In Great Expectations, if Pip had not received his money and never left Joe's forge, how do you think his life would have been different?Are the...

The lessons that Pip gains through his journey in the novel are necessary for him to have the happiness and wisdom that he eventually achieves in middle age.  Upon receiving money, and moving to London, he realizes just how little money means in achieving happiness.  He moves to London, becomes a "gentleman," and yet is still unhappy as Estella marries despite his changes, as he is constantly finding himself in debt, and as his past comes back to haunt him later on.  The money that he received, when he realizes where it came from, does not seem as glamorous as it used to.  He brings his good friend Herbert down in bad spending habits, and is constantly haranged with guilt over his rejection of Joe and Biddy.  So, money did not bring him happiness, and being a gentleman did not bring him happiness.  He couldn't have learned these lessons any other way, no matter how many people might have told him it.

If he would have stayed at Joe's forge, he would have been constantly discontented, constantly embarrassed by his circumstances, and miserable.  He would have longed for a different life, and blamed his circumstances for his misery, instead of his own disposition.  His experiences in living a life of "luxury" away from the forge allows him to learn valuable lessons:  money isn't happiness; family and friends are all that matter in the world; don't judge a person shallowly; and appreciate the small things in life.  He learned those valuable lessons because of his foray into money, and his realization that it wasn't what was important--it was his character, his hard work, and his family. If he had stayed at the forge, he might not have learned those lessons, and instead have been bitter and discouraged his whole life. I hope that helped a bit; good luck!

What does The Crucible tell us about the way people react to conflict?

One interesting parallel between Salem Village in 1692 and the climate in the United States during the 1950s and McCarthyism is that suspicion was bred by fear and ignorance of the unknown. The new Puritan settlers faced extreme hardship in the New World; the cold winters, failure of crops and general relative poverty led to much animosity among community members. Likewise, there was a great deal of anxiety about finances and business after the second world war, when the US was trying to rebuild. In these climates of anxiety about the future, the tendency towards scapegoating was increased. In Salem, the scapegoats were 'witches' who were thought to be in league with the devil, and responsible for everything from crop failure, illness, and bad weather to sick animals and impotence; whereas Senator Mccarthy and his cronies believed the 'evil' cause of social unrest lay in the rise and spread of Communism. In both cases, wildly-exaggerated stories and rumors led to an increasing amount of suspicion and fear, which caused many people to suspect their own friends, co-workers and relatives of being either witches or Communists. The resulting conflict was only resolved after the worst had already happened: the execution and imprisonment of innocent people in Salem, and the blacklisting of hundreds of people in government, journalism and entertainment. During the Salem trials, as well as the McCarthy hearings, people who spoke out against the proceedings only became more prominent targets. No one came to their defense. This demonstrates that in the face of personal risk, and under the scrutiny of powerful authority figures, people will tend to act in a self-centered manner.

According to the "Invocation" of "Book One" of "The Odyssey," Odysseus' men do not reach home because?

He came to see
many people's cities, where he learned their customs,
while on the sea his spirit suffered many torments,
as he fought to save his life and lead his comrades home.
But though he wanted to, he could not rescue them—
they all died from their own stupidity, the fools.
They feasted on the cattle of Hyperion,
god of the sun—that's why he snatched away their chance 10
of getting home someday.

The first book of the Odyssey opens with what might be considered a type of trial of Odysseus in front of the gods.  This invocation brings to light that while he was a great warrior, leading his men over the warriors from Troy, he was vain and boastful in his victory.  His revelry with his men offended the gods.  His battles in Troy and his destruction of the Cyclops angered Poseidon, god of the Sea.  The fact that Odysseu's men engaged in offensive and hubris filled actions angered the gods greatly, for hubris (excessive pride) in humans had always been frowned upon by the Greek Gods.  Hence, while they might have been victorious, Odysseus' men were punished with their inability to return home.  Ironically enough, the soldiers of Troy, who lost, were allowed to return home as supposed reward for their humility.

In "To Kill a Mockingbird" how are some of the people of Maycomb subconsciously looking to change the way they live?I am writing a lit. analysis...

One character that you might look to is Walter Cunningham.  He comes to the jail that night with violence on his mind, but after Scout humanizes him, he leaves, ashamed.  That could prompt him to want to change his ways; his shame at his violent intentions might drive him to bettering himself.  In fact, Atticus hints around that it might have been a Cunningham that

"took considerable wearing down-in the beginning he was rarin' for an outright acquittal".

Now, this probably wasn't the same Walter Cunningham that stood outside the jail, but, there is change brewing in the Cunningham clan, hat was brought out by Bob's disgraceful lies, and who knows how Walter influenced it, or will be influenced by it in the future.

Another person that might subconsciously want change is Mayella Ewell herself.  She lives in squallor and poverty, but Lee mentions specifically that she was growing beautiful red flowers on their trashed property.  Atticus brings out the fact that she was pretty lonely.  Bob reminded her over and over of her station in life, but she was trying.  So, somewhere, deep down, she wanted to get out of there, and better her circumstances.  Unfortunately, her attempts at companionship were misguided and led to Tom's arrest.  All of that stemmed from her subconscious desire to better her situation.

Then, consider Boo Radley.  He had made attempts to befriend Jem and Scout throughout the novel, but was always shut down by his family.  He wants to change; his gifts and tokens in the trees, and his laughter at their games indicated his desire to reach out, for the first time in 30 years.  But, it took Bob Ewell's attack to get him to actually get out of the house and take a proactive role in their lives.  The desire was there before, but Bob's attack brought Boo out, and made him a concrete part of their lives.

I hope those thoughts help a bit; it's an interesting question that you have there.  Good luck!

In chapter 6 of "Lord of the Flies," why didn't Ralph feel pain when he struck the skin off his knuckles?

This occurs in the last few lines of chapter six. The boys have been scouring the island, searching for the beast. When they arrive at the part of the island that has not been explored and find that the beast is not there, they become excited and lose sight of what is important. As the boys are exploring, Ralph becomes anxious because there is not a signal fire, worrying that if a ship passes they will once again lose a chance of being rescued. When Ralph tries to get the boys to focus on the duty at hand, finding the beast so they can relight the fire, they complain and say they want to stay and play. Ralph becomes so infuriated at their lack of concern for rescue that he strikes the rock with his knuckles. He does this in frustration and anger, and he doesn’t seem to feel the pain because he is so overcome with the urgency to make the other boys understand the dire circumstances they are under. He is aggravated that he has to keep reminding the boys that the fire is detrimental to their rescue and that no one seems to really care.

If Columbus had failed in his voyages, and if the New World had not been discovered in 1492, how and when would Europe have found the New...

There's good evidence that "Europeans" were crossing the Atlantic as far back as 9000 years ago. In fact, there's good evidence that the New World has been "discovered" many times. Had Columbus not completed his voyages, very shortly thereafter either England, France, Portugal, or Spain would have had another sailor be the "first", as those nations had reached the technological stage to travel back and forth across the ocean.

This old poem illustrates that many others have been to the New World before Chris: (Enjoy!)

A MISLAID CONTINENT (from Whiffs from Wild Meadows, Sam Walter Foss, circa 1880)

Now let us run the list over, Of men preceding Christopher, Who came before Columbus came, that laggard dull and slow ; The early Buddhist missionaries, Those rapt religious visionaries, Who thirteen hundred years ago discovered Mexico. An Irishman named Brendin (The list is never ending) He crossed the Sea of Darkness, crossed the wild, untravelled main. He thought that he would try a land Some miles away from Ireland; So he, twelve hundred years ago, discovered us again. Leif Ericson, the Norseman, A regular old sea-horseman, Who rode the waves like stallions, and couldn t endure the shore, Five hundred years thereafter Said to his wife in laughter, " It s time to go and find, my dear, America once more." And so he went and found it, With the ocean all around it, And just where Brendin left it five hundred years before ; And then he cried, " Eureka ! I m a most successful seeker!" And then went off and lost it, could not find it any more. They fought the sea, and crossed it, And found a world and lost it ; Those pre-Columbian voyagers were absent-minded men. Their minds were so preoccupied, That when a continent they espied, They absently mislaid it, and it couldn t be found again. But Columbus when he found us Somehow kept his arm around us, For he knew he must be careful when he found a hemisphere ; And he knew just how to use it, And he didn t misplace and lose it, And mislay it in a corner where it couldn t be found next year. Like a pretty worthless locket He didn t put it in his pocket, And drop the New World through a hole that he d forgot to mend ; But he kept his eye upon it, And he kept his finger on it, And he kept his grip upon it, and held on it to the end.

What is the climax of the novel "Little Women"?

The climax of Little Women is more than likely the moment when Laurie proposes marriage to Jo, and still after all the vicissitudes that Jo went through found the courage to decline the marriage proposal. What this did was to instill in her a sense of self as a woman and as an independent person and was a move that nobody saw coming, maybe not even Jo.

In "The Book Thief" how would the novel be different if Liesel didn’t have nightmares about her brother?

One way that it would be different is that we wouldn't get to see such an endearing, kind and loving side of Liesel's foster father, Hans.  Every single night he wakes himself from slumber to go and comfort Liesel; not only this, but he stays up late with her, for hours, talking to her, comforting her, and teaching her how to read.  We already know that Hans is kind, but Liesel's nightmares show just how wonderful a man he is. This endears us to his character, makes us more emotionally invested in him and in the story itself, making for a more poignant novel overall.

Another way that the novel would be different is that it would have been a lot more light-hearted.  The novel isn't inherently light-hearted at all, but, Liesel's nightmares keep her struggles and suffering front and center, and reminds us of the devastating war.  Her nightmares are also a way for Liesel and Max to bond; they both connect initially over having nightmares.  It brings them closer together; without that bond, they might not have grown as close.  The nightmares also provide a symbolic healing, as near the end of the book, she overcomes them.  It gives us a sense of her maturity, and that hardships can be overcome.

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

What is the next two answers in this sequence: 1/6, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3?

The first 4 terms of the sequence  is given. Let us examine what type of sequence is it  and find the general term of the sequence by which we can generate any term of the sequence.

Let us find the the Least Common Multiple( or LCM)  of denominators of the first 4 terms given:

The denominators of the 4 terms are 6,3,2,3 and obviously 6 is the LCM. Now let us convert the terms into equivalent fractions with denominators  as 6,the LCM.

Then the 1st term of sequence is 1/6 = 1/6

2nd term of the sequence =1/3= 2/6

3rd term=1/2=3/6

4th term=2/3=4/6

Obviously the numerator is increasing by one. So the value of each next term increase by 1/6

Therefore the seqence  is in arithmetic progression (or AP) with common  difference of the sequence is1/6 , and the starting term is 1/6. Therefore, the genaral nth term of the sequence  = starting term+(n-1)*common difference= 1/6+(n-1)(1/6)=n/6. So any  term of the sequence  {n/6} can easily be generated by givin n a suitable value.

The next term is 5th and 6th are got by putting n=5 and n=6

So the  5th term = 5/6

The 6th term = 6/6=1

What are the similarities and differences between Animal Farm and Macbeth? (Response must deal with the theme of "fear".)draw comparisons or...

First of all, for each work you must think about what the author's message is concerning fear, since "fear" alone is not a theme.  In "Macbeth," the titular character arguably rules by fear, as is demonstrated when notable characters like Malcolm and Donalbain must flee the country in fear for their lives, and also when it is intimated through Lennox's dialogue with an unnamed Scottish lord that most Scots suspect Macbeth of the recent murders but are too afraid to do anything about it, even to talk about it openly.

The pigs in "Animal Farm" also rule by fear.  The other animals on the farm are easily influenced by the pigs' threats that Mr. Jones may come back to the farm if they are not obeyed.

Again, think about what is begin said about fear in each of these works.  You may want to analyze how the use of fear tactics from those in absolute power is corruptive.  Both Macbeth and the pigs certainly become corrupt due to their power.

What is with the behavior of Lady Capulet and Friar Laurence in Romeo & Juliet?

Yeah, what IS with those two?! Friar Laurance's actions range from rash to strange to downright immoral, while Lady Capulet seems at times like the worst mother since Cinderella's stepmom.

Let's start with Friar Laurence. He is, of course, a monk, but his responsibilities are more like those of a present-day priest. In medieval Verona, wealthy families had their own friars, who performed all the services and rites of the church for them. Thus, it is natural for Romeo to go to Friar Laurence when he wants to wed Juliet.

It seems strange that Friar Laurence agrees to Romeo's hasty request so quickly until we realize his motive. He says in Act II, Scene III, that he will perform the wedding in the hope it will force the two feuding families to stop fighting. This seems like a lofty goal, and we can sort of believe it might work (for a while).

The friar's plan for Juliet to drink a potion that will make her seem dead, send a letter to Romeo, meet them in the tomb, etc., however, is truly wacky. It requires the audience to not only suspend its disbelief, but break with sanity. Shakespeare uses this fantastical device more as a way to show the frailty of human plans in the face of fate, which has doomed the star-crossed lovers from the start, or at least from the prologue. In this case, fate takes the form of the plague when the messenger, Friar John, is prevented from reaching Romeo in Mantua because he has visited a quarantined house. And we know what this random act of fate sets in motion.

Lady Capulet is somewhat more believable in the context of the time. Noble families had little involvement in raising their own children, instead farming them out to wet nurses as infants and marrying them off young and hopefully well. Lady Capulet's (and her husband's) insistence that Juliet marry Paris would have been quite normal; we learn that Lady Capulet herself was wedded and gave birth to Juliet quite young.

In Tale of Two Cities, where does Monsieur Defarge ask a guard to take him during the attack on the Bastille?What does he do there? What is the...

In the midst of the chaos of the storming of the Bastille, Monsier Defarge lays "his strong hand on the breast of one of (the prison officers), a man with a grey head, who (has) a lighted torch in his hand, separate(s) him from the rest, and (gets) him between himself and the wall", and demands that he show him the North Tower.  The guard responds that he will be glad to comply, but that "there is no one there".  Defarge asks the guard what is the meaning of the phrase, "One Hundred and Five, North Tower", a phrase often repeated absently by Dr. Manette during his periods of mental separation from reality.  The guard tells Defarge that the phrase refers to a particular cell, to which response Defarge demands urgently, "Show it me!"

The guard takes Defarge, along with Jacques Three, "through gloomy vaults where the light of day had never shown, past hideous doors of dark dens and cages, down cavernous flights of steps, and again up steep rugged ascents of stone and brick".  Finally, the guard stops at "a low door", opens it, and shows Defarge and Jacques Three a cell with "a small, heavily-grated, unglazed window high in the wall, with a stone screen before it".  In the cell is "a small chimney, heavily barred across...a heap of old feathery wood-ashes on the hearth...a stool, and table, and a straw bed...four blackened walls, and a rusted iron ring in one of them".  Defarge instructs the guard to "pass (the) torch slowly along (the) walls" so that he can examine them, and he quickly discovers Alexandre Manette's initials, along with a calendar, scratched into the stone.  Defarge then systematically searches every inch of the tiny cell, smashing the wooden furniture and ripping open the bed of straw.  He even peers up the chimney, prising at its sides with a crowbar, and groping into a crevice which the tool has exposed.  It is not clear at this point whether Defarge finds anything in the chimney or not, but having determined that there is "nothing in the wood, and nothing in the straw", he collects the debris in the middle of the cell and tells the guard to burn it (Chapter 21).

In 1789, the festering rage which had been fermenting among the peasants of France erupted in a violent attack on the Bastille, a prison in Paris which was representative of the oppression perpetrated upon them for so long by the ruling class.  The Fall of the Bastille was a central event in the French Revolution.

"Shut up your mouth." Change this into passive voice.

"Shut up your mouth" (or better, "shut your mouth," since the compound verb "shut up" is intransitive when used in the sense "cease speaking") is in the imperative mood.

The imperative mood in English is characterized by the implicit but unexpressed subject "you." Thus, in "Shut your mouth," the deep structure is "You shut your mouth," with the "you"  omitted in the final structure by rule.

This causes obvious problems if you want to put the sentence into the passive voice. An ordinary sentence is taken from active into passive by the following transformation, which removes the original subject (optionally inserting it via a prepositional phrase) and promotes the original object to subject position, changing the verb into the appropriate form of "to be" plus the past participle of the original verb:

You broke the window.

The window was broken (by you).

However we cannot perform this transformation with an imperative sentence:

(You) shut your mouth!

Mouth be shut (by you).

The second sentence is absurd, since the rules for the imperative mood demand a second-person subject that is grammatically present but unexpressed.The passive transformation, in removing the original subject and moving the original object into its place, necessarily destroys the imperative effect.

There is, however, a way around this. You can express the imperative by using a helper verb such as "let," which will allow you to retain the imperative while still permitting the main verb to be transformed into a passive form:

Drink the medicine! (= You drink the medicine!)

Let the medicine be drunk! (= You let the medicine be drunk by you!)

This retains the imperative force because the insertion of the helper verb "let" (or other verbs, such as "may") opens up a position for the unexpressed second-person subject and so preserves the imperative mood of the whole.

It should be noted that these formations seem somewhat dated in contemporary speech, and should be used sparingly.

What did the Hawthorn Studies reveal about human behaviour in the work place?

Surprisingly, the Hawthorn studies reflected very little about mechanistic changes to the workplace and worker productivity.  The pervading thought at the time of the studies, emerging in the wake of Industrialization, was that workers were mechanistic, similar to the machinery that enveloped them.  As with a machine, the belief was that technical refinements can be made to increase productivity.  For example, adding more lights  was seen as a way to generate greater work output from workers.  However, the Hawthorn studies revealed that human behavior and human productivity is far more complex an issue.  The studies demonstrated that workers are not automatically going to positively respond to technical refinements.  Rather, a more open and understanding approach would be needed to understand how to generate greater productivity from workers.  Hawthorn's studies reflected the idea that the psychological dimension to the worker must be understood in order to better understand his productivity range. 

This is about the same time when psychoanalysis was becoming a phenomena to which many started displaying an sense of openness.  While Hawthorn did not conclude the need for a psychological approach to understanding workers (which would be more present in the applications of Maslow's hierarchy of needs), he did suggest that human productivity lay in individual and group interaction, humanistic management skills, and social relationships in the workplace, embracing a more holistic understanding of the worker.

In what chapter of The Cay did Phillip and Henrik watch the excitement of the German attack on the islands near Curacao?In what chapter was Phillip...

Phillip and Henrik watch the excitement at the docks of Curacao after the German attack on the Dutch islands at the beginning of Chapter 1. 

On the night of February 1942, German submarines attack the Lago oil refinery on Aruba, the island just west of Curacao in the Caribbean.  When Phillip awakens the next morning, there is "much excitement in the city" of Willemstad, on the island of Curacao.  Unafraid, but terribly interested and curious, Phillip wants very much to go down to Punda, the business district, and to Fort Amsterdam, from where he could look out over the water and possibly see an enemy U-boat.  His mother, however, orders him to stay "near home".  Phillip nods his assent, but cannot understand why his mother thinks he will be in danger if he ventures out to where the action is; he cannot "imagine that a shell from an enemy submarine would pick (him) out from all the buildings, or hit (him) if (he is) standing on the famous pontoon bridge or among the ships way back in the Schottegat or along St. Anna Bay".  Later in the day, while his mother is busy, Phillip sneaks out down to the old fort with his friend Henrik van Boven, who, like Phillip, is eleven.  At the fort, they see "real soldiers with rifles and...machine guns", and are chased away by men with binoculars.  The two boys then go down to the famous Queen Emma pontoon bridge, from which the view is not as good as from the fort.  They join a small crowd of curious people there, "just looking".  Strangely, they see no ships moving in the channel, and notice that the men who work on the dock are are not "laughing and shouting the way they usually (do)".  Eventually, the onlookers are ordered to leave the area by an army officer.  "Suddenly frightened", Phillip and Henrick run home (Chapter 1).

Phillip gets bitten by a moray eel at the end of Chapter 17. 

Timothy has died, and Phillip has been able to survive on the cay alone for ten days when he decides "to do something Timothy has told (him) never to do".  Phillip is tired of eating the same thing everyday, and decides to catch some langosta.  Taking a sharp stick, he dives down into the fishing hole, hoping to find a lobster in the deep water.  At the bottom of the fishing hole, he finds an opening and sticks his hand into it.  Something grabs his hand, and "the pain (is) severe...whatever (has his) wrist (has) the strength of Timothy's arms".  Phillip jerks hard and kicks to the surface with the "thing" still attached to his wrist.  The "thing" lets go as Phillip breaks the water; Phillip is left "bleeding, but not badly...but the teeth (have) sunk in deep".  Phillip knows that his attacker was not a fish because of the shape of its body, and later concludes that it had been "a large moray eel" (Chapter 17). 

What are the likes and dislikes of William Wordsworth?

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Wordsworth (1770-1850) was born in the Lake District in Grassmere, England; both his parents died when he was still young. According to his autobiographical poem "The Prelude", Wordsworth loved nature, which became for him a kind of mother.

Wordsworth was also was an avid walker, and he traveled to many places such as the Wye Valley in southern Wales where he took extremely long walks receiving inspiration for such poems as "Tintern Abbey" and "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud."

William was educated at grammar school, but he tells us in "The Prelude" that there was much loneliness in his childhood. So, he did not like childhood, nor his earlier education years. Many researchers suggest that Wordsworth was obsessed with himself, but this obsession is part of the Romantic Period.

Wordsworth’s later life was tranquil. He loved family life very much; Wordsworth married in 1802 and had four sons, thereafter, his career followed a quieter track to fame. In later years, as he travelled less and less and wrote more at home, he received many accolades, for example, poet laureate, which he felt honored to receive.

In That Was Then, This Is Now, what is M&M worried about having after he finally "comes down"?

After he finally "came down" from his bad LSD trip, M&M worried about having a flashback, which is a return of the hallucinations he experienced as a result of taking the drug.  If a flashback should occur, the effect could be just as severe as it was when M&M was actually under the influence of LSD the first time.

LSD is an illegal drug which was popular in the sixties.  It is a hallucinogen, and often had violent and permanently damaging effects.  In M&M's case, when he took the drug, he had vivid hallucinations about spiders.  He said that he "went into (his) stomach...down into (his) stomach and all these spiders came out...(he believed he) was there then years, and all that time (those) spiders kept chewing on (him)".  Before he was completely coherent again, M&M remembered screaming and screaming for help, but nobody came.  He said he "kept trying to get back, but the spiders held (him) down...and chewed on (him) and the colors went in and out...and they were screaming too".  In the midst of the terror of his bad trip, M&M tried to kill himself by jumping out the window; he was unsuccessful only because his companions took turns holding him down (Chapter 9).

M&M had been a sweet, intelligent, innocent kid, with an insatiable curiosity about the world, but the LSD trip changed him forever.  Bryon sees him at the drugstore several months later, and notices that M&M's "old expression of complete trust and intent interest is gone entirely".  M&M cannot remember things that happened in the past very well, and he tells Bryon that "(his) grades are shot"; as a young teen, his brain has been damaged forever.  M&M is nervous and constantly frightened.  He says to Bryon, "it can come back...I could have a flashback...and if I ever have any kids - something about chromosomes - they could be messed up" (Chapter 11).

What are the major events of the Trojan War briefly outlined in Books 1 through 4?

The first four books of The Odyssey are known as the Telemachiad.  It is called thusly because these books are concerned mainly with the plight of Odysseus' grown son, Telemachus.  Odysseus only appears as a character talked about, rather than a main actor (Odysseus shows up later, in Book V). 

Telemachus, who is now twenty years old and does not remember his father (as Odysseus left for war when he was only a babe in arms) is understandably worried for his father.  But this is more than simple family anxiety; Penelope, Telemachus' mother and Odysseus' wife, is being pressured by suitors to remarry.  This would not only sully his father's memory (in Penelope's and Telemachus' hearts, for they are both loyal to him though they have heard nothing from him for many years), but it presents an economic and succession problem as well.  If Penelope remarried Telemachus, the only son of Odysseus the King of Ithaca, would be, in effect, disinherited.  Telemachus, now a man, is in such a state of worry and anxiety that he does everything he can to find out what has happened to his father, including what happened in the Trojan War.

In Book I we find out that Odysseus is on the goddess Calypso's island.  He has been there for part of the time of the ten years since the end of the Trojan War (which was ten years in length itself, thus making up the the twenty years of Telemachus' life.)  Talk of the Trojan War itself does not occur until Book III, in which old King Nestor relates the end of the war and the return home of Menelaus and Agamemnon, but he knows nothing of what happened to Odyseus after the departure from Troy after the sacking of the city.

Telemachus learns a little more in Sparta, where he goes to talk to Menelaus and Helen.  Menelaus tells Telemachus that he did learn from the Egyptians that Odysseus was alive some years after the war's end.  Helen also retells some of Odysseus' exploits before the walls of Troy:

He covered himself with wounds and bruises, dressed himself all in rags, and entered the enemy's city looking like a menial or a beggar, and quite different from what he did when he was among his own people. In this disguise he entered the city of Troy, and no one said anything to him. I alone recognized him and began to question him, but he was too cunning for me. When, however, I had washed and anointed him and had given him clothes, and after I had sworn a solemn oath not to betray him to the Trojans till he had got safely back to his own camp and to the ships, he told me all that the Achaeans meant to do. (Book IV) 

Menelaus remembers, too:

What endurance too, and what courage he displayed within the wooden horse, wherein all the bravest of the Argives were lying in wait to bring death and destruction upon the Trojans. ... Three times did you go all round our hiding place and pat it; you called our chiefs each by his own name, and mimicked all our wives—Diomed, Odysseus, and I from our seats inside heard what a noise you made. Diomed and I could not make up our minds whether to spring out then and there, or to answer you from inside, but Odysseus held us all in check, so we sat quite still, all except Anticlus, who was beginning to answer you, when Odysseus clapped his two brawny hands over his mouth, and kept them there. (Book IV)

Telemachus learns some things about the war (the fall of Troy, the Trojan Horse, the departure for home), but mostly he learns that Odysseus is probably still alive.

What is the denouement of the story,"The Devil and Tom Walker"?

The declining action takes place after the Devil whisks Tom away.  At this point, the climax has been reached (The devil taking ownership of Tom Walker's soul).  Some elements of the denouement could be when the town people return back to Tom's home to find his riches reduced to virtual nothingness and his home burning to the ground.  The withering and devaluing of all of his assets could be an example of how the declining action fits the climax.  I think you could make a case for other moments being representative of the climax, but in terms of a strict structural element to the short story, the climax would have to be when the Devil comes to his home to claim Tom.  Therefore, what follows would represent the falling action leading to story's resolution.

What are the troubleshooting steps for a Sea Doo speedster with 2 x 85 hp Rotax engines 1995 with engine start-up and revving problems?

The usual troubleshooting suggestions for this kind of problem are to check the fuel lines and clamps; clean the carburetor; put in new spark plugs; check the battery charge and install a battery shut off if not in use for long periods of time. To draw fuel up quickly, remove the air filter, place your palm over the carburetor and rev the engine. Some suggest starting with the sparks plugs first, but if these other items are even marginal and contributing to the engine-start difficulty, they might go overlooked if the spark plugs are thought to be the whole problem.

What must we as individuals sacrifice to facilitate public order?What is public order?

You will receive many different viewpoints to this question.  I think that the issue of "public order" is a very challenging notion.  There is a line of thought that says that we must sacrifice some level of personal rights and privacy to ensure that the public order is maintained.  Thinkers from this particular viewpoint suggest that ensuring public order is critical and individuals might have to sacrifice some level of privacy and convenience in order to enjoy the benefits of public safety.  In this light, collectivity and the strength of the collective body supersedes that of the individual.  This can be seen in its purest form in the thinking of Rousseau from the French Political Theory, and in another form through Hegelian thought. Thinkers who suggest that sacrifice is needed would argue that individuals should be willing to sacrifice some notion of individual rights to privacy.  Government has to ensure that public safety is first and foremost and has an obligation and duty to protect the citizens' well being.  The Preamble to the Constitution suggests that a primary function of government is to "promote the general welfare."  This would mean that the idea of keeping the public safe and ensuring another goal, "domestic tranquility," requires that individuals might have to sacrifice some levels of freedom, privacy, and/ or comfort in order to faciitate public order and safety.

The opponents of this line of thought are individuals who suggest two premises. The first is that if we, as citizens, give government the authority and power to be able to take away individual rights in the name of "public order," it creates a dangerous precedent and a "slippery slope," meaning if rights are violated in one instance, there is little to stop an onslaught of rights violations.  To give government the credence to be able to act in such a way also gives government a liscense to take away our rights with the public's consent.  These individuals will argue that examples from history prove this.  The Salem Witchcraft Trials, the Red Scare, McCarthyism, the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, and the rise of the Nazis were all examples of moments in time when the government or the social order said that the public must sacrifice rights to privacy in order to facilitate "public order."  Some might even suggest that this was the same logic that prompted passage and little in way of opposition to the Patriot Act in the days following the events of September 11th, 2001.  In these settings, individuals were asked to make sacrifices in the name of public order.  Many would argue that in doing so, individuals lose their ability to check the acts of the government, in the event that the social and political order oversteps their bounds.  Building off of this would be the line of argumentation that suggests that nothing should ever compel individuals to sacrifice their rights to be free and to be left alone in order to facilitate public order.  This would be most present in the philosophy of Libertarianism, and, most recently, the campaign of Ron Paul.  The early political framers in American History also conceived of this.  Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were most vocal in suggesting that any violation of individual rights, no matter what the justification cannot be tolerated in a democratic form of government.

What is a summary of the poem "A Lecture Upon the Shadow" by John Donne?

John Donne’s “A Lecture Upon the Shadow” uses the extended metaphor of sunlight to describe love’s fleetingness. The stanzas consist of thirteen lines and follow an abnormal rhyme scheme, each beginning with a couplet. It also takes the form of a meta-poem, as the speaker addresses the reader directly:

   “I will read to thee

A lecture, love, in love's philosophy” (lines 1-2).

The poem centers on the noon hour, mentioning noon twice in the second stanza as a reference point for the stages of love. Donne describes the moment when the sun is directly overhead, saying that at this moment, two lovers overcome the shadows of time and understanding;

“…now the sun is just above our head,

We do those shadows tread” (lines 6-7).

The first stanza has a tone of overcoming, as the lovers described see each other in perfect light at noon. The second stanza has a tone of foreboding, as shadows begin to envelope the subjects. As the poem progresses past noon, the speaker describes:

“We shall new shadows make the other way” (line 14) and

“Will work upon ourselves, and blind our eyes” (line 17).

The increased mention of shadows and blindness in the second stanza are meant to suggest a growing distance between the lovers. The poem culminates with the daytime of love turning to the darkness of night- this suggests love’s fleetingness and fatality;

“Love is a growing, or full constant light,

And his first minute, after noon, is night” (lines 25-26).

What helped Kira finally fall asleep in Gathering Blue ?Please answer!

Kira keeps a small scrap of cloth in her pocket, and it helps her fall asleep on her first night at her new home in the Council Edifice.

Finding herself in unfamiliar surroundings after the trauma of her mother's death and the battle with the Council to find a new place for herself in the community, Kira is anxious and cannot sleep.  She first fingers the pendant her mother had always worn, which Kira now wears around her neck.  Lifting it against her cheek, she hopes to "rcapture a feeling of her mother, perhaps the smell of her: herbs and dyes and dried blossoms".  The little rock gives her no comfort, however, remaining "inert and odorless, without a hint or memory of life".

In contrast, the scrap of cloth which Kira carries in her pocket flutters as if alive where it lies near her head where she has left it.  Kira reaches out and touches the cloth, and, feeling its comforting warmth, she closes her eyes.  She falls into a peaceful, dreamless sleep, with the "wrinkled scrap of pretty fabric" beside her on the bed.

Kira had created the piece of cloth with her own hands during the final days before her mother had died.  While her mother slept restlessly, Kira sat by her side, and as she waited she

"sorted...dyed threads in her basket and began to weave them into the cloth scrap with a bone needle.  It soothed her to do so, and passed the time".

As she wove, Kira felt "a pulsing, a quivering in her hands as if they had life".  She found that

"her fingers did not direct the threads, but followed where they led...she was able to close her eyes and simply feel the needle move through the fabric, pulled by the urgent, vibrating threads".

When she had looked down at what she was doing, she was amazed to see a vibrant piece of fabric, whose

"brilliant threads crisscrossed in an intricate pattern of loops and knots that Kira had never seen before, that she could not have created, that she had never known or heard described".

Kira keeps this magical cloth in her pocket.  It is its closeness that helps her fall asleep on her first night in the Council Edifice" (Chapters 4 and 6).

What is the poem "Dover Beach" about?

Using vivid images of the sea to do so, Matthew Arnold writes his poem about a world bereft of all beauty, truth, and optimism.  In fact, there is only one positive stanza in this poem:  the first one.  This first discusses the positive images of the ocean where the “sea is calm” and the “moon lies fair” and the “tide is full.”  This is where the happy images end, however, because the second stanza refers to all of the negative sea images with its “moon-blanched land” and its “grating roar” and its “tremulous cadence.”  The negativity continues with the third stanza where the negative aspect of the sea even pervades the past, specifically during Sophocles time where it continued to affect the “turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery.” 

Of course, the importance of the poem stands in the two metaphorical stanzas at the end.  Stanza four, that focuses on the "Sea of Faith" is very intent on its pessimism.  Where there was faith in the speaker's mind, now there is nothing.

Now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, / Retreating, to the breath / Of the night wind, down the vast edges dream / And naked shingles of the world.

Finally, as the speaker begs for lovers to remain true, sadness stands paramount yet again in one of the bleakest statements in the poem.  The world that once seemed beautiful and new is now bereft of beauty and happiness.

[The world] hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; / And we are here as on a darkling plain / Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, / Where ignorant armies clash by night.

"Dover Beach" is obviously not a poem to cultivate happiness within the reader.  What is interesting, however, is Arnold’s ability to allow the sea images to pervade his poem whether it is in the midst of happiness (of the first stanza) or of misery (of the rest of the poem).  Arnold is certainly a master of imagery!

What was unusual about Barney Northrup in The Westing Game?

On the first page of The Westing Game the reader is alerted that Barney Northrup is not what he appears to be:

Then one day (it happened to be the Fourth of July), a most uncommon-looking delivery boy rode around town slipping letters under the doors of the chosen tenants-to-be.  The letters were signed Barney Northrup.
     The delivery booy was sixty-two years old, and there was no such person as Barney Northrup. (1)

Turtle finds out later that Barney Northrup, the somewhat shady real estate agent who gets all the heirs of Sam Westing's will to live together in Sunset Towers, is really one of the many disguises of the decidely not-dead Sam Westing.  All his aliases include a compass direction:

Why did Sam Westing have to play two roles, Turtle wondered.  He had a big enough part as the doorman without playing the real-estate man as well.  Why two roles?  No, not two, three.  Windy Windkloppel took three names; one: Samuel W. Westing, two: Barney Northrup, three: Sandy McSouthers. (170)

Sam Westing's other aliases melt away, of course, and he "dies" as Sandy McSouthers.  But he does not actually die, as Turtle finds out later; he lives out his days under his fourth alias: Julian Eastman.

Now she was on her way to meet the fourth identity of Windy Winkloppel.  She could probably have figured out the address, too, instead of looking it up in the Westingtown phone book -- there it was, number four Sunrise Lane.  ... Julian R. Eastman rose.... He was smiling.  He wasn't angry with her, he was smiling.
     "Hi Sandy," Turtle said.  "I won." (174-5)

The unusual thing about Barney Northrup is that he is really Sam Westing, a man who is supposed to be dead!  Barney wasn't real; he was a disguise invented by Sam to gather his heirs together to play the Westing Game.

Source: Raskin, Ellen.  The Westing Game.  New York: Avon Books, 1978.

What chapter did Scout walk Boo Radley home in "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

The chapter that you are looking for is the very, very end of the book, in chapter 31.  If you haven't gotten that far in the book, I highly recommend it, because it all ties together in a super dramatic and super cool ending.  Boo, the unlikely hero, is escorted home by Scout.  She helps him along, as he is

"uncertain, as if her were not sure his hands and feet could make proper contact with the things he touched."

So, Scout, acting on all of the lessons in manners that her father and Calpurnia have taught her over the years, steps in to help him.  After they go visit Jem, she walks him outside.  At this point, he whispers, "Will you take me home?" He is a bit out of his element, and a bit scared, being in a new situation.  So, Scout acquiescees, and offers him her arm, which he takes, and he walks "[Scout] down the sidewalk, as any gentleman would do."

I hope that helps a bit; again, I recommend reading the chapter on your own if you haven't yet.  It is very touching, and gives us a full glimpse of the enigmatic Boo Radley that has been the subject of such fascination throughout the book.

What are your first impression of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet?What is the audience's first impression of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet?

We first meet Juliet's cousin Tybalt in Act 1 Scene 1 when he joins in the street fight with Benvolio and the Capulet and Montague servants. This is a brief appearance, followed by another cameo of sorts in Act ! Scene 5 at the Capulet feast.

In both early scenes, Tybalt is revealed to be loud and quick-tempered, handy with his wit and his sword. Drawn as such, Tybalt is a very useful character for Shakespeare, who uses other characters to bring the lovers together. At the Capulet feast, Tybalt recognizes Romeo's voice and swears vengeance against him for crashing the party.

When Tybalt encounters Mercutio in Act 3 Scene 1, he (Tybalt) has been looking for Romeo to answer a challenge. Romeo appears but will not fight Tybalt, who is now his cousin through marriage to Juliet. Mercutio is enraged by Romeo's cowardice and fights Tybalt himself, gets killed, and prompts Romeo to kill Tybalt. This turns out to be the climax of the play; once Romeo kills Tybalt, there is no chance for the lovers to be together.

"Then one day they expelled all the foreign Jews of Sighet. and Moshe the beadle was a foreigner." Why does Wiesel say this so abruptly?Any help is...

Elie Wiesel is quite emphatic about the cruelty of the Nazis.  At the same time, he holds a great deal of anger towards Jewish individuals who failed to speak out and act in a manner that defied indifference.  Throughout Night, we see instances where the cruelty and dehumanization the Nazis showed towards Jewish individuals, similar treatment is shown with Jewish individuals towards one another.  It creates a vicious cycle of human cruelty as the habits of silence and denial are passed down from tormentor to tormented.

Wisel's abrupt and sudden statement of Moshe's departure reflects how the community react to Moshe and his narrative of what happens to those taken by the Nazis.  Rather than seeing him as a member of their own community, someone whose spiritual function and basic principles as a human being should be recognized by the community and protected by it, the dismissal of all "foreign born" Jewish people allowed the community of Sighet to treat Moshe as someone who is dispensable. Their dismissal of him is an attempt to save their own senses of self by sacrificing another.  This becomes not only a theme of the work, but one of Wiesel's hauntingly powerful statement about the true terror of the Holocaust.  A major atrocity was the severance of bonds between people.  The community dispelled bonds with Moshe out of expedience.  This same behavior will be displayed with Madame Schachter, and will continue when people fight with one another for a piece of bread, and fathers and sons can no longer show loyalty and attachment to one another as the need for survival overwhelms the basic sensibility of compassion for one another and connection to one another.  While Moshe is accepted in an overall manner, when he describes the horrors he witnessed, he is dismissed and his perceptions are discarded by the community. In the statement, Eliezer speaks of how the community ends up viewing Moshe, and how this abrupt spirit if disassociation and detachment become one of the most horrifying crimes of the Holocaust.  While we react with horror and shock of the rupturing of bonds and connections that are supposed to bind and connect one human being to another, such dismissal was sadly quite common in times of unimaginable horror.

Can "Twelfth Night" be considered a festive comedy?

The festival of the Epiphany on the twelfth day from Christmas was observed with numerous ceremonies which included performance of plays at Court. Shakespeare's play Twelfth  Night was also presumably written for performance on Twelfth Night. It was one of four plays the performance of which before Queen Elizabeth in the Christmas season of 1601-02 is recorded.

Twelfth Night may be called a festive comedy primarily because of the occasion of its composition. In act2 sc.3, Sir Toby tells Olivia's steward, Malvolio, rather sarcastically, 'Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no cakes and ale?' This reference to 'cakes and ale' also relates the play to the festive occasion of Twelfth Night.

Olivia's 'allowed fool', Feste, bears a name that relates to the spirit of festivity & he proves himself to be one of the major sources of fun and mirth in the play. All the four songs are sung by him at different points of the play's action. In fact Feste's songs and Duke Orsino's love for music contribute to the festive character of the play in big way.

The play also accommodates such elements as mischief-making, witty repartees, gulling, disguise, adventures and exchanges of love and romance which build up an atmosphere of great fun and enjoyment.

In Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, why doesn't the rose tell the prince she loves him and why does the prince continue to love her?

The rose does not tell the prince that she loves him because she has a couple of character flaws. One of her character flaws is vanity. Her vanity makes her very boastful but especially very demanding. She boasts that her four thorns can protect her from tigers, and yet, she considers herself to be too delicate to be allowed to stand in the draft. Due to her vanity she demands a screen of the little prince and also a glass globe to be put under at night. In fact, in his narration, the prince explains that the flower's vanity began to torment him, as we see in the line, "So, too, she began very quickly to torment him with her vanity--which was, if the truth be known, a little difficult to deal with" (Ch. 8). In addition to being vain, she is also very prideful. She is so prideful, that she would prefer to "put the prince in the wrong," rather than admit she is wrong (Ch. 8).

The flower symbolizes femininity, and despite character flaws, men consistently love women. In his narrative, the prince regrets his decision to leave, saying that he should not have taken seriously any of the vain and prideful things she said. He says that he should "have judged by deeds and not by words"; he should have recognized that her returned affection for him was shown in how "she cast her fragrance and her radiance over [him]" (Ch. 8). In other words, because she made him happy with her beauty and her scent, he should have recognized that she truly did love him. Furthermore, he says that he should have recognized that all of the vain things she said and asked him to do were simply her way of getting attention from him, just as women often do. Therefore, despite her character flaws, he continues to love his flower because she loves him in return. He especially loves her because she does a great deal of wising up before he leaves. She asks his forgiveness, assures him that she loves him, and also shows inner strength in rejecting the glass globe and saying, "I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies" (Ch. 9). Hence we see that despite her initial character failings, she truly is a loving and noble flower.

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, what does Jim think happened to him as a result of the trick that Tom plays on him?

While Jim is sleeping, Tom hangs Jim's hat on a tree branch so Jim will be confused as to how it got there. Jim is highly superstitious and develops a story of being visited by witches who rode him around the world. All the other slaves are envious of Jim's experience, much to Tom's amusement.

How was understatement used in The Great Gatsby?Understatement; a statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said

In the opening chapter of the book, Nick, the narrator, describes where he lives on Long Island, and specifically, West Egg.  He calls it "less fashionable" than East Egg and in doing so is using understatement since East Egg is very glamorous and populated by some very rich people.  West Egg, too, has its very rich people (Gatsby, for example).  Then when Nick gets to the Buchanan's house, Tom comments that he has "...a nice place here" when he lives in an extravagant mansion.  Most of the descriptions that Nick gives us are detailed and accurate, and he uses more irony than he does understatement, but in describing the wealth and extravagance of both the Buchanans and Gatsby, there is some understatement.  Both the Buchanans and Gatsby spend great amounts of money - the Buchanans because they are used to it and Gatsby because he wants to impress people, especially Daisy. Nick gives Gatsby's parties a vivid accounting of the elaborateness, but he holds back a little on other aspects of Gatsby's surroundings.  In chapter 2, when Nick is describing Myrtle, he uses some understatement when he tells about how she changes (both literally in changing her clothes and figuratively in changing her persona) once she gets in the car with Tom and they go to the apartment in the city.  Myrtle puts on airs as easily as she puts on new clothes. Nick is subtle in this description using understatement.

Who is the hero in the play "Julius Caesar"- Brutus or Julius Caesar?

Yours is a question that has long been debated, and arguments can be made for both characters.  For, Caesar and Brutus of "Julius Caesar" both demonstrate hubris, arrogance as a result of his pride or passion; they both make tragic mistakes, or commit harmartia; and they both die as a result of their tragic mistakes,

However, it would seem that Brutus commits his "act of injustice," hamartia, more closely to definition, having killed Caesar through the conviction that a greater good will be served.  His act is a criminal one and Brutus is responsible for it throughout the play whereas Caesar is gone by the end of Act III. 

Another argument for Brutus as the tragic hero is in the gravity and number of his tragic mistakes. 

• His first mistake, of course, is believing that Caesar is too ambitious and

It must be by his death...He would be crowned. III,i,10-12)

• At the same time, Brutus also mistakenly believes that Cassius and the others have the same noble intentions as he.  After the assassination, Brutus does not follow the counsel of Cassius who tells him not to let Marc Antony speak, but Brutus believes that his rational argument of his having "loved Rome more" will sustain the crowd against Antony's rhetoric. This error leads to Antony's swaying of the Roman crowd as well as his becoming a military and political opposing force to Brutus and the other conspirators. 


• As a result of this grave error,Brutus is responsible for the country's being thrown into civil strife, a condition far worse than Caesar's having been "crowned."


• In his military endeavors against the triumvirate of Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, Brutus blunders gravely at the battle of Phillippi.  Again, he does not listen to Cassius and moves too quickly, his final tragic mistake as this error causes his suicide, a death chosen over being dragged through the streets of Rome as the defeated. 


• And, tragically, the resulting reign of the triumvirate becomes far more tyrannical than that of Caesar.

What does the snail in Virginia Woolf's "The Mark on the Wall" stand for or symbolizes?

Virginia Woolf's "The Mark on the Wall" concludes with the identification of that mark as a snail, this after several pages of digressions--on history, reality, society, art, writing, and life itself--incited by the flimsy ruse of an ontological inquiry. Readers have reacted variously to this revelation: As T. E. Apter notes, some, like A C. Bradbrook, have found it "exasperating" (54), while others have found the "cruelly disappointing" (Guiguet 217) or "trivial" (Apter 54) or "insignificant" (Gorsky 51) nature of the mark to be important to understanding that Woolf is proposing that objective reality is less important than the world of perceptions internal to each individual, a line of thought that leads ultimately to the idea that what the mark is "really doesn't matter" (Lumpkin 29), or the ironic Doppelganger to this idea, that "The writer deflates herself comically when the mark is revealed as a snail . . . (Gordon 167).

Who are two characters in the story that could be foils for each other and why?

A foil in literature is a character that draws attention to another character by creating contrast between the two.  Amanda and her daughter are two such characters.  Amanda is outgoing, likes to flirt, talk, behaving in a charming, inviting manner. While Laura, her daughter, is quiet, reserved and prefers to remain unnoticed.

Amanda is always onstage, making elaborate speeches about her life in Blue Mountain, describing her youth as a time of popularity, parties and fancy dresses.  It is quite a contrast to the life that Laura lives and has lived.  At 24, Laura has done virtually nothing, except attend the Rubicam's Business College for a few days until she becomes physically sick when they give her a typing test.

In contrast, Amanda is a survivor, even though she is an abandoned wife, she does not give in to depression about her life or her status, what worries her is her daughter and son's potential future.  Especially Laura's future, Amanda sees a life of loneliness and isolation for Laura.  She is also very worried about Laura's financial future.

Amanda has had to struggle all her life, since Mr. Wingfield abandoned her, to survive financially.  She has done odd jobs and probably depended on the generosity of family.  She does not want this for Laura, and Amanda is willing to fight for her daughter's future.

While Laura seems unconcerned about her own future, she is content to sit in the living room and polish and arrange her glass collection, and listen to the old records that her father left behind.

Laura's accepting her quiet life of loneliness and deprivation is in direct contrast to her mother's refusal to surrender to the possibility of her daughter being left out of the joys of life.

In the novel "Fahrenheit 451" writen by Ray Bradbury, what would the exposition and the initial conflict be?

The exposition of a story is the introduction, where the author provides the background information.  In Section I of the book, The Hearth and the Salamander, we learn about Guy Montag, the main character of the story and the conflicts he is experiencing.

The exposition provides the reader information about Montag, his wife Mildred, his job, what the society is like and that he has a neighbor who lives in an unconventional way, for the time, Clarisse McClellan.

The initial conflict occurs when Montag starts to question the value of his life, this is instigated by two events, his wife's overdose and his meeting Clarisse.

At first we learn that Guy Montag has been a fireman for 10 years, he has been content with his job, at times actually enjoying it. He loves to burn, he tells us really enjoys watching things turn to charcoal.

But he meets his young, unusual neighbor in the first few pages of this novel, Clarisse McClellan who has a profound effect on Montag.   He  begins to question his life and therefore has both an internal conflict, one within himself, and several external conflicts.  External conflicts are character vs character conflicts, character vs environment conflicts.

Montag is experiencing an internal conflict which is best described as self-doubt, he is having a crisis of conscience which is intensified by his meeting Clarisse.  This young neighbor of Montag's is not like anyone else in his life including his wife, Mildred.  Clarisse is a real person, who thinks, feels, imagines, is creative, she lives a life forbidden by the authorities, and eventually is killed for it.

Montag's discovering his wife near death from an overdose creates a serious conflict for him, since he wants to talk to her about what is bothering her, but she lives in a world of denial.  She doesn't even remember taking the pills.  She denies taking the pills and has no memory of the stomach pumping that saved her life.

Montag has an external conflict with his job, particularly Captain Beatty, who is a well-read man, once loved literature, and taunts and teases Montag about the books that they burn.

Provide 2 examples that prove Jack will hurt Piggy if Ralph quits as leaderAfter this quite unsuccessful meeting, Ralph begins to question whether...

This conversation follows the unsuccessful attempt to bring order once again to the fragile society, and establish a firmer sense of rules and guidelines. Jack and the hunters have essentially broken from the larger group, and will quickly rise as an opposing force to Ralph's try at some form of civilization.

Piggy has several reasons to fear Jack with the protection of Ralph. Even though Jack and Ralph are pitted at odds, they maintain a shaky truce, based upon, if not mutual respect, then mutual fear. Jack has no such regard for Piggy, however. From his first introduction, he has heckled and belittled Piggy's ideas, often refusing to let him speak, even when holding the conch shell. When Piggy does speak, he rouses the rest of the boys against his ideas and often drowns him out through his own shouts. While this is not physical abuse, it certainly paves the way through emotional/mental torture to a more direct attack.

Furthermore, Jack refuses Piggy meat after the first "successful" pig hunt in Chapter 4. His excuse is that Piggy did not hunt, and Piggy's protests that neither Simon nor Ralph took part go unheeded. Finally, Simon gives him a bit of meat, enraging Jack. Again, there is no actual physical violence, but there's certainly a threat of starvation and alienation from the larger group.

Finally, Jack does physically attack Piggy, also in Chapter 4. Although Jack has brought meat, they have also let the fire die, losing a chance at rescue. Piggy chastises Jack for this, and Jack responds by punching him the stomach. He then smacks Piggy on the head, sending his glasses flying and breaking one lens. This is the moment that reveals what Jack is capable of doing, and what lengths he will go to in order to achieve his purpose.

Thus, Piggy has plenty to fear from losing Ralph as leader. Jack already loathes him, and has demonstrated his feeling son many occasions. In addition, if Ralph steps down, Jack may still respect him too much to take action, but might instead take out his rage for the former leader on Piggy.

Where can I read the book "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck online for free?

You can read the introduction to The Red Pony at books.google.com. You can also read a portion of the book at amazon.com. Search for the title, then click on the link to "search inside this book." This book is still under copyright, so it is not yet in the public domain for free access. You won't be able to read the entire book online unless you purchase and download it from a bookseller. For instance, amazon has a Kindle edition, and Barnes & Noble (bn.com) has a digital ebook.

I'm sorry that I can't be more helpful to you than this. Good luck!

How do I write a introduction for a paper on the hotel industry and the economy?

I would say that it would be a good idea to track the effect that the downturn in the economy has had on the hotel industry. When individuals are worried about job security or have lost their job, the idea of taking a vacation or planning a vacation go to the bottom of the priority list.

Sadly, when ordinary can't make vacation plans, and don't book hotel rooms, jobs in the hotel industry are lost.  You can also include the business traveler, who uses hotels in order to do business in other states, cities and countries.  When business is slow, travel slows down, so business to business travel as well as personal travel have a direct impact on the hotel industry.

There are many different types of customers for the hotel industry, including everything from holding weddings, parties to holding business seminars.

It is an interesting topic to research, it would also be interesting to look into how the hotel industry copes with economic downturns that result in less travel.

Does the fact that this book is written by a woman influence your reading of the text?

I think reading Faludi's text is strongly impacted with the understanding that a woman is writing it.  Much of her elemental ideas regarding the changing social dynamic of men and the changing dynamic within men about society makes a great deal of logic when understanding that a woman is writing it.  Faludi's work seeks to articulate the condition of men as having been drastically changed, almost without warning.  When she opens with the structured allegorical world of the 1950's, when the post Cold War vision of masculinity was firmly embedded in the social order, and there was a great deal of support of men and male roles in society, the transformation in the next forty years was almost as revolutionary as women's status in society.  However, the primary difference was that the struggle for women's rights, and for that matter, people of color as well as gay/ lesbian/ transgendered individuals, was an articulated struggles that individuals were able to vocally integrate into the social order.  Faludi's sympathetic study reveals that the male role in this order changed, without articulation, almost in a silent and stealthily manner.  In reading this, one  has a great deal of empathy for these men who have been changed on many levels due to society, culture, economics, as well as through their own personal levels of world and interaction.  These men did not recognize the change, but it was silently dictated to them, causing a great deal of confusion between the collision between the articulated view of the 1950s and the modern setting.

This is where hearing this narrative from a woman's point of view is relevant.  If this were in a man's voice, it would come across as self serving, at its worst.  At its best, it would be representative of the cultural emasculation that Faludi indicates has happened.  It would also come across as a form of self hate or even pity.  Yet, with a woman's voice, and in particular Faludi's, we begin to understand men as an voice that has been silenced by the discourse's ongoing crisis of representation.  It also makes sense that a woman, who endured change and alteration of the social fabric, can help men to articulate their own sense of voice and hopeful empowerment, resulting in greater dialogue.

How is Tennyson's Ulysses a dramatic monologue?

Tennyson's Ulysses follows the pattern of a few other poems by Tennyson in being written in the voice of a character in Homeric epic, but either from a viewpoint or perspective not found in Homer. In the case of Ulysses, the poem is narrated by Odysseus after he has returned to Ithaca, settled down, and found domestic life in the poor rocky island lacking in the grandeur and drama of his time fighting the Trojan War and returning from Troy.

Generically, a dramatic monologue is a stand-alone work written entirely in the voice of a narrator distinct from the author addressed to either an explicit audience with the reader understood as implicit audience or not having an explicit audience but being a "dialogue of the mind with itself" which the reader can be said to overhear. Ulysses conforms to this pattern, although it differs from Browning's dramatic monologues in that we sympathize with rather than distrust the narrator.

What does Gene do when Quackenbush accuses him of being maimed in A Separate Peace?

When Quackenbush accuses him of being maimed, Gene reacts by hitting him hard across the face.  At first Gene doesn't know why he is reacting like this, and he thinks, "it was almost as though (he, Gene) were maimed".  Then he remembers Finny, who is now truly maimed physically after falling from the tree, and believes that he is coming to his friend's defense.  Gene fights that "battle, that first skirmish of a long campaign, for Finny".  Yet, when the fight is over, "it didn't feel exactly as though (he) had done it for Phineas...it felt as though (he) had done it for (him)self".

On the surface, Gene reacts with such rage at Quackenbush's scorning of someone "maimed" to defend Finny, but in reality, Gene comes closer to the truth when he notes that his violent response has more to do with himself.  Tormented by his own insecurities and the petty jealousies he feels towards his "best" friend, he lives with a deep burden of guilt over the idea that he might have purposefully caused Finny's accident.  Gene despises himself, for his lack of resolve which results in him always being a follower where Finny is concerned, and for the horrible deed in which he finally lashes out at Finny, seriously hurting him.  Gene has taken the job of "assistant senior crew manager", a job "usually taken by boys with some physical disability", because it is a "nothing" job, and he wants to fulfill his sports requirements without effort and without thought, "like (an) automaton".  Gene is indeed "maimed", not in his body, but in his mind and spirit (Chapter 6).

The end of the play Twelfth Night raises more questions than it answers. To what extent is this your experience of Twelfth Night?

What an interesting question! I guess one angle for you to think about is how Act V scene i resolves the action or not. Certainly Twelfth Night is a typical Shakesperian comedy in the sense that the action seems to get more and more complicated, spiralling out of control. Are we convinced with Shakespeare's resolution, or does he himself withhold a "happy ending" to a certain extent?

One way to begin would be to examine characters who, for one reason or another, are "left out" of the happy ending. The classic example is Malvolio, whose treatment strikes a note that jarrs in comparison to the gentle comedy of the rest of the play. He is definitely abused and his final words when he is brought out in front of the company strike a very disordant note compared to the celebrations that unfold:

I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you!

His treatment certainly points towards the dangers of excess, of taking revenge and petty squabbles too far, by featuring a man who is punished far more than his faults allow.

Another character to focus on is the treatment of Antonio and how he appears to be forgotten by his love, Sebastian. He, having only one love in Sebastian, is automatically excluded from the "inner circle" of marriages that feature the resolution. What is his fate? Where is his happy ending?

Thirdly, you could focus on the absence of Sir Toby Belch and Maria. The majority of Shakespeare plays end with multiple weddings that happen together. We know that they have left fearing censure and punishment for their actions in gulling and then goading Malvolio, but are we convinced that there ending will be a "happy" one? Sir Toby seems to be a chaotic character, resenting order and conformity. Will his marriage last or does their exclusion from the "happy ending" paint rather a sad future for them?

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, consider the role of Feste and his final song, which seems to mock the "happy ending" that is juxtaposed next to it. His song points towards the harshness of life and reference to the "wind and the rain" seem to emphasise the unkindness of life. The twelfth night festival marked a period of great joy and mirth and excess, but it, like everything else, must come to an end, and the "wind and the rain" is perhaps the reality that we the audience are faced with as we leave this fairy tale play with its happy endings when all problems and mistakes are resolved. Perhaps we can identify more with the characters that are excluded from a happy ending rather than those that share in it.

In Chapter 7 of "Animal Farm", what is Napoleon's REAL reason for banning the song "Beasts of England"?At the end of chapter 7, Napoleon gets...

The song, "Beasts of England" is all about being free and having freedom. This song was sung to encourage the animals when they rebelled against Mr Jones, in hope of more freedom and being better treated. Apparently, they were not treated better after the rebellion. Even the milk and apples were not given to them while during Mr Jones time, it was mixed in their mesh. So, after the rebellion, under Napoleon rule, the animals did not fare better but worse. Hence, Napoleon was afraid that while the animals were singing Beasts of England, they might rebell as they feel that they are not getting what they thought they would when they rebelled against Mr Jones. Napoleon wanted to hold onto his leasdership position and hence abolished the song "Beasts of England" so that the animals now slowly forget the promises they were promised when they rebelled against Mr Jones.

In "Pride and Prejudice," what's Miss Bingley's and Darcy's opinion of Mrs.Bennet and Lydia during their visit to Netherfied?

In Ch.9 Elizabeth out of concern for Jane's health requests Bingley to send for Mrs. Bennet so that she could decide whether Jane should be taken back to Longbourn or not; and soon "Mrs.Bennet accompanied by her two youngest girls, reached Netherfield soon after the family breakfast." Mrs.Bennet quickly realizes that Jane's condition is not serious and decides against her "being carried home." Bingley and Caroline Bingley assure her that Jane will be taken good care of while at Netherfield.

Although Bingley is genuinely concerned and sincerely wishes that Jane stay at Netherfield, his sister merely pretends to be concerned. This is evident from the expression, "cold civility" to describe Caroline's assurances to Mrs.Bennet that Jane will be taken good care of while at Netherfield.

Mrs.Bennet embarrasses and annoys both Darcy and Bingley by foolishly insisting that the English countryside has more attractions to offer than London city itself!

"I assure you there is quite as much of that going on in the country as in town."

The reaction of all the others is one of shock and surprise:

" Everybody was surprised and Darcy after looking at her for a moment, turned silently away."

Darcy snubs Mrs.Bennet by refusing to respond to her silly remark. But this only forces her to be rude to Darcy by making a pointed reference to him:

"But that gentleman," looking at Darcy, "seemed to think the country was nothing at all."

Caroline Bingley meanwhile looks suggestively and smiles knowingly to Darcy, hinting that if he were to marry Elizabeth he'd have to care for a foolish mother in law like Mrs.Bennet!

To make matters worse, Mrs.Bennet reveals that Jane when she was only fifteen years old was  courted by a man, but that nothing much came out of it. Darcy on hearing this "only smiled."

Finally, Lydia the youngest and most spirited girl virtually pesters Bingley to agree to give a ball at Netherfield. Bingley sportingly agrees saying that once Jane has recovered he will give the ball.

Darcy who has been silently observing Mrs.Bennet's and Lydia's behaviour has quietly formed a very poor impression of them both and is convinced that it would not be wise for his friend Bingley to marry into such an ill mannered family. However, his attraction for Elizabeth has not undergone any change. This is evident in last line of Ch.9 where he refuses "to join in their censure of her [Elizabeth] in spit of all Miss Bingley's witticisms on fine eyes."

Ian French is a round character. Discuss two ways the author develops Ian's character with examples from the story of each."Feuille d'Album" by...

Ian French of the short story "Feuille d'Album" by Katherine Mansfield appears at first to be what the title indicates:  a person on a page of an album (feuille=page) since he is static in his routine and actions.  "What the poor boy really wants [meaning lacks] is thoroughly rousing," says woman comments.  So, she takes Ian to cafes, cabaret, dances, and high establishments where one drinks champagne.  But, whenever she goes to his studio, like all the others who precede here in trying to reach Ian, she rings, and rings, and rings without response:  "Hopeless."

Others attempt to reach this young man with "black close-cropeed hair, grey eyes with long lashes, and a mouth pouting as though it were ready to cry."  "Hopeless."  Ian follows the same pattern of living each day, writing himself memos each day and posting a sign by his bed that reads "GET UP AT ONCE."

It is not until the latter part of the story that the reader learns that Ian has not been a "feuille d'album" in his heart; only his body has repeated the picture that could belong in an album. For, his heart is in turmoil each evening as he watches a window opposite his house:

His heart fell out of the side window of his studio, and down to the balcony of the house opposite---buried itself in the pot of daffodils under the half-opened bud and spears of green....

While other women knock "hopelessly" on his studio door, Ian French is mesmerized by an open window through which a lovely girl in a dark pinafore and a pink handerchief moves:

It was quite simple.  She was the only person he really wanted to know, because whe was, he decided, the only other person alive who was just his age.  He couln't stand giggling girls, and he had no use for grown-up women....But how could he get to know her?

A personage with a single purpose, Ian French appears to be a static, or flat character; however, much has transpired in his mind and heart.  When the girl goes shopping one evening, he follows her.  As she hurries along on her errands, Ian thinks,

'Yest, she is always like that...We have nothing to do with --these people.

Believing that he has found a kindred spirit, Ian figuratively steps out of the album and enters the girls's "feuille d'album" as he stops her on her stairs,

Blushing more drimson than ever, but looking at her severely he said, almost angrily: 'Excuse me, Mademoiselle, you dropped this.

And he handed her an egg.

As the story concludes, the reader must surmise that she will guess that she has not really dropped the egg.  But, certainly, there is an ambiguity as to whether she will talk to him or encourage him.

How does Brinker get Gene and Finny to attend the mock trial? Why is Brinker so determined to investigate the incident?

The mock trial occurs in Chapter 11. We are told that Brinker and three of his friends burst into Gene and Finny's room one night and forced them to accompany them. Gene writes that he thought it was a kind of end of year prank at first:

His friends half-lifted us half-roughly, and we were hustled down the stairs. I though tit must be some kind of culminating prank, the senior class leaving Devon with a fourish.

As to why Brinker conducts this trial, he seems to be playing at being an adult - the war has filtered in so much into the consciousness of the boys that they feel they need to "play" at being at war too, doing the things that soldiers do in times of war. Note Brinker's explanation that he gives:

"After all," Brinker continued, "there is a war on. Here's one soldier our side has already lost. We've got to find out what happened."

Therefore Brinker, who we already know suspected Gene of knocking Finny off the tree, seems to have appointed himself as the judge in this mock trial, which reflects how much the awareness of war has permeated the world of the boys.

Why is it surprising that Leper is the first Devon boy to enlist, and how is he different from the other boys who talk of enlisting?

Leper is the least likely to enlist for several reasons.  First, when the other Devon boys discuss the war, Leper shows no interest.  Instead, he is fascinated by his snail farm and other elements of nature.  Secondly, Leper shows little propensity for athletic or physical activities.  He has no desire to jump from the tree, and when Finny announces that Leper has finally decided to jump, Gene is shocked because it seems out of character for Leper.  As Gene and Finny excel in Blitzball, Leper fails, and it is only because of Finny's generous nature in interpreting Leper's lack of skill as a new play, that Leper continues to play.

Leper is different from the other Devon boys because most of them are interested in true competition.  They see the war almost as another venue for competiting with one another.  Leper is an Idealist.  He wants to commune with nature and has a tendency to romanticize real life--hence, his decision to enlist after he watches a propaganda film about the ski troops.  Leper, like Gene, is also an outsider, but he doesn't have Gene's physical abilities to create a true "in" for himself.  Part of his decision to enlist first is to fit in.

Why is Judy Jones' beauty important to her character in "Winter Dreams"?The Choices She was such a ugly child? She uses it to get what she wants?...

Naturally, the text and its characterization will be your best guide here.  Rather than directly answering it,  I will try to give some guide so that in going back to the text, the answer will be more evident.  It seems to me that Judy's beauty is reflective of so much of the country club society in which she is immersed.  Beauty and panache seem to be the ingredients that define her movement in this social group.  Her beauty is used as a tool to attract men and this is how she obtains the men she wants.  I think that her use of beauty is only to fulfill her desires with men, and not in a malicious way.  In Judy's mind, she wants men and that acceptance is essential to her.  Certainly, it is reasonable to presume that she won't move in this high level social circuit if she were not beautiful.  This is probably where she is different from Irene, who is more homely and not as socially driven.  I think Judy says a line that connects her ability to get what she wants to her beauty.  It should be noted that she also asks why she is still searching for happiness.  I think the Fitzgerald is playing with this image of illusion masquerading as social acceptance and beauty; the core of nothingness that lies at the heart of such social endeavors cannot be averted forever.  In the ending, when Dexter weeps, he weeps for his illusion being destroyed.  It stands to reason that he envisions Judy as not being pretty, and thus, not being able to get what she wants and socially maligned.

In the book Lyddie, will Lyddie return to the farm? If so, when will she?

The novel ends on an uncertain note.  It is not clear whether Lyddie will return to the farm or not.  As she walks with Luke Stevens in the final scene, Lyddie realizes that there are things she must do for herself before she can settle down.  She recognizes that "the bear" she has always feared and that she had believed "was outside herself", is in reality "in her own narrow spirit", a part of her character.  Lyddie must learn to know and accept herself before she can give herself to another, and she resolves to do just that.  The details of how she will accomplish this come to her mind, and she tells Luke,

"I'm off to Ohio...there is a college there that will take a woman just like a man...First I must go tomorrow to say good-bye to Charlie and little Rachel, and then I'll take the coach to Concord, and from there...the train.  I'll go all the rest of the way by train".

Lyddie knows "it'll be years before (she) come(s) back to these mountains again".  She must come back on her own terms, with something to give, not "weak and beaten down and because (she has) nowhere else to go".  She "will not be a slave, even to (her)self".  Although there is uncertainty, there is also a definite sense of hope as well at the end of the story.  Lyddie looks at Luke Stevens and sees

"in his bent shoulders the shade of an old man in a funny broad Quaker hat - the gentle old man that he would someday become and that she would love".

Lyddie does not say the words out loud, but she thinks that "if he was to wait", there may well be hope that she will return to the farm to share a life with him (Chapter 23).

In Chapter 2 of "The Great Gatsby", why does Nick identify with "the casual watcher in the darkening street"?

Nick is our narrator; he is the one who observes what is going on during the summer of the story and reports to us what he saw.  He identifies with the observer in the street because he sees that person as being an objective reporter of the scene. As Nick reports the events of that night in Tom's and Myrtle's secret apartment in the city where they carry out their illicit affair, he is drinking heavily.  Because he was drunk, he tells us earlier in the chapter that everything that happened had a "dim, hazy cast over it".  That is the reason that the narration tends to ramble and jump haphazardly from one observation to the next.  Nick sees the man in the street and imagines that the man sees the row of lighted windows in Tom's and Myrtle's apartment and wonders about what is going on there and in any other lighted rooms. Nick says the man probably is both enchanted and repelled by the variety of life, just as Nick felt that way by the variety of people in the apartment.

Would you describe the poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" as inspiring? Why (best with textual evidence)?

It would be quite a stretch to say that Dylan Thomas' intent in writing this poem was to inspire. It is essentially a statement of anger, defiance against the inevitability of his father's fast approaching blindness and death.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The speaker rejects the notion that calm acceptance is the way to approach one's death, even if one is dying a natural death of old age. One should "burn and rave," fighting all the way.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

The speaker admits that it is wisdom to accept death as a part of life. But even wise men, when the end has come, must face death with at least regret for lost opportunities for making a change in the world.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

In the same way, those who have lived a life of righteousness look back in regret. Though they might have performed good deeds for the benefit of mankind, they view them now as without benefit to themselves, as they did not prevent their death.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Even though one has lived his life, not in wisdom or righteousness, but in pure abandon to the sensual, even this has led them to this point. Is living for oneself the way to go? they ask. It gave momentary pleasures. Was it enough?

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

In a more direct reference to his father, Thomas speaks of "grave men, near death." His father knows his life is passing, not just with a weakening of the body, but with the added insult of going blind. This double blow should, of all else, elicit defiance of approach of the inevitable.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The speaker directly addresses his father, begging him not to be passive in death. A bit of the sense of the meaningless of life comes through in the phrase "Curse, bless." It doesn't make any difference, any more than living a life of virtue does in holding off death. The speaker is rejecting, in his grief, the biblical worldview of death as a door to a better life, free from pain, sorrow, and blindness.

To find some sort of "inspiration" in this poem, one would have to view it as a reminder of the transcience of life. It could be seen as a "carpe diem" poem, a plea to make the most of today. Death is inevitable, but that doesn't mean one should face it gladly. The the speaker is peaking from the stance of youth, believing that defiance will hold death at bay, it will in fact do nothing. Death will come, with all the possible disabilities along the way. Hold fast to this moment while it is good. Such a one may not come again.

What current events are discussed as the men await the ghost in Act I Scene i?

Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo are waiting for the ghost of the last king of Denmark, Hamlet the elder, to appear.  Bernardo and Marcellus had seen the ghost before, and brought Horatio, the scholar, to see it because Horatio had not believed them.  When Horatio is confronted with the very image of the dead king walking toward him, he fully believes:

Before my God, I might not this believe
Without the sensible and true avouch
Of mine own eyes.(70) (I.i)

Then the three men discuss how very like the ghost looked like Old Hamlet "When he the ambitious Norway combated" (74) in the last war with that country.  Also they mention that the ghost frowned exactly like how the king had when he had beaten the Polish army upon the ice.  Horatio immediately jumps to the conclusion that the appearance of the old king's ghost in "fair and warlike form" (58) must mean "This bodes some strange eruption to our state".  Horatio believes that this must mean bad things for the military security of Denmark.

Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo continue their discussion of how the country is arming and preparing for war.  Horatio gives a long speech, the upshot of which is that Norway is currently arming and maintaining a mercenary army to take back, by conquest, a quantity of land which Old Hamlet had taken in war from them during his lifetime.   The terms of the treaty had been non-negotiable, so, in order to get it back, young Fortinbras (the nephew of the old king of Norway who had made the agreement) has no other option than to take it by force.  That is why there is a watch and such commotion of war-mongering right now.  

Bernardo and Marcellus are inclined to agree with Horatio.  Horatio reminds them that there were supernatural signs and portents in the city of ancient Rome before Julius Caesar died; therefore, this ghostly visitation must mean something dire for the kingdom.  When the ghost returns, Horatio asks it directly if it knows the future of Denmark:

Speak to me;
If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak! (146-49)

The cock crows, heralding dawn, and the ghost disappears.  The ghost has told them nothing, but Horatio and the others believe its appearance was a sign for the future of the country, rather than the restlessness of a unavenged murdered man.  The men depart, and resolve to tell young Hamlet, for they believe that the ghost will speak to his own son.

Who is the main character of "Romeo and Juliet"?

In "Romeo and Juliet," because Romeo is pivotal to the main actions of the plot, he is the main character.  For, his impetuous decisions are what effect the most poignant moments of this tragedy:

• Romeo forces his way into the party for Juliet, approaches Juliet, and declares his love to her although she avoids getting involved with him.:  "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much" (I,v,92).  Insistent, Romeo pursues and woos her.


• He crashes into the orchard of Juliet's home--

What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night,/So stumblest on my counsel? (II,ii,52-53)

and refuses to leave until she agrees to marry him.

• He rushes to Friar Lawrence asking the priest to marry him and Juliet.  When the friar refuses, Romeo indicates that he will agressively pursue Juliet.  So, the priest, worried that Romeo will sin with Juliet, agrees to marry the couple:

Come, come with me, and we will make short work,/For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone/Till Holy Church incorporate two in one. (II,vi, 35-37)

• After Romeo is married, he encouters Tybalt and Mercutio arguing in the street.  Meaning well, Romeo tells Tybalt that he cannot be his foe, "But love thee better than thou canst devise" (III,i,57).  However, when he neglects to explain himself, Mercutio thinks that Romeo is cowardly--"Oh, calm, dishonorable, vile submission!"(III,i, 61)--and attacks Tybalt seriously in order to defend the Montague honor.


• Seeking to intervene again, Romeo rushes between Tybalt and Mercutio, causing Mercution to receive a mortal wound that he would not have without Romeo's interference.


• As a result of Mercutio's death for which he is inadvertently responsible, Romeo is banished.  This banishment causes Juliet's situation to become compromised, for she cannot reveal her marriage.  When her father demands that she marry Paris, she must agree.  But because she is already married to Romeo, she becomes extremely anxious and contemplates suicide.


• Friar Lawrence seeks to prevent her suicide with a plan to stall for time so he can reach Romeo and  cause the parents of Juliet to rethink their harsh dictates to Juliet.  Juliet drinks a potion to make her appear dead.  But, Romeo misses Friar Laurence's explanation when the messenger is prevented from entering the town he is in and Romeo alone discovers Juliet in the Capulet tomb.


• Again with characteristic impetuosity, Romeo assumes that Juliet is dead and drinks poison himself and dies.  His death is apparent to Juliet as she comes out of her drugged state; in despair at this tragic end to her beloved, she then stabs herself.

In the final analysis, Romeo, causes all the tragic incidents of Shakespeare's play. For this reason, he is the main character of "Romeo and Juliet."

What is John's imagined perception of love?"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

In "Brave New World," John's perception of male/female love is from his only source of knowledge:  William Shakespeare.  When he watches Lenina sleep, her perfect beauty enthralls him as Romeo is enthralled at his meeting of Juliet:

On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand, may seize/And steal immortal blessing from her lips/Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,/Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin.

  Uttering the words from Romeo's half of the sonnet of Act One, 

If I profane with my unworthiest hand/This holy shrine... (I,v,88-89)

John indicates that he has an idealized conception of love as one holy and pure.  He is ashamed of lustful thoughts that enter his mind:

Detestable thought!  He was ashamed of himself!  Pure and vestal modesty...

A fly buzzes by him, symbolic of sin, "trying to steal immortal blessings."  Then, when Lenina offers herself to him, John is repulsed and calls her a "strumpet."  Having set Lenina as an ideal, she can only disappoint him, even if she were to display morality of which she knows nothing.  For, she has been conditioned to think that "everyone belongs to everyone" although she does prefer to only go with one man at a time and for some time.

In contrast to this idealization of love between man and woman, John truly understands filial love since he has real, human experience of this love.  His love for his mother is absolutely genuine; this veritable love is later mocked in the New World of artificial realities in which conditioning erases true emotion that is too dangerous; it causes unhappiness.

Why was Hamlet's father killed unjustly by Claudius and why was Laertes unjustly killed too?

Hamlet's father was unjustly MURDERED by Claudius while he slept in the garden. Claudius crept up, and killed Hamlet Sr. by pouring a deadly poison into the "porches" of his ear. This is the most unjust act of the play and it is why Claudius is the antagonist.

Laertes's death can be seen as "unjust" because he was led untruthfully by Claudius for such a long time. Laertes was really only trying to avenge his father's death and the cruel treatment of his sister. There isn't anything really unjust in that, if we follow an "eye for an eye" philosophy.

Wordsworth calls the Child, "Might Prophet, Seer Blest!" What is Wordsworth's view of the child's closness to nature and the imagination?

The Ode Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood  is a rendition and celebration of the innocence of childhood, the wonders of innocence, the love that only a child can sense in their hearts, and the fact that children are in theory "closest to the Kingdom of God" being that they are so recent to life, and so much closer to the goodness of humanity, than adults are.

Wordsworth also basically wonders why a child would want to pretend or want to be adults when being adults only leads you farther and farther from the joys of childhood, and the blessings of innocence.

In reference to imagination and nature, Wordsworth believes that children, and their closeness to God have more creativity and innocence to be unspoilt by the unnecesary vanities of life, hence, they also have what it takes to admire, appreciate, accept, embrace, and love nature for what it is, in the author's world: Another gift from above.

This is all in stanza number 8:

Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie    

   Thy Soul's immensity;

Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep

Thy heritage, thou Eye among the blind,

That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep,

Haunted for ever by the eternal mind, -    

   Mighty Prophet! Seer blest!    

   On whom those truths do rest,

Which we are toiling all our lives to find,

In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave;

Thou, over whom thy Immortality

Broods like the Day, a Master o'er a Slave,

A Presence which is not to be put by;      

   To whom the grave

Is but a lonely bed without the sense or sight    

   Of day or the warm light,

A place of thought where we in waiting lie;

Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might

Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,

Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke

The years to bring the inevitable yoke,

Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?

Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight,

And custom lie upon thee with a weight,

Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!