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Argument: Thomas Hardy is a gifted writer who was able to craft a masterful novel, Jude the Obscure. The novel is plagued with only a few drawbacks, including the drab setting and the overcompensated characters that often render the novel unrealistic. Claim: Thomas Hardy is a gifted writer. Thomas Hardy could have chosen a more interesting setting (Dorsetshire) but instead chose a setting with a limited history and scenery (Wessex). Hardy's novel is overall well-done. Evidence: "Jude the Obscure is an irresistible book; it is one of those novels into which we descend and are carried on by a steady impetus to the close, when we return, dazzled, to the light of common day. The two women, in particular, are surely created by a master. Every impulse, every speech, which reveals to us the coarse and animal, but not hateful Arabella, adds to the solidity of her portrait. We may dislike her, we may hold her intrusion into our consciousness a disagreeable one, but of her reality there can be no question: Arabella lives." http://go.galegroup.com.lib.chandleraz.gov/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1420014281&v=2.1&u=chandler_main&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

Purpose: The author shows how Lady Bertram's pet Pug is a symbol of society and the role of Women at the time. She argues that Austen demonstrates the indolence and growing modernization of society and its roles by means of the lapdog ever so present throughout the novel (although a subtle presence). Evidence: "she [Austen] also subtly highlights most of the revolutionary issues of the day: women's nature and place, social class, nationalism and the Empire, Darwinian physiognomy, religion and morality, urbanization, and slavery." "She shows Lady Bertram treating her pug like a baby, always in her lap or in her arms…much as a young mother spends her afternoons watching a toddler." "All this, added to the failures of Lady Bertram's children, serves to illustrate the moral that a woman's duty is to mother her children not to waste her time with pets." "Katherine McDonogh's argument that pet dogs in the French Revolution were shown to be superior to kennel dogs, in being pedigreed and therefore elite, and to symbolize the idle and dissolute aristocracy." "Yet the pug also symbolizes the decadence and laziness of the idle rich." "Beth Dixon points out that women being connected to animals in literature shows that women are bodily, natural, and emotional, therefore closer to being animals themselves than men are." "the pug, while an understandable presence, still evokes and symbolizes the evils of modernity which it has been adopted to alleviate" "it also reprimands traditional culture for keeping women like her daughters Maria and Julia repressed to the point where they erupt in rebellion against strictures of all kinds, especially those prescribing lives as human lapdogs for themselves." Thoughts: I agree with the arguments presented in this criticism and I also find it interesting that such a subtle thing as a lapdog can have so much to say about Austen's purpose or at least one of her purposes to Mansfield Park.

The purpose of McKay was to demonstrate the womes inferior roles in Steinbecks novel, "Grapes of Wrath". Men's patriarchal role overshadowed the womens efforts in the hosehold, because he was viewed as the primary breadwinner. Attention is also drawn to the fact that it was socialy acceptable to hit women at the time to, due to the many abuses Ma Joad suffers from her husband. Evidence "tired because they are always attending to the needs of everyone but themselves." "Even domestic violence against these women is socially acceptable within the group" "Ma Joad has the opportunity (or perhaps the duty) to assert herself and still maintain her role as selfless nurturer of the group. In this respect, she is leader and follower, wise and ignorant, and simple and complex" "in particular the mother and her son Tom (the other Joad men never develop as fully), gradually shed their naïveté and achieve a sound political consciousness of class and economic oppression" Analysis McKay povides a lot of evidence to support his thesis. Throughout the novel men are shown as superior to the women, and make the critical decisions regarding the family by themselves. This proves the inferiority of women in Stienbecks time, and he incorperates it within his novel

Argument: In using music as a symbol and motif in his novels and essays, Ellison contributes jazz artists not only as musicians who inspire and express Ellison's evolution as a person, but represent a social case that he personifies through their music. Claim: Ellison uses the motif of music to both represent evolution of a person, and the social distinction/respect a black man gains through music. Such musicians as Louis Armstrong, have unintentionally utilized their music to raise their social class and respect (an element of Marxism). Quote: "He was from a very poor family and was sent to reform school when he was twelve after firing a gun in the air on New Year's Eve. At the school he learned to play cornet. After being released at age fourteen, he worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a cart...The band went through a number of personnel changes over the years but remained extremely popular worldwide. They toured extensively travelling to Africa, Asia, Europe and South America for the next twenty years until Louis' failing health caused them to disband. Armstrong became known as America's Ambassador."

Literary Analysis 4 Henry James, author of Daisy Miller, has had his share of novels comparing the European style verse the American society. In this critique, Gale Cennage's purpose was to show the fluctuation of the characters in the differing societies. Cennage believed the "depiction of the generic American girl" was captured lightly compared to Winterbourne's façade (Cennage). The order of the article was very well organized. The subjects were bolded and the critique was fast and to the point. The article got to the point; rather than dragging on to see Cennage's background views and opinions. The argument had the main point from the beginning of its section and focused her writing on the societies. Although it did get to the point rather quickly, there is not sufficient information on the subject. The evidence was typical and predictable. The broadness of the evidence was reassuring that the point was never accomplished. Cennage claims that James had adopted the "narrow attitudes [from] many Americans abroad" (Cennage). Upon declaring that statement, no major attitudes were discussed but left to the reader to figure it out. The conclusions reached by the author are discussed towards the end of the article. She notes that instead of the differing society that makes the short story so interesting, it is the "concern with morality and social behavior" of the other society that creates the plot (Cennage). The biasness that comes into play could be hindering the article's authenticity. She could have come from a class with higher values, could be from Europe or America, and could have different outlooks than the next. The author explicitly talks about the characters in the short story. It is important to have some background information because of the contrasting societies. But implicitly, Cennage reminds the reader that the American and European societies are and will always be different. "Daisy Miller, Henry James - Introduction." Short St

Argument: The novels, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, two novels written by the two Bronte sisters, Charlotte and Emily, both contain similar details and characteristics that suggest their literary greatness. Key components concerning the setting, major characters, and overall theme contribute to the social issues of the Victorian time period. The sisters all wrote on similar premise of changing the world through their feminist ideas and the further promotion of woman's rights and equality. Evidence: This point is thoroughly suggested in the analysis of the sisters' use of a gothic style, the Byronic hero, the feminist sentiments, and the industrialization of the British Empire. The gothic style is portrayed through the primary theme of both novels being the "suppressed sexual longing and forbidden love." The dark setting of Wuthering Heights, the manor, and the mansion that is depicted in Jane Eyre further portray the gothic tone. The Byronic hero is portrayed through the two key male parts of each novel, being Heathcliff and Rochester. A Byronic hero is one who is not necessarily depicted as being attractive or handsome gentlemen, but in spite of this characteristic they are able to contribute to the theme. The feminist question and search for woman independence is greatly mentioned in both Eyre and Heights, however, the time period is perhaps against this. For instance, the author of this source mentions that "Queen Victoria herself, who was a strong supporter of women's education and even helped establish a college for women…was against giving women the right to vote, calling the suffrage campaign "a mad folly." Thoughts: Overall, this source has several key components that are further going to push my paper along greatly. Most importantly are the very similar aspects of the two novels will help prove my point that both pieces of literature were probably more of a collaboration, where the two sisters perhaps discussed their societal problems and

In the introduction to her novel Dissecting Stephen King: From the Gothic to Literary Naturalism, author Heidi Strengell discusses the various influences on Stephen King's writing style and how these influences manifest themselves in his novels. According to Strengell, Puritanism, Gothicism, naturalism, and personal experiences are the primary recurring influences present in King's writing. Each manifests itself in a different manner, yet they are often inextricably linked to one another in one form or another. Strengell's first focus is on the religious undertones of King's writing, which she attributes to both King's personal religious views as well as the Puritanical religious frenzy that resonates in early American history, particularly during the era of the Salem witch trials. Characters such as Sylvia Pittson from The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger serve as physical manifestations of King's views on religion in his writing, for it is a recurring trend in King's novels to include a character overcome with some form of religious frenzy. King's past experiences growing up as a member of a lower middle class family also play a key role in his writing; indeed, another character stereotypical of a King novel is the "common man," a seemingly ordinary character plunged into a situation beyond the bounds of his daily existence. This stereotype ties in with one of King's prominent world views, the notion of free will versus fate. Along with the notion that there are inherently good and evil forces in the world, this is perhaps the most recurring element in King's writing, appearing in both his individual novels, such as The Dark Half, as well as his book series, such as The Dark Tower. Over the course of her introduction, Strengell references various historical and philosophical ideas in order to provide background to the influences which she attributes to King. This background information is provided at the beginning of each section, thus placi