Michael Del Muro
eNotes Educator
Achievements
8
Educator Level
321
Answers Posted
118
Answers Bonused
About
I've been teaching high school English since 2005. I've taught nearly all levels of literature - freshman, juniors and seniors. I currently teach IB English to both juniors and seniors.
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold begins with this line: "On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at 5:30 in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop... -
Answered a Question in Eveline
Generally, modernism is a reaction to the horrors of World War I, and modernist artwork, including literature, generally rejects the norms that were previously used to hold society together.... -
Answered a Question in Letter from Birmingham City Jail
Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail is a response to eight moderate white Birmingham pastors who generally supported the Civil Rights Movement. These pastors wrote an op-ed in... -
Answered a Question in Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami's The Seventh Man tells the story of a middle-aged narrator who is still trying to come to terms after he witnesses the tragic drowning death of his childhood best friend, K. After... -
Answered a Question in since feeling is first
E. E. Cummings’s poem “since feeling is first” centers around a speaker who is attempting to persuade a potential lover to ignore her “wisdom” and the expected order of courting. In much (if not... -
Answered a Question in Dubliners
One of the primary tenets of the modernist period was the belief among artists that their artwork, including literature, could create social change and cure social ills. In American literature,... -
Answered a Question in Top Girls
The play Top Girls by Caryl Churchill was written during the second-wave feminist period in which women aimed at gaining equal rights, particularly in the workplace. The play focuses on Marlene, a... -
Answered a Question in Haruki Murakami
One of the clues to this story is the repeated mention of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who is known for his novels and stories in the magical realism genre. Magical realism can be defined simply as... -
Answered a Question in Harrison Bergeron
Perhaps the addition of around 190 amendments to the Constitution since 1961, the publishing date of "Harrison Bergeron," suggests the increasing authoritarianism of the US government. For the most... -
Answered a Question in The Sisters
In the opening paragraph of this story, the first in the collection Dubliners, James Joyce includes three words that serve as themes for the rest of the book: paralysis, simony, and gnomon. While... -
Answered a Question in This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
One motif runs throughout the story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" and is present in most other Sherman Alexie works. Remember, a motif is something that repeats throughout a work.... -
Answered a Question in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
Ernest Hemingway's story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" doesn't necessarily have a resolution, which gives the story greater meaning. The story's climax occurs when the older waiter replaces the... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
Throughout The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger ends the chapters with a witty retort or wrap-up of sorts. Here are a few examples: Chapter 8: After chatting up Ernest Morrow's mother on the... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
In chapter 15 of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden donates $10 to the nuns he talks to at the cafe and attempts to pay for their bill. However, they do not let him. Holden's action absolutely fits... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
There are many similarities between The Catcher in the Rye and Dead Poets Society, the biggest of which being the suffering of privileged white teenage boys. This is not meant as an insult, but as... -
Answered a Question in Eveline
Eveline's father forbids her from dating Frank saying, “I know these sailor chaps.” His concern for his daughter might be genuine, particularly considering the possibility that Frank was merely... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
Like the novel itself, Jay Gatsby's greatness encompasses several layers. Perhaps the best way to discuss Gatsby’s greatness is to look at the novel’s title. The term “the great” could easily refer... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
The primary force keeping Holden in childhood is fear of growing up to become a phony like many of the adults he knows. He sees a certain amount of purity and innocence in childhood that he wishes... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
The mental descent of Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye begins with the death of his brother Allie several years before the novel begins. To Holden, Allie maintained these qualities: he... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby opens and closes with Nick reflecting on his time in New York City and frames one of the novel's primary themes, which is the illusion of dreams. The novel opens with Nick... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
Loneliness is one of the most popular themes of Of Mice and Men. When you look at the novel, nearly every character is a victim of loneliness, including George, who, despite having Lennie... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
The mental descent of Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye begins with the death of his brother Allie several years before the novel begins. To Holden, Allie maintained these qualities:... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
In The Great Gatsby, Myrtle Wilson believes she is too good for her husband, George, and belongs in the upper echelons of society with Tom Buchanan. She believes George hoodwinked her into... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
I always organize my resumes this way: objective, work experience, education, skills. I’d include all of these, except education, in this resume. Macbeth’s unbridled ambition is the most... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
The quote “rich girls don’t marry poor boys” does not appear in the novel version of The Great Gatsby. This quote appears in at least one of the film versions and comes from a real-life event in F.... -
Answered a Question in Dust Tracks on a Road
In “Dust Tracks on a Road,” two white women from Minnesota visit young Zora’s classroom and, when they hear her read, invite her to have lunch with them at their hotel. Before this meeting, Zora... -
Answered a Question in The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes believed in creating black art. In his famous essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" he argued it's impossible to separate the artist from his or her art, so literature,... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Act 1, scene 7 deals with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth arguing about whether they should proceed with the murder of King Duncan. While I will not write the diary entry, here are several ideas you... -
Answered a Question in Eveline
Duty and paralysis are two of the major themes of James Joyce's Dubliners, and the eponymous character in "Eveline" suffers from both when she is incapable of leaving Dublin to Buenos Ayres.... -
Answered a Question in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
In the short story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," the unnamed Native American narrator travels through late-night Seattle while dealing with a recently ended relationship with his... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
For Holden, Phoebe symbolizes the innocence and purity of childhood, an innocence and purity lost when one becomes an adult. Throughout the novel, Holden repeatedly says Phoebe is the only person... -
Answered a Question in Dubliners
When James Joyce put Dubliners, he arranged the book into four sections: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. While "The Sisters" and "Araby" belong in the childhood section of the... -
Answered a Question in A&P
John Updike often wrote about adolescent and young adult male minds (See: Rabbit series). They often act rashly with their sexual urges and drives, pushing them to make unwise... -
Answered a Question in There Will Come Soft Rains
Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" is structured in a way that it slowly peels away the facade of the technological improvements made by society to reveal the devastation some advancements... -
Answered a Question in The Lottery
In "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson uses several symbols to provide the readers clues to the tragic events that would occur at the end of her story. Each of these symbols is subtle but, in... -
Answered a Question in The Lottery
After The New Yorker published "The Lottery" in 1948, causing outrage throughout much of America, Shirley Jackson remained silent about the actual meaning of the story. Today, the common... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
The ending of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, including the sentence mentioned in the title of this question, hammers home the novel's dominant motif that people... -
Answered a Question in The Lottery
One of the most interesting aspects of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" is the time period in which it was written. Published in 1948, just three years after the end of World War II and the... -
Answered a Question in The Lottery
Shirley Jackson uses imagery and irony throughout her short story "The Lottery." The story opens with a strong imagery as the narrator describes the setting: The morning... -
Answered a Question in Still I Rise
Throughout the poem "Still I Rise," Maya Angelou compares her hope to several different things, each adding meaning to the poem. While the entire poem is about the hope of a black woman constantly... -
Answered a Question in Harrison Bergeron
Kurt Vonnegut wrote "Harrison Bergeron" in 1961, which was in the midst of the Cold War and just after the end of the Joseph McCarthy-era of anti-Communist witch hunts by the U.S. Congress. While... -
Answered a Question in Stephen King
Throughout "The Body," Stephen King uses the dead body of Ray Brower as an extended metaphor for the boys attempting to end their childhoods, as all boys do at some point in their adolescence. In... -
Answered a Question in The Lottery
While the easiest way to approach the cultural aspects of "The Lottery" is to look at the connection between the story and the persecution of Jews in Germany—completely decent-seeming people doing... -
Answered a Question in Harrison Bergeron
The primary theme in Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" is that human beings will always reject control and oppression of their individuality. The handicapper general, a woman by the name of Diana... -
Answered a Question in Counterparts
In James Joyce's "Counterparts," Mr. Alleyne complains that Farrington always has "some excuse or another for shirking work" and that he must "[u]nderstand once and for all that you get half an... -
Answered a Question in Ballad of the Landlord
Langston Hughes's "The Ballad of the Landlord" is told from the point of view of a black tenant living in a run-down apartment. The tenant asks the landlord to fix his roof because it's "sprung a... -
Answered a Question in This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
(Because this is a question about plot, I'm going to do a lot of summary and no quotes.) Sherman Alexie's "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" is told in real narrative time and... -
Answered a Question in This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
The narrator in Sherman Alexie's "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" sums up the reservation's resentment for Thomas Builds-the Fire succinctly: "Thomas was a storyteller that nobody... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
The central question in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is whether the elusive American Dream can ever be achieved. The second to final paragraph of the novel illustrates this... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
This is a very broad question, so I'll give a few examples related to symbolism, point of view, and stream-of-consciousness narration. Point of view The Catcher in the Rye is told in...
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