Archaic Texts
This philosophical allegory explores how humans struggle to find truth beyond society's influence.
What is Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"?
This novel explores themes of grief, racial injustice, and family through the journey of a boy named Jojo as he travels with his troubled mother to pick up his father from prison.
What is Jesmyn Ward's "Sing, Unburied, Sing"?
A syntactic choice which uses commas or em-dashes to insert parenthetical information. For example, "Her essay—though insightful in places—didn't score well because it lacked the structure."
What is a parenthetical clause?
The act of making an argument about how a speaker's choices impact an audience.
What is rhetorical analysis?
Her fragmented memories and drug-induced visions illustrate how grief can collapse the boundaries between the living and the dead, the past and the present.
Who is Leonie?
This post-Civil War essay argues that the advancement of Black Americans depends on providing free education to the most promising future leaders.
What is W.E.B. DuBois' "Talented Tenth"?
This open letter defends nonviolent resistance to racism and is a cornerstone of civil rights rhetoric.
What is Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"?
A syntactic rhetorical choice where the structure "echos." For example: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”
What is parallelism, antithesis, or juxtaposition?
These are ways of "seeing" or analyzing a text through various perspectives, such as feminism, Marxism, or psychoanalysis, to reveal deeper meanings or biases.
What are critical lenses?
This character interprets financial success as proof of masculinity and worth.
Who is Jacob?
This Transcendentalist poem contrasts the cold logic of data with the awe of firsthand experience under the stars.
What is Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"?
This film follows a Korean-American family’s pursuit of the American Dream in rural Arkansas, highlighting themes of identity, resilience, and intergenerational struggle.
What is Lee Isaac Chung's "Minari"?
Placing two ideas side by side to provide clarity by contrast. For example: "That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages. . . Nobody ever helps me into carriages . . . And ain't I a woman?"
What is juxtaposition?
When a speaker chooses to start and end a speech or essay with the same word, image, or idea, they’re using this tactic.
What is a "callback"?
His evolving relationship with Soon-ja is a narrative of intergenerational healing and cultural self-acceptance.
Who is David?
This introspective poem personifies psychological trauma as a funeral taking place in the speaker’s mind.
What is Emily Dickinson's "I Felt a Funeral in my Brain"?
This anti-Communist speech accused government workers of treason and fueled mass paranoia during the Red Scare.
What is Joseph McCarthy's "Enemies from Within"?
A specific type of repetition at the beginning of each successive clause. For example: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields...”
What is anaphora?
This term refers to the structure or path a writer or speaker takes to support their argument in a logical, effective way.
What is a line of reasoning?
Initially dismissed as comic relief, this character’s spiritual rituals and social isolation complicate the immigrant family's perception of American culture.
Who is Paul?
This satirical piece proposes using children as a food source to criticize British policy in Ireland.
What is Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal"?
This work of creative nonfiction critiques the racial implications of a child’s toy preference.
What is Ibram X. Kendi's "My Daughter's White Doll"?
Wise-sounding sayings which are often repeated. For example, "To be great is to be misunderstood," and ""Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
What is an aphorism/truism?
The four ways a speaker can connect to an audience.
What are an audience's beliefs, needs, values, and backgrounds?
Though he seldom speaks of his own pain, this character becomes a vessel through which historical and generational trauma is passed on through silence.
Who is Pop?