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FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER
The story First They Killed My Father is a passionate and tear-jerking account by Loung Ung, one of the survivors of the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields. Loung, now an adult, retraces her childhood…
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THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
HeLa cells are cervical cancer cells taken from an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks in 1951. The cells were taken from Ms. Lacks without her knowledge or consent while she was…
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THE CAY
As he is still only a young boy, and therefore somewhat naïve, Phillip doesn’t quite fathom the full extent of the danger he’s in. The only knowledge of war that Phillip has comes from reading…
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THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET
In the section titled “Cathy Queen of Cats,” Esperanza makes her first friend in her new neighborhood. Cathy tells Esperanza that the reason her family is moving is that the neighborhood is…
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FRINDLE
Mrs. Granger’s famous battle cry, one that all her students past and present know all too well, is “Look it up! That’s why we have the dictionary.” Mrs. Granger teaches her class that words gain…
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MACBETH
This is an interesting question—and one that requires much thought. Does murder start in the hand, when the act is committed, or does it start in the mind, when the act is first thought of as a…
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REFERENCE
As a matter of necessity, all teachers should be knowledgeable about high-quality children’s literature. Literacy is a foundational skill that aids in the development of critical thinking and…
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HISTORY
Common Sense is a very famous work of political theory by the American revolutionary Tom Paine. Soon after it was published, it became a hugely influential book among supporters of the Revolution…
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LITERATURE
Divine intervention in Oedipus Rex takes more of an indirect form than is often the case in Greek tragedy, and provides the background against which the action unfolds. Apollo has already deemed…
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THE ALCHEMIST
Earlier in the story, the Englishman tells Santiago that one is closest to the Soul of the World when one yearns exclusively for a specific purpose. The Englishman also contends that the Soul of…
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HISTORY
The Stamp Act was notable—not to say, notorious—for being the first internal tax levied directly on the American colonists by the British government. The Act imposed a tax on all printed matter…
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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
The opening line of this novel is quite famous: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Such a line begins to…
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BLACK ROBE
Black Robe is a novel written by Brian Moore. It was first published in 1985. It is set in the 17th century, in the part of North America then known as New France, which we now know as Canada. It…
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MISS TEMPY’S WATCHERS
Before you can start answering this question, you need to ensure you understand what each of these terms means. Once that has been established, it’s easier to think about these concepts within the…
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MISS TEMPY’S WATCHERS
Sarah Orne Jowett’s short story “Miss Tempy’s Watchers” tells of two women, Mrs. Crowe and Sarah Ann Binson, passing a long night “watching over” the house and body of a third woman, Miss…
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BENITO CERENO
Since this is a personal opinion question, I will offer a few suggestions that you can consider. One way to approach this writing is by trying to understand why Delano is unable to notice what is…
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MISS TEMPY’S WATCHERS
In this short story, two older women, Mrs. Crowe and Sarah Ann Binson, who have belonged to different “parties” all their lives (meaning that they came from different parts of society) meet in the…
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HISTORY
Post–Civil War expansion of the United States had a largely negative effect on Native Americans, a trend which had continued since the earliest arrival of Europeans in the Americas. Thriving…
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SCIENCE
The heart is a muscular structure whose purpose is to pump blood through the body. The heart valves serve to direct the flow of blood in one direction, and they are made of sheets of connective…
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SCIENCE
In the most generalized notion of a mechanical valve system, the open and shut operations are controlled by oblong lobes, called cams, that rotate on the axis of a connected shaft, called the…
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THE OUTSIDERS
Imagery is defined as the use of sensory details (descriptions that appeal to the five senses) in order to create a picture in the reader’s mind. In S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, imagery is not…
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LAW AND POLITICS
I would argue that there are certainly both positive and negative consequences to governing by public opinion. Governing by public opinion would demonstrate the influence of the public in…
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GRASS
Carl Sandburg’s “Grass” is a short but powerful poem which utilizes the imagery of grass covering the dead of famous battles to represent the passage of time leading to healing or, arguably,…
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THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO
The flashbacks in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” show how Harry, dying of an infected leg wound in Africa, mentally processes the fact that he is going to die, and the effect of that realization on his…
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MISS TEMPY’S WATCHERS
There are only three characters in Sarah Orne Jowett’s short story “Miss Tempy’s Watchers,” and they are Temperance Dent (Miss Tempy) and her two longtime friends, Mrs. Crowe and Sarah Ann Binson….
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MISS TEMPY’S WATCHERS
“Miss Tempy’s Watchers” is a subtle, quiet story in which much of the action happens within the characters, rather than around them. The watchers, Mrs. Crowe and Sarah Ann Binson, are the deceased…
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MISS TEMPY’S WATCHERS
When we consider the point of view of a text, we usually want to establish not only whether it is written from a first person, third person, or second person point of view, but also what kind of…
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FRANKENSTEIN
Victor initially wants to experience the glory of creating life. He works obsessively for years on the project of animating dead body parts. This experience has a negative impact on his health and…
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HISTORY
The Korean war spanned from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953. In 1945, by the end of World War II, Korea was freed from Japanese control. Syngman Rhee ruled the capitalist South Korea while Kim…
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THE FAULT IN OUR STARS
Hazel has been diagnosed with Stage 4 thyroid cancer. As well as the damaging impact this has on her physical health, it also affects her psychological well-being. Hazel becomes understandably…
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WOODY GUTHRIE
Guthrie uses balanced phrasing, or parallel structure, to communicate the theme of the song. This phrasing also establishes the melody when the song is sung. The benefit of balanced phrasing is…
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THE SCARLET LETTER
The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s internal conflict in The Scarlet Letter stems from his external hypocrisy. He has engaged in a passionate romantic and sexual affair with Hester, conceived a…
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THE LOVELY BONES
Franny is a flat, minor character in Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones. When Susie is murdered suddenly at the hands of her neighbor Mr. Harvey, she discovers that the afterlife is much…
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RABBIT HOLE
In Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire, Becca is a grieving housewife dealing with the death of her young son Danny. Becca’s grief is aggravated by her sister’s pregnancy. Her way of dealing with…
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HISTORY
I would argue that the American Revolution was most certainly revolutionary. A group of colonial subjects in a far-flung corner of the British Empire came together to fight—and defeat—what was…
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ROMEO AND JULIET
At the very end of Romeo and Juliet, Prince Escalus casts a lot of blame around. He certainly blames the patriarchs of the Capulets and the Montagues for the death of the two young lovers. Where…
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LANGSTON HUGHES
In both of these Langston Hughes’ poems, Hughes embodies various personas to illustrate the problems African Americans faced in housing discrimination. In “Ballad of the Landlord,” the…
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LITERATURE
A conceit is a comparison–a simile or metaphor, for instance–of a complicated nature in which the the poet deliberately chooses two unlike things and then proceeds, often in a very elaborate way,…
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SONG FOR A DARK GIRL
There are only three references to color in this poem, but they serve to emphasize the division between blacks and whites in the Southern society the poem describes. The titular “dark girl” seems…
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DREAM VARIATIONS
The speaker in this poem does not identify him- or herself. However, there are elements in the poem which give us some clues as to his identity. In the first place, the title, “Dream Variations,”…
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TIME’S ARROW
When Odilo is known as Dr. Friendly, working with children in the hospital, the narrator talks about one family in particular. Mrs. Goldman has two children, an infant and a little girl of three…
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TIME’S ARROW
Time’s Arrow is a novel about human cruelty, in which the story is told backwards in time. Odilo Unverdorben (his surname ironically means “unspoiled,” or “uncorrupted” in German) is a Nazi doctor…
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TIME’S ARROW
The character first introduced as Tod T. Friendly is later known as John Young (in New York), and then Hamilton de Souza (in Portugal), and, finally, his original identity, Odilo Unverdorben. We…
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TIME’S ARROW
The most obvious theme of Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow is stated as the title of the first chapter: “What goes around comes around.” The Nazi doctor Odilo Unverdorben is shown in a state of almost…
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TIME’S ARROW
Time’s Arrow follows the life of a German man named Odilo Unverdorben; however, it does so in reverse, beginning with his death and old age and ending with his early childhood and infancy. The book…
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FAHRENHEIT 451
Bradbury uses different characters in the novel to make readers aware of the need for a purpose in life. Mildred is the most stark example of a person who suffers from not having any sense of…
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RELIGION
Thomas Merton was a philosophical Catholic writer and Trappist monk who espoused his theological musings in prolific writings during his lifetime. A famous quote of Merton’s that discusses…
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WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
Arnold Friend’s physical description is deliberately presented by Oates as being similar to that of Bob Dylan. This is not surprising given that the book is actually dedicated to Bob Dylan and that…
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DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS
Money is an important symbol in the play, not least because its relation to each character tells us quite a lot about them. Eben buys out his half brothers, so he can have a better claim on his…
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REFERENCE
Whether a substance is an acid or a base is dependent on its pH level. If a substance has a pH of more than 7, then it is a basic. If the pH level is lower than 7, then that substance is acidic. In…