"The Catcher In The Rye" is a novel that has always attracted controversy.

"The Catcher In The Rye" is a novel that has always attracted controversy. When J.D. Salinger's novel, "The Catcher In The Rye" was first published in 1951, it caused a storm in both the literary world, due to its unusual content and style, and the American social scene. In a list of the most controversial books ever written, it is claimed that, "this immediate best seller almost simultaneously became a popular target of censorship" (1) and that it was banned due to its "profanity, reference to suicide, vulgarity, disrespect, and anti-Christian sentiments" (1) . The main aspects of this novel which make it controversial are; the language and style Salinger chooses to use, the comment he makes on 1950's capitalist America, Holden's state of mental health, Holden's opinions on sexuality and treatment of women, his relationships with children and his portrayal as a Christ-like figure. Many of these issues are still controversial today and more recent events, such as the assassination of John Lennon in 1980 by a man carrying a copy of the novel and wearing the red hunting hat that Holden talks about in the book, have only served to attract further controversy to "The Catcher In The Rye". It is still a controversial novel containing issues and language that still offend. The language Salinger uses in the novel is immediately recognised as controversial, even in today's society

  • Word count: 2152
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"The Changeling" is a striking illustration of how the genius of a great dramatist can transform the most unpromising melodrama into the subject matter of a memorable and harrowing psychological tragedy.

THE CHANGELING: "...Beware of off'ring the first-fruits to sin..." "Women Beware Women"- Thomas Middleton "The Changeling" is a striking illustration of how the genius of a great dramatist can transform the most unpromising melodrama into the subject matter of a memorable and harrowing psychological tragedy. Una Ellis- Fermor, in "The Jacobean Drama: An Interpretation", describes the tragedy as the "most compact and pitiless in this drama", containing "elements of great beauty and subsequent action", resulting in their disintegration by the "spiritual evil set at work within them". Belonging to the decadent period of Jacobean tragedy, it is a key study in the history of post- Elizabethan drama- one that is psychological and realistic. It portrays a sombre and disturbing world, where driven by impulses and passions they can scarcely comprehend, leave alone master, Middleton's and Rowley's characters gradually disintegrate as moral beings. As T. S. Eliot has commented, it is the "tragedy of the not naturally bad but irresponsible and undeveloped nature, caught in the consequences of its own action." The play deals with complex ideas and feelings in such a way that the whole structure appears to rely on a sustained sureness and quickness of mind. It offers us a picture of the operation of folly and madness within the mind, and in doing so it explores 'abnormal' mental states;

  • Word count: 2104
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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"The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Tennyson - War Poetry

War Poetry Coursework, By Matthew Stronge. War Poetry is written to express a writers feelings towards war in general. Some writers express total glorification of the war, while others convey the inanity of confrontation. One of the poems that I have studied "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred Tennyson is a poem that tells of a 19th century battle between the British and the Russians during the Crimean War in Russia. During this war, Great Britain, France, and Turkey were fighting against Russia. This battle was particularly disturbing because the lightly armored British, obviously misled, charges a line of heavily armed Russian artillery unit. The poem describes how many soldiers died due to a mistake made by a commander, a message was perceived incorrectly, and many died. They all charged straight into the centre of the Russian artillery unit, and two thirds of them were massacred in minutes. The remaining soldiers managed to realize the mistake and retreat quickly. The poem seems to describe the heroism and patriotism of the soldiers... Although many died because of an obtuse mistake. Repetition is an important element of poetry. "Rode the six hundred," shows the importance of the soldiers as a unit (stanza 1). A small group of soldiers like these must be elite. Only six hundred men of the British army were lucky enough to be part of this special force. "Cannon

  • Word count: 2016
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What does Jane Austens The Three Sisters show us of the lives of women in the nineteenth century through the letters of Mary and Georgiana?

What does Jane Austen's "The Three Sisters" show us of the lives of women in the nineteenth century through the letters of Mary and Georgiana? Jane Austen's The Three Sisters is a short story written in epistolary form around 1792. It deals with the situation of three young sisters, of whom the eldest, Mary, receives a proposal of marriage. As the story is written in epistolary form, the reader is given a personal insight into the mind of the character and subsequently the story becomes more real. The theme of marriage is extremely common among Jane Austen's works including Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park. She was fascinated by the question of who married whom and why. In her writing she examines all sorts of types of courtship thus showing how important marriage was in society at the time. The story begins with a letter written by Mary, the eldest of the girls. She has just received an offer of marriage from 'Mr Watts' and it is the 'first' Mary has ever had. This suggests that was not uncommon for young women to receive many offers of marriage. In Jane Austen's time there was no real way for young women of the 'genteel' classes to strike out on their own or be independent, the real purpose of life was marriage. Jane Austen was herself seventeen years old when she wrote the story, and therefore only just entering onto the marriage market. Along with the fact

  • Word count: 2104
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A Brave New World Summary

Brave New World Précis The novel begins at the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Center, where the Director of the human production plant and his assistant, Henry Foster, are giving a group of male students a tour of the center. The boys take notes as the Director explains how the plant produces as many identical human clones as possible. The Delta, Gamma and Epsilon, three classes of people, are conditioned to love their surroundings, but are deprived of oxygen to make them less intelligent than the other two classes, Alpha and Beta. A worker at the plant, Lenina Crowne, describes how she must give antibiotics and hormones to certain children produced. The students are ushered through the training and conditioning of the infants in the nursery of the plant. Delta babies are conditioned to hate books and flowers, while Beta babies undergo sleep lessons. The Director then takes the students to a play area for young children, where they engage in "erotic play." The students are taught about history, and are shocked by the restrictions on sex in the past. Soon, Mustapa Mond, one of the World Leaders, tells them that history is unimportant and that in the past, which was full of morals and love, humans were insecure and could not function properly. Lenina upsets her friend, Fanny, by telling her she has been having a relationship with Henry Foster. She also

  • Word count: 1375
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Remind yourself of the passage in 'Neighbors' from 'In the morning he had Arlene call in for him...' to the end of the story. Discuss the significance of this to the story as a whole.

Remind yourself of the passage in 'Neighbors' from 'In the morning he had Arlene call in for him...' to the end of the story. Discuss the significance of this to the story as a whole. In the course of your answer: * Look closely at the effects of the writing; * Comment on how this passage relates to the test's methods and concerns This extract is placed after Bill's second visit to the Stone's apartment. Carver's view on women is very interesting in Short Cuts. The way that Bill gets Arlene to "call in for him" in the morning suggests that women are there to serve men or are somehow below men. This theme is carried out throughout the book in many different situations. Bill "[tries] to start a book" which shows how obsessed he has become with the Stone's apartment. At first it seems as though Bill is merely a voyeur in their vacated house, but this quote suggests that he has in fact lost interest in his own life. He goes out for a walk and "[feels] better", somehow, by getting out of his own house he has felt better. What has he felt better from? Has his own home caused him discomfort, maybe he feels that he cannot live his own life anymore without feeling that it is somehow incomplete and the Stone's vacated home is needed to fill this gap. Bill enters the Stone's apartment "He [sees] everything", when the cat appears he "[strokes] her twice and [carries] her into the

  • Word count: 1108
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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What do you understand by the term “Total war”?

What do you understand by the term "Total war"? Total war is a term that till the 20th century had never been in use or practiced. Total War is the total engagement of a nation's economic, social, cultural, and political capital in the war. Till world war one wars had only occurred on the battlefields. Wars were only head to head collisions of bloodshed and casualties. Wars had till then never involved people at home. The last century of the millennium was to change that. 'Total war was the organization or mobilization of all sectors of society to support the war efforts. As a result of this mobilization of the civilian population, the term 'home front' came to be used to describe the domestic scene.' World war one involved both the war front, but also, for the first time, the home front. All elements of this total war are connected. The First World War was fought using enormous amounts of materials including weaponry, ammunition and transport vehicles, but also millions of men. This in turn led to involvement on the civilian population on the home front. It was no longer possible to relay on supplies. Further mass production of equipment, weapons, ammunition, transport and food was necessary to continue the military struggle. A problem occurred when insufficient amounts of men where present to continue to work. Both in England and in Germany, men where in the fronts and

  • Word count: 1128
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Equiano, the Free Man.

Ashley Abboud Dr. Keegan English Literature II 5 December 2002 Equiano, the Free Man Black Trans-Atlantic writers tend to be placed into three categories such as American, British or African. Many of these authors fit nicely into such categories, and would believe that Equiano is just another African author. There in lies a problem, his writings do not reflect an African mentality, Equiano has made a category for himself, authors of the "free" category. In his autobiography, as do many other black Trans-Atlantic authors, he writes about the trouble and troubles faced in slavery. This is not the central motif of his autobiography, but rather a record of his work to earn his freedom. Through Equiano's narrative The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, this essay will illustrate Equiano's desire to be in a category all his own. His curiosity with the "white magic," helps him forge relationships with men aboard the ship and aids in his persual of education. Another aspect that gains Equiano freedom is his education which makes him a viable person in the "European world." His ability to trade and be trusted, gains him the money to buy his freedom. His inclusion of the letter of manumission at the end of his narrative, symbolizes his idea of earned freedom. Finally the title alone speaks for itself. These instances through interpretation, argue

  • Word count: 2648
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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A Detailed Analysis of the Dramatic Qualities of the Duologue between Krogstad and Nora and the End of Act One

A Detailed Analysis of the Dramatic Qualities of the Duologue between Krogstad and Nora and the End of Act One The very start of the duologue, when Krogstad silently enters the Helmer household, disturbing Nora's innocent game with the children strongly draws on themes from Victorian melodrama, that is to say the 'villain' coming in to disturb the 'perfect family'. This theme of the family being threatened by some external force at first encourages the audience to sympathise with Nora, however as the duologue goes on and more information is revealed, smudging the boundary between the 'evil villain Krogstad' and 'innocent heroin Nora', Ibsen challenges the conventions of Victorian melodrama by allowing the characters to develop, hence reaching a level of complexity where they can no longer be categorised as simply good or bad. Nora greets Krogstad with great hostility, feeling authoritative in the given situation as he has entered her ground, and taking on a rather rude tenor with her first words to Krogstad being: 'Oh! What do you want?' Nora clearly registers surprise at Krogstad's unexpected appearance shown by her exclamation 'Oh!', and doesn't feel she has to hide her disappointment in seeing him as she doesn't believe that Krogstad poses a threat to her. Nora's extensive use of interrogative sentences such as 'You want to speak to me' further proves that she feels

  • Word count: 1531
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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Duffy obviously takes the figure of Miss Havisham from Dickens's Great Expectations. But the question then is: why? to what effect? what, in this pre-existing figure, presents itself as an opportunity for the writer? how is Duffy's figure different fro...

Duffy obviously takes the figure of Miss Havisham from Dickens's Great Expectations. But the question then is: why? to what effect? what, in this pre-existing figure, presents itself as an opportunity for the writer? how is Duffy's figure different from Dickens's? One simple thing: The title is Havisham, rather than Miss Havisham - which is how the character is always referred to throughout Great Expectations. Why, to what effect? Perhaps Miss defines the character socially - whereas the poem concentrates on the nature of the character's individual feelings - the character's psychological/sexual nature, rather than her social being. The absence of the formal title also makes the 'feel' of the poem blunter, more simply there, perhaps. Duffy's poem gives Miss Havisham a body, a knot of desires which Dickens does not attempt. beloved sweetheart bastard The poem begins as if addressed to the jilting bridegroom. It doesn't continue in this direct address - by the end of the poem the male figure will have become a male corpse - any male (generalised), and radically rendered into an object (no longer even alive). The most striking thing about the first sentence is the combination of 'love' (beloved sweetheart) and hatred (bastard). Dickens's character is motivated by revenge alone - against the male sex in general. Duffy is interested in the unstable combination of desire

  • Word count: 970
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
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