Short ID
Shield Sheafson
Beowulf by unknown author, translated by Seamus Heaney
1st named character, king of the Danes
Amen,
Your Sister, Celie
Folkspants, Unlimited
Sugar Avery Drive
Memphis, Tennessee
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Dr. T. J. Eckleburg
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg in The Great Gatsby symbolize the loss of spiritual values in America and the idea of an indifferent or absent God. They loom over the valley of ashes, watching silently as moral decay, greed, and carelessness unfold. To characters like George Wilson, the eyes represent divine judgment, but in the end, they’re just a fading billboard—suggesting that modern life has replaced God with consumerism and emptiness.
I remembered, of course, that the World's Series had been fixed in 1919, but if I had thought of it at all I would have thought of it as a thing that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people--with the single-mindedness of a burglar blowing a safe. (73)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Desdemona
Othello by William Shakespeare
Accused of having an adulterous affair with Cassio, Desdemona's the (white) wife of Othello (known as "the Moor"). She is pure and good and trusting, and Iago uses her goodness against her. At the end of the play, she knows Othello is coming to kill her, yet she willingly goes to her death proclaiming her own innocence "A guiltless death I die."
West Egg
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
West Egg is where Jay and Nick live.
Represents self-made wealth, ostentation, and ambition. Home to those who earned their fortunes in the booming economy of the 1920s, often through questionable means (like Gatsby’s
This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally over-shadowed it,--or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison-door,--we shall not take upon us to determine. (36)
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Pants
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Celie begins to sew pants and then creates a business once she inherits her father's house, land, and store. Making pants symbolizes her own empowerment, her financial independence, as well as defiance of gender norms at that time when only men wore pants. Pants are practical (given how much work women do) and confortable, but they also symbolize power (since men hold power in a patriarchal society, and men traditionally wear pants)
Never before has a force under arms
disembarked so openly--not bothering to ask
if the sentries allowed them safe passage
or the clan had consented. Nor have I see
a mightier man-at-arms on this earth
than the one standing here: unless I am mistaken,
he is truly noble. This is no mere
hanger-on in a hero's armour.
Beowulf by an unknown author, translated by Seamus Heaney
Adam
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Celie's son, taken by Alphonso and given to Samuel (a minister) and his wife Corrine; close read his name...Adam is a Biblical allusion to the first man created by God in the Garden of Eden. Adam marries Tashi and ultimately undergoes the ritual scarification, a tradition in Tashi's African tribe. He returns to America in the final scene in the book with his Aunt Nettie and her husband Samuel.
Harpo
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Mr.______'s son; rejected by Sofia's family because his mother was murdered by her boyfriend; opens a jukejoint;
the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms father....And one fine morning--
So we beat on, boats against the current borne back ceaselessly into the past. (180)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Bianca
Othello by William Shakespeare
Cassio's love interest; prostitute; her name means "white"; Iago accuses her of injuring Othello
It a nice pattern call Sister's Choice. If the quilt turn out perfect, maybe I give it to her, if it not perfect, maybe I keep. I want it for myself, just for the little yellow pieces, look like stars, but not. (58)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Michaelis
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Neighbor to the Wilsons; owns a coffee shop; sees the accident; only eye witness to see what happened.
Emilia
Othello, William Shakespeare
Emilia is Desdemona's attendant and Iago's wife. She delivers Desdemona's handkerchief--which Desdemona drops by accident--to her husband Iago who in turn uses it as "ocular proof" that Desdemona has been cheating on Othello with Cassio (though she has not and is completely innocent)
Their wives have sense like them: they see, and smell, And have their palates both for sweet and sour
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is. And doth affection breed it?
I think it doth. Is't frailty that thus errs?
It is so too. And have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well; else let them know
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
Othello by William Shakespeare
The Green Light
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock in The Great Gatsby symbolizes Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future—especially his desire to reunite with Daisy. It represents the idea of the American Dream: the pursuit of something just out of reach. The light is both a literal object and a powerful metaphor for longing, illusion, and the elusive nature of happiness. Over time, it comes to embody the unattainable ideal Gatsby is chasing, suggesting that the dream itself may be corrupted or based on illusion.
"O good Iago,
What shall I do to win my lord again? ...Here I kneel:
If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed;...Comfort forswear me..."
Othello, William Shakespeare
This is Desdemona's prayer to God (before Iago and Emilia). It's significant because it includes a direct address to Iago and refers to him as "good" proving his ability to hide his true intentions from everyone. Also significant because even though she knows Othello is about to kill her, she doesn't ask for comfort for herself but for Othello, proving her innocence as well as her innate goodness.
Hrunting
Beowulf by author unknown, translated by Seamus Heaney
Hrunting, the sword given to Beowulf by Unferth, symbolizes the limits of human strength and reputation. Though it's a famous, treasured weapon, it fails in Beowulf's battle against Grendel’s mother. Its failure highlights the idea that true heroism requires more than man-made tools—it requires courage, divine favor, and fate. It also reflects Unferth’s inadequacy as a warrior and subtly emphasizes Beowulf’s superiority.
A Goat
Grendel, John Gardner
In one of the final chapters, a goat keeps trying to climb a cliff despite being injured by Grendel. The goat persists, mindlessly, stubbornly, and without comprehension.
The goat becomes a powerful image of absurd perseverance in the face of futility. It mirrors Grendel’s own struggle with meaninglessness, especially as he approaches death. Like the goat, Grendel has been climbing a meaningless metaphorical cliff, driven by impulses he barely understands.
Come, be a man. Drown thyself? Drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend, and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness. I could never better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse. Follow thou these wars; defeat thy favour with an usurped beard. I say, put money in thy purse.
Othello by William Shakespeare
Naegling
Beowulf by author unknown, translated by Seamus Heaney
Beowulf's own sword
Her onslaught was less
only by as much as an amazon warrior's
strength is less than an armed man's
when the hefted sword, its hammered edge
and gleaming blade slathered in blood
razes the sturdy boar-ridge off a helmet. (89)
Beowulf by an unknown author, translated by Seamus Heaney
Lodovico
Othello by William Shakespeare
Desdemona's cousin, asks Othello to call her back after Othello strikes her. Lodovico also speaks the final words in the play about leaving the punishment of Iago (the villain in the play) to Cassio who is put in charge of Cypress at the end of the play: "Look on the tragic loading of this bed: / This is thy work. THE object poisons sight...To you, lord governor, / remains the censure of this hellish villain" (5.2.361-63).