Literary Project Works: Aims and Objectives: Essential Guidelines to Students for Preparation and Understanding Literature Project


"When enthusiasm and commitment take root within a project, that project comes to life."
Robin Sieger 
 Project Works are a wonderful way to get excited about literature learning, but they require a lot of hard work. If you want the benefits of participating in a literature project, but don’t know where to start, this guide is for you. It will provide a brief overview of the most important aspects of a literature project and get you well on your way to having a display at your school and college work out. Read More Teaching English Though the information is most applicable for middle school students, it can be adapted for use with elementary students and can be a great resource for first-time college participants. This article attempts to provide essential guidelines to students for preparation of their Project Proposal for consideration of the ‘Project Board’ of the institute. As per the provisions of the academic regulations, a student after passing the Qualifying Examination has to submit a detailed outline of the proposed topic of project with the concurrence of the proposed supervisor to the Project Board.

  Why does something written the way it does? What would happen if social scenario changed? Such questions form the basis of literary inquiry, and you probably ask them all the time! Read More Teaching English A literature project provides the opportunity for student to act on your questions and discover answers. Project Work in the English Literature study is very fruitful orientations towards the goal of literature learning. As you formulate a question, develop a hypothesis, design an experiment, and analyze the results, you’ll gain valuable critical thinking skills. Read More Teaching English There is a possibility of creating much more interest in any subject among the students by working on the Project. As we design a presentation and interact with guides, we’ll grow in confidence and public speaking ability. As the students can test their theoretical knowledge by working with a Project, it leaves a deep-rooted effect on the minds of the students.  In fact, literature is just one of many subjects used in project module. It can be any subject where investigation or analytical activity taken to find out the answer of any doubt or solve any problem is called Project. Designing a literature project we also learn project, writing, grammar, planning and organizing, logic, societal culture and more.

The intention of this literature project is to lay stress on ideas and tendencies that have to be understood and appreciated, rather than on facts that have to be learned by heart. Read More Teaching English Many authors are not mentioned and others receive scanty treatment, because of the necessities of the syllabus method of respective authority. Literature project can patch up the wounds it receives. The literature project pretends no more than to be a general introduction to a very great subject, and it will have fulfilled all that is intended for it if it stimulates those who read it to set about participating for them the literature project of which it treats. 

The general stages of a Project —

The literature Project is carried to correspond with the following stages. Read More Teaching English The steps mentioned can be altered when there is   more investigating of the project known to the teacher. For the subject as whole graphical and critical articles on authors, chronological arrangement and furnishing them by data inputs are followed.

A. Introduction: The purpose of the project introduction is to describe clearly and precisely the nature and scope of the project program. Read More Teaching English The outline of the proposed topic of project should include everything in the way.  In the introduction part of the Project,  project area ought to be   carefully, and the student ought to pay his author/ resource writer the compliment of crediting him with ideas as important and, on occasion, as abstruse as any in a work of philosophy or abstract science. When the meaning of the project is mastered, the project ought to be planned a second time logically to catch the magic of the set goal and the result. The reading of project idea in the introduction presents less difficulty, but there again the rule is, never allow students to be lulled by their set ideas. Beading of project idea is an intellectual and not a hypnotic exercise. Read More Teaching English It specifies the area of the proposed project work and is not the exact title of the thesis. Title of the thesis emerges at a stage when the candidate is almost ready to submit his/her thesis. Before submitting the thesis, exact title which will appear on the thesis, has to be approved by the DCC. The proposed topic of project should be written in “Title Case” and should not be too lengthy.

B. Abstract: It may seem like no big deal to write a 100 to 1000 word summary of your project, but your abstract may be the key to your success at a literary project accomplishment. Many judges read abstracts ahead of time to get an idea of the different projects, so their first impression of the project work will most likely be based on students’ project abstract. Read More Teaching English An abstract should be no more than 100 to 1000 words and should include a brief synopsis of the following: Purpose of experiment, Procedures used, Observations/Data/Results, Conclusions

The abstract should be written in sentence style, not list style, so you may alternate back and forth between the four categories above, especially if your project has several levels of investigation. Read More Teaching English Spending time working on project abstract in order to make it capture the guides’ attention and convince them that you have done some serious work.

C. Purpose of Experiment : The Planning has to be done about how to work out the chosen Project, from where and how the data have to be collected, which teacher’s advice has to be sought, what types of reference books have to be collected—are parts of the planning.

D. Procedures used: there can be different procedures in project areas like: The work plan (activity schedule) and the time by which these are to be achieved are to be indicated in the form of horizontal bar chart. Please refer to ‘Sample Proposals’ to see as to how the work plan should look like.
    1. Interview
    2. Web search
    3. Library work
   4. Group discussions etc.
    5.  Tables
    6. Illustrations (Figures)
    7. Units of Measurement
    8. Abbreviations and Symbols
    9. Important points related to References
   10. In-text citations
   11. Reference List

E. Observations/Data/Results: Implement the Project after collecting data according to planning and get the correct result. Read More Teaching English The matters which have to be taken care of during the implementation of a Project are—

(i) Data should be collected honestly and carefully.
(ii) Tally the findings of your experiment with those of the reference books you have taken help of.
(iii) Take the correct decision after discussing your findings with your Guide.
(iv) Arrange the Project with the help of several charts, histograms, graphs, photographs, paintings/drawings etc. and make the work informative and attractive.
(v) Make a list of all the books, magazines and journals from which you have collected data.
(vi) Acknowledge those persons from whom you have collected information. They may be—teachers, friends, parents etc.

F. Conclusions: Here are some end notes or suggestions.

Few topics for literature project: Here are few topics   for literature project are—

Dramatizing a story: Here one story can be chosen for dramatization purposes. Here the students should make choices of characters, scenes and costume design etc.
Book Publishing: Here the student should learn the stages of book publication. To complete this project the students should meet the authors, publishers and booksellers.
Extension of a story: In this literary project, students are tasked with extending a story beyond its original ending. By delving into the characters' lives and exploring new plot developments, students will demonstrate their imagination, storytelling abilities, and mastery of narrative elements. The aim of the literary project is to enhance students' understanding of literature through the extension of a story. By engaging in this project, students will develop critical thinking, creativity, and writing skills, while deepening their appreciation for literary works.
Literary Timeline: It is best to study English literature one period, or, even in the case of the greatest, one author at a time. Read More Teaching English In every case the student should see to it that he knows the text of his authors; knowledge of what critics have said about our poets is a poor substitute for knowledge of what they have said themselves.  
Character Parallel: Primarily, this literature project aims at dealing with the matter of authors more than with their lives; consequently it contains few dates. All that the student needs require to help him have been included in a short chronological table at the end. Read More Teaching English To have attempted a severely ordered and analytic treatment of the subject would have been, for the author at least, possible within the limits imposed by the Character Parallel of a literary piece.
Best Reading Index: Here the students in the whole year rate their choice of reading by calendar.
Writing an autobiography: here the student can imagine/assume any object or personality and write a short autobiography on the subject.
Book Review: Here a new book can be reviewed by some standard parameters.
Book Cataloguing: Here the student will catalogue his reading list that their teacher or the syllabus has prescribed. 
These books might be in the list of a first year college student: More's Utopia; North's Translation of Plutarch's Lives, Surrey's and Wyatt's Poems, Everyman and other Plays, Bacon's Essays ; Sir Thomas Browne's Works ;Milton's Works; Poem of John Donne,    Poems of Dryden;  Poems of Pope;  Read More Teaching English The Spectator , Swift's Gulliver's Travels;Defoe's Novels. Boswell's Life of Johnson;   Goldsmith's Citizen of the World , Poems of Blake, Wordsworth's Prelude, Coleridge's Poems; Keats's Poems;  Shelley's Poems;  Byron's Poems, Lamb’s Essays of Elia;  Tennyson's Works; Browning's Works; Rossetti’s Works;  Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, Past and Present, and French Revolution; Ruskin's Unto this Last, Seven Lamps of Architecture; Arnold's Poems;  Fielding's Tom Jones; Smollett’s Roderick Random ;  Jane Austen's Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice ; Scott's Waverley, Antiquary, Ivanhoe   W. B. Yeats' Poems; Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest;  Synge’s Dramatic Works;  and contemporary authors.

Role of the Guide/ Instructor: The role of a teacher is very negligible in a Project. In case of a Project, a student adopts an experimental method to test his/her theoretical knowledge. Read More Teaching English The knowledge he/she gets through the analysis of the acquired data enriches his/her theoretical knowledge. So, the real aim of the Project is to awaken, the real learning mentality.

Analysis of James Boswell’s "Life of Johnson" - Best Biography in the English Language



"The Life of Johnson is assuredly a great, a very great work. Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets, Shakespeare is not more decidedly the first of dramatists, Demosthenes is not more decidedly the first of orators, than Boswell is the first of biographers."

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800 - 1859)

James Boswell (1740-1795) is a Scottish writer who became a close friend and biographer of the writer Samuel Johnson. Boswell, whose father was a well-known advocate, was born in Edinburgh, and educated at Edinburgh High School, the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Utrecht. Read More Criticism Boswell was admitted to both the Scottish and English bars and practiced law but devoted himself primarily to the pursuit of a literary career. His most important early works were An Account of Corsica, The Journal of a Tour to that Island, and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli, which won him some reputation as a writer. Notably, An Account of Corsica is a sympathetic study of the struggle for independence of that island, written after an extended tour of Europe.   The historical part of this book is commonplace, but the Journal is vivacious and attractive. He settled down, however, as much as his nature permitted him, to read for the Scottish Bar, diversifying his studies by writing verse and prose of would-be sprightliness, and by cultivating the society of the most eminent men in Edinburgh.

The 16th of May, 1763, was a red-letter day in his life, for then, during another London visit; he was introduced to Dr. Johnson, in the back-parlour of Tom Davies, the actor and bookseller. The somewhat incongruous pair aged respectively twenty-two and fifty- three, almost at once became firm friends until Johnson's death in 1784. During the twenty-one years which remained of Johnson’s life, they met on about two hundred and seventy days. Read More Criticism Boswell was inordinately delighted with his success, and, somewhat characteristically, called on Chatham in Corsican attire, which he also wore at a Shakespeare festival at Stratford in 1769.  

James Boswell
The year 1973 is eventful. In the autumn of 1773 Boswell visited the Hebrides with Johnson; earlier in that year he was, with difficulty, was elected to Johnson's Literary Club, which included the statesman Edmund Burke, the writer Oliver Goldsmith, the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the actor David Garrick. Read More Criticism Thereafter, Boswell devoted much of his time to compiling detailed records of Johnson's activities and conversation. Boswell's accounts covered periods of daily association with Johnson in London and also described a trip that the two friends made through Scotland to the Hebrides in 1773.  Johnson’s death in 1784 made him feel at liberty to publish his Journal of the Tour to the Hebrides (1786) and to settle down to the composition of his greater work. He was called to the English Bar in 1786, and for a short time held the post of Recorder of Carlisle. His last years were embittered by the death of his wife, and by financial embarrassments, but were sweetened by the success of his Life of Samuel Johnson, which appeared, after some delays, in May, 1791. Read More Criticism In fact, Boswell is best known for the latter work, which is generally considered a masterpiece of biography. He saw a second edition through the press, but before he had completed his work on a third edition, he died (19th May, 1795).

 Boswell’s Life of Johnson is, by universal consent, the best biography in the English language. Its general scheme was modeled upon Mason’s Life of Gray, but thanks to his consummate biographical ability, Boswell has completely out-classed his model. He hunted Ursa Major with all the cunning of an old shikaree, disregarding the comment of his father that “Jamie was gone clean gyte “, and had pinned himself to the tail of “an auld dominie that keepit a schule and ca’d it an academy”. He also disregarded Johnson’s well- known objection—” Sir, you appear to have only two subjects, yourself and me, and I am sick of both “. Some critics have maintained that Boswell’s transcendent merit as a biographer was due to his having been a fool. Such a theory is quite untenable. He had many foolish qualities; but the merits of his book are artistic, not photographic or phonographic merits. Read More Criticism He was as completely master of his material as was Gibbon, and was equally unsparing of himself in the trouble which he took to handle it to the best of his ability. He revealed himself in his book as unsparingly as Pepys revealed himself in his Diary, but printed and published his revelations while Pepys locked his away in cipher. He is, therefore, a man whom it is easy to love, but difficult to respect. His book has conferred upon Johnson an immortality which Irene, Rasselas, and even The Lives of the Poets would never have won; and., thanks to Boswell, Johnson. “in his habit as he liv’d” is better known to us than many of our contemporaries, whose biographies have been written by less able hands.

Analysis of Eugene O Neill’s "Mourning Becomes Electra" as an Aeschylean Model: Comparative Study on Trilogy- "Homecoming", "The Hunted" and "The Haunted"


Eugene O' Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra which is about a brother and sister trying to avenge their father’s murder is constructed as a trilogy- Homecoming, The Hunted and The Haunted -on a very large scale. Eugene O' Neill’s play is adapted from Aeschylus’s tragic trilogy called the Oresteia. The model is Aeschylus, and the pattern of Homecoming and The Hunted follows very closely the pattern of Oresteia. Though each play has a beginning, a logical development and convincing and, the three plays cannot be taken separately. The sequence of parts, exposition, complication, climax and resolution, is reflected in the trilogy as a whole. The complication and climax naturally begin with the murder of Ezra Mammon and end with Orin’s suicide. 

The principal merit of Eugene O' Neill’s trilogy lies in the arrangement or patterning or a series of events. The story itself follows the Oresteia up to the middle of the third division of the play. In  Homecoming Ezra Mannon return from the American civil war to be murdered by his wife, Christine and her lover Adam Brant. In The Hunted, Lavinia’s brother Orin returns home, and Orin and Lavinia avenge their father. Read More American literature Brant is killed and Christine, driven by guilt and a sense of persecution commits suicide. In the 3rd part, The Haunted, which takes place after the interval of a year, O’Neill departs from Aeschylus or any other model. However, in this part the two surviving Mannons, Lavinia and Orin, are drawn together in a climax of guilt and incest. Too weak to carry this burden, Orin commits suicide, leaving Lavinia to bear the guilt of the Mannons alone. The trilogy ends with her final renunciation of a happy life. Bound for ever to the Mannon dead, Lavinia enters the house whose shutters will now be nailed shut, and closes the door behind her forever. 
      
Eugene O' Neill
Although certain significant departures are made from the Greek story, the main lines of the plot are recognizable as similar to those of the Oresteia. The main characters are also derived from the Greek analogue. Obviously Ezra Mannon is Agamemnon, Captain Brant Aegisthus, and Christine Clytemnestra, Lavinia Electra and Orin Orestes. In fact, The Agamemnon and Homecoming are concerned with situations that are fundamentally alike. Both Agamemnon and Ezra, after returning from war, are killed by their wives and by their lovers. In both cases, the children avenge the murder. But to dismiss the matters by saying that O’ Neill has merely repeated the Greek story in modern terms is to go off the tract. O’ Neil totally omits the Cassandra episode and does not suggest a direct parallel to the servitude of Iphigenia, as these seem to him irrelevant. Read More American literature But he had to punish some substitute for the material introduced in to the ancient story by these means. So instead of making Orestes the chief instrument of vengeance, as Aeschylus did in the second part of his trilogy, Eugene O' Neill at once gives to Lavinia the combined  dramatic function of the prophetess, the avenger Orestes and the choruses .it is Lavinia who in  Homecoming discovers that her father has been killed by her mother on the night of his return from war and convinces her brother Orin, in The Hunted, to kill Adam Brant, Christie’s lover, and they carry out the murder  together.     

After the act of revenge on Adam, Eugene O' Neill  makes another major departure from the Aeschyluan plot in ‘The Haunted’. For Orin Mannon there comes the sudden from of his desire incest, loves his sister as both mother and love, symbols of everything that has been represented by the Mannon in him. As he tells Lavinia, “can’t you see I’ am now his father’s place and your mother?” This incest motive is O Neil’s equivalent to furies or Erin yes in Greek myth; since it also corresponds to Freudian completes, the change effected by Eugene O' Neillshows that his re interpretation of the Greek myth is primary psychological. Orin realizes what it has all been about all along, his feelings towards his father, towards his mother, towards brand, towards Lavinia, and this recognition at his obsession is his avenging Erin yes. Moreover, while Oresteia is cleansed of his sin before the tribunal of Athena’s Aeropause, Orin, too weak to carry the Burden, commits suicide. 

Eugene O' Neill’s  originality in plot construction is also evident in Lavinia's tragic end. In the Greek model Electra though suffering the torments and agony of waiting, is at the end let off with the betrothal to Oresteia’s faithful friend, Pylades. In Eugene O' Neill’s play, Lavinia, the one surviving Mannon, does not seek an easy escape from the Mannon family curse by marring peter Niles. She realizes how illusory this hopes and therefore takes leave of peter and has the shutters of the house waited; she will enter it, never to go out again. O Neil’s psychological reinterpretation of the Greek myth is also seen in his substitution of the curse on the house of Atreus by the Mannon curse. Read More American literature Eugene O' Neill wanted to ‘get modern psychological approximation of Greek sense of fate, in to the play. This psychological approximation is found in the Mannon denial of life’; basic spontaneous, natural drives are thwarted by the morbid Mannon family and find out in torture, abnormal relationships. The obvious by neurotic relationship between the major charters and the Oresteian parallel serve primarily to emphasize the self destructive conduits which are the consequence of the ‘denial of life’ that is the Mannon curse.  

 (Character List: Lavinia Mannon   Orin Mannon   Ezra Mannon   Christine Mannon   Adam Brent   Peter Niles   Hazel Niles   Seth Beckwith   Dr. Blake   Landlady   Amos Ames   Mrs. Hills   Josiah Borden   Abner Small   Joe Silva   Rev. Hills   Louise Ames   Minnie Ames   Ira Mackel   Eben Nobel  Police officer   Mrs. Borden  )

Ardhendu De                               

The Modern Rules Of Translating A Passage: Other Language Learning and Understanding the Culture


The works of modern poets throughout the world have been inspired by Dante. And it is imbued with Dantean imagery, especially that of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Paul Claudel, and Anna Akhmatova. Read More Teaching English Again, among the many notable translations into English are verse renditions by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and, in the 20th century, by the English writer Dorothy L. Sayers and the American poet and critic John Ciardi. In the other part of the world, the Persian poet Omar Khayyam is also made a place in our heart by the translation (published anonymously in 1859) of the Rubáiyát by Edward FitzGerald. But ware these possible if they have not been translated into other languages!!

Interrelationship between Faith and Poetry in Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali’: Universal and Timeless Appeal


Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali one of the poet’s three collections of exclusively devotional poems, the other two being Gitimalya and Gitali .These religious poems naturally raise the question of the interrelationship between faith and poetry. It is often said that poetry which is based on a particular religious faith is necessarily limited in its appeal and Dr. Johnson declared categorically that “contemplative piety or the intercourse between god and the human soul can never be poetical”. Read More Poetry  Tagore’s religious poetry may at first sight appear to be severely limited in its appeal to western readers, because its faith is too Indian to have any universal significance. 


The English critic George Sampson finds nothing beyond a common type of eastern mysticism in Tagore’s poetry. But much of the greatest poetry of the world springs from religious convictions which are not universal, for example The Divine Comedy of Dante and Milton’s Paradise Lost. Read More
Rabindranath Tagore The religious faith which gives body and substance to the poems of Dante and Milton is today shared by very few even among Christians; never the less their appeal as poetry is as fresh and undimmed as ever, in his celebrated essay on Dante, T.S Eliot goes in to the whole question of the relationship between faith and poetry and emphatically asserts that poetic appreciation is not dependent upon the reader’s identification with the poet’s own faith. The truth of the assertion is borne out by the fact that Gitanjali is Tagore’s best known work among non Indians who have always been impressed by its portico appeal. Read More Poetry Many western readers like Edward Thomas, consider the poetic world of Gitanjali. As a “gentle paradise” and W.B Yeats has said that Tagore’s songs have a timeless appeal, irrespective of their faith. Such universal appeal is due also to Tagore’s miraculous power of Translation, which has made the Gitanjali poems “jewels of English Religious poetry”, in the words of Father Fallon.  
                            
One reason why Tagore’s devotional verse has such universal and timeless appeal is no doubt the absence of any specific doctrine. Tagore’s mysticism is not linked to any cult or sect, but as he himself said in his ‘Religion of man’, a natural product of his own temperament. The pomes of Gitanjali are the sincere and noble expressions of a poet’s response to god in his own life and Tagore was right in calling them “very intimately my own”. Read More Poetry It is true that many of Tagore’s ideas are derived from the great religious writings of his country, nobly the Upanishads. Song LXIX, for exam, conveys a powerfully felt conviction of the oneness of all life, which is one of the central teachings of the Upanishads. The poet even uses Upanishadic imagery when he speaks of the “stream of life” which “runs through my veins day and night” and which also “runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures”. Read More Rabindranath Tagore  Another central idea of the Upanishads can be found in Song XCVI which uses the evocative image of “the hidden honey of this lotus that expands on the ocean of light” to every the joy and beauty that are following through the universe. The Upanishads also speak of the head to abandoned one’s narrow everyday self before being able to rise to the height of the greater self that is one with the spirit of the creator Tagore’s poem’s in Gitanjali are haunted by a sense of the narrow self preventing the desired union with the king of his heart, as in Songs LXXIV, and 51(LI).the recurring image in these poems is that of soiled close which represent the narrow self and which must be cast away in order to realize god.

The religious convictions which give life to the Gitanjali poems also have traces of Vaishnava poets of mediaeval Bengal; Tagore frequently employs erotic imagery to express his relationship with god. If the Upanishadic ideas which permeated his poetic sensibility are taken as esoteric, them one must marvel at the poetic alchemy by means of which the erotic and the esoteric have been blended. Read More Poetry Tagore presents his relationship with god in terms of the romantic relationship of a lover and his beloved and in his imagery he uses all the main experiences of romantic love, such as a sense of separation from the lover, a painful longing for union, the anguish of doubt and frustration, and finally the serenity of fulfillment. Read More Rabindranath Tagore The Gitanjali poems, taken together, run the whole gamut of these romantic experiences. Thus Song 41(XLI) begins with the anguished cry: “why tossed thou stand behind them all, my lover, hiding thyself in the shadows?” Song 79(L) conveys movingly the poet’s felling of emptiness because of his disability to merge his soul with that of his lover:”if it is not my portion to meet thee in this my life, then let me ever feel that I have missed they sight –let me carry not forget for a moment, let me carry the pangs of this sorrow in my dreams and in my wakeful hours.” Read More Poetry However, such a sense of romantic longing, the use of the erotic in order to convey an essentially mystical apprehension of god, is not entirely unique, for it can also be found in the religious poetry of the 17th century English metaphysical poets.

The remarkable thing about Tagore’s Gitanjali is that though it may remind educated Indian readers of the Upanishads and the Vaishnava cult, the essential appeal of the poetry cuts across national barriers. The poems of Gitanjali have spoken to countess hearts, have been a revelation to them of what they felt and experienced the magnificent poetry of Gitanjali. Read More Rabindranath Tagore Brings the readers of any faith and even readers who have no faith a fall very close to a religious experiences which is universal and yet intensely individual such poetry, voicing universal feelings of longing, separation, joy and sorrow, can be called a jewel of religious poetry in general, and since the English Translation of Gitanjali is a miracle of transformation, the book can be placed by the side of any great anthology of English religious poetry.     Read More Poetry

Key Arguments Here:-

Spiritual Exploration:

  1. "Gitanjali" showcases Rabindranath Tagore's profound spiritual journey and quest for divine connection.
  2. The poems explore faith, devotion, and the human longing for a deeper understanding of existence.

Poetic Expression of Faith:

  1. Tagore's poetry becomes a vessel for expressing his devotion and relationship with the divine.
  2. The verses transcend religious boundaries, embodying a universal spirituality.

Nature's Symbolism:

  1. Nature serves as a metaphor for the divine, reflecting Tagore's belief in the interconnectedness of all life.
  2. The poems emphasize the beauty and sanctity of the natural world, inspiring spiritual contemplation.

Timelessness:

  1. The themes of faith and spirituality in "Gitanjali" resonate across cultures and eras.
  2. Tagore's verses possess a timeless quality, speaking to the eternal human pursuit of meaning.

Harmony of Faith and Art:

  1. Tagore harmoniously blends faith and poetic expression, showing how art can become a spiritual channel.
  2. "Gitanjali"'s enduring appeal lies in its ability to evoke a sense of the divine through its poetic verses.
Rabindranath Tagore's "Gitanjali" intertwines faith and poetry, offering a universal exploration of spirituality that transcends time and cultural boundaries, resonating with readers across the world.                 

Earnest Hemingway’s "The Old Man and the Sea" Portrays a Man’s Fulfillment in Striving rather than in Success: Investigating Santiago's Consciousness



 'A man can be destroyed but not defeated.' _
Earnest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea

It has been rightly suggested that Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea portrays a man’s fulfillment in striving rather than in success. The book's simple plot contains some element of suspense, but above all, the book lives in its beautiful imagery, the poetic evocation of the sea, and the admirable character of an old man. Read More American literature The story of the novella is that of an old fisherman’s single-handed fight with a giant marlin and then with sharks is the Gulf Stream, north of Havana and it is unmistakably a parable on the theme of fighting the good fight. Hemingway focuses on Santiago's consciousness in this quest story. Read More American literature Very much in the way that a traditional soliloquy or an interior monologue serves to reveal character, this novella functions as one long exploration of the old man's character. Hemingway shows here that is human experience as a whole there are many forms of both marlin and sharks with which men love so fight like Santiago and in Hemingway’s code it is not the end that matters but the way man struggles against these forces. Like the other ‘code heroes’ of Hemingway, Santiago has the courage and endurance of a matador and like them, he reveals ‘grace under pressure’. Santiago is a ‘code hero’ also in the way he combines the matador figure with that of the crucified hero. The wounds he receives during his epic battle first with the marlin and then with the sharks not only equal him with Christ but also suggest that suffering is the inescapable lot of the Hemingway hero. Hemingway's symbolism suggests that Santiago is a Christ-figure. After the sharks attack his fish, for example, Santiago says, 'Ay'; Read More American literature Hemingway writes that 'there is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.' 

How to Write a Good Essay? Key Methods and Techniques


An essay, a literary composition, is usually a number of related sentences dealing with one main idea or topic. Often brief in scope and informal in style, the essay differs from such formal expository forms as the thesis, dissertation, or treatise. Read More Essay The essay is more compact with ideas than data or vociferation. It is more a stream of ideas and logical assertions. And that idea may be stated in a topic sentence, which is often the first sentence in the essay. The sentences that follow may be related in two ways:

(a) Each sentence should help develop the topic.
(b) Each sentence should lead smoothly into the thought of the next.

The essay may end with a clincher sentence, a sentence that sums up the thought of the essay or emphasizes some ideas. Read More Essay Sometimes the topic sentence comes in the end of an essay, and at times somewhere in the middle, and once in a while an essay may not have a topic sentence. Below are given examples of each type of essays

1.An essay having the topic sentence in the beginning:

The Englishmen felt that their trip had been successful. They certainly had been treated as subjects, but with the greatest honour and courtesy. They had been immensely   interested in all that they saw. The artists had made drawings every-where they went and a big book was written by some of the secretaries; letters have been exchanged by the rulers of the two nations. Had they opened the way for friendly trade and intercourse?   What answer bad the Emperor sent to their request?.............................Read More Teaching English

2. An essay having the topic sentence in the end:

…………………  Who first discovered the principle of gravity? Not Newton,for Galileo, who died the year that Newton was born, had measured its force in the descent of falling bodies. Who invented Lavoisieran chemistry? Read More Essay The English say Dr. Black, by the preparatory discovery of latent heat. Who invented the steam boat? Was it Gerbert, the Marquis of Worcester, Newcomen, Savary, Pipin, Fitch, Fulton? The fact is that one new idea leads to another, that to a third, and so on through a course of time until someone, with whom no one of these ideas was original combines them all into what is justly coiled a new invention.

3. An essay having the topic sentence in the middle:

…………….As we look at real glaciers among the mountains, we cannot see them move. But scientists have proved that they do and even have measured their speed. Small glaciers in the Rockies travel eight to fifteen inches per day, but big ones among mountains of Alaska move four to twelve feet. The speediest glacier of all is one that moves down the rocky coast of Greenland at a rate of fifty to seventy feet in a day. This is as far ‘Ice streams” of the Rockies go in a whole month!....................... Read More Essay

4. An essay having no topic sentence:

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment, and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that are learned. Read More Essay

(To find the central idea in such an essay one should find the key-words and from them frame a topic sentence. The statement of central idea in the above essay is:  studies serve us in multiple ways)

Writing a Good Essay: the Principal Methods and Techniques 

1. The writer must be sure that be really baa something to say and that it is clear in his own mind.

2.He /she must build the essay around one central or main idea. Read More Essay

3. He /she should express the main idea in a topic sentence, unless he/she is sure that main idea is clear without one. It may be the first sentence or may come at the end or somewhere within the essay.  

4.He /she must make sure that the essay has unity; that is, no idea unrelated to the main idea has been allowed to creep in.

5. He /she must make sure that the essay has coherence; that is,
 (a) He /she has to arrange the sentences in natural, logical order.Read More Teaching English
 (b) The continuity of thought in the essay is unbroken.  In a narrative essay the writer ordinarily tells the events in order of time; in a descriptive essay, in order of position or place. In an argumentative or explanatory essay, he/she might go from less to more important Ideas; and
 (c) He /she has to use transitional expressions, such as the following ones, to connect the sentences within an essay.
Time: at lost, meanwhile, then, now, during, after, later, at first, by this time, etc
Place: here, there, beyond, further on, to the left, next, over, between etc.
Addition: and, besides, for example, Furthermore, another, again, too, etc.
Contrast: but, still, although, however, nevertheless, Instead, yet, etc.
Summary and conclusion: but, consequently, in conclusion, looking back, in review, finally, for this reason, accordingly, In short, etc. Read More Essay
 
6. He /she must develop the essay by the use of examples, details, explanation of cause, contrast, comparison, repetition, definition or by some combination of those methods.

7. After writing the essay he must go through it once again to correct careless mistakes in capitalization, punctuation, spelling, or sentence sense. Read More Essay
 
8. The writer can make his/her writing more interesting and meaningful by beginning sentences in different ways. Look at the following contend in the essay body.

A. Developing the main idea in an essay by giving examples.
B. Developing the main idea in an essay by giving details.
C. Developing the main idea in an essay by giving explanation of cause.
D. Developing the main idea in an essay by contrast.
E. Developing the main idea n an essay by comparison.
F. Developing the main idea in an essay by repetition.
G. Developing the main idea in an essay by defining the central idea.

Key Highlights:

Understanding the Planning:

Analyze the essay planning to grasp its requirements and scope.
Identify the key themes, questions, or concepts that need addressing.

Research and Planning:

Gather relevant information from reputable sources.
Organize your thoughts and create an outline to structure your essay.

Strong Introduction:

Start with a compelling hook that grabs the reader's attention.
Provide context and introduce the main thesis statement.

Structured Body Paragraphs:

Each paragraph should focus on a specific point or idea.
Present evidence, examples, and analysis to support your arguments.

Clear Language and Coherence:

Use clear, concise language and avoid jargon or ambiguity.
Ensure a logical flow between paragraphs and ideas.

Effective Transitions:

Use transition words to connect ideas and guide the reader through your essay.
Maintain a coherent progression from one paragraph to the next.

Thorough Analysis:

Dive deep into your topic, providing insightful analysis and critical thinking.
Avoid mere summarization; explore the implications and significance of your points.

Concluding Strongly:

Summarize the key points without repeating verbatim.
Offer a broader perspective, leave the reader thinking, or suggest further research.

Editing and Proofreading:

Revise for clarity, grammar, and punctuation.
Proofread multiple times to catch any errors or inconsistencies.

A well-structured essay incorporates these methods and techniques, offering a clear argument supported by evidence, engaging the reader, and leaving a lasting impact.

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Objective Questions from English Literature

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