Nostalgia College Essays Samples For Students

When James Joyce was talking to a potential publisher of dubliners, he thought it would turn out to be just one section of Ireland’s moral history. Ulysses turned out to be much the same, in the form of a huge magnification of the ongoing argument that contains the frustrations of a broken heart and the awful clarity with which this Irish writer remembered, from the depths of exile, the specifics of a face that he could not forget. In Ulysses, what you get is some historical fiction showing the average lives of average dubliners thrown in high relief against he scenery of ...

Flannery O’ Connor’s, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” is a compelling story about a grandmother attempting to show everybody how proper she is. The story, however, is useless without symbolism. Using the grandmother’s hat, nostalgia, and the definition of the good man itself, we see how the grandmother wants to represent herself. These three things also symbolize who the grandmother really is, and represent her demise, propelling the story to a brutal climax.
While symbols are noticeable throughout the entirety of, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” perhaps the most obvious use of it ...

Introduction

The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, starts from the very simple discussions on the general myths and beliefs that we live with, in our society today, even with the changing generations with a much altered psychology of family values, the idea of an ideal family is very much similar to what it remained some five decades ago. The function of each person in the family is so embedded into that frame of ideal relation that it is still something that people long for, however with the much changing lifestyle the myth of attaining such ideal ...

There are key features which define Victorian era literature. While some trends in literature may be difficult to define, the Victorian era is not. It is not only easily definable, current classic literature is riddled with examples of it.
Victorian era literature contains some combination of several primary characteristics. While not every piece contains every characteristic, it is common to find more than one in those works. It includes serialization resulting in many Victorian era literary works being interminably long. Often ideas of industrialization appear as it reflects the changes people from every social stratum were forced to cope ...

Victorian Era Love in

In Wuthering Heights love comes in many forms. There are various examples of it throughout the novel. Most people think first and perhaps only, of Heathcliff and Catherine. There love was obsessive and destructive. It burned them both with a fire so big it could not be put out even by death. Heathcliff loved and hated Catherine, cursed her soul that she would have no peace, and then begged her to haunt him so he could have none either (Bronte 201). But there is much love to be found in Bronte’s 1847 novel. Consider for example Lockwood.
Lockwood ...

Analysing the passage ‘Asia’

Analysing the passage ‘Asia’

Introduction

Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the family is a very heart-touching account of how much he wants to travel to his motherland and relive his childhood which he missed. Each passage describes how he is connected somewhere to his past and craves for getting more connected to it. Though he has been living in Canada and evolved as a usual resident of the country but in his heart, but he is imbued in the memories with his family, motherland, trees, forests, animals and the essence of being connected to Ceylon or Sri Lanka. His emotions and nostalgia ...

Born in 1958 in Shanghai China, Wong pursued graphic design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University prior to enrolling in the training programs provided by the local television station. He started his career as the screenwriter, initially in television, then in the movies, and established his debut as a director with the 1988 film As Tears Go By, in the prime of Hong Kong movies (Yeh 6). The movie, which had a gangster theme, joined genre conventions with the infrequent visual skill, representing the gift of the formal experimentation, which was still evident in the succeeding work—earning him ...

Film Studies Portfolio

Xavier Dolan’s “Laurence Anyways” Film Review

An extremely ambitious project from a very young director, Xavier Dolan, the romantic drama “Laurence Anyways” follows the love story between Fred (Suzanne Clement) and Laurence (Melvin Poupad). Ironically, although they both have masculine names, Fred and Laurence are women. A transgender who had lived as a man, Laurence comes out with the revelation that he has always felt as a woman inside, and continuing his fake male life would kill him. The filmmaker situates this unique love story in the 1990s, a time when transsexuality was still considered an illness, and ...

Abstract

Today, more and more people declare that they have Native American roots, due to the fact that America has become fascinated with the culture and history of this minority. This form of imperialist nostalgia which causes Whites to look at Native Americans with admiration, after having spent many years trying to destroy, harms Native Americans even if it seems to represent a positive change of attitude. By claiming a fake Native American identity, Whites try to appropriate the Indian culture and past, with the same lack of respect and consideration as they did in the past. They attribute stereotypical ...

‘Instructor’s Name’

Answers
- Vietnam War is widely perceived to be a strategic misstep by the United States. The Vietnam War which was fought from 1964 to 1972 was another proxy war fought during the cold war era. In this war, the ultimate aim of the US involvement was to contain the spread of communism in Indochina. The war was between North Vietnam supported by its communist allies and South Vietnam supported by anti-communist countries mainly the US and as Zinn opines it was the tussle between the organized technology and human power, with the human power emerging as the winner. ...

Ursula K Le Guin: The Day Before the Revolution

Ursula Le Guin’s short story ‘The Day Before the Revolution’ focuses on the main character’s old age experiences, exploring several important and crucial themes such as ageing, loneliness and grief. It is often seen as a sort of prologue to the more famous story The Dispossessed in which Le Guin explores the rambling themes of racism and political ambivalence.
The story follows is about a woman, Laia Asieo Odo, and it follows her throughout a day in her life. Although she is sometimes referred to as Odo, this story is a personal narrative mostly and she is calls her ed ...

Lewis Black’s One Slight Hitch is a delightful comedy based in the year of 1981. A play on words, not only is the character Courtney Coleman (Jenna Morris) getting hitched that day, her ex-boyfriend shows up causing a slight hitch in the day. The dynamic between her straight-laced fiancé Harper (Conor Farrell) and her free spirited, Jack Karouac loving ex-boyfriend Ryan (Brian Heaton) as well as her straight-laced parents creates a wonderful comedy. The play group was excellent, bringing together impeccable acting, fun scenic designs and appropriate costuming to produce a thoroughly entertaining two-act play.
It is little ...

After the American Civil War, the South lay prostrate before the specter of the Lost Cause. There was a general poverty, both economic and personal. The war had had such a devastating effect that the intellectual capacity of a whole region shuddered, moaned. There could not be a more devastating occurrence to Southern pride than the ignoble defeat of the entire culture. The extent to which the South declined is documented in its literature. An examination of Southern literature during and after the Civil War provides a perspective on how far down the South had been driven before it ...

Scott Pilgrim’s in Precious Little Life (2004) describes how he fears to grow up. Scott pilgrim is not comfortable when he is becoming an adult because of many responsibilities and high expectations that people have towards him. Scott perceived the existence in the world in a childish manner and by this it can be said that he is refusing to grow up. In another angle, it can be said that Scott looks at the existence in the universe as a child and says that this type of nature is very fragile. The series that Scott has written describes his shaky ...

A Passionate Revival of Movie Musical Styles

Film Review: La La Land – A Passionate Revival of Movie Musical Styles
La La Land was released by Lionsgate and Black Label Media on December 25, 2016. It is considered a comedy/drama/musical production. Damien Chazelle is the director and writer of the film. Major stars in the movie are Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Rosemarie DeWitt (Platt & Gilbert, 2016). It has received 14 Oscar nominations and numerous Golden Globe awards. The plot involves the evolving and troubled love affair between an aspiring actress and a disillusioned jazz pianist. This is a musical production that includes drama, romance and comedy ...

The death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 had a significant practical and emotional impact on the world. Being the longest-reigning queen in British history, Elizabeth II maintained a unique position of influence and admiration not only in the United Kingdom but also globally. In this essay, we will look at how Queen Elizabeth II’s death affected the world in several spheres, namely, the future of the monarchy, international relations, economy, and sentiment.

Queen Elizabeth Death: 2022 Marked the End of an Era

When did Queen Elizabeth die? The monarch died on September 8, 2022, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96. This marked the end ...

Thesis

Charles Baudelaire’s poem, The Swan (1860), is a clash of emotions, from nostalgia to despondency, brought about by the destruction of the City of Paris and the memory creation on the events of the war.

The feelings of loss and nostalgia keep on bugging the persona’s mind, and he remembers Andromache, the widow of Hector, a Troy great warrior. When Greece defeated Trojan, the son of Achilles took Andromache as a trophy of war, taking her away from the familiarities of her entire life and surroundings to a new civilization and establishment where she became a wife ...

It would be difficult for one to survive in a complete isolation from other people and therefore, it is a well-known fact, that people tend to socialize, interchange their experience and knowledge, cooperate and communicate in different spheres of their life. Territory, language, culture and certain traditions let people organize and unite into the groups, which are often defined as communities. Once a person identifies him- or herself with a community, accepts the existing norms and prescriptions in this group, he or she becomes a member of it. Fashion is a particular phenomenon, which is directly connected and dependent ...

Recent public opinion surveys conducted among citizens of Russia prove that there is currently a significant surge in nationalism and patriotism as well as increasing support for Putin all over the country. The majority of Russian people support the annexation of Crimea and Russian foreign policy taken as a whole. Even despite Western sanctions, dramatic fall in value of ruble, and negative international image of Russia, the public opinion of Russian people regarding political and economic situation in the country remains quite positive, with Putin's approval rating being at record levels.
Another important finding relates to the anti-Western opinions ...

How does reading influence our personality and how can it be changed by reading electronic books? These issues are crucial in Sven Birkerts’ book “The Gutenberg Elegies: the Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age”. Through a series of biographical and anecdotal essays the author shares with us his nostalgia for normal books written on paper and opposes normal reading to technologies which prevent people from self-development and self-making. Birkerts holds that only books written on paper may give us a unique opportunity to pause, re-read, memorize and think of what we have just read while digital words destroy ...

In this paper there will be the analysis of the themes that are present in a chosen short story. Themes can be defined as the prevalent issues that arise from a story. The story to be looked into is A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor. This is a tragic story of a family that decides to go for a vacation and they end up being murdered. There are various things during the story that foreshadow their death like the graveyard that has six graves and the hearse that the character known as the Misfit ...

Introduction

The American film history is rich with the names of the directors who contributed to the world cinematography by the innovativeness and development of the industry. Depending on the era and the technological possibilities accordingly, the genius directors made the cinema the more and more powerful tool of influence on the society. Becoming more complex and profound, cinema in hand of the creator is a true work of art. The genius of his epoch, Orson Welles contributed not only to the cinema, but also theatre, radio, and even the social life of his country.
Not only did Orson Welles ...

1) “By the Rivers of Babylon”: Exile as a Way of Life (Diaz, 149-163) is an essay about how a Cuban in exile relates her life story to Psalm 137. It is about sorrow, longing, nostalgia, hope, vengeance, struggle and forgiveness of those exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon and the Cubans who seek refuge to the United States of America since Castro’s regime. The writer explained through a literary review why she keeps holding on the Psalm as she tries to keep life going in a foreign land. Like the Christians who were forced to exile in ...

People generally believe that the Harry Potter book series is destined for children and teenagers. The book series about the adventures of a young wizard and his friends in an enchanted land change with every book. As the protagonists grow up from being children to being teenagers, the story also changes to become darker and more violent. This series addresses young people, who are supposed to grow up reading the series, and the books change with each stage in the growing up process. However, many adults also read books for children and young adults, and I am one of ...

Langston Hughes has been recognized as one of the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance and his emergence in the 1920’s as a major poet and writer took the American literary world by storm. His first breakthrough came around 1924 when a review about his work appeared in the New York Herald and Tribune which described him as ‘already conspicuous in that group of Negro intellectuals who are lending dignity to Harlem with a vibrant and genuine art life’. Hughes went on to be a blistering critic of lynching and other injustices against blacks especially in the Deep South. He also ...

Thematic Elements in Two Works of Romanticism

During the late 1700s and 1800s, the Romantic Movement among writers, poets, and painters evolved -- partly as a revolt against Industrialism and partly as a counter-movement in response to the zeitgeist of Neoclassicism. In two distinct works, strong thematic elements of the Romantic Movement are represented. In the painting, The Wanderer Above The Mists 1817-1818, Caspar David Friedrich depicts the raw beauty of communion with nature, solitude, as well as the inevitable passage of time. Similarly, in William Wordsworth's poem, "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey", key elements of the Romantic Movement are expressed, such as nature, aloneness, and travel ...

Critique of E. B. White’s “Once More to the Lake”
White uses nostalgia in his comparisons of his memories as a boy and his experience as an adult in examination of the form of arrival – farm wagon vs. car; beverages at the local store – Coke vs. sarsaparilla; and boating on the lake – inboard vs. outboard motors. Throughout his remembrances however, White maintains a tone of guarded surprise that so many things remained the same, as they were when he had visited as a child. However, as the writer Epstein observes that a phrase “inexplicably sunny inclinations” as noted in White’s ...

The article Kid Kustomers, written by Eric Schlosser documents the media’s directive to target children during advertising. It outlines the many ways in which they target children, as well as the many ways they manipulate children into becoming bullies toward their parents. Astonishingly, Schlosser also revealed that ad agencies for groups such as Disney have decided to launch cradle to grave ad campaigns, where they intend to brand advertising that will entice sales from the child’s early years, until they die. While the article shows many things about the advertisement world’s regards toward children, none is ...

Introduction

The film industry considers the horror genre in cinema, especially in Hollywood, as a staple because it draws a sizeable audience that consequently makes horror movies highly profitable (Hantke, 2010, p. viii). At least, this was the case during the 19th and 20th centuries since the state of the horror genre has changed over time. At present time, filmmakers would confess that horror films today are not as profitable as they were in the past. According to Hantke (2010, p. viii), we can attribute the so-called slump in the horror genre, especially in Hollywood, to its decline as a result of the ...

The years of James Joyce's life mark major transitions in world history, as well as in world culture. When he was born, in 1882, the worldwide transition from an agrarian way of life to the industrial paradigm was still in fits and starts. Wars were still fought hand-to-hand and on horseback. Literature was still primarily a mostly straightforward affair, as were the visual arts. Matters of perspective, the bailiwick of the modernist artists, were still yet to be the matter of much experimentation. However, the arrival of the Impressionist painters began to erode a unified perspective by considering how subjects might ...

Soccer

Soccer is one of the most famous and wonderful sports in the world. Researchers believe that the origins of the sport can be traced to over three thousand years ago. Evidence shows that China, Japan, and the Romans must have engaged in a similar sport of kicking around a leather ball (History of Soccer 2013). However, the birth of early soccer began in England. Initially, it was quite the violent game characterized by biting, kicking, and boxing. The game grew so popular among people of all ages urging King Edward III to ban it which he did in 1365 (History of ...

Explore the use of consumerism and the race with the junkyard in Willy’s destruction in Death of a Salesman. How do various things – the Studebaker, the refrigerator – become symbols, and what do they symbolize?
In the first flashback into the past, once Willy has returned from a selling trip and spoken to Biff and Happy, he and Linda discuss their finances. It turns out that the refrigerator needs a repair – the fan belt has broken. The washing machine and the vacuum cleaner also need repairs or perhaps they have been bought on credit: either way the point is clear – Willy ...

During the 1920’ African American writers began to make significant contributions to American literature, especially during the Harlem Renaissance. I will discuss three poems or short stories from this literary movement.

The Harlem Renaissance is the term given to the blossoming of the creative arts amongst African Americans, centered on Harlem in the 1920s, and embodying the cultural awakening and recognition of African American writing, painting and sculpture, in the same decade that saw jazz and blues reach a wider audience. Terms like the Harlem Renaissance can be useful to signal a historic movement, but the terms can be dangerous if ...