What was the major impact of Alexander the Great on Western Civilization?

Alexander
III of Macedon (356 BC €“323 BC),
usually called Alexander the Great, was the son of Phillip II
of Macedon and
succeeded his father on the Macedonian throne in 336 BC after eliminating
rival
claimants to the throne.

King Philip, with the help
of his son Alexander who
was a precociously skilled military commander,
expanded Macedonia from a small barbarian kingdom
to the north of Greece by
conquest. Greece had consisted of many warring city states and Philip

presented himself not just as a conqueror but also a savior and unifier of Greece and
a
legitimate Hellenic king. Alexander was...

What was Charon's reaction to Dante's attempt to cross the river of Acheron in Inferno?

When Dante
attempts to cross the river into the Underworld, Charon, the boat driver, tries to prevent him
from going. He is angered that a living soul would attempt to enter the Underworld and see Hell
and so tries to stop him. Charon is tasked with...

According to James Baldwin, what is the importance of not being silent in the fight for civil rights?

is a key
figure of the civil rights movement in America. Though he identified with being a novelist early
on in his career, his essays on racial discrimination in the 1950s and 60s are what propelled
him into his significant place in literature. His most important contributions were his essay
collections (1955), Nobody Knows my Name (1961), and
(1963). These were historically pivotal, as they came out during the most
intense demonstrations of the civil rights movement. He gave voice to many black people,
particularly those living in the South, who were constantly living in fear of deeply entrenched
racial violence across America, especially with civil rights workers falling victim to
brutality, some of which even led to their deaths.

His voice is among the
many who sought to break the silence surrounding such grave injustices. He wrote in a preface to
his play, "" (1964):

What is ghastly and really
almost hopeless in our racial situation now is that the crimes we have committed are so great
and so unspeakable that the acceptance of this knowledge would lead, literally, to madness. The
human being, then, in order to protect himself, closes his eyes, compulsively repeats his
crimes, and enters a spiritual darkness which no one can describe.

What James Baldwin means by this is that actively choosing to remain silent and not
participating in stopping the social atrocities that run rampant are the very things that will
plunge the nation into a "spiritual darkness"a time so devoid of morality with the way
humans maltreat their fellow humans based solely on the color of their skin, and the perceived
superiority of those who enact such violence. When people remain complicit with violence and
discrimination, abuse becomes normalized.

It then becomes part and parcel of
daily life, subjecting black communities to irreversible social subjugation until their rights
are so diminished that they are no longer recognized. The power, then, lies in resisting these
forces and systems that perpetuate these injustices by speaking up, pushing back, participating
in demonstrations, and harnessing the power of literature in giving voice to the experiences and
stories of the oppressed. Baldwin warns in Notes of a Native Son
that

[p]eople who shut their eyes to reality
simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence
long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.

Without a doubt, breaking the silence is the most crucial step to fighting inequality.
Not only does it make people come together and lend them the power to fight for people's rights
during the most intense power struggles, it exists to resonate far beyond its time, in order to
serve the next generations towards building a better nation.

Henry Gates, a
professor of English and Afro-American Literature at Cornell Universoty spoke of James
Baldwin:

[He] educated an entire generation of Americans
about the civil-rights struggle and the sensibility of Afro-Americans as we faced and conquered
the final barriers in our long quest for civil rights.

href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/02/obituaries/james-baldwin-eloquent-writer-in-behalf-of-civil-rights-is-dead.html">https://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/02/obituaries/james-baldw...

In "Mirror" by Sylvia Plath, what is an example of figurative language?

byis one
of the great American lyrical poems.  The poems form is . Written in first-person point of view,
the speaker is the mirror.  The theme of the poem speaks to the honesty of the mirror and the
importance of being like the mirror in a persons life: looking at a person with complete
truthfulness.

The figurative language used in the poem begins with the
extendedthat lasts the entire poem.  The poem is divided by stanzas into two distinct aspects of
a mirror: the actual mirror and a lake.

The first stanza begins with the
mirror hanging on a wall reflecting whatever it sees.  It has no choice.  It is not
intentionally cruel when it reveals what it actually sees.  The mirror is truthful.  With the
correct lighting it sees everything like a little god.  The wall across from it is pink and
has become a part of the mirrors heart. When people pass in front of the mirror, it seems as if
the wall is flickering.

In the first verse, there many examples
of figurative language:

The mirror compares itself to a
"little god." This is an example of a metaphor comparing the reflection of the mirror
which reflects everything that it sees to a deity.

is used in the line:
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is€¦

This gives the
mirror the ability to swallow as if it were a person.

In stanza
2, the mirror becomes a lake. 

Every morning, a woman looks at
her reflection in the lake.  As time goes by, she no longer likes what she sees.  She uses the
tools of a woman to hide the aging process.

Now I am a
lake. A woman bends over me,
searching my reaches for what she really is.

Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and
reflect it faithfully

The false compliments are
represented by the dim lighting, moonlight, and the cosmetics. Finally, now when she looks into
the lake, she sees old age coming toward her like a terrible fish.

A metaphor
is used when the mirror compares the false compliments to the light of the moos and the efforts
of the woman to hide her aging with the light of the candles.

Ais used to
compare the mirror as it reflects the aging woman to a "terrible
fish."

In Pygmalion, how is the major conflict resolved? In Pygmalion, how is the major conflict resolved?

The ending of this
excellent play has puzzled many over the years, who find it very ambivalent. Although this play
promises to be a romance, we are given no romantic ending between Eliza and Higgins. Instead,
the conclusion of their relationship is left very open at the end. However, the central theme of
the play revolves around social standing and how it is gained. Eliza has successfully moved from
being a poor flower-girl to acting like "a duchess," yet as Eliza says herself in a
very perspicacious comment, "the difference between a lady and a flower-girl is not how she
behaves, but how she is treated." Self-respect is the key to transformation, and from the
moment that Pickering referred to her as "Miss Doolittle," Eliza's process of
transformation had begun. Respectability, as modelled by the other ladies in the play, is what
Higgins has taught Eliza, and is shown as something that can be taught. Yet self-respect is
something more intrinsic and leads to the development of a free-thinking character that is able
to grow. Eliza by the end of the play has learnt the difference between the two states, and
having learnt both of them, is able to judge between them. Self-respect is shown to be much more
important than respectability, as Eliza's new found confidence
demonstrates.

How did IT die?

 is the first in a
series
of five books by , referred to as the "Time Quintet."

In

the book, Meg Murry, her younger brother Charles Wallace, and her classmate Calvin go on
a
journey to save Mr. Murry, a brilliant scientist and father of the Murry
children. He is on
another planet called Camazotz, where a large, evil,
disembodied brain referred to as IT is
holding him captive and controlling
the minds of everyone on the planet. Charles Wallace at
first tries to defeat
IT with his extraordinary intelligence, but IT takes him instead,
controlling
his body and mind. Meg eventually realizes that hatred and anger make IT
stronger
and that only love will help her save her brother. She uses her love
for Charles Wallace to set
him free from IT's control. I do not believe IT
actually dies in the
book. 

What types of conflict are presented in The Color of Water by James McBride?

Arguably the main conflict in the story is racial conflict. Ruth, a white Jewish woman, chooses
to marry Peter, an African-American man, in defiance of her family's wishes. Ruth's family
cannot accept her choice of husband, and they disown her immediately. Sadly, this was by no
means an uncommon reaction at that time. In those days, people from different races weren't
supposed to associate with each other, let alone fall in love and get married. Yet Ruth has made
the brave decision to follow her...

How do Winston and Julia feel about each other, and why do they feel this way?

andfall in
love with each other. They feel a physical affinity, they complement each other well (he the
abstract thinker, she the pragmatist), and they both hate the Party. More importantly, they
carve out the time, space, and (they think) privacy for a deep relationship to
develop.

Everything about how the people of their society's lives are
structured works against developing intimate relationships. They are taught to be distrustful of
the people around them, who might denounce them at any time. They are supposed to keep endlessly
busy, either at work or on Party committees. They expect to be constantly watched. All of this
makes establishing close, trusting relationships almost impossible.

Julia
and Winston reject the norms of their society and create a seemingly private space for
themselves in the room above Mr. Charrington's shop, where they can sit quietly, reading and
drinking tea or talking. This is the kind of life, as Winston remembers, that people led in the
old...

In 1984, how does Julia's note affect Winston? How does he behave differently?

In Part Iis
at a crossroads in his life as he
feels great discontent with his existence. In order to give
expression to his
negative thoughts, Winston purchases a diary in which he secretly writes. In
a
way, Winston feels he can voice his thoughts to, a member of the Inner
Party, by recording them
in his secret diary. He also knows that the Party
seeks to control every aspect of the truth,
Winston is suspicious of O'Brien
and others when he attends the Two-Minute Hate Session. When he
first sees
the "dark-haired girl" Winston thinks violent sexual thoughts about her,
and
distrusts...

How does Elie Wiesel's Night explore dehumanization?

explores the concept of
dehumanization through the narrative about the degradation the Jews face at the hands of their
captors and each other. In the memoir, Elie relates the circumstances of his situation once he
and his father leave the ghetto at Sighet, and he describes how, in an instant, they went from
being treated like people to being treated like animals.

The Jews are loaded
onto cattle cars, packed with nearly 80 people together, to be shipped toward Auschwitz. The
close quarters are not considered that bad until the train crosses over the Hungarian-Czech
border. Once clear out of Hungary, the pretense of relocation is lost, and the Jews find
themselves not only being treated like animals but actually called animals by the Nazi soldiers.
In chapter 2 Wiesel writes,

The Hungarian lieutenant went
around with a basket and retrieved the last possessions from those who chose not to go on
tasting the bitterness of fear. "There are eighty of you in the car," the German
officer added. "If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs."

The German officer telling the Jews that they will be shot like
dogs is the first indication that they are no longer going to be treated as human beings. That
treatment continues well into their journey into Auschwitz, where babies are shot, women are
murdered, and the dead are piled into mass graves. Anyone who is too sick to work is almost
immediately killed, showing that the Jews's only worth in the eyes of the Nazi regime lies in
their ability to work.

The dehumanization progresses rapidly in the memoir,
and it is powerfulso powerful that it eventually begins to work on the Jews themselves. They
ultimately dehumanize each other to the point that they mistreat each other. It isnt a knock
against the Jews in the storythey are forced by their circumstances to fight to survivebut it
does speak to the power of the dehumanization the Nazis have created in the concentration
camps.

Elies description of the way the dead are treated shows how
desperation has driven the Jews to dehumanize each other,

The living were glad. They would have more room. Volunteers began the task. They
touched those who had remained on the ground. "Here's one! Take him!" The volunteers
undressed him and eagerly shared his garments. Then, two "gravediggers" grabbed him by
the head and feet and threw him from the wagon, like a sack of flour.

The story of how the bodies are disposed of shows the mindset of
survival in the camps: the Jews who survive dont have it in them to care about others,
especially those who are dead, because they have to worry about themselves. The Nazis, in
treating the Jews like they are less than human, ultimately push them to act like they are less
than humana theme that Elie struggles with through the closing section of the
book.

What objections do some animals raise to the principles of animalism in Animal Farm?

Most of
the animals on the farm champion the principles of animalism, but the pigs, acting as leaders,
alter some of the principles to suit their own desires and agenda.

One
principle of animalism is "No animal shall sleep in a bed," but after the pigs take
over the farm house and begin to make themselves comfortable, they assert that it's only wrong
for animals to sleep in a bed with sheets. The main concept behind animalism is that all animals
are equal, but the pigs decide shortly after that all animals are equal, but some animals are
more equal than others. Judging by these incidents, it seems that the pigs main objective, which
they would never admit to, is to become like humans while preventing the other animals from
doing the same.

Overall, the pigs contradict and push back against animalism
the most by adding qualifiers to many of the principles and making themselves the exception to
the rules. They use animalism to rise above the other farm animals and the farmers to
gain...

How do Scout and Jem from To Kill a Mockingbird symbolize a mockingbird?

The
mockingbird of the title of 's novel refers to a bird that contributes
only its positive and beautiful gift of song to the world.andcan be linked with this symbol
because of their youth and their innocence. The title of the novel refers to a significant theme
of the work as a whole, which is the loss of innocencea loss suggested by the killing of the
innocent songbird.

Though Jem is older than Scout, he appears to have a more
sensitive nature, especially as he approaches the changes and challenges of adolescence. Because
he is slightly older, he also understands more about the trial than Scout, which means the
outcome and the death of Tom Robinson hits him harder. Jem's loss of innocence is more acute
than Scout's because he is old enough to be upset by the injustices he has observed but young
enough to feel severe disappointment in a world that used to feel trustworthy and safe. Scout's
childishness, strength, and less sensitive nature...

Explain the motif of "blindness" in the short story "Battle Royal" by Ralph Ellison.

s was
originally published as a short story.  Later, the author included the story as the first
chapter of his acclaimed book The Invisibile Man. The main character, a
young, unnamed black boy, narrates the story in first person.

The story takes
place in  the 1930s.  Segregation is the rule of the white mans world.  The narrators dying
grandfather describes race relations as a war that has not been won.  He also maintains that
the black struggle is the good fight. 

The dying grandfather tells the
narrators father that he feels like a traitor.  He has been whatever the white man wanted him to
be to get ahead.  The grandfathers advice is to make the white man feel that he is agreeable to
their wishes and agree em to death and destruction.

Blindness is a
recurring theme in the story.  Ellisons idea is that people avoid seeing and facing the truth. 
The narrator repeatedly mentions that people have the ability to...

What are the 5 major literary devices in "The Pit and the Pendulum"?

Poe begins
the story with an epigraph, though it is a faux epigraph, since he
wrote it himself. An epigraph is a short quotation at the beginning of a literary work to
suggest the work's theme. "" begins with a Latin inscription Poe himself wrote as
commentary on the fall of the French monarchy in the late 1790s, which Poe relates to the
Spanish Inquisition in his story.

Poe chose the first person
point of view of narration to tell the story. Using the first-person pronoun,
"I," Poe pulls the reader into the story by creating intimacy with the person telling
the story.

Poe makes use of sense , creating
sights, sounds, and sensations of the conditions in the dungeon where the narrator is being
held.

Poe utilizes  when he writes "And
now, as I still continued to step cautiously onward, there came thronging upon my recollection a
thousand vague rumors of the horrors of Toledo" to reference the horrors of the Spanish
Inquisition.

As he concludes the story, Poe utilizes the deus
ex machina technique to free the narrator from his tortures; General LaSalle and
his troops rescue him in the nick of time.

The goverments of the three superpowers are alike even though their governments have different names. Similarities exist between them. Why? This is...

I think the key
is that they are never "at
war."  A state of war creates a state of dependency in the
population ...
they need to be "protected" by their government against other hostile

countries/groups.  Because of this need, they come to love the country that provides
this
security.  This is similar to an idea developed many years before by
Thomas Hobbes in his
"Leviathan."  He note that the population will make a
contract with the state (quite
different from other Social Contracts to come
later) based on this premise that the primary
responsibility of the state is
to protect its citizens from attacks.

The
governments
inmay or may not exist, but they are clearly working together to create a
system
that keeps ALL of the world's citizens dependent on their government,
thus providing a kind of
"balance" in the world.  Thus, "War is
Peace."

There are
some similarities to this system in our
world where the USSR and the USA once were the two
superpowers who kept each
other "under control" while maintaining "order" in
the sphere of
influence.

I listed the reference to Hobbes below in case
you
are interested in further investigation.

 

Why did Harper Lee put the n-word in To Kill a Mockingbird?

was first published in

1960, four years before the Civil Rights Act, at a time when racial segregation was
still widely
enforced in Southern states and this racial slur was widely
used. In this book, 1930s Maycomb is
portrayed as a racist society, in which
such abuse would have been widespread. It is notable
that 's first objection
to 's use of the term is that it is "common." This is true in
two senses. It
is common in the sense of being vulgarnot the type of word that educated
people
care to usebut it is also common in the sense that people who do use
vulgar language use it
frequently.

When Scout asks Atticus
to elaborate later in the book (having
been told several times that he is a
"n----r-lover"), Atticus responds,

Scout, said Atticus, "n----r-lover is just one of those terms
that
dont mean anythinglike snot-nose. Its hard to explainignorant, trashy people use it
when
they think somebodys favoring Negroes over and above themselves. Its
slipped into usage with
some people like ourselves, when they want a common,
ugly term to label
somebody."

The
principal reasonuses the term is for
verisimilitude. It is the word people
would have used, and to pretend otherwise would be
untruthful. However, by
critiquing the term within the text, the author does do something toward

rendering it socially unacceptable.

Why does Susie lose herself in the life experiences of Lindsey more than in those of anyone else?(chapter 17)

Because she
loves Lindsey, and because Lindsey has,...

Explain how the theme of self-identity is developed in The Color of Water.

Authorexplores the intersecting roles of
race, family, and community in , his memoir of growing up in a biracial
family. As this is his memoir, self-identity is developed primarily through reflecting on his
own experience, but he learned that his mothers journey was also particularly
relevant.

As one of twelve children, coming of age for McBride meant
asserting a definite role in a highly hierarchical structure, which the children, more than
their parents, enforced. In an unusual family dynamic for the time, McBrides mother was white,
and his father was black; after his father died, she remarried, and her second husband was black
as well. Because of segregation, they lived in a black neighborhood, and his mother rarely
associated with other white people.

While the question of race was generally
paramount in Jamess mind, his mother downplayed it. She gained acceptance in their community, in
part because of communal recognition for her strong role in raising the children. Despite
acknowledging the differences in their appearance, his mother preferred not to talk about skin
color, noting when she did that each of the children was a somewhat different tone and
emphasizing their similarities to water, which constantly changes color.

In
the turbulent 1960s, as Jamess coming of age coincided with the Civil Rights Movement, he became
intensely aware of race. Venturing out of his community, he first came to understand how these
issues affected his position as a black man navigating a primarily white world. But he also had
to confront the unusual situation of his own family, which included hard questions that he posed
to his mother. As she told him of her difficult childhood and revealed that she was Jewish by
birth and upbringing, he realized what huge steps she had taken in leaving home, converting to
Christianity, and loving and marrying an African American pastor. Jamess own journey to
self-identity depended heavily on trying to understand his mothers earlier life as
well.

What was the Trail of Tears?

The Trail of
Tears is the name given to the forced removal of the Cherokee people from their rightful lands
in the Southeastern United States to new territory in what is now Oklahoma, west of the
Mississippi River.  The march was ordered by President Andrew Jackson and occurred in the years
1838 and 1839 as per both the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Treaty of New Echota in
1835.

In 1830, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, which
allowed him to exchange lands occupied by Native American tribes in existing states for
unsettled lands west of the Mississippi River.  This meant relocating entire tribes thousands of
miles away from their native lands, and few were willing to undergo the change.  Many, such as
the Seminoles in Florida, attempted to resist with military action; these uprising were
violently quelled, and noting the ineffectiveness of such a strategy the Cherokees instead
approached the problem administratively.  The Cherokee tribe of the Southeastern United States
were highly organized and had their own elected government representatives, and they took the
issue to federal court.  The Supreme Court ruled the forced extradition of the Cherokee people
was unconstitutional, and yet Jackson refused to adhere to this ruling; amid an environment in
which other tribes were being removed from their homes and shown no mercy along the way, some
Cherokee citizens agreed to the Treaty of New Echota, accepting payment and new lands as
compensation for the relocation.  This treaty gave Jackson the leverage he needed to force the
entirety of the Cherokee nation €“ some fifteen thousand individuals €“ to undertake the long,
hard road from Georgia to an area in present-day Oklahoma.  The Native Americans suffered
immensely during the journey, almost a quarter of them losing their lives along the way.  The
devastation and sorrow this relocation caused led the Cherokees to give the journey the name
The Trail of Tears, a moniker embraced by history as testament to the injustice faced by these
individuals.

href="https://www.ushistory.org/us/24f.asp">https://www.ushistory.org/us/24f.asp

Why do you think Richard Cory commited suicide in Robinson's "Richard Cory"? Do you think rich people are more likely to commit suicide? (why or why...

's poem,
"" recalls the findings of recent studies that have revealed that people who have won
millions of dollars in lotteries have said after a year or more that they almost wish that they
had not won the money.  For, even though they tried to retain their old friendships, they grew
apart from them because they had purchased a new, more luxurious home, bought a new, elegant or
sporty car, and no longer worked with some of the friends.  Suddenly, they and their friends
were on different levels.

Such is the case with Richard Cory; even though he
is "human when he talked," he

...fluttered
pulses when he said,

"Good morning," and he glittered when he
walked.

Richard Cory speaks and would like to communicate
with people, but his wealth creates an alienation as the "people on the pavement"
perceive him as one above them--not someone with whom they would converse.  Cory is like a king
whom they admire rather than one with whom they would associate because he is a "gentleman
from sole to crown" and "imperially slim."

Aware of the social
and economic distance among them, the people of Robinson's poem are like the friends of the
lottery winners; they are uncomfortable socializing with one whom they "wish that we were
in his place."

Like the "poor,little rich girl," Gloria
Vanderbilt, whose wealth prohibited her from having meaningful relationships as so many men
merely wanted her money, Richard Cory is desperately lonely, a condition exacerbated by his
wealth.  This is the "hollowness and emptiness" of which akannan
above writes.  Cory's life, devoid of socialization, is a desperately lonely one, so lonely that
he kills himself out of despair.

Compare and contrast the narrator of ''The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'' and the framework narrator of ''The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'.'...

When it comes
to point of view, "" and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of
Calveras County" are similar in that they are not told by one narrator alone.  Both could
be considered "frame" stories (that is, a story within a story). "Sleepy
Hollow" in fact, could almost be considered a story within a story within a story...etc. 
To understand this more fully, let's look at the narrators in each story:

"Sleepy Hollow":

• Narrator 1: , the author of
  The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
• Narrator 2:
  Geoffrey Crayon, a fictional "author" established by Irving to give many of his
  stories a sense ofand credibility.
• Narrator 3: Diedrich Knickerbocker, the
  fictional character who first wrote these stories down (also given credit for
  ) before they were found by G. Crayon.
• Narrator 4:
  characters within the story who contribute to the "legend" by repeating "headless
  horseman" tales they've either heard or read.

"Jumping
Frog"

• Narrator 1: Mark Twain, speaking (in 1st person) of the
  meeting between himself and Simon Wheeler.
• Narrator 2: Simon Wheeler,
  speaking (in 3rd person) about Jim Smiley.

As with many frame
stories and almost all stories told in the first person point of view, there exists the
question, "How reliable is the narrator?"  Consider that frame stories are very
similar to gossip.  The more people a story gets passed through, the more embellished and less
factual it often becomes.  In both of these stories, this framing is completely intentional. 
The tone therefore, is in itself ironic.  You, the
reader, are not to trust that these stories are true, despite the ever present emphasis (by all
story tellers involved) that they are.  It is almost like saying, "If this many people know
of and can tell this story, it must be true."

More
than likely the main purpose of the original authors for doing this is for humor and
entertainment.  Also, much liketoday picks on current events and news stories, and the
way in which these stories are often portrayed, both Irving and Twain are
likely making a social commentary on the kind of story telling that was accepted as
"truth" in their own generations.

ThemesCan anyone list the main themes in The Ministers Black Veil? Thank you.

Secret sin is
a key theme of Hawthorne's short story.  Tortured by the hypocrisy of Puritanism as part of his
heritage, Hawthorne continually addresses the Calvinist doctrines of this ideology that effected
the need for people to hide the human weaknesses of their hearts for fear of punishment and
ostracism from the community.  Thus, there is also the theme alienation in "" as the
Reverend Mr. Hooper becomes a pariah to many in his congregation after his donning of the veil
on his face.

What has happened in the book The Alchemist that seems magical or supernatural?

is a book that contains
magical . Magical realism is a literary technique that intricately blends reality with fantasy.
If you are looking for a quick and easy set of examples that show magical or supernatural
elements within the text, then look in the final sections of the book. It is here that Santiago
is able to speak to nature itself. Santiago speaks with the desert, the wind, and the sun. He
tries to convince those mystical beings or forces to help him, but even the sun doesn't know how
exactly to help Santiago. Santiago then prays and realizes that his soul is a part of the Soul
of God, and he can do miracles as well.

Another magical element of the story
is the alchemist and alchemy. Alchemy is/was a magical and/or scientific process of turning
various metals (like lead) into gold. It is not possible, buthas the Alchemist do it soon after
Santiago is released.

A third magical and supernatural piece of this book is
the Urim and Thummim. Historically, these are stones that prophets used to interpret various
revelations from divine entities. In The Alchemist, the King of Salem,
Melchizedek, gives Santiago the stones and tells Santiago that he should use them when he is
unable to read the omens. The stones will then help Santiago do that:

They are called Urim and Thummim. The black signifies
"yes," and the white "no." When you are unable to read the omens, they will
help you to do so. Always ask an objective question.

How are Hester, Pearl, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale each affected by the scarlet letter? What does the letter mean to each of them?

For , the letter is a
daily reminder of her sin. While she does not seem to ever express regret about her actions, the
knowledge of her sin does seem to cause her pain. However, it is also her visible link, along
with , to her co-sinner, and for this reason, in part, she would never remove it. In addition,
the letter is a daily reminder of her society's judgment. Although they ought to forgive, to
exercise compassion, and to refrain from judgment according to their religion, they do the
opposite for much of the novel. It sets Hester apart, no matter where she is, in her own sort of
circle.

For Pearl, the letter is symbolic of her mother. She seems to think
it is a good thing, as most little children think of things associated with their mothers, and
Pearl wants her own letter, even constructing one of eel grass one day by the water. When her
mother takes it off in the forest with, Pearl refuses to listen or come to her until she pins it
back on. Her mother is the only...

Is Willy Loman A Tragic Hero

I
believe that Willy Loman can be considered a tragic hero, and was intended by his author to be a
tragic hero, only in the sense that he is not an individual but a type. Willy Loman represents
the millions of hard-working American men who end up on the ash heap when they get too old to be
of value to their employers. Willy Loman by himself is too insignificant a character to be
considered a tragic hero, but if we think of him as being multiplied by the millions who
preceded him and the millions who will follow him, then his fate becomes tragic by the sheer
weight of numbers. It seems obvious...

What is the significance of the raven in The Raven?

The
significance of Edgar Allen Poe actually stating that the bird in hiswork is a raven is that he
had to use a bird that could 'talk.' Of course, no bird can actually converse with humans in a
meaningful way, but it was enough to use a bird that could be taught to say a few 'words' as in
his confused state, to the mourner in his half-dream state, this would have made sense. It would
have been silly, for example, to use a robin or a swan. Ravens, as members of the crow family,
are birds of high intelligence and can be taught to repeat sounds to which we humans attach
significance, and to do tricks. I have read of Poe referring to a parrot also, and thought that
this gaudy, comical bird with it's bright colors would have added completely the wrong
tone.

What effect does the dramatic twist have on Framton and the reader in "The Open Window''?

With her
self-confidence and poise and the use of the open window as the framing ( intended!) device for
her tall tale, both Framton and the reader are taken in; there is no question. Thus, believing
that Vera's narrative is a tragically veritable history of Mrs. Stappleton's family, Framton,
along with the reader, feels pity for the deluded Mrs. Stappleton when she exclaims, "Here
they are at last!" 

But, of course, it is not Mrs. Stappleton, but
Framton, along with the reader, who are deluded. Poor Framton, is terrorized by the look of
horror on the girl's face, for he does, indeed, believe...

Who would be considered the foil and confidant of "The Lovely Bones"? Who would be considered the foil and confidant of "The Lovely Bones"?

From my opinion
and experience of the story,
Ruth would be the best choice for a foil and confidant.

She serves as a foil to Susie, because in all the ways that Susie has
to
remain passive and a watcher, Ruth is able to contrast those qualities
with her choices living
on Earth. Susie is confined to her heaven and has
very limited ability to influence people or
circumstances on earth, whereas
Ruth's curiousity and unconventional personality take her to
places of
discovery and test her bravery. Susie never really had the chance to become a
woman
and experience the truth of her situation; Ruth, on the other hand,
wants to take on the gritty
truths of life and especially Susie's realities-
which were left behind unfinished and
unrevealed.

Ruth also
serves as a confidant for Susie's unfinished desires and
wishes, which is
seen as she strives to listen to Susie's whispers and illustrate her stories

through art. She also longs to know Ray more, since Susie cannot, and puts herself in a
position
to consumate Susie's desire of love-making for
her. In her posture of
listening and "watching" for signs from Susie, Ruth is
at least somewhat able to be an
earthly channel and confidant for the
deceased Susie.

What impression do the readers get of the flower girl in act one of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw?

We meet
the central character in byearly in the first act; however, she is known
to us only as "The Flower Girl." The setting for this act is the covered portico of
St. John's church in Covent Garden on a very stormy, wet night. This storm has driven people of
all social positions into the same place at the same time, and of course this makes for a very
interesting scene.

We meet the Flower Girl as she is rushing, with her basket
of flower, into the shelter and is bumped by an aristocratic young man named Freddy. He does not
stop to help her pick up the dropped flowers, and she is not shy about expressing her belief
that if his mother had raised him better he would have done so. She is not cruel, but she is
direct. Shaw gives us quite a detailed description of the girl, an indication that her
appearance really matters to this story. Oh yes, and he does not mince words:

She is not at all an attractive person. She is perhaps eighteen,
hardly older. She wears a little sailor hat of black straw that has long been exposed to the
dust and soot of London and has seldom if ever been brished. Her hair needs washing rather
badly; its mousy color can hardly be natural. She wears a shoddy black coat that reaches nearly
to her knees and is shaped to her waist. She has a brown skirt with a coarse apron. Her boots
are much the worse for wear. She is no doubt as clean as she can afford to be; but compared to
the ladies she is very dirty. Her features are worse than theirs; but their condition leaves
something to be desired; and she needs the services of a dentist. 

As the scene progresses, we see many aspects of the Flower Girl's behavior. While she
is deferential to the men and ladies when trying to get them to buy her flowers, once she has
been denied she is not afraid to speak her mind. She is not particularly ugly or unkind, but she
bluntly says what she thinks.

In the episode with the Note Taker (who we
learn is Henry Higgins), when he is studiously identifying everyone's origins by their speech
and , we see a fear of the authorities in the Flower Girl and others of her class. It is clear
that they distrust official authorities, and perhaps with good reason, given their work and
their class.

When the Flower Girl feels insulted, she wails annoyingly; but
she also speaks up for herself when Higgins tries to bully her. She has all the disadvantages of
her social and economic standing, but it is clear she has the potential to be more than she is
if she were given the opportunity. When Higgins casually makes the claim that 

in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an
ambassador's garden party. I could even get her a place as a lady's maid or shop assistant,
which requires better English,

he is just bragging. We
get a sense, however, that this Flower Girl could be quite a lady, given her grand and glorious
(and ladylike, she thinks) exit in a taxi. 

The Flower Girl does not have
much to recommend her; in fact, according to Higgins, the way she speaks is enough to offend
God. One line in Shaw's description of her, however, suggests that she is redeemable:

She is no doubt as clean as she can afford to be.

This girl does the best she can for herself with what she has been
given and what she has done for herself. It will be interesting to see if she will always be a
flower girl or if she will make something of herself. 

Why is it appropriate that this chapter begins with the singing of the two verses? THis is in Part2 chapter 10.

andhave made several plans, some realistic and some not, of trying to escape their confined
situation and be together permanently.  One of them involves becoming proles and blending into
the lesser-scrutinized prole community.  In their secret love nest, the two hear the prole
washer-lady song often.  It seems to beboth the immediate future and the distant future for
these two lovers. 

'It was only an 'opeless
fancy,
It passed like an Ipril dye,
But a look an' a word an' the dreams
they stirred
They 'ave stolen my 'eart awye! ()

The first line of verse seems to foreshadow Julia and Winston's
capture and declares their hopes of being together as hopeless.  Indeed, at the the end of this
section, the two are captured and taken to the Ministry of love.

The second
verse refers foreshadows the end of the novel, specifically when Julia and Winston meet again in
the Chesnut Tree Cafe.

'They sye that time 'eals
all things,
They sye you can always forget;
But the smiles an' the tears
acrorss the years
They twist my 'eart-strings yet!' (Part 2, Chapter
10).

As the song suggests, time does heal, but
not in the way that either may have thought.  They were put through rigorous torture after their
capture, and ultimately they broke their vows of not turning on the other.  Through their
reintegration process, they lost all feelings for each other and address each other as if they
were mere acquaintances.

Who is George Winston and how has he contributed to music?

George
Winston is a contemporary instrumentalist who delights audiences with his unassuming manner of
appearing in a flannel shirt and blue jeans sans shoes so that his noisy
tapping foot will not be heard. Inspired as a youth by the music by Vince Guaraldi that
accompanied the Peanuts animations in the 1960's, Winston has recorded some
of this music, as well as much of his own, especially in the Autumn,
December, and Winter Into Spring albums. This music
is...

href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Winston">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Winston

In Jonathan Edwards' view from "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," what must sinners do to save themselves?

" is a
sermon preached at Enfield, Connecticut, in 1741 by the revivalist preacher . The sermon is
often considered the iconic statement of the 18th century religious revival known as the First
Great Awakening.

Edwards was a member of the Congregationalist (Puritan)
church, which had been the state religion of the Massachusetts Bay Colony that comprised most of
New England in the 17th century. In its early days, the sect was intolerant of other religions
and brooked little opposition within its own ranks. Edwards's father had been a
Congregationalist minister in the small settlement of East Windsor, Connecticut.

Like all Congregationalists, Edwards accepted the doctrine of original sin, which holds
that all people are born into sin, and only some will be redeemed from it by God. All the others
will be condemned to eternal damnation.

However, there were differences as
to what degree an individual's actions during his lifetime might save...

What are required characteristics of the Brahmin caste?

The
first required characteristic of the Brahmin caste is that there be inherited, genetic
blood-relation, as Brahminism is a subset of a tribal (hereditary) lineage. Brahmins originated
in the northern regions of the lands now know as India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, an area which
is described in the Vedas as having a powerful river called Sarasvati in the Indus Valley and
that dried up around 1900 before the common era (BCE).

The second requirement
is that Brahmin practice Brahminism, one of the hundreds of forms of Hindu religion. Therefore,
Brahmins have a distinct and specialized culture with distinct and specialized religious
practices, traditions, principles and other practices. Brahminism is also called Sanatana Dharma
or Vedic religion. The Vedas is central to Brahminism, as it is to most other forms of Hinduism;
it is the most ancient text and respected as human heritage. The Vedas has been protected by
UNESCO as part of the world heritage.

The third requirement is religious
belief. To Brahmin, both orthodox and heterodox, the Vedas are divine, inspired texts that are
apaurusheyam, meaning "not man made." They are therefore revealed
truths, not learned truths, and have eternal validity and relevance to humankind. This quality
defines the Vedas as Srutis, meaning "that which have been
heard."

The fourth requirement is religious practice. Brahmins' daily
religious practices include sandhyavandana, which are prayers to the Sun
God and Gayatri; prayer to the personal god ishtadaiva or ilavelpu; the
practice of yoga; the rejection of violence; the dietary practice of vegetarianism. Added to
these and other daily rituals, in a Brahmin life composed of ritual, are special occasion
rituals, such as a special marriage ritual and a baby's first feeding ritual, along with many
others.

Discuss the theme of suffering in the play Oedipus Rex.

's suffering
is mostly due to his discovery that he has been married to his mother and killed his father.
This is a particularly shocking example of the idea that self-discovery, while necessary, also
carries with it certain difficulties. The curse that has befallen his land represents the
pressures to discover oneself, and the ways that it can ultimately become necessary to go on a
journey of self-discovery. This journey, however, leads Kind Oedipus down a path that he is not
prepared to handle. When Oedipus first learns that he was the one who killed Laius, his
suffering is so great that he denies it. Still, when someone suggests that he stop trying to
discovering his past, he refuses. Oedipus eventually gouges his eyes out in response to the
shame at what he has done, but the curse is lifted and he can life a life free of the weight of
not knowing his true self.

Was Lyndon Johnson more effective in domestic or foreign policy? Why?

Lyndon Johnson's
domestic policy was certainly more effective than his foreign policy. President from 1963 to
1969, he replaced John F. Kennedy after the latter's tragic assassination in November 1963.
Stunned by the loss of Kennedy, the nation rallied around Johnson and elected him to a full,
four-year term in 1964. Johnson, for his part, promised to carry out the policies of the slain
Kennedy.

Johnson, a Texan, had had a long career in politics prior to
becoming president in 1963. A supporter of the New Deal, he became head of the National Youth
Administration in Texas in 1935. He served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate,
before becoming vice president under Kennedy. He was a consummate politician.

Upon becoming president, his domestic agenda was the most ambitious since the New Deal
of the 1930s. His domestic policy was known as the Great Society. Two civil rights acts were
passed. There were also reforms in education and a "war on poverty." Medicare and
Medicaid were enacted.

The Great Society was soon overshadowed by the Vietnam
War, however. America was heavily engaged in Vietnam from 1965 to 1973. The long and expensive
war was supposed to halt the spread of Communism, but it was a costly and bloody failure. The
United States wasted billions fighting an unwinnable war, and the unpopularity of the conflict
severely damaged Johnson's reputation.

How does Shakespeare present Juliet's emotions in act 3 scene 2? William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

The young,
privilegedis suddenly stricken within .  Moreover, the tragic news is confusedly reported by the
grief-stricken Nurse who cries out names and keeps Juliet in doubt about what has actually
occurred.  At first, Juliet believes thathas killed himself because the Nurse calls out his name
and does not respond to her questions, but instead speaks of the gore and blood.  Juliet then
cries,

O, break, my heart! poor bankrout, break at
once!  
To prison, eyes; ne'er look on liberty!
Vile earth, to earth resign;
end motion here,
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier! (3.2.60-63)

Then, when the Nurse speaks of , Juliet is confused, asking if
Tybalt is dead and Romeo slaughtered.  She despairs, saying,

Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!
For who is living, if those
two are gone? (3.2.70-71)

Finally, the Nurse explains
what has really happened, telling Juliet that "Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished." 
When Juliet asks if Romeo has killed Tybalt, the Nurse answers.  To this Juliet responds in
oxymorons which indicate her confusion and feelings of betrayal by Romeo:

O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
Did ever
dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!

Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest
show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st
A damned saint, an
honourable villain! (3.2.76-82) 

But, when the Nurse
says, "Shame come to Romeo," Juliet comes to her husband's defense, railing against
the Nurse and scolding herself,

Blister'd be thy tongue

For such a wish! He was not born to shame.
Upon his brow shame is asham'd to
sit;
For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd
Sole monarch of the
universal earth.
O, what a beast was I to chide at him! (3.2.95-100)

Certainly, Juliet's emotions are turbulent as she is misled by the
Nurse and grieves over her cousin.  However, Juliet's loyalty is with her husband despite her
feeling somewhat betrayed by his killing Tybalt.

According to Lorraine, what is John like in Paul Zindel's The Pigman?

Lorraine's
perspective of John is sweet and kind. She feels like he portrays himself worse that he really
is. For example, John writes the first chapter and talks about him smoking, swearing, drinking,
bombing bathrooms, and rolling fruit to scare substitute teachers. He basically shows his rebel
side and Lorraine clarifies in chapter 2 that he isn't as bad as he portrays himself to be. She
says that he gets away with all of the rebellious things he does because he's "extremely
handsome" (7). When they first met on the bus, he seemed very odd to her, too, because he
just laughed and laughed at nothing whatsoever, and he made her laugh, too. So, he's probably
goofy as well. She also gives a more directof John in the following passage:

"He's six feet tall already, with sort of longish brown hair
and blues eyes. He has these gigantic eyes that look right through you, especially if he's in
the middle of one of his fantastic everyday lies" (8).

She even goes on to say that the source of the problem is his family. His dad used to
give him alcohol to drink, which can never be a good message to send; but, his parents are older
and don't seem to know how to bond with him in a loving way. Aside from that, however, John is
compassionate and fun. He makes immature mistakes, but he honestly cares for people like Mr.
Pignati and he likes to have fun. For example, he doesn't mind skating around the house, making
fun of mall floorwalkers, and and throwing parties. 

One of the best
descriptions of John that Lorraine makes is as follows:

"John has made an art out of it (making prevarications). He prevaricates just for
prevaricating's sake. It's what they call a compensation syndrome. His own life is so boring
when measured against his daydreams that he can't stand it, so he makes up things to pretend
it's exciting" (27).

Basically, he's a liar; but
that's a fun way to say it. Lorraine turns out to be John's proverbial Jiminy Cricket, though;
so they even each other out in the end.

Through the story "Young Goodman Brown", what message does the author give us? (i.e. What is the theme of the story?) "Young Goodman Brown" by...

The ambiguity
of 's story, "," is the very key to his message.  Just as in Hawthorne's ","
and his seminal novel, , the ambiguity of Puritanism is exposed.  And, with
this exposure comes the theme of the hypocrisy of Puritanism in
which one never is certain whether one is "elect" or "condemned."

The main ambiguity of "Young Goodman Brown" arises from the question posed by
Hawthorne as narrator:

Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in
the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?

If the experience of witnessing the black mass is real, Brown loses faith in the
Puritan community because they are hypocrites.  However, if he has merely dreamed "a wild
dream of a witch-meeting," then his loss of faith is of his own doing; it is because of the
depravity of his own soul, his own hypocrisy, and not because of the actions of others.  At any
rate, as a Puritan, it is "a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a
desperate man" that Brown becomes because of the uncertainty of Puritanism in which virtue
is only a dream. Blinded by his Puritan-Calvinistic conflict, becomes a hoary hypocrite who in
his own secret sins sees sins in others:

...they carved no
hopeful verse uon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.

 

What elements in Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Rappaccini's Daughter" characterize the romantic movement in American literature?

, along
with Herman Melville, is considered to
be one of the primary novelists of the Romantic movement
in American
literature; Walt Whitman most exemplifies this movement in poetry. Hawthorne's
short
story "" also exhibits many of the characteristics associated with the
Romantic
movement.

First, the story promotes the idea that
the individual is more
important than society. Clearly Doctor Rappaccini
acted in his own self-interest when he
conducted a deadly experiment with his
daughter, Beatrice. Though he tells Beatrice he did
everything to make her
into some kind of super-human being, we understand that she was really
just
part of his grand experiment rather than a daughter he loved.

Second,
in this story nature is used to reveal truth, which is one of the
elements of Romanticism.
Everything in this story is a lie except what the
plants in the garden reveal; though Rappaccini
has...

What is the irony in Mica High School students expressing themselves in Stargirl?

Theis that it is a place
that has valued conformity for so long. As we read this book, we realise that Mica High School,
perhaps more than other environments, is a place where standing out is definitely not the thing
to do if you want to gain social popularity. The opening of the story focuses on the way in
which the students wear the same clothes, listen to the same music, talk about the same things
and eat the same food.

This is something that is highlighted by the arrival
ofand her freedom of self-expression, which initially makes her the focus of massive attention.
Even though she does gain popularity after a while, this quickly fades away and this shows the
danger of sticking your head out and being different. Eventually, Stargirl transforms herself
into a conformist in order to try and be accepted, but she finds that whilst she may be accepted
by others, she can never accept herself if she suppresses who she is. The irony is that being
different is something that characters such as Leo in the novel do not have enough courage to
do. They stick to what they know and conformity, and therefore lose part of themselves. Even
when other students try to be different this is only very short lived.

What is the relation between Marxism and New Historicism?

Both
Marxist and New Historicist criticism
emphasize the cultural context of a work of literature in
their techniques of
analysis. In opposition to schools of thought like the New Criticism, these

critical theories argue that one cannot understand a work independent of the environment
in
which it was produced. The main difference between the two is that Marxist
literary criticism is
more focused on the economic aspects of power
relations, while New Historicism has a broader
approach. A New Historicist
might analyze power relations in a text, but they could also deal
with how
elements of the cultural context such as religion, visual art, the status of
science,
etc. would have affected the production of the literary text. To
distinguish between a Marxist
and a New Historicist critique of a text, find
out what aspect of the cultural context they are
using to illuminate the
work. If the contextual element is socioeconomic, the piece is most
likely
using a Marxist approach; if the...

What is the purpose of storytelling?

In addition
to all of the above, life is, among
other things, a narrative. Every time we tell others about
our past
experiences, dreams, purposes, or mindset, we are telling a story, since we do
not
reproduce dialogue or thought directly, but use reported speech and
cohesive devices to connect
the parts.

One interesting
thing that happens in the case of past experiences
is that two or more people
who have lived the same event and then retell it will probably render
it in a
different way. This is due to two main reasons. One is that parts of the event failed
to
get stored in long-term memory, and the narrator unconsciously bridges the
gaps with fictional
material that makes sense within the parameters of the
story. The other is that those who shared
the experience focused on certain
details and overlooked others, so their memory, even if
truthful, is
dissimilar.

Why do we tell these particular stories? Because
we
may be  seeking confirmation, approval, sympathy, and/or opinion. For
human beings, the only
species endowed with language, the need to share
-i.e., to tell- seems
compelling. 

will the real Jesus please stand up can you tell me the Jesus of History or teh Christ of faith aren't both the same? which one you prefer will the...

I think there
are basically 3 ways to look at this.

First there are those who believe in
Jesus as part of their faith and the religious canon. The historical evidence or details of his
life as a historical figure do not come into play in this area. They believe. That is what faith
is about.

The second are those whose only interest is in the historical
record. Can they prove Jesus existed? Can they prove any of the Bible stories are true? This is
quite and undertaking considering that even in modern technological society many people live and
die without leaving any record of their existence, how likely is it that we will find evidence
of this one man living in ancient times?

The third (which is where I fall,
by the way) is those of us who believe in Jesus Christ as the messiah and follow his teachings
and those of the Bible, but also think the historical record is important. It will not change my
belief, but the studies into the historical truth of the Bible are fascinating. Why
wouldn't...