Western Word Literature and Composition

Introduction

Literature class basically helps to expand vision on how things are perceived, both in personal and professional life. Literature definitely enables one to open his thoughts on various perspectives, as writings from several different authors are read in a literature class. It strengthens ones qualities on breaking down people's personality types, and even dissecting them to a point where we don't usually approach to; then interconnect several attributes of people's behavior and their psychology.

The Lady with the pet dog (Anton Checkov)

The time period during which Anton Chekhov's The Lady with the Pet Dog (Meyer, Michael. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, 165-176.) was written sets the tone for the story. Once we are aware that Chekhov was writing near the end of the Victorian era, we are propelled into the past, to a time when societal rules concerning marriage and commitment were drastically different than they are in our modern society.

Immediately, we learn that Gurov was an unwilling participant in an arranged marriage. "They had found a wife for him when he was very young"(166), and he was "afraid of her and did not like to be at home" (166). His unhappiness with his marriage translates into his infidelity and his dislike of women in general, going so far as to call them "the inferior race" (166). The story ends without telling us what might happen in the future. We are left to our own devices and if it were written in modern times, we might be compelled to believe that Gurov and Anna would leave their spouses and take hold of the intense love they have for each other. However, when we consider the time period in which the story was written and takes place, we must realize that the way our society today perceives marital commitment is vastly different from 1890. We come away from The Lady with a Pet Dog with the feelings of sorrow and pity for the two love-struck characters, trapped in their own sad lives, unable to free themselves from the pressure that society puts upon them.

A Clean, Well-lighted Place (Ernest Hemingway)

The story A Clean Well-Lighted Place can be interpreted in many ways. Some people may think it's about loneliness and aging, and others may think it's just about a cafe compared to a regular bar. Either way, Hemingway does a very good at using description to illustrate the characters; he makes the readers realize what's going on in the story.

A Clean Well-Lighted Place involves three characters which consist of a young waiter, an older waiter, and an old man. In the story, it seems like the young waiter is very impatient and judging. He shows no respect for the old man and kicks him out of the bar before closing. When the young waiter hears how the old man tried to kill himself, he made it a point to tell the man that he should've died. The story can be about many different things. The old waiter ...