Sequoia

          On 26th of March, 1802, William Wordsworth wrote "My Heart Leaps Up". It is a short, lyric, romantic poem. The day after he wrote "My Heart Leaps Up", Wordsworth began to write his more ambitious "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" . The last three lines from "My Heart Leaps Up" are used as an epigraph to "Intimations of Immortality". Some scholars have noted that "My Heart Leaps Up" indicates Wordsworth's state of mind while writing the larger poem and provides clues to its interpretation. The poem is a unique example for ecocriticism.             The poem contains several literary devices; each one plays an important role in describing the nature. William uses them in a different and special style. First, the poet personifies his heart as a man who leaps to transfer his happiness to the readers. Then he repeats, using anaphora, the word "so" three times to illustrate how he feels the first time when h...

           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...