What is the meaning of the poem "Homecoming" by Robert Lowell?

Robert Lowell's poem "Homecoming" describes the feeling of loss experienced by the aging speaker, who is returning to his hometown after a long absence. Through allusions to Homer's Odyssey, Lowell simultaneously elevates the speaker's situation to the level of epic drama and deflates that drama by suggesting that the contemporary world is not heroic enough to support that kind of emotion.

The title of the poem suggests that the speaker is coming back to some sort of class reunion, where he will measure his own life experiences against the success of his friends, "the boys in my old gang/ [who] are senior partners" (ll.2-3). His situation parallels the homecoming of Odysseus, a heroic general from ancient Greek literature who went off to fight in the Trojan War, but due to a series of misadventures, was unable to return home again for many years. When he finally does get back to his wife and son, he finds his house in disarray: assuming that he has died, a slew of suitors have encamped around his home to try to win his wife for themselves. His former status as ruler of his community is gone, and he must reestablish himself and reclaim his family. Similarly, the speaker of the poem has to face the loss of his old love, but it is here that the contemporary situation begins to pale in comparison to the epic; his memories of their younger days revolve around casinos and martinis - not exactly the noble stuff of epic. Even his old cronies are "bald like baby birds" and ready for retirement (l.4), an image that ironically transforms extreme youth into a vehicle for old age. It seems that the speaker and the world he inhabits are both past their prime.

As the speaker continues to muse on the years that have passed, he reflects that "Fertility is not to the forward,/ or beauty to the precipitous" (ll.21-22). Unlike Odysseus, who has earned fame and glory through his noble deeds in war, the speaker seems not to have achieved success, and indeed, he questions the very idea that the blessings of life can be earned through ambition or effort. His life seems to have been characterized by "things gone wrong" (l.23) in spite of the earlier promise of his youth. Indeed, not even his homecoming will bring resolution to the longing he still feels; while Odysseus is ultimately able to defeat the rival suitors and win his wife back, there is no indication that the speaker has any hope of regaining his lost love; he is still "circling for [her] with glazed eye" (l.28).

The passage of time has not brought heroic closure to the speaker. Even when we see references to summer, which could symbolize the height of strength that Odysseus still possesses when he returns, we get instead an image of withering as "poplars sere/ in the glare" (ll.32-33). The speaker, like the leaves, is sapped of strength, and we have no indication that he will be energized by his homecoming. The last stanza provides the final contrast with Odysseus. Although the hero came home so changed by many years and trials that not even his family recognized him, his faithful old dog still knows him, suggesting that despite his temporary weariness, he remains essentially unchanged. However, the speaker of our poem mourns that "No dog knows my smell" (l.36). Whatever loss he has experienced has altered him to such an extent that he is not recognizable anymore as the young boy who lived here in his "hour of credulity" (l.8).

This is not the world of epic after all, and the poem closes with this vision of a modern world sadly fallen from the glory of the literary past, but which still holds it up as an ideal. The most the poet can hope for, perhaps, is to find a way to "clothe summer/ with gold leaf" (ll.24-25), to make of irreversible loss a fabric from which to make art. Indeed, this would fit well with the project of the Confessional poetry begun by Lowell himself: to make one's own life experiences, however sordid and messy, into subject matter for poetry, and in so doing, to give dignity even to the failed and the mundane.

What is James Peirce's argument in The Moral Philosopher and The Moral Life?

The main reason you are having difficulty with this question is that you are conflating the names of two different major nineteenth-century American philosophers who were founders of a school known as "pragmatism". Those two philosophers are:

• Charles Sanders Peirce (10 September  1839 – 19 April 1914)


• William James (11 January 1842 – 26 August 1910)

"The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life" is a talk William James gave at Yale Philosophical Club, which was later published in 1891 in the International Journal of Ethics. It was later republished in a collection of philosophical essays by William James entitled The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy.

In the talk, James is attempting to show that there is a way to moral action which does not depend in certain knowledge or a priori and absolute dogmatic systems, but rather awareness of situational and reciprocal claims and obligations. He argues that dogmatic moral systems are problematic, stating:

On the whole, then, we must conclude that no philosophy of ethics is possible in the old‑fashioned absolute sense of the term.

Instead, James suggests that ethics should instead be empirically grounded and that philosophers should examine what sorts of individual choices and political systems seem most likely in light of empirical research to promote general happiness and welfare. 

Describe Jerry's passage through the tunnel in Lessing's "Through the Tunnel."

Jerry pushes himself to physical limits as he passes through the tunnel.

After experiencing what he perceives as humiliation by the older boys, who "swam back to the shore without looking at him," Jerry vows to be able to accomplish what they have done by swimming under the water and through the secret passage of the huge rock. So, he asks his mother for swimming goggles, and then he begins to secretly condition himself to be able to hold his breath for enough minutes to be able to swim underwater and pass through the tunnel.

First, he must locate this passage. After repeated attempts, Jerry finally puts his feet forward in the water and finally encounters no obstacle, now discovering the hole through which the big boys have swum. Then, Jerry enters the hole, but can see nothing, but "it was enough." Because he knows he must learn to hold his breath for an extended time, Jerry lets himself sink to the floor of the sea and counts as he holds his breath, beginning his conditioning. 

After a couple of days, Jerry has strengthened his lungs enough so that he can hold his breath for over two minutes. Before he and his mother must return home, Jerry goes to the wild bay and makes his attempt to pass through the tunnel. He adjusts his goggles tightly upon his face so that no water will seep inside. Although his hands shake nervously, Jerry fills his lungs twice with air as he looks up at the sky; then, he submerges himself and, counting as he does so, Jerry pulls himself inside the great rock by wriggling his shoulders. While the water pushes him upward against the roof of this rock, Jerry uses his legs to propel himself forward. Still, sometimes he strikes his head sharply on this rock, but courageously he continues and bears the pain in his head. 

There was no strain on his lungs. He felt like an inflated balloon, his lungs were so light and easy, but his head was pulsing.

Unfortunately, Jerry's head continues to bump against the rock until he gives a kick in panic while ducking his head as he swims. Soon, he feels himself moving freely, so Jerry believes the rock has widened. But, because he is moving more quickly, Jerry is worried about again banging his head. Further, as he moves, the water does not appear as dark; Jerry senses victory ahead. Now, however, his lungs are starting to ache, and he suddenly realizes that the lighter water is due to a crack in the rock where sunlight can filter. There is more tunnel yet, and Jerry must move forward or he will drown. "His head was swelling, his lungs cracking." Feebly, he clutches at the rock and pulls himself forward, feeling as though he is dying. At last, "the darkness cracked with an explosion of green light"; Jerry has made it through the tunnel. He kicks with his feet and propels himself into the open water. Gasping for air, Jerry suddenly fears that he will sink and drown. Moreover, he worries that if he can swim, he still will not be able to reach the rock where he can hold on and rest. But, somehow he makes it to the rock and pulls himself up on its surface where he can rest.

He tore off his goggles and a gout of blood went into the sea. His nose was bleeding, and the blood had filled the goggles.

Jerry washes the goggles and his face with the sea's water. After a while, his heart beats normally and he is able to sit up. He has been victorious, and now he has no interest in the bigger boys; he only wants to go back to the villa and lie down. Jerry has completed his rite of passage and is proud of himself.

To what extent did World War I contribute to the revolutionary situation in February 1917 that culminated in the abdication of Nicholas II and the...

The Russian people had long been unhappy with Tsar Nicholas II, but World War I was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. In other words, the war dealt the final blow to an institution that had been dying a long death.

Russia had been defeated in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905, and, as a result of this humiliating defeat, there was a revolutionary uprising in 1905 that the tsar quashed. During these uprisings, the Black Sea Fleet mutinied, and there were workers' strikes. Though this revolution was put down, a widespread feeling of discontent remained among the Russian army and people. In addition, the Duma, or Russian Parliament, was agitating for more power from the tsar.

When Russia entered World War I in 1914, the war had widespread domestic support. However, the war quickly went sour, and the Russian army was not sufficiently equipped. As a result, the war on the Eastern Front went badly for Russia, causing immense casualties, and there were military mutinies. In addition, there were widespread food shortages in Russia because interruptions in the railroad lines meant food could not get to Russia. The economy was in bad shape, as Russian goods could not get to European markets because of the war. As a result, the Russians revolted against the tsar, and he was overthrown in 1917. The Tsardom had officially ended in Russia in 1721, but Nicholas II was the last person to hold the title of tsar (or emperor) in Russia. 

`4, 9, 14, 19, 24` Determine whether the sequence is arithmetic. If so, find the common difference.

In an arithmetic sequence, the difference between any two consecutive numbers is same, that difference is called as common difference. 

Given sequence is 4,9,14,19,24....

So lets find out the common difference

common difference  `d= a_n - a_(n-1)`

`a_2 - a_1 = 9 - 4 = 5 `

`a_3 - a_2 = 14 - 9 = 5 `

`a_4 - a_3 = 19 - 14 = 5 `

`a_5 - a_4 = 24 - 19 = 5 `

The common difference of the sequence is same. So, the given sequence is an arithmetic sequence.

How does subplot help the main plot in King Lear?

Shakespeare's intent is to show how one generation gradually supplants the generation that bore and nurtured it. The subplot deals with meles, whereas the main plot deals with females. This suggests a universality to the theme. Keats speaks of "hungry generations" treading down the older generations in his "Ode to a Nightingale." This is really what King Lear is about. The characters and their stories are only rather extreme examples of a general rule. 

Furthermore, the subplot is really necessary because the main plot has more or less stalled. Nothing is happening. King Lear disowns both his daughters and goes out into the open country to live like a vagabond. His daughters make no effort to persuade him to return to the shelter they are willing to provide if he accedes to their terms. There is a standoff in the conflict between Lear and his daughters. This is dramatically dangerous. It risks losing audience involvement. This is where the subplot involving Gloucester and his two sons is needed. Edmund wants to take over everything his father owns, including his title. He writes his own sentiments in a letter but attributes them to his naive brother Edgar.

'This policy and reverence of age makes the world bitter to the
best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness
cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the
oppression of aged tyranny; who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our
father would sleep till I waked him, you should half his revenue for
ever, and live the beloved of your brother.             I.2

Edmund's treatment of his father parallels what Goneril and Regan have done to Lear. Soon Gloucester will find himself out in the cold, just like Lear. There will be a very poignant meeting between these two old men in Act 4, Scene 6. It is both sad and funny. Life is a tragedy. Life is a comedy. It always has been. Like a lot of old men, Lear and Gloucester discuss the human condition from the point of view of old age.

Only the man who attains old age acquires a complete and consistent mental picture of life; for he views it in its entirety and its natural course, yet in particular he sees it not merely from the point of entry, as do others, but also from that of departure. In this way, he fully perceives especially its utter vanity, whereas others are still always involved in the erroneous idea that everything may come right in the end.
                                                                  Schopenhauer

Lear and Gloucester have lost everything. They have been pushed aside. Nobody cares about them. So they are both philosophical about life. They do not talk about their offspring, because their children are only examples of a general rule. They are more interested in the general rule itself. They talk about humanity as a whole and about the meaninglessness of life. This is where Shakespeare states his thesis, which is the guiding light of the whole play. 

How can I define, compare, and contrast the "Good Samaritan" Rule and the American Bystander Rule?

The Good Samaritan Rule is named after a story in the Bible in which a Samaritan (an ethnicity of people the Jews generally disliked at the time) helps a Jew in a time of need, thus making him the "good Samaritan". It says essentially that we have some obligation, either morally or legally, to help others who need help. When you ask people, most of them agree with something similar to this; if you can help without great cost to yourself, you ought to do so.

The American Bystander Rule, on the other hand, is a legal doctrine in common law (originating in the US, hence the name) that bystanders do not have any legal or criminal liability for failing to help someone in need, even if they could have done so very easily. One of the arguments in its favor is that people already tend to help out of a feeling of moral obligation; but if they don't (and some people don't!), the American Bystander Rule requires that they cannot be punished for their inaction.

Both principles prescribe approaches to dealing with incidents where someone helps or doesn't help someone else; but they prescribe fundamentally opposite actions. The Good Samaritan Rule says that we must help; the American Bystander Rule says that we do not need to help, and no one can punish us if we don't. It is possible to believe in the Good Samaritan Rule morally but the American Bystander Rule legally, on the grounds of personal liberty: Perhaps the government has no right to compel you to act, even if morally you should.

When does Papa bring Mr. Morrison home to protect the family while he's working?

In Chapter 2 of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Papa brings Mr. L.T. Morrison home with him. Mr. Morrison is described as a powerful, hulking man: "The man was a human tree in height, towering high above Papa's six feet two inches. The long trunk of his massive body bulged with muscles" (page numbers vary by edition). Papa explains that Mr. Morrison lost his position working on the railroad and that he has brought Mr. Morrison home to work as a hired hand. Mr. Morrison tells Mama that he got into a fight with white men, a fight that was their fault, and was fired as a result. Cassie wonders if Papa has brought Mr. Morrison home because of the "burnings" that have been going on. Whites have been harassing African-Americans with forms of vigilante activity, and Cassie senses that Papa has brought Mr. Morrison to their house to protect the family while Papa is away. 

What do the boys accidentally do in Chapter Two of Lord of the Flies by William Golding?

The boys accidentally set fire to part of the island as they build a rescue fire.

After Ralph waves the conch, the boys are calmed by his assurance that they will be rescued because, as the son of a Navy commander, he knows that sooner or later a ship will come near enough to the island. But, he adds, the best thing to do is to build a rescue fire, as the ships will easily see the smoke and know that the island is inhabited.

The boys enthusiastically shout, "A fire! Make a fire!" They go down about a hundred feet below them where there is some dead wood and gather it. Enthusiastically, the boys drag dead wood and pile it excitedly on the point of the mountain where they have been.

Ralph and Jack looked at each other while society paused about them. The shameful knowledge grew in them and they did not know how to begin confession. 

Ralph asks Jack to light the fire. They are not sure how to do this, so Roger calls out that they must make a bow and spin the arrow. Just then, Piggy comes up the side and Jack shouts, "His specs--use them as burning glasses!" The boys surround Piggy and take his glasses. Jack blows on the fire after Ralph waves the glasses back and forth igniting the old, rotten wood. The boys cheer and dance in glee. However, because the pile is so rotted, the fire blazes out of control as 

[L]ife became a race with the fire and the boys scattered through the upper forest. To keep a clean flag of flame flying on the mountain was the immediate end and no one looked further....Acres of black and yellow smoke rolled steadily toward the sea.

The reality of destruction becomes clear to the boys. After the fire goes out, no one can find the boy with the mulberry scar, so the fire becomes symbolic of the power of brute force.

Who represented France and England at Versailles?

After World War I ended, a peace treaty was signed at Versailles. The people who represented the Allies at Versailles were Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and Georges Clemenceau of France. These leaders made up what was called The Big Four.

Woodrow Wilson proposed his version of a peace treaty that was known as the Fourteen Points. In the eyes of the European leaders, they felt that Wilson’s peace proposal was too idealistic and too easy on the defeated enemies. The other Allied leaders wanted a very harsh treaty. They believed Germany had the power to prevent Austria-Hungary from declaring war on Serbia, but Germany failed to take that action.

As a result, the Versailles Treaty was very harsh on Germany. Germany had to accept responsibility for the war and pay very high reparations. Germany lost some land it had gained in the past including Alsace and Lorraine. Germany was not allowed to have a military that could go on the offensive. The League of Nations was created to try to prevent future wars.

This harsh treaty helped create the resentment that ultimately led Germany on the path toward another world war just 21 years after World War I ended.

In the short story The Open Window by Saki, are Mrs. Sappleton's husband and brothers alive?

The short answer to your question is yes. In the story, Vera tells Framton a fabricated story about Mrs. Sappleton's husband and brothers in order to amuse herself. The author tells us that 'Romance at short notice was her specialty.' This just means that Vera enjoys making up imaginative, intense stories as an impromptu amusement.

According to Vera's gothic story, Mrs. Sappleton's husband and her two brothers were lost 'three years ago to a day' while making their way to their favorite hunting spot. She mysteriously hints that they must have been 'engulfed in a treacherous piece of bog' since their bodies were never found. Vera's sly suggestions leave open the possibility of the three men appearing through the French windows on some quiet evening; the thought, however, thoroughly discomposes Framton.

When the three men do appear after a short period of time, Framton is convinced that he is seeing ghosts. To Vera's private amusement, their guest beats a hasty retreat out of the house. In the story, we are provided some indications that the three men are still alive:

1)Framton describes an 'undefinable something' that suggests 'masculine habitation' in the room he is in.

2)The author acquaints us with Framton's nervous temperament from the beginning of the story. He is characterized as a hypochondriac of sorts who believes that he needs utmost peace and quiet in order to recover from his myriad ailments.

3)The author characterizes Vera as a mischievous young lady who is not above having a bit of fun at her guest's expense. Besides reducing the impressionable Framton to a nervous wreck, Vera also fabricates a fantastic story about his hasty retreat.

We may safely infer from the above that the men have always been alive and that they were never lost in some treacherous bog.

Hope this helps!

In economics, what is comparative advantage?

In economics, an entity (usually a country, but it could be a region, state, or even a person) has comparative advantage over another entity when it can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than the other entity can.  Please note that this does NOT mean that the first entity can produce more of the good or that it can produce it more efficiently.  Instead, it just means that the first entity has a lower opportunity cost for producing that good.

Opportunity cost is the value of what is given up when one makes a particular choice.  Let us imagine that your country could produce either cars or trucks (or a mixture of both).  Whenever you decide to make more cars, you give up the ability to make a certain number of trucks.  The number of trucks that you have to forego making is your opportunity cost.  If your country and another country both made cars and trucks, you would have a comparative advantage in cars if you had a lower opportunity cost for making cars.  That is, you would have a comparative advantage if, every time you made an additional car, you gave up the opportunity to make fewer trucks than the other country.

Comparative advantage, then, occurs when you (or your country) can make something at a lower opportunity cost than some other person (or country).  Please follow the link below for an example that is explained in detail with number to illustrate it.

What was the subject of Mr. Hooper's sermon on the day he began to wear the veil? How did the veil affect his topic?

During the first sermon that Mr. Hooper gives once he begins to wear the veil, he addresses "secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them."  In other words, Mr. Hooper talks about the fact that every human being has a secret, sinful nature; however, we try to hide that nature from all our fellows -- indeed, we try to forget about it ourselves as well -- and we can even delude ourselves into thinking that God, himself, is unaware of our secret sins.  And although Mr. Hooper delivers the sermon in much the same way as he ever has, gently and beseechingly rather than violently and threateningly, his audience considered it to be "the most powerful effort that they had ever heard from their pastor's lips [....] and [...] the hearers quaked."  Thus, it must bear the stamp of truth because they feel it to be more persuasive and evocative than any other sermon of his that they have heard. 

The veil's symbolism, then, is the subject of this sermon.  It is a tangible representation of our desire to hide our true natures from the world.  If one fears revealing their secret sinfulness to the world, it is as though they hold up a figurative veil between themselves and everyone else.  Therefore, when Mr. Hooper discusses this sinfulness that we insist on trying to hide, he is really explaining what the veil, itself, means.

What are some examples of satire in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a brilliant satirical piece, and there are many ways in which Twain lampoons his targets. One of the best examples of satire in the novel occurs toward the end, when Tom Sawyer hatches a ridiculously elaborate plan to free Jim. 

While Huck wants to free Jim from his prison on the Phelps' property using the easiest and most efficient method, Tom concocts a needlessly elaborate scheme. Rather than simply freeing Jim by means of a poorly blocked window in his prison, Tom proposes that he and Huck dig Jim out (229), saying that this scheme is better because it's more complicated. Additionally, Tom refuses to use picks and shovels to dig out Jim, but rather insists on using much less effective case knives (237). Finally, after doing many more foolish things, Tom insists on actually writing letters to the Phelps advising them that an escape is imminent, as he believes that doing so will heighten the excitement of the escape (261-2).

Tom follows this absurd plan in order to emulate the romantic adventure novels he is infatuated with. For instance, when Huck asks him why he wants to use case knives, Tom insists "it's the regular way. And there ain't no other way, that ever I heard of, and I've read all the books that gives any information about these things" (237). Here, and later on in the passage, Tom alludes to reading and drawing inspiration from historical romances and adventure novels, and so he bases his plan on an absurd, irrational, and fictional portrayal of chivalric adventures. By presenting the themes in historical romances as the games of mere boys, Twain brilliantly satirizes them.  

What do elements within a group number have the same number of?

All the elements within the same group, in the periodic table of elements, have the same number of valence electrons. These are the electrons in the outer orbital. For example, the group 1 or alkali metals include hydrogen (H), lithium (Li), sodium (Na), potassium (K), rubidium (Rb), cesium (Cs) and francium (Fr). Each of these elements have 1 electron in the outer orbital. 

For example, hydrogen has an atomic number of 1 and an electronic configuration of 1s1. Thus, it has 1 valence electron.

Similarly, lithium has an atomic number of 3 and an electronic configuration of 1s2, 2s1. Thus lithium also has 1 valence electron.

Similarly, all the other elements of group 1 also have the same number of valence electrons.

We can see the same for other groups of elements within our periodic table as well.

Hope this helps. 

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, how is prejudice shown when it comes to the character Boo Radley?

The word "prejudice" can be defined as any preconceived notion about someone or something, and can be either positive or negative. Generally, when people hear the word they apply a negative connotation. In To Kill a Mockingbird, however, Boo Radley is the subject of both positive and negative prejudices. In the beginning of the book, Scout describes her first recollections of Boo Radley as neighborhood boogieman or ghost. She hears stories about him from Jem, who received most of his information from the town gossip, Stephanie Crawford. The following is a story that causes quite an alarm for years:

"According to Miss Stephanie, Boo was sitting in the living room cutting some items from the Maycomb Tribune to paste in his scrapbook. His father entered the room. As Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent's leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities" (11).

Stories like this one make the neighbors and the whole community afraid to walk past the house or ever make contact with the Radleys. Scout catalogues some other prejudice behavior on account of fear from rumors:

". . . people still looked at the Radley Place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions. A Negro would not pass the Radley Place at night, he would cut across to the sidewalk opposite and whistle as he walked" (9).

Other prejudice behavior includes school children not eating any nuts that fall from the Radley trees into the school yard. When there is a crime in town, the people first think of the Radleys (9). Many of these prejudice behaviors stemmed from fear, rumors, and superstition as the years went on.

Fortunately, there were some people who pitied the Radleys, or at least respected their right to live as they pleased. For example, Atticus told Jem to mind his own business and let the Radleys mind theirs when Jem asked about them (11). Miss Maudie tells Scout that she grew up with Arthur Radley and remembers him to have been a nice, well-spoken boy . But the best is when Heck Tate favors Boo Radley with a positive prejudice by protecting him after he saves Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell's knife:

"I never heard tell that it's against the law for a citizen to do his utmost to prevent a crime from being committed, which is exactly what he did, but maybe you'll say it's my duty to tell the town all about it and not hush it up. Know what'd happen then? All the ladies in Maycomb includin' my wife'd be knocking on his door.. . . To my way of thinkin', Mr. Finch, taking the one man who's done you and this town a great service an' draggin' him with his shy ways into the limelight--to me, that's a sin" (276).

Thus, Sheriff Tate shows favor, or positive prejudice, on behalf of Boo Radley by keeping his name safe from the people of Maycomb. A person who is shy or suffering from a mental illness should be allowed to live in peace. Maybe the negative prejudices actually allowed Boo Radley to be left alone in a good way; but people will always be prejudiced when faced with people or situations that they don't understand.

What are some examples of the ways that war has benefited culture?

War has led to considerable social and cultural change. Sometimes this occurs in opposition to war, as in the 1960s counterculture that accompanied the antiwar movement. War can also lead to subtle cultural change that can have tremendous consequences. For example, many Americans, having fought against repressive regimes in Germany and Japan, were more willing to accept the changes promoted by the Civil Rights Movement. Indeed, President Harry Truman paid tribute to the service of black soldiers when he integrated the US military just three years after the war ended. War can also promote nationalism, which can have positive and negative consequences, but always involves significant cultural change. Finally, wars often foster cultural change by leading to collisions of different cultures. Many historians have argued that the Crusades, for example, contributed to major cultural change in Europe by exposing Europeans to the culture of the Middle East. Likewise, American participation in World War II created an internationalist mindset that would last throughout the twentieth century. 

What is Miss Strangeworth's reputation in town?

The matter of Miss Strangeworth's reputation is an interesting thing to think about. The narrative voice in the story is omniscient, yet much of the time it seems almost as though the story is being described via Miss Strangeworth's own thoughts. So when we read the statement "the town was proud of Miss Strangeworth and her roses and her house," the line comes across somewhat like a bit of self-assurance that Miss Strangeworth herself might have decided was true. Prior to that line, delivered as Miss Strangeworth is walking home from the grocery store, we have already seen multiple people acting uneasy when Miss Strangeworth talks to them. It seems as though there is another underlying feeling about her beyond the pride that she both feels and believes others feel about her.

After the scene in her house where we witness Miss Strangeworth writing several rude notes to people in her town, we begin to see what she is really like. Miss Strangeworth writes her notes anonymously, consciously choosing to spread suspicion in spite of having no factual cause, because she feels that she is doing a service for everyone in helping people be on guard against possible problems. But as it turns out, her method of anonymous gossip to warn people of possible evils in the world is worse than any evil she imagines they might encounter; Miss Strangeworth is the "possible evil" in the town.

In light of our discovery of her true nature, it is easy to see through the words that describe her after she leaves her house to mail the rude letters she has just written. When she arrives at the post office, the narrative says:

Most of the children stood back respectfully as Miss Strangeworth passed, silenced briefly in her presence, and some of the older children greeted her; saying soberly, "Hello, Miss Strangeworth."

If we visualize this scene in our heads, "respect" is perhaps not the word that comes to mind. The children had been happily skating and hanging out together before she emerged in the darkening evening to mail her letters. It seems like all of them froze. It is odd that children happily playing would suddenly cease all movement and noise in someone's presence unless they had a reason to stop. The feeling of discomfort is heavy here.

Miss Strangeworth is oblivious to the feelings of other people in regard to herself. Her own pride blinds her, causing Miss Strangeworth to have to speculate about people's thoughts. And because she is prideful, she never imagines they think of her in any other light than a positive one. Whether there had been respect for Miss Strangeworth before, we ultimately see that her facade is about to be torn away in the last line of the story. She cries about the "evil" that could have caused someone to destroy her roses (ironically not realizing that her own behavior is the evil that led to it).

It is not likely that the destruction of the acclaimed rose garden will go unnoticed. As an act of revenge and rage, it is rather likely that the mere destruction will not be the last thing that the rose-destroyer does about the injury he or she has received. He or she is likely to tell somebody about who and what provoked the deed. People will begin to put together the evidence and realize that the notes they have been receiving for the past year have all been written by the same person. Will the townsfolk pity her for the loss of her roses? Will people feel the "pride" that we were told they felt for Miss Strangeworth? Judging by the damage we have already seen alluded to in the story, it is not likely that Miss Strangeworth's reputation is going to come out of this situation unscathed.

Who had more reason to rebel, the colonists controled by Great Britain or the people of France?

This is a difficult question to answer because whether one reason was more valid than another is entirely subjective. The French people, for example, might have said that their reason was better than the colonists' and vice-versa. Moreover, their reasons for rebellion were in many ways similar, but their circumstances were quite different. Given that, it might be more useful to look at each situation individually and see where they overlap.

Over the course of the 18th century, many colonists had grown frustrated with the British government for a number of reasons. In simple terms, they were being ruled by a government that was very far away and almost completely detached from what was actually going on in the colonies. Most importantly, they had no voice when it came to political decisions that were being made thousands of miles away. For that reason, they came to resent "taxation without representation," meaning that they were being forced to pay taxes to a government that didn't represent them in the decision-making process.

While the colonists were angry about their ruling party's inaction within the colonies, by the end of the 18th century many French people were angry about their government's actions in their country. At this point in time, France had accrued considerable debt and tried to fix the problem by imposing high taxes and tightly controlling the people. Additionally, there were many French people who had grown tired of the rigid cultural boundaries imposed upon them and wanted major social and political reform.

In both cases, the people were angry with their government, who they believed no longer represented their wants and needs. As a result, both groups mounted a rebellion to form a society that was controlled by and for the people. For the colonists, that meant gaining sovereignty and having absolute control over their lives, whereas the French pushed for a more secular government that had their best interest in mind.  

As for which was more valid, both rebellions were about personal freedoms and gaining the right to control their own lives, which makes their reasons very similar. 

Are there anti-European feelings in Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant?"

Anti-European feelings drive the narrative in "Shooting an Elephant." The story's narrator sets the tone in the first sentence by saying, "In lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people." These people, as he goes on to explain, are the native Burmese, who hate their European colonizers. The narrator says the "anti- European feeling was very bitter." Nobody has the nerve to openly rebel, but the native people do all sorts of small things that make the narrator's life, as a police officer and representative of the British empire, a misery: they trip him on the football (soccer) field while the referee looks the other and in the town, "hoot ...insults" at him when he is too far down the street to retaliate. He says the Buddhists priests are the worst: they seem to have nothing to do but "stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans." 

It is this tense, hostile relationship between the narrator and the natives that leads him to feel he has no choice but the shoot the elephant, even though he knows it is the wrong thing to do. Europeans are not supposed to show fear in front of the natives. He shoots the elephant, even though it causes the animal to suffer, because he can't afford to lose face in front of the Burmese.

Why is Fan's news exciting for Scrooge?

As a boy, Ebenezer Scrooge lived a solitary life at school.  He knew his father as an unkind man who had sent Ebenezer away to live at school.  His home was not a happy place. At school, Ebenezer found solace in reading.  

One day around Christmastime, Ebenezer's younger sister Fan entered the room where he sat reading.  He was much older than she was.  She excitedly told him that their father was a changed person and that she has come to bring him home.  She explained that their father was much kinder than he was before.  Ebenezer was excited to learn that their once sad home was now a happy place.  Fan told her brother that he was coming home for good and that they would spend a happy Christmas together at home.  Happily, they drove off together in a carriage.

What are some examples of foreshadowing in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck?

In his novella Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck foreshadows the key events which dominate the end of the novel. Foreshadowing is the use of clues that suggest events that have yet to occur. There are three distinct episodes of foreshadowing in the book.

First, the reader learns in chapter one that Lennie is often deadly to small animals. He is obsessed with soft things that he can pet, but he doesn't realize his own strength. We learn that his Aunt Clara would give Lennie mice but they always ended up dead. Lennie explains,

“They was so little,” he said, apologetically. “I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead—because they was so little."

His handling of mice foreshadows the death of the puppy in chapter five. Lennie is in the barn mourning his puppy when Curley's wife comes in.

The episode with Curley's wife in chapter five is foreshadowed in chapter one and again in chapter three. While the two men were working in Weed, Lennie saw a girl in a red dress and wanted to feel the dress. When she screams, he holds on and is eventually accused of rape. George explains to Slim in chapter three:

“Well, he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch ever’thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do. Well, this girl squawks and squawks. I was jus’ a little bit off, and I heard all the yellin’, so I comes running, an’ by that time Lennie’s so scared all he can think to do is jus’ hold on."

The scene with Curley's wife is virtually the same. While Lennie is stroking Curley's wife's hair when she attempts to pull away and Lennie holds on. When she screams, he gets scared and then angry. Steinbeck writes:

And she continued to struggle, and her eyes were wild with terror. He shook her then, and he was angry with her. “Don’t you go yellin’,” he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck. 

The third episode of foreshadowing is when Carlson kills Candy's dog. Carlson claims the dog is suffering and should be put down. He suggests that Candy do it, but the old man doesn't have the heart to kill the dog he raised from a puppy. He later regrets the decision and tells George,

“I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog.”

George remembers these words and when Curley's wife is found dead he makes the fateful decision to kill Lennie himself rather than let Curley or the other men get to him first. George has told Lennie to return to the spot by the Salinas River which is the setting of chapter one if any trouble occurs, and that's where he's found in the final scene. Like the dog, Lennie needs to be put down so George shoots him in the back of the head with Carlson's Luger, the same gun used on the dog in chapter three.

What are the internal and external conflicts in An Abundance of Katherines?

The internal conflict is a conflict that the protagonist has to overcome within themselves. Usually this has to do with feelings to resolve and goals to reach. The external conflict is a conflict the protagonist has with external forces.  These forces are usually other characters or nature.

Colin's internal conflict comes from his desire to have a "Eureka" moment.  He has been told his entire life that he is a child prodigy, and he is terrified that he won't live up to his potential to be a genius.  Colin wants to make an impact on the world that won't be forgotten, but the resolution is more about accepting himself than about finishing his theorem.

Colin's external conflict comes from his breakup. He is heartbroken after the end of his relationship with Katherine (the 19th Katherine he's dated, also known as Katherine the Great).  He must learn to move on from his relationships, and he does so through a road trip and meeting new people.  Another external conflict comes from his friendship with Hassan and his relationship with Lindsey.  He is at odds with people because of his often abrasive and self-absorbed personality.

Does Robert Frost know who owns the woods?

The speaker of the poem, who is presumably Robert Frost himself, thinks he knows who owns the woods he has stopped to look at. The first stanza reads:

Whose woods these are I think I know.  
His house is in the village though;  
He will not see me stopping here  
To watch his woods fill up with snow. 

He is pretty sure he knows the owner, but he must not know him very well or he would be completely sure whether he was the owner of the woods. The owner lives in town and Frost lives in the country, so they would not be likely to be friends. However, the man Frost thinks owns these woods would recognize him if he saw him stopping to look at them. There is a certain air of mystery in the quoted stanza. Why should Frost care whether the owner sees him looking at his woods? In other words, why should Frost be particularly concerned about being seen by that one man and not by other passers-by? This is rural New Hampshire. Everybody knows everybody. Anybody who saw Frost stopped in that spot would probably recognize him. But Frost apparently is not concerned about being seen by anyone other than the owner of these trees.

The time is specified as December 21st, which is the "darkest evening of the year" because it is the longest. At that time of year the deciduous trees would have all shed their leaves. The only trees worth looking at would be spruce trees. Many people raise spruce trees in New Hampshire to sell them as Christmas trees. They are an important crop. Frost is stopping to look at the trees "fill up with snow" because it is a beautiful sight. But he knows that the owner of the trees would not understand that he was only enjoying an aesthetic experience. The owner would think that Frost was probably planning to chop down one of the saplings and take it home to decorate for a Christmas tree. People in rural New Hampshire surely do not buy their Christmas trees off a man in a leather jacket who is renting a vacant lot in some city or large town and living in a little trailer. They go out and chop down a tree. This is all right as long as they don't chop down a tree that some neighbor is raising to sell.

Perhaps Frost is a little worried about being seen by the owner of the trees because he has some notion in the back of his mind of doing just what he thinks the owner would suspect him of planning. It is but one step from admiring something to wanting to take possession of it. If Frost had sat there long enough he might have decided that one little evergreen tree wasn't going make any difference to a man who owned so many.

Frost once said:

Everything written is as good as it is dramatic. It need not declare itself in form, but it is drama or nothing.

Frost tried to make his poems dramatic, and he added a touch of drama to "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by introducing the possibility of being seen by the owner, who might not be sitting by his fireplace in the village but might be out running errands, just like Frost himself. The owner would not have a poetic temperament or an appreciation of snow-laded spruce trees for anything except their commercial value. He would not understand that Frost was "just looking." What he would think would be that he had arrived just in time to save one of his saplings. Whether or not Frost might have been thinking of stealing a Christmas tree, the owner would tell other people about the incident, and it would hurt Frost's reputation. So there was just enough danger to make the little poem dramatic.

How is Holden Caulfield portrayed as a sexist in The Catcher in the Rye? Are there any examples found in the book?

Holden Caulfield doesn't seem as much of a sexist as he could be. He seems to respect Jane, Sally, and Phoebe--girls he already knows and likes. However, he does seem to say some things about women that are insensitive at best and sexist at worst. For example, when he meets Mrs. Morrow on the train, he notices that her voice is really nice to listen to. He thinks the following about her as they first start talking on the train:

"She had a nice voice. A nice telephone voice, mostly. She should've carried a goddam telephone around with her" (54).

This telephone reference alludes to the fact that telephone operators in the 1940s and 1950s were mostly women. It's as if he's connecting her to a stereotypically female career that doesn't require anything other than a nice-sounding voice. It's good for her, though, that he didn't say that she only has a face for radio because "ugly girls" are the next on Holden's list who receive the sexist attitude.

Later at Ernie's, Holden is scoping out the place, and judging people like he does best, when he notices an interesting couple. He listens in to their conversation and the man is telling his date about a football game and all of its plays. Holden continues by saying the following:

"He was the most boring guy I ever listened to. And you could tell his date wasn't even interested in the goddam game, but she was even funnier-looking than he was, so I guess she had to listen. Real ugly girls have it tough. I feel so sorry for them sometimes" (85). 

In this passage, Holden is sexist because he is basically saying that if an ugly girl wants to be taken care of, get married, or have a good life, then she will have to put up with any boring guy who will have her. He seems sensitive to her plight, but it's as if he only sees her future with a boring man rather than successfully accomplishing her own goals in life. Maybe she's giving the boring guy a pity date and not the other way around; but, being sexist, that's not how Holden would see it. All he can see is how pitiful her plight is and how she needs someone to take care of her because she's ugly. 

Finally, Holden looks at women as if they were hunks of meat to buy. As he's waiting for Sally to show up for their date, Holden watches all of the other girls there in the lobby with him.

"A lot of schools were home for vacation already, and there were about a million girls sitting and standing around waiting for their dates to show up. Girls with their legs crossed, girls with terrific legs, girls with lousy legs, girls that looked like swell girls. . . It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. . . You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to a gallon in their goddam cars. . . Guys that never read books. Guys that are very boring--" (123).

The above passage shows Holden checking out girls like a normal teenager would; but then again, he figures that most of them will just end up marrying "dopey" guys. He doesn't look at a woman and say, "Gee, she would make a great businesswoman," only that she'll marry some phony. On the other hand, life was like that back in the 1940s and 1950s. Women were expected to get married and have children, not seek out careers or anything more for themselves. And yet, therein lies the irony, too. Holden might just be a product of the sexist society that he lives in. Either way, betting on a woman getting married, or being saved by getting married, without considering her potential for other possible choices in her life portrays a sexist attitude.

How does the play Twelve Angry Men demonstrate that tolerance can eventually overcome prejudice and anger?

In the drama Twelve Angry Men, one juror in particular, Juror 3, is very angry, and another, Juror 10, is bigoted. These two men allow their emotions to influence their reaction to the evidence and their opinion regarding the verdict. Both men vote "guilty" from the beginning and are among the last to be won over to the "not guilty" verdict. 

Does the drama demonstrate that tolerance can overcome anger and bigotry? In a sense, perhaps, but in a sense, no. The man who is angry is projecting the anger he has toward his own son onto the defendant, who is about the same age. It is not clear whether he understands himself why he is so angry and why he feels anger toward the defendant. In the 1957 motion picture version, the man accidentally pulls out a photograph of his son near the end of the drama, and when he sees the picture, he tears it up, then breaks down crying and mutters, "Not guilty." It appears he realizes at this point that he has concatenated the two boys in his emotions, and this realization allows him to break the emotional link so he can vote "not guilty." It is not tolerance that overcomes his anger, but the peer pressure from the other men that forces him to recognize the root of his anger and separate it from the case at hand. Whether he remains angry at his son or not is unclear, but at least it appears he is able to release his unfounded anger toward the defendant.

The example of the bigoted man, Juror 10, is also interesting. He refuses to consider the evidence in the case because his mind is made up about the defendant's guilt based on the defendant being one of "those people." The ethnicity of the defendant and the part of the city he lives in, the slums, are enough to convince the man of the boy's guilt. At one point in the trial, the man goes on a bigoted rant, and the other jurors respond by turning their backs to him or moving away from him while he is spewing his prejudice. Eventually one juror tells him to sit down and be quiet and to not speak again. It does not appear that the juror has changed his opinions about the ethnic group and become more tolerant; however, he does change his verdict to "not guilty" at the next vote. Again, it is the peer pressure brought to bear on him by the other men in the form of a public shaming that causes him to change his vote, yet we have no indication that the man has become a more tolerant person. We can hope that he will take this lesson to heart, but the drama gives us no indication that will happen.

For these two jurors, anger and bigotry interfere with their ability to see the facts clearly. Significant peer pressure brought to bear on them by the other jurors results in them setting aside their anger and prejudice for the moment, but there is nothing to show that they have learned to be more tolerant of others. If one imagines how those jurors behave after the jury disbands, one could see two scenarios play out: one in which each man has learned to be more tolerant, and one in which they continue in their anger or prejudice. From this drama, it is more accurate to say that appropriate peer pressure can result in the suppression of intolerant behavior. 

How did the Treaty of Versailles lead to economic hardship and hyperinflation for the German economy?

The Treaty of Versailles had many harsh effects on Germany. The Treaty of Versailles had significant negative economic impacts on Germany. Germany was required to pay the Allies $33 billion in reparations for the war damages caused by World War I. These payments made it very difficult for Germany to take actions that would help Germany’s economy grow. Since Germany had to make these payments, they didn’t have as much money to invest in their economy. When the Great Depression occurred in Germany, these payments made it hard for the government of the Weimar Republic to take steps to effectively deal with the Great Depression.

Compounding the problems Germany faced with the high reparations was that the Germany government began to print more paper money. This led to out-of-control inflation as prices rose since people had more money to spend, but the supply of goods didn’t increase. This created further problems in Germany, which eventually led to the failure of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi Party to power.

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would...

I would argue that we should wholeheartedly embrace this ideological perspective.  We should allow everyone to speak their mind, regardless of what they think.  However, this does not mean that we should let people speak their minds without challenging them and letting them know that we disapprove of their ideas when it is necessary.

I would argue that the freedom of speech is a fundamental human right.  People have the right to believe whatever they want.  They also have the right to try to convince people that their opinions are correct.  (Please note, however, that this right extends only to discussion of ideas, not to the point where people are trying to stir up violence against one another.)  If we deny this right to people who think unpopular things, we will eventually end up with a society where there is no freedom of speech and the government or the majority can simply control what people are allowed to say.  This would be disastrous as there would be no way left to speak out against government abuses or against the majority if it did things that were morally wrong.  Therefore, we need to protect the freedom of speech zealously, even when (or perhaps especially when) we disagree with the ideas that the speaker is proposing.

However, this does not mean that we should just let people say what they want without challenging them.  When a politician says that we should order our soldiers to kill the families of terrorists, we should allow the politician to say that.  However, we should then speak out loudly, making sure that he knows that we disapprove.  We should not try to shout him down.  Instead, we should explain why our views are superior to his and why his views are dangerous.  It is wrong to let hateful or harmful speech go unanswered, just as it is wrong to try to prevent someone from uttering hateful words.

For these reasons, we should embrace this ideological perspective completely, but we should do so without giving up our right to speak out against ideas that we abhor.

How do you describe Pumblechook's role in Great Expectations?

Pumblechook serves as comic relief and represents the disingenuous nature of those who admire the rich.

Here is a basic description of Uncle Pumblechook.

Uncle Pumblechook’s role is to provide comic relief.  He is laughably absurd.  It is clear that he is posing as more important than he actually is.  He enjoys abusing Pip, pretending he is doing it for his own good.  He pretends to know Miss Havisham to make himself seem important.

Pumblechook is described as a “well-to-do cornchandler” (Ch. 4).  All that means is that he is a shopkeeper.  Pumblechook’s greatest character flaw is that he puts on airs constantly, even around his family.

I was not allowed to call him uncle, under the severest penalties. (Ch. 4)

Pumblechook torments Pip, and seems to only like Mrs. Joe.  He clearly considers himself better than Joe, and definitely thinks he is superior to Pip because Pip is only a child.  He constantly tells Pip that he should be grateful to his sister for having raised him.

Pumblechook torments Pip as a matter of sport, and believes that he knows more than anyone else about any subject.  The greatest example of his posing comes when he says that he can introduce Pip to Miss Havisham and pretends to know her well.  Clearly he has never even seen her.

“Boy! What like is Miss Havisham?” …

“Very tall and dark,” I told him.

“Is she, uncle?” asked my sister.

Mr. Pumblechook winked assent; from which I at once inferred that he had never seen Miss Havisham, for she was nothing of the kind. (Ch. 9)

Pumblechook’s role pretty much ends after Pip develops ties with Miss Havisham.  As he gets older, Pip likes him less and less, calling him a “fearful imposter” and an “abject hypocrite.”  Soon Pip is much more important than his uncle.  When Pip comes into his expectations, Pumblechook pretends that he cares about him and gives himself credit for everything.

What makes Gwen likable in Freak the mighty?

The main thing that makes Gwen likable in Freak the Mighty is that she continues to love, nurture, and stick with Kevin for his entire life. Keep in mind that Loretta tells us that Kevin’s dad was labeled a “magician” because he “heard the words birth defect and disappeared.” While Kevin’s dad chose escape, Kevin’s mom chose perseverance. Gwen is a survivor and fully deserves the name “Fair Gwen” like the queen in the King Arthur legend.

Gwen is also a good person in other ways. We know this because of her first interactions with Max. Gwen’s first instinct is to protect Kevin from the boy who not only looks just like his criminal father but also used to bully kids in daycare. After Gwen removes Kevin from Max’s basement, she obviously talks to Kevin and learns Max’s true character. Gwen immediately apologizes, admits she is “delighted” the two boys are friends, and invites Max over for dinner. This entire scene shows Gwen to be a really likable character: a good person who is willing to admit her mistakes.

What is the lucky day for people born under the sun sign of Virgo?

This is a tricky question to answer, especially as many people may consider certain days their personal "lucky days," even if it is at odds with what might be suggested by their astrological chart. There is also some disagreement as to the dates for the Western astrological calendar due to the fact that planetary bodies are constantly in motion and changing positions relative to one another. Currently, most people who practice astrology believe that those who are born between the 23rd of August and the 22nd of September are born under the sun sign of Virgo.

This web article by amateur astrologer Keith Abbott suggests that a Virgo's luck may be dependent upon when they were born during the month of Virgo. Beginning with the start date of August 23rd, each week corresponds with a quarter of the moon's cycle. This means that whichever week of Virgo you were born during may correspond to increased luck during the first, second, third, or fourth quarter of the moon. He also mentions that Virgos may be especially lucky on days of the month which are divisible by the number three.

This webpage offers an alternate means of finding out your lucky days in life. The author suggests that when the total sum of numbers for a date is the same as the total sum of numbers for your birthdate, you will have a lucky day. The author also offers dates during each month which may be especially lucky for Virgos-- click the link to check out more detailed descriptions.

Another web astrologer states that Wednesday is an especially lucky day for Virgos.

While it can be a challenging task, if you want to get a really in-depth astrological analysis for your personal relationship with the stars, I recommend having someone draw up your star chart. Alternately, you can use this website to generate one, as long as you know the time and place of your birth.

I would like to mention that I am only knowledgeable about the basics of the traditions of astrology, and there is much variation and disagreement of what is accurate in a practice. I hope that through observation of when you feel most lucky in life, you can determine your "lucky day."

Explore how Milton's famous quote ("Calm of mind, all passion spent") relates to Shakespeare's tragedies, specifically Macbeth.

John Milton was a prolific English poet who lived between 1608 and 1674. One of his more famous quotes is "calm of mind, all passion spent." The quote is from "Samson Agonistes" and is the final line of 14 lines of verse about a ruthless conqueror finding respite after a great military struggle. This quote can relate to many of Shakespeare's tragedies, but it certainly conjures images of Macbeth. 

Throughout the play of Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are wrecked with guilt, anxiety and ambition. Macbeth describes this ambition in Act 1, Scene 7, before being interrupted by Lady Macbeth:

MAC: I have no spur 

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself

And falls on th'other - (I.vii.25-28)

Macbeth's murder of King Duncan sets a chain of events in action that will cause Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to tirelessly fight to gain and sustain their power. In this moment, he describes how only "vaulting ambition" moves him to act further, but this ambition is speedy, reckless and unending. 

Going back to the Milton quote, Macbeth does not achieve calm because his passion is not spent. The ambition of the Macbeths drives them to commit increasingly heinous acts, pushing them into madness. Perhaps, if Milton's quote is believed to be true, the Macbeths would have been able to rest if their passion had not been greedy and endless. 

In the book Around the World in 80 Days, why were the men at the club convinced that Mr. Fogg had been unsuccessful? Give reasons to support your...

The five men who were involved in the bet were skeptical of his success from the start of the book, so their initial doubt helped to encourage their doubt by the end of the story as well. Chapter 36 provides the most evidence as to why the men continue to doubt Fogg's ability to be successful. When the chapter begins, it is the last day that Fogg has to arrive and there is less than an hour for him to do so. Additionally, all reports of Fogg's whereabouts stopped three days earlier. Nobody knows where he is.  

The 17th of December, the day of James Strand’s arrest, was the seventy-sixth since Phileas Fogg’s departure, and no news of him had been received. Was he dead? Had he abandoned the effort, or was he continuing his journey along the route agreed upon?

On top of Fogg's seeming disappearance, the last confirmed news that the men had about Fogg said that he was still in jail for a crime that he didn't actually commit. That means a lot of lost time for Fogg. As the chapter progresses the tension builds, and the men's doubt grows. The reason for this is because the clock keeps ticking and Fogg is still absent. With about fifteen minutes to go, one of the men claims victory, because he knows that Fogg wasn't on the train that would have put him in town early enough. 

‘Well, gentlemen,’ resumed Andrew Stuart, ‘if Phileas Fogg had come in the 7:23 train, he would have got here by this time. We can, therefore, regard the bet as won.’

Even the reader doubts that Fogg can make it, but with three seconds to spare, Fogg shows up. 

At the fifty-seventh second the door of the saloon opened; and the pendulum had not beat the sixtieth second when Phileas Fogg appeared, followed by an excited crowd who had forced their way through the club doors, and in his calm voice, said, ‘Here I am, gentlemen!’

How does Nick perceive Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby?

In Chapter One, Nick says that "there was something gorgeous about [Gatsby], some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life," almost as if he were like a seismograph -- a machine that measures the size of earthquakes many miles away.  Gatsby seems to feel everything so deeply, and in a world full of Toms and Daisies and Jordans, who seem to feel so little, such an ability to be affected is remarkable.  It seems to signal a kind of innocence, despite Gatsby's lies and criminal activities, and it is this innocence that defines him for Nick rather than these other things.

Furthermore, Nick says that Gatsby has "an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as [Nick has] never found in any other person."  Gatsby is truly unique, at least for the world in which Nick lives.  Just after World War I, many people -- Nick included -- felt invariably disillusioned, but Gatsby seems to have retained his ability to dream big, his ability to believe in love and beauty. 

In the final lines of the book, Nick says that

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.  It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...And one fine morning---.

Gatsby manages to retain an optimism that so few people can, and even though his beautiful dream of the future seems to get further and further away, he is able to keep believing that he will reach it eventually. 

Why does the first witch wish to take revenge against the sailor?

In Macbeth, Act I, Scene III, we find ourselves once again on the heath with the Three Witches, where the following dialogue takes place:

 FIRST WITCH. Where hast thou been, sister?
  SECOND WITCH. Killing swine.
  THIRD WITCH. Sister, where thou?
  FIRST WITCH. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,
  And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd. "Give me,"quoth I.
    "Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries.
    Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master the Tiger;
    But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
    And, like a rat without a tail,
    I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. (Macbeth I:III)

It seems the First Witch had come across a Sailor's Wife, who is clearly accustomed to luxury. The Wife is 'rump-fed,' meaning she has the well-fed appearance of a a person who apparently eats very choice cuts of meat and is probably luxuriously fat as a result; the First Witch also describes this woman as a ronyon--a scab. The Wife is eating chestnuts and when the First Witch asks for them, the Wife cries, "Aroint thee, witch!"--meaning "Begone!"

The term "aroint" is of uncertain origin. Swan Macbeth notes that it is found in Macbeth, in King Lear, and in no other sources. It is speculated that Shakespeare derived 'aroint thee' from an expression in the local dialect of Cheshire, that may have been said to cattle to settle them when they were restless, as though bewitched.

The First Witch decides to curse the sailor because his wife has insulted her, and dismissed her very rudely. Because of his wife's rudeness, the First Witch decides to pursue the sailor in his ship, the Tiger, to Aleppo, a mysterious and far-distant port in Syria. There, like a rat, the Witch intends to gnaw holes in his ship so that he will be lost at sea.

What is an example of an allusion in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol?

An allusion is a literary device employed to associate a character, place or object in a story with a character, place or object, often from another literary source. One of the first, and most obvious or blatant in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, occurs very early in the story, specifically within the context of the narrator's discussion of the passing of Jacob Marley and the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in attending to his late business partner's affairs. In the passage in question, Dickens, repeatedly emphasizing the fact of Marley's death, and, as it turns out, presaging the events to follow -- in this case, the imminent appearance of Marley's ghost -- makes a literary reference to a well-known play by William Shakespeare:

"There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night . . ."

In this passage, Dickens narrator makes an allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet, the title character of which embarks upon his fateful journey to avenge his father's murder after encountering the ghost of his father and learning the truth of the deceased's demise. Now, this is, as noted, the most obvious example of allusion in A Christmas Carol, but is far from the only one. Indeed, it could be surmised that Dickens intended the name of his main character to reference the Biblical book of 1 Samuel, which seems to associate the word "Ebenzer" with the might and blessing of God, occurring as it does within the context of the Prophet Samuel's role in the Israelites' defeat of the Philistines. The Israelites were in and out of trouble with God for quite a lengthy period of time in the Bible, and Dickens' use of "Ebenezer" for his protagonist's name could have been meant to presage the character's eventual spiritual redemption. 

What are the characteristics of British people?

A British person is anyone who identifies as being a part of British culture on the basis of shared language, history, and customs. Most British people are born in one of its comprising countries- England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. While the primary language spoken throughout Britain is English, many other languages are spoken throughout the land. It is not uncommon for someone to  have grown up speaking Scots or Irish Gaelic or Welsh in their home but using English at school and in public places.

People may feel that their religious identity is a part of or related to their national identity as a British person. Christian sects like Anglicanism, Protestantism, and Presbyterianism are all common throughout the British Isles. In Northern Ireland, religious identity has long been tied to national identity, and there is a long history of conflict concerning the more traditional Roman Catholic identity versus the Protestant (and therefore English) identity. 

Depending on the region a person is from, they may feel that their customs are a part of local identity or greater national identity. One of the things most British people generally agree unites them in a common identity is the love of football (called soccer in the United States.) Though football is by no means strictly British, many people grow up playing and watching this beloved sport and so consider it a part of their identity. A long history of imperialism and trade also sets up a number of staples in British life, such as tea and sugar.

One of the things that foreigners feel is distinctive about Great Britain is that they have maintained a monarchical figurehead, even throughout all of the revolutions and depositions of monarchs which have occurred in Europe. British people value tradition and what tradition means for their national identity. Even for those who do not see themselves as "sticking to the old ways," they typically have respect for traditional customs and values. Even the most rebellious young Brit will defend their queen and country when they feel their identity is being threatened!

What is the literary technique Langston Hughes uses in his poem "Harlem"?

One central literary technique, also called a literary device, in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem" is simile. A simile is a type of figurative language in which an author creates further meaning by drawing a comparison between two things by saying that something is like something else. The comparison is usually drawn by using the words like or as.

In "Harlem," Hughes uses multiple similes to explore what happens to a "dream deferred," meaning a dream delayed from being fulfilled. He creates most of his similes using images of death and destruction. For example, his first simile compares a dream unfulfilled to a dried up raisin, which is a grape that is no longer alive on the vine and devoid of all of its life-sustaining moisture. In still another simile, he compares an unfulfilled dream to a sore that has become infected, and infections can lead to serious health problems, even death. Other similes compare the dream to "rotten meat," "sugar," and a "heavy load."

How has Beatty given Montag hints that he is under suspicion in Fahrenheit 451?

In Part One of Fahrenheit 451, Beatty gives Montag a few hints that he is suspected of possessing books. The first one comes when Beatty visits Montag (who pretends to be sick) at home. During their conversation, Montag casually asks what would happen if a fireman had "accidentally" taken a book home. Beatty's reply suggests that he knows about Montag's collection but is prepared to give him a chance at redemption:

We let the fireman keep the book twenty-four hours. If he hasn't burned it by then, we simply come and burn it for him.

After Beatty leaves the house, Montag gets another hint that he is under suspicion when a second visitor comes to the door. Mildred and Montag suspect it is Beatty but it is, in fact, the Mechanical Hound. By sending the Hound, Beatty is reinforcing his message to burn the book and forget about it. He is also showing Montag what will happen if he does not burn the book; he will be forced to face the Mechanical Hound and, next time, it will not go away. 

In the poem "The Lady of Shalott," what can you infer about the Lady's dwelling or home? What details led you to this inference?

The Lady of Shalott lives in a castle that sits on an island in the middle of a river that flows toward the mythical kingdom of Camelot. The castle has four towers, and in one of the towers is the lady's private apartment. Her apartment has a window that looks out over the river and the land on the other side. In her apartment, about ten to twelve feet away from the window and opposite it, there is a loom, and she has set up a mirror behind the loom, tilted at a downward angle facing the window so it can pick up images of the world that pass by outside. Around the castle is a garden of flowers. 

The words "four gray walls and four gray towers" from stanza two describe a castle. In stanza nine, the word "bower-eaves" suggests that she lives in a bower, which is a woman's private apartment inside a medieval castle. That the apartment has a window is key to the story because that is how the Lady of Shalott views the outside world. The window is first mentioned in stanza three when the poem asks who has "at the casement seen her stand?" A casement is the sash of a window or a window that opens outward like a door. Stanza six speaks of the "mirror clear that hangs before her all the year." That part of her room is only about ten to twelve feet across from the loom to the window, for when she leaves the room, "three paces" are enough to bring her to the window to look out to see the river and Sir Lancelot. The towers of the castle are said to "overlook a space of flowers," indicating the garden area that surrounds the castle. The apartment seems to be on an upper level of the castle because when she leaves her room, it says "down she came and found a boat." The description of how the castle sits on an island in the river occurs in stanza two: "the island in the river." 

The poem does not describe the Lady of Shalott's home in very much detail--just enough to allow one to picture the castle and a little bit of her apartment in it.

Which colony was originally part of Pennsylvania?

It was the colony of Delaware which was once part of Pennsylvania. Delaware was first settled by the Dutch in 1631 and then brought under English control in 1664. Eighteen years later, in 1682, King Charles II gave Delaware and Pennsylvania to a wealthy Englishman called William Penn, to satisfy a debt that the king owed to Penn's father. Thus, Delaware became entwined with the Pennsylvania colony and the two were governed under one administration. 

But this situation was not welcomed by the colony's population. Fearful of French attacks, the people of Delaware wanted to raise taxes to pay for army while those in Pennsylvania completely rejected the idea of going to war. So, in 1701, William Penn agreed to re-create the two separate colonies. Delaware and Pennsylvania would share a governor but would have their own separate legislatures and therefore be able to pursue their own policies and agendas. This separation made Delaware an independent colony once again.

`||bbv|| = 2sqrt(3), theta = 45^@` Find the component form of `bbv` given its magnitude and the angle it makes with the positive x-axis.

You need to find the component form of the vector `v = <a,b>` , hence, you need to use the information provided.

You need to evaluate the magnitude |v|, such that:

`|v| = sqrt(a^2+b^2)`

`2sqrt3 = sqrt(a^2+b^2)`

The direction angle of the vector is `theta = 45^o` , hence, you may use the following formula:

`tan theta = b/a => tan 45^o = b/a => 1 = b/a => b = a`

Replacing a for b yields:

`2sqrt3 = sqrt(a^2+a^2) => 2sqrt3 = +-a*sqrt2 => a = +-sqrt6 => b = +-sqrt6`

Hence, evaluating the components of the vector v, yields `<sqrt6,sqrt6>` or `<-sqrt6,-sqrt6>.`

What is Roger's goal in "Thank You, M'am"?

Roger’s goal was to get a new pair of blue suede shoes.

I know it sounds like an Elvis song, but that what was what Roger wanted! He tried to steal a woman’s purse to pay for the blue suede shoes. The problem is that he chose the wrong target. He chose a woman who was much tougher than he was.

Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones does not give up her purse. She tackles Roger and brings him home with her so that she can wash his face and give him something to eat. She also wonders what he was doing out at 11 o’clock at night not having eaten.

“Then we’ll eat,” said the woman, “I believe you’re hungry—or been hungry—to try to snatch my pockekbook.”

“I wanted a pair of blue suede shoes,” said the boy.

Mrs. Jones tells him that if he wanted new shoes he just had to ask her for them, instead of trying to steal her pocketbook. She is an unusual woman. She seems to care about Roger even though she doesn’t know him and he tried to rob her.

After a while she said, “I were young once and I wanted things I could not get.” There was another long pause. … The woman said, “Um-hum! You thought I was going to say but, didn’t you? You thought I was going to say, but I didn’t snatch people’s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn’t going to say that.”

Mrs. Jones tells Roger that she has done things she is not proud of. She understands where he is coming from. Even if she doesn’t know him, she knows his circumstances. He is lonely and neglected, and obviously misguided. She wants him to understand that you can make a bad choice and learn from it. This decision does not have to define his life.

How does Blanche feel about loosing Belle Reve in A Streetcar Named Desire?

Blanche loses her mind after losing the family home.

It is clear that whatever mental stability Blanche had cracked when she lost the family homestead, Belle Reve.  It is the last in a long line of personal failures that are too much for Blanche. 

Blanche has two coping mechanisms: denial and blame.  Everything is everyone else’s fault, assuming she acknowledges that it happened at all.  The family home was mortgaged, so it was okay that she lost it.  It was the fault of all of the ancestors before her.

There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications--to put it plainly! (Scene 2)

Blanche seems to scarcely acknowledge what happened.  When Stanley asks her if the house was mortgaged, she just responds that this “must've been what happened.”  Blanche exists in a fantasy world where everything is fine until she is confronted with the truth, and then she retreats into herself, not really accepting it.

The loss of the family’s reputation and Blanche’s are intertwined.  She blames Stella for demeaning herself by marrying Stanley, but her own past is hardly praiseworthy.  After finding out that her husband was gay when she was sixteen, and the suicide of that same husband, she lost herself in a sea of sexual promiscuity.   When confronted with this by Stanley and Stella, Blanche blames the loss of Belle Reve.

I wasn't so good the last two years or so, after Belle Reve had started to slip through my fingers. (Scene 5)

As far as Blanche is concerned, losing her husband and losing Belle Reve left her on her own.  Not being “self-sufficient,” she turned to others, apparently a string of others, getting her a reputation.  Having an affair with a student resulted in her getting fired.

By the time Blanche shows up at Stella’s house, she has acknowledged on some level that the game is up, although she hides her pain in judgement of others.  She is unable to cope with what has happened.  When Stanley rapes her, the shell that remained of Blanche cracks.  She descends into madness once and for all.

What is the point of paper chromatography?

Paper chromatography can show that different substances are in an apparently homogeneous substance. In general, a sample of a substance is applied near the bottom of a paper chromatography strip. The bottom is then positioned so that the very bottom of the paper is touching a small amount of a liquid solvent; care must be taken not to immerse the sample itself, or it will dissolve into the solvent. When the liquid touches the paper, it slowly moves upwards. If the components of the sample can be dissolved by the liquid, they will start to move as well. The higher the solubility of the molecule in the sample, the further up the paper it will move. Those with lower solubility will not be carried as far up the paper. When the liquid reaches the top, it is removed and dried, bands of the different components can be seen.

Although it is not used often in research labs, in my first job post-college I used paper chromatography. The doctor for whom I worked, P.S. Rao, was researching a way to differentiate a type of enzyme released from damaged muscle into types released from heart muscle, as opposed to that released from skeletal muscle. Since even a needle used to take a blood sample would cause a rise in the overall level of the enzyme (creatine phosphokinase, or CPK), the total alone could not be used to show that someone had suffered a heart attack. He had realized that a blood sample treated with specific chemicals, then run on paper chromatography, would show an extra band when the patient had had a heart attack. This is now run as a purely chemical test kit (which we were also developing), and is a standard, easy test to determine whether someone has had a heart attack or not.

What were America's strategies for fighting WWI?

When America started fighting WWI in 1917, the first thing that Wilson did was to list the nation as an "associate power," meaning that our overall goals would be to return the French-German border back to its 1914 level and to restore Belgian sovereignty.  Wilson put our soldiers in command of an American, Jack Pershing, and made sure that they would operate as the American Expeditionary Force, not trench fill-ins.  The American soldier participated heavily in the summer and fall offensive of 1918, often charging headlong into German machine gun nests at Bealleau Wood and Chateau-Tierry.  French and British soldiers who had been in the trenches sent late 1914 marveled at how readily the soldiers attacked.  They were much more aggressive than their British and French counterparts.  

In terms of naval affairs, America began to give yet more supplies to the Allies in terms of munitions and loans.  America also used the convoy system to control the German U-boat menace that had been an intermittent threat since its unveiling in 1914.  

`a_4 = 16, a_10 = 46` Write the first 5 terms of the arithmetic sequence.

`a_4=16 `  

`a_10=46`

To determine the first five terms of this arithmetic sequence, consider its nth term formula which is:

`a_n=a_1+(n-1)d`

To apply this, plug-in the given nth terms.

Plugging in a_4=16, the formula becomes:

`16=a_1 + (4-1)d`

`16=a_1+3d `          (Let this be EQ1.)

Also, substituting a_10=46, the formula becomes:

`46=a_1+(10-1)d`

`46=a_1+9d `          (Let this be EQ2.)

Then, use these two equations to solve for the values of a_1 and d. To do so, isolate a_1 in the first equation.

`16=a_1+3d`

`16-3d=a_1`

Plug-in this to the second equation.

`46=a_1+9d`

`46=16-3d+9d`

`46=16+6d`

`30=6d`

`5=d`

Then, solve for a_1. To do so, plug-in d=5 to the first equation.

`16=a_1 + 3d`

`16=a_1+3(5)`

`16=a_1+15`

`1=a_1`

Then, plug-in these two values a_1=1 and d=5 to the formula of nth terms of arithmetic sequence.

`a_n=a_1+(n-1)d`

`a_n=1+(n-1)(5)`

`a_n=1+5n-5`

`a_n=5n-4`

Now that the formula of a_n is known,  use this to solve for the values of a_2, a_3 and a_5.  (Take note that the values of a_1 and a_4 are already known.)

1st term: `a_1=1`

2nd term: `a_2=5(2)-4=6`

3rd term: `a_3=5(3)-4=11`

4th term: `a_4=16`

5th term: `a_5=5(5)-4=21`

Therefore, the first five terms of the arithmetic sequence are {1, 6, 11, 16, 21,...}.

what does Durkheim mean by "sacred realm"

Emile Durkheim was a French sociologist who described religion as being a negotiation or relationship between the sacred and the profane. The sacred (realm) is supernatural, ideal, powerful, and potentially dangerous if not treated properly. Anything can be sacred, even seemingly mundane objects like rocks or a favorite food- they are  marked as sacred when a person or group of people believes this object has a special quality which marks is as not profane. 

In many cases, religion and a shared perception of what is sacred or profane can be part of a social cohesion. Religion may be part of or related to ethnic identity, but is also quite transcendent of lived experiences like ethnic identity, health or bodily status, and even language. A shared belief in the sacredness or profanity of a person, place, thing, word, or action unites people. 

The sacred realm is a very ambiguous word or quality. In the simplest terms, it is everywhere and nowhere, dependent upon whether or not someone believes it is there. The realm can be created through action or speech, or may be a permanent fixture which becomes sacred in the presence of someone who believes it is sacred.

The sacred realm can include religious buildings or sites of worship, spaces or objects marked as sacred through prayer, realms of the before and afterlife, and objects deemed to be sacred which have influence over the place they rest. 

What occurred on Sunday in Animal Farm?

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