Literature & the arts
Literary interpretation, creative work, culture and artistic choices.
Jay Gatsby’s Rebellion Against Class Boundaries
A literary analysis of how Gatsby’s self-fashioning and pursuit of Daisy challenge class boundaries while revealing the limits of wealth as a route to acceptance.
Why Creative Work Matters Beyond a Future Career
An argumentative essay explaining why making and studying art matter even when they are not pursued as paid work, while recognizing that art is also a field of employment.
Macbeth’s Ambition and the Cost of an Unfulfilled Need
An analysis of how the prophecy awakens Macbeth’s desire for power, and how his efforts to secure the crown turn ambition into an unsatisfiable need that destroys moral and political order.
Pride and Prejudice: Darcy’s Memory and Changed Judgment
An analysis of how Elizabeth’s rejection and criticism reshape Darcy’s conduct, and how Elizabeth’s reassessment makes Austen’s portrayal of self-knowledge reciprocal rather than one-sided.
Art as a Career and Art as a Hobby
A compare-and-contrast essay examining how purpose, obligations, and measures of progress differ when art is pursued as paid work or as a hobby.
Romeo and Juliet: Memory, Grief, and the Feud
An analysis of how inherited hostility and grief over Mercutio and Tybalt shape the lovers’ decisions and make reconciliation increasingly difficult in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Heart of Darkness: Kurtz’s Reinvention and Colonial Power
An analysis of how Kurtz fashions himself as an authority through possessive claims, and how Conrad uses that self-fashioning to expose colonial power while leaving parts of Kurtz’s history and motives uncertain.
Imagination vs. Knowledge in Professions and Academic Fields
An argumentative essay examining when imagination and knowledge matter most in professional and academic work, using land-grant education and the Hubble Space Telescope to show how they can depend on and correct one another.
Macbeth as Aristotle’s Tragic Hero: How Well Does the Play Fit?
An essay assessing Macbeth as an Aristotelian tragic hero, arguing that Shakespeare follows the pattern of consequential error and catastrophic reversal while complicating it through Macbeth’s deliberate violence and the play’s political consequences.
Frankenstein: Walton’s Ambition and His Decision to Turn Back
An analysis of how Walton’s choice to heed his crew’s demand to return shapes Frankenstein’s conclusion and distinguishes his ambition from Victor’s destructive persistence.
Funding Major Cities: Cultural Preservation and Public Support
A qualified argument that national governments should help cities meet essential public needs, while cultural preservation and creation are responsibilities shared by urban, rural, and other communities.
Macbeth and the Meaning of “Success”
An analysis of how success shifts from public honor to promised kingship, murderous achievement, and the impossible hope of escaping the past in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.