May 2009

John Donne
uses apostrophe, or direct address, by talking to his beloved in
this poem: he speaks directly to her to reassure her that he will not be gone long on his
journey. He uses enjambment, or continuing a thought from one line
to the next without a stop when he writes:

Nor in hope
the world can show
A fitter love for me

In the second stanza the speaker uses comparison to liken
himself to the sun. He says his journey will be faster than the sun's daily journey across the
earth, and that just like the faithful sun, he will return the next day. He also uses
, which is to give human traits to an inanimate object or animal.
Here, he speaks of the sun as a "he," and says that it lacks the speaker's sense and
desire, as if it should have sense and desire.

When the speaker says he will
takes more "wings" on his journey than the sun, he doesn't mean he will literally take
wings, but that he will travel faster, like a bird with powerful wings. He is using a
to liken his travel to flying.

Donne employs
, orwords in close proximity starting with the same consonant, when
he writes:

O how feeble is man's power,

That if good fortune fall ...

The alliterative 'f's' create a sense of rhythm.

Donne uses , or beginning lines of verse with the same word or words
when he writes

And we join to'it our
strength,
And we teach it art and length

The speaker uses figures of speech when he tells his beloved
that:

When thou
sigh'st, thou sigh'st not wind,
But sigh'st my soul away;

When thou weep'st, unkindly kind,
My life's blood doth
decay.

When his
beloved sighs in unhappiness she is not literally blowing his soul way. What he means is she is
giving him emotional pain by sighing. Likewise, when she weeps, his blood doesn't literally
decay. He uses that image to convey that he feels terrible inside when she cries at the thought
of their separation.

With what emotion does the speaker first greet the raven in "The Raven"?

The moment
when the speaker meets the Raven occurs towards the middle of the poem, specifically in the
following two stanzas:

Open here I flung the shutter,
when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly
days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon
a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it
wore.
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said,
"art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly
shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

Basically, the words "beguiling my sad fancy into smiling by the grave and stern
decorum of the countenance it wore" mean that the speaker feels curious at the
"attitude" of the raven, and it makes him laugh (or smirk, smile) how the raven looks
so serious, dignified, and regal considering that he is "just a bird".

Therefore, the emotions that the speaker first feels when he greets the raven are
curiosity, mixed with a bit of empathy, if not sympathy, for this animal who chose to enter his
home only to look down on him as if he were a bringer of something
supernatural.

Whose words reveal that Charles is Laurie?

In
this story byabout a horrid boy namedwho is supposedly in the narrator's son Laurie's
kindergarten class, we discover that Charles is Laurie when the narrator (Laurie's mother)
speaks to his teacher.

Laurie has been coming home telling his parents that
Charles is very naughty and is repeatedly punished for his misdemeanors. It is clear that Laurie
enjoys talking about Charles's audacity, and he has a...

From Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, why did Hillari tell Stargirl not to sing to her on her birthday? How did Stargirl keep her promise?

Hillari
represents every pretty and mean high school girl from the dawn of time. She is all things
popular and superficial. To have a girl who dresses up in prairie dresses sing to her in the
lunchroom on a ukulele is the epitome of embarrassment for one like Hillari. Consequently, on
the day before Hillari's birthday, she tellsnot to sing to her while jabbing a finger into face
at the same time! Very articulately, Stargirl says that she won't sing to Hillari.

Spinelli describes the lunchroom scene very well by walking the reader through every
minute of lunch and what Hillari and Stargirl do through the whole period. Stargirl makes her
move at the end of lunch though, and Leo describes it in the following way:

". . . walking, right up to the table where Kevin and I sat
with the Hot Seat crew. . . she sang "Happy Birthday." It was Hillari's name at the
end of the song, but true to her word of the day before, she did not sing it
to Hillari--she sang it to me"
(28).

Touche, Stargirl! She kept her word and didn't sing
directly to Hillari's face, but she sang to Leo instead. Theof the situation roasts Hillari and
she stomps out of the lunchroom.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

What are examples of irony in Candide?

and
Cundegonde's relationship is packed with . For one, they start out as idealistic lovers who are
hopelessly devoted to one another. Candide goes on a quest to reunite with Cundegonde, holding
her in his mind as a symbol of purity and goodness. Even in the utopian world of El Dorado, he
is unhappy without her beside him.

However, when Candide finally
has...

Friday, May 29, 2009

In what ways is Maycomb the same as it was before Tom Robinson's trial in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Just as
Miss Maudie points out the day after the trial, inof 's , Maycomb has only
made a "baby-step" as a result of the trial.

In Miss Maudie's
view, Maycomb has made a baby step towards creating a more just
society because people like Judge Taylor did what they could to help Tom Robinson. Judge Taylor
did what he could by appointing , who likewise did all he could by putting his all into
defending Robinson. As Miss Maudie further points out, though it was impossible for Atticus to
actually win the case, he was at least capable of making the jury members think long and hard
about their decision.

Yet, Miss Maudie is perfectly correct in asserting
that Maycomb has only made a "baby-step," meaning that very little has changed because
the step is too small to even be noticeable. Maycomb is still the
same with respect to its racism and
its other
prejudices.

Racism is especially
seen in the townspeople's reactions to Robinson's death. According
to 's narration, the townspeople said very negative, racist things in reaction to Robinson's
death such as how it's "[t]ypical of a nigger to cut and run" and how, despite the
fact that Atticus might have been able to get a judge to overturn Robinson's sentence, it's
typical of someone like Robinson to "just run blind first chance he saw" (Ch. 25). The
townspeople's most racist comments reveal their prejudiced belief
that all African Americans are inherently evil and immoral, as we see in the
following:

Just shows you, that Robinson boy was legally
married, they say he kept himself clean, went to church and all that, but when it comes down to
the line the veneer's mighty thin. Nigger always comes out in 'em. (Ch. 25)

Even Maycomb's other prejudices remain
the same, which is why when Arthur Radley rescues the children by taking Bob Ewell's life,
Sheriff Taylor fears Arthur's exposure and talks Atticus into dropping the matter. As Sheriff
Taylor explains to Atticus, if Arthur is exposed for his courageous deed, which can easily be
misconstrued as evil by many townspeople, the townspeople would start knocking on his door
endlessly. Sheriff Taylor phrases his warning in the following:

To my way of thinkin', Mr. Finch, taking the one man who's done you and this town a
great service an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight--to me, that's a sin. It's a
sin and I'm not about to have it on my head. If it was any other man, it'd be different. But not
this man, Mr. Finch. (Ch. 30)

Sheriff Taylor's speech
shows us that some people, like himself, have changed by becoming more open-minded; it's
open-minded to value Arthur's courageous action and want to protect him. Yet, his speech also
shows that there still exists in Maycomb a need to protect people like
Arthur due to the prejudices of the vast majority of Maycomb's
people.

Hence, like Miss Maudie said, though the town has
made a "baby-step," they still need to progress much farther to be able to relinquish
their racist and prejudiced views, and that major step may never really take
place.

Which of the children does the ghost say we should beware the most ?

In
stave 3, "The Second Of The Three Spirits," of 's , the Ghost of
Christmas Present conducts Ebenezer Scrooge throughout London, showing him vignettes of the
Cratchit family's Christmas dinner and Scrooge's nephew Fred's Christmas party. The Ghost also
takes Scrooge out on the moors to listen to miners sing Christmas songs and wish each other a
"Merry Christmas" and whisks Scrooge out to a ship at sea where sailors speak kinds
words to each other and hum Christmas tunes to themselves.

Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but always with a happy
end. The Spirit stood beside sick beds, and they were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were
close at home; by struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, and
it was rich. In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in miserys every refuge, where vain man in his
little brief authority had not made fast the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his
blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts.

The last visit
is to a children's Twelfth Night party, just fifteen minutes before midnight: the time the Ghost
said that his life would end. Scrooge was thinking to himself that although he hadn't aged even
a little, the Ghost had become considerably older, when Scrooge notices something poking out
from under the Ghost's robe.

Forgive me if I am not
justified in what I ask, said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirits robe, but I see
something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a
claw?

The Ghosts lifts his robe, revealing two children,
a boy and a girl, looking "wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable." They
kneel down at the Ghost's feet and grab at his robe.

Scrooge is frightened
and appalled by the appearance of the children, and he backs away from them.

"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both,
and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written
which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."

Have they no refuge or
resource? cried Scrooge.

Are there no prisons? said the Spirit, turning on
him for the last time with his own words. Are there no workhouses?"

Scrooge is struck by the thought of his own ignorance, which led to
these children's deplorable condition and to the wretched condition of other men, women, and
children whom Scrooge has ignored throughout his life.

What were the Reconstruction plans put forth by Congress and the President (both Lincoln and Johnson)?

President
Abraham Lincoln could see the writing on the wall by 1863, that the Union would most likely win
the war, and the need for reconstruction of the national politically, economically and socially
would be paramount. His idea was the 10% Plan, where if 10% of the number of people in a state
that voted in the 1860 election swore allegiance to the Union (not 10% of the entire population,
which would be harder), then the state could be readmitted. Johnson was from a
border...

In Animal Farm, why does Mollie leave the farm?

In
, Mollie does not give a reason for leaving the farm. However, by looking
at chapter five, we can infer some reasons why she disappeared without warning.

For a start, we know that Mollie was the sort of animal who enjoyed being fussed over
by her owners. She also loved wearing ribbons and eating cubes of sugar. When the animals
expelled Jones from the farm, life for Mollie changed significantly because the wearing of
ribbons and the eating of sugar cubes were no longer favored activities. Moreover, as we learn
from the opening of chapter five, Mollie was not interested in doing any of the work required to
maintain the farm and would often make excuses to get out of doing it.

What
we can infer, then, is that Mollie leaves the farm because it no longer shares her...

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Would you explain the poem of "Song of Powers" by David Mason stanza by stanza?

David
Mason's "Song of the Powers" presents a unique take on an old childhood game. The
basis for the poem is clearly the age-old struggle of "Paper Rock Scissors," with each
"power" contributing a stanza to the poem. The first stanza belongs to what is
traditionally called the rock. The stone gloats of its power to "crush." It alone is
"stronger than wishes" and is able to destroy the scissors (5). However, stanza two
belongs to paper, that which the rock cannot destroy.

In stanza two, the
paper claims "mine are the words / that smother the stone" (8-9). While words cannot
smother, the paper they are written on can, as long as a "shaper" exists to write and
the writing exists. In short, it is near-immortal. With its ability to smother rock and live
forever, paper's power seems limitless, until the final power speaks.

In
stanza three, the scissors claim "all the knives" that are "gnashing through
paper's / ethereal lives" (15-16). Despite the fact that paper's words are preserved in
print, scissors can still destroy them all. Further, at the end of the stanza, the scissors move
beyond the pride espoused by the stone and paper, suggesting, not only pride, but also a certain
level of enjoyment in the destruction, stating "no thing's so proper / as tattering
wishes" (17-18).

The final stanza presents a different speaker, one that
is not part of the traditional three-way game of destruction. This last entity presents the
finality of the game, stating that the three entities "all end alone" (22). The
narrator then addresses the reader, suggesting the grim finality that the three combatants face
is one that all face:

So heap up your paper
and
scissor your wishes
and uproot the stone
from the top of the hill.
They all end alone
as you will, you will. (23-28)

While the final stanza presents a foreboding vision, it exists more as a symbolic
warning that we should heed, rather than a promise of what is in store. If we continue to
"heap up [...] paper / and scissor [...] wishes / and uproot [...] stone," if we
continue to allow our pride to control us and perpetuate violence toward and destroy the wishes
of one another, then we will "all end alone."

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

What are the important things Martin Luther King wants his audience to know in his "I Have a Dream" speech?

King's
main message in the "I Have A Dream" speech is that African Americans have not yet
received the rights to which they, as Americans, are entitled. He essentially summarizes this
point early in the speech when he says:

One hundred years
later [after the Emancipation Proclamation] the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the
manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro
lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One
hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds
himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling
condition.

King emphasizes that this "appalling
condition" is made worse by the fact that the United States promised its people certain
rights and liberties. In the United States, all men are supposedly equal. King dramatizes this
point by referring to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as a "promissory
note" on which the United States has thus far defaulted. In other words, the nation had
failed to live up to its promises, and King and the marchers were gathered in Washington to push
them to do so. This was more or less the extent of King's prepared remarks. The most famous
portion of the speech, though, was extemporaneous, occasioned by Mahalia Jackson's famous
entreaty to King to "tell them about your dream." This was really as statement of
King's vision for the future, one in which the color of one's skin was no longer a reason for
discrimination, and in which racism, systemic and otherwise, was purged from
society.

href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/mlk01.asp">https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/mlk01.asp

What is the setting for A Doll's House?

wrote
in 1879, and it was a contemporary drama at that time. All three acts of
the play take place with the same set, which is the living area of the Helmer home. The home is
situated in an unspecified village in Norway. The room is decorated tastefully but not
ostentatiously, consistent with the middle-class lifestyle of the Helmer family. As act 1 opens,
it is Christmas week.has been Christmas shopping, and a porter brings the Christmas tree into
the home. Act 2 occurs on Christmas Day in the same home. The confined setting of the play
reinforces the theme of Nora's restricted lifestyle. She feels as if she is her husband's doll,
and she realizes that her children have been her dolls. The setting, then, is the
"dollhouse," which is a better translation for Americans of Ibsen's title than the
British English equivalent "doll's house." Nora's slamming the door of her house when
she walks out on her husband at the end of the play signifies her moving on to a broader setting
for her life where she, presumably, will be able to find out who she really
is.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

What explanation is given for why there are more ghost stories in a long-settled village in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

The narrator says that
the current residents of Sleepy Hollow have a "peculiar character" and are descendants
of the original settlers from Holland. The area has remained somewhat "sequestered"
from other settlements, and a "drowsy, dreamy influence" feels as though it pervades
the place.

There are legends about it being "bewitched" by a German
doctor long ago as well as the land being used by an "old Indian chief," who was like
a "prophet or wizard" for powwows back before Hudson found the spot.

The narrator says that there can be no doubt that "some witching power" still
affects the minds of the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow, causing them to possess all manner of
remarkable beliefs, to sometimes fall into "trances and visions," and to even see or
hear things that are not really there.

This particular and unique history and
layering of events and predilections seems to cause there to be more ghostly stories in this
village than most others.

Monday, May 25, 2009

How did WWI change Progressivism?

World War 1
was a shocking event for most of the world. After times of such prosperity and growth, with
advances in science, economics, and many other areas, people were very optimistic about the
future, and progressivism was prevalent throughout society.

World War 1
rocked the foundations of peoples lives. Much of the optimism in the world was rapidly replaced
with despair and existential dread. The strong, upright nations that had bustling, progressive,
and optimistic societies, had all degraded into terrible war unlike anything people had seen
before. This drained people of their positivity and caused them to withdraw and rebel against
the hopeful viewpoints they once carried.

The nature of civilian life after
the war was a shell-shocked onepeople were disheartened, discouraged, and wary of others, and no
longer believed the world was a good and hopeful place.

In addition to the
philosophical upheaval most people experienced, there was an obvious economic shift. Because of
the...

What is a pun in Romeo and Juliet act 5?

A
is a play on words that sound alike but have different meanings,
or it could be one word that means two different things.

In Act 5, scene 3,
the Chief Watchman finds the bodies of the County , , and , and he calls for the Montagues and
Capulets to be brought, to hear the news of their children. He says,

We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,
But the true
ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance descry.
(5.3.194-196)

The pun here has to do with the word
"ground" as it refers to both the earth on which the bodies lie, as well as the
foundation of all the problems that might have caused these deaths. The watchman speaks about
the ground on which the dead bodies now rest, but he also references the grounds of the discord
between the two families. Further, he says that more investigation will be needed in order to
totally understand the reasoning behind what has happened in the Capulets' burial
vault.

A piece of wire 25 m long is cut into two pieces. One piece is bent into a square and the other is bent into an equilateral triangle. How much wire...

The piece of
wire is 25 m long and is cut into two pieces one of which is bent into a square and the other is
bent into an equilateral triangle.

Let the length of the wire bent into a
square be x, the length of the wire...

Sunday, May 24, 2009

What is Edward Said's book Orientalism about?

Though the
previous educator's analysis is correct, Said's analysis of "" predates the
Imperialist era of the nineteenth century. In fact, he writes that "Orientalism is
considered to have commenced its formal existence with the decision of the Church Council of
Vienne in 1312" (72). This decision resulted in the formation of language
"chairs" for Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac in Paris, Oxford, Bologna, Avignon, and
Salamanca. Scholars were devoted to the translation and interpretation of canonical texts, but
they were not immune to the biases of their time.

In the introduction, Said
defines Orientalism as "the corporate institution for dealing with the Orientdealing with
it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it
settling it, ruling over it" (26). Thus, Orientalism becomes "a Western style for
dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient" (26).

Said discusses the rigidity of the Orientalist's view of the Middle East by noting that
it is often imbued with "unshakable abstract maxims about the 'civilization' he had
studied" (75). Their research was more committed to validating their positions than to
understanding the intricacies and complexities of the respective regions they studied. As a
result, "Orientalism produced not only a fair amount of exact positive knowledge about the
Orient but also a kind of second-order knowledge . . . the mythology of the mysterious East,
[and] notions of Asian inscrutability" (75). These notions persist even today and are
evident in films, television shows, and news reports that stereotype Middle Eastern people as
fanatical, violent, regressive, and apathetic.

What are two Christian influences or references in the Old English epic poem Beowulf?

Christian
references and influences pervade the Old English epic poem , perhaps in
part because the poem was probably transcribed by an early English Christian monk. In any case,
the poem is full of Christian ideas and , as in some of the following examples (taken from the
Seamus Heaney translation):

In lines 12-17, God is credited with
assisting the Danish nation by giving them yet another good king. This very early reference to
God makes the important point that everything good comes from God and that all people (and all
peoples) depend on Gods favor and mercy.
Hrothgar, the latest in a long
line of good Danish kings, is praised for dispensing his God-given gifts to young and old
among his people (72).
After Hrothgar has built and occupied his glorious
hall, he and his people sit and listen as a poet celebrates Gods creation of the earth; they
listen to

. . . the clear song of a skilled
poet

telling with mastery of mans beginnings,

how the
Almighty had made the earth

a gleaming plain gilded with waters . . . .
(90-93)

Grendel, the evil and destructive
monster who now begins to torment the Danes, is explicitly associated with

Cains clan, whom the Creator had outlawed

and condemned as outcasts. For the killing of Abel

the Eternal Lord
had exacted a price . . . . (106-08)

References to God recur repeatedly during the opening sections of the poem,
as when the Almighty is said to have made Cain anathema (110); and when the poet mentions
giants . . . who strove with God (113); and when Grendel is called God-cursed (121); and
especially when some of the Danes are condemned for religious back-sliding when they worship
Satan as a way of coping with the threat posed by Grendel (175-86). In response, the poet offers
an emphatic declaration of Christian belief:

.
. . blessed is he

who after death can approach the Lord

and find friendship in the Fathers embrace. (186-88)

It would be easy to offer an extremely long list of such references to the Christian
god as they appear throughout Beowulf and as they profoundly color the tone
and meaning of the poem.

What kind of handicap has been imposed on people with better than average mental capacity in the story, "Harrison Bergeron," by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr?

In ""
by , Jr., everyone has finally been made equal in every way. Nobody is smarter than anybody
else; nobody is more athletic or beautiful or anything. In this society, those who are naturally
better at anything have to wear some sort of handicap to even the playing field among the
citizens. A Handicapper General is in charge, and her agents go about their days making sure no
one is in violation of the policy.

People who are more intelligent than
average are required to wear a mental handicap radio in their ear. Harrison's father, George,
has one of these devices. This earpiece connects to a transmitter from which the government
sends out a loud noise every twenty seconds. This is done so that people like George cannot
think about anything for very long.

"Every twenty
seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from
taking unfair advantage of their brains."

Harrison
is so highly intelligent that he is forced to wear large earphones and strong, blurry glasses
that give him terrible headaches and make him almost blind.

Why was the German defeat at Stalingrad a turning point in the war

In, Hitler
split his forces in order to invade Russia. The decision was a costly one and in essence, cost
him the war. To invade Russia meant fewer forces elsewhere, made Stalin and Russia an enemy,
and put his soldiers' lives and equipment at risk. With the invasion, supply lines grew very
long, the soldiers were spread...

In Chapter One, why did Tree-ear feel as if he was stealing?

In Chapter
One, Tree-ear meets a farmer as he rummages among the village's rubbish heaps for scraps of
food. The farmer is carrying a wooden-straw container in a jiggeh filled
with rice. A jiggeh is an open-framed backpack fashioned from
branches.

As the farmer walks along, rice trickles out from a small hole in
the straw box. Tree-ear watches him with abiding interest but great ambivalence. His conscience
tells him that he should alert the farmer to his problem. At the same time, if he refrains from
speaking, the...

Which is the most sympathetic out of the three characters in the story "Hunters in the snow"?

This is a
great question, because in a lot of ways the story itself confounds sympathy. The trick is to
define what we mean when we are trying to be "sympathetic." In general, the most
common definition would be that sympathy is the act of feeling sorry for someone else's
misfortune. But to feel sorry for someone we must care a little bit about them, and these three
characters can make it difficult.

First, Kenny. He's a bit of a jerk, so
it's hard to feel sorry for him for much of the story. But in a real way, he is also the most
sympathetic character (ironically, considering his jerk-a-tude.) I think that this stems from
the fact that even though he's a jerk, that doesn't mean we want to see him die in the back of
the truck. He was shot by Tubs for what amounts to a prank (not telling the others he had
permission to kill the dog) and in this respect it is possible to feel sorry for him, especially
when the other men seem to...

Saturday, May 23, 2009

In the book "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" compare and contrast Renee's and Paloma's basic life philosophies. I'd like to know the effect of each...

Renee and
Paloma are both hedgehogs - what you see on the outside is not as fine as what is on the inside.
Renee is a blue collar concierge who has the heart, soul and mind of a Renaissance scholar. She
has educated herself (she's an autodidact, she says). She does not feel comfortable, however, on
that level of society, so she pretends to be a common dolt. As such, she has contempt for the
wealthy tenants that live in her apartment building. She appreciates music, art, philosophy,
fine food and is constantly trying to define beauty.

Paloma is a
"spoiled little rich girl" who also has the heart, soul and mind of a...

What were Andrew Jackson's strengths and weaknesses as president?

Andrew
Jackson's greatest strength as president was his willingness to defend the Union. His strength
of leadership during the Nullification Crisis led to South Carolina recanting its threat to
leave the Union and no other states coming to its support. Jackson threatened to personally lead
the army into South Carolina to ensure that it did not secede. If James Buchanan would have
taken that step, the Civil War might not have happened.

While it is hard to
judge Jackson based on modern standards, he did have many flaws. His willingness to make banking
a state responsibility rather than a federal one did allow the Panic of 1837 to unfold under his
successor's watch. At the time, the Panic of 1837 was the greatest financial calamity to hit the
United States. Jackson also did not enforce the Worcester v. Georgia
ruling, in which the Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee people. Jackson's Indian Removal Act
led to the Trail of Tearsone of the worst events in Native American history. By...

How is the Hebrew culture influenced by the ancient Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian culture and knowledge?

Scholars
increasingly regard Hebrew and Jewish traditions within the context of Mediterranean culture as
a whole, rather than in terms of a unique and independent identity. Although the Jewish tribes
of the Bible had a very strong sense of ethnic and religious identity which gave them strength
in times of persecution, they shared many characteristics with neighboring groups.

First, the Hebrew, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian cultures shared a belief in the
importance of literacy, education, and reading. All three cultures produced impressive bodies of
written work on religious and philosophical subjects, including much poetry that was beautiful
as well as profound. In addition to popular and personal topics, all three cultures produced
cultural artifacts that mixed art and spirituality. There seems to have been a great deal of
sharing and influence among these three culturesfor instance, with the narrative of the flood in
Gilgamesh being strikingly similar to biblical accounts.

All three cultures were patriarchal (with men dominating) and theocratic (with
religious and secular power intertwined). Slavery was accepted in all three cultures. All three
cultures had formal written law codes which included both civil and criminal law, including some
defense of the rights of the weak against the impunity of the powerful. It is difficult to
decide whether these are due to parallel evolution or mutual influence.

As is
recounted in Exodus, the Jews endured captivity in Egypt as part of their founding myth and
during that period of captivity had the opportunity to assimilate certain elements of Egyptian
culture. Later, in the Hellenistic period, there was a thriving Jewish culture in Alexandria,
and the Old Testament was translated into Greek. Many of the great works of Jewish history and
theology were written in Greek by Jewish writers living in Greco-Roman Egypt.

Many Hebrew literary traditions were grounded in cultural interchanges with
Mesopotamia, as were culinary traditions.

What is the significance and events that happen in the Radley house in To Kill a Mockingbird? I already have some information, but I need a little...

We don't
know a great deal about what's gone on inside the Radley residence over the years. We know
thatonce stabbed his old man with a pair of scissors for some unspecified reason, but that's
about it. Because so little is known about Boo, the people of Maycomb have turned him into a
creepy boogie-man, a figure of local legend constructed out of scraps of gossip, prejudice, and
hearsay. The real Arthur Radley remains a complete mystery.

That is until he
starts to reach out to the Finch children by leaving them little keepsakes in the knot of a
tree. It's only then that we start to get a glimpse of the living, breathing human being beneath
the monster of urban legend.

Friday, May 22, 2009

In Romeo and Juliet, what are some passionate love quotes Romeo says to Juliet?

Act I Scene
v:seesat the Capulet ball and approaches her (1st link). He states:

If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This
holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing
pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender
kiss.

(taken from the 1st link, e-notes
online side-by-side text)

Act II Scene ii: Romeo
goes to Juliet's balcony professes his love to her. He states:

With
love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls;
For stony limits
cannot hold love out,
And what love can do, that dares love
attempt.
Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to
me.

(taken from the 2nd link, e-notes online side-by-side
text)

Act II Scene ii:
Romeo doesn't say this TO Juliet as she doesn't know that he is there (he is underneath her
window listening to her speak and is speaking to himself, which is called a ), but he is talking
ABOUT her.

But soft! What light through yonder window
breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the
sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious
moon,
Who is already sick and pale with
grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than
she.

(taken from the 2nd link, e-notes online side-by-side
text)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

What words does the poet use to show strength of the blacksmith?

In the poem
","describes both the physical strength and spiritual strength of the
blacksmith.

To describe the blacksmith's physical strength, the poet first
proclaims that he is "a mighty man." Longfellow writes that he has "large and
sinewy hands." Sinews are connective tissues that attach muscles to bone, and in strong
men, they are clearly visible. The blacksmith's arms are brawny, which, according to the
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means "muscular, strong, powerful." His muscles are
"strong as iron bands," which gives an indication of great strength. He swings a
"heavy sledge." This is in reference to a tool he uses called a sledgehammer, which
has a heavy iron head and a long wooden handle and is difficult for anyone but a strong man to
lift and swing. All these allusions to the blacksmith's physical strength are in the first part
of the poem.

In the second part, Longfellow describes the blacksmith's
spiritual strength. He has a daughter who sings in the village choir and some sons who sit with
him in church. However, his wife is "singing in paradise," and when he remembers
"how in the grave she lies," he "wipes a tear out of his eyes." In other
words, his wife has died, but he has several children, and he is raising them all alone as a
single parent. Longfellow praises the blacksmith's strength in the midst of sorrow as he relates
that "toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, onward through life he goes." The blacksmith,
through his faithfulness, has taught the poet the lesson that "at the flaming forge of life
our fortunes must be wrought." The blacksmith's spiritual strength is even greater than his
physical strength, because he has the courage to keep going day after day, making his living and
raising his children.

What are the unique features of Byzantine art and architecture?

The
art and architecture of the East Romans span over a thousand years. Some unique features include
the dematerialization of capitals and the cushions above capitals that support the architrave.
These move away from previous Classical Greek and Roman orders (Tuscan, Doric, Corinthian,
Ionic, and Composite). These marble or stone basket capitals have overall lace-like geometric or
vegetal patterns, as do the cushions above them.

Although the classical
Romans had used marble revetments, the East Romans of late antiquity made even greater use of
lavish figured and brightly colored marbles as wall coverings combined with rich gold and
colored mosaics and frescoes in the vaults and domes of their palaces and churches. This, in
combination with the architectural innovations in buttressing, squinches, pendentives, domes,
half domes, and fenestration combined to make far...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

What is Romeo's reaction when he first sees Juliet in Romeo and Juliet?

In
act 1, scene 5,beholdsfor the first time at the party hosted by the Capulets. In a room crowded
with people and with much hoopla around him, Romeo notices his soon-to-be wife and is entranced.
(He also immediately forgets his pining for Rosaline; he had considered skipping this
celebration entirely because he was so upset over her.) These lines perfectly capture his
initial impression of Juliet:

Did my heart love till now?
Forswear it, sight!
For I neer saw true beauty till this night. (I.v.55-56)

From the moment he sees Juliet, Romeo is totally infatuated. He
says that her beauty is too good for this world. As soon as possible, Romeo makes his way to
this captivating beauty and takes her by the hand. He offers his apologies if he offends her but
says that his lips stand ready to make amends. This playful banter is well-received by Juliet,
and it is clear that an instant spark has been lit between the couple.

Monday, May 18, 2009

In "Young Goodman Brown," what does the devil promise as a baptismal reward, and what prevents Goodman Brown from accepting it?

The devil
promises that if Goodman Brown is baptized, he will be able to know the secret evil within each
member of the human race - he will see "where crime has been committed, and shall exult to
behold the whole earth one stain of guilt". As Goodman Brown stands waiting to be baptized
with his new wife Faith, the horrible thought that they should see the blackness within each
other causes him to refuse the lurid sacrament, and at the last minute he exhorts Faith to join
him and "look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one".

I think it
can be argued the the devil's promise is a fitting reward for Goodman Brown because the reason
he chose to leave his Faith and walk awhile with the devil is his curiosity. Goodman Brown
wanted to know about the dark side of human nature, and ironically, that knowledge is exactly
what he received. Critics assert that Hawthorne, by shrouding Goodman's life with gloom even
though he did not go so far as to receive the devil's baptism, is commenting on the unforgiving
nature of Puritan religion. I wonder also if he perhaps may be making a statement about the
danger of yielding even a little bit to the temptation of "wanting to know" - that
innocence can be lost even by the mere experiencing of evil, even if one does not succumb to
it.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

What are the two images in the poem "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 " that compare the city to nature?

In the first
image, Wordsworth compares all that he observes as he looks out across the city of London with
the scenery that he would observe if he were looking out on a natural area from some high
observation point. In an undeveloped place, he would see "valley, rock or hill" as he
looks out at the world in the early morning light. Looking out from the bridge, he
sees

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples
lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the
smokeless air.

The second image comments on the quiet and
peaceful sights of the city, the same in feeling as Wordsworth experiences in nature in the
early morning. He is inspired and calmed by the tranquility he sees in the city scene, just as
he would be if he were viewing a wooded or rural scene with natural features instead of human
works.

Earth has not anything to show more fair: Ne'er saw
I, never felt a calm so deep!...The river glideth at his own sweet will...the very houses seem
asleep; And all that mighty heart is lying still!

How does Martin Luther continue to affect our lives today?

The primary way
Martin Luther continues to affect our lives today is by starting the Protestant Reformation,
which has altered the form of Christianity in many countries. When Martin Luther lived during
the 15-16th centuries, the only Christian denomination in western Europe was the Roman Catholic
Church (the global church had split in to the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches in
1054). By challenging the Catholic Church's status as the sole interpreter of Scripture, Luther
and other Reformers opened the door for a wide variety of orthodox Christian interpretations of
Scripture. Unlike the Catholic Church, Protestantism has diverged into hundreds of denominations
due to both major and minor doctrinal disputes. Thus the most visible result of this challenge
is the diversity of Protestant denominations.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

renters rights: visitors in home MY LANDLORD INSISTS THAT SHE HAS EVERY RIGHT LEGALY TO DECIDE WHO, AND WHEN I MAY HAVE VISITORS AT MY RENTED HOME.

Consult the
landlord/tenant law of your state, or a lawyer who specializes in such matters. These laws are
quirky and unique from state to state and town to town, so it may be that the landlord can limit
your visitors. I would say it is unusual, however, that they would be able to limit how many,
when or who specifically. At least, I have never heard of such a thing. You might also find
out if this is happening with all of the other tenants he manages.

How is Robinson Crusoe an Enlightened character?

's exploits are in part
inspired by Locke, an Enlightenment philosopher whose Essay Concerning Human
Understanding advocated learning through experience and perception. Crusoe
deliberately does not heed his father's advice to stay in England and become a lawyer, and is
eventually shipwrecked on an island where he must fend for himself. In so doing, he embodies
Locke's ideas about how to improve one's knowledge. For example, in Chapter IV, when Crusoe
arrives on the island, he goes about trying to saw off parts of the shipwrecked boat for his own
use. He says, "But the hope of furnishing myself with necessaries encouraged me to go
beyond what I should have been able to have done upon another occasion." His need to
survive helps...

href="https://ordinary-times.com/2011/10/03/robinson-crusoe-enlightenment-man/">https://ordinary-times.com/2011/10/03/robinson-crusoe-enl...

Friday, May 15, 2009

Please compare and contrast Gardners theory of multiple intelligences with Sternbergs triarchic theory of intelligence.

Sternberg and Gardner
both expanded the idea of intelligence from the traditional idea of an IQ that can be measured
in psychometric tests. According to Sternberg's triarchic model, there are three components of
intelligence, which are also overlapping. The first component, referred to as
"analytical," refers to the ability to use information to reason abstractly and is
similar to the idea of IQ. The second component, synthetic, refers to the ability of someone to
adapt to new situations and to generate creative ideas. This ability is not measured by
traditional psychometric tests but can be essential to problem solving. The third ability,
referred to as practical, involves molding one's environment and finding a good fit with one's
environment. This ability can be thought of as having "street smarts" and the ability
to use one's strengths to overcome one's weaknesses. Gardner believed that intelligence can be
taught and is not static in nature.

Like Sternberg, Gardner believed
that...

What is the difference between speed and velocity?

Speed
is defined as the rate of change of motion of an object. In other words, it is the ratio of
distance traveled to time taken.

speed = distance traveled by the object /
time taken for the journey

In comparison, velocity is the rate of change of
position of an object. In other words, it is the ratio of displacement to the time taken by an
object.

Velocity = displacement of the object / time taken

Speed is a scalar quantity and only has a magnitude. In comparison, velocity is a
vector quantity and has both magnitude and direction.

Speed is dependent on
the path taken by the object, since it is needed to determine the distance. Velocity is
independent of the path taken by an object, since it depends on the displacement (distance
between initial and final position of an object).

Hope this
helps.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

In To Kill a Mockingbird, how is Tom Robinson's appeal discussed?

After
the jury found Tom Robinson guilty of rape, at the Finch home the next day,had a questioning
look on his face.told them all not to worry because they were not finished yet and there was
certainly going to be an appeal ().

Around Maycomb, everyone is
talking about the trial. The gossipy neighbor ladies tell Aunt Alexandra, who fails to keep the
children from hearing, that on the street Bob Ewell spat in Atticus' face and threatened him.
Atticus tries to reassure them that it was an idle threat (). Things will be calm around town,
he says, until after the higher court reviews Tom's case. He believes Tom has a chance to go
free or be granted a new trial.

wants to know what
will happen if there is no appeal. Atticus admits he'll get the chair but still tells her not to
worry.

Tom was not so optimistic. He tries to escape
the prison farm, and is killed.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Discuss the importance of setting objectives in curriculum designing. give a comprehensive answer

Learning
objectives are no different than goals, because they serve four main purposes:

to describe the purpose of an activity (or intervention)

to establish the desired result
to identify the methodology to be
used to get there
to determine how success will be measured

This being said, learning objectives are to be stated quite specifically so
that they can be the most useful at directing the instructor as to what course of action to
take. Not all objectives stem from the same source. In fact, any experienced educator can tell
you that the academic, or learning, objective is only one
third of the complete goal. This is because there are three kinds of
objectives in academia:

the learning
objective- establishes what the students are going learn by the end of
the lesson. It is all based on cognitive and developmental ability.

behavioral (doing) objectives- will
determine what skills and abilities the teacher wants the students to develop, or master, by the
end of the lesson.
affective/schematic
objectives- will list the essential questions and main lessons that
the teacher would want the students to think about and relate to themselves as individuals.

There is something even more important to consider when it comes
to objectives: they are not created to determine whether a student can or cannot "do"
something. Instead, they are created to establish what additional interventions need to be
considered for the students to develop to the point of working at an independent level of
mastery. This is why we have two sub-sections of learning objectives

Mastery objectives are the less
demanding tasks that should be covered before the next unit. For example, a student cannot move
on to learn division if they cannot master multiplication. In theory they CAN, but imagine how
difficult it would be to teach a process that is interdependent of another until at least one of
them is mastered.

The second type is the
developmental objective, which could be
applied to something more complex and extensive, such as (for example), the writing process.
Since the writing process is a year-long succession of trials, errors, crafting, adding, and
editing, teachers cannot just pretend to have students become master writers after teaching one
unit. Thus, developmental objectives are ongoing goals to motivate students to continue to
improve.

Conclusively, the importance of setting the PROPER objectives in
curriculum designing is that they provide guidance, a vision, a mission, a method, and a goal.
It is a comprehensive plan of action that, when applied as planned, will undoubtedly result in
great success.

What is the theme of the poem "The Whorehouse in a Calcutta Street," written by Jayanta Mahapatra?

The most significant
theme of this poem, I
think, has to do with its depiction of sex workers as

individuals with identities that exist outside of the work that they do.
There is
a temptation for those who visit brothels to think of the women who
work there as existing only
for their pleasure, as though these women simply
wait, naked and willing, for them to arrive so
that they can come to life.
The speaker seems to mimic, even mock, these thoughts in the first
few
lines:

Walk right in. It is yours. />Where the
house smiles wryly into the lighted street.
Think
of the women
you wished to
know and haven't.

However, the speaker points out the
"secret
moonlight of the women" and the fact that their conversation with clients is

"false chatter" because they are really thinking of their children, their homes,
and
their own lives rather than the sexual pleasure they will provide for the
men who pay them. The
women may feign pleasure, but they are really concerned
with other, more mundane, things. These
men "miss them in the house's dark
spaces" and fail to see these women as individuals,
as people with dignity
and hope. This is perhaps symbolized by "the far edge of the
rainbow" that
they feel "faint[ly]" in the centers of their
beings.

Evidence and analysis of why the guardians created Hailsham. Example: not to benefit the children, but to assuage their own guilt for using them as...

The
weekly medical exams are a major clue that
this is not a normal school. No normal school
requires weekly medical
examinations out of concern for its students. That would not only be
cost
prohibitive, it would also be far too time-consuming. As long as students are
basically
healthy, the teachers would be far more concerned with their
academic performance and progress
than with weekly health check-ups. This
excessive concern for their short-term physical well
being is a clue that
student academic performance is not the primary concern of the guardians of

the school. The guardians are more apparently concerned with bodily health than with
mental
acumen and academic progress.

A second red flag
is the
Hailsham...

Monday, May 11, 2009

How did Martin Luther King Jr use conflict in order to affect change in Civil Rights? (Give examples) How did Martin Luther King Jr use conflict in...

Martin
Luther King, Jr. used nonviolent conflict to bring changes to the civil rights movement. One
example of this was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He urged African Americans to not ride the buses
in Montgomery, hoping that the boycott would cause a financial hardship for the bus system.
African Americans were upset that they had to sit in the back of the bus and had to give up
their seats in their section if a white person was standing because the white section was full.
African Americans didnt ride the buses in Montgomery for over a year until the Supreme Court
ruled that segregation on buses was illegal.

Another example was the march
from Selma to Montgomery to protest the use of discriminatory practices used when African
Americans attempted to register to vote. American Americans were peacefully marching when the
police attacked them on March 7, 1965, as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This event was
captured on film, sparking outrage in the country regarding how African...

href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-rights-act">https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-right...

Why is The Epic of Gilgamesh important to world literature?

The
primary importance for as a piece of world literature is its age. The
earliest Sumerian poems dealing with Gilgamesh date back to around 2100 BCE. It represents a
turning point when the written word may have first been used for something other than commerce,
instead being put to task in what today what might be called the humanities. If one of the
powers of literature is the ability to send thought, intent and emotion across temporal and
cultural lines, then The Epic of Gilgamesh might be
one of the most important stories ever written; the longest standing example of literatures
power to keep stories alive.

There are many Biblical and epic stories that
seem at least partly rooted in Gilgamesh. The story of Noahs Arc is perhaps the most apparent,
the flood-surviving Utnapishtim acting as his Sumerian counterpart. Beyond the impact it has had
on other epics, however, The Epic of Gilgamesh is an incredible story all
on its own. From a historical standpoint,...

Sunday, May 10, 2009

What are the primary conflicts in the short story "The Necklace," by Guy de Maupassant?

's
"" only has three characters and
very little actual conflict. Most of the drama in the
story comes from one
person, Mathilde Loisel, who is discontent with her life.

This internal conflict began long before she married her husband, as she always
thought
what she had was not what she actually deserved.

She
suffered intensely, feeling herself born for
every delicacy and every luxury. She suffered from
the poverty of her
dwelling, from the worn walls, the abraded chairs, the ugliness of the

stuffs. All these things, which another woman of her caste would not even have noticed,
tortured
her and made her indignant.

This internal conflict
continues throughout the story and shows itself in the
form of pridefulness. Because she thinks
so highly of herself, she is not
content with anything...

Describe Nora's character in A Doll's House with detail.

is a complex and dynamic . In the beginning of , she sometimes bears her
husband's outright insults. When she tries to explain that she is thrifty, he replies,
"Yes, that's the truth. [You save] everything you can. But that's nothing at all"
(1.48). She puts up with his childish and insulting pet names, such as "squirrel,"
"featherbrain," and "lark." But Nora is much more than the simple, flighty
wife she initially seems to be.

We learn quickly that Nora is a devoted wife.
Doctors told her that her husband needed expensive medical treatment in Italy, and she also knew
thatwould never pay for it. So she took out a loan and committed forgery in order to obtain the
funds and save his life, never mentioning this to Torvald. She's secretly been working side jobs
and stashing some of her "allowance" to pay back her debt. And still, she listens
without complaint as her husband accuses her of constantly wasting money, and she continues to
endure his...

Friday, May 8, 2009

Richard Cory Theme

"" was written byin 1897 and
reflects a period of high income inequality in the United States, exacerbated by the Panic of
1893, a depression caused in part by bank runs.

The first theme of the poem
is economic inequality. Rather than wealth being distributed evenly within the town, it is
unequally distributed, causing significant social stratification. Although Cory is apparently
polite and not disliked, there is a vast social gulf between him and the townspeople and no
possibility of friendship or even shared activities and interests.

The second
theme is that money does not bring happiness. Although Richard Cory was "richer than a
king", he still committed suicide.

A third theme is the impossibility of
knowing what happens within the mind of other people. The nameless narrator of the poem observes
Richard Cory from the outside, thinking:

In fine, we
thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his
place

The narrator, though, has no idea whether Cory is
actually happy or not or whether his "place" is pleasant.

What trait did the narrator and his wife share early in their marriage?

The
narrator begins the story by describing
himself as a docile, tender individual with an affinity
for household pets.
The narrator elaborates on his fondness for animals and mentions that he

derived a significant amount of pleasure by feeding and caressing them. When the
narrator gets
married at a young age, he is pleased that his wife shares an
affinity for animals. The
narrator's wife is also partial to domestic animals
and proceeds to fill their house with pets
by acquiring several birds, a
goldfish, a dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat. Although the
narrator
has an amicable, loving marriage for several years, he begins drinking heavily and
his
temperament dramatically changes for the worse. Eventually, the
narrator's wife prevents him
from murdering their second cat and the narrator
proceeds to kill her. The narrator shows no
remorse for violently murdering
his wife and hides her body in the cellar
wall.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

What is the metaphor of Jane "kept all her kings in the back row" in the book The Catcher in the Rye?

This phrase
comes up whileis describing to Stradlater how he used to play checkers with Jane over the
summer. The entire passage reads as follows:

She wouldn't
move any of her kings. What she'd do, when she'd get a king, she wouldn't move it. She'd just
leave it in the back row. She'd get them all lined up in the back row. Then she'd never use
them. She just liked the way they looked when they were all in the back row.

Holden idealizes Jane. He is horrified that someone as sneaky as
Stradlater is going out on a date with her, so he begins babbling about her. Jane's keeping all
her kings in the back row while she plays checkers is afor how Jane is quiet and reticent about
her power as she plays the game of life. Kings are powerful pieces in checkers, and Holden is
saying that Jane has powerthat she is a strong personbut that she prefers not to show it. The
metaphor also suggests that she is an artistic person first and foremost, because part of her
rationale for not...

In G.B. Shaw's PygmalionHiggins says, By George, Eliza, I said Id make a woman of you; and I have. I like you like this. How far is Higgins...

Mrs. Higgins
sums it all up perfectly in Act V when she explains to Pickering and her son Henry how the whole
project, or experiment on Eliza's transformation, developed and succeeded. Mrs. Higgins responds
to Henry's and Pickering's bewilderment at Eliza's hurt feelings:

"Just so. She had become attached to you both. She worked very hard for you,
Henry! I don't think you quite realize what anything in the nature of brain work means to a girl
like that. Well, it seems that when the great day of trial came, and she did this wonderful
thing for you without making a single...

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Give a short description of the themes and characteristics of the novel 1984.

goreadabook

is a dystopian novel, which is a novel that takes place in a
fictional world where the living conditions are oppressive and horrific. This book is also a
work ofthat was meant to present criticism of the implementation and growth of Totalitarianism
during World War II. The book is written from the third person omniscient perspective which
allows the reader to perceive the...

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

How Many Moons Does The Sun Have

The sun
doesn't have any moons. A moon is a natural satellite that orbits around a planet. Since the sun
is classified as a star and not as a planet, it has no moons. There are 9 planets that orbit
around the sun--Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. A few
years ago, astronomers decided that Pluto is too small to be considered a planet, even though it
does have moons. Now it is called a dwarf planet. Since 2005, two more dwarf planets, Eris and
Ceres, have been discovered in our solar system.

Visit the links below for
more information.

In the 18th century, people died at a much younger age. How might awareness of the fragility of life have affected peoples acceptance of...

While one can
definitely argue that lower life expectancy in the 18th century contributed to the effectiveness
of Edwards's "fire and brimstone" sermons such as "," I would argue that
most of the effectiveness of this kind ofis not dependent on life expectancy. Everyone will die,
and generally people acknowledge this fact. And while life expectancy may give people a guess as
to how long they might live, death can occur at any moment. These facts were true in the 18th
century just as they are now.

The question of how humans deal with the
possibility of an imminent death and the inevitability of an eventual death is ever-present.
Many try to extend life as much as possible, fleeing from danger and casting their hope onto any
kind of remedy or technology that promises to extent their life. Others put their hope in
supernatural aid and the possibility of life after death. And others come to terms with the fact
that their life will eventually end...

Monday, May 4, 2009

How is Jocasta a tragic heroine?

Jocaste, oras it
is often spelled in different versions of , fits the definition of a tragic
heroine for many reasons.

For one, she is a person of high or noble birth.
She is the queen of Thebes and she shows virtue and intelligence in her dealings concerning her
kingdom. For example, whenandare arguing, she tells them to stop, knowing that their angry
outbursts will only create more chaos in a kingdom already plagued with confusion and
despair.

However, despite Jocasta's good qualities, she has a tragic flaw or
hamartia: her pride and arrogance. She mocks the knowledge of prophets such as , prophets who
have been ordained and gifted by the gods themselves. She also shows pride and arrogance because
she believes that a human can avert fate or the will of the gods. She shows this trait when she
gives her baby away to be killed, thinking that by doing so she can avert a horrible prophecy
that her son would grow up to kill her husband.

Finally Jocasta experiences a
tragic fall. She learns that her son who was supposed to be killed is still alive and that he
did indeed murder her husband. She also learns that she has in fact married and had children by
him as well. When she learns of these truths, her suffering and shame is so great that she hangs
herself.

The reader is likely also to experience sympathy for Jocasta because
she was a just and kind ruler overall.

Through these events, it is easy to
see that Jocasta fits all the qualities of a typical Greek tragic hero or heroine.

What should be the goal of any society?

""
puts forth the notion that it is not absolute equality that we must
desire in our society. As we are humans, each one of us will be different from everyone else,
and it is this difference that adds color and creativity to the world. If it is
absolute equality we seek, Vonnegut warns that a dystopian society like the
Bergerons' is what we are going to get.

Instead of equality, we must
pursue equity, which is the idea that people need different things
in order to be successful. For example, a school with a low attendance rate in a crime-infested
suburb should get more resources than a school in a comfortable, crime-free suburb.

I think Albert Einstein said it best:

But if you
judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is
stupid.

True fairness should not mean that everyone is
the same. True fairness is treating everyone with the same concern and support so that they can
become successful in their own way.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

In To Kill Mockingbird, how is tension created when Jem and Scout get attacked by Bob?

It is in , which
concerns before, during and after the pageant, that narrates the attack onand . Note how this
represents a new moral "low" for Bob Ewell, as, to cowardly to attackdirectly, he
decides to move against him indirectly by attacking those who are most vulnerable and unable to
defend themselves - his children.

Lee is very skilful in how she creates
suspense in this chapter - note how it is given a falsewith Cecil Jacobs jumping out on Jem and
Scout in the pitch black. This has the effect of lulling us into a false sense of security, much
as in horror movies there is a false climax before the "real" horror begins.

It is when Jem and Scout are returning to their house after the pageant that Bob Ewell
strikes. Note how tension is created immediately by the fact that Jem and Scout are alone and
isolated in the dark. When Jem thinks he hears something and stops Scout and makes her listen,
note how Scout describes the silence:

This was the
stillness before a thunderstorm.

This sentence clearly
indicates that the "storm" is just about to break and danger is going to come upon the
children.

Tension is also raised by the sound of their pursuer, who Scout
names "Shuffle-foot." The sound he makes allows them to tell when he stops merely
following them and begins to run after them:

Shuffle-foot
had not stopped with us this time. His trousers swished softly and steadily. Then they stopped.
He was running, running toward us with no child's steps.

"Run, Scout!
Run! Run!" Jem screamed.

Thein the swishing of the
trousers and then the realisation that their pursuer is not a child, but an adult, combined with
the screaming of Jem serves to greatly heighten the tension as we wonder what will
happen.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

What were the causes of World War II?

There were many
events that led up to the start of the second World War. Some historians argue that World II
was simply a continuation of World War I. This topic is extremely complex, so I will highlight
some of the main causes.

The Treaty of Versailles stated that Germany was to
blame for World War I. Germany was ordered to pay reparations to France and to Great Britain.
The country had already suffered greatly during World War I. In order to pay the money, they
printed a massive amount of German marks. This led to significant inflation, and German money
became practically worthless. Some people even burned German marks as fuel because it was
cheaper than purchasing firewood. The amount that Germany had to pay was so large that they did
not finish payments until 2010. Germany also lost land and territories after the war. The
Treaty called for land to be annexed to neighboring countries. The Germans had to de-militarize
the Rhineland, which...

What are examples of parallelism in the "I Have a Dream Speech..."

involves using similar
structures for two or
more parts of a sentence or sentences to create a comparison or pattern.
One
example in the "I Have a Dream Speech" is the four sentences that begin "one

hundred years later" in the third paragraph to discuss all the ways in which

African-Americans are still not free. Within one of these sentences that reads "One
hundred
years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the
manacles of segregation and
the chains of discrimination," King also uses
parallelism. The phrases "manacles of
segregation" and "chains of
discrimination" are in parallel form, as they are
three-word phrases with a
noun, the word "of," and another noun.

Later, in the sixth
paragraph, King begins several sentences with the parallel phrasing
"now is
the time to..." to speak about the agenda of the Civil Rights movement to end

injustice and segregation. After he states "we can never turn back" later in
the
speech, he uses parallel constructions for several sentences that begin
"We can never be
satisfied as long as..." These sentences not only use
repetition, but they also use
parallel constructions, as the parts of the
sentence that follow this phrase are all written in
the present tense about
an injustice that is currently occurring in the nation. Later, King ends
the
speech with several parallel sentences that begin famously with "I have a
dream
that..." These sentences also use repetition and are all written with
the same structure,
as they contain the future tense and use of words such as
"will," "will be,"
or "shall" to express a hope for something that will
happen in the near
future.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Who found the conch in Lord of the Flies?

In chapter
one of The ,andare exploring the
lagoon together. The two boys are working well together, which
is the first
sign that this is going to be a key point later in the novel. The two boys
are
talking about their lives and getting to know one another when Piggy
spots something in the
water.

"What's
that?"

Ralph
had stopped smiling and was pointing into the
lagoon. Something creamy lay among the ferny
weeds.

"A
stone."

"No. A
shell."

Ralph and Piggy work together again to get
the shell free of the
weeds. Ralph gets the shell out of the water and Piggy takes it and tells

Ralph about blowing into the shell and making a sound. This conch shell becomes an
important
piece of power in the book. Whoever has the shell is supposed to be
able to talk uninterrupted.
Anyone who has read the book knows how well that
works.

Sunday, May 31, 2009