Questions tagged [meaning]
Questions regarding the meaning of certain terms or phrases used in a work of literature. If your question concerns the symbolic significance of something whose surface meaning is clear, use the [symbolism] tag instead. Please add specific tags as well: for the author (if known), the language (if not English), and either the work itself (if long) or the [poetry] or [short-stories] tags for short works.
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Meaning of "never taken not being shot at for granted" in "Dream Catcher" by Margaret Salinger
I'm reading the memoir Dream Catcher by Margaret Salinger (daughter of J. D. Salinger). In this paragraph I have some difficulties:
While the war was often in the foreground of our family life, it ...
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What does Thoreau mean about counting votes in this passage?
In A Plea for Captain John Brown, Thoreau writes:
A man does a brave and humane deed, and at once, on all sides, we hear people and parties declaring, “I didn’t do it, nor countenance him to do it, ...
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What is meant by Thoreau in "A church that can never have done with excommunicating Christ while it exists!"?
In A Plea for Captain John Brown, Thoreau writes:
A church that can never have done with excommunicating Christ while it exists! Away with your broad and flat churches, and your narrow and tall ...
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What does Thoreau mean about the Tract Society printing the story of Putnam?
In A Plea for Captain John Brown, Thoreau writes:
“Served him right”—“A dangerous man”—“He is undoubtedly insane.” So they proceed to live their sane, and wise, and altogether admirable lives, ...
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What does "to the sack" mean in Hunchback of Notre Dame?
What does "to the sack" mean in this context:
To the sack, to the sack!” rose the cry on all sides.
At that moment, the tapestry of the dressing-room, which we have described above, was ...
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"This was the forest near Ingolstadt" in Frankenstein
The following is a passage in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I am wondering what the boldfaced "This" refers to.
Before, dark and opaque bodies had surrounded me, impervious to my touch or ...
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What mechanics does Thoreau associate with earning bread?
In the first chapter of Walden; or Life in the Woods, Thoreau writes:
If I wished a boy to know something about the arts and sciences, for instance, I would not pursue the common course, which is ...
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What does “be one traveler” mean in “The Road Not Taken”?
In “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, the first stanza reads as follows:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down ...
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Who is "Old Nicky" in The Son by Philipp Meyer?
In Chapter 67, Eli McCullough thinks:
I started to tell her, but couldn't. Old Nicky himself had pinched my jaw shut.
Who is Old Nicky? I suspect it's some folklore, but can't find anything on him.
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What does "were with him when Divine Love first moved those fair things" mean in Dante's "Inferno"?
Towards the beginning of the Inferno, when the narrator encounters the leapord, lion, and wolf, we find this passage:
The time was at the beginning of the morning; and the sun was mounting up with ...
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What does "nodditankijelli" mean in The Book of Dave?
Much of the dialog and characters' thoughts in The Book of Dave are written in Mokni, a mostly phonetically-spelled derivative of Cockney English. A glossary is available to explain some of it, and ...
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How am I supposed to parse the "...she might have passed over more..." line in "Emma"?
I'm having trouble parsing this excerpt from Jane Austen's Emma, particularly the bolded sentence:
He was not a great favourite with his fair sister-in-law. Nothing wrong in him escaped her. She was ...
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What were the changes in the Spirit of the West at the end of first millennium?
From the first Chapter of The Undiscovered Self by Carl Jung
What will the future bring? From time immemorial, this question has
occupied men’s minds, though not always to the same degree.
...
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Meaning of 'more familiar to reason than to the imagination'
The following is an extract from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. What does the boldfaced phrase mean?
Before, I looked upon the accounts of vice and injustice, that I read in books or heard from others, ...
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The “Sea of Faith” in Matthew Arnold’s poem ‘Dover Beach’
Does the “Sea of Faith” in Matthew Arnold’s poem ‘Dover Beach’ have biblical significance?
Here is the third stanza of the poem, where the phrase appears:
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, ...
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What are "inward meats" in Homer?
In both the Iliad and the Odyssey there are many mentions of "inward meats," such as:
When the thigh-bones were burned and they had tasted the inward meats, they cut the rest up small, put ...
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What does this excerpt from "To Kill a Mockingbird" about Atticus shooting the dog mean?
From chapter 10 of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:
Mr. Tate jumped off the porch and ran to the Radley Place. He stopped in front of the dog, squatted, turned around and tapped his finger on his ...
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"Glancing to heaven" in Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow
In Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow:
Naturally the rug was rolled up and Bill and Betty did one of their
vaudeville routines, the old soft shoe, a George M. Cohan number, “…
for it was Mary, Mary, ...
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1
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"Depressing someone into something" in Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow
I'm reading Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow. In this paragraph I have some difficulties:
... but your moodiness, she said, I don’t know, that’s so unusual, a
powerful thing, almost like your way of ...
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2
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"settled in as a Washingtonian" in Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow
I'm reading Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow. In this paragraph I have some difficulties:
But the only job to be found was as a substitute science teacher at a
D.C. high school. He took it. Within a ...
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1
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In Kerouac's On the Road, what is "it" that the country girl at the bus stop is missing?
In part 3 of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, the narrator is trying to talk to a pretty country girl at a bus station. He describes her as "dull" when he finds out that her life experience is ...
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Meaning of "This is you" in Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow
In Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow:
Another morning. I am down on the beach as the osprey hovers pulsingly
over the sea, and the sanderlings tiptoe along the ocean’s foamy edge
while the shadowing ...
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2
answers
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Meaning of "anticipated cosmetic collapse" in Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow
In Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow:
There were a lot of western blondes at the college but mostly of the
blaringly self-indicative kind, with an empty-headedness or cunning
about them, or perhaps ...
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1
answer
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Meaning of "Going back to one's Tribal Caves" in Speed-the-Plow by David Mamet
In Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, what does Gould mean by "go back in their Tribal Caves"?
Here:
“Yes, and you get ready, now: you get ready ’cause they’re going to
plot, they’re going to plot ...
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In Kerouac's On The Road, what is snakejuice?
Fairly straightforward question. There are a lot of slang terms for drugs in On the Road, but I was still rather startled by "snakejuice"
"Man, do you imagine what it would be like if ...
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Meaning of "fix you up" in The Catcher in the Rye
In Chapter 20 of The Catcher in the Rye:
... I kept worrying that I was getting pneumonia, with all those hunks
of ice in my hair, and that I was going to die. ... Then I thought
about the whole ...
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1
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Meaning of "Not me" in The Catcher in the Rye
In Chapter 20 of The Catcher in the Rye:
-Why don't you go home, Mac? How old are you, anyway?"
-"Eighty-six. Listen. Give her my compliments. Okay?"
-"Why don't you go home, Mac?...
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Meaning of "Father to Son" by Elizabeth Jennings
Here are the first two stanzas of the poem “Father to Son” by Elizabeth Jennings.
I do not understand this child
Though we have lived together now
In the same house for years. I know
Nothing of him, ...
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Meaning of Pratchett's quote about coffee from "Thud!"
Terry Pratchett wrote in Thud!:
Coffee was only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to your slightly older self.
I am struggling to understand the meaning of it. Is it pro/contra ...
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What do ‘redda', 'the taste of babat', 'Kottu Aiya', and ‘Kunu kaaraya’ mean? (From "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida")
I am translating The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida and am confused about the following sentences:
"those knots were looser than your Amma's redda." What does 'Redda' refers to?
"this is ...
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Hamlet III.IV: "Then what I have to do will want true colour"
In Hamlet Act III Scene IV, Hamlet says to the Ghost,
Do not look upon me,
lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects. Then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance ...
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What does it mean for philosophical writing to be great, significant literary works?
British philosopher Nigel Warburton says the same thing in his books. Emboldenings are mine. I know that some French literature syllabi include Camus and Sartre. But at least in English, I have never ...
user17881
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Usage of "terrible" and "awful" in The Catcher in the Rye
In the begining paragraph in chapter 3 of The Catcher in the Rye, Here:
I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If
I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and ...
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1
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Meaning of "At Homes" in Ford Madox Ford's "Parade's End"
What does this paragraph mean in Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End?
Nevertheless Macmaster moved in drawing-rooms that, with long curtains, blue china plates, large-patterned wallpapers and large, quiet ...
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Meaning of "Your pin wad help to mend a mill" in "Address to a Haggis"
From "Address to a Haggis" by Robert Burns:
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o'need,
While thro' your pores ...
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Meaning of "one of the shapes money takes when it freezes" in "The Handmaid's Tale"
Here's a paragraph from chapter 14 of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood:
The sitting room is subdued, symmetrical; it's one of the shapes money takes when it freezes. Money has trickled through ...
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What does the Sanskrit word "abhithiya" mean in the 2022 Booker Prize Winner The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida?
I'm applying to be the Chinese translator of the 2022 Booker Prize Winner The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. The publishing house asks me to undertake a sample translation. While completing the task I ...
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Meaning of "starred roof" in "Appointment With Love" by Sulamith Ish-kishor
The following sentence is taken from "Appointment With Love" by Sulamith Ish-kishor. It's a reference to New York's Grand Central Station. I'm wondering why the roof is described as "...
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Meaning of "Coil of things" in "Savitri" by Sri Aurobindo
Here is a passage from the epic poem Savitri by Sri Aurobindo. What does the phrase "coil of things" mean in general and what does it denote here?
A mind absolved from life, made calm to ...
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"sud more likker" - how to parse this?
I recently had a non-native English speaker ask me for help understanding this passage from Wuthering Heights:
'Have you found Heathcliff, you ass?' interrupted Catherine. 'Have you been looking for ...
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Odd joke about Monorchid in Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
Here, in the following context from Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes, E.F. is talking about "Mono"s, The last bolded sentence about "monorchid" seems to be an odd joke, but I don't ...
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What does "All the air of the fourteenth floor was sibilant with the categorical imperative" mean?
I am reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The sentence in the question title is mentioned in Chapter two, and here's the full paragraph that contains it.
“Silence, silence,” whispered a loud ...
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"Specializing in someone" in "Elizabeth Finch" By Julian Barnes
What is meant by "specialised in either the unattainable or the undesirable" in the following context from "Elizabeth Finch" by Julian Barnes:
‘EF wasn’t like that. She’d give you ...
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What's the symbolism of the Cid's beard?
The book El "Cantar de Mio Cid" y la épica medieval española by Alan Deyermond, at page 37, mentions
el simbolismo de la barba del Cid
that is, "the symbolism of the Cid's beard",...
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Meaning of “It takes forty men with their feet on the ground to keep one man with his head in the air" in Small Gods by Terry Pratchett?
I am currently on page 36 of Terry Pratchett's Small Gods.
One sentence reads:
Kitchens and storerooms and craftsmen's workshops belonging to the Church's civilian population honey- combed the ...
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1
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"Protein suckers attached to the teleology" in Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow
I'm reading Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow. In this paragraph I have some difficulties:
I’m just thinking of something I read about the pathogenesis of
schizophrenia and bipolar disease. The brain ...
4
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1
answer
253
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"if it means that" in "Elizabeth Finch" by Julian Barnes
I'm reading Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes. In this paragraph I have some difficulties:
We all pursue what we think is best for us, even if it
means our extinction. Sometimes, especially if it ...
1
vote
1
answer
155
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Where/what is "C" in Annie Ernaux's short story "Returns"
A girl is going to visit her mother by train. She mentions Motteville and then she talks about her destination that points to as "C":
"I travelled there by train. At Motteville, we sat ...
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1
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What do these long em dashes and the word inst. mean in Railway Children?
I'm struggling to make sense of the word inst. and the long dashes — in this excerpt from E. Nesbit's The Railway Children. The excerpt is part of a letter that the children receive. The dashes are ...
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2
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What does "men of straw" refer to in this passage from an Arsène Lupin story?
The story in question is "Le coffre-fort de madame Imbert" or in English "Madame Imbert's Safe". The passage reads, in the translation I've got:
For six months, I have worked on ...
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