Novel Essays

Morrison in her essay ‘Rootedness’ emphasises the importance of the ancestral myth, she writes bluntly, ‘when you kill the ancestor you kill yourself.’ This is certainly true for Macon Dead in Song of Solomon. Macon has rejected his heritage for materialism and as a result remains a most discontented man …

In the classic novel 1984, author George Orwell writes of a future country called Oceania in which there is nothing that the government doesn’t control. By limiting the country’s historical knowledge, manipulating their minds, and conditioning their bodies, Big Brother is able to undermine citizens and use them as puppets. …

David McRobbie’s Mandragora (Mammoth Australia) is another contemporary novel with links to a historic shipwreck, the sinking of the Dunarling. Adam and Catriona have found a cache of four small dolls made from mandrake roots. The dolls were left in the cave by two other teenagers, Jamie and Margaret, who …

One of the lessons Scout learns is to look at things from other people’s perspectives. He teaches them so many lessons here is an example how he helped Scout. “‘First of all,’ he said, ‘If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all …

Novels do not have to be long to have credible literary merit. Such is the case with Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness is quite short, yet superior and intriguing, due to the content of the novel. Heart of Darkness is intriguing, like Hamlet or like a …

Miguel De Cervantes’s “Don Quixote” is a well thought out satire of medieval romance novels. He illustrates the rotting of people’s minds by creating a man who embarks on a fabricated knightly quest. An interesting fact is that Cervantes himself tried to write romances of chivalry, but did not succeed. …

In her novel, “I’m the king of the castle”, Susan Hill conveys the themes of imprisonment and escape through a number of key incidents, symbolism and using the relationship between characters. Being trapped can to some people be a very traumatic experience. The sheer claustrophobia of it all can be …

Tom Joad’s attitude changes throughout The Grapes of Wrath. These changes alter who Tom is. however not noticeabbly at first, but it is when you examine Tom closely is when you begin to see the alterations made. In the beginning of The Grapes of Wrath, Tom is somewhat impatient with …

The title, Cloudstreet, although a bit plain, couldn’t be more appropriately named as everything that happens within the story revolves around the house nicknamed Cloudstreet. Winton sets this book around Perth, Western Australia, around the time of the second end of the Second World War over a span of twenty …

In the novel, Misery, Stephen King embodies the state of possession by an evil being who happens to be the elaborated and horrifically psychotic woman, Annie Wilkes. In this story, Annie represents a mother figure, a goddess and a loyal reader of the romance novelist, Paul Sheldon. In reality, however, …