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Articles from Paul Thompson | Selfgrowth.com
- Doing the Wrong Thing the Right Way: A Look at the Characters in Macbeth and Hamlet - by Submitted on Oct 23, 2009 from Paul Thompson"The Tragedy of Macbeth" and "The Tragedy of Hamlet" are Shakespeare’s most widely read plays featuring royalty as main characters. Both are about the violent overthrow of the throne, both contain plenty of needless casualties, and both are gruesome enough to drive their leading ladies to ...
Views: 755(1 vote) - Huck Finn, Great Expectations or To Kill a Mockingbird: What a person's favorite book says about him or her - by Submitted on Jan 07, 2011 from Paul ThompsonNot everyone has a favorite book. It's certainly not a requirement. But with all the novels that have been written through the centuries, it's pretty shocking to meet someone who can't think of just one book that they've read that they like the most. It's worrisome, to be honest. Of course, not ...
Views: 991(1 vote) - What's Your Great Gatsby? Love story, 1920s story or money story? - by Submitted on Jan 07, 2011 from Paul ThompsonF. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel, The Great Gatsby, like a lot of novels that have withstood the test f time, means a lot of different things to different people. To some, it's a love story. Jay Gatsby is in love with Daisy, but if unable to pursue her because he doesn't have enough ...
Views: 1401(1 vote) - FDR and Mark Twain Quotes, and Why We Love to Quote Them - by Submitted on Oct 12, 2009 from Paul ThompsonSamuel Langhorn Clemens (better known as Mark Twain) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt don't seem to have especially much in common except for the fact that they are both as American as apple pie – which, true to form, is actually a British concoction. Both have cool nicknames ("Mark Twain" and ...
Views: 1517(2 votes) - J. Alfred Prufrock, and the Dilemma of Teaching 21st Century Students - by Submitted on Aug 17, 2009 from Paul ThompsonNow that the fall semester is gearing up, you’re probably cooking up new ways of getting today’s students engaged in their studies. And since conducting class via Twitter sounds neither feasible nor appealing, it might be time to look into your other options.With more and more sites like ...
Views: 1423(2 votes) - What the Female Catcher in the Rye Characters Tell Us About Holden Caulfield - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2009 from Paul ThompsonThe main theme of The Catcher in the Rye is isolation, which is interesting coming from a guy who spills his guts to the world for 200 pages. Nevertheless, the contradiction characterizes Holden Caulfield perfectly; he can’t decide whether to call all his buddies together for a round of drinks ...
Views: 2668(3 votes) - Hamlet, The Catcher in the Rye, and the Age-Old Story of Teen Angst - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2010 from Paul ThompsonDespite what marketers would have you believe, angst is not just a gelled, chiseled, perfectly unkempt product of the Twilight phenomenon. Holden Caulfield is king of twentieth-century angst, and he was kicking around with a buzz cut back in the 1950’s. Søren Kierkegaard set the philosophical ...
Views: 1445(1 vote) - Know Your Roosevelts: a Look at the Lives of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Teddy Roosevelt - by Submitted on Apr 23, 2010 from Paul ThompsonFranklin Delano Roosevelt was born in 1882 into an extremely wealthy family. We’re talking townhouse in Hyde Park, summer home in Maine, private railroad car wealthy. Contrary to what you might expect, however, his upbringing was extremely disciplined. As a child he had a strict daily routine, ...
Views: 1191(1 vote) - Lyrical Contradictions in Sweet Home Alabana, Livin’ on a Prayer, and Paper Plans - by Submitted on Apr 23, 2010 from Paul ThompsonSweet Home Alabama is the ubiquitous feel-good song. It lends itself to everything from summer road trips to drunken frat parties to scenes of Forrest Gump dancing inflexibly with his Jenny. Its easy mix of blues, country, and rock tends to obscure the fact that it’s been a politically-charged ...
Views: 1238(1 vote) - Romeo and Juliet, Sweat, and the Value of Vulgarity in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - by Submitted on Aug 10, 2009 from Paul Thompson“To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin.” Okay, so maybe this isn’t the first line that jumps to mind when you think of the great American classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but it’s a darn important one.Ernest Hemingway wrote that Huck Finn is “the best book we've had. All American ...
Views: 1318(3 votes) - Want to Save College Tuition? More Students than Ever are Taking AP English and AP US History Exams - by Submitted on Apr 23, 2010 from Paul ThompsonCompetition to get into college has gotten out of control. The playbook on admissions strategies has become fatter than the college textbooks themselves - which is saying something if you've ever had to tote around the Fundamentals of Physics series. Nowadays there are programs that coach ...
Views: 851(1 vote) - The Columbian Exchange Beginning with Spanish Colonization - by Submitted on Aug 10, 2009 from Paul ThompsonThe Europeans’ so-called discovery of the so-called New World goes down in history as one of the most important and earth-shattering moments in human history, ranking right up there with the advent of agriculture, the domestication of animals, and the discovery of the use of fire. Although the ...
Views: 4260(2 votes) - Lies, Innuendo and Oneupmanship in Shakespeare's Poetry - by Submitted on Aug 17, 2009 from Paul ThompsonShakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” is unique in its unglamorous portrayal of the so-called “Dark Lady” to whom it is addressed. In it, the narrator offers us a startlingly generous list of differences between the Dark Lady and your stereotypical beauty: she has ugly lips, a bad complexion, frizzy hair, ...
Views: 1548(3 votes) - Animal Farm Makes Politics Seem Almost Interesting - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2011 from Paul ThompsonSorry to interrupt - we’re sure you’re probably in the middle of watching an old VHS (VH-what now?) tape of the 1988 Vice Presidential debate. Or perhaps you’re simply catching up on all those saved DVR recordings of C-Span programming. All right, so maybe it’s more likely that you’re ramming ...
Views: 717 - AP Calculus and/or AP English Language: How To Choose Your AP Exams - by Submitted on Jul 07, 2011 from Paul ThompsonMany high school students choose to enroll in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses because they believe that taking more rigorous courses will help them get into their top-choice universities. This is definitely true (though the student also needs to do very well in those ...
Views: 632 - AP US Government, the SAT, and a bunch of other stuff - by Submitted on Apr 08, 2011 from Paul ThompsonConcentration camps. Third Reich. Axis. Allies. Hitler. Mussolini. FDR. Winston Churchill. Imagine your now-grandfather hearing these words and names in every-day conversation as a senior in high school in early 1941. Would he even know who Hitler was? Does anyone in his family follow ...
Views: 662 - AP US History + the ACT = you? - by Submitted on Apr 12, 2011 from Paul ThompsonClose your eyes (perhaps squint so you can still read this) and imagine this scenario: You are a junior in high school sitting in a class. Not just any class, but a class with your favorite teacher and your favorite subject. US History. AP US History to be exact. It’s the first day of class ...
Views: 642 - Bittersweet Redemption in The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter - by Submitted on Mar 25, 2011 from Paul ThompsonThe concept of redemption is a popular one in literature. Perhaps the very first story of redemption is the story of the Prodigal Son. It comes from the New Testament, and is a story of two brothers. The older brother is obedient and hardworking; the other leaves the family home, squanders his ...
Views: 6146 - Boys Will Be Boys: Tales of Mischief in Tom Sawyer and Lord of the Flies - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2011 from Paul ThompsonEveryone loves a good bad boy. Our media-driven society is obsessed with them, those rebels without causes, those paragons of the uber-masculine and virile. Think Charlie Sheen, George Clooney or Russell Crowe. They challenge society with a sly, charismatic smile. We’re drawn to them. In ...
Views: 1250 - Brave New World Gives Sleep-Teaching a Bad Name - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2011 from Paul ThompsonYou may have experienced a phenomenon known as ‘sleep-teaching’ in some of your classes. In your case, however, this probably involved your forehead drooping and gradually coming to rest against your desk as your teacher droned on and on from the front of the classroom about the importance of ...
Views: 897 - CAHSEE, AP Exams and the SAT: Oh, My! - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2011 from Paul ThompsonStandardized tests seem to be universally disliked. Students hate studying for them, hate taking the myriad practice tests that instructors (or their parents) will frequently require, hate the tests themselves, hate waiting weeks for the results, and, depending on how they did, hate re-taking ...
Views: 557 - Catcher in the Rye, Macbeth, Great Gatsby: What Your Favorite Quotes Say About You - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2011 from Paul ThompsonAlmost everyone has a favorite quote; something they find especially touching, thought-provoking, intelligent, or just funny. Some people's favorite quotes are ironic, some are serious, and some just make absolutely no sense. Previously, true quote-fanatics had only a limited number of ways to ...
Views: 875 - Choosing Your AP Course: AP English Language and AP Microeconomics - by Submitted on Jan 28, 2011 from Paul ThompsonAny savvy high school student has known that he or she should take Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses if he or she wants to be a competitive applicant to top universities. College admissions are definitely getting more and more competitive, but high school students are ...
Views: 616 - Classics like Romeo and Juliet Adapted for the Screen and the new Great Gatsby Movie and its Setting - by Submitted on Nov 16, 2011 from Paul ThompsonChose a classic and chances are it has been adapted into a movie or television show. Some of the adaptations may be exactly as the original version was and others may take liberties, but it seems as though a classic untouched by Hollywood is about as common as a movie version of the SAT. Why are ...
Views: 829 - Considering honesty in literature in Diary of Anne Frank (Written during World War II) and To Kill a Mockingbird - by Submitted on Nov 16, 2011 from Paul ThompsonWriters like to talk about “honesty” and “truth.” They aim to tell an “honest” tale, reveal “honesty” in characters, or get the “truth” of a story on the page. What does it mean? In a fictional novel, the truth authors seek is a sincere understanding of the world and the characters they have ...
Views: 952 - Death, Dating, and Crazy Shut-Ins: Southern Gothic Writing in “A Rose for Emily” and To Kill a Mockingbird - by Submitted on Jul 20, 2009 from Paul ThompsonSouthern Gothic is an American subgenre of the Gothic style, which is probably most familiar to you from the Brontë sisters of Victorian England. (No, we’re not talking Hot Topic here.) Like its European progenitor, the Southern Gothic style relies heavily on the supernatural – only with less ...
Views: 2134 - Depictions of Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Social Psychology of Prejudice - by Submitted on Nov 17, 2011 from Paul ThompsonRight around the age of 10, there is a marked shift in a child's perspective. The world is no longer simply a wonderland of curiosities, but a popularity contest. Girls begin to wear makeup and form cliques, and boys become showmen, proving themselves with their fists. Think of Mean Girls or ...
Views: 2850 - Don't Mix Up WWII and the Vietnam War: Study tips for the AP US History Exam - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2010 from Paul ThompsonStudying for history exams is generally one of the more painful tasks a high school student can take on. While history itself can be a fascinating subject, full of intrigue, drama, and betrayal, studying for a history exam is generally anything other the fascinating. It consists of memorizing ...
Views: 739 - Double Double, Toil and Trouble: Assessing the Supernatural through the Macbeth Summary and Quotes - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2011 from Paul ThompsonThe supernatural is big these days. The Harry Potter film franchise just wrapped up, Twilight is still on the boy-crazed minds of adolescent girls (and a handful of older woman), while the ever popular True Blood book and TV show series is satisfying the grown-up purveyors of the magical and ...
Views: 1139 - Editing Huckleberry Finn and Removing the French and Indian War from AP US History - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2011 from Paul ThompsonThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain, has been critically acclaimed and the subject of much controversy since its publication in 1885. It’s not surprising that Twain’s fearless exploration of racism through the relationship between thirteen-year-old Huckleberry Finn, and ...
Views: 819 - Endurance as a virtue in The Scarlett Letter, Antigone and To Kill a Mockingbird quotes - by Submitted on Aug 30, 2011 from Paul ThompsonEndurance is a virtue that we, as a Westernized society, place a great deal of worth in. To withstand intense pain, strife or just plain unpleasantness—or even muster up the strength to resist an endlessly tempting pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby—is to be respected, appreciated and at times, ...
Views: 1464 - Favorite Book as Personality Test The Catcher in the Rye, The Lord of the Flies and The Outsiders - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2010 from Paul ThompsonA person's favorite book says a lot about who they are. For one, it may be an example of the last time he or she read something. Avid readers tend to place a lot of value on other people's books of choice, but what do certain books say about the people who love them?J.D. Salinger's famous novel ...
Views: 1874 - Female characters in Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2010 from Paul ThompsonWilliam Shakespeare is generally considered an avant-garde writer with progressive ideas about gender. Because of the era in which he wrote, the women in his plays generally had to be wives, servants, or a woman of some type of ill repute. But an examination of the female characters of three of ...
Views: 2710 - Finding Utopia in Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies (Like Acing your AP Calculus Exam without Knowing Addition) - by Submitted on Nov 17, 2011 from Paul ThompsonSince the beginning of time human beings have imagined living in a utopia. It seems simple enough. In a perfect world everyone would live together in harmony, help each other out, there would be no war, no hunger, and no hate. It sounds pretty simple on the surface. Writers William Golding and ...
Views: 1400 - Forget Romeo And Juliet: Hamlet’s teen-like angst a better way to reach teenager readers - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2011 from Paul ThompsonFor high school students, the works of William Shakespeare are not the easiest literature to grasp, much less to get them to care about. The first hurdle, of course, is the language. With all the “LOLs,” “ridics,” and “OMGs” used in a teen’s daily vernacular, Shakespearean verse such as “to be, ...
Views: 3541 - Fresh Prince of SAT prep, The Great Gatsby quotes, and a Macbeth summary – yeah…that’s cool - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2011 from Paul ThompsonNow this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there! I’d like to tell you how I became a prince of a town called… Wait. What? West Egg? Isn’t that where Big Bird was raised??Apparently this isn’t a story about me ...
Views: 958 - From Adulteress to Bombshell: The Continuing Relevance of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter - by Submitted on Nov 16, 2011 from Paul ThompsonIt bears repeating that history repeats itself. Although Arthur Miller's The Crucible is about the Salem Witch Trials in 17th century New England, it is also a biting satire of McCarthyism in the 1950s. Just as colonists tried to save their own skin by accusing community members of witchcraft, ...
Views: 754 - Gender-Bending in Twelfth Night and To Kill a Mockingbird - by Submitted on Nov 17, 2011 from Paul ThompsonMuch stress there is a difference between gender and sex. And there certainly is. Sex is essentially biology, the male and female manifestations or to put it more plainly, the physical parts that come with being male or female. Gender, on the other hand, are the social norms, roles and ideals ...
Views: 1815 - Girl Power: Sourcing the Feminine Strength in To Kill a Mockingbird quotes and Antigone - by Submitted on Jul 29, 2011 from Paul ThompsonWhen it comes to being a girl, To Kill a Mockingbird’s Scout is more spice than sugar. In fact, she is particularly sugar-free. No frilly pink dresses, pretty baby dolls, or sweet make-believe tea parties for her. She is more likely to punch you in the face than smile sweetly at you, especially ...
Views: 1719 - Great American Novel Contenders: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and The Scarlet Letter - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2010 from Paul ThompsonAmongst many clichés in the world of literature is the concept of the Great American Novel. Some argue that it is still waiting to be written, and some argue that it was written long ago and no piece of fiction that follows will ever touch it. This article aims to examine some of the novels that ...
Views: 2937 - Great Gatsby setting as a Prequel to the Great Depression - by Submitted on Nov 17, 2011 from Paul ThompsonF.Scott Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby can be considered as a sort of prequel to the Great Depression. Its tale of social-climbing Midwesterners, illicit money making activities, lavish parties and economic class distinctions makes the novel appear as a critical study of the wealth and excess ...
Views: 1606 - Great Gatsby, Not Such a Great Tipper - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2011 from Paul ThompsonFirst of all, if you the reader happen to be one of the truly disgustingly wealthy that are the subject of this article, then it is probably not for you. We’re likely to do a lot of whining and complaining about how unfair it all is that we have to take the bus to work and you get to travel to ...
Views: 880 - Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet: On the Page and on the Stage - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2011 from Paul ThompsonProfessors can take a lot of approaches when it comes to teaching Shakespeare. Some professors would teach the Bard’s works like they would any other kind of literature: with lots and lots of theory. Economic theory for The Merchant of Venice, racial theory for Othello, psychoanalytic theory for ...
Views: 675 - Hamlet and Romeo Have Tea with Holden Caulfield: Inside Fan-Fiction - by Submitted on Aug 30, 2011 from Paul ThompsonFan fiction has grown in popularity over the last decade. Gone are the days when the audience believed that a character's fate was strictly in the hands of its creator; now they seem to believe that they can decide the future (or at the very least, an alternate reality) of their favorite ...
Views: 874 - Have Great Expectations and You Will Not Be Disappointed - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2011 from Paul ThompsonWe’re sure you’re familiar with the concept of a Hollywood ending. If you’d care for a few examples: the guy finally gets the girl, the bad guy gets caught and locked up, good triumphs over evil, you get a perfect score on your SAT. You know - the stuff dreams are made of.Nearly every Hollywood ...
Views: 783 - How the PSAT is Different from the AP Exams: Study Skills - by Submitted on Aug 30, 2011 from Paul ThompsonIt might seem like the PSAT is not worth a student's time. It's a test that has the word "preliminary" in front of it. The results of this test have no bearing on whether the test taker gets into college, so why all the fuss?There's one very good reason. Besides providing overachieving high ...
Views: 656 - How To Get Into College: Advice on the PSAT, SAT and other college entrance examinations - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2010 from Paul ThompsonCollege admissions are getting more and more competitive all the time, and it's not surprising that today's high school students are feeling anxious about getting admitted to their top choice college. Unfortunately, there's no magic wand to automatically prepare someone for college applications, ...
Views: 657 - Hurry up! Teach the Great Gatsby, finish that PSAT prep course, and get home to Huckleberry Finn - by Submitted on Jun 29, 2011 from Paul ThompsonWhat’s better than mystery, love, deceit, and death? Not much, you say? Then do we have the course for you!Should you decide to take our PSAT prep course not only will you leave with the knowledge you need to be successful on the PSAT, but you will be able to teach The Great Gatsby to your ...
Views: 698 - Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel? - by Submitted on Aug 30, 2011 from Paul ThompsonThe concept of the "Great American Novel" is so pervasive that it has become something of a cliché. Burned out businessman and frustrated housewives and everyone in between has said that they'll take time out to write it, but what if it's already been written? What it it's a book that almost ...
Views: 712 - Know Thy Enemy: A Guide to Successful AP English Literature Test Preparation - by Submitted on Feb 04, 2011 from Paul ThompsonAll one has to do is go to the test preparation section of any major bookstore to see what serious business it is. Books, DVDs, guides, games. There are classes and private tutors and online tutorials and forums galore. Testing has become such a crucial part of the high school experience; no ...
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