My grandfather

This year will mark four years since the death of my grandfather Stanley A. Fawcett. He was 84 and dementia had taken a great toll on him before his passing. I didn’t go to his funeral, I regret that now. I still think about him now and then. He had such a profound influence on […]

Martha A. Sandweiss’ Passing Strange: What It Tells Us About Privilege and Race In Nineteenth-Century America

Martha Sandweiss’ Passing Strange is a fascinating personal portrait of a man and woman who, by all accounts, defy our expectations of ending up together. Sandweiss’ retelling of this story has many historical roots in America’s past social and racial divides. These roots overlap and intersect coming together to form the circumstances that would lead […]

Literary Analysis: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Prompt: What does Jekyll feel guilty about? Why does Jekyll feel the need to create a double? What does Hyde do? Response: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a mystery that draws the reader in with questions of a puzzling relationship between a respected doctor of high social standing and a […]

Literary Analysis: Antigone

Prompt: Who is right–Antigone or Creon? Response: In his 1902 critical look at Antigone, Richard C. Jebb states that “the simplicity of the plot is due to the clearness of which the two principles are opposed to each other.” This is both accurate and inaccurate. It is true the conflict is a simple one on […]

Literary Analysis: Harlem Renaissance poetry

Prompt: How do the poets of the Harlem Renaissance portray Black life, culture, emotion, and consciousness? What do you think these writers hope to achieve in their revelations? Do they live up to Langston Hughes’ dictum? Response: The Harlem Renaissance was a revolutionary period of approximately fifteen years starting loosely in 1917 or so and continuing […]

Literary Analysis: Daddy

The work of Sylvia Plath is defined by its morbid mood, cheerless tone, and the author’s dark reflections of her own childhood. Plath makes no exception in her poem “Daddy”. She has with “Daddy”, as in much of her work, struck a chord of great contention leading to much discussion about this work’s meaning over […]