Katelyn O'Brien

First of all, to summarize the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur: Theseus was the son of Aegeus and Aethra, and therefore the heir to the throne of Athens. In order to protect him, Theseus's father...

This is an interesting question because I think it addresses two issues: one of semantics and one of meaning. Typically, "for" is used when one person gives something to another person: for...

The Odyssey by Homer is an epic poem that tells the story of Odysseus' journey home. While there are many, many conflicts that happen throughout the story that covers 20 years, which is how long it...

After Holden gets kicked out of Pencey, the most recent boarding school he was attending, he goes home to see his younger sister Phoebe. He arrives late at night, and only wants to see Phoebe, not...

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden has a very casual relationship with money. He often spends it easily and thoughtlessly, yet at the same time he often seems to feel scornful of money. Here is...

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is the story of an average, small American town and the unusual tradition that they keep: that of stoning one townsperson to death every summer. When the story was...

A metaphor is the comparison of two unlike things in order to describe or explain something. An extended metaphor is simply one that goes on for longer than normal. Shakespeare used metaphors as...

One type of figurative language that is used often in The Odyssey is personification. Personification is when animate or human-like qualities are given to an inanimate object or concept....

Alliteration is defined as the repetition of the initial letter or sound of a word within a single line (in poetry) or sentence (prose). It can be repeated just twice or more than that. It is a...

The "bell jar" is a symbol that appears throughout the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and it is a metaphor that Esther uses to explain how she feels suffocated by the world. The bell jar...

There are many instances throughout The Odyssey where Odysseus acts heroically. A hero, according to Cambridge Dictionaries Online, is "a ​person ​admired for ​bravery,...

First, let us define a simile. A simile is a comparison using the words like or as. There are three noteworthy similes in Chapter 20 of The Odyssey by Homer. The first simile we can look...

When Odysseus visits the Underworld and Tiresias warns Odysseus not to do certain things, Odysseus promises to heed his words, but later on, he does not obey the warning. In Book 11, Tiresias says...

Gatsby is very concerned about meeting Daisy again after all those years, and in his nervousness to see her again, he goes to great lengths to prepare for her arrival. First of all, Gatsby arranges...

An example of an extended metaphor in "A Rose for Emily" is her house, which serves as a metaphor for the Old South (as does Miss Emily herself). The house is extensively described in the second...

In the first chapter of The Great Gatsby, Nick compares Daisy and Jordan to floating objects. We could interpret them as appearing like angels or birds. Nick describes them as, "...buoyed up...

The key reason why the relationship between Danny and Reuven changes is because of Danny's father, Reb Saunders. Reb Saunders is a rabbi with very strict beliefs about his Jewish faith. Reuven and...

While it's almost impossible to know exactly why any author or writer writes something—it is simply their craft, their art—by studying Faulkner's background and writing style, we can gather some...

You've chosen a very interesting motif, and you're right, there are many examples throughout the novel of this motif. In fact, we have a bridge appear in the very first sentence of the novel: "On...

"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner is a classic example of Southern Gothic literature, which is the style Faulkner is perhaps best known for. Relevant social issues to the story are those...

Biff and Happy have very different personalities, and this also affects the way each of them treat their father, Willy Loman. Happy's name is very significant-he is a happy-go-lucky character, he...

Point of view is a key choice of Poe's in "The Tell-tale Heart." The story is told in first person by the murderer. He himself questions if he is mad: "How, then, am I mad?" But at the same time,...

First, let's define situational irony. According to literarydevices.net, "Situational irony is a literary device that you can easily identify in literary works. Simply, it occurs when...

There are many key familial relationships throughout the novel. First, let's just start with a family tree: Dr. Abelard Luis Cabral - husband of Socorro Cabral      Abelard and...

La Inca is the cousin of Beli's father, Abelard. So technically speaking, they would be considered second cousins. But of course, their true relationship is much more like mother and daughter. On...

Immediately in the opening sentence of the story, Jacobs writes, "the night was cold and wet but a fire burned brightly," and the reader has a feeling of a cold and stormy night, usually an...

Great question! First of all, it's important to understand that there are different types of imagery. There is visual imagery, which is what you are talking about, and then there is auditory...

In the 1902 short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs, a sergeant comes to visit the home of the White family—mother, father, and son—and brings with him a monkey’s paw that has the power to...