Miller shows that without those feelings which accompany a strong sense of identity, a man finds himself with
some problems.
Bringing startling conviction and humanism to the literature, Palahniuk’s protagonists resemble both madmen
and Jesus Christ, allowing his succinct, distorted prose style to live through their actions.
Amy Tan personifies the strain that cultural stratification causes to familial relationships, specifically those
between Chinese culture and American culture, through the mothers, daughters, and sisters in her novels The
Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses.
Morrison bravely expresses the truth behind the curtained act of sex as she displays the diverse versions of the
matter, as well as its contrasting implications on characters throughout her novels.
Oscar Wilde critiques people by demonstrating their superficial qualities through the characters and the plots of
his works The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
In his novels The Road and Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy uses the setting of the novels to reflect
character’s morals and deepen characterization.
In his prolific and modernist novels The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway addresses the
spiritual decay and feeling of being lost through the novels' physical environments and events as well as the
setting and its impact on the characters.
Bradbury tells two stories of humans and the ways they interact and respond to the presence of something notso-human; whether its horror-fantasy or science fiction, both books’ conflicts stem from the contrasting desires
of different groups, and how those desires soon clash violently together.
The growth and development of the main characters in Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn provides a
central theme for the development of both novels, and while it manifests in Tom Sawyer as a path to manhood,
and in Huckleberry Finn as a journey to a certain enlightenment, both paths of growth serve to prove that growing
up will not be simple, but rewarding all the same.
To develop feminism in her novels The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver uses the
literary techniques of the stereotype of females, allusion, male perspective, and tone.
Stephen Crane`s stories The Red Badge of Courage (his most famous work) and “The Little Regiment” enforce
the idea that men must prove themselves brave before considered a man stronger than any of his other works.
Margaret Atwood vicariously speaks through the female characters in The Handmaid’s Tale and Surfacing,
expelling a cry out for the revival of women’s lives and roles within a cultural society.
In the novels, F. Scott Fitzgerald develops a central theme of “money gives you power” through his
characterization of Jay Gatsby and Amory Blaine in order to demonstrate the realistic life of someone living the
“American Dream” in the 1920’s.
In To Have and Have Not and The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway utilizes the cultural implications of
the time period to demonstrate the existential crises that Harry Morgan and Santiago, respectively, face –
illustrating the battle between pride and morale.
Distancing his characters from the realistic, Vonnegut frequently incorporates elements of science fiction into his novels
as a prominent tool in developing the infamous satirical themes that abound in his stories—especially amidst
Slaughterhouse-Five and Cats Cradle.