One constant source of hope for the enslaved African Americans is the prospect of a blissful afterlife that the Christian doctrine offered. While the first generation of black slaves in America brought with them their native religious beliefs and practices, they were soon replaced by Christianity. The white slave owners instilled in their slaves the…
Category: Classics
Hemingway’s ‘Hero Code’ in ‘Hills Like White Elephants’ and ‘A Clean Well-lighted Place’
Ernest Hemingway, alongside Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner and John Steinbeck, is a shining beacon of the American literary scene. He mastered both the novel as well as the short story forms. The scope of this essay is two of his short stories – Hills Like White Elephants and A Clean Well-Lighted Place. The two stories…
Movie Analysis: George A Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead
The Night of the Living Dead rightly remains as one of the horror classics. The movie stands out from others of its genre for it contains scenes explicitly showing dead people coming back to haunt those who are alive. Directed by George A Romero in 1968, the movie was not a product of any of…
Overview of Orientalism by Edward Said
Orientalism as a geo-political and sociological concept has attracted much controversy. It remains author Edward Said’s definitive work, alongside other titles such a The Question of Palestine and Covering Islam. Orientalism as a scholarly work is the combined study and analysis of Oriental “philology, linguistics, ethnography, and the interpretation of culture through the discovery, recovery,…
Livvie by Eudora Welty
Eudora Welty has made significant contributions to the cause of American literature. Born in 1909, she witnessed the causes and consequences of the Second World War, the Cold War and beyond. But her observations and insights into the collective American psyche during the twentieth century, especially that of the Southern states, would provide the material…
What did Socrates meant by “an unexamined life is not worth living”
Socrates’ reasoning in passing up the chance to escape his sentence after being condemned to death on fabricated charges Socrates is one of the most influential Greek philosophers, who as influential in ushering the Hellenistic Age. His powers of logical reasoning and the invention of the Socratic method has left a lasting impression on Western…
Shakespeare’s Personal Life and the Writing of Hamlet
It is a well-established fact that an author’s material for fiction is largely derived from his/her own personal experiences. And the greatest of English literary artists in the form of William Shakespeare is not an exception to this rule. The underlying thematic current in the play is tragedy. And based on what scholars have documented…
Review of ‘Assata: An Autobiography’
Assata Shakur was an important figure during and after the civil rights movement. Being an African American woman, she was disadvantaged both in terms of race and gender. Hence her social activism served a two-fold purpose. But her association with the militant wings of the civil rights movement, such as the Black Panther Party and…
Scientific progress according to Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn was one of the pre-eminent scientific voices of the twentieth century. He made key contributions to physics; but his most important works were about the history and philosophy of science. His most influential work is The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in which Kuhn offers the processes and conditions under which scientific progress takes…
Brief Analysis: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson
Jeo Turner’s Come and Gone is one of the most memorable plays written by playwright August Wilson. It is one instalment in The Pittsburgh Cycle series, which documents the lives and struggles of black Americans in early 20th century America. Set in the time of the Jazz Age, the book’s heroes are former slaves who…