What are common themes in The Lovely Bones and The Memory Keeper's Daughter?

What a
great question!  In first looking at the two novels, there might not seem to be many common
themes, but there are.  In fact, there are at least two: the theme of secrecy and the theme of
childhood .

Let's take the theme of secrecy first.  In ,
Susie Salmon is raped and murdered in the early seventies.  It is, of course, the character of
George Harvey who has the issue with secrecy.  Being a serial killer who lures Susie into his
makeshift abode in the middle of a field before raping and killing her, he must keep his
actions, his place of operation, and in fact his life a secret.  Here is how the secret ends up
affecting George Harvey:

A moment later, the icicle fell.
They heavy coldness of it threw him off balance just enough for him to stumble and pitch
forward. It would be weeks before the snow in the ravine melted enough to uncover him.

He lives as "a neighbor" to everyone in Susie's
neighborhood and seems to be a very innocuous person, but lives with a big secret.  In
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, the theme of secrecy is based around the life
of Dr. David Henry.  When his wife, Nora, has twins (which was unexpected) and one of the twins
has the tell-tale signs of Down syndrome, David THINKS he gives the daughter away to an
institution.  (The truth is that Caroline, a nurse at the hospital, raises Phoebe on her own.) 
David then tells the family that the baby girl twin has died.  This secret tears their family
apart.

Now let's approach the theme of tragedy from a parental point of
view.  In The Lovely Bones, Susie Salmon is murdered and the family goes
through all of the typical emotions of horror, grief, anger, acceptance, etc.  Susie's death
doesn't tear the family apart, but affects the family to no end.  In The Memory
Keeper's Daughter, the theme of parental tragedy is based on the supposed death of
the girl twin (which isn't reality) and the secret that David keeps from the family.  Nora goes
through all the grief and anger about her daughter's "death," but then finds her
husband has locked himself into an emotional prison. Why?  Not only because of the guilt of the
secret, but also because of this fact that Caroline is finally able to tell him:

You missed a lot of heartache, sure. But David, you missed a lot of
joy.

Meanwhile, David loses himself with his music. 
David's secret absolutely destroys the family.

What is cultural capital and how does it impact education?

Lorraine Caplan

Cultural capital is the sum of our cultural experiences and knowledge that we bring to
the educational table.  In the United States at least, the prevailing culture is white, western,
and largely middle-class, thus those students who do not bring this capital to school are
seriously disadvantaged. 

We learn by incorporating new ideas and information
into our minds, connecting those new ideas and information into what is already in our minds. 
The more there is in our minds already, the more easily we can file new information and ideas
and make connections between them and what is already there.

Generally, how
students are taught in American schools is based upon a presumption that all students bring the
same or similar cultural capital with them to school. The middle-class child has likely grown up
with books, music, and art at home.  The middle-class child has attended summer camp, taken
dancing lessons, and played soccer. He or she has been to art galleries, museums, zoos,
plays,...

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During Edwards' lengthy sermon, members of his congregation cried loud and fainted in terror. Which parts of his sermon incited this terror? What are...

Edwards uses
plenty of conventionalto describe hell (a pit, fire, the serpent, etc.) and the various violent
means God will use to dispatch sinners. What is different and noteworthy in the sermon are the
terms that Edwards uses to describe what else will happen to the unconverted by contrasting
God's elect with the sinners:

"How awful is it to be...

href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1053&context=etas">https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?refere...

What two things did Mrs. Whatsit do that concerned Meg and Charles Wallace?

When the
children are going to Camazotz the first time, Mrs. Whatsit gives Meg the gift of her faults as
her protection and offers Charles Wallace the gift of his resilience.

Later,
when Meg returns to Camazotz on her own to find and rescue Charles Wallace from the grip
of...

How does the notion of "the more private the character, the more sinister the intentions" come into play in The Scarlet Letter?

This quote
pertains most completely to Chillingworth. Chillingworth is a secretive individual who has evil
intentions.

Chillingworth getsto agree not to let anyone know he is her
husband when he returns to town. He doesn't want to be associated with the shame of her scarlet
letter. However, an added advantage to the secrecy is that it gives him power.

Chillingworth uses this power with sinister intent against . He realizes that
Dimmesdale is the father of . It is much easier for him to make Dimmesdale suffer because
Dimmesdale has no reason to suspect Chillingworth would have any reason to hate him.

Chillingworth, especially in his role as a doctor, is able to cosy up to Dimmesdale and
become close to him, in order to make his enemy's conscience writhe. The townspeople understand
that Chillingworth is evil and see him as being sent by Satan to test their good pastor, who
they have no doubt will prevail. Public opinion is that Dimmesdale is:

haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan's emissary, in the guise
of old .

Dimmesdale does suffer greatly from
Chillingworth, though eventually, at least for a brief moment, he does
prevail.

Who is Malthace in Elizabeth Speare's "The Bronze Bow"?

Malthace, also known as Thacia or Thace, is
Joel's sister and the leading female figure in Elizabeth Speare's novel .
Thacia is portrayed as a beautiful, intelligent, intense young girl, who caters to the needs of
others and correctly interprets the verse regarding what it takes to bend the bronze bow. Like
her brother and Daniel, Malthace anticipates the coming of the Messiah but chooses to wait
patiently for Him instead of resorting to violence against the Romans.

After
initially shunning Daniel, Thacia dresses his wounds after he is injured by a Roman soldier,
hides him in their home, and nurses him back to health. She also comes up with a plan for Joel
to learn the names of the rich guests attending the banquet, dresses up as Joel so that he has
an alibi, and carries a heavy load on her back for a mile while Roman soldiers watch her
closely. Thacia is also a positive influence on Daniel's sister, Leah, and she goes out of her
way to spend time with the shy, traumatized girl. In addition to her compassion and strength,
Thacia also has faith in Jesus and proves to Daniel that only love can bend the bronze
bow.

To what extent does religion become important in Roy's The God of Small Things?

Religion
plays an important, if tangential, role in the novel . There are a great
many religious undertones and references, and there are prominent actions that are caused by
religious involvement. One of the first events that happens in the novel is when Baby Kochamma
falls in love with Father Mulligan, a Catholic Irish priest, and she joins a convent hoping to
get closer to him. When this fails, her life is turned upside down. She leaves for America,
where she grows into a bitter old woman.

Later in the novel, after Ammu's
affair with lower-caste Velutha is discovered,...