Literature Questions and Answers

Literature

Tara by Mahesh Dattani explores themes of gender discrimination and societal expectations through the story of conjoined twins, Tara and Chandan. The play highlights the preference for male children...

2 educator answers

Literature

The Marriage of Anansewa can be seen as a comedy because the play features disorder, absurdity, a case of mistaken identity, and satire.

1 educator answer

Literature

The subject of a literary work is what it is about, such as the plot or main events, whereas the theme is the underlying message or moral the author conveys. For example, in Great Expectations, the...

2 educator answers

Literature

In Indira Goswami's "The Empty Chest," the title signifies both a literal and metaphorical emptiness. The chest is a casket, once housing the body of Saru Bopa, a man Toradoi loved. On a figurative...

1 educator answer

Literature

The main difference between a comedy and a tragedy lies in their perspectives and outcomes. Tragedies focus on human suffering, isolation, and inevitable downfall, often ending in death and arousing...

5 educator answers

Literature

American literature is characterized by themes of individualism, freedom, and the exploration of the American Dream. It often reflects the cultural diversity and historical context of the United...

7 educator answers

Literature

Hayavadana by Girish Karnad tells the story of the title character, who is half human and half horse but becomes completely a horse. It also relates the tale of the love triangle of Devadatta,...

1 educator answer

Literature

The difference between comedy of manners and sentimental comedy lies primarily in their thematic focus and emotional impact. Comedy of manners, often satirical, aims to amuse by critiquing the...

1 educator answer

Literature

The primary difference between a short story and a poem lies in their structure and purpose. A short story is a brief narrative with a clear plot, characters, and a beginning, middle, and end. In...

8 educator answers

Literature

"Do Something, Brother" by M. Gopalakrishna Adiga satirizes mankind's compulsive need to prove themselves through destructive actions, without considering the consequences. Adiga criticizes...

2 educator answers

Literature

Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay's Rajmohan's Wife revolves around two major themes: the role of women in nineteenth-century India as they struggle against oppression, and the symbolic representation of...

1 educator answer

Literature

In Rabindranath Tagore's “Gitanjali XVIII,” "love" refers to God. The poet yearns for God's presence, feeling abandoned and isolated, especially when alone. Despite the darkness and his intense...

1 educator answer

Literature

The theme of Premchand's "Panch Parmeshwar or Holy Panchayat" revolves around justice, responsibility, and friendship. The main characters, Jumman Shaikh and Algu Chowdhry, experience a test of their...

3 educator answers

Literature

A romantic hero is characterized by their rejection of established norms and conventions, a deep introspection, and a focus on individualism. They often possess a strong sense of personal honor, a...

3 educator answers

Literature

The main characteristics of the eighteenth-century English novel include realistic characters of different social classes, real-world settings, plots that center on real-life conflicts,...

3 educator answers

Literature

Pre-Romantic poetry, exemplified by poets such as Thomas Gray and William Cowper, features a focus on themes like death, the self, and nature, anticipating the Romantic era's emphasis on...

1 educator answer

Literature

There are several themes in the tale "Little Red Riding Hood," such as the importance of treating strangers with caution. We cannot know who has good intentions and who has bad, and so we must...

3 educator answers

Literature

The proverb "You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep" communicates that it's futile to try to force someone to acknowledge or engage with something they are consciously choosing to...

1 educator answer

Literature

Victorian literature often focused on social issues, morality, and industrialization, while Modernist literature explored themes of alienation, fragmentation, and disillusionment. Both periods,...

3 educator answers

Literature

Some general differences between traditional and modern literature are that the former is more likely to adhere to a set form and genre, to include archetypal characters, to invite the reader to...

3 educator answers

Literature

In Munshi Premchand's "The Child", Gangu is portrayed as a virtuous Brahmin servant who marries Gomti, a woman with two failed marriages. When Gomti disappears and returns with a child not Gangu's,...

1 educator answer

Literature

Homi K. Bhabha's "Nation and Narration" explores the concept of nationhood as a narrative construct, emphasizing that nations are not homogeneous but are formed through a process of cultural...

3 educator answers

Literature

In Mahasweta Devi's "SALT", salt is employed as a metaphor for exploitation, particularly in the context of British colonial oppression. The British colonizers forbade Indians from producing their...

1 educator answer

Literature

Russian Formalism focuses on the formal aspects of literature, such as structure, language, and technique, emphasizing the literariness of texts. New Criticism, while also concentrating on close...

3 educator answers

Literature

The themes and issues in Girish Karnad's Tughlaq include the gap between political aspirations and reality. Karnad portrays Tughlaq as a brilliant yet ultimately failed ruler whose idealistic...

1 educator answer

Literature

The short story "Old Love" by Jeffrey Archer is called "a love story that transcends time" because it features universal themes of passionate rivalry turning into deep affection, which are relatable...

1 educator answer

Literature

Temsüla Ao’s short story “The Jungle Major” explores the theme of gender. Ao depicts the gender norms in Nagaland and uses Khatila and Punaba’s resistance to show how they can be quite restrictive.

1 educator answer

Literature

The difference between a "narrator" and a "focalizer" lies in who tells the story versus the perspective from which it's told. The narrator is the one recounting the story, like Holden Caulfield in...

1 educator answer

Literature

The theme of "Dawn at Puri" by Jayanta Mahapatra is traditions, particularly those related to death. The poem questions the purpose of these deeply rooted traditions, using ironic language to...

1 educator answer

Literature

Mahesh Dattani uses the division of stage space in Tara to differentiate between physical reality and characters' mental states. The upper level represents Chandan's London apartment, while the lower...

1 educator answer

Literature

The University Wits significantly contributed to English literature by bridging the gap between medieval morality plays and the sophisticated drama of the Renaissance. This group of playwrights and...

1 educator answer

Literature

The difference between British and American Romanticism stems from the distinct histories and cultural contexts of the two nations. British Romanticists, such as Blake and Wordsworth, sought a fresh...

1 educator answer

Literature

A catchy title for a persuasive essay on homework causing stress could be "Anxious Over Assignments," "Allergic to Assignments," "Homework Hang-Ups," "The Horrors of Homework," or "Why Homework...

1 educator answer

Literature

To analyze a text using feminist theory, examine the portrayal of gender roles and the power dynamics between men and women. Consider how characters conform to or challenge stereotypes, the...

2 educator answers

Literature

Structuralism and Deconstructionism are both critical approaches to literature. Structuralism focuses on understanding the underlying structures of a text, such as language and narrative conventions,...

2 educator answers

Literature

In "Keats’s Sylvan Historian: History Without Footnotes," Cleanth Brooks argues that the greatness of "Ode on a Grecian Urn" lies in its contradictions and paradoxes, rather than a single...

1 educator answer

Literature

The folk elements in Vijaydan Detha's "Compromise" can be identified through its poetic language, cultural contexts, and universal metaphors. The story uses poetic descriptions, such as those of the...

1 educator answer

Literature

The overriding theme of “Identity” by Julio Noboa Polanco is the importance of individuality. The speaker is all too aware that he's different from other people, but he's unapologetic about it. He is...

2 educator answers

Literature

The theme of The Thousand Faces of Night is the struggle of Indian women between personal aspirations and societal expectations. The novel explores this conflict through the lives of Devi, Sita, and...

1 educator answer

Literature

Literary conventions are customary features that define specific literary genres, such as the chorus in Greek tragedy or a moral in a fable. These conventions, which include cliches, devices, or...

2 educator answers

Literature

In "Bread" by Braithwaite the increasingly broken and disorienting form of the poem reflects the broken dreams of black people. Bread, a metaphor for dreams of life and abundance, begins to bake and...

1 educator answer

Literature

Prose and drama differ in form and function. Prose, which includes both fiction and nonfiction, is written or spoken language without a metrical structure, often used to express individual thoughts...

1 educator answer

Literature

The daughter of your mom and dad, but not your sister, is you, the first-person narrator. This riddle plays on assumptions about narrative perspectives, similar to classic riddles that challenge...

1 educator answer

Literature

In summary, "By Any Other Name" by Santha Rama Rau is the story of the brief period in which two Indian children attend an Anglo-Indian day school. Our protagonist, Santha, finds the experience both...

3 educator answers

Literature

The main themes of Shattered by Eric Walters include human privilege and homelessness. Ian, a privileged teenager, learns about the hardships of the homeless while working at a soup kitchen. His...

3 educator answers

Literature

Studying literature enables one to better understand social situations, history, one's own emotions, and various cultural practices. It also makes one more empathetic. 

31 educator answers

Literature

In alterNatives by Drew Hayden Taylor, symbols and motifs like food, drink, and books develop the themes of stereotypes, truth, and relationships. The moose roast represents cultural...

1 educator answer

Literature

Formalists studied the nature of literary language, which they saw as different from everyday language. New Critics believed that literary analysis should be confined to the text itself and that...

2 educator answers

Literature

The novel Coolie by Mulk Raj Anand primarily explores the exploitation and suffering of the socio-economically disadvantaged at the hands of the privileged in early 20th century India. It critiques...

2 educator answers

Literature

In Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's "Birthday," humor is used to challenge conventional ideas about birthdays. The protagonist's day, despite being his birthday, is no different from any other as he still...

1 educator answer