Stranger than Fiction

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2009) and Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat (1871) are works of literature that both use “nonsense” to convey a story. In what follows I will argue that nonsense is significant, especially in children’s literature, as it is a useful tool for education, and promotes individuality of thoughts. The use of nonsense in literature challenges rules and it allows for the brain to think outside of the restricted boundaries of teaching, which…

In this scene of Edith Wharton’s novella Ethan Frome, he recalls his conversation with Mrs. Hale. Initially, this conversation provides Ethan some clarity about his ongoing internal conflict with his passions and obligations. In Ethan’s perspective, Zeena is becoming more of an unbearable burden, as she had become an “evil energy” that “had mastered him” (Wharton 50). Isolating him, Ethan looks to find comfort in Mattie, who has an emotional relationship. Hence, Ethan feels the need to run away…

One of John Steinbeck's best known novels, Cannery Row, is a classic in which he sculpts each character in an extremely realistic and detailed way. Steinbeck was familiar with the area near the small, depressed town of Cannery Row and the people who crossed his path were eventually transformed into characters in the novel. Every character has an important role in the community. In the novel, many of the characters carry themselves differently in public then they do when they are alone…

Two of the most popular children's literature series of the 21st century, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, both put characters in situations with war and violence. In a world where there is a greater evil to defeat, characters are only benefitted when finding another ally with a common interest. Katniss Everdeen and Harry Potter gain allies when involved in a conflict. Both present the action of conflict directly in front of the characters, causing a change in a…

In the twentieth century, a riveting new genre of children's books emerged. These books, often referred to as “choose your own adventure” novels, provided the reader an array of decisions to make. While it was not always clear which path was the best to take, it was the audience’s personal duty to craft their own conclusion. Comparably, the theme of fate versus free will is addressed frequently in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse Five. As the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, proceeds through…

Part two of Atonement focuses on Robbie and his experience in the war. Near the beginning of his treck to Dunkirk, the narration records Robbie’s stream of consciousness: He lit another cigarette to curb his hunger and tried to reduce his task to the basics: you walked across the land until you came to the sea. What could be simpler, once the social element was removed? He was the only man on earth and his purpose was clear. He was walking across the land until he came to the sea. The…

and his fixation on phoniness is an effect of his desire for the natural order as opposed to what he sees as the stilted, artificial, and deeply damaging societal expectations of the world. His greatest wish is to preserve the beauty that is rather than to see what could be. This is evident in how he cannot disturb the perfect scene of the fleeting snow cover when he leaves Pencey. A more evident and tangible example is his justification as to why the museum is his favourite place. He sees these…

Morgan Tunstall Dr. Carlisle Eng October 23, 2017 Unreliable In the story, “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin an unnamed narrator tells the story from a daily paper that his more youthful sibling, Sonny, has been captured for offering and utilizing heroin. As he gets ready to show his polynomial math class, the storyteller recollects Sonny as a young man. His understudies, he understands, could some time or another end up like Sonny, given the deterrents and hardships they confront experiencing…

was a big success he wrote “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There”, it was based on many of the games he played with the girls. Humpty Dumpty, the White Knight, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee make more appearances in this second book than they did in Alice in Wonderland (“Encyclopedia of World Biography”.). Lewis Carroll was a weird and amazing author who showed the deeper side of imagination and the world will always be thankful for…

highlighted in the Ovid Stories. We saw how Callisto was tricked by Zeus. “He smiled to hear it, amused to be preferred to himself, and kissed her, no modest kiss, nor one a virgin would give...He stopped her with an embrace, betraying himself with a less than innocent act”…