Jamie Wheeler
eNotes Educator
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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 Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck turns the conventional buddy system on its ear by having one of the two good friends, Lennie, be mentally impaired. Despite his disability, George, the more "with it" of the two... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
I think Scout can be quite funny. She has a quick wit and a fearlessness that is endearing. Think about the incident with her teacher in Chapter Two, in which Scout tells Miss Caroline... -
Answered a Question in In Cold Blood
One of the main themes in Capote's book is the issue of nature vs. nurture. For example, did the killers become this way because of the environment in which they were raised, or is there some... -
Answered a Question in In the Time of the Butterflies
There are numerous "man vs. society" conflicts in Alvarez's novel. Of course, there is a free society vs. a dictatorship, ie, Trujillo's reign vs. the "movement" for freedom that Lio and... -
Answered a Question in If—
My thinking is that the speaker wants us to view life as a continuum, marked by peaks and valleys that may or may not be seminal events in our lives. If we can resist becoming too... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
In Act I, Oedipus finds that his city has been plagued by famine, fires, and other destructive acts. (One has to wonder why he is so removed from the events that he must be told that these... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
The main theme is dealing with a world filled with prejudice and doing one's best to overcome it. Atticus Finch raises his children, Jem and Scout, in Maycomb, Georgia, in the 1930s. When a white... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Atticus "heroic quest" is to defeat prejudice and seek justice. Atticus is heroic because he acts on his beliefs both publically and privately. At home, he... -
Answered a Question in The Dead
To understand Joyce's allusion, you should know a bit about the classical graces to whom he is referring. The Three Graces, celebrated in classical literature and art, were the daughters... -
Answered a Question in The Cask of Amontillado
I like gbeatty's answer, but I think as gruesome as this story is, Poe might be having some fun at the expense of society's bores. What can be more insufferable than a wine snob? Or the... -
Answered a Question in The Cask of Amontillado
Well, first of all his fawning attentions should have raised some alarm. Montressor becomes syrupy sweet in his praise and such compliments might have been suspect in anyone not quite so... -
Answered a Question in The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
The main problem is the definition of freedom. Although actual physical slavery is an issue, so too are those who are "enslaved" to institutions, i.e., jobs and money. As the character Henry tells... -
Answered a Question in The Man Who Was Poe
One of the main themes is the blurry line between what is real and what is fiction. For example, the main character here, Dupris, is really Poe. And of course, the author, Avi, is... -
Answered a Question in The Bronze Bow
Just a bit to add to tthaker's correct answer. Daniel's mother died not only from grief, but also from exposure, probably from pneumonia. The deaths of Daniel's parents have additional... -
Answered a Question in The Scarlet Letter
I am not sure if you mean the time period Hawthorne wrote "The Scarlet Letter" or the time period in which it was set. I shall try to provide both answers for you. First, Hawthorne was... -
Answered a Question in In the Time of the Butterflies
When the narrative begins, Maria Teresa is a naive and pretty superficial little girl. Her diary reflects the seminal events in her life, like the bag she will carry and the shoes she will... -
Answered a Question in The Beautiful and Damned
The two major locations are Boston and New York. The parties take place at various locations, including Anthony's and Adam's. The final scene takes place on an oceanliner. -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
Think about different characters and how their "character" or personality affects their fate. For example, Polonius is a sneak and a gossip. It is fitting that he meets his end hiding behind a... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Tom's "sin" is that he, a black man, could in any way feel sorry for a white woman. In the highly prejudicial town of Maycomb, this was akin to saying you were somehow superior. ... -
Answered a Question in Lord of the Flies
Ralph is charismatic and a natural leader. He is empathetic and observant and a problem-solver. For example, he tells the boys, "We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
The final paragraph reveals both the town's callousness towards Emily's loneliness as well as the gruesome reality of the life she had been living. The shock of realizing that Emily had been... -
Answered a Question in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Irving wanted to provide a relatively accurate portrayal of life in America, especially to convey its wonder and beauty to those in Europe. He was regarded as a sort of "travel writer," one who... -
Answered a Question in Eveline
Paralysis is the main theme. Joyce states it in the very first paragraph: "Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis." Paralysis affects the main... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
The cousins did nothing to improve her mood or help her reconnect with the world outside her home. The narrator describes the cousins as "even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been,"... -
Answered a Question in The Diary of a Young Girl
I would say that the main theme is living in oppression. The Nazis have taken away everything from the Frank family (and many like them). "Jews could not attend schools with... -
Answered a Question in Antigone
The Chorus, in 1.117-172, gives the audience background information about Polynices' defeat. He is the perceived "enemy of Argos" and the old men of the Chorus (who, it might be pointed out,... -
Answered a Question in Leaves of Grass
Whitman is speaking to the general "you." In an increasingly industrialized world, one in which people rarely contemplate the majesty and wonder of the natural world, he asks the question as... -
Answered a Question in Moby-Dick
There are numerous biblical allusions in both the novel and the film. First, "the name Ahab describes a king who turns vile, suggesting that the Ahab of this novel will be a similarly... -
Answered a Question in The Crucible
Reverend Hale had been to Andover and witnessed the dissatisfaction of the court by the people who found the accusations of the "witches" there unfounded and unjust. Reverend Hale has seen... -
Answered a Question in A Midsummer Night's Dream
Puck is talking about everyone. Love makes fools of us all, acting in ways that we would never consider doing when not under its "spell." Puck, immune from the chaos he inflicts,... -
Answered a Question in In the Time of the Butterflies
Minerva goes from being brash and headstrong, seeing the world only in black and white, to understanding shades of gray, and finally, to making the ultimate sacrificie for others, her... -
Answered a Question in The Name of the Rose
Here is the character description at eNotes. You can find out more about this character and others by visiting the link below, Adso of Melk is an elderly Benedictine monk who writes of his... -
Answered a Question in The Little Prince
The concerns of the Little Prince are very relevant in today's world. Here is an excerpt from the quicknotes pages on Social Concerns/Themes that encapsulates the modern connections and the... -
Answered a Question in An American Tragedy
There are not a lot of symbols in Dreiser's novel; it is a work of naturalism, "the literary movement that believed an individual's life is determined by environment, heredity, and chance; survival... -
Answered a Question in The Necklace
One of the indirect aspect (as opposed to the direct implications of poverty, like hunger or inadequate housing) is envy for things others have, perceived by Mathilde as... -
Answered a Question in Arrow of God
One prominent "man-vs-society" theme is the struggle between the British Christians and the native Igbo people. There are also plenty of internal man-vs. socity conflicts betweenn the... -
Answered a Question in The Joy Luck Club
One claim is that children can never really know there parents. This claim is supported by all of the mother's former lives in China. As an example, consider the story of Ying-Ying St.... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
In Chapter One, Nick is fascinated by the enigmatic Gatsby. Here is an excerpt in which Nick recalls his initial encounter: "If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures,... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
Because there has been an ongoing war with Fortinbras, the Norwegian prince, who is determined to add Demark to his cadre of conquered nations. Fortinbras has a grudge against Denmark, as... -
Answered a Question in Death and the King's Horseman
Yes, Elesin is a tragic character. As the now-dead king's "horseman" he is expected to committ suicide in loyalty to his former leige. Here is an excerpt from the character page at... -
Answered a Question in Station
The speaker is sending his adolescent son off to his mother's home. The boy carries with him a "black duffle bag" (line 7) and he wants to tell his son that he is "entering into the... -
Answered a Question in Lord of the Flies
One of the primary reasons for the extended, horrific detail is so that the reader can grasp the descent into savagery into which the boys have sunk, but moreso in order that we may understand how... -
Answered a Question in Arrow of God
One such conflict involves the characters Ezeulu and Nwaka. Ezuelu is "unhappy with the escalation of a minor conflict with the nearby Okperi tribe whom he sees as entitled to a disputed... -
Answered a Question in The Bronze Bow
The bronze bow is reference in the book of David and initially Daniel, Joel, and Thacia think that the only thing that will bend the bow of bronze is force. The friends and many others want... -
Answered a Question in The Face on the Milk Carton
The climax occurs when Janie, who is shocked to see her own childhood picture on a milk carton, begins to recall events of her former life. Eventually, "Janie confronts her parents and learns... -
Answered a Question in Nibelungenlied
The poem "does not have a clearly-defined moral message for the reader. However, it raises important questions about the nature of loyalty, honor, and what constitutes tragedy." For example,... -
Answered a Question in Aeneid
Hunting, fire and walls are just a few of the recurrent images of the epic. "For example, consider hunting in the Aeneid. In book 1 Aeneas is a real hunter who slays deer; in book... -
Answered a Question in A Midsummer Night's Dream
"Pyramus and Thisbe," the play-within-a-play, is based on the Ovid myth (found in Ch 4 of "Metmorphoses.") Shakespeare's audience, at least a good number of them, would have been very... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
Okonkwo kills himself because he has no choice, really. He has killed a colonial official with a machete. His own people have been divided by loyalties to the colonial regime and their... -
Answered a Question in My Side of the Mountain
I would say that the climax occurs when Sam has a frightening experience when he is covered up in the wall of snow. If you have seen the film, you should be aware of some key differences...
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