Literature
Cliff has answered many Literature questions from other students who need a little help on their homework and tests. Browse this list of questions to find out if Cliff already has an answer for you. If not, return to the Ask Cliff page to ask your Literature question, keeping in mind, of course, that Cliff won't do your homework for you.
| 1. |
I found a funny word in The Glass Castle. Where did skedaddle come from and what does it mean? |
| 2. |
Does sinuous mean something like "full of sin"? I saw the word in The Devil in the White City. |
| 3. |
In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, what is the meaning of the word propaganda? |
| 4. |
What are characteristics of Modernist literature, fiction in particular? |
| 5. |
What does my brother mean when he says he's too ensconced in his studies to look for a girlfriend? |
| 6. |
My grandpa complained about a bunch of politicians making what he called chin music. Did he mean they were in a loud band? |
| 7. |
What is melodrama? |
| 8. |
In Dracula, what's a missal? |
| 9. |
In the terms abject poverty and abject misery, what does abject mean? |
| 10. |
In Moby-Dick, what does craven mean? |
| 11. |
What does cicatrize mean? |
| 12. |
What is a "noisome smell" in Tolstoy's War and Peace? |
| 13. |
What is an apostasy, from the George Bernard Shaw play, Man and Superman? |
| 14. |
In Jane Eyre, what's syncope? |
| 15. |
I just read Dracula. What's the forcemeat in Jonathan Harker's journal? |
| 16. |
Can the word stern mean more than one thing? |
| 17. |
Where is Yoknapatawpha county? |
| 18. |
What does smouch mean? |
| 19. |
I'm supposed to write a comparison of Hektor and Achilles from Homer's The Iliad, but I don't know where to start. |
| 20. |
How do you pronounce quay? And what does it mean, anyway? |
| 21. |
What are some examples of paradox in the novel Frankenstein? |
| 22. |
In Ivanhoe, what does mammock mean? |
| 23. |
What does rummage mean? |
| 24. |
Is a mummer some type of religious person? |
| 25. |
Some guy I don't like told his friend I was acting all demure. What does that mean? |
