In Act One of Death of a Salesman, how does Linda treat Willy?

Linda tries to protect and support Willy in every way, constantly looking after his physical welfare and propping up his sagging ego and self-esteem. She also runs interference between Willy and their sons as she tries to make Biff and Happy appreciate their father and treat him with more respect. All of these behaviors are established in Act One of the play.

As the play opens, Willy returns home unexpectedly, which raises Linda's immediate concerns. She peppers him with questions. She wants to know what has happened, where he has been, whether or not he has had an accident, and whether or not he feels well. When Willy explains that he couldn't drive farther, that he "just couldn't make it," Linda offers many excuses for him: the coffee he drank, the car's steering, Willy's glasses--anything to explain away his problem. She tells him he must rest his "overactive" mind. He should take an aspirin. He should, he should, he should . . . .

Later in Act One, Willy expresses his insecurities to his wife, and Linda immediately plays her role as supporting spouse. When Willy says he is overlooked in his job, Linda says he's doing a wonderful job. Willy says he talks too much; Linda says he's "just lively." Willy says he is fat and "foolish to look at." Linda assures him he is "the handsomest man in the world."

Knowing her husband's greatest pain, she then props him up further with what she knows to be a blatant lie: "Few men are idolized by their children the way you are." In fact, Linda continually tries to change the boys' opinion of Willy:

He's just a big stupid man to you, but I tell you there's more good in him than in many other people.

Linda acts as the nurturer and peace maker in her family. She tries to save Willy from himself (and his terrible temper), and she wants her husband and sons to love each other as much as she loves them. Linda is vigilant, on duty every hour of the day to hold her troubled family together.

How do you would describe the atmosphere and environment in "Lord of the Flies"?

The atmosphere in book progresses from almost idyllic to sinister and chaotic, and finally to empty and scoured out. The sense of joy and freedom the boys have in the beginning changes as Jack becomes more predatory and evil, Piggy insists on reason and Simon's consistent, but gentle, appeal to remain humane and human. The final moments are relatively bleak and exhausted as the survivors and rescuers realize how insane the situation had become.

While the physical environment is lush and life-supporting (fresh water and meat!), the island's configuration itself symbolizes separation and alienation - which is what the characters experience as they descend into savagery and chaos. The curious detachment the boys experience when they are rescued illustrates the confounding nature of islands: bleakness, and separation from human conformity with beauty and life-giving capabilities. Can we survive in isolation? Will savagery always prevail? How do we overcome such evil and barbarism?

The fire defines changes in the atmosphere and environment as well. At first the fire is needed for security, survival and rescue; later it becomes demonic and consuming, symbolic of a descent into nonhumanity.

What type of figurative language is used in the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley?

Figurative language allows poets and writers to express concepts in unusual ways, making associations where ordinarily there would be no connection. Simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, hyperbole and so on are all used to make descriptions and create images in the mind's eye. By using figures of speech, readers can get a visual picture of what the author or poet wants to express.  

In "Ozymandias," Shelley very quickly destroys any sense of grandeur surrounding the statue. The mocking tone confirms the irony in the words inscribed on the stone. Nothing lasts forever, not even the perceived sense of worth of "Ozymandias, King of Kings." By using figurative language, Shelley is able to create sharp contrast between what Ozymandias may have perceived would be the benefit of his statue and the reality of the situation, wherein his pride in his "works" reveals nothing more than a "colossal wreck." Hyperbole in the use of "colossal" allows the reader to imagine the sheer scale of destruction—far more than just a statue but a whole empire.

Shelley continues to explain the magnitude of the apparent loss of Ozymandias's kingdom by using alliteration, a sound device, evident in the words, "boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch..." This adds emphasis to the endlessness and uselessness of the situation in which the statue now lies and helps Shelley confirm his message. Shelley delivers a warning that no matter how "mighty" a person considers himself to be, the danger is that he will be reduced to nothing more than "trunkless legs of stone." How much better would it be to be remembered as a man of compassion rather than to be remembered for "a sneer of cold command." 

In Animal Farm, what was the pigs' new slogan in chapter 10?

Another new slogan in chapter 10 is "Four legs good, two legs better!"  The pigs have begun to walk on two legs in this chapter, much to the surprise of the other animals.  Just before this happened, Squealer took the sheep out to a distant pasture to teach them a new song (the slogan about 2 legs).  When the pigs make their two-legged debut, the other animals don't know how to react.  "Amazed, terrified, huddling together, the animals watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard.  It was as though the world had turned upside-down" (p. 117).  Soon after this display, Clover and Benjamin discover that the seven commandments have been reduced to one:  "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" (p. 118).

Lady Macbeth. What language and dramatic techniques are used in ACT I SCENE V ?

This scene is our first introduction to Lady Macbeth. And she is presented as a ruthless and committed woman who is far more ambitious than her husband. The force of mind and hardness vital for an assassination is shown to come from her. We are also forced to see a comparison between Lady Macbeth and the witches. When she invokes the dark spirits to "unsex me" and "fill me" with "direst cruelty" there is a complete betrayal of humanity and femininity and a colossal abandonment of self to evil. This soliloquy of Lady Macbeth's is full of imperatives ("come", "Fill" etc) gives her speech added urgency and determination. It is interesting to note that when her husband arrives she greets him in the same way as the witches did in Act I scene 3. The messenger announcing the arrival of the king is a nice touch, as it is juxtaposed to Lady Macbeth's plans for him.

Is Emilia part of Iago's plot, or does she truly believe that Iago is saddened by what happened to Cassio?

Iago completely dupes and manipulates Emilia.  Emilia recognizes that Iago has an edge to him when he verbally jousts with Desdemona about womanhood and the relations between the sexes, but she is just out to satisfy her husband so she buys whatever Iago is selling. She would not suspect Iago as being the puppet master behind Cassio's falling out of favor with the Moor. Emilia is not part of Iago's plot, she just enters into the play at crucial moments and is just as surprised, shocked, and betrayed as everyone at the end of the play to learn of her husband's brutal manipulationsCheck out Emila's character analysis below for more evidence of her willingness to please her husband.

How does Salman Rushdie explore the concept of home in "Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies"?Examples and quotes are encourage. thanks.

In the short story, Rushdie explores the idea of "there's no place like home" with a cosmopolitan modern angle of perception.  In the original quotation, Dorothy takes the advice of the Good Witch in wearing the Red Ruby Slippers and clicking them three times to go home, leaving the foreign and exotic land of Oz.  The advice is taken as a means of departure from a land that is not hers to one that represents Dorothy's life.  The "rubies" are tools that help her go back to this setting of familiarity.

Rushdie plays around and inverts this idea in his story in his depiction of the relationship between Indians and Britain.  In the traditional sense, many Indian women undergo the process of arranged marriages, compelling them to leave their "homes" with the full expectation that they are going to a new world where "home" will be fully recognized with their husbands, sight unseen, and their prospective children.  In this understanding, home is one where rubies are essential, as many forms of graft and bribery are offered by these women to people, mostly men like Muhammed Ali, who ask for such gratuities in the form of jewels like rubies.  In this conception, "rubies" help pave the way to go to a new understanding of "home," one that is not realized but fully expected.  Where Rushdie's inversion of this lies in his depiction of Miss Rehanna.  She is expected to fit into the traditional mode, but clearly does not.  Rather, she takes the advice offered by Muhammed Ali, in understanding what not to say so that she will fail the questions/ exam and be required to say (Ali seems to be giving her the rubies to accomplish her journey, which is actually to stay rather than leave.)  Through this, Rehanna becomes the anti- Dorothy, in that she understands her home as one where departure is not needed.  Whereas Dorothy clicks her heels and wants to go home, Miss Rehana takes the advice of Ali and does the opposite, in order to remain in her home.  One seeks to go home while the other seeks to merely remain in her home.

Rushdie seems to be taking a very Modernist approach to the concepts of voyage and home.  As far back as Homer and Ulysses, the idea of "home" has been something where characters must struggle through harsh difficulties to realize.  Dororthy must do the same.  Yet, very similar to Joyce in Ulyssess, Rushdie internalizes the external in his depiction of home through Miss Rehana.  In such a notion, Rushdie suggests that the concept of "home" does not have to be set against multiple conditions over which one must triumph to realize and return.  Rather, in some places and for some conditions, Rushdie suggests that home is something where one might have to struggle against multiple conditions and simply to remain as realized.

How can you increase your breast size without surgery or pills? I understand that I should accept how God made me but yet I feel unhappy and...

This is something women have struggled with forever, it seems.  I wish I could figure out a way for all of us to be happy with our bodies, to celebrate that we are all beautiful, but in different ways.

There are ways to make it appear as though your breasts are larger, without pills, surgery, or pregnancy. :)  Exercise of the muscles that support your breasts could make them appear to be larger and give you the added advantage of attractive arms, since most exercises involve both.  You also have the wonderful advantage of not worrying so much about sag later on in your life.

I have included a link with an article on this topic and some suggested exercises. Many magazines have exercises, and there are plenty of websites that do, too.  I know you already know this, but before doing any exercises, you should talk to your family doctor or pediatrician to be sure particular exercises are safe for you.  It is possible that your muscle and breast development are not complete yet, and doing too much might be harmful. 

I am going to give you a bit of a lecture because I just cannot resist.  You do not realize it yet, but the people who are worth including in your life are not the people who care about your breast size.  I know this is hard to realize when you are in ninth grade. (I was in ninth grade once, too!)  What is important is what is inside of you. The outside is just an envelope.  As you and your friends get older, you will come to appreciate qualities like intelligence, empathy, flexibility, and humor.  The people you will want in your life will have those qualities and want them in you.  If I had to make a guess, I would guess that you would not choose a boyfriend based upon how large his muscles were.  You do not want a boyfriend who chooses you based upon your breast size.  That is not a boyfriend who will value you for who you are. 

What challenge does the green knight make? Who meets the challenge? What is the result?

The Green Knight disrupts a feast in King Arthur’s court. The knights are enjoying a New Year’s feast and engaging in merriment when the Green Knight enters. The Green Knight proposes his game: the Green Knight will endure a blow from a knight if, in return, the knight will submit to a blow a year and a day later. The knights do not respond because they realize that the Green Knight’s game is sure to result in death. At this, the Green Knight chastises Arthur’s court for their cowardness: “Is this the court for its courage renowned” (ll. 309). Arthur defends the honor of his court by initiating an oral oath to take part in the Green Knight’s game. Before Arthur can fulfill this oath, Sir Gawain steps in and assumes Arthur’s place. In taking Arthur’s place, Gawain demonstrates loyalty to Arthur, his liege lord and assumes responsibility of the oath.

Somberly, Gawain plays the game by giving the Green Knight a blow with an axe, chopping off his head. The Green Knight, however, does not die. He simply picks up his severed head and demands that Gawain honor his pledge and meet him in the Green Chapel and submit to the blow in a year and a day.

When it is time, Gawain ventures in search of the Green Chapel. He comes upon the household of Bertilak. Here, Bertilak offers Gawain a place to rest. Gawain stays with Bertilak three days and, each day Bertilak goes hunting. Bertilak agrees to share his kill but, in return, Gawain is to give the host “what he gains” in the house each day. This proves difficult because Bertilak’s wife makes sexual advances upon Gawain. Gawain successfully resists the lady’s advances and manages to escape with merely a kiss on the first two days, which he gladly repays to his host. On the third day, however, the lady offers Gawain a green girdle which is supposed to protect Gawain from the Green Knight. Gawain’s fear causes him to take a green girdle from the lady, which he keeps hidden from Bertilak. In keeping the girdle a secret, Gawain breaks the oath with the host.

In the final scene, Gawain meets the Green Knight and is rewarded for his bravery and courage. Courageously, Gawain offers himself to the Green Knight. The Green Knight merely grazes Gawain’s neck. Here, the Green Knight reveals that he is really Bertilak (he was transformed into the Green Knight by Morgan LaFey) and the scratch is a result of Gawain’s acceptance of the green girdle.  Gawain views his escape as a reminder of his own fault and weakness. Although Bertilak and King Arthur’s court all seek to congratulate Gawain, the knight remains humbled by shame. In the end, readers are to celebrate Gawain’s super-human capacity of virtue but also remember that Gawain faults because he is, after all, only human.

Describe three instances of the discrepencies between appearance and reality in Macbeth. The discrepancy between appearance and reality is a...

As quickly as Act 1, sc. 1, the motif of "appearances v. reality" is made evident with the witches' line: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair,".  This says that what looks good is not good and what looks bad is not necessarily bad.  Then, in the next scene after Duncan is told of the traitorous actions of the Thane of Cawdor, Duncan says, "No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive / Our bosom interest...".  This says that the thane had appeared to be loyal, but in reality was a traitor.  In the third scene of Act 1, after the witches declare their prophecies and after Macbeth has learned that, indeed, he has become the thane of Cawdor, Banquo warns him in ll. 122-130, that sometimes the "instruments of darkness" give little bits of truth in order to deceive and lead people astray.  There is that deceitful appearances idea again.  There are many more examples of this motif throughout the first act.

What are two types of violence found in literature and how are the effects different?

I think that it is a very broad question, but this might be where its strength lies.  I think that if you are examining types of violence in literature, you will receive many answers.  The first type of literature that comes to my mind is literature that arises out of the Holocaust because one sees the depiction of two types of violence:  Public persecution and private acts of cruelty.  The violence might bear similarity, but the domain in which both acts take place add a different dimension to it.  For example, in Elie Wiesel's night, we see many examples of public persecution that is expressed through violence.  The presence of death camps, the shooting of Jewish individuals who wanted an extra bowl of soup, or the beating of individuals in public could be such examples.  Yet, on another side of the coin would be those acts of terror that are privatized.  These are still acts of violent cruelty, but they are done away from prying eyes and are directly exacted upon specific individuals.  When Madame Schacter is abused by the group to keep quiet her fears of what will happen, or when Eliezer is beaten for what he has seen are such examples.  In Styron's Sophie's Choice, the same dynamic is present.  Public acts of violence are represented by the Nazis, while privatized form of torment are in the form of fathers who abuse their children, husbands who abuse their wives, guards who abuse their power, and lovers who abuse the cursed souls who happen to need some, any, affection.

When do they speak in prose and when do they speak in verse? And how does the language show how the characters are feeling?I am doing an essay on...

This is in fact the climax of the play. If you think of Act I as "boy meets girl," and Act II as "boy gets girl," then Act III is "boy loses girl." Once Romeo kills Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, any chance Romeo and Juliet might have had to overcome their parents' objections to their marriage is gone. Furthermore, because the Prince has ordered the families to stop feuding on penalty of death, Romeo must now flee.

Like all of Shakespeare's plays, most of Romeo and Juliet is written in blank verse. Occasionally, a character speaks in prose, or ordinary, unmetered language. Most often, Shakespeare uses prose to show a character's lower social standing. In Romeo and Juliet, for example, it is mostly the Nurse and servants who speak in prose. However, in Act III Scene I, Mercutio speaks in prose when he challenges Tybalt and when he is stabbed: "Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?" "Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man." In these instances, abandoning blank verse shows the character's strong emotion. It is easy to imagine that someone who is dying might leave off with the metered lines!

Iambic pentameter is a form of poetry in which each line has ten syllables. The syllables make a pattern of "feet," or pairs, with a particular rhythm. An iamb is a foot with two syllables, the second of which is stressed. It makes a rhythm like a heartbeat--ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM. We see this rhythm in the sonnet that Romeo and Juliet recite to each other in Act I, Scene V when they first meet:

If I profane with my unworthiest hand...

See if you can find an example of iambic pentameter in Act III Scene I.

Contrast Dee's and Maggie's views on heritage.

It is difficult to imagine sisters with more different views than Maggie and Dee, isn't it? What does the story tell us about Dee?  She left, she changed her name, and she changed her hair. All of these changes were about starting anew.  She tells her mother that "Dee" is dead. What does she want to do with some of the old objects around her mother's house, the churn top and the quilts, for example?  She want to use them in some "artistic" way, as decorations. But are these objects meant to be decorations? Or are they meant to be used?  Dee tells her mother that Maggie is so foolish, she would want to use the quilts for "everyday use."  (That is, of course, how the story gets its name.) What does that tell us about Maggie, who has not left, who lives with her mother, using objects for the purpose for which they were made?  What is Maggie's perspective about these objects, which are certainly her heritage, too.  Who view heritage as something to hang on the wall, and who view heritage as a way of life? Do you think either sister is wrong, or is there support for both points of view?

Good luck to you in your response to this question. 

What do these two quotes from The Crucible mean and how does it relate to belonging?abigail: "A wild thing may say wild things. But not so wild,...

Abigail's comments are a defense for her wild behavior, she has violated her Puritan beliefs by having a adulterous affair with a married man.  In Puritan society, a young woman is expected to remain chaste until she is married.  So Abbey is identifying herself as a wild thing, and therefore, what she says should not be considered shocking or inappropriate.  She was orphaned when her parents were murdered right in front of her by savage Indians.  Their heads were smashed as they slept on the pillows next to her.  She has been exposed to violence and believes that her innocence was lost when her parents were slaughtered.

She is not like the other Puritan girls, she is engaging in risky adult behavior with John Proctor, and won't apologize for it.  She is also saying to Proctor that she belongs to him, her words are not so crazy, they did share a passion for each other, she did not imagine that, even if he insists that he has not been outside her window looking at her window with passionate longing. 

Abbey needs to belong, and she has set her sights on John Proctor as the man she longs to cling to for protection, love and a sense of value.

Proctor, for his part, admits that he does reflect on their time together, when they were lovers, but he is completely and totally done with cheating on his wife.  He is committed to Elizabeth and he will not surrender to temptation again.  No matter what she says or does, he will resist.

For Proctor, with his great determination to remain faithful to his wife, he wants to believe in his heart that the affair he had with Abbey never happened.  For Proctor, the affair is in the past, Abbey does not belong with him, he belongs with Elizabeth and he will remain at her side no matter what he feels for Abigail.

In part two of "Fahrenheit 451", what homemade communication tool did Faber give Montag?

In Part Two of “Fahrenheit 451” called “The Sieve and the Sand”, Faber gives Montag a homemade device that they will be able to use to communicate with one another.  This device is a two-way radio that Montag will put into his ears so that he and Faber will be in continuous communication.  This two-way radio is used throughout the novel for the two men to have easy, private, and safe communication with one another.  It is not difficult for the men to hide the fact that they are communicating through these since other characters use them as a way to listen to their televisions and hear constant sound – Milred uses them in the novel.

“Doctor Faustus forms a bridge between the worlds of the Medieval and the Renaissance.” Explain.

This play, in the character of Doctor Faustus himself, represents not so much a bridge between Medieval values and Renaissance values, but a clash and conflict between these two opposing schools of thought. Marlowe wrote this play at a key historical period where Renaissance values of scientific discovery and the power of the individual were slowly replacing medieval values which saw God as the most important aspect of life and theology as the only way of understanding the world and man's secondary place within it. Faustus, in his opening speech in Act One, displays typical Renaissance hubris by his determination and the extent of his ambition to learn every secret he can and to profit from that knowledge:

These metaphysics of magicians,

And necromantic books are heavenly;

Lines, circles, letters, characters.

Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.

O what a world of profit and delight,

Of power, of honour, and omnipotence,

Is promised to the studious artisan?

Significantly, Faustus turns to his books as the receptacles of all knowledge, demonstrating the Renaissance belief that study and science and inquiry lie at the heart of man's search for truth and desire to unlock the mysteries of the universe. At the end of the play, however, Faustus has to acknowledge the strength of medieval values as, unfortunately for him, he has to concede that God cannot be sidelined so easily. The play therefore represents the conflict between Renaissance and medieval values, with the excesses of the Renaissance explored and condemned.

In "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," how does Stephen Crane both utilize and satirize the traits of the Western story?

Crane's story includes several of the literary conventions and stereotypes of the traditional Western tale. There is a small Western town, the town's sheriff, the sheriff's new bride, and the gunslinger. In his story, however, Crane takes liberties with all of these.

Yellow Sky is not inhabited by tough frontier types, but is instead peopled by a fairly social group of folks who pay a lot of attention to the sheriff's personal life. The sheriff, Jack Potter, is not the strong, silent type. He is instead a sheepish groom who fears what the townspeople will say when he comes home a married man. Potter's new bride is not the stereotypical love interest. She is older than her husband, plain and unattractive. Finally, the gunslinger of Yellow Sky bears the unlikely name of Scratchy Wilson. When Scratchy challenges Jack, there is no climactic shoot out. Instead, Scratchy simply slinks away when he learns Potter is unarmed and also has gotten himself married. Speechless and completely astounded, Scratchy just does not know what to do with that information.

What are the references to religion in this book especially in scenes related to Simon? I know that there are religious references in this...

There are lots of references to Biblical views on religion, for example the island as the Garden of Eden, but I am going to focus in my response on the character of Simon. It is important to remember that in allegorical readings of this novel we must be careful how far we push those allegories - that is to say that the comparison we can make between Simon and the figure of Christ that is so clearly alluded to in the novel can only be taken so far. We definitely cannot go as far to say that Simon is Christ. Here are some of the reasons why, including evidence of how Golding deliberately compares Simon and the figure of Christ:

1. Although Simon does make two very accurate predictions of the future (e.g. Ralph's safe return to home and by implication, his own death) Simon does not have the permanent connection with God that Jesus has in the Gospels.

2. Although Simon clearly possesses deep wisdom and an ability to discern what is really happening in the island (especially with the Beast), his death does not bring salvation, like Christ's death did. Rather, it only serves to plummet the boys into even greater extremes of degradation and savagery. Also, Simon, being shy and rather tongue-tied, is not able to stammer out the truth he has uncovered before the boys kill him. Jesus, however was killed precisely because of his success in spreading his "mission".

This indicates that when reading Lord of the Flies we need to be wary about pushing the Biblical parallels too far: we can see that Golding meant Simon and the novel as a whole to echo Christian themes without being strictly tied to exact comparisons. The Biblical themes are clearly an important tool to use to decode the themes of Lord of the Flies, but they are not necessarily the only tool to use.

Squealer describes Napoleon's suddenly changing attitude towards the windmill as tactics. What does he mean by that and what do his tactics mean?I...

Napoleon's decision to accept the windmill project farm is a tactic or a method that he uses to control the farm and the animals.  When Napoleon decided that Snowball was getting too popular and perceived him as a threat to his power, he decided to get rid of him.  This shocked the animals at first, who did not understand why Snowball was chased off the farm by Napoleon's dogs.

However, then Squealer begins to persuade the animals that Snowball was really a traitor and not part of the rebellion.  He says that the idea for the windmill was actually Napoleon's and that Snowball actually stole the idea.  Squealer also tried to convince the animals that Napoleon was all in favor of the windmill so as to keep them calm and reassured, believing that they were all working for the betterment of the farm.

It was a tactic, or management of a situation method that he employs to make the animals think that Napoleon has their best interests at heart.  Napoleon does not care about the windmill, he cares about keeping the animals so busy that they don't have time to talk to each other and question what is going on the farm.

What are the parent/child relationships in "King Lear"?

The double plot of King Lear has parallel stories of two hapless old fathers and their children. The octogenarian Lear proposes to distribute his kingdom among his three daughters--Goneril, Regan and Cordelia--on the basis of their respective eloquence to quantify their love for the old father.Goneril and Regan get their shares by exaggeration and flattery, while Cordelia is banished by Lear for reiterating 'nothing'. Lear's story is one of abandoning the good daughter and rewarding the false & selfish ones, leading to the ill-treatment of the father by Goneril and Regan, while the banished daughter vainly tries to rescue and rehabilitate her wronged father. Cordelia dies the death of a martyr of love, proving her 'nothing' so authentic & substantial, whereas the two 'pelican daughters' degenerate and get deceased.

In the parallel story, old and credulous Goucester suspects, hates & abandons his good son, Edgar, and embraces his bastard son, Edmund, who turns into a Machiavellian villain to betray his father. Thus the parent-child relationship in the main plot is duplicated in the sub-plot.The tragedy of Lear and Gloucester deals with the theme of filial ingratitude, the appearance and reality of parent-child relationship.

Who is the Giver?

In Jonas' community the Giver is an elder who gives the council guidance on all decisions in the community. He is an elderly man, but not as old as he looks.  He has some magical abilities so that he can transfere memories. 

When he was a 12 he was chosen to becomeThe Receiver of Memory. This process was how the community held its memories, "and back and back and back"... After he grew older and was weakened from the stress of his responsibilities to the community another 12 was chosen to replace him.  The first 12 that the council chose didn't work out and Jonas is the 12 now selected to become the Receiver of Memory.  The elder who is now the Receiver becomes the "Giver."  It will be up to him to transfer memories, guide, and teach Jonas to replace him.  He was the giver of advice and he is the "Giver" of memories for Jonas, the new "Receiver of Memories.

Alturism.hedoism and amorality in brav enew world .wich one of themes can be found in the novel?provide at least one reference for each.

Each one of these themes can be found in the novel Brave New World.

Huxley provides excellent examples for each theme in settings of the "uncivilized" world and the World State environment. 

In the setting of the World State environment, both amorality and hedonism can be viewed in the promiscuousness of the females and the use of the drug soma.  Marriage, monogamy and other types of romantic notions are kept from society because they do not let individual focus on society as a whole.  Thus, citizens are expected to be wanton and loose with their morality.  Children are taught at an early age to engage in sexual games in order to keep any type of sexual repression from becoming a burden.   

Citizens from the World State consider every person from the "uncivilized" world that John Savage emerges from, amoral and hedonistic because they do not conform to the standards of their world.  John however, considers the behavior of the citizens of the World State both amoral and hedonist because they engage in behavior that he finds both amoral and hedonistic. 

The citizens of the "uncivilized" world engage in monogamy and live without the need for the drug soma.  Linda, John's mother, once a member of the World State, has been forced to live on the Reservation after she was accidentally left there.  These conditions have been contrary to what she was used to in the World State and she has had to persevere as an outcast in what she considers a hedonistic world. 

Upon entering the World State, John learns that not everyone is as altruistic as he hoped they would be.  He learns that the meeting with his father is not what he hoped it would be nor were any of the wonders that his mother Linda spoke so fondly of, as great and noble as he had imagined they would be.  He becomes physically ill as he experiences the Brave New World that he had hoped would embrace him with open arms unlike the Reservation and the people who shunned him.  Both he and the citizens of the World State have behaved as they have been conditioned.  John has learned that there is goodness in chastity and nobility, and Lenina has learned that the teachings of the World State hold true: "Everybody belongs to everyone else."

Short note on brain-storming.

I am not sure what you are asking here.  Do you  need to know what brain-storming is?  It is the first step in planning for any project. It is a time when you write down all of the ideas that you have concerning the project or writing assignment.  You do  not need to be concerned with spelling/grammar/mechanics or if all of the ideas y ou have end up in your final product. It is an opportunity to get all of your ideas out so that you may explore them further throughout the project.

How would I write 8,046,000 in scientific notation?

We need to write 8,046,000 in scientific notation. 

In scientific notation, we remove all the unnecessary zeros and replace them with a `10^x`  where the x represents how many places we moved to the left or right. 

In this case, the answer becomes 

`8.046 xx 10^6` . 

Why is there so much advertising in oligopoly? How does such advertising help consumers and promote efficiency? Why might it be expensive at...

Oligopoly refers to the type of competition in a market where a few dominant manufacturers dominate the market. Each of these dominant player has some influence on the market price of the product as well as the total market demand. However such influence is limited because action of any one supplier can result in counter action by competitors.

We can contrast from two other types of markets - perfect competition and monopoly. In perfect competition there are a large number suppliers, none of them dominant enough to have influence on market prices or total market demand. In monopoly there is only one dominant supplier who has substantial power of influencing both the market price and quantity. Usually monopolist tries to fix prices at such level that the combined effect of  total sales revenue and total cost of sales results in maximum profit.

Advertising in perfect competition does not enable a company to either increase their price or to get a larger share of total market. In monopolies advertising may be used to generate greater awareness of the product and its value to the customer. This can result in increasing overall market demand. However the monopolistic supplier has no need to use advertising to increase market share.

In contrast, oligopolistic firms can gain maximum from advertisement by increasing its market share as well as increasing total market demand. To achieve this, they need to establish the superiority of their products over those of their competitors, and in doing so they must also counter the impact of advertisement of the competitors. Because of these reasons the level of adverting tend to be higher in oligopolistic markets.

Advertising may or may not result in improved consumer benefits and efficiency When advertising results in increased sales and in turn increased production, it may lead to economy of scale. But advertising itself involves some cost. Advertising improves efficiency only when savings from economy of scale exceeds the cost of advertising.

Advertising has no direct relationship with benefits to customers.If increased sales turnover, because of advertising or any other reason, is accompanied by reduced prices, customers will benefit.

Describe the unspoken relationship between Victor and the creation in "Frankenstein".

Victor Frankenstein is a man driven by a passion.  That passion has motivated him to work very hard in an effort to understand the origins of life.  

"So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation." (Shelley)

When you think about Victor's ambition, he longs to be a creator, he longs to hold the power of creation in his hand, not like a father, but like a god.  However, what he gets is the responsibility of a father, and not the reverence of a god, which is what he hoped would be the outcome of his experiments. 

Through Victor's relentless efforts, even to the point of breaking the law, to rob graves for boby parts, he never gives up on his pursuit.  Finally, Victor is successful, creating a living being, but he is desperately disappointed at the "monster" he created.

When Victor looks at the patchwork quilt of a human that he created, he is repulsed, reviled and rejects his creation like a father abandoning a child.  And, like a newborn child, the creature can't cope without his parent.  The creature with the needs of an infant and a teenager at the same time, is a walking time bomb, he knows nothing about the world, and he is very angry.

"Shelley wants us to feel sympathy for the Monster – she seems to be saying that Victor is the true monster of the novel – and she does so by giving him a gentle, eloquent nature. He assists a group of poor peasants and saves a girl from drowning, but because of his outward appearance, he is rewarded only with beatings and disgust. Torn between revenge and his natural impulses, the monster is destined to be lonely and guilty over the deaths he has caused."

Victor and the monster both share an innate curiosity, they both feel isolated from society and left out of the mainstream.

The Poisonwood Bible abounds in irony. What is the irony in Kinsolver's novel and how does it both reveal the theme and act as a purpose?

The ultimate irony in The Poisonwood Bible revolves around the death of the youngest daughter Ruth May.  The village in which the Price family lives is plagued by ants and two of the daughters run to safety.  Adah, who is handicapped, and Ruth May are left behind.  Orleanna reasons that when in trouble a mother needs to care for her children from the bottom up, so she saves Ruth May and leaves Adah behind.  Adah is then saved by a man in the village.  Later, someone plants poisonous snakes outside the Prices' home, and one bites and kills Ruth May, the daughter whom Orleanna tried to protect.  This is significant because it is at this point that Orleanna decides to take control of her family and leave the Congo.  Nathan Price has not listened to Orleanna's prior pleas to return home, and Orleanna has accepted her husband's desire to continue his mission.  Now, the death of their daughter forces Orleanna to take action.

How does John feel about Mercy in The Witch of Blackbird Pond?What happens to change his plans concerning her?

John is in love with Mercy.  As he tells Kit, "It has always been Mercy, from the very beginning".  John loves Mercy just for being the serene, loving, selfless person she is; he is aware that there are many things she cannot do because of her physical limitations, but when Kit points this out, he says,

"Then I will do them for her...I don't want a wife to wait on me...for Mercy just to be what she is..I could never do enough to make up for it".

John and Mercy are perfectly suited for each other.  Both are gentle, deeply spiritual souls.  John is training to be a minister, and Mercy is almost otherworldly in her devotion to the true tenets of Christian faith.

When John comes to the Wood house with the intention of asking permission to court Mercy, however, Judith's impetuous outspokenness changes everything.  Judith has set her sights on John Holbrook herself, and when John comes and intimates that he wishes to speak to their father, Judith immediately jumps to the conclusion that he has come to court her and not Mercy.  With "irrisistible...radiance", she takes things into her own hands, essentially speaking for John to her father.  John is "dumbfounded", but "such utter happiness and trust (shines) from (Judith's) blue eyes" at the thought that John loves her, that John falters when he tries to explain his true intentions, and he says nothing.  In "(the) moment of (his) hesitation, he (is) lost", and he ends up in the awkward situation of courting Judith instead of Mercy (Chapter 13). 

How does Frankenstein conform to the horror genre? I've got through settings and characters, but I'm not sure what else. Help.

Well, Frankenstein does belong to the Gothic genre, but I think its generic status is not very simple. It is extremely self-reflexive in its use of the Horror-genre and it can also be read as an appropriation of the Gothic genre to raise some still other issues and themes such as the theological paradox of creation, the relation between god and man, the debates about the Divine figuration of the writer in the Romantic aesthetics and such complex issues like sin, guilt and damnation.

In recent times, the novel has been read as one of the first instances of science-fiction as well though one would have to say that it also critiques the rationalist process of scientific creation, which does not take into its account, the zones of emotion or the affective space in general. Above all, it is a romance, quite tragic in character, and one may as well read into it a modern tale of human alienation, that is the destiny of the 'monster'.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet how does the appearance of the ghost to the guards influence the course of action up to the end of Act 1?

The appearance of any ghost in Shakespeare means that something very unnatural has taken place and the great chain of being is somehow off kilter. When the ghost appears to Marcellus and Horatio, they recognize the ghost as belonging to the former King Hamlet. Since Horatio is good friends with Hamlet, he knows that the person who should know about it first is the Prince. The appearance of the ghost sets the plot moving and provides very important back-story. Firstly, that King Hamlet was murdered in his garden, and secondly--it was done by Hamlet's uncle Claudius. This is earth shattering news to Hamlet since Claudius has recently married his mother.

Johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grow in the Radley yard. Why does Harper Lee make a point telling us that?

These two plants are considered to be scrub or weeds. A properly kept Southern yard in town would not have "weeds" of this nature in it. The Radley place has fallen into a type of decline or neglect.

During this time period a Southern yard in town was swept...no grass only soft dirt that was literally swept with a broom each day...under the shade of liveoak trees or magnolia trees was considered a proper yard.  Short grass lawns were not quite as fashionable during the 1930s and 1940s due labor saving devices not having been invented.

The symbolism is that of neglect. Details are important in this story.

You may have seen Johnson grass. It's tall about 3 feet high and has a big tassel on top sort of like corn. This is the grass that you may see farmers stick in their mouths on television commercials. It is sweet to the taste. Many chemicals have been invented to get rid of Johnson grass. It is a very tenacious weed.

Rabbit tobacco is a type of weed in the lobelia family. Youngsters would chew this or even smoke it during the 1930s or 1940s to pretend to be "big" like the grown-ups. It did not get one high.

How is Black pride represented in Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me"?

Actually, black pride is not the immediate aim of Hurston in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me.”  Hurston rather suggests a sense of self-pride throughout the essay.  She says that growing up in Eatonville did not cause her to feel particularly “colored,” but when she moved to Jacksonville, she immediately felt her difference on the lines of color.  Hurston uses extended metaphors such as the jungle and the dark rock to tell the reader that she is proud to be different, and more importantly, to be herself.  The essay closes with the extended metaphor of the stuffed bags, and Hurston suggests that the contents of each bag do not differ greatly in the same way the people of many races are essentially the same inside.  As a result, Hurston shifts the focus of the essay from black pride to self pride.

What threat does Abigail make to the other girls?

The episode of dancing in the woods, with Tituba, is highlighted with the conjuring of spirits, the illicit behavior of Mercy Lewis, who danced naked, and Abigail Williams drinking blood as a charm to get John Proctor away from his wife, namely by wishing Elizabeth Proctor dead.

After they are caught by Reverend Parris, and his daughter Betty, along with Ruth Putnam, are sick in mysterious ways the next morning, Abigail becomes very anxious about anyone finding out about what the girls actually did in the woods.  She knows that they will be punished for their behavior it is against the Puritan code of behavior to do such things.  She also knows that she, alone, is guilty of a more serious charge, the drinking of blood qualifies as witchcraft.

The other girls get very frightened when Reverend Parris becomes so upset about Betty's illness that he sends for Reverend Hale of Beverly who is an authority on witchcraft and bewitching of people. 

Betty, lying in her bed still and with her eyes closed, won't wake up because she is too frightened to face her father's punishment.  Abigail becomes frantic that some of the girls will tell in an effort to save themselves from being serverely punished.

Abigail comes up with a plan, she threatens the girls, to make sure that they don't confess to their parents or Reverend Parris what actually went on in the woods.  She wants them to say that they were only dancing, nothing else.  She is determined to make them listen to her, she is a forceful personality.  She makes it clear that she is capable of harming them, if anyone told the truth, she would come to them in the night with a sharp, pointy object and kill them.  She tells them that she means what she says, because she saw her parents murdered right in front of her.

Addressing the girls, Abigail makes the following threat:

"Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you."  (Miller)

She wants to make sure that she has full authority over the girls and that they won't utter a word of the truth to anyone. Her final comments are:

"I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down." (Miller)

How did the novel To Kill A Mockingbird focus on race, class, gender, and becoming of age?No thank you

Each of those themes make up the entire novel, so that is a HUGE question to answer.

Race was discussed with the trial, showing how awful/racist most of the town was towards Blacks and Tom.  The good people like Atticus, Miss Maudie, Heck Tate and the judge kept the children aware of how to truly treat others, no matter what the color of their skin is.

Class was discussed with Aunt Alexandra and how she treated the Cunningham family.  She was so concerned with a person's upbringing and heredity that she didn't take into account how Scout "Fine Folks:" they were people who did the best they could with what they had. 

Gender wasn't discussed much, except for Scout living in her overalls while most girls were supposed to be in dresses.  Many times she was made fun of from both kids and adults for how she dressed normally.  Miss Maudie served as a mix of the two.  She was a gardener most of the time outdoors, but cleaned up nicely and appeared queen-like on her porch each night.

The becoming of age was mostly Jem's maturation.  We see that through Scout's eyes.  He is able to see that Boo is a good person and is only trying to be friends with them.  He is so upset with the trial's verdict when he KNEW Tom was innocent.  We also see how Scout matures in the very end.  She is finally able to see things from others' perspectives.  Mostly we see this when she is standing on Boo's porch in the second to last chapter.  She realizes what she and Jem meant to Boo--"his children"--and she understands him so much more.  She shows her understanding when discussing "Stoner's Boy" with Atticus in the very last scene of the book.

What is the significance of the title, "Fences"?

Fences are significant of many things in this play. In fact, fences means different things for different people. For example, Rose believes the incomplete fence surrounding the home will maintain her family safe inside it. However, Troy believes the fence keeps people out . After the death of Alberta, Troy finishes building the fence as a way of keeping Death, a character in the play, from claiming anyone else.

Fences meant something else for Troy as well. He constructs a fence surrounding his son Cory in order to keep him from his football dreams, thus creating an invisible "fence" in their relationship.

Discuss the importance of Simon's clearing to him and to the novel, "Lord of the Flies".

Simon is the moral character in this novel.  He realizes what the boys do not.  He knows that the beast is within them.  The boys think it is an actual monster of some sort.  Because Simon has this ability to understand beyond what the others can, he is known as the Christ symbol.  He needs his place of peace.  This is where he is able to see the true beauty of the island.  He understands what is happening on the island, and this is his one place to get away from the others to see it all clearly.

What are some characteristics of Nelson Mandela? Give examples of each characteristic.

, Mandela became the most widely known fugure in the struggle against apartheid. Among opponents of appartheid inSouth Africaand internally, he became a cultural icon of freedom and equality comparable with Mahatma Gandhi.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison on 11 February 1990, and he plunged wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1994 Mandela and the ANC started their campaign for the first all-race elections that the country ever had. In April, when the elections occurred, the ANC won a majority and Mandela was appointed president, the first black president ever inSouth Africa! (Denenberg, 1995).

I consider Nelson Mandela a natural born leader; from his story almost 70 years ago. Walking across the green hills above the village one morning not long ago, Mandela recalled a lesson he learned as a boy, "When you want to get a herd to move in a certain direction," he said, "you stand at the back with a stick, then a few of the more energetic cattle move to the front and the rest of the cattle follow, you are really guiding them from behind," and that’s how Nelson Mandela’s leadership was about during his life in prison he was guiding his followers whilst in prison. (Mandela, 1965)

What or who does Nurse Ratched symbolically represent in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Explain.

There is definitely more than one answer to this question, but  I would consider the following:

Chief's physical description of the nurse, particularly of her chest.  She has very large breasts, which are obviously symbolic of femininity and motherhood.  However, she goes out of her way to hide them, along with any other type of "softness."

Chief's hallucinations.  Chief sees the nurse at one point as a huge monster who can reach out and grasp people with her arms.  He believes that she has a bag full of mechanical parts that she uses to make alterations/installations in the patient's minds.

Her relationships with men.  It seems that the nurse is in control of men in the text (even men like Dr. Spivey, who rank above her).  What could this signify given that the story is set in the 1950's?

Her treatment of non-conformists.  If a patient doesn't fly right initially, the nurse finds a way to make him conform.  She ultimately destroys Macmurphy, the only one who is truly able to resist her.

If you consider all these ideas together, you'll probably figure out what the nurse represents.

How did Tybalt die in Romeo and Juliet? Where was it and what happened? THANK YOU! :D

Tybalt and Mercutio were both killed in the town square. It is on the day of Romeo and Juliet's wedding. Mercutio doesn't think Romeo will fight Tybalt, so he wants to fight for him. He believes his friend is too much of a lover, rather than a fighter. Romeo comes on to the scene feeling happy and excited that he is now married to his love. He has no idea what is waiting for him. Mercutio and Tybalt start dueling and Romeo tries to get between them to stop the fighting. Tybalt then stabs Mercutio under Romeo's arm, leading to Romeo's best friend's death. When Romeo realizes his friend his dead, his rage takes control of him.

"Alive, in triumph! And Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, respective lenity, and fire-eyed fury be my conduct now! Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again, That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio's soul is but a a little way above our heads, staying for thine to keep him company: Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him."

Romeo lets his fury and rage take over and he kills Tybalt. This is what gets Romeo banished. This is the beginning of the tragedy that is to play out. Romeo has let his temper get the best of him, and it will cost him everything that matters to him.

What events lead to the conflict between Scout and Miss Caroline?

Miss Caroline is not only an inexperienced teacher; she is also a "foreigner" to Maycomb County.  In Scout's precocious eyes, these are both marks against her first teacher.

Miss Caroline's inexperience causes her to become defensive when she discovers that Scout can read. Instead of being impressed or praising Scout, she insists that Scout no longer read at home.  Of course, this does not sit well with Scout.

Later, when Miss Caroline insensitively offers little Walter Cunningham charity in front of the other students, Scout--in an attempt to assist Miss Caroline--informs her of the Cunningham family's ways.  Miss Caroline does not appreciate a first grader telling her how things are done and punishes Scout.

Lee includes these incidents with Miss Caroline to satirize the flaws she had recognized in America's educational institutions.  She obviously felt that students with talents and academic abilities were held back by inexperienced or bullheaded teachers and that what was taught in schools was not useful for every day life (hence, Jem's discussion about learning the Dewey Decimal System).

The author also includes the Cunningham scene to illustrate Maycomb's idiosynchracies, incomprehensible to outsiders.

I need help with the following story problem:the tax revenue that a small city recieves increases by 3.5% per year. In 1990, the city recieved...

I view this problem differently.  It seems to me that each year the 3.5% increase will be applied to whatever the revenue was in the previous year.

So, 1990 = $250,000 revenue

1991 = 250,000 x 1.035 = 258,750

1992 = 258,750 x 1.035 = 267,806

1993 = 267,806 x 1.035 = 277,179

1994 = 277,179 x 1.035 = 286,880

1995 = 286,880 x 1.035 = 296,920

1996 = 296,920 x 1.035 = 307,312

1997 = 307,312 x 1.035 = 318,068

1998 = 318,068 x 1.035 = 329,200

etc.

You can figure out the rest!! :-D

How are "New Moon" and "Twilight" related to Evolution? "Twilight" & "New Moon" By: Stephenie Meyer

One could say that the vampiresin these novels have evolved. Consider the classic vampire charactaristics. They feed on human blood, live in dark, drafty castles, hunting at night and sleeping during the day. They cannot go into the sunlight and they shapeshift into bats. Pretty typical right? This characterization could pretty much apply to every vampire story or movie you have ever read or seen.

However, the Vampires in Stephenie Meyer's novels have evolved into something totally different from the norm. Meyer has stepped away from garlic and holy water and created a vampire that some wouldn't mind running into. Perhaps this is what makes them so appealing?

The vampires in Meyer's novels aren't some blood-thirsty monsters. They are young, attractive, intriguing...people. The Cullens aren't unlike many of the families that live in Forks. They live as a family, feeding off the blood of animals, not humans. The sun doesn't kill them. They have made their  home in a beautiful art-deco mini-mansion and they do not sleep in coffins packed with dirt. In fact, they don't sleep at all.

In "Young Goodman Brown," why is it significant that Hawthrone names Goodman Brown's wife "Faith"?

Brown's wife having been named Faith is very significant since Hawthorne's story has been classified as an allegory of man's loss of faith.  As an allegory "Young Goodman Brown" represents abstract concepts such as faith, innocence, or evil. The settings, objects, and characters in this allegory stand for ideas or qualities beyond themselves. 

Faith, Goodman Brown's wife, for instance, represents innocence.  Brown in his sanctimonious complacency believes himself one of the "elect" of the Puritan community, able to walk with the devil spiritually unscathed.  Of course, on this night he literally and figuratively leaves Faith.

Once Goodman accompanies the devilish old man who resembles his grandfather into the foreboding forest where Goodman witnesses the Black Mass attended by his former catechism teacher and the deacon of the church, Brown discovers that his wife is one of the proselytes at this Satanic service.  That Faith is lost to the devil in this scene is symbolic of Brown's having abandoned his own faith.  For, after

this dream of evil omen...A stern, a sad, adarly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream.

At the Black mass the devil tells the proselytes that virtue is a dream:

Evil is the nature of mankind.  Evil must be your only happiness.  welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race.

After leaving his wife and his Faith, Goodman Brown felt a loathful brotherhood by the sympahy of all that was wicked in his heart.

Ironically, Faith remains constant.  With her innocent pink ribbons still intact, she runs

bursting into such joy at the sight of him that she skipped along the street and almost kissed her hausband before the whole village.

But, Brown who has lost all faith, believes only in the depravity of man who is hopelessly damned, and "his dying hour was gloom."

Why did Steinbeck stop "The Grapes of Wrath" with the scene in the barn?

Once of the main themes of the novel is that men need to work together if they are to succeed in overcoming the things that threaten them. This idea is first seen in Casy's idea of the oversoul in which he states that his belief that man doesn't have an individual soul but he his connected to others in a large "oversoul'. Thus, one person's problems become the problems of others. The tractor driver, Davis, first violates this idea when he tractors over Muley's house, even though he is the son of one of the sharecroppers. Davis uses the excuse that he has to "take care of his own" first and others have to take care of themselves. As the novel continues, Casy eventually loses his life trying to help the migrant farm workers earn a decent wage. Tom learns from that and leaves the family in order to continue Casy's work. He tells Mama that she won't have to worry about him because whenever injustice is being committed he'll be there. He has come to believe that people must help other people. His sister, Rose of Sharon, is a different case. All during the novel, she seems more concerned about herself and "getting milk" so she can deliver a healthy baby. Unfortunately, her baby is stillborn. However, she seems to have also learned that people must care for each other. In the barn, she is the only one who can save the man who is dying from starvation. She still has milk in her breasts that would have fed her dead child. By offering to nurse a grown man, she shows that she now understands, as Tom did, that people must help each other in order to survive. Thus, the main characters of the novel have changed and now understand and agree with the theme Steinbeck has been trying to convey during the entire novel: the common man must sacrifice and work together if he is to overcome all the injustices and threats to his survival. Rose of Sharon's act of feeding the starving man is an unexpected but appropriate place to end his novel because one of the main characters who has been so selfish during most of the novel commits a truly unselfish act.

Can I have an analysis and review of the characters of Kino and Juana in Chapter V of The Pearl??

Chapter V details significant changes in both Kino and Juana. Kino's obsession with the pearl has changed him from a loving husband to Juana into one who feels unthinking rage against her. When Juana attempts to throw the pearl back into the sea, Kino responds as an animal, striking her in the face with his fist and baring his teeth at her as "[h]e hissed at her like a snake." When the anger leaves him, Kino is sickened and disgusted with himself. Shortly thereafter, Kino kills an attacker to protect the pearl, an act that turns himself and his family into fugitives, and marks the turning point in the novel. Kino himself explains how the pearl has changed him:

This pearl has become my soul . . . If I give it up I shall lose my soul.

Juana continues to play her submissive role in Chapter V, but a significant change occurs in her character, also. As Kino's wife, she accepts him--even in his rage as he attacks her:

She knew there was murder in him, and it was all right; she had accepted it, and she would not resist or even protest.

Juana will follow Kino, wherever he takes her and their baby. However, there is strength in Juana that shows itself in Chapter V. After Kino kills his attacker, it is Juana who hides the body, soothes her husband "as she would quiet a sick child," and makes him understand that they must flee. Juana had not lost her soul to the pearl. She had struggled valiantly to retain their old life, but she faces the reality of their new circumstances:

All of the time Juana had been trying to rescue something of the old peace, of the time before the pearl. But now it was gone, and there was no retrieving it. And knowing this, she abandoned the past instantly. There was nothing to do but to save themselves.

As Kino and Juana then run for their lives, trying to save themselves and their baby, each has become a significantly different person.

Why do you think Lowry put the memory of war in a separate chapter instead of making it part of another chapter in The Giver?I am stuck on this one...

Up to this point, the Giver has transferred memories of unpleasantness to Jonas only in small, isolated bits.  The people in the Community have no concept of what pain is, and Jonas, through his training, has only been exposed to it in the brief experience of sunburn, and the excruciating but passing trauma of a broken leg.  The transfer of the memory of war is the first experience Jonas has of pain in the context of a total phenomenon.  War is a huge concept, horrific because it is made up of pain in all its forms (Chapter 15).

By putting the memory of war in a chapter of its own, the author accentuates its importance.  In its complexity and trauma, it is the climax of Jonas' training as Receiver, and it has the effect of irrevocably changing the way he looks at everything that comes after it.  Because Jonas now truly knows what pain is, he can better appreciate the softer, tender memories of Grandparents and love and family; their preciousness is acutely enhanced in contrast to the horror previously experienced.  After Jonas receives the memory of war, he begins to think more deeply and actively about what life in the Community really means.

After Jonas receives the memory of war, he lies to his parents for the first time, and he makes the choice not to take the pills which suppress his sexuality (Chapter 16).  He confronts his friends who are thoughtlessly playing a game of war (Chapter 17), and begins to seriously entertain ideas about how things in the Community might be changed.

In "The Crucible", compare and contrast the setting of Act two with Act 1. How are they similar in atmosphere or mood?

Acts one and two are both set in someone's place of residence; act one is in Parris's house above the parish, and act two is in the Proctor household.  In that sense, the setting is similar. They also are the scenes of various relationship strifes; in act one, Parris and Abigail fight, along with Abigail and her friends, and Abigail and Proctor, and then Proctor fighting with Parris and other assorted townsfolk--so, a lot of fighting goes on.  In act two, John and Elizabeth fight a bit, and we see further conflict in their relationship.  Mary Warren and Proctor fight, and then Proctor fights with the deputies that try to arrest Elizabeth and take her away.  Another similarity between the scenes is that Reverend Hale is there, questioning people and trying to hunt down witchcraft--in act one, he questions Tituba, in act two, he questions the Proctors.  One other comparison that can be made is that in both these acts, we see how the accusations start and get quite out of hand.  As soon as Tituba is "off the hook" for "confessing" to be a witch, Abby and all of her friends jump on the bandwagon, and it spirals out of control.  In act two, we see just how far out of control they have gotten.  Both acts are very tense, anxious, contentious, and dramatic in their moods.

Some differences between the acts are that in act two, it starts off as a civil, if awkward conversation between husband and wife, that soon spirals into an argument and full expressions of bitterness and mistrust.  However, we get to see a bit more of how the everyday functioning of their household works, and them at least trying to patch things up at the beginning. So the setting in act two at least starts off not being quite as dramatic; it is more personal and intimate.  As Reverend Hale questions the couple the conversation is more logical and sound than that of the questioning occurring of Tituba in act one.  Tituba's questioning was harried, rushed, forced, dramatic and intense.

Those are just some similarities and differences, and I hope that they help to get you thinking.  Good luck!

In what ways does the presentation of Shylock differ between the original text and the film, and why are there differences?Comparing the novel...

I assume you mean the recent-ish Al Pacino version of Merchant of Venice. Well, linked to your question, one of the crucial decisions any director of this play needs to make is to decide how to present Shylock. An essay I get my students to do which looks at this goes like this: "Shylock: Villain or Victim?" Discuss. Basically in the text there is evidence to support both views so you need to decide how you wish Shylock to appear to the audience.

One of the crucial additions that the film of the play makes is that it starts the film with information talking about how Jews were persecuted in Venice at the time of the play, and shows this persecution, with Antonio spitting on Shylock. This supports the view that Shylock is a victim much more, having faced horrendous persecution and championing his people. The scene at the end of the film is also very poignant, where Jessica, although she is with her beloved Lorenzo, still obviously feels pity for her father, who has been forced to convert. The last scene where we see Shylock he is alone and an unbelievably tragic figure. The film therefore strongly supports the view that Shylock is a victim, which, inspite of his bloodthirsty nature and his singleminded pursuit of his "merry bond", is the impression that we take away with us.

In Macbeth, whom do Macbeth and his wife plan to take the blame for Duncan's murder?

In Lady Macbeth's plan to murder King Duncan--and it was she who worked out all the details--Duncan's grooms (his attendants) were to be blamed for his murder. She would drug their drinks so that they would sleep, and then she would lay out their daggers for Macbeth to use in killing the king. Macbeth was to commit the murder, smear the sleeping grooms with Duncan's blood, and leave the daggers at the scene. Thus it would appear that these men in Duncan's chamber, covered with Duncan's blood, had committed the deed.

Her plan unfolded with two exceptions. Macbeth forgot to leave the daggers behind, so Lady Macbeth had to return them. After Duncan's body was discovered, the king's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, ran away, fearing reasonably that they, too, were in danger. Because they had fled the scene without explanation, the guilt for Duncan's murder then fell on them. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth certainly didn't argue about this misconception.

How do Mr. Birling's opinions and views change in "An Inspector Calls"?

Well, they don't really. Birling is a strong traditional, conservative, British capitalist, and he has a lot in common with Margaret Thatcher, who believed there was no such thing as society. J. B. Priestley, as the play outlines, did not agree. Birling, though sticks to his view, and, though he is shaken up and frightened a little, he doesn't change his mind.

Here he is at the start of the play:

A man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family, too, of course, when he has one - and so long as he does that he won't come to much harm. But the way some of these cranks talk and write now, you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense. But take my word for it, you youngsters - and I've learnt in the good hard school of experience - that a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own...

That, I think, gives you the gist of Birling's attitudes. At the end, though Birling is pleased to have got it all over with: he even mocks the Inspector's statement that 'you all helped to kill her'. His consicence has absolutely recovered: it is as if nothing has happened.

Sheila and Eric do learn from their experience. Yet Mr and Mrs Birling both remain steadfastly rigid in their attitudes. Until, that is - that final twist!

Hope it helps!

How are the two roads a symbol of life? The poem ends "and that has made the difference." What was the difference? Comment.

The crossing or divergence of the two roads in the poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost appears to deal with the decisions the speaker has made about life and how s/he has led it than about life itself.

Written by a more mature speaker, who has enjoyed the sensuous beauty and wisdom gained from h/his journey,  one can glean the leisurely, relaxed, contented tone suggested by such diction as “yellow wood”, “know how way leads on to way”, “somewhere ages and ages hence” and “that has made all the difference.”  Vibrant in its almost breathless excitement and participation in living, one becomes aware of its universality and timelessness of sensuous imagery, like “..To where it bent in the undergrowth”, “…I took the other”, “I kept the first for another for another day”, “…I shall be telling this with a sigh”.

Like so many of us starting out in life, the speaker wanted both roads, but realized his limitation of "be{ing} one traveler".  In the excitement of leaving tracks on the road that "was grassy and wanted wear", the speaker both freed and limited h/herself by selecting the challenge of the direction taken and by leaving behind the possibilities of the other.  However, s/he appears satisfied with the choices as s/he looks forward to telling about “I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference.”

These last lines can be both inspirational and encouraging for us especially when confronted with the challenge of which is the “right” as opposed to which is easiest and/or the most popular route to take.  The poem remains upbeat in its supportive tone of the advantage of personal decision-making; for the speaker, it definitely has rendered joy and satisfaction.

By what means does Shakespeare build suspense before the Ghost's appearances? What disturbing political events happen in the background of Act I?

Before the play even begins, we find that the Ghost has appeared to some of Hamlet's friends, without speaking. The characters in Act I, scene i are agitated and have summoned Hamlet to come and see. The Ghost appears twice onstage, wordlessly, before he appears to Hamlet. The mere existence of a Ghost would create great suspense for a superstitious Elizabethan audience. His wordless appearances serve to build the anticipation.

Prior to the opening of the play, Hamlet's father, the King of Denmark, has been assassinated, but no one knows the identity of the murderer. The king's brother, Claudius, has married Hamlet's mother and taken over the throne.

How does Gatsby represent the American dream? What does the novel have to say about the condition of the American dream of the 1920's?

You are addressing a theme of the book - that the American Dream can become corrupted.  The American Dream was, and still is, that anyone, no matter how humble the birth, can rise up to become whatever he or she desires if he or she is willing to work hard.  Jay Gatsby despised his humble birth and background.  He knew at a very young age that he wanted more out of life than what his parents had (see chapter 6) and some proof of that is in what Gatsby wrote in the book his father brought with him to Jay's after Jay died.  He knew he wanted wealth from an early age, but when he met Daisy in 1917, his American Dream shifted.  He still wanted wealth, but now he wanted Daisy, too.  To get Daisy, he had to have wealth and the class status that he thinks comes with it.  His dream is now corrupted because, while he can get wealth, he can't get the social status that he seeks.  Also, he garnered his wealth mostly through illegal or at least, unethical, means.  He didn't become wealthy through proper channels, so again, his dream is corrupted. As for the American Dream in general in the 1920's, Fitzgerald sees it somewhat cynically.  He indicates that while one may accumulate wealth, one never can become completely accepted socially.  He sees the classes as being so separate and distinct as to be gaps impossible of being bridged. He saw the upper class as snobs who only accepted others of their same social position, regardless of one's wealth.  The people from East Egg, in the novel, are these old monied people while the West Egg residents are more like Gatsby, the nouveau riche who are rough around the edges and tolerated only because they have money. They are never accepted though.  Just like Jay is never accepted into the East Egg society.  People use him; they go to his parties, but they never accept him socially. To Fitzgerald, the American Dream was something of an impossibility.

In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" what does he finally realize about himself? What future does he project for himself?

Prufrock spends almost the entire poem despairing over whether or not he should ask his mysterious question.  He is undecided.  He goes back and forth.  He ponders and mulls, hos and hums about it.  He struggles with the weight of what he wants to ask, pitted against his own incredible insecurity and social paranoia.  He really wants to ask, and imagines the scenarios in which he could do it.  But after quite some time, he concedes that he isn't courageous enough.  Who is he kidding?  He can sit there and dream about asking her all that he wants to, but he knows that he never will.  He finally admits this point when he declares, "No!" and admits that he is "no Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be."  Instead, he is better suited as "an attendant lord," someone in a play who is there, in the background, nameless, performing orders, while the more interesting, handsome, charming and eloquent popular people (like Hamlet in his castle) go about doing all of the daring deeds with style and panache.  He declares himself "cautious...a bit obtuse...a Fool."  This is a disheartening realization to admit to oneself.  It is like saying, "Yep.  I'm a loser.  I admit it."  And then, like the loser-y self that he feels, he says that he wants to just fade into the distance.  He sees that he will always be one of those men enchanted by beautiful women (he compares them to "mermaids singing, each to each"), but that he will never actually talk to them, connect with them, or have any part in their lives ("I do not think that they will sing to me).  Instead, he'll live in his little fantasy world where everything is comfortable and he doesn't actually have to make real human contact, because that is too terrifying ("human voices wake us, and we drown").

What is the social and cultural context of the play Macbeth?I have to write an interpretation of the play and I need to understand those things.

Culturally this is a Jacobean as opposed to an Elizabethan Play, written whilst James Ist was king of England. James had come from Scotland, where he was king previously, and so the Scottish theme may well have looked to please him. James also believed in witches writing a book, Demonology, in 1597 that promoted the view that witches were real. He had believed himself the subject of a plot by three witches to shipwreck him by stirring up storms, so there are running themes here that link to the ideas of James himself. The way we view these aspects of the play is different to how the contemporaries would have seen them. The play touches on long lasting social issues such as the greed for power, the corrupting nature of the quest for power, the way a cycle of violence only leads to more violence and the notion of ambition and the corrupting nature of it. This social context of the play is as relevant now as then and shows why the play retains such appeal.

What does Emerson say about work in "Self-Reliance"?

As a transcendentalist, Emerson belived that peopl must live their own lives and not worry themselves with that other people do of what other people think.  In "Self-Reliance" he discusses this idea and shares his position on the idea of work.  Emerson says,                                                     

     "A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his bet; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace."

By this, Emerson is saying that when a person works on something on his own and does as best as he can, the work is much more important and the person feels more of a sense of worth than he would if he copied someone else's work or did not do it to his full potential.  Furthermore, Emerson says,

     "But do your thing, and I shall know you.  Do you work, and you shall reinforce yourself."

  Here, he touches upon the very essence of what it means to be a transcendentalist which is to be a non-conformist and to worry about only what concerns you as an individual in terms of work.  His main point about work in this essay is that in order to achieve a high sense of self-worth and respect, man must do the very best that he can do and not worry about others' work along the way.

Can you see some similarities between "Fahrenheit 451" and the Soviet Union?

Examine the historical context of "Fahrenheit 451", particularly the section on "Political Repression and Conformity".  When Bradbury wrote this book, the Cold War was in full swing and the fear of Communism ran deep in many people.  The book reflects the evils of political repression and conformity by showing how easily it could happen to an uninformed populace - a population of people who don't read. There was no country that exemplified these tenets of Communism more than the former Soviet Union.  The book shows how most people in the society of the story, watched the same TV shows at the same time, how most people participated in the same activities, and how most people believed the same things.  In other words, it shows a mindless society of people conforming and therefore by their conformity, being politically repressed.  Just like many citizens of the Soviet Union were politically repressed because the government did not allow free enterprise and the government controlled nearly all aspects of people's lives including the information given to them.  A prime example of the government giving people wrong information in order to make themselves look good was when Montag first arrives among the book people and he sees, on their TV, that the government claims to have caught and killed Montag when in reality, they just caught someone who bore a resemblance to Montag.  The people were relieved because they believed that a criminal (as they were told that is what Montag was, a criminal and a murderer gone mad) had been done away with and the government came out looking strong and efficient. It didn't matter that an innocent person lost his life.  In the Soviet Union, there was one news source, "Pravda" and it told people what it wanted them to hear.  The term "iron curtain" was coined to explain the lack of accurate news that was allowed into the Soviet Union.

What is the climax and resolution of the novel "Moby Dick"?the resolution

Herman Melville's dark classic "Moby Dick" reaches its climax after many long chapters on the anatomy of whale, the abnormal and evil connotations of white, and the strange introspections of the obsessed Captain Ahab, who seeks the great white whale for revenge, but also as the key to some metaphysical answer.  For when the first mate, Starbuck tells Ahab "To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous," Ahab replies,

Hark ye yet again--the littlelower layer.  All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks.  But in each event--in the living act, the undoubted deed--there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the molding of its features from behind the unreasoning mask.  If man will strike, strike through the mask!  How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall?  To me the White Whale is that wall, shoved near to me.  Sometimes I think there's naught beyond.  But 'tis enough.  He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it.  That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the White Whale agent, or be the White Whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him.  Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me....By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspikes.  Who put it into him to chase and fang that flying-fish?  Where do murderers go man?Who's to doom, when the judge himself is dragged to the bar?

A dark Romantic, Melville perceived the dark side of Nature, a Nature working against man.  The climax comes to Melville's novel when Ahab and his ship, the Pequod, catch up to the "inscrutable malice," Moby Dick in Chapter 133:  "

There she blows!--there she blows!  A hump like a snow-hill!  It is Moby Dick!

None of the crew win the doubloon, for it is Ahab who first spots the whale.  The whale turns as the boat containing Ahab nears, opening his mouth to tear into its side.  Ahab would stay this force of fate as he "made one final effort to push the boat out of the bite." Withdrawing momentarily from his prey, Moby Dick turns sideways and churns the water "in his vengeful wake," Ahab's head "was seen, like a tossed bubbel which the least chance shock might burst.  But, he is rescued and the second boat gives chase.  This chase lasts for a significant three days.  On the second day, Ahab tells Starbuck:

This who act's immutable decreed.  Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled.  Fool! I am the Fates' lieutenant, I act under orders. 

On the third day,Time itself now held long breaths with keen suspense and Ahab tells Starbuck, "For the third time my soul's ship starts upon the voyage, Starbuck." Finally, Moby Dick succeeds in killing Ahab, who having smashed the other two boats, meets his lonely death as Fedallah is seen lashed by harpoon lines to Moby Dick's flank and Ahab harpoons Moby Dick, in trying to "break through the pasteboard mask" of this creature, and Ishmael falls out.  Ahab's harpoon line runs afoul and, as he stoops to dodge it, the line is pulled around his neck.  Thus, he and Moby Dick return to the lower depths. 

Ishmael, whose Biblical name means he is meant to wander, is drawn into the vortex of the sinking Pequod; Up shoots a coffin from the whirlpool that he uses as a buoy until he is rescued.

What is Lady Macbeth's reaction to her husband's letter? (Act 1 Scene 5) Please , I need urgently the answer.

In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth's letter about the prophecies of the three witches.  Look carefully at the two passages spoken by Lady Macbeth after reading the letter.  She expresses her true feelings about the prophecies in these passages.

In the first passage, she shows that she is immediately confident that these prophecies should come true.  However, she has doubts about her husband's ability to help the promise of becoming king come true.  She says,

"Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way..."

Since Lady Macbeth fears that her husband will not be able to achieve greatness on his own, she feels that she must prepare herself to assist him.  In a well-known soliloquy, Lady Macbeth says,

"Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty!"

When she says "unsex me", we can see that she feels that she must become less womanly and more manly in order to be ruthlessly ambitious.  This brings up the issue of gender roles.  Women seem to be associated with caring and nurturing while men are associated with toughness and strength.  Lady Macbeth's willing abandonment of all that is soft and comforting in a woman has made her a symbol of feminine deception.

Why is it important to be culturally aware when communicating in a diverse world? Communicating in a diverse world is important in today’s age of...

The points made in post above regrading importance for conducting the business across the globe are very valid. However it is important to realize that globalization today means much more than selling and buying in multiple countries.

The importance of intercultural awareness and communication has also becomes very important for internal management of organizations. We find that frequently large organizations across the world tend to employ people from many different cultures. This is quite well known for companies having different business units across the globe, and transferring employees across the globe to different countries. But this problem has also become also very important to organizations operating within confines of a single country. Thus we find that now US population consists of many different ethnic groups such as earliest American settlers, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, and so on.

To be able for people of different cultural background to communicate and work together effectively, it is essential for them to have some minimum understanding of cultures of each other. Without such understanding there are real possibility of poor communication. Even when people speak a common language like English, the same words may have different connotation to people from different cultures. For example "a lucky dog" may be an acceptable compliment to an Englishman who has won a lottery, but it may offend an Indian. In addition to verbal, communication sometimes our behavior is also can be misunderstood because of cultural differences - for example Britishers are considered to be rather formal while Americans are more out going. Unless differences like these are understood, people may fail to understand behavior of people from other cultures and respond appropriately. An extreme example of this is provides by people from Gujarat State of India. These people consider it very inauspicious to use phrases meaning things like "I am leaving" or "I am going". Instead they use a phrase like "I will return". Once a person knows these things, it is very easy to avoid mistakes. But, ignorance of these difference can lead to major misunderstanding between people.

O. Henry's stories end with a surprise. What is the surprise at the end of "The Last Leaf"?

Well, the answer is right at the end of the story, and a close reading of the story itself is the best way to discover it.  If you haven't read the story yet, I suggest you do; it's one of O. Henry's shorter stories, and so is a very quick read.  I provided a link to the story below.

In this story, a young woman named Johnsy gets sick with pneumonia, and out her window is a vine.  On that vine, the leaves keeps falling off.  Pretty soon, there is just one leaf left.  Johnsy declares that "When the last one falls I must go, too," meaning, she will die when the last leaf falls of the window.  Her roommate, Sue, tells her that she is silly, but deep down is disturbed by Johnsy's morbid declaration.  She watches the last leaf all day, paranoid.  She goes downstairs and tells the old man that lives there, Behrman, what Johnsy had said.  He scoffs such sentimentality, but comes up to pose for Sue (Sue's an artist), and he too seems disturbed, and keeps a close eye on the leaf.

Well, the next morning the leaf is still there, and then the next, and Johnsy gets much, much better and eventually recovers.  But once she does recover, Sue informs her of the following:

"Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia to-day in the hospital. He was ill only two days...they found...a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and some scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colors mixed on it, and—look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the wall. Didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew? Ah, darling, it's Behrman's masterpiece—he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell.”

So, old Behrman had gone out and painted a leaf on the wall where the real one had fallen in the night, so that Johnsy would think it was still there.  In doing so, he caught cold and contracted pneumonia and died.  So, that is the surprise ending.  Once again, please read the story; it is a very good one.  I hope that helps!  Good luck!

"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel: what aspects of the novel make it remarkable?

This is an interesting question, and somewhat open to personal interpretation, so I suggest writing down ways in which you thought it was remarkable in order to answer it.  For myself, I found it remarkable for several reasons.  The first is the amount of research that had to go into it; Martel has indicated that he spent a couple of years just doing the research on it in order to write it.  He had to research several key factors:  Zoos and animal behavior, religions, and at-sea survival stories.  So, he spent a lot of time doing research to be able to write the novel itself.  Then, his representation of life in the zoos, and various different animals and their behaviors is just so interesting.  Then, to have a tiger on a lifeboat and to imagine how one would survive that situation is just a very fascinating proposal to me.  To describe the survival conditions at sea with the various hardships, sealife, would have required a lot of research.  And the result is just so interesting.

Another way the book is remarkable to me is how Martel ties religion into all of it.  An initial reading of the book might leave one wondering why Martel spent the first third of the book talking so much about religion, and having Pi become involved in 3 of the main religions in the world.  There doesn't seem to be much of an overt connection between that section and the next sections.  But, if you think about what Martel was saying about storytelling, and tie the end of the story having 2 different versions into it, there is a connection.  Martel wanted us to consider reality in all of its ugliness and brutality, compared to a reality that existed with the stories of religion.  He compared reality to the non-animal ending, and life with religion and its stories to life with the animals, and really, which makes a better story?  So, Martel ties it all together in the end, in a very interesting way.  The fact that he leaves the ending open to interpretation in order to reflect the individual's choice of an ending, is a remarkable fact too.  A lot of authors want to pick the ending and have control of it themselves, but Martel left it up to the reader.  That is hard to do.

So, those are just my thoughts; I hope that they jive with some of your own.  Good luck!

What is the role of alveoli in the process of gas exchange?its for my biology project. so i need an answer as soon as possible. thankyou!

The alveoli are tiny air pockets, which have elastic walls consisting a single, thin cell layer or epithelium which makes gaseous exchange possible. Around the alveolus is a very dense network of cappilaries which provide an excellent blood supply. The alveoli is provided with deoxygenated blood from the pulmonery artery and when the blood leaves the alveolus, it is oxygenated and is carried away to the pulmonery vein.

There are about 700 million alveoli in man's lungs witha total absorbing surface of about 70-80 square metres. The lining of alveoli is covered witha thin film of moisture, which allows the diffusion of oxygen to the blood and carbon dioxide into the alveolus.

Supported by these adaptations, alveoli carries a major role in the exhange of gases, allowing carbon dioxide to diffuse out and oxygen to diffuse into the blood. So, the role of alveoli is very important in gaseous exchange.

What are the major themes of Act I in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing ?

Many different themes can be found in the first act. In fact, the very first scene lays out most of the play's major themes. Listed below are a few:

The theme of men being honorable is first portrayed in this act. By the end of the play Shakespeare has shown us that the men who are thought to be the most honorable actually have significant flaws. However, the theme of questioning men's honorableness is first portrayed in the first scene via Beatrice's witty proclamations of her opinion of Benedick. The messenger claims that Benedick has performed well in the recent victorious wars and is a "good soldier" (I.i.44). Beatrice of course wittily questions his valor by saying that Benedick is a "good soldier to a lady; but what is he to a lord?" (45). Questioning Benedick's valor serves to question the valor of all the men who have been recognized as honorable.

A second theme we see portrayed in the first act is excessive pride. All throughout the play, Shakespeare shows us the consequences of excessive pride. Excessive pride is first seen in Beatrice's treatment of Benedick in the very first scene, especially her disdain for him. We know how much Beatrice disdains, or scorns him when we see him address her as, "What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?" (101).

The theme of appearances vs. reality is also first introduced in this first act. We learn from Leonato that Don John has just tried to overthrow Prince Don Pedro's thrown but has been forgiven and recently "reconciled" to the prince (132). For an Elizabethan, Leonato's line would raise a red flag. They would know from their own history that the only way to deal with treason is by execution and failing to do so would only bring more insurrection. Hence, Elizabethan's would know that not only is Don John untrustworthy, but the noble Prince Don Pedro's character should also be called into question as being not actually what it appears to be. They would know that this appearance of peace would soon show itself to be something else in reality very soon. Hence, Elizabethans would not have been surprised at all to see Don John speak ill of his brother later in this act and to plot against Claudio, whom he holds responsible for his own failure in overthrowing his brother's reign.

What are two functions of bacteria in the nitrogen cycle?

Bacteria break the bonds in hydrogen gas molecules and allow the free nitrogen to bond with hydrogen to form ammonium. Ammonium is an ion that is readily absorbed by plants. These are nitrogen-fixing bacteria. There are some that have formed a symbiotic relationship with legumes.

Bacteria release nitrogen bound up in formerly living things through the process of ammonification or decomposition. These bacteria convert the nitrogen from dead organisms into ammonium ions.

Bacteria provide plants with a usable form of nitrogen that they would be unable to get if all the available nitrogen were in the form of a gas.

In Shakespeare's Richard III, what are the similarities between Richard and Richmond?

In Shakespeare's Richard III, Richard (called Gloucester throughout much of the play) is a singular character in a number of ways.  From the very first act, Richard is portrayed as a physically disfigured individual who will do anything to achieve his goal - the English throne.  Richard lies, cheats, and backstabs, all in the name of that purpose.  While no other characters in the play show these particular colors to the extent Richard does, Richard's counterpart, the Earl of Richmond, shares some characteristics with Richard.

As mentioned, Richard, from the opening curtain, actively pursues the English crown.  Throughout the couse of the play, he employs various methods to move closer to this goal.  He conspired to kill those heirs ahead of him (and ordered their killings), he attempted to marry into the royal line, he served as the protector to the young princes, seeing it as a platform from which to launch himself onto the throne.  Richard, after killing her fiance, seeks to gain Anne's hand in marriage, more for its political advantages than for any genuine feeling on his part.

Richard's securing of Anne's hand in marriage, specifically Richard's motivations for doing so, has a great deal in common with Richmond's own marriage to Elizabeth, the older sister to the two young princes.  While Richmond may have felt genuine affection for Elizabeth, the political implications of his marriage did not escape his attention.  By doing so, with the death of the two young princes, Richmond would be next in line to the throne (through marriage, at least).  Both Richard and Richmond take advantage of political marriages as a means to acquire power.

As leaders in the hours leading up to the battle at Bosworth Field, Richard and Richmond share some similarities.  The respect that both enjoyed from their supporters (regardless of how that support was earned) says a great deal about the kind of people the characters of Richard and Richmond are.  Both realized that the ends justify the means.  The major point of difference between them, however, is that Richard does not qualify the point - all ends justify all means.  Richmond, however, does seek to qualify the statement somewhat.  In the end, both Richard and Richmond play the political game well.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, how does Jem's broken arm connect with Boo's story and Tom's story? How does the mockingbird connect them all?

The novel develops two plots, separately and then simultaneously: the children's attempts to discover the truth about Boo Radley and the prosecution of Tom Robinson, who is innocent, when he is charged with raping Mayella Ewell. These two story lines converge in the novel's conclusion when Mayella's father, Bob Ewell, attacks Jem and Scout, the children of the man who defended Tom Robinson in court. It is during Ewell's violent attack that Jem's arm is broken. Ewell would have killed them both, but Jem and Scout are saved by Boo Radley. As a result of this attack on the children, Boo Radley kills Bob Ewell, and Jem and Scout realize the truth about the mysterious Boo: He is a brave man who loves them and is willing to sacrifice himself to save them.

The mockingbird theme is central in the novel. Early in the story, Atticus explains to Jem why he is not to shoot mockingbirds with his air rifle. According to Atticus, mockingbirds are innocent and harmless; they do not threaten or destroy anything or anyone. They bring only goodness into the world. Thus Jem, Scout, Tom, and Boo all can be viewed as mockingbirds. 

In "Hamlet", Hamlet is a man of morality without action. Broadly describe how closely you agree with this statement.

First of all, it helps to understand what he has said about being moral.  Here are a few examples from the play, of his moral beliefs.  He finds his mother's actions despicable, and bordering on incestuous.  So, it is immoral to get married quickly after a spouse dies.  Then, he extends that to all women.  All women are immoral and fickle.  He also broods over his uncle's lack of morality, calling him a monster.  He has a strong sense of heaven and hell; he won't kill his uncle while he's praying, because then he might go to heaven, not hell.  He himself doesn't want to kill his uncle without being assured that he is guilty; he doesn't want to commit murder lightly, so that reflects a certain morality.

Hamlet's morality often keeps him from acting; it makes him mull around in his uncertainty and angst, instead of just acting.  If he wasn't so morally concerned about heaven and hell, he could just go kill his uncle, at any time, without fear of repercussions.  If he wasn't so morally concerned about proper behavior in women, he wouldn't be so angry about his mother, leading to his rejection of Ophelia.  His morality contributes to keeping him angry and inactive throughout the entire play.  He is just full of words and haughty sentiments, but when it comes to putting his actions where his words are, he often backs down, attributing it to morals.  Is it morals, or cowardice?  I hope that those thoughts help a bit; good luck with the question!