Ian Sawyer, Ph.D.
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About
Hello, I am an English PhD student with an interest in 20th Century American Literature and Transatlantic Modernism. I am interested in literature of all genres, but I am particularly drawn to the novel. William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Pynchon and Flannery O'Connor are among my favorite writers.
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Answered a Question in The Girls in Their Summer Dresses
Although she is a bit too passive at the beginning of "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses", Francis actually figures out how to deal with Michael's wandering gaze by the end of the story. That is,... -
Answered a Question in The Girls in Their Summer Dresses
Francis wants to get the truth out of Micheal so that she can confirm what she seems to have already know: that Micheal lusts after other women. This demand for the truth does not come until the... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
A tragic flaw, as its name suggests, is a negative character trait that ultimately leads to a character's downfall. Shakespeare implements tragic flaws in many of his tragedies (Macbeth's ambition,... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
In Macbeth, it is difficult to determine what Shakespeare is saying about ambition. On one hand, ambition in and of itself does not seem to be all that bad, but on the other, Macbeth and Lady... -
Answered a Question in Mona Van Duyn
Mona Van Duyn's poem "Earth Tremors Felt in Missouri" is a text that likes to play with scale, and the poem is written to make the phrase "quake last night" sound as though it refers both to a... -
Answered a Question in The Communist Manifesto
As others have pointed out, Marx is arguing that the state apparatus exists merely to satisfy the bourgeoisie, Marx's word for the ruling and materialistic middle class. I do not think that this is... -
Answered a Question in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
In Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie's family is exceedingly poor. It is revealed early on in the story that no matter how hard Charlie's father works, he still could barely... -
Answered a Question in Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights was published by Emily Bronte in 1847, 10 years into the reign of Queen Victoria. Although the Victorian era is commonly thought of as very prude or uptight—"Victorian," as it... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
There is no shortage of important symbols in The Great Gatsby, although perhaps the most famous is the green light that Gatsby views across the water from his property. The light emanates from... -
Answered a Question in Theme for English B
The primary theme in Hughes's "Theme for English B" is the anxiety black men feel in a predominantly white educational system. The speaker in this poem tells us that he is the only black student in... -
Answered a Question in Girl
Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" utilizes what is known as second-person narration—a rare but not unheard of type of narrative voice. Essentially, what this means is that rather than first-person narration... -
Answered a Question in The Witch of Blackbird Pond
When given a quote such as this one, the first thing to do is to make sure that you understand the syntax of the sentence. Perhaps the most confusing section - syntactically at least - of this... -
Answered a Question in W. H. Auden
W. H. Auden's "The Capital" is generally read as a critique of capitalist societies that exploit the poor for the benefit of the upper middle class and the rich. However, Auden is aware of the... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
Power is expressed in some fashion by nearly all the characters in Of Mice and Men, although some characters have more and others have less. However, perhaps the most fruitful example is the power... -
Answered a Question in Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
There is no shortage of famous alumni from Eton College, as it is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions in the world. People as well known as Karl Marx, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley,... -
Answered a Question in My Dungeon Shook
When Baldwin uses the words "innocent" or "innocence," he is refer to white people who describe themselves as such. A major theme in this letter is the idea that white people will often refer to... -
Answered a Question in Poetry
When the speaker says, "I am all longing," she means something like: "The very existence of my being is yearning for that which I do not have." In other words, she is deeply unhappy; she does not... -
Answered a Question in John Donne's Songs and Sonnets
The primary focus of Donne's satire in this poem is the speaker himself, a new lover who has on rose-colored glasses and is in the honeymoon phase of a new relationship. This is made clear through... -
Answered a Question in Literature
In the Romantic period, it is not really the case that drama declined, but rather that poetry exploded. There were still many great dramatists in the Romantic era such as Johann Wolfgang von... -
Answered a Question in The World Is Too Much with Us
In short, William Wordsworth thinks that we should be moved by nature and that we are not anymore. Although the title/first line of the poem is ambiguous, all possible interpretations of it lead to... -
Answered a Question in Araby
James Joyce's "Araby" concludes with its unnamed protagonist realizing that his innocent love for Mangan's sister is as false and frail as the bazaar which surrounds him: Gazing up into the... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
This line is among the most famous in all of English literature and is the opening line to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Although by itself this sentence comes off as rather... -
Answered a Question in The Cask of Amontillado
The last two sentences of paragraph one read as follows: A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as... -
Answered a Question in Through the Tunnel
"Through the Tunnel" is a coming-of-age story of sorts, and as such, one of its primary themes is the innocent child coming to terms with his own mortality. Therefore, there could hardly be a... -
Answered a Question in The Tiger in the Tunnel
Tembu is a twelve-year-old child whose emotions are at the core of "The Tiger in the Tunnel." Tembu is the son of Baldeo, a hardworking and brave man who works a night shift at the railroad to... -
Answered a Question in The Jungle
The Jungle is—among other things—an indictment of the meatpacking industry in the first half of the twentieth century. During this time period, the meatpacking industry was violating all sorts of... -
Answered a Question in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
There are many conflicts in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but among the most important is the tension that exists between the children of the novel and the adult world which surrounds them.... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
Although there are many themes in The Great Gatsby, the one that is most discussed is that of the devaluation of the American dream. What is the American deam? It goes something like this: if you...