ESSAYS

Over the course of my English degree, I wrote nearly a hundred essays. These are the ones I'm proud of.

Recognized Works

Essays that blessed me with money and/or validation.

2022-03-12

Pure and Virtuous, Dirty and Fun: The Intercourse of Sexuality and Consolatory Female Reading in Jane Austen

Winner of the 2020 #HeforShe Gender Equity Essay Contest at St. Jerome's University. Disclaimer: occasional allusions to genitalia.

2022-03-12

Dark Visions, Brighter Futures: Black No More and the Retroactive Tradition of Race-Based Science Fiction

Nominee for the Award in American Literature and Culture at the University of Waterloo. Also a testament to my ability to make any course (in this case, African American print culture) somehow about science fiction.

2022-03-12

The Impossibility of Home in A Small Place

Winner of the Diaspora and Transnational Studies Prize at the University of Waterloo. Not my favourite essay, but who am I to argue against someone with a PhD?

Textual Analysis

Breaking down creative texts on a functional and line-by-line level to show how and why they work. Mostly written for Dr. Chad Wriglesworth, whose passion for writing (and incredible name) continually amazes me.

2022-03-12

Glass and Grace in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway

2022-03-12

Molecules of Memory in "A River Runs Through It": Giving Form to the Immaterial

2022-03-12

Why does Donne defy conventional sonnet structure in “Holy Sonnet 10”?

2022-03-12

Tongues of Ash and Fire: Immanence and the Acts of the Apostles in Marilynne Robinson’s "Gilead"

2022-03-12

What’s Past is Present: Tense and Time in “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason

2022-03-12

Blood and Water in "Night Herons": Gary Snyder’s Hidden Exodus Narrative

2022-03-12

Bowker, Bell, Borders: Crossing to ‘The Other Side’ in Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried"

2022-03-12

Life and Adventures: A Short Essay on the Arbitrary Plotting of Jane Austen’s Juvenilia

2022-03-12

Short Story Analysis Omnibus

Functional and Thematic Analysis of Little Red Cap (Grimm Brothers), The Last Question (Isaac Asimov) and Slight Rebellion off Madison (J. D. Salinger)

2022-03-12

Poetic Analysis Omnibus

Analyzing the poems Requiem (Stevenson), Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (Frost), I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (Wordsworth), The Second Coming (Yeats), and Ozymandias (Shelly)

Personal Favorites

The essays and assignments that made me think, "Am I actually being graded on this? Like, seriously, this is school?"

2022-03-12

Why Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" Is A Capitalist Hellscape

2022-03-12

Criteria for Consciousness: Selfhood, Personality, and Estrangement in William Gibson’s "Neuromancer" and Alex Garland’s "Ex Machina"

2022-03-12

Sublime Dread: A Close Comparison of Lovecraft's Cthulhu and Tolkien's Balrog of Morgoth

2022-03-12

Dark Dreams: The Highs and Lows of Escapist Fantasy

Discusses Tolkien's On Fairy Stories, John Darnielle's Wolf in White Van, and Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard

2022-03-12

The ‘Grimness' of Grimm’s Fairy Tales: An Analysis of "American McGee’s Grimm," A Video Game Adaptation

2022-03-12

A Short Biography of Catalina de Erauso: Nun, Soldier, Transvestite

2022-03-12

A Special Presentation of the Ancient Earth Historical Society

My Contributions to a Group Project on the English Civil War (1642–1651) with a Sci-Fi Twist

Selected Catalogue

Everything else worth reading.

2022-03-12

How Rhetoric Liberates: A Feminist Analysis of the Encomium of Helen by Gorgias and Lysistrata by Aristophanes

2022-03-12

A Historical and Feminist Analysis of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's “The Brave Little Tailor”

2022-03-12

The Language of Westward Migration in “The Last One” by W. S. Merwin

2022-03-12

Earthly and Airy Things in “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”

2022-03-12

Speech and Sound in Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour”

2022-03-12

First Achievement and Final Destiny: An Examination of the True Elegiac Nature of "Beowulf"

2022-03-12

Some Other Kind of Music: The Subversive Power of Magic Realism in "Reservation Blues" and "Tropic of Orange"

2022-03-12

The Value of War: Niccolo Machiavelli's (Ir)relevance to the Modern World

2022-03-12

The Courtroom of History: The Viking Legacy Subject to Textual ‘Othering’

2022-03-12

Blurring the Boundaries of Class in “Hamlet” and “The Winter’s Tale”

2022-03-12

The Sacrament of a Shared World in “Gate A-4” by Naomi Shihab Nye

2022-03-12

Hardened in Heart Anew: A Close Reading of “The Sunlight on the Garden” by Louis MacNeice

2022-03-12

Who Mourns for Methuselah?: Death and Rebirth in "Power" by Linda Hogan

2022-03-12

A Question of Character: Rhetorical Analysis of Presidential Advertisements

2022-03-12

The Conflict of Canadian Unity: A Literary Analysis of “Letter to Sir John A. MacDonald”

2022-03-12

Even Older Handbags: An Analysis of an Analysis (Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest)

2022-03-12

The Art of Losing: A Close Reading of “Little Boy Blue”

2022-03-12

TRENTON McNULTY

ESSAYS

Over the course of my English degree, I wrote nearly a hundred essays. These are the ones I'm proud of.

Recognized Works

Mirrors to the Underworld: Reflective Portals between Life and Death in the Harry Potter Series

Pure and Virtuous, Dirty and Fun: The Intercourse of Sexuality and Consolatory Female Reading in Jane Austen

Dark Visions, Brighter Futures: Black No More and the Retroactive Tradition of Race-Based Science Fiction

The Impossibility of Home in A Small Place

Textual Analysis

Glass and Grace in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway

Molecules of Memory in "A River Runs Through It": Giving Form to the Immaterial

Why does Donne defy conventional sonnet structure in “Holy Sonnet 10”?

Tongues of Ash and Fire: Immanence and the Acts of the Apostles in Marilynne Robinson’s "Gilead"

What’s Past is Present: Tense and Time in “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason

Blood and Water in "Night Herons": Gary Snyder’s Hidden Exodus Narrative

Bowker, Bell, Borders: Crossing to ‘The Other Side’ in Tim O’Brien’s "The Things They Carried"

Life and Adventures: A Short Essay on the Arbitrary Plotting of Jane Austen’s Juvenilia

Short Story Analysis Omnibus

Poetic Analysis Omnibus

Personal Favorites

Why Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" Is A Capitalist Hellscape

Criteria for Consciousness: Selfhood, Personality, and Estrangement in William Gibson’s "Neuromancer" and Alex Garland’s "Ex Machina"

Sublime Dread: A Close Comparison of Lovecraft's Cthulhu and Tolkien's Balrog of Morgoth

Dark Dreams: The Highs and Lows of Escapist Fantasy

The ‘Grimness' of Grimm’s Fairy Tales: An Analysis of "American McGee’s Grimm," A Video Game Adaptation

A Short Biography of Catalina de Erauso: Nun, Soldier, Transvestite

A Special Presentation of the Ancient Earth Historical Society

Selected Catalogue

How Rhetoric Liberates: A Feminist Analysis of the Encomium of Helen by Gorgias and Lysistrata by Aristophanes

A Historical and Feminist Analysis of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's “The Brave Little Tailor”

The Language of Westward Migration in “The Last One” by W. S. Merwin

Earthly and Airy Things in “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”

Speech and Sound in Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour”

First Achievement and Final Destiny: An Examination of the True Elegiac Nature of "Beowulf"

Some Other Kind of Music: The Subversive Power of Magic Realism in "Reservation Blues" and "Tropic of Orange"

The Value of War: Niccolo Machiavelli's (Ir)relevance to the Modern World

The Courtroom of History: The Viking Legacy Subject to Textual ‘Othering’

Blurring the Boundaries of Class in “Hamlet” and “The Winter’s Tale”

The Sacrament of a Shared World in “Gate A-4” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Hardened in Heart Anew: A Close Reading of “The Sunlight on the Garden” by Louis MacNeice

Who Mourns for Methuselah?: Death and Rebirth in "Power" by Linda Hogan

A Question of Character: Rhetorical Analysis of Presidential Advertisements

The Conflict of Canadian Unity: A Literary Analysis of “Letter to Sir John A. MacDonald”

Even Older Handbags: An Analysis of an Analysis (Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest)

The Art of Losing: A Close Reading of “Little Boy Blue”

A Clash of Cultural Identity: Allegory as Present in "The Calcutta Chromosome"