Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Literary criticism essay topics
Essay on literary devices
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Life is a complicated process. It’s filled with many things that keep it interesting but at the same time, very dull. Life’s what you make it and for many, it’s something we all strive for. In the story, The Space Between, the author takes full advantage of the premise as there’s rarely a dull moment- as in life. The book is filled with many literary devices that work nicely with the plot and dialogue. These include; metaphors, similes, irony, personification, and many more. We follow a young man who is finding his way in the world. He has only a week to change his life for the better. But he will face many obstacles on the way that brings the readers into a startling and fun journey.
The main character of the story is a seventeen (onto eighteen) year old Canadian boy named Jace. In the beginning, we see Jace’s first major issue- that he’s almost eighteen and is still a virgin. Luckily for Jace, he’s on his way to a Mexican resort where he, his mother, his aunt, and his younger brother will stay for a week as part of a vacation- giving Jace a chance to fix his problem. Therefore, most of the story takes place in and around the Mexican resort- the Mayan Empress Resort Hotel.
The resort is a magnificent place for relaxation- with many beaches, ruins, restaurants, tourist attractions, entertainment venues, and natural wonders.
Being from Halifax, Nova Scotia, February is a cold time of the year for most but due to Jace’s rich Uncle Stavros he is able to take a break from his daily struggles. But since coming from a dark past and a distant relationship with his family, settling down and relaxing seems unlikely for Jace Antonakos. Jace is left with much to contemplate about since he is the middle child of three boys. Unfortunately for Jace, he gets minimal attention for having a “perfect” older brother, Stefan, and a younger brother with child disintegrative disorder
There are people existing among us with a special trait or characteristic that makes them stand out above the masses. They are “heroes” in a sense, who perform great acts of sacrifice and promote hope when it seems that the last drop of faith has evaporated from one’s soul. These individuals remind us of saints who walked before us, healing and caring for the sick and destitute when no other man dared. Author, Tracy Kidder (2004), brings to the forefront the noble deeds of a modern day saint, Paul Farmer, through his writing in Mountains Beyond Mountains. He illustrates how a single man can lead nations toward healing, even in the midst of war, turmoil, limited resources, or “mountains” of bureaucratic red tape. Although the book tells a story about Farmer’s life, academic achievements, and global contributions toward curing infectious diseases, the main theme, as illustrated by the book title, is that no matter what a person does, there is always more to be done. Beyond the hills and valleys of Farmer’s journey, Kidder (2004) provides scenes of leadership styles along the way. Is a leader born or is leadership learned? A review of Paul Farmer’s mission, through the eyes of the author, may provide insight to support both philosophies.
Both awe-inspiring and indescribable is life, the defined “state of being” that historians and scholars alike have been trying to put into words ever since written language was first created. And in the words of one such intellectual, Joshua J. Marine, “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful”. Essentially, he is comparing life to a bowl of soup. Without challenges or hardship into which we can put forth effort and show our potential, it becomes a dull and flavorless broth. But for characters in novels like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the difficulties and trials that we all must face can transfigure the mundane liquid mixture of existence into a vibrant and fulfilling gumbo. The protagonists of these works are two strong-willed and highly admirable women, who prevail in the face of overwhelming odds stacked in everyone’s favor but theirs. In their trying periods of isolation brought about by cold and unwelcoming peers, particularly men, they give their lives meaning by simply pushing forward, and living to tell the tale.
The whole story is told through a voice-over narration. Our narrator and protagonist is a young man from London called David, whose life, from the perspective of an outsider, is going by the book - he studied law at a top university, now has a profitable job as a banker and has good looks and great self-confidence. But he still doesn’t seem very content with his life. For example when he talks about his girlfriend’s job, he doesn’t really seem to care: “She got an internship
My initial reaction to the words “You’re next book you will be reading is Into Thin Air” was definitely not me jumping up and down in my seat out of joy. I’ll admit I was not looking forward to reading this book at all. I tried putting off reading it for as long as possible, but then realized that I should just try reading the first chapter. After reading the first chapter I was completely hooked and I couldn’t get enough of the book. Jon Krakauer does a phenomenal job at keeping the reader engaged with what is happening throughout the book. You get an astounding story of the struggles that come with climbing Mount Everest and a wonderful background of the mountain and its history.
The story describes the protagonist who is coming of age as torn between the two worlds which he loves equally, represented by his mother and his father. He is now mature and is reflecting on his life and the difficulty of his childhood as a fisherman. Despite becoming a university professor and achieving his father’s dream, he feels lonely and regretful since, “No one waits at the base of the stairs and no boat rides restlessly in the waters of the pier” (MacLeod 261). Like his father, the narrator thinks about what his life could have been like if he had chosen another path. Now, with the wisdom and experience that comes from aging and the passing of time, he is trying to make sense of his own life and accept that he could not please everyone. The turmoil in his mind makes the narrator say, “I wished that the two things I loved so dearly did not exclude each other in a manner that was so blunt and too clear” (MacLeod 273). Once a decision is made, it is sometimes better to leave the past and focus on the present and future. The memories of the narrator’s family, the boat and the rural community in which he spent the beginning of his life made the narrator the person who he is today, but it is just a part of him, and should not consume his present.
The theme of this novel is to look at the good you do in life and how it carries over after your death. The moral of the book is; "People can make changes in their lives whenever they really want to, even right up to the end."
Dave Pelzer has shown admirable character for surviving a horrendous childhood and also for becoming a man that strives to please his family and works for the betterment of society. His clear and concise writing style in this novel provides us with a child’s viewpoint, which makes the book more emotional then it possibly could be. With the use of metaphors Dave Pelzer establishes the claim that the human spirit has the capability to fight back regardless of the condition that it is in. This story should be a source of inspiration and motivation for those who believe that all hope is lost.
Every person is likely to feel a sense of discontentment at some point . This feeling could stem from many different aspects of a person’s life such as their job, house, financial situation, etc, and this in turn inspires an incentive to do something else with their life. In “Saturday at the Canal” , Gary Soto utilizes various literary devices including imagery, symbolism, and personification. These literary devices serve to convey the feeling of desire and motivation to pursue life’s journey.
Christopher McCandless, also known as Alex Supertramp , died at age 24 1992, went hitchhiking up in the Alaskan Stampede Trail and survived for four months. After his death Jon Krakauer, the famous arthur of "Into Thin Air", went to do research about Chris in order to have a better understanding of Chris McCandless death. Some believed that it was wrong for Krakauer to glorify McCandless’ death and that it was Chris’s fault to go into the wild without sufficient respect for the wilderness. Others believed that his actions reflect the confidence in an individual testing his own strength of character by pushing himself to the limits of his ability. Although, it is correct that it was Chris’s fault for going into the wild unprepared, however,
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
“The story employs a dramatic point of view that emphasizes the fragility of human relationships. It shows understanding and agreemen...
In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
In William Zinnser’s essay “Simplicity” he states that “clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” He believes that people speak more complexly then they have to and that the key to good writing and speaking is simplicity. In his argument he goes on to say that often writers are not careful enough. They know what they are trying to say but do not know how to put it down on paper. They assume that the reader will understand what they are thinking even though their writing is not obvious to others. He does make several suggestions for improvement. Very easily one could make their writing easier to understand by simple corrections.
Urvashi Butalia in her book, The Other Side of Silence, attempts to analyze the partition in Indian society, through an oral history of Indian experiences. The collection of traumatic events from those people who lived through the partition gives insight on how history has enveloped these silences decades later. Furthermore, the movie 1947 Earth reveals the bitterness of partition and its effect of violence on certain characters. The most intriguing character which elucidates the silence of the partition is the child, Lenny. Lenny in particular the narrator of the story, serves as a medium to the intangibility created by the partition. The intangibility being love and violence, how can people who grew up together to love each other hate one another amidst religion? This question is best depicted through the innocence of a child, Lenny. Through her interactions with her friends, the doll, and the Lahore Park, we see silence elucidated as comfort of not knowing, or the pain from the separation of comfort and silence from an unspoken truth.