Kathleen Borrowman Tolley
eNotes Educator
Achievements
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100
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About
Mrs. Tolley is an international teacher. She has taught English and other subjects in China, Egypt, Ecuador, Qatar, and Greece. Mrs. Tolley is also a writer. Her writing can be found under her pen name, K. I. Borrowman. She is currently living in Mexico with her husband, who is also a teacher, two cats, and three dogs.
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Songs of Innocence and of Experience
The lamb, the child, and Christ are mentioned or alluded to several times in Songs of Innocence and Experience. The lamb and the child are both common symbols for Jesus Christ. John the Baptist... -
Answered a Question in Ted Hughes
"The Angel" is the last poem in a book of poetry by Ted Hughes called Remains of Elmet. The book is dedicated to Hughes's mother and is set in the region of the West Riding of Yorkshire (once known... -
Answered a Question in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Imagery can be a difficult kind of figurative language to discuss because it is varied and encompasses a lot of other types of figurative language. Basically any kind of figurative language that... -
Answered a Question in The Road Not Taken
To answer this question, we need to consider "The Road Not Taken" as an extended metaphor. Frost's speaker is talking about a road in a wood, but what is he really talking about under the surface... -
Answered a Question in A Passage to India
in the first part of the novel, Adela develops feelings of confusion because of traveling to India, settling into a new culture, and having issues with her fiancé. The trip by ship to India was... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Let's take a look at how to write a good P.E.E. paragraph, and then apply the P.E.E. format to an example of a use of language in Macbeth. P.E.E. stands for POINT, EXAMPLE/EVIDENCE, EXPLAIN. First... -
Answered a Question in The Outsiders
Perhaps the best example of Ponyboy being a positive influence on other characters is when he reads and recites poetry to Johnny. Most importantly, Ponyboy recites a poem, "Nothing Gold can Stay,"... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
Gatsby is careless and reckless when he gives lavish parties at his home and lets anyone enter, mostly people he doesn't even know. He serves alcohol (which is illegal due to prohibition) and... -
Answered a Question in The Silver Sword
There are a lot of important quotes in The Silver Sword. Some of them are about the setting, some are about the characters, and some are about the themes. Let's begin with these four: In Chapter 4,... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
King Duncan rewards Macbeth's bravery with a promotion. In Act I scene ii, a "bloody sergeant" tells King Duncan that Macbeth bravely slew Macdonwald, the leader of the rebels, by slicing him from... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
In The Old Man and the Sea, external conflict can be a literary device for your central idea. The external conflict is between Santiago and the giant marlin. You could argue the subjectivity of the... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
A research question for a piece of literature must be a question that you have to research to find the answer to; in other words, not a question that requires personal reflection, evaluation, or... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
Friar Lawrence made the decision to marry Romeo and Juliet. He thought the marriage might help mend the rift between the Montague and Capulet families. In Act II scene III he says, "For this... -
Answered a Question in All Quiet on the Western Front
I found a few more literary devices in Chapter Eleven of this fantastic novel. The second paragraph begins with the metaphor "Our thoughts are clay,..." and then goes on to explain, "...they are... -
Answered a Question in Lord of the Flies
The three kinds of irony are verbal, situational, and dramatic. Verbal irony is saying the opposite of what one means. It is similar to sarcasm. You might say, "That's just great!" when you mean... -
Answered a Question in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Literary devices are any tools the writer uses to make the writing clearer, more vivid, and more enjoyable to read, and to give the story more depth. There are actually hundreds of literary... -
Answered a Question in The Importance of Being Earnest
You will need to do several steps to complete this assignment: Choose, plan, draft, and revise/edit your essay. First, it is often difficult with an assignment like this to choose which essay to... -
Answered a Question in Twelve Angry Men
The setting is the location and time in which the story takes place. There are a lot of important aspects of the setting of Twelve Angry Men that influence the events. According to the Penguin... -
Answered a Question in The Outsiders
Gone with the Wind is an American novel written by Margaret Mitchell in 1936. In The Outsiders, it symbolizes the closeness between Ponyboy and his friend Johnny. When the boys are first hiding out... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Modernism was a movement in art and literature during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was marked by a drive to break with traditional styles and closely linked to the realism movement.... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
In this soliloquy, Hamlet brings up the idea of suicide and then expresses his disgust that his mother, who loved his father greatly, married his father's uncle just over a month after burying... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
This quote from Macbeth is an example of PARADOX. A paradox is a contradictory statement that places two opposite ideas next to one another. The effect is often to draw the audience's attention to... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Brief Outline of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Scout, her brother Jem, and her father, Atticus Finch (a lawyer) are introduced. They live in Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression.... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo's decisions determine the direction of the story, and his decisions are often based on his fear of being thought cowardly. At the beginning of the story, Okonkwo is... -
Answered a Question in Death of a Salesman
"The woman" is a woman in Boston who Willy had an affair with when he was a travelling salesman and his sons were in high school. Read more on "the woman" on eNotes here. In the play, Willy's... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
There are lots of quotes in Romeo and Juliet that show the pain of love. We know the pain of love is a main theme of this play because it is first mentioned in the chorus: "The fearful passage of... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
Daisy charms Nick. He enjoys her company and finds her pleasant to be around. When Daisy is first introduced, on pages 10-11, Fitzgerald leads up to her introduction with a vivid description of the... -
Answered a Question in Poetry
"I Lost my Talk" by Rita Joe: Rita Joe was a prolific Canadian Aboriginal poet from the Mi'kmaq nation. Joe was an orphan and sent to a residential (boarding) school in Nova Scotia. In the Canadian... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Hi there! You can find a complete summary of the play on eNotes here and eNotes also has the entire text of the play with modern language translations and annotations, which begins here. I hope... -
Answered a Question in Pygmalion
Higgins and Pickering are fascinated by the way Liza speaks. Higgins is a scientist of phonetics. When he meets Liza in the rain, he jots down her words phonetically and then guesses her exact... -
Answered a Question in Holes
In the novel Holes, by Louis Sachar, God is called on to mete out punishment to Katherine and Sam, two characters in the back story. Sam is an African American man and Katherine is a white American... -
Answered a Question in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Pavel is a Jewish doctor brought from the camp to work as a servant in Bruno's family's home. Pavel treats Bruno like an equal, but Bruno's family treats Pavel like he is sub-human. When Bruno... -
Answered a Question in A Passage to India
Nature in A Passage to India is used in building atmosphere and in symbolism. Forster refers to nature continuously throughout the novel, and often to build the atmosphere of a location or event.... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
In Chapter 8, Gatsby explains to Nick (who relays to the reader) the story of how he met and then lost Daisy. According to Gatsby, he was penniless when he and Daisy fell for one another, but he... -
Answered a Question in Ozymandias
This is a great question; these are two of my favourite poems! Let's look at several ways you can compare these two poems. We can start by looking at the structure of these two poems. Both poems... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
An oxymoron is a literary technique that places two contrasting words next to each other. The juxtaposition of two contrasting ideas or images creates a paradox, and the effect is very vivid... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
The Nurse has raised Juliet and loves her very much. At the beginning of the play, she considers Juliet a sweet, young, innocent child. In Act I, scene iii, the Nurse refers to Juliet as a lamb:... -
Answered a Question in The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a melodrama because the characters and events are exaggerated. The exaggeration, as well as being satirical and critical of Victorian society, is... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
Like many teenagers, Romeo has a lot of angst. He argues with his friends and loses his temper quickly. Most importantly, he becomes so enraged at the death of Mercutio that he fights with Tybalt... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
In Act II scene IV, Juliet's Nurse and the servant Peter find Romeo with his friends. The Nurse tells Romeo she has come on behalf of Juliet. She mentions to Romeo that Paris wants to marry Juliet.... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
Chapter Five of The Great Gatsby describes the day when Gatsby is reunited with Daisy after five years of separation, and the weather reflects Gatsby's changing mood throughout this chapter in a... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
Part of your answer can be found in eNotes's discussion of themes for this play, found here. Disguise and with it deception are used in Much Ado for both good and bad ends. Shakespeare shows us... -
Answered a Question in Twelve Angry Men
In Twelve Angry Men, each of the jurors comes from a different social context, and each is affected differently. The jurors whose social contexts really stand out in their views of the defendant... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
ENotes discusses several themes of Romeo and Juliet: Fate is inescapable; haste makes waste; hatred breeds disaster; arranged marriage vs. love. I'm going to look at some examples of fate in Romeo... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
George in Of Mice and Men is basically good. He takes care of a friend in a world where most of his peers are solitary. He allows a new friend to share their dreams. His honest pursuit of the... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Macbeth is a tragic hero, which means that his own fatal flaw brings about his downfall. Macbeth's fatal flaw is his desire for power, or ambition. Macbeth desires power so much that he will do... -
Answered a Question in Maya Angelou
The stanzas are homogenous in structure. Each has four or five rhyming lines, then the line "I say," then a few lines of rhyming imagery describing the speaker physically, then a refrain: I’m a... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Scout's description of the Maycomb County Courthouse begins on page 164: The Maycomb County courthouse was faintly reminiscent of Arlington in one respect: the concrete pillars supporting its... -
Answered a Question in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
You may want to begin your introductory paragraph with a hook. This will make your writing more interesting for your teacher to read, and make it stand out among all the other character... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
A dynamic character is a character who changes, grows, or learns through the events of the story. Although Gatsby has changed a lot, most of his changes occurred before the story began, so it's...
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