Friday, December 4, 2015

Which scene in the story can be changed slightly in setting and build-up, without changing characters, and still reflect a moral? Please...

One scene that I can think of that fits your requirements would be the part of the story that contains the last two wishes.  The second wish is for Mr. and Mrs. White's son Herbert to return from the dead.  Wish number 3 is the one I would change.  Instead of Mr. White wishing Herbert back into the grave,  like he does in the following passage, the last wish is never used, because only Mr. White can make that wish.



"The bolt," she cried loudly. "Come down. I can't reach it."




"But her husband was on his hands and knees groping wildly on the floor in search of the paw. If only he could find it before the thing outside got in. A perfect fusillade of knocks reverberated through the house, and he heard the scraping of a chair as his wife put it down in the passage against the door. He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkeys's paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish." (Jacobs)



Instead of being inside the house, the Whites, once Mrs. White realized that they still had two wishes left on the monkey's paw left the house and started walking towards the cemetary where Herbert was buried.  Mr. White wishes Herbert alive again, as Mrs. White and her husband run towards the burial ground of their beloved son, she sees him, standing there fully restored to health.


Mrs. White turns around to see where her husband is and he is lying on the floor, he has died of a heart attack while running to catch up with his wife.  Mrs. White and Herbert approach the body, looking for the monkey's paw, but they can't use it because it is Mr. White who had the power to make the wishes, so the third wish dies with him.


The moral of this change in the story, of course, is be careful what you wish for, the Whites have still lost one member of their family, they have still lost more than they gained and now, they must leave the community because everyone thinks that Herbert is dead.

What is the sensory language in "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe?

Poe employs repetition, rhythm, and rhyme to unify the poem and give it a musical euphony. Poe repeats the name "Annabel Lee" in every stanza. By repeating the phrase "kingdom by the sea" he also adds to the choral nature and structure of the poem. The anapestic rhythm adds to the suspense of the poem as it builds to its finale.

What quotes came from the book, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver by John Lackland.I need at least five quotes from the book's author.

I think you might be a little confused about this question.  The author of the book A Proud Taste of Scarlet and Miniver is E.L. Konigsburg.  John Lackland is a character in the book, one of the sons of the main character, the historical figure, Eleanor of Aquitaine. 


Perhaps you are looking for quotes by the author about John Lackland.  John Lackland was not a very savory or upright character, so the quotes about him are not very flattering.  Here are some quotes about him that are found in the book:



"John was...six years old, and he was already a difficult child to like.  John had unkind opinions about everything and everyone, and he told them at the top of his voice.  John's natural expression was a scowl.  John cheated at games, and John told lies".


"There was something unlovely even about his smile; it was so smug that it was challenge not to punch him".



John's brother Henry says of John,



"I wouldn't worry about John...John will find a way to marry and get land.  He is already a capable liar and a wonderful cheat.  What he cannot gain honesly, he will take without honor" (Part 3, Chapter 4).



Queen Eleanor is quite aware of her son John's character, but her husband is not.  She tells King Henry,



"...you've pinned all your hopes on John Lackland.  I thought you were a better judge of character than that.  Shame on you".



And later she tells him,



"Do you not see what John is?  You have allowed me no part in his upbringing, and I cannot see that you have done even an average job.  You have seen to it that he has been raised without music; you have formed him of mucus and muscle.  He either cries for what he wants, or he punches for it.  Snot and sinew!  There is no bone there to hang a crown on.  I will never, never consent to giving the Aquitaine to John" (Part 3, Chapter 8).





Thursday, December 3, 2015

What different types of magical realism are used in Cheever's "The Enormous Radio" and what makes it so abstract?

John Cheever's story "The Enormous Radio" has elements of fantasy combined with reality but it differs from the literary mode of "magical realism" by theme, setting and origin. "Magical realism" is a mode of literature of Latin America and offsets Western rationality, reason and objectivity with Native American Indian magicalism, mythology and fantasy. While Cheever's Fantasy and "magical realism" have things in common, they also have distinguishing differences.

One of the fantasy elements that Cheever uses is the device of having a radio that has a life-invading antenna. This is the primary literary device of the story. Through it, Irene and Jim, but particularly Irene, learn about the dark side of marital life on their statistically correct twelfth floor. Fantasy can be considered abstract in that it presents elements that are "apart form concrete realities" (Random House Dictionary at Dictionary.com). Cheever's work is particularly abstract in this sense because he combines realistic characters and life events with fantastic occurrences, making fantasy another step removed from concrete realities: having the semblance of reality, the premise is wholly unreal (or at least in the 1940s it was...).

Do you know the role of music in "Fences"?

Three kinds of music exist in the play: hymns, jazz, and a folk song. Rose and Gabriel rely on religious music for strength and inspiration. Rose does so more consciously because her life with Troy has been difficult; she sees the church as a refuge. Gabe tries to play music with his trumpet, but because it lacks a mouthpiece, he is unable to. Thus, he also sings, but primarily because he envisions himself as the Angel Gabriel.


Lyons is a jazz musician who seeks a career in music. When he invites his father to hear him play, Troy expresses his disdain for jazz when he declares he doesn't "like that Chinese music." Troy lives in the past when he was a outstanding baseball player; he makes no effort to appreciate "modern" music like jazz or, for that matter, Lyons' talent because this son is not an athlete.


Troy's song "Old Blue" is a song from the past that unites generations. He learned it from his father; by the end of the play Cory and  Raynell are singing it together before they attend Troy's funeral. Not only does the folk song represent Troy's impoverished background, but it also shows Troy's need to have something or someone to depend on, even if it is only a dog. Notice that Blue "died like a man." Perhaps the song actually memorializes a real dog that Troy had. At any rate, the tone of the song is positive; he praises the dog more than he does either of his sons.

In "The Scarlet Letter", why does Hester feel that Arthur Dimmesdale should speak on her behalf? (Chapter 8)

Chapter 8 is a very important chapter because here we see Hester Prynne pushed to her limits by the threat of having Pearl taken from her.  She can bear the shame of her sins, which include the humiliation of wearing the scarlet letter, but she could not and would not bear the loss of "her" Pearl. 


It is at this point when the authorities are about to rule on the welfare of Pearl that Hester comments that Pearl is both her happiness and her torture, and she cannot bear to bear to lose her.  It the the emphasis on the word torture that is directed at Dimmesdale.  He knows that Hester is desperate and will reveal the "torture" of being silent as to Pearl's father.  When Hester demands that Dimmesdale speak on her behalf, he quickly intervenes by saying that Pearl's presence helps to save the mother's soul.  Knowing that Dimmesdale's words would carry great weight with the magistrates, and that Dimmesdale is Pearl's father, Hester believes he should speak on her behalf.

Please summarize John Keats' "On the Grasshopper and Cricket."

John Keats' Sonnet "On the Grasshopper and the Cricket" was written on December 30th 1816. The message of this poem is foregrounded in these two lines:


"The poetry of earth is never dead" which is the opening line of the octave and the poem; and "The poetry of earth is ceasing never"which is the first line of the sestet. Keats asserts emphatically that no matter what the season, whether it is the peak of scorching summer or the bitterly cold winter season the music and 'poetry' of Mother Nature will be omnipresent and add vitality to the environment.


The octave and the sestet compare and contrast a  hot summer day and a bitterly cold and lonely winter evening. It's so hot that the usually chirpy and active birds have taken shelter amongst the shady trees and the whole countryside seems to be quiet, but just then one can hear the ever active grasshopper chirping away merrily in the hedges.


Similarly when one is cosily sheltered in the comfort of his home in front of a warm stove from the cold frosty winter and is beginning to feel lonely, the silence is shattered by the shrill chirpings of the cricket which adds meaning to the lonely winter evening without filling it up by reminding him of the music of the grasshopper in the summer months.