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 The Catcher in the Rye
In The Catcher in the Rye, "falling" or "The Fall" is an allusion to the "Fall of Mankind" in the Genesis "Garden of Eden" story. There, Adam and Eve partake of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
In Things Fall Apart, the Igbo use epithets which show one's status in the tribe. Among them are: agadi-nwayi: old woman agbala: woman; also used of a man who has taken no... -
Answered a Question in Everyday Use
The objects in "Everyday Use" are cultural heirlooms, symbols of suffering, slavery, and female domesticity. As such, they are worthless to outsiders, but valuable to the women inside the... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
In Hamlet, much of Act I makes use of pathetic fallacy in order to instill in the audience a sense of fear, confusion, foreboding, and the supernatural. A pathetic fallacy is an attribution of... -
Answered a Question in Much Ado About Nothing
From Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, scene i, this is an example of clever wordplay by Benedick. Using an analogy, Benedick compares Beatrice to a dish of food, which he does not care for.... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
In Things Fall Apart, two aspects of culture that are often taken for granted by the reader are the ceremonies involving food and music. Together, they stand for the Igbo themselves, their... -
Answered a Question in The Things They Carried
One question per day, please. I'll answer the first... The Things They Carried is fiction, non-fiction, myth, and memoir all in one. Mainly though, it is metafiction, or fiction about... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
In Sophocles' Oedipus, there are only three women in the play, two of which (Antingone and Ismene) are only bit players. Antigone's role is to escort her blind father at the end as he exiles... -
Answered a Question in A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is fiction, a short story. As such, it can be analyzed, or dissected, into structural elements according to mainly plot, character, and... -
Answered a Question in Othello
In Othello, there are three women: Desdemona (upper class), Emilia (middle class), and Bianca (lower class). They also be categorized by their level of speech: Desdemona goes from being... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
In Act III, scene iv of Hamlet, Gertrude asks what she has done to so offend Hamlet. Hamlet, speaking of incest and adultery, responds: Such an act That blurs the grace and blush of... -
Answered a Question in Othello
Great question. Othello is my favorite Shakespeare play for the following reasons: It has a clear tragic hero and villain. Whereas Macbeth has a hero turned villain (Macbeth), Othello... -
Answered a Question in Good Country People
Near the beginning of Flannery O'Connor's comic story "Good Country People," she narrates: And she said such strange things! To her own mother she had said without warning, without excuse,... -
Answered a Question in The Stranger
The ending of chapter one of The Stranger is absurd and ironic. Really, it makes me laugh. The flood of sensory imagery used by Camus at the end suggests a kind of... -
Answered a Question in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? characters yell all kinds of incantations, curses, exclamations, and prayers. There's "Snap!," "Poof!," "Nuts!," "Jesus!," "Amen" and "Ha!" All these... -
Answered a Question in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is set on the campus of New Carthage in New England because it is the site of many of America's best colleges, the home of the oldest, most historical sites in... -
Answered a Question in The Odyssey
Food is the key to any man's heart. In The Odyssey, Odysseus and his crew have been victims of cannibalism by both Polyphemus (the Cyclops) in Book IX and the Laestrygonians at the beginning... -
Answered a Question in The Stranger
The Stranger ends with Meursault's refusal to renounce his actions, his refsual to show remorse for killing the Arab or for not crying at his mother's funeral. Instead, he hopes for an angry... -
Answered a Question in Everyday Use
"Everyday Use" was written and takes place in present day, 1973. The first page of the story makes reference to Johnny Carson, who hosted The Tonight Show from 1962-1992. The early... -
Answered a Question in Everyday Use
In "Everyday Use," Wangero doesn't understand her immediate cultural heritage. She is ashamed of being raised poor and black in the deep South. More, she does not honor the sacrifices... -
Answered a Question in Beowulf
In Beowulf, any connections between the epic hero Beowulf and the biblical Jesus are loose at best. The original poem was written by an anonymous pagan poet who believed in wergild (blood... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
In "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner symbolizes both Emily's and the South's decay through her house and, later, the smell coming from within (Homer's body). By the way, neither Emily nor her... -
Answered a Question in Othello
Othello is a play full of clever rhetoric, and Act V is no different. In fact, Act V mirrors Act I in terms of Othello's verbal fireworks. His monologues in both acts may sound... -
Answered a Question in Fences
In Fences, Wilson is showing how each member of the play is a victim of segregation and institutionalization (fenced off from society and the family) as a result of lack of opportunities due to of... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
In Hamlet, Ophelia and Gertrude are involved in subplots with Hamlet both on and off-stage. As well, they are the focus of two contrasting views of women. Here are some of the matchups... -
Answered a Question in The Stranger
Camus' fiction is set at the crossroads: North Africa, Algiers, Algeria, the Mediterranean, places of extreme heat, poverty, drought, disease, and culture clash. In "The Guest," for example,... -
Answered a Question in The Stranger
In the middle of The Stranger, Merusault exercises his freedom by taking a walk on the beach. He loves the sea and the sand. Granted, there are Arabs stalking him and Raymond, but they... -
Answered a Question in The Odyssey
We first meet Odysseus in Book V of The Odyssey on Calypso's island. He is described thusly: She found him sitting upon the beach with his eyes ever filled with tears, and dying of... -
Answered a Question in Othello
In Act III.iv of Othello, Cassio uses Desdemona and exploits only Bianca. He has no real relationship with Emelia. Cassio cares more about his lost reputation than he does about the... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
In Oedipus Rex, the main characters speak largely in extended prose monologues while the Chorus chant their lines in a Strophe (turn) and Antistrophe (turn back) structure. Overall, dramatic irony... -
Answered a Question in The Death of Ivan Ilyich
In "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," prior to being sick and near-death, Ivan had only acquaintances, not friends. Acquaintances are formal, but friends are intimate. Acquaintances are... -
Answered a Question in Of Mice and Men
I don't think Steinbeck uses any Biblical allegory in Of Mice and Men, other than establishing a kind of Garden of Eden setting in chapter 1. But, I wouldn't say that George and Lenny are... -
Answered a Question in A Raisin in the Sun
The American dream is based on socio-economic mobility and hope for the next generation. In A Raisin in the sun, Mama (or Lena) wants to move from the cramped, dimly-lit, roach-infested apartment... -
Answered a Question in A Hunger Artist
In Kafka's classic short story "A Hunger Artist," the main symbols are: the hunger artist vs. the crowds of onlookers: establishes the themes spirituality vs. decadence; individualism vs.... -
Answered a Question in The Stranger
Foil: Literally a "leaf" of bright metal placed under a jewel to increase its brilliance. (Holman & Harmon 198) In Camus' The Stranger, all of the minor characters are foils... -
Answered a Question in Literature
In addition to the superb answer above, I would only add: Dramatic Irony: Both plays have dramatic irony, but the dramatic irony is much more focused and developed in Oedipus Rex... -
Answered a Question in Siddhartha
As the song goes, "Three is a Magic Number" in religion, literature, and philosophy--and for good reason. Siddhartha can be divided into three parts: In part 1 (chapters 1-4), Siddhartha could have... -
Answered a Question in The Stranger
Albert Camus uses a plain / tough narrative style, featuring a detached narrator. Meursault matter-of-factly opens the novel with one of the most deadpan openings ever: Mother died today. Or... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
In Hamlet Act II, scene ii, Hamlet remembers that he loves acting, but he forgets, until the end of the act, that he is to be an agent of vengeance. Remember that from Act I and Act II, scene i,... -
Answered a Question in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, I'm not sure that Oscar achieves the American dream himself, but I do think that Oscar helps Yunior and Lola to achieve it. The American dream is, at its... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
About half-way through chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby, Catherine and Myrtle have a conversation about George: "Well, I married him,." said Myrtle, ambiguously. "And that's the difference between... -
Answered a Question in The Princess Bride
In William Goldman's The Princess Bride, we have a European Renaissance-era city-state of Florin, a monarchy ruled by Prince Humperdink. It is a largely agrarian, feudal system economy with a... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is a teacher, mentor, and spiritual holy man for his disciple Manolin. Here are some lessons he teaches the boy: Vocation: Santiago teaches the boy the... -
Answered a Question in The Road
"Fire" is mentioned 76 times in the novel. Most of the time it is used literally to mean fire. A few times is it used as a metaphor by the father and/or son. Pg. 83: "Nothing bad is... -
Answered a Question in The Road
On page 1 of The Road, McCarthy only gives the reader an ambiguous and detached account of the apocalyptic event. As is his style, he doesn't even use a complete sentence: The clocks stopped... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Manolin is essental, I think, to The Old Man and the Sea. Whenever you have a story about an old man, you must have a young boy as counterbalance. As such, he is a foil for Santiago in... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
Holden Caufield and his author J. D. Salinger both had parents of different religious faiths, so they are sensitive to religious phoniness and stereotyping. Salinger had one parent who was... -
Answered a Question in The Road
On page 15 of The Road, the father discards all of his former life's identification: He'd carried his billfold about till it wore a cornershaped hole in his trousers. Then one day he sat by... -
Answered a Question in As I Lay Dying
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying does not rank high on the social issues pecking order, but here are a few: Lack of education: Sex education is non-existent; Dewey Dell doesn't know how she got... -
Answered a Question in Notes From Underground
In part I of Notes from Underground, the underground man gives us some backstory from his career as a spiteful government official. He says, "I was a spiteful official. I was rude and...
Showing 101-150 of 934