Sequoia

           The short story "To Build a Fire" is written by the American author Jack London. It tells a story about an unnamed man who ventures out into the Yukon Territory's subzero boreal forest and his dog walks behind him. It is a big gray animal, half dog and half wolf. Despite warnings from an older man from Sulphur Creek about the risks of travelling alone in the freezing weather, the man underestimates the tough conditions and falls victim to the cold. According to the relation between the man and the environment, ecocriticism serves as a great lens to assist understanding the short story.              The man is so weak facing the nature as it tortures him physically. At first, his fingers gets frozen. Then, while he is walking, his feet sink into the water. It is not deep, but his legs get wet to the knees. After that, his wet feet get frozen. He cqn not feel his fingers and his nose is frozen. The skin all over h...

   “Theme for English B” is a poem written by the rebellious American writer, Langston Hughes, whose works made him “a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s” (Biography). The speaker in the poem is a black student given an assignment that demands authenticity; thus, it arises a lot of emotions and struggles stirring in him as a person of color living in America. By tracing the striking language of the speaker, his conveyed message can be understood from the race theory approach. Within the lines of the poem, there are many messages denoting that “racism is socially constructed, not biologically natural” (Britannica). Throughout ages of oppression, black people have suffered from being stereotyped as inferior, simple-minded, and criminals. The speaker stresses the idea that he does what every human being is capable of doing, regardless of their race: “Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love” (Hughes). By stating the obvious, the poet clarifies how raci...

               The Count of Monte Cristo is a novel written by the French writer Alexander Dumas. It was published in 1844. The novel displays the French status during 18th century and the beginning   of 19th one, especially around the French Revolution. Thus, the best approach to understand the novel is the historical approach.      The novel is mainly about Edmond Dantes, who is a young sailor that lives a happy life and is engaged to Mercedes. Dantes is a hardworking man that gets promoted and is very soon to be the captain of the ship. This promotion makes his coworker Danglars extremely jealous. Actually, Dantes' whole successful and happy life causes his fake friends to envy him. Moreover, Fernand Mondego, who pretends to be Dantes' friend, is actually in love with Dantes' fiancee and is willing to marry her. The third character that is supposed to be Dantes' friend is Caderousse. He is Dantes' neighbor that envy him...

        Lady Windermere's Fan is a comedy play by Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde, a dramatist, was a popular literary figure at the end of the Victorian era. Lady Windermere’s Fan is one of Oscar Wilde’s most witty satirical plays. It observes the gender politics within marriage and society. The story is about a Lady called Windermere, who hears rumors that her husband is in a relationship with another woman. She confronts him with it but although he denies it, he invites this woman, Mrs. Erlynne, to his wife's birthday party. In this significant event, Lady Windermere decides to escape with another lover and leave her marriage. To view this play, feminist approach is the best way to fully understand the entire text.       Wilde’s satirical play is concerned with many issues that are revolved around society. To name one, marriage; marriage during the Victorian era has been really superficial as it is built on expectations based on a demanding soci...

  The Tragedy of Julius Caesar  is a play written by William Shakespeare, and it was first performed in 1955. The play tells the story of Julius Caesar, and it begins with his triumphant return after defeating the sons of his military rival, Pompey. During the victory parade, Julius Caesar encounters a soothsayer, who wars him to “beware the Ides of March”. However, d espite its name, the main focus of the play is not Julius Caesar himself, but the central psychological drama focuses on his closest friend, Marcus Junius Brutus.   The Ides of March marks the day of Julius Caesar’s assassination and the fifteenth day of every March, exactly the middle of the month. “Et Tu Bruté?”    (Shakespeare, III. i. 77) Upon his death, Julius Caesar suffers the treason of his closest friend, Brutus, who participates in the conspiracy that assassinates Julius Caesar. Brutus’ internal conflicts are the major drivers of his life choices and their consequences, and they can be el...

  Forbidden Love "Meeting at Night" is a poem by the Victorian poet Robert Browning. It is a lyric poem that describes a man’s journey to meet his lover secretly. It is a dramatic and romantic poem that was published in ‘1845’. Browning wrote this poem while he was in a relationship with his future wife, whose father did not approve of Browning as his daughter's husband. This perhaps is the reason of the secret nature of the meeting between the speaker and his lover. Using nature representation and how the author viewed it is why this poem can be understood Ecocritically. In this poem, the speaker draws a full visual image of the strange road he takes to get to his lover. He describes how he sails at night under the moonlight to meet her, so they do not get caught by anyone. He, also, describes how he sees the waves, the moon, and the beach during his journey as if all the elements of nature know about their meeting and looking down silently at them. Then, when the ...

                Joseph Rudyard Kipling is one of the prominent English poets. He is a journalist who writes short stories and novels as well. “He was born in India and best known by his stories and poems of British soldiers in India”, besides, his tales for children. Most notably, “he won the Nobel Prize in Literature 1907” for his remarkable works and inspirational talent (Britannica). “IF you can keep your head when all about you  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too” (Kipling)       These lines are provided by Rudyard Kipling in his poem “If”. He wrote it in 1909 when he was living in Great Britain. This poem is a companion piece of the children’s story “Brother Square Toes” which demonstrates the traits of a good leader, pointing George Washington as a role model during his presidency in the French Revolution. It is generall...

       Sayaka Murata is a Japanese writer who often prioritizes questioning social restrictions in her works. The Japanese convenience store worker and writer drew immediate global attention after her novel Convenience Store Woman . She won the 155th Akutagawa Prize, a prestigious literary award, for her novel Convenience Store Woman and was named one of Vogue Japan's Women of the Year in 2016. Her novel Convenience Store Woman is an atypical, vivid portrayal of an anomalous character in a society that exalts conformity and toeing the line. Vacillating between subtle and blatant, the satirical tone is undeniably insinuated in a thought-provoking manner. Out of many approaches that could be utilized, the psychological approach can be used as the reader’s lens to “explore the relationship between language, communication and autism” that could be spotted in Keiko, the protagonist (Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center and University of Massachusetts).      All ...

        Daffodils is a lyrical poem for William Wordsworth published in 1807. It is one of the most popular poems of William Wordsworth. The poem is considered as a classic of English poetry and is inspired by an occasion when the poet and his sister came across long belt of daffodils. Daffodils and the poet represent ecocriticism, the relation between nature and human beings.                    Through the poem Wordsworth shows several elements of nature. He uses a lot of similes, such as "I wandered lonely as a cloud"(Wordsworth, 1807). The poet describes himself as a cloud to demonstrate his psychological state as he is distracted in his thoughts before seeing the golden daffodils.            Furthermore, he personifies the daffodils by saying that they are swaying dancers to present the beauty of their movement with the breeze. William visualizes a detailed image, "Beside the lake, ...

Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was an American writer best known for her examination of Black experience, especially Black female experience within the Black community. In 1993, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Toni Morrison's short story "Sweetness", published in 2015, narrates a light-skinned black mother who has a dark-skinned daughter whom she fears and struggles to love. In an attempt to demonstrate how colorism affects black communities, this story can be tackled from race theory and colorism.       Despite the fact that Sweetness' mother is a light-skinned black lady, she does not want to live a lie by pretending to be white. Her mother embraces her blackness, forcing her to work as a maid, where she is not treated with the respect that a white woman would receive. She realises she does not want to live that life after witnessing her mother's struggle to accept her blackness and live her life as a black woman. Sweetnes...

           "A Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is a narrative poem that he published in 1915. The tone of the speaker in this poem is confused and uncertain, and his choice of words brings us to know what had caused this uncertainty. The speaker is clearly struggling between "two roads" (Frost), and he proceeds to describe them both. The reader, afterwards, comes to know that the speaker in the poem is conflicted with choosing whether to follow his conscious mind, subconscious mind, and is unsure of their outcomes.          The speaker's conscious mind symbolizes society and the choices people make under its name. It stands for the standard path that people choose to take in order to follow the society’s stereotypes and boundaries which most people abide to. This is shown when he says, "having perhaps the better claim" (Frost), which means that it is a road which "perhaps" is a better choice than any other; therefore, people choose t...

          Katherine Mansfield is a great writer who has written many short stories. Miss Brill is one of the short stories written by her.      The story is a narration about a woman that lives alone and talks to her "fur coat" (Mansfield 1). She also goes every Sunday to Jardins Publiques park and sits on the same seat. When she is in the park, she eavesdrops and wills to know everything about other people's lives. Miss Brill imagines herself being in a play and she is on stage, with the band performing in the park, while the other people in the park are her audience. Miss Brill is used to buy a slice of honey-cake on her way home to make her feel better. Although she likes buying this cake, she does not buy it one time since she hears a boy and a girl criticizing her. She feels so desperate and just goes to her "little dark room" (Mansfield 4). When Miss Brill puts her fur coat back in the box then closes the lid, she hears it crying. ...

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.           This extract is taken from the poem “And Still I Rise” written by Maya Angelou when racism was still prominent. Maya Angelou is a brilliant American author, poet, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her 1969 memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, which was the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. Angelou received several honors throughout her career for her outstanding literary works during her time period. As “Still I Rise” is primarily concerned with the struggle that black people went through to overcome humiliation and injustice, thus, it is obvious that it can be understood from a mimetic perspective as it imitates the real-life at that time.          This poem is basically related to an oppression matter. Maya Angelou is a black woman who li...

        Oscar Wilde is an “Irish wit, poet, and dramatist” (Britannica) whose works are outstanding and represent some aspects of the 19th century. Taking after his mother, who was a devoted and nationalist poet in favor of the common people, Wilde had that revolutionary sense that surfaces in some of his writings. Vera, or the Nihilists, is one of his dramas in which he deconstructs several bases upon which many values were built. This drama was reviewed by many critics through various lenses; feminist approach is a prominent perspective from which this text could be viewed.      Among all the inequalities that were depicted in the drama, gender-based discrimination and stereotyping women are critically highlighted by Wilde. Even the father of the female protagonist indicates how females are only meant to be controlled: “She’ll never love you unless you are always at her heels; women like to be bothered” (Wilde 4). Sometimes, he implies that women onl...

         'Break, Break, Break' is a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, which was written in 1842. Tennyson was an English poet, who was leading the Victorian Poetry in England. His poetry is well known for its rich imagery and verbal melodies, and it dealt with human nature and destiny in a time where they were increasingly called into question by science and modern progress. This poem is a great example of elegy as Tennyson expresses his grief to lament the death of his dear friend, Arthur Hallam. By looking into the inner conflict of the narrator and his views on the life he will live without his beloved friend, the messages conveyed by Tennyson can be understood psychologically.      Basically, this poem carries the emotional impact that is reflected on the loss of a beloved person someone cares for. Tennyson, throughout his short poem, mourns the death of Hallam. Therefore, he repeats the word ‘break’ in the opening and final stanzas to stress his ...

      Charles John Huffam Dickens is one of the most prominent English writers and social critics who was born in 1867 at Portsmouth. Dickens is best-known for his novels and short stories during the Victorian era. Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Dickens which was published in 1861 and presents the three-life phases of pip’s expectations. Reading Great Expectations from a Historical approach provides the best understanding of the plot.       Queen Victoria ruled England from 1837 to 1901. For this reason, the period is often known as the “Victorian era”. At that time, England witnessed a growth in industry, consumer boom, and new markets as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Industrialization brought with it people from the middle-class who wanted to higher themselves to be a part of the upper-class, as social ranking was highly significant. Thus, the expectations of Pip, the protagonist, were a result of how the society views and apprecia...

            The Scarlet Ibis is a short story written by James Hurst, an American Novelist born in North Carolina, and it is also where the short story takes place. It is set in the early 1900s during World War I, which, symbolically, has an impact on the lives of the characters involved. World War I, however, is not the only significant symbol in Hurst's short story. It is one among many others that add to the beauty of the work and foreshadow its highlights, making it Hurst's most popular work to be published and winning it the "Atlantic First" award. Hurst uses foreshadowing and symbolism to aid interpretation.            Foreshadowing is a major element in The Scarlet Ibis, and it is a style that further embellishes the short story. Hurst's foreshadowing technique shows when he says, “The last graveyard flowers were blooming, and their smell drifted [through] our house, speaking softly the names of our ...

                 Guy de Maupassant is a French writer known by his interesting and objective stories. " The Necklace ", Guy's story, reveals a significant and comprehensive picture of the citizens in the 18th century, especially the psychological aspect of that era. Psychology is a scientific discipline that studies mental states, processes, and behaviors in humans and other animals. Freud and unconsciousness and its often socially unacceptable irrational motives and desires, particularly aggressiveness, were the driving force underlying much behaviors and mental-illness in "The Necklace".                    Social classes have a vital role in building characters' psychology. It is also the base for the story's moral. It turns Madame Loisel into a greedy character. She does not think about anything except herself and her needs. This appears when she insists on having a new dress for the ball a...

    Edgar Allan Poe is a poet, editor, and literary critic from the United States. Poe's poetry and short stories, especially his tales of mystery and macabre, are his most well-known works. "The Black Cat" is one of Poe’s short stories. It was first published in August 19, 1843. The story revolves around an unnamed narrator who is passionate about pets until he unreasonably turns to abuse them. Looking at the psychological traits of the narrator and the way he acts helps best to interpret the text.         Edger Allan Poe portrays his characters in such a way that the reader may go deeper into their acts and behaviors to have a better understanding of the mind. In this short story, Edgar Allan Poe introduces the protagonist, who suffers from a variety of mental issues, including guilt, superstitions, sadism, hatred, revenge, and strategic self-anti-conformity.      The narrator is so kind when he is a kid. “From my infancy, I was noted for t...

         Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His works are considered classics of American literature, and he is a Noble Laureate in literature. Cat in the Rain is one of his short stories in which the iceberg theory technique is very evident as it could have many interpretations, and the focus of this post will be on the psychological reading and approach.    As human psyche, in many cases, is not detached from history, the starting point of the psychological approach will be historical, which is WW1. It was indicated in the text multiple times in the phrase " the war monument" (Hemingway), and wars affect people in the most ravaging ways, especially for a war that killed more than 9 million combatants and 5 million civilians, the psychological impact was inevitable. One of the most common damages wars cause, along with economic and social damage, is the psychological one. Our brains are more complicat...