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THE GREAT GATSBY
I absolutely find the major themes and attitudes of the book to be relevant today, almost a hundred years after its publication. Fitzgerald conveys the idea that the American Dream—the notion…
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THE GREAT GATSBY
Nick Carraway is attracted to the glamorous lifestyle of New York City. At one point, he observes the “inexhaustible variety of life.” This line suggests that Nick delights in the diversity of…
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THE GREAT GATSBY
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said about those who are born rich: Let me tell you about the very rich. They think they are different from you and me. . . . They think . . . that they are better…
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HISTORY
The experience of slavery differed between the Southern colonies and the New England colonies primarily because of the differing economies of these regions. The differing economies between New…
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EMILY DICKINSON
Tone is described as the author’s attitude toward the subject. To determine the tone of this Dickinson poem, we must first identify the subject. The subject is the speaker’s encounter with the…
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SHERLOCK HOLMES
Mrs. Windibank conspires with her husband to ensure that her daughter, Miss Sutherland, is seduced and abandoned just before her forthcoming wedding to Mr. Hosmer Angel. Of course, the caddish Mr….
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OBASAN
Spiders are a recurring symbol in Obasan. They represent memory, an important theme in the story. It’s notable that when Aunt Aya—the Obasan of the title—goes up to the attic to find a box of…
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LITERATURE
One of the most important themes of this story has to do with the problems that arise when a person continues to hold on to antiquated ideas and prejudices. The narration is third-person limited…
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FAHRENHEIT 451
Ray Bradbury and George Orwell’s novels share many similarities and Bradbury was clearly influenced by Orwell’s approach to dealing with authoritarian regimes while creating a protagonist opposed…
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A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS
The significance of names in Gabriel García Márquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” serves several purposes. First, several major characters remain nameless in the story. These…
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THE SCARLET LETTER
Chillingworth is to a degree a symbol of the hypocrisy and generally negative forces Hawthorne identifies in the society of the seventeenth-century New England Puritans. Though Hester and…
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THE GIVER
Jonas’s stable, organized, and highly structured community subscribes to the concept of Sameness, where individuality does not exist and the natural environment is altered to ensure stability,…
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MACBETH
In act one, scene three, Macbeth and Banquo initially meet the Three Witches, who offer both of them favorable prophecies. The witches refer to Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and…
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UP IN MICHIGAN
One theme in “Up in Michigan” has to do with gender roles. Liz Coates is a sheltered, subservient young woman who looks to others for cues about how to conduct herself. Though she is attracted to…
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THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS
Ray Bradbury includes the full text of Sara Teasdale’s poem “There Will Come Soft Rains” within the short story. Just prior to the house being destroyed, the home’s artificial intelligence…
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THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS
Ray Bradbury depicts how an automated home in Allendale, California carries on its day-to-day operations in the year 2026 following a devastating nuclear attack. The empty home is eventually…
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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Elizabeth Bennett sets off to Netherfield Park in chapter 7 of Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, after receiving a letter from her older sister and closest companion, Jane. Jane tells…
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HISTORY
Emmett Till was an African American boy who was famously lynched in the state of Mississippi in 1955, after a white woman had accused him of whistling at her and making advances towards her. Two…
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THE LOTTERY
Both Suzanne Collins and Shirley Jackson illustrate society’s propensity for violence and cruelty, as well as humanity’s inherent desire to carry on outdated traditions and customs. In Suzanne…
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THE NECKLACE
It certainly changes her outward appearance. When Madame Forestier catches up with her years later, she doesn’t recognize Mathilde. Mathilde has been thoroughly worn out and prematurely aged as the…
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AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN
P.D. James is the author of the 1972 detective novel An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. The novel focuses on the young private detective Cordelia Gray who inherits her partner’s failing detective…
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AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN
When one thinks of popular fictional detectives, one likely jumps right to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, perhaps Hercule Poirot, or Inspector Clouseau, or even Encyclopedia Brown and the Hardy…
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AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN
The protagonist of the story is Cordelia Gray, a twenty-two year old who has just inherited a private investigator agency from her boss, Bernie Pryde. Bernie had just learned that he had cancer and…
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AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN
One major theme conveyed by this text is that appearances are often deceiving. For starters, many people underestimate Cordelia Gray simply because she is a young woman and, perhaps, does not…
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AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN
Twenty-two year old Cordelia Gray arrives at work to find that her boss, Bernie Pryde, has killed himself. In his note, he says that he learned he had cancer and decided to “take the easy way out”…
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THE CRUCIBLE
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Shakespeare’s Macbeth share similar themes and are loosely based on historical events and figures. Arthur Miller’s play is based on the Salem witch trials, which…
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THE BET
We could argue that the banker’s recklessness and love of gambling foreshadow the financial problems which he experiences later in the story. When the story opens, the banker is clearly a very…
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DEATH IN THE DAWN
As the title of Soyinka’s poem suggests, one of its major thematic ideas is death. In addition, the poem explores issues of man’s role on earth, his impact on nature, and the impact of…
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HISTORY
The 1993 movie Schindler’s List raised significant awareness of the atrocities that were committed by Nazi Germany against the Jewish people during World War II. These atrocities are commonly…
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ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE
An annotation comments on or explains a text or a part of a text (Merriam-Webster). In this case, the goal is to comment on or explain the following lines from “Ode to a Nightingale” by John…
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ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE
This is a quotation from the seventh stanza of John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale.” As the title indicates, this poem is addressed directly to the nightingale. The type of direct address we see in…
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LORD OF THE FLIES
Symbolism is defined as the use of concrete objects to represent abstract ideas. Both William Golding and Suzanne Collins use symbolism in these novels to illustrate thematic ideas. In Lord of the…
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HISTORY
When he’s a young boy about the age of seven or eight, Frederick is sent to Baltimore to live with Mr. Hugh Auld, the brother of Captain Anthony’s son-in-law. Initially, all seems well at the Auld…
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HISTORY
The two settlements, Jamestown and Plymouth, were so different because they were started for different reasons. Jamestown was established solely as a money-making venture. Many of the early…
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LITERATURE
Georges D’Anthès was the man who killed the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in a duel. The adopted son of the Dutch Ambassador, D’Anthès was a dashing young French cavalry officer who…
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LAW AND POLITICS
There are both advantages and disadvantages to settling out of court. A 2008 study published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies and reviewed by the New York Times, however, provided evidence…
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CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE
A Spenserian stanza consists of nine lines arranged in an ababbcbcc rhyme scheme. The first eight lines are iambic pentameters, ten-syllable lines with five instances of an unstressed syllable…
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LINES COMPOSED A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY
Technically, this poem by William Wordsworth only has five stanzas. However, this makes it sound as if it is a much shorter poem than is actually the case. This poem is not written in a regular…
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AN ESSAY ON MAN
Pope’s argument concerning religion in An Essay on Man is basically that people are not in a position to know enough about the universe to enable them to question God’s plan and, still less, the…
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LITERATURE
Sanford’s short story is told in the first person with copious amounts of interior monologue. The monologue takes the form of the remembering self, the experiencing self, and also a self-reflective…
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LITERATURE
The story is told by an unnamed narrator, who is recounting her memories of Khazna, a woman who is both a professional mourner and beautician for brides. The story is told in three simple parts….
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BATTLE ROYAL
The advice of the narrator’s grandfather crops up at various points throughout the text. The most notable instance takes place during the grandfather’s last few hours on earth. As he lies on his…
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HISTORY
Largely due to the efforts of William Penn, the Middle Colonies developed a relatively diverse society and successful economy. As a Quaker, Penn encouraged and supported religious and cultural…
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HISTORY
Economically speaking, Europeans, especially the English, found African slaves a cheaper alternative to indentured servitude. If we look back at early English settlements in the Americas, we notice…
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HISTORY
New England was settled mainly by families, as the settlers were commonly Puritans seeking religious freedom in the New World. By contrast, the Chesapeake was originally settled by single men…
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HISTORY
In 1517, a German monk named Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church by composing the 95 Theses. In his 95 theses, Luther took issue with the direction of the Catholic Church, particularly…
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HISTORY
The arrival of Europeans in the Americas had a profound effect not only on the Americas but also on the world as a whole. For the first time, there would be a sustained connection between the Old…
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HEALTH
An excellent choice for an HIV case study would be Gaëtan Dugas (1953–1984), a Canadian flight attendant who became notorious as “Patient Zero” in the initial stages of the AIDS epidemic in the…
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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…