What is the purpose of "A Modest Proposal?" What is Swift trying to reform? Does he go too far in this essay?

The issue of whether or not Swift goes too far in "A
Modest Proposal," is an issue of taste.  It's a satire, of course, so the speaker has
much freedom in what he writes.  He also uses irony.  Both satire and irony often use
exaggeration as tools to accomplish their purposes.  So, again, the writer has a great
deal of freedom to work with.

The question is, though, even
within the accepted norms of satire and irony, whether or not what Swift does is in bad
taste.  His proposal and his descriptions, etc., are certainly grotesque, and his
central idea strikes at the core of
humanity--cannibalism. 

Ultimately, however, though the
essay probably is in bad taste, Swift decides that using bad taste is worth the risk. 
The essay shocks the reader, and probably would not have done so if it weren't in
bad taste.  The bad taste of the proposal is part of the
point.

In the end, each reader probably decides whether the
essay is in bad taste, whether it goes too far.  I love the wit and the humor and the
satire and the irony.  But that doesn't mean another person wouldn't find the essay in
bad taste.   

What are the connections between The Great Gatsby and Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey that make Gatsby an anti-hero?Main events in the...

Fitzgerlad's The Great Gatsby does show a connection to
the archtypal monomyth, the hero's journey, however, Gatsby does not go through all the
steps. At first, he goes through the separation stage, where he his mind is separated
from his usual environment--he is an outcast; none of his guests really know him. He is
called for an adventure when he realizes that he must fight for Diasy when she married
Tom. He didn't refuse the call--he was awfully obsessedwith her. Along the way, he has
his helper,Nick Carraway, for advice.

In order to attain
his American Dream (goal, which is Daisy), he faces a road of trials. He has to deal
with Tom, and try to find a way to win Daisy back. Of course, throughtout these road of
trials, he faces the woman, Daisy, as a Temptress. This is archtypal because woman are
usually considered to be the cause of a man's demise in the bible and other religious
texts (Adam and Eve, Pandora's Box). One thing of course, Gatsby doesn't enter the belly
of the whale; he is not reborn again and does not find his true identity. He worships
Daisy too much. Lastly, he must endure a climax/final battle. Myrtle's accident is a
major climax because it unravelled many other reprucussions at the end, such as George
killing Gatsby, a final battle indeed.

Sadly, after his
death, Gastby doesn't get an apotheosis. When he dies, he is not free from his mind, as
you see the last thought he had was of Daisy. In the last, where the hero is supposed to
return, Gatsby doesn't achive his American Dream, his life-transmuting trophy. However,
he is still remembered and is considered superior to
Nick.

This is how The Great Gatsby is related to Joseph
Cambell's The Hero's Journey.

In Act 4, Scene 2, what happens to Lady Macduff and her son?

Several things happen to Lady Macduff and her son in IV.ii. She talks with Ross, asserting that her husband's flight from home was madness because his fear has made him a traitor to his duty: "His flight was madness: ... / Our fears do make us traitors." She talks to her son, asserting that he is now fathered but fatherless: "Sirrah, your father's dead; / And what will you do now?" She and her son listen to the warning words the Messenger addresses to her after Ross exits: "Be not found here; hence, with your little ones." Astounded, she puzzles over to which place she should flee and why she has need to flee: "Whither should I fly? / ... to do good sometime [is] / Accounted dangerous folly." Finally, she and her son encounter murderers, sent to find Macduff on Macbeth's orders: "Where is your husband?" Ultimately, she and her son exit, although through different means: "[Stage directions]. Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying 'Murder!'"

The previous scene to this one, Act IV, scene i, ends with Macbeth swearing to act according to his heart's purpose as soon as he thinks a thought. The thought to hand for Macbeth now is that all living persons in Macduff castle should be killed so no lineage of Macduff's should carry on from that day forward.

MACBETH. To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:
The castle of Macduff I will surprise;
Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o' the sword
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;
This deed I'll do before this purpose cool.

To examine the foregoing in some detail, in the opening of IV.ii, Lady Macduff and her young son are listening to and she is speaking with Ross, Macbeth's cousin and a Scottish nobleman who chooses to reject Macbeth and join Malcolm, Macduff and the English. While Macduff's son is listening, Lady Macduff and Ross are debating whether or not Macduff's flight from home was traitorous. Lady Macduff says that he acted like a traitor: "What had he done, to make him fly the land? [...] Our fears do make us traitors." Ross rebukes her, replying that it was as likely his wisdom that made him fly: "You know not / Whether it was his wisdom or his fear." Lady Macduff challenges Ross, saying that wisdom doesn't abandon love, although fear leads to flight--and flight manifests only fear--and that flight that betrays reason shows no wisdom.

LADY MACDUFF. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes,
...
All is the fear and nothing is the love;
As little is the wisdom, where the flight
So runs against all reason.

After Lady Macbeth laments that Macduff is dead (as she assumes must be the case and as she metaphorically asserts to be the case: he is a traitor to lie about his love then to betray her, and traitors die) and that his son is fatherless, Ross, asserting that it would be his "disgrace" to stay (since she is asserting what Ross believes to be untruths about Macduff), quickly takes his leave. She and her son debate his fatherless state, ending with the son's claim that Macduff is not dead (thus not a traitor by her own argument): "If he were dead, you'ld weep for him: if you would not, it were a good sign."

Upon this note, the Messenger, a person unknown to Lady Macduff, walks in and apologetically delivers a warning message to her, advising her to take her children and leave. The use of the word "doubt" indicates that he feels unsure about whether danger approaches or not. His suggestion of advice, "If you will take a homely man's advice," underscores his feeling of uncertainty: if he had been certain that Macbeth could have fallen so low as to order the deaths of lady and children, his "advice" would have been more in the form of a command, whether he was known to her or not. Still demurring, he regrets being "savage" by causing her fright, then begs for her preservation and hastily departs. His actions speak louder than his demurring because, in the end, he "dare abide no longer," giving the proof to his encroaching conviction that Macbeth could indeed have been bent so far as to murder a whole family.

Messenger. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,
    Though in your state of honour I am perfect.
    I doubt some danger does approach you nearly:
    If you will take a homely man's advice,
    Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.
    To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage;
    To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
    Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!
    I dare abide no longer.
    Exit

Astounded and bewildered, she puzzles aloud over where she has to go to and why she has to go, concluding that to do "no harm" is inadequate when "to do harm / Is often laudable" and to "do good sometime [is] / ... dangerous folly." It is at this moment, while Lady Macduff is caught in the grip of a cruel conundrum without answer or solution, that the murderers walk in looking for Macduff (but under Macbeth's orders to kill "His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls" who abide in Macduff castle), asserting that he is a traitor (which Lady Macduff asserted earlier to Ross, although--when compared to the murderers--clearly in a more philosophical or metaphorical vein). Young Macduff, after having loosened his tongue up through witty exchange with his mother, shouts out in his father's defense: "Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain!" His reward--and the last thing that happens to him in this scene--is to be slain by stabbing and accused of "treachery": "[Stabbing him] Young fry of treachery!" In a bitter death scene, he has time before he dies to cry out to his mother, "He has kill'd me, mother: / Run away, I pray you!" The last thing that happens to Lady Macduff is that she runs off "crying 'Murder!'" with the murderers in deadly earnest pursuit after her.

How do Solanio and Salerio prove dramatically useful again in Act 3 Scene I?act3 scene 1

Through dialogue the two characters tell us that Antonio’s ship has been lost at sea, and while doing so reinforce what a good man he is. This provides intensity to the next piece of information they offer, which concerns Shylock, whom they introduce as the “devil” as he walks on stage. They then taunt the man with the fact that his daughter has run away from his house, aggravating his hurt over this, and then proceed to cause more trouble by saying “do you hear whether Antonio  have had any loss at sea or no” (46). Of course Shylock responds with anger, saying “let him look to his bond.” It seems as though they unwittingly make a bad situation worse, heightening the dramatic tension in the process.

What would you say are Sam's life principles and worldviews in Once Was Lost?What are her morals or life mottoes?

Sam believes in a world where life is secure, where people
are trustworthy and love each other, and where a benevolent God is in charge. This is
the worldview that has been instilled in her since she was a child, through her family
and through her Christian faith.

Unfortunately, as Sam
enters her teenage years, she finds that situations and relationships are not what she
had always imagined them to be in her life. Her mother is in rehab, and her father, who
is adept at talking about life from the pulpit, is a disaster when it comes to
perceiving and ministering to the needs of his own family. Sam's concept of the world as
a safe place is shattered when a young church member is kidnapped, and her expectation
that the world is a loving place is challenged when she finds that with her mother gone
and her father preoccupied with the problems of his parishioners, she is isolated and
alone. Sam's understanding of right and wrong is compromised as she watches her pastor
father develop a relationship with the church youth leader which is questionable at
best, and through it all, she wonders why the all-powerful God she has been taught to
believe in seems absent. Through friendship and endurance, however, Sam begins to see
that reality is not neat or easy as she might have imagined it to be as a child, and
while she does experience the presence of God when she is at her lowest point, she finds
that his workings are sometimes beyond human understanding. By the end of the story,
Sam's world-view has expanded and matured. She still believes in love, and in an
omnipotent God, but she knows that people are fallible, that loving relationships do not
come easily and must constantly be nurtured, and that while God does love and shepherd
his children, his ways are often inscrutable.

Who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist of the story?

Because most of our attention is focused on Marlow, he is the protagonist. Determining the antagonist is more difficult because he is not in conflict with another specific character as a protagonist usually is. Instead, what he recounts to his friends on board the Nellie is a scathing account of the devastation wrought by the white Europeans engaged in ivory trade in Africa. Rather than being the "emissary of trade" that Marlow's aunt believes him and other white Europeans to be, those seeking ivory are destroying the "savages" and Africa in search of profit. Marlow goes to Africa so that he can pilot a steamboat up the Congo. Only one white is worthy of his admiration, the Boilermaker, because this man is meticulous and hard-working while all others allow disorder, cruel treatment of the Africans, and laziness among themselves. In fact, Marlow also admires the cannibals because they possess restraint, a quality entirely missing in the white Europeans. Although Marlow is not in direct conflict with these men, Conrad uses them to be symbolic of the damage Europeans are thoughtlessly causing in Africa; therefore, the white Europeans are the antagonists. Perhaps Kurtz is the most important of these. On another level, you can also identify a man vs. self conflict in which Marlow plays both parts.

In Act I of Romeo and Juliet, how are Benvolio and Tybalt characterized?

BENVOLIO

A cousin and friend
of Romeo's, Benvolio is usually the voice of reason for the more emotional Romeo. In Act
I, he judiciously tells the street brawlers, 

readability="6">

Part, fools!
Put up your swords; you
know not what you do.
(1.1.54-55)

After Lord
Montague rushes out to the street, Benvolio offers him a calm, rational, and blameless
explanation of the situation, telling him that the Capulet servants were fighting with
theirs when the fiery Tybalt Capulet entered and wielded his sword against him. Benvolio
adds that they were only exchanging "thrusts and blows...Till the Prince came" and
parted them. Then, when Romeo's father asks about his son's whereabouts, Benvolio
replies that he has seen Romeo wandering in the Sycamore grove, but does not know the
reason he shuns company. After Benvolio promises Lord Montague that he will learn what
troubles Romeo, Lord Montague then exits.

When Romeo
approaches, Benvolio stops him and with great solicitude he inquires about the cause of
Romeo's melancholy. Romeo finally reveals that he is "out" of love as the woman does not
love him. In an effort to cheer Romeo, Benvolio makes light of what he has
said,

Alas,
that love, so gentle in his view,
Sould be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
(1.1.159-160)

But, when he
realizes that Romeo is truly despondent, Benvolio sympathizes, saying that he "rather
weep" at Romeo's "good heart oppression" (173-175). Further, he tries to cheer Romeo by
teasing him. For instance, when Romeo tells Benvolio that the woman he loves is
beautiful, Benvolio becomes a little bawdy: "A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest
hit" (1.1.198). But, when Romeo remains despondent, Benvolio suggests that he look
elsewhere in order to forget about his unrequited love; there is a feast at the
Capulet's where "admired beauties of Verona" will
be. 

But in
that crystal scales let there be weigh'd 
Your lady's love against some other
maid
That I will show yon shining at this feast
(1.1.98-100)

TYBALT

A
volatile cousin of Juliet, Tybalt has an irrational hatred for the Montagues. (In
Luhrmann's 1996 film, Tybalt enters dressed in a devil's costume.) His first words
display well his choleric temperament as he accosts
Benvolio:

readability="10">

What drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the
word
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
Have at thee, coward!
(1.1.56-58)

Tybalt does not
reappear until Scene 5 when he spots Romeo at the feast. When he does, he immediately
calls for his sword as he is incensed that Romeo would dare to come wearing a mask--"an
antic face"--and "scorn our solemnity" (1.5.55). Because his character is one of loyalty
(recall his impassioned defense of Juliet and the family), Tybalt feels justified in
killing Romeo: "To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin" (1.5.61). His anger grows as he
informs his uncle that a foe has come to "scorn at our solemnity this night" (1.5.65).
Lord Capulet tells him to leave Romeo alone because the time is wrong: "You'll make a
mutiny among my guests!" (1.5.79). Tybalt agrees to withdraw, but Romeo's prank will be
paid for later.

readability="9">

I will withdraw, but this intrusion
shall

Now seeming sweet, convert to bitterest gall.
(1.5.90-91)

This
reaction of Tybalt certainly foreshadows the violence to come, and it also indicates his
single-mindedness. He is constantly in a state of rage whenever he is confronted with a
Montague.

What is Hawthorne's attitude toward Roger Chillingworth?

There are some oddly human characteristics of Roger, though, and these present themselves at different times. For instance, when Hester and Roger talk as Hester is in jail early in the book, they have a remarkably civil conversation, where they honestly describe their loveless marraige. While Roger does indicate that he will try to find out who the real father is, and it's obviously for nefarious purposes, he is civil and respectful with Hester. He even gets indignant when she thinks, in her half-crazed state, that he might actually be trying to harm Pearl. In that way, I think, Roger isn't as bad as we might first think.

The best example, though, of Roger being human is how he treats Pearl after death; he leaves his estate to her, something that is certainly unusual compared to how he has acted previously, but demonstrates that he might have had a heart after all.

David Becker

What can the reader infer about Lee's purpose of introducing Uncle Jack in chapter 9?

Uncle Jack is sort of a character who straddles both sides of the theme that ignorance and pre-judgement often lead to disaster. He is quick to punish Scout after she quarrels and fights with her cousin, without, as Scout puts it, "Hearing my side of the story." He is also quick to judge Scout regarding her cursing. The readers, of course, know the whole story: they know that Scout was provoked to the breaking point and they also know that Scout is a compassionate, thoughtful kid who will grow up to be just fine someday. Ultimately, Atticus explains the situation to Jack and puts his mind to rest. So, Jack is illustrative of that group of people in Maycomb, and the world, who almost have it right, but not quite. Or, they still need things spelled out to them in order to see things clearly. Jack serves as a kind of "everyman", a basically good person who still suffers from the same problem so many people in the world do: pre-judgement and not bothering to find out both sides of the story. This chapter also comes before the trial - when the idea that both sides of a story must be fully exposed in order for right action to be taken.

Why you do feel or not feel sympathy for Lady Macbeth after Act 5, Scene 1?plzzzzzz help me in this paragraph

A bit of both perhaps? Honestly, Lady Macbeths ruthless and absolutely dismissive nature, set in the beginning of the play, elivits a lot of negative feelings for her in the minds of the audience. But we also realsie that she was an excellent wife, caring and undertsnaidng of her husband's flaws and very often, willing to put he rown life on hold and on risk, for his betterment and success (ex: the time she volunteered to put the daggers near Duncan's chamberlains who were later accused of murderng the former intheir 'drunken stupor'). She was completely and soemtimes, unreasonbly committed to her husband's upliftment and would always help him in all his actions.

For this, one feels a little sympathy for the woman. However, killing anyone, no matter whom, has no excuse. And for that one is to be punsihed. Assassinating Duncan, a virtuous leader, a man aid to be blessed and graced By God, was unjustifiable and the husband-wife duo deserved reprimand for it.

Another occassion on which one feels sympathy for the woman, is the time she was caught sleepwalikng by a gentlewoman and a concerned doctor. The abrupt, short words used by her and references she made to Banquo's ghost (that was seen by her husband at the first feast after his coronation), Duncan's rich blood, hell being murky and the guilt they bore in their hearts is heart rendering. Also her constant action of trying to wipe off the lood stained on her hands, elicits some sympathy for the woman.

Why do you think Thacia refuses to greet Daniel?

Thacia’s reaction to Daniel when he enters her home characterizes her as a very different sort of person than the one he first sees on the mountain. There he notices “the way that her hair had sprung, clean and alive and shining, like a bird’s wing, aback from the smooth forehead.” Her effect on him is temporarily profound, for the “grace” he sees in her reminds him of Leah, the thought of which “stirred in him an old wound” (24). Thacia’s “shrinking” from Daniel when he enters her house corresponds to Leah doing the same when he first returns home to Leah. While Thacia is, as Josh explains, “putting on city airs,” Leah has been deeply traumatized, but in both cases Daniel must in some way prove himself to these women to garner their affection and respect. Daniel does this with Thacia when he returns for help after he is wounded, demonstrating a form of bravery, devotion, and vulnerability that she admires, and he does this with Leah when he cares for her day after day, indicating he will not abandon her again.  In the first case, the girl cares for the boy, reminding him (in his delirium) of his mother, in the other case the boy cares for the girl, providing the nurturance of a mother.

How are Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge different in A Tale of Two Cities?

Although neither Lucie Manette nor Madame Defarge are well-developed as characters in themselves, both are symbols of opposing forces in The Tale of Two Cities.  Lucie is lovely, golden-haired, and good, a symbol of light.  Although she herself is not complex, by her very presence she draws people together and brings them to find the best in themselves.  She enables Dr. Manette to return to health and peace, and inspires Sydney Carton to find redemption for his degenerate living in the ultimate sacrifice of his life.  Madame DeFarge, on the other hand, is symbolic of evil and the uncontrollable forces of the coming French Revolution.  Driven by the ravages of the aristocrats to an inconsumable hatred, she sits, patient and sinister, knitting the names of the tormentors soon to be doomed.

How can I talk about representations of madness in The Turn of the Screw?

I know what you mean because recently I was assigned to argue the book as a case of insanity and I could only see the ghosts. But after speaking with the other members in my group I can now see it the other way.

The most important thing (I think) to concentrate on to would be her motives for imagining the ghosts and their possesion of the children (this assumes that imagining ghosts would be classified as insanity). She originally sees the children as completely perfect (an assumption based almost entirely on their beautiful outward appearance, another theme in the book) so when they begin to misbehave she immedeately jumps to the conclusion that it must be the fault of their previous caretakers. If you really look at it, all the children's antics that she blames on possesion and coercion by the ghosts are really the actions of normal children acting out.

Another cause of her "hallucinations" is her sexual frustration/hysteria. She believes herself in love with the master and her first vision of Peter Quint is after she fantasizes about meeting the master in the garden.

There's lots more to be said and much more evidence, but these are the main themes and causes.

Hope this helps!

What does the orange tomcat symbolize?

The orange tom cat is a symbol for survivors. He has managed to escape many calamities throughout the story. He escaped the intended drowning the captain had planned for all the cats, he lived in the ghost house without incident, he escaped capture when they tried to gather up all the cats to give them away, and he survived the hurricane, which few cats managed to do.

How did the narrator express the theme of "Thank You, Ma'am" through the point of view?

Langston Hughes's "Thank You, Ma'am" is told from an
omniscient, third-person point of view. The point of view is important in the story
because it allows us to see different elements from both Mrs. Jones's and Roger's
perspectives, without getting too close to either one. This is important because it
greatly helps to build the suspense of the story as we question what punishment Mrs.
Jones might exact on Roger. That suspense, then, reinforces the central themes of the
story--compassion, second chances, forgiveness. We keep anticipating that the punishment
will be delivered in part because we are not "inside the head" of either Roger or Mrs.
Jones. But no punishment is ever given, only forgiveness.

In regards to The Man Who Was Poe, what does the quote "lies have their own truth" mean?

One potential implication from the quote could be that all
deception roots from some aspect of the real.  Lies are not constructed out of a
vacuum.  There is some condition in realistic consciousness that causes the person to
construct the lie.  One lies because their reality necessitates it or because the lie is
more preferable to the realistic condition in which one is immersed.  This would mean
that there is some level of "truth" within a lie.  While it is human nature to dismiss
lies and deception and not find anything relevant in them, the quote compels us to
examine the conditions in reality that might be reflected in lies and acts of
deception.

What is the easiest way to approach reading Macbeth?

In some ways it is an easy question, one should approach
the play as a dramatic act.  It was not written to be read like a novel, and it is
extremely difficult to approach that way.  Though I find it interesting to study the
text of Hamlet or Macbeth or Othello from a literary standpoint, for most people not
extremely familiar with the language, seeing it acted out is likely far more interesting
and also easier to understand.

Of course having seen the
play, it can be rewarding to go back and look more closely at the passages that are
particularly interesting or perhaps passages that were difficult to
understand.

The language of Shakespeare's plays is so
different from that of our every day lives, it is important to remember that it was a
drama to be acted first and as such this is the easiest way to approach
it.

Is Tasmania a state or territory in Australia? Also is Victoria a territory or state in Australia?

The answer posted above by Pohnpei is quite complete.
However some part of the answer are open to incorrect interpretation.Pohnpei has
stated:

The
only territories on the continent of Australia are Northern Australia and the Capital
Territory.

This is quite
correct, but It sort of overshadows the fact that Australia has several other external
territories. These are Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos Islands,
Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and Norfolk Island. In addition
Australia has also claimed about 6 million square kilometer of territory on
Antarctic.

Also it is worthwhile noting that Australia has
a government similar to the system in USA. The country is governed by a federal
government with six states having independent government under the federal structure.
The territories are the part of the country that are directly administered by the
federal government.

What are the six main types of restaurant menus. I know that there is table d'hote. what are the other 5?

Here is some more about
Menus

List at least 4 factors that influence menu
planning?

What is in season, How many people will the menu
be serving, What is the occassion, What is the budget for the
meal.

Who is responsible for planning the menu at a Hotel,
Nursing Home and chain restaurant.

Hotel: Hotel Manager,
Kitchen Manager/ Nursing Home: Dietition or Nutritionist. Restaurant: Restaurant
Manager

How does the Nymph's Reply follow up Marlowe's original proposal? What assumption was assumed in the beginning of the poem?

The Nymph also mentions that IF love would last forever, and also all the things that the Shepherd offers her--the belts and kirtles and beds of roses, etc.--then she WOULD accept.  This is true to the carpe diem attitude of the time period, and also to the category of pastoral poetry, to which these poems belong.  We know, however, as the Nymph does, that these things do not last forever, so her very realistic answer is "no, I will not come with you and be your love."  Raleigh follows Marlow's poem stanza by stanza and matches it in tone, subject, and form/structure.

What are the language terms of the poem "The Man He Killed" by Thomas Hardy?Tell me if there is any metaphor, simile, allusion or anything about...

“The Man He Killed” by Thomas
Hardy

Had he and I but met
By some old ancient
inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!

But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to
face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.

I shot him dead because--
Because he was my
foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although

He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as
I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.

Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow
down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a
crown.

We have lots of irony:
of place (the bar vs. the battlefield); of theme (friends vs. enemies in
war); verbal irony: "quaint and curious war is" and "that's
clear enought" are classic understatement.

We have an
unreliable (naive) narrator / speaker: he does not know who
he is and why things are.

We also have a
imbedded narrator: all of this is being overheard by a
narrator in the bar, so the narrator is like the reader, an indirect
source.

We have imagery,
mainly to do with the price of things ("half a crown", "sold his
traps")

We have
character foils (reflections of each other): "But ranged as
infantry,/ And staring face to face, / I shot at him as he at me, / And killed him in
his place."  Are they friends or foes?

We have a
logical fallacy (circular reasoning): "I shot him dead
because--/Because he was my foe, / Just so: my foe of course he was; / That's clear
enough; although."

Besides Eddie, who is the next most important character in Buried Onions, and what's so important about him or her?

I would say another important character is Eddie's coach.  The coach believes in him, despite the problems that exist in the barrio (drugs, crime, etc.).  The coach acts as a mentor, friend, brother, and father figure.  Eddie says, "He'd known all of us glue sniffers—Angel, Lupe, dead Jesus, and me—since we were on bikes with training wheels. He'd known that most of us would mess up, some more than others. Still, it pained him."

The coach provides hope and dignity when others outside the community assume the boys are both doomed and useless. 

What is the relationship like between Victor Frankenstein and the Monster? Include quotes include if necessary.

In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, the
author uses the following archetypal relationships to juxtapose Victor and the
Monster:

Doppelganger: The
Monster is a doppelganger, or ghostly twin, of Victor.  He haunts his creator, vowing
revenge against his
family.

Foil: The Monster is a
foil, or a reflection, of Victor.  He is his master's dark side made
flesh.

God/man (Adam):
Victor is analogous to God, and the Monster is Man.  Victor likewise abandons his
creation. 

Father/son: Victor
is the father (more like a dead-beat dad).  The Monster is a (abandoned, orphaned)
son. 

Protagonist/Antagonist:
Victor is the story's main character, and the Monster is his primary
adversary.

Ego/Id: Victor is
the side which he reveals in public, but the Monster is the Id, the overgrown child with
selfish desires, which he wishes to
hide.

Avenged/avenger: First,
the Monster is the Avenger and Victor the avenged.  Then, both man and monster try to
take revenge on each other in the land of
ice.

Zeus/Prometheus: Victor
is much like Zeus, who punishes Prometheus for giving fire to mankind.  The Monster is
like Prometheus, the god who is forever chained to a rock and tormented by his
creator. 

Here's a quote with shows several of the above
relationships:

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"'All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be
hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn
me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of
one of us.'" Chapter 10, pg. 83

What does the following quote from To Kill a Mockingbird mean?"School started. The second grade was as bad as the first they still flashed cards...

One final comment: the use of the generic "they" for the school system, together with "flash cards" and "wouldn't let" you signify the authoritative methodology of the school system, where knowledge was obtained passively rather than uncovered actively and with ambition. Such a system would necessarily teach that each of us has a place in society, and that place should be accepted rather than resisted. In this way, the school reflects the larger social structure of Maycomb in regards to gender and race:  it flashes small sound bites of words rather than complicated ideas and "won't let you" do various things, depending on your position, gender, and color.  As for what this says about Scout's character:  this system is the context in which she will have to forge her character, in part by resisting its message but also by learning its rules.

Are all the animals equal? Describe any classes or rankings of animals that you see.

Animal Farm more specifically has two classes:  elite and proletariat. The pigs strategize and act as propagandists (Squealer).  Boxer and Clover, both cart horses, represent the proletariat most dramatically, but all of the animals are in this class.  There is no middle class because class distinctions are based on race being a pig or not being a pig.  Dogs are an exception, for some are trained to be fierce to protect the pigs in power. The dogs represent the KGB of the Communist regime in Russia, but they are hardly middle class because Orwell treats them as mindless killing machines. It is true that Mollie, loving ribbons and sugar, does not accept the ideologies of the pigs as readily as the rest, but after she is caught being petted by a human, she quietly leaves the farm. Animal farm has no place for an animal with bourgeois tastes or refinements. Finally, some animals are more enthusiastic than others in accepting the new regime, but they are nevertheless part of it.  The raven is the one exception.  He flies to other places with reports of a beautiful land--perhaps he represents some aspect of religion.

In Act 2, scene 2, what makes Hamlet distrust Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

I believe Hamlet distrusts Rosencrantz and Guildenstern because they don't seem to be giving him a straight answer.  He tries to get them to admit why they have just suddenly shown up at Elsinore, and they say that it is only to visit him.  He questions further, and Guildenstern says, "What should we say, my lord?"  I think by this time Hamlet is getting a bit frustrated, and he comes right out and asks if they were sent for.  Finally they admit that they were sent for by the king and queen.

Hamlet is probably to the point now where he doesn't know who he can trust, except Horatio.  These guys show up and it's just two more people for him to be on the watch for.

Check the links below for more information on this scene and the characters!

Why does the speaker prefer to think the birches have been bent by boys instead of ice storms in the poem "Birches"?Explain the extended comparison...

The speaker prefers to think the birches have been bent by
boys instead of ice storms because, first of all, boys do not do permanent damage to the
trees to the extent that ice storms do. In lines 4 and 5, the speaker
says,

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"...swinging doesn't bend them down to
stay

Icestorms do
that."

Even more than this,
however, the speaker likes to think boys have bent the birches because he used to do so
himself, and he recalls what a valuable experience it is for a young boy to be able to
climb to the very top of a birch and let himself down. Being able to engage in such an
activity can provide a lonely boy an outlet for his energies, and allow him to keep
himself interested and occupied in the absence of friends. In lines 24-27, the speaker
says,

"I
should prefer to have some boy bend them

As he went out and
in to fetch the cows -

Some boy too far from town to learn
baseball,

Whose only play was what he found
himself."

Although the
speaker does not directly state it, it is implied that, when he was a boy, he was
isolated from the company of others his own age, and found companionship and play in the
birches instead.

In the extended metaphor in lines 41-49,
the speaker compares the action of the boy's play with the birches to a wider concept of
life. The boy climbs the birch tree, and when he is at the top, he feels separated from
the earth, high above it. By shifting his weight, he can get the tree to slowly bend and
bring him back to earth when he is ready. The speaker likens this experience to being
able to escape from earth temporarily, when he would

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"...like to get away from earth
awhile

And then come back to it and begin over" (lines
48-49).

Climbing to the top
of the birches offers one the chance to "get away from it all" for a bit, allowing for a
period of rest and renewal before getting on with the sometimes difficult business of
life.

Aside from being the narrarator, what purpose does Nick serve in "The Great Gatsby"?

Nick serves as a representative of every man who could
peek into the world of the 1920s. Nick's not really rich, or overly popular or
completely successful as a businessman. He is middle class and from a working class
family in the Midwest. This is a majority of America.

The
lens through which he looks helps us see characters for who they are and with
appropriate and necessary judgment. Although as a narrator Nick claims he doesn't really
judge people, his words are dripping with adjectives and adverbs that place value
on other characters actions. 

His relationship with Jordan
shows a natural effort at a relationship and the bumps of a not necessarily successful
dating relationship. He is a good all-American boy. 

Why do lips crack?

Since lips do not have sebaceous glands (glands that
produce the oily substance)they are prone to drying and cracking, when they are exposed
to extreme weather conditions (cold, excessive heat or strong
wind).

Preventive Methods

- If
lips are exposed to wind, there have to be used ointments and lip
balms;

- If lips are exposed to strong Sun, there have to
be used creams with filtering effect;

- During winter, when
it's very hot in a room, it's important to get some moisture in the air (especially at
night);

- If lips are cracked avoid lips moistening
using the tongue, because saliva does nothing but aggravate the
situation.

How is Ophelia a foil as well as a parallel to Hamlet?

First, a foil, in literary terms, is "a character in a work whose behavior and values contrast with those of another character in order to highlight the distinctive temperament of that character (usually the protagonist)."  Ophelia is one of Hamlet's foils in her complete innocence of his plan to feign madness.  Hamlet appears all the more mad when Ophelia is being used as a sounding board for his plan to be believed.  Hamlet goes to great lengths to "highlight his distinctive temperment", as in this famous exchange in Act 3, Scene 1:

HAMLET

If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for
thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as
snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a
nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs
marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough
what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,
and quickly too. Farewell.

OPHELIA

O heavenly powers, restore him!

As a parallel, both come from pretty messed up families.  Ophelia has her brother, Laeretes, but he leaves her to go to college.  Hamlet had his father, the king, but he is murdered.  Those left behind, Gertrude, Claudius, and Polonius, do not have their children's best interest at heart.  Additionally, Hamlet and Ophelia do seem to have shared a comraderie earlier, but Hamlet chooses to abandon their connection in favor of revenge.   

What happened in the woods the night Before Act 1 begins?

In addition to Rene's answer, it must be understood that the girls willingly participate in this activity. None were coerced.  They are intrigued by the mysticism of Tituba's Caribbean occultism; they feel oppressed by the stricture of their Purtian upbringing. 

Furthermore, Purtians believed that behavior such as this would surely paint both the participants and their family as doomed, and not among the "elect" (those pre-destined for salvation.)  The girls' illicit activities in the woods, therefore, had ramifications not only for their own souls, but the salvation of their family members.  This is one of the many reasons Abigail becomes so intent on keeping their "sin" a secret. 

If you were to compare a more traditional film version of Twelfth Night to She's the Man, which would be closest to the actual spirit of the play?

It's difficult to say - I'll consider 'She's the Man' alongside the most famous film of the play, directed by Trevor Nunn in 1996.

Nunn's version is not entirely 'traditional': it is set in Edwardian, rather than Elizabethan dress, and it makes several cuts to the text (including adapting some sections of the play into montage, such as Feste's song 'O Mistress Mine'). Nunn also adds a prologue, written by Nunn and not Shakespeare, which details the storm and states explicitly the background to the story.

Particularly in his use of Feste, who knows from the beginning that Viola is really a woman and not a man, Nunn makes bold interpretative choices (you can support this reading of Feste with the text but it is by no means the only one). Yet  with its historical setting, with an emphasis on well-spoken, lyrical acting, and with its casting of largely British theatre actors rather than 'film' names, the film is 'traditional'.

She's the Man is an update, an entire rewriting of the play, preserving only the drive of the story, none of the language, and none of the details (a rewriting similar to that Shakespeare often carried out on his sources). Perhaps, in one sense, then 'She's The Man' is the sort of thing Shakespeare would do: certainly, its modern, gender-bending comic spirit is close to the spirit of Twelfth Night. But Nunn's film is undoubtedly closer to Twelfth Night as Shakespeare wrote it.

In Act I of Julius Caesar, what incident does Casca describe to Cassius and Brutus, and what is Casca’s attitude toward the incident?

It is the feast of Lupercal, a celebration of fertility in Ancient Rome, and Mark Antony won a laurel crown in the annual foot race.  Casca witnesses Mark Antony attempting to offer the crown to Julius Caesar, indicating that he should be crowned king.  Caesar, knowing that the people do not wish to have a monarchy, refuses to accept the crown from Antony, yet Casca tells Cassius and Brutus that he was sure that Caesar really wanted it.  Three times Antony offered the crown, and three times Caesar refused, each time, according to Casca, less enthusiastically than the time before.  It is Cassius' and Casca's belief that Caesar wants to make himself king of Rome.  Caasca's report is filled with sarcasm and loathing.

Why do you think "Freak" pretended to be Robert Man in day care?

I think this was Kevin's (Freak) tongue-in-cheek creation
to signify that because his legs were supported by braces, he was more like a robot than
a boy. So, instead of pretending to be a robot, he was pretending to be a boy (or man)
instead. No doubt it is Freak the Mighty author Rodman Philbrick's
play on words to reference the old science fiction automaton, Robby the Robot, who first
appeared in the film, Forbidden Planet (as well as other sci fi
flicks). Robby became one of filmdom's most famous robots. Robby the Robot--Robert (the)
Man. Get it?

How and why does Miss Maudie's house look like a pumpkin?

It looks like a pumpkin because it is on fire. Scout says, "The fire was well into the second floor and had eaten its way to the roof: window frames were black against a vivid orange center." More accurately, the house looks like a jack-o-lantern, a big orange ball with its eyes cut out (Chapter 8).

In Amir's mind, he was forced to choose between two people. Who are they?

Earlier in the story, Amir also feels that he has to
choose between his father, Baba, and his servant/friend, Hassan. Amir's jealousy of his
father's affection toward Hassan led him to sabotage the family unity by planting a
watch and money under Hassan's mattress. Expecting Hassan to be punished for stealing,
Amir assumes that Baba will expel him from the household, leaving him alone as the
receiver of his father's love. However, his plan backfires somewhat when Baba forgives
Hassan instead. Ali and Hassan leave the house in disgrace, but Amir comes to realize
that his deed did nothing but leave him with a lifetime of
guilt.

What type of courage does Mrs. Dubose teach the children? What other events in the novel can you compare and/or contrast ?No!

It was certainly hard for Jem to comprehend at first, but
I believe he came to understand the depths of Mrs. Dubose's courage after Atticus
explained all the facts to him. Mrs. Dubose shows that even while facing death, she was
willing to commit to completing the painful decision she had made: To kick the morphine
habit that had plagued her for so many years. As Atticus
explained,

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"It's when you know you're licked before you
begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter
what.

Atticus himself tells
Jem that courage is not "a man with a gun in his hand." He may have been referring to
the adulation that the kids had heaped on him after he had shot the mad dog. He seems to
have been telling Jem that Mrs. Dubose's courage far exceeded his own when he picked up
a gun for the first time in many years. No doubt Atticus did not consider his act one of
bravery, but of necessity.

What are some of the female characters in the canterbury tales?What personalities do these female characters possess

The female character that stands out most to me is the Wife of Bath. She is one of the most interesting characters in The Canterbury Tales. Some of her characteristics are manipulative, controlling, intelligent, and honesty.

In the prologue to her tale, she makes it clear how she has been able to manipulate her various husbands (and at the time it would have been unthinkable for a woman to marry more than once, let alone as many times as the Wife of Bath does) into giving her all of the land and money (another rarity of the time). She also goes into great detail about how she is willing to do whatever it takes to control them. For example, if she has a husband who cheats on her, she will cheat twice as much on him. If she has a husband who wants to control her, she will go out of her way to be uncontrollable. The Wife of Bath, whose name is Alice in our text, is obviously intelligent, for she quotes scripture and other classical texts to illustrate her argument for women's rights. She is well traveled and dressed too. And, ultimately, she is brutally honest for talking about such things so unabashedly in front of the other travelers. But these are just a few of the characteristics that make her such a wonderful personality.

I am taking a a big State test next week in Language Arts and I have a few questions I need help answering!Here are the questions. 1. What does...

1. Parasite officially means an organism (animal, plant,
or single cell life form) that lives in or on another organism (the host) and gets
nutrients at the host's expense. A tapeworm is a parasite because it lives in the
stomach of its host and gets food from that host. It doesn't do anything good for the
host and actually harms it because it takes needed
food.

Parasite can also be used to describe a person that
depends on or uses other people and doesn't give anything in
return.

7. A connotation goes beyond the literal definition
of a word. Words often cause a person to have a certain idea or
feeling.

For example, brat and child are both words that
mean a young person. Brat has a negative connotation because we see it as a word
describing a child that is not well behaved.

A second
example includes the words thin, skinny, skeletal, bony, and gaunt. All of these words
could describe a small person, however, skeletal, bony and gaunt all have a negative
connotation because it makes you think of an unhealthy person.

What are some examples of Scout's transitions from innocence to maturity in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird? Thanks a lot!It would be even better...

Like most children, Scout matures as she grows older. In
the early chapters, she fights with her schoolmates; she taunts Jem; she wants to quit
school after one day; and she ridicules Walter Cunningham Jr. after inviting him to
lunch. She believes all the stories about Boo Radley: that he eats raw squirrels,
drools, and has a huge scar across his face. She believes nearly everything that Jem
tells her and she repeats the neighborhood gossip as if it was
factual.

As she grows older, she begins to see Maycomb life
in a new light. Boo's gifts and good deeds changes her mind about him, and even before
he comes to their rescue on the night of the Bob Ewell attack, she comes to the
realization that he must be a good but lonely soul. She sees on her own that Bob Ewell
may well have attacked his own daughter after hearing all the evidence at the trial. She
sees good in Aunt Alexandra during the Missionary Circle tea when she had never
recognized any before. She understands the incongruity of Miss Gates' statements
concerning Hitler, the Jews and the Negroes living in Maycomb. At the end of the novel,
while standing on Boo's porch, she looks out over the neighborhood and sees it in a new
light. The attack, Jem's injury, and meeting Boo at last were Scout's first big steps
towards maturity.

What are the themes of "The Lady of Shalott" by Tennyson and "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning?

Critics disagree about the interpretation of the metaphor
in "The Lady of Shalott," but some often cited themes are: restriction or deprivation;
art versus artifice; love versus infatuation; and liberation. Two other themes, which
some critics think are central, are that of transgression and punishment, and the
deception of reality.

The theme of restriction and
deprivation is seen in that the Lady is kept from directly viewing life: She is deprived
of direct experience and restricted to the shadow of experience made up of whatever is
reflected in her mirror. The theme of art and artifice is represented in her art of
weaving and of turning "shadows" of life in a mirror to beautiful representation in
cloth. One might venture to say that her representation of life in woven cloth is more
beautiful than real life, because the weaving is devoid of pain and suffering, arguments
and quarrels.

Artifice, defined as clever trickery, wile,
craftiness, and cunning, is the opposite of art and is seen in the revelation of
Lancelot's true character at the end of the poem, through his one feelingless comment on
the Lady's death. Love versus infatuation is represented by the contrast between the
Lady's behavior and Lancelot's. The Lady's behavior represents love because she is
willing to risk all in order to gaze upon Lancelot. Lancelot represents infatuation and
is pictured as coming from an unfeeling heart that is moved by nothing other than
physical beauty: Seeing the dead Lady before him, Lancelot says only "She has a lovely
face."

Liberation seems to be revealed in her release from
the tower, but, in fact, her release only comes at the cost of the sacrifice of her life
as the curse, which requires her death, is activated as soon as she looks out the
window. Transgression and punishment occur in her breaking her promise to only view life
as shadows in the mirror, and her punishment is the loss of everything including her
life, all of which fly out the window with her weaving ("web"). The deception of reality
is revealed in the Lady's reaction to Lancelot, who is the deceptive appearance of
reality, and the later coldhearted reaction Lancelot has to the true reality of the
Lady, who was lying in death at his feet.

The central
thematic issue in "Porphyria's Lover" is Browning's exploration of madness. The theme of
madness reveals Browning's controversial suggestion that madness is more like sanity
than most people think it is. Another theme of the nature of immorality is explored by a
comparison of seduction to murder: She seduces him; he murders her. This leads to the
implied question of whether the two can or cannot be equated under the term
"immoral."

The theme of power and dominance is represented
in the reversal of roles between Porphyria and the speaker in the poem. He is unable to
find a way to dominate her in life because she is so powerful in her own right,
metaphorically able to shut out even a raging storm, which is symbolic of her power to
also shut out the speaker. In order to break her will, he breaks her neck, and then she
is content and happy. In juxtaposition to theme of morality in relation to seduction and
murder, this power theme raises the question of the morality of the quest for power and
dominance of one person or one group of people over
another.

Browning is suggesting in these thematic questions
that society has gone astray on the points of the mind of humanity; passions of
humanity; role of equality within humanity.

What is modernism, and how does Faulkner use its characteristics in "Barn Burning"?

Faulkner portrays this story of conflict through a
modernist aesthetic, through experimentation with the
following:

• Consciousness:
  through use of stream-of-consciousness, shifts in point-of-view (free-style
  narration)


• Time: episodic,
  non-linear
  storytelling


• Space: temporal
  shifts; 4-dimensional writing that defy the laws of traditional
  framing

Faulkner is a master of modernist
experimentation in the novel, related to his obsession with time.  He says the past
always stays with us: "The past is never dead.  It’s not even
past."

In "Barn Burning," the narrator jumps backward and
forward in time, and suspends time:

• Abner’s
  wartime activities are repeatedly mentioned “prolonged instant of mesmerized gravity”
  (bottom 1791-92)


• The family carries an old clock stopped
  at 2:14 “of a dead and forgotten day and time”
  (1792)


• Narrator speculates how Sarty “might have” thought
  if he were older (1793, 2nd main
  para.)

Faulkner also experiments with
point-of-view, framing the novel in long sentences that jump around and focus on
multiple perspectives.  Just look at how many sights and sounds catch Sarty's (and the
reader's) eyes and ears in the second sentence:

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The boy, crouched on his nail keg at the back of
the crowded room, knew he smelled cheese, and more: from where he sat he could see the
ranked shelves close-packed with the solid, squat, dynamic shapes of tin cans whose
labels his stomach read, not from the lettering which meant nothing to his mind but from
the scarlet devils and the silver curve of fish - this, the cheese which he knew he
smelled and the hermetic meat which his intestines believed he smelled coming in
intermittent gusts momentary and brief between the other constant one, the smell and
sense just a little of fear because mostly of despair and grief, the old fierce pull of
blood. He could not see the table where the Justice sat and before which his father and
his father's enemy (our enemy he thought in that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He's
my father!) stood, but he could hear them, the two of them that is, because his father
had said no word yet:

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"But what proof have you, Mr.
Harris?"

Will someone help me figure out the resolution and conclusion of The Most Dangerous Game.

The resolution of the story happens when Rainsford is found hiding in Zaroff's bedchamber the night that Zaroff thought he had won his game by default because Rainsford jumped off a cliff. Rainsford comes out from his hiding place behind the curtains and surprises Zaroff with the fact that he has outsmarted him and beat him at his own game (resolution- Rainsford wins the "game"). Rainsford managed to survive until the sun set on the final day. Defeated Zaroff is sent out into the night to become the victim of his own killer hounds or whatever perils await him on his island. Rainsford wins and sleeps the restful sleep of the victorious (conclusion). 

how does the Great Gatsby follow the steps of narrative structure(exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution/denouement)

Just think of Gatsby as your central character and place events involving him in order of the narrative structure.

Early in the novel we learn that people know who Gatsby is, that he has a ton of money, and that he lives close to our other characters.  We also learn a little about Tom and Daisy's marriage.  This is introduction, or exposition.

Then, we learn that Daisy and Gatsby had a relationship earlier and that Gatsby's intentions in coming back were to win back Daisy.  He goes through great pains to arrange this.  These are acts of rising action.

The climax, or conflict, occurs when our central character faces a change in power.  Up until this point, Gatsby was slowly gaining power in the wooing of Daisy.  The conflict occurs in the hotel room when Gatsby and Tom force Daisy to make a decision and she doesn't make a clear-cut one.

Falling action happens very rapidly in the novel with Daisy and Tom going home and staying there.  Most of the falling action occurs outside the narration as Tom has a secret conversation with Wilson leading Wilson to head over to Gatsby's house.

The obvious resolution of this novel is the killing of our central character and the attempt of Tom and Daisy to stay together.

What is a metaphor? Can you give some examples?

There is also such a thing as a metaphysical conceit--also a metaphor, but a comparsion between two seemingly unrelated things.

John Donne is a master at this, and an example of this is in his poem, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" where he compares his love for his wife to a compass and also where he compares his love for his wife to gold.

The man is leaving his wife for a business trip and he tells her their love above all the crying and physical mourning.  He says you are the fixed foot (of the compass) and I am the part with the pencil...the farther away I travel, we never really part.  You just lean toward me until I come home again and we are again together.

He also compares their love to gold.  He says we never leave each other--absence makes our hearts grow fonder and we are connected not just physically, but spiritually and emotionally.  So, like gold, when you beat it, it never breaks.  It only expands to an airy thinness like gold foil.  We are like that.

Metaphors are a comparison between two things without the words "like" or "as".  Usually the comparison is fairly obvious or take little thought to make the connection.

Metaphysical conceits are metaphors taken to the next level. 

What cause the creature to change in the novel Frankenstein?

In my opinion, what causes the creature to change is the
way that the people in the village treat him.

The creature
has learned pretty much everything he knows by watching the people.  He has not realized
that they will be horrified by him.  He goes and talks to the old man, who accepts him
because the man is blind and cannot see his face.

But then
when the other people come back and see him, they are repulsed and they chase him away. 
It is right after this that the creature meets and kills William
Frankenstein.

What were the effects of the Cuban missile crisis?I don't need an explanation of what it was just the effects.

First, the cuban missile crisis alerted the US that us
cannot totally eradicate the influcen of communism and have to find a way to peacefully
co-exist

Previously, US was confident that they would win
the cold war and build an informal us empire.

Second, it
showed the world that the nuclear arms race should be stopped. Both superpowers realized
that if  the MDW(mass destruction weaon) was employed, the entire would can go extinct.
Many nuclear ban treaties were sign during the 1960s and early 1970s. The prominent ones
are SALT agreement which curbed the deployment and development of the nuclear weapon.
However, these treaties did not actually reduced the nuclear warhead. Actually, the
possession of ICBM(intercontinental balistic missile) of the US increased to 1050
compared to that of 1054 of the us.

Also the entire of hope
of refraining nuclear arms race was shattered when the SU invaded
Afghanistan.

Thirdly, there was definitely a period of
detent both economically and politically. The grain trade greatly marks the
unprecedented cooperation between the two superpowers. However, it, too was short lived,
when SU invaded afghanistan.

Ultimately, it seems that
Cuban missile crisis brought in some new trends in the cold war history such as detente
or nuclear ban treaty, and most prominently, unprocedented cooperation for co-existence
between the us and su. However, all thoser were short-lived, and soon their relationship
returned to what it was before the cmc.

In "Of Mice and Men", why does George say Lennie will want to sleep in the barn that Friday night?

Because of Lennie's fascination with soft things such as the dead mouse and Curley's wife's hair, he wants to go to the barn and pet the puppies. It appears that soft things are mentally soothing to Lennie. They give him a sense belonging in a world where he is considered an outcast.

When Macbeth insists on knowing what the future holds for banquo's children, what pantomine of apparitions do the witches show him in act 4

After the witches show Macbeth three apparitions, which he
mistakenly takes for good omens, he asks them:

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Yet my heart

Throbs
to know one thing: tell me, if your art

Can tell so much,
shall Banquo's issue ever

Reign in this
kingdom?

They answer with
this:

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ALL:

Show his eyes,
and grieve his heart;

Come like shadows, so
depart!

A show of eight Kings, and Banquo last
with a glass in his
hand.

MACBETH:

Thou
are too like the spirit of Banquo. Down!

Thy crown does
sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair,

Thou other gold-bound
brow, is like the first.

A third is like the former. Filthy
hags!

Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start,
eyes!

What, will the line stretch out to the crack of
doom?

Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no
more:

And yet the eighth appears, who bears a
glass

Which shows me many more; and some I
see

That twofold balls and treble sceptres
carry:

Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis
true;

For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon
me,

And points at them for his. What, is this
so?

Eight kings appear, and
they all look like Banquo. The last apparition/king holds a mirror which shows even more
kings. So more than eight generations of Banquo's children will be kings, stretching, as
legend has it, all the way to the King to whom Shakespeare dedicated Macbeth:
King James I.

What is important to Gatsby as he gives Daisy a tour of his home? Why?

In Chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby gives Daisy and
Nick a tour of his empty house.  Nick had only been to Gatsby's for the parities, and
now he sees it empty for the first time.  To him, it is a haunted
mansion:

readability="7">

It was strange to reach the marble steps and find
no stir of bright dresses in and out the door, and hear no sound but bird
voices in the
trees.

readability="11">

And inside, as we wandered through Marie
Antoinette music-rooms and Restoration salons, I felt that there were
guests concealed behind every couch and table, under orders
to be breathlessly silent until we had passed through. As Gatsby closed the door of “the
Merton College Library.” I could have sworn I heard the owl-eyed man break into
ghostly
laughter.

This emptiness
symbolizes the relationship that Gatsby has with Daisy: it is not a re-kindling of the
past.  Rather, it is a vain attempt to resurrect
ghosts.

Later, Gatsby tries to impress Daisy
with his shirts.  The colors are dizzying:

readability="15">

He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing
them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel,
which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray.
While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher—shirts with
stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange,
and monograms of Indian blue. Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent
her head into the shirts and began to cry
stormily.

Remember,
Daisy's voice should be full of money, and Gatsby appeals to it, but she begins to cry.
 Gatsby mistakenly thinks these are tears of joy of having been reunited with Gatsby.
 But, Nick and Daisy know that these are tears of sadness, as she is
mourning what has been lost. They know that she can never relive the past
and that this relationship is fruitless.

Act 4: Why does John Proctor ultimately choose his "goodness" ? What motivations does he have for confessing ?

I want to add to the depth of the above answer by including two important quotations that will help you understand John Proctor's thinking.  The first is the source of your question.  It is spoken by Elizabeth Proctor:

He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him! 

Proctor's original decision (NOT "his goodness") is to lie in order to save himself.  It is when the confession is put in writing that Proctor hesitates at his lie.  But Proctor's eventual decision ("his goodness") is to refuse to lie on paper.  He tears his confession to pieces.  His death is imminent.  HOWEVER, he has his good name back, ... his loyalty, ... his integrity.  The quote above is Elizabeth, his wife, standing by her husband's decision.

Also keep in mind what Arthur Miller, himself, says about John Proctor:

John Proctor’s flaw is his failure, until the last moment, to distinguish guilt from responsibility; America’s is to believe that it is at the same time both guilty and without flaw.

In other words, it is the difference between responsibility and guilt that is important to master (especially in the context of this play).  John Proctor was never able to master this.  But Miller goes even further and says that America has a flaw and a failure as well, to think that guilt can exist without any flaws present.

Why are so many people happy about Johannes Gutenberg's invention?

Johannes Gutenberg, as I assume you know, was most famous
for having invented the printing press.  Because of his invention, books became more and
more affordable.  Before he invented the printing press, all books were hand copied and
only a very few people could afford any book at all.  After Gutenberg, books and other
printed things became so much more affordable that just about anyone could have access
to at least some of them.

Historically, this has made many
people happy.  Now everyone can have their own Bible and everyone can have their own
copy of the works of Shakespeare.  Just about anyone can have access to whatever kind of
printed stuff they enjoy.  If you think about the hype over the Harry Potter series, you
can see just how many people are made happy by such things.

What role do ghosts play in Song of Solomon?

So much of this book is built around the memories that the characters have of past events that rise up like ghosts and still have such a strong impact on the present, even though the events happened so long ago. Note how the novel is really various retellings from different characters' perspectives of the same story. This means that the various ghosts that people have in the form of memories and past events still haunt the present to an unprecedented extent. Consider, for example, how Pilate responds when Guitar tries to find out what year she is talking about:

The year they shot them Irish people down in the streets. Was a good year for guns and gravediggers, I know that... One morning we woke up when the sun was nearly a quarter way cross the sky. Bright as anything. And blue. Blue like the ribbons on my mother’s bonnet.

It is important to note that Pilate's response is not specific in terms of time, which contributes to the rather nebulous relationship with time that the novel creates. For Pilate, time is measured not by chronological means, but by the big events that happen and then by nature, or the exact positioning of the sun. The memories that are allowed to resurrect themselves therefore become even more vague and indistinct, detached from time as they are. Eventually, the reader sees that although memories are recalled in this novel, the ghosts of the past seem to have more power than the realities of the present, and many characters still live in a world where they are haunted by those ghosts.