John Gardner's "On Moral Fiction" John Gardner's "On Moral Fiction" is a fine example of fictional analysis. After reading the excerpt assigned in class, I was in awe at the truth and reality presented. I had never thought of morality in that sense and found it t...

Faulkner's novel, The Sound and the Fury, shows the decline of a well-established and well-known southern aristocratic family. The novel's main focuses are the moral decay of the Compson family and time (not letting go of the past). Throughout the novel we see how the values of the Comps...

Few novels delve into the depths of the human psyche as effectively as William Faulkner's eccentric novel, As I Lay Dying. Written in a stream-of-consciousness style and narrated by fifteen different characters, As I Lay Dying not only reflects the religious and moral values of a family torn b...

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MARY SHELLEY"S FRANKENSTEIN When first published in 1818, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein awakened its readers to many issues. Despite the frivolous adaptations produced for the entertainment of popular culture in later years, Shelly's classic tale denotes great depth and meaning. The pe...

Crime and Punishment is a book written by Fyodor Dostoevsky who spent four years at a labour camp in Siberia, followed by four years of military service. Raskolnikov's time in a Siberian prison, described in the Epilogue of Crime and Punishment, is based on Dostoevsky's own experiences at a similar ...

Atticus is obviously the most important person in To Kill A Mockingbird. At the beginning of the novel there is little indication of this because Scout and Jem show very little respect toward him. They are even embarrassed by his age because he doesn't hunt and fish like all of the other parent...

Chinese writer Lin Yutang once said, "Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." However, the word mother does not always apply to a woman who gives birth to a child, but a woman who gives maternal love and tenderness. The role of mother in the novel Obasan was passed dow...

"I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known." This quotation, made by Nick, is moderately true. He was not a completely honest man, but he was not as corrupt as the other characters. Gary J. Scrimgeour comments that Nick was neither honest nor high-principled. The only reaso...

The reason why Flaubert's book was so controversial during his time is because readers thought that he was glorifying adultery and insinuating that French middle-class women were lecherous whores. Another reason for the controversy would be Flaubert's scandalous descriptions of Emma'...

Lord of the Flies Often, novels are used to convey a deeper political or moral meaning. Many times a novel's characters are used to camouflage the controversial topics that the author discusses. The characters, in William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies symbolize many political events...

In The Awakening, a novel by Kate Chopin, the character of Mademoiselle Reisz is first introduced by the narrator as, "a disagreeable little woman, no longer young, who had quarreled with almost everyone, owning to a temper which was self-assertive and a disposition to trample upon the right...

The Rock The core character of a novel is responsible for maintaining the stability of society within the novel, exhibiting qualities of a true hero, and constantly emphasizing the novel's central themes. Atticus serves as this core in To Kill A Mockingbird. He leads his kids not just by telli...

During 1848, shortly after the appearance of Jane Eyre, Victorians themselves believed that the Victorian novel was the genre least likely to survive into the next generation. A novel based only on the mores and customs of Victorian society would surely hold limited value today, except as a historic...

Anna's story is a biographical narrative written by Bronwyn Donaghy, who delves deeply to explore the tradgic life of Anna Wood. Anna was a fifteen year old girl who enjoyed the ups and downs of growing up as a teenager in Sydney. She faced the many difficulties that young people face such as, ...

How does Faulkner direct and shape the reader's reaction's to the story? Faulkner takes advantage of flashbacks while he is constructing his narrative in order to accomplish a great effect of suspense. First, the narrator presents some fictional facts that provide verisimilitude to the ...

Tess of the d'Urbervilles is solely about Tess - her personality, trials, growth, and development. While many novels concern the interaction of characters, this novel concentrates almost single – mindedly on the life of its heroine Tess. The other characters are important only to the e...

In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the issue of the troubled self is a significant element of the story considering Jane Eyre's experiences at Gateshead and Lowood. Jane Eyre's experiences of the conflicting aspects of passion versus reason, social, sexual, and spiritual hunger, and the q...

When considering the debatable relevance/irrelevance of the study of nineteenth century literature to students today, works of the Victorian era, such as Charlotte Bronte's classical masterpiece, Jane Eyre, can be used as an example. Jane Eyre contains such issues as religion, the role of wome...

"The object of these sketches is to awaken sympathy and feeling for the African race, as they exist among us; to show their wrongs and sorrows, under a system so necessarily cruel and unjust as to defeat and do away the good effects of all that can be attempted for them, by their best friends, under...

Developing Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front Throughout the course of a novel sophisticated authors are able to send a character on an influential journey that changes his of her outlook or attitude towards life. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, the author, Erich Maria Remarqu...

Atticus Finch is a character of stability in an unstable society. He is a balanced figure who is able to cope with the unreasonable and highly emotional town in which he lives. He can manage the prejudiced white masses and still deal justly with the underprivileged Negro population of Maycomb. He...

"Flying in the Face of Sanity" Catch-22 was written by Joseph Heller, and is about a WWII oddball bombardier named Yossarian. The novel was brilliantly written. The depths of the various characters were unparallel to those of any other author. There are thirty-nine characters in t...

Jane Austen's novel Emma is basically a biography. As Jane Austen matured through her childhood years, she acquired many talents which are reflected through the character Emma. Jane Austen lived in the popular image of Victorian society. Many critics agree that Jane Austen bases her no...