What companies or products are named in Unwind?

One company that is named in the novel is Old Navy. The reference to the real-world store occurs in chapter one. Connor has just come home after trying to convince his girlfriend to "kick-AWOL" with him. Connor is committed to running away because he has discovered that his parents want him "unwound." When Connor arrives home, his dad tries to make small talk with Connor and tells Connor about a recent "clapper" incident.

"They blew up an Old Navy in the North Akron mall."

Later in chapter one, Connor is on the run from the police. He's jumping barriers and running across lanes of traffic. He comes face to face with the car that is carrying Lev. The type of car is specifically mentioned. It is a Cadillac.  

In chapter two, the reader meets Risa. She is staying at the book's equivalent of an orphanage. Specifically she is at "Ohio State Home 23." I know it doesn't have a real world equivalent, but it is a specific business that is named in the book. A few pages later, the home's headmaster mentions Carnegie Hall.

'You're coming along nicely. I look forward to the day I see those hands playing in Carnegie Hall.'

Another fictional company that is mentioned in chapter two is Twin Lakes Harvest Camp, which is where Risa is being sent to be unwound at a future date because the state home doesn't have room for her any longer. 

Chapter three introduces readers to Lev. His favorite color is red. Not just any red—"Cincinnati Reds" red.

Spam is also specifically mentioned. It's what Connor must eat while he is in hiding with Roland. 

While Lev is struggling to find food on the run, he tries to scavenge food from Wicked Wok Chinese. 

CyFi recounts his brain injury to Lev and mentions that his right temporal lobe was turned into "Jell-O." 

There are others, but that should get you started.

What would be the exposition of "The Lady or the Tiger?" by Frank Stockton?

The exposition is the description of the king and the trial system.

Exposition is the beginning of a story.  It is where a story’s setting, characters, and inciting incident are described.  In this story, the author describes the kingdom and the king.  The king’s personality is very important.  He is described as “semibarbaric.”  We do not know exactly when the story takes place, but we are told it was a long time ago.

In the very olden time there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose ideas, though somewhat polished and sharpened by the progressiveness of distant Latin neighbors, were still large, florid, and untrammeled, as became the half of him which was barbaric.

From this, we can gather that the story took place a while ago, and that the kingdom is not near Latin America.  We also learn that the king has some very original ideas.  The word “semibarbaric” basically means that he is at war with himself.  He wants to be civilized, but he also has a savage side.

The king’s personality results in a very unique system of justice that he thinks is quite clever.  It is important to the exposition of the story that this system of trial be described, because the plot will turn on the trial’s unique format.  In this system of justice, an accused person is sent into an arena to make a choice.  The outcome of the choice determines if he is considered innocent or guilty.

Directly opposite him, on the other side of the enclosed space, were two doors, exactly alike and side by side. It was the duty and the privilege of the person on trial to walk directly to these doors and open one of them. He could open either door he pleased; he was subject to no guidance or influence but that of the aforementioned impartial and incorruptible chance. 

Behind one door is a tiger, which will instantly maul the contestant.  Behind the other door is a lady, who has been chosen specifically for the accused.  Apparently all accused are men.  The lady then marries the man, whether or not he was already married.  The king cares not for such trivialities.

The inciting incident is the last part of the exposition.  It occurs right before the rising action, and it serves to introduce the story’s problem.  In this case, the problem is the king’s daughter.

This semi-barbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own. ... Among his courtiers was a young man of that fineness of blood and lowness of station common to the conventional heroes of romance who love royal maidens. 

Naturally the king did not approve of the match, and so the princess’s lover is about to be thrown into the arena.  This is a problem, because as the story progresses we learn that she is going to find out what is behind what door, and will tell him.  But will she tell him the right door to save his life?

Why is it important to study historical disasters like that of the Lusitania?

There is a famous saying from the philosopher George Santayana where he says that “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  It is important to study “disasters” from the past so as to (hopefully) avoid experiencing those same disasters in the future.

When disasters have happened in the past, they have generally been caused by something and/or they have been disasters because they have led to very negative results.  These are things that we really do not want to have happen again.  For example, the sinking of the Lusitania helped to get the United States into WWI.  We would not want to get sucked into another major war. Therefore, we should study this sort of disaster and other disasters that drew us into wars.  We should try to determine how we can avoid getting ourselves into similar situations in the future so that we are not condemned to repeat the past.

Who are some actors (from this century) who could represent characters from Romeo and Juliet?

Nurse: Melissa McCarthy, because of her comedic timing, physicality, and friendly presence. 

Lady Capulet: Angelica Huston, because of her brooding nature and sometimes cold comments. (For example, see Angelica Huston in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.)

Friar Laurence: Jeffrey Tambor, because of his likeability and history of playing patriarchal figures. 

Benvolio: T.R. Knight, because of his trustworthiness and history of playing the middle man. (For example, see T.R. Knight in Grey's Anatomy.)

Rosaline: Chloe Sevigny, because of her aloof nature, youthfulness, and attractive features. In a way, Rosaline could be anyone since she does not appear onstage in the play.

Peter: Michael Cera, because of his earnestness and frequent tendency to miss the mark and fail to deliver on assignments. (For example, see Michael Cera in Arrested Development.)

Balthasar: Macauley Culkin (as a child), because of his boyish looks. His mischievous nature would match Romeo's, but Culkin would remain helpful and subservient. 

Why is MAUS not spelled like "mouse"? What is the significance of the title?

Maus is the German word for "mouse." Using the German word emphasizes that the graphic novel revolves around Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, both as it happened in the World War II era and in the Holocaust's effects on future generations. The title refers to how the Nazis, in their propaganda, constantly referred to the Jews as pests or vermin, in other words, as mice, rats, or cockroaches that had to be exterminated. It also refers to the way the Jews tried to hide underground from the Nazis, like mice. In addition, mice are often seen as weak and defenseless creatures and because of laws stripping them of their rights, the Jews were also defenseless in Germany and the German-occupied territories. Finally, maus plays on the German word  mauscheln, which refers to how the Germans thought the Jews spoke German differently from Aryan Germans. How people speak becomes an important theme in this story. For example, Vladek's ability with languages helps him. Thus, we can see that one simple word in a title contains multiple layers of meaning. 

Why does the book The Giver have so many unexplained scenes?

Although I am sure you are at least referring to the ending, as that has always been up for debate, it is difficult to know which other "unexplained scenes," you are referring to. Although Jonas is not always aware of why something happens the way that it does, as a reader we generally do not leave most of the scenes feeling as though there are loose ends - except the ending. So, let's look at that.

Of course, the book ends with Jonas and Gabriel on a sled sliding toward a house with what appear to be Christmas lights. There has always been much debate about whether or not Jonas and Gabe live or die at the end of the novel, since Gabe appears to be near death (at least) just before Jonas sees the house.

Although Lois Lowry has said in interviews that she was stunned by the initial reactions and confusion with the ending of the book, she has also said it was purposefully written to "make people think." In other words, while she may have bene surprised by the debate, she was also happy about it. She liked that it was not neatly wrapped up. This is frustrating for readers of any novel because we all like to know how the story ends, and when we do not get a clear picture of that, we feel as though we are missing something. 

Ultimately, Lowry did admit she never planned to write a sequel to The Giver, but ended up doing so in response to the debate about the end of the first book.

In what ways does Shakespeare make Banquo an important character in "Macbeth"? Use P.E.E. (Point, evidence, explain)

Banquo is an important character because he hears the prophecies and one applies to him, so he becomes a threat to Macbeth.

P.E.E. is a simple method for explicating quotations.  First you introduce your “point” or argument.  This should be one clear sentence.  Then you support the point with a quotation, which is your evidence.  The quotation should be relevant to prove your point.  Last, you explain the quotation and explain how it supports your point.  This will usually take at least two sentences.

The first step, of course, is to come up with your argument.  In this case, your point is that Banquo is an important character.  My first sentence is a good example of how to make a thesis clearly and succinctly.  Then you need to support this point with evidence.

Here are some example quotations with explanations.

Point:  Banquo becomes a threat to Macbeth because he hears the witches’ prophecies.

Evidence:

Good sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? (Act 1, Scene 3)

Explanation:  Banquo watches Macbeth very carefully and is curious about his reaction.  He calls the prophecies “fantastical” because they seem absurd and dangerous to him.  He is suspicious of the witches and their emotions.  Later, Macbeth will remember that Banquo was there and worry that Banquo knows that he killed Duncan to make the prophecies come true.

Point:  Banquo also threatens Macbeth’s claim to the throne because the witches make a prophecy that applies to him.

Evidence:

Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them? (Act 1, Scene 3)

Explanation:  Macbeth asks Banquo if he wants his children to be king.  He is concerned because even if he becomes king, if this prophecy comes true Banquo will threaten his line.  This is the reason he finally decides to kill Banquo and his son, to prevent this prophecy from happening.

Point: Banquo becomes suspicious that Macbeth became king by killing Duncan.

Evidence:

Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promised, and, I fear,
Thou play'dst most foully for't (Act 3, Scene 1)

Explanation: Banquo fears that Macbeth killed Duncan in order to become king. He notes that Macbeth has everything he was supposed to get, but he knows Macbeth’s ambition.  He does not think it is an accident that the witches’ prophecies came true.  It is due to this suspicion that Macbeth has him killed in this act.

Banquo is a threat to Macbeth for two reasons: he is the only one that knows about the prophecies, and his heirs are going to be king.  Macbeth is convinced that Banquo suspects he killed Duncan, and he is correct.  Banquo knows Macbeth too well.  However, Macbeth has to kill both Banquo and his son in order to prevent his line from claiming the throne.

List, in order, the path that blood travels during one complete journey through both sides of the heart.

The question did not specify whether the heart of interest was a two, three, or four-chamber heart. The answer reflects the path that blood takes through a four-chamber heart that is composed of two atria and two ventricles.

• Oxygen-poor blood that has been used by the cells is delivered back to the heat via the superior or inferior vena cava to the right atrium.


• The right atrium pumps this oxygen-depleted blood to the right ventricle.


• The right ventricle then pumps the blood to lungs, where oxygen is received.


• The oxygenated blood is brought back to the heart via the pulmonary veins.


• The pulmonary veins enter the left atrium.


• The left atrium receives this oxygen-rich blood from the pulmonary veins and pumps it to the left ventricle.


• The left ventricle then pumps the oxygenated blood to the body.

The oxygen is then used by the mitochondria of the vertebrate eukaryotic cells in the process that is known as cellular respiration. During cellular respiration, oxygen gas and the sugar glucose are converted into water, carbon dioxide gas, and an energy source called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Once the blood has been delivered to the cells of the body and its oxygen has been used, the blood is again returned to the heart via the right atrium. Thus, the cycle continues.

Does natural selection take place in a fish tank?

Yes, natural selection would take place in a fish tank, especially if the fish are overcrowded, under predatory threat or the resources for their survival are overstretched. Natural selection is an evolutionary mechanism, but it doesn’t have to result in the development of new species.

Natural selection would in some instances lead to a variation of different features of the population within the same species. The developed change may only be in numbers depending on member attributes and not result in the development of a new species with a better adaptation to the environment.

Natural selection should occur when:
•    More members are born than can survive
•    The different members of the species or the fish have variations
•    The variation among the fish is inherited
•    Reproduction of the fish is based on the inherited variation

An experiment on guppies by American zoologist John Endler confirmed that natural selection can occur in an aquarium setting. In his experiment, male guppies existing in a tank together with a predator had fewer spots compared to guppies in a tank with no predator. The spots are a hereditary feature which are important for attracting the female guppies.

In Cell Theory, we say that cells are the building blocks of life. Then what is DNA? Building blocks should be indivisible.

Cells are said to be the building blocks of life because they are the smallest unit of life. The organelles and structures within a cell are part of the cell, but not able to sustain life their own. This is analogous to the atom, which is the smallest unit of matter. Atoms are also comprised of smaller parts called subatomic particles, which include the proton, neutron, and electron.

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a biomolecule that is found within the cytoplasm of a prokaryotic cell and is housed within the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell. DNA is a double helix that is made of nucleotides. Nucleotides of DNA are made of a phosphate group, deoxyribose sugar, and one of four nitrogen bases. The possible nitrogen bases of DNA are adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. The order of the nitrogen bases within DNA is what makes one gene different from the other. This genetic information is passed onto offspring during sexual reproduction.

What is the significance of Henry James' and Walter Besant's arguments in their essays "The Art of Fiction," and how does their debate influence...

Henry James wrote his essay titled "The Art of Fiction," published in 1888, in response to Walter Besant's own essay of the same title, published in 1885. Both essays were revolutionary in that they argued the novel is an art form worthy of serious analytical criticism, whereas prior the novel had only been regarded as mere entertainment. In his essay "The Art of Fiction," James agrees with Besant's opinion that the novel is a serious art form; however, he disagrees with Besant's argument that the novel is directed by rules and principles, such as plot and character development, that require mastery. In contrast, James argues that the only governing principle of a novel is that "it be interesting" and represent life just as a painter represents life on canvas; other than that, a writer is at liberty to give a novel any form the writer wants.

In her works, George Eliot displays that she held similar views on the free artistic expression of the novel as James. In fact, it is clear that James drew inspiration for his opinion from Eliot as he mentions her in his essay by briefly referencing her narrative structures: "With George Eliot, when she painted the country, I always said Yes." Eliot particularly displays her view that the novel is a free artistic expression by writing Middlemarch as an experimental novel. Middlemarch can be seen as experimental with respect to the fact it does not contain a typical plot structure nor does it contain a consistent narrative voice.

The plot Middlemarch is a-typical in that the storyline does not focus on one central character. In fact, it is known from her extensive notes that she began writing it as two separate books, one focusing on Dorothea Brooke and one focusing on Lydgate, but decided to merge them into one. Her purpose in merging them was to portray village life as it was in the town of Middlemarch with respect to all of its social and political issues. To portray life as it truly was, she let the issues of multiple characters run their course rather than focus on one primary character as typical plots do.

In order to help the social and political issues of the novel run their course, Eliot uses a second experimental technique by, according to Harvard academic Joshua Tucker, setting the narrator up as a historian observing and recording the history of the characters ("Words that We Couldn't Say--The Narrator's Search for Meaning in Middlemarch"). The establishment of the narrator as a historian is seen in the opening sentence of the prelude speaking of the "history of man" and speaking of the true historical figure Saint Theresa, a historical figure the narrator parallels with Dorothea:

Who that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa, has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking forth one morning hand-in-hand with her still smaller brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors? ("Prelude")

The parallel drawn between Saint Theresa and Dorothea is made clear in the final sentence of the prelude, which is followed by Dorothea's introduction. In this final sentence, the narrator speaks of those who have a trembling longing to achieve some noble deed but are hindered by circumstances, resulting in their deed going unrecognized, just as we see Dorothea's actions and desires coming to naught.

Since Eliot sets the narrator up as a historian who is able to analyze history and draw parallels between historic figures and characters, it's not surprising when the narrator also draws parallels between the characters when relaying their history. The method of using a narrator with the voice of a historian to draw parallels between characters can also be seen as an experimental technique.

In addition, Eliot's narrator has often been recognized as very complex, which signifies another experimental technique. The narrator is complex in that it is both a third-person omniscient narrator but, as Tucker further points out, also acts as a character in each scene speaking directly to the reader and interpreting events for the reader. Without the narrator's interpretations, as Tucker points out, the reader would not have fully understood Bulstrode's hypocrisy nor known the depth of Dorothea's emotions and desires.

Hence, as we can see, Eliot reflects having believed the same ideas about writing novels as argued by James through creating a novel that is experimental in many respects. Two ways in which it is experimental concern its lack of a typical plot and its possession of a complex narrator.

Why does Tom love Daisy and not Myrtle?

Tom loves Daisy and not Myrtle because Daisy belongs to the same social class as him. While she might not come from as much money, as Nick makes sure the audience knows that Tom is filthy wealthy (he always mentions the polo ponies), she runs in the same social circle. To the wealthy, at least according to Nick, where one comes from matters more than the money one has. For example, Gatsby, regardless of how much money he had, could never have Daisy, as evidenced by her rejection of the parties held at Gatsby's home.

To Tom, Myrtle was just his living sex toy he liked flaunting around town. When taking Nick to meet Myrtle, Tom shows no shame and tells Nick (emphasis mine), "I want you to meet my girl." While this might just seem a throw-away statement, Tom's actions later in the night, when he "broke her nose with his open hand," show a complete disregard for Myrtle as a person. In addition, it seems as if after this event that Tom does not really see Myrtle, his "girl," again.

Meanwhile Daisy, whom Tom shares similar moral standards with considering they come from the same social class, does not really seem to care what happens to Gatsby, a man she seems in complete love with. Like Tom, Daisy completely discarded Gatsby after she ran Myrtle over.

I bring up Daisy in response to your question in order to emphasize why Tom loves her, but not Myrtle. They share the same moral values: carelessness resulting from being American aristocrats. Nick summarizes the values of Tom and Daisy this way:

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mass they had made..."

After Tom smashes Myrtle's nose and literally lets others clean up her mess, he retreats back into his marriage with Daisy, who does the same when George Wilson kills Gatsby.

The combination of which elements forms a compound with a crystal lattice?

A crystal lattice is the three-dimensional arrangement of ions in a solid ionic compound. An ionic compound is made of an element that's a metal and an element that's a non-metal. In ionic bonding, the metal loses one or more electrons and the non-metal gains one or more electrons. This results in oppositely charged ions, called cations (positive) and anions (negative). The crystal lattice is held together by the electrostatic attraction between the cations and anions. 

Some examples of compounds that exist as crystal lattices in the solid form are NaCl, MgCl2, LiF, and CaO. All contain a metal and a non-metal.

Molecular compounds don't form crystal lattices because covalent bonding involves the sharing of electrons between two atoms such that neither ends up with an appreciable net charge.

Explain the term "stream of consciousness" with reference to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Stream of consciousness is a radical style perfected by modernist writers like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. In general, stream of consciousness is a style of writing that mimics the way real people think. For the most part, people don't think in tidy, grammatically correct sentences and paragraphs; instead, our thoughts flow together in run-on sentences and fragments, tumbling all over the place like a "stream" of our own "consciousness." Writers have approached the representation of this fact in many different ways. Joyce, for instance, painstakingly wrote, edited, and rewrote his prose so that it had the appearance of free-flowing thought. Jack Kerouac, however, simply wrote down the first things that came into his brain, thus taking the idea of stream of consciousness to a literal degree.

Joyce's Portrait is an interesting example of stream of consciousness. The novel's prose mimics the consciousness of its protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, as he grows up in Dublin. The writing style starts out as babbling and incoherent baby-talk, and gradually matures into the complex and intricate musings of an erudite young scholar. In this way, the prose is stream of consciousness. That said, Portrait itself represents an intriguing adolescent phase of Joyce's writing. While there are certainly radical elements in Portrait, Joyce maintains some conventions of traditional narrative (Joyce will, for instance, permit himself to describe how characters look when they talk), and so the novel's style is not as radically stream of consciousness as Ulysses. In this later novel, whole chapters take place within the minds of characters without any (or at least very little) interruption from a conventional narrator. Thus, while Joyce certainly dabbles in stream of consciousness in Portrait, it is an incomplete form of the style, and he has yet to reach the perfection that he achieves in Ulysses.

What is one example of onomatopoeia in the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling?

I’m going to be honest with you here: I’m not sure there is an example of onomatopoeia in this poem. An onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like the thing it represents, like “achoo” for a sneeze or “buzz” for the sound a bee makes. The phonemes in the words themselves resemble the sounds they signify. Because we are dealing with sounds, any onomatopoeia in “If” would have to be representing a sound. The poem mentions talking, doubting, blaming, breathing, all kinds of sound-related things, and yet none of them really represent any sound they are describing. If your assignment is to find one example for a number of literary devices for this poem, you might have to leave the onomatopoeia section blank, like you do sometimes for the letter “x” when you’re going through the alphabet. 

What does one call the voice that tells the audience a fictional story?

What does one call the voice that tells the audience a fictional story?

The short answer is the narrator, but how that narrator functions depends on the point of view of the story. Simply put, there are three points of view from which a story can be told: First person, second person, and third person. Third person can be further broken down into Close and Omniscient Third.

First Person POV refers to the "I, we, me, my, mine, us" narrator, often the voice of the heroic character or a constant companion of the heroic character.

Second Person is the "you" narrator, a method of bringing the reader into the story.

And finally, Third Person refers to "he, she, they" narrator, and is the most common choice for fiction.

If the story is in First Person, the person telling the story is more than just a narrator: they could be the protagonist (main character) or some other key player in the story.

How does Vladek’s friend Ilzecki save his son during the war? How does Vladek try to save his son Richieu? What happens?

Chapter 4, which takes place in 1941, is called "The Noose Tightens" because Nazis are gathering up Jews left and right without any provocation. One scene shows Vladek walking through the streets near the train station and seeing Nazis grabbing and beating up Jews whether they had papers to travel or not. Izlecki hides Vladek from the street brawl in his house and they watch for a few hours as Jews are being shot and beaten up. It is at this point that they feel the proverbial noose tighten, so Vladek and Ilzecki talk about possible solutions for saving their sons from being taken by the Nazis. Ilzecki says that he has a Polish friend who is willing to take and hide his son "until the situation gets better" (83). He says that maybe the Pole will take Richieu, too. Vladek returns home and tells his wife Anja about possibly sending their son to safety. Anja can't do it, though, and Vladek is refused. Vladek says the following about what happened:

"Ilzecki and his wife didn't come out from the war, but his son remained alive; ours did not. And anyway we had to give Richieu to hide a year later" (83).

Richieu was sent to Zawiercie with a woman named Tosha in 1943. When the Gestapo was gathering up everyone from the ghetto and shipping them to Auschwitz, Tosha decided to poison herself and the three children she had in her care: Bibi, Lonia, and Richieu (111).

Lord of the Flies deals with maturity and loss of innocence. Discuss what Jack learns as he comes of age.

Lord of the Flies is a bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story, in which a character, as your question states, must lose his/her innocence and grow in maturity.  Examining the characteristics and their presence in the novel through Jack's character can help define what Jack learns along the way.

First, the character must be without a father-figure.  This lack of parental structure mirrors a loss of faith in the value system the character has been raised to trust.  Jack is not literally fatherless; yet while he is on the island, he is without an adult male figure to guide him.  This forces Jack to look within himself and rely on the principles he has been taught thus far to determine his course of action.  Jack struggles with the morality of taking a life when he first assumes the role of hunter; but he soon abandons those ideals in the struggle for survival and power, believing that the payoff for violating the morals outweighs the benefits of holding on to them.  By providing food, he can construct himself as the provider for the tribe and establish control over the boys.  He learns that his prior value system is of little use in his current environment.

Second, a bildungsroman involves a quest that takes the character away from civilization.  This one is obvious, isn't it?  Through his time on the island, Jack learns he is able to survive, but at the expense of his civilized nature.

Next, any quest must have obstacles, and the obstacle is most often found within the character himself.  This is true for Jack.  He battles his own conscience; he struggles between, according to Freud, his id and his superego.  And his id--his impulsive, needs-driven self--wins out when he begins to paint his face.  He learns that he can hide his true self behind another identity to excuse his immoral behavior.

Finally, the character has an epiphany, often amidst an ambiguous ending.  When the Navy officer appears at the end of the novel, Jack is confronted with his outrageous behavior.  The reader has to decide what the future holds for Jack:  Will he repent from his vile behavior, or has he crossed a point of no return?  

What evidence illustrates how metaphor and imagery are used in the poem "Song for a Dark Girl"?

Langston Hughes’ emotional poem about a lynching and the loss of a black girl’s lover uses several examples of metaphors and imagery to get across a message.  First, the title is ambiguous in its meaning.  “Song for a Dark Girl” sounds as if it is a girl who is lynched in the poem; however, it is just the opposite.  The girl’s lover is the one who is hanged and the dark girl (and all dark girls) sing the same song, “Break the heart of me,” for all of the black men who have been lynched.  The dark girls are witnesses to the “bruised” and beaten bodies of the black men who are hanged.

In addition, there is religious imagery and symbolism in the poem.  The black man is hanged in a tree at a crossroads.  This image suggests a crucifixion in nature, and even Jesus can’t answer the prayers of the dark girl.  Jesus, in fact, has forsaken the black man and prayers are useless, much like God forsook Jesus at his time of crucifixion.  The fact that it is white men who pray to a white Jesus hanging this man is also ironic and shows their lack of faith and love for all people.

Finally, the main metaphor of the poem is “Love is a naked shadow.”  Love is being compared to a shadow, something that is fleeting and lacks substance. It also represents the physical shadow of the hanging man as it is cast on the “gnarled and naked tree" from the branch where he is hanging.

How and why was slavery different in the southern British colonies than it was in those belonging to the Spanish, French and Dutch?

The main difference between slavery in the southern British colonies and slavery in many Dutch, Spanish and French colonies, was that the British colonies in question were primarily built as plantations, whose main or only purpose was to produce raw materials and cash crops, like tobacco and sugar.

The production of such crops was incredibly labor intensive, and so the quantity of slaves brought in to work the fields in the southern British colonies was far greater than the number brought into work the fields in other colonies. Due to the backbreaking work required to harvest cash crops crops, the treatment of slaves in southern British colonies was also much harsher. These plantation economies depended on cheap labor in order to stay economically viable, so the fear of slave uprisings and disobedience was even greater, since the loss of slave labor would have meant the decimation of those economies. This constant fear of losing control of the enslaved workforce further contributed to the brutality of slave masters and managers brought in to oversee these plantations.

How could one summarize Chapter 13, "Gender," in An Introduction to Sociolinguistics by Ronald Wardhaugh, citing the studies he has used to...

In Chapter 13 of An Introduction to Linguistics, Ronald Wardhaugh concedes that the concept of gender is largely based on personal identity and cultural norms, rather than the standard, traditional definition of biological sex, and also notes that this self-identification may vary depending on the roles a person must fill in his or her life, as parent, sibling, professional partner, etc.  He begins by stating that “gender is a key component of identity,” and therefore shapes who we are; it is inextricable from our selves and our natural mannerisms.  Despite this acknowledgement, however,  the chapter focuses on studies dividing men and women across societies and in different cultures, and raises the question of sexism in language; is any language in and of itself inherently sexist, or do cultural and societal norms shape the way different users of a language communicate?  This question has occupied researchers in a variety of disciplines for years, and while some studies, mostly anthropological, have provided strict grammatical and dialectal evidence for linguistic differences between the men and women of certain cultures, many others, almost exclusively performed among English-speakers, focus on differences in vocabulary use, intonation, and meta-linguistic or paralinguistic communication and gestural habits. 

Wardhaugh mentions several examples of the former, including studies by Sapir (1929) of the Yana people of California; by Dixon (1971) of the Dyirbal people of northern Queensland in Australia, and by Bradley (1998) of the Yanyuwa people of Australia.  In this latter example the men and women speak different dialects characterized by the system of affixation used with root words shared by the two groups.  Wardhaugh also mentions a 1998 paper by Reynolds which discusses the use of boku or ore  and watasi or asi in Japanese when referring to the self for men and women, respectively.  (The study mentions a modern trend here, of teenage girls using boku in order to be taken more seriously by their male peers – Wardhaugh makes several references to shifting language in this chapter, mentioning that women are on the societal move, and in seeking equalization often make an effort to adopt a more traditionally “masculine” way of speaking, in order to gain respect from a male-dominated society.  He mentions Margaret Thatcher being advised to lower her voice and alter her intonation at the outset of her political career as a good example.)  

In English, these sorts of grammatical differences are absent; the differences in men’s and women’s speech is evident in other ways, however.  In conversations involving men and women, men speak more than women.  In male-only conversations men tend to focus on dominance and speak with more aggression; speech is goal-oriented and focused on achieving, whereas in female-only conversations the speech is focused on feelings, relationships, and analysis of information.  Often, however, studies and claims about the differences in men’s and women’s speech is difficult to substantiate; for example there is a widely-accepted view that men interrupt women more than women interrupt men.  However, James and Clarke (1993) reviewed 54 studies that found no appreciable difference in the rate of interruptions between male and female participants. Likewise the belief that women are more polite than men in conversation is contested by Mills (2003).  Wardhaugh cites Cameron (1998a) as saying that these sorts of studies provide little more than anecdotal evidence that men and women use language differently, provide little in terms of analysis, and lack a theory to be tested or applied.  Holmes (1998) does just this, outlining five “sociolinguistic universal tendencies” that can be tested in male vs. female speech, found on page 322 of the fifth edition of this text.

There are two widely-circulated views of the reasons for these inequalities:  the dominance view supported by Lakoff (1975) and DeFrancisco (1997) states that men are dominant in society and women submissive, and that language use reflects men’s and women’s relation to and perceived ability to wield power within a relationship.  The difference or deficit view focuses on these linguistic differences as learned behaviors, ingrained by society and passed on through generations.  Maltz and Borker (1982) posit that men and women belong to different “sub-cultures,” and therefore learn to utilize language in different ways; in this view miscommunication results from different interpretations of learned behaviors in communities of men versus communities of women.  Further evidence of gender-based inequalities in language use being determined by societal rather than linguistic norms is offered by Keenan’s 1974 study of the Malagasy people; in this culture men are soft-spoken and diplomatic, and women are the hardlining, goal-oriented members of the society; women use language in a more blunt, powerful, and aggressive manner, whereas men are valued for the opposite linguistic tendencies.

Wardhaugh states at the end of this chapter, “My own view is that men’s and women’s speech differ because boys and girls are brought up differently and men and women often fill different roles in society. Moreover, most men and women know this and behave accordingly (333).”  He has therefore rejected the idea that a language itself can be sexist, and states that only individuals who speak a language – any language – can be sexist.  It is the use of language that creates and projects inequality, rather than the language itself.  Also, as a final note, it should be mentioned that many of the studies cited in this chapter are decades old and therefore do not necessarily reflect the state of society and communication habits of today’s world.  Nor can they be said to be completely characteristic of any individual or group of men or women – as Wardhaugh mentions at the beginning of the chapter, gender identity is not black-and-white and fluctuates according to the myriad sociological groups of which an individual may be a part.  Therefore while gender is a possible dividing line for the use of language, it must be viewed in conjunction with other societal factors such as race, income, high school clique, etc., and any study or test must be controlled accordingly.

Why did Texans want their independence from Mexico?

There are several reasons why Texans wanted their independence from Mexico. One reason was the Mexicans closed the border with the United States. Mexico was concerned about the growing number of Americans who were coming to Texas. Thus, they closed the border. This resulted in illegal American immigration into Mexico controlled Texas.

Another concern was the high protective tarriff the Mexicans put on American products. The Mexicans wanted the people of Texas to buy Mexican products. The tariff was designed to encourage that to occur. The Texans, however, wanted to buy products from the United States.

The Texans were concerned about Mexican policies. The Texans didn’t like that all documents had to be in Spanish. They were also concerned that they had to become Catholic. Texas wanted to be its own state within Mexico, but that was not allowed. Finally, no new slavery was allowed in Texas.

When Santa Anna ended the Mexican constitution, the people of Texas had enough. The fight for freedom fro Mexico would now begin.

What is your first impression of the narrator in "The Tell-tale Heart? What does he try to convince the reader to do?

The "Tell-tale Heart's" narrator wants, first of all, to convince the reader that he is not insane. He says that he is nervous, not "mad." He says that his senses, especially his hearing, are working better than ever. He implies that his ability to hear well, along with the extra acuteness of his other senses, is a sign of sanity, not insanity. As he puts it, "How, then, am I mad?" He says his ability to tell his story "calmly" is a sign of his mental health. He wants to convince the reader that he "loved" the man he murdered.

Of course, the narrator "protests too much" that he is sane, which immediately leaves the impression that he is, in fact, insane or, at the very least, mentally unstable. He comes across as defensive and over-wrought, lost in his own world where he is answering accusations that have not yet been made. This opening thus foreshadows the end of the story, when the narrator confesses to a crime nobody has accused him of committing. 

Can you give me an example of iambic tetrameter in "Suicide in the Trenches" by Siegfried Sassoon?

Siegfried Sassoon's poem includes several lines that conform to the iambic tetrameter pattern. Iambic tetrameter is a metrical pattern in which the line of poetry is divided into four feet (iambs) with stress placed upon the second syllable in each of those feet. If you were to divide the lines of poetry into chunks of two syllables each, you would then be able to examine whether the second syllable in each bears more stress.

The first four lines can be diagrammed as follows, split into iambs. I have used bold font to indicate which syllables are stressed, and left the unstressed syllables not in bold font:

I knew / a sim / ple sol / dier boy

Who grinned / at life / in emp / ty joy,

Slept sound / ly through / the lone / some dark,

And whist / led ear / ly with / the lark.

As you can see, all four of the lines in this first stanza conform to the iambic tetrameter pattern. It is important to look at the rest of the lines in the poem too, though, because not all of them employ iambic tetrameter. In case of one or more lines deviating from the pattern, you would need to be able to identify which of them are not good examples of iambic tetrameter. Consider the second stanza:

In win / ter trench / es, cowed / and glum,

With crumps / and lice / and lack / of rum,

He put / a bull / et through / his brain.

No one / spoke of him / again.

The last line of this stanza does not divide neatly into groups of two syllables because there are seven syllables rather than an even number. Furthermore, if the line is spoken aloud it sounds awkward to try and put the stress onto the second, fourth, and sixth syllable like you would have to if they were part of iambs. Saying "No one / spoke of / him a / gain" just does not sound right, and it leaves the syllable "gain" hanging all by itself at the end. So in stanza two, the lines of iambic tetrameter are lines five, six, and seven, but not line eight. Line eight appears to contain a trochee, a dactyl, and an iamb. 

After that group of lines, we then move on to stanza three. In this final stanza all four lines are in iambic tetrameter:

You smug- / faced crowds / with kind / ling eye

Who cheer / when sol / dier lads / march by,

Sneak home / and pray / you'll nev / er know

The hell / where youth / and laugh / ter go.

What is one saying Bud remembers his mother telling him? How does it make Bud feel?

Bud's mother said many things that stuck with him. He references one particular saying his mother had several times in the novel.

"No matter how bad things look, when one door closes, another one opens."

Bud turns to this saying each time that he faces a new challenge throughout the novel. The saying empowers Bud to keep moving forward, leaving each challenge behind him like a closed door. His mother's words resound in his head and provide Bud the courage to persist and keep moving ahead despite the cruelty and hardships that he faces. For example, when Bud realized that the librarian he knew was no longer available to be a resource, he simply accepted it. He felt as if this was an example of a door closing and calmly went to sleep, waiting for a new day when he was sure another door would open.

At what level of organization does life begin?

A major theme in biology is that of the organization of living things according to increasing levels of complexity.

The smallest possible unit of organization where life occurs is at the cellular level.

Cells are the building blocks of living things which perform life functions necessary to maintain the life of the organism. They can grow, reproduce, carry out metabolism, respiration, excretion to name a few life processes. 

Although various molecules can be found within cells that comprise the matter of cells, those chemicals are not "alive" in the sense that they cannot perform life processes. And, when these molecules are constructed into organelles--tiny membrane-bound structures in cells that do different jobs, organelles are not alive on their own merit--together they help a cell to stay alive.

If we follow the level of complexity from simplest to most complex it is:

• molecules-organelles-cells-tissues-organs-systems-organism-population-community-ecosystem-biosphere

The living cells group together into functional tissues that perform jobs. These in turn make up organs, which form functional groups known as systems. All the systems comprise a living, multicellular organism and perform specialized functions. A similar group of organisms is known as a population, and different populations living together comprise a community. The community along with the nonliving environment is the ecosystem. All the ecosystems where life exist form the biosphere, the largest level of organization on Earth.

Keep in mind that not all living things are multi-cellular. For unicellular organisms then, the smallest component that is alive would the be cell. Cells are the common denominator as the smallest part of a living thing, whether unicellular or multi-cellular that carries out life processes.

In William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, what is the mob's mental state while killing Simon?

In William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, the character Simon dies violently at the hands of his peers. When Simon stumbles out of the forest, he is delirious, having suffered from seizures and hallucinations all day. Unfortunately, he stumbles into a group of boys in an equally deranged state.

The boys, led by Jack, are celebrating killing the pig. Their celebration has become a ritual that allows their base instincts of violence and groupthink to be expressed. Wearing masks, the boys chant about killing and perform semi-religious expressions toward the Beast. 

As a result, when Simon comes out of the forest, as a pig would and as the Beast would, his appearance easily integrates into their celebration, which has already demonstrated a blend between reality and fantasy. The mob's mentality is one of a semi-religious fervor that allows the release of violence and fear through demonstration. 

What are two things Max likes about his room in the basement?

Max calls his basement area "The Down Under."  Max tells his audience about it in chapter 2 of the novel.  A reader might assume that a kid wouldn't like living in a dim, worn basement, but that would be wrong.  Max likes his basement just fine.  

Because I like it in the down under, got the place all to myself and no fear of Gram - sticking her head in the door and saying Maxwell dear, what are you doing?

The above quote provides two reasons why Max likes it.  First, he likes his alone time.  Second he doesn't like his grandma checking in on him every second of every day.  

Max likes his alone time in the basement, because he's been through some really rough stuff.  He watched his father brutally murder his mother.  His dad is now in prison, and Max has to live with his grandparents.  Unfortunately, Max looks a lot like his dad, which means anywhere Max goes, people are reminded of his horrible father.  The basement is a sanctuary for Max.  It's peaceful to him, because there is nobody there to bother him or for him to bother by his mere presence.  

Why is there a constant repetition of "tomorrow" in Macbeth's speech in Act 5, Scene 5?

Macbeth’s speech featuring “tomorrow” follows the news of Lady Macbeth’s death. All Macbeth can say at first is, “She should have died hereafter.” He has become numb to death due to the murders he has perpetrated, and he is unmoved by his wife’s demise because she would die eventually. He continues:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time…

This monologue describes the meaninglessness of life. The repetition of the word “tomorrow” symbolizes the tedious repetitiveness of existence. The days do not simply pass; “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” slowly, inexorably soldier on, no matter how horrific or wonderful the days seem to be.

Macbeth compares these “tomorrows” with “all our yesterdays,” but the result is the same. Tomorrow will lead and yesterday already has led everyone “to dusty death.” This life he describes is both endless and all too short. He calls life a “brief candle” and a “walking shadow,” as meaningless and fleeting as a play.

These “tomorrows” are nothing to look forward to, for he concludes that life “is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.” Macbeth’s personal life has become devoid of mercy and significance, so he can only see all of life through this nihilistic lens.

What are ways to make a home environmentally friendly? How would you develop a win-win plan that shows how everyone will benefit from your...

There are many different ways to make a home environmentally friendly. Some apply to new buildings, and some to existing homes. 

The first element one should consider is energy efficiency. This would include features such as roof and wall insulation, landscaping to reduce heating and cooling costs, installing energy-efficient windows and window treatments, adding ceiling fans, and doing an energy audit to identify problems such as improperly sealed gaskets or gaps under exterior doors. Active and passive solar systems and energy-efficient appliances will also reduce a home's carbon footprint.

When building or renovating a home, one can choose environmentally-friendly materials. This might include bamboo rather than hardwood flooring, recycled materials, and other green building materials.

The main benefits of a more environmentally-friendly home are a reduction in energy costs. Eliminating use of toxic materials in construction can help potential residents with allergies or chemical sensitivities. From a seller's point of view, green homes sell faster and at a premium price. From a buyer's perspective, a green home will have lower energy costs. Another intangible benefit of a green home is that it aligns with the ethical beliefs of many people worried about global climate change, and behaving in a way one considers ethical can contribute to happiness.

If an incision is found on the inner face of the ilium, what can be determined about the type and size of the causative implement and the direction...

The ilium is the large, elephant ear shaped part of the pelvis.  It resembles two hemispheres of a valentine's day heart, split in two to make a left ilium and a right ilium.  In the ilia (plural), there is an indentation, a natural curvature to the structure of the body of the ilia.  This is the inner face of the ilia, so if an incision were made in this area, the implement used came in from the person's front.  The positioning of the ilium in regard to the body itself would indicate a thrust at a downward angle, probably around thirty degrees, or so.  As far as the type and size of the causative implement, that would depend on the size of the incision, the depth into the ilium it penetrated, and collateral damage to surrounding tissues, such as the muscles and skin.  A small, slim incision, with neat penetration of the surrounding tissues would indicate a smaller bladed implement, such as a surgeon's scalpel, while a larger, deeper, more jagged insertion would indicate an implement of heavier, rougher nature, like a hunting knife.

What are the causes and the effects of the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War using social, political and economic factors?

Both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War had causes and effects that were related to economic, political, and social factors.

The following were causes and effects of the Revolutionary War.

• An economic cause of this war dealt with the British wanting the colonists to assume some of the costs of running the colonies. The British felt that since the colonists benefited from some of the actions of the British, such as being protected by them, they should share in the cost of these benefits. This led to the passage of unpopular tax laws such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts. After the Revolutionary War, the colonists were no longer subjected to British taxes and to British economic policies.


• A political cause of the war focused on the feeling the colonists had that the British were violating their rights. They believed the tax laws were illegal because the colonists didn’t have representatives in Parliament to talk about and to vote on these proposed tax laws. After the war, the colonists elected representatives who would make the laws for them.


• A social cause of the war referenced the belief that the British weren’t respecting the colonists and treating them well. The Boston Massacre and the Intolerable Acts were examples of this poor treatment. After the war, the colonists were no longer dependent on the British for the things they wanted to do.

 The following were causes and effects of the Civil War.

• An economic cause of the Civil War focused on the different economic needs of the North and of the South. The North was primarily industrial. They favored protective tariffs and supported internal improvement projects. The South was mainly agricultural. They were against protective tariffs and against internal improvement projects, especially if these projects raised taxes. As a result of the Civil War, the South diversified its economy. Agriculture was still very important, and more industries developed. Our transportation system also expanded throughout the country. The North continued to have many industries.


• A political cause of the Civil War focused on slavery and the spread of it. President Lincoln was against slavery. However, he would have allowed slavery to remain where it was if that would have kept the country together. However, he didn’t want it to spread. The South believed President Lincoln was going to end slavery. This is part of the reason why the southern states seceded from the Union. As a result of the Civil War, slavery ended with the passage of the 13th amendment.


• A social cause of the Civil War focused on keeping the whites in power and in control of society, especially in the South. Many southerners couldn’t image a society where blacks and whites were equal. As a result of the Civil War, there was more equality between the races, at least for a period of time while Reconstruction was occurring.

Both wars had various factors that led to the beginning of the fighting.

What main points does O'Brien make in her final argument to the jury?

In Chapter 18 of Monster, Steve's defense lawyer makes her closing argument. This the final chance for a lawyer to go over the important points of the trial, as well as stir up the jury's feelings towards her client. O'Brien focuses on several things:

• The prosecution is not even accusing Steve of actually shooting the gun, just of being involved in the robbery. Furthermore, they haven't been able to prove that he was involved, only that he knew the guys and talked about basketball with them.


• O'Brien points out that witnesses only saw Steve walk out of the store, not give any signal that the store was clear and ready to be robbed. And, if he had been the lookout, he did a terrible job at it. Lorelle Henry was still in the store at the time of the robbery.


• O'Brien reminds them that only Bobo and King ate the chicken dinner after the robbery and split the money; Steve did neither of those things.


• She also tears down Bobo as a witness. His testimony showed him to be both foolish and cold-hearted, which doesn't reflect well on the prosecution or their case. O'Brien suggests that because Bobo doesn't value the lives of others, he wouldn't have a problem blaming Steve for the robbery.


• She ends with the good points of Steve's character: his openness and honesty and his marked difference from the actual criminals who were brought to testify.  

Which sociological paradigm sees the social world as an outcome of competition between groups for resources?

The social conflict theory of sociology views the social world as a result of competition for limited resources by different groups within a society.  This school of sociology attempts to understand what groups benefit from the established social systems and how the most powerful exploit the weaker ones. Sociologists can look at this based on race, gender, age, ethnicity or any subset of society.  Karl Marx is a famous social conflict theorist.  Marxism is a very well known theory that examines the exploitation of the lower class workers by the wealthy capitalists.  While Marxism examines the interaction of classes, W.E.B. Dubois famously utilized social conflict theory to explore the competition for resources between racial classes in the United States, and how the white Americans exploit African-Americans through segregation.  

How do Willy's parenting skills affect his sons?

In Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Willy has parenting skills that are similar to his life skills. He treats both of his sons with blind optimism that they can do anything they want, ignoring their limitations or desires. He wants them to be successful and well-liked--these are the two qualities he, himself, strives for. However, one of his sons, Biff, does not wish for this--he would like to live out west. The other son, Happy, is so disillusioned by his father's grandiose ideas that he becomes lazy and insolent. By imposing his own dreams on his sons, Willy has made exactly the opposite of what he has imagined. Both of his sons are failures, they do not really love him, and they aren't especially well-liked.

How are sound and light alike and different?

Sound and light are similar in that both are forms of energy that travel in waves. They both have properties of wavelength, freqency and amplitude. Here are some differences:

• Sound can only travel through a medium (substance) while light can travel through empty space.


• Sound is a form of mechanical energy caused by vibrations of matter. Light is electromagnetic energy caused by interacting electric and magnetic fields. 


• A light wave is a transverse wave, meaning that its displacement is perpendicular to its direction of travel. (Picture a sine wave or an ocean wave.) A sound wave is a longitudinal wave, meaning that its displacement is the direction it travels. It's also called a compression wave. Picture a Slinky toy (spring) being stretched and compressed longitudinally.


• Light travels much faster than sound. It travels at a speed of about 300 million meters per second, while sound travels at about 340 meters per second depending on altitude and air temperature.

Do you have a guide for Mike Lupica's book Game Changers?

Game Changers centers on a young football player named Ben McBain, who is talented and flexible enough to play several positions. He also has a huge drive to win. His hero is former NFL quarterback Doug Flutie, a man who was physically on the small side, like Ben, but who could play beyond his size. Ben dreams of becoming quarterback, but the coach, Coach O'Brien, considers him too small. More importantly, O'Brien wants his own son, Shawn, to be quarterback, because he is trying to live through Shawn. O'Brien was once a pro and now he is pressuring Shawn to follow in his footsteps.

Ben is disappointed and feels it is unfair that he cannot be quarterback, but he is a strong person so he deals with it. Shawn, however, is being pressured too hard by his father to win and this is making him a poor quarterback and, ironically, threatening the season. Ben has an influence on Shawn and helps guide him to better quarterbacking, but then Coach O'Brien begins to interfere. 

One theme of this book is that parents should avoid putting too much pressure on their children. Ben's father, for example, supports him but doesn't make unrealistic demands, whereas Shawn's father has too much emotional energy invested in his son's success at football. 

How does Jem Finch's justifiable and tolerant character in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' make him a significant character in the novel?

Jem Finch's justifiable and tolerant character make him significant throughout the novel because he parallels Scout's moral development and embodies Atticus' beliefs and teachings. Jem looks up to his father, Atticus, who is the morally upright character and the epitome of justice and tolerance. Jem is much more than Scout's older brother and playmate. He is a leader, caretaker, and loyal son throughout the novel. Since Jem is older than Scout, he experiences different situations and provides an additional perspective to many rememberable scenes. The reader views Jem's maturation from a young, imaginative boy to a pre-teen infatuated with sports. Jem learns valuable lessons throughout the novel, such as courage and tolerance. Jem's experience with Mrs. Dubose gives him insight into the duality of human nature and teaches him the true definition of courage. Jem is the first to understand that adults lie when Nathan Radley fills the knothole in the tree with cement. Jem also loses his childhood innocence after witnessing Tom Robinson's wrongful conviction. Atticus raised Jem to be a fair, tolerant, understanding individual, which is why Jem is so distraught when he witnesses injustice. Jem's actions, perspective, and maturation compliment Scout's character, as well as Atticus' tutelage. 

How does the author develop or reveal character? Give three examples from "The Ransom of Red Chief."

Understanding characters' personalities can be achieved through direct or indirect characterization. Direct characterization is when the personality or traits of a character are explicitly expressed by the author, another character, or the character himself. On the other hand, indirect characterization is when the reader must infer what the character is like based on implicit evidence. O. Henry uses both techniques to describe his characters in "The Ransom of Red Chief."

First, Johnny Dorset is the boy that Bill and Sam kidnap for ransom. He puts up a strong physical fight when he is taken away, which indirectly shows that he has a fighting personality rather than a docile one. Johnny does describe himself directly for his captors, as well:

"I like this fine. I never camped out before; but I had a pet 'possum once, and I was nine last birthday. I hate to go to school."

These direct comments explain that Johnny likes camping, hasn't done it before, had a possum, is nine years old, and hates school. No inference is needed to understand these little tidbits about Johnny's character.

O. Henry then gives the reader a little more insight into Johnny as he develops his character over the course of the story. For example, Johnny makes threats as he plays the role of Red Chief. He tells Bill that he will scalp him at daybreak and Sam will burn "at the stake at the rising of the sun." The men first think that these are merely idle threats, but the more they learn about the boy, the more they believe him. This adds suspense to the story because if the little boy really does do these things to these men, does that mean that he is a violent predator rather than the helpless victim?

The reader must read the rest of the story to discover more about the character of Johnny Dorset. When the sun does start to rise the next morning, Bill screams in horror as he finds Red Chief sitting on his chest with a knife in one hand and a handful of hair in the other. This image implies that Johnny really means to scalp this man! If it weren't for Sam stopping the assault, he may have, but that is left up to the reader to ponder. When Sam gets up before his promised burning at the stake, he tells Bill that his shoulder hurts and he's not trying to avoid the boy. Bill says the following that reveals more about Johnny:

"You're afraid. You was to be burned at sunrise, and you was afraid he'd do it. And he would, too, if he could find a match. Ain't it awful, Sam?"

Bill's testimony about Johnny characterizes the little boy as viewed by his kidnappers. He's that scary and threatening, apparently. Whether Johnny would actually hurt them is never revealed, but it's enough to know that he's intimidating enough to shake two adult men.

Finally, things escalate quickly for Bill after another day with Johnny. He explains to Sam the following:

"He put a red-hot boiled potato down my back. . . and then mashed it with his foot; and I boxed his ears. Have you got a gun about you, Sam?"

Some interesting facts are revealed about Bill, too. He finally gets enough of Red Chief's shenanigans to actually punch him a few times to get him to stop. Bill is so scared about being with Johnny that he is willing to use a gun to control him. This pattern of behavior continues and escalates throughout the story until the kidnappers pay Johnny's dad to take him back. The characters of the kidnappers are revealed as those who are not capable of handling a nine year-old boy or a proper kidnapping and ransom.

Did Officer Wells do the right thing?

In O. Henry's short story "After Twenty Years," Jimmy Wells is a police officer who makes a difficult but correct decision. Twenty years previous to the action of the story, Wells and a friend agreed to meet each other at a certain spot twenty years later. Wells meets the man, but since they meet outside, at night, in the dark, neither man can see the other clearly; however, when the waiting man strikes a match, Wells can see that his face is the face of a notorious criminal he has seen on wanted posters. Wells doesn't reveal his own identity but sends a plain-clothes police officer to first pretend to be himself, then arrest the waiting man, and then give him a note. In the note Officer Wells reveals he was there at the appointed time but could not bring himself to arrest the childhood friend himself. Officer Wells' decision was correct. He kept the pact he made with his friend. If he had started reminiscing about their old friendship with the criminal, Wells may have been tempted to allow the man to escape--for old time's sake. To avoid temptation, he asks another man from the police department to go and pretend to be Wells to make the arrest of the criminal easier. This was the most questionable action Wells took, yet it is consistent with undercover work that police detectives engage in frequently, and most people don't consider such actions to be lying--they are more like acting. To make sure his childhood friend knew that he had kept the pact, Wells sends a note via the arresting officer honestly explaining that he was there but that he couldn't bring himself to arrest the man himself. This showed integrity on Wells' part; his friend would not be able to accuse him of standing him up, and he might even appreciate the fact that, because of their past relationship, Wells hadn't wanted to personally arrest him. Wells enforced the law, acted with integrity, protected himself from temptation, and considered the feelings of his friend in the process. So, yes, he did the right thing. 

What are the different bases of legitimacy and what might cause legitimacy to break down ?

According to Max Weber, there are three types of legitimacy.  Each is based on a different source.  Legitimacy can break down regardless of which source it comes from. 

The first type of legitimacy is traditional.  In this type of legitimacy, the ruler derives their authority from tradition.  They lead because that is how things have always been.  This is the sort of authority that the Pope has, or that kings have.  They rule because it is traditional that people from their family rule or because it is believed that God has given them the right to do so.  This sort of legitimacy can break down if rulers stop following tradition.  If they do not act in the ways that tradition says they must, people may stop accepting their authority.

The second type of legitimacy is legal or rational.  This sort of legitimacy comes about because the ruler or leader has been selected through legally prescribed methods.  This is the type of legitimacy that an American president has.  Once a president is elected, the vast majority of people agree that the president has the right to lead the country because he (or someday she) was elected according to the rules.  This sort of legitimacy can break down if the leader is seen to violate the rules.  Since legitimacy depends on the law, a leader who does not seem to respect the law can lose legitimacy.

Finally, there is charismatic legitimacy.  People believe such a leader has the right to rule simply because of the magnitude of their personal talents and charm.  This sort of legitimacy breaks down if the leader acts in ways that undermine their charisma.  If a leader has legitimacy because she can make people love her, she might lose that legitimacy if she enacts policies that make people stop loving her.  Charismatic legitimacy lasts only so long as the leader retains his or her charisma.

Of course, other things can happen to take away legitimacy from a leader.  This typically happens when events go badly and the leader does not seem to respond well to them.  This can break legitimacy down regardless of what it is based on.   

In Night by Elie Wiesel, what does this figurative language refer to: "...as would a shopkeeper receiving a delivery of old rags"?

The quote from Night by Elie Wiesel you refer to in your question is found on page 47 of the book. At this time, Elie, his father, and several others of the Jewish prisoners have recently arrived at the concentration camp, Buna. They have been assigned to work at a warehouse making electrical fittings. Elie meets a musician named Juliek who tells him about the work they will do, which he describes as being fairly easy and "not dangerous" (Wiesel 47). When the group arrives at the warehouse, they are met by the man in charge, the meister. Elie observes his lack of interest in them when he says,

"He paid about as much attention as a dealer might who was just receiving a delivery of old rags" (Wiesel 47).

In other words, that was all these Jewish workers were to him. They had no meaning to him as human beings. They were to be used and thrown away—totally expendable, like a pile of rags.

In what ways is Donald Trump qualified for the United States presidency?

This is no doubt a politically charged question. The most simple answer is that the laws and constitution of the the United States say that it is the public's responsibility to deem a candidate qualified or unqualified. This has not been decided yet, but if the public were to elect Donald Trump, this in itself would deem him qualified from a certain perspective.

That said, conventional wisdom states that a candidate should have experience in a related public office before seeking the presidency. Most candidates have been a senator, governor, or other official before seeking the highest office. This helps the candidate to learn the inner workings of government, make connections, and arguably become more effective as a leader. From this perspective Donald Trump is lacking in his qualifications. He does not have experience in public office, unlike many of his opponents.

Trump frequently argues that the country is currently in such a bad state that his lack of experience is actually a strength, since he is not caught up in the insider game of politics. This is a common and old argument going back for many years in the American political tradition. Certain voters always find so-called outsiders to be appealing. From the perspective of these people, it would seem his lack of political history actually makes him more qualified.

Additionally, many of Trump's supporters would argue that his success as a business man means he will be an effective leader. This argument rests on the assumption that public leadership and private leadership are related in skills and qualifications. His supporters would say that only an outsider with business experience can fix a broken system. His critics would point out that while he has done many things in his career, he would undoubtably be the least politically experienced person ever to hold the office.

Electing Donald Trump would certainly go against conventional political wisdom, but his right to lead is ultimately a decision for the American public. In a sense the only legal requirement is that the president be a natural-born citizen of the proper age. 

In Night, why was the doctor who treated Elie very kind?

The doctor who treated Elie's foot in Auschwitz was Jewish, and a prisoner just like Elie was. Within the concentration camps, inmates were assigned different types of forced labor. If the prisoner had a certain skill (ie if they were a doctor, a musician, etc.), they would often be utilized for that skill.

The kind Jewish doctor forms a contrast to the Nazi doctors (including Dr. Josef Mengele) who, rather than healing the sick, were the ones who decided which prisoners would live and which would be sent to the gas chambers.

ECONOMIC SYSTEM refers to the______ A. creation of products and services for consumption. B. production, distribution and consumption of goods...

In a civilization or culture, the economic system is the system of production, consumption, and trade of goods and services. An economic system can be as simple as a small village that utilizes subsistence agriculture to a complex mixed economic system with a gross domestic product in the trillions of dollars.

To simplify matters, there are basically two types of large economic systems in the world today. One is a command economy in which the government or community makes decisions about how much and at what cost goods are produced and sold. In a command economy, the government allocates the profits from production. The other type of economy is a market economy. In this system, the consumer, or citizens make the decisions about what is produced and who profits. They do this by deciding what items that they will buy and at what cost. Economic systems vary widely from culture to culture.

In "The Devil and Tom Walker", what does the Devil mean when he calls himself the "grandmaster of the Salem witches"?

This quote is a reference to the Salem Witch Trials, an infamous event in early American history in which various women in and around the village of Salem, Massachusetts, were accused of witchcraft. Some of them were executed after being found guilty, though the means and methods by which their guilt was determined were considered suspicious and injust by people even in that time period; for example, some suspects were unable to speak English, which was held against them as a claim that they refused to speak before the court.

An aspect of this story is told in the play "The Crucible", which is a common reading piece in high school literature and may provide further insights into the event.

One distinct takeaway from the trials is that there was almost certainly no actual witchcraft taking place, and the trials were instead the byproduct of family feuds and mass hysteria. However, by giving himself the title "grandmaster of witches", this throws the historical account into confusion - it may be that the Devil is confirming that these women were indeed witches, and the popular understanding of their innocence was the result of the Devil's trickery. It may also mean that the women were indeed innocent, but that the Devil was their "master" in that he ensured they would be executed, if for no other reason than to entertain himself.  

How is nature presented in the poem 'To Autumn'?

Nature is presented in all its bounty and fruitfulness in John Keats's mellifluous ode.

It is of particular note that in the second stanza in which Keats describes all of nature's gifts, he creates the image of a young woman "sound asleep" from her labors, who

...sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;

While many of the harvest laborers were young women in England in the 1800's, there is, perhaps, the metaphoric suggestion that Nature is like a woman who nurtures her unborn baby most of a year and then the "fruit" of her womb is produced later. So, too, does Autumn yield the fruits and products of its earlier growing months, and the richness of Nature is bountiful in its production in this season. 

Connotations of birth are in the first stanza with the words "ripeness," "sweet kernel" and the phrase "swell the gourd"; then later there are "flowers for the bees."

Certainly, Keats' lyric ode paints a rich, and enduring tableau of what he depicts as Nature's richest season, the season that brings forth all the fruits and grains and mellow bounty.

How are Mike and M&M alike in That Was Then, This Is Now?

There are several similarities between the characters Mike Chambers and M&M Carlson in the novel That Was Then This Is Now. Both boys are caring and compassionate individuals. They are empathetic towards others and follow their conscience during adverse situations. They also both prevent African American individuals from being ridiculed and assaulted. M&M stops Mark and Bryon from jumping a black man about to cross a street, and Mike prevents a group of white guys from harassing a young black female in a drugstore. However, despite their good nature and magnanimous personalities, both boys are rather naive and end up getting severely injured due to bad decisions they make throughout the novel. Mike suffers a severe beating after dropping off Connie in a black neighborhood, while M&M gets beat up while walking home alone and also loses his mind after taking acid. Despite being victims of assault, both Mike and M&M are forgiving. M&M tells Mark and Bryon to let Curly Shepard and his friends go, and Mike tells Bryon he doesn't blame Connie for telling her friends to beat him up. Mike and M&M are both innocent young men with good hearts who are tragic victims of a destructive society.

Why did Martin Luther King, Jr. say this quote: "We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope?"

This quote can be taken as general wisdom about life, or looked at in the specific context of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life.

As a  general insight, this wise advice can be applied to anything in life. When things go wrong, or we are in a negative situation, the disappointment is always temporary. However, while disappointment comes and goes, we can always have hope, which helps us to get through hard times and strive towards better things.

MLK was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, and this quote could also be describing his experience with political activism in that time. As anyone advocating for change will understand, there are usually a lot of setbacks, disappointments, and answers of "no" before anything positive gets done. MLK dealt with a lot of hatred, racism, and refusal to change before he impacted the world for the better. However, he always had the hope that he could eventually achieve this change, and that is what kept him pressing on.

Where are Malcolm and Macduff in Macbeth?

In Act IV, Scene 3, Macduff and Malcolm are in England at the court of King Edward the Confessor. Malcolm has been there since fleeing from Macbeth's castle at Dunsinane. Macduff is only newly arrived, having come to Scotland to help raise an army to overthrow Macbeth. Both Macduff and Malcolm are very important characters, but Shakespeare must have felt that he needed to impress them more strongly on his audience, since Macduff had only appeared in the scene in which he discovered Duncan's murdered body and Malcolm, who is destined to become king, had hardly any exposure to the audience at all. 

The part of Act IV, Scene 3 that involves the long conversation between Macduff and Malcolm really accomplishes very little except to make the audience aware that they are important characters who will become antagonists against Macbeth. Malcolm tells Macduff that he doesn't feel qualified to be king of Scotland because of all his vices. He says:

Better Macbeth
Than such an one to reign [as himself].

This seems intended to explain why Malcolm didn't stay at Dunsinane and make an effort to be elected to inherit his father's throne. After all, he was named Prince of Cumberland and was the heir apparent. His election as King of Scotland would have been unanimous. The audience has a right to be suspicious about why Malcolm fled. Evidently he was not only afraid there was a plot against him and his brother, but he didn't really want to be king because he felt unworthy of the office. Macduff has to talk him into asserting his right to rule--and then Malcolm tells him he was lying about his vices in order to test Macduff, whom he suspected of being one of Macbeth's secret agents. 

Devilish Macbeth
By many of these trains hath sought to win me
Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me
From over-credulous haste. 
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
My first false speaking
Was this upon myself. What I am truly,
Is thine and my poor country's to command:

What he means by "My first false speaking" is that the first time in his life he ever told a lie was when he told Macduff about his nonexistent vices. All this dialogue accomplishes very little except to impress the identities of these two characters on the viewers' minds. (In modern media parlance this would be called "face time.") Later in Act IV, Scene 3, Macduff will learn from Ross that Macbeth has had his soldiers storm Macduff's castle and murder his wife and children along with everyone else inside. This, of course, is important news and augments Macduff's already strong motivation to kill Macbeth in hand-to-hand combat.

O, I could play the woman with mine eyes,
And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,
Cut short all intermission; front to front
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;
Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
Heaven forgive him too!

The finale would be much less effective if the audience did not know these two characters better. Malcolm is to become leader of the English army, and Macduff is to have the satisfaction of killing Macbeth on the battlefield and displaying his severed head. At that point Macduff and all the soldiers shout "Hail, King of Scotland!" The audience is satisfied. Malcolm has become not only king but the legitimate and worthy king.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, why is it a sin to kill a mockingbird?

In Chapter 10, Jem and Scout are about to shoot their air rifles outside, when Atticus tells them “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Miss Maudie elaborates, and tells the children that Atticus is right. She says that mockingbirds do nothing to harm anyone or anything, and all they do is sing their hearts out for people. Mockingbirds symbolize innocent beings throughout the novel. Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are two characters that are symbolized as mockingbirds because they are innocent beings who do not harm anybody. Unfortunately, they become victims of Maycomb’s prejudiced community members. Boo Radley is subjected to negative rumors about his life, and Tom Robinson is convicted of a crime he did not commit. Treating innocent beings with respect and kindness is an important lesson in Scout’s moral development. Whether the innocent being is a mockingbird or a person, it is a sin to harm them.

What was one of Maniac Magee's faults?

One of Maniac Magee's major faults is his inability to recognize and understand racial differences.

He looks at his black friends' skin colors and notices that they come in a vast array of shades, which he describes poetically as "gingersnap and light fudge and dark fudge and acorn and butter rum and cinnamon and burnt orange." And he looks at his own skin and doesn't see it as white, like a sheet of paper, but as many different shades. He even thinks about how his eyeballs are just as white as those of his friends, and doesn't realize that this similarity means nothing to the racially segregated East End and West End areas of his town.

You might argue that Maniac's color blindness is sort of a good thing: he treats people equally; he judges people based on their behavior rather than the color of their skin. That's admirable. And yes, Maniac is absolutely correct to notice that skin tones run the gamut and aren't just "black" or "white." But what he doesn't recognize is that his pale skin makes people perceive him as different from the African Americans who live in the East End, in Amanda's neighborhood. This ignorance of racial realities makes him unaware of why his presence there isn't tolerated by everyone, such as Mars Bar.

In Chapter 16, as the narrator explains, "Maniac kept trying, but he still couldn't see it, this color business." Although he's a good reader, and a helpful tutor for Lester and Hester, Maniac is simply ignorant when it comes to this aspect of reality. It's why he seemed to react so stupidly to the old man's insistence, in Chapter 17, that Maniac go on home to "his own kind." He doesn't know what "his own kind" means.

Why does Nick move to New York?

In chapter 1, Nick introduces himself to the reader by providing a little background. He tells the reader that he participated in World War I:

I enjoyed the counter-raid so thoroughly that I came back restless. Instead of being the warm centre of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go East and learn the bond business. 

As with many of the men who participated in that war, when they returned home, things had changed, either in themselves, in their community, or both. This restlessness that Nick describes is a theme in Fitzgerald's book because it was a theme of that era. So Nick decides that he needs a change of scenery and moves to the East coast, New York specifically, to try working on Wall Street. He has no background in the bond business, but as he says, "Everybody I knew was in the bond business, so I supposed it could support one more single man."

Nick also makes this move because he seems to be trying to figure out what to do with his life and who he is as a man. Besides the bond business, he talks about "the high intention of reading many other books besides . . . and now I was going to bring back all such things into my life and become again that most limited of all specialists, the 'well-rounded man.'" Fitzgerald also symbolically shows this beginning of a new life by setting the story in the spring, when life typically starts fresh. Nick sees his move as a fresh start as well, and does not anticipate all the tragedy that is to come that summer.