Studying for a literature degree? Taking a literature course? Literature students will appreciate our range of literature essays covering a variety of popular topics. Get a helping hand with these essay examples, donated by students like yourself! Find more literature essays here.
In The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho continuously shows how Santiago conquers fear and is greatly rewarded for it. In order to get his treasure and achieve his personal legend he must first travel through the well-known dangers of the desert. It is an extremely expensive trip that many do not return from. This causes him to … Read more
Everyday, it can be observed that millions of people are getting discriminated due to racism as others are judging people just solely based on skin colour, race and religions. This kind of racism issues has been increasing common that often drives people crazy, turning people into a different lifestyle, mentality as well as behaviour, and … Read more
Angela Carter’s ‘Nights at the Circus’ is a novel about Fevvers, the ‘Cockney Venus’, an aerealiste who claims to have wings. She regales journalist Jack Walser, with her life story; how she was hatched from an egg, was left on the doorstep of a brothel, grew up a ‘virgin among whores’, was forced to join … Read more
The motif of doubles is a central feature of Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic Victorian novel Frankenstein as well as Arundhati Roy’s 1997 postcolonial Indian novel The God of Small Things. Doubling is used in the characterisation of Victor Frankenstein and his monster in Frankenstein, and of the twins Estha and Rahel in The God of … Read more
The term “hybrid” can be defined as the mixing of genres and styles of writing. It is regarded as a blend of genres within one text. We see Gothic fiction, which is a style and genre that has elements of fear, death and gloom. It can even have romantic aspects like high intensity of emotions … Read more
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, contradicts ideas of monsters that we have imagined, such as monsters show or feel no emotion except for anger and the stereotypical idea that monsters are bad regardless of how they are inside and out. Frankenstein’s creature fits the description many would picture a monster with, “His yellow skin scarcely covered … Read more
Frankenstein’s creature made first appearance in chapter 5. It was described by Victor Frankenstein sarcastically as “Beautiful! Great God!” (p68). The use of exclamation and “God” could indicate how wrong Frankenstein feels to describe the creature as “beautiful”. The exclamation exaggerates his thoughts and also gives the reader a sense of wrongness in using the … Read more
Frankenstein Lit Circle #2 As the plot unfolds, we start to get more information about the monster. Does he have more than one mental function and how do they build him as a monster? Does his mental functions help him with individuation when he enters the wilderness? The monster starts off with the mental function … Read more
Frankenstein (1818) is a tale of a man with a colossal ambition who in the pursuit of elixir of life “bestows animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 34) only to create a wretched monster that he ends up abandoning; it is a tale of creation and abandonment. However, it cannot be reduced to be understood as … Read more
Frankenstein can been thought to be subversive in its religious proclivity, even when its hidden religious agenda was not clearly pointed out. The most common thought is that the novel was created as a side by side of Genesis, mocking the belief that there is a supreme Creator. But, A very different suggestion came from … Read more
When writing a literature essay, it is crucial to keep in mind the importance of the readability of your essay. Throughout the essay, ensure that the essay is not a regurgitation of other writers’ ideas, research notes or facts. This is important because people will not find your essay interesting to read if you would not read it yourself.
The following sections offer fundamental guidelines on how to write an literature essay.
Planning is an important point, which you need to keep in mind before you even start to write your essay. It is important that before starting to write your literature essay, you identify your audience. Planning for your essay requires that you identify a goal or the major points to discuss in your essay. Before starting the essay, ensure that you write all the key points or ideas you intend to discuss in your essay. Visualize how you want your essay to be, and develop an outline of all the paragraphs. Identify the argument of the essay and position.
It is important to have an idea of where you want to take the reader in terms of the impacts you seek to have on the audience after reading the literature essay. These are among the various important aspects that you need to keep in mind when writing a literature essay. These suggestions when followed are helpful in writing a high standard essay, which is relevant to the topic of discussion.
Learning how to write a literature essay is not just about writing the essay. You also need to know how to structure the essay in the correct way.
This is the most important factor in an essay. The length of each paragraph is a crucial point for consideration to avoid a reader getting lost while reading it. Paragraphs are useful to both you as the writer, and the reader of the essay. Use different paragraphs to categorize your points and ideas. Ensure that you use short paragraphs throughout your essay. A high standard essay should not have paragraphs that exceed an A4 page.
Literature essays require that you have a strong argument unless the paper instructions need you to write a summary of a provided text. Ensure that your argument is not biased. The discussion should comprise all the possible position of the argument. A quality essay should provoke discussion by including different thoughts using the texts creatively.
The aim of writing a literature essay is to demonstrate an individual’s love of words and English language. Utilize literary devices like alliterations, onomatopoeia, sibilance, and anaphora to make your English essay interesting. These technique can be effectively used when writing poetry.
All sources used in the essay should be credited and acknowledged using footnotes and creating a reference list. There are various ways which you can use to credit texts and ideas from other writers that you have used in your essay. In-text references can comprise name of the author, year of publication, and page number of the source. This allows a reader to look up the source used should he want. Ensure that your footnotes for the essay are well notated, and include information about the edition of the source and name of the publisher.
Use quotations in your essay to support facts, theories, ideas, thoughts, and argument in the essay. Quotations are effectively presented either as part of an essay sentence or as a word. Ensure that you include quotations in your essay creatively. In cases where you think that you need to use lengthy quotations to support your discussion or argument, make sure that you satisfy the following areas in your essay:
