Laura Thompson
eNotes Educator
Achievements
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Educator Level
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About
I am a poet, graduate student, college English instructor, tutor, and freelance journalist. I earned my MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of the Fine Arts and am currently enrolled in the PhD in English and Comparative Literature program at the University of Cincinnati. I have been a tutor for ten years and an instructor for three. I teach Composition, Creative Writing, and Literature.
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eNotes Educator
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in After Apple-Picking
Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like the action they perform or make a sound associated with the object they describe. Crickets, geckos, and cuckoos are all animals named for the sounds... -
Answered a Question in Inside Out and Back Again
Kim Ha's life changes dramatically based on where she lives, and her struggles reflect the greater conflicts of the historical period. When the story begins, Ha is leading a fairly normal life in... -
Answered a Question in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
When Huck fakes his own death to escape his abusive father, he takes refuge on an island where he meets Jim, a slave who ran away because he feared he would be sold down the river and separated... -
Answered a Question in Half-Hanged Mary
When Mary survives being hanged, she suffers a complete psychological breakdown and a crisis of faith. Before she is falsely accused of witchcraft, she lived her life according to the principles of... -
Answered a Question in Kindred
Breakdowns in communication due to time travel play a major role in the novel. When Dana first disappears from her home and then reappears, her husband, Kevin, does not believe she has traveled... -
Answered a Question in Around the World in Eighty Days
Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days is a travel adventure story, but it has elements of multiple genres. Although the novel is not as futuristic as some of Verne’s other works, the... -
Answered a Question in The Custom of the Country
Edith Wharton uses a variety of narrative techniques and conventions from multiple genres. The sudden shifts in language and style reflect an unstable society where the rules for polite behavior... -
Answered a Question in Tears of a Tiger
Andy hopes for a snow day because he wants to avoid facing his teachers, coaches, and peers at school. Andy’s decision to drive drunk led to a horrific car accident. While Andy and two other boys... -
Answered a Question in The Lagoon
Arsat, a great warrior, falls in love with Diamelen, the concubine of a respected chief. He hatches a bold plan that will allow them to be together. While the rest of the village is busy fishing,... -
Answered a Question in The Andromeda Strain
In Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, Major Arthur Manchek is the officer in charge of Project Scoop, a satellite sent into space to collect samples of bacteria and viruses. When the... -
Answered a Question in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
In Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the different perspectives of Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones represent conflicting cultural forces. A city-born schoolmaster, Crane’s perspective... -
Answered a Question in Paradise Lost
Beezlebub is one of angels who joins forces with Satan in his rebellion against God and is subsequently cast into Hell. When the fallen angels convene to discuss their next plan of action, some of... -
Answered a Question in Paradise Lost
These lines describe the angels who joined Satan in his rebellion against God and were subsequently cast into Hell. Milton asserts that these same fallen angels became the false gods worshiped by... -
Answered a Question in Paradise Lost
This question requires you to state your personal opinion and then support it with evidence from the text. Reread Paradise Lost and pinpoint passages in which Milton describes the devil's... -
Answered a Question in As for Me and My House
Several characters experience alienation in As for Me and My House. Phillip Bentley feels alienated professionally because he has given up his dream of being an artist to take a series of positions... -
Answered a Question in The Emperor Jones
Expressionism is a literary and artistic movement that resisted the principles of Impressionism and Realism by rejecting representations of an external reality and focusing instead on the inner... -
Answered a Question in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
In order to help you answer this question, I need to know the title of the critique to which you are responding. For example, Julius Lester wrote an article called "Morality and Adventures of... -
Answered a Question in The Island at Noon
Symbols are people, places, objects, or actions that represent abstract concepts. The most important symbol in "The Island at Noon" is the island itself. Because Xiros remains untouched by the... -
Answered a Question in The Bells
There are many aspects of Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Bells" that lend themselves to interpretation. I will identify a few of them. You might focus on the symbolism of the different types of bells... -
Answered a Question in 1984
Although the Ministry of Love uses torture to interrogate prisoners and induce confessions, Winston's actual crimes are far less important than the independent thinking that led to his dissent. In... -
Answered a Question in Heart of Darkness
When drafting an essay, a good first step is to free write. Write down whatever comes to your mind about your topic. Don't censor your writing or worry about writing in complete sentences; you can... -
Answered a Question in The Secretary Chant
In her poem "The Secretary Chant," Marge Piercy uses imagery to reveal how female secretaries are dehumanized and objectified. The images in the poem are a series of objects found in an office... -
Answered a Question in Joseph Addison
"Will Wimble" and "Party Patches" are both satirical works that illustrate the foolishness of social conventions. They appeared in the popular publication The Spectator. In the first essay, Will is... -
Answered a Question in The Plague
At the end of The Plague, Rieux reveals himself to be the narrator of the novel. Unlike a typical first-person narrator, Rieux refers to both himself and others in third person. This technique... -
Answered a Question in The Alchemist
There are several fortune tellers or prophetic figures in Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist; I will assume you are referring to the old Gypsy woman. Santiago is suspicious of her because he has heard... -
Answered a Question in Charlotte Mew
Various details in Charlotte Mew's poem "Madeleine in Church" suggest that Madeleine is a former prostitute, who has escaped her fate as a fallen woman through multiple marriages but still feels at... -
Answered a Question in Harold Pinter
The character referred to as the "blind Negro" in Pinter's The Room functions both as a classical oracle and as a culmination of the play's naturalism. His presence in the basement of Rose's... -
Answered a Question in William Butler Yeats
The title of "Adam's Curse" refers to the biblical account of Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden, which resulted in all of their human descendents being forced to do hard labor throughout their... -
Answered a Question in The Problem of Cell Thirteen
A red herring is a literary device that serves as a misdirection, leading the characters in a story, and often the readers, to draw false conclusions. In "The Problem of Cell Thirteen," Van Dusen... -
Answered a Question in The Alchemist
Santiago, the protagonist of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, undergoes a process of maturity and spirtual development. He first rejects the life his father has chosen for him in the priesthood then... -
Answered a Question in The Alchemist
Santiago, the protagonist of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, betters himself by overcoming the self-limiting beliefs of his upbringing and changing his perception of reality. His search for treasure... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
The narrator, Nick, is describing how he is uncomfortable at the party and wishes to go somewhere more peaceful, but every time he tries to get away, he ends up involved in one of the many... -
Answered a Question in John Donne
One can analyze John Donne's "Farewell to Love" in a variety of ways. Let me give you some examples of aspects of the poem to analyze. First, you could look at the historical context of the poem.... -
Answered a Question in Elizabeth Gaskell
The terms "flat character" and "round character" were first defined in E.M. Forester's Aspects of the Novel. A flat character is a minor character who does not change during the course of the... -
Answered a Question in Strife
John Galsworthy's play Strife is the story of a workers' strike at a tin factory and the conflict between John Anthony, the chairman of the board, and David Roberts, the leader of the strike. Thus... -
Answered a Question in The Masque of the Red Death
The literary grotesque is a device that illustrates social ills through the portrayal of characters with extreme obsessions. These characters are typically fixated on one of life's major... -
Answered a Question in Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature
Neo-Victorianism is a movement that combines aspects of Victorian and Edwardian culture with modern technology. It often draws connections between cultural practices that are prevalent today but... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
Maria in West Side Story is loosely based on Shakespeare's character Juliet. However, the musical takes place in New York City in the 1950s. Both Juliet and Maria are teenage girls caught in the... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
"Entertain" means to hold the attention of others, to extend hospitality to others, to amuse, or to consider or contemplate an idea. In the context of the quote, the third definition is most... -
Answered a Question in The Grave
Katherine Ann Porter's "The Grave" is written in third person. However, the story is constructed from Miranda's childhood memories. The story begins in the past, introducing Miranda as a... -
Answered a Question in The Madwoman in the Attic
In The Madwoman in the Attic, Gilbert and Gubar explore 19th Century literature by women from a feminist perspective. The book is a lengthy text that examines many literary works and theories.... -
Answered a Question in Poetry
In "Report to Wordsworth," Boey Kim Cheng uses rhyme, iambic pentameter, alliteration, assonance, and consonance. All of these sound effects create an additional layer of meaning in the poem, draw... -
Answered a Question in Julius Caesar
Calpurnia is the wife of Julius Caesar. She has a dream in which blood pours from a statue of her husband and the people of Roman wash their hands in it. She also a premonition that Caesar will die... -
Answered a Question in The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Granny regards herself as superior to her children in most matters. As a widow, she has supported her family single handedly, caring for the house as well as doing difficult farm labor and working...