Alene Medley

Prepositions are words that define relationships between nouns. "At," "by," "under," and "with" are all examples of prepositions. A prepositional phrase is, as the name suggests, a phrase that...

The House on Mango Street is a series of coming-of-age vignettes about the childhood and growth of Esperanza, a young girl of Mexican descent who lives in a poor Latino neighborhood of...

When discussing what makes the men of Beowulf "masculine" by their society's standards, what they are not is as important as what they are. And what men are not in Beowulf...

When Juliet speaks to Romeo from her balcony, she professes her love for him, but she expresses hesitation for overhasty promises due to the suddenness of his appearance and the tenuous nature of...

Indulgences were a theological principle of forgiveness and punishment in the Catholic Church. In its original form, an Indulgence was a way of escaping punishment in the afterlife for one's sins....

Here are a few metaphors from the poem "David" Lines 35-37 We crawled astride The peak to feast on the marching ranges flagged By the fading shreds of the shattered stormcloud.  "Feast" is a...

I'll answer your question with a question: what is the purpose of an essay's title? Maxine Hairston and Michael Keene, scholars of rhetoric and communication, identify four main purposes of an...

Metaphors are nonliteral comparisons used to describe something by comparing its qualities to something not normally comparable. They are among the most common tools in authors' toolboxes for...

In many ways, Beowulf already gives his resume when he first speaks to Hrothgar. Moreover, he's very good at it, demonstrating several important tips for effective resume writing.  One of the...

The Hero's Journey is an archetypal path that describes the narrative arc of many stories. It applies equally to ancient myths such as Homer's Odyssey and to modern stories like Star Wars. It...

The old man doesn't precisely trick Alan; it's perhaps more accurate to say that Alan tricks himself. When the old man offers Alan a love potion, he tells Alan in no uncertain...

Here are some complaints about the king in the Declaration of Independence: He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. Translation: The king has...

European newcomers dramatically changed native cultures and life. Here are five key changes: War. The European newcomers were, in large part, there to conquer. The conquistadors of Spain even...

While the election of 1800 was a closely fought battle, and the presidency of Thomas Jefferson had long-lasting repercussions on the nation, one incident stands out during the actual transfer...

One of the most important themes in Lord of the Flies is that man will inevitably descend into savagery in the absence of a structured civilization. In Chapter 4, "Painted Faces and Long...

The theme of a literary work is its central message—the idea an author wants to convey about a particular subject. Many literary works have more than one theme, and this is certainly the case with...

Some texts that can work well to compare and contrast with Life of Pi are the following: Poems: "The Tyger" by William Blake - to compare with descriptions of Richard Parker or Mahisha,...

Allusions are brief and often indirect references to historically, culturally, or mythologically significant characters, places, or occurrences. Allusions allow authors to set the stage upon which...

Metaphors are authorial tools to highlight similarities between two things that cannot be literally compared. Similes are a subset of metaphors that specifically use "like" or "as" to make that...

From the very outset of the story, Oates implies that women are expected to adhere to traditional gender roles. In the first paragraph, she indicates that Connie meets society’s expectations for...

The previous answer discusses one interpretation of the question: did violence address the root causes of the Civil War? But the question could be read another way: was violence the primary reason...