What is an example of a metaphor from The Pigman?

One striking metaphor in The Pigman is in the following passage:

"And when I came up to the cage to see these ugly blood-sucking creatures, I had to look right into this little kid’s face that had a smirk on it. He made me feel as though I was a bat in a cage and he was on the outside looking in at me. It all made me very nervous" (page 62).

In this passage, in which Lorraine is looking at caged bats in the zoo, she uses a simile (a comparison that uses "like" or "as") to compare herself to a caged bat, but the comparison of herself to a caged animal runs through this passage and is a metaphor. She is like a caged animal because she lives with her mother in a very unloving and restricted environment in which her mother monitors nearly her every movement. 

Another metaphor is "The Pigman, John, and me--three little monkeys" (page 101). Lorraine compares John, the Pigman, and herself to three little monkeys while they are roller skating. They are similar to the three little monkeys that they see in Beekman's pet store hugging each other in desperation. The monkeys cling to each other for support, just as John, the Pigman, and Lorraine cling to each other because they don't receive much love from anyone else. 

In The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, for how long was Peter jailed?

In May of 1942, Peter has assumed the position of the organist at a small church in Velsen. On Sunday, May 10th, the ten Booms go to a service at the church to hear him play. After the conclusion of the service, Peter begins to sing the national anthem, which inspires the rest of the congregation to rise up and join him in singing. The German police, who have occupied the Netherlands, arrive three days later to haul Peter away to a federal prison in Amsterdam.

Peter has remained in prison for two weeks when Mrs. Kleermaker, a Jewish woman, comes to the ten Boons seeking refuge. The ten Boons end up becoming part of the underground movement to shelter Jews from the Gestapo. After a total of two months in prison, Peter is eventually released and begins his own form of resistance work once again.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, is the "knothole tree" the same tree that Jem and Scout struggle with Bob Ewell under?

Yes. In Chapter 4, Scout mentions that, as she ran past the Radley's home, she noticed something shiny coming from one of the two live oak trees at the end of the Radley yard. She specifically mentions that the roots of the trees were large and made the side-road bumpy. Scout then approaches one of the trees and finds two pieces of chewing gum in the knothole. Later in the novel, Boo Radley continues to give the children gifts through the same knothole in the tree until his brother fills it with cement. In Chapter 28, as the children are walking home from Maycomb's Halloween festival, Jem tells Scout they are approaching the big oak. Scout then says she feels the sand go cold and could also feel the bumpy roots of the tree. After Bob Ewell attacks them, Boo Radley comes to their aid by fighting him. In Chapter 29, Scout recounts her story to Sheriff Tate and tells him she knew they were under the big oak tree because the ground was cold. Scout also mentions that she could hear someone being thrown against the trunk of the tree. Since there are two big oak trees in the Radley yard which stand side by side, one can surmise that Boo Radley struggled with Bob Ewell underneath the same tree where he placed gifts in the knothole.

Can you analyze Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" using psychological criticism or a structuralism approach?

Robert Frost's “The Road Not Taken” presents a speaker who is forced to make a decision that he cannot really make—at least not with confidence.

Psychological criticism looks at literature by attempting to analyze it in terms of how the mind works. Often this is done with respect to the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung. One of the most important aspects of Freud's theory was the importance of the subconscious and its effects on the behavior and development of the individual.

In “The Road Not Taken,” Frost uses the symbol (symbols are another key element of psychological analysis and development) of two diverging roads to look at the speaker's subconscious.

As the speaker looks at the roads, trying to decide which to take, he says,

. . . long I stood

and looked down one as far as I could

to where it bent in the undergrowth.

Difficult choices are common, and by themselves they are not always the subject of intense psychological study. At this point in the poem, the speaker is weighing his options and trying to decide, but there is not any intense psychological activity evident, at least not much below the surface.

This begins to change with the next stanza. The narrator examines one road, and we would expect to hear him say he then examined the other, but instead he just takes the other road. Why? Well, a clue might be found in the first road's description. It “bent into the undergrowth,” probably meaning it became difficult to see where it led. Fear of the unknown is a common psychological phenomenon, and there is good reason for it. The speaker's motives may be something else. Here is how he explains his choice to take the second road:

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.

At first, the narrator is saying he chose the second road because it appeared to be less traveled, which seems an odd reason since he has already demonstrated potential fear over the first road's uncertainty. He then begins to reveal confusion over the whole matter when he reverses himself and says the roads are actually about the same.

The implication in all of this is that the speaker does not understand his own motivations and desires. It is hard for him to decide, and when he does, it is hard to justify the decision he makes. He seems to have made an impetuous decision, one he is apparently powerless to change, suggesting a strong degree of subconscious activity in this decision-making process.

In the final stanza, we see the speaker immediately regrets his decision:

I shall be telling this with a sigh,

somewhere ages and ages hence.

The “sigh” indicates he is already agonizing over his decision and projecting that unhappiness to a point later in life, suggesting (but not proving) a possibly neurotic difficulty in taking decisive action and being satisfied with it.

Frost is looking at the psychological difficulty experienced by the speaker in the face of a life-altering decision. Some of us have more trouble with these types of decisions than other people do. The role of the subconscious and the effect of neurotic conditions can make them even more problematic. This doesn't mean that just because you have a hard time making a decision, or just because you regret a decision, that you have a psychological problem—these issues are common to all human beings to some extent.

Describe some of the challenges Linda Brent faced while she lived under Flint in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

The challenges that Linda Brent experienced in the Flint household are rooted in slavery's cruelty.

As early as the second chapter, Linda Brent gives glimpses of these challenges.  She talks about the "scanty wardrobe" that Mrs. Flint gives to her.  Additionally, Brent was "frequently threatened with punishment" even though she was so very young.  While she "could catch a bit of food," she was not given full meals.  These challenging realities remind the reader how slavery was predicated upon cruelty to even the smallest of children.

In Chapter 4, Brent details the challenge of living with the jealous Mrs. Flint. Her vengeful nature can be seen when she orders Linda to not wear her shoes because of the sound they make on the creaking floorboards. However, this was not the last in her display of power:

She then sent me a long distance, on an errand. As I went through the snow, my bare feet tingled. That night I was very hoarse; and I went to bed thinking the next day would find me sick, perhaps dead.

Mrs. Flint's cruel wrath proves to be a challenge for Linda while living in the Flint household.

However, the greatest challenge for Linda was the master of the house, Dr. Flint.  In chapter 5, Linda turns fifteen, representing "a sad epoch in the life of a slave girl."  She lives under constant sexual exploitation from Dr. Flint. This challenge took on different forms.  Some of it involved inappropriate speech, as Dr. Flint would "whisper foul words" to Linda.  It continued with his repeated reminders that she was "his property" and that she must "be subject to his will in all things."  Linda describes how such a challenge escalated over time:

She [The slave girl] listens to violent outbreaks of jealous passion, and cannot help understanding what is the cause. She will become prematurely knowing in evil things. Soon she will learn to tremble when she hears her master's footfall. She will be compelled to realize that she is no longer a child. If God has bestowed beauty upon her, it will prove her greatest curse.

Any time she voiced objection, Dr. Flint "swore" he would kill Linda if she "was not as silent as the grave."  The challenge of sexual exploitation is another dimension to slavery's cruelty.  It represents one of the most difficult challenges that Linda had to face while living under Flint.

What are the qualities of the three main characters in "The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde?

The three main characters represent different degrees of feeling and sentiment. 

• The Student

The student is in love with being in love. He speaks of love much like the courtly lovers of old:

"Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched"

He imagines how he will hold his love if he brings her a red rose as a symbol of his devotion to her: "She will lean her head....and hold my hand." But, if he does not have the rose, he fears that she will "pass me by."

When this romantic young man brings the beautiful red rose for which the nightingale has sacrificed its life to the pretty young daughter of the Professor, she rejects it because it will not harmonize with her dress and a wealthy young man has given her jewels.

But, it is his reaction more than hers which is the most telling. He has no more appreciation for the beauty of this perfect rose than does the selfish girl to whom he has tried to give it. He has only desired it and said all that he has in the hope that she will adorn his arm. For, as he leaves he says, "What a silly thing Love is," indicating further the superficiality that belies his words, words which the lovely nightingale, sadly, has believed to be heartfelt. Furthermore, he tosses the rose away because he has only wanted it to win over the girl, not for its beauty as the nightingale had thought.

Nor does he appreciate the nightingale. He callously writes in his notebook:

In fact, she is like most artists; she is all style, without any sincerity. She would not sacrifice herself for others.

• The Professor's Daughter

When the Student brings the girl the beautiful red rose, he asks her to wear it, with the intention of then telling her he loves her. But she dismisses anything romantic, saying,

"I am afraid it will not go with my dress," she answered; "and, besides, the Chamberlain's nephew has sent me some real jewels, and everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers."

She proves herself shallow and materialistic.

• The Nightingale

This little bird embodies all that the others lack because she is willing to die for love. She tells the rose tree,

"Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?"

Unfortunately, her sacrifice is wasted because she has been an idealist who has allowed herself to be deceived by the superficial sentiments of the Student, who merely mimics romantic phrases he has probably read.

In Zusak's The Book Thief, what mistake allows Death to be severely disappointed in himself?

Mistakes, mistakes, it's all I seem capable of at times (23).

Death makes this observation about himself in the section entitled "Arrival on Himmel Street." He tells the reader about what happened after Liesel's brother, Werner, died. First, Liesel wakes up and catches Death at the exact moment that he extracts Werner's soul from his body. This is part of the reason Liesel captures Death's attention. Death also tells the reader that he sometimes becomes distracted because he never gets a vacation. As a result, distractions tend to be a way for him to take brief vacations from time to time. In this case, however, Death becomes more invested in Liesel's life than he should have permitted himself to be. For example, two days after discovering Liesel, Death says the following:

Several times, I warned myself that I should keep a good distance from the burial of Liesel Meminger's brother. I did not heed my advice (23).

Distracted and curious at the same time, Death visits Liesel on the day her brother is buried in an icy, shallow grave. He is caught up in the plight of this little girl, which captures his interest in Liesel's continued story. He becomes invested in watching her life play out because he marvels at her strength and fortitude. Not only that, but he witnesses her steal her first book before she is dragged away from her brother's grave and he wants to know what a little girl will do with a book called The Grave Digger's Handbook. 

The fact that Death allows himself to become consciously invested in Liesel's life is his mistake. Death's job is to be objective and unattached. Even though he doesn't play favorites by allowing Liesel to live longer than her allotted time, he shouldn't care about anyone in particular because it makes his job more difficult. It also leads him to the following discomfort: "I am haunted by humans" (550).