http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/american-literature Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Wed, 03 Jun 2026 01:17:08 -0400 Wed, 03 Jun 2026 01:17:08 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1958/the-relationship-between-gender-and-trauma-in-donna-tartts-the-goldfinch By Katie K. Strubel - The Goldfinch (2013) by Donna Tartt is a novel that explores the conditions of grief and escalating lengths characters will go to survive the traumas and mysteries of life. This story of guilt and loss—intermixed with love and longing—is far detached from the traditional coming-of-age trope. I argue that one of the most tantalizing aspects found in this piece of literary fiction is the fascinating and sometimes questionable relationship between main characters, Theodore Decker and Boris Pavlikovsky. Reading this novel through a queer/gender studies lens and the use of a dialogic journal... Mon, 19 Sep 2022 02:37 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1958/the-relationship-between-gender-and-trauma-in-donna-tartts-the-goldfinch http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1926/american-construction-reconstruction-and-destruction-the-cultural-historical-and-literary-underpinnings-of-our-great-divide By Michael L. Neely - This thesis explores the inherent conflict between liberty and equality—the twin pillars on which the United States and its Constitution are predicated—and the materialization of this conflict in storm center texts, whose subjects cover the sentiments of the zeitgeist during American construction, destruction, and reconstruction. This paper asserts that American Construction and Reconstruction were fraught with the partition between these twin pillars—liberty and equality—and it brought this partition to the fore. American founders and historical and literary figures gave... Thu, 09 Dec 2021 12:12 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1926/american-construction-reconstruction-and-destruction-the-cultural-historical-and-literary-underpinnings-of-our-great-divide http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1911/the-legacy-of-american-transcendentalism-in-contemporary-literature-from-thoreau-to-krakauer By Perla Kantarjian - American Transcendentalism (1836-1860), despite having an amorphous and transient lifespan, holds strong importance in American history: religious, philosophical, and literary. Not only did this movement approach societal and spiritual life with new and radical perceptions concerning a variety of matters, but the tenets it preached still strike a certain chord within all who study them. Leaders of this compelling movement, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller, who are all prominent names in American literary history, called for a “transcendence” from... Mon, 27 Sep 2021 08:21 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1911/the-legacy-of-american-transcendentalism-in-contemporary-literature-from-thoreau-to-krakauer http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1879/sensationalism-of-trauma-in-american-film-and-literature By Clare M. Nee - The Virgin Suicides written by Jeffrey Eugenides, as well as Sofia Coppola’s film adaptation, utilize the literary and cinematic tropes of suicide to explore female suicides as romantic notions and assertions of agency within the teenage world of five sisters. In a world in which suicide and mental illness are rapidly on the rise, one might ask: is it ethical to use suicide merely as a plot device to explore a narrative other than its own? The novel and film adaptation use suicide as a vehicle to exploit and sexualize the adolescent female body through a voyeuristic, collective male narrative... Fri, 19 Feb 2021 11:43 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1879/sensationalism-of-trauma-in-american-film-and-literature http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1875/the-graphic-novel-as-argument-visual-representation-strategy-in-kyle-bakers-nat-turner By Jacqueline Rodriguez - Traditional slave narratives follow a set of conventions that helped abolitionists recognize them as factual and trustworthy stories. Previously enslaved authors subverted those conventions to take control of their narratives and expose white abolitionists’ selfish motivations. In Kyle Baker’s graphic novel retelling of Nat Turner’s life story, free from the conventions of those traditional narratives, the reader is provided a new perspective on Turner’s story with an emphasis on reader participation. His graphic narrative prioritizes the black story without a white person... Thu, 11 Feb 2021 11:41 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1875/the-graphic-novel-as-argument-visual-representation-strategy-in-kyle-bakers-nat-turner http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1867/edgar-allan-poe-and-race-analyzing-the-absent-negro-trope-in-gothic-literature By Jennifer Celeste - Edgar Allan Poe is known for writing about a wide variety of controversial topics, such as death, murder, and addiction. However, one topic that his work tends to avoid is race and/or racism. Instead, he often chooses to include marginalized groups of people in tertiary roles, intentionally or unintentionally utilizing stereotypes associated with each marginalized subject to enhance or reveal insights on many of the more overt themes included in his literature. This paper will analyze Pompey, a side character in Poe’s “How to Write a Blackwood Article” in order to assess how... Fri, 22 Jan 2021 09:21 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1867/edgar-allan-poe-and-race-analyzing-the-absent-negro-trope-in-gothic-literature http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1855/reading-religion-in-literature-toni-morrison-luisah-teish-and-postsecular-theory By Kayla R. Drummond - The postsecular turn of the late 1990’s refers to the emergence of a critical theory which challenges an important modern assumption: that secular ideologies are inherently more valid and truthful than religious ideologies. Other developments in literary theory in the latter half of the 20th century were aimed at disrupting and challenging normative assumptions, and postsecularism was no different. By disrupting the hierarchy of the knowledge/faith binary, postsecular theory provides a range of fresh opportunities for reading religion in literature. This essay examines several important... Mon, 04 Jan 2021 12:13 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1855/reading-religion-in-literature-toni-morrison-luisah-teish-and-postsecular-theory http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1805/poststructuralism-and-female-identity-in-sylvia-plaths-ariel By Lillian G. Robles - Sylvia Plath’s posthumously published collection of poetry, Ariel, is perhaps best defined by the vivid imagery that delves deep into Plath’s psyche. Throughout the collection, Plath explores dimensions of herself: her past, present, and future; her demons; her place in the world. Time and time again, Ariel seems to return to essential questions about Plath’s identity. If not providing a clear answer, then Ariel, at the very least, tracks the complexity and even impossibility of any single answer. Because Ariel is an exploration of a woman’s identity and existence, it may... Wed, 30 Sep 2020 10:14 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1805/poststructuralism-and-female-identity-in-sylvia-plaths-ariel http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1768/trauma-and-silence-in-no-no-boy-an-interdisciplinary-reading By Yuxin Zheng - Depicting the rugged reintegration of Ichiro Yamada, a no-no boy imprisoned during WWII, Japanese American author John Okada presents a traumatized and conflicted Japanese American community during the mid-1940s in his novel No-No Boy (1957). Applying Dan McAdams’ psychological theory to their literary study of the novel, Floyd Cheung and Bill Peterson demonstrate that an interdisciplinary approach can “provide inspiration for different disciplines in the academy to view Asian American experience in new and exciting ways” (213). Using an interdisciplinary approach as Cheung and... Thu, 03 Oct 2019 08:09 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1768/trauma-and-silence-in-no-no-boy-an-interdisciplinary-reading http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1732/challenging-the-gender-dichotomy-in-the-victorian-era-reading-hemingways-up-in-michigan-and-mansfields-frau-brechenmacher-together By Kimberly Taylor - Sexual violence and coercion became hot topics in 2017, with endless headlines. However, these problems and issues are not new, nor are they confined to a single segment of society. Rather, they have longstanding roots within patriarchal society viewing the sexes as opposite ends of an oppositional dichotomy. This dichotomy is highlighted in two short stories, one by Hemingway and one by Katherine Mansfield. These stories contextualize sexual violence and coercion within Victorian era patriarchal societies revealing the perceived and taught active male/passive female dichotomy such societies were... Thu, 22 Mar 2018 03:50 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1732/challenging-the-gender-dichotomy-in-the-victorian-era-reading-hemingways-up-in-michigan-and-mansfields-frau-brechenmacher-together http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1704/jazz-is-my-story-a-historical-analysis-of-jazz-and-20th-century-african-american-literature By Anjali J. Misra - The period of time from the Bebop era to the present—mid-1940s onwards—has been an era of great cultural evolution in the United States, and in few groups more so than the African American community. A factor particularly significant in this journey, and one with which jazz music has been closely tied over the past century, is African American literature. This genre, more colloquially called black literature, has only been a formal notion since the Harlem Renaissance (from roughly 1919 to 1939), during which prominent black leaders sought to elevate black culture and status by producing... Wed, 15 Nov 2017 10:26 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1704/jazz-is-my-story-a-historical-analysis-of-jazz-and-20th-century-african-american-literature http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1638/divinity-in-the-disguise-of-mental-illness-in-william-faulkners-the-sound-and-the-fury By Rebecca Berezin - The character of Benjy Compson from William Faulkner’s 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury is a mythic and Christ-like figure with the divine gift of prophecy rather than the retarded man-child that the other characters in the novel view him to be. To see the world through Benjy’s eyes, you must be part of a very exclusive club with a two prong membership: that of autism and that of synesthesia. Autism is a developmental disorder most often characterized by impairments in forming normal social relationships and impairments in being able to communicate with others. Synesthesia itself... Mon, 01 May 2017 10:02 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1638/divinity-in-the-disguise-of-mental-illness-in-william-faulkners-the-sound-and-the-fury http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1625/literary-repetition-and-revision-as-healing-harryette-mullen-and-suzan-lori-parkss-collective-solution-to-historical-trauma By Zeena Y. Fuleihan - Music functions as a source of healing in Toni Morrison’s Jazz, both to the bird who is inexplicably sad and for the broken relationship between Violet and Joe, the novel’s two main adult characters. The bird cheers up and regains its appetite once it hears music, and Violet and Joe begin to repair their love after a younger character brings a record player into their home. Borrowing from the musical forms of jazz, and more specifically jazz played by black musicians, Morrison structures her book as a series of solos from various characters, moving forward and backward in time to expand... Tue, 11 Apr 2017 09:09 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1625/literary-repetition-and-revision-as-healing-harryette-mullen-and-suzan-lori-parkss-collective-solution-to-historical-trauma http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1501/its-a-wise-child-a-levinasian-analysis-of-j-d-salingers-glass-family-stories By Nivetha Nagarajan - J. D. Salinger is a household name in America, but relatively few people know of his Glass family characters. Seven impossibly bright and witty adult siblings and their parents populate his later work, from their first appearance in the short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” that appeared in The New Yorker in 1948, to their last in “Hapworth 16, 1924” in the same publication in 1965. The Glass siblings are unique in that they have an eccentric family culture centered around religion and philosophy. All seven of them were precocious geniuses as children and were featured... Wed, 30 Nov 2016 11:55 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1501/its-a-wise-child-a-levinasian-analysis-of-j-d-salingers-glass-family-stories http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1250/how-ralph-ellisons-invisible-man-retold-the-story-of-the-black-american-experience-for-the-cultural-mainstream By Luke D. Mahoney - People love a good story. A good story can be intriguingly informative, a good story can well up deep emotions and a good story can carry culture, history and tradition. It was through storytelling that many ancient cultures preserved and passed down their understanding of the world, their rites and their rituals. It was, and still is, through stories that children become familiar with cultural and societal norms and mores. Stories are important to people, are one of the most important forms of verbal and written communication. People learn about each other through storytelling, solve problems... Mon, 26 Oct 2015 08:24 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1250/how-ralph-ellisons-invisible-man-retold-the-story-of-the-black-american-experience-for-the-cultural-mainstream http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1668/the-father-son-relationship-of-jim-and-huck-in-mark-twains-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn By Heather M. Shrum - Since its publication in 1884, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been construed to have numerous meanings, many of them controversial or unfounded, and the relationship of Huckleberry Finn and Jim in Twain’s book has not been exempt from this scrutiny and radical interpretation. Two scholars, Leslie Fiedler and Axel Nissen, have taken a drastic step in explaining the meaning and motives behind Huck and Jim’s relationship. In their controversial essays, Fiedler and Nissen advocate that Huck Finn and Jim develop a romantic relationship based on homosexual feelings... Sun, 16 Nov 2014 11:24 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1668/the-father-son-relationship-of-jim-and-huck-in-mark-twains-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/920/characterization-in-john-updikes-youll-never-know-dear-how-much-i-love-you By Greta B. Reichert - Despite Updike's personal beliefs, various scholars argue that his works tend to be character driven rather than plot driven. The protagonist is an integral component in Updike's “You'll Never Know, Dear, How Much I Love You.” Updike's characters are perhaps the most important elements of his stories, especially this story, because they embody traits that bring them – and the stories – to life. Though Updike asserts characterization is not his main focus, his narrative “You'll Never Know, Dear” is an example of a short story that is driven and directed by its... Tue, 30 Sep 2014 11:06 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/920/characterization-in-john-updikes-youll-never-know-dear-how-much-i-love-you http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/904/naming-and-identity-in-toni-morrisons-beloved-and-song-of-solomon By Sean M. Kirby - As an African American author, Toni Morrison is acutely aware of the pain that is intertwined with the history of her history. She articulates the debilitating physical and psychological strain that slavery, prejudices, and discrimination placed upon countless African Americans with incredible detail. One of her most powerful statements, however, comes in just one sentence near the end of Beloved. It is a truth that all African Americans know, one that was born out of slavery, one that still burns people today: the truth that “anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came... Sun, 22 Jun 2014 10:39 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/904/naming-and-identity-in-toni-morrisons-beloved-and-song-of-solomon http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/898/trauma-reenactment-in-the-gothic-loop-a-study-on-structures-of-circularity-in-gothic-fiction By Andrea Juranovszky - Ever since its original emergence, Gothic fiction has been shaped by a unique narrative direction that is often described by scholars and readers alike as retrospective, repetitive, or circular in nature. Gothic texts progress as if through a series of flashbacks, always reviving deeds of the past in order to point out a problem, which, however strongly rooted in some ancient heritage, prevails in the present and calls for immediate resolution. David B. Morris defines the typically Gothic vision of history as one where “the past interpenetrates the present time, as if events were never entirely... Fri, 23 May 2014 10:46 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/898/trauma-reenactment-in-the-gothic-loop-a-study-on-structures-of-circularity-in-gothic-fiction http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/872/mark-twains-portrayal-of-family-and-relationships-in-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn By Heather M. Shrum - Whether real or symbolic, the family and the relationships within family units are a frequent theme in Mark Twain’s classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Because there are many parallels between the characters and events within Huck Finn and the events and individuals surrounding Twain’s life, an examination of the biographical and historical context surrounding the novel’s composition reveals that Twain was influenced both socially and personally by the declining moral and social conditions of the family in the late 1800s. The events of the period induced him to indirectly... Fri, 21 Mar 2014 09:16 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/872/mark-twains-portrayal-of-family-and-relationships-in-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/774/controversial-kin-transracial-adoption-in-hope-leslie-and-ramona By Melissa N. Gilstrap - Critics often ignore transracial adoption as a literary theme in both Catharine Sedgwick’s Hope Leslie; Or, Early Times in Massachusetts (1827) and Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona, A Story (1884), as these two texts’ portrayals of the occurrence are often complicated and particularly ambiguous. Yet, understanding these two authors’ depictions of same-race and transracial adoptions is crucial to realizing they were imagining a new ethical paradigm for contact between whites and Native Americans — that of cross-racial care instead of cross-racial violence. This paper argues... Sun, 20 Oct 2013 06:31 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/774/controversial-kin-transracial-adoption-in-hope-leslie-and-ramona http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/750/comparing-faulkners-a-rose-for-emily-and-porters-the-jilting-of-granny-weatherall By Kristina L. Gray - William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” focuses on the life and death of Emily Grierson, a monumental figure representing the traditional South in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi. Although the story begins with her death, the details of her life are revealed through flashbacks by an unknown narrator. Upon the death of her father, Emily becomes confused and disoriented. She believes that her father is not dead, and to the townspeople’s dismay, refuses to permit anyone to bury him. She is ultimately “jilted” by the man she falls in love with—Homer Barron... Tue, 27 Aug 2013 12:47 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/750/comparing-faulkners-a-rose-for-emily-and-porters-the-jilting-of-granny-weatherall http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/606/literature-as-a-social-tool-education-and-cohesion-or-class-domination By Hannah A. Weber - English literature is all-encompassing: it ranges from societal utilitarianism of the didactic through to the celebration of individualism embodied in post-modern work. Literature, as part of a larger cultural body, is both instructive and entertaining, and has the power to facilitate personal understanding and encourage social cohesion. The society depicted in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is disillusioned with literature: the populace has forgotten its potential to educate and entertain, and has become sceptical of the intellectual elitism it is seen to represent. People are now captivated... Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:55 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/606/literature-as-a-social-tool-education-and-cohesion-or-class-domination http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/598/religious-intolerance-in-the-female-american-or-the-adventures-of-unca-eliza-winkfield By Kathleen E. Gilligan - Published in 1767, The Female American, Or, The Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield claims to be the spiritual autobiography of an Unca Eliza Winkfield. Like Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, this narrative is peppered with bits of true historical details and events in order to convince the reader that the story is true. Despite the inaccuracies, the purpose of the novel is to spread the word of Christianity. At first glance, an interpretation of The Female American may appear to be a convincing argument for religious imperialism, but if one takes a closer look they will find that the story is an... Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:27 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/598/religious-intolerance-in-the-female-american-or-the-adventures-of-unca-eliza-winkfield http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/588/racial-uplift-acculturation-to-the-dominant-culture-in-contending-forces-by-pauline-e-hopkins By Aisha Rees - Domestic fiction reigned in women’s literature during the nineteenth-century. These narratives defined ”True Womanhood,” where the female exemplified four pillars: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. They are meant to reject the public sphere for more spiritual gains: true women were the moral compasses of society. Their influence in the home was supposed to project outward into society because of the true woman’s role as a wife, a mother, and a teacher. Amy Kaplan, in her work “Manifest Domesticity,” denotes that the “private feminized space... Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/588/racial-uplift-acculturation-to-the-dominant-culture-in-contending-forces-by-pauline-e-hopkins http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/400/ahabs-devolution-in-herman-melvilles-moby-dick By Marina A. Kinney - Ahab, the monomaniacal ship captain of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, is a man plagued by revenge. Searching the seas for the whale who took his leg and along with it, his ability to effectively assimilate into society, Ahab continually shows himself to be a man concerned with a single unvarying mission. While determinedly seeking out the white whale, Ahab continues to drift farther from mankind as he gets closer to reaching Moby Dick. Because of this single-minded searching, Ahab ultimately becomes similar to an animal, consumed with a compulsion to hunt that is coupled with a loss of reason... Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:06 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/400/ahabs-devolution-in-herman-melvilles-moby-dick http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/354/the-great-gatsbys-relation-to-and-importance-as-a-work-of-art By Iulia O. Basu-Zharku - F. Scott Fitzgerald, as quoted by Matthew Bruccoli, recognized the importance of his own novel and its artistic achievements: “Gatsby was far from perfect in many ways but all in all it contains such prose as has never been written in America before. […] the lyric quality of Gatsby, its esthetic soundness” (Brucolli 221). “Its symbolism, allusion, indirection, irony, ambiguity, and mythical dimensions” (Eble 34), are eternal, transcending times and eras. And indeed, when Fitzgerald says, “I feel I have an enormous power in me now. This book will be a consciously... Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:31 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/354/the-great-gatsbys-relation-to-and-importance-as-a-work-of-art http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1663/american-transcendentalism-and-analysis-of-ralph-waldo-emersons-self-reliance By Steven A. Carbone II - What began in New England in the early nineteenth-century as a reform of the Congregational Church grew into what some scholars consider to be one of the most monumental movements of religion, philosophy and literature in American history. Humbly, American Transcendentalism began its transformation of the American intellect through a circle of friends, some of whom were former Unitarian ministers themselves. They desired to further reform the church, which they viewed as a “social religion that did not awaken the individual’s realization of his own spirituality” (Versluis 290... Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:57 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1663/american-transcendentalism-and-analysis-of-ralph-waldo-emersons-self-reliance http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/313/faulkners-absalom-absalom-and-the-mysterious-rosa-coldfield By Alicia D. Costello - William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! begins in the year 1833, when the stranger, Thomas Stupen, rides into Jefferson, Mississippi, and promptly begins building himself an empire. He builds a plantation named Stupen’s Hundred, takes a wife, Ellen Coldfield, and has two children, Judith and Henry. Ellen’s much younger sister, Rosa, comes to live at Stupen’s Hundred after Rosa’s only guardian, her father, nails himself in the attic and throws the hammer out the window in protest of the Civil War. Despite attempting to fulfill Ellen’s deathbed wish to look after... Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:03 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/313/faulkners-absalom-absalom-and-the-mysterious-rosa-coldfield