English Vocab

Allegory

Allegory

(n):  a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.

Red Scare

(n): hysteria and panic over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, which intensified in the late 1940s and early 1950s

McCarthyism

(n): an aggressive campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950–54. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not in fact belong to the Communist Party.

Martyr

• (n): a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle

• (v): to put to death for adhering to a belief, faith, or profession

Hypocrisy

• a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not: behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel

• especially: the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion

Alienation

(n): a situation where an individual feels disconnected from a group of which they believe themselves a part, be it friends, family or wider society; a withdrawing or separation of a person or a person's affections from an object or position of former attachment

Alienated

• (adj): feeling withdrawn or separated from others or from society as a whole : affected by alienation

Conformity

• (n): agreement; similarity in form, manner, behavior; action in accordance with some specified standard or authority

Dystopia

(n): an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives

Stream of consciousness

• (n): a literary style in which a character's thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue

Utilitarianism

• (n): a theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain or the greatest happiness of the greatest number; the best action to take is the one that benefits the most people and/or hurts as few people as possible

Utilitarian

• (n): someone who believes in utilitarianism

• (adj): designed to be useful or practical; ex: utilitarian furniture

Hypocrite

(n): a person who is

• feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not: behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel

especially: the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion

Conformist

(n):  A person who has similarity in form, manner, behavior; action in accordance with some specified standard or authority

pathos

noun- an element that evokes pity/compassion

choral ode

noun- a song sung by a chorus during a classical Greek drama

hamartia

noun- tragic flaw

hubris

noun- exaggerated pride/self-confidence

filial piety

noun- the virtue of devotion/respect to one’s parents

Greek chorus

noun- a group of actors that accompany the play with a song

Civil Disobedience

a nonviolent rebellion disobeying the law with moral motivation. If you are arrested you accept the consequences

Retributive justice

(n): a system of criminal justice based on the punishment of offenders rather than on rehabilitation; is impersonal; "an eye for an eye”

Revenge

(n): an act or instance of retaliating in order to get even

Vigilante justice

(n): the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority; to seek justice outside of the law

Vigilante

(n): one who carries out vigilante justice

Manifest destiny

• (n): a cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America; is comprised of three tenets:

  1. The special virtues of the American people and their institutions

  2. The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the West in the image of the agrarian East

  3. An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty