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 A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Since "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a gothic comedy, the grandmother fits the archetypal Alazon role: a character who thinks she's better than she really is. The Misfit is a stock... -
Answered a Question in Beowulf
Beowulf is round, dynamic character because he is the poet's epic hero who changes greatly throughout the narrative. He is full of paradoxes: he is both pagan and Christian, blood-thirsty and... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway's simple, journalistic style does not allow for much alliteration or flowery prose. He's a straight shooter, and his narrative voice offers little prosody. Here are a few examples:... -
Answered a Question in The Road
This episode in The Road is filled with terror and love, both of which are abundant in the novel. The scene itself is terrifying to us, the readers, and especially the boy. He faces two awful... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
In The Old Man and the Sea, there are three levels to the setting: land, air, and sea. The time is in the present (1952). 1. The novella begin begins on land in a fishing village on the... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Santiago is the Christ-figure and Manolin is his disciple. On a symbolic level, the fish is a "true brother," one who gives life to the fisherman. Santiago says: It is good that we do... -
Answered a Question in The Secret Life of Bees
Bees are metaphors for humans. Bees are social animals: they form colonies and work tirelessly in the dark for the queen. So, the secret life of bees refers to the matriarchal female culture... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Santiago suffers great physical and emotional pain at sea and upon returning home having lost his great fish. One problem is his age: his hands are old and become tired after hours of battling the... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
Holden has issues with sex and manhood, and both are issues when he learns that Stradlater and Jane are going on a date. Since he can't communicate his disapproval of the match to them or... -
Answered a Question in The Grapes of Wrath
In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck likens journey of the Joads to the exodus of the Israelites. Just as there are the Twelve Tribes of Israel, so too are there twelve Joads on the trip to the... -
Answered a Question in The Chocolate War
Actually, simile and personification are types of metaphors, as they make comparisons and analogies between things. So, if you've found a simile, you've found a type of metaphor. So,... -
Answered a Question in Antigone
Sophocles' Antigone focuses on the following choices: 1. Civil law vs. personal morality. Antigone chose to obey her own convictions by burying her brother, even though it was against the law... -
Answered a Question in Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights blends the genres of Romanticism, Naturalism, and Realism together to achieve a balance between the three. The novel is rich in Romantic imagery and characterization: nature... -
Answered a Question in The Scarlet Letter
In The Scarlet Letter, nothing really happens. Hester's adultery is part of the antecedent action. All that remains is subtext, atmosphere, and internal conflict. Along with the... -
Answered a Question in Fahrenheit 451
In Fahrenheit 451, a dominant symbol is the Phoenix. It adorns the firemen's helmets and trucks, as it is a creature consumed by fire. Not only this, but a phoenix is born of fire, so... -
Answered a Question in Fahrenheit 451
It's in the early pages of Part I when Montag is talking to Clarisse about the dandelions: "If it rubs off, it means I'm in love. Has it?" He could hardly do anything else but look. "Well?" she... -
Answered a Question in 1984
In 1984, "Doublethink" is reality control: the power to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously. It's a kind of paradox, a conscious lie, by the... -
Answered a Question in Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
Satrapi is writing a graphic memoir (a narrative recounted from memory). She's the artist and the author of the tale, balancing the words and images to present a visually-driven tale of her... -
Answered a Question in The Catcher in the Rye
Holden connects mainly to childlike people (Phoebe, Allie, Jane) and places (museums, zoo, carousel) and to things that remain the same (unchanged by time): Things Frozen in Time Allie: died of... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
Both systems of government are progressive and complex, although the white man's culture believes the African culture to be primitive and backward. Both the white and African systems are... -
Answered a Question in Fahrenheit 451
At the end of Fahrenheit 451 the reference to "the tree of life" shows happiness and rebirth: And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and... -
Answered a Question in Things Fall Apart
In Things Fall Apart, Unoka, Okonkwo's father, loves the weather and the changing of the seasons because he is an artist, not a farmer. Okonkwo, though, wrestles with the weather like he... -
Answered a Question in John Donne
John Donne's poetry is notable for the following types of focused imagery that go beyond the natural order: 1. Union of the male and female (above and beyond the physical) 2. Union of... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
In Hamlet, Ophelia is definitely drawn and quartered by men. Her allegiances between father, brother, and lover are all called into question. In the end, she has no identity left, for... -
Answered a Question in Hills Like White Elephants
According to eNotes: A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or... -
Answered a Question in The Things They Carried
In The Things They Carried, the country of Vietnam literally swallows men alive: the shit field takes Kiowa and forever haunts Alpha Company. In other instances, men and women literally... -
Answered a Question in The Things They Carried
In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien gives his men and women symbols to carry: In "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," Mary Anne Bell, a seventeen year-old "blonde"..."kid"..."barely out of high... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus exhibits two great weaknesses: hubris and anger. After Creon comes back from the Oracle, Oedipus angrily denounces him as a traitor. After Teiresias warns Oedipus not... -
Answered a Question in John Donne
The early poetry of John Donne uses metaphysical conceits to show the physical union of the male and female, husband and wife, lover and mistress. His complex use of conceits compares to the act of... -
Answered a Question in Good Country People
In "Good Country People" O'Connor comically and morbidly deals with humanity's religious confusion to portray everyone as grotesque: the Freemans, the Hopewells, and Manly Pointer.... -
Answered a Question in John Donne
It depends upon which Donne. There are two: the early Donne focuses on the physical union of the male and female, while the late Donne focuses on the spiritual union of man and God. Both... -
Answered a Question in Fahrenheit 451
The most interesting quote in Fahrenheit 451 is when Montag rants against Mildred and her friends, namely Mrs. Bowles: Go home and think of your first husband divorced and your second husband... -
Answered a Question in Hamlet
In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses Hamlet's madness as a thematic plot device in keeping with the style of most revenge tragedy (The Spanish Tragedy, Ur-Hamlet). According to Enotes: Typically,... -
Answered a Question in Othello
The play Othello was written in 1600, around the same time as the beginning of the African slave trade in Europe. In England, there were great fears of the Moors' Muslim threat to Christendom... -
Answered a Question in Frankenstein
I assume you mean Volume 1, Chapter 5 of Frankenstein, and not Volume 2? The main themes are in bold: Creation of Life from Death: Victor wants to "infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing... -
Answered a Question in James Baldwin
James Baldwin is a critic of race relations (he is black) and sexual identity (he is gay) who participated in the civil and gay rights movements. He is an American novelist who lived outside... -
Answered a Question in Robert Frost
In Frost's poetry there is a strong connection between rural New England landscapes and the rural voices of his personas. To frost, the living part of the poem is the language: an organic... -
Answered a Question in Othello
This is Roderigo talking to Brabantio in Act I.i of Othello. Loosely translated, Roderigo is saying: But if you didn’t know about it, then you were wrong to get mad at us. I’d never play... -
Answered a Question in Brave New World
There are two commonly used definitions of bioethics: 1. bioethics are rules, standards, or guidelines that govern the conduct of scientists. 2. bioethics are the moral choices made by... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
Austen's implicit questions in Pride and Prejudice are: How can women exist within the economic institution of marriage, and how can women and men achieve emotional balance (re: love) under these... -
Answered a Question in Literature
In general, I would say literature: mirrors reality: it reflects the eternal, the human condition, the myth, romance, comedy, and tragedy that appeal to audiences across time and place uses... -
Answered a Question in Wuthering Heights
Literature as a thing unto itself without author/historical intent: New Criticism New Criticism’s synonyms = objective criticism, practical criticism, textual criticism, close reading According to... -
Answered a Question in The Old Man and the Sea
Quote 1: He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women , nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the... -
Answered a Question in Literature
I've heard Roger Ebert, an expert in visual media, embrace nearly everything written and visual as art or literature except video games. Ebert says: There is a structural reason for that: Video... -
Answered a Question in Fahrenheit 451
1. Censorship is evil: it is an intrusion on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and banning books is academic and moral neglect 2. Books must be protected at all costs: they... -
Answered a Question in Literary Terms
I always teach this as "framing," "frame story," or a "framing device." Aha! I found it. Enotes agrees: Framing device, a narrative tool in which the setting of a story or another... -
Answered a Question in The Pilgrim's Progress
Christian is Bunyan, the Christian (Calvinist/Baptist) pilgrim who is: A. Born into original sin B. Goal of salvation C. Regeneration precedes conversion (spiritual salvation is... -
Answered a Question in Macbeth
The movie The Last King of Scotland, released in 2006, is aptly named re-telling of the themes of Macbeth. The film chronicles the dictatorship of Idi Amin, who savagely ruled Uganda from... -
Answered a Question in Oedipus Rex
In Oedipus Rex, nature is used as a pathetic fallacy or an objective correlative. In other words, the external plague in nature (disease, starvation) is symbolic of the internal corrupt... -
Answered a Question in Literature
The former post (#10) is short-sighted and, honestly, quite smug. It's like insulting the Great Wall of China for not being high enough or the Grand Canyon for not being deep enough. A cheap...
Showing 201-250 of 934