His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. ... The highlight of the column was an offbeat Harlem character called Jesse B. ... (www.nytimes.com) Not Without Laughter really has no story at all; only characters. One of the most interesting aspects of the novel is the excellent contrast in characters that it affords. ... Every character in the novel, with the exception of Mr. ...

• Word Count: 2112
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Artist of the Beautiful," the main character Owen Warland struggles with the reality that beauty is an unattainable possession which can only be possessed when one has faith. ... His family and friends did not understand the depth of his dream to comprehend these mysteries and they found him to be quite an odd character. The narrator reveals that, "It is requisite for the ideal artist to possess a force of character that seems hardly compatible with its delicacy; he must keep his faith in himself while the incredulous world assails him with its u...

• Word Count: 1481
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

Let us begin with Marlow, the first character in Heart of Darkness with whom we truly become acquainted. ... Whether his discomfort was a result of the eeriness that came from each of these supporting characters in some way prophesying doom or the foreboding atmosphere that like them, he may too join in their ramshackle brotherhood of those that looked into the darkness and lived through it in some shattered way, we cannot tell, but neither can we blame him. ... Africa seems to hold to the reputation it is given by the mad assortment of characters that Marlow met in Europe, and all manners ...

• Word Count: 2372
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

Some of his writings are anti-Semitic, in his famous essay, Judaism in Music, he spoke of a "natural abhorrence- of Germans for Jews, of a "repulsive otherness in the Jewish character,"" and seemed at one point to propose something like physical self-annihilation as the Jews' only redemption from their "curse-'#. ... Heinrich von Stein was another other Wagner's disciples involved with the Bayreuth Blãtter, which he used to write for, mostly talking about literary and philosophical topics. ...

• Word Count: 2346
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate