This study explores how Charles Dickens presents a panoramic picture of social and moral crimes, criminals, victims and the causes as well as consequences of criminality in his novel Hard Times (1854). By employing Collins' Dickens and Crime (1964), the article provides a reading of Dickens' Hard Times as a crime novel, arguing that this novel is not only a social commentary on England in the Victorian era for the purpose of achieving social reform at the time. It is also a crime novel, portraying different types of crimes with various motives and criminals from different backgrounds and classes. Gradgrind, a follower of the utilitarian philosophy, manipulates his daughter Louisa into marrying the capitalist Bounderby for social and economic benefit, which, as a result, gets her to be exploited by Harthouse. In addition, Gradgrind's philosophy has affected his son Tom who has turned into an idle and selfish person, stealing the bank and indicting Stephen and indirectly causing the latter's death. Stephen is also a victim of the capitalist society and the Divorce Law, as only the rich have been entitled to divorce. By investigating Dickens' Hard Times as a crime novel, the study attempts to provide new insights into reading Dickens' novels at the present time, arguing that they can be reread as crime novels that intriguingly portray crimes, criminals, motives and the dire consequences of crime.

This study reads Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist and Great Expectations as crime novels by applying Sutherland's theory of "differential association" which postulates that criminal behavior is learned rather than inherited, and it is learned through interaction with other people within intimate personal groups in which one learns techniques and acquires motives for committing crimes. In Oliver Twist, Oliver is portrayed as a victim of the corrupted social environment as well as Monks' conspiracy with Fagin to drag him down to the underworld.; he is raised as an orphan in a workhouse and subjected to mistreatment. Thus, he unknowingly indulges in Fagin's gang and learns the crime of pickpocketing, as all the members of the gang come from a poor background and are taught how to commit crimes within the gang, their intimate social group. Nancy's poverty also compels her to join the gang, which ultimately leads to her death, as criminality is not innate in her personality. Criminality in Oliver's character is not innate either, so he ends up leading a decent life in a healthier environment. Like Fagin, Compeyson in Great Expectations favors the violation of law and has others indulge in the criminal world, thereby exploiting Magwitch and Orlick who turn into criminals. By presenting criminal characters with various motives and from harsh backgrounds, Dickens' fiction suggests that crime behavior has nothing to do with heredity. Rather, criminal characters are implicated in crimes as a result of the corrupted social environment forced on them, along with gangs and corrupt people they have to encounter.

Since the Syrian crisis began ten years ago, 5.6 million Syrians have been forced to flee to neighboring countries. Jordan is not a member of the 1951 Geneva Refugee convention, so Syrians are treated as asylum seekers rather than refugees. This study explores Syrian asylum seekers’ experiences and challenges in Jordan, including the sectors of housing, education, healthcare services, and employment to understand why they are motivated to seek asylum in Europe. Through semi-structured interviews with 30 Syrian asylum seekers living in four Jordanian governorates outside camps, the goal is to elucidate the drivers that motivate them to seek asylum in Europe. The findings emphasize the importance of education and work permits both of which are considered major push factors or drivers for immigration. The narratives provide a contextual understanding of the immigration crisis from the voices of the refugees themselves, which in turn will contribute to the knowledge base of immigration literature and enhance the support for the Syrian asylum seekers in the host community of Jordan.

Throughout postcolonial societies, identity is amongst the most contentious and problematic concerns. The topic of identity in postcolonial literature will be explored in this study, using critical postcolonial theory to examine the complicated topic of identity struggles in Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North (1969) and Hanif Kureishi’s short story My Son the Fanatic (1994). Following a detailed examination, the study highlights the complex concept of hybridity and identity in a neocolonial environment, where a false concept of ‘purity’ defines and establishes identities. The protagonists’ struggles to improve and preserve an identity that straddles the line between complete integration and abandonment of their own culture are depicted in the study. The findings of the study demonstrate how issues occur when the West is placed higher than the East, and the postcolonial self is brainwashed and absorbed by this ideology. According to this study, oriental and occidental identities conflict still exists as long as the West maintains dominance over the East.

Following two world wars, the human essence was affected by pessimism and a loss of faith. As a result, new existentialist literature was produced, resulting in a new wave of absurdist fiction plays. The theatre of the absurd was first termed by Martin Esslin, whereas the term ‘absurd’ was first used by Albert Camus in his classic essay ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’. Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” a tragic comedy, (1952) is among the most mysterious dramas of the twentieth century that represents the philosophy of absurdism. By adopting the philosophy of theatre of the absurd in analyzing “Waiting for Godot,” this study focuses on Beckett’s employing the dual motif in the plot of the play and its implications, represented in chances that play a significant role rather than logic in the characters’ lives. As a result, the study concludes that Beckett’s use of such a technique underlines the equal opportunities in the world of the play, where chances have their effects on humans; Godot might or might not come, and the characters might leave or not: illustrating the unpredictability of the real world.