John Green published Turtles All the Way Down following several major successes, including his sensational book-turned-movie, The Fault In Our Stars. Naturally, Turtles All the Way Down had big shoes to fill. And judging from reviews on Goodreads and discussions that I’ve had with my peers, I’ve reached the conclusion that most people believe Turtles All the Way Down falls short …
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CONFORMITY FAILS: A Synthesis Essay
“Just go with the flow.” This is the unwritten rule that many believe is the way to get by in today’s society, a place where people are puppets to peer pressure and are afraid to stand out. However, what good is conformity really? How can accepting what other people establish help us to find out …
PROGRESSIVE GENDER ROLES IN SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth may be two of the best known characters in all of literature. But why are they so well-known? And how is it that a play that was written over 400 years ago remains so well known and well read today? The writing and the drama, of course, are major factors, but …
RECONCILING OUR PAST WITH OUR FUTURE: An Essay on The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
According to The Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology, redemption is “the human potential to succeed after having failed”. In The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir watches Hassan, his friend and Hazara servant, get raped; looking out for his own best interest, Amir does not stand up for him, and consequently he is …
AN EXPOSÉ ON AMERICAN CULTURE: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In America, being called “thin” is a complement; you don’t ask questions like “was it the black girl or the white girl?”; you say “I’m not sure” instead of “I don’t know”. These are the fine-grained, subtle nuances of American culture that Adichie reveals in her powerful and down-to-earth novel, Americanah. Americanah is a love story, but …
QUIRKY SATIRE: I Kill the Mockingbird by Paul Acampora
Paul Acampora’s I Kill a Mockingbird must make famous authors everywhere proud; something about its playful, teasing remarks seems like something out of The Fault in Our Stars, the novel pays homage to Harper Lee’s American classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the book’s three main characters, Lucy, Elena and Michael, are somewhat of a “Harry-Hermione-Ron” or “Percy-Annabeth-Grover” fixture from …