In Chapter 7 of Lord of the Flies, what does Ralph ask Jack?

When Ralph manages to hit the boar he gets caught up in Jack's world. This shows us that although Ralph and Jack are opposites, Ralph is, as we all are, susceptible to the wildness that dictates Jack.

At one point in chapter Seven, Ralph asks Jack about the pig-run he has found. Ralph wants to know if Jack knows where it leads to and he wants the boys to follow it in search of the beast. This starts a conflict between Jack and Ralph and foreshadows the much bigger conflict which arises in the following chapters.

What are some ways to preserve land?

Before we think of ways of preserving land we need to be
clear about the exact nature o preserving the land. Preservation of land may mean
preserving specific qualities or features of land or it may also mean actual reduction
of land area nu flooding from sea water or by other water 
bodies.

The means of preserving the land will depend on
exact nature of threat posed to the land. The biggest threat to flooding of land is
posed by the likely melting of polar ice caps. Preserving land from this threat requires
stopping further increase in global warming levels, and possibly reducing. Many
initiatives to do this are already underway. Though the progress is not much so far, it
is hoped that good sense will prevail ultimately and this great threat to humanity will
be averted.

Another major damage to land is because of
deforestation. This causes many other problems lie changing the pattern of balance of
ecosystem and land erosion. Deforestation also contributes to global warming. The steps
to reduce this problem is to avoid clearing of forests for industry, human habitation
for any other use, and undertaking plantation of
trees.

There are many other threats to land with different
solutions to handling them. These are too numerous to be even listed on this
forum.

In the poem to a daughter leaving home what is the central purpose and what is a good theme to use for this type of poem.i am trying to interpret...

Are you referring to the poem by Linda Pastan? If so, I
think this is a poignant little poem. The speaker is a mother whose daughter is leaving
home for the first time. The mother is remembering back when her daughter was only eight
years old. The poem is a metaphor comparing a bike-riding lesson to the girl leaving
home. When the mother was teaching the girl to ride her bike, she was also, in a
metaphorical sense, "taking off" to go on her own. Now that she is leaving home, she is
also "taking off" on her own. The mother's sadness now at her leaving is contrasted with
her excitement way back when the daughter was only 8 and learned to ride the bike by
just going for it. Her daughter's hair on the bike that day was waving in the breeze,
like what she now imagines is a handkerchief "waving goodbye" (this is a
simile).

Do you see how the poet skillfully blends her
images - the bike ride, the leaving home, the daughter's hair, the
handkerchief?

I am not sure what you assignment is, but if
you need to write something about the theme of this poem based on your own experience,
can you remember what it was like for you when you left home? You are in college, so
perhaps you are attending a college away from home and can relate to how your mother
felt when you left. You could compare this poem to your own experience, or perhaps write
a poem of your own that reflects the same theme.

If your
life experience is nothing like this bit of nostalgia, you could still use the theme,
only your experience would be different. I once was reminiscing about how sad my mother
was when she dropped me off at my college dorm, and my husband's experience was very
different - his parents were glad to see him leave home. Sad, but still something to be
used for literature.

Good luck.

How to write a sonnet into prose?I've got to rewrite Sonnet 18: "Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?" I'm having a difficult time figuring it...

Every sonnet has three major qualities:  There is a problem or question posed, there is the "turn" or "big BUT", and there is the solution or answer.

The first 8-12 lines usually houses the problem/question.  There is a transition or change in mood/tone which indicates the BUT, and the last lines incorporate the solution/answer.

In sonnet 18,

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

is the question/problem.  I will compare you to a summer's day. You are lovelier more even tempered.  Summer is too unpredictable--rough winds, hot sun, and it is too short (only 3 months).  The sun is dimmed, and beauty for beauty's sake doesn't always last...it is either by accident or time taken away.

BUT (here's the big BUT)

thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

your beauty will never fade--you will not lose it no matter what (death, time, accident) because time will hold your beauty in these lines and as long as men read it, you live.

What role does Leper play in A Separate Peace? what does the author suggest about the nature of his relationship to gene and finny?contrast brinker...

Leper is a minor character whose role in the novel is to show the boys at Devon the harsh realities of war. No young man wanted to get out of serving his country in WWII, and Leper joins up on an impulse, thinking only of the romanticized view of war rather than the realities of war. He leaves boot camp when he suffers a nervous breakdown, and Leper never fully recovers during the novel.

Brinker Hadley is "the big name on campus". He is straight as an arrow in his thinking and in his political beliefs. He's law-abiding and very conservative in his thinking and in his beliefs. He makes sure to keep order at Devon, and he always uses logic to make his decisions. However, he's totally insincere in his behavior toward people. Brinker arranges the mock trial that leads to Finny's second fall and his death, even though Brinker isn't totally serious. This does lead to a confrontation between Finny and Gene where Finny tells Gene he knows Gene caused his accident on purpose. Brinker is cold, much like the winter. His behavior and thinking is cold and calculated.

Finny is the school's best athlete, both handsome and self-confident. He's also naive and innocent. He never gets in trouble for the things he does. He is carefree, a person other people gravitate toward. Finny represents the carefree, fun days of summer because that is his personality.

For more details, go to the links below.

I have to write a Newspaper article on a crucial scene from Romeo and Juliet, seeing as i haven't read it.. does anyone have any ideas?

I think it would be interesting to do a social page on
what happened at the Capulet's party.  It could almost be in a celebrity gossip column
voice.

The Capulets are a high society family who throw a
party. There's a guy who wants to marry their daughter, Juliet. Then the Montague boys
trespass and Tybalt wants to take them out. Next, Romeo spies Juliet and its a secret
romance that begins.

Remember for a newspaper article you
need to address the who, what, why, where, when, and how as early as you can. All of the
above referenced information takes place in Act I, scene v.

How do Scout and Uncle Jack become friends again?To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

In Chapter 9 of To Kill a
Mockingbird, after his peremptory spanking of Scout for fighting with Francis
and for using bad language, Uncle Jack comes to Scout's room to talk with her.  He,
then, provides Scout the opportunity to talk with him and explain her side, as she tells
him that Atticus always does.  When Uncle Jack learns what Francis has said about
Atticus, he is very upset with the boy.  However, he promises not to mention anything to
Atticus as Scout requests.  She tells her uncle that Atticus has told her not to let
anything she heard about her father upset her.

Later, as
Scout overhears her father and Uncle Jack talk of the forthcoming trial of Tom Robinson,
Scout is detected by her father and told to go to bed.  Once there and wondering how he
knew she was listening, she also reflects,

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Uncle Jack was a prince of a fellow not to let me
down.

During their
conversation, Uncle Jack has kept his promise and not revealed the context of the
altercation betwee Francis and Scout.  This little scene and the conflicts of Chapter 9
are examples of social realism as Harper Lee portrays a family reunion with less than
perfect family members.  In addition, the reader learns more about Atticus as he
steadily becomes the voic of reason.  As Jack listens to his brother, he realizes that
Atticus's strength lies in his calmness.  It is this calmness and integrity in Jack that
endears him to Scout, as well.

What is an example of verbal, dramatic, or situational irony in Through the Tunnel?

Hey there!  I have not read this story, but I can give you examples of these three types of irony, and perhaps you can go back through the book and locate them for yourself.

Irony is basically something that happens that is opposite of what you expect.

Situational Irony--someone does something you didn't expect.  For example, two young people are dining and he, nervously, drops to one knee in front of her.  They have been dating for five years, and he says, "Darling, would you do me the honor of being my wife?"  She responds, "Are you kidding?  This has been a fun ride, but you're not my type." 

Verbal Irony--when what someone says something that is opposite in meaning of the words said, or opposite of what you expect them to say.  For example, if someone says, "I could care less" but we MEAN, "I couldn't care less" that is verbal irony.  Or, with a tone of voice "That's a nice dress" when we really mean the dress is hideous and we wouldn't be caught dead in it, that's verbal irony.  This is often mistaken for sarcasm.

Dramatic Irony--is when the audience or another character has more information than other characters on the stage.  The best and maybe most famous example of this is when Romeo is hiding in the bushes under Juliet's balcony.  She has no idea he's there, but the audience does.  She is confessing her love to Romeo without knowing it.

Hope this helps!

Quote from "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail": “A man‘s conviction is stronger than a flame or a bullet or a rock." Identify and explain.

This quote is found in Act I, in my edition, page 20.  Here, Thoreau is speaking to Bailey, and thoughtfully commenting on Bailey's position that he is an honorable man who acts with conviction.  When Bailey says he would never burn down a barn, for such a thing was against his principles, Thoureau cynically replies that he might as well be guilty of doing something if everyone is convinced beforehand of his guilt.

Henry:  I'll put it in plain Anglo-Saxon, Mr. Bailey.  You're an uncommon man.  You were protesting against the barn-builder who shut you down with clapboard and daily work hours.

Bailey: Don't say that to no judge!  If I burned down a barn, they'd throw me in jail.

Henry (thoughfully):  Good for you.  Fire inside burns hotter than fire outside.  A man's conviction is stronger than a flame or a bullet or a rock." 

Bailey is certainly less educated and thoughtful than Thoreau, and completely misses Henry's analysis: that is, that he is reacting primarily against the strictures of a set location and the hours prescribed for his working life.  However, while the subtleties may go over Bailey's head, Thoreau is convinced that the man's innate integrity will eventually cause him to rise up against this type of oppression, and in the end will be a tougher opponent than bullets or rocks, or barn burnings, ever could hope to be. 

define the amplitude, period, frequency, horizontal shift, and vertical shift in the following equation, then graph. y=2.5sin(3x-pi)I was able to...

You are correct, as far as the numerical values of the
terms under reference in the problem that you arrived
at.

Please check whether your value for any paticular
values of x and y ( I mean coordinates) tallies with the book,since you might  have
drawn some part of the graph, and so apparently the graph  may look different even
though it is part of the  graph itself. Or the values of the coordinates points you
worked out may be different and the (points considered in the book are
different.

The starting point and the scale you chose also
makes the graph differ (flatness and shifts etc) in look.

What effects did WWII have on racial tensions in the US?

There was a lot of racial tension during the war. Black
soldiers were not treated like white soldiers were, even though they wanted to fight in
the war. They were segregated (they were desegregated in 1948 by President Truman) from
the whites and given menial roles even though they put their lives on the line for the
United States. They also received less medals than white soldiers did. When these
soldiers came home they still faced a lot of racial
tension.

Postwar did bring a massive civil rights movement
to the forefront, which eventually led to equal rights. Of course many people did not
like the fact that blacks were demanding equal rights. There were many people who
believed that blacks are not equal to whites and there were people both black and white
who fought together for equal rights.

Describe the hormonal changes which occur at puberty in humans.

On average people between age of 11 to 15 go through a
period of rapid growth and physical change particularly in sex related characteristics.
This period of rapid growth or changes in sex related organs and characteristics is
called puberty. The Range of age given above is average, but in reality there are
variations from person to person. Also there are difference in average age of puberty
between people of different races. Further girls achieve age of puberty earlier than
boys.

Growth that takes place is controlled by hormones.
When the puberty starts secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone is greatly
increased. This hormone acts on the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland, stimulating it
to secrete the gonadotropic hormones and luteinizing hormone.  These hormones, in turn,
act on the testicles in males and the ovaries in females. These sex gland grow and begin
to secrete large amounts of sex hormones. The cortex of adrenal glands also secretes
some sex hormones.

The sex hormones help trigger a person's
rapid growth in height and weight.  Androgens promote maturity of male sex organs male
sexual behaviour.  These also stimulate chancges in male characteristics as a deep voice
and a beard.

Oestrogens stimulate growth of female sex
organs establish female sexual behaviour.  They also stimulate the development female
characteristics, such as full breasts and wide hips.

Regarding the killer in The Lovely Bones, does anyone know the year make and model of the vehicle he was driving?It's the white SUV fishing truck.

You know, this is a REALLY good question!  Even though
it's one of those that is directly stated in the book, it is glossed over so very much
that one doesn't notice the answer.  It's just the kind of detail that can help to solve
a crime investigation, . . . but that no witness can seem to
remember.

That being said, the answer to your question is
that Mr. Harvey (Susie's killer) drives an early 1970s white Jeep Wagoneer.  (The only
thing that needs to be estimated is the exact year because it is not stated in the
text.  Seeing that Susie was killed in 1973, an early 1970s model is a good estimation,
as would a late 1960s model.)  Here are a few places where the model is discussed (the
make just took some simple research on my part):

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[Mr. Harvey] whistled inside his huge station
wagon and congratulated himself, he felt full-up.  Apple pie, cheeseburger, ice cream,
coffee.  Full. . . . It was late when he got there, and he left the safe in his Wagoneer
while he approached the house of the Flanagans, who lived on the property where the
sinkhole was. (51-52)

The
irony is, I find this kind of information to be incredibly important, . . . not
necessarily to The Lovely Bones, of course, but in real life.  How
many times are witnesses unable to remember the simplest details of a crime scene?  I
distinctly remember an episode of Punky Brewster (a kids TV show in
the 80's) where the teacher staged a fake robbery.  Even though the perpetrator ran into
the classroom and grabbed a purse in broad daylight, NONE of the witnesses could
remember anything about what he looked like.  That always struck
me. 

Back to The Lovely Bones, if just
ONE person had noticed this car, this 1970s Jeep Wagoneer, in the strangest of places
(at sink holes, at construction sites, etc.), . . . perhaps Susie would have gotten some
extra sweet justice.

What is the symbolic significance of 2+2=5?I am trying to prepare an essay about this, but my thoughts aren't coming together. The entire topic is:...

To me, the only meaning of this is that it symbolizes just
how completely the Party has changed people.  We know that the Party is trying hard to
be the only source of reality.  It tells people things like "War is Peace" and expects
them to believe it.  It changes the past (like what Winston does) so that people cannot
have any idea of what happened other than what the Party
says.

To me, the equation you mention is sort of the
ultimate example of the Party controlling people.  It is asking people to believe when
it changes a basic law of mathematics.  So if it can change that, it can change
anything.

So 2+2=5 is, to me, a symbol of how the Party has
almost total control over what people think.

Find examples of personification, simile, and metaphor in Julie of the Wolves.

The first section of the book, entitled "Amaroq the Wolf", is rich in figures of speech.

Some examples of personification in the description of the main character's life with the wolves on the vast tundra are "winds scream", "the frigid environment has sculptured life", "plants and birds pointed the way", "city...sat on a hill".  Each of these gives human attributes to things that are inanimate, or wouldn't otherwise have these qualities.

Examples of metaphor, which are comparisons between things that are not inherently alike, include "the great wolf's eyes (are) brittle yellow jewels", "the tundra was an ocean of grass on which she was circling around and around", "wolves are gentle brothers", "the pond...the tundra looking glass", and "the mitten was a trophy".

Finally, some examples of simile are "birds...like leaves in a wind", "tail like a semaphore signal", "fur...like metal", and the pup "was like water and slipped through her hands".  Similes are comparisons between two things using "like" or "as". 

In Into the Wild, what are three critical events Chris McCandless faced in his life?

One critical event in his life was his trip in which he
discovered the truth about his father and his divorce.  Chris discovered that his father
had an affair with his ex-wife while dating Chris's mother. At this point in his life,
Chris had decided he valued truth over anything else, including love.  Therefore,
because his father had not proven truthful, Chris felt he could no longer love his
father.  He deeply resented his parents for this and said this
made

"his
entire childhood seem like a fiction."
(p.123)

This shaped
McCandless' life because he no longer had respect for his parents. He felt, more than
ever, that he had to escape his parents' lifestyle and find himself and the truth. It
cemented his need for truth above all.

A second
critical event in Chris's life was his time with Wayne Westerberg in Carthage, South
Dakota. This time in his life was significant
because:

"If
McCandless felt estranged from his parents and siblings, he found a surrogate family in
Westerberg and his employees...He liked the community's stasis, its plebeian virtues and
unassuming mien." (p.
18)

This was the first time
Chris found people whom he felt he belonged with, who understood him.  At this point,
McCandless began to understand that people really did live this way, happily without
riches, and it only solidified his resolve to do the same (although he would pursue it
in a more extreme way). Without forming a family bond with these people, Chris surely
would not have had the familial strength needed, someone to send postcards to so as to
feel like he was needed or wanted.

A third critical event
in the book can beMcCandless' abandonment of his car, his Datsun, in the desert, and the
subsequent burning of all of his money.  This event shows Chris's devotion to his new
lifestyle, as he loved that car, but felt that

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"it was his moral responsibility to flout the
laws of the state." (p.
28)

He drove the car off-road
in the desert, where he was not supposed to, and then refused to approach officials to
get it back because he would have to answer to the law.  This led Chris's life further
in the direction he desired it to go; it made certain that neither money nor
materialistic items would contribute to his life and happiness.  This event led Chris to
understand his feelings even more deeply.

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"Instead of feeling distraught over this turn of
events...McCandless was exhilarated: He saw the flash flood as an opportunity to shed
unnecessary baggage."
(p.29)

Also, this event
showed Chris's apparent belief that he did not make mistakes.  It solidified his belief
that it was a good thing he ignored the warnings of others and instead traversed his own
path.

In the story lord of the flies, why is jack act so viloently in front of the others?

The two leaders who emerge on the island are Ralph and Jack.  Obviously, they have different leadership styles.  Ralph, chooses to "rule" with logic and reason.  He appeals the boys' sense of what is necessary to survive and get rescued from the island.  Jack, who just wants to have fun, rebels at this.  His "let's just have a good time" philosophy appeals to the boys (go figure!) more than the collect the food, build the shelters, keep the fire going boring work that Ralph keeps emphasizing.  Jack, through his tough guy personality is the one who hunts the pigs, paints his face, and neglects what Ralph considers the priorities for the group's survival.  This breakdown in communication results in violence when Jack's group separates from Ralph's, which eventually dwindles to just Ralph and Piggy.  Piggy's glasses are the fire starters on the island.  They are stolen by Jack's group in a raid on their camp and Jack cruelly leaves Piggy without the benefit of sight--both literally and figuratively since Piggy has been cast as Ralph's second in command and voice of reason.

How does May Belle feel about Jessi do not know the answer

May Belle Aarons is Jesse Oliver Aarons little sister. She
is six years old and relates well to her older brother. She is very close to Jess and
tries to play with him and his friend Leslie. They feel like she is butting in and do
not like that very much although he does feel sorry for her. May Belle does get her
feelings hurt because she just wants to included. Regardless, she loves her older
brother very much and looks up to him. She has a lot of respect for
him.

In Kidnapped, for what reason would Alan Breck Stewart be arrested if he were caught by the English Army?

The reason the British soldiers would arrest Alan Breck
Stewart involves two stories, that of English royal succession statrting with Charles I
of the House of Stuart who was beheaded in the Civil War that led to the short
Republican reign of Cromwell and that of the conflict over Protestant and Catholic
primacy in England. After Cromwell, a Protestant, died in 1658, Charles II of the House
of Stuart, a Protestant, was
called back to England from exile in France (exile due to Civil War) and restored to the
throne. He died in 1685 without producing an heir, so the throne passed in order of
succession to his brother James who reigned in Scotland as their second King James and
in England as their seventh King James, hence his title of King James II
and VII.

This
James, being Catholic in a
Protestant country, wanted to attain religious indulgence for all Catholics. He went
about this by imposing the Declaration of Indulgence and
requiring anyone serving in the King's council, Parliament or other government posts to
swear to accepting religious indulgence through the agency of three pointed questions.
The Parliament didn't approve of this and arranged an overthrow by asking James'
Protestant daughter Mary and her Protestant husband William of Orange to bring an army
and attack James. James escaped and fled into exile in
France.

We're almost at Alan Breck
Stewart. When James II and VII died in 1701 while still in exile in
France, King Louis XIV declared James' son James III and
VIII (third and eighth) King of England. James in Latin is
Jacobus. Thus the two attempts made by
James III and VIII to gain the English throne from a starting position in
Scotland are referred to as Jacobite uprisings. The second
Jacobite uprising of James of the House of Stuart was 1745.
Kidnapped is set in 1751.
Alan Breck Stewart (who is descended of kings, Stuart
kings) and his Scottish Highland chiefs fought with James III and VIII to attack England
and take the throne from Charles I of the Germanic House of Hanover to whom the crown of
England had passed. The uprisings failed, thus making all who fought for James III and
VIII, including Alan Breck Stewart, guilty of treason.
Hence, Alan had a price on his head and was on the most-wanted list of the British
soldiers. And there you have it.

What did the colonists do to resist the English rule?

The major events in this book in which the colonists resist the English rule is the Boston Tea Party, and later, the stand at Lexington and Concord.  The first incident comes as a result of a new tax on British products including tea.  In order to resist the tax, the colonsits refuse to buy tea which is just sitting there.  The town of Boston would not let them unload the tea and the ships were not allowed to leave until it was unloaded.  So a group of colonists unloaded it (Johnny included) for them - into the harbor.   The severe punishment of Boston, the complete closing of the harbor until the tea was paid for, united the separate colonies together against the British. 

Later in the book, The British are marching to Lexington to try to capture the leaders of the rebellious colonists, Hancock and Adams, as well as a large store of munitions.  The colonists made a stand at Lexington and Concord after being warned by Paul Revere that the British were coming.  This stand resulted in the first true battle of the American Revolution.  

I have to write a fake letter to William Shakespeare as part of my school assignment but I can't think of what to write. Can anyone give me...

If there is room for one more response to this interesting assignment, I would add this:consider writing the letter from the point of view of one of the characters, such as Juliet. Using bits and pieces of Juliet's language in the play to make the letter seem authentic, she might ask her creator some pertinent questions as to why he has her do certain things, who she reminds him of, and so on.  Juliet might even express her displeasure at having to die at the end of the play, explaining that she would have preferred to live for that would have provided a different meaning to the play (you figuring out what the play would be like if, say, she lived but Romeo died, or she died but Romeo did not.  Choose one or two or three passages from the play and, in the voice of Juliet (or another character) express your approval or disapproval of the way Shakespeare wrote them, asking him questions in the process.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, why does Lee introduce the character of Lula into the story?

Harper Lee introduces Lula in her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, for several reasons. Firstly, Lula shows that personal, social and political history affect how people behave. Lula is bitter because the white people are allowed to come to her church but she is not allowed to go to the white's church. Her history of being a subject of racism ahs made her generally angry. When Lula becomes upset at Calpurnia for bringing Jem and Scout to the Negro church, the shows the theme of the evils of prejudice and segregation in the deep South during the 1930s. Lula is prejudiced against white people because they have been racist against her before. Lula is really the only black person in the novel who is angry about her white counter-parts. Tom, Helen, Calpurnia, Zeebo, Reverend Sykes and other black people in the novel expressed little or no resentment towards white people. This, in my opinion, is a flaw in To Kill A Mockingbird because many blacks, in reality, were angry at whites and their (the black's) situation...

Identify Finch's Landing.

Finch's Landing is also important for what it represents.
The fact that the Finch family has some sort of a name or a history is very important in
this piece. They are a family that is not from outside, so they should know how to
behave, but they don't. Atticus is a bit of a rebel, albeit a quiet one. He is as
removed from Finch's landing as he can possibly be and he does not require that Jem and
Scout live up to the expectations of "Finch behavior" as is clear when the family visits
the landing.

Aunt Alexandra and her husband do live at
Finch's Landing and they are representative of an entirely different set of social and,
to some degree moral behavior patterns. When Scout and Jem visit there at Christmas this
is evident in the interaction that they have with their cousin Francis who is also
representative of what can best be described, perhaps, as pretentious and self-centered
behavior. The Finches of Finch's Landing put on airs.

When
Aunt Alexandra comes to stay with Jem and Scout, as well, the difference in the rules
and expectations is evident. Aunt Alexander wants Scout to attend tea, wear proper
dresses, and behave like a lady - in other words, to be a proper Finch, but Scout is
having none of it.

In this regard, Finch's Landing
represents two different belief systems as well - the past and tradition which supported
segregation and racial prejudice versus the newly emerging ideologies of the future that
are shown not only in Atticus but in Jem and Scout who will presumably carry them on to
future generations breaking away from the narrow-minded ideologies that Finch's Landing
represents.

How do the black flowers initiate a discussion on hidden sins in chapter 10?

Chillingworth is pretty convinced that Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl, and he wants to test his theory by drawing the minister into discussions of hidden sin. He sees black flowers growing out of a grave in the cemetery, and he mentions them to Dimmesdale, saying that they might have grown out of the deceased's heart, possibly because of the person dying with unconfessed sins hidden in his heart. This causes Dimmesdale to defend people with hidden sins, making possible excuses for them.

This is Chillingworth's way of letting Dimmesdale know that he suspects Dimmesdale as being the one who had the affair with Hester Prynne, Chillingworth's wife (although no one in the town knows yet that Chillingworth is really Mr. Prynne).

How are men portrayed in the great gatsby? What standard of masculinity does the text reinforce or construct?

The three main men in The Great Gatsby each represents a
different kind of masculinity. 

Gatsby is romantic and
poetic, with a whimsical and idealistic view on the world.  Although he is his filled
with sorrow, this only further enchances his dreamy nature.  He is living life as a
dream, and he is completely unable AND unwilling to wake from it.  He is a romantic
idealist.

Tom is a "man's man," although none of the men in
Gatsby care much for him.  He is also dangerously aggressive.  He
is the type of man who wouldn't think twice about shooting a deer, hitting a woman,
ignoring a child, or ruining a life.  His life is based around money, luxery, and an
apathetic outlook on the souls of others.  Tom may be a kill-joy, but his presence in
the novel is absolutely necessary for the development of the other
characters.

Nick (my favorite :)) is
what we might call metro-sexual.  He is quiet and reserved, and quite inexperienced in
the darker areas of life.  He treasures his friendship with Gatsby, is resentful of
Tom's treatment of Daisy, and tries his best to watch over his frail and spoiled
cousin.  It is through his eyes that we watch the novel unfold.  He is perhaps as
sensitive as Gatsby, but far more sensible. 

An interesting
factor about Gatsby and Nick is that they both (at different life stages) fall for
frivolous women (Gatsby for Daisy and Nick for Jordan), but Nick has the good sense to
walk away; however, Gatsby dies for his love.

All three men
are fascinating to study.   Good luck on your assignment!

Who are the dynamic and flat characters in Faulkner's "Barn Burning"?

Mr. Harris is a flat character in that he serves a function in the story –he has an historical grievance against the Snopes, but does not develop or change in any significant way.  He, like Major de Spain, provides background for the other characters to act. The dynamic characters include Sarty, because he changes  from allowing Ab to brutalize him through most of the story until the end, when he understands more clearly the difference between right and wrong and warns Major de Spain that Ab intends to burn another barn. Ab is the most complex character in the story. He seems, in ordinary parlance, plain crazy, a trait which manifests itself through his desire to dominate and destroy others and their possessions.  Critics often call this a ‘God-complex,” but what underlies it is a sense of lack and powerlessness for which he tries to compensate by, for example, burning down barns.

Did Artemis get the gold at the end of the first book? What happened to Artemis's father and where did he go? Who's Juliet?

Juliet is Butler's sister.  She is sixteen and she is
training to be a bodyguard just like Butler.

Artemis does
get the gold at the end of the first book.  We can know this for sure because of what is
said at the beginning of the second book.  There, a reference is made to the ransom gold
that Artemis stole from the fairies.

We also know that
Artemis got away with the gold because Holly comes back out of the house and says that
she has only gotten half of the gold back.

His dad (we
later find out) has gone to Russia to try to deal with the Mafia up there so he can get
enough money to, hopefully, cure his wife.

What is snobbery or snobbism as portrayed in Alexandra's behaviour? How do Jem and Scout counter her ideas?Chapter 23

Aunt Alexandra is certainly one of the biggest snobs of
Harper Lee's characters in To Kill a
Mockingbird.

By definition a
snob is "one who blatantly imitates, fawningly admires, or
vulgarly seeks association with those regarded as social superiors; one who tends to
rebuff, avoid, or ignore those regarded as inferior; one who has an offensive air of
superiority in matters of knowledge or taste." Snobbish
behavior, or snobbery, is the act of being a
snob. 

Alexandra exhibits these traits several times during
the novel. She holds her family heritage in much too high regard, considering the
Finches one of Maycomb's elite. She feels Walter Cunningham Jr. is "trash" and beneath
associating with Scout or visiting their home. Scout combats her aunt's tendencies by
purposely asking about questionable members of the Finch family--Cousin Joshua, for
example, who was "locked up" for trying to shoot the university president--knowing it
will anger her. In Chapter 23, however, Jem and Scout decide not to argue with Alexandra
when she berates Walter Jr. Jem comforts the sobbing Scout, soothes her with a Tootsie
Roll and then explains that the "Old Family stuff's foolishness" is all that their aunt
has to hang on to since "all we've got's background and not a dime to our
names."

In "Trifles" how is the telephone a symbol?

In the play, "Trifles," a telephone, or the lack of one,
is just one more element of Minnie Wright's environment that isolates
her. 

She is a woman in a man's world, and is isolated from
her society.  Her personality changes after she's married, and she does not lead a
fulfilling life.  She is limited to her domestic duties and mistreated by her husband. 
And she doesn't even have a phone to keep in touch with the outside
world. 

Apparently, the only joy she finds is in a little
canary, and when her husband strangles the bird, she strangles
him.  

In act 4 scene 3 what does Malcolm tell Macduff to do with his grief?

Building on the last reply, this idea of "take it like a man" is repeated throughout the play.  Lady Macbeth first goads Macbeth into killing Duncan by suggesting that he is less than a man.  Lady Macduff, in her conversation with her son, also insults her husband's manliness.  Macduff, the "hero" at the end, is the only character to routinely exhibit elements of compassion.  Thematically, Shakespeare appears to be criticizing behavior that is overly "macho".  As he was writing this shortly after King James ascent to power in England, he might have been giving credit to the better leadership provided by a woman, in the form of Queen Elizabeth.

What are similarities in character and action between Zazu of The Lion King and Polonius of Hamlet?

A major difference between Zazu and Polonius is that the
former is an escort, working for Simba's mother, of Nala and Simba as they go play.
 Polonius is no such escort, and he doesn't work for the side Hamlet's on.  Rather,
Polonius is a spy for the King, Hamlet's enemy, even though Polonius doesn't know that
Claudius is a murderer.

Polonius is more of a major
character in the play, unlike Zazu, a stock comic relief character.  Polonius is complex
and round, unlike the flat and static Zazu.  Polonius is an active agent in the plot;
Zazu merely comments on it.  Polonius is a foil for Claudius, King Hamlet, and Old
Fortinbras; he is a father whose death helps his children realize
themselves.

Polonius' death is a turning point in Hamlet.
 It is the first time Hamlet has killed, and Polonius' death will give rise to Laertes'
revenge, setting up the fated duel at the end.  Zazu is not at the center of the action
in The Lion King.

What is meant by DuBois reference "life dehind the veil"? How is idea explored in African American literature?

What DuBois means by "life behind the veil" is that black
life is invisible in America. Black life is also separate from the lives of others. The
word veil as a metaphor. This saying also led to the term "double consciousness" which
means that you are always looking at yourself through another persons
eyes.

DuBois states that if a person can get out from
behind the veil then they will be able to achieve self consciousness. In other words,
they will be able to see themselves for who they truly are for the first
time.

This is how it is explored in African American
literature. The author attempts to explain black life using a veil as a metaphor. Until
that veil is removed, blacks will not be able to achieve equality and inner
peace.

Paraphrase the story of Pyramus and Thisbe.

Pyramus and Thisbe were lovers whose parents wouldn't let them marry.  Their parent's properties were adjoining, and there was a crack in the wall between the two where the lovers could talk to each other.  Through this crack, they finally arrange a midnight meeting to see each other.

Thisbe is the first to arrive, and when she gets to their meeting place, she sees a lion feeding nearby.  Scared, she runs away dropping her head-piece in the process.  The lion, after feeding, is curious about the piece of clothing and muzzles it before moving on (leaving blood stains on it in the process).

When Pyramus arrives later, he sees the lion's footsteps and the bloody veil and assumes the worst.  In grief, he kills himself.  Later, when Thisbe comes back, she sees the dead Pyramus with her bloodied veil and understands what happened, so she, too, kills herself.

This is a well-known story throughout mythology also involving the color of mulberries - Pyramus's blood stained them red.

Do Victor and the monster become more similar as the novel Frankenstein goes on?

Absolutely! As Victor self-alienates himself because of his fear of the creature/monster he creates coupled with his guilt for having abandoned him, he becomes just as much a social outcast as the monster, who is shunned by all due to his hideous appearance.  In addition, the creature feels he is justified for his wrong-goings in the same way that Victor feels justified in denying blame for the actions of the creature.  Being the creature's father, Victor has a duty to accept and protect him; by neglecting this responsiblity, he indirectly causes the murders and may be looked at as a murderer himself.  The creature, regardless of how "wronged" he has been does not have the right to murder.  They almost become one and the same, at least psychologically.

What is the summary of the story The Lady or the Tiger?

The story begins with a king who believes that he has constructed a perfect system of justice. He allows fate and the accused to decide ones' own guilt or innocence. If the accused is innocent then he will choose the door that has the lady and will be married in front of the crowd. If the accused is guilty he will choose the door that has a ferocious tiger behind it and be ripped apart as punishment for his crime.

The king also has a beautiful daughter with a similar temperament who falls in love and has an affair with a man who is far below her social station. He hears of the affair and immediately has the man arrested.

The princess, hearing about this development, pays several people to find out which door holds the tiger and which holds the lady.She is tormented with her decision because she finds that the lady chosen for him is one whom she hates and is very jealous. She believes that her lover will be happy with his bride and forget her, but she also cannot bear the thought of him being ripped apart to his death in front of her very eyes.

On the day of this young man's trial he looks to the princess because he knows her and knows that she would do anything tho find out the identities that lie behind each door. She raises her hand indicating that he choose the door on the right. The story ends here and the reader is left to decide which door was chosen. It is a great example of ambiguity.

What is a statement of theme?

Before you begin to answer this question you must first
remember:

-  Theme is a subject or main idea of a work of
literature.
-  Theme is NOT plot summary.
-  Theme statements do not
give advice (they do not contain you, should, ought, etc.)
-  Theme statements
should be supported by text throughout the work, not just one
section.

That said, here are some notes about how to write
a theme statement for ANY piece of literature.

1.  Make a
list of SUBJECTS covered in the text (not plot details but things like, relationships,
fighting, growing up, etc.)
2.  Choose one, or two that seem to relate to each
other.
3.  Ask, "What is the author trying to say about
(subject)?  *I like to put things through what I call the
"cause-effect" machine.  Make a list of all the things that either
caused the subject or the effects of the
subject.  You use plot here, but by examining the patterns, you can often answer the
bigger question: What is the author trying to say about (subject)?
4.  Answer
the question in #3 with a complete sentence.  This is your theme statement.  Using words
like causes or results in are often
helpful.
5.  Prove your theme statement with examples from the
plot.

A final word:

The key to
theme statements is to make them broad enough to be universally applicable (ie. to other
works of literature or perhaps even life itself) but not SO BROAD that they could be
virtually applied to absolutely any work of literature.

For
example (Think of Romeo and Juliet):

1.  Fighting always
leads to death.  (Too narrow in one sense, but too broad when you consider - what kind
of fighting?)
2.  Fighting can be a negative thing.  (Um, yes, duh. 
Obviously.  Way too broad.)
3.  Hasty decisions often lead to unnecessary
fighting, which can be disasterous.  (Just narrow enough, but still universally
applicable.)

Explain John Donne's "Meditation XVII" with particular reference to 'Europe is the less.' How do you connect that to the 'bell' and 'island?'

The two interconnected themes of Donne's "Meditations
XVII" (1624) are: 1. All men are mortal 2.The lives of all men are interrelated and
interconnected.

Donne is seriously ill and he fears that he
might die soon which in turn leads him to pen his thoughts about life and death in the
Christian context.

At the time of the Renaissance, life
expectancy was low mainly because of the plague epidemic. The
funeral bell which was rung by the local church  to announce
the death of a  person could be heard ringing often at the time of the plague epidemic
and those alive would wonder as to the identity of the person who had just died; they
might even feel proud that they have escaped death but this  line warns them that one
should not enquire as to who has just died but must be warned that he himself could be
the next person to die:"this bell calls us all."

This is because one God is the
 Creator of all mankind  and at the time of the Renaissance all belonged to one
Universal Church:"all that she (the Church) does belongs to
all." So Donne insists that when we hear  the funeral bell
announcing the death of a person we should be aware of its real significance: it is not
merely announcing the death of a stranger but is actually announcing our own death 
"passing a piece of himself out of this world......Any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind....it tolls for
thee."

Donne underscores the
theme of his "Meditation" that all human lives are interconnected by the use of a
metaphor or conceit. The metaphor that he uses is that of an island. He asserts
that,

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No man is an island,
entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod
be washed away by the sea, Europe is the
less.

meaning
that all humanity is one large unit created by God- "all mankind is of one author" -
and that one person's death affects all humanity. When a person dies it is a loss for
all the others. No human being can live or survive in
isolation.

Europe is a huge continent. Donne insists that
even if a 'clod' - a small piece of land - is washed away by the sea the whole continent
is affected. Here the continent of 'Europe' represents the whole of humanity and 'the
clod' represents one human being.

Just like how the huge
continent Europe is affected by a small bit of land being washed away by the sea, so all
humanity is affected by the death of an individual.

I am doing a Marxist critique of George Orwell's 1984, any idea on how I should set the paper up and what to do?

Marxist literary criticism tends to look at a piece of
literature as a piece of evidence that tells us about the times in which they are
written.  So they would ask what it is about Orwell's time and place and especially his
class that made him write the book in the way he did.

I
would think that a Marxist would say that the book does not reflect the reality of class
struggle.  There is no sign of class conflict based on economic class -- you do not have
the workers struggling against the owners of the
factories.

Instead, the book is only concerned with
bourgeois ideals of love and freedom.  To me, a Marxist would say that these concerns
are irrelevant.  They would say that Orwell was clearly not concerned with the more
important things in life.

When was Elizabeth I born?

Elizabeth I of England was born in 1533.  Specifically,
she was born on September 7, 1533.  She was born in Greenwich Palace which was east of
London on the Thames River.  It's no longer there.

Her
father was the famous King Henry VIII of England.  He is the one who is famous for
having all those wives -- he's the one who forced England to leave the Catholic Church
so he could divorce his first wife because she didn't bear him any
sons.

Elizabeth's mother was Henry's second wife, Anne
Boleyn.

Elizabeth became queen in 1558 and reigned until
she died in 1603.

In Hamlet, Act I, scene 1, why does Marcellus tell Horatio to speak to the ghost?

In Hamlet, introducing the ghost of the young Hamlet's father, also Hamlet, allows Shakespeare to develop the plot somewhat before the ghost's real purpose is revealed. It would have been quite feasible to an Elizabethan audience that a ghost could share the stage with the other characters.

Marcellus and Bernardo are tasked with ensuring that the imminent military strike expected from Norway does not catch Denmark unawares. They have seen an apparition twice while they have been on duty and, in Act I, scene 1, they are searching for confirmation that it is not "but our fantasy" (I.i.23). Horatio is a good choice to corroborate their story as he is both a learned man, a scholar, and a friend of Hamlet's. Fortunately, Marcellus has brought Horatio with him, although Horatio is skeptical and does not expect the ghost to appear.

While Marcellus is recounting the previous night's occurrences and the vision of the ghost, the ghost does actually come before them. Bernardo is anxious to confirm that it looks "like the King that's dead" (41). Horatio watches the apparition which he says, "harrows me with fear and wonder" (44). He is prompted by Marcellus, who is anxious that Horatio should speak to it because it has not spoken to Bernardo and Marcellus and they believe that perhaps it will speak to a more educated man. 

Horatio does address the ghost, commenting on its likeness to the late king, "buried Denmark" (48), and on its "warlike form"; the "form" that will most mislead the characters and the audience in questioning the motives of the ghost. They all assume that the ghost has military motives and not personal ones. 

How is Antigone's death by committing suicide significant to her beliefs?

Antigone's suicide is in keeping with the fatal and fatalistic atmosphere that surrounds her entire family. She professes devotion to her family, the doomed house of Oedipus. With the exception of her sister Ismene, they have all preceded her in death: her father, mother and two brothers (who killed each other); it seems fitting that she join them in death. As Creon tells her brutally at one point: 'Go and share your love with the dead'. She prefers to do that rather than go on living in a world which is largely meaningless to her. She has been entombed alive, but she prefers to hasten her end rather than wait for it.  

Antigone dares all for her family, and sacrifices all. She had earlier accompanied her blind, disgraced, exiled father Oedipus, and then she buries her brother Polynices, whose corpse had been left exposed as he was deemed a traitor. By this latter action she ensures her own condemnation by the state. For this action she sacrifices her own life, her own hopes for marriage and children - she was betrothed to Haemon, son of Creon, the ruler who officially condemns her. She bewails this loss but does not waver from her preferred course of action.

Antigone is heroically dedicated to her ideals and carries them out to the letter. Her devotion to family and family duties is an all-consuming passion with her. She is utterly inflexible and and determined, one of the most towering characters in all of ancient Greek tragedy. Her suicide is one final act of defiance against the world that condemned her for carrying out her family duty in burying Polynices. 

How dysfunctional is the Bundren family in As I Lay Dying?

Just to add to the strong points of the above
response:

Addie is so perverse
in her hatred of Anse that she dislikes all of her children but the "love child" that
she has had with the minister, whom she has ironically named
Jewel.

Anse is degenerate both
in body--hunchbacked with gnarled hands--and soul. In essence, he is sociopathic. He
uses his children, forcing Jewel to give him the beloved horse so that he can obtain
more mules to pull the death-wagon after the others drown, he scrimps on money,
depriving the family of necessities.  Even his promise to his dying wife has a
self-serving motive behind it:  to buy a set of false teeth for
himself.

Darl is profoundly
jealous of his brother Jewel that he tries to separate Jewel from his mother while she
is dying by volunteering him to go with him to obtain lumber for her coffin.  So intent
is he upon not allowing the coffin to make its destination in order to foil his mother's
dying wish that he sets the coffin and the barn it is in on fire.  As he is on the train
to be committed to an asylum, Darl laughs and talks about himself in third
person.

Cash, as already
stated, is preoccupied with his tools.  But, he is so obsessed that he views his family
members as a tool. (How dysfunctional!) He actually names each member of his family with
a tool. 

Dewey Dell is
so ingenuous and crass that she believes that a white powder will cause the abortion she
desires.  When a pharmist tells her to come back in the evening and he will fix her
problem by having intercourse with her as this act will reverse her other act, she
believes him.  Later, she realizes that she has been tricked.  She pushes for Darl to be
committed because she fears that he will reveal her pregnancy to the other family
members.

Vardamann is the
youngest; he does not understand his mother's death.  But, on the journey, Vardamann
grows closer to his brother Darl and feels the loss as Darl is shipped off to the
sanitarium.  Because Vardamann struggles to understand Darl's insanity, he becomes more
humane than the others of the family other than Jewel, who does truly love his
mother.

As also stated by mstultz72,
the family is wounded spiritually and physically after this dysfunctional odyssey of
theirs. Indeed, this is much in contrast to normal funerals which usually unite members
of families.

Please describe narrator in "Araby."

The narrator is a Dubliner in Dubliners
by James Joyce, the story collection "Araby" is included in.  Just as the
street and neighborhood is described, indirectly or figuratively, as blind, so is the
narrator.  He becomes obsessed with an illusion, a combination of his idealistic view of
Mangan's sister, and his idealistic view of his relationship with Mangan's
sister.

He suffers terribly, like an adoliescent will, in
the days preceeding his trip to buy her a gift at the traveling bazaar, Araby.  He
neglects his studies and can think of nothing else.  He is blind to the truth that
Mangan's sister hardly even knows he exists, and that they do not really have much of a
relationship.

The combination of the bazaar being closed
(for the most part), the trivial, senseless flirting by the workers he overhears, the
rudeness of the worker who asks him if he needs anything, and something about the few
items for sale, leads him to sight, figuratively.  He realizes how silly he's been, that
he's been infatuated with and controlled by an illusion.  He states his epiphany in the
final lines of the story:

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Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a
creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and
anger.

Notice the reference
to the eyes.  His eyes figuratively fool him into falling for an illusion.  Now, they
are figuratively opened. 

What would I list as Beowulf's related experience, education, projects, honors/awards, and skills on his resume?

Don't forget too, that he is the son of a worthy man and has learned from the very beginning all the lessons which go with his place in society.  He would have learned horsemanship, sailing, swordsmanship, perhaps how to use a bow and arrow.  He would also have lessons in managing and leading large groups of men as the future would most definitely hold a time for him to lead them into battle...like with Grendel, Grendel's mom and the dragon. 

This sounds like a fun assignment.  As long as whatever you put makes sense, seems like you might even be able to fabricate a little.  Have some fun with it...for instance, Beowulf took classes in how to handle all the adoring female fans he would later have, etc.

What is dramatic poetry? Discuss in various sub-geners with examples.Intrduction to English literature

Dramatic poetry is a play that uses poetic language.  The
most famous writer of dramatic poetry is, of course, Shakespeare, who wrote four types:
tragedy, comedy, history, and romance
(tragi-comedy).

Depending of the play, Shakespeare's plays
were about 75% poetry and 25% prose.  Of the poetry, he used two types of verse in his
dramas: rhymed and unrhymed.  More than 75% of his dramatic verse was unrhymed (blank
verse).

There are other dramatic poems: the closet dramas
(poetic plays that were never intended to be staged).  Of these, Byron's
Manfred and Milton's Samson Agonistes are
chief.  Not all closet dramas are poetic, of course, but if it's written by a poet, it
most likely is.

Does Montresor explain why he wants to take revenge?

It is that he has no bona fide cause for revenge (one that he states) that makes this story so horrifying.  By not identifying the cause for revenge, we cannot dismiss it as unworthy or outside of our range of experience.  Instead, the revenge achieves a universality, a flaw of human character, or perhaps more aptly, a commonality of human emotion that Montressor works out for us that we, only in our unconscious, would dare to think about.  Poe often treats such taboo subjects that he considers fundamental to human experience but too awful for a person to lay claim to.  Indeed, in an essay on poetry he calls such horrific experiences and emotions "beautiful."

What point is Shelly trying to make about parents and children in the book? My teacher keeps talking about it, and I am having trouble.

There is a very good reason your teacher keeps talking about this.  Let me outline some things for you:

1. Mary Shelley's own mother died from complications of giving birth to her.  2.  There are lots of parent-child relationships in the book.  To name a few:  Caroline Beaufort (Frankenstein) and her parents, Victor and his parents, Elizabeth and her childhood, Justine Moritz and her childhood, Safie and her father, Felix and Agatha and their father, Adam and God, and of course, the Creature and his "father".  3.  The underlying message that Shelley is trying to get across is this:

If you are going to bring a child into the world, you have to take responsibility for that child.  Clothing, food, shelter, education, and love are among the necessities.

The Creature is denyed all of this, and as a result, he feels angry and abandoned.  (Not unlike the feelings Mary Shelley had growing up without her mother.)

The parent-child relationship is a very important theme in the book, and understanding the message Shelley is sending will shed greater light on her message of unconditional love.  Had the creature been given this basic element, things would have turned out very differently for everyone. 

Why can't Odysseus hug his own mother?From book XI

This is actually in Book XI (not XII).  Odysseus cannot hug her, no matter how much he wants to, for his mother is now a "shade," living in Hades.  There is a division between flesh and spirit that cannot be connected.  Here is the passage: 

  "So she spoke, and I wondered how I might embrace my dead mother’s ghost. Three times my will urged me to clasp her, and I started towards her, three times she escaped my arms like a shadow or a dream.  And the pain seemed deeper in my heart. Then I spoke to her with winged words: “Mother, since I wish it why do you not let me embrace you, so that even in Hades’ House we might clasp our arms around each other and sate ourselves with chill lament? Are you a mere phantom royal Persephone has sent, to make me groan and grieve the more?

          My revered mother replied quickly: “Oh, my child, most unfortunate of men, Persephone, Zeus daughter, does not deceive you: this is the way it is with mortals after death. The sinews no longer bind flesh and bone, the fierce heat of the blazing pyre consumes them, and the spirit flees from our white bones, a ghost that flutters and goes like a dream. Hasten to the light, with all speed: remember these things, to speak to your wife of them.”’

Does anyone actually prove that George Harvey is Susie's killer in The Lovely Bones? If so, who proved it and when?

George Harvey is eventually suspected of being a serial
killer, which he is, but he is never caught or punished for the crime. There was never
enough definitive proof to arrest him.

At the end of the
novel, Susie  moves on into a larger part of heaven but she is still able to watch
events down on earth. One day she sees Harvey getting off a bus outside of a restaurant
in New Hampshire.  Harvey sees a young woman near the restaurant and tries to accost her
but she refuses to speak to him, lucky for her. Susie notices some large icicles hanging
from the roof. After the woman leaves Harvey, one of the icicles falls and hits him on
the head, he tumbles down a ravine and is ultimately
killed.

So, he is punished by a higher power in the end and
the reader is left hoping that he will have some explaining to do wherever he winds up
going in the afterlife (this is my addendum, not part of the
book).

This novel is similar to the "magical realism" made
popular by several Hispanic authors. Magical realism blends magical or spiritual
elements into a realistic atmosphere in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of
reality. The novel is realistic in most of its elements, but then there is the element
of the afterlife, the spiritual, etc., which requires a reader to venture into spiritual
realms.

Name 3 examples that prove the theme "appearances can be deceiving." Focus more on certain situations in the novel and irony rather than...

Here are a few more obscure answers (if you want to be the
kid that finds the ones no one else has said):

- On the
first day of school Miss Caroline assumes by Walter's appearance that he needs money for
lunch, will take it, and is able to pay her back.  She does not realize how insulting
her charity actually is - even though the rest of the class
does.

- Scout then insults Miss Caroline by attempting to
be diplomatic.  Miss Caroline again reads into Scout's attitude as disrespectful and out
of line.  Really, Scout has only innocent intentions.  Ironically, Scout feels sorry for
Miss Caroline.

- Mr. Dophus Raymond always drinks out of a
bottle hidden by a paper bag - perhaps wanting to give the appearance that he is "the
town drunk" (a way to escape judgement for his 'mixed children') but it turns out he's
just drinking Coke.

In Orwell's 1984, what is the purpose of the telescreen?

The purpose of the telescreen is to maintain control over the Oceanic society. The party uses it as a tool to differentiate between the supporters of Big Brother, a manifestation of the Party, and dissidents, those that want to oppose or rebel against an authoritative party. It functions as a form of surveillance; people are unable to escape the scrutiny and are never sure when they are being observed or listened to. This ensures that they are wary of not only their words and actions but also their thoughts as they are given away by their facial expressions.

What is meant by the ‘mutability of the past’? Give an example and explain the significance of it. 300-400 words please.

‘Mutability of the Past’ is a component of the INGSOC
(English Socialism)-a fictional political system equivalent to Stalinistic dictatorship
as appears in ‘1984’-  a novel of George Orwell. It is a  systopic (anti-utopian ) novel
 by Orwell that was published in 1949.

In this novel the
novelist speculates a socio-political system in Oceania in which the ruling dispensation
unleashes a political, cultural, social, ideological and intellectual dictatorship and
totalitarianism. ‘Mutability of Past’ depicts the deliberate changeability
(manipulation) of the past through the language medium ‘Newspeak’ by destruction and
alteration of past history elements. The aim of this manipulation by Big Brother is to
change the social consciousness of the system.

The real
word example of the fictional account of INGSOC form of Mutability of Past' is the
Soviet imperialism of cold war era, especially eighties of last century. The idealized
motive of Russian aggression into Afghanistan was equated to the sense of Russian
nationalism and nationalistic pride, self honor.  the politically motivated dominant
ideology of  Russian aggression into Afghanistan as politically correct for sake of
sovereignty is analogous to  the use of new language -Newspeak as tool of social
indoctrination in 1984.

On pattern of
the motif of 'Mutability of Past' in 1984 by political bloc -Big
Brother, the, The Kremlin employed invocation of Historical account of Russia’s
aggression  of Afghanistan as symbol of ‘Soviet defence of Afghanistan' and resorted to
ideological manipulations to justify the Russian  expansionist
adventures.

Mutability of the past and denial of objective
reality  signify the use of language as a tool for changing social consciousness.
Chomsky an eminent linguistic expert had formulated a link between the language and
culture on the outlook and thought process of a person. These aspects are common
features of the totalitarian and dictatorial regimes of
past.

American linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf
 gave revolutionary linguistic theory which also postulated that the language has a
determining influence on the  human perception of the worldly system including
society.

What does this relationship reveal about both emily and her father as characters.

I'm unclear about your question.  If you are asking what is their relationship like, it would be one that reveals the power relationship between the Southern "lady: and "gentleman."He, as we see him in the tableau, represents the paternalistic, authoritative southern male, dominating his daughter, Emily, who, in the background, appears submissive.  He holds a whip and wears boots, she wears white. Much of Emily can be explained through this original relationship with her father, which she does her best to break out of through Homer, whom her father would have hated, and then by killing Homer when he seemed to want to leave her.

Why / how does Penelope have more power over Odysseus than Athena?

Love is a powerful emotion, and love is the force that drives Odysseus to return to Ithaca and, more important, Penelope. No matter what obstacles are put in his way, he remains steadfast in his desire to go home to her. Those obstacles are created by Poseidon, whom Odysseus has offended, and they are removed by Athena, who is Odyssues's patron goddess. I'm not sure it is correct to say that Athena and Penelope compete for power over him; they are both interested in seeing him regain his throne. Also, Athena is the patron of the "womanly arts," which is what Penelope is doing when she weaves. Athena also encourages their son to cause as much trouble as possible with the men who are vying to marry Penelope, keeping her free until Odysseus returns. So you might say that Athena and Penelope share influence over Odysseus.

Between the movie in 1996 and the real play, which is more interesting and appropriate? Please defend your answer.

I cannot stand the Baz Luhrmann 1996 adaptation of
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet.   He should have called it
MTV's R + J.  It's a music video, not a movie.  And certainly not a
play.

First of all, Luhrmann modernizes the setting and
characters but retains the Elizabethan dialogue.  Why?  It's silly.  Why would gang
bangers talk like this?  Why do they say they have "swords" and wave around 9mmers?
 Preposterous!

Recent adaptations of O
(Othello) and Hamlet (2000, starring Ethan
Hawke) have modernized both the setting and language, which makes much more
sense.

Secondly, the actors (except for Friar Lawrence and
the Nurse) have very little acting experience, let alone Shakespearean voice training.
 Instead, they shout all their lines while music blares in the background.
 Shakespearean plays are meant to be heard; their iambic pentameter is like a song.  It
takes years of training and experience.  The couple in Franco Zefirelli's 1968 version
were much better trained.

Why could it be suggested that Creon's edict in Antigone goes against the Greek values of life transitioning to death?

In Antigone, it is clear that
Sophocles, Antigone, and all of the Greek citizens of Thebes cide with burying
Polyneices as part of the gods' "unwritten law."  The only one who doesn't is the
vengeful and stubborn Creon.

Respecting the dead is a Greek
tradition.  In Book XI of The Odyssey, when Odysseus' visits Hades,
the dead spirit of Elpenor asks Odysseus to bury his body.  Odysseus
says,

The
first ghost that came was that of my comrade Elpenor, for he had not yet been laid
beneath the earth. We had left his body unwept for and
unburied in Circe's house, for we had had too much else to do. I was very
sorry for him,...

To which
Elpenor responds:

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Do not go thence leaving me
unmourned and unburied behind you, or I may bring heaven's anger upon
you; but burn me with whatever armor I have, build a barrow for me on the
sea shore, that may tell people in days to come what a poor unlucky fellow I was, and
plant over my grave the oar I used to row with when I was yet alive and with my
messmates.’

Antigone echoes
these words when she tells her sister:

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I will bury him: well for me to die in doing
that. I shall rest, a loved one with him whom I have loved, sinless in my
crime; for I owe a longer
allegiance to the dead than to the living: in that world I
shallabide for ever. But if thou wilt, be guilty of dishonouring
laws which the gods have stablished
in honour.

As
The Odyssey was written some 400 years before
Antigone, it is clear that the Greeks required burial rites for the
dead, even if he was a drunk who carelessly fell off a roof or fought against his own
state and brother in a civil war.

What was Emily's relationship with her father?

Emily's relationship with her father can be vividly seen in what the narrator describes as "the tableau" they had constructed of her: Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung door." We see in this "tableau" his violence and dominance, and her youthful femininity. He was controlling, refusing her a life of her own or a husband, and he cared little, for in this picture (as the townspeople imagine them) he has his back to her.  The image of the horsewhip is particularly disturbing, especially when we consider how violent she was in killing Homer to keep him. One suspects that her father might have, in a similar way, used that horsewhip on her to keep her.

Was Edgar Allan Poe a Christian? If you read "The Raven," it seems like he might be. Also, when it says the nights plutonian shore, he is referring...

It is a rather natural assumption after reading his
stories and poems that Edgar Allan Poe must have been an atheist. This idea is not
necessarily true. Poe's adopted father, John Allan, had young Edgar baptized in the
Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia in 1812. They later attended the newly built
Monumental Episcopal Church after 1814, and Edgar and his foster mother, Francis, were
apparently regulars. Poe was taught the catechisms while living in England, and studied
religion while in school there.

While at West Point,
Poe apparently attended church for a time, but he later refused to do so. There is some
indication that he attended church with a friend in 1848 in New York. Poe was presented
a Bible as a present in in 1846, but it has been lost (after once being owned by the
Bronx Historicial Society). According to one source, this note was written alongside The
Lord's Prayer in Poe's Bible: "I loath it."

Several of
Poe's writings show a pro-religious leaning.

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Poe wrote a “Hymn [to the Virgin Mary]” (1833)
as part of “Morella.” Removed from later versions of the story, it was nevertheless
included as “Catholic Hymn” in The Raven and Other Poems (1845).
Another poem, “For Annie” (March 23, 1849) begins with “Thank Heaven!” and includes a
reference to “... she prayed to the angels... To the queen of the
angels...” 

Poe is said to
have known his Bible well. However, nowhere in Poe's writings does he state his belief
or position on the subject; however, several men who knew him claimed him as "having no
religion."

What is the setting of "Lamb to the Slaughter"?

 would suggest the setting is not England but Ireland - the names used Maloney, Noonan, Patrick all being Irish names but more importantly and very subtly "whiskey" is an Irish drink - the English drink "whisky" from Scotland.

An alternative which is probably as attractive is it being set in an Irish community in America.

The dating points towards the American setting being just as likely as Ireland if not more so.

The Maloneys had a home freezer - they were not introduced to the USA until 1940 and were much later becoming widespread in England or Ireland. They were not a rich family so clearly the use of home freezers had become quite widespread by the time the story was set. It was written in 1954 so probably set around then.

On balance I would plump for early 1950s in an Irish community in America.

In the Crucible, how has Elizabeth changed during her imprisonment?

Elizabeth has grown spiritually, I think, during her time in prison.  Where once she was quick to judge Proctor and to withhold her forgiveness, now she is free to forgive Proctor and to admit that whatever the problems in her marriage to Proctor, she had some responsibility for that: 

I have sins of my own to count.  It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery."

She realizes it is not her who is judging her husband, now, he is judging himself.  She sees him as good; it is him who does not see himself as good: because he wants to confess a lie and live; because he cheated on his wife.   This is why, although she wants him to live, she understands when he recants his confession.  He can't live with himself if he judges himself as evil.  He needs his goodness more than he needs his life.  The Elizabeth who spent time in prison is mature enough to understand this although she rues the necessity and hates the  false court and accusations that brought this cruel circumstances:  so she lets him go: 

He have his goodness now.  God Forbid I take that from him."

How does Mollie from Animal Farm represent the vain and selfish people of Russia and the WORLD

Mollie is a lot like the character from Greek mythology,
Narcissus. If you have ever heard someone described as narcissistic, it simply means he
or she is in love with him or herself, self-absorbed, or vain. Mollie, like many people
in this world, falls into this category. She is more concerned with maintaining her
beauty with Mr. Jones ribbons, admiring her name written in sticks, and protecting
herself as she did in the Battle of Cowshed, than making any positive contribution to
the good of Animal Farm. Mollie, like many people of the world, is concerned only about
herself, rather than the good of her community.

What would have happened to Jonas and Gabe if the searchers found them?

I believe that both of them would have been released.  The
people would receive the memories that the Giver had given to Jonas, but they would
recover.  The process of finding a new receiver would begin all over again.  If you
recall, to be released is to be killed.

The children are
both receivers so the process would take longer.  One thing that we are aware is that
Jonas and Gabriel have light eyes which may be a quality that the elders will be looking
for when they look to find a new receiver.

In the quote "So he's a bloody four-letter man as well as a bloody coward, he thought," what is the four-letter word Hemingway means?

What Wilson means by a four-letter man is a college athlete who goes out for many different sports. At the upper-class Ivy League colleges like Harvard and Yale, it was common for athletes to wear varsity sweaters with symbols sewn on them to show which sports they participated in. To have four letters on a varsity sweater would be unusual and distinctive. Varsity-level college athletes were often described as “lettermen,” and varsity sweaters and jackets were often called “lettermen sweaters” and “lettermen jackets.” The sports would probably be football, tennis, and perhaps swimming, golf, track, boxing, and almost certainly rowing. The varsity sweaters and jackets would be in the school colors. There are still plenty of them sold, as can be seen on Google. Hemingway never went to college and was probably both envious and contemptuous of men who did. Since Robert Wilson is an Englishman, he must have known about these varsity sweaters and jackets because they were imitations of the same sorts of garments worn by athletes in the upper-class English schools like Oxford and Cambridge, where cricket would have been included.

Why does Atticus not want Scout to tell Miss Caroline about their compromise? What does this indicate about Atticus' character?Chapter 3

Atticus makes this deal with Scout in order for them to keep reading together.  If Scout tells Miss Caroline, who is a not only a new teacher but also new to Maycomb (she is from northern Alabama), she would continue to punish Scout.  Atticus obviously does not want this.  It likely reveals that Atticus recognizes Miss Caroline's need to appear like she is in control of Scout's education.  Remember, she is making a big deal about bringing 'new' education ideas to Maycomb's school, notice Jem's reference to the Dewey Decimal System.  Miss Caroline is unfamiliar with the families of Maycomb and their ways.  Had she known Atticus at all, she would have realized that no one in Maycomb holds education in a greater light than he does.  However, he realizes that Scout is special - as is their time together spent reading the paper each evening, which is why he has her keep quiet about their deal.  This reveals too how crafty Atticus is.  He is willing to keep things quiet to please everyone.

What are the best quotes from O-lan showing how she is a good person, or quotes that show her character.

O-lan is certainly a good person, to say the least.  She
is kind, considerate, self-sacrificing and hard working.  To the best of my knowledge,
there is not one incident in the novel that tells of a selfish or thoughtless side of
O-lan; she even fails to really protest when she gives over the jewels she has treasured
for so long.  There are many passages and quotes that reveal O-lan's generous and giving
characteristics.

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...The woman, when he had gone in the morning,
took the bamboo rake and a length of rope and with these she roamed the countryside,
reaping here a bit of grass and there a twig or a handful of leaves, returning at noon
with enough to cook the dinner.  It pleased the man that they need buy no more
fuel.

In the afternoon she took a hoe and a basket and with
these upon her shoulder she went to the main road leading into the city...and there she
picked the droppings from the animals and carried it home and piled the manure in the
dooryard for fertilizer for the fields. These things she did without a word and without
being commanded to do them.  And when the end of the day came she did not rest herself
until the ox had been fed in the kitchen and until she had dipped water to hold to its
muzzle to let it drink what it
would.

Even when O-lan was on
her deathbed, she thought of those around her and referred to herself as a slave, taking
pride only in her role as a mother.

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"And has everyone wine?  And is the sweet rice
dish in the middle of the feast very hot and have they put full measure of lard and
sugar into it and the eight fruits?"

When he assured her
that everything was as she wished it, she was content and lay
listening.

...Strength passed from O-lan and she grew weary
and faint and she called to her the two who had been wed that day and she
said,

"Now I am content and this thing in me may do as it
will.  My son, look to your father and your grandfather, and my daughter, look to your
husband and your husband's father and his grandfather and the poor fool in the court,
there she is.  And you have no duty to any
other."

..."Well, and if I am ugly, still I have borne a
son; although I am but a slave there is a son in my house."  And again she said,
suddenly, "How can that one feed him and care for him as I do? Beauty will not bear a
man sons!"

How was the feudal system apparent in the movie "Cadfael: One Corpse Too Many"?

Definition of Feudalism:

I
have seen a Cadfael movie, but I don't remember anything about it.  I can tell you a
little bit about feudalism.  Maybe that will help you recognize what is apparent in the
movie.

Feudalism was a social system which is to say it
encompassed everything about life: the form of government, the type of economy, the
social habits of the people, and so on.  Society was organized sort of like the
military.  There were definite ranks and each rank owed respect and work to the rank
above it and owed protection to the rank below it. In fact, society was organized for
the purpose of providing a military force.

Theoretically
the king owned all of the land in the kingdom.  The use of the land was divided up
between the king and several barons.  In return for the use of their share of the land,
each baron was to furnish a big number of knights to the king's army if the kingdom had
to go to war.  Each baron divided up the use of his share of the land amongst a whole
bunch of men who would be the knights in case of war.  Each knight gave the use of some
of his land to freemen, and the use of another part of his land to villens (comes from
village I think), who were a type of slave.  They could not be bought and sold, but they
belonged to the parcel of land to which they were assigned.  They could do nothing else
but farm that land.  Also, each knight had some land which he did not assign to a
freeman or a villen; the villens were required to work so many hours each week on the
knight's land.  A portion of each farmer's farm produce went to his knight; a portion of
each knight's farm produce went to his baron; and the barons had to send some of theirs'
to the king.  (The freemen and knights and barons had to pay taxes,
too.)

The knights or the barons or both (I am not sure)
held courts to decide disputes between the people who were dependent upon them.  The
king also had a court to try bigger offences.

Lower ranking
people showed great respect and deferrence to higher ranking people.  Higher ranking
people were supposed to be respectful to lower ranking people as long as the lower
ranking people "behaved" themselves.  Powerful people don't always do what they are
supposed to do, but much of the time they did.  They might do bad things to lower
ranking people who were not respectful to them.  So, most of the time, everybody was
very respectful to everybody else.

Higher ranking people
owed protection to lower ranking people.  And, as long as the lower ranking people
fulfilled their obligations of respect and work or knight-service, the higher ranking
people could not take their assigned land away from them.  There were some exceptions to
this rule, but they had to be approved by a court of law.

A
baron in England, had the use of a vast amount of land, but it was not all in one place.
It was scattered about among several different counties. Which ever baron had the most
land in a county, he was usually the sheriff of that county. He had great power; it
would not be inappropriate to call him a vice-king for the
county.

Power, in those days was inherited. When the old
king or baron died, it was usually his oldest son who became the new baron. This was
made the custom in order to preserve the peace, so that different people would not
contend (make war)for the same position. Sometimes, if all the barons did not like the
person who was about to become the new king, they could get together and select a
different person to be king, but this was dangerous, because if some barons liked one
person and some liked another person, they might go to war over who was to be the new
king.

"Maybe people are younger when they are asleep." What do you think about this comment (chap. 7, pg. 104)?

This is an observation made by Ponyboy after he sees Sodapop sleeping and thinks he looks younger than 17 years old. He had also noticed that Johnny looked younger when sleeping as well.

In considering the meaning of the statement in the context of the book, it is important to note that the important people in Ponyboy's life, "the Greasers," have all had to grow up quickly and deal with adult responsibilities. This can age people. In their sleep, however, they are not dealing with the struggles of survival and keeping family together; therefore, they may look younger and more peaceful.

How is love expressed in the novel?

The idea of love is explored in many ways in "A Farewell
to Arms." The romantic love between Lt. Henry and Catherine is developed over the course
of the novel. At the beginning of the novel Lt. Henry has no real connections or
attachments to anyone. Henry is infatuated with Catherine when they first meet, and love
is treated like a game. Both Catherine and Henry are looking for something to fill the
hollowness inside of them. Their bond grows stronger as they face adversities and
eventually their love becomes evident. Henry begins to believe that love is more
powerful than honor and glory, and his is able to make his own peace with the war and
put it behind him.  Sometimes Catherine and Henry's love affair seems like a fantasy
(their house in Montreux) and sometimes it seems like a horrific nightmare (Catherine
and her baby's death). At the end of the novel Henry is left with nothing, making the
reader question if love is real or just an idea like glory or
honor.

Love is also explored through the characters of
Rinaldi and the Priest. Rinaldi and the Priest represent two different kinds of
love--Rinaldi represents the carnal and the priest represents the spiritual. Rinaldi
uses sex and relationships as a diversion. The Priest, who seems to have no source of
physical love, devotes his life to the spiritual love of God and his fellow man. When
Henry is in the hospital recovering from his war injury, he and the priest discuss the
difference between true love and lust. The priest mentions that true love requires
sacrifice. At the end of the novel, Henry realizes the true meaning of sacrifice after
he learns of the deaths of Catherine and his baby.

List five images that illustrate the supernatural forces in the poem and explain how they do so?

1. The men all dying at the same time without a sound is
not natural. People will die of thirst or exposure one at a time, depending on their
physical wellness.

2. The spirits of the sailors arising an
working the ship is not reality. Even if one believes in spirits, spirits would not be
able to grasp ropes or the wheel to control the ship.

3.
The ghost ship moving at a tremendous speed toward the ship is an impossibility. The
sails were full of holes, and the mariner's ship was not moving. There was no wind and
not from that direction either.

4. The ship moving at such
a speed that the mariner faints is also not possible. No ship can move that fast unless
it was jet powered.

5. Returning to his home port with no
crew, no navigation, no food is unlikely. Even with spirits guiding the vessel, they
would have little control over it.

These supernatural
events were supposed to tell the reader that a divine influence was in control, not the
natural world.

Why did Barlow want to speak privately with Charlotte?

Barlow wanted to warn Charlotte that all is not as it seems on the ship. Captain Jaggery is not the nice man Charlotte thinks he is; in fact, he is so abusive to his crew that they are near mutiny. It would be best for her to get off the ship as soon as she can.

What evidence can you give me to support the claim that Roderick and Madeline are not vampires?

It is easy to see how it might seem they are vampires. The setting of an old, creepy house, and strange seclusive inhabitants live inside. The Usher family has survived many generations in that setting. Yet, a few details point to the idea that they are not in actuality, vampires. First, and most obvious, Roderick was a school chum with the narrator of the story who comes to visit. Clearly he was able to leave the ouse in daylight hours at some point, and according to vampire lore, daylight is deadly to vampires. Madeline dies, as well, and vampires are supposedly immortal. True, it appears she becomes the undead, but this only gives evidence of some supernatural activity, as does the house destructing in such an unrealistic manner.

How are men portrayed in the play Fences by August Wilson?

Men are essentially weak in a world that is driven my the
American Dream. In fact, this play revolves around that theme and how it is out of reach
for African Americans. Consider the opening. It is payday, and Troy is coming home to
drink with his buddy Jim. His finances, however, are controlled by his wife. He is
emasculated, which is a common theme of African American writers writing about this
decade, because he is unable to provide for his family as well as he wants to. He is
striving to beat the system, as evidenced by the fact that he asks the question of why
the whites are always driving and the blacks lifting trash in his job as a garbage
collector, but when he "wins" and is made a driver he is still held back, one might
assume, by the fact that he has never learned to drive. He is still paying for furniture
on credit that is long since paid for because the "devil" (white man, symbolized in
almost a clan-like appearance) expects him to do so. He is downtrodden and turns to an
affair to have an escape, yet his wife, Rose, stays with him and raises his lover
Alberta's baby in the end. There is loyalty there.

Lyons is
the "wasted youth" trying to use music as his escape, but having a history of needing
money.

Cory, on the other hand, is portrayed as the one
with the most hope of breaking the chain. He wants to play football, but his father
discourages this as Troy believes that Cory will be destined for failure in what he
still views as the white man's sport.

Gabriel is
interesting. His head injury gives him a reason for his limitations, yet ultimately he
may be the strongest of them all  for he possesses acceptance of life and an attitude of
one who has not lost faith as Troy has. Consider him in light of the angel Gabriel for a
better understanding of how he is portrayed.

The men are
struggling to survive and make a way in a world that is still white-dominated. They are
prime examples of the emasculation of black men who were powerless under slavery's grasp
to help or save their families and who still felt a sense of power for many decades
after as they struggles to be "men" for their families (this is part of why Troy insists
on the fence - to keep what is his safe inside and to keep the outside world at
bay).