What are 10 examples of figurative language in The Scarlet Letter? Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

With his
seminal novel, Scarlet Letter,sets in motion the American predilection for
symbol.  And, while symbols are the predominant literary device, there are others that are
employed such asand :

SYMBOL

• which first
  represents the sin of adultery that Hester has committed.  Later in the
  novel, this symbol's meaning changes to that of Angel as Scarlet so
  selflessly devotes herself to helping the ill of the community.  Then, as Hester nurses the
  ailing and aged, and sews for others, her symbolic A represents the word
  Able.
•  The
  characterherself is a symbol, representing the sins and passions of her parents, Scarlet and the
  Reverend .  In the forest Pearl arranges eel-grass to form a green A on her
  own breast.
• Theof the Reverend Mr. Wilson , andare symbolic of the Puritan
  worlds of church, state, and witchcraft respectively.
• The groups of unnamed
  somber and self-righteous Puritans in the market place who talk of Hester are also
  representative of Puritanism in general.
• The iron door, "the black
  flower of society," and scaffold are symbols of the restrictiveness and humiliation doled
  out by the Puritan community.
• The scaffold also represents the open
  acknowledgment of personal sin.
• The rose outside the prison is the
  tenacious passion and independence ofthat no scaffold or punishment can kill.


• The letter A upon the breast of the Reverend Dimmesdale
  represents his guilt over his secret-sin.
• The letter A against the black
  background on Hester and Dimmesdales' tombstone serves to unite them in their transgression and
  love.
• Night is used as a symbol for concealment and day for exposure.
  
• The sun is used as a symbol of untroubled, guiltless happiness; it also
  represents the approval of nature and of God.
• The forest represents the
  world of darkness and evil.  It also represents the natural world away from the Puritan
  community where Pearl can run freely and where Hester can take down her hair and be affectionate
  with Dimmesdale.

IMAGERY

• Light/dark imagery comes into play especially when Hester and Pearl are in
  the forest and the shadows fall on Hester.
• Gray is a predominant color used
  to represent the Puritan austerity.  The opening paragraph of the novel depicts the Puritans' in
  their "sad-coloured garments and grey, steeple-crowned hats..." before the iron dor
  studded with "iron spikes."
• Green is used to refer to nature. In
  the forest, a natural setting away from the Puritan community, Pearl makes an A
  upon her breast with green eel-grass.
• Black is used to connote
  evil and the sinister character ofas well as the "Black Man" who performs the Satan's
  Mass in the primeivel forest.

IRONY

• When Hester brings Pearl to the governor's mansion, the governor, himself a
  Puritan, has a fantastic home with suits of armor with a sword and resplendent ornamental
  English garden and stained glass windows. There the Reverend Wilson, a prominent Puritan
  clergyman, both delight in the sight of the crimson-attired Pearl, who recalls for them their
  "days of vanity, in old King james's time, when [the governor] attended a mask."  And,
  the Rev. Wilson recalls,"Methinks I have seen just such figures, when the sun has been
  shining through a richly painted window, and tracing out the golden and crimson images across
  the floor.  But that was in the old land. [An Anglican church!]  The leaders of the Puritan
  colony are themselves hypocrites, yet they condemn Hester.
• When Rev.
  Dimmesdale confesses to the congregation that he is "the worst of sinners," the
  congregation interprets his words as an attempt at humility, and, instead, "did but
  reverence him  the more."  While Dimmesdale wants the crowd to shun him, but they do and
  think just the opposite.

What are some phrases which describe the scenery in Lord of the Flies?

From the
start, some of the phrases with describe the scenery of flora and fauna on the island sound
ominous. For instance, in chapter 1, a boy

was clambering
heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed
upwards with a witch-like cry ...

Creepers, broken, and
witch-like are descriptive words which create an unsettling tone. In fact, the word
"creeper" is used 38 times in the novel to describe the thick jungle vines, as in

I cant hardly move with all these creeper
things.

In chapter 4, too, the scenery is described in
terms of a mirage:

Strange things happened at midday. The
glittering sea rose up, moved apart in planes of blatant impossibility; the coral reef and the
few stunted palms that clung to the more elevated parts would float up into the sky, would
quiver, be plucked apart, run like raindrops on a wire or be repeated as in an odd succession of
mirrors.

Words like "strange,"
"stunted," "plucked apart," and "odd" add to sense of the setting
as eery or off-kilter. It also contains "snapping sharks," while the sun is likened to
an "angry eye."

In chapter 9, the scenery continues to be ominous
and oppressive. For example:

revolving masses of gas piled
up the static until the air was ready to explode.

We
learn, too, of a "brassy glare" and that nothing "prospered" but flies.
There is a sense of foreboding in this description of setting:

Colors drained from water and trees and pink surfaces of rock, and the white and brown
clouds brooded.

By the end of the novel, after the huge
fire:

the island was scorched up like dead wood

There is much sense of desolation and foreboding in this setting,
which reinforces the theme that evil will explode and destroy in a natural, untamed setting.

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is 13, but how old is Romeo?

is the very famous
story of the two "star-crossed lovers" ( to Act I, line 6) who are doomed to fail in
their attempts to overcome the feud which has dominated the Montague and Capulet families for as
long as anyone can remember. They clearly underestimate the stubbornness of their parents and
the hatred in their hearts which even extends to the servants who bear as much animosity towards
the opposing household as they would towards a true enemy.

and 's inability
to grasp the true depth of feeling involved in this "grudge" (Prologue, line 3) gives
an indication of just how young they both are. Neither Juliet nor Romeo appreciates the
complexity of the problem and they even believe that denying their ancestry may be enough.
Juliet ponders that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" (II.ii.44)
suggesting that a family name should not have any bearing on her relationship with Romeo and she
has come to the conclusion that it is "but thy name that is my enemy" (38). Romeo is
also willing to renounce everything for her because as he says, his "name is hateful to
myself" (55). Romeo is not yet old enough to understand that he would be expected to uphold
the resentment and loathing in honor of his family name.  

The ages of Romeo
and Juliet are significant in understanding how they come to such a tragic end because it is
their youth and inexperience and their inability to see beyond their immediate circumstances
that causes them, Romeo in particular, to act so irrationally. Romeo is so overwhelmed by his
circumstances and so immature in his actions that he is apparently just a teenager of perhaps
sixteen years old, definitely younger than eighteen because by eighteen a young man of his
standing would be expected to be able to lead men into battle and so he would not act so
impulsively. 

What are two things Brom does to get back at Icabod for trying to steal his girl?

Brom and
Ichabod both want to marry the lovely and wealthy Katrina. Brom realizes they are rivals and
itches to fight it out openly with Ichabod, the winner taking Katrina. Ichabod, skinny and
weaker than the tall, broad, muscular Brom, naturally evades that kind of battle. As the
narrator puts it, this avoidance of battle ("pacific system") is very irritating
("provoking") to Brom:

There was something
extremely provoking in this obstinately pacific system; it left Brom no alternative but to draw
upon the funds of rustic waggery in his disposition, and to play off boorish practical jokes
upon his rival.

Brom, therefore, gets together with his
"gang" and they play the following "practical jokes" on Ichabod
Crane:

They stop up the chimney and smoke out his singing school.

They break into his school at night and ransack it (turn it
"topsy-turvy").

Brom teases ("ridicules") Crane in front
of Katrina and teaches his dog to whine when he sees Crane.

Finally, Brom
fakes up the "headless horsemen" and terrifies Crane into running away and not coming
back.

Brom is popular, robust, and the "hero" of the piece, but he
comes across as a bully. We wonder how Katrina will fare with him as a
husband.

What effect did developments in technology have on the American way of life in the 1950s?

Technologies that had been developed earlier than the 1950s were bottlenecked by the
economic collapse of the 1930s and then by World War II, so many technologies first became
widespread in the 1950s in the US as the standard of living rose and people could afford to
adopt them.

Labor-saving devices such as fully automatic washers became far
more prevalent in the 1950s, making life easier for housewives. The widespread use of
refrigerators and freezers also eased the burden on housewives, as they did not have to go the
market as often to buy perishable food items. Small appliances became more affordable and also
reduced the housewife's workload. By the end of the decade, women were increasingly able to
leave the home to take on part-time jobs. Women's desires for fuller lives would explode into
the woman's movement of the 1960s.

Advances in medical technology meant
that, by 1955, people could be vaccinated against polio, getting rid of fear of a dreaded
disease. Increased access to...

Compare and contrast how the labor unions, the Populists, and the Progressives responded to the changes wrought by industrialization and corporate...

Ultimately,
this question refers to the political and economic realities taking shape under the Gilded Age,
when business operations were getting larger and larger, as the United States transitioned into
the Industrial Age. The thing to keep in mind about this era is that it was defined by
laissez-faire capitalism, and there were no regulations in place to protect the rights of
workers as there are in today's United States. Poor wages, dangerous working conditions,
extraordinarily long hours, child labor: these were all common to the time period in
question.

In some respects, the most difficult part of your question to
address is the subject of unionization. Unlike the Populists and the Progressives (which tend to
reflect specific political movements), there were multiple approaches and organizations which
have collectively shaped the history of labor in the United States. The earliest national
unionization movement (The National Labor Union), for example, looked towards
political...

In the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, what does Edwards mean when he says, The bow of Gods wrath is bent, and the arrow made...

In the
sermon , Edwards admonishes his audience to turn to God before they are
damned to Hell because of their own inherent wicked nature. Edwards spends a great deal of the
sermon reminding his listeners not to waste time and to make a decision for God right away. By
providing theof a strung bow, Edwards demonstrates the swiftness of God's wrath, which is
symbolized by an arrow. Edwards also demonstrates through this metaphor that God is in control
of the sinner's fate just as an archer is in control of when and where to shoot the
arrow.

While many in Edwards's congregation might not have fired a bow, they
realized that the bow was a more reliable weapon than the firearms of that time. By using this
metaphor, Edwards made sure to drive home the point that God's wrath was sure if the listener
did not repent. If the listeners did repent and turn to Jesus, then they would be spared the
wrath of God, just as archers can change their minds...