John Phillips

The Great Gatsby is one of the few books from when the idea of the American dream was at its peak that tells the true story of how the dream is really nothing but a nightmare. So, what exactly is the American dream? It is the idea that no matter who one is, where one came from or who one’s parents are one can become successful with hard work. F. Scott Fitzgerald the author of The Great Gatsby knew the truth. He knew that this dream was just a hoax that caused many to struggle their entire lives…

Finding love in sad times is not impossible; it is just hard to believe it is there. Yanek Gruener very much feels that way during World War 2 in “Prisoner B-3087” by Alan Gratz. While suffering from overwork and harassment, Yanek slowly begins to find his belief for love in small pieces. As he finds the pieces of love one at a time, they add up together to show Yanek that he can find love in the hardest time of his life. He realizes that in the darkest and saddest time of his life, he can find…

According to Aristotle, “Man is by nature a social animal” (Aristotle 5). We all need people around us to overcome our problems with their help and support. Holden Caulfield, from The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger and Angela Chase, from TV series called My So-Called Life, both are teenagers in high school. Holden and Angela both have family relationship problems, how they try to overcome their problems is what differs Angela from Holden. Angela has problems with her parents about how…

People should have the choice of whether to live or die. In Of Mice And Men, by John Steinbeck, the two main characters Lennie and George are hanging out by a pond making plans for the rest of their life. Then they go to a farm in Soledad. They acquire the job they wanted and became friends with a few of the people there. The farm’s most respected authority figure gives Lennie a puppy which he kills just a few days later along with the boss's son’s wife. Lennie runs away to the river by which…

American Romanticism is a literary and philosophical movement that was primarily in the 1800’s and was a response to the enlightenment. Some key things American Romanticism focuses on is nature, individual, imagination, insight, and intuition. Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are two famous American Romanticism poets from the 1800’s that were very influential. While Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are different in the ways they view society, they are similar in how they value the individual…

We all need friends. They care for us, even love us, and life without them would be very lonesome- just like the Creature’s, Robert Walton’s and Victor Frankenstein’s in Merry Shelley’s Frankenstein. Aristotle believes that there are three reasons why people become friends. Those are that the other person is good, useful, or pleasant (Aristotle 262). Furthermore, he distinguishes between a friendship where “two individuals recognize that the other person is someone of good character, and they…

Throughout history there remains universal themes explored in life and fiction that are not dependent on time or place. In Franz Kafka's novella The Metamorphosis it follows Gregor Samsa, a travelling businessman who transforms into a bug. As a bug, Gregor lives an unfortunate life full of loneliness, which is barely different than his life as a human. In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron we follow the rise and fall of Harrison himself in a society where everyone is completely equal. Harrison,…

In 1633, John Donne published a metaphysical poem titled The Flea. This poem consists of an erotic theme where a flea is used as a metaphor in order to demonstrate the affair between the speaker and their lover. In the same year, The Altar was published by George Herbert. This poem illustrates the religious notion of how one must sacrifice themselves to God through the use of an altar. In the following, The Flea and The Altar will be compared and contrasted in terms of the physical shape of the…

“The Scarlet Letter” was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, the actual story takes places in the 1600’s in a Puritan society. Hawthorne was an anti-transcendentalist. An anti-transcendentalist means that humans are naturally evil , society keeps them in check and nature is evil. Hawthorne used symbols throughout the story to represent his ideas, symbols are a representation of qualities or ideas. In his novel “The Scarlet Letter”, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the wild rosebush,…

In the book Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, Stacey Logan is trying to figure out who should be a better friend, TJ, or Jeremy. Stacey should be friends with Jeremy because T.J. lies constantly, doesn’t take responsibility for his actions, and he takes advantage of others. First of all, it can be true that Jeremy may not be trustworthy. But, it is easy to recall that TJ can be caught lying multiple times throughout the book. The text states, “When we got outside. T.J.…