Abstract
This paper looks at the two forms of meaning found within cliches that deal with aspects of the body or the human being, where addressing components of the phrase and the origins of the phrase will demonstrate the etymology of a given cliche. This process is applied to selected phrases that have passed into common use, and where the true origins of the phrase are no longer viewed in connection with the phrase itself. Three commonly used phrases - the battle of the bulge, dead wood, and devil's advocate -are used to express the truth found within the cliche itself and within its historical origins.

Abstract
This paper explains that one of the most useful aspects of modern poetry as a literary medium is that poetry has the unique ability to take the words of a cliche and use the intense language of the poetic medium to force readers to reconsider that cliche in a new light. The author points out that the cliche in Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" is "Good Fences make Good Neighbors" and Wilfred Owens' "Dulce et Decorum est" (It is sweet and right to die for your country) depicts a man being gassed during the First World War. The paper relates that Owens' poem takes the form an observation, not a stilted conversation as in "Mending Wall"; in "Dulce et Decorum est" the man dies before the poet's eyes and rather than argue with the man as in Frost's poem.

From the Paper
"The poet uses this specificity of language for similar reasons as to Frost-to set the scene and to verify the poet's knowledge and right to question the cliche at the heart of the poem, but Owens seems even more careful to show that he is a solider, than Frost is to show that he is a farmer and a property owner. Owens does not use metaphors like Frost does, about imagining the stranger as like a savage of old, or dwell on common and natural details. Owens' specific place names and technical references are all unexplained, and are often details and names only a soldier would know and notice, in contrast to apples and pine as in Frost, which not only a farmer would be acquainted with."

Tags:observation, conversation, gas, metaphors, recollection

Abstract
This essay,entitled "Oedipus the King" tries to take a fresh look at this play which has become one of the most oversimplified and cliched of all works of literature, considering it from the perspective a member of the Chorus of Theban Elders who approach their great king in a time of crisis only to find that in his inflexibility, he cannot help them but in the end succeeds only in bring terrible tragedy upon himself and the entire city.

From the Paper
OEDIPUS THE KING One of the difficulties with Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus the King is that we have become so familiar with the story, so familiar with the Freudian complex, that we have forgotten the original drama, and how much mystery must have unfolded before the audience that saw the drama for the first time. Further, in our modernity, we tend to be fixated by our views of fatalism and fate. This creates a tendency to reduce the entire drama to a crude idea of Oedipus as a puppet, buffeted about by controlling forces, crushed for no good reason. Such a simplistic reading of the play is reduces it

Tags:oedipus, sophocles, fate

Abstract
This paper explains the developmental history of our ever-changing English language. It includes French, British, Spanish and Italian influences on English. The paper discusses differences between written and spoken language and how slang, jargon, euphemisms, cliches and idioms can make English a difficult language to learn. The paper cites several examples of well-known cliches and jargon and explains their origins.

From the Paper
"In most languages there is a distinction between that which is written and that which is spoken, a difference between literature and colloquial speech. In written literature we can see the broad outlines of history, but the language of literature has historically been that of the ruling class. The spoken language, the common everyday speech, reveals the intimate, familiar lives of the people, even when reading and writing were limited to the upper classes. In his 1888 book, The Queen's English: A Manual of Idiom and Usage, Dean Henry Alford described the difference between written and spoken English at that time:
We must distinguish between the English which we speak, and that which we write. Many expressions are not only tolerated but required in conversation, which are not usually put on paper. Thus . . . everyone says 'can't', . . . 'won't' [and] 'isn't', . . . but we seldom see these contractions in books, except where a conversation is related. (Alford 57)"

Tags:slang, idioms, colloquial, speech, cliches, jargon, euphemisms, phrases

Abstract
The paper contends that the film, "The Fight Club", is a mediocre movie at best, that is rife with cliches and a plot device that is too obvious. The paper goes on to show how indexical signs are too common and argues against the film's attempt to slap generalized labels on an entire generation. The paper posits that its ending was less satisfying than that found in the novel on which it is based, and it seems a homage to the youth driven market to which it panders.

From the Paper
"The 1999 film, The Fight Club, seems replete with indexical signs, not all of which are particularly good, appealing or even relevant. The film tries so hard to prove it is hip, post modern and relevant that it is, at times, like a very ugly pup, wagging its tail and trying desperately to ingratiate itself. It is a mediocre movie at best, rife with cliches and a plot device which can be seen from a mile away. It did poorly at the box office until the X-generation had someone explain them that it was socially relevant and was the defining epic of their generation. At that point they adopted it and rescued it from oblivion. It is a film worth watching but not worth worshipping as a cult classic or worth discussion 8 years after the fact."

Tags:plot, device, cliches, indexical, signs, violence

Abstract
This paper explains that Elizabeth Gaskell's short story "The Old Nurse's Story" from the Victorian period seems to challenge some of the predominate social norms of its era regarding gender roles; however, it does more to reinforce such roles than it does to dispute them. The author points out that the man is portrayed as a strong, silent type, one of the most archetypal cliches of the modern era. The paper relates that the woman in this book focuses on one of the oldest stereotypes regarding women., the maternal instinct, and the female characters are described by their physical attributes and emotional fragility.

From the Paper
"In a similar fashion, the gender roles of women are also dealt with quite extensively in "The Old Nurse's Story." There is, for instance, the fact that there is almost a fixation on the description of women's physical attributes throughout the course of the narrative. Of course, good fiction is always concerned with the depiction of details to heighten the sense of scene and character. This particular work, however, seems unusually hung up on using terms such as "such a beauty." That repetitive cycle of describing women as either beautiful, or not, seems to be a furtherance of the stereotype that one of the primary goals for a woman of the age was to be physically attractive."

Tags:victorian, stereotypes, cliches, maternal, beauty

Abstract
One of the key aspects to being a good manager is being a good decision maker and a good facilitator of decision making between others. However, although this statement may seem to be a cliche, like so many cliches about demonstrating strong leadership and business acumen, it bears a certain level of scrutiny when put into real world terms. This paper asks what happens when one must negotiate and mediate in the real world. It shows that, in these cases, there are two dominant paradigms every business manager must take into consideration, namely, what is economically feasible and good business sense, and what is ethically coherent with the company's philosophy and American law. This paper applies two available decision making models that satisfy both of these aspects, the rational actor decision-making model and the organizational processes decision-making model.

From the Paper
"In other words, quite often decision making in the work force cannot presume that all conflicts have a rational basis, or that all mediate decisions made thus can simply regard the quantitative and qualitative data that may be at the roots of a particular conflict. Decisions may ideally come from identifying relevant criteria, cause and effect beliefs, and different evaluations of proposed alternatives. However, if even from a purely rational basis conflict may result in all three areas, when conflicts in the workplace assume because of long-standing tensions, human resource management becomes even more difficult in achieving decisions that are mutually amicable for all parties."

Tags:employee, conflict

Abstract
This paper focuses on Joan Didion?s most intriguing book, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem." The essays in the novel present a somber tone and, thus, meet cliches such as "don?t judge the book by its cover" and "what meets the eye is not always true". This paper also discusses the themes of Didion?s essays.

From the Paper
"Joan Didion's "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" provides its readers with archetypal examples of the social criticism permeating through new Journalism. This book is Joan Didion's second novel, which immediately established the young writer as one the best essayists of a stellar generation. Didion was restrained, classical, with emotions only hinted at; her effects depended less on obvious narrative experiment or hilarious excess than on the exact balance of a sentence and the careful placement of a clause or adjective, and on a pervasive sense of melancholy. Nearly all her longer essays might bear the classical epigraph Sunt lacrimae rerum -- There are tears in things (Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book Club; Slouching Towards Bethlehem)."

Tags:literature, english, writing

Abstract
This extensive paper compares "Northanger Abbey" by Jane Austen, "Louisa" by Elizabeth Herley, "The Mysteries of Udolpho" by Ann Radcliffe and "Silly Novels" by Lady Novelists by George Elliot. It analyzes their attitudes to women placing it in a historical context.

From the paper:

Jane Austen is often thought of as a writer whose works provide a refreshing and bracing antidote to the common literary themes of overheated romance and destiny. Her novels often revolve around the plot of two or three women who are unlucky, then lucky at love?but with an ironic twist that fundamentally deflates commonly accepted mores and notions of deeply held romantic cliches such as love at first sight. (In Austen's most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice, the main romantic hero and heroine, Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy hate rather than love one another at first sight.)"

Tags:novel, satire, appearance, character, rebellion, romantic, fiction, beauty, destiny, knowledge, popular, relationship, gothic, fashion, affection

Abstract
One of the most engaging and entertaining comedic couples in any of the works of Shakespeare, is that of Beatrice and Benedick in "Much Ado About Nothing". Both Beatrice and Benedick are essences, they are the progenitors of the cliches of the woman-hater turned lover and the ice-queen turned golden-heart. Both of them experience a very similar sequence of events, both work with their respective tutee's in love in the same way, and both come to realize their love for each other through tricks played upon them by their own friends. In this, Benedick and Beatrice are really the true soul-mates of the story in that they truly seem to be of the same cloth and of the same heart - two halves of the same whole. Their change from enmity to love covers the course of the entire play and, in many ways, is much more engaging, funny, entertaining, and ultimately rewarding than that of Hero and Claudio. It is the purpose of this paper to explore that relationship as it changes over the course of the play, "Much Ado About Nothing".

Tags:much, ado, about