mwestwood, M.A.
eNotes Educator
Achievements
21
Educator Level
16814
Answers Posted
7817
Answers Bonused
About
I have taught English and French at the college level. Also, I have taught literature, journalism, writing, and grammar—I've also taught secondary-level French for 23 years. I have a BA in French, a BA and MA in English, and an AP English Language and Composition certification. I take great delight in reading and writing about literature. I am delighted to contribute to discussions on literary works and assist students and others in their understanding of short stories, novels, and plays. I feel rewarded if I can impart some of the joy of reading and literary discussion to others.
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. -
Quiz Taker
This badge is awarded when an Educator has completed 10 quizzes. -
Quiz Apprentice
This badge is awarded when an Educator has completed 75 quizzes with at least 60% accuracy. -
Quiz Master
This badge is awarded when an Educator has completed 100 quizzes with at least 60% accuracy. -
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. -
100K Points Earner
Educators earn points for every question they answer. This Educator has earned over 100,000 points. -
200K Points Earner
Educators earn points for every question they answer. This Educator has earned over 200,000 points. -
500k Points Earner
Educators earn points for every question they answer. This Educator has earned over 500,000 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. -
Poetry 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... -
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... -
History 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... -
Science 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 Désirée's Baby
The significance of Désirée's response to Armand's belief that she is not white is that her physical features—skin color, hair color, and eye color—are her only proof of being white. She cannot... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Acquainted with Mr. Walter Cunningham because he has paid visits to her father at their house about legal matters, Scout knows him as a hard-working, honest man. She also is aware that, like many... -
Answered a Question in Raymond Carver
There is situational irony in Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral." That is, there is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what does. In "Cathedral," the narrator and his wife... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
At times cranky toward the children, Mr. Avery is a boarder who resides across the street from Mrs. Dubose. Every evening he sits on the porch until well after dark in paroxysms of sneezing. The... -
Answered a Question in Harrison Bergeron
Hazel Bergeron is described as being "perfectly average" in intelligence. This description implies that she cannot ponder anything because her thought processes are shallow. She cannot recall much,... -
Answered a Question in A Jury of Her Peers
With a gun available to her, it seems ironic that the oppressed and apparently unassertive Mrs. Minnie Foster Wright would choose a brutal and strenuous method like strangling to kill her husband.... -
Answered a Question in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
During his adventures on land and the Mississippi River, Huckleberry Finn takes the initiative in certain matters that point to his maturation. The first thing that Huck does which points to a... -
Answered a Question in The Veldt
In "The Veldt," Bradbury may have used the virtual lions to kill the parents to emphasize the serious dangers of technology. In much of Ray Bradbury's science fiction, there is an underlying... -
Answered a Question in A Jury of Her Peers
The names of the characters from the story "A Jury of Her Peers" are significant, lending added meaning to Glaspell's narrative. It is interesting, too, that all three of the female characters have... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
In Chapter 27 of To Kill a Mockingbird, the ignominious Bob Ewell takes three actions that are "out of the ordinary." These actions demonstrate Ewell's vindictive feelings toward against Atticus,... -
Answered a Question in Charles
The main idea of Shirley Jackson's short story "Charles" is that affection mixed with indulgence can lead to parental blindness to reality. Throughout the mother's narration, her parental blinders... -
Answered a Question in Great Expectations
While Charles Dickens's classic tale of maturation, Great Expectations, is replete with situational irony and satire, it also contains verbal and dramatic irony. Verbal irony often involves... -
Answered a Question in Julius Caesar
In what is called the "seduction scene" (act 1, scene 2), Cassius tries to persuade Brutus that Caesar is unfit to rule Rome for several reasons, some physical and others pertinent to Caesar's... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Nominally, Calpurnia is the loyal housekeeper for Atticus Finch; moreover, she is a mother figure for Jem and Scout. Indeed, as Atticus says, Calpurnia is a member of the Finch family. All her life... -
Answered a Question in The Leap
The disaster was a natural one. At first, there were no indications of severe weather. It was mild and slightly overcast, and nothing was disturbing about the temperature or the air. But suddenly... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
From Dill's account of why he has run away, the reader learns that Dill is neglected. That he feels unwanted becomes clear when Dill begs Atticus not to make him go back to Meridian and when he... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Mrs. Dubose compliments Jem and Scout's mother. She says that there was no lovelier woman than Mrs. Finch. Unfortunately, Mrs. Dubose adds a negative comment after she praises Mrs. Finch. She... -
Answered a Question in The Great Gatsby
The motif of geography as an aid in shaping theme and character is evinced early in Fitzgerald's novel. In the opening chapter of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway visits his classmate from Yale, who... -
Answered a Question in Great Expectations
There are numerous objects which could carry significance for Pip. —"The Tickler." This is the instrument of punishment with which Pip's sister beat him. —A piece of the little slate of his classes... -
Answered a Question in The Most Dangerous Game
General Zaroff is a character who is paradoxical and jaded; he also is highly skilled as a hunter. paradoxical When Sanger Rainsford finds himself on an island after having fallen off a ship, he... -
Answered a Question in A Jury of Her Peers
Because Susan Glaspell's story "A Jury of Her Peers" has a definite feminist perspective, it is the women of the narrative who are the dynamic characters, while the men are either flat or stock... -
Answered a Question in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" presents a story in which fantasy intrudes upon the boundaries of reality in an episodic fashion. The reader can delight in Mitty's creative... -
Answered a Question in A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol may not be set to music, but there is little doubt that it qualifies as an unsung melody of the coming of Christ into the hearts of people at Christmas time. The... -
Answered a Question in The Sniper
The message of Liam O'Flaherty's story entitled "The Sniper" may well be that civil wars are wars which are never truly won because the losses are those of fellow countrymen, if not brothers. Also,... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
In chapter 3 of To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader learns that the Ewell children are truant most of the year. They are also backward, illiterate, poor, dirty, and defiant of the attendance rule.... -
Answered a Question in A Tale of Two Cities
Monsieur Defarge, who is now a wine-shop owner, was once the manservant of Dr. Manette. Defarge hides this former prisoner of the Bastille in a garret above the wine shop, but he permits three men... -
Answered a Question in Rip Van Winkle
When Rip Van Winkle goes on "a long ramble . . . on a fine autumnal day," he inadvertently finds himself in one of the highest parts of the Catskill Mountains in what is nowadays southeastern New... -
Answered a Question in The Lottery
Indeed, there are few clues about the lottery. Perhaps the ambiguity about the time of the beginning of the lottery is purposeful on the part of the author, since Shirley Jackson does not indicate... -
Answered a Question in The Scarlet Ibis
Central to the conflicts in "The Scarlet Ibis" is the brother's/narrator's "knot of cruelty borne by the stream of love." It would seem that the brother tells the story as an expiation for his... -
Answered a Question in The Interlopers
According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, an interloper is a trespasser, a person who intrudes in a place or situation. An interloper is also a meddler in the affairs of others. In... -
Answered a Question in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
There is no intimacy or tenderness in the relationships that Connie has with her family members. Her parents also have little, if any, knowledge of Connie's associations and activities. A pretty... -
Answered a Question in The Sniper
The sniper's life is threatened when he is gravely wounded in the arm, since he can no longer shoot his rifle. Liam O’Flaherty's story of the Irish Civil War pits countryman against countryman. The... -
Answered a Question in Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Joyce Carol Oates was very concerned with the youth culture of the 1960s and the "Free Love Movement" in which indiscriminate sexual activity among youth became popular. Then, inspired by Bob... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
At the end of Chapter 9 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus purposely speaks about his role in the approaching controversial trial so that Scout, who is eavesdropping, will hear him. He knows she and... -
Answered a Question in The Ransom of Red Chief
The main conflict in O. Henry's humorous tall tale entitled "The Ransom of Red Chief" involves the two con men, Bill and Sam, and the boy they kidnap. Sam narrates the tale of his and Bill's... -
Answered a Question in The Lesson
Miss Moore tries to teach the children about the world that exists around them; there are people who live entirely different lives from them because of their wealth. Miss Moore is an exceptional... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Heck Tate is a lifelong resident of Maycomb. A decent man, Mr. Tate is the county sheriff and plays a significant role in the narrative of To Kill a Mockingbird. A tall and slender man of almost... -
Answered a Question in Sonny's Blues
The flashbacks are the brother's memories that recur at specific points in his narration with the purpose of advancing the development of character and theme. Interestingly, the author of "Sonny's... -
Answered a Question in A Rose for Emily
William Faulkner's Southern Gothic masterpiece, "A Rose for Emily," is disordered in time, perhaps as a reflection of the disorder in particular characters' minds. The titular character, Miss Emily... -
Answered a Question in The Raven
As Poe's poem begins, the despondent narrator, who has been delving into "quaint" volumes in his melancholy, is startled by a tapping at his door. Believing it to be nothing more than "some visitor... -
Answered a Question in Lord of the Flies
In analyses of Lord of the Flies, critics have alluded to words from Aristotle: "Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst." This... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
When Little Chuck Little refers to Bob Ewell as "contentious," he implies that the man is combative and likely to provoke conflict. On Scout's first day of school, a new teacher introduces herself... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Atticus explains to Jem some of the "facts of life" in the segregated South where Maycomb is located. One of these facts is that between the ideal and the reality there is a grave difference when... -
Answered a Question in Moby-Dick
Captain Ahab seeks revenge against the white whale that he perceives as a supernatural creature of malice. At one point in his narrative, Ishmael describes Captain Ahab: "While his live leg made... -
Answered a Question in Julius Caesar
When he returns to Rome from the war against Pompey, Julius Caesar enters the city to the adulation of many. When a soothsayer approaches and warns Caesar to "beware the ides of March" (1.2.21),... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
Scout mentions that her teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, is from Winston County. This county in the northern part of Alabama sided with the North during the Civil War. Many in Alabama viewed Winston... -
Answered a Question in The Yellow Wallpaper
One irony of Charlotte Perkins's disturbing story is the fact that if the narrator were empowered to choose her means of recovery, then she probably would have cured herself, rather than having... -
Answered a Question in To Kill a Mockingbird
In her development of certain characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys her disapproval of some educational theories—in particular, the idealized concept of equality in education that... -
Answered a Question in Romeo and Juliet
While the Chorus that enters at the beginning of the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, with the purpose of introducing and explaining the theme of this play, informs the audience/reader of what is to... -
Answered a Question in The Bet
The banker's financial situation has changed drastically in the fifteen years since he first made the extravagant bet with the lawyer. His wealth was secure at the time of his wager, but now that...
Showing 1-50 of 9018