Mortal Engines Essays

  • Why Authors Opt to Challenge Cultural Preoccupations

    2048 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Hunt’s argument, he refers to ‘preoccupations of a culture’ by which he means adults and not children as it is they who write, publish and purchase children’s books. This essay discusses Hunt’s statement with reference to Mortal Engines, The Other Side of Truth and Junk. It looks at what assumptions these books challenge and how the authors use their craft to persuade the reader to reassess their assumptions and ideology changing their idioms in the process. What the books reflect about the current

  • Voices In The Park by Browne, Mortal Engines by Reeve and Little Women by Alcott

    2659 Words  | 6 Pages

    and childhood, the form and content in which writers inform the reader about their ideas of childhood concluding with what the selected set books state about childhood in particular gender. The set books used are Voices In The Park by Browne, Mortal Engines by Reeve and Little Women by Alcott to illustrate different formats, authorial craft and concepts about childhood. For clarity, the page numbers used in Voices In The Park are ordinal (1-30) starting at Voice 1. The dictionary definition of a

  • Science in Shelley's Frankenstein

    1795 Words  | 4 Pages

    saying that when science is done merely on the basis of discovery without thought to the affect that the experimentation can have, we risk endangering everything we hold dear. When describing the monster he had created, Frankenstein says: No mortal could support the horror of that countenance.  A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch.  I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion

  • The Profound Ideas of Honore de Balzac's Pere Goriot

    1468 Words  | 3 Pages

    much about Parisian society and human nature. In the following passage from Pere Goriot, Rastignac pursues success through fashionable dress: Eugene had begun to realize the influence a tailor can exercise over a young man's life. He is either a mortal enemy or a friend, and alas, there is no middle term between the two extremes. Eugene's tailor was one who understood the paternal aspect of his trade and regarded himself as a hyphen between a young man's past and future. The grateful Eugene was

  • The Moral Judges of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

    628 Words  | 2 Pages

    committing adultery. This punishment was decided for her by a group men who had political power. These men also thought that they were punishing an evil person, Hester, because she had sinned, and offended God.  If that was true, why would  a mortal decide, and act as God for God?  These men in power made Hester look bad, so people on town would think that they are better than Hester, and because of that they would not sin, or they will too, will be punished. When Hester was standing on the

  • A Summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the terrible demon. As Gilgamesh cleans himself and his blood stained weapons, Ishtar, the goddess of love and beauty, takes notice of his beauty and offers to become his wife. Gilgamesh refuses with insults, listing all her mortal lovers and recounting the dire fates they all met with at her hands. Ishtar is enraged at the rebuff. She returns to heaven and begs her father, Anu, to let her have the Bull of Heaven to wreak vengeance on Gilgamesh and his city. Anu reluctantly

  • The Use of Similes in Auto Wreck

    641 Words  | 2 Pages

    artery, pumping out deep, red blood in steady, rhythmic pulses, easily conjures up a vision of an emergency flare's crimson beam. Second, and much more subtle, the simile is a portent of the events about to occur, a pierced artery is frequently a mortal w...

  • The Missing Dialogue in Sophocles' Antigone

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    political one.  What should have more power within a society, the divine laws of the gods or the laws of the land and the mortal rulers?  Antigone is a representation of the divine laws of the gods, and she remains steadfast to her beliefs that the wishes of the gods should overpower the wishes of the king.  Creon, on the other hand, is the representation of the laws of the land and the mortal ruler of society.  He, too, remains steadfast (until the end of th... ... middle of paper ... ...imon in a position

  • Shakespeare’s Richard II Essay: Search for Identity in Richard II

    1655 Words  | 4 Pages

    stories of the death of kings- How some have been deposed, some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed, Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed, All murdered. For within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits, Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp, Allowing him a little breath, a little scene, To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks, Infusing him with self and

  • Shakespeare's Macbeth - The Character Flaw

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    Character Flaw of Macbeth Everyone who is mortal has at least one flaw. Some flaws are more serious than others. For example, some people have addictions to gambling, while other people can not remember to put milk away after they use it. After a while though, a person's flaws come back to haunt them. The tragedy MacBeth is no exception to this rule. In it, many of the characters die. The reason is that they have a flaw that eventually leads to their downfall. Not every character is deserving

  • Free Essay: Analysis of Sonnet 64

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    Analysis of Sonnet 64 When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd The rich proud cost of outworn buried age; When sometime lofty towers I see down raz'd, And brass eternal slave to mortal rage; When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, And the firm soil win of the watery main, Increasing store with loss and loss with store: When I have seen such interchange of state, Or state itself confounded to decay, Ruin hath tought me thus to ruminate- That

  • The Serpent-Vampire in Keats' Lamia

    3093 Words  | 7 Pages

    Other female mythic figures show affiliations with the lamia and its vampirism--the mortal femme fatale, the goddess who offers the hero a paradise of ease and immortality, and the female monster, sometimes visibly horrible, sometimes apparently benign, that lurks in cliffs (Skylla), under the waters (Kharybdis), and on the rocks (Sirens). Homer's Odyssey conveniently gives us examples of all of these women. The mortal femme fatale, represented mo... ... middle of paper ... ...uncongenial want to

  • The Role of the Gods in Homer's The Iliad

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    Role of the Gods in Homer's The Iliad "We everlasting gods....Ah what chilling blows we suffer-thanks to our own conflicting wills-whenever we show these mortal men some kindness." This exert clearly states what kind of authority Homer has bestowed on his Gods. John Porter said," their constant interference in the lives of the mortals, which seems to cast them in the role of malicious puppeteers, while reducing Homer's heroes to mere pawns in a selfish and often rather petty divine game of one-upmanship

  • Dionysus

    580 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dionysus was born of fire, he was good and gentle to those who honored him, but he also brought madness and destruction to those who ignored him or the rituals of his cult. "One day, Zeus was traveling on Earth. He wore a disguise; because undisguised no mortal could look at him and live. He came to Thebes, and Ancient City of Greece where he fell in love with Semele, the daughter of King Cadmus. Their love was immense, and before they knew she became pregnant. Semele wanted nothing else but to look

  • The Titanic - Depth of the Heart of the Ocean

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    ocean, the massive ship, and the impenetrable gem are elements of the setting that parallel and reinforce each other and Cameron’s theme. Throughout the plot, they are all alike unfathomable, indomitable, yielding to the mastery of no mere mortal. As such, they capture the image of a person's heart being opaque, not easy to read or see through. The midnight blue color throughout suggests that the heart of love is as profound, deep and moving as the ocean itself. The gem drives the

  • A Hazy Memory from Childhood

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    there was always an adventure in itself. Car or boat were the two options of conveyance. The road was terrible. Getting our old Volvo Station Wagon over and around the pits, ruts, and fallen trees involved tactics of fable: feats that no ordinary mortal would dare to attempt. At least, that is how I perceived the various trials from the back seat of the car. I was only aware that Dad would frequently stop the car and exit, to examine, saw, or do whatever was necessary for us to go further on our

  • Humanism During the Renaissance

    1897 Words  | 4 Pages

    concerning the creation of man. (Mirandola 224) It is also Pico's belief that when Humans were created, they were given qualities both divine and earthly, and could become whatever they chose: We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice... thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer. (Mirandola 225) Pico's conclusion about human ranking among the divine order of things was that while some people were almost celestial

  • Where Is Atlantis

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    continent that was swallowed up by the sea still excited the modern mind.” (Reader’s Digest) The story of Atlantis began about 11,000 years ago. Atlantis was the dwelling of Poseidon, the sea god in Greek mythology. Poseidon fell in love with a mortal woman, Cleito. He built an island, Atlantis, and he constructed a elaborate house in the center of the island. Poseidon built rings of land and water surrounding his house with walls on either side of them. Poseidon and Cleito had five sets of

  • Death in the Life of John Donne

    3404 Words  | 7 Pages

    divine poems and death is often mentioned in his poems. Why did he always think about death? Did he experience death or similar occasions very often in his life? For human beings, death is a depressing image. Humans are afraid of death because we are mortal, so, we often worship the immortality of gods. I think the image of death is darkness and I never thought of death when I was younger, but, John Donne seemed to think about death even when he was relatively young. Instead of researching poems, we

  • Bad Apples

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    inflicting death upon his foe, is more cruel than the God of Genesis who banished the sinners from paradise. Paradise is a place that God created for Adam and Eve at the beginning of time. The fruit mentioned in the Bible is that of a forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all our woe. The poem mainly deals with anger. The beginning of the poem begins by depicting a scenario in which a man told his friend he was angry with him, yet they were able to work out their differences