Linda Allen
eNotes Educator
Achievements
15
Educator Level
2246
Answers Posted
400
Answers Bonused
About
I live in Tennessee and teach English, French, and yearbook journalism in a very small public high school(fewer than 400 students). I have a BA in English from Belmont University in Nashville and an MAT from UNC, Chapel Hill. I also have attended Bread Loaf School of English. Before becoming a teacher, I was a production editor/copy editor at Abingdon Press for 20 years. The cat in the icon is my very vocal Maine coon cat named Bitsy. My other cat, Missy, is a petite black cat.
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Literature
I would love to meet Chaucer. He was not only a great writer, but he was also on the fringes of the royal family because his sister-in-law was the mistress (and eventually third wife) of John of... -
Answered a Question in Percy Bysshe Shelley
The woman named Jane to whom Shelley addressed several poems was Jane Williams, the wife of British naval officer Edward Williams. The Williamses met Shelley and his wife, Mary, in Italy, and... -
Answered a Question in Anne Sexton
A metaphor is a direct comparison between two things. For instance, the expression "your words are music to my ears" is a metaphor comparing what someone has said to music. Now that you have that... -
Answered a Question in Désirée's Baby
Your question asks for a subjective, opinion answer rather than one based in fact. So I'm going to speculate and give you my opinion of what Armand did. Of course, I think he burned that letter. It... -
Answered a Question in The Black Cat
Your idea is plausible, but I think Poe was thinking of a different Pluto when he imagined this story of a man terrified of a cat. Pluto is the name of the Roman god of the underworld and the judge... -
Answered a Question in Emily Dickinson
According to the editor of the book The Poems of Emily Dickinson, the poem "Valentine Week" is her oldest known poem. It is dated March 4, 1850, and Dickinson would have been 19 when she wrote it.... -
Answered a Question in History
I think "the" event that turned the Hebrews into monotheists was Abraham's encounter with God and God's messengers. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were very old, both in their nineties, but God... -
Answered a Question in The Cask of Amontillado
I think you're almost there. The first quotation, "A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser," in my opinion, means that revenge backfires when the person seeking revenge gets... -
Answered a Question in The Lottery
A one-sentence description of the theme of "The Lottery" might be this: The story is about the sacrifice of one for the good of many. When we think of a lottery, we visualize riches, fame and... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
Actually, this passage is an extended metaphor in which Romeo compares exile to being dead. It is beyond death, where even the carrion flies will have nothing to do with him. To be banished is... -
Answered a Question in The Song of Roland
Just as Beowulf is the oldest surviving poem written in English, so also The Song of Roland (Chanson de Roland) is the oldest surviving poem written in French. Also like Beowulf, The Song of Roland... -
Answered a Question in The Bells
"The Bells" is a fascinating poem. If it is read aloud correctly, the listener can almost hear bells tolling in the bell tower. I think you've pretty much covered the poetic sound devices with the... -
Answered a Question in Lamb to the Slaughter
Roald Dahl wrote his story "Lamb to the Slaughter" in 1953. The Maloney's kitchen has all the "modern" conveniences, most notably a "deep freeze." So it is safe to assume that the story is set... -
Answered a Question in The Necklace
This is a very interesting question, and I'll admit it's an idea I'd never thought about before. I did a google search and couldn't find any articles that did more than mention the characters'... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
The phrase you are asking about is in Act I, scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing. Leonato, the governor of Messina, reads in a letter that Don Pedro is coming to visit Messina that night. The... -
Answered a Question in Literature
I like mysteries because they are puzzles that need a solution. The best ones are those that keep you thinking, that get you so involved that you can't put the book down, that you've read straight... -
Answered a Question in Beowulf
Since you're asking for an opinion, and not a factual answer, this question really should be on the discussion board. Having said that, I'll give you my opinion. Beowulf goes to help Hrothgar for... -
Answered a Question in Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff
I'll list the poetic devices Housman used, define them for you, and give you a few examples. Then you can look for more on your own. Rhyme: the use of similar sounding words, usually at the... -
Answered a Question in Killings
In the first paragraph of his story "Killings," Dubus introduces readers to the Fowler family. They have not gathered for a happy occasion, but for the funeral of the youngest son, Frank. So the... -
Answered a Question in Emily Dickinson
Purple is the color of royalty. In ancient times, the cost of making purple dye was so great that only royalty could afford to buy it. It is said that in order to make just one ounce of purple dye... -
Answered a Question in The Help
The scene that best exposes the absurdity of the Jim Crow laws is when Aibileen is potty training Mae Mobley. Mrs. Leefolt, Mae Mobley's mother, has bowed to Hilly Holbrook's demand that maids have... -
Answered a Question in Literature
As with any piece of literature, there is not "a theme" for Shutter Island. Rather, several themes are interwoven through the text. One of those themes is appearance vs. reality. Is Teddy really a... -
Answered a Question in The Scarlet Ibis
When you're looking for figurative language, you're usually searching for it in a poem. The author of the short story "The Scarlet Ibis" does use such literary devices as personification,... -
Answered a Question in The Lady of Shalott
The lady in Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" is cursed to live in a secluded tower on an island in the river near Camelot. She doesn't know exactly what the curse would be, but she can never leave... -
Answered a Question in Bloodchild
In the Afterword to "Bloodchild" in her collection of short stories, Octavia Butler says that the story is not about slavery. As a reader, however, it's hard not to see slavery in it. "Bloodchild"... -
Answered a Question in Literature
I have searched and can find the poem on many web sites, but I have been unable to find any commentary on it. The poem was published in a collection of Phyllis Wheatley's poetry entitled Poems on... -
Answered a Question in The Crucible
John Proctor refuses to sign a confession that he served the devil by practicing witchcraft because it is a lie. He has lost everything--his home, his family, his community--but he refusesd to give... -
Answered a Question in Mental Disorders Portrayed in Literature
Ever since I saw the television movie in which Sally Field starred in the 1970s, I have been fascinated with the story of the woman called Sybil Dorset. The story is about a patient of psychiatrist... -
Answered a Question in Ode to a Nightingale
John Keats was dying from tuberculosis when he wrote this poem, indeed, when he wrote most of his poetry. The disease was called consumption in Keats's time, and that was a good name for it. The... -
Answered a Question in The Gift of the Magi
"The Gift of the Magi" is a wonderful story about unconditional love. The external conflict facing Jim and Della in the story is their poverty, their need for money. It is Christmastime, and each... -
Answered a Question in Bloodchild
This is an interesting question about a very interesting story. "Bloodchild" is the story of humans who have been enslaved by aliens far from Earth. The only hint that a reader might get... -
Answered a Question in A Visit From St. Nicholas
Actually, no, this is not a trick question. By calling the reindeer "coursers," the poet is comparing them to horses, not to eagles. The line reads: "More rapid than eagles his coursers they came."... -
Answered a Question in The Most Dangerous Game
The answer to your question depends on which part of the story you're reading at the moment. In terms of a short story, conflict is what drives the plot; without some kind of conflict, there is no... -
Answered a Question in To His Coy Mistress
To answer your question, I'll make a list of literary devices (literary terms) that Marvell used and how he used them. Rhyme: particularly end of line; the poem's rhyme scheme is very easy to... -
Answered a Question in Jane Austen
How did Romanticism influence Jane Austen? Not much if at all. The author of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility lived from 1775 to 1817. The Romantic Period of English literature is... -
Answered a Question in A Visit From St. Nicholas
This question really belongs on the discussion board and not in the question and answer section. You're asking for opinion, not for a factual answer. In my opinion, you're tilting at windmills with... -
Answered a Question in Literature
One of my all-time favorite movies is A Summer Place. It is just full of sex, but the most you ever see onscreen is a chaste kiss. The plot of the story is that a former handyman at a New England... -
Answered a Question in Ariel Dorfman
I'm sorry, but no enotes editor is going to be able to help you with this request. I could read the poem and jot down my thoughts and questions, but that's what they'd be: my thoughts and... -
Answered a Question in Three Times My Life Has Opened
I searched several web sites trying to answer your question, from highbrow literary journals like The New Yorker and The Atlantic to mainstream information gatherers like wikipedia. All of them... -
Answered a Question in Everyday Use
I disagree completely with the previous post. Dee's kissing her mother on the forehead is not an act of love. It is an act of condescension. Adults kiss children on the forehead, standing in a... -
Answered a Question in Rebecca
If I could change anything about Daphne du Marier's book Rebecca it would be to give the main character a name. When I read the book for the first time, many years ago, at first I assumed that... -
Answered a Question in Literature
I don't censor myself--I censor the material. I will not read aloud any language that I wouldn't ordinarily use myself. I'm concerned about the amount of profanity we hear in movies, on television,... -
Answered a Question in Literature
How do you define "challenging"? If you mean a book that was difficult to read because of its style or vocabulary, then it has to be Charles Dickens's Hard Times. I never got past the first... -
Answered a Question in The Andromeda Strain
The scientists at Wildfire conduct many experiments to try to find out what the deadly organism is and how it works. Their goal is to devise a way to counteract and destroy it. In chapter 16, when... -
Answered a Question in Literature
I have favorite authors, not just one. My all-time favorite would have to be Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt/Philippa Carr (she wrote under all three names). She deserves the credit for turning me into a... -
Answered a Question in The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket
Actually, the fable is about the grasshopper and the ant. "On the Grasshopper and the Cricket" is a poem by John Keats. The first line of that poem says it all: "The poetry of earth is never dead."... -
Answered a Question in One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts
Shirley Jackson's story "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts" does not follow the typical pattern of most short stories. There is no true conflict in the story, no person vs. person or person vs. nature... -
Answered a Question in Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem, a play by Arthur Miller, was first produced in 1949. It was a hit with both audiences and critics. Many... -
Answered a Question in Spoon River Anthology
Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters, is a fascinating collection of poems written as if they were the last testament of the dead citizens of Spoon River. In his piece, Barry Holden begins... -
Answered a Question in Phoebe Cary
Other poetic devices used in the poem include the following: assonance (repetition of vowel sounds)--line 1: "Away, away..." consonance (repetition of consonant sounds)--stanza 2: swift, sledge,...
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