Richard Mitchell
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
Seeing as you've taken your inspiration from the prologue of the play, you've gotten a key factor in your argument already. The play starts by informing the audience what will happen. The... -
Answered a Question in Heart of Darkness
Darkness is one of the most prominent elements in Conrad's famous novella. There are many ways that darkness can be interpreted. Here are two possibilities: 1. Darkness as lack of knowledge - In... -
Answered a Question in Shakespeare's Sonnets
The tone in Shakespeare's Sonnet 14 is one of loving reverence. The speaker tells us that he has studied astronomy and can understand the stars in their physical sense, but he cannot read them as... -
Answered a Question in Moll Flanders
One of the most significant characteristics of Defoe's Moll Flanders is his inclusion of perspective. Moll Flanders is herself, the narrator. She has been through a lot and she writes with... -
Answered a Question in Robert Frost
The essential theme of "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is that the beauty in everything fades as it ages. The initial beauty of a flower is only "so an hour." After that initial flowering, the life of the... -
Answered a Question in Death of the Hired Man
Like most of Robert Frost's poetry, "The Death of a Hired Man" takes place in a rural area. Silas, an old man, has come "home" to a former employer's farm where he hopes to find work, clearing... -
Answered a Question in Robert Frost
Loneliness is one of Frost's most profound themes throughout his poetry. I think the best place to begin discussing this theme is with one of his most famous poems called "Stopping by Woods on a... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
When Hamlet and Horatio arrive upon the scene of gravediggers or "clowns" digging in the graveyard, Hamlet opens his appearance in the scene saying "Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that... -
Answered a Question in Robert Frost
The theme of "Once by the Ocean" is the inevitable passing of time and its slow destruction. There is a heavily foreboding tone established at the outset of the piece. The water and waves "shatter"... -
Answered a Question in Desert Places
The "denotation" of a word is the actual, dictionary definition. In the same vein, the "connotation" is the suggestion of the meaning of a word apart from what it explicitly means. By definition,... -
Answered a Question in Beowulf
Beowulf immediately comes to the aid of the Danes when he hears of Grendel's attacks on Herot. I think what is interesting is that, while he comes to help and he's traveled across the seas to do... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
I agree with akannan. The Grapes of Wrath is in my mind, the epitome of this "genre" if you want to call it that. The illustrations of all the different things that happen in the story are... -
Answered a Question in Rudyard Kipling
Kipling's "A Pict Song" is about grassroots movement to change government policy. I would think that it would go against what America's foreign relationships with Palestine, Mexico and Iraq are... -
Answered a Question in Mending Wall
These specific lines in Frost's "Mending Wall" illustrate the difference in personality between the speaker and the neighbor who wants to keep the wall alive and effective. There is a playful tone... -
Answered a Question in W. S. Merwin
This poem sings with longing to be noticed and loved. The poet's use of the door for the speaker illustrates that he is standing, waiting desperately for someone to come and open up to him. In the... -
Answered a Question in Invictus
In "Invictus," William Ernest Henley creates a speaker who refuses to give in to the dictates of any other body, whether it be another man or an ideal created by society or religion. The "scroll"... -
Answered a Question in T. S. Eliot
The wood thrush in T.S. Eliot's "Marina" shows up in two places in the poem; the beginning and the end. The poem is about the life of a seaman and the fact that wherever he goes, there are... -
Answered a Question in Anthem
I think the most important characteristic of Equality 7-2521 is curiosity. The entire story is driven by his curiosity and it is what saves him from the World Society at the end of the book. I also... -
Answered a Question in Anthem
The journey that Equality and Liberty make through the Uncharted Forest is full of tests, both physical and psychological in nature. Physically, they must survive. Equality 7-2521 seems to have... -
Answered a Question in Anthem
I think that Rand's syntax, along with her diction, help to develop Equality 7-2521's character through the use of one word: "We." The reason I use both is that I think this falls more under... -
Answered a Question in Year of Wonders
Year of Wonders is a novel that illustrates a year in the village of Eyam during an outbreak of the plague. It takes place in 1665 and 1666 as noted in the chapter titles. The village of Eyam (Eyam... -
Answered a Question in Heart of Darkness
Many people believe that this book is a commentary on racism, but I think we can say that it could and should be taken further than that. The most important quote, I think, that makes this... -
Answered a Question in A. K. Ramanujan
In this poem, Ramanujan creates a comparison between the speaker's mother and a tree, along with the life that surrounds that tree. She begins by calling the audience's attention to "the silk and... -
Answered a Question in Anthem
When Equality 7-2521 is sent to the Palace of Corrective Detention for his failure to come home on time, he is whipped and placed in solitary confinement. He refuses to speak his secret to the men... -
Answered a Question in Anthem
This is a key quote to the theme of Anthem, because it comes at Equality 7-2521's (now Prometheus's) revelation that he is, in fact, his own person. He can now call himself "I" when he speaks to... -
Answered a Question in Essays
If you were asked to write about "Pollution," that would be okay. I think that you would help yourself greatly by choosing a more narrow topic, so that your paper will be more focused. However, if... -
Answered a Question in Adrienne Rich
Before I pulled up your full question and saw your examples, I already had "Women" in mind. I also didn't realize that you were an editor and not a student. That being said, I thought what I was... -
Answered a Question in Anthem
There are a lot of interesting angles that you could take with light and darkness in this book. To start, Equality 7-2521 is enveloped in darkness. The tone of the novel is dark, both figuratively... -
Answered a Question in Anthem
In looking at the book closely, I have found that mention of "The Council of the Home" comes when Equality 7-2521 speaks of the Home of the Street Sweepers. He says: So we went to the Home of the... -
Answered a Question in Brave New World
The attitudes toward these three elements of society are essentially opposite of what our society believes. In the World State, the citizens are required to have sex with many different partners.... -
Answered a Question in Brave New World
Both of these quotes illustrate the World State's commitment to creating new revenue for its industries. Both quotes essentially say that it's better to buy something new than to try to fix the... -
Answered a Question in An Acre of Grass
In "An Acre of Grass," Yeats' speaker is an old man who believes that books are his "acre of grass." Because he is an old man, he can no longer run around outside to keep fit; his "strength of... -
Answered a Question in Emily Dickinson
This poem is essentially about Dickinson's wish for her poetry. If you look at her life, she was very secluded and very isolated in nature. Her body of work was enormous and really, that was all... -
Answered a Question in Emily Dickinson
From the poem itself, it is not evident that Dickinson is trying to help anyone specific. Therefore, it is possible that she's saying that if just one person is impacted by her poetry, she "has not... -
Answered a Question in Poetry
The theme to "The Little Dancers" might be that each person can make their own happiness, no matter what their circumstances. In the poem, the two children are standing in an alley, at night,... -
Answered a Question in Anthem
Equality 7-2521 gets the job of "street sweeper" for no other reason than that is what is selected for him by the Council of Vocations. When he went to find out his fate, he was hoping to be named... -
Answered a Question in T. S. Eliot
The vocative "my daughter" in "Marina" is, in my opinion, the speaker's ship or boat. It is rather difficult to tell, but the poem suggests that the speaker is a sailor in all aspects of the word.... -
Answered a Question in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
One of the most important events regarding Stephen's theory of aesthetics is when he explains it to his friend Lynch in Chapter 5. In this section, it is evident that he is still trying to get his... -
Answered a Question in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Oddly enough, I don't recall ever seeing the word "epiphany" in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. His work is famous for its epiphanies, as is Dubliners, but I don't believe he... -
Answered a Question in Eveline
Please note that you are only allowed to ask one question at a time on Enotes. In your original question, you asked several. I've edited it to help you with Eveline's character. If you need further... -
Answered a Question in Toru Dutt
In Toru Dutt's poem, the speaker describes "Love" coming to "Flora" to hear her choice of which flower she thought should be named the "undisputed queen" of flowers. It seems that the... -
Answered a Question in Pablo Neruda
"The Saddest Poem" by Pablo Neruda is about lost love. The speaker laments over the loss of a lover, not who has died, but who has moved on from him. His strong connection of the poem to the stars... -
Answered a Question in Sarojini Naidu
In "The Soul's Prayer," Sarojini Naidu's speaker has asked the Lord to "reveal to me/ Thine inmost laws of life and death." The soul has asked this question of God with "childhood's pride"... -
Answered a Question in The Kite Runner
If this is an exam question, I will try to help you along in strategizing an answer. Amir is the protagonist of the novel, so the entire story is primarily about him. The best thing you can do... -
Answered a Question in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Joyce's Portrait has a very unique perspective on women through its protagonist, Stephen Dedalus. In the first chapter, there are only two women encountered in a significant way. These are his... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
This line is Horatio's tribute to his dead friend and prince, Hamlet. It comes directly after Hamlet's final line of the play: O, I die, Horatio; The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit: I... -
Answered a Question in Robert Hayden
In "The Whipping," we can assume something that we normally should not: The speaker is the poet. The transition from the use of the words, "the boy" and "him," to "I" and "my" in the middle of the... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
One of the most important things that any one ever said to me about reading Shakespeare is this: "Plays are written to be performed." That single statement completely changed my philosophy on... -
Answered a Question in On Killing a Tree
Patel's "On Killing a Tree" depicts violence and the philosophy of non-violence depicting violence literally and non-violence ironically. The speaker lectures his audience from the standpoint of... -
Answered a Question in Poetry
While there isn't a specific structure to the poem, there are lots of literary devices that help to create the very powerful meaning in this poem. The "Dark Time" spoken of by Carter is war. In the...
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