these women. The female characters are ...

A song can be generally defined as being a voice composition which is performed by the act of singing, the song words tend to have a rhythm or are poetic in nature. The two songs that I have chosen are; ‘Your Racist Friend’ by the group known as They Must Be Giants and ‘When Fredric Was A Little Lad’ by Gilbert and Sullivan. The song genre of the song ‘your racist friend’ can be classified as modern rock while the song ‘when Fredric was a little lad’ can be classified as a comic opera which typically is a comic play which usually incorporates songs ...

Introduction

According to researchers, struggling reader’s environment is defined by poor motivation, low self-efficacy or limited rational abilities (Brozo, 1991; Guthrie and Davis, 2003). A struggling reader may refuse to accept his new identity and instead focuses on maintaining a different identity among his neighbors, teachers, family members and peers. This may influence negatively on the positive progress of reforming the reader. (Alvermann, 2001)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Gerald is a sixth grade male student at king’s international school. He lives with his father after the parents formally divorced. His father has a persistent problem of alcoholism that has drastically affected the family’s economic ...

Introduction

In Columbia, men of the middle and upper class have always been protective and paternal towards their dependents. They have also been conscious of sheltering their wives and children from undesirable influence that might come from outside their family teachings and values. However, the poor families have not been left behind in maintaining honor in the Columbian society (Anselmi p. 32). Women’s activities in Columbia are severely circumscribed since the men are majorly concerned with protecting virtue and honor of their unmarried daughters and wives. In the ancient Columbian society, women were not allowed to do any work ...

America is a diverse country with different colored people scatter all over different states. It has a long history of colonialism and cultural evolution. When thinking of terms like “colored” or “race”, our first mind may often come with African Americans. Perhaps the civil war or the civil right movement has marked a huge monument in the American history, it has ended the injustice and cruel treatment of people living in the same country who supposed to be united. The slavery and the segregation were abolished; the hanging trees and violence were all over. However, racism still exists through stereotype causing by ...

Nietzsche’s Attitude to Religion

Introduction The German philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche is one of the greatest thinkers of the humanity, who inspired school of thoughts, philosophers, psychologists or writers in their work. His philosophy includes remarks to various social, political, economic or religious aspects. Regarding Nietzsche’s religious philosophies, the most prolific are those regarding the Christianity. This research paper proposes to capture a qualitative analysis of Nietzsche’s attitude to religion, with a specific focus on Christianity.

Body – Literature Review

According to Nietzsche’s perception, there are various attitudes on religion, depending on the social status. As such, the rulers see religion as a strategic approach to ...

Frederick Douglass’s “Fourth of July” Speech

This is one of the most popular speeches delivered by Frederick Douglass during his time. He was a civil rights advocate and an abolitionist to the African Americans during times of slavery. His famous speech that took place in the Rochester’s Corinthian Hall attracted vast numbers of people and left many speechless (Barnes). The speech was later reported as eloquent, heart touching and admirable as it drew massive applause at the end. For this reason, the speech was published and made accessible to every interested American. Several people got a copy of speech and until today, Americans still talk about ...

One of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays is the playful and magical A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A play with fairies, young lovers and plenty of humour (largely at Bottom’s expense); this is one of Shakespeare’s most loved stories because of its clever, complicated plot and its entertaining characters. The audience are introduced to the play’s characters: the most important of those being the four young lovers who have a complicated love triangle. Equally as important are the fairies that, arguably, represent the changeable nature of love through Oberon and Titania’s (the fairy king and ...

Analysis of the poem “To His Coy Mistress” By: Andrew Marvell

The poem “To His Coy Mistress” By: Andrew Marvell is a lyrical poem. It can also be classified as a metaphysical poem which is a brief, intense meditations employing wit, irony and elaborate comparisons. The speaker is requesting that the coy lady yield to hi passion. The poem is split into three radical parts. The first stanza describes the writer’s great feelings of love for a young lady. The second stanza shows how time is fading very fast by using words like “fading of beauty and death.” The third stanza presses the question to the mistress whether she will accept the writer’ ...