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HAMLET
Shakespeare addresses issues of fate and free will throughout Hamlet. The Classical Greek iteration of tragic drama dictates that the hero of the story is ruled by fate, each choice he makes…
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BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER, A TALE OF WALL STREET
One could say that Bartleby’s passive-aggressive behavior represents a defiance of the existing social order and the capitalist system on which it is based. And working on Wall Street, the…
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THE JOKE
The Joke is Milan Kundera’s first novel, written at the height of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia and set in a time period ranging from the beginning of the regime (the Stalinist era some…
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THE JOKE
Milan Kundera’s The Joke is a novel about life under Communism, but also about the twists and turns of life in general, and the randomness and unexpected outcomes to which we’re all subject. The…
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THE JOKE
Milan Kundera’s The Joke is about the consequences of making a joke in humorless times. The setting is Czechoslovakia in the years following the 1948 Communist revolution. At this time,…
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THE JOKE
I would set forth some of the main themes of Milan Kundera’s The Joke as follows. First, there is the issue of personal responsibility in opposing an authoritarian regime like that of…
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THE JOKE
The Joke is Kundera’s first novel and features four primary characters: Ludvik Jahn (the primary protagonist), Jaroslav, Helena, and Kostka. The novel does not contain a standard narrative and is…
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LITERATURE
Dialect can be useful for creating character. It gives the character their own unique voice, and it enables the reader to “hear” the character in a more “real” way. Dialect can be used to give the…
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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
Holden Caulfield claims to be “sort of an atheist” but is evidently more spiritual than he is religious. In chapter 14, Holden elaborates on his thoughts regarding Christianity and Jesus. Holden…
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SOCIAL THEORIES OF POVERTY
Sociologists have used all three theories to explain poverty in America. The social-conflict theory seems to fit the situation in the United States, because it explains why there is little social…
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HISTORY
The Spanish conquistadors were primarily motivated by three factors commonly referred to as the “3 G’s.” The three G’s were gold, God, and glory. First, we examine gold. The Spanish hoped that…
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MY LAST DUCHESS
The Duke is trying to convey to the listener, who has come to broker a new marriage for the Duke, that his deceased wife was disloyal to him. He blames her for not bestowing her love, affection,…
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HEALTH
In the healthcare field, Continuum of Care refers to a concept where patients are guided through a specific set of medical services over a period of time until objectives are achieved. Continuum of…
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GILGAMESH
Enkidu’s encounter with the harlot is significant because it is the beginning of Enkidu’s civilizing at the hands of a woman. In the story, a trapper complains to his father about Enkidu. He…
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INDIAN KILLER
Sherman Alexie, the Native American author of Indian Killer, begins his novel with a few bleak and depressing quotes. These quotes help establish some of the more depressing aspects of life on a…
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INDIAN KILLER
Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer is the story of a serial murderer in Seattle, who is scalping white men and covering their body with owl feathers, and of John Smith, the confused and angry man who…
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THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY
In The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius is rotting away in a prison cell, anxious over his impending execution. He knows that he’s innocent of all charges and that his trial was an utter…
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A HISTORY OF THE JEWS
During the Middle Ages, Jews were treated with far greater tolerance in Muslim-controlled areas than they were in Christian Europe. During the Middle Ages in Europe, Jews were tarnished with the…
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REFERENCE
Based on your question, I am assuming you want to write an argumentative claim. This is a type of thesis statement that includes a clear position and reasons to support that position. You have…
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MANIAC MAGEE
I wish that I could give you a definitive, specific date to answer this question; however, that is not possible. Some sources state that the events within the story are taking place in the early…
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OCTAVIA BUTLER
In Octavia Butler’s “Speech Sounds” there are two protagonists in the story. Rye is a young woman trying to survive after a pandemic illness results in massive deaths and leaves the survivors…
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LITERATURE
The story has several themes. One has do do with the nature of friendship. Aubby and Clara come to understand their relationship in a far deeper way through their experience at the lodge. Another…
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HISTORY
The origins of feminism are most often traced to the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment. During this time period, several male and female writers championed the rights of women including philosopher…
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HISTORY
The Treaty of Versailles, signed by Germany and the Allied Powers in 1919, ended World War I. One article that many believe helped lead to World War II was Article 231, the so-called “War Guilt…
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OCTAVIA BUTLER
Well, there are a lot of themes in the story. Here are the ones that stand out to me: 1) The importance of language. In Rye’s world, most people can’t speak or read, and this inability to…
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GREENLEAF
Mrs. May is the recipient of grace in this story. She is not, through most of the story, a true believer in Christ, nor is Mrs. Greenleaf. Mrs. May is not, through most of the story, able to…
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HISTORY
Though World War II was terrible and tragic because of lost lives, destroyed cities, and the Holocaust, it was good for the American economy. Providing materials for the war propelled the United…
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PSYCHOLOGY
In psychology, the term “interpersonal” refers to what happens between two people. For instance, interpersonal communication would refer to the things an individual says to his friend, parent,…
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HOW TO TELL A TRUE WAR STORY
“How to Tell a True War Story” is a section from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. It begins with the narrator’s recounting the story of a buddy from in Vietnam named Rat Kiley who…
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HISTORY
Starting in the mid-1500s, changes in thinking started to develop in two major areas. This time period would collectively be known as the “Age of Reason”. First came the Scientific Revolution, in…
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DEREK WALCOTT
Theme is defined as an underlying, universal message an author wants to communicate to his or her audience through a work of literature. Typically, the theme makes a comment about society, people,…
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MACBETH
You might want to compare and contrast the title characters in both Macbeth and The Great Gatsby. You could say in a thesis that both Macbeth and Gatsby are brought to destruction (failure) by…
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ROMEO AND JULIET
The dramatic significance of death in this play is that it is the one event that finally puts an end to the years-long feud between the Capulet and Montague families. The feud is what prompted the…
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THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET
John Keats’ “On the Grasshopper and Cricket” is a poem that muses how the “Poetry of earth is never dead,” an observation the speaker makes in line 2. The speaker uses the grasshopper and…
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THE REMAINS OF THE DAY
Stevens receives a letter from Miss Kenton, the former housekeeper of Dartington Hall, in which she drops a few hints that she may wish to return. The big old house is somewhat understaffed, so an…
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THE OUTSIDERS
In the opening scene of the novel, Ponyboy gets jumped by a gang of Socs while he walks home alone from the movies. Fortunately, the Greaser gang hears Pony’s screams and comes to his rescue before…
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BUSINESS
Government intervention into economics is most easily seen in a command economy. In a command economy, most of the nation’s economic system is controlled by the government. In a command economy, it…
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THE LEAP
The narrator is relating the convoluted story of how she came into the world. Her mother, Anna Avalon, was a famous acrobat, part of a circus act with her husband, Harold. Together, the “Flying…
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SOCIAL SCIENCES
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THE TEMPEST
The violent sea storm—the tempest of the title—is the catalyst for what happens in the play. It’s the storm that brings the royal party to Prospero’s island, where all the action takes place….
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ON HIS BLINDNESS
There are several different rhyme patterns for sonnets. All sonnets have fourteen lines, but the division of these lines can vary. The two major rhyme schemes for sonnet poetry, however, are the…
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THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
As Watson approaches the Devonshire setting of Baskerville Hall, Doyle’s imagery–which is description using the five senses–helps set the scene and the mood. The description using the five senses…
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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The “seven lost years” refer to two important periods in Shakespeare’s life about which we know very little. The first period lasted from 1578—the year that Shakespeare left grammar…
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CAGED BIRD
Both Angelou’s poem and her book play on the same metaphor of a caged bird, a wild thing trapped, representing the plight of oppressed peoples, specifically black Americans. Nature in this poem,…
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OLD MAN AT THE BRIDGE
The old man’s hometown is a place called San Carlos. He was forced to leave there on the orders of a captain, who told him to go on account of an artillery bombardment. The town was simply no…
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WILFRED OWEN
A “casual tramp” in this poem stands staring hard at the women who rush to bid farewell to a group of soldiers going off to the front. The tramp appears interested in the soldiers and the poet…
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RABINDRANATH TAGORE
I believe you’re referring to the short story “A Wrong Man in Worker’s Paradise” by Rabindranath Tagore. In the story, a man who’s lived his whole life pursuing no useful work and impulsively…
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LIFE OF PI
Pi and his family, along with a large menagerie from the family zoo, are aboard the good ship Tsimtsum bound for Canada. Initially, all seems plain sailing, both literally and figuratively. But…
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SCIENCE
A plastid is not necessarily a specific cell organelle in the way that a mitochondrion is. A plastid is a category of organelle. A chloroplast would be a specific type of plastid, but not all…
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ONE CRAZY SUMMER
It’s Pa who wants his three girls to go visit their mother Cecile in Oakland. The girls haven’t seen their mother since the youngest sister was born seven years ago, and so Pa thinks it’s high time…