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Literary notes about Everyone (AI summary)

In literature, the word "everyone" functions as a universal quantifier that both unites and demarcates groups within a narrative, underscoring shared experiences, opinions, or reactions while at times highlighting individual isolation against a collective backdrop. For example, authors use it to depict communal habits or consensus—as in the bustling chatter of Winesburg's citizens ([1]) or the collective astonishment and engagement seen in gatherings in Tolstoy’s works ([2], [3], [4])—while in other instances, it emphasizes the inevitability of societal expectations and behaviors, such as in Mrs. Warren’s Profession’s elementary decree that "Everyone has to do that" ([5]). Moreover, "everyone" is sometimes employed rhetorically to suggest a pervasive presence of judgment or sentiment, whether in the ironic observation that "everyone knows it" except the addressed individual ([6]) or in portraying an all-encompassing social setting where familiarity and estrangement coexist ([7]). Through these varied uses—from mundane to allegorical—"everyone" bridges the personal and the universal, reinforcing a narrative’s exploration of human interconnectedness and individual uniqueness.
  1. Everyone in Winesburg is telling me how smart she is.
    — from Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson
  2. It always seemed to her that everyone who looked at her was thinking only of what had happened to her.
    — from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy
  3. He began speaking louder, evidently to be heard by everyone.
    — from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy
  4. And everyone, including Anna Pávlovna, felt this.
    — from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy
  5. Everyone has to do that.
    — from Mrs. Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw
  6. I tell you that everyone knows it, everyone except yourself!
    — from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant
  7. Chapter 4 The highest Petersburg society is essentially one: in it everyone knows everyone else, everyone even visits everyone else.
    — from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy

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