Michael Stultz, M.A.
eNotes Educator
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About
~ Writer, Editor, Educator ~ Father of three ~ Cyclist
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Barn Burning
Faulkner portrays this story of conflict through a modernist aesthetic, through experimentation with the following: Consciousness: through use of stream-of-consciousness, shifts in point-of-view... -
Answered a Question in Frankenstein
In Volume 1, Chapter 5 of Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus, Victor is only concerned about his work and how it might, if successful, live on. It was on a dreary night of November that I... -
Answered a Question in Essays
I like the Southern Gothics myself: Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner, chief of these. As I Lay Dying (1930) is a great book. As is Wise Blood (1952) by O'Connor. Both focus on... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Here are the main themes with supporting quotes from Act I of Macbeth: Ambition can subvert reason “Thou wouldst be great; art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.”–Act... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is considered unlucky because he has failed to catch either the big fish. Part I of the novella is called "The Unlucky Boat" because he has gone 84 days without... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, there are multiple perspectives from which to view their roles and relationships: Teacher & Disciple: "If you teach a man to fish, he will eat for... -
Answered a Question in Into the Wild
I know this won't help you much, but I don't think Chris McCandless entered the spiritual realm. I think he only existed in the ethical one. Spiritually, McCandless was too full of hubris.... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
First of all, it's dramatic tragedy and myth, not fiction. Sophocles actually makes it fairly modern in Classical Greek terms by limiting the role of the Chorus and the gods in the realm of... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
Since the play begins with a question and is full of philosophical questions, the two major concerns of Hamlet are: Is man supposed to be an active agent or a passive suffering creature in the... -
Answered a Question in 1984
George Orwell, by writing a dystopian Juvenalian satire in 1984, does not give any modifications or ways to improve government. There's no implicit message or hope or beauty or freedom in... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
A major theme in Much Ado About Nothing is "appearance versus reality," and there is no better setting and occasion to develop this theme than a masquerade where everyone is masked. Everyone,... -
Answered a Question in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
In Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Oscar is a quester, first for women and then for love. In between, he redefines himself and his quest as he learns more about himself,... -
Answered a Question in Othello
Othello Act II is all about honor culture and male reputation. Once on the wild island of Cyprus, then men lose all reason and resort to blatant sexism and morbid jealousy against women.... -
Answered a Question in Literature
Perhaps the greatest novel about American individualism is Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which T. S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway both agree is the great American novel.... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
The oracle at Delphi tells the King and Queen of Thebes, Laius and Jocasta, that their infant son will kill them. So, they pinion his feet and tell a shepherd to take him to the mountains to... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
In Romeo and Juliet, Benvolio and Tybalt are foils. Benvolio is a peace-maker, one who tries to part the two families as they brawl in the streets of Verona. Tybalt, on the other hand, is an... -
Answered a Question in The Joy Luck Club
I don't think the movie impacted society much at all. Yes, it was a faithful adaptation of the novel, but it wasn't nominated for any major Academy awards. It has some nice cross-cutting, as... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
In Romeo and Juliet, both the Nurse and Friar Lawrence are stock characters. Both are Aides and Surrogate Parents who help their respective children. Friar Lawrence is a magical or... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
In, Hamlet, Shakespeare gives a recipe for disaster: hubris (arrogance) leads to hamartia (a mistake) which, in turn, causes the irreversible downfall of its hero, culminating in death. Hamlet... -
Answered a Question in Our Town
Thornton Wilder's Our Town uses an abundance of weather and birth imagery to reveal the themes of ritual, eternity, and cycle of life: In Act I, examples are: "The time is just before dawn." "The... -
Answered a Question in The Myth of Sisyphus
Albert Camus' essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" uses allusion, analogy, ethical appeal (ethos), juxtaposition, and imagery: Allusion: he obviously alludes to the Greek myth of Sisyphus, as well as... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
In Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, you've got the following conflicts: Man vs. Nature: Santiago against the ocean and the sharks Man vs. Himself: Santiago is a Christ-figure destined to... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
In addition to the other editors' posts about personification, Macbeth's quote in Act II, scene ii of Macbeth is a metaphor (an analogy), and it is filled with two types of imagery. Metaphor /... -
Answered a Question in The Most Dangerous Game
In Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," this scene is when the villain gets caught monologuing, pridefully telling his enemy all of his evil secrets and schemes. General Zaroff tells... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
Well, according to the stage directions in the play, Hamlet enters after Claudius gives his soliloquy, which is intensely spiritual and focused on his soul and the afterlife. Observe: O, my... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are peas in a pod, two sides of the same coin, too sides of a man's brain. They are foils of each other: one big, one small; one naive, the other... -
Answered a Question in Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
Since Penelope weaved a shroud for her lost Odysseus, sewing and weaving have become symbols of domestic strength, solidarity, and tradition. In "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers," Jennifer's tigers on... -
Answered a Question in Antigone
In the plays Antigone and Hamlet, Antigone, Gertrude, and Ophelia are all tragic victims, though only Antigone, I would say, is a tragic hero. Antigone is a tragic hero because she incites the... -
Answered a Question in Antigone
From my notes: Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by... -
Answered a Question in Othello
Prior to the action of the play Othello, Brabantio had been kind to the Moor. Brabantio had been mesmerized by the stories of the former slave. He let his daughter and Othello... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
In Of Mice and Men, George is Lennie's friend, his co-worker, his guardian, his conscience, and his surrogate brother/father. More, he is his loving mercy killer. He eases Lennie's pain... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
The leitmotif of hands runs throughout Of Mice and Men because it is supposed to distinguish man from animal. Ironically, it doesn't. Just as Curley's hand is crushed, so too is George... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
In The Catcher in the Rye, the following five literary devices are prevalent in Holden's narration. In sum, they contribute to the humor and alienation in his voice and comment on the... -
Answered a Question in Othello
In Othello, the major symbols that represent the dualities of loyalty and betrayal are the rank of Lieutenant, the handkerchief, and, quite simply, words. Rank of Lieutenant: Iago is insanely... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
Prior to the Civil War, the South was more like its own country than it was a part of the United States. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, both major defeats for the South, it was left... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus sees his daughter Scout maturing from childhood innocence to adulthood. Here are a couple of quotes, though my page numbers are different from yours.... -
Answered a Question in A Bird came down the Walk—
"A Bird Came Down a Walk" by Emily Dickinson reveals both the danger and beauty of the outer, natural world and the inner, self-conscious world of both the bird and the speaker. In most poetry,... -
Answered a Question in Literature
Mysteries and detective fiction enable readers to both be in and out of a story. The most famous, of course, are the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, which Michael Chabon says are the essence of... -
Answered a Question in Petrarch
In Petrarch's Sonnet 90, the theme, as usual, is unrequited love, which he inserts in the parentheses: (Seldom they shine so now.) The sestet presents not as a solution but a meditation. The... -
Answered a Question in Gimpel the Fool
Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story, "Gimpel the Fool" is written in an honest, literal, simplistic tone, devoid of sarcasm from the narrator. Instead, the irony is situational: Gimpel is a... -
Answered a Question in Literary Terms
I would say that "specific poetic forms" like sonnets and elegies and odes are not archetypal. Characters are the most common form of archetype: we see the same characters in the small town... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
In addition to the superb answer above, King Hamlet & the Ghost can be juxtaposed with Claudius in terms of their own language and actions and not just on Hamlet's obviously biased soliloquy.... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Tobe was "an old man-servant – a combined gardener and cook." More, he was the first one to know about her and her father's death, and the only one to... -
Answered a Question in Don Juan
I can give you background on Byron's emphasis on the individual, which you can apply to the homework (the reading of the two works): Both works focus on the Bryonic Hero, which is a very close... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
In The Catcher in the Rye, the point-of-view is first person flashback told in "sweet style" teenage vernacular arranged in an episodic structure to show a humorous and rebellious tone. The... -
Answered a Question in The Things They Carried
In O'Brien's novel The Things They Carried, the description of items in this first chapter, “The Things They Carried,” moves from concrete to abstract things. It begins with military... -
Answered a Question in Othello
In Act I of Othello, Iago says to Roderigo: I am not what I am. (I.i.57–65) The line is verbal irony (understatement) because, even after Iago admits this secret, Rogerigo continues to trust him... -
Answered a Question in King Lear
King Lear, Act IV, scene vi, is one of the great monologues in literature. It's full of sexual imagery, analogies, and verbal irony (sarcasm). Literally translated, it reads something... -
Answered a Question in Wuthering Heights
The novel Wuthering Heights comes as a link between the Romantic and the Victorian social and literary eras. I like to think that young Heathcliff is a Romantic, a Byronic Hero hurt by love,... -
Answered a Question in Invisible Man
In the first Chapter of Invisible Man, "The Battle Royal," the Invisible Man wants to be a young Booker T. Washington. The speech he gives to the white members of the Southern town's social...
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