Explain how Descartes, Spinoza, and Locke are all 3 dualists. Highlight their similarities and differences in Sophie's World.

Descartes' dualism, "Cartesian dualism" started the modern argument about the "mind-body" problem. Descartes suggested that the body is a machine, materialistic; and that the mind is metaphysical. He said that the mind can control the body, but the body can influence the mind.

Spinoza was not a dualist. Initially, he followed Descartes' dualism, but came to think that mind and body are all made of the same substance: monism. He claimed that God and Nature are the same, and that even God is not separate from the one system of which everything is made: in other words, God (or Nature) is the system, a determined system.

For Locke, from what I remember, the jury is always going to be out as to whether he was a dualist. I'd consider him an agnostic as far as dualism goes with respect to epistemology - knowledge (not necessarily with respect to religion): he couldn't prove metaphysical things existed, so he supposed that even if they did, it was irrelevant to the understanding of reality since we couldn't know for sure. In other, words, humans just didn't have the ability to understand the complexities of the mind and what a 'thought' or a 'concept/idea' is, and until they could do so, why not spend time on more empirical investigations. Locke was an empiricist and relied on sense experience for knowledge. Even if the metaphysical exists, humans apprehend them via their senses, or faculties. So, we are always mediated by our senses, and thus can never really know if it is the experiences of what we might consider metaphysical (qualia) are effects of our own perceptions/senses or if they are metaphysical and simply communicated to us by way of our senses.

Does Amir think of Hassan as a friend in Chapter 4?thanks

In the book "The Kite Runner" Amir and Hassan have grown up together.   They have even nursed from the same mother.  Everyday Amir climbs out of bed to get ready for school.  Long before he goes to the table Hassan has been up helping set the table for Amir's breakfast.  Hassan irons his clothing and serves him his food.

The two boy's play together and Amir reads to Hassan, but they have a line that separates them.  Hassan is a Hazara child, which means that Amir identifies him as being beneath him.  When Amir's other friends come over, he does not invite Hassan to play. 

Although they are very close and have a lot of fun together, Amir is also jealous of Baba's affection towards Hassan.  Amir identifies that Hassan is a servant not a brother or friend.

Describe the climate, animal and plant life of Canada's tundra.

The northern most part of Canada falls in arctic tundra region, which is a very cold and dry regions where trees don't grow. Tundra experiences long and very cold winters and short cool summers. The average temperature is -29 degrees C, and the summer temperature ranges from 3 to 12 degrees C. However i summer also the soil below the ground level  from depth of 30 to 150 centimeters remains permanently frozen. This prevents growth of trees there. But plants grow rapidly in summer and cover the ground with bright flowers. The pants of the arctic tundra include cinquefoils, fireweeds, louseworts and saxifrages. A thick growth of lichens covers most of the land.

Animals of the arctic tundras include polar and grizzly bear, caribou, musk-oxen, reindeer, lemmings, snowy owls, stoats, arctic wolves, arctic hare and arctic ground squirrel. Sea animals like seal and walrus live along the coastline, Fishes like arctic char live in lakes and rivers.Migratory birds like geese and terns migrate there in summer.

How and Why are binary oppositions used to construct and represent Edgar and Heathcliff's relationship

Heathcliff is an orphan, dark-skinned, passionate, violent, emotional, raw, extreme in rage and love.

Edgar is privileged, pale, bookish, cowardly, meek, tender, womanly.

Regarding Edgar, Heathcliff says:

"I wish you joy of the milk-blooded coward, Cathy!" said her friend.    "I compliment you on your taste: and that is the slavering, shivering thing you preferred to me!    I would not strike him with my fist, but I'd kick him with my foot, Is he weeping, or is he going to faint for fear?"

Look how Nelly describes Edgar:

"And Edgar standing solemnly by to see it over; then offering prayers of thanks to God for restoring peace to his house, and going back to his books! What in the name of all that feels, has he to do with books, when I am dying?"

Look how Edgar nurses Cathy: "No mother could have nursed an only child more devotedly than Edgar tended her."

And Nelly re: Edgar: "Mr Edgar's coldness depressed me exceedingly."

And: "Mr Edgar was taken with a nervous trembling, and his countenance grew deadly pale."

Contrast this with Heathcliff's countenance:

"He had grown a tall, athletic, well-formed man; beside whom, my master seemed quite slender and youth-like.    His upright carriage suggested the idea of his having been in the army.    His countenance was much older in expression, and decision of feature than Mr Linton's; it looked intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation.    A half-civilized ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows, and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued; and his manner was even dignified, quite divested of roughness though too stern for grace."

What scenes in Schindler’s List are in color? Why do you think Spielberg chose to film these scenes in color but not others? How was music...

Spielberg uses a black and white sepia film stock in Schindler's List to give verisimilitude to the film, to take the edge off the bloodshed, and to strike a contrast between awareness of the Holocaust and apathy.

The film begins in color.  A prayer is spoken and the yellow flame of a candle dissolves to the smoke of a train.  The shift in color connotes a shift in time, from present to past.  The news is in black and white.  So is World War II footage.  In fact, most of the greatest films of all-time (except perhaps 2001: A Space Odyssey) are filmed in black and white.  Visually and psychologically, viewers trust black and white.  Spielberg's cinematography strikes the perfect balance (known as chiaroscuro).

The black and white also serves to stylize the violence.  The point-blank executions are grizzly, to be sure, but filming them in black and white makes them less visceral.  The blood is black, instead of red.  As such, the bloodshed is less gratuitous.

Schindler is awakened to the Holocaust during the liquidation of the ghetto when he sees the little girl in the red coat.  She is an Innocent, and her red coat is symbolic of the aforementioned blood that has been spilled.  Now, the blood is on Schindler's hands, as he is aligned with the Nazis.  He soon realizes that he must save his workers from the same fate as the girl.  Later, Oskar will see the girl in the red coat's charred remains in the concentration camps.  She is a reminder of the victims he could have saved (if he had awakened to the horrors sooner).

The film ends in color as it shifts back to the present.  The Schindler Jews place stones on his grave as an homage to his sacrifice.

Why does O'Brien begin the chapter with a vivid description of the dead man's wounds?Chapter 12"The man I killed"

One reason is the fact that the narrator (and there is quite a bit of debate whether it is really Tim O'Brien or not) has killed this man.  The vivid description and the imagined history of the victim reinforces the impact of the experience on the narrator.  He is responsible for this.  In the span of the novel, the narrator goes from being a young kid debating whether to flee to Canada to seeing one of his platoon members killed to now being the one responsible for killing.  

Kiowa tries to get the narrator to talk about it, to purge himself of the ordeal, but the narrator, for the most part, remains silent.  The story itself, years later, is his attempt to purge himself of the experience and guilt.  I think too it shows us that the narrator is not a cold blooded killer.  He is not the detached soldier ready to kill when needed.  Yes, he kills, but the repercussions linger.  This ties into one of the main themes of the novel - the heaviest burdens the soldiers carry are their memories.  This is ironic because they can rid themselves of their gear, weapons, rations, and other things, but they cannot get rid of their memories.  Physically, these weigh nothing, but mentally and emotionally, they are incredibly heavy burdens.

How are Benvolio and Mercutio dramatic foils for Romeo?

Romeo is the ultimate "head in the clouds" lover.  He moons over Rosaline, then he completely loses it over Juliet.  He is the incurable romantic.

Benvolio is the voice of reason.  He's the one who tries to remind Romeo that there are other fish in the sea when Romeo is depressed over Rosaline.  He's also the one who tries to calm down violent situations, like the fights between the Capulets and the Montagues.

Mercutio is the hot-blooded cynic toward romance.  He uses bawdier (sexual) humor in discussing females, almost as if that is his only use for women.  He is markedly different from Romeo, who has a romantic ideal in his head concerning love.

Check the links below for information about these characters!  Good luck!