What is the effect of Situational Irony?What is the effect of Situational Irony?Dramatic Irony?I know what they are... but what are their...

The above answers do an excellent job of treating situational irony, so I'll deal with dramatic irony.

Dramatic irony occurs when the reader/audience knows more about a character's situation than the character does.  The one main effect is that it gives the reader a sense of superiority, or detached superiority.  The reader not only seemingly discovers what is revealed, but feels superior for doing so.

An example of dramatic irony is in the beginning of Shakespeare's Macbeth Act 1.6, when King Duncan and Banquo describe Macbeth's castle and the atmosphere around it with words like sweetly, pleasant, and delicate.  The reader knows something they don't:  that Macbeth and his wife are inside plotting to assassinate Duncan.  Macbeth's castle is anything but a place of sweetness, pleasantness, or delicateness.  This is dramatic irony.    

What is one point of comparison between July's People and The Great Gatsby?

One comparison between July's People by South African Nadine Gordimer and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is that of counterfeit identities. One of the themes running through July's People is the idea Afrikaner Maureen Smales has of her African servant July, properly named Mwawate, a theme is underscored by his two names: his Afrikaner servant name and his own tribal name. Maureen has conjured an identity for July that encompasses her notion of dignity and makes excuses for July's acts of dishonesty, like taking small personal belongings. Maureen comes to understand that this imposition of a counterfeit dignity on July humiliates him and that he measures himself and his own innate dignity by his village and not by his white Afrikaner position of servitude. In the end, Maureen runs away from this exposure of the counterfeit identity she has created.

In The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby counterfeits his own identity. The son of Midwestern farmers, he pridefully and arrogantly rejects having to work as a janitor to put himself through school and embraces the first entrance to Easy Street of wealth and fine living that he encounters, that being the via the yacht of Dan Cody. Once Gatsby inherits Cody's money and meets Daisy, he swears to attain the kind of wealth that will find, gain, and keep Daisy, his Holy Grail. In order to achieve his conquest of his Grail, he counterfeits a life as large as the mansion he keeps as a beacon to Daisy. In the end, the things that Maureen in July's People and Jay in The Great Gatsby run after bring them face to face with death. Though the novel ends before Maureen finds out if her chase leads to her death or not, Gatsby ends his part in his story in his own funeral.

In what ways, if any, are riots rational acts of collective behavior? In what ways, if any, are riots productive? Counterproductive? With all of...

We do not have to look back all that long to see cases of minority riots in the US and what impact they had.  Back in the 1960s, there were many racially based riots in the US.

These riots had some "positive" effects for blacks in that they did call attention to the problems faced by that community.  However, they also caused a serious backlash against blacks.  In my opinion, they played a major role in bringing conservative Republicans to power (not that it happened right away).

I suppose you could argue that riots are rational for people who have no other way of being heard by those with power.  However, they tend to be counterproductive in that they destroy the rioters' own neighborhoods and end up hurting them more than they help.

Why is Thoreau still important?

There are lots of reasons, but I'll suggest the one that I think is more important for today.  Thoreau was a minimalist, a person who believed that we could be happier with less than we can with more "SIMPLIFY! SIMPLIFY!"  This is quite contrary to the way we think today where what we have often seems to be a substitute for what we are.

For what I understand, much of the problem we have today is due to credit cards, or unwillingness to delay gratification and to live within our means.  I am old enough to remember life before credit cards, when the best you could do was "lay away,' where you essentially had to pay as you go.  Today we have built a false prosperity based on consumption we cannot afford.  Worse than that, we are being told that they way "out" of our current economic problem is --- more spending we can't afford.  I don't know who this makes sense to, but I'm sure it would baffle Thoreau --- I know it baffles me.

And this is without mentioning Thoreau's emphasis on individuality ... :)

What does the arabic word "maktub" mean and how is it used in Coelho's novel, The Alchemist?

"Maktub," the merchant said, finally. "What does that mean?" "You would have to have been born an Arab to understand," he answered. "But in your language it would be something like 'It is written."

                                                            -- The Alchemist, pg. 31

And, as the camel driver had said, to die tomorrow was no worse than dying on any other day. Every day was there to be lived or to mark one's departure from this world. Everything depended on one word: "Maktub."

                                                             -- The Alchemist, pg. 60

"Maktub" is a word that comes up again and again in The Alchemist. As is mentioned in the first quote, it is Arabic for "it is written." Maktub means fate or destiny. The concept comes from the Islamic notion that Allah writes one's destiny and whatever we experience occurs because it is meant to be. The idea of destiny that is inevitable is emphasized throughout this book.

"Maktub" also exists in Farsi along with some other languages that borrow heavily from Farsi and Arabic. In contemporary Farsi and Turkish, for example, "maktub" or "mektup" means "letter." But its meaning in The Alchemist is "destiny."

In ONE paragraph, what do you think of the moral and ethical arguments for and against 'animal testing', and why?

The moral and ethical arguments for and against animal testing are based on the animal's lack of advocacy and for  being unable to consent or defend itself against certain types of treatment. Animal testing can be considered a good thing when it is used to treat a human condition which may be dangerous enough to attack others and endanger the species. It is also a good thing if it helps in the elimination of genetic illnesses or inherited diseases that attack human. Unethical treatment of animals during testing would be the argument against it, and whether the animal is being put to suffer for research that is unnecessary and worthless. In the end, it is the fact that a living thing should be respected what makes for the argument against animal testing.

Can you provide an analysis of "Sonnet 14" by Sir Philip Sidney? What does Sir Philip Sidney mean in his sonnet 14?

It is from Astrophel and Stella, a fictional account of a love story - which might have some relevance to Sidney himself, but that is debate-able. "Astrophel" means star (astro) and lover (phil) and Stella refers to star (stellar). So, Astrophel is the star lover and Stella is his star. In this particular sonnet, the speaker is just asking if love, or more to the point, Desire is sinful and he concludes that if love is sinful, then call him a sinner. The idea he's toying with is this: if love and desire leads one to sinful thoughts, then is love sort of a primrose path to sinfulness?

"Love on me doth all his quiver spend" - Cupid's arrow has got his heart.

The speaker is talking to a critic: someone who is critical of his love. The speaker refutes the idea that his love, since it pains him, is sinful. Then he says, even if it is sinful, then "let me sinful be!" Speaker describes the critic's words with rhubarb (bitter, sour). Speaker is essentially defending his love, saying it is constant and pure: "Well stayed with truth in word and faith of deed."