“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce is a haunting piece of literature. Often, stories that dark must come from someone’s haunted mind. Bierce, by some estimation, lived in a haunted world himself, dying under strange circumstances. But, what happened to Ambrose Bierce? And why is his disappearance so strange? Dissecting his death is actually quite revealing: we find a man who lived through traumatic warfare, and a man who committed himself to literary works of bravery, honor, and death.
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George Eliot’s ‘Silas Marner’: Redemption and Love
Can a person change after a grievous trauma? Can a miser be reformed to see the light of love? George Eliot attempts to answer those questions in her novel Silas Marner. Similarly, it’s worth noting that George Eliot is the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. A Victorian novelist, Evans wrote such novels as Adam Bede (1859), Middlemarch (1872), and Daniel Deronda (1876). According to multiple sources, she used a “masculine” pen name to separate her writings from “previous work.” This allowed her “to escape the stereotype that women’s writings were limited to lighthearted romances.”
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Biography: Author Robert Bloch
Author Robert Bloch’s most famous work has now been transformed into a successful film franchise and a successful television show. Both of these sources showcased the delusions, murderous tendencies, and maternal issues of one Norman Bates. The world knows Psycho (1959) for its many incarnations (films and TV shows); however, its author is just as well known, Bloch, as it stands, is not necessarily a one-trick pony in the literature and writing field.
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Types of Conjunctions: Correlative Conjunctions
Connecting and showing relationships between ideas can be difficult in writing. As always, it just comes down to using the right words. Sometimes, the right words are apart of a few different types of the same idea. There are three main types of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions.
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Mary Shelley’s The Last Man: A Gothic Sci-Fi Journey
Mary Shelley has an impression on this blog, as her most famous work is easily referential. That is to say, the convenience of referencing Frankenstein: Modern Prometheus as an exemplar for gothic-horror novels is practical. However, throughout her career, Shelley published more novels that stayed within the same science fiction/grounded-in-realism genre. In the The Last Man buy Mary Shelley, the author explores these themes once again.
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Gothic Horror and Dark Magic in ‘The Haunted Palace’
Through the power of dark magic and malevolence, warlocks seek to do harm and/or destroy the world. At least according to literature and the movies. They also appear in various media and in many forms. These forms include sexy preppies at vampire schools, to horrible Euro-centrists of menacing power. Similarly, they are cunning, crafty, and pure evil. Of course these are only stories. The Haunted Palace (1963) and its relationship to the fictitious inspirations that include Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven and H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
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Exploring the Bildungsroman: Lessons in Personal Growth
Stories in which a young person must learn a lesson in order to grow as a person are pervasive in most cultures. These stories feed into the overall cultural experience of growing and thriving in society. And, they help us learn something new. Yet, they go much deeper than that, as to grow and evolve as a character, one must go through the challenges and triumphs related to coming of age.
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The Complexity of Heroism in Literature
While epic poetry gives us a plethora of heroism in literature, authors like Baroness Orczy explore a unique portrayal of heroism in The Scarlet Pimpernel. It is a story that interlaces elements of adventure, espionage, and sacrifice. Likewise, authors of verse, like George William A.E. Russell write about heroism in their own way with similar shades of color … and honor. In this post, we will examine how authors describe heroism during The Reign of Terror and WWI, which shows us how heroes use action and sacrifice.
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Morgan le Fay: History, Witchcraft, and Female Empowerment
Women with power do not have to consort with the devil in order to obtain positions of authority. That should be a given, but according to some retellings of Arthurian legend, that simply can’t be the case. For instance: Morgan le Fay. Le Fay is either the most nefarious character in Arthurian legend, or she is a simple heroine maligned by fragile beliefs of patriarchal dominance. What is more, by analyzing Morgan le Fay’s character, readers can understand her relation to medieval society as a healer and harbinger of evil. Additionally, readers can understand how Morgan le Fay’s character shows that women were maligned throughout history regardless of their deeds.
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‘The Island of the Blue Dolphins’ by Scott O’Dell Review
The Newberry Medal winner The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell is an interesting book. It pits the will of a young girl against many dangers in an isolated setting. The struggle for survival in this text captures an intense narrative about making difficult choices at a young age. Sometimes, young-adult fiction can miss the mark with young people’s lives–and sometimes they can be visceral. Throughout The Island of the Blue Dolphins, we see a coming-of-age story about survival and being at ease with your circumstances.
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