... much. Honesty, loving, and having an optimistic personality are three qualities a person can posses that will make them very satisfied. Providing all of the things above that can be satisfying Nick, Gatsby, and Dexter are three characters from Great Gatsby and "Winter Dreams", that would have an opinion on them. Nick probably wouldn't agree that being optimistic and having money is satisfy but ... satisfying because he is satisfied with his own honesty. Nick, on himself: "Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest peop...

• Word Count: 1338
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... like Us, this occurs in reality as well. Some ways this happens is through special privileges, stance, and attitude. For example, when Gatsby shows the card to the police when he gets pulled over, that is an example of how he has manipulated someone for power. By doing this he is saying, ... I know someone, so back off. This is also an example of how he would set an illusion. For the police, it is implied that if Gatsby gets a ticket, then some type of "punishment" would be brought upon them. In People Like Us, this occurs too. For example, someone ... is teaching others how to act lik...

• Word Count: 331
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• Grade Level: High School

... pawns that play much bigger roles by coming together to form the themes behind Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. All these things and more are the backing for the different themes encompassed in the book. One such theme is that of superiority. Superiority is the trigger for the rest of the book. Raskolnikov, the main character, believes he is superior to mankind. He demonstrates ... his believe by going above the law to murder two innocent people. This action sends him into a downward spiral and sets the stage for the adjoining themes. The themes ... to follow his crime are ve...

• Word Count: 560
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• Grade Level: High School

... individual's thoughts and beliefs, is present throughout Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky makes numerous references in his novel concerning the direct impact one's living quarters can make upon their life and it is these specific references that further illustrate Dostoevsky's themes and characters. The living space of Dostoevsky's main character, Raskolnikov, is a scene that holds a variety of significant events. Raskolnikov, as ... of Raskolnikov's living quarters as a "tomb" because it is where Raskolnikov loses his original self and state of mind. The livi...

• Word Count: 1258
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... is through these components, that the narrative's themes are presented, allowing the readers to respond accordingly. The theme of appearance and reality endorses proverbs such as nothing is what it seems, the problem of freedom presents the power of the criminal mind, the stunted self introduces psychological behaviour, and the problem of love addresses views of false and true love. The Collector is a feature of the thriller genre, thus contributing to ... shared with the majority of society. The difference between Clegg, the collector, or anti-life person, and Miranda, the free spirit,...

• Word Count: 1939
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• Grade Level: High School

... add to the eerie atmosphere of the whole story. The rooms the Prince created show just how distorted the minds of the writers were when this story was written. Instead of the flowing plaza, the Prince's hideaway is full of sharp and unnecessary angles. The rooms each have their own colors and themes; each of these themes represents some part of the imaginative thinking going on through the romantic/gothic age. The last room ... , which holds the truest character of the ... ...

• Word Count: 461
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• Grade Level: High School

... has had ongoing success which is largely credited to Holden Caulfield's complex character. The book explores different universal themes and ideas. A complex character is one that is more than one-dimensional and is able to change and adjust their attitude and behaviour according to the situation. Their personality often has many dimensions. Salinger is able to create such ... as diverse and complex character through the use of several literary devices. These literary devices portray the personality and the complexity of Holden's character to the ... As seen above, it is evident that Sal...

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... he says , is "not to tell you what happened, but what happens, not what did take place, but the kind of thing that always does take place." This makes perfect sense, why do we study literature? For the themes, not the facts. We read Macbeth for the themes of jealousy, and betrayal, who cares that Macbeth was Scottish? Frye concludes this chapter with referring back ... the the beginning. Literature is neither real, nor unreal because no universal reality exists, only individual reality, we everything to fit ... our own realities, including literature. Chapter Four : The Keys to Dreamla...

• Word Count: 1704
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• Grade Level: High School

... a lot of books about whaling and is interested in geography. He has a great imagination, e.g. about how big a whale is, and probably his idea about the fight man versus beast. He maybe is a little naive, he doesn't try to see things in another perspective, and he keeps his maybe a little romantic ... idea about how things are. The narrator is probably not very old, if he had been older he would probably have found out that all things are not as lovely as they ... He might benefit from this experience, everything isn't black and white, good and bad anymore, and it might make him more cau...

• Word Count: 719
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it is apparent that Kesey begins to explore social issues such as individuality and conformity as these themes seem to run ramped throughout the novel. In the novel, he personifies the institution itself as means of portraying ones needs to conform to society. Kesey uses symbols in his novel to show the different elements of the real world as ... partly represented by the asylum. This setting is a key element in establishing the idea that a majority of this ... why McMurphy is a threatening individual who rebels against the structure imposed upon the ...

• Word Count: 451
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Tom Stoppard, explores deep concepts of fate through the eyes of Hamlet's bewildered lackeys. The human perception of destiny and death is questioned and answered by the themes of the play. Fate, death, and human consciousness open new doors of thought and provide valuable insights about the characters. Fate holds the main role in evoking thought throughout the play. As Guildenstern remarks, "Wheels have been ... set in motion, and they have their own pace to which we are...condemned. Each move is dictated by the previous one--that ... for all ages and occasions! Deaths by suspension, c...

• Word Count: 737
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... a lot of books about whaling and is interested in geography. He has a great imagination, e.g. about how big a whale is, and probably his idea about the fight man versus beast. He maybe is a little naive, he doesn't try to see things in another perspective, and he keeps his maybe a little romantic ... idea about how things are. The narrator is probably not very old, if he had been older he would probably have found out that all things are not as lovely as they ... He might benefit from this experience, everything isn't black and white, good and bad anymore, and it might make him more cau...

• Word Count: 727
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Kate Chopin, had many themes and motifs, but there was the most obvious message of the inability to grow up. Edna Pontellier did not have to accept the life she was given, but she had a lack of maturity that was her destruction. All throughout the book we witness Edna's inability to leave her ... young, free, and without adult boundaries. Chopin did not feel that Edna's situation was fair, however it was obvious she was trying to convey the notion that Edna had a lack of maturity. This childlike quality turned and unhappy situation into a disastrous and horrible situation. Chopin wanted ...

• Word Count: 1658
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

One of the major themes explored in literature is the idea of belonging. It can either create a feeling of warmth and home or it can do the polar opposite and raise the idea of loneliness and the feeling of being outcast. Each idea of belonging helps to draw the audience in and create a type of relationship between the text and person. The idea of belonging doesn't just have to be ... of belonging explored Peter Skrzynecki's poem 'Feliks Skrzynecki' they can also be seen in his poem 'Migrant Hostel' Simply by title shows the labelling as migrants immediately excludes the people from...

• Word Count: 751
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of Macbeth, Thane of Glamis whose dark ambition will lead him to murder the king and take his crown. This passage is Macbeth's first soliloquy extracted from the Scene I of Act II, also known as the "dagger scene ". This is the scene that precedes Duncan's murder. Many themes are recurring throughout the play and this passage. First, we will deal with illusions and reality and their ... consequences on Macbeth's state of mind, then we will move on to order and disorder and finally to the murder Macbeth is about ... to commit. In this passage, the theme of illusion ... ...

• Word Count: 1123
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• Grade Level: High School

... Even though he has not caught anything, the boy, Manolin still looks up to him. Hemingway uses Santiago's perseverance to show that he is a character to admire. Socrates" questions also emphasize this point. "Am I free or determined" is the first query that stresses Hemingway's themes. In this work, many of Santiago's ... actions reflect Socrates" eternal question "Am I free or determined?" The main character feels that he does not control his luck with fishing - he says it ... is all up to God. Santiago thus thinks of himself as determined. Manolin, the boy that looks up to the ... w...

• Word Count: 990
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• Grade Level: High School

... would agree binds many of Poe's works together . . . Murder and the insanity associated with it. Where the workings of the human mind are concerned, Poe puts to paper what many cannot even imagine. This is especially evident in his short stories such as "The Tell-Tale Heart- and "The Black Cat- in which the common themes are murder, insanity, and darkness. We all wonder what goes on ... in the mind of a person driven so far over the brink of human sanity that they would actually murder another person. We wonder what could drive ... one human being to want to kill another. In pondering ...

• Word Count: 1106
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• Grade Level: High School

... than individual grounds makes it easier for people with influential power to feed into their egos. It boggles the mind to learn how much brain power, education, patience, and hard work have been turned to the question of "proving" that social distinctions are scientifically true. Themes of this book are a reminder that almost every group has been proven intellectually or morally inferior at ... some point. His critiques of the scientist's "methodologies" are equally difficult to deny. Gould also points out that many of ... the scientific racists/class themselves came to recant their ow...

• Word Count: 1170
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... and Peter watches this man (his other self) swim frantically at the canoe only to seemingly disappear. Both Bowman and Hazlett have seemingly similar lives in two different eras. "Death of a Traveling Salesman" is set in the past probably the thirties while "Canoe" is set in more modern times. Both stories have themes dealing with man vs. man and man connecting with people. Bowman ... finds his end through seeing clearly for the first time. Hazlett finds his own faults that stormy night and is completely traumatized ... only able to say canoe. He was traumatized because he wanted to sa...

• Word Count: 1371
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• Grade Level: High School

... their relationship. One of the major themes in the story is miscommunication. This theme arises throughout the story and is mainly expressed through the relationship of Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta. Gabriel miscommunicates with Gretta throughout the story, does not interpret her behavior and misjudge her. During their ride back to the hotel he longs for her ... concerned in his desires and thoughts and does not pay attention to Gretta. It is seen is that Gabriel is thinking only of himself, and of the moment they will be left alone. Nonetheless, Gretta is described only by her exte...

• Word Count: 1393
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... the mixture of sounds, so habitual and dear to Clarissa. "In people's eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and the uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jungle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June." One of the themes of the ... novel is the conflict between conventionality and unconventionality. Clarissa chooses conventionality, rather than following her true feelings ... , and is left empty and unsu...

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... in a tree did end their race: Apollo hunted Daphne so Only that she might laurel grow And Pan did after Syrinx speed Not as a nymph, but for a reed What the garden does is the clarifying the mind's view of its desires and purposes, it reveals our true motives. Later - a reference to Ovid's Metamorphoses. Apollo fell for Daphne, who ran from him and in ... does straight its own resemblance find meaning either staightway or finds straightened or narrowed. In my opinion the first one is more probable as the second conflicts with the effect of magnifying the mind. The mind contains the repl...

• Word Count: 1411
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

In Bertrand Russell's, The Value of Philosophy, he explains his point of view on what philosophy is really made of. I agree with Russell on his views of philosophy and I also feel that studying ... us, even though we many never find a real answer, makes us smarter and brighter people. Living in a box will get you nowhere in life, but opening your eyes to the things around you, and constantly analyzing and questioning things opens a whole new world to you. Russell also points out that philosophy is unlike any other study. All other studies have ... to keep his interest alive. Russell says th...

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... Descartes argument is based on the first person narrative style of his Meditations on First Philosophy. It is much more than a style; it is his main way of reasoning. It begins with ... existence because only he can know of his conscious intelligence. It's feasible to question other's existence because certainty begins only with knowledge of oneself. As soon as Descartes creates the basis of his argument he can make more inferences as he moves on to different meditations. He now has an immovable point "I am, I exist, this is certain. ... , willing, refusing, and also imagining and sensin...

• Word Count: 314
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• Grade Level: High School

... you be able to relate to them? If you didn't know your friends how would you be able to help them? If you didn't know the skills of your work, how would you be able to work? In my eyes it all comes down to one thing, and that is knowledge ... . The bible says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge", and if you think about it, it's true. When I talk to people my age we ... cars, videos, clothes, sporting events, and things of that nature; they know everything. I can't remember having a conversation about the government with anyone my age, because it's something they don't know a...

• Word Count: 301
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School