Parallel Lives Essays

  • Essay on Language and Mores in Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    Language and Mores in winesburg, ohio Language and literature lead parallel lives. What changes most often and most dramatically is the language we use to describe events and feelings that are common to all times. Language shifts, stretches, adopts, and absorbs -- it drops antiquated terms and picks up a few new ones, and you don't have to look far to find novels and short stories grown stale from shaky, outdated prose, from too many neo-tropisms, catch-phrases, and slang with a short shelf-life

  • American Dream Lost in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    mobility and freedom.  The social reality, however, is far more cruel.  Because of the harsh truth of social America, by way of its pretentiousness and decadence, the American dream is lost.  Through Nick’s honest and poignant observation, the parallel lives of Myrtle Wilson and Jay Gatsby reflect The Great Gatsby as a social commentary about the polluted American Dream. Myrtle is that infamous model of how the political and social ideals of America conflict so that the American dream becomes a

  • Dos Passos's Mary French: The Mundane Lesson in Socialism

    1551 Words  | 4 Pages

    In "Mary French," Dos Passos draws a definitive line between his feelings on capitalism and socialism, as well as the rich and the poor.  The parallel lives of Eveline Johnson and Mary French reveal Dos Passos's distinct attitudes in regards to the upper and lower classes of society. As a member of high society, Eveline Johnson exemplifies Dos Passos's attitudes of the rich. These attitudes begin to take shape as Mary French enters the party, "Eveline Johnson was ushering them through some sliding

  • What Are The Similarities Between Plutarch And Julius Caesar

    1973 Words  | 4 Pages

    as Plutarch’s Lives. The first volume of this enormous compilation is named Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans which is a number of biographies from both Greece and Rome. In his novel Plutarch summarized the significance of these lives while comparing similarities between Roman and Greek figures. Two people he examined were the lives of Macedonian king Alexander the Great as well as Dictator Gaius Julius Caesar and compared common themes that existed in both their lives. First, Plutarch

  • Alienation in As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner

    1733 Words  | 4 Pages

    able to delve into the character's mind and see their personal and distinct traits. He did not tell us anything about the characters, but he takes us into the mind of each character to analyze what we see there. Even though these characters lead parallel lives we can see the total alienation and breakdown of the relationships between each other.  Darl, Jewel, and Anse possess character traits that contribute to or cause the breakdown of their relationship. Anse Bundren is a poor farmer, who was married

  • Pliny The Elder Analysis

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pliny the Elder or Gaius Plinius Secundus in Latin, is best known for his extensive work Natural History or Naturalis Historia (Purcell: 2005). Pliny's only surviving work spans over 37 books covering the of topics, astronomy, geography, animals including humans, plants and agriculture, medicine, and metals and minerals (Stannard: 2013). In 23AD, Pliny was born at Novum Comum, in Gallia Cisalpine, Italy, to a prosperous equestrian family (Purcell: 2005). He was a military man serving in Germany eventually

  • Parallel Lives By Plutarch

    806 Words  | 2 Pages

    was a famous philosopher and biographer who was born between the years of 45-50 CE and died sometime after 120 CE . Throughout his life he had written several pieces, which includes the Parallel Lives, which is a collection of biographies. In this series, Plutarch wrote about several people and their lives including Lucius Cornelius Sulla who is better known as Sulla and will be my main focus throughout this paper. Sulla was a consul in 80 BCE and dictator of Rome from 82-81BCE . Plutarch recorded

  • Plutarch Parallel Lives Analysis

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plutarch’s writings were of a wide variety including Philosophy, rhetoric, antiquarianism, and biography. A series of biographies called Parallel Lives written towards the end of Plutarch’s life compared Roman and Greek people to find similarities in the two cultures, although many of his biographies were written considering the personalities of the people rather than strict historical events. The ancient Greeks thought that Plutarch’s work were concrete histories and took them as truth when looking

  • Parallel Lives: Doodle and the Ibis

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    We learn his real background when the story comes out and says, “It lives in the tropics—South America to Florida. A storm must have brought it here.’ Sadly, we all looked back at the bird. A scarlet ibis! How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree” (Hurst 473). The family thought

  • Mandragora by David McRobbie

    544 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mandragora by David McRobbie "Mandragora" by David Mc Robbie is the story of parallel lives and how they connect through four cursed mandrake dolls. These dolls in particular have been around since 1886. According to "Mandragora", a ship called the Dunarling was not only carrying 85 passengers wanting to shift from Scotland to South Australia, but also the four dolls. Each named and cursed. 'Swith' was cursed with fire (bleeze), 'Agley' with mischance, 'Snell' with foulness and 'Sneddum'

  • Essay on Camus’ The Stranger (The Outsider): Parallels Within

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    Parallels Within The Stranger (The Outsider) The Stranger by Albert Camus is a story of a sequence of events in one man's life that cause him to question the nature of the universe and his position in it. The book is written in two parts and each part seems to reflect in large degree the actions occurring in the other. There are curious parallels throughout the two parts that seem to indicate the emotional state of Meursault, the protagonist, and his view of the world. Meursault is a fairly average

  • Parallels Between The Crucible and McCarthy Era

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    that the nation was facing the same events that Salem went through back in the late 1600's. Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible" in an attempt to create moral awareness for society. He did so by making a few small changes to the history and creating parallels in the play with racism, human tendencies, and H.U.A.C. Miller completed "The Crucible" in the 1950's. At that time, America was engulfed in the civil rights movement. Racism was a huge issue and people were fighting for equality and respect. African

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Essay: Parallels and Differences

    1759 Words  | 4 Pages

    To Kill a Mockingbird:  Parallels and Differences Jill McCorkle's Ferris Beach, a contemporary novel, shares numerous characteristics with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel written in the 1960's. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, McCorkle's novel documents the life of a young girl in a small southern town. The two narrators, Kate Burns and Scout Finch, endure difficult encounters. A study of these main characters reveals the parallels and differences of the two novels. Jill McCorkle duplicates

  • Parallels Between The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway and The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    Parallels Between The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway and The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald During the decade of the 1920's, America was going through many changes, evolving from the Victorian Period to the Jazz Age. Changing with the times, the young adults of the 1920's were considered the "Lost Generation". The Great War was over in 1918. Men who returned from the war had the scars of war imprinted in their minds. The eighteenth amendment was ratified in 1919 which prohibited the manufacture, sale

  • Hesse's Siddhartha as it Parallels Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

    1807 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hesse's Siddhartha as it Parallels Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Several parallels can be drawn between the psychologist Abraham Maslow's theoretical hierarchy of needs and the spiritual journey of Siddhartha, the eponymous main character in Herman Hesse's novel.  Maslow's hierarchy of needs is somewhat of a pyramid that is divided into eight stages of need through which one progresses throughout one's entire life. During the course of his lifetime, Siddhartha's personality develops in a manner

  • Foreshadowing, Mood, Mythical Parallels, and Narrative Elements in Dracula

    1445 Words  | 3 Pages

    Foreshadowing, Mood, Mythical Parallels, and Narrative Elements in Dracula In the novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, there is much evidence of foreshadowing and parallels to other myths.  Dracula was not the first story featuring a vampire myth, nor was it the last.  Some would even argue that it was not the best.  However, it was the most original, using foreshadowing and mood to create horrific imagery, mythical parallels to draw upon a source of superstition, and original narrative elements that

  • Parallels Between The Truman Show and Plato's Allegory of the Cave

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Parallels Between The Truman Show and Plato's Allegory of the Cave The movie, 'The Truman Show' is about a reality television show that has been created to document the life of a man who, adopted at birth by a television network, is tricked into believing that his life, his reality, is normal and the environment that he lives is real. It is set in a town called Seahaven, which is essentially a simulation of the real world similar enough to the outside world that the viewing audience can relate

  • Free Glass Menagerie Essays: Parallels to Williams' Life and Symbolism

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Glass Menagerie:  Parallels to Williams' Life and Use of Symbolism The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a touching play about the lost dreams of a southern family and their struggle to escape reality. The play is a memory play and therefore very poetic in mood, setting, and dialogue. Tom Wingfield serves as the narrator as well as a character in the play. Tom lives with his Southern belle mother, Amanda, and his painfully shy sister, Laura. The action of the play revolves around

  • Parallel Lives: Demeter and Penelope in Homer's Odyssey

    1417 Words  | 3 Pages

    finally, they are reunited with their family and given happiness by the gods, who granted Demeter her daughter for two-thirds of each year along with rights she wishes among the gods, and gave Penelope and Odysseus peace in Ithaca for the rest of their lives. Both Demeter and Penelope lose a loved one because of the schemes of the gods. In the Hymn to Demeter, Zeus gives Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, as a wife to Hades, who kidnaps her and takes her to the Underworld. When she discovers Persephone’s

  • Parallels between The Movie, The Matrix and Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    2216 Words  | 5 Pages

    Parallels between The Movie, "The Matrix" and Plato's Allegory Of The Cave In Book VII of The Republic, Plato tells a story entitled "The Allegory Of The Cave." He begins the story by describing a dark underground cave where a group of people are sitting in one long row with their backs to the cave's entrance. Chained to their chairs from an early age, all the humans can see is the distant cave wall in from of them. Their view of reality is soley based upon this limited view of the cave which