Ananda Mahto

When reading Jack London’s The Iron Heel, my high school days of music are brought to mind. I remember one of the more musically talented high school punk bands of the time: Picnic with a Gun. The singer/lyricist was a young man destined to be a politician. For reasons of stubbornness, over-certainty, and a strong [...]

Frank Norris’s, The Octopus, is a novel which, on its simplest level, is the story which in Norris’s own words, “deals with the war between+ the wheat grower and the railroad trust.” There is much more depth to this novel, however. Norris’s novel also addresses issues dealing with capitalist “forces” along with the notion of [...]

Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels is illustrative of the fogginess that often accompanies warfare. The novel covers the very brief period of June 30th, 1863 through July 3rd, 1863. It is a story of the Battle of Gettysburg, three years into the Civil War. The Killer Angels is also a story that at times questions [...]

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin looks at slavery from the perspective of a Christian lady, and addresses the question of whether Christianity and slavery can coexist in a society we would like to call moral and humane. The question is a part of a larger one, one that is commonly referred to as “the [...]