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Source#2 Argument: The Kite Runner it a novel of conflict. Claim: The conflicts range from warring armies, factions, worldviews, ethnic groups; as well as individual conflicts and gender. Evidence: Throughout the novel Amir constantly runs into a problem. If the conflict isn't obvious there is always an underlying conflict. For example, the relationship between him and his father and the judgement he recieves from being friends with Hassan.

Argument: The fact that Steinbeck is a romantic naturalist appears vividly throughout his novels. Claims: His views affect literary devices such as diction, plot, and character development. Evidence: "The Darwinism of 'The Red Pony' is brought from conflict of animals to the conflict between men in 'Of Mice and Men'...As engaging to our own sense of romantic and sentiment as Lennie's and George's dream of a small ranch may be, the facts are that they do not have the power within the scheme of things to make this dream come true" (1). http://go.galegroup.com.lib.chandleraz.gov/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CH1100000795&v=2.1&u=chandler_main&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&authCount=1

Argument: Rubin Rabinovitz writes that Anthony Burgess reuses a motif of libertarian vs. authoritarian in many of his novels. Often times this conflict of the characters is a projection of Burgess' views on morals and ethics as well as a display of Burgess' internal struggle. Rabinovitz refers to his novels A Clockwork Orange and the Tremor of Intent, pegging characters to libertarian and authoritarian personas. Through these comparisons he observes Burgess' own inconsistencies in his writing. Evidence: "The apparent inconsistencies in Burgess's dualistic moral views are sometimes seen as the result of his utilization of the Eastern yin-yang principles" (Rabinovitz). "What the religious novelist often seems to be saying is that evil is a kind of good, since it is an aspect of Ultimate Reality; though what he is really saying is that evil is more interesting to write about than good" (Burgess). "Very often, Burgess's use of Manichean dualism does work to reconcile differences in Eastern and Western thought; but problems arise when a choice must be made between relativism and absolutism...Absolutism seems to demand absolute fidelity, and in this sense Burgess's moral point of view appears ambiguous or inconsistent" (Rabinovitz). Thoughts: Rabinovitz focuses on conflicting ideologies that are not often recognized when reading A Clockwork Orange. He also offers a background on Anthony Burgess' location and how that contributes to his characters. Rabinovitz recognizes many of Burgess' characters as projections of Burgess himself and proposes how the clash of eastern and western philosophy influenced the author.

Argument: Shakespeare's characters struggle with the conflict in human nature between reason and emotions. Claim: - Shakespeare's characters used overindulgence in pleasre and self indulgence to attack the Puritans.- He influences the moral value of freedom vs. restraint. Evidence: "Of the two extremes, the course of life that would banish all indulgence is emphasized as more objectionable." "Shakespeare composed in praise of the much - needed, well balanced nature, to extoll that happy union of judgement and of feeling which is the basis of higher sanity."

Argument: Cultural customs influence the characterization of the women in Bram Stoker's Dracula and The Mystery of the Sea; there are two types of women he writes about - the New Woman and 'classical' woman - and makes clear distinctions between the two. Claim: Stoker bases his characters off of two different types of women to emphasize the differences between characters, and to introduce suspense into the plot. Because Stoker writes about 'classical' women like Mina Harker and Gormala (to a certian extent), these women clash with the New Woman characters because of the different lifestyles. Evidence: The New woman wanted to "acheieve self-determination through life, growth, and experience." The New woman developed through an uprising feminist movement, a rebellion that involved woman's "refusal to heed the abstraction of womanhood." "Feminism sought to change human consciousness about male dominance". Because the qualities in the 'classical woman' and New Woman were opposites, it creates suspense and conflict between characters that helps to set the mood and move the plot forward.

Argument: In her article, "Anthony Burgess: An Overview," Mary Lowe-Evans asserts that in A Clockwork Orange Burgess displayed his deep concern for the epidemic of violence and freedom to choose between write and wrong. She forms her argument by mentioning unethical studies that influenced Burgess' writing in A Clockwork Orange. She also refers to the Nadsat language in the novel, stating that Burgess revealed his feelings towards free-will, good and evil through the main character, Alex.Evidence: "More troubling for Burgess was the failure of Skinner's behavior modification strategies to recognize the importance of free will (a primary tenet of Catholic theology) in a properly functioning human being." "Our pockets were full of deng, so there was no real need from the point of view of crasting any more pretty polly to tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim in his blood while we counted the takings and divided by four, nor to do the ultra violent on some shivering starry grey-haired ptitsa in a shop and go smecking off with the till's guts," (Burgess).Thoughts: The citations Mary Lowe-Evans uses further support her assertions; by demonstrating concerns the time period she adds another dimension towards Burgess' motive in writing. Her argument is coherent and organized, maintaining a logical explanation of Anthony Burgess' beliefs shown throughout his work. 

The author John Iverson main purpose of writing the paper was to show how much O'Neil revealed about himself in The Iceman Cometh. Each character Parritt, Hickey and Slade represented Id, Ego, Super Ego about O'Neil. John Iverson quickly went to each point of Id, Ego, and Super Ego in a logical and organized theme. He stayed focused at the point at hand. Every tad bit that the author adds supports his views of how the characters in the play are pieces of O'Neil. There is clearly enough evidence in the paper to support the author. This evidence used is typical. The main conclusion the author is trying to portray is that the three characters represent O'Neill's Oedipus complex. The character Don Parritt represents the ID, Hickey the Ego, and Slade the Super Ego. Iverson bases the information given from the great psychologist Sigmund Freud who believes in the Oedipus complex. Freud believed that all people have a Oedipus complex that shows the internal desires and external conflicts that relate to their parents. O'Neill at the time had a bad relationship with his mother due to her abuse of morphine. The author does not correlate with the subject on a personal basis. Nowhere does it state how the author felt or interfered his own life about the conclusion.

Argument: * Russ Allbery breaks down Catch-22 as a great novel, but not without its flaws. What makes this review and criticism so imporant in research of Heller's novel are the (opinion-based) negative sides of the novel as a whole. Such negative connotations include the "monotonous" circle made by Heller in arguments (such as paradox made by not ordering combat missions chronologically when related to the novel's conclusion) and the fact that many would categorize the story with a main theme of humor - which Allbery denies is the core of Heller's work. Allbery goes on to summarize how the term "Catch-22" was integrated into the English language (via slang) and that Heller's work is truly a 'best-of' even if flaws persist. Evidence: * "Catch-22 didn't entirely succeed for me as a comedy. The huge ensemble cast was mostly too unbelievable and exaggerated for me to find funny" (Allbery) * "Due in part to the way that Heller stresses paradoxes and insoluable conflict, the writing can be quite repetitive and a bit circular." (Allbery) * "Heller provides as a clue the linearly increasing number of missions the airmen had to fly before theoretically being allowed to rotate home, but ordering can still be frustrating." (Allbery) * "The war acts in this book like a force of nature. Nearly everyone just accepts that it's happening and tries to ignore it, or revels in fighting it, without really thinking about it. It's only Yossarian, normally trying to maintain a long-suffering sarcasm, who occasionally can't help but tell the blunt truth." (Allbery) Thoughts: * While this is somewhat an opinionated "summary" of Catch-22, it is the only review I have that stresses some of the negative sides to the novel; from my view, the strengths of the novel further stand out amidst these criticisms. It is a strong point to make that Heller used too many "circle arguments" for it shows his position in writing the novel and how certain themes may have lead

Arguement: Steinbeck choose his characters based on having two people in every story to juxtapose eachother. Claim: Having these opposing characters keeps the readers more interested in the story with more drama/excitment. Evidence: "Every good story must have opposing forces, friends and enemies to keep the conflict moving"

Argument: Khaled Hosseini gives a face to the Afghan people in The Kite Runner. It humanizes the culture and gives outsiders to the culture a little insight to the fact that we may not be that different from each other after all. The novel offers the theme of personal redemption that many have dealt. Literary critics have seen this book as being an allegory but Jefferess takes this a step farther by pointing out how this novel is really a political allegory that uses a humans shot at redemption in comparison to that of the country Afghanistan's chance to fix itself. Evidence: "Hence the novel "humanizes" Afghan culture, providing depth and meaning to the sign "Afghanistan" for the non-Afghan reader, otherwise a mere signifier of post-9/11 conflict" (Jefferess). "While Amir's quest for personal redemption may be read as an allegory of Afghanistan's national project of healing, I read the novel as a political allegory that reflects the way in which the "third world", marked by its difference from the "West", becomes a site to be transformed through the project of nation-building" (Jefferess). "This project is presented in the West as an ethical demand that is paradoxically conceived of as both a humanitarian project and a disciplinary one; to be recognized as human, Afghanistan must conform to particular western expectations of democracy, liberalism, and multiculturalism. While the novel's reception reflects an openness to, and a desire for, understanding the Other, it also reflects the limits of acceptable difference"(Jefferess) Thoughts: The view that Jefferess took on The Kite Runner is extremely interesting. Not many have seen the novel as merely an ethical allegory, but he argues this point well. The fact that since the US has entered the war in Afghanistan, many people view that the end of the war will be when Afghanistan becomes a democracy and adopts western ideals, but what isn't always understood is that with change, comes

Literary Analysis #4-Nineteen Minutes Throughout the literary critic of Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, the main theme supported by author Jessica Stites was that Jodi Picoult uses background and further information than an average writer to convey her full story and add to it's depth as a whole. She states, "If empathy is an inoculation against violence, then Picoult's own compassion for her characters goes beyond good storytelling to political statement; she models the deep sympathy that might have averted the tragedy." Stites goes on to explain that in Picoult's writing she tends to convey a specific message to her readers, leaving them with a second opinion or thought on the overall conflict or main topic of the story. In Nineteen Minutes, Stite's states, "She takes us inside prickly adolescents whose every action screams "Keep out!" and inside the adults afraid to brave their children's barriers." Though several of Stite's comments on the novel and author are directed positively, the author also states that Picoult lacks in empathy. The author goes on to state that though Picoult analyzed numerous aspects of Nineteen Minutes and did a quantity of research, she yet lacks the characterization and development of main character Peter. Stites believes that in order to add dynamic perspective to the overall novel, Picoult should have developed Peter as a character by learning of the killing spree from Peter's perspective and reading why he shot a teacher that had been kind to him. Though Stite's emphasizes the lack of characterization from the perspective of Peter, she later goes on to support Picoult once more when saying that the lack of characterization should actually be intentional, stating that once you loose boys, they go somewhere you can not follow.

Bernard Cornwell is commonly revered for his outstanding ability to capture the true essence of the time periods in which his novels take place. Boston Globe Correspondent Michael Kenney proves this to the letter. "It is Cornwell's singular accomplishment in "The Last Kingdom" to have brought forward with a solid context and constant vitality those times and conflicts." Throughout all of Cornwell's novels, Cornwell has accomplished fantastic historical accuracy while still capturing the reader's attention. Kenney continuously praises Cornwell for this amazing trait. In "The Last Kingdom", Cornwell takes on a very complex time period with very little historical documentation. The 9th century was a time full of war and savagery. What better author to tackle this era? Kenney believes Cornwell has achieved success in this monumental feat. "But the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of late ninth-century England and their fight against Danish invasions are unfamiliar, specialist territory." Bernard Cornwell is the perfect "Specialist" to conquer this unfamiliar territory and conquer it he did.

Argument: The feministic bildungsroman that establishes itself throughout the novel seems to be contradictory towards the Christian commitments of the young Jane Eyre. It argues that the character St. John symbolized the patriarchal religious system, which was in the end rejected by Jane. Furthermore, this rejection defies the expectations of marriage at the time and symbolizes a more feminist emphasis. Evidence: This point is suggested primarily throughout the closing passage of the novel. The rhetoric of this may seem to be slightly confusing, because it basically challenges the feministic viewpoint that was built in the novel. The final paragraph casts a light over St. John and all of his endeavors throughout the novel, Lamonaca states, "Classic feminist readings have tended to view St. John as one-dimensional patriarchal villain; accordingly, Jane rejects not only her pious cousin, but also the Christian worldview he represents." Further explication in the novel is shown in the rejection of St. John, for "Jane effectively resists Rochester's and St. John's attempts to possess her spirit as well as her body." This further promotes the protagonist's struggle against male control, and a lockdown patriarchal marriage. The contradiction in the closing statements however "leaves open the possibility that Jane, despite her efforts, has failed to reconcile the conflicting demands of domesticity and faith." Thoughts: I think that Charlotte Bronte basically wanted to make a clear cut statement against the patriarchal and male run events in her society. However, as the writing came to a close she didn't want to make it seem as if the novel was meant to be an anti-Christian sentiment. So she was able to subdue the super strong feministic thoughts and instead decided to create a conclusion that makes the patriarchal society still seem to have some notoriety when in reality she may have believed different. The fact that Jane chose to marry out of societyâ€

ARGUMENT: Jhumpa Lahiri's central theme in both The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies is Diaspora, isolation, and search for identity and fulfillment. Jhumpa Lahiri is the "voice from the gaps" because she puts the "in between" identity feeling into a compelling story that many can relate to. SUPPORT: "Both Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake contain themes of conflict in relationships between couples, families, and friends. Through these relationships she explores ideas of isolation and identity, both personal and cultural. The characters in both works frequently encounter crises of identity, which are tied to their inabilities to reconcile their American identity with their Indian identity. " "She often correlates her characters' cultural isolation with extreme personal isolation, suggesting that the cultural isolation causes the personal." "In their isolation, these characters feel that they are missing something vital to their identities. It is this missing "something" that defines them. It seems that few characters in these stories have any idea of who they are or where they are going in life." THOUGHTS: The authors Gipe, Greco, Spencer and Yang provide key facts about Lahiri's background in India and why she chooses to write novels about Diaspora because she relates to the feeling of being "in between" cultures. The article is concluded well by referring to the ending of The Namesake where Gogol finally realizes that he doesn't have to choose between cultures, his identity is both of them meshed together.