Stephen Barrett

For those seeking thrills, surprises and mind-bending twists, Gothic Literature is an excellent genre to fulfill that role. While these novels can vary from the average home in a futuristic world to an old and decaying mansion on a stormy night, or from several characters to just a few, Gothic stories mainly focus on horror themes that set the reader on edge. Death, supernatural activity, spooky settings and suspicions about who can be trusted are many common characteristics featured in Gothic…

The Open Boat by Stephen Crane is told from a third-person perspective. The only mind through out the book the narrator has insight to is the correspondent. The narrator suggests all four men are thinking and feeling the same things. Throughout the book the oiler is the only character given a name. The oiler (Billy) has not eaten or slept in days like the others, right before the ship sank he worked double-watch in the engine-room, still he continues rowing. Any time the correspondent tries to…

Published in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter is a piece of Gothic literature that has become a staple of high school learning and woven itself, quite ironically, into popular culture. Examples of this can be seen in movies (The plot of Easy A is loosely based on the novel) and music. (The lyrics of the Metallica song “Thorn Within” can be taken as a direct reflection of the novel.) But what defines Gothic literature? Gothic literature is typically defined as a work of…

Directed by Stephen Chbrosky, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is a phenominal movie set in the 90's era that accurately shows a realisic coming of age story and how it feels growing up as a teenager in high school in society. This film shows the perspective of central character, Charlie and his ups and downs in the beginning of high school in a fascinating, exciting and somewhat amusing way. In my opinion, an important and reoccuring theme in "Perks of being a wallflower" is love. Love is…

The Single Shard This book we read together in class was very fascinating. It was about a man named Crame-man and a boy named Tree-ear. Well Tree-ear was alone, basically an orphan. The reason why he was an orphan is because his parents had died of a fever. He has nowhere to go so he asked Crane-man if he could live with him. Crane-man he did not live any a house, he lived under a bridge. The reason why he did not have a house was because he had to sell it, so he could get money out of it and…

From Faith & Brutality to Supernatural Monsters: A Look at the Influences of Wes Craven Raymond Holt COM 320 The 1900s saw a rise in many genres and subgenres in the film industry. One of the biggest to gain popularity was the horror genre. From slasher flicks to supernatural beings, from masked men to grisly monsters, people enjoy being scared. Among the directors that crafted these horror movies was a man who aimed to break the mold of existing horror stereotypes and create new,…

Needful Things by Stephen King: Stephen King is one of my favorite authors, he lead me into the world of science fiction and short stories. I fell in love with Needful Things because it had such a different feel than any of his other works I had read. Needful Things is a metaphor for the consequences instant gratification has. Although the book ends with practically the whole town being decimated by a bomb, I feel as though I still learned a valuable lesson in that, there is nothing wrong with…

“Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” is a novel written in 1983 by the American author Stephen Crane. The story is mainly centered on Maggie, a young girl who comes from the Bowery and is moved to engaging in unfortunate circumstances due to poverty as well as solitude. The novella begins with a battle in the streets between young boys from rival areas of the Bowery. Jimmie is the champion fighting for the honor of Rum Alley against the Devil’s Row. Even after Jimmie’s allies have abandoned him and…

Jordan Bryan Edward Pettit English 210 12 October 2015 When Bram Stoker’s fin de siecle novel, Dracula, was published in 1897, it perfectly illustrated the Victorian cultural anxieties created by the possible collapse of the British empire. Transylvania, literally meaning “through the woods”, is one of two major settings in the classic novel. Transylvania is Dracula’s homeland, where he is an infamous civilian. He is a clever creature, and was a nobleman of great linage. There is a clear…

The Social Environment of the Bowery Stephen Crane, writer of the novella: Maggie a Girl of the Streets discusses the impact of social environment through symbolic characters and setting. Crane describes the tragedy of individuals who are destroyed by their environment. The theme of social environment demonstrates the impact society has on people and shows how easily subjected people are to becoming products of their environment. The "environment" that an individual is brought up in…