Bruce Jay Friedman

Greed and Wealth: Connections between A Doll’s House and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” Most people have this fascination for money. Sometimes it gets so bad that it consumes a person. Nora and Hester, in the works A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and “The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence respectively, both struggle with greed. Nora’s fascination with money sheds light on Hester’s lust for wealth. While both characters are avarice, Nora becomes less greedy as the plot progresses, whereas…

Adrian Ghilardi Mr. Dwyer AP English 29 August 2017 Zeitoun Summer Reading Essay Writer David Eggers, in his nonfiction work Zeitoun, retells the experience of one family before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. Eggers’ purpose is to accurately retell the story of the Zeitoun family, as well as offer insight and bring up discussions on the American political climate post-9/11. The tone of the two primary speakers, Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his wife Kathy, fluctuate between concise and…

In an early 1700’s newspaper, The Spectator, the author Joseph Addison creates a diarist of the upper class. The fabricated author shows off the lavish lifestyle of the affluent back then in an attempt to connect with the common rich citizens reading the paper. On the outside that is how it may appear, however, being a clearly satirical piece the real aim is at making fun of these people’s lifestyles and the sheer pointlessness of the lifestyles. The diarist goes through almost an entire week of…

American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, Cormac McCarthy has received numerous positive reviews and awards for his realism that is found in his portrayal of a post-apocalyptic America in The Road. Instead of having the plot drive the story, McCarthy focuses on the daily struggles of the protagonists: a father and his son. Nevertheless, McCarthy creates verisimilitude through the exploration of his character's emotions. Having the characters become the main focus of the novel strengthens…

In 1891, Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler debuted at the Residenzentheater in Munich, Germany. Hedda Gabler has been adapted to screen several times since it's original 1891 run, though the majority of English translated versions remained televised adaptations. The most notable stage to screen adaptation is the 1975 remake which was adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn and stared Peter Eyre, Patrick Stewart, Glenda Jackson as the titular character. This version garnered critical acclaim from the New…

The Importance and Significance of Geography in The Great Gatsby Geography plays a very important part in the novel The Great Gatsby. There is the significance of East and West Egg, places that are similar in the fact that, for the most part, only very wealthy people live there. Also, the people there very entitled. They are very different in almost every way besides that.There is also the middle ground that is the Mid-west, which is completely different from both the East and the West. The…

Achieving the American dream was the main goal in the 1920’s, and still is today. The American dream is the ideal life of freedom consisting of opportunity. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it shows how this idea had been distorted. The concept of having opportunity had been changed into the concept of obtaining wealth. By focusing too much on materialistic values, Myrtle and Gatsby had a corrupt understanding of the American dream therefore, never achieving it and making it hopeless.…

was an integral part of literature produced in the twentieth century. Identity crises in literature are most often faced by adolescents and migrants, both of which accurately describe James Gatz in The Great Gatsby. Young James Gatz, also known as Jay Gatsby, migrated all the way from North Dakota to the southern shores of Lake Superior then on to Minnesota and eventually to Long Island, New York all before the age of 23. Compared to most, Gatz’s identity crisis was a rather large one. He left…

attempt to reclaim Daisy. He believes that wealth will impress her and she will divorce Tom and marry him” (Verderame). Growing up, Gatsby lived in the lower or working class of society. He went from being a “nobody” names James Gatz to being the great Jay Gatsby. In Fitzgerald’s words, “James Gatz – that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career – when he saw Dan Cody 's yacht drop…

intimacy about the picture and anybody would’ve said they were conspiring together” (155), it is obvious that the glue of their relationship was Tom’s fortune, which alone seemed to be enough to make her to stay with him, even when she wanted to be with Jay Gatsby instead. Neither Tom nor Daisy are particularly happy with their life together, leading them both to have affairs, but Daisy does not see this as sufficient reason to abandon the comfort of Tom’s riches. Towards the end, it is noted…