Mary Sutton
eNotes Educator
Achievements
11
Educator Level
723
Answers Posted
161
Answers Bonused
About
Earned Badges
-
eNotes Educator
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... -
Year One Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over one year. -
Year Two Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over two years. -
Year Three Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over three years. -
Year Four Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over four years. -
Quiz Taker
This badge is awarded when an Educator has completed 10 quizzes. -
10K Points Earner
Educators earn points for every question they answer. This Educator has earned over 10,000 points. -
Expert
An expert badge distinguishes Educators who demonstrate strong knowledge in a particular topic, such as Hamlet or Math. It is awarded when an Educator has posted more than 25 answers on a given topic. -
Literature Whiz
Bonuses are awarded when an Educator has gone above and beyond and impressed the editorial team by offering an especially lengthy, nuanced, or insightful answer. This badge is given to an Educator... -
History Whiz
Bonuses are awarded when an Educator has gone above and beyond and impressed the editorial team by offering an especially lengthy, nuanced, or insightful answer. This badge is given to an Educator...
Recent Activity
-
Answered a Question in History
Though the social ills of these periods, particularly the discrimination that African Americans suffered, are evident, all three periods also mark instances in which African Americans made notable... -
Answered a Question in Nikki Giovanni
In the poem "Mothers," published in the 1972 collection My House, Nikki Giovanni's narrator recalls a moment from her childhood when she sees her mother as an individual and not simply as someone... -
Answered a Question in The Bluest Eye
Geraldine is the mother of Junior, one of Pecola Breedlove's classmates. Junior is a cruel boy who lures Pecola to his home under the guise of friendship, kills his mother's beloved cat, and then,... -
Answered a Question in History
There were numerous groups in the 1960s who initiated activist movements, including those for disability rights and the rights of queer people (the Stonewall Uprising occurred outside of a New York... -
Answered a Question in A Raisin in the Sun
Ruth, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting characters in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. She comes off as a simple woman but is quite astute. It often seems that she's holding... -
Answered a Question in Sula
In Toni Morrison's novel Sula, Nel Wright is one of the two main characters. What separates Nel from Sula is that she is lighter-skinned and has a Creole lineage on her mother's side. Nel goes with... -
Answered a Question in Girl
"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid is a monologue delivered by a mother to her adolescent daughter, instructing her—in a series of pithy imperative statements—on every aspect of how to live her life as a... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
Your response to this question would be based on your own opinion, which should be substantiated with textual support. You could argue that Gatsby is, indeed, a better man than the Buchanans (who... -
Answered a Question in The Conservative Resurgence
The mainstream Republican Party of the 1960s and 1970s would be considered moderate, even somewhat liberal by today's standards. Though one could argue that the split between the "conservative" and... -
Answered a Question in Invisible Man
Dr. Bledsoe represents cynicism and disillusionment; while the narrator is optimistic at this stage in his journey because he doesn't yet recognize the ways in which the world to which he seeks to... -
Answered a Question in Spike Lee
Do the Right Thing is considered by many to be Lee's masterpiece within a body of work that has spanned thirty-three years. The film centers on a pizza delivery man named Mookie, played by Lee, who... -
Answered a Question in Their Eyes Were Watching God
Building off of the previous educator's excellent response, particularly the first point, one could also argue that each man values Janie for her beauty and, due to internalized racism, also values... -
Answered a Question in Their Eyes Were Watching God
In regard to the previous educator's response to this question, I would argue that romantic love is one facet of the love that Janie is looking for. When the novel begins, Janie's closest and most... -
Answered a Question in Segregation and the Civil Rights Movement
In the 1960s and 1970s, the relationship between African American politics and African American arts and culture was established through the Black Arts Movement, which began in 1965. In that year,... -
Answered a Question in The Lesson
In the first few paragraphs of Toni Cade Bambara's short story "The Lesson," the reader encounters numerous examples of simile and analogy. The narrator, Sylvia, uses simile when trying to describe... -
Answered a Question in Tracy K. Smith
Firstly, though there is nearly always a subject, there is seldom any single meaning or setting in any poem. Much of the meaning that we find in poetry is subjective and related to our own... -
Answered a Question in Civil Rights Near the Turn of the Century
W.E.B. DuBois's quote is a critique of Booker T. Washington's encouragement of vocational education as black people's only viable pathway to economic self-sufficiency. Washington most notably laid... -
Answered a Question in The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Your question is very broad. If we think in terms of Malcolm X cooperating with Alex Haley in the transcription of his autobiography, we can say that Malcolm X, who after his pilgrimage to Mecca... -
Answered a Question in History
The most important decolonization movement in Asia—that is, in relation to its impact on the United States—was the Vietnamese effort to throw off French rule and establish a Communist regime under... -
Answered a Question in The Bluest Eye
One key scene in which matters related to "gender, race, society's assumptions, and moral values" converge to highlight Pecola Breedlove's isolation and alienation is when she is invited to Louis... -
Answered a Question in History
What all three presidents have most in common is the Vietnam War. Due to his idealization in public memory, many people often forget that it was John F. Kennedy who initiated the United States'... -
Answered a Question in African American Literature
The voices that emerged after emancipation in 1863 and the end of the Civil War in 1865 concerned themselves more specifically with capturing and developing a black aesthetic tradition. Initially,... -
Answered a Question in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African
I will focus on only two works to help you get started: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or, Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789) and one of Phillis Wheatley's exquisite... -
Answered a Question in The Second Coming
William Butler Yeats's line—part of which would inspire the title of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart—speaks to the First World War's disruption of previously held, self-evident truths.... -
Answered a Question in The Bluest Eye
As the previous educators have mentioned, Cholly's rape of Pecola is directly tied to the trauma that he experienced during his first sexual experience with Darlene. What was supposed to have been... -
Answered a Question in Sula
The catalyst for the break between Nel and Sula occurs when Sula goes to bed with Nel's husband, Jude. Jude initially isn't physically attracted to Sula but sees how she could engage a man's mind.... -
Answered a Question in The Woman Warrior
Magical realism is best demonstrated in the novel when the narrator imagines herself as the warrior woman Fa Mu Lan. She learned the legend of Fa Mu Lan through "talk-story," a Chinese tradition of... -
Answered a Question in Their Eyes Were Watching God
Language is key to how Janie asserts herself. Early on in the novel, Janie's discovery of her sexuality, which is symbolized by the blooming pear tree, coincides with the discovery of her voice.... -
Answered a Question in Their Eyes Were Watching God
In the novel, Zora Neale Hurston describes Mrs. Turner as follows: Mrs. Turner, like all other believers had built an altar to the unattainable—Caucasian characteristics for all. Her god would... -
Answered a Question in The Color Purple
The most obvious similarity is that both The Color Purple and "Everyday Use" centralize Black women and reveal how their lives can, and often do, diverge. Celie, Maggie, and Mama are characters who... -
Answered a Question in The Bluest Eye
Pecola's self-hatred, which results in madness, starts off as a consequence of absorbing the messages that the world sends her: "you are black and therefore unlovable." Meanwhile, lighter-skinned... -
Answered a Question in Life in the Roaring Twenties
Going off of the second educator's assessment, I think it's important to look at how jazz relates to Freud's ideas about sex. Freud was, arguably, a proud sensualist who believed that every part of... -
Answered a Question in Sula
Another important lesson, or theme, that the novel iterates is that, in choosing domesticity, women sometimes give away or abandon key parts of themselves in exchange for security and social... -
Answered a Question in Battle Royal; or, The Invisible Man
"The Battle Royal" chapter, which is sometimes isolated from the novel as a short story, is rich with symbolism. Another symbol that has not been mentioned are the tokens. The young men in the ring... -
Answered a Question in A Raisin in the Sun
The living room, which is described in the play's exposition in Act One, Scene One, is a metaphor for the Youngers' lives. The room is described as one that would be "comfortable and... -
Answered a Question in Invisible Man
The first lines of Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man are very comparable to the first lines of Dostoevksy's novella Notes from Underground. In Dostoevsky's novel, they go like this: I am a sick... -
Answered a Question in Girl
As the previous Educators have mentioned, it is the voice of a mother which dominates the narrative, which is a monologue. We know that it's more than likely a mother speaking, as opposed to a... -
Answered a Question in Winter Dreams
The previous Educator has explained the fickle and shallow nature of Dexter Green's obsession with Judy Jones. I refrain from calling it love, despite their engagement, because Dexter never really... -
Answered a Question in Life in the Roaring Twenties
If we're looking at which political party dominated in the 1920s—the Republicans—then, B would be the most correct answer. The 1920s saw the presidencies of Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and... -
Answered a Question in Battle Royal; or, The Invisible Man
As the previous Educator mentioned, the electric carpet is not only a symbol of the way in which black people had to demean themselves in order to make a living; it's also a symbol of the mortal... -
Answered a Question in The Bluest Eye
As the previous educator mentioned, the surname is ironic, not only because of the destructive way in which the Breedloves demonstrate love to each other, but also because that destructive behavior... -
Answered a Question in "Atlanta Compromise" Speech
Washington contextualized his metaphor in the following statement: To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating... -
Answered a Question in Their Eyes Were Watching God
Janie's grandmother, whom she calls "Nanny," leaves her former plantation with Leafy around the time that Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9, 1865. Though slavery... -
Answered a Question in Invisible Man
I'll fill in the third blank: Aspirations are futile to an Invisible Man. This knowledge is established early in the novel, first in the Battle Royal chapter and again when Dr. Bledsoe dismisses... -
Answered a Question in The Bluest Eye
The title is significant for the obvious reason that the main character, Pecola Breedlove, longs for blue eyes. She believes that if she has blue eyes people will love her and not recoil from her.... -
Answered a Question in The Souls of Black Folk
There are a myriad of examples that reflect DuBois's description of a color line—a division, based on race, that determines social, political, and economic power in the United States. We recognize... -
Answered a Question in Their Eyes Were Watching God
Janie marries Jody because, when she is unhappily married to Logan Killicks, Jody comes along and starts talking to her "in rhymes." He praises her beauty and tells her that she deserves more than... -
Answered a Question in Their Eyes Were Watching God
Hurston uses a dialect that was particular to African American communities in Florida in the early twentieth century. This dialect has its own cadence, rhythm, and colloquialisms (words and phrases... -
Answered a Question in Slavery in the Nineteenth Century
The primary goal of the abolitionist movement was to end slavery. Prominent abolitionists included Frederick Douglass and the publisher of the Boston abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, William... -
Answered a Question in Battle Royal
The speech is also important in relation to W.E.B. DuBois's concept of "double-consciousness"—that is, having one's own sense of identity but also being obligated to behave according to the...
Showing 1-50 of 428