In TKAM, how does Scout show that she has matured? How does she show that she learned to be honest, courageous, respectful, and civilized?Please...

i think most importantly it was her ability to "climb into someone's skin and walk around in it."

- this can be seen when she sympathizes with mayella and is the only one who understands her plight.

"loneliest person in the world, even lonelier than boo radley."

"took offence at routine courtesy."

"tom was probably the only one ever decent to her."

she could see mayella as an individual, not one of the ewells. "bright red geraniums cared for as tenderly as of they belonged to ms. maudie atkinson."

hence, scout can see through mayella's apparent villianous character and see that she is in fact a victim.

- at the end of the novel, she learnt that boo was not a "malevolent phantom."

"he had given us so much and we gave him nothing, and it made me sad."

she saw that he was not a monster, but weak and frail akin to a "child afrad of the dark." he had "white sickly hands that had never seen the sun."

she showed civility towards boo radley and showed what a lady she had become.

"he would be more comfortable in the dark."

"the chair is nice and cosy."

"so that when ms. stephanie looked down she would see arthur radley escorting me." (in those days it was socially unacceptable for a woman to escort a man. and it still is today anyway. she wanted to help boo retain his pride.)

What could be a possible thesis statement for "Welding with Children"?I need three related points in the story.

When I read the story I identify the elements of the cruelty of people.  The grandfather is spending time helping his daughter's with his grandchildren.  He is aware that none of his daughters are married and each has a child, but he accepts and loves the children.  He actually takes on a big role by taking all four at once and agreeing to watch the baby overnight.

When he goes to town the grandfather's vehicle is referred to by the two men as a bastardmobile.  One of the children hears this.  For me, I would be looking at the behavior of the men and attitudes as they reflect on the children and cause hurt through their words.

However, I very much liked what the previous editor wrote and I agree with her point of view as well.

In Act 4 Scene 1, why is the witches' chant given in such detail?

This is Shakespeare's way of showing us just how evil the witches are and what sort of trouble Macbeth is in for making deals with these women.  They aren't doing Macbeth any favors...they are simply toying with him because he is an overly ambitious idiot of a human.  They use him as a plaything. 

We also know by their words that Macbeth's character has changed completely.  The second witch announces his approach by saying, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

The evil the witches are capable of is especially illustrated in some of the ingredients such as an Adder's forked tongue and the finger of a baby who was strangled at birth.

The rhythm of their chant is also helpful in creating an evil sing-song mood for the scene.

Shakespeare sets all this up and then allows Macbeth to come strolling in and demanding that these women show him what he's come to know.  He's in no position to demand, but his ego is so overinflated by this time that he thinks he controls everything and everyone. 

All of this helps build the suspense for the remainder of the play as well.

What are the themes for Trifles by Susan Glaspell?

roseka,

Susan Glaspell's play Trifles examines the agony and desperation that often occur in life. It also explores traditional male attitudes toward women, together with the expression of female responses to these attitudes. The key irony in the play, of course, is that the two women characters successfully accomplish what the men cannot; they solve the problem of motive based on the evidence of “trifles,” and they pass judgment on the murderer based on both the crime and the context.

Although the play is set on a Midwest farm and concerns a family murder, it is really about marriage, society, and the relationship between men and women. These subject concerns are repeated on three levels: the history of the Wrights’ marriage, the traditional repression of women, and the conflict between the men and women in the Wrights’ kitchen. In each case (and in general), woman is the protagonist and man the antagonist. In the context of the play, we find resolution in the women’s decision to suppress the evidence against Minnie Wright.

So while the play deals with many subjects of gender, justice, oppression, roles, and relationships, agony, despair, and attitudes, several themes ( a universal truth expressed as a sentence) can be seen:

1) Women often have greater senses than men.

2) Sometimes, people can often find a true sense of justice.

3) Bias and prejudice can blind us to what we really need to know.

These themes can all be uncovered from the dialogue between the women, the men, the attitudes of each, and the evidence that they each discover.

How's this for a 1984 Essay Thesis?My essay is going to be about the dangers and effects of dehumanization in the world. I need a probable,...

Your thesis for an essay needs to be worded more specifically.  Since it appears that you are focusing upon the theme of Freedom and Enslavement of the free will, you want to focus upon the specific effects of the totalitarian government in George Orwell's 1984.So, perhaps, instead of writing "the obliteration of different aspects of human characteristics," you can put something like this:

In George Orwell's satire 1984, the dangers of totalitarian control and its dehumanizing effects are demonstrated through the government's thought control, domination over people's emotions, and limitations of their pleasures.

With this thesis you have three ideas which you can translate into topic individual topic sentences for your paragraphs.  For support for these topic sentences, you can use specific details from the plot involving the characters of Julia and Winston.  (Since characterization always develops plot and themes, you will be able to employ your ideas on Julia and Winston in this way.)

Of course, there are parallels to some of the thought control of the media and controls that many feel that the government in this country wants to impose upon people (e.g. Patriot Act, Health Care, etc.)  So, you may wish to read about the historical context of 1984 whose Big Brother reminds readers of Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin.

Why does Joe give Mrs. Joe the twenty-five pounds that Miss Havisham gave Joe as payment for Pip's work?

In my opinion, Joe gives the money to his wife because she is the dominant force in their relationship.  I think that Dickens has him do this as a way of showing us that she is really the one who is in control.  When Miss Havisham gives the money to Pip, she tells him to give it to his master.  He gives it to Joe.  When Joe gives the money to Mrs. Joe, it implies that she is his master.

Throughout the early part of the book, we see many things that show us that Mrs. Joe really controls Joe.  This is one of those bits of evidence of her dominance.

Tom, Mr.Sloane, and a young lady visit Gatsby and the lady invites Gatsby to come to dinner with them.What does Gatsby's response tell us about his...

I think that this scene is meant in part to show that Gatsby is not very socially sensitive.  Tom points out, once Gatsby is not in the scene, that the invitation was not really sincere.  However, Gatsby does not seem to realize this.

However, I think the scene has more to do with Gatsby's obsession with Daisy.  Gatsby has been hoping, of course, to find a way to casually meet up with Daisy again.  He has been hoping to show her that he has become rich and worthy of her.  Therefore, he will do anything (even if it is expensive or socially awkward) to try to meet her again.

In "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", why did Doyle choose Watson, who is not a key character, to be the narrator?

Part of it has to do with suspense.  If Holmes were the narrator, then the audience would know the solution to the mystery too earlier.  Doyle would not be able to slowly demonstrate the process of the investigation.  However, Watson is an outside observer who can do that, while also giving a positive spin on Holmes.  The detective could appear to be cold, calculating, without sympathy.  Watson, in admiring him, helps to humanize him.  If others were the narrator, then Doyle could not do many stories in the same style.

The Way of the World is a Commedy of manner-Justify

(Reference: Kathleen Morner, Ralph Rausch, NTC's Dictionary of Literary Terms)

When Charles II ascended to the throne again and monarchy was restored in 1660, the then English society got relief from the suppression of the stern Puritan rules & regulations. But, this led the society to over indulgence of sensual pleasure and immoral acts. The king himself was not a moral human at all. The society started losing their sense of priority. Immoral acts enveloped the society's good sides. While theaters were being flourished, writers & dramatists were patronized by the rulers, bad poets & notorious actors-actresses took birth (ref: John Dryden's McFlecknoe). Women were being disregarded and felt insecure. So, most of the women's primary goal became to charm men, and to make their own future secure anyhow. They used to pass time by gossiping, playing cards, having walks in the park with their male admirers, whereas, men used to pass time playing cards and drinking chocolate at the chocolate house. Extra-marital affair was a common phenomenon among the couples. But, neither husband nor wife expressed their internal feelings in front of others even if they hated each other. They always wore a facade. This was the condition of the Restoration society.

These social behavior and manners are depicted in many plays by playwrights like William Congreve, Richard Brinsley Sheridan of the age. These plays highlight the social follies satirically; the characters represent themselves as a part of that flawed society. Though their individual traits or manners are always foregrounded, the characters are represented as a collective unit, not as individuals. But the main target of such witty, satiric comedies is the society as a whole, not the individual characters. Since the manners, customs and rules of the society are highlighted, these are called comedy of manners. And as The Way of the World fulfills these conditions, this is a successful comedy of manner of that age.

Congreve's The Way of the World, shows many a portraits: Mirabell as a beau already done harm to Mrs. Fainall, Millament as a beautiful young lady feeling inertly insecure who always remains surrounded by some foolish men, Marwood's making love with the husband of Mrs. Fainall, Marwood's habit of eavesdropping and harming Mirabell & Milament being refused by Mirabell, Mrs. Fainall's wedding to Fainall to secure her future, and most importantly, Lady Wishfort's untiring willingness to make herself look young & beautiful and thus making herself more vulnerable, all these portraits are exact depiction of 18th century urban society. Through witty dialogues and careful handling of the plot, Congreve has superbly made it a successful Restoration comedy of manner.

How do the hunters prepare for another hunt in Lord of the Flies?

What the hunters do in Chapter 4 to prepare for a second hunt is to decorate themselves.  Specifically, they paint their faces into pretty hideous masks.  Jack is the one who gets this started.  He says at first that he is doing it for camouflage, to keep the pigs from seeing his pink face.

After he gets himself painted up, Jack leads the hunters in a bit of a dance while Jack talks in a bloodthirsty way about stabbing the pig.

By doing these things, Jack is showing that he is moving more towards savagery.

Huck lies to and deceives other characters. Identify several examples from the novel. Discuss the reasons behind Huck’s behavior and whether...

As you say, Huck does lie to and deceive people a lot in this book, but it is generally for a good reason.

Let me mention three instances.  First, he tricks (or at least tries to trick) the lady into believing he is a girl.  But all he's trying to do is to get information without anyone catching him and making him go back to "civilization."

Second, he lies to the ferry captain about his family being on the riverboat.  But he was only doing that so the captain would try to go save the criminals on the Walter Scott.

Finally, he lies to the King and Duke about who stole the money.  But he does that to help out the family that the King and Duke are trying to rip off.

What is the meaning of the term “conflicting perspectives," and how is notion conveyed through actions and relationships between characters?

The term in the case of Julius Caesar refers to characters' possessing contradictory or contrasting views of Caesar, Rome, and what should be done.  Literary works such as plays often rely on "conflicting perspectives" because the audience gets to hear the thoughts of a variety of characters (rather than works that rely on first person point of view only or third person limited point of view).

In Caesar, most of the conflicting perspectives stem from how the main characters view Caesar. For example, the people of Rome and many of the senators see him as a noble leader and an undefeatable military strategist who has won accolades and wealth for the republic. Cassius and Casca's view are just the opposite; they see Caesar as a bloody usurper who took his position by force (from Pompey) and who is physically and mentally weak (see Act 1 in which Casca and Cassius discuss Caesar's health problems and his having to be helped across the river).

Similarly, when Caesar refuses the crown three times, the crowd thinks that he is being humble and cry out even more strongly for him to accept it. The conspirators see Caesar's refusal of the crown as a ploy on his part to eventually become king of what is supposed to be a republic.

Shakespeare also gives his audience a perspective of Brutus that might conflict with others' view of him.  At the play's end, Shakespeare characterizes Brutus as "the noblest Roman of all" and portrays him throughout the play as a man who simply wants what is best for Rome. In contrast, in other literary works and in some historical accounts, Brutus serves as one of the best-known backstabbers or betrayers in history (Dante's Inferno couples him with Judas Iscariot), and most historical accounts point out Caesar's last words about Brutus's participation in his murder.

So, when a reader gets several views of a literary character or event in the same work, he/she experiences a conflicting perspective and must determine how the author intends for the character/event to be received.

Trace the evolution of thought in "Ode to a nightingale".

The first thought in Keats' melancholy "Ode to a Nightingale" is "drowsy numbness" that pains the speaker's senses. Keats is assumed to be speaking for himself in this Ode. He is so metaphorically painfully numbed that he feels he is metaphorically sinking to the Greek mythological river of Hades that gives forgetfulness, the River Lethe. He tells us that his pain is not caused by envy of "thy happy lot" but rather in "being too happy in thine happiness," which refers to the Nightingale. In other words, too happy to feel the happiness exuding from the "light-winged Dryad of the trees," of course the object of the Ode, the Nightingale, whom Keats equates with an immortal deity of the woods, a Dryad.

The second stanza, has Keats crying out for a "full beaker" of wine cooled in the earth and tasting of flowers and plants, of dance, laughter and of song from the southern regions of France ("Flora..., Dance, Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth"). This is an allusion to revelries in worship of the Classical Greek and Roman god Bacchus (aka Dionysus). He then equates the wine as full of the Mount Helicon Hippocrene bubbling spring waters sacred to the Muses and the source of poetic inspiration. His desire is to drink the Hippocrene brew of inspiration in order to metaphorically leave the world's thoughts and fly with the Nightingale to the rich interior of the forest.

He desires this to be able to forget what the immortal deity of the Nightingale has never known: fever, fret, groans, palsy shakes, sad grey [sic] hairs, paling youth that is deadly thin, death. He says that in this life, to think is to be filled with the sorrows and despairs, of beauty and love that both end too quickly, "tomorrow." In the next stanza, Keats decides to brave it and fly on the wings of Poesy (poetry), without the aid of Bacchus's rites and the Muse's Hippocrene waters, as the companion of the Nightingale even though he won't be able to think aright nor perceive what the Nightingale perceives.

Next Keats reveals that many a night while listening to the deity Nightingale, he woos Death that he might die with the song of the Nightingale in the air. Keats then plays on the conceit of the immortality of the deity Nightingale, "not born for death," immortal from countless ages that even gave glimpses of "faery lands forlorn." And the word "forlorn" brings the poet's thoughts from soaring with the Nightingale back to his own body that he has revealed is pain wracked. Keats ends with the description of "fancy" (inspired imagination) as a "deceiving elf" and, as the Nightingale's "anthem fades," he is left to wonder if his excursion with the immortal Nightingale was vision or dream...while awake or asleep.

How does the setting influence events and characters in The Taming of the Shrew?

I'm not sure the setting influences the characters.  In other words, it seems unlikely to me that Shakespeare (or any playwright, for that matter) would have created these settings and then decided how they will impact the characters.  Instead, let's think about how the characters' actions fit (are suited or appropriate for) the settings.

At Senor Baptista's house, the dynamic is clearly dominated by Katherine.  She is tyrannical and in charge, and her father and sister clearly live in fear of her. When Petruchio enters the house, the balance of power shifts, but Baptista and Bianca still have no control.

At the church, Katherine is no longer in control of her circumstances, nor is Petruchio.  This seems to be Baptista's domain, to some degree, as Katherine is subdued for once and he thinks he's doing what she wishes--or at least he's convinced himself of that.

The journey is a setting unto itself, full of mud and rain and whatever other elements could be gathered to conspire against Kate.  Though we only hear about this setting, we can appreciate the fact that even the elements are attempting to tame the shrew.

Petruchio's house is a disaster.  It's a poor man's bachelor pad, suffering from the neglect of both poverty and lazy servants. This is clearly Petruchio's domain...but not for long.  As Kate figures out his "taming" strategy and begins to play along, she also wins the hearts of the servants and makes his home a place where she can live and love.

The journey back to Padua is also a setting; once it worked against Katherine, but this time she mastered both the sun and the moon, so to speak.

Finally, they return to Kate's father's home.  It has now become a more neutral setting, suitable for the wagering done in the final scene. 

In A Separate Peace what's the Suicide Society like? What does Gene think of it? What do you think Finny would say if he knew?

The Suicide Society was a club of Finny's invention, and was subject completely and totally to his spontaneous whims. It met every night, and initiation was jumping from the tree. The boys met, they played random games with random rules, and had a lot of fun while doing so.  Blitzball was one of those games, and the rules were totally made up by Finny, and subject to changing at any time.  Now, one might think that this would be total chaos, but, with Finny at the helm, it ended up being a lot of fun because he was very talented at including everyone and making them feel personally involved in the venture.  Also, Finny was just so good at the game that it was pretty amazing to watch him dodge and weave--it was perfectly suited to his skill set.  Gene describes,

"He had unconsciously invented a game which brought his own athletic gifts to their highest pitch...Phineas was driven to exceed himself practically every day...he created reverses and deceptions and acts of sheer mass hypnotism."

This reflects Finny's character also--he seemingly effortlessly and gracefully hypnotized those around him, and drove those around him to new tests of patience, but always with charm and success.  He went with the flow, but always challenged himself, and above all, had fun doing it.

Gene didn't like the Suicide Society, or blitzball.  In fact, he states rather darkly, that he never felt like going to any of the meetings, but he never said so.  He hated jumping from the tree, and the haphazard rules of Finny's games frustrated and intimidated him.  If Finny knew this, he probably would have been concerned, but convinced Gene in the end that he really DID like the meetings and the games, and Gene wouldn't even know what hit him; that is just how Finny was.  Utterly convincing in a non-threatening way.

I hope that those thoughts helped; good luck!

What is the quote when Ralph ordered Jack and his tribe to look after the fire?please write the quote and the page number. thanks for your help and...

Ralph first decides that a group of boys needs to watch the fire. This comes immediately after they light the first blaze, in Chapter 2. Ralph says: “We’ve got to have special people for looking after the fire." (58). But he doesn't order them at first. In fact, Jack offers his hunters to be the watchers: “Ralph, I’ll split up the choir–my hunters, that is–into groups, and we’ll be responsible for keeping the fire going–” (59). So Jack takes the first step, which the other boys see as generous.

However, in the next chapter, we see that they have already begun neglecting the fire. When Jack returns from hunting, Ralph tells him that the most important thing is to be rescued. Jack responds derisively, saying “You and your fire!” (74). the tension between the two characters is mounting, & it seems evident that it will come to a climax. This occurs when Jack and the hunters kill their first pig. Ralph has seen a ship in the meantime, and discovers that the fire is out. He is obviously upset.

“There was a ship. Out there. You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!” He took a step toward Jack, who turned and faced him. (99)

Jack blusters, attempting to save face based on the fact that the hunters have brought meat. none of the other boys (except perhaps Piggy) can fathom why Ralph is so upset. The true realization of what they missed hasn't hit them yet. Ralph struggles to explain in the face of this challenge to his authority.

“I was chief, and you were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can’t even build huts—then you go off hunting and let out the fire—”(99)

But Jack apologizes, and the other boys suddenly side with him. It is on Ralph to unravel the dynamics of this group, & he doesn't fully grasp the shift in power that has occurred. He does the best he can, with one weak order:  “All right. Light the fire.” (102)

All of my quotes come an e-text version of the novel (see the link below). Therefore, the page numbers are quite different than a print version.

List three ways the pigs become more human-like in Chapter 10 of Animal Farm.

The pigs use human practices to run the farm like a business. They generate a lot of paperwork, such as reports, memos, files, and meeting minutes, which they burn after reading them.

The pigs are walking on two feet, and they see Napoleon walking this way with a whip in his hoof. The animals are shocked by this, but the sheep change their slogan to "Four legs good, tow legs better!" to conform to the new change.

The pigs connect to the human world of media by buying newspapers, radios, and telephones. They can get information and communicate as the humans have always done.

They convert the farm to a more human version of a farm by removing the hoof and horn from the flag and changing the name from Animal Farm back to Manor farm. They announce these changes during a card game they hosted for the other farmers.

How was the vice president selected under the original voting system?

Under the original system, however many candidates would run for president.  The electoral college would vote on the candidates.  Each elector would vote for two people.  After the electoral college had done its vote, whichever candidate got the most votes would be the president.

Unlike today, however, the candidates would not have vice presidential candidates already picked.  Instead, whoever got the second most votes would become the vice president.  This was a bad system because, as it turned out, you could get presidents and vice presidents who were political rivals, as when Aaron Burr became Thomas Jefferson's vice president.

Why does Nick say Gatsby's house is like the World's Fair?This is a question for chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby

Reading in between the lines of Gatsby's "glancing" which caused his house to be so lit up, we later find that he could have been preparing, just in case Daisy comes by after the tea. From what we learn of this guy, we realize he knows he needs to be a little vain to gain Daisy's approval.

On another note, that reference or allusion to the World's Fair is a little ironic. Gatsby's house regularly contained visitors and catering for such an event like the World's Fair. This was another feature that drew Daisy's attention.

In "Sonny's Blues," what is meant by the word "blues" in the title and what are Sonny's blues?

Sonny is blue about life and being outcast. In this sense, "blue" means sad, unhappy, despondent. Sonny is also a musician and when he plays, he plays African American invented music, bebop jazz and the blues. In this sense, "blues" refers to a genre of music related to jazz, originating in Southern African American communities, that has a drop in pitch (called a flat or bent tone) on the 3rd, 7th, and sometimes 5th tones of a scale, known as the Blues Scale, which is a diatonic major scale.

Sonny plays the blues to help obviate, or do away with, his profound suffering caused by his position as an outcast. His brother sought to obviate his suffering, caused by belonging to a race that is outcast, by assimilating, while Sonny turned to playing the blues (music) as a record of and an outlet for his blues (feelings). It is up to the reader to decide which approach produces the least suffering.

What are the two conflicts in the story Rumble Fish.

Rumble Fish is another of Hinton's books about lower class adolescents involved in gang life. Rusty James had an older brother called Motorcycle Boy. He looked up to his brother who had set a previous example as being a tough guy. Rusty James spends his life trying to be lie him. The internal conflict is that he is not his brother nor can he be like his brother.

Motorcycle Boy left town to get away from the trap of the gangs and poverty. He  knew that if he stayed he would continue to be perceivedthe same way the rest of his life.  He wanted something better so he just left. The other conflict in Rumble fish is about overcoming ones environment. Motorcycle Boy knew this and so he had left, but it is a struggle that Rusty James has a harder time recognizing.  When Motorcycle Boy returns he is once again expected by the law to engage in a criminal act.  He is killed in the end.  Rusty James leaves town in continuance of his brother journey.

Comment on Bates's use of symbolism in his short story 'The Ox'.

The central symbolism in Bates's story is implicit in the analogy between Mrs. Thurlow and the ox. Right from the title itself to all the details like her 'lumbering' movement, her bi-cycle as the cart, her upturned skirt as the bony tail of the ox, the story develops this symbolism. Mrs. Thurlow's impassivity, her apparently thoughtless resignation and her silent and selfless fortitude are the complex ways her character differs from an ox. She merely uses that instinctive and blank mind as a defence mechanism in situations of acute adversity where her husband is of no help and her children, for whom she does everything, do not care for her.

The bi-cycle is another symbol of sole companionship for her. She dreams about it and cannot walk without it. The bi-cycle is an object that externalizes the sway of emotions that lie suppressed in her.

Mr. Thurlow's silver plate in the head is another sad emblem of a lost selfhood and it is the assertion of its material value that creates the self-sustaining fantasy for him. His last image in the story in that oversize shirt beautifully symbolizes her flight.

The location of Mrs. Thurlow's house and the movement of seasons and also the moment when she feels great psychic disintegration in the police van, sans her bi-cycle and finally the last scene where all alone, she has serious doubts about making it to her hilltop house as there is an irreparable puncture in the back-tyre of her bi-cycle are all symbolic of a symbolic image of the human condition of gloom, despair and suffering where someone like Mrs. Thurlow symbolizes a Sisyphus-like existentialist fortitude and stoicism which makes her go on amid all the misery.

What is the purpose of having Big Brother and Goldstein not appear in the novel, but showing such an influence on the people?

Big Brother and Goldstein serve as symbols in 1984: Big Brother represents absolute power, and Goldstein serves as a scapegoat. Both are fundamental to dictatorships. In having Big Brother appear only in the posters hung throughout Oceania, Orwell creates an awesome, awful presence in society--that of the omnipotent and allegedly benevolent dictator. Big Brother is the government that intrudes upon and controls every aspect of the individual's existence. So that the people have an outlet for their negative emotions and are therefore more easily controlled, the government gives them Goldstein as a target for their hatred. These two non-people exemplify concepts essential to dictatorships: that the people must feel safe, even though the government denies them their fundamental freedoms, and that the people must be inclined to blame someone other than the government for their problems.

What are the 3 main symbols in The Phantom of the Opera?

The phantom symbolizes the contrast between what is real and what isn't. Wearing his mask, he's a man with whom Christine can sympathize. Without his mask, he is so horrible that Christine can no longer look upon him. this can be extended to the mask that we all wear in dealing with others.

The phantom also symbolizes illusion. No one knows if he really exists or not. The phantom's elusive character again represents the appearances that people put on, so others won't know the true reality of their lives.

The opera house represents the dark side of life, the evil that exists in life. If you look at how it's described, it helps the author to create the elements of horror.

Erik's face represents death. As a young man, he billed himself as the living dead man.

These are but a few of the symbols, but if you go to the website below, you can find further details.

Can you give me a few examples of themes for this short story?

One theme in the story is overcoming oppression.  Since the Civil War, even with the abolishment of slavery, there was still oppression for the black man and he couldn't own property or sell his crops to make money to rise above the poverty level.  Dave had to give his money to his mother to help support the family so he had no ownership of what he worked for.  Plus, working on a white man's farm also kept them under the thumb of pre-slavery times.  Dave felt that buying a gun would give him his freedom and let him live in a better world.  Hecould use his money to buy the gun, he would earn the respect of everyone including his employer and landlord Mr. Hawkins.  Unfortunately he was worse off than when he started.

What are some characteristics of Odysseus?

In order to understand Odysseus' characteristics, it is important to understand that he is an Epic Hero; as such, he displays characteristics that are both heroic as well as human. For example, he displays the characteristics of a classic Epic Hero when he is challenged with the task of returning home to Ithaca and successfully overcomes the odds. For example, he outwits Polyphemus the Cyclops; he battles Charybdis and Scylla; finally, he disguises himself as a beggar and wins his family back from the intruders in his own home. On the other hand, he displays human characteristics as well: he is overly curious, which gets him into trouble with the cyclops, Lotus Eaters, etc. He is a man, and has a difficult time resisting the temptations of the beautiful Circe and Calypso. So, his characteristics fit into two categories: epic hero and human.

Practicle example of management as a science & art?

Management is an art as well as a science. For example motivating employees to work in the interest of the the company or developing effective spirit in a group of people working together depends very mush on the personal conduct and inter-personal behaviour of the manager. The ability to perform these tasks well is very much dependent on the skills of the manager which can be developed only by practice. IN preforming these tasks a manager has no clear cut decision rules available to help him decide the exact action to be taken in a particular situation. The manager has to rely to a great extent on personal judgement on deciding the correct course of action. Task like these are examples of management as a science.

There are other situation where a manager is assisted in his or her action by very clear cut analytical and decision making tools. For example a maintenance manager may use statistical analysis to take decision on replacement of certain machine components, or a project manager may use PERT/CPM techniques to schedule project activities and allocate resources to different activities.

Chapter 1: What do you know about Nick Carraway's history, attitides and personality?The other part of the question asks to relate his history,...

Your question concerning Nick's personality as revealed in chapter one of The Great Gatsby asks for far too much information than can be given by one person in this format.  I suggest you make it a question on the discussion board.  I'll just answer one part of your question for just the first two pages of chapter one, and my answer will still be complex.

Readers sometimes miss the subtle idea Nick presents to open the novel.  When he writes about how his father taught him to always reserve judgment against other people because "all the people in this world haven't had all the advantages that you've had," Nick and his father are actually making a judgment.  Their family is, this suggests, superior to others.  Telling oneself to reserve judgment on others because they don't have the advantages that you had is placing yourself above others.  (Being from the Midwest, by the way, I can tell you that that is very midwestern.)

We learn on page two that Nick hates everything Gatsby stood for:  high society, gangsters, illegal trade, the superficial.  Gatsby himself may not fit that profile, but that's what he stands for.

Finally, though, we learn what Nick prizes so much about Gatsby:

...an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again....

Whatever else the novel is, it is a love story.  And Nick is the one who tells us about it.

Take a position on Ike McCaslin. Is it wrong to describe both of his good and bad qualities?

Faulkner's entire body of work hinges on Ike. Ike is the fulcrum around which tragedy becomes comedy.

Ike is the epic hero in the epic that is Faulkner's body of work, and as with all epic heros Ike is flawed. 

When Ike goes into the woods to find the bear he is making the hero's descent into the underworld. Just like Achilles, just like Odysseus. And, like the other heros before him, he leaves his earthly possesions behind.

One cannot meet the gods in this, time and place. The metaphysical is where the gods live and there is no time and place.  And the bear is a god.  He is one of the old gods.

When Ike comes out of the woods, he is changed. Faulkner is changed, Yoknapatawpha is changed.

The liminal experience Ike has when meeting the bear is the threshold between tragedy and comedy in Faulkner's body of work. 

Was Calhoun more attuned to the ideas of Thomas Jefferson?

Was Calhoun attuned to the ideas of Thomas Jefferson?

The articles linked below will give some answer to your question.

One article is written by Prof. Clyde Wilson. He has great credentials and qualification for writing about both Jefferson and Calhoun. He was for long years professor of history at Univ. of South Carolina, and he edited the Calhoun papers.

The other article is by a man I had never heard of until I searched for an article about Calhoun's political philosophy, but Mr. Williamson lists good qualifications for writing the article. He has an advanced degree in history and has worked as an editor at a major publishing house.

What happens in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas from chapters 8-13?

In chapter 8 Bruno's grandfather is very proud of his son, Bruno’s father in his uniform, but his grandmother walks out stating that he is disgusting.  She is very disappointed in his serving in the Third Reich.

Chapter 9 , Bruno's father continues to have people in and out of his office all day.  Bruno is bored so he goes looking for something to do.  He looks out his window to where the out-with is and decides to try and get to it.

Chapter 10, Bruno meets a new friend behind the fence.  He is a boy like him but he wears striped pajamas.  The boy looks so sad and is sitting on the ground with his legs crossed looking at the ground.  The boy's name is Schmuel.

Chapter 11, Seven months have passed since they moved to the country.  The Fury is coming to dinner.  (Fuerer:Hitler) The children are cued how to behave when he arrives.  The Fury arrives and is not what Bruno expected.  Bruno does not like the Fury.  His parents start fighting over something he does not understand.  His mother seems to be upset about where the kids are growing up.

Chapter 12, Schumel tells Bruno about the changes in his life and how he came to be at the camp.  Bruno can not understand the terror of what his friend is telling him.  Bruno crawls under the fence to be by Schumel.  He then goes back home but he does not tell about his friend.

Chapter 13 Bruno gets used to his living situation and loads his pockets to sneak food to Schumel.  Bruno asks about the Jewish man named Pavel who peels their vegetables.  Bruno tells that Pavel told him he was a doctor.  Maria explains that he is not one anymore.

Bruno discusses the Lieutenant Kotler.  Schumel tells Bruno that there are no good soldiers.  Bruno does not understand.  Kotler goes to dinner with the family.  Pavel spills the wine at dinner and Kotler does mean things to him that make the children cry.  Bruno begins to realize that Pavel is being treated badly and things are not very good.

Medea confronts the reader with a violent event. How does this violence contribute to the overall meaning of the work Medea?

Before we consider Medea's choice to use violence as a solution to her situation, we need to take a very quick look at another Greek play, Oedipus Rex.  In Oedipus Rex, the playwright Sophocles gives us a flawed but noble hero who ultimately chooses to punish himself rather than others.  Oedipus represents the kind of character Aristotle referred to as the kind of hero who accepts responsibility for his actions, thus showing us a "better" way, that we can be better than we think.  Oedipus reveals his heroic side.  This is what heroes do, accept responsibility for their actions but not Medea.  Medea has been wronged no doubt because Jason has discarded her for a younger woman.  Medea's response, however, is to murder her sons, strangely, both in order to punish Jason and to protect them from Jason and his new queen.  She feels powerless so she chooses a violent way out.  She shows us the consequences of Jason's treachery but in ways that hardly seem defensible.  In the end, her violent response seems to suggest that life is rarely just.  It is a troubling and in some ways unsatisfying ending to be sure.  In fact, she escapes and is not punished for her actions--except in the loss of her sons, which is ironic indeed.  Unlike Oedipus, however, she is perhaps more complex and more human, foreshadowing or paving the way for the complex heroes we will find some in the plays of William Shakespeare.

In Act I, scene ii of Blood Wedding, Mother-in-law and Wife are chanting a poem. What significance does this great horse who would not drink the...

Wife
Sleep, my blossom,
The horse will not drink.

Mother-in-law
Sleep, little rose,
The horse is weeping,
Its hooves are hurt,
Its mane is frozen (Act I, scene ii)

This is a very convoluted nursery rhyme (a sample above) being sung by the Wife and Mother-in-law. There are two viable directions to take in interpreting it. On one hand, since the families of the region engage in blood feuds and the bridegroom's father and brother are killed by a family they are feuding with, the nursery rhyme may be about the prevalence of feuds and fighting with the purpose of trying to foster a belief against dipping into the river of blood feuds. In this interpretation, the great horse that "will not drink" symbolizes the family and, simultaneously, each individual male of the family who, it is hoped, will stay out of the river of feuds.

On the other hand, since the central plot point is that the Wife's husband, Leonardo, is desperately in love with the Bride, it makes a good deal of sense that the horse symbolizes married men in the family, in this case, particularly Leonardo, while the river represents the possibility of taking what is not theirs, particularly, in this case, the Bride. If this is the correct interpretation, the resisting, weeping horse who "will not drink" fails, drinks (runs off with the Bridegroom's Bride), and will drink from his own river when he is overtaken by the Bridegroom.

What is the crime Oedipus Rex is guilty of?

He is guilty of two crimes, I think.

First, he is guilty of the crime of patricide.  That is, he is guilty of the crime of having killed his father.

Second, he is guilty of the crime of incest.  He is guilty of this crime because he has married his mother.

In legal terms, he's probably not really guilty of either of these crimes since he had no idea that he had done either of them.  However, in the play, he is guilty simply because he has done the deeds, even if he did not realize what he was doing.

In "There Will Come Soft Rains," why is this line important: "The house stood alone on a street where all the other houses were rubble and ashes"?

The house stood alone on a street where all the other houses were rubble and ashes.

In addition to the above answer, I might just add that the line also actually introduces an important character in the story: the house. The house has survived the holocaust even though the inhabitants are nothing more than five spots covered by charcoal on the wall. The house carries on as though the horrors of human madness can't touch it; as though it were an individual, really--the last individual.

The return of the dog is another thread of the idea of the last survivor. Yet, the dog is dead within an hour. The house too, the last survivor in a decimated neighborhood, will die within its own metaphorical hour, which comes soon with the upwelling of the wind of nature. This ties back to the dog which is by definition a part of Nature. The summation is that neither nature nor machine can withstand and survive the genius of man turned to madness.

Why does Voltaire write in this style?"Candide" by Voltaire

Best known by his nom de plume, or pen-name, Francois-Marie Arouet, criticized his society; in fact, he signed everything  "Ecrasez l'in-fame," or "down with infamy." His famous work, "Candide," satirizes the popular philosophy of optimism promulgated by Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz that held that since everything was created by God, and since God is perfect, then everything in the world must be also perfect.  When Voltaire initially criticized this philosophy in his poem on the Lisbon earthquake of 1756, the Romantic Henri Rousseu retorted that it was Voltaire who was wrong.  Voltaire fired back at Rousseau with his satirical tale of "Candide" in which one disaster follows another; however although he is beaten and treated cruelly, Candide continues to be rescued from the horrible situations.  When he finally arrives in Eldorado, Candide decides that this must be the best of possible places, but although he recognizes a utopia, Candide cannot live without his love, Cunegonde.  So, he and his companion depart with vast riches, but they encounter more harships and losses.  As a result, Candide exclaims that he must renounce the optimism of Pangloss.  His companion, Cocambo, asks, "What is optimism?"  To this question, Voltaire replies, "It's a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell."

In the conclusion of his work, Voltaire, who has criticized the optimism of von Leibitz and Rousseau, does offer a solution to the negative conditions that really exist in life:  One must cultivate one's own garden, making the best of his/her own life. 

Having chosen satire as his method of writing, Voltaire mocks the theory of optimism by making the entire world a stage for his criticism.  His style imitates that of the ancient poets Horace and Juvenal as he exposes the follies of humans in an effort to help them progress.  Votaire's satire is humorous and not biting, therefore.  Employing the Eden trope, Candide travels through many gardens, but there is a lesson to be learned in each one.  Finally, he concludes that one must cultivate his own garden in order to avoid misfortune and folly.

Explain the two best points of the poem "If" and how does these two points apply to the reader?"If" by Rudyard Kipling

I find the following two points especially relevant for me:

a) "If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim";

b) "If all men count with you, but none too much."

Both of these lines speak to particular weaknesses that I have. 

I tend to think a lot and to read a lot of books (that's how I'm able to answer questions on ).  Sometimes all that thinking and reading can get in the way of getting "real" things done, little things like working, cleaning up, exercising, calling Mom, etc.  So I appreciate Kipling's advice to think but not to "make thoughts your aim."

Another weakness I have is that I can't really decide if I care what other people think about me or not.  Sometimes I brag that I don't give a damn about what anyone says, but deep down I know that I want to be accepted by others.  I think that Kipling strikes a good balance when he says that all men should "count with you, but none too much."

Which words contribute to the tone of mysterious excitement established in the 1st paragraph? (Gatsby ch6 last three paragraphs)"...one autumn...

Here are the most important parts (key words in bold):

Out of the corner of his eye Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalks really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees—he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder.

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.

Through all he said, even through his appalling sentimentality, I was reminded of something—an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words, that I had heard somewhere a long time ago. For a moment a phrase tried to take shape in my mouth and my lips parted like a dumb man’s, as though there was more struggling upon them than a wisp of startled air. But they made no sound, and what I had almost remembered was uncommunicable forever.

Nick is paraphrasing Gatsby's story of falling in love, perhaps for the first time, and the last time.  Since then, Gatsby admits, his life has been disoriented.  This is obviously before World War I, when he (and America) was young, boyish, innocent, idealistic, and romantic.

Gatsby is symbolic of America: his innocence in America's.  Daisy is symbolic of his past.  His longing to return to his past is akin to the Lost Generation wanting to recapture their lost boyhoods.  Since then, they've lost their identities over on the battlefields of Europe, while rich kids (Tom) stole their girls (Daisy) back home.

The passage is like a dreamy wedding.  Daisy is in white, and the kiss binds all their senses together: "breath," "mind," and "vision." There's also Biblical Garden of Eden imagery: the "tree," "heaven," "God."

So, the first two paragraphs are the romantic, Garden of Eden ideal: Gatsby's perfect vision.  The second is his Fall (like Adam and Eve's, when they sinned): he becomes "dumb," mute, and suffers memory loss.  This is Gatsby's greatest sin (mistake, tragic flaw): losing Daisy, and his greatest fear is losing the memory of that moment.

How would Mathilde Loisel break the news to her husband about the necklace being fake?

A fascinating question. On a simple, factual level, of course, we don't know. We have to extrapolate, and to take an educated guess about how much she has grown through the story.

I would say that her first response would be like the narrative voice's reflection: she'd reflect on how different things would have been. I'd even say she would break down in tears over having lost so much. Then, I'd say she would grow quiet and realize how much she had learned (I hope).

What are some commonly know country music songs? I am writing a title for an essay and need a country song that everyone would know.

Even the younger generation knows Johnny Cash as he has crossed borders in genres, but yet remains classically country.  For your title, what about "Sunday Morning Coming Down"?  This is a very poingnant, yet dark song written by the great Kris Kristofferson, about a man whose tone is most melancholic; he has been attempting to drown his sorrows on Saturday night.  On Sunday, he finds his "cleanest dirty shirt" and "stumbles down to face the day."  He catches the

Sunday smell of someone fryin' chicken. And, it took me back to somethin/That I lost somehow, somewhere along the way. 

It's a lonesome song.  So, if you want something more upbeat, perhaps you want to look at Shania Twain, etc.  Another great poignant oldie is Willie Nelson.  His "Angel Flying too Close to the Ground" is a beautifully tender song:

If you had not fallen/ I would not have found you/Angel flying too close to the ground/I patched up your broken wing/...I knew someday that you would fly away/For love's the greatest healer to be found....

"There Will Come Soft Rains," by Ray Bradbury, is set in the future. Why doesn't Bradbury place less sophisticated equipment in the empty house...

Yes, there is no question that the story could have been set in the past, in the aftermath of some cataclysmic world conflict. But that would only dull Bradbury's point. He is sending us a warning: Technology that can be utilized to make things easier for us, do many of our daily, mundane chores. And it is also technology that can be harnessed to bring about vast destruction.

Of course past technologies were used in the service of war. Catapults, bows and arrows, spears, canons, rifles, mustard gas, etc., were all technologies, and they caused horrible bloodshed and death. But the technologies of today and tomorrow may well bring about the total annihilation of mankind.

AN ECONOMIST IS SITTING IN THE OVAL OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE, ACROSS THE DESK FROM THE PRRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.THE PRESIDENT ASKS,...

I am assuming that by "foreign income" you mean the income of people in foreign countries.  Here's how that works:

Many of the things the US produces for export are high cost items.  We are talking here about things like Microsoft Office, for example.  Because of this, US exporters need people in other countries to get richer so they can afford our products.

So, if income does not grow in other countries, they are able to demand fewer American goods.  When this happens, American companies (that rely on exports) might have to lay people off or forego hiring new people.  Either way, it won't help employment.

Would birdseed alter the carrying capacity of the ecosystem described below? Explain.cedar waxings are one of the few birds that can withstand the...

One hypothesis would be that the people feed the cedar waxwings and help keep their population up.  This would be because fewer birds die in the winter from lack of food or related problems.  Since there are more waxwings, there is more potential food for the falcons.  More food means more falcons.

You could say that the bird seed increases the carrying capacity of the ecosystem.  It is likely that food supply was the main factor limiting the waxwing population.  If more food is added to the ecosystem, more waxwings (and more falcons) can survive in that ecosystem.

What was the author's purpose in writing the novel "The Age of Innocence"?

This book by Edith Wharton was published in 1920, a time of change.  World War I had devasted most of Europe and left a generation of people, young and old, feeling cynical and bitter about life, society, and government.  There had been too many horrors to bear.  Society began to change, as many of the old Victorian traditions of behavior were challenged - but as is always the case, change is threatening and society tried to cling to the old ways.

Wharton's book is satirical in many ways.  It shows New York City society at the time and the restrictions of behavior that an individual faced, particularly an female individual.  It criticized the attempts of society to lock people in gender and social roles, not allowing individuals to get ahead if they did anything to tamper their all-important reputation.  It also worked to caution against too much change, to show that a drastic upheaval of tradition would cause many to feel lost and aimless.  Overall, the purpose was to point out the conflict between an individual and the rules of the society that individual lived in.

Please help me to understand the speaker purpose or message in I Have a Dream.I have a Dream I say to you today, my friends...I still have a...

The context for this speech was the commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, but King devotes only his first three sentences to actions of “Five score years ago”; the promise of a joyous future, made attainable by Lincoln’s signature on the proclamation, is the subject of King’s discourse. King’s purposes are to urge his followers to continue their actions and not allow the nation to return to “business as usual”; to promote changes that will eventually abolish segregation, discrimination, and prejudice across the country, especially in the South; and to convince his followers that their actions must be immediate and nonviolent.  

King’s speech employs predominantly emotional strategies. His first words echo the Gettysburg Address in tribute to the “great American” whose “momentous decree” the marchers have come to celebrate, and these words set the tone, as well as readers’ expectations, for what is to come. Like Lincoln’s famous speech, King’s is crafted from connotative words like slaves, brotherhood, sacred, exalted, bright day, and warm threshold. His style borrows heavily from the great persuasive traditions of political “stump” speeches and religious sermons; his “campaign promises” are described as his “dream,” and it is King the Baptist minister who exhorts his followers to “continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.” Repetition of key words and phrases is characteristic of oral style, and King uses it extensively, repeating “one hundred years later,” “now,” “go back,” “I have a dream,” “let freedom ring,” and “free at last.” The most prevalent emotional strategy in the speech is King’s use of figurative language. Rich with metaphor, some passages of this speech (such as the second paragraph’s description of contemporary black status) employ metaphors in nearly every sentence. Evocative examples include “beacon light of hope,” “flames of withering injustice,” “manacles of  segregation,” “chains of discrimination,” “palace of justice,” and “valley of despair.” King’s analogy comparing the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to a “bad check” establishes America’s guilt in withholding “the riches of freedom” and automatically aligns the civil rights movement with the lofty ideal of “justice.”

King’s tone, however, avoids creating enemies or establishing dichotomies. He unites the nation in the pursuit of freedom, using the pronoun “we” and phrases such as “this is our hope . . . our freedom.” King’s speech is best remembered (and therefore probably most effective) for its “I have a dream” paragraphs (10 through 18). These psalm-like passages, whose repetitions and refrain of “I have a dream today,” incited his audience to act in 1963 and continue to inspire readers today.

In his speech, he criticizes the government’s inadequate administration of democracy and confronts the South with its archaic prejudices, citing the governor of Alabama’s obstruction of true justice and directing vitriolic criticism at Mississippi, where blacks were not allowed to vote. King’s primary purpose, however, is to inspire his audience, a goal he admirably achieves in his “I have a dream” and “let freedom ring” sequences, which conclude the discourse.

What does Alfred, Lord Tennyson mean by "the region of shadows" and the region of "realities"?Tennyson says "The newborn love for something, for...

The words that you are citing here are ones that Tennyson is said to have written (or somehow told his son) to explain what he is trying to talk about in this poem.  So you should look at how the words apply to the situation in the poem.

For most of the poem, Lady Shalott is living in the region of shadows.  That is because she can only see "shadows" or reflections of the world.  She is not able to fully see reality or to participate in it.

However, once she sees Lancelot, she has an uncontrollable urge to go into the region of realities. In the poem, this means that she stops looking through the mirror and looks out (and later goes out) into the real world.

I think the region of shadows literally means the mirror -- her only way of perceiving the world at first.  The region of realities is the real world that she later looks at.  Metaphorically, you can argue that the region of shadows is a fantasy world that is just inside one's mind.

The differences of native speakers' English, neutral English and local English. Give examples.this question is related to sociolinguistics

Neutral English is, I believe, for the most part an artificial English in which regional differences in pronunciation and vocabulary have been levelled out to create a language that doesn't pin the speaker to any one particular region or social class. TV newspeople in the United States and elsewhere (although less frequently now, perhaps) learn to downplay their regional versions of English while speaking to the camera. Many of the university students that I encountered while teaching in Germany who spoke English well also spoke a neutral English.

Native speaker English, by contrast, is the real, living language as it is manifested in the daily communications of people who grew up speaking the language. With native fluency comes a seeming inborn (it's learned, of course!) sense of what sounds right and what doesn't, such as where to place adverbial phrases in a long sentence.

Local English, as best as I understand, is any pattern of English that is used in a way that marks the person's origins and/or identity, whether in terms of geography, social class, ethnicity, and any number of other social positions. Some groups use words that other groups don't, and the same word can be pronounced differently in different groups. In my local English, for example, I don't use the word "po-po" (which is a common enough word for many speakers of black vernacular Engish) and I stress the second syllable of "police" when used as a noun (pu-LIS) when many speakers of black vernacular English would stress the first syllable (PO-lis). Local English, as I understand it, isn't necessarily Native Speaker English; for example, I would also characterize (in admittedly very broad terms) the English that is spoken by non-native speakers in India as local English.

One goal of sociolinguistics is to move past the idea that some people speak a correct version of the language and others do not. Instead, this approach looks at which versions of a language are spoken by which groups and how those versions are differently valued. Some versions of English (again, local English) have much more status that others. The link below shows that RP (a modified middle-class version of English spoken in England that has been cultivated for well over a century) continues to have more status in the eyes of many non-native speakers than does neutral American English.

How does gender affect the plot and character development in the short story?

Ideologies of gender are usually mitigated by class, and we see this in “A Rose for Emily.” A woman of the aristocratic class of the traditional south, Emily is treated by deference by the townspeople.  She is able to manipulate them to avoid her taxes, they give her the poison when knowing she is up to no good, and when the smell around her house becomes obvious, they do not feel comfortable confrontingher because they “cannot accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad.”  “Ladies” of the old south were to  be treated respectfully and were put on a pedestal:  they were “a tradition, a duty, and a care.” The flip side of the ideology of the lady was the patriarchal father who controls her, and we see this in the tableau of Emily and her father, her behind him, and he with his boots on and whip in his hands.  He prevented her from marrying (thus controlling her life), and so she was left lonely after he died and they lost their money.  As a “lady," Emily certainly couldn’t work for a living! She turns to Homer, which is a scandal because he is a working-class man, and the town pities her for this and also ridicules her. When he, this man of “little account,” appears ready to abandon her as well, she uses her power by killing him to keep him with her. The title kindly takes away the “miss” from her name in order to free her from the burdens of her class and gives her a rose, a symbol of love and romance.

What values did Marx share with Enlightment thinkers? what values did he critize? Please give quatations and page numbers.

The previous answer is as good as you're going to get. I'll just briefly talk about Marx's philosophy or science of history which is called 'dialectical materialism' or 'historical materialism.' This theory supposes that even if there is a God, God is uninvolved. Human history is created by humanity and the laws of nature: materialism. Marx took Hegel's idealist philosophy and made it material - no metaphysics, just science.

His historical materialism was based on the dialectical formula of thesis, antithesis, synthesis, where all things contain contradictions and eventually, synthesis. This science of history showed how society develops not via consciousness but via the means of production. In other words, history is determined by humans producing the means of their own subsistence (food, clothes, goods of all kinds).  So, it is through our production of things, that we reproduce ourselves. And in the events when class becomes an issue, when in capitalism, the owning class oppresses the workers, the workers lose all ownership of the means of production, and thereby, the means of producing themselves. So, they have no say in the development of personal or world history.  After years of quantitative class/political struggle this will, mathematically and scientifically, give rise to a qualitative change, possible a revolution (American, French and Hatian occur during the Enlightenment). Think of a rising wave, gaining momentum bit by bit and finally crashing when the inequality between the top and the bottom becomes too great. This would be bringing the top down, giving the control of the means of production to those who do the actual producing: the workers. Marx saw this as an evolutionary thing, moving towards a realistic utopia. So, society would progress, get better. This is the whole idea behind the Enlightenment: that through scientific examination, we can create a better world.

Who are the main characters in The Crazy Horse Electric Game?

The main character and protagonist in The Crazy Horse Electric Game is Willie Weaver. Willie is a courageous youth who learns to adjust to the curve ball life threw him in the form of a disabling accident. Willie goes from being a champion baseball player to being a teenager who needs a physical therapist and is lucky enough to find a Tai Chi master. After the accident Willie leaves Montana to escape his familiar yet no longer attainable world and moves to Oakland, California, where he attends an alternative high school and does physical therapy and trains in Tai Chi, which teaches him, according to the words in his high school graduation speech, that his mind and body are different parts of the same thing.

Lisa and Sammy help Willie reclaim himself after he has run away to Oakland. Lisa is the physical education instructor at the high school that Willie attends and Sammy is her boyfriend. Lisa teaches Willie how to rebuild his strength and regain control of his body while Sammy trains him Tai Chi. Lisa tells Willie that he "stretched the rules till they broke" and the consequences came; "Simple as that." Sammy teaches him to find the answers that are within him.

Lacey rescues Willie in Oakland and takes him in to his home, after which he enrolls Willie in a tough alternative high school where gangs cause trouble and hurt other students. Lacey's good deed is an act of restitution. He wasn't good to his own son and is plagued with guilt and remorse and believes he is going to Hell because of his behavior. Lacey is hoping that he can make recompense in some small way by helping to raise a "white cripple kid" (and it probably will constitute at least a small recompense for his other actions).

Lacey takes over where Willie's mother and father leave off. Willie's mother Sandy is already torn with guilt before Willie's accident because her baby died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, then after his accident she is even more emotionally shattered. On top of which Willie's father William is devastated by a crippling guilty conscience, blaming himself for Willie's injuries. Sandy and William divorce after Willie runs away and William turns to alcohol.

What manipulation causes the animals to give Napoleon the credit for all of the good things accomplished on the farm?

The animals simply refer to Napoleon's leadership as the reason for good things happening.  The lines from the text are as follows:

"It had become usual to give Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and every stoke of good fortune.  You would often hear one hen remark to another, "Under the guidance of our Leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid five eggs in six days"; or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim, "Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water tastes!""

 Then, of course, Squealer has painted Napoleon's portrait on the wall across from the commandments in the barn next to the words of a poem composed by Minimus called Comrade Napoleon.

Another more minor example would be the animals' new tendancy to make up new titles for Napoleon like Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep-fold, Decklings' Friend, etc.  It's tough to not believe the greatness of one individual when he's presented in that much glory.

From which Shakespearean work does the quote below come from and what are the circumstances in which it is spoken?The eye of a man hath not heard,...

The excerpt is taken from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 4, Scene 1, where Bottom utters the stated lines.

Theseus and Hippolyta are getting married, arrangements are taking places. A group of artisans are practicing in a forest to perform at the wedding ceremony. Bottom is one of the craftsmen in the group. In the woods, there live fairies. Oberon is their king and their queen is Titania. Titania seems to be at a fix since she is given an Indian prince to rear by his mother. Being charmed at the beauty of the child, Oberon decides to make him knight. But, Titania protests against him and is punished. She, being given a magical potion on her eyelids, falls asleep and when wakes up, sees ass-headed Bottom and falls in love with him. Such is the power of the potion which was poured by Puck according to Oberon's command; Puck is a subordinate to Oberon. Bottom's head, being spelled by Puck, was transformed into a head of ass. Later, Oberon, making Titania agree to accept his will, undoes the spell. Titania, reawakened, becomes surprised finding Bottom on her arms, and goes away with her husband leaving her one-night lover behind.

When Bottom wakes up, his head has already become normal, and he, recalling things happened to him, convinces himself saying that it was a mere dream. He also utters melodramatically that the dream is understandable to no human. He asks Peter Quince to write a ballad on the dream so that he can give his temporary yet beautiful dream a permanent stature. His comical mixing up of the different body parts and their functions, implicitly, manifests the incomprehensibility of the dream.

The melodramatic, comic and bizarre speeches Bottom utters metaphorically points out how much inexplicable his midsummer night's dream was.

speculate how less competition for food helps increase the reproductive success of the remaining insects after a pesticide is applied.

Of course, the spraying of pesticides will allow any insects that are not killed to have a huge advantage in the competition for food.  This will help to make these insects have much more reproductive success that they otherwise would have.  If these particular insects survive because they are more immune to the pesticide than other individuals, this will lead (eventually) to their species being much less susceptible to the pesticide.  This would be very bad.

When many insects are killed off, there will be more food for the others.  As the others have more food and easier access to it, they will be healthier.  This will make them more likely to successfully mate and lay fertile eggs.

Describe three ways that America's involvement in WWII helped people at home?

If we speak of the the benefits of World War to people at home (in USA), the only benefit was the end of the great depression. The employment as well as industrial production boomed because as a result of production of war material. This included the material used directly in war effort of U.S.A, as well as the material supplied to Allied power countries for cash and under lend-lease system.

In addition there was great improvement in methods of production and management of industries. For example as a result of such improvements introduced in response to war efforts, the time taken to build an aircraft carrier dropped from 36 months in 1941 to 15 month in 1945. The completer field of operations research (OR), also called management science, developed, as a consequence of the efforts made to improve effectiveness of the war.

A major social impact of the war was to induct women in many jobs that were earlier considered to be fit only for men. This contributed a great deal in bringing women in the main stream activities of the society outside the domestic sphere.

There were also many new technologies developed during the war which not only helped greatly during the war, but continue to benefit humanity after the war also. Great advances were made in design of aircrafts including jet aircrafts used in war.The war also stimulated invention of radar.

Petroleum industry developed many new specialized products and new processes during the war. Refining processes such as catalytic cracking and alkylation vastly improved the output of high octane aviation fuel.

The utility of development of Atom bomb during World War II is a highly debatable subject. But its contribution to development of nuclear plants is beyond any doubt.

Why did Gregor turn into a bug in The Metamorphosis and what were some benefits of this change?

There certainly doesn't seem to be any benefits for Gregor to have turned into a bug in Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis."  He dies.  He also suffers alienation, disrespect, and neglect from his family, the chief clerk from where he works, and the lodgers.  For a time, he does adapt to being a bug and enjoys climbing on walls, etc., but this doesn't last long.  Gregor is a victim, although of what no one is sure.

The story opens:

When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.

There is no explanation as to why he was changed.  This leads many commentators to view the fictional world in the story as absurd, in the literary sense.  Is happenstance at work?  Chance?  It would seem so. 

Concerning his family, they do get jobs to support themselves and seem to be ready to cope with having to work by the end of the story, but I see them mostly as having been exposed by Gregor's transformation.  Other editors may disagree.

How does Macbeth explore the nature of evil?

Macbeth is perhaps Shakespeare's greatest exploration of the problem of evil. The implications about evil that come out of the play, according to me, are---

1. Evil is positioned both within and without. The witches are objective figures alright but Macbeth's first utterance in act 1, scene 3 suggests that he has an uncanny proximity of thought with the witches. When he says that he has never seen such a fair and a foul day, he seems to echo the maxim of the witches--"Fair is foul foul is fair". This is before his encounter with the witches. This is an unconscious figuration of the evil as repressed in human psyche which is surfaced through the temptations of objective evil. So, evil is not just supernatural, but human too.

2. Shakespeare's masterful implication lies in the way he relates evil to language. There is an evil of equivocation, that is championed by the witches. Their speech is full of riddles, contradictions and menacing redundancies that give false support to the ego and create the complacency of invincibility. The prophecies tell Macbeth that no one born of the woman can kill him and he is made to think that he is immortal. At the end, it is revealed that Macduff, his executioner, is untimely ripped from his mother's womb. This is how an apparently absurd conditioning comes true to menace Macbeth.

3. There is justice in the name of retribution as a response to all evil and it will always happen in course of the life where the sin is committed. This is what Macbeth's soliloquy spells out at the end of act 1.

4. Evil is above all an act against the natural, the norm of the macrocosm as well as the microcosm. Evil is imposition. It is an artifice, a garb of sorts. Evil drives Macbeth into murdering the innocence of sleep while Lady Macbeth loses her innate gender identity, her feminine qualities in charge of evil.

5. As the fair-foul maxim goes, the play presents to us evil in all its grey shades--the mutually interchangeable nature of good and evil as a critique of the morality play simplicity of the divide.

6. There is ethical thought even in the evil-doing subject, as we see its course in Macbeth, especially the Macbeth before the murder. The stoic ethics comes back in the 'tomorrow and tomorrow'  speech with all its admitting dignity of tragic suffering. Lady Macbeth in her sleep-walking scene, once again returns to disturbing ethical questions about what really happened.

In The Sorrows of Young Werther, is young Werther considered an extremist in his views?

According to author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Werther of The Sorrows of Young Werther represents all "that is sick" in human emotionality. After seeing the results of "Werther-Fieber" ("Werther-Fever"), Goethe renounced the novel and the emotional romanticism it espoused. He distanced himself also from the Sturm and Drang movement and from the Romantic movement. Based on this, it is safe to say that, yes, Werther was an emotional extremist.

Goethe might argue that Werther was without "views" because "views" presuppose reason and Werther acted on unreasoned emotionalism. The fact that Goethe revealed that Werther was in part inspired by his own heated passion for Charlotte Buff and in part by the sad end of his friend Jerusalem, who committed suicide over unrequited love after having read Lessing's play Emilia Galotti, indicates that he was combining the most extreme feelings and actions he knew of to express his own unrequited love and extremism.

Why does Mr. Nathan Radley fill the in the tree with cement? Do you accept his reason as truth?

This happens in Chapter 7 of the book.  When Nathan Radley fills the knot hole in the tree with cement, he says that it is because the tree is sick.

I really do not believe that Mr. Radley is telling the truth when he says that he did it because the tree was sick.  Cement would not be very likely to help a tree stop being sick.  In addition, Atticus tells Jem that the tree was not sick.  Instead, I believe that Nathan does it because he does not want Boo to keep leaving gifts for the kids -- just out of meanness, really.

How are the metaphysical aspects conveyed in full moon and little rieda poem?

Here's the poem:

A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket - 
And you listening. 
A spider's web, tense for the dew's touch. 
A pail lifted, still and brimming - mirror 
To tempt a first star to a tremor. 

Cows are going home in the lane there, looping the hedges with their warm 
wreaths of breath - 
A dark river of blood, many boulders, 
Balancing unspilled milk. 
'Moon!' you cry suddenly, 'Moon! Moon!' 

The moon has stepped back like an artist gazing amazed at a work 
That points at him amazed.

Frieda is Ted Hughes' daughter; she is the "you" who is "listening" in line 2 and the "you" who cries "Moon!" in the 2nd stanza.  So, we have a poet observing a daughter observing the full moon.  And, in the last stanza, the moon is observing them (namely Frieda), like an artist who has just finished a painting.

The metaphysical conceit works on three levels: father observing child; moon observing child; poet observing them all.  The first two stanzas are primarily physical; it is the third stanza that transcends the physical and enters the metaphysical.  Hence, the moon is personified as an artist who is as thrilled to see Frieda's joy at seeing the full moon poet Hughes is.

It is this symbiosis between nature and man and between poet and subject and artist and subject that allows the poem to go beyond the physical.

Does Roxane love Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac?

Edmond Rostand's classic play Cyrano de Bergerac is the story of many kinds of love: love of country, fraternal love, love of the arts, love of right and justice, and, of course, romantic love. Your question, I assume, is whether or not Roxane loved Cyrano with a romantic love. The answer, for all but the last five minutes of the play, is no.

Roxane is superficial and shallow throughout most of the play, loving Christian before she ever meets him simply because she thinks he is beautiful. While she does love Cyrano as a friend (cousin) from her youth and a confidante of today, she would never think of him romantically because of his...well, his nose. What happens over the course of the play is that Roxane does come to love Christian for more than his looks. She expresses her epiphany just before Christian dies, telling Cyrano she would love Christian even if he were ugly.

Christian dies, of course, and this transformation is of no use to Roxane as she mourns for the man she thinks is her one true love. Her transformation is of no use to Cyrano, either, as he is too loyal a friend to tell Roxane the truth at the expense of his dead friend. As the sun literally sets on Cyrano's life, Roxane understands that it was Cyrano she loved, and we know she loved him in the way he always hoped she would. But it is too late.

What is the significance of Hindley Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights?

Hindley is the antagonist to Heathcliff in the early years.  In the Book "Wuthering Heights" Heathcliff is brought home by Hindley's father to be raised as a brother to Hindley and his sister Catherine Ernshaw.  Hindley does not like Heathcliff from the begining.  He is jealous over him and does not like that he is a gypsy child.  To make matters worse, Heathcliff wins the affection of Hindley's sister.

Hindley gets sent away to school and while there he meets and marries a woman he loves.  His father dies and they move back to Wuthering Heights.  He takes over as heir to the estate.  His first course of action is to demote Heathcliff to stable boy.  He verbally abuses him and refuses to allow him to be given anything other than what a lowest servant could expect.  In addition, Hindley supports the idea of Catherine having a realtionship with Edward Linton.

Hindley's wife has a child but dies in labor.  Hindley is shocked and becomes an alcoholic.  He is abusive to the boy.  Heathcliff returns to seek revenge on Hindley. After Heathcliff obtains his revenge, Heathcliff becomes the antagonist.

What does the phrase "nevermore" mean in "The Raven"?

In Poe's famous poem "The Raven," the speaker, who has just lost his true love, Lenore, slowly goes mad from grief.  The raven seems to represent a visitor from the world of the dead, and the only phrase it utters, "nevermore," changes through the course of the poem.

At first, the raven gives it as a name, causing the speaker to marvel at such a strange creature and wonder about its previous owner.  Then, the word reminds the speaker that Lenore will "nevermore" be with him, and he begins to become enraged.  He asks the raven if Lenore is in heaven, and again, it answers, "nevermore."  In the end, the speaker goes insane, and the word "nevermore" can mean here that he will never be sane again.

In Chapter 4, what does Candy say to Crooks and Lennie about the dream of the land? What is Steinbeck saying about economic exploitation?

This section of the novel comes after Lennie has entered Crooks' room and told him about the dream of owning a piece of the land and, of course, the rabbits. Crooks is cruelly dismissive of Lennie's dream, and torments Lennie with different ways of how it might not work out, But then Candy comes in, wanting to speak to Lennie, having thought carefully about it. He is fiercely passionate and possessive of this dream as he declares to Crooks in response to his doubt:

"But we gonna do it now, and don't make no mistake about hat. George ain't got the money in town. That money's in teh bank. Me an' Lennie an' George. We gonna have a room to ourself. We're gonna have a dog an' rabbits an' chickens. We're gonna have green corn an' maybe a cow or a goat."

Candy's speech is so compelling that it even manages to convince Crooks that they are going to achieve it, so he decides to "buy in" on the scheme as well.

How was Tony influenced by Ultima and Maria in Bless Me, Ultima?

Tony, or Antonio, in Bless Me, Ultima is a boy in his village outside Guadalupe, New Mexico. He has older brothers who have fought in World War II and return changed by the war and disinterested in small village life. Even though Tony's village is in the United States, it is still called a village, a word not commonly used in relation to U.S. locales, because, up until World War II, the isolated village was left alone to continue in its historic way of life. One of the cultural aspects that carried on in the village, though it had faded from most of the United States, was the tradition of powerful curanderas, healers, who could impart as well as remove curses as well as healings.

In Tony's village, a curandera called Ultima, has come to them from her own nearby village because she has no family of her own left. She is brought into Tony's family to live. There, Ultima heals people and removes curses, but she also puts a curse on Tenorio's three daughters who are believed to be brujas, which means witches. These are indirect influences on Tony as he observes all these things and hears what Ultima and others have to say about it all, but Ultima has more direct influences on Tony in addition to this. Ultima acts as a guide and counselor to Tony. She teaches him to interpret his dreams and guides him as he tries to think about his place in his family. His mother's people are farmers and his father's people are nomadic cattle herders. Ultima endeavors to help Tony find a bridge for himself across the chasm of these two ways of life.

Tony's mother Maria is sad that all her older sons have chosen wandering ways of life, especially after their experiences in World War II, which has left a scar as scorching on each soldier as the never-before-seen scars left on the lands of Europe, Africa, the Pacific Islands and, worst of all, Japan. Maria dreams that Tony will choose to be a farmer or even a Roman Catholic priest. Maria is devout and would be so happy to have Tony devote his life to the Church. Tony embraces Catholicism himself but after witnessing Ultima's powers, which combine Catholicism and Native American mysticism, he begins to have questions and other ideas about religiousness, plus he is introduced to a pagan god by another person in the village. Maria's influence on Tony makes him earnestly try to understand his place in the family and his role in relation to his mother's dreams and the two very different family traditions: farmer versus nomadic cowboy. Her influence also provides the foundation for his religious beliefs and ideas, even though these settle beliefs come into conflict with new spirituality and ideas that he must also find a bridge between or across.

Critically analyse Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken".Please explian the answer between 300-400 words

The inevitable progress of Frost, the poet, is indicated in this poem, which is an often misquoted and misunderstood poem. Once, while travelling alone, Frost had confronted with a fork in the road and had stood undecided which path to take. Finally, he chose the one which seemed to be less frequented.

"Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same"

He feels that the choice is important because some day he would tell himself that he took the less travelled road.

"I shall be telling this with a sigh/Somewhere, ages and ages hence;/Two roads diverged in a wood, and/ I took the one less travelled by,/And that has made all the difference"

The poet's "difference" is discerned in him from the beginning, long before he set out on his career. He took not only the "different road", but also the best road laid for him. But, the poem had a different purpose to serve when the poet created it. It has a "tongue in cheek" attitude which is clearly perceivable in the hint.

"I shall be telling this with a sigh"--"sigh" which parodies the kind of person whose present life is distorted by nostalgic regrets for the possibilities of the past, who is more concerned with the "road not taken" than with the road taken. The speaker was modelled on the English poet, Edgard Thomas, who after a country war would lament on all the wild flowers that he might have seen on some other road. The negative emphasis in the title(The Road Not Taken), the nostalgic mood, the hesitancy of the decision :-"Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same", -the inability to turn his book completely.

The romantic pose finally in the last line:-"And that has made all the difference", all go to prove that the poet's "difference" is in him from the beginning, long before he set out on his career.

What is the difference between Macbeth's army and Malcolm's army?

Macbeth's army acts more out of fear than loyalty. Macbeth has become so evil that nobody would stay out of love for him, or even loyalty, because he is a terrible ruler. Malcolm's army, on the other hand, believe he is the rightful heir to the throne and would give their lives to see him made king. There is no stopping Malcolm's army; Macbeth's, on the other hand, would just as soon abandon him as stay.

Where does Elizabeth want John to go, and what does she want him to do there ?

You have not said what Act you are referring to, but in Act II... there is a scene which places Elizabeth and Proctor and Mary Warren talking about what has gone on in the court today. We find that Elizabeth's name has come up, although Mary Warren claims to have helped not see that accusation come to fruition.

Elizabeth wants John to go to Abigail to make sure they talk this out and that Abigail will not accuse Elizabeth.

She says this because

There is a promise made in any bed.

Knowing that John has slept with Abigail, he should have a power over her to make her act accordingly. Elizabeth fears that Abigail will have her killed.

What is the difference between the characters Squeaky and Gretchen in the story "Raymond's Run"?

Gretchen and Squeaky both are dedicated, particularly to running.  The compete well in the race, and have respect for each other becaue they are equal and fair competitors.   They also have a sense of self-assurance and pride - unlike the other girls, such as Mary Louise, they do not need to make fun of others to feel good.  They stand on their own and are good leaders.

What were Frederick Douglass' talents and accomplishments?

Frederick Douglass was a civil rights leader in the 19th century who was a brilliant writer and speaker.  He had the ability to motivate large crowds of people and on an individual level.  He was self-educated, eloquent, read everything he could get his hands on, and was very forward thinking.

As a former slave, Douglass rose through the ranks of American society to become an informal adviser to Lincoln, and someone who was influential over other abolitionists in the direction of their cause.  He published widely, including his autobiography, which I use in the modern day in my history classroom.

He also became a gifted politician, serving as United States Senator from Massachusetts.  He possessed an indomitable spirit, having risen from slave to Senator.  He refused for his entire life to believe that he was anything less than an equal human being, despite his own enslavement.  His advice to younger African-Americans towards the end of his life was to "Agitate, agitate, agitate".

What is Carton's job and daily working routine? (book 2, Chapter 5)

Carton is a sort of lawyer associate to Stryker.  Although he is brilliant, he is also severely alcoholic, and so serves as a helper, or "jackal", to Stryker rather than as a lawyer on his own.  When Stryker must appear in court, Carton manages to be there too, "with his hands in his pockets, staring at the ceiling of the court", but his primary work is in the evenings, from about 10 p.m. until 3 a.m.when he goes over to Stryker's residence and reads and condenses his legal papers so that Stryker can easily understand them.  He also generally acts as a servant to Stryker, and goes carousing with him when the work is done.

Do you think Hamlet's treatment of Opheila is justified?

Hamlet's ranting at Ophelia in Act 3, scene 1, leaves many readers feeling cold toward Hamlet.  However, I think, his treatment of her may be understandable, if not justified.  She is acting as a pawn for her father Polonius who is trying to curry favor with the king.  She knowingly is part of a trap to eavesdrop on Hamlet.  She begins the meeting with Hamlet by giving back the tokens of his affection that he had given to her.  I'm not sure that many men would react to this statement in a positive way.  Hamlet reacts with hurt and surprise, but he quickly surmises when he asks Ophelia where her father is that they are not alone.  How he determines that Claudius and Polonius are eavesdropping is not clear, but I'd like to believe that when he asks Ophelia where her father is, Ophelia, unaccomstomed to lying, inadvertantly glances toward her enclaved father, revealing both spies. 

So much of Hamlet's accompanying tirade is meant for the ears of Polonius and Claudius, not Ophelia.  What Hamlet tells Ophelia several times is "Farewell, get thee to a nunnery."  His repetition of this line throughout this scene shows his sincerity.  He truly wants her away from the corruptions of the court, and he is telling her goodbye, that their relationship is over. 

He cannot attempt to reconcile with a woman whose first allegiance is to her father, a crony of the king.  If Hamlet is to be successful in his revenge against Claudius, a relationship with Ophelia is impossible.  Hamlet is frustrated, hurt, angry, and tense.  But he is also very smart, and in this case, he is right in his decision.  This scene is quite poignant in that we see how the poor decisions of the older generation affect the relationships of the younger generation. 

If a group included 70% men and 30% women, and 40% were left handed, what would be the probability of a randomly selected person being left handed?

When the percentage of left handed persons (including both men and women) in the group is 40% it means proportion of left handed persons in the group of 0.4 of the total persons. Therefor the probability of a randomly selected person from the group being left handed is 0.4. Please note that the percentage of men and and women in the group has no impact on the probability of the person being left handed.

However, if we want to calculate the probability of a randomly selected person being a left handed man, it can be done as follows.

The probability of the person selected being a male is 0.7. Further having selected a man the probability of the selected man being left handed is 0.4. Therefor probability of the selected person being left handed man

= 0.7 x 0.4 = 0.28

Similarly, probability of the selected person being left handed woman

= 0.3 x 0.4 = 0.12

Can sonnet 18 by Shakespeare be releated to the human body ?

I think this is an excellent question, provided you do not think of it as a literal comparision.

I think he is talking about the difference between body and spirit here. The discussion of whether or not he should use a nature metaphor to speak of her reveals his fundamental problem with trying to use that metaphor: everything in nature either dies or is too harsh. Her body, too, will die, and her corporal beauty is impermanent. So when he talks about summer, he could be talking about a person's body at the height of its attractiveness. When he talks about the buds of May, he may talking about the body of a young, "budding" or developing person. The sun may represent the outward beauty of a person: it is true that sometimes the sun shines too hot, (and beauty stuns or dazzles rather than entices) and sometimes it is "dimmed" (and we can't see the beauty at all. When he says that "every fair from fair sometimes declines" that might also be a reference to our bodies and the potential for us to age and become less fair than once we were. Our bodies are maddeningly mortal: they flash with youth and beauty and then they age until everything we were is eclipsed by the shade of Death (this was especially so in Shakespeare's time).

The spirit, on the other hand, lives. Her essence transcends her body, and he is capable of capturing that essence in lines of poetry; hence, though her body must die, her spirit through him, becomes eternal.

What is the message about blindness in "When I consider how my light is spent"?

I think "When I Consider How My Light is Spent" is a wonderful, poignant sonnet in which the poet explores his own grief over his blindness and expresses his fear that it will mean that he will be unable to use his abilities as he had hoped he would be able to. However, and this is the important part of the poem, he finds immense consolation in the idea that patient endurance of his limitations and trying to wait to see how he can serve God's will are just as important as being successful in the exploits of which he had dreamed. Note what the poem says:

"God doth not need

Either man's work or His own gifts. Who best

Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best."

The enduring message about blindness seems to be that it does not prevent us from serving God, and that no matter what state we find ourselves in, whether blind or subject to some other limitation, what God wants us to do is to learn to "Bear His mild yoke" and wait and serve him patiently in the situation that we find ourselves. As much of a tragedy as Milton's blindness was, this poem is testament to the way that blindness does not make us less of a person to ourselves or to God.

What are the last words of Mrs. Joe Gargery?Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

This is a good question because Mrs. Joe's death is reported and a funeral occurs before we ever hear the discussion of what the words were that she spoke in dying. Biddy reports them to Pip:

She had been in one of her bad states... for four days, when she came out of it in the evening, just at tea-time and said quite plainly, 'Joe.'... I ran and fetched in Mr. Gargery from the forge... And so she presently said again, 'Joe' again, and once 'Pardon' and once 'Pip'.

These words are of extreme importance as it demonstrates Joe has been hurt by Pip and needs to forgive him. Likewise, the act of pardoning is ironic because of the central theme of the convict being involved in this storyline.

What does Hamlet’s instructions to the players tell us about the acting style of many actors of the Elizabethan period?act 3

Hamlet tells them to deliver the lines naturally as if they were talking to anyone in normal conversation.  He instructs them repeatedly not to overact.  From this, we get the idea that many actors during this time period were overly dramatic and unnatural when they delivered their lines.

Explain the role that darkness plays in helping Romeo and Juliet learn of their love for each.

Romeo and Juliet begin and end their torrid love in darkness.  When Romeo is heading to the Capulet's feast, it is in the nighttime and they are disguised in the darkness of a mask so no one will discover their identities.  At the feast Romeo first touches Juliet's hand in darkness.  They reach around a pillar till they find each other's hands.

Romeo climbs an orchard wall and is surrounded by darkness when he sees Juliet on the balcony and he is taken by her beauty and the way she leans her cheek upon her hand.  Only when she is asking Romeo to deny his name does he answer.  When they make their vows to each other he swears by the moon and Juliet says not to swear by the moon because it is not constant.  The moon signals night time and darkness.  This seems to foreshadow a dark and gloomy start to their love.

Even in the end, Romeo and Juliet die in the darkness of the catacombs surrounded by bones of ancestors and the darkness of death.

 Reference:   The Literature of Language Book by McDougal Littell

What were the similarities, differences of these Civil War battles? 1. First Bull Run 2. Gettysburg 3. Antietam

Battles of First Manassas, Sharpsburg, and Gettysburg.

Similarities: C.S.A. was outnumbered by U.S.A. at all three battles.

Differences:  Each battle had a different outcome;, C.S.A. won one, one was a draw, U.S.A. won one.

At First Bull Run (First Manassas), the troops on both sides were inexperienced at war.  Gen. McDowell, U.S.A., was a good general, but his inexperienced troops broke and ran, so that he lost the battle.  Gen. J. E. Johnston, C.S.A., was also a good general.  The C.S.A. troops were not experienced, but they were fighting on their own soil for their homes and hearths, so they did not break and run.  There were charges by the U.S.A. and countercharges by the C.S.A.

At Antietam (Sharpsburg), a good general (Lee, C.S.A.) faced a poor general (McClellan, U.S.A.) and fought his vastly superior army to a draw.  McClellan was a good organizer and a good trainer of troops, but a very poor fighting general.  The U.S.A. charged across open ground at the C.S.A. which was positioned on slightly higher ground.

At Gettysburg, the troops on both sides were experienced at war and both sides were led by good generals.  The U.S.A. greatly outnumbered the C.S.A. at this battle.  The C.S.A. charged across open ground at the U.S.A. which was positioned on a hill top.

What is the main theme or message of the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God?

Zora Neale Hurston's underlying theme of self-expression and independence is one that is startling for its day.  And, that a young girl with no worldy experience arrives at the realization that she is an emotional slave to the men that she has married is equally unusual.  However, this theme underscores Hurston's desire to create, in her own words, "an alternative culture that validated their worth as human beings."  And, Hurston contends that black people, while living in the Jim Crow world, could still "attain personal identity by not transcending the culture, but by embracing it."

Clearly, Zora Neale Hurston was much ahead of her time with these motifs.  Truly, "their eyes were watching God" and not looking down at the earth as many others did in her era.  Hurston and her character Janie knew, in the words of Lord Byron, that a person's "reach should exceed his (her) grasp--Else what's a heaven for?"  Hurston's message is an existential one, while at the same time encouraging the belief in one's culture.