Jamie Wheeler
eNotes Educator
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21
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2089
Answers Posted
372
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About
I hold a M.A. and B.A. in literature, currently writing my Ph.D in American Literature, specifically John Steinbeck's female characters. I have been teaching both Freshman and Sophomore literature at the college level for about ten years.
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Beowulf
There is much alliteration in the poem ("Alliteration" is a literary technique in which the first letter or the initial sound of a word is repeated.") Examples: "the Wielder of Wonder, with... -
Answered a Question in Dante's Inferno
In Catholic doctrine, there are two types of sins a person can commit: venial sins and mortal sins. Venial sins are relatively minor, such as being impatient, gossiping, or stealing something of... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
His family is gone. His home is destroyed. His friends are nowhere to be found. Even though there is nothing tangible to keep Tom Joad in his old neighborhood, he has one primary reason for his... -
Answered a Question in Dante's Inferno
Canto IX The typically unflappable Virgil tries to comfort his charge as they tarry at the Gates of Dis. But the elder poets own fear causes him to stammer: "Still it behoveth us to win the... -
Answered a Question in History of Plymouth Plantation
Aboard the Mayflower in 1620, William Bradford was responsible for recording the tenets of the “Mayflower Compact.” These principles would serve as the guidelines in the soon-to-be new community of... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
Authors frequently use characters’ names as symbols (symbols, or symbolism, in literature means of conveying ideas and qualities). Here are a few of Steinbeck’s symbolic character names in The... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
Symbolism is a literary device in which a writer uses a concrete object to represent an abstract idea. While not all writers use symbolism, Faulkner has chosen to employ symbolism in at least seven... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
When Tom Joad, along with the former preacher, Jim Casy, returns to the property he once called home, he finds it completely abandoned. Not a soul he used to know, neither friend nor family member,... -
Answered a Question in Beowulf
During the medieval era and prior, nations were not defined by geography but rather by how people were related to one another. “Kin” means direct family members. “Kinship” means who people who are... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
The character of Jim Casy moves from being an energetic preacher to shunning God. He then becomes something of an apostle. Finally, as his initials "J.C." suggest, the character becomes... -
Answered a Question in The Story of My Life
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880. It is well known that she was blind and deaf, but not as well known that Helen had been a normal, healthy, active toddler until she was nineteen months old.... -
Answered a Question in Barn Burning
The artistic period known as “Modernism” arguably began in 1912 and ended in 1939. Modernists, such as William Faulkner, (who penned "Barn Burning" in 1939) consciously rejected Realism, the... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
A metaphor is a literary device in which a writer compares two things that seem to have nothing in common but actually do have some similarities. The metaphor Faulkner uses most often compares... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
A “motif” in a work of literature is a subject, theme, or general idea that is repeated many times. (Note: a motif is similar to a theme but with an important difference: a theme is a central idea;... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
All literature involves conflict of some kind. Without conflict, there is not much of a story. There are four types of conflict. Most works will involve more than one. In “A Rose for Emily,”... -
Answered a Question in Mary Rowlandson
True to her Puritan upbringing, throughout Mary Rowlandson’s account of her eleven weeks of being held captive by Native Americans, the author frequently writes about the theology of Providence,... -
Answered a Question in The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer is widely considered to be the father of English literature. Chaucer was born in 1343, just as the Middle Ages were coming to a close and the Renaissance was dawning. His work The... -
Answered a Question in Winthrop, John
In 1629, fed up with the prejudices and restrictions against Puritans in England, John Winthrop and other like-minded individuals decided to seek religious liberty in the New World. Winthrop was... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
The land is a character in this novel and an active one, although its means of pursuit might not appear to be aggressive on the surface. However, a closer look will reveal an incredibly mobile,... -
Answered a Question in Guns, Germs, and Steel
Diamond is critical of the so-called "civilized" and "progressive" societies which either radically displaced the hunter-gatherers or outright killed them off. “Twelve thousand years ago,... -
Answered a Question in Sir Walter Scott
First of all, we must understand that Scott was a "Romanticist," with a capital "R." Romanticism was a literary movement of the late 18th century which heavily emphasized the importance of nature... -
Answered a Question in The Future of Freedom
What Fahreed Zakaria means by the "Islamic Exception" is that the United States has vacillating policies on human rights when it comes to promoting those beliefs in the Middle East. Zakaria... -
Answered a Question in Defence of Poesie
This is a very large topic but I will try to give you a brief overview of each philosopher's thought on the dimensions of reality: Plato did not think reality came through any of the five senses... -
Answered a Question in Literature
In his work Decolonizing the Mind, Ngugi wa Thiong'o has a very specific meaning when he speaks about the "quest for relevance." For millennia, various parts of Africa had been subject to outside... -
Answered a Question in Literature
Nguugi wa Thiongo'o is a Kenyan author who spent some twenty-two years in exile because of threats to his life for his beliefs in Fanonist Marxism under the dictatorship of Arap Moi. But... -
Answered a Question in The Alchemist
Coehlo is writing in a genre called "magical realism" (sometimes also called "magic realism"). Magical realism is a style of writing that blends both the ordinary and the fantastic... -
Answered a Question in Freakonomics
Here are two examples of environmental science issues relating to government and energy as "currency" from the Freakonomics article collection. The first is "How Shale Gas Can Benefit the... -
Answered a Question in The Scarlet Ibis
Doodle, the younger brother of the narrator called "Brother" has a variety of things that make him unique. First of all, Doodle (so-named because of his habit of crawling backwards, like a "doodle... -
Answered a Question in Paradise Lost
Satan, perhaps unsurprisingly, is quite full of himself. After all, anyone with an ego large enough to challenge the Supreme Creator has to have quite the nerve, right? For his part, Satan is... -
Answered a Question in Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary Novel
Avi's novel for Young Adults is indeed structured differently from most novels. It is partially written in what is called "epistolary style," that is, through letters both to and from the novel's... -
Answered a Question in The Screwtape Letters
The pitfalls that Screwtape details to his nephew, Wormwood, are indeed representative of the challenges all Christians will face as they move through life. Likewise, most adherents to the faith... -
Answered a Question in Meditations on First Philosophy
If you are looking for a clear refutation to Descartes’ (1596-1650) philosophy of material certainty, look no further than Charles Sanders Peirce. Peirce (1838-1914) was an American... -
Answered a Question in Aeneid
One of the most important aspects of Aeneas's heroism, is, perhaps surprisingly, his compassion. This is definitely a parallel between Aeneas and Christ. Consider, for example, his compassion for... -
Answered a Question in Crusades
Few events of the Middle Ages, indeed, of any age, are as infamous as the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of armed expeditions by European Christians to conquer Muslim-controlled territory in... -
Answered a Question in The Conservative Resurgence
The 1970s saw a massive change in the religious practices and participation of people in the United States. There were a variety of reasons for these changes including the Vietnam War,... -
Answered a Question in History
Most anthropologists believe that the domestication and cultivation of wheat (and other grains) marks the transition of human beings from nomadic to domesticated life. When bread became a staple of... -
Answered a Question in Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation
Since 1967, Johnathan Kozol has written books about the less fortunate in American society. His acclaimed books include Death at an Early Age (1967), Savage Inequalities: Children in... -
Answered a Question in The Youth Movement, Counterculture, and Anti-War Protests
The 1960s might have been over but ripples of its influence were felt throughout the 1970s. The fights for social justice for women and minorities continued, and crusades and movements gained... -
Answered a Question in The New Deal
In 1936, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt enacted one of the most important pieces of legislation during the Depression years. The “Rural Electrification Act” (REA) was a part of his “New Deal”... -
Answered a Question in History
Summary of Event The ancient kingdom of Meroë, known to its inhabitants as Kush or Kash, developed in the Upper Nile River Valley. It extended from Egypt’s southern border to a point south of... -
Answered a Question in African History
There is no other word for what Ugandans have suffered since 1962 other than “genocide.” The people of this East African nation have suffered government-endorsed and government sponsored acts of... -
Answered a Question in History
Elmer Davis, a one-time popular national radio personality, took on a more important role in 1939 when he was appointed director of the newly-established Office of War Information. Davis was... -
Answered a Question in History
The 1980s was the decade that saw the great upheavals and change in history in regard to media. From newspapers, magazines, and books to radio and television, Americans saw the way media was... -
Answered a Question in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
It should be noted that "Tarrytown" is not a made up name by Irving. Tarrytown is a village near the Hudson River and north of Manhattan, New York. Irving grew up in Manhattan, the son of... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
The warning to young people to "not trust anyone over thirty" was not an original realization of the American counter-culture movement of the 1960s. Since at least the second decade of the... -
Answered a Question in 1984
The Party has three central tenets upon which it rules. They are 1) War is Peace 2) Freedom is Slavery and 3) Ignorance is Strength. The first, the philosophy that says "War is Peace,"... -
Answered a Question in The Crucible
Rebecca Nurse is accused of witchcraft along with eight other women and men in Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning play of 1953, The Crucible. The horrific events are set into motion when a group of... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
Ultimately, Lenny kills Curley's wife. However, to truly understand how this tragedy occurs, it's necessary to look at the events that led up to the woman's untimely demise and how forces shaped... -
Answered a Question in The Raven
Let's begin with a definition of an "allusion." An allusion is a a reference in a literary work that references something else without saying so directly. Often (but not always),... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
There is a good deal of color symbolism in Gatsby. The color blue is used often throughout the novel. Since the term "blue nose" is unusual, we should likely look for a metaphorical...
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