Friday, October 3, 2014

What is Romeo's attitude towards women in Romeo and Juliet?

Romeo is criticized by Friar Lawrence for being only about women's looks:



young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.



This issue is further exemplified in Romeo's first sighting of Juliet:



O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.



Here, it's all about appearances. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, it is the first time he sees her.  But in Act II, scene ii, he again can't shut his face about her looks:



The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.



With Rosaline, he too placed entirely too much emphasis on appearances.  He talked about how it would be such a pity when she dies that no one will have experienced her beauty.


Although I really want to think highly of Romeo's attitude toward women, the entirety of the play demonstrates his emphasis on appearance which in today's society doesn't sit well with women. We want to be valued for more than that even if we are very attractive. His willingness to do just about anything to be in a relationship is evident as well, which is not necessarily good. He seems to be so much more in love with being in love than is healthy. I want to think his love with Juliet is genuine, but it is sure hard to watch a young man just turn in an instant like that from one girl to another.

How does Boo Radley show courage throughout the novel?I need at least three solid examples in my essay. Suggestions?

In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" Boo Radley has not been around people for many years.  He observes the children playing by his house.  Boo musters up the courage and starts leaving them little gifts.  He is reaching out to a very scary outside world.


The next thing that Boo does is he begins to monitor the children.  It has been stated that people thought that he went out when no one saw him at night.  One night he saves the children from Bob Ewell by stabbing him.  This is also a brave act.


Boo collects up Jem and rushes him to Atticus' house.  Boo enters the house with the boy.  He has not had human contact other than his brother for many years so his took a lot of courage.  He even stays to finish talking with the sheriff and Atticus.


One of the bravest things he does is to touch Jem and to allow Scout to allow him to hold her arm as they walk home.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

What is the main conflict he faces?

The book "The Barrio Boy" was written with several underlying themes.  However, the one that first comes to mind is the conflict between the poor Mexican Immigrants and Anglo- Saxon America.  The other conflict is the need to escape from the Revolutionary War.  In the book the family is trying to make ends meet.  They are poor but desire a better life.  They move from Mexico to a barrio in the United Sates.  They are still unable to gain any advantage financially.  The other conflict is the family's struggle to over come the economic and bureaucratic systems.


e-notes has a very good summary on the following website.

What are six metaphors from The House on Mango Street? Why are they important?

The House on Mango Street is a novel narrated by Esperanza who, along with five members of her family, move into a barrio and must live in a red house that does not even have running water. She is so disgruntled with this house that she wants to go somewhere else. She narrates,



Someday I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without my having to explain them. Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor.



In this metaphor Esperanza compares herself to a red balloon because her house in painted with red paint and it resembles a balloon that is tied down because she is trapped in that barrio with no hope for her future. 


Then, Esperanza remarks that she and her sister are alike in several ways, one of which is their laughter, which is 



Not the shy ice cream bells' giggle of Rachel and Lucy's family, but all of a sudden and surprised like a pile of dishes breaking.




In other words, her sister's and her laughter are not light and giggly, but sudden and crashing, like dishes breaking'


Another example of metaphor comes when Esperanza goes to "Elenita, witch woman..." who reads the tarot cards. After she deals some out, she says,



Here a pillar of bees and this a mattress of luxury



These are metaphor for hardships and times of comfort.

What are some differences between the story "The Most Dangerous Game" and the movie version?

I watched the 1932 movie version of the story a while ago and would not want to watch it again. It looked like what they used to call a B movie. In the old days theaters offered double features, plus cartoons and newsreels. The B movies were made on much lower budgets than the feature movies, but the B movies had some influence on world cinema. Both Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were fans of American B movies. The so-called "noir" films were inspired by American B movies, which were often murder mysteries and used lots of shadows and dim lighting to create effects of suspense and danger. I can't remember the film version of The Most Dangerous Game very well, but it seems to me that the biggest difference between the story and the film was that Rainsford and Zaroff had a tremendous battle at the end of the film, whereas the original story ends cryptically and without violence. I don't believe the filmmakers could afford to travel on location to any island but had to fake all the island scenery indoors at the studio.

What does the photograph of Krebs, the corporal, and the German girls reveal The Soldier's Home?

In reading and interpreting this story, I would call attention to the style in which Hemingway writes it.  Notice the verbs in these 4 sentences that describe the picture:  “is,” “look,” “are,” and “does not show.” None of the verbs offer action, all are as laconic as the character.  Notice too the straightforward, simple construction of the sentences:  the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sentences consist of subject, verb, and modifier, not even containing a direction object:  nothing happens in them to anything.  The first sentence is even weaker, beginning with the expletive “there is,” which postpones the meaning of the sentence, putting it in the subordinate clause “which shows….”  In short, while the sentence communicates the lack of meaning in Kreb’s life, his inability to find romance and sentimentality in the war (as, perhaps, his parents and his town would prefer), its style and structure reinforce the same—and this is the beauty and complexity of Hemingway’s writing.  It is also something he associated with manhood:  eschewing the sentimental in favor of seeing things “as they are” and telling about that simply, directly, with as few words as needed.

How was slaveholding seen as a "perversion of Christianity" in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass?

The answer to your question is indeed all over the place in Frederick Douglass' Narrative -- from the comments in the preface to the parody of church music at the end -- and while I agree completely with akannan that you will need to do the legwork to identify the quotations, I want to share a legitimate strategy that you may not yet know about or use: the full text of this slave narrative is available online (see the two links below for sample sites housing the text).


Electronic texts are searchable, which means that you after you access the electronic text you can use the "Find on this page" command (under "Edit" in the menu of Internet Explorer) or simply the keyboard command "CTRL-f" to open up the search function. Type in one keyword at a time -- such as "Christ" (which will probably also find "Christian") and "religion" -- and you'll find every occurance of each word in the electronic text.


You will still need to locate page numbers in order to put the quotations in MLA format, and page numbers are not often given in electronic texts. The chapters in Douglass' text are short, so you may find yourself reviewing your print copy of the book (by chapter) to find out the exact page number for the relevant quotations in the chapters that you have searched electronically.


Selective searching of electronic texts is nowhere close to the same thing as reading the full text, of course. I recommend using this strategy after you have already read the text in full one time through but don't necessarily want to read the entire text again just to find relevant quotations. Douglass' story is amazingly good, and if you simply search instead of read, you're really not gaining anything through the assignment.

Discuss at least two characteristics of Romanticism in John Keat's poem "Ode toa Nightingale".

The poet in Ode To A Nightingale  is an escapist .He escapes through imagination .On his way the bower of the bliss wher the nightingale is ...