Michael Stultz, M.A.
eNotes Educator
Achievements
16
Educator Level
1913
Answers Posted
574
Answers Bonused
About
~ Writer, Editor, Educator ~ Father of three ~ Cyclist
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... -
Hall of Fame
Educators can earn this badge by contributing over 1,000 answers on eNotes. -
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. -
Year Five Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over five years. -
Year Six Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over six years. -
Year Seven Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over seven years. -
Year Eight Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over eight years. -
Year Nine Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over nine years. -
Year Ten Badge
This badge is awarded once an Educator has been in the eNotes Educator Program for over ten years. -
10K Points Earner
Educators earn points for every question they answer. This Educator has earned over 10,000 points. -
25K Points Earner
Educators earn points for every question they answer. This Educator has earned over 25,000 points. -
50K Points Earner
Educators earn points for every question they answer. This Educator has earned over 50,000 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. -
Scholar
The scholar badge recognizes Educators who are especially knowledgeable about a particular author. This badge is awarded once an Educator has posted more than 50 answers on works by a specific author. -
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...
Recent Activity
-
Answered a Question in Down and Out in Paris and London
Although your question addresses only "lodging-houses," I will discuss all three London lodgings (lodging-houses, spikes, and Salvation Army shelters) together, as Orwell's nightly adventures in... -
Answered a Question in Literature
Stephen Crane's poetry was before its time: modern, satirical, full of paradox, free of convention. To a reader in 1899, it didn't look or sound like poetry--more like the stuff of crazed... -
Answered a Question in The Man Who Lived Underground
Ironically, Richard Wright's story "The Man Who Lived Underground" (1944) is a condensed version of a novel he wrote but could not get published, and Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man (1952)... -
Answered a Question in The Natural
What is the difference between myth and tragedy? Between a hero and an antihero? Between everlasting life and public humiliation? The gulfs are enormous. The novel and the... -
Answered a Question in Wise Blood
Indirect characterization is usually presented by the author in five ways (called the STEAL method): Speech, Thoughts, Effect (on other characters), Actions, and Looks. So, in Wise Blood, we have... -
Answered a Question in Moby-Dick
The first stories that men shared happened on water. The seat of civilizations were founded there, on rivers and ports, and their navies spread influence far and wide. The Phoenicians... -
Answered a Question in The Odyssey
In The Odyssey, Homer often tells of his role in the epic: "The Muse inspired the bard to sing the famous deeds of fighting heroes." The context is clear: the tale is divinely inspired by... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway uses what Walker Gibson, in "Tough, Sweet, & Stuffy: An Essay on Modern American Prose Styles," calls a "plain" or "tough" style. Hemingway was notorious for "tough talk" as an... -
Answered a Question in Othello
In the 16th century treatise on women, The good and the badde, or Descriptions of the vvorthies, and vnworthies of this age, Nicholas Breton classifies five types of women: The Unquiet Woman The... -
Answered a Question in The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar is a thinly-veiled autobiography of her juvenilia. From the beginning, Plath characterizes her narrator Esther with lyrical imagery related to sickness and death:... -
Answered a Question in The Things They Carried
In The Things They Carried, women serve ironically as Tim O'Brien's main audience: he writes the stories so his daughter will understand. Critic Pamela Smiley argues that O'Brien uses a... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
In the novella Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck refuses to give Curley's Wife a name; she is, by default, simply "Curley's Wife." This shows that she is his possession, a trophy wife, without any... -
Answered a Question in The Stranger
In Albert Camus' novel The Stranger, Meursalt is an abusd hero who loves life, hates death, and scorns the gods. Camus' and Meursalt's ideology and philosophy are the same: the universe is... -
Answered a Question in Othello
In Act I, scene i of Othello, Iago uses much animal and sexual imagery to rouse the sexism and racism of Desdemona's father. Such vivid rhetoric would no doubt cause Brabantio to ruin... -
Answered a Question in Othello
In Act I of Othello, Desdemona and Othello are very clever. If they would have asked for Brabantio's permission privately to be married, he would have denied them. Worse, he might have... -
Answered a Question in Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon's short essay "On Revenge" (1625), which espouses a Judeo-Christian philosophy, lists the following reasons against taking revenge: 1. Revenge is against the law,... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
The above answer is excellent, so I will offer another take: Oedipus is the noblest of tragic heroes. Even today, we can learn from his suffering and stubborn pursuit of truth. Whereas... -
Answered a Question in Sylvia Plath
According to Enotes: What sets Postmodernism apart from its predecessor [modernism] is the reaction of its practitioners to the rational, scientific, and historical aspects of the modern age. For... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
In John Ford's Grapes of Wrath, Nunnally Johnson (the screenwriter who adapted it from John Steinbeck's novel) explicitly blames companies and banks (captalistic institutions) for their greed and... -
Answered a Question in Othello
Shakespeare's Othello is a morality play in that its plot is similar to that of "The Garden of Eden" story in Genesis. The parallels between characters and setting are unmistakable.... -
Answered a Question in The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien's short short "Friends" is a companion story to "Enemies," which, ironically appears first (an inverted spoof on the phrase "friends and enemies"). Together, they function as... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
In Macbeth Act I.v.66-76, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth what he wants to hear. She is his id, her words are his dagger, his vaulting ambition. Her language, less adorned than his, issues... -
Answered a Question in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain will tell you: a river is a river is a river: The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise... - Mark Twain in Eruption In... -
Answered a Question in Everyday Use
Alice Walker uses a combination of styles in "Everyday Use," shifting from first person ("I will wait for her in the yard") to second person ("You've no doubt seen those TV shows...") narrative... -
Answered a Question in 1984
1984 Part 2, chapter 2 is filled with nature imagery, connoting a "Garden of Eden" rendezvous between Winston and Julia in the Golden Country. Colors dominate the landscape: "dappled light and... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Emily's refusal to let go of her past is analogous to the South's refusal to let go of its pre-Civil War glory. Using Emily, her house, and her compact with... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
Much of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is predicated on situational irony, or the contrast between what we (the reader) or the characters expect to happen and what actually happens. Examples... -
Answered a Question in Aristotle
In Aristotle's Poetics, he says: Those who employ spectacular means to create a sense not of the terrible but only of the monstrous, are strangers to the purpose of Tragedy; for we must... -
Answered a Question in The Cask of Amontillado
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," Montressor is using extreme exaggeration (hyperbole, verbal irony) when he says: THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could ; but... -
Answered a Question in The Road
I dare you to find any missteps in The Road. It's an airtight classic. The novel won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It scored a 90 out of 100 on 31 Metacritic reviews. Oprah... -
Answered a Question in Brave New World
In Brave New World, Huxley takes a crack at nearly every aspect of society, namely: Our addiction to pleasure in physical, emotional, and religious forms Our blind belief in science and technology... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby repeats the phrase "old sport" 42 times: "Want to go with me, old sport?" "I thought you knew, old sport." "If you want anything, just ask for it, old sport."... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
Chapter 29 of The Grapes of Wrath is an "inner" chapter and, therefore, short and lyrical in style. It is also a Biblical-styled chapter, as it depicts the Great Flood that is used as... -
Answered a Question in Brave New World
In Brave New World, Huxley is satirizing how an extreme governmental and technological "community" has destroyed human individuality, the family, education, religion, and human correspondence with... -
Answered a Question in Everyday Use
Mrs. Johnson ("Mama") from Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" and "Lucinda Matlock" from Edgar Lee Masters' poem of the same name feature two self-sufficient, small town, domestic matriarchs who have a... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
Like any great novel, Things Fall Apart develops multiple themes, including (according to the Enotes study guide): Custom and Tradition Choices and Consequences Alienation and Loneliness Betrayal... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
In Act III, scene iv of Much Ado About Nothing, Hero and Maragaret have a conversation about clothes: MARGARET Troth, I think your other rabato were better. HERO No, pray thee, good Meg, I'll wear... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
In chapter 7 of Things Fall Apart, indeed a silence falls upon the Ibo clansmen, for they know they must commit the unspeakable: kill Ikemefuna. Achebe describes the event as a kind of... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart presents such a strong depiction of manliness that his depiction of femininity largely goes unnoticed. Femininity is central to any culture, especially to... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
In Much Ado About Nothing Balthasar is a servant and musician whose actions parallel those of the made leads, Don Pedro and Claudio. Balthasar flirts with Margaret during the masque and later... -
Answered a Question in The Rise of the English Novel
The rise of the English novel in the 18th century came about with the decline in poetry (or, at least, the decline in the long narrative poem), the rise of the individual (decline of class-ism),... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
In Much Ado About Nothing, as in most Shakespeare plays, the star of the show is the language: its beautiful poetry and prose, its use in clever wordplay, its use as a means of wooing, its use as a... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
Syntax means "arrangement" of words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. Chinua Achebe's syntax in Things Fall Apart is his word choice and sentence complexity and variety. His style... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
In Much Ado About Nothing, I believe Benedick and Beatrice have made themselves believe that they have hated each other, when really it was love all along. Each has taken on this spiteful... -
Answered a Question in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Yunio, the narrator of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, footnotes to establish ethos, or credibility and trust of the author, and pathos, past "suffering" of Dominicans. Because he is... -
Answered a Question in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz filters his themes of family, love, alienation, and violence through multiple narrators (mainly Yunior). In an interview, Diaz said: I... -
Answered a Question in 1984
George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948, and it was not so much a work of science fiction as it was speculative fiction, using the premise of a Western democratic society (Britain) falling victim to... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
A rhetorical analysis looks at the author's use of language, his rhetorical devices, style, and tone. Hemingway has a very distinct style: Walker Gibson calls his style "Tough" and "Plain,"... -
Answered a Question in The Crucible
Arthur Miller's The Crucible depicts Salem's suspicion, paranoia, and use of accusation as revenge. Here are some of the major ones: Rev. Paris suspects that most of his congregation hates... -
Answered a Question in A Raisin in the Sun
Because A Raisin in the Sun is a live play, Lorrainne Hansberry uses multiple writing styles, depending on her characters and settings. Overall, she uses oral/aural rhetorical conventions to...
Showing 1-50 of 934