
Jo Ann Zimmerman
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This badge is awarded to all eNotes Educators. Only official Educators can answer students' questions on our site. Educators are teachers, professional researchers, and scholars who apply to our...
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Answered a Question in Freak the Mighty
This is a great question, and a great play on words. In chapter 10, Max and Kevin begin a "quest" after finding a purse in the storm sewer. Kevin decides it must belong to a "damsel in distress," a... -
Answered a Question in The Cask of Amontillado
Ah, the much-discussed and possibly non-existent amontillado. Montresor's untimate goal, of course, is to avenge himself upon his "friend" Fortunato for the unnamed "thousand injuries" and... -
Answered a Question in There Will Come Soft Rains
The title of this well-known story comes from a poem by Sara Teasdale in which nature is depicted as indifferent to mankind's absence after its self-destruction. Bradbury's story has a similar... -
Answered a Question in Flowers for Algernon
In the story "Flowers for Algernon," the main character, Charlie Gordon, is a mentally disabled man who undergoes an experimental procedure to triple his intelligence. Scientists have... -
Answered a Question in Animal Farm
Orwell wrote Animal Farm during World War II, although he was unable to get it published until after the war. Through his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, Orwell came to despise the communist... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
Curley's wife is an interesting character. For one thing, she is never named; rather, she is known throughout the book as "Curley's wife." This clearly shows to what degree she is associated with... -
Answered a Question in Thank You, M'am
In this short story by Langston Hughes, teenage Roger attempts to steal a purse from Mrs. Louella Bates Washington Jones. She is a large woman who grabs him before he can take the purse and brings... -
Answered a Question in Bud, Not Buddy
When Bud and his friend Bugs reach "Hooverville," the cardboard jungle of homeless people, they are reluctant to approach the people around the campfire. To decide who will have to do it, Bugs... -
Answered a Question in Flowers for Algernon
As the story begins, Charlie is a mildly mentally impaired adult working as a janitor in a factory. He realizes that he is "dumb" and attends night school classes to try to learn to read and write.... -
Answered a Question in To His Coy Mistress
I am so glad to learn that this wonderful poem is still being taught! The speaker in the poem is an older man trying to seduce a younger woman. This sounds a bit creepy today, but in Marvell's... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
As the novel opens, Lennie and George are walking through the woods near the river. We learn that they have come from the town of Weed, where Lennie was involved in an incident that required them... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
Rosaline is an interesting character. For one thing, she never actually appears on stage. She is, however, useful to Shakespearse. First, she illustrates Romeo's youthful passion. He is completely... -
Answered a Question in Flowers for Algernon
In the story Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon is a mentally challenged adult who works as a janitor in a factory. He knows that he is "dumb" and wants desperately to be like everyone else so he... -
Answered a Question in Animal Farm
I'll bet some teachers wait a lifetime for a crack at this question... To show his opinion of Snowball's drawings for the windmill, which he opposes, Napoleon pees on the papers. Of course, after... -
Answered a Question in Freak the Mighty
Well, the short answer to this question is, a lot! Specifically, during that summer, which Max refers to as the "barefoot summer", he grows a great deal. This is significant because he is already a... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
We first meet Juliet's cousin Tybalt in Act 1 Scene 1 when he joins in the street fight with Benvolio and the Capulet and Montague servants. This is a brief appearance, followed by another cameo of... -
Answered a Question in Number the Stars
During the second World War, some people in occupied countries such as France, The Netherlands, and Denmark resisted Nazi forces. These brave men and women met secretly and planned ways to thwart... -
Answered a Question in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
This is indeed a telling remark. The relationship between Cassie and Lillian Jean is very different from each girl's point of view. Earlier in the story, Cassie is humiliated when she is forced to... -
Answered a Question in Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary Novel
Like his adversary, Miss Narwin, Philip is a pawn in the drama he sets in motion by "refusing" to follow the school's rule of silence during the national anthem each morning in homeroom. What he... -
Answered a Question in The Giver
The society Lowry depicts in this novel is one of complete conformity. Every citizen knows his or her role, complies with the society's expectations in all things, and has no opportunity for... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
The characters of George Milton and Lennie Small are about as different as night and day. Steinbeck goes to great length to create very different personas for the two men, even making the two... -
Answered a Question in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
In Walter Mitty, the author James Thurber has created an Everyman. Henpecked by his wife and beaten down by life, Mitty is a middle-aged man trying to navigate the challenges of ordinary life, with... -
Answered a Question in Thank You, M'am
There is a marked contrast to the way Roger behaves in Mrs. Louella Bates Washington Jones' home compared with his earlier attempt to steal her purse. The reader learns that Roger has little... -
Answered a Question in The Cay
Because Phillip cannot see, he learns about how the island is recovering after the hurricane in indirect ways. First, the day after the storm, Phillip feels the warm sun on his face and hears... -
Answered a Question in If—
Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem in answer to a question from his son about when the son would be a man. We find in the poem many examples of what Aristotle called the Golden Mean, which is... -
Answered a Question in The Cay
Timothy helps Phillip in a great many ways. Indeed, without Timothy's help, Phillip would not have survived the attack on the ship, made it to the cay, or managed for himself on the island. In... -
Answered a Question in Bud, Not Buddy
Bud's first image of the Hooverville near Flint gives a clue to this: "And there were more people sitting around than I first thought, too...They were all the colors you could think of, black,... -
Answered a Question in The Man He Killed
Hardy's poem tells the story of a working class British man who has fought in WW I. The narrator of the poem is describing his rationale for having killed an enemy soldier. He muses aloud about why... -
Answered a Question in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
It is important to read Douglass' narrative carefully. He was a masterful writer who chose words very carefully. In the beginning of Chapter 9, Douglass writes "I have now reached a period of my... -
Answered a Question in Island of the Blue Dolphins
Karana is not really left behind accidentally; it is her brother, Ramo, who is left when the ship sails. Karana is told they cannot go back for him because the tides have made it dangerous to... -
Answered a Question in Trifles
The short play Trifles, also known as the short story A Jury of Her Peers, does in fact have as its main character Minnie Wright. The action of the story takes place after the strangulation death... -
Answered a Question in Animal Farm
This "commandment" is the corrupt pigs' distortion of the original principles of Animalism, formed after the initial overthrow of Mr. Jones. Because the pigs educated themselves, they became... -
Answered a Question in Bud, Not Buddy
The answer to this lies in the novel's setting. The story takes place during the Great Depression of the 1930's when many Americans were unemployed. In the Midwest, where Bud lives, poverty was...