Michael Stultz, M.A.
eNotes Educator
Achievements
16
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1913
Answers Posted
574
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About
~ Writer, Editor, Educator ~ Father of three ~ Cyclist
Earned Badges
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
Critic and playwright Thornton Wilder said it best: The figure of the Queen is drawn with great precision, shielding her husband form the knowledge she foresees approaching; alternately condemning... -
Answered a Question in Julius Caesar
Here are the full lines. Brutus says: Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius. Antony says: In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words. Witness the hole you made in Caesar’s heart,... -
Answered a Question in Ode on a Grecian Urn
Keats' opinion of art is paradoxical and multi-layered. There are many levels to art: the art piece itself, the depiction on the art piece, and the viewer. Keats seems to be saying that the... -
Answered a Question in Beowulf
In her wonderful essay, "The Social Centrality of Women in Beowulf: A New Context," Dorothy Carr Porter says the six women in the epic can be divided into pairs according to roles:... -
Answered a Question in Literature
In the story "Two Kinds," Amy Tan borrows from elements of the Yin-Yang philosophy, in which two opposing forces complement each other to form a whole. In this case, we have a mother-daughter... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Macbeth's words, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen," are significant because they ironically echo the witches' first incantation, "Fair is foul and foul is fair." Both statements... -
Answered a Question in The Things They Carried
Norman Bowker, in "Speaking of Courage," has won seven medals from his Vietnam tour of duty: the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Bronze Star, and... -
Answered a Question in A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
The old man only says, "Nada," once, and he means it literally. The rest of the "nadas" come from the narration, which seems to be filtered through the old waiter's perspective: It was all... -
Answered a Question in Beowulf
Heroes from the Anglo-Saxon period are similar to today's military and/or team sports heroes in that they both seek fame and glory for feats on the field. Obviously, we are talking about a... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
In Old Man and the Sea Hemingway, above all else, “tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many... -
Answered a Question in Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan, a metaphysical poet, celebrates a conservative, "pre-fall" Christian attitude in "The Retreate." With most metaphysicals, Vaughan uses an elaborate conceit (a personified soul)... -
Answered a Question in The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien is a master of storytelling. In fact, he's a master of storytelling about storytelling. It's called metafiction. Fiction about fiction. This is a story about a... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Santiago has great respect for all of nature's creatures, except sharks. He refers to the fish (a marlin) as his "brother," showing not only a certain biological connection between man and... -
Answered a Question in The Stranger
Meursault, like Camus, is an absurdist and an atheist. Neither of them believe in God or the afterlife. This unnerves the magistrate and the priest to no end, both of whom want... -
Answered a Question in Frankenstein
Walton functions as a frame story narrator whose letters to his sister begin the epistolary portion of the novel. Mary Shelley had to have someone discover Victor out on the ice. ... -
Answered a Question in The Most Dangerous Game
The rising action begins with Rainsford's realization that Zaroff will hunt him. It continues all through the hunt and ends when Zaroff believes Rainsford has fallen to his death off the... -
Answered a Question in A&P
Sammie, the narrator, uses slang and colloquialisms from his 1950s East Coast beach lingo. His quips about Queenie's "scoops of vanilla," the sheepish herd of A & P patrons, and... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
When George romanticizes about their dream ranch, he contrasts Lennie and his relationship with "other guys:" Guys like us ain't got no families. They [other guys] get a little stake... -
Answered a Question in Everyday Use
The quilt and the butter churn in the story "Everyday Use," by Alice Walker, are the primary household object-symbols in Mrs. Johnson's house. Mrs. Johnson, the narrative voice in the story,... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
Oedipus' hubris and insatiable quest for the truth paradoxically lead him to blind himself for having known the truth all along. Oedipus is one of those plays, like the great Shakespeare tragedies,... -
Answered a Question in Our Town
Thornton Wilder reveals his sense of humor in this scene at the end of Act One: "Daily Life" in which Rebecca Gibbs tells of a letter her friend addressed, ultimately, to God. Grover's Corners... -
Answered a Question in I, Robot
Science fiction relies heavily on allegory and symbolism to generate its themes and warnings. I, Robot the film plays upon heavily-used symbols of the genre to create a morality play. At... -
Answered a Question in Barn Burning
Sarty's dilemma is similar to that of the old South's; he is caught between defining his own identity and his fierce loyalties to clan. When we first meet the 10 year-old Sarty we see him lying to... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
Ross is the "messenger Thane," and if he visits you early in the play, all is good; but if visits you in the later acts, you had better sit down, because it's not good news. In Act I,... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Scout enters first grade already knowing how to read. Atticus has been reading to her for years. The new teacher, Miss Caroline, who is an outsider in the community, is supposed to... -
Answered a Question in The Tyger
The "Tyger" is chosen, I think, because it is not only the most beautiful of all big game animals but because it leads a solitary life, unlike a lion, which hunts in prides. Blake's poetry is... -
Answered a Question in The Bet
The exposition of the story is when the banker and the lawyer get into an argument over capital punishment. The banker condones it, while the lawyer prefers life in prison. This leads to the... -
Answered a Question in The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner is a good first novel, but it has the flaws of a first novel: it is overly symmetrical, full of coincidences (that would make Dickens blush), a too convenient villain (a Nazi... -
Answered a Question in The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan wrote "A Pair of Tickets," the novel's last chapter, first as a short story. She wrote the story and subsequent novel to better understand her mother. She dedicates the novel to... -
Answered a Question in The Most Dangerous Game
In the exposition of the story, Rainsford asks Whitney what the best game is, to which Whitney replies, "hunting...for the hunter, not the jaguar." Rainsford says, "Don't talk rot... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck quoted a 1785 Robert Burns poem entitled, "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough" in which the speaker says, "The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry." The... -
Answered a Question in The Road
The decision I find fascinating is the boy's choice to not run from or shoot the "good guy with the shotgun" at the end. Up until then the father had run from and/or threatened to shoot any... -
Answered a Question in The Things They Carried
Jimmy Cross takes on much of the collective guilt and suffering of the platoon and, as such, is a kind of Christ-figure (notice the initials "J. C."). Ted Lavender's death in chapter one... -
Answered a Question in Into the Wild
Chris McCandless faced an identity crisis in which he failed to balance realistic and romantic views of himself. Ultimately, he convinced himself that his book-hero persona Alexander Supertramp...
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