In Elie Wiesel's Night, the narrator mentions the Exile of Providence and the destruction of the Temple at the beginning of his account. These...

Elie Wiesel begins his autobiographical narrative of his experiences in the extermination and labor camps established by Nazi Germany, Night, with a story of Moishe the Beadle, “the poorest of the poor of Sighet, the small Transylvanian town where Elie lived with his family. Moishe is the most popular man in this town for the principle reason that he “stayed out of people’s way.” It is Moishe, however, who takes it upon himself to instruct the young Elie in the more mystical components of Judaism, thereby earning his student’s gratitude and a measure of respect. At the opening of Wiesel’s book, the author describes Moishe the Beadle’s eccentric yet morose character:

“He spoke little. He sang, or rather he chanted, and the few snatches I caught here and there spoke of divine suffering, of the Shekhinah in Exile, where, according to Kabbalah, it awaits its redemption linked to that of man. I met him in 1941. I was almost thirteen and deeply observant. By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple.”

“Shekhinah” is an ancient Jewish reference to God’s presence on Earth; to the Lord’s divine role in determining man’s destination. The “Shekhinah” is not God, but refers to God’s presence. That’s a pretty loose interpretation, but for purposes of discussion, it means a divine presence among the Jews of ancient history. The failure of the Jews to comply entirely with God’s commandments during the years of exile resulted in this presence disappearing or being removed from the First Temple.

The Old Testament, the original Aramaic and Hebrew Bible, is replete with instances of God punishing His people for their myriad transgressions—mainly their lack of faith that God’s covenant with them will come to pass. Wiesel tells the story of Moishe the Beadle because this eccentric individual’s dedication to ancient scripture is destroyed by his treatment at the hands of the Germans. Following his near-death experience—he survives a massacre of Jews after being shot in the leg by pretending to be dead—Moishe is no longer the committed devotee that he was prior to being captured.

As important to Wiesel’s narrative, Moishe will be the oft- and tragically-ignored voice of alarm regarding the fate that awaits the Jews of Sighet. Having witnessed for himself the horrors of the Holocaust, his warnings to his fellow Jews are nevertheless ignored by the unbelieving masses. As Wiesel describes the situation:

“As for Moishe, he wept and pleaded: ‘Jews, listen to me! That's all I ask of you. No money. No pity. Just listen to me!’ he kept shouting in synagogue, between the prayer at dusk and the evening prayer. Even I did not believe him. I often sat with him, after services, and listened to his tales, trying to understand his grief. But all I felt was pity."

Moishe’s warnings, like those of Moses and his most devoted followers, are not heeded, and many will die. As Elie will soon observe for himself, the destruction of European Jewry at the hands of the Germans and their allies across Eastern and Central Europe is akin to the destruction of the ancient Jewish Temples. Europe’s Jews were systematically exiled and targeted for extermination by the most technologically-advanced nation in that vast continent. By relating the story of Moishe the Beadle and by alluding to the Exile of Providence and the destruction of the Temple, Wiesel is drawing a connection from--is foreshadowing--the destruction of the Temple and the forced exodus of the Jews in ancient times to the modern day forced exile and destruction of modern Judaism at the hands of modern man.

Why does the poet repeat a line or phrase three times in stanza 1 and stanza 3?

Repetition is a technique that many poets use to great effect. Some of the reasons poets use repetition are to enhance the lyricism of the poem, to create cohesion within the poem, and to reinforce the meaning of the poem. Two specific types of repetition used in poetry are a refrain and anaphora. A refrain repeats words between stanzas; anaphora repeats the same words at the beginning of subsequent sentences or clauses. In Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade," he uses both types of repetition to create the three effects noted.

In stanza 1, the words "half a league" are repeated three times in succession. This is a type of anaphora. This repeating phrase increases the lyricism of the poem, that is, it makes an appealing sound to our ears. Because the phrase has a special rhythm, called dactylic, it is especially pleasing. This same rhythm is repeated in each stanza, lending cohesion to the poem, helping it hold together as a unit. The dactylic rhythm gives the feeling of riding horseback, and that reinforces the meaning of the poem. To repeat "half a league" three times helps the reader get the feeling of being a cavalryman on horseback getting closer and closer to to desired destination.

In stanza 3, the words "cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them, / Cannon in front of them" are mirrored by the similar but slightly different words at the beginning of stanza 5: "cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them, / Cannon behind them." Again, this is anaphora. The dactylic rhythm and anaphora continue to be pleasing to the ear while connecting the stanzas to each other. Here the repetition reinforces the meaning of being surrounded by the Russian artillery that bordered three sides of the field the brigade was charging across. The repetition makes readers feel as if they are in the middle of the battle, too. Imagine just saying, "They were surrounded on three sides while charging down the hill." That conveys the meaning, but not the feeling, of being in the battle. The use of repetition allows the reader to enter into the scene emotionally and with the five senses.

The anaphora at the beginning of several stanzas balances out with the refrain at the end of each stanza that refers to the "six hundred" in one way or another. This again enhances the lyric quality of the poem while tying the stanzas and the entire poem together. Thus repetition is a key technique Tennyson uses to immortalize a battle that otherwise may have been lost in the pages of history.

What is the molar mass of magnesium oxide? I want the answer not to be round and to be used by this periodic chart

Molar mass is the mass of one mole of a compound. One mole is 6.02x10^23 molecules of that compound.

The formula for magnesium oxide is MgO. This means every molecule of magnesium oxide contains one magnesium atom and one oxygen atom. In order to find the molar mass of a compound, you must sum the individual molar masses of the atoms which form that compound.

The molar mass of an element is the atomic weight of that element. Using the table you provided, we find the molar masses of Mg and O are 24.305 grams/mol and 15.999 grams/mol, respectively. 

So the molar mass of magnesium oxide is (24.305 + 15.999) = 40.304 grams/mole.

Now, with regards to rounding, 40.304 is a correct answer with respect to significant digits. 

By the end of this poem, how does the person feel about his or her decision?

Presumably the speaker of this poem is Robert Frost himself, as he acknowledged in some of his public readings. He is thinking about a career decision he made many years ago. He had to make a choice between seeking a secure profession which would enable him to live in comfort or to devote himself to poetry and live very simply close to nature. Many aspiring artists are confronted with that choice fairly early in life. They don't know whether to trust their instincts and go ahead with the pursuit of their dreams, or whether to play it safe and get a "day job," so to speak. It is hard to do both. Frost seems to have felt it was impossible for him. The two roads went off in different directions, and as he says in the poem::

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood...

Frost chose to devote his life to his poetry. Looking back, as he does in the poem, he is still not sure if he made the right choice, because he cannot know what would have happened if he had taken the other "road." No doubt he would have continued writing poetry. But since his life would have been so different, he would not have written any of the same poems, such as "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening." His published poetry often reflects a simple, rural life. 

Frost does not appear to regret the choice he made, but he sounds wistful in the last stanza of "The Road Not Taken," as if he wishes he knew what his alternate life would have been like if he had taken the other road. Many people feel this way as they grow older. There are so many crossroads in life and so many hard choices to make. When he says:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence

The sigh is actually represented in the poem by a break and a repetition of the word "I."

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by...

The "sigh" can be interpreted to mean that he does not necessarily regret the choice he made but that he recalls all the hardships and privations his decision cost him over the years. We get glimpses of his independent lifestyle in many of his poems, such as "Mending Wall" and "Two Tramps in Mud Time."

What is the relationship between Captain Torres and the barber?

Captain Torres and the barber are both enemies. The barber is a secret rebel, the sort hunted by Captain Torres and his soldiers.

The barber initially thinks that his secret has not been discovered by Captain Torres. As he nervously shaves the captain, he tries to appear nonchalant by engaging his enemy in conversation. Meanwhile, Captain Torres knows about the barber's secret revolutionary activities, although he does not let on until the end of the story.

Instead, he tells the barber to go to the local school at six o'clock that evening. There, Captain Torres is planning to execute a freshly captured group of fourteen rebels. Upon hearing this, the barber becomes visibly agitated. He remembers that this is the same captain who forced the whole town to look upon the mutilated, naked bodies of four previously executed rebels. As he performs the tasks of a barber, he toys with the idea of killing his enemy. However, he soon comes to the conclusion that he does not want to be known as a coward who executes his enemies when they are at a disadvantage. Also, he doesn't want the dubious glory of being known as a murderer.

The story ends with Captain Torres thanking the barber for his shave and acknowledging that he came to test whether the barber would kill him if he had him in his power.

What are four examples of Squeaky's negative personality traits, obstacles, or weaknesses from the story "Raymond's Run?"

Squeaky, the narrator in "Raymond's Run" by Toni Cade Bambara, is a wonderful character, but like all realistic characters, she has some negative traits. First of all, she likes to fight. She even says she would rather physically fight someone than talk it out with him/her. 

"I much rather just knock you down and take my chances even if I am a little girl with skinny arms and a squeaky voice, which is how I got the name Squeaky" (Bambara 1)

Squeaky also might be considered a little conceited about her running. She says that she is the fastest runner in the neighborhood other than her dad and brags about winning all of the races she enters.

"There is no track meet that I don't win the first place medal. I use to win the twenty-yard dash when I was a little kid in kindergarten. Nowadays, it's the fifty-yard dash. And tomorrow I'm subject to run the quarter-meter relay all by myself and come in first, second, and third" (Bambara 1-2)

Third, Squeaky is judgmental. She makes fun of Cynthia Procter for not admitting to studying for the spelling bee or practicing piano. Squeaky seems to think she (Squeaky) is the better person for being up front and out in the open about her own practicing. Squeaky is proud of the fact that she practices her running whenever she gets the chance, even if it embarrasses her mother.

Finally, Squeaky also lowers herself to the level of the same group of girls who call Raymond names and make fun of him by calling the girls names like "fatso" and "stupid." On one hand she is defending her brother, but on the other she is doing to them exactly what she doesn't like them doing to her brother. 

Is Batallie's philosophy something we could realistically live by? Critically discuss with reference to the concepts of unproductive expenditure...

First, we will discuss Bataille's principles of unproductive expenditure and transgression. Then, we will look at whether we can realistically live by Bataille's philosophy.

Unproductive expenditures.

Accordingly, Georges Bataille argues that a nation's true economic viability centers on the principle of the accursed share, where unproductive expenditures propel the nation's continued success and relevance. As opposed to the classical economic prototype, Bataille presents a model based on the North American Indian potlatch. A potlatch is a ceremony dedicated to gift-giving; in many Native American cultures, a leader is vested with the responsibility of service to his community as well as the stewardship (not ownership) of the wealth of his tribe. The purpose of these gift-giving ceremonies is to ensure that positions of power do not lead to unmitigated abuses of authority in Native American society.

Read more about the potlatch here.

Therefore, Bataille reasons that every viable economy should not be overtly focused on profit, but rather on the 'unproductive expenditure' of material and non-material goods for the benefit of society. In other words, his economic model is focused on the principle of loss, rather than on accumulation. In expending one's wealth for others, Bataille sees the redistribution of this wealth as intrinsic to social justice and economic equality. He believes that this method of redistributing wealth will weaken the bourgeoisie tendency to expend wealth for selfish purposes, especially for war.

Sources: Reading Bataille now by Shannon Winnubst.

Georges Bataille: A critical introduction by Benjamin Noys.

The Headless Republic: Sacrificial violence in modern French thought by Jesse Goldhammer.

Bataille relishes the principle of absolute loss in his unproductive expenditure theory because it negates the prevailing dominance of economic models circumscribed by rigid rules. In essence, his theory is based on the philosophy of rebellion:

...Bataille expands the domain of unproductive expenditure beyond the economic realm: 'Luxury, mourning, war, cults, the construction of sumptuary monuments, games, spectacles, arts, perverse sexual activity (i.e. deflected from genital finality- all these represent activities which, at least in primitive circumstances, have no end beyond themselves.' (Bataille, The Notion of Expenditure).

Transgression.

Bataille uses the same principle of rebellion in his transgressive theory of life. If you look at the realm of transgressive fiction, you will see that many of the protagonists and characters in these stories focus on eliminating barriers to self-actualization through illicit and bizarre rituals/acts. The idea is to 'transgress' the limits of decency in order to realize self-expression and autonomy. Some examples of transgressive fiction include Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr, and of course, Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille.

Much of transgressive fiction concerns itself with taboo subjects such as necrophilia, pedophilia, incest, random acts of brutal violence, and cannibalism. In essence, Bataille and other authors like him take up subjects antithetical to socially acceptable norms.

Can we realistically live by Bataille's philosophy?

To answer this question, we must first ask ourselves some preliminary questions:

a)How feasible will it be to implement the potlatch concept of redistributive income on society? Can we realistically expect all our leaders to voluntarily submit to the unmitigated loss of their personal property and wealth?

b)If the principle of unproductive expenditures relate to areas as diverse as war and the reproductive system, how will we

i)repopulate the next generation of taxpayers to supplement the needs of the growing aging population in both western and eastern nations?

ii)work to secure our national security needs by investing in new technologies and weapons to combat terrorism?

c)How will society accept the nihilism of a Patrick Bates in American Psycho, who, in order to overcome his despair at living a materialistic lifestyle, chooses to indulge in bizarre acts of sexuality, coupled with brutal violence? Can we accept that all acts are self-actualizing, including murder, torture, and pedophilia?

Examining the personality of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.

In Lolita, can we accept Humbert Humbert's manipulation and victimization of the defenseless Lolita without reservation? How about the sadistic and macabre sexual acts perpetrated on the unsuspecting Don Aminado by the narrator and two other characters in Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye? In both instances, we would have to tolerate socially taboo practices such as necrophilia, pedophilia, and brutal physical violence as valid responses to despair and alienation.

In essence, should our need for self-actualization take into account the need for others to be safe from physical and emotional acts of violence?

Hopefully, such questions will help you examine your own thoughts about the feasibility of Bataille's philosophy for our modern age. Interesting question!

What promise does Winnie make to the toad in Tuck Everlasting?

Winnie promises the toad that she will leave home.

Winnie is feeling a little isolated at home, and wants to stretch her wings.  She tells the toad that she is going to run away from home to have an adventure.

Winnie Foster sat on the bristly grass just inside the fence and said to the large toad who was squatting a few yards away across the road, "I will, though. You'll see. Maybe even first thing tomorrow, while everyone's still asleep." (Ch. 3)

Winnie has befriended the toad partly because there are not a lot of kids around for her to play with.  She lives in a house in the woods and feels isolated, telling the toad “I don't think I can stand it much longer.”  This leads her to want to see what the world has to offer.

Winnie feels stifled by her mother and grandmother’s attention.  She thinks they are always fussing over her and don’t give her any room to breathe.

"See?" said Winnie to the toad. "That's just what I mean. It's like that every minute. If I had a sister or a brother, there'd be someone else for them to watch. But, as it is, there's only me. I'm tired of being looked at all the time. I want to be by myself for a change." (Ch. 3)

Winnie gets her wish when she wanders into the woods and accidentally drinks from the immortal spring.  Because of this, Jesse and his parents have to take Winnie with them so that they can explain the situation to her.  The Tucks mean well, but being kidnapped is frightening to Winnie at first, until she learns that the Tucks are good people. 

The experience leads Winnie to become more grown up and gives her something to fight for when Mae Tuck gets arrested.  Getting away from home turns out to be an eye-opening experience for Winnie.  She sees the world as a bigger place.  However, she still chooses not to become immortal.

Is there any hyperbole in A Christmas Carol?

Hyperbole is a literary term to describe the use of exaggerated or over-embellished language by a writer. In A Christmas Carol, we see many instances of hyperbole in Dickens' writing as he seeks to create a strong impression on the reader.

Looking at stave one, for example, Dickens uses hyperbole when he describes the physical appearance of Scrooge:

"The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice."

Of course, Scrooge doesn't really have cold inside him that has affected his features. This is a deliberate exaggeration which is used to emphasise Dickens' point that Scrooge is a cold-hearted and mean person. 

Similarly, Dickens also uses hyperbole to describe particular locations in A Christmas Carol. We see this, for instance, in the neighbourhood surrounding Old Joe's shop, in stave four:

"Alleys and archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged their offences of smell, and dirt, and life, upon the straggling streets; and the whole quarter reeked with crime, with filth, and misery."

Crime doesn't really have a smell but this exaggerated description goes a long way in building an atmosphere. By using this embellished language, Dickens is engaging the reader's senses and creating an image which is so strong that it is virtually tangible. 

Use the sample data and a significance level of 0.01 to carry out a hypothesis test to test the administrator’s claim. Assume the number of beds...

For this numerical, we can use the t-test to determine if the null or alternate hypothesis is true. The null hypothesis is the administrator's claim that at least 185 beds are filled on any given day. The alternate hypothesis is the suspicion of board of directors that the number of filled beds is less than 185. Thus, this is a left-tailed test.

that is, 

One can calculate the required parameters using a calculator or any spreadsheet program.

The mean of the given data is 175 and the standard deviation is 14.283. Since the given significance level is 0.01, the confidence interval is 98% and the corresponding z-score is - 2.33. 

If the z-level is less than the z-score, we will reject null hypothesis and accept alternate hypothesis. If the z-level is more than z-score than the test is not statistically significant.

z-level =

Since the z-level is less than the z-score of -2.33, we reject the null hypothesis (administrator's claim) and accept the alternate hypothesis that the occupancy was less than 185 beds per day.

Hope this helps. 

How does Montag resolve his dilemma?

Montag's dilemma is living a meaningless life, void of purpose and happiness. Throughout the novel, Montag makes several important decisions that impact the trajectory of his life and resolve his dilemma. Montag resolves his dilemma by first opening a book and attempting to understand it. In the dystopian future society Montag lives in, it is illegal to own a book, much less read and study one. He makes the conscious decision to contact Faber, a retired English professor, to help him understand the meaning of texts. Montag effectively kills his authoritative boss, Captain Beatty, and flees the city. He makes another important decision to locate a group of travelling intellectuals that aid him in understanding and memorising literature. Montag's series of critical decisions help him to resolve his dilemma by leaving the insensitive, censored society to begin his journey of becoming an intellectual. The novel ends when the city is destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and Montag walks towards the obliterated buildings with the hope of rebuilding a literate society. Montag finds meaning in his life, thus resolving his dilemma. 

How are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth presented as mentally disturbed?

Aside from the fact that killing for power is in itself a form of mental unrest, there are many times in the play where each of them seem to have lost their minds. The most clear evidence is Lady Macbeth, who becomes insane with guilt. She continually tries to wash the blood from her hands, crying "Out damned spot!" when of course there is actually no blood on her hands at all. This is a sign of how her horrible actions have brought her to madness.

Macbeth himself grows increasingly paranoid and also shows sings of insanity. Banquo's ghost may not be real, since only Macbeth is able to see it. This suggests that perhaps it is an illusion and that he too is suffering from hallucinations brought on by guilt and madness. Combine this with the couple's horrible actions and and we begin to see how these two people are clearly mentally unwell.

Explain what laws provide for a civilization.

Different people might disagree as to which laws are necessary in order to “provide for a civilization” (to me, this means to make civilization possible). My view is informed by the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke.  I would argue that true civilization cannot exist unless there are laws to protect people’s lives, liberty, and property.

In order for civilization to exist, people have to feel that they benefit from living together and being governed.  According to Locke and others, we need to have government in order to protect our basic rights.  These thinkers argue that we have the inherent rights to our lives, our liberty, and our property. However, we cannot really protect these things if we do not have government. If we do not have government, we have to protect our lives, liberty, and property with our own strength. We can only keep these things if we are strong enough to defeat those people who try to take them from us. When we create civilizations, we do so in order to protect these rights more effectively than we can do alone.

Following this logic, we need laws that will protect our lives, our liberty, and our property.  We need laws against murder.  We need laws against slavery and against arbitrary imprisonment.  We need laws against theft and against the government simply taking our property because they want it.  If we have laws like these, we can have true civilization.

How does John Knowles depict Phineas as "too good to be true" or "too good to be a mere mortal" in A Separate Peace?

A Separate Peace is written from Gene Forrester's (a character's) point of view. Any depiction of Phineas is described through his jealous, and sometimes sarcastic, filter. That being said, Phineas is portrayed almost as a Christ-like figure because he seems so completely perfect at times, yet he becomes a victim who is broken both physically and mentally and eventually dies an early death. As a result, Finny is described as immortal or "too good to be true" at times.

Phineas as a Savior:

"If Finny hadn't come up right behind me. . . if he hadn't been there . . . I could have fallen on the bank and broken my back! If I had fallen awkwardly enough I could have been killed. Finny had practically saved my life" (32).

Phineas is a strong, competitive athlete, and always a winner. The following passage describes him after playing Blitzball, a game he just so happened to have made up:

". . . after some of these plays I would notice him chuckling quietly to himself, in a kind of happy disbelief. In such a nonstop game he also had the natural advantage of a flow of energy which I never saw interrupted. I never saw him tired, never really winded, never overcharged and never restless. . . Phineas always had a steady and formidable flow of usable energy" (39-40).

Phineas is also humble because he breaks the school swim record with only Gene looking on, but he makes him promise not to tell anyone. For Phineas, it seemed easy--not much of a challenge at all--so there's no reason to brag about it. Gene describes it as follows:

"To keep silent about this amazing happening deepened the shock for me. It made Finny seem too unusual for--not friendship, but too unusual for rivalry" (45).

Another god-like quality that Phineas possesses is that of forgiveness. He forgave Gene for jouncing him in the tree that one summer day, even before the mock trial half a year after the incident. Gene wanted to make sure his apology sunk in, though, when Finny's broke his leg a second time. Finny's answer to Gene's apology is beautiful:

"He was nodding his head, his jaw tightening and his eyes closed on the tears. 'I believe you. It's okay because I understand and I believe you. You've already shown me and I believe you" (191).

Sadly, Finny dies during surgery due to some bone marrow getting into the blood and then stopping the heart. After all of the depictions of Finny being invincible, it sure is tragic that it had to end that way for him.

What is the relationship between you and your cousin's daughter or son?

I assume that you are asking what we would call the way that I would be related to such a person.  I also assume that you are asking about the daughters or sons of my own first cousins.  If these assumptions are correct, the answer to your question is that these people would be my first cousins once removed.

We are all familiar with the concept of first cousins.  These are people who have different parents than us, but who share a set of grandparents.  Put differently, these are the children of our parents’ siblings.  We are of the same generation as our first cousins since we are both two generations away from our grandparents.

However, when our first cousins have children, we and they (the children) are not of the same generation.  Instead, we are two generations away from our common ancestor while the children are three generations away.  Our grandparents are their great-grandparents.  Therefore, we call them our first cousins once removed because they are “removed” from us by one generation.

If we also have children of our own, they become the second cousins of our first cousins’ children.  So, if my first cousin and I each have offspring, my offspring and hers are second cousins while my offspring and my cousin (and her offspring and I) are first cousins once removed.

Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a radical?

The answer to this question depends on perspective. During his life, King was suspected by the federal government of communist ties, and was subjected to surveillance by the FBI for this reason. King was not a communist. That said, over the years, King, or perhaps more accurately King's rhetoric, has become very much a part of our national culture. In the process, it has lost some of its power, its fire, and perhaps, some might say, its radicalism. Historian Tim Tyson has said that Americans have come to view King as a sort of "innocuous...Santa Claus."

The reasons for this are many. King has become a seminal American figure, and people on both ends of the ideological spectrum can identify with his words about equality, love, and nonviolence. But King's rhetoric and personal beliefs went beyond this, to ideas that many Americans then and now found unsettling. For one thing, King was vehemently against the Vietnam War, which he saw as unjust and fought disproportionately by the nation's poor, especially African-American young men. King openly spoke of the ways the issues of "class" were intertwined with issues or "race," and argued for structural economic reform as a way of attacking racism, especially as it affected America's inner cities. As one historian has argued, King's place was among the "non-communist interracial democratic left."  Late in his life he argued for reparations for African-Americans, increasingly advocated direct action in labor disputes (like the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, Tennessee he was supporting when he was assassinated), and consistently pushed President Lyndon Johnson to devote more energy and money to the Great Society. 

All of this is not to say that King is a radical, but simply that he was perhaps more radical than is currently understood in American popular memory. His efforts went beyond political equality for African-Americans to more controversial demands for substantive economic measures that would redistribute wealth to marginalized people. It should be noted that King's radicalism was also downplayed by Sixties radicals themselves. By the end of his life, he had earned the enmity of many more militant elements (the Black Power movement) in the New Left, mostly for his refusal to compromise on nonviolence.

Which of the following best explains why air pollution that was once blamed for global cooling is now considered responsible for global warming?...

If you stop and consider what global warming is, the answer choice will come into sharper view.  Global warming is the increase of temperatures world-wide. 

What would cause a world-wide increase in temperatures?  Well, let's think about things that would trap heat, or produce heat and keep it contained.  When you think along the lines produced, trapped, contained heat, answer selection "C" makes a lot of sense: "Scientists mistakenly thought pollution reflected sunlight and heat rather than absorbing it" is the best pick out of the answers listed.  The increase of manufacturing world-wide, the rise in the number of countries consuming electricity, the over-production of gases in the atmosphere, which do that very thing, which trap and absorb heat, is what contributes the most to the phenomenon known as global warming. 

To survey all the answers, answer "A" is "C" in reverse while answer "B" is too general, not specific enough.  Answer selection "D" is generally good but in reverse order of how events occurred or were perceived (global warming occurred and was perceived before global climate change).

What were some of the roles women and children played in the Qing dynasty? What are some examples?

The role of women and children in the Qing Dynasty depended greatly on social class and rank. Overall, the home consisted of large extended family, all of whom played some sort of role in raising and developing the child. Women were primarily responsible for child-rearing in all classes and were also often responsible for the child's early education. Women also were responsible for caring for the house and cleaning. They also did activities such as embroidery, sewing, and cooking. Elite women may also have read or done calligraphy. All of this being said, the Qing Dynasty also brought along great change for women. For the first time, women were allowed to fight in battle alongside men, could receive payment for work in the fields, and were permitted to engage in leisure activities. Women in lower classes got jobs as wet nurses, shopkeepers, or storytellers. Women in higher social classes had more restrictions as far as jobs went.

Young children were not separated based on gender, but would play together until about age 7 or 8. At this time, divisions would be more clearly defined. Elite boys would begin to attend school. Boys who were not raised in elite classes or were from peasant households would begin to engage in more strenuous work, perhaps in the fields, or would gain new duties in a shop or studio. Young girls would learn skills from other women in the household regarding how to be more feminine, such as learning to sew and cook.

Does Rip Van Winkle have an interesting relationship to the author's life or career?

One interesting fact about "Rip Van Winkle" is that it was written in England and despite its vivid and beautiful description of the Catskill mountains, Irving had never visited there. So when he writes

the magical hues and shapes of these mountains ... are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingle-roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape ...

That is imagination at play ... or maybe more a description of a European setting. For a second interesting fact about the story is that Irving based it and other stories in his short story collection, called  The Sketch Book, on German folk tales. He was encouraged to do so while in England by his friend, the famous British writer Sir Walter Scott. That could explain why the appearance of the mysterious forest folk, who look like characters from a German fairy tale, are so much more fully described than Rip. Thus, we have a classic American tale with descriptions of an American setting Irving had never seen and based not on American lore but on German folktales. Interesting, eh?

Finally, Irving had declared bankruptcy not long before writing the collection of stories that includes "Rip Van Winkle," so he needed the money badly. 

In "A Christmas Carol," were the two women and the man selling items from Scrooge's room or office to Old Joe?

In stave 4 of A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge a scene in which he has died and two women are selling his belongings  to Old Joe. What is most important about this scene is not that Scrooge has died, as death is inevitable, but the fact that Scrooge's belongings have been left for anybody to come and take. The two women have all manner of goods, from sugar tongs to boots and curtains, which they have removed from Scrooge's house. 

The key question here is why were all these items left in the house, for anyone to take? One of the women sums up the answer perfectly:

"Why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself.''

In other words, Scrooge had died alone because he was a cold and greedy person who made no effort to cultivate relationships with others. As such, his house was left untouched after his death because nobody cared about the fate of his possessions nor wished to have a memento of him. Looking on, Scrooge realises the impact of this message and it aids in the transformation of his character. We see evidence of this in Scrooge's remarks to the ghost: "The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way, now."

A potassium foil is placed at a distance 0.5 m from the light source whose output power is 0.1 Watt. How long would it take for foil to saturate...

If the output power of the light source is P = 0.1 Watt, the intensity of the light at the location of the potassium foil (d = 0.5 meters away) will be

This means the power (or the rate of energy) at which the circular area of foil with the given radius m will absorb the light will be

W. (We can neglect the fact that the points on this piece of foil are possibly at different distances from the light source because the radius is so much smaller than the distance from the light source.)

So the energy rate at which the given area absorbs the light is

. Assuming the rate is uniform, the energy absorbed during time t will be

. The energy required to eject and electron is

.

Thus, the time it will take to absorb this energy is

It would take the foil 170.4 seconds to saturate enough energy to absorb an electron.

First make a substitution and then use integration by parts to evaluate the integral

You need to use the substitution , such that:

Replacing the variable, yields:

You need to use the integration by parts such that:

Replacing back the variable, yields:

Using the fundamental theorem of integration, yields:

Hence, evaluating the integral, using substitution, then integration by parts, yields

Who came calling on Kit?

Kit is the hot item in town.  She's new to the Puritan community, and she is coming from the exotic location of Barbados.  In addition to that, she doesn't have a wardrobe full of the "drab" Puritan clothes.  Very early on in the book, she attends church, while wearing some of her finery.  William Ashby sees Kit, and he takes an immediate liking to her.  After that, William Ashby came to Uncle Matthew's house to ask if he could call on Kit.  He says yes, but William's request is a bit of a surprise.  Everybody assumed that William would ask to court Judith.  As it turns out, Kit and William are not a good match.  Kit breaks off the engagement late in the book, and Judith and William immediately become a thing. 

What is the unity of place and time in Hamlet?

The idea of unity of time and unity of place comes from Aristotle's Poetics. In discussing the difference between an epic and a tragedy, Aristotle defines unity of time, place, and action. 

In Poetics, Aristotle says epics and tragedies differ. While epics can cover long periods of time and are set in many different places, tragedies should have unity of time and place. The events of a tragedy, ideally, should "as far as possible, confine [themselves] to a single revolution of the sun." Obviously, the events of Hamlet take more than 24 hours, but when compared to the Epic of Gilgamesh or The Odyssey, Hamlet's timeline is not unbelievably long to an audience watching the play.

In addition, the action of a play should all take place in the same general physical setting. At it's most extreme, this looks like Oedipus Rex, where all the action of the place takes place outside the castle. Anything that happens away from that setting is not shown by the actors, but related through the dialogue. In Hamlet, most of the action is in or around the royal court in Elsinore, Denmark. When Hamlet goes to England, for example, the audience doesn't see any of that; they just hear about it afterwards, back in Denmark. In this way, Hamlet has unity of place as well.

How do I compare Ender's game to Hamlet or Life of Pi? How would I format it in a comparative essay? I have 2 topics down but I don't know if...

Your initial thoughts are good for comparing and contrasting those three literature pieces.  The second thought, comparing appearance and reality is the stronger of your two ideas.  Your first idea is confusing to me and, and I'm unclear what "two truths" are being compared between Ender's Game  and Life of Pi. 

I would write the entire comparative essay on the appearance vs. reality concept.  The prompt that you provided said to compare Ender's Game to either story, not both. 

You are correct that Valentine Wiggin and Peter Wiggin represent two children who are lying about their knowledge and identity to the world.  That's the same as Hamlet and Claudius lying about their knowledge.  Don't forget that Valentine and Peter are not the only two deceivers in the book though.  Graff is a huge liar.  He doesn't ever tell Ender the whole truth.  Mazer Rackham isn't much better either.  There is absolutely a ton that you could do with your chosen topic and those two literature pieces.  

The second part of your question asked about how to format your essay into a comparative analysis.  That's nice for you, because then you don't have to contrast them.  Only focus on the similarities.  With that in mind, you can set yourself up with a statement/reason thesis statement.  Make a statement, and provide reasons.  For example: "Ender's Game and Hamlet both show the theme of deception through various character lies and the intentional withholding of the truth."  

The above thesis gives you plenty of room to analyze a bunch of different characters and their appearance/reality relationship.  It also lets you talk about plot events too.  Make sure the thesis is the last sentence of your first paragraph.  Be sure that each following paragraph relates back to the thesis.  Use quotes from each novel whenever possible.  

Please answer this question for I have a test coming up. My question is: Q. Given that the points (1,-1), (2,2) and (4,t) are collinear, find the...

If three points are collinear the area of the triangle formed by them is 0.

The formula to find area of a triangle formed by three points is

Now the given points and are colliner. So the area is 0

Lets take these points as and substitute in the formula

The required answer is t = 8

What part of the atmosphere has no weather disturbance? http://education.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/atmosphere/

The atmosphere is the gases that surround the Earth. It can be subdivided into layers going from the layer closest to Earth's surface upward until the atmosphere merges with interplanetary space. 

The troposphere which is closest to Earth's surface extends about 10 km and is the place where weather occurs. The stratosphere, mesosphere, and exosphere do NOT experience weather conditions like those in the lower troposphere layer!

The next layer is the stratosphere where the temperature is fairly uniform and winds are very steady hence airplanes fly here to avoid weather conditions in the troposphere. This layer extends upward from 10-45 km.  In this layer we find the ozone layer which helps to shield Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. However, most weather patterns are in the troposphere below and NOT in the stratosphere. It is quite stable in this layer, and there is little convection due to the fact that air temperature increases as altitude increases in the stratosphere.

Next is the mesosphere where temperatures steadily drop and this extends from 45-80 km. upward. This is where meteors burn up usually as they enter the atmosphere and sometimes lightning can occur. There are strange clouds that form sometimes in this layer, but are not associated with weather patterns like those in the troposphere. 

The thermosphere is next which is extremely hot and extends from 80 to 500 km up. The amount of air is very thin in this layer and no weather conditions occur.

The exosphere is last which extends from 500 km until it merges with space. 

The layer closest to Earth which is the troposphere is where we experience storms, winds and clouds which are all features of weather patterns and the other higher layers do not!

Could Penelope be related to the repeated line "rose fingered dawn" in the Odyssey?

Although there is one use of "rosy-fingered dawn" that relates directly to Odysseus and Penelope, which I will discuss briefly below, it is unlikely that the phrase "rose-fingered dawn" (and all its variations) can be identified with Penelope.

In Homeric epics like The Iliad and The Odyssey, the poet uses phrases known as epithets which, when they refer to gods or certain men, usually great warriors, become a formulaic reference.  "Rosy-fingered dawn," for example, is used many times in Homeric and classical literature to refer to the goddess Eos (also, Aurora, Dawn), who brings the first light of day, usually red or rosy, from the East.  If we were to count the number of times this epithet for Eos is used in The Iliad or The Odyssey, we would probably discover no significant difference.  More importantly, classical writers after Homer used the same epithet many times, including Virgil in the Aeniad.  Similar epithets include phrases like "the grey-eyed goddess Athena" (also, "blue-eyed"), "swift-footed Achilles," and "father of us, sovereign above all rulers," a very common reference to Zeus in The Odyssey. Epithets are rhetorical devices in that they take an abstraction--dawn, for example--and make the abstraction a concrete image, something that everyone can understand.  Homeric epithets may have developed from earlier poetic traditions for Greek mythological figures, and they may have developed as part of oral literature in order to help the poet, who relied on memory to recite hundreds of lines, recall the beginnings of important sections.

Your question about Dawn and Penelope may arise from a section of Book 23 in which Athena brings about the dawn after Odysseus and Penelope have been able to make love and sleep after Odysseus has gotten rid of the suitors:

When [Athena] felt that Odysseus had taken his full pleasure/in making love with his wife and sleeping beside her [Penelope],/she permitted Dawn to leave the river of Ocean/and bring the first light to mankind.

What is important here is that Athena, not Dawn, is in control of the action.  Odysseus and his family are still in jeopardy, and Athena continues to guide them as they try to find a way to satisfy all the relatives of the slain suitors.  In this scene, as in other appearances, Dawn fulfills an important function based on her Homeric significance as an epithet.

What does Olivia keep trying to get from Viola/Cesario?

In short, Olivia is trying to win Cesario's love. Olivia has fallen in love with Cesario, who is really Viola in disguise. While she is not at all subtle in her love, her actions are all with the direct intention of getting Cesario to return to the house. First, she sends Malvolio after Cesario with a ring and the message that Viola left it behind. Olivia knows that Cesario will have to return in order to return the ring. When Cesario does come back, Olivia admits that she sent Malviolio with the ring and knew that Cesario had not left it. She reveals her feelings for Cesario during this exchange, and when she is rejected, she begs him to return again. Her desperation leads her to reason that if Cesario returns, maybe she will be persuaded to love Orsino. Olivia knows that if she indicates that there is a chance she could love Orsino, Cesario will have to return because it is his job to woo her for Orsino.

In "The Cask of Amontillado," how would you describe the persona that Poe has created for Montresor? Why might Poe have chosen someone like...

Montresor's character is defined by his extreme intelligence, cunning, and pride.  His personal pride and family pride combine to render him incapable of bearing Fortunato's "insult," whatever that may be.  He has already borne a "thousand injuries" at the hands of his nemesis, but however he has been insulted appears to have wounded his pride, and this means he must exact his revenge.  Further, his family pride compels him to live up to the Montresor family motto: "You will not harm me with impunity" (translated from the Latin).  His family pride means that he must retaliate for all the injuries he has received; his personal pride means that he must retaliate in such a way that he can never be punished for it.  "I must not only punish," he says, "but punish with impunity."  His intelligence and cunning render him supremely capable of achieving this goal.  His vocabulary alone indicates how smart he is, and his ability to "smile in [Fortunato's] face" without Fortunato perceiving that Montresor "smile[d] now [...] at the thought of his immolation" conveys his capacity for dissembling.

Poe needs a character like Montresor because a character who was less intelligent or cunning would not be able to pull off this crime, and, likewise, he must be this proud or else he would never be incited or motivated to commit the crime.  He plans out the entire trap so perfectly, exploiting Fortunato's one "weak point," hiding his own face and person while in the street so that he could not be identified later, arranging it so that his servants will all be gone without actually telling them to leave, and surreptitiously urging Fortunato onward by insisting that he turn back so that he understands, in the end, that it was his own pride that Montresor effectively used as a weapon against him.

The moral of "To Build a Fire" is that survival requires imagination. Agree or disagree?

Think of it this way.  Did the dog need his imagination in order to survive the frigid cold?  The dog relied solely on his instincts and knowledge of nature to make it out alive. The man, however, due to his ego, felt that he was invincible and that nothing could possibly happen to him. After all, he had a sandwich and some matches, right?  There’s only one thing wrong with that reasoning, and it is told to us at the beginning of the story.  The man is a newcomer to the area and hasn’t had any previous experience in such an environment. In nature, man must rely on his knowledge and experience when dealing with nature’s severity because he has lost all of his basic animal instincts.  Experience would have kept the man in the story from panicking and building a fire under a bough heavy with snow as well as prevented him from lighting all the matches at once.  He would have stopped and rested more, and he would have observed the thin ice before he fell through it.  

Although imagination can be a useful tool, it is no match for common sense, knowledge, and experience when one is dealing with an unforgiving nature. 

What systems does the endocrine system work with?

The endocrine system consists of organs known as glands which are ductless and produce secretions known as hormones, that are transported through the body by the circulatory system.

Hormones are chemical messengers which  bind to chemical receptors on cells which are known as target cells. One type of hormone is known as  a steroid hormone which can cross cell membranes and travel through to the nucleus, enter and switch genes on or off. There are also nonsteroid hormones which require secondary messengers to transport their message inside of target cells. 

Basically, the endocrine system helps to maintain homeostasis throughout the body and it works with all of the body's systems. Hormones work by feedback mechanisms.  If there is a high level of a hormone in the blood, this may trigger a gland to secrete less of the hormone in negative feedback, or to release more of the hormone in positive feedback.  Sometimes, two hormones with opposite effects help maintain homeostasis. An example is the hormone insulin secreted by the endocrine glands known as Islets Cells on the pancreas, which lowers blood sugar by causing excess sugar to be stored in liver and muscle cells and the hormone glucagon, which causes stored sugar to be released to the blood when needed. This example shows how the endocrine system works with the digestive system, the circulatory system and the muscular system to maintain sugar levels in the body.

Sex hormones released by the endocrine system glands--ovaries and testes, affect the reproductive system by regulating the female menstrual cycle which begins at puberty and allows a woman to release an egg each month. It also affects the male reproductive system to allow it to produce sperm cells. These hormones also produce secondary sexual characteristics that occur at puberty.

An endocrine system gland called the pituitary gland works with the skeletal system because when it produces human growth hormone (HGH) it stimulates the growth of bone cells to divide which increases a person's height. The pituitary gland has the name "master gland" because of the many hormones it makes which effect many systems of the body.

The thyroid gland makes the hormone thyroxin that affects metabolism. The metabolism involves many systems of the body--how fast foods are metabolized to release energy which involves the respiratory and digestive systems, along with the a which has to do with heart rate and blood flow.

Adrenal glands located on top of the kidneys secrete adrenaline, the flight or fight hormone which affects the skeletal and muscular systems to be ready during emergencies and the circulatory system which pumps more blood.

These are just a few examples of the many systems of the body, such as the nervous system, that are affected by the hormones produced by the endocrine system.

What are some examples of expectation vs reality in Great Expectations?

Pip expected to marry Estella, but it turned out that his money did not come from Miss Havisham.

Pip is convinced that his fortune came from Miss Havisham.  It makes sense, since she is the only rich person he knows.  He thinks that he was given the money so that he can become a gentleman and marry Estella.  Boy is he wrong.

When Pip realizes that Magwitch, and not Miss Havisham, is his benefactor, he is horrified.  First of all, he is the adopted son of a criminal.  This is not something that advances him in society at all.  Also, he is guilty by association.  The worst part, however, is that he doesn’t get to marry Estella.

Miss Havisham's intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practise on when no other practice was at hand; those were the first smarts I had. (Ch. 39)

As far as Pip is concerned, most of his life has been a lie.  Since he was young he has loved Estella.  Since he received his expectations he has assumed that he would marry her. To find out that he was wrong is horrifying.  He realizes that he has turned his back on people who did care about him, like Joe, and he didn’t need to.

Another example of the difference between expectations and reality is Magwitch.  He gave everything he had to Pip, and considered him a son from afar.  Even though Pip had no idea that Magwitch was his benefactor, Magwitch felt pride in Pip’s progress toward being a gentleman.  When he arrived, he found that Pip did not exactly welcome him with open arms.  Pip was actually horrified of him.  Eventually Pip accepted responsibility for Magwitch, and after a while showed him affection, but things were rocky.

Miss Havisham was facing her own battle between expectations and reality.  She raised Estella to get revenge on men, and expected her to go out and break hearts and continue to do her bidding.  Estella had different ideas though. She married Drummle to get back at Miss Havisham and take herself out of the game.

"You should know," said Estella. "I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me." (Ch. 38)

Estella was incapable of love.  This was what Miss Havisham's training did to her.  By turning Miss Havisham's methods against her, Estella gets some small measure of revenge.  It broke Miss Havisham's heart (or what little was left of it).

In the end, no one is happy.  Miss Havisham, Pip, Estella, and Magwitch are all miserable.  They all had high expectations, but reality crushed them.

How did convoluted and fragmented governments become one of the reasons for WWI?

WWI was in many ways the product of the turning century. Many old forms of government and diplomatic protocol still held sway over large portions of Europe. Some of the old guard who held this delicate web in balance were exiting at this point in history. Most importantly of all, Otto von Bismarck was dismissed after years of diplomatic finesse in European relations. Many of the convoluted treaties and marriages that were facilitated by Bismarck were inscrutable to less talented diplomats. Many of the checks and balances in place were not implemented, and as a result, relations quickly deteriorated between Germany and the rest of Europe over their increasingly powerful military. 

It was this upset balance, paired with Germany's increasingly powerful navy, that intimidated Great Britain, creating an atmosphere of hostility. Germany, quite rightly, become paranoid at the notion of becoming "encircled" by hostile nations. One recourse to the threat of inevitable war was to strike early and quickly, which became the German plan heading into WWI. 

Was Hamlet actually going mad in the play? Or was it just an act?

Determining whether or not Hamlet was actually "mad" has been a favorite topic of Shakespeare scholars for decades. It seems to have been left open for interpretation entirely. Generally, there are two schools of thought on the topic: A) That Hamlet is MAD, and B) That Hamlet is not mad, but in his crafty way has developed a disguise of 'madness' in order to facilitate his revenge plot against Claudius. The second lends itself to a far more interesting and nuanced interpretation, and seems to be supported by Hamlet's own words. 

It is the character Polonius who first accuses Hamlet of madness, when he goes to talk to Gertrude about her son. This is in Act 2, scene 2: 

I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. 
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness, 
What is't but to be nothing else but mad? 

His words, however, must be taken with a grain of salt, as he is only trying to look out for the best interests of his daughter Ophelia. In an aside, later in the scene, however, even he concedes to the audience that there is "method" to Hamlet's madness--suggesting that it is more planned than the Prince wants to let on. Then, in act 3 scene 1, Hamlet's friend Guildenstern makes a similar remark when he describes Hamlet's madness as "crafty".

Hamlet's uncle Claudius doesn't even really believe in the truth of Hamlets "madness": 

Love? his affections do not that way tend; 
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, 
Was not like madness. There's something in his soul 
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood; 
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose 
Will be some danger... (III, I)

But the words which should best be believed are likely Hamlet's own, in a conversation with Gertrude:

My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time 
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
That I have utt'red. Bring me to the test, 
And I the matter will reword; which madness
Would gambol from. 

[...]

Make you to ravel all this matter out, 
That I essentially am not in madness, 
But mad in craft. (III, IV)

It seems clear then from this that Hamlet is not really "MAD", but just pretending in order to successfully carry out his plans. 

How did northerners feel about Reconstruction?

The northern attitudes about Reconstruction changed over time. After the Civil War ended in 1865, many Northerners believed that they had to rebuild the South to make sure it was reformed. They pushed for the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to, respectively, end slavery, confer citizenship on former slaves, and give all men the right to vote. In addition, the federal government established the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865 to help former slaves reunite with lost family members; over time, the Freedmen's Bureau tried to teach former slaves to read and write. However, Reconstruction did not generally involve providing most former slaves with land, and many southerners sought to overturn the gains that African-Americans had made during Reconstruction by instituting Black Codes. These laws often tied former slaves to plantations and did not permit them to work freely; the laws also limited the right of former slaves to vote and to exercise other rights.

In 1867, the federal government instituted Military Reconstruction, which carved the south (except Tennessee) into five military districts, each overseen by a Northern general. The southern states were required to pass the 14th Amendment and to create new state delegations and constitutions. The southern states were all permitted to rejoin the union by 1870.

By the 1870s, many northerners began to lose interest in Reconstruction for several reasons. First, some felt that they had done all they could to help former slaves with the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and the establishment of the Freedman's Bureau and Military Reconstruction. Second, violence in the south conducted by the KKK and other forces was weakening the power of the Freedman's Bureau, which was terminated in the early 1870s. Finally, the Panic of 1873, a financial crisis, lessened northerners' interest in spending more federal funds to reconstruct the south. Reconstruction ended in 1877 with the election of President Hayes. The 1876 election, between the Democrat Samuel Tilden and the Republican Rutherford Hayes, was disputed. In exchange for allowing Hayes to be President, the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the south, ending Reconstruction. This agreement is known as the Compromise of 1877.

From Coelho's The Alchemist, what might the habits of Santiago's sheep symbolize?

At the beginning of Coelho's The Alchemist, Santiago is traveling the countryside with his flock of sheep. He muses to himself about his sheep as follows:

"They were content with just food and water, and, in exchange, they generously gave of their wool, their company, and--once in a while--their meat" (7).

The sheep represent most people in the world who do not seek or discover their Personal Legends; and, in fact, daily habits get in the way of finding our personal treasures. Most people go along in life working to supply themselves and their families with the basic necessities of life--and there's nothing wrong with that unless these daily habits distract us from something greater. People may also give generously of what they have and live content lives without any regrets; but, the main theme of the book is that a person can only achieve one's highest potential after fulfilling one's own Personal Legend. Santiago's thoughts even turn a bit darker regarding his sheep as in the following passage:

"If I became a monster today, and decided to kill them, one by one, they would become aware only after most of the flock had been slaughtered" (7).

This is a scary thought because if the sheep represent people in the world, then the parallel could be extended accordingly. How many people have the habit of only focussing on daily responsibilities that they do not notice opportunities to succeed or to improve their quality of life right in front of them? It is sad, but people can become like sheep if they are only focused on living out their daily lives without any more purpose than to find something to eat each day. Coelho stresses throughout the book that we can become more than just sheep in life; in fact, we can discover our highest potential if we seek to discover our Personal Legend.

In The Merchant Of Venice why did Arragon reject the lead casket ?

When Prince Arragon reads the inscription on the lead casket, he sees the following:

'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'

He responds:

You shall look fairer, ere I give or hazard.

The prince's response is quite ambiguous. He is either addressing Portia or the casket itself. Before he took a look, he referred to lead as 'base', which means that he does not deem it worthy enough. In this sense then, one could interpret that he is referring to the lead casket. He means that it should look better before he is prepared to give or risk all that he has. The casket is not appealing enough for him to do so.

Alternatively, he might be referring to Portia. She is not beautiful enough for him to do what the inscription demands. One could also interpret his statement as a reference to both Portia and the casket. In this regard, his remark is quite hurtful. However, since he is depicted as quite arrogant (hence the play on his name, 'Arragon') it is not an unexpected reaction.

Further evidence of his arrogance is shown when he comments about the writing on the gold casket: 

'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire'.

The prince sees himself as being a breed apart. He is different and refuses to be deemed common. He interprets the word 'many' as meaning the 'fool multitude' who is easily deceived by gold's false glitter. Moreover, he 

... will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.

as previously mentioned.

It is ironic that the prince chooses the silver casket for two reasons. Firstly, the inscription promises:

'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves:'

The prince believes that he deserves the best and in his vanity assumes that that is definitely what the casket holds. He deserves Portia and is confident that she is what he will get. He is sorely mistaken, however, for the casket renders a fool's head and the inscription inside states that the idiot who had chosen the casket would now not only have one fool's head but two.

It is ironic that the prince had earlier stated that he will assume 'desert' for he had just gotten his 'just desserts.' He was rightly rewarded for his arrogance and conceit and was given exactly what was his due. 

According to Richard Elliott Friedman in Who Wrote the Bible, pages 217-245, and Arthur Rowe in The Essence of Jesus, what is mysticism, and how...

Theology, which is the spiritual preference of Western culture in general, means the study of God and/or religion. Theologians believe that believers may attain some sort of communion with or connection to God through a study of the Bible (His Word) as well as deeper research and discussion of the philosophies contained within the Bible. In other words, you can "know" God by learning everything about God. 

On the other hand, the main tenet of Eastern mysticism is that God is a mystery, unable to be solved through human intelligence, no matter how much we study. Mystics commonly believe that there are other ways for us to commune with God, whether through certain rites and rituals, repetitive prayers, ceremonies, et cetera.

In summary, mystics offer "spiritual" ways to be close to God, while theologians offer intellectual ways.

Write the trigonometric form of the number.

To convert a complex number

to its trigonometric form

the formulas needed are:

Applying these two formulas,  the r and of 

will be:

Plugging them to 

result to:

Therefore, the trigonometric form of     is    .

How do Holden and Stradlater treat Ackley? How would you describe the relationship between Ackley and Holden?

Holden Caulfield and Ward Stradlater are roommates at Pencey Prep. Next door to their room lives Robert Ackley who is a senior, somewhat of a loner, and has very bad hygiene. Ackley gets along pretty well with Holden, but he does not like Stradlater because he thinks he's too rich and conceited. Holden identifies this accusation as false and reminds Ackley why he's really upset at Stradlater, as follows:

"The reason you're sore at Stradlater is because he said that stuff about brushing your teeth once in awhile. He didn't mean to insult you, for cryin' out loud. He didn't say it right or anything, but he didn't mean anything insulting. All he meant was you'd look better and feel better if you sort of brushed your teeth once in awhile" (24).

Holden seems pretty genuine when he tells Ackley this. Holden may think that Ackley is gross and disgusting, but he does not want to hurt the guy. Plus, it seems as if Holden truly believes that Stradlater told Ackley to brush his teeth more often in an effort to help him rather than to insult him. Stradlater must not have done a good job on the delivery, though, because Holden admits "he didn't say it right." Usually Holden will blatantly point it out if someone is being phony, and Holden doesn't call Stradlater a phony in this situation. Also, Stradlater always says something nice to Ackley when he enters the room, but Ackley won't answer back. Ackley must feel inferior compared to Stradlater, so he doesn't like him. Stradlater might feel superior, but he wouldn't say it to Ackley's face if he does. Stradlater may not hang out with Ackley, but he doesn't bully him or beat up on him in any way, either.

As far as Ackley and Holden's relationship, it seems like they are somewhat friends. Holden mostly feels sorry for Ackley in every way. He takes pity on the fact that Ackley stays in the dorm most Saturday nights rather than hanging out with friends or going on dates. Holden is younger, but he asks Ackley to go with him and his buddy Brossard to get hamburgers and see a movie. Ackley demonstrates that he and Holden talk more than mere acquaintances because he knows that Holden has been kicked out of school and asks Holden if he's told his parents yet. It would seem, then, that the two have some type of friendship even though they would seem like a mismatch for being close buddies. 

I need a summary of the character Arnold Friend in the story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates.

Arnold Friend is described in a way that makes him seem creepy and pathetic. He hangs around places where teenagers go, possibly because he is targeting young girls. Connie thinks he must be much older than she is, possibly thirty; she also noticed he might be wearing shoes designed to make him appear taller, which hints at his lack of self-confidence. This detail also might explain why he targets young girls, since his self-consciousness about his height may indicate he can't manage to connect sexually with women closer to his own age.

He has been watching Connie for a while and knows her friends' names, where they go and where her family is as well as what they look like. In modern parlance we'd call him a "stalker." He is clearly a predator, whose single-minded purpose is to seduce Connie, whether with his compliments and manipulative words (he says he is her lover, calls her pretty, and describes how close they will be if she lets him do what he wants), or by intimidation (he says he and his friend Ellie won't leave unless she comes out of her house). He is persuasive and aggressive, but does not use actual physical force. It seems to be a point of pride with him that he manages to talk Connie into coming with him, instead of resorting to physical violence. In this way he perpetuates a fantasy that Connie a willing participant, and not a victim, which hints at his narcissism and delusions of grandeur.

In which parts of the body does aerobic cellular respiration take place?

Cellular respiration is the process by which the food is broken down and energy is generated, in the form of ATP molecules. It is termed aerobic respiration, when oxygen is present; otherwise, it is known as anaerobic respiration (or fermentation). Aerobic cellular respiration is much more efficient process as compared to fermentation, in terms of energy produced per molecule of glucose consumed. 

Aerobic cellular respiration takes place inside our cells (except for probably muscle cells, where fermentation takes place, especially during exercise or strenuous labor), in organelles known as mitochondria, which is also known as the power house of the (eukaryotic) cell. The process of aerobic cellular respiration consumes the oxygen that we breathe in and generates carbon dioxide (which is exhaled from our body) and water, along with ATP.

Hope this helps. 

In the novel Lord of the Flies, when does Jack become a filthy animal?

Jack becomes a filthy animal the moment he smears white and red clay all over his body. Jack claims that the clay and charcoal disguise him from the pigs while he is hunting. This takes place in Chapter 5, (pages 63 and 64 of my edition) of the novel Lord of the Flies. When Jack emerges from the forest concealed in "paint," Roger and the twins are intimidated and awestruck at his appearance. Golding mentions that the twins began to protest timidly, and Roger stared with an incomprehensible gaze at Jack. After Jack reapplies new clay and charcoal, he sees his reflection in the water and begins to laugh and dance. The narrator states that Jack's laughing becomes a bloodthirsty snarling. Jack's "mask" allows him to feel liberated from shame and reduces his self-consciousness. Jack is literally "filthy" because his body is covered with clay, dirt, and charcoal. Jack's mental state and psyche become "animalistic" when the paint is applied. This disguise allows Jack to become unbridled in his savagery, void of morality and civility. His primitive instincts parallel that of an animal. A fair description of Jack wearing his "war paint" would be a "filthy animal."

What are the similarities and differences between Mercutio and Tybalt?

In the play Romeo and Juliet, Tybalt and Mercutio stand out for their similarities as well as their differences.The most notable similarity is that they are both fiery-tempered and very quick to act. Tybalt is like a powder keg of hatred towards Romeo and all the Montagues, while Mercutio's temper is mercurial, volatile, excitable and temperamental. Tybalt is a defender of his family's honor and is quick to draw his sword at any slight provocation, while Mercutio wishes only to defend his friend Romeo and uses his wit to taunt Tybalt into a fight. Tybalt is all rage and impulse, whereas Mercutio likes to joke, talks incessantly and is very cynical about both love and hate, the two forces that motivate the main characters in the play. Tybalt is a man of few words but lots of action, while Mercutio loves to spin his tongue as evidenced in his Queen Mab speech in Act 1, scene 4 and his playful teasing of Juliet's nurse in Act 2, scene 4.

In Act 3, these two instigate the violence which leads to Romeo's revenge and exile. As Mercutio lies dying, he curses both their houses, which foreshadows the tragic ending for Romeo and Juliet, while Tybalt dies without saying a word.

In William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, why do Bassanio and Antonio go only to Shyolck for 3000 ductacs, rather than from any other...

If, as has been suggested, William Shakespeare adapted his play The Merchant of Venice from that of his prematurely-deceased contemporary Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta (also known more formally as The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta), then the answer to the question—why did Antonio and Bassanio approach Shylock for the loan rather than some other moneylender—lies in “the Bard’s” fealty to his source material.

Both Shakespeare and Marlowe’s plays are highly prejudicial towards Jewish people, replete with often crude stereotypes common to much of history. Historically, Jews were prevented by majority non-Jewish (often Christian) populations from serving in most professions. What little was left to Jews as a means of financial support often involved finances, including moneylending. The stereotype of the Jew as pernicious moneylender, then, took root and found its literary apotheosis in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. If Shakespeare, inspired by Marlowe, sought to build the dramatic half of his play (in contrast to the more comedic half, that involving the competition to win the fair Portia’s hand in marriage) around the issue of a barbaric financial arrangement, then, it was only natural that his antagonist would be a Jewish moneylender. After all, let’s look at Marlowe’s early description of his “Jew”:

“The story of a rich and famous Jew who lived in Malta: you shall find him still, in all his projects, a sound Machiavelli; and that’s his character.”

Now, could Shakespeare have had his protagonists approach a moneylender other than Shylock, who Antonio in particular views as the scum of the earth (In Act I, Scene III, Shylock verbally attacks Antonio, saying, “You call me a misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gabardine”)? Hypothetically, yeah, sure, but then what becomes of the play Shakespeare envisioned and adapted from that of Marlowe? Antonio and Bassanio’s dialogue makes clear that the answer to the former’s money woes, which are incurred for the benefit of the latter, lies in an arrangement with Shylock. The assumption is that Jewish moneylenders are the only option—that pernicious stereotype, again—and that Antonio will swallow his pride and arrive at an agreement with Shylock for the 3,000 ducats in exchange for a pound of his, Antonio’s, flesh should he fail to repay the loan within three months. Antonio is sufficiently confident and arrogant in his business dealings that he cannot envision a failure to repay Shylock in a timely manner. Responding to Bassanio’s reservations regarding such a barbaric arrangement, Antonio merely replies:

Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it:
Within these two months, that's a month before
This bond expires, I do expect return
Of thrice three times the value of this bond.

The short answer to the question regarding the source of funding for Bassanio’s plan to woo Portia is that Shylock is assumed to the be the most readily-available source of money (although Shylock himself notes that he will be borrowing the money from another party) and that Shakespeare’s narrative demands such a singular focal point for his protagonists’ ire and efforts at securing the needed money. For the purposes of the story, there was hardly need of injecting into the narrative a protracted debate about alternative sources of money, although Antonio does note early-on that he himself never charges interest.

How do the themes of "Miss Brill" play out in the text?

"Miss Brill" conveys several themes, but the most important one is that human beings feel a deep-seated need to belong, and this need is so powerful that it can prompt us to create elaborate fictions in order to keep ourselves from feeling isolated.

The mood of this story is established early on, and we should feel somewhat uneasy by the details that we learn.  First, though the air is still, "when you opened your mouth there was just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip." A chill is almost never a good thing: we often feel chilled when we are scared, we keep our homes warm to drive away the chill, someone who is described as "chilly" seems insensitive or emotionless. But Miss Brill (whose first name we never get, as her behavior seems to invite only chilly formality) is happy for the chance to wear her fox fur. Although she seems to believe that it is somewhat fancy and quite fetching -- she refers to it as a "little rogue" -- we get a number of clues that the reality doesn't match her perception of it. It just came out of moth-powder, with dim eyes, and has a nose that has almost become detached. It sounds as though it has clearly seen better days. Though Miss Brill seems somewhat playful as she considers her fur, as "she breathed, something light and sad - no, not sad, exactly - something gentle seemed to move in her bosom." By now, we can tell that all is not as it seems to Miss Brill. She is excited to leave her home, but there is an uncomfortable chill in the air; she feels fetching in her fur, but it is clear that it is quite old and decrepit; and she feels some kind of discontent within herself despite all of her attempts to keep it at bay.

When she arrives at the park, an older couple sits next to her, but

They did not speak. This was disappointing, for Miss Brill always looked forward to the conversation. She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn't listen, at sitting in other people's lives just for a minute while they talked round her.

Miss Brill has no one to talk to. Apparently this has been the case for so long that she has had to become "expert" at eavesdropping on others in order to be a part, so to speak, of any conversation. But rather than recognize her loneliness for what it is, she instead turns it into a compliment to herself, that she has become adept at something most other people can't do. 

She watches everything going on around her, noting the people, the colors, the music, the animals, everything as though it were happening just for her.

How she enjoyed it! How she loved sitting here, watching it all! It was like a play. It was exactly like a play [....]. But it wasn't till a little brown dog trotted on solemn and then slowly trotted off, like a little "theatre" dog, a little dog that had been drugged, that Miss Brill discovered what it was that made it so exciting. They were all on the stage. They weren't only the audience, not only looking on; they were acting. Even she had a part and came every Sunday. No doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn't been there; she was part of the performance after all.

In order to avoid the recognition that she is utterly isolated and alone, Miss Brill invents a fantasy in which she has become an actress; of course this means that she plays an integral role in the "production." For that reason, she convinces herself that she would be missed if she didn't come, and this allows her to feel a sense of belonging. 

She maintains this fantasy until the young lovers come to sit by her. She imagines them to be the hero and heroine of this play, but as she eavesdrops, she hears them refer to her as "that stupid old thing at the end there," and the girl says that her fur looks like "a fried whiting." Although Mansfield doesn't show us Miss Brill's immediate reaction to this conversation, we do find that Miss Brill breaks with her tradition today. Typically she stops on the way home for a slice of cake, but today she does not. Instead, she hurries home, and when she gets there,

The box that the fur came out of was on the bed. She unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside.  But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying.

It is, of course, Miss Brill who is crying, but something seems to prevent her from realizing it. She was so anxious to think of herself as a person who was noticed and wanted that she actually convinced herself that she was a vital, interesting, vivid part of the world. In the end, she is like her fox, which we can now read as a symbol of her and her illusions. Just as she thought of her fox as fetching, she thought of herself as "dashing." She couldn't see that it was musty and old and sort of repugnant, and she couldn't see that she belonged to that colorful and interesting world no more than her fox did.

Suppose today you own a bond that matures in three years, has a current yield of 5%, a face value of $1000, and sells for $900 today. If next year...

The current yield of the bond is 5%. As its price is $900, the interest earned from the bond is $45. And with a face value of $1000, the rate at which interest is being earned on the bond is 4.5%.

If the interest rates next year are 10%, a bond of face value $1000, would give an interest of $100. For the bond you currently own to give an equal yield, the price of the bond would decrease. If the price of the bond is P, it would have to satisfy the equation 45/P = 0.1 or P is equal to $450.

The price of the bond next year would decrease to $450. The best strategy in this case is to sell the bond at the prevailing price of $900 and use the money earned to buy a higher yielding bond next year.

What does the sighting of the Brooks Range mean to Julie/Miyax?

There is an irony to your question because the sighting of the Alaskan Brooks Range means two things to Julie/Miyax: escape and danger. These seem to be two opposites (hence the irony). Allow me to explain.

Why does the sighting of the Alaskan Brooks Range mean escape to Julie? Julie is desperate to escape an arranged marriage to a mentally ill man named Daniel who has just tried to rape her. Whether or not he succeeded is open to debate. Regardless, Julie would rather try her luck in the Alaskan wilderness than deal with Daniel day by day. When Julie sees the Alaskan Brooks Range in the distance, she knows she will be able to escape because this range is the entrance to the North Slope, the well-known and vast wilderness of Alaska.

Why does the sighting of the Alaskan Brooks Range mean danger to Julie? Julie is human and, therefore, not designed to easily survive in such a vast wilderness, especially during the harsh Alaskan winter (which is approaching). It is when Julie becomes lost in the Brooks Range (and unable to find the way to San Francisco) that she realizes she must find a way to survive.

What was Lucius looking for when he found the sealed-up paper?

On the night in question, Brutus cannot sleep.  He instructs Lucius, his servant, to light a candle in his study.  Clearly, Brutus' earlier conversation with Cassius regarding the plotted assassination of Caesar is weighing heavily on his mind.

Dutifully, Lucius finds a candle and goes in search of a flint to light it.  It is while he searches for the flint that Lucius finds the sealed-up paper.  While Lucius then heads for bed, Brutus reads the paper.  In it, an unknown Roman exhorts Brutus to "wake up" and to see what is happening in Rome.  Obviously, this is in reference to Caesar's recent actions.  We know that the letter is a plant, but Brutus does not, and its impassioned pleas drive him to join the assassination plot.

Why does Juliet tell Romeo not to "swear by the moon" in Romeo and Juliet?

Juliet tells Romeo not to swear by the moon because it changes.  

After the ball, Romeo sneaks into the Capulet orchard to get a look at Juliet.  There, he watches her before she knows he is there.  She sees him, and they engage in some wordplay. She asks if he loves her, and he offers to swear by the moon.

ROMEO

Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear
That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops--

JULIET

O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. (Act 2, Scene 2)

Juliet doesn't want him to swear by the moon.  Like the sun, the moon goes up and down.  It is also, as Juliet notes, in a different place based on the month and season.  Therefore, when Romeo swears by the moon, Juliet chides him and tells him not to swear by it. 

Confused, Romeo asks her what he should swear by if not the moon.  She tells him not to swear at all, and if he has to swear, he should swear by himself.  She would believe him then, because she idolizes him.  Thus, the love story begins.

Who climbs the mountain to view the beast?

In Chapter 8, Simon suggests that the boys climb the mountain. The boys neglect his suggestion and deliberate on where to build the next fire. Simon proactively decides to climb the mountain on his own in search of the beast, but first stops in his secluded clearing and encounters the Lord of the Flies. After The Lord of the Flies speaks to him, he passes out, only to wake up delirious. He decides to continue his journey up the mountain and spots the dead paratrooper's corpse in Chapter 9. After viewing the decaying corpse, Simon throws up and looks down from the mountain at the smoke on the beach. He then begins his descent down the mountain to give the boys the news that the beast is merely a decaying human corpse. Unfortunately, when Simon reaches the beach, the boys are in a frenzy performing a ritual dance. They mistake Simon for the beast and viciously attack him. Simon is stabbed, bit, and beaten to death without having the opportunity to explain his discovery. 

In "A Christmas Carol", why does the Ghost of Christmas Past hold a branch of fresh green holly in its hand? What does it represent?

The three ghosts that Scrooge encounters not only tell him things they wish him to know, but also reveal symbolic insights through the descriptions Dickens uses to present them. For example, The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to the marketplace and encourages him to see all the abundance around him: 

"There were pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers’ benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks, … there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown..."

This is a way of reminding Scrooge to appreciate his blessings and daily life, and despite rejecting the notion at the time, he later takes this advice to heart when he urges the boy in the street to go to the market and purchase a large goose for the Cratchit family.

The Ghost of Christmas Past is presented as an odd hybrid of old man and child, whose form appears to shift with the light and shadows as it moves. But the mode of dress in interesting:

"It wore a tunic of the purest white, and round its waist was bound a beautiful, shining belt. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; but had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light..." 

The presence of both green holly, an evergreen plant that produces red berries in winter, and summer flowers, which bloom for a shot period of time warm weather, shows that this ghost is a reminder of the cycles of life and of time passing. Scrooge rarely thinks of his past and the ghost shows him memories that are both pleasant and sad. He grows emotional when confronted with the joys of his youth. The evergreen nature of holly is a way of suggesting that the thoughts of the past can keep us young even in old age, much as the ghost looks like both an old man and a child, and allows Scrooge in his old age to feel like a child again.

Since ancient times, the plant has been associated with fertility, but also with protection; this is one reason many people plant a holy bush close to their homes. The boughs are cut in winter to decorate the indoors with greenery, as a reminder that spring will come again; this tradition lent itself to the common depiction of holly on Christmas greeting cards since Victorian times into the present day, and its mention in many traditional Christmas carols such as "The Holly and the Ivy" or "Deck the Halls." The plant is thus also a reminder for Scrooge to embrace the magic and beauty of the Christmas holidays as so many  others around him do; even the Cratchit family, who have so little money, find ways to make the holiday special. Scrooge finally finds the joy and beauty in Christmas, and it renews his spirit, a renewal as powerful as the energy that keeps evergreen plants vibrant all year long.

Who is Catherine in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby?

Catherine makes her first appearance in Chapter II of The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) and a brief appearance near the end of the novel.  She is the sister of Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan's mistress. Even before Nick meets her at Myrtle and Tom's apartment, Myrtle is offering her as an attraction to Nick, saying "'She's said to be very beautiful by people who ought to know'" (32). Nick describes her as "a slender, worldly girl of about thirty" (34). She is a redhead, and her face is powdered to whiteness.  Her eyebrows have been completely plucked out and redrawn with a "rakish angle" (34). She wears a variety of ceramic bracelets that make her every movement noisy.  Catherine shares that Myrtle and Tom cannot get married because Daisy's Catholic faith makes divorce an impossibility for Tom, which is not true, of course, but which apparently both Myrtle and Catherine find credible.  As worldly as Catherine would like to be seen, her sole European travel to Monte Carlo found her fleeced at one of its casinos, and it is clear that this young woman, who lives in a hotel with another young woman, is hardly of interest to Nick except as a character in the drama he is observing.  Catherine also testifies at the inquest into Wilson's death, denying that her sister Myrtle was anything but a completely faithful and happy wife, showing, Nick says, "a surprising amount of character..." (171). It is interesting to note that Nick, who prides himself on his honesty, takes this moment to praise Catherine's perjury.  But these lies serve to not only protect the memory of Myrtle and George, but also to protect the Buchanans and Gatsby, who are Nick's people.

What was Taft's philosophy about the presidency?

President Taft had different thoughts about the presidency than his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, had about it. Roosevelt believed the President should be front and center of almost everything that occurred. When we took action in foreign policy, Roosevelt was the face of those actions. Roosevelt boasted that he was responsible for the Panama Canal. Roosevelt was also very active and very public regarding actions in the United States. Roosevelt believed the President should be seen and heard. He went after big businesses and publicized his ideas about conservation. Roosevelt felt comfortable floating many ideas about many different topics. Roosevelt would make decisions in a very forceful manner.

President Taft had a different view of the presidency. He preferred to remain behind the scenes and avoid political gamesmanship. Taft was much more reserved than Roosevelt. He would take actions but do so in a less public manner. For example, while both Taft and Roosevelt broke up many trusts, it is Roosevelt who was called the trustbuster. Taft did his work much more quietly than Roosevelt.

Both of these men were active supporters of the Progressive Movement. However, Roosevelt received far more credit for progressive actions than Taft did because his personality was stronger and more outgoing than Taft’s personality. This is reflected in how both men had different viewpoints of the presidency.