Why does Mr. Justice Wargrave believe that "Indian Island was news!"?

At the beginning of the novel, Justice Wargrave is thinking of all the times he has seen Soldier Island in the news.  First, there was the fact that an American millionaire had bought it. Since this story was set in England, that might make the news.  Then a beautiful modern home was built on the island, and the home was featured in the news. The third wife of the millionaire was killed in a boating accident on the island, and that was in the news.  After that the millionaire wanted to sell it, so various advertisements of the home and island had been in the papers. Finally came a statement that a Mr. Owens had bought it.

Gossip also made the papers concerning the island and the beautiful home.  It was rumored that a Hollywood film star, Miss Gabrielle Turl, bought it.  Another rumor was that it was sold to royalty.  Mr Merryweather was said to have bought it for a honeymoon, and it was rumored to have been sold to the Admiralty to carry out some hush-hush experiments for the government/military.

There was definitely a lot of interest in this island, and that is why Justice Wargrave believed that this island was newsworthy.

Critic Vivian Mercier suggested that Waiting for Godot is a play where nothing happens twice. How could this be related to Samuel Beckett's...

This response will be a challenging response to understand, primarily because the topic is nearly impossible to quantify.  In my mind, talking about Beckett's work is similar to putting your hands in a pot of honey; you are able to get a hold of it, but once you think you have got it, watch how it slips through your grasp.  After reading the play, I presume you know what's going on with it.  I don't sense that you are asking what the play is about; you already got that.  The reason you came here is, I suppose, to ask yourself why there is meaning in what it is you read.  I think this would be the point where the hand is placed in the vat of honey.

Let's assume the critic is right- that the play is an example where "nothing happens twice."  We can then make the assumption that the character display the best and worst aspect of humanity, discuss elements that define existence and represent triviality, study themselves and one another, and interact with success and failure with each-other and others.  They do all of this, and yet nothing happens... twice.  I cannot even pretend to be an authority on this play because A)  I think it's impossible to be an expert on something that is not meant for us to dissect and represent a totality of understanding and B) I don't think Beckett really felt that anyone can be an expert on it, and this would include himself.  All I can do is examine what happens, assemble something, and determine an answer that is symbiotic, benefiting the pristine beauty of the play and enhancing my understanding of it.

The element that I am left with after the conclusion of this play is that precisely nothing happens... twice.  These characters live, love, disparage, compliment, converge, and diverge and nothing happens twice.  Their hopes are never quite realized, their words never lead to action, and what is indicated is never quite actualized.  Godot never arrives.  Despite all the uses, fancy and not fancy, of language, nothing happens... twice.

And I think that this is the precise beauty of it.  The theme of paralysis is an overwhelming one in the play.  It seems to me that action is prevented because of the belief that Monsieur Godot is going to arrive.  The character praise him, hate him, deride him, mock him, and do this to one another.  Yet, he does not arrive and they still wait... twice.  The element of this play is that we all have to endure what the characters do.  We all undergo moments when we are Lucky or Estragon.  We are even sometimes the little boy who says that "Monsieur Godot will not arrive, but will be here tomorrow." The paralysis of these character is seen in us.  Perhaps, the symbiotic way to examine this is that while the traits of paralysis and inaction are there, both on stage and within us, perhaps, unlike what is happening on stage... twice, there is something we can do about it.  If we listen to the cries of others' suffering and seek to transform what is into what can be and overcome our own sense of paralysis, maybe something will happen... once.  Perhaps, we no longer have to wait for Monsieur Godot to arrive.

The closing point.  In a recent Bollywood film, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, the closing scene takes place at an airport where there is a sign for the passenger, "Godot."  The person holding it is quite old, presuming that he has been waiting for some time.  If Bollywood can grasp the futility in waiting, I suppose I can, as well.

Explain the poem "Full Moon and Little Frieda" by Ted Hughes.

Ted Hughes and his wife Sylvia Plath left the US and settled down in a small flat in London. It was here that their daughter Frieda - named after D.H.Lawrence's wife - was born in April 1960.  Both the parents revelled in observing the physical and mental growth of their daughter. A new surge of creative energy was released in both of them and a series of poems was the result.  In the autumn of 1961 they moved to a larger house in a village in Devon. It was here that most probably this poem was written.

The poem describes very movingly and vividly Ted Hughes' excitement in observing his daughter's joy and surprise at seeing a full moon suddenly coming into her view against the canvas of a picturesque English countryside. Its that time of the evening when the cows - described as "a dark river of blood, many boulders" because of their dark brown colour- are returning home and its just the time when the evening dew is about cover the countryside. Up in the sky the first star of the evening is about to appear, "to tempt a first star to a tremor," just then Frieda on seeing the full moon exclaims in childish joy "moon!"

In the last two lines Ted Hughes imagines that the moon looks down from the sky like an artist who admires the painting he has just completed painting. Just as Ted Hughes the poet has created a beautiful picturesque painting of the English countryside with words the moon is compared to the artist who has painted the same picture with its beautiful moonlight. And of course the centre of attraction in the moon's artistic creation is Frieda.

What is Thoreau's opinion of progress in the section Where I lived, and What I live for?

I think the best answer to this question is from Chapter 1:  Economy.  Here's a fairly length quote that explains a lot of it:

A man who has at length found something to do will not need to get a new suit to do it in; for him the old will do, that has lain dusty in the garret for an indeterminate period. Old shoes will serve a hero longer than they have served his valet -- if a hero ever has a valet -- bare feet are older than shoes, and he can make them do. Only they who go to soires and legislative balls must have new coats, coats to change as often as the man changes in them. But if my jacket and trousers, my hat and shoes, are fit to worship God in, they will do; will they not? Who ever saw his old clothes -- his old coat, actually worn out, resolved into its primitive elements, so that it was not a deed of charity to bestow it on some poor boy, by him perchance to be bestowed on some poorer still, or shall we say richer, who could do with less? I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new wine in old bottles. Our moulting season, like that of the fowls, must be a crisis in our lives. The loon retires to solitary ponds to spend it. Thus also the snake casts its slough, and the caterpillar its wormy coat, by an internal industry and expansion; for clothes are but our outmost cuticle and mortal coil. Otherwise we shall be found sailing under false colors, and be inevitably cashiered at last by our own opinion, as well as that of mankind.

In my understanding of Thoreau, progress that is only material, is insignificant.  For example, what's the point of having the telegraph to send messages faster if we don't have anything worth saying in the first place.  When you find something really important to do, you will not be distracted by clothes of any "thing" --- and no new thing will make any real difference if it is only material.

How does 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. LeGuin speak to the theme of the individual and how he/she relates to society?

The story develops some profound, timeless questions about human nature, human society, and the individual's relationship to society.

The child who is imprisoned and abused beneath the streets of the city (and who dies there, to be replaced by another innocent) is a scapegoat. He has been singled out through no fault of his own and isolated from society to suffer so that their collective well being will be assurred. As in real societies that have made scapegoats of certain citizens, the people of Omelas choose the most powerless among them (in the story, disabled children) to be their scapegoats, one after another.

The individual's relationship to society as explored in the story is shown in those who walk away from Omelas--and those who don't. After witnessing the child's misery and after understanding that personal happiness in Omelas comes only from his suffering, some citizens (young and old) choose to leave the town. It is a moral choice. Those who walk away from Omelas reject evil, and they refuse to condone it by remaining in a society that promotes it. They reject happiness purchased by another's suffering. Some make this moral choice immediately upon first seeing the child. Some struggle with it for years, remembering the horror they once had seen, before they can endure it no longer and must walk away. Those who leave Omelas don't know where they are going or what their subsequent lives will be; they only know their own humanity tells them they cannot live as they are expected to live in their society.

The individuals in the story relate to their society in one of two ways. Some choose to live with the evil they see--embracing it, rationalizing it perhaps, or trying to ignore it. Others are deeply affected and walk away from it. In their reactions, we examine our own relationship to society. When presented with "a child," would we make the moral choice? Human history is filled with examples of those who made such difficult moral choices, and these are the people we admire for their courage and integrity.

What does the title Brave New World mean?

The title Brave New World is a reference to Shakespeare's The Tempest. The line is delivered by Miranda, a young girl who has grown up on an isolated desert island, having known only her father and his deformed slave, Caliban. When Miranda meets men from the outside world, she says: "Oh brave new world, that has such people in it!"

This situation somewhat parallels that of "John the Savage," who has grown up on a reservation isolated from the modern world of technology and pleasure. Unlike Miranda, however, whose exposure to the outside world is full of promise and potential, John ultimately finds himself disgusted by the future society in which he finds himself, and is totally unable to adapt to it.

Who are the main central characters other than Mr.Summers, Tess Hutchinson and Old Man Warner? For each central character I need a brief...

In The Lottery, the lottery itself, is a character, it appears to have established itself, firmly in the town, this ritual continues even though the townspeople can't remember why the tradition is held, nor for what purpose they are preserving it. But, the lottery persists, either out of fear or out of a sense of obligation, a town tradition that has found a way to equate itself with picnics, square dances and parties.

"The lottery was conducted--as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program--by Mr. Summers. who had time and energy to devote to civic activities. He was a round-faced, jovial man and he ran the coal business, and people were sorry for him. because he had no children and his wife was a scold." (Jackson)

As the main character in the story, the plot revolves around the lottery.  The lottery supersedes all other characters, it is more important than any one in the story.  It must be held, it must be honored, it must be satisfied.

The reader, by the end of this story, learns more about the lottery, the ritual execution in this town, than any other character.

This insidious evil has become as regular as a church picnic, the people in the town have become immune to the destructive nature of the lottery, sacrificing their humanity to engage in a yearly ritual murder.

Can you see in "Fahrenheit 451" any aspects of materialism? Do you think it's also up to date today?

The people in Montag's society have a world that revolves around key material possessions:  their t.v. walls and their fast cars.  The t.v. walls are extremely expensive; so expensive, in fact, that one wall alone costs "one-third of [Montag's] yearly pay."  So 4 months of salary would be sucked down the tubes through one t.v. wall.  It would take their entire life's earnings to keep up with the entertainment expectations that Mildred has.  Also, Clarisse alludes to the fact that all of her friends have cars that they like to drive around really fast, causing havoc and violence; in fact, "ten of them died in car wrecks" from their driving.  Mildred, when she is upset, likes to take their car out and "get it up around ninety-five and you feel wonderful."  So, their society's entire happiness is centered around these material possessions; it is a way for them to escape, to not have to think, and to drown their miseries.  Later, Montag is talking about all of the wars that they have gotten into and wonders why, saying,

"Is it because we're so rich and the rest of the world's so poor...we're well fed."

So at least in his society, they are rich, well fed, and living a life filled with ease and comfort.

Today, there are many similarities.  Many people think that they can find happiness in money; many parents buy their kids things in order to show their love and provide a "better life" for their kids.  In fact, it has been materialism, and the desire for bigger and better things that has, in part, contributed to the economic recession that we are now in.  Too many people wanted a house, and wanted to have nice things, even if they couldn't afford it.  That has caused a lot of economic turmoil, and led only to more unhappiness, just as the people in Montag's society were surrounded by comforts, but miserable.

I hope that those thoughts help; good luck!

Will Ponyboy, Darry, or any of the group from "The Outsiders" get married and/or have any kids?

To answer this type of question, you have to consider the way that the author has written the characters.  Do you believe that these characters have hopes for families in their future?  To ask if they will get married and have children suggests a hope for a more fulfilling adulthood.  The childhood experience for all of them has been dysfunctional.  The Curtis brothers lost their parents; Two-Bit is from a single parent family; Johnny's parents were abusive.  To get married and have children will to be creating their own complete family unit.  Does Hinton suggest at the end of the book that there is hope for such a happy future?

I would argue that there is.  In the end, Ponyboy is acting out and there is still tension and fighting in the Curtis household, just as there was at the beginning.  But then, Sodapop breaks down, and the brothers have an epiphany.  Just like in the beginning, one brother runs out of the house - however, this time, the others follow and catch up.  That is more hopeful than earlier in the story.  In addition, Ponyboy actually tells us that he understands now - understands what has happened, understands that things can still be ok now.  Then, he and Darry promise Soda to try to do better, understand each other more.  That is pretty hopeful.  And the fact that Ponyboy goes home to write something that could be helpful to others also suggests that he is ready to find happiness, to be a leader.. and maybe someday a father:

"I could picture hundreds and hundreds of boys living on the wrong sides of cities ... There should be some help, someone should tell them before it was too late."

On a more literal note, just the character of Sodapop suggests that the boys will marry and/or have kids one day.  He is ready - even eager - to marry Sandy when she says she is pregnant with his baby.  He is all set to step into that role, and is very upset when it is taken away from him by her confession.  Readers can assume he'll find another girl to love and to give him this chance at some point.

What is the significance of the play-within-a-play, "The Murder of Gonzago," in Hamlet, II.ii?

The play within the play is used by Hamlet to give him evidence against Claudius.  Hamlet has not yet carried through with his plan to avenge his father's death.  He blames himself and believes that this inaction is cowardly:

Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Ha!

However, he also suggests, perhaps to make himself feel better, that he has no concrete evidence that Claudius is guilty.  The Ghost may have been a "devil" and not to be believed:

The spirit that I have seen
May be a devil; and the devil hath power
T' assume a pleasing shape

Therefore, he uses the play to assure himself that Claudius deserves to be punished:

I'll have grounds
More relative than this. The play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.

The play does indeed do this.  Claudius' reaction is enough to spur Hamlet into action. Unfortunately, that action quickly gets stymied then transferred into the mistaken murder of Polonius.  But the play-in-a play provides the moment when Hamlet begins to move his thought into action. 

This "internal play" is significant not just for the plot progression.  It is also significant because, symbolically, the "acting" of the players mirrors, represents, the "acting" that is happening elsewhere: Hamlet "acting" mad, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern "acting" like friends, and Hamlet beginning to "act" upon his vengeance.

What is ironic about Shylock leaving his keys with his daughter?In Act II, scene 5 of "The Merchant of Venice", why is Shylock reluctant to sup...

Shylock is reluctant to go to this dinner because he's had dream about his money bags that he sees as a premonition of someone stealing from him. He gives his daughter Jessica his keys so she can lock up the house and keep it safe from anyone who tries to steal from him while he's gone. He also tells her to stay inside and keep out of the Christian revelry going on in the streets. The irony is that Jessica is planning to run away and marry her Christian love, and when she leaves she will take a great deal of his fortune with her.

In "Araby," what is the nature of the boy's sudden realization?

Disillusionment.  In what Joyce referred to as an epiphany, the boy of "Araby" transforms from an innocent child to a disillusioned adolescent as he realizes that his religious and romantic idealization of Magan's sister and the bazaar have been foolish.  Added to this realization is the fact that the boy is alone in his anger with himself:

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

It is at this point that the boy has matured, but this maturation is at the expense of the loss of the exotic dream--"innumerable follies laid waste"--that has sustained him in his loneliness and "sombre" neighborhood: In the shadows and browness of his neighborhood, he could watch Magan's sister's "dress swing as she moved her boy and the soft rope of her hair toss from side to side."  The boy, like the knights of Arthur's tales, has held Magan's sister as his ideal:

Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance....through the shrill litanies of shop-boys...the nasal chanting of street-singers...I imagined that I bore my chalice [like the Holy Grail] safely through a throng of foes.  Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand.... 

Not only has the boy romanticized his infatuation with Magan's sister to the exotic level [Araby], but he has confused this infatuation with religious fervor.  So, with his disillusionment of his romantic idealizing of the girl, comes also a certain degree of religious disillusionment.

Reduced to the petty life of the street whose houses have "brown imperturbable faces, and the bazaar in which only idle gossip takes place," the boy allows "the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket," a gesture symbolic of his knowledge that life is only filled with the mundane.

Is the character of Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" a tragic character or something else?Please explain me Shylock

Shylock is a tragic character, but he represents more than  that to various audiences.  For Shakespeare's audience, Shylock would have been close to the Jewish stereotype found in many of the works of the Elizabethan era (and previous British writings).  In Shakespeare's time, the Jew was often portrayed as a greedy villain whom writers used for humor's sake.  Shakespeare does attempt to go beyond presenting Shylock as the stereotype of his day by eliciting some sympathy from the audience for Shylock's horrible plight at the play's end.  However, before this point, the playwright makes Shylock look rather foolish.  When Shylock discovers that his only child has eloped with a Christian and, more importantly, with his jewels, he states,

"I would my daughter were dead at my foot and the jewels in her ear . . ." (Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 87-89).

At this point, the audience laughs at Shylock's expense because he appears to be such a greedy, ornery old man that he would rather have his only child dead if he could regain his jewels.

Ironically, Shylock makes this statement right after his infamous "I Am a Jew" speech which powerfully criticizes the Christians' (and perhaps Elizabethan Christians') poor treatment of Jews.  Because of contrasts in Shylock's character such as this, it is not accurate to label him solely as one type of archetype.

Look at Act 4 to see how Shylock meets the qualifications of a tragic hero.  The audience does sympathize with him when he loses his possessions, his livelihood, and his faith.

How does Orwell use the animals in Animal Farm to represent individuals & events of the Russian Revolution?

The universal message of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" is that all violent revolutions which aim to and initially succeed in overthrowing  repressive totalitarian regimes, after a brief idealistic period rapidly deteriorate into  totalitarian and repressive regimes themselves. Orwell illustrates and clarifies this profound universal truth by his allegorical novel "Animal Farm" in which the animals and the incidents represent the characters and incidents of the Russian Revolution.

1. Old Major represents either Karl Marx the author of the "Communist Manifesto" (1848) or Lenin who propagated his ideas in Russia which led to the overthrow of the last Czar who is represented by Mr.Jones in the novel.

2.Napoleon stands for Josef Stalin the ruthless dictator who eliminated his close friend and associate Leon Trotsky in the power struggle to take over the governance of Russia.

3. Snowball who is forced to flee "Animal Farm" represents Trotsky who had to flee Russia.

4. Squealer represents the "Pravda" the propaganda organ of the totalitarian Communist State of Russia.

5. Mr. Pilkington stands for England and her allies.

6. Frederick represents Germany.

7. The incidents related to the building of the windmill correspond to Lenin's ambitious plans for the complete electrification of Russia, although in actual history this did not lead to the quarrel between Stalin and Trotsky.

What are the 7 major land biomes? Please give the basic characteristics for each.

According to my dictionary a biome is a "large geographical area of distinctive plant and animal groups, which are adapted to that particular environment." 

Desert:  These desert biomes receive less than 25 centimeters of rain per year; plants and animals that do not require much water and can adapt to extremely hot temps during the day and cool to cold night time temps. 

Forests:  Plants in a deciduous forest create many different habitats. Different species of birds live in different parts of the forest, eating the insects and fruits in their specific areas. Mammals such as chipmunks and skunks live in deciduous forests. In a North American deciduous forest you might also see wood thrushes, white-tailed deer, and black bears.  The Coniferous forest, also known as a taiga, is full of tall, sturdy evergreen trees that don’t shed their leaves in the winter.  The taiga is not as dry as a desert or a grassland biome.  It is full of mammals, reptiles, insects, and all sorts of wildlife. Tropical forests receive more rain yearly and have a huge canopy of leaves covering the forest floor.  The most varied and unique wildlife lives in the tropical forest than in any other type of biome.

Tundra:  This biome is cold and windy.  The tundra gets deep snows in the winter and the ground remains in a state of permafrost.  The plant life includes: mosses, grasses, shrubs, and dwarf forms of trees, such as willows and birch. Most of the plant growth takes place during the long days of the short summer season. North of the Arctic Circle, the sun does not set during midsummer.  I spent the summer in Alaska year or so ago and it is beautiful tundra with beautiful birds, insects, caribou, foxes, wolves, Arctic hares and bears.   No tics and no snakes live in the tundra. 

Grasslands: Temperatures here are milder than they are in a desert. The winds are strong can cause damage to crops and homes.  The soil supports grasses but not trees.  Many mammals and birds live in this biome as well as insects, reptiles

Savanna (grasslands): Grasslands receive more rain than deserts.  However, they don’t get enough rain for large trees to grow.   These biomes are generally located in the middle latitudes of the planet and covered with grasses and non woody plants.  The Savanna grasslands receive about 25-75 centimeters of precipitation each year.  There is a large variation of weather patterns in these biomes such as tornados and droughts.

Water biomes:  Marine biomes consist mainly of salt water environment of the ocean.  It is home to a number of different ecosystems. water temperature and the amount of sunlight determine what types of organisms can live in different areas of the biome.  There is a transition near coastal areas called estuaries where the fresh water and salt water meet.  There are a lot of animals living in this area like worms, clams, fish, crabs and plant life.  The estuaries give way to rivers, ponds, lakes and freshwater biomes.  Birds, deer, foxes, frogs, and all types of wildlife live near these fresh water biomes and fish, and amphibians live in the fresh water.

Mountains: This biome consists of rocky elevations and a variety of temperatures, precipitation and wildlife.  They consist of forests, water biomes, and tundra.

What are some similarities between Grendel, Macbeth, and the Creation in Frankenstein?

Both Macbeth and the Creature in Frankenstein become "monsters" as the story progresses. All three are considered as going against nature in one way or another.

Grendel is an outcast who is considered unnatural from birth. Frankenstein wants to be loved. He is rejected by his father, who sees him as hideous. He is also considered unnatural from the moment he comes to life (although in Frankenstein's defence, his father created him out of dead criminal's body parts, so one has to wonder what the man expected his "son" would turn out like). Macbeth, on the other hand, starts off as an exemplary character and then declines. He is not a product of his environment as much as a product of his own ambition, and his willingness to trust his supernatural guides. He becomes a monster after he gives into his base desires.

All three end up tormenting the society that they live in the fringes of. Grendel and Frankenstien are never accepted; Macbeth, though he becomes king, ostracises himself by his actions.

How might an understanding of interconnected ecosystems help health officials determine how much money to allocate for the treatment of Lyme...

Let's begin with a general definition of ecosystem.  An ecosystem consists of all the living things sharing one habitat.  Because multiple species share the habitat, they also must either compete for resources or share them.  Thus they are interconnected.

Interconnection simply means that the organisms affect each other.  This effect can be either positive or negative.  In the case of Lyme disease, a bacteria carried by ticks will invade species on which the tick is a parasite.

Understanding the connection between bacteria, ticks, and the infected organisms, health officials can determine the most cost effective way to treat the disease.  For example, treating the symptoms of Lyme disease will fix the problem for an individual, but will not eradicate the disease.  Nor would it help to kill infected deer since they do not spread the disease.  However, killing the ticks that spread the disease or finding an anti-biotic to kill the bacteria would stop the spread.  The health official would then have to weigh the costs of methods used to kill the bacteria versus the cost of killing the ticks.

What is contending? Please give three examples or situations.

Contend means: to strive in a contest, to struggle in a contest, to vie against a rival, to maintain or assert.  Some synonyms are: struggle, argue, maintain, assert, vie

The little girl contended with her mother that she had not taken any cookies from the cookie jar. (maintained or asserted: transitive verb)

The young rookie lawyer contended with a seasoned attorney for hours in debate over a rather simple matter in case law. (struggled against an opponent or rival)

The runners contended in the contest long past their strength and endurance could hold up. (to struggle in a contest)

What does the quote “The books leapt and danced like roasted birds, their wings ablaze with red and yellow feathers.” mean?

This is an example of the powerful imagery for which Bradbury is famous. Here we have a simile, a comparison using "like" or "as". The books, which have been set on fire, are being compared to flying birds. As they burn, they move about, looking as though they are leaping and dancing. It is a very dark, rather disturbing comparison, as they look like birds on fire. The papers fly about in the flames, resembling "red and yellow feathers." The fact that the books are being compared to living creatures is important. Bradbury is emphasizing the peculiar nature of books. Each story has a life of its own, and each reader brings a different perspective to that life. When those lives burn, they resemble, in Montag's eyes, burning birds that attempt to fly to freedom.

In "To Kill a Mockingbird", how does Atticus deal with Scout's question about whether she has to mind Jem?

In his usual kind, patient, logical manner, Atticus tells Scout that whether or not she has to mind Jem probably depends on whether he (Jem) can make her mind.  It's a classic Atticus response; although there is no question that the children will mind him, Calpurnia, Uncle Jack, and Aunt Alexandra, he really leaves it up to Scout and Jem to govern themselves in this matter.  It's an interesting approach that speaks to Atticus's parenting, and the way he has raised the children thus far; he can make this statement without worrying too terribly much that either child will cause a problem with this edict.  Jem is generally kind and protective of his sister, and Scout is generally cooperative when he asserts his leadership.

In "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," what is the functional purpose of the imagery employed? What is the significance of the title?

daf,

“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter is one of the most widely anthologized short stories of modern times and used widely in textbooks. The story has been read from points of view representing the whole critical spectrum.

We essentially see the world from Granny’s--a woman who is on her deathbed--point of view. Most of the story is stream-of-consciousness (the jumbled stream of observations, thoughts, and memories that passes through their minds at any given time), interrupted by the voices and faces of people at Granny’s sickbed in the present.

This alternative strand of things happening that Granny does not take in represents the perspective of the doctor, the priest, and Cornelia, Granny’s daughter. They try to talk to her, but she rarely connects with them. The alternation of the two points of view sets up a contrast between the rich inner subjective world of memories, emotions, and regrets and the outer objective linear world of practical concerns.

Memories of her past with her first love, her husband, and her children take up the early pages of the story. When she thinks of her grown daughter, Cornelia, Granny imagines spanking her “and making a fine job of it.” The pillow pressing against her reminds her of the feeling in her heart when she was jilted. Cornelia connects her to memories of Hapsy “standing with a baby on her arm. She seemed to herself to be Hapsy also, and the baby on Hapsy’s arm was Hapsy and himself or herself, all at once, and there was no surprise in the meeting.”

The first allusion to the jilting occurs when Granny thinks about “George’s and John’s letters and her letters to them both.” Later we see that as a young woman Granny had been left at the altar by George. Granny still is emotionally involved with the event, as well as defensive about it. She thinks,

“I want you to find George. Find him and be sure to tell him I forgot him. I want him to know I had my husband just the same and my children and my house like any other woman. . . . Tell him I was given back everything he took away and more.”

Then she realizes that he took away something she did not get back, perhaps an innocence or sense of security or hope.

The surface plot line of the story takes place in one day, with the ill Granny getting worse, her children and the priest gathering around her, and her dying. Parallel to this surface story line is Granny’s last reckoning and settling of accounts with the lover who jilted her. Death in the story becomes an abandonment parallel to the jilting, with “again no bridegroom (Jesus perhaps? or God himself?) and the priest in the house.”

Granny was definitely a woman who had "weathered it all."

What do you think the setting of The Most Dangerous Game is?

tyra,

"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell was published in 1924. Greatly anthologized, and the author's most famous work, the short story features as its protagonist a big game hunter from New York, who falls off a yacht and swims to an isolated island in the Caribbeans, the setting of the story, and then is hunted by a Russian aristocrat.

The story explores the opposite of the big-game hunting safaris in Africa that were popular among wealthy Americans in the 1920s.

The story pits Sanger Rainsford, an accomplished and experienced hunter from New York, as the prey, against General Zaroff, a Russian aristocrat.

The eventual ending of the story is only alluded to as Rainsford makes the remark, "He had never slept in a better bed." This implies that Rainsford had somehow killed Zaroff.

What is the theme of Nothing But the Truth?

The central theme of Nothing But the Truth is, as indicated in the title, truth and the destructive power of its opposite, lies.  By spreading cruel and unfounded lies about a good teacher, Miss Narwin, who rightfully does not give him a good grade on an important assignment which he did not approach seriously, Philip Malloy does irreparable damage both to his teacher and to himself.  When his parents hear his outrageous and completely untrue allegations, they believe him, and take his concerns to the school board and the press.  These entities are more than willing to further exploit these lies for their own purposes, reinforcing Philip's decision to take the moral low road, and resulting in a chain of events that ruin both the teacher's career and Philip's own aspirations of Olympic glory.

A second theme that is important in the book is responsibility, as it relates to both the student and the teacher.  Philip refuses to take responsibility for his mistakes.  He essentially expects something for nothing, and is angry because his flippant performance on an assignment earned him a grade he did not like.  Instead of taking responsibility and trying to do better, he responds in exactly the opposite manner, attacking his teacher with deeply damaging lies.  Miss Narwin, on her part, has responsibility for her students' well-being, but, despite perceptions to the contrary, little actual authority to hold them accountable.  She is responsible for enforcing rules which are handed down to her by the administration and earning the students' cooperation in her classroom, but when all is said and done, the power to make her students toe the line does not really lie with her.

Why does the old black man tell Jane to go back to the plantation in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman?

I am assuming that when you say "this old blackman", you are referring to the hunter Jane and Ned encounter in Chapter 8.

The hunter, an old black man, calls himself "a friend, not an enemy".  He is concerned about the children, and thinks they would be better off if they just go back to the plantation.  Although Jane insists that they are going to "make it" to Ohio, the old man can see that she has no concept of how monumentous such an undertaking will be.  When Jane says, "We done made it this far, we can make it", he retorts,

"You ain't go'n make nothing...two children tramping round in the swamps by themself, I ain't never heard of nothing like this in all my born days...You can't take care you, how can you take care somebody else?...You can't kill a rabbit, you can't kill a bird...Do you know how to catch a fish?"

The old man sees that Jane is only a child and thinks that she has got no sense.  He has a concept of reality that Jane does not, and he is afraid of what will happen to her and Ned if she keeps going on towards what she thinks is Ohio.  He tells her,

"No map, no guide, no nothing.  Like freedom (is) a place coming to meet (you) half way.  Well, it ain't coming to meet you.  And it might not be there when you get there, either".

The hunter offers, "Y'all want me lead y'all back where y'all come from?", and when his suggestion is met with resistance, he responds, like an exasperated parent, "What I ought to do is knock y'all out and take y'all on back".  The hunter tells Jane to go back to the plantation because he knows that she and Ned will be safer there.  He tries to stop them from pursuing their quest because he cares about them (Chapter 8).

In The Odyssey, what role does Odyseus' appearance play?If possible can you provide some quotes to back up your answer. Thanks

sunnygirl,

Modern scholarship suggests that the Odyssey was written about a generation after the Iliad but by a different poet who knew the Iliad very well and patterned this poem on the earlier one. It features a hero who more than anything else wants to make a name for himself and achieve enduring fame. This is the primary motivation for the warriors at Troy.
Sometimes it involves sacrificing the good of one’s community or family.

An episode with the Cyclops illustrates this motif of honor in the poem. Odysseus does not have to confront the Cyclops, but he does. Despite the loss of six of his best men, Odysseus adds to his reputation and glory. Once he has escaped, Odysseus makes sure that the Cyclops knows who it was who bested and blinded him, even at the risk of getting himself or more of his crew killed by the one-eyed giant.

The motif is underscored by the kinds of temptations Odysseus resists on his way home, all of which encourage him to lay down his arms and live a long, happy, and anonymous life. The Lotus-Eaters, Circe, the Sirens, and the Phaiakians all make this offer to Odysseus. Most notably, Calypso offers him immortality but at the cost of reputation, fame, and being remembered. Odysseus turns down all of them. Odysseus, however, still persists, risking his life in order to win the kind of honor that outlives and thus defeats death.

Odysseus constantly chooses the difficult and dangerous way to keep on adding to his name—to be a mortal hero rather than an anonymous immortal. The poem is set in peacetime and has an entirely different ambience from the great war poem on which it is modeled. A third of this poem deals with hospitality and feasts and sacrifices. Odysseus in a way is fighting to get back home to this kind of life. Odysseus’s antagonists are giants, monsters, witches, and nymphs, who observe none of the rules of heroic fighting and therefore have to be opposed with wit and guile.

Odysseus’s triumphant return home is no heroic victory, since—appallingly outnumbered—he is forced to kill in cold blood 108 suitors for his wife Penelope. Hence his heroic epithet, which translates as “wily” or “many-faceted,” as opposed to the heroic epithets of the heroes of the Trojan War (e.g., Achilles being described as “swift-footed”). Hence Odysseus’s ability to tell stories and lie when in a tight spot, as opposed to the hatred of the heroes of the Trojan War for a man “who says one thing but hides another in his heart.”

Why does Clay Purvis become so upset when Jessie shows concern for the kidnapped Africans in Slave Dancer?

Clay Purvis becomes upset when Jessie shows concern for the kidnapped Africans because he feels that his own ancestors' suffering is demeaned by Jessie's attitude.  Although he is hard-working and a basically good man, Purvis is a man of his time.  He looks upon the slaves as being less than human, and justifies the slave trade in pragmatic terms.  Purvis has no sympathy for the human beings in whose trafficking he takes part, pointing out that "the native chiefs are so greedy for (American) trade goods" that they willingly sell their own people, even "cheaper than they ever did to tempt (the Americans) to run the British blockade" after the British outlawed the slave trade in their own country ("The Moonlight").

When Jessie shows concern for the kidnapped Africans, Purvis responds with ire, telling him

"Do you think it was easier for my own people who sailed to Boston sixty years ago from Ireland, locked up in a hold for the whole voyage where they might have died of sickness and suffocation?  Do you know my father was haunted all his days by the memory of those who died before his eyes in that ship, and were flung into the sea?  And you dare speak of my parents in the same breath with these niggers!"

With his twisted logic, Purvis, who believes that he and his ancestors are ever so much better than the black men, women, and children he is helping to sell into cruel bondage, is insulted that Jessie should have sympathy for the slaves when his own people suffered in like manner.  Jessie at first argues that he is not making any comparisons, and that besides, the Irish were "not sold on the block", but Purvis "rave(s) on", and ends the conversation by delivering to the young boy "a kick on (his) shin" ("The Bight of Benin").

Why is religion eradicated in "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley?

In a desire to create a "utopia" or some social experiment predicated on a collective vision of perfection, personal religion has to be removed.  This is because the notion of collectivity roots itself in the idea that all of its citizens share the same emotional and political experience.  When multiple paths to spirituality are granted, this experience makes individuals different, causing dissension, breaking the bonds of social collectivity and conformity in quite an intense manner.  Religious devotion allows individuals to possess different emotional experiences, making frames of references diverse and eclectic. This is of nightmarish proportions for the designers of the perfect world, and this is evidenced in Brave New World.  Ask yourself, in which moments in the book do we see a desire for people to have similar or shared experiences?  My guess is that you can find many examples of this.  The reason being that the shared experiences lend itself to a vision of collectivity.  This is the driving force in the creation of all "ideal" societies.  Religious faith punctures this vision because it creates multiple individual quests.  The journey of the Hindu is vastly different than that of the person immersed in Judaic faith, whose experience might be different than the Buddhist.  Each vision has different spiritual, psychological, and emotional calculations within this experience.  Such nuances and divergent approaches make a singular vision of emotional and political experience impossible.

Where all of these narratives find a home is in the penchants of liberal democracy, a structure that can never aspire to social collectivity because of it.  In a liberal democray, people are granted the freedom to pursue different paths, so long as it does not ostensibly detract from another's, and this is the vision of perfection.  There is no other end outside of this individual expression, which is the diametric opposite of utopic visions and the world Huxley depicts.

How does war impact the lives of Gene, Finny, Leper, and other characters throughout A Separate Peace?

A central motif in the novel is fear, never expressed but deeply felt by the boys at Devon beginning in the summer of 1942. As Gene's flashback begins, the Summer Session is underway, as is World War II. Although the war seems far removed from them, it is never far from their thoughts. Jumping from the tree becomes jumping from a sinking troop ship; splashing in the river provides practice for beating the burning oil away as it flames atop the water. Their own war games. Gene notes that the teachers "loosened their grip" on the boys that summer, knowing what lay ahead of them after graduation.

As the school year progressed, the pressure and anxiety of the war that awaited them increased. Each of the four main characters responded to the anxiety in different ways. Leper decided to get a jump on fate. After watching a recruiting film of Nordic ski troops, he enlists before his eighteenth birthday, before he can be drafted. Leper thought he had found a "friendly face" of war, the kind of war he could handle. He was wrong, and it destroyed him.

Brinker's fear was exhibited in several ways. For a while, he dressed like a soldier on campus, an outward denial of his inner terror. Later, he wrote clever and contemptuous poems about the war: "The war is a bore." After witnessing the young faces on the troop train the day the boys picked apples, Brinker composed "The Apple Ode": "Our chore is the core of the war." He spoke often of enlisting, but each plan came to nothing. As he moved closer to the real war, he tried to find a plan to "insulate" himself from danger; his idea of serving in the Coast Guard was one such plan. When his father rejected the idea, fear and bitterness overwhelmed Brinker.

Finny's fear of the war wasn't that he couldn't fight. He simply couldn't stand the idea that the others would go to war, and he would be left behind. Finny thrived on friendship and camaraderie; being left out of anything distressed him unbearably. Finny's joy was found in the unity of the game. Everyone must play and the game must go on. He changed the rules for Leper, at the tree and in blitzball, so that Leper could participate. He fought on both sides of a snowball fight just to keep it going. World War II was happening, and Finny's greatest fear was that he wouldn't be able to play.

The effect of the war on Gene was ironic. He lived with the idea of impending war, as did everyone, but his emotional turmoil was so great in relation to Finny that fear of the war became secondary. His greatest fear was that his betrayal of Finny would be known. At one point, Gene decided to enlist with Brinker (one of Brinker's many enlistment plans) because going to war actually seemed to offer him relief--an escape from his emotional torment.

The war invades Devon in the spring, literally and figuratively, with the arrival of the Sewing Machine squad. War had always been on the way, the Winter Carnival serving as the boys' only time out during that year. By the conclusion of the novel, World War II became real for the boys at Devon, and innocence had been lost.

Why/How have The Iliad and The Odyssey been appropriated?How and why have Homer's Iliad and/or Odyssey been valued and appropriated in a range of...

Several ideas from both The Iliad and The Odyssey have been appropriated and applied in different literary and authentic contexts.  In terms of Odysseus' narrative, Joyce's own Ulysses casts Homer's work in a different light.  Similar to Odyssesus' struggle to travel over wide and expansive terrain to represent his journey, Joyce's mythic journey takes part in the life of an ordinary day of Leopold Bloom.  The modern appropriation of the ancient text enhances the notions of heroic quest, heroic figure, and the differences between the ancients and the moderns.  The basic premise of Homer's Odyssey is the idea of the journey home.  This journey casts "home" as both a physical and mental place of spiritual fulfullment, and thus it is only fitting that such a voyage is filled with challenges and trying times throughout.  This becomes the "ultimate road trip."  Literature is filled with modern interpretations and different applications of this particular concept.  Any narrative that features a journey filled with obstacles where a character seeks to reach their own sense of physical or mental "home" owes a great debt to Homer's Odyssey.  History can also embody this theme, as we note examples of individuals whos struggle to achieve a desired end has become an integral part of the historic experience.  (The idea of the self made individual, the immigrant narrative, the political figure who rises from mere nothingness to assume a high level of political stature.)

The appropriation of The Iliad might be more thematic.  A critical theme that emerges out of The Iliad is the illustration of tragedy that results between equally desireable, yet ultimately incompatible courses of action.  The characters in The Iliad are set amongst such polarities, and the way they endure and face such challenges marks potential and hopeful solutions out of emotionally dire circumstances.  We see indivduals poised between honorable ends and protecting human life, protagonists set amongst the protection of country and the saving of family, people who must navigate the harrowing terrains of being simultaneously committed to both desire and duty, and those who are plagued with the pursuit of dreams accompanying the reality of emptiness.  These are themes that have been illuminated throughout literature.  Shakespeare in dramas such as Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and Hamlet evoke similar themes as the Iliad's ideas of incompatiblity.  In Madame Bovary, Flaubert poises his heroine, Emma, in similar situations where dreams are undercut by reality, and yet there is a pursuit of one knowing that the other is to quickly follow.  Even in modern films this theme is exhibited.  In Casablanca, one sees both the results of individuals being poised between equally desireable, but ultimately incompatible courses of action as well as individuals pursuing dreams with emotional deserts being the result.   History again embodies this theme with nations being poised between two equally valid notions of the good and having to choose one, or nations pursuing dreams at the expene of the desert to follow.

In "A Christmas Memory", which details in the description of Mr. Haha Jones' cafe make it seem like a threatening place?

Buddy and Cousin go to Haha's cafe to get rum for the fruitcake recipe.  The place is threatening because Haha Jones is a scary looking guy, very imposing in size, he is not a happy person as his name suggests, instead, he has a mean look to him.

The cafe is a fish-fry where dancing takes place, but that is not all, there is a lot of violence in the cafe, it is a dangerous place.  Buddy and Cousin always go to the cafe to buy the whiskey that they need for the fruitcakes, but usually deal with Mrs. Jones, Haha's wife.  This time he answers the door himself.

"As we approach his cafe (a large log cabin festooned inside and out with chains of garish-gay naked light bulbs and standing by the river's muddy edge under the shade of river trees where moss drifts through the branches like gray mist) our steps slow down. Even Queenie stops prancing and sticks close by. People have been murdered in Haha's cafe. Cut to pieces. Hit on the head. There's a case coming up in court next month." (Capote)

Haha's place is threatening because at night it is transformed into a seedy bar where people get drunk and commit violent acts against each other, and according to the neighborhood, it is a place of sin.

So naturally, they are very cautious when they approach the cafe, the thought of going inside makes them uncomfortable.

What is Othello's religion? Has he converted to Christianity? What was he before?

And then for her
To win the Moor, were't to renounce his baptism,
All seals and symbols of redeemed sin...
(2.3.342-44)

There's Iago, in Act 2, Scene 3, telling us that Othello has indeed been baptised. And yet, as a Moor, it seems highly unlikely that Othello could have been born a Christian, as Moors were Muslim and circumcised. Othello has been converted to Christianity, as his own words seem to suggest a little later in the play:

"For Christian shame put by this
barbarous brawl!"

"Are we turned Turks?"

So the logical conclusion to draw seems to be that Othello was a Muslim and is now converted to Christianity.

Critic Ian Doescher, however, seems to have a different view:

...[it] depends on when the play is set.  Muslims had control in Sicily in the middle 1400s, and therefore if the play is set before that time we may be prone to believe that Othello is a Muslim.  It is likely, though, the play is meant to be set after Muslim control in Sicily.  One reason is that Shakespeare's source for the play is an Italian play called "Heccatommithi," published in 1565, well after the Muslim control.

Also, considering that Othello is fighting the Turkish fleet, it seems more likely that he is Christian, as he is fighting for the Christian cause against the Muslims.  Finally, if the play is indeed set after the 1400s, it is unlikely that a Muslim would be allowed a position of nobility in a Christian society, especially one that had recently rid themselves of Muslim control.

Othello is still, then, most probably a Christian. And, as David Basch has written, Othello's name even seems to confirm that he is indeed a Christian - it may even be a name he assumed at baptism:

Here again, Othello's name would confirm this since, as Florence Amit has noted, the name means in Hebrew "his sign of God," a "sign" which scripture identifies circumcision (a sign in the flesh). This name link to circumcision is clearly pertinent since Othello's circumcision plays a central part in the words Othello uses in his final speech before thrusting his sword into himself, "I took the circumcised dog and smote him THUS."

What does the statement, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us," mean?

We have to pay to ride on the railroad. In order to be able to pay, we have to work to earn the money. So although we seem to be traveling in fast and without effort we do not take into consideration the amount of labor we had to put in to pay for the train ticket. In Thoreau's opinion it would be better to walk to wherever we are going, and probably better still not to go very far at all. His friend Emerson said, "Travel is a fool's paradise." Thoreau wrote: "I have traveled quite extensively, in Concord." He didn't believe you had to travel very far to see interesting and beautiful sights. Some people travel great distances without really seeing much of anything. The railroad just adds complications, expenses, and stress to life. The French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote a cynical poem about travel titled "Le Voyage," in which he includes this exquisite line:

Amer savoir, celui qu'or tire du voyage!

Which can be translated as: What bitter knowledge one gets from traveling! Distance lends enchantment. We think that far-away places are going to be special, but when we get there we find that they are often very ordinary. As Emerson says, "Our ghost goes with us." They lose their glamor just because we are there. We can't escape from ourselves. 

Most of American life consists of driving somewhere and then returning home, wondering why the hell you went.
                                                                     John Updike

He had followed the parkway as far as New York, and all the way, there had been a constant stream of cars, two and sometimes three lanes of them in both directions--a movement so implacable it looked like a headlong flight. Their brows furrowed, their muscles tensed, the drivers, often with whole families in the back seats, charged straight ahead as if their lives were in jeopardy, some of them not knowing where they were heading, or heading nowhere in particular, just desperately filling the empty hours with noise and speed.
                                Georges Simenon, The Rules of the Game

What are some important passages in Chapters 7-12 of To Kill a Mockingbird? Why are these passages important to the novel?For example, funny...

There are probably about a dozen of those kind of "passages" that you speak of, but let me get you started with three.  First, there is a poignant passage in Chapter 9 where Atticus speaks directly to Scout about why this court case is so important:

Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at loeast one case in his lifetime that affects him personally.  This one's mine, I guess. . . .

"Atticus, are we going to win it?"

"No, honey."

"Then why--"

"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win," Atticus said. (76)

The reason why this passage is important to the novel revolves around both Atticus' vast knowledge of racism's existence and Atticus' great bravery to combat that racism.

Next, there is a passage in Chapter 10 that is incredibly pertinent to the title of the novel, itself.  Here is a wee part of it:

". . . but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.

"You're father's right," she said.  "Mocking birds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.  They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.  That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." (90)

Therefore, the connection to the novel's title is obvious.

Finally, the entire ending to Chapter 10 deals with Atticus' treatment of his great shooting ability which becomes evident when he saves the town from a dangerous, rabid dog.  Both Scout and Jem stand there awestruck, not knowing their dad is such a wonderful marksman.  However, the beauty is in the reasoning behind Atticus' omission:  being a great shot at killing other living things is nothing to be proud of.

What uncanny ability did the scarlet letter seem to give Hester?

The Scarlet Letter opens with the main character, Hester Prynne, imprisoned and then shamefully subjected to public scrutiny and humiliation on the scaffold.  At this point, the reader has no inkling that Prynne will somehow turn her personal tragedy into a positive thing. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne then devotes the next several chapters to introducing and developing another important character, Roger Chillingworth, who will play a critical part in the story as the plot unfolds.  It is not until chapter 5 that Hawthorne focuses solely on the character of Hester Prynne and the effect of her ongoing punishment, the scarlet letter, on her life.

By chapter 5 it is already known that Prynne has been outcast as an adulteress, but in this chapter the reader sees specifically how this has affected her, as in this line:

"Continually, and in a thousand other ways, did she feel the innumerable throbs of anguish that had been so cunningly contrived for her by the undying, the ever-active sentence of the Puritan tribunal. Clergymen paused in the street to address words of exhortation that brought a crowd, with its mingled grin and frown around the poor sinful woman."

Then, later in the chapter, Hawthorne adds depth to Hester’s character by showing that the scarlet letter has given her a new ability, something that she did not possess before her suffering began:

". . . she felt or fancied, then, that the scarlet letter had endowed her with a new sense. She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts."

Hester is now able to empathize with others in a way that she couldn’t before. The fact that she can do so when she has suffered so much reflects very positively on Prynne’s character. This sets the scene for information that the reader gets much later in the story, when we find that the townspeople have gradually put aside their disapproval of her and now actually perceive that the “A” she wears on her breast stands for “able.”

Give two examples that "To Autumn" by John Keats is a nature poem.

Nature poems tend to focus entirely on nature-on how it looks, smells, feels, makes people feel, how it inspires fear, love, dread, awe and amazement in people.  In the poem "To Autumn" by John Keats, the first clue that it is a nature poem is the title-autumn is a part of nature, and the poem is addressed to autumn itself, so, unless he is writing to a woman named Autumn, or put in a very misleading title, we can hazard a guess that it is a nature poem.  But as we look more closely at the text, we can see that Keats goes into great detail to explain autumn and many other aspects of nature.

Here are some parts of nature that he includes in his poem:  "vines", "apples", "moss", "kernels", "flowers", "bees", "sun".... and that is just in the first section itself.  Nature poems tend to have a lot of nature in them, and in the first stanza alone, there are mentionings of many, many aspects of nature.

In this poem, Keats also personifies autumn, giving in human-like traits.  He says that autumn conspires, sits, sleeps, spares, keeps, patiently looks, thinks, and watches.  Nature poems often personify nature in some way, making aspects of nature seem like they are alive, sentient, thinking forces that act and behave in ways like we do.  This makes them seem more alive and interesting, and helps us to relate to them. So that is another way that Keats makes this a nature poem.  I hope that those thoughts help a bit; good luck!

What kind of symbolism is showed in "The Silken Tent" by Robert Frost?

"The Silken Tent" uses a very detailed simile, or symbol, to describe how he feels about his loved one.  He compares her, using a simile, to a "silken tent" in the summer breeze.  Then, he expounds on this simile by listing all of the ways that she is like a silken tent.  She has a beautiful grace that "gently sways" and yet is strong and firm like a tent's "supporting central cedar pole."  Her strength (as the pole) is heavenly as it points "heavenword," which indicates that she has a "sureness of the soul."  Her entire self, like a tent, is made up of "countless silken ties of love and thought."  Then, in a slight turn of feeling, Frost indicates, that, just like with a tent, you occasionally are "of the slightest bondage made aware," meaning, you realize that you are trapped and contained.  He could be meaning that he feels helpless and captivated by her, just as he would be in a tent, or that her "capriciousness" that he mentions renders him bondage to her beauty and wit.

So, using the initial simile of a tent, Frost expounds to describe all of the ways that his loved one symbolically represents a tent, from good to bad.  I hope that thost thoughts help a bit; good luck!

Chapter 1 - What is the meaning of the first paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities?

This first paragraph of Dickens is a beautiful example of paradoxes, paradoxes to which each reader can relate.  For, no historical period is without its benefits and its deficiencies.  Also, Dickens sets up parallels between the time period of the novel,the 1780s, and his own time period, the 1850s.

In England, there were social changes being made by the Industrial Revolution as well as from influences across the English Channel in France with such men as Robespierre and Danton.  Dickens wished to portray the danger of radical thinking as this thinking wrought death and destruction.  He feared that "the age of incredulity" might effect even more destruction than those caught in "the age of foolishness."  On the other hand, Dickens perceived that children and adults both suffered under cruel working conditions; people were suspicious of one another, and other inhumane acts were committed in England as well as in France.  So, some social changes were necessary. 

This theme of duality presented in the exposition of "A Tale of Two Cities" is prevalent throughout the entire novel as characters have their "doubles" and the two cities reflect each other in several social dilemmas and possible consequences.

What happen to the little boy the last time he cried wolf and nobody came to help him?

The little boy was ashamed and embarrassed because the sheep were scattered,and the wolf had attacked. After amusing himself by getting the townspeople to run out of their houses a couple of times for his entertainment, they would not come help him when there was really a wolf among the sheep.

We can presume that the wolf attacked the sheep and perhaps killed some sheep.  We may presume the people heard the boy yelling for help, but they assumed that the boy was trying to trick them again. He stayed out on the hillside frightened to go back to town, maybe for fear of a beating.

This is a story told to state a moral.  And the moral of the story is... no one believes a liar even when he is telling the truth.  This type of story if a fable because it may or may not be true.  Aesop was a famous fable writer who used animals and commonplace events of the day to teach moral lessons.

How we start a business of career centre in India?

The description of intended business you have given in your question - career center in India - is too general. Therefore the first thing that you will need to do is to become mores specific about the the nature of your business. This can be done by asking questions like:

• What kind of services will be offered?


• Who will be the clients targeted for the business?


• How will the clients benefit from these services?


• How much can you charge the clients for the services?


• What kind of expertise and other resources will be required to provide these services?


• The scope of your business: Is this going to be an all India operation, or limited to just a small geographical, or it will be just one franchise of some bigger chain of business centers.

Once these questions of nature of business are settled you can get in the details of actually planning the process of starting. The activities involved in setting up the business will very much depend on the nature of business. However some common steps involved in setting up a new business are listed below.

1. Preparing a detailed project report for the business containing details of the nature of business, the resources required for conducting the business, the investment required, a projection of income and expenditure for a few years, and details of any other major inputs required for the business or environmental factors affecting the business.


2. Arranging for the finance required for setting up the business.


3. Establishment of the physical facilities required for the business.


4. recruitment and training of the personnel required for the business.


5. Procurement/creation of any other consumable material required for the center. Without knowing the nature of business, it is difficult to identify the nature of such material. But it may include things like teaching material in case one of the activities of business center is training.


6. Obtaining all applicable government clearances and approvals. This may include obtaining licence under Shop and Establishments Act.


7. Initial announcement of the opening of the business center and advertisement.

Why did the great hall of the warren become "The Honeycomb" in Watership Down?

The great hall of the warren becomes known as "The Honeycomb" because of the network of vertical roots that support the ceiling.  These, in addition to a series of blocks of earth which are left untouched in the areas where there are no roots to hold the ceiling up, give the great hall the feeling of a honeycomb.

When Hazel and his band of rabbits discover the abandoned warren at Watership Down, they plan to add a "great burrow", a place underground where everybody can be together (to) talk and tell stories and so on".  They base their plans on a similar room they had seen at Cowslip; Strawberry, who has joined them, is familiar with that room's construction.  Strawberry notes the importance of the roots, telling the group that "they take a lot of the load...if it weren't for those roots the ceiling would fall after heavy rain".  Hazel is disappointed to think that the room will be divided by the "several thick roots that go straight down" in the great hall, but Strawberry insists that "they shouldn't be gnawed through and taken out", because they will be needed if they are planning to have a hall of any size". 

Strawberry assures Hazel that the rabbits will be able to "go in and out among (the roots)", and that "they won't hinder anyone who is talking or telling a story".  Strawberry engineers the excavation of the hall himself, and when it is done, its honeycomb-like structure turns out to be functional and not at all unpleasant -

"At the north end, the beech roots (form) a kind of irregular colonnade...(giving) way to more open central space...and beyond, where there (are) no supporting roots, Strawberry (leaves) blocks of the earth untouched, so that the south end consist(s) of three or four separate bays (which) (narrow) into low-roofed runs that (lead) away into sleeping burrows" (Chapter 20).

In Roald Dahl's "The Landlady," how does the author hold the reader's interest throughout the story?Detailed explanation + examples + quotes(if...

First, Dahl holds the reader's attention through the opening setting.  Billy is in an unfamiliar town; it is dark, and he needs shelter from the "deadly cold" of the air and the wind that is "like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks" (Paragraph 1).  The setting puts Billy in the position to choose the quickest form of shelter available.

Secondly, Dahl paints a cheerful picture at the Bed and Breakfast but then begins building suspense as Billy Weaver cannot seem to walk away and rings the bell without thinking.  Adding to the Bed and Breakfast's seemingly charming and warm ambiance are the numerous animals and the welcoming landlady.  The suspense begins, though, with the landlady's comment that Billy's room is "already ready" for him as he enters the house.  As she leads Billy upstairs, she mentions that she is always read for someone who is "just right" causing the reader to wonder "just right for what?" 

Dahl also uses foreshadowing to hook his reader's interest.  As Billy looks over the guestbook, he sees only two names--names that seem strangely familiar to him.  When he mentions this to the landlady, she says that the boys were not famous but that they were "tall and young and handsome" just like Billy.  The reader wonders at this point why she boards men who are all similar, why she has had only three guests (including Billy) sign the guest book, and why Billy knows the names.  Another example of foreshadowing is the landlady's manner of watching Billy's reaction to the tea and the strange odor emanating from her.  Additionally, she mentions that the two guests are still at her house, but then refers to them in the past tense: "Mr. Mulholland was also seventeen. . . . Mr. Temple, of course, was a little older."

Unfortunately, while these examples of foreshadowing alert the reader to Billy's danger, he does not pick up on them and most likely meets the same fate as the landlady's parrot, dog, and two other guests.  My, what a talented taxidermist!

What was Macbeth's tragic flaw, how does it lead to his doom, and is it helped along by the ladies of the play?

Macbeth's fatal flaw in the play is unchecked ambition, that is a desire for power and position, namely to be king, which is more important to him than anything else in life.  He is willing to give up everything that he has in his life in order to possess the crown to sit on the throne.

Yes, the ladies in the play do have something to do with it. The ladies include, the witches, the three in the beginning, as well as the queen of the witches, Hecate, and Lady Macbeth. 

What happens to Macbeth is a combination of events that lead to the opportunity to seize power.  He is influenced by the women in the play, the witches, who give him a prophecy that contains information that he will be king of Scotland. The witches don't give him a time table for his ascension to the throne, just that his future holds this for him.

"The witches in Macbeth are present in only four scenes in the play, but Macbeth's fascination with them motivates much of the play's action."  

He becomes so thrilled with the idea that he will be king, that he begins to think that he should be king right now.  Even though he has been a loyal servant to King Duncan, he becomes angry when he sees the king elevate his son Malcolm and proclaim him as the heir apparent to the throne of Scotland.

Macbeth is also influenced by his wife, Lady Macbeth.  In fact after Macbeth has thought about killing King Duncan, and had time to consider the witches prophecy, he decides that he doesn't want to kill the king.  Then once he tells his wife about the prophecy, she becomes so thrilled with the idea of being queen that she begs and pleads with him to convince him that he should kill the king, that he will have a singular opportunity when the king visits their home that evening.  It is perfect, she says, a once in a lifetime opportunity.  

"The extent of Lady Macbeth's power over her husband is debated. Some critics blame Lady Macbeth for precipitating Macbeth's moral decline and ultimate downfall. Others argue that, while Lady Macbeth appears to be increasingly guilt-ridden as the play progresses as evidenced by her sleepwalking episodes, Macbeth becomes increasingly murderous."

Then, she actually insults him, demeans him, accuses him of being less than a man if he doesn't have the courage to kill the king.  She is so vicious towards Macbeth that he finally agrees to kill the king. 

Once he does kill the king, he begins to unravel, mentally and emotionally.  As a king, he is stricken with a serious case of paranoia.  He believes that everyone is trying to kill him to take his throne, so he keeps murdering.  First he gets rid of Banquo, unfortunately, the killers don't kill Fleance, who is e Banquo's son.  Then after he goes to see the witches again, he is given another set of prophecies, and he decides to kill Macduff.  He sends murders to kill Macduff, he is not at home, so the murderers kill his entire family instead.

All of Macbeth's activities as king contribute to his doom or his undoing.  He is a terrible king, a tyrant who is feared. Malcolm, the rightful heir to the throne, joins forces with Macduff and the King of England who provides soldiers. Macbeth is confronted by Macduff, the only man capable of killing him, and he is killed and Malcolm is put on the throne. 

Why does Amanda ask "Where was the Moses when the lights went out"? What does Moses represents?Is there any difference between "Moses in darkness"...

At this point in the play, Amanda, Jim O'Connor and Tom are sitting around the table getting ready to have dinner.  Amanda has worked very hard on the evening, spending extra money to make the apartment look good, making a special meal and just when she thinks that there is a chance that her mission might actually have a chance at being successful, the lights go out.

Amanda is embarrassed by the lights going out, she suspects that Tom has not paid the electric bill, so she covers her shame at being plunged into darkness by referencing Moses, a biblical figure, a leader and champion of the Jewish people who led them out of the darkness of Egyptian slavery into the promised land.  It took 40 years of wandering.  Amanda's reference is an attempt to minimize the negative effects of suddenly being plunged into darkness.  She is, afterall, trying to impress Mr. O'Connor.

The Wingfields in darkness is both literal and figurative, Moses was both figuratively and literally in the dark as well.  No, I don't think that there is a difference.  Since the Wingfields will be in the darkness for a long time, just as Moses, they share a similar fate.  Except, that Moses had the light of God to lead him, he never felt emotionally barren, or in emotional darkness. I think that the Wingfields do feel emotional abandonment because of Mr. Wingfield's absence from the home.

There is a darkness in Tom that has poisoned his view on life, simultaneously, Tom is both resentful and envious of his father for escaping the confines of the relationship with his mother.

Moses triumph came through perseverance and faith.  Amanda is a survivor and has managed to raise her children alone after her husband abandoned her.  This was a very difficult time for a woman to be alone, there were no government programs available, no food stamps, no welfare, no social security.  Amanda is a hero for surviving and she draws strength from referencing Moses at this moment of literal darkness for her.

How do I know if I can trust the first-person narrator or if she's exaggerating everything in "Why I Live at the P.O."?

caseyburl,

Eudora Welty's "Why I live at the PO" is a classic example of the unrelaiable narrator. Sister’s function as an unreliable narrator whose verbal and psychological exaggerations both mirror and instigate her ultimate isolation from her family that eventually leaves her alone at the P.O. Sister’s paranoia and jealousy lead her to question the veracity of her family members, particularly Stella-Rondo. They also lead her to engage in conversations with her family that lead to her final, comic alienation from them—usually because, as she perceives it, one family member falsely reports her comments to another.

The story’s opening paragraphs frame Sister’s narrative by emphasizing the differences between herself and Stella-Rondo. We learn that Stella–Rondo, who had “just separated from her husband and came back home again,” married Mr.  Witaker after having broke up his alleged prior relationship with Sister “through a deliberate calculated falsehood.” She now threatens Sister’s relationship with her family with whom “she was getting along fine” in Stella-Rondo’s absence. We also immediately witness Sister’s amusingly irrational assertion that Stella-Rondo is “spoiled” becauseshe’s “exactly twelve months to the day younger than” Sister.

Readers can also hear a crucial detail about Stella-Rondo that so incites Sister’s jealousy: “She always had anything in the world she wanted and then she’d throw it away,” from “this gorgeous Add-a-Pearl necklace” to her husband. If Stella-Rondo’s “calculated falsehood”—telling Mr. Whitaker that Sister “was one sided. Bigger on one side than the other”—resulted in her marriage, escape to the North, and the apparent bearing of a daughter before her return to her family, the “lies” she tells when she does return lead to Sister’s shorter flight to her isolation at the P.O.

The first of these lies is to tell her mother that her daughter “Shirley-T.’s adopted, I can prove it.” Whereas the mother is willing to believe Stella-Rondo (“She looks just like Shirley Temple to me”), Sister insists that “She looks just like a cross between Mr. Whitaker and Papa-Daddy.” Sister claims to have told Stella-Rondo that Shirley T. “was the spit-image of Papa-Daddy if he’d cut his beard, which of course he’d never do in the world.” Stella-Rondo, however, “turns Papa-Daddy against” Sister by reporting to him that “Sister says she fails to understand why you don’t cut off your beard.”

Sister’s suggestion that she is being maligned and misrepresented by Stella-Rondo may be called into question by the dissatisfaction she registers toward her grandfather and the job he used his influence to get as China Grove’s postmistress: “‘Oh, Papa-Daddy,’ I says, ‘I didn’t say any of a thing. I never dreamed [your beard] was a bird’s nest, I have always been grateful though this is the next smallest P.O. in the state of Mississippi, and I do not enjoy being referred to as a hussy by my own grandfather.’” Here, Sister narrates two versions of a conversation, and her protests do not prevent Papa-Daddy from believing Stella-Rondo’s version—for Sister, evidence that Stella-Rondo “turns” everyone “against her”; for the reader, evidence both of her paranoia and her unreliability as a narrator.

The story has a classic ironic title--a post office promotes communication between people; Sister reduces it.

What does the pursuit of a Montag's substitute symbolize?

The police knowingly pursue a man they know is not Montag. The media knowingly broadcasts the pursuit and capture of a man they know is not Montag. Though the actual capture of Montag is important, what is of greater necessity is presenting the state in action. The citizens must know that the government is watching and will pursue those who violate the repressive laws that are in place. The pursuit and capture of Montag's substitute is an example of the consequences. It doesn't really matter if it is Montag or not. The example is all.

This pursuit symbolizes the manipulation that the state uses on the citizens. They portray what they want them to think, rather than what has occurred. The are creating the reality that they want the people to live in and respond to. As TV has become a virtual reality, so the news has become a virtual reality.

This is epitomizes the maxim that one does not respond only to his own reality, but even more so to the reality as seen by others.

What are some examples of indirect characterization from any piece of literature?

I think one excellent example of indirect characterization is in the Jay McInerney novel 'Bright Lights, Big City." It's written in the second person, not a very commonly used point of view. The main character rarely discusses his own feelings or thoughts; he describes what he does and what happens in a given day and the reader is invited to draw their own conclusions. It helps that the character becomes increasingly unable to sustain his unhealthy lifestyle of casual sex, illegal drug use and debauched party going. In one memorable scene the protagonist mentions being at a nightclub and locking himself in the men's room where he cries for a few minutes; but at no point does he describe his thoughts or emotions, only his actions.

In "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold, describe the scene of Dover and comment on its poetic meaning.

Matthew Arnold himself describes the scene at Dover, and you can find that description in the very first stanza of the poem itself.  It seems that Arnold is probably looking out his window, at night, viewing the moonlight that is falling on the beach near his dwelling.  The moon is out, the air smells sweet, and the ocean waves are lapping at the stones on the beach.

As for the poetic meaning behind this scene, he uses poetic techniques to more descriptively convey his message, and ties the scene to the underlying current of melancholic emotion that he is feeling as he ponders the scene.  He uses imagery, or the 5 senses, to relay the scene in a descriptive manner; he describes the "grating roar" of the waves on the pebbles, the sound of the waves as a "cadence", the ocean and cliffs as a "gleam" and "glimmering", the land as "moon-blanched."  All of these paint a picture that helps the reader to feel they are right there with him.  He uses personification (giving inanimate objects human-like traits); the cliffs "stand", the moon "lies", the sea "meets", and the waves "roar".  All of this makes the ocean, moon and scene as a whole seem like a living entity, making it more real and imaginable.

Another aspect of the poetic meaning of the scene is how Arnold tinges his description of the scene with his own personal viewpoint, his own melancholy and depressed mood at the time.  Here is a beautiful beach scene in front of him, but he sees it only as a token of sadness.  He feels that the ocean brings "the eternal note of sadness" in, instead of a calming and soothing note.  He feels the scene rings perfectly of the "turbid ebb and flow of human misery."  Taking a scene, and infusing it with the emotion and meaning of the moment is a poetic technique that makes an ordinary scene more symbolic and profound.  Arnold, disillusioned about his world because of the war and suffering he has seen in it, takes the scene before him and ties it all back to his hopelessness.  A poet is able to take ordinary images and experiences and give them a symbolic undertone that adds more depth to them, and that is what Arnold has done here.

I hope that those thoughts help a bit; good luck!

In Act III, Scene 5 of "Romeo and Juliet", the final words the lovers speak together are filled with apprehesion. In what way?

Juliet and Romeo share a night together after Romeo has been banished for killing Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, and must go far away from his home and from Juliet. Morning inevitable arrives, and Romeo must soon leave. Nurse warns the two lovers that Juliet's mother is coming soon. Romeo and Juliet must now part.

JULIET

    Then, window, let day in, and let life out.

ROMEO

    Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll descend. 

JULIET

    Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay, husband, friend!
    I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
    For in a minute there are many days:
    O, by this count I shall be much in years
    Ere I again behold my Romeo!

ROMEO

    Farewell!
    I will omit no opportunity
    That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.

JULIET

    O think'st thou we shall ever meet again?

ROMEO

    I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve
    For sweet discourses in our time to come.

JULIET

    O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
    Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
    As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:
    Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.

ROMEO

    And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
    Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu! 

The two lovers' parting is full of sorrow. Romeo and Juliet declare their undying love for one another and swear to meet again. Juliet, however, inexplicably begins to feel a dark apprehension. She has a vision of Romeo "dead in the bottom of a tomb." Her apprehension at this moment is hard to explain. We cannot say what is causing Juliet to have this premonition. Shakespeare is using the literary device of foreshadowing in this scene. Romeo will indeed die in the bottom of a tomb, and these two lovers will find that their apprehension was not unfounded.

Describe in detail the summary of "Holy Thursday" in Blake's Songs of Experience.

As with many of Blake's poems from his Songs of Experience, "Holy Thursday" focuses on the misery of the children involved.  In most cases, the Church of England considers Christ's Ascension day to be called "Holy Thursday," (although some insist that "Holy Thursday" can also be the day before Good Friday).  In any event, during the late eighteenth century (when the poem was written), the children from the charity schools of London were marched to a service at St. Paul's Cathedral.  Unlike the angelic scene from Songs of Innocence, the speaker (although speaking of the land being "rich and fruitful") asks us a question regarding the misery of these children led to St. Paul's.  He asks if this is a holy thing to see these tiny children in their misery and hunger, led by beadles who rule over them harshly?  The speaker hears the children's "trembling cry" and is saddened at the knowledge that it's supposed to be a song and, at that, a song of joy.  No doubt, the children's great poverty is stressed in this poem.  In fact, by the second stanza the "land" has moved from being "rich and fruitful" to "a land of poverty."  By the third stanza, the poverty image is heightened.  The sun does not shine for these children.  The fields never yield a harvest for them and remain "bleak and bare."  Nature is full of hurtful "thorns."  The bleakness of winter is stressed as, for these poor children, "it is eternal winter there."  Finally, there is a reference to the aspects of life that the children are missing (and some say a description of the afterlife for them).  The speaker now speaks of a place where "the sun does shine" and where "the rain does fall" and where no child goes hungry.  This is a place where poverty does not abide.

Please explain the significance of the following quotations in Act 1 of The Crucible.1. "Now look you, child, your punishment will come in its...

1. Reverend Parris is telling Abigail that she will be punished for inappropriate and heathen acts such as dancing in the woods at night with Betty and the other girls. However, he is putting her punishment (most likely whipping) on hold to get more information about what happened that night before Betty got sick and to contain the gossip about witchcraft spreading amongst the villagers.

2. Parris is asking Abigail if she has a reputation of decency amongst the villagers. This is in reference to her being fired by Elizabeth Proctor and Elizabeth's statement that she dare not attend church because she doesn't want to be near something so "soiled." This is all foreshadowing the imminent disclosure of Abigail's affair with John Proctor to come in Act I. This puts Abigail's credibility in question immediately with the reader, which shades her actions later in the plot.

In "Fahrenheit 451" compare & contrast Montag and Millie’s first reaction to books and knowledge.

As the guidelines for this website allow for one question a day, I can help you with the first one, and I suggest submitting the other questions separately.

When Montag and Mildred start to read books together after Beatty's visit, they have pretty different reactions.  Montag is intense, focusing on what is before him, trying desparately to understand it.  He reads the words, suspects that they hold great knowledge and wisdom, and really tries to understand them.  He tells Mildred,

"Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave.  They might stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes!"

Montag clings to the books like they are a lifeline out of his misery and unhappiness.  Mildred, on the other hand, is indifferent.  She doesn't care about the books, she's bored, she's frustrated, and she just wants to be watching her t.v. walls with her friends.  She's putting up with the reading because Montag was so insistent.  She gets so bored and frustrated at one point that she "kicked at a book" and cried,

"Books aren't people.  You read and I look all around, and there isn't anybody...Now...my 'family' is people.  They tell me things:  I laugh, they laugh!  And the colors!"

She is baffled by these books because the information in them is not presented in technicolor excitement like her television shows are.  She is not equipped to even comprehend such a simple form of comprehension.  And because she is so trained by their society for the thrill, the immersion in excitement, music, noise and interaction, they are meaningless to her.

One way that Mildred and Montag are similar is that they really can't grasp the meaning behind the books.  Montag tries and tries, but can't get it, which is why he seeks out Faber.  He keeps trying.  Mildred on the other hand gives up, and goes to watch t.v. with her friends.  But, initially, they are both baffled and can't really understand the content of the books.

I hope that those thoughts help; good luck!

Is the conflict in The Story of an Hour resolved?

There are several conflicts that are transpiring in the "The Story of an Hour."  One conflict is the most elemental one that starts the story.  The opening conflict is the sadness which is felt when news arrives that Brently Mallard is dead.  This conflict is resolved in one sense because he is not dead at all, being nowhere near the accidnt.  This, of course, leads to a more complex issue. 

At the start of the story, Mrs. Mallard is inconsolable about her husband's death.  She represents the dutiful notion of a wife in her mourning and absolute sense of being shattered with the death, unable to conceive of a life of her own devoid of his presence.  However, as she is in that room, a new sense of awakening happens.  She ruminates on the new identity that awaits her and the new sense of autonomy and freedom that now lie in front of her.  We do not get the impression that Mrs. Mallard will remarry and eagerly seek out another suitor immediately.  Rather, we understand that she is going to assume the new vision or commencement of her freedom.  In one sense, this helps to resolve the initial grief of her husband's death, for as she leaves the room, she clutches the waist of her sister looking lie a "triumphant goddess." 

As she descends down the staircase with her sister, she has resolved the conflict that was first laid at her doorstep.  This, of course, is abruptly cut short when her husband stands at the doorway, unharmed and nowhere near the accident.  Prior to Mrs. Mallard's epiphany about her newly conceived freedom, the conflict would have been resolved in a succinct manner.  Yet, armed with her new notion of self, the presence of her husband raises a new conflict in that there is a collision between Mrs. Mallard as a wife and Mrs. Mallard as a woman. 

The playing out of this conflict might not be necessarily resolved, but is ended when she dies of "a joy that kills."  Her death ends up silencing this conflict between the life of traditional servitude in marriage that denies freedom and the autonomy of living on her own.  Her death resolves this conflict in one way or another.

Glass A contains 100 ml of water and glass B contains 100 ml of wine. A 10 ml spoonful of wine is taken from glass B and mixed thoroughly with...

After adding 10 mL of wine to the water, glass A contains 110 mL of liquid at a 10:1 ratio of water to wine, by volume. Since the solution is mixed thoroughly, we can assume that the distribution of wine in the water is constant.

So ten parts of a 10 mL sample is water and one part of it is wine. (10/11)*10mL water + (1/11)*10mL wine = 10 mL.

Glass A now contains (10/11)*100 mL water + (1/11)*100 mL wine.

Glass B now contains (10/11)*10 mL water + (1/11)*10mL wine + 90 mL wine

Glass A now contains 100/11  mL of wine and Glass B contains 100/11 mL of water. They are the same.

How did WW I really end? A historical documentary recently noted that Germany never really surrendered, rather, it called for a ceasefire.The...

The failure of the Ludendorff offensives on the Western Front exhausted the German armies. The French army was on the verge of collapse, and by attempting to defeat the British, because they were the primary competent military opponent, instead of breaking the French forces in some other sector of the front Ludendorff defeated himself.  The starvation of materiel and food caused by the British oceanic blockade was the main factor in the long strangulation of the German forces, and the increasing flow of manpower and materiel from America was beyond their power to impede or resist.

Under the stress of the German offensives in the West, which nearly broke the allied forces, General Foch was appointed Generalissimo of the Entente forces, the first unified command in the war (and one which Sir Henry Wilson, head of the Imperial General Staff, had foreseen even before the war would eventually be necessary).  After the German offensives had stalled for lack of supplies and manpower the American Army began a series of offensives which pushed the German troops back to the Hindenburg Line and then broke through.

Meanwhile, the collapse of Austria-Hungary and their surrender opened the way for the British troops in Salonika to have the theoretical ability to move through Austria and invade the "soft underbelly" of Germany. After Russia's surrender German troops had continued moving into the Ukraine, and these forces would of course be cut off and useless to defend the homeland.  At this point Ludendorff lost his nerve, and Hindenburg concurred that the ability of the German Army in the West to resist was compromised, and their ability to defend the anticipated thrust from Greece was nonexistent.  Ludendorff insisted that the government apply to the Entente Powers for an immediate armistice, or ceasefire.

Prince Max of Baden had just been persuaded that it was his duty to take over as Chancellor.  Faced on his first day in office with this demand for an immediate ceasefire, he asked the military to give him even a few days space.  He felt that if the army could stabilise the front it would allow Germany to seek better peace terms.  Ludendorff refused, and Max was directed by the Kaiser to proceed.  In the event, the front did stabilise, still on French and Belgian territory, and the ability of the British to move north through Austria in the immediate future was nil.  Still, the panic of the military leadership forced Max's government to accede to their demands.  This of course led to the Armistice at 11:00 am November 11, 1918.  No, there was no actual surrender.  The desperation of their situation led to Germany's eventual humiliation at the Versailles peace conference, where Wilson's Fourteen Points were set aside by the French and British delegations, and a treaty which was eventually disastrous for all of Europe was forced upon Germany.

The best sources of this are found in John Toland's No Man's Land, and especially the detailed analysis of the war in B.H.L. Hart's monumental study On Strategy.  For an understanding of the effect on the German soldiers and their homeland, see Erich Maria Remarque's novel The Road Back, sequal to All Quiet on the Western Front.