Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature

The consequence of his decision marks his transi- tion from childhood to adulthood. Prior to the novel’s climax, Huck has been w ...

revert to a lost childhood or return to a forgotten Eden. This theory, according to Lewis, is at the cen- ter of most American l ...

trade” and “food or raw materials as objects of trade” (Oxford English Dictionary). The act of trading one good for another is a ...

A criticism of such a relationship, however, is that the culture industry does not accurately reflect true human needs; instead, ...

of exchange value. For Tom, women are merely something to be “owned.” In a different yet similar manner, Jay Gatsby also views D ...

Tyson, Louis. Psychological Politics of the American Dream: The Commodif ication of Subjectivity in Twentieth-Century American L ...

of community. The relation between individual and community has to be one that is oriented toward the common good but still give ...

See also Anonymous: beowuLF; Austen, Jane: eMMa; Baldwin, James: Go teLL it on the Mountain; Black Elk: bLack eLk speaks; Brad- ...

cruel. For Michel Montaigne, the French philoso- pher and essayist writing in the 16th century, intent was important, but it was ...

subjects into objects, and this transformation is the reason why the victims of cruelty experience such a disruption of their wo ...

which includes patricide, suicide, and fratricide. In Poetics, Aristotle highlights the value of tragedy, which compels an audie ...

while winter represents death with the lines “That time of year thou mayst in me behold, / When yellow leaves, or none, or few d ...

always a positive force. However, its ability to shape society is undeniable. Plato’s The Republic offers two models of educa- t ...

life as he apprentices himself to the mysterious Tower Society comprising enlightened aristocrats who will guide him towards his ...

and Malcolm X: autobioGraphy oF MaLcoLM x, the; Huxley, Aldous: brave new worLd; Law- rence, D. H.: rainbow, the; Plath, Sylvia: ...

that it is meant to achieve. For humans, this state is happiness and it is reached through the cultiva- tion of virtues. In orde ...

tion of her day is a small party she is giving (rather than, say, an epic battle or journey). By conveying her thinking directly ...

as coherent units, united in solidarity against the outside world. These family ties can be a soothing, strengthening force, hel ...

persisted well into the 20th century. In Barbara Kingsolver’s The poisonwood bibLe, Nathan Price drags his wife and four daughte ...

fate Fate, according to modern usage, is an agency or power that orders and predetermines a future course of events. In the anci ...