How did the cotton gin change southern society?

The invention of the cotton gin made it profitable to grow short staple cotton, which, unlike so-called "Sea Island" cotton, could grow inland. The cotton gin made the process of cleaning and removing the seeds from cotton bolls more efficient. This occurred at exactly the time that the textile industry was booming in New England and Great Britain. It gave the South a new cash crop, and would-be planters poured capital into buying land, and, more importantly, enslaved people to work the land. Southerners began to eye the so-called "black belt," fertile soils stretching from Alabama to Mississippi, imagining a South where even ordinary whites could profitably cultivate cotton. Of course, as Southerners saw it, this vision was impossible without vast quantities of slave labor. A thriving and tragic "internal" slave trade began, as planters in the Chesapeake realized they could profitably sell their slaves southward (indeed, it was more profitable to do so than to continue to "work" them). So the cotton gin's most important and pernicious effect was the expansion of slavery, which during the first thirty years of the nineteenth century, became more important than ever to the South.  

What is Gladwell's argument in chapter 8 of Outliers?

Chapter 8 is titled “Rice Paddies and Math Tests.” Here Gladwell looks at the stereotype we hold that people of Asian descent are better at doing math than those of us in western cultures. Our long-held belief is that they are just inherently smarter in this respect. But Gladwell points instead to two factors that are important but widely overlooked in this assumption. One is how diligent a rice farmer must be in order to successfully raise a crop of rice. The work is constant and meticulous, which shows a cultural attention to the value of hard work. The second factor is the way Asian languages are constructed, regarding numbers. They use a faster and easier method of saying and conveying numbers, which means that children can learn and use numbers faster. The conclusion is that Asian students do not actually have higher IQs than students of other cultures. They excel in the field of math because of cultural advantages in language and pervasiveness of a high work ethic.

In Lord of the Flies, what does Ralph say after calling a meeting about the beast?

The meeting called by Ralph in Chapter 5, pages 114 to 116 (in my copy) was not essentially about the beast, as Ralph remarked:

“We need an assembly. Not for fun. Not for laughing and falling off the log ... not for making jokes, or ... for cleverness. Not for these things. But to put things straight.”

Ralph was frustrated about a number of things which had been happening and not happening on the island. He felt that it was imperative that these issues be addressed so that they could be resolved. He feared that if something was not done soon, things would run out of control and that they would face a complete breakdown.

Ralph expressed concern about fresh water not being made available regularly, even though it had been agreed that water would be fetched from 'the pool where the waterfall is.' Now everyone was drinking from the river. He also told the assembly about the lack of work being put into building proper shelters. Once the first one had been built, the others started losing interest, until only he and Simon built the last one which was not secure.

He furthermore mentioned that the boys had not stuck to the agreement of where they should relieve themselves. They were using everywhere, especially the little ones. Ralph, amidst sniggers and laughter, expressed his extreme displeasure at this untidy state of affairs. He then vented his sentiments about the fire not being tended properly, and said:

“The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?”

Ralph expressly targeted the hunters in this regard, stating:

“You hunters! You can laugh! But I tell you the smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one. Do all of you see?” He spread his arms wide and turned to the whole triangle. “We’ve got to make smoke up there—or die.”

Ralph stated that they had nearly set the entire island on fire. He asserted the following:

“So remember. The rocks for a lavatory. Keep the fire going and smoke showing as a signal. Don’t take fire from the mountain. Take your food up there.”

At this point, Jack tried to get to the conch but Ralph refused to hand it over and said that he had one other matter to mention, saying:

“Then the last thing. This is what people can talk about.” He waited till the platform was very still. “Things are breaking up. I don’t understand why. We began well; we were happy. And then—” He moved the conch gently, looking beyond them at nothing, remembering the beastie, the snake, the fire, the talk of fear. “Then people started getting frightened.”
A murmur, almost a moan, rose and passed away. Jack had stopped whittling. Ralph went on, abruptly. “But that’s littluns’ talk. We’ll get that straight. So the last part, the bit we can all talk about, is kind of deciding on the fear.” The hair was creeping into his eyes again. “We’ve got to talk about this fear and decide there’s nothing in it. I’m frightened myself, sometimes; only that’s nonsense! Like bogies. Then, when we’ve decided, we can start again and be careful about things like the fire.” A picture of three boys walking along the bright beach flitted through his mind. “And be happy.”

It was only at that point that Ralph spoke about the beast. It is evident from what he said that he was greatly concerned about the boys' fear. His sole desire was for them all to be happy and not create unnecessary worry and panic by talking about a non-existent and imaginary threat.

It is unfortunate that Ralph's assurances and Jack's statement about not having seen a beast on the island, did not resolve the matter entirely. The assembly developed into a discussion and then an argument about whether the beast really exists. In the end, there was a general desire expressed by the boys that they wished that there were adults around so that they could feel safe.

Finally, it was one of the littluns' actions that made it pertinently clear that the boys were still terribly afraid.

A thin wail out of the darkness chilled them and set them grabbing for each other. Then the wail rose, remote and unearthly, and turned to an inarticulate gibbering. Percival Wemys Madison, of the Vicarage, Harcourt St. Anthony, lying in the long grass, was living through circumstances in which the incantation of his address was powerless to help him

What is the setting of "Rip Van Winkle"? What feature of the place seems to be the most memorable? What details suggest when the story takes place?...

At the beginning of Washington Irving's tale "Rip Van Winkle" the narrator offers a description of the story's setting by detailing geographical features

WHOEVER has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers.

In this opening sequence of sentences, Irving indicates that the story takes place at least near "the Hudson" river and "Kaatskill mountains."  Furthermore, his emphasis on the "magical hues and shapes of these mountains," creates a background against which the story will take place.  

The narrator continues to "zoom-in" on the scene by describing "a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province...."  Thus, spatially the story is located in present-day upstate New York in a small, old village.  

As far as the time period is concern, Irving's indication that it takes place (at least in its beginning) "while the country was yet a province of Great Britain."  This political detail definitively places the time of the story before the Revolutionary War and, thus, prior to 1776.  

While determining what the most "memorable" feature of the setting is inherently difficult because it relies on individual readers' reactions, the space that to which Rip escapes from his wife,

a deep mountain glen, wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. For some time Rip lay musing on this scene; evening was gradually advancing; the mountains began to throw their long blue shadows over the valleys; he saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the village, and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle.

This "wild, lonely, and shagged," glen serves as the setting of the story's pivotal scene in which he encounters strange men playing a game, falls asleep, and wakes up after the Revolution.

Why did Ponyboy try to assume responsibility for stabbing and killing Bob?

In Chapter 11, Randy Adderson stops over at Ponyboy's house to see how he is doing and discuss what they will have to talk about in court the next day. Randy tells Ponyboy that he doesn't have anything to worry about because it was his friend Johnny who had the knife. Pony says that he had the knife and killed Bob. When Randy tries to correct him, Ponyboy continues to claim responsibility for Bob's murder. Ponyboy begins to shake and keeps repeating "Johnny is not dead" (Hinton 165). While Randy is leaving, Darry tells him not to talk about Johnny in front of Pony again, and mentions that the doctor said Ponyboy was "racked up mentally and emotionally." (Holden 166) Ponyboy has suffered a traumatic experience and has convinced himself that Johnny is still alive. Ponyboy's defense mechanism is to pretend that Johnny is still alive to cope with the loss of his good friend. He is not thinking clearly and assumes responsibility because of his confused mental state. The next day, the boys go to court and Pony is not questioned about the events that transpired the night Johnny stabbed Bob because his testimony would be invalid, due to his mental state. Ponyboy would be diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder if he were to be psychologically evaluated.

"Oh, Nan, they are a bad lot; they intend ruin for all of us; but Antinous appears a blacker-hearted hound than any." Is the comparison made...

The comparison between Antinous and a black-hearted hound is not an epic simile; it is a regular old metaphor.  Epic similes should be much more detailed than this, and they also typically extend over many lines of text.  Further, an epic simile will compare two unalike things using the word like or as, which is the other characteristic of a simile. The comparison of Antinous to a dog is very short and lacks detail, and it also does not make use of the word like or as. 

Consider the following epic simile about Odysseus when he is clinging to a rock in the ocean during one of Poseidon's storms:

"And just as, when a polyp is torn from out its bed, about its suckers clustering pebbles cling, so on the rocks pieces of skin were stripped from his strong hands." 

Note the level of detail here -- Odysseus isn't just a polyp clinging to a rock.  He is like a polyp torn out of its bed, with small rocks all stuck to it from how hard it was clinging.  This epic simile has a lot of detail, takes place over several lines, and uses the word "as" to make its comparison.

With reference to Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, discuss how to use direct quotes, especially when a question mark is used.

The use of quotation marks can be confusing sometimes. For instance, if you are reading a book printed in, for instance, England, you might find a single quote when a conversation is presented. The British style looks like the following:

His mother looked at the child intently and asked, 'What exactly did you say to the teacher?'

Note the use of "single" quotes (or quotation marks). When using the American style of punctuation for conversation, "double" quotes are used.

His mother looked at the child intently and asked, "What exactly did you say to the teacher?"

There are several commonalities of which to be aware. First, in most cases, the end punctuation to the sentence (period, exclamation point or question mark) is contained within the quotation marks. (See both samples above.) If there were an exclamation point or a period at the end of the quotation, it would also be placed before the end quotation mark.

Second, there should always be a comma preceding (coming before) the beginning of the quote. (See comma bolded above.)

Third, also notice that when the quotation marks are used at the beginning of a sentence, the first word after the opening quotation mark is capitalized. (See bolded examples above.)

It also can be confusing to know how to quote a quote within another quote. Since you specifically have asked about Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, notice the quote within the quotation marks used in this conversation. Beatty starts speaking, but the first thing he says is a quote. Since he is speaking, quotation marks are also needed to indicate that he is conversing with someone else:

"'Who are a little wise, the best fools be.' Welcome back, Montag. I hope you'll be staying with us now that your fever is done and your sickness over. Sit in for a hand of poker?"

In this quote, notice that Beatty is quoting John Donne's poem "The Triple Fool." (Ironic in that books are banned in this society.) Second, he is also asking Montag a question, so the question mark is inside the end quotation mark.

With the American style, you should punctuate questions as listed above if it is a quotation that is a question.

However, if you are asking a question about a quoted statement, then the question mark is not included within the quotation mark. See the general example below:

Does Dr. Lim always say to her students, "You must work harder"?

Make note that the quotation itself ("You must work harder") does not ask a question. Therefore, it would be inaccurate (and confusing) to include the question mark within the quotation marks.

Here are some more examples from the book using question marks.

"What's going on?" Montag had rarely seen that many house lights.

In this case, Montag is asking a question. The question mark goes inside the quotation marks because he is not making a statement, but asking a question.

However, if Mildred were thinking about a statement Clarisse had made, it would look like this:

Mildred wondered, did Clarisse say, "You're not in love with anyone"?

With this example, Mildred is wondering but not speaking out loud, so quotation marks are only used around Clarisse's original statement. The question mark is connected to Mildred's question, not to Clarisse's statement.

However, if Mildred had been speaking, note that double and single quotation marks are used—but the question mark is still not attached to Clarisse's statement.

Mildred asked, "Did Clarisse McClendon say, 'You're not in love with anyone'?"

If a quotation is a question, then the question mark goes inside the last quotation mark. However, if someone is asking about a statement someone made (and that statement is not a question), then the question mark goes outside of the quotation marks attached to the statement that is being referred to.

What are a few of the metaphors or similes linked to death in Romeo and Juliet during Act 1?

Death pervades Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. From the outset, in the Prologue, the Chorus announces that the two young lovers will die. Not only do they die, but there are also four other characters who meet their demise during the course of the story. So it's not surprising that death imagery abounds.

In Act I, Scene 1, the Prince suggests that the violent feud has become lethal when he says,

What ho! You men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins

Purple fountains, of course, are a metaphor for the blood that has been shed by the ongoing dispute between the Montagues and Capulets.

Romeo talks about how he is like a dead man because he is in love with a woman who does not share his affection. In his rant to Benvolio about Rosaline, he says,

She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.

When Paris is asking Capulet for Juliet's hand in marriage the Lord is cautious because Juliet is very young and his only child. His other children have died and he uses personification to tell the reader how precious Juliet is to him:

Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she;
She’s the hopeful lady of my earth.

After Mercutio's Queen Mab speech in Act I, Scene 4, Romeo has a premonition that he is embarking on a journey that will end in his death. His aside at the end of the scene foreshadows future events, and is metaphorical in its comparison of a "consequence...hanging in the stars" and his ultimate death:

I fear too early, for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels, and expire the term
Of a despisèd life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.
But he that hath the steerage of my course
Direct my sail. On, lusty gentlemen.

Juliet also uses death imagery when, after meeting and falling in love with Romeo, she asks the Nurse to find out who he is. She uses a simile to say that if he might be married she would rather die:

Go ask his name. [The Nurse goes.] If he be marrièd,
My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

In The Crucible, why can Reverend Parris's view of Thomas Putnam be seen as ironic?

Parris views Putnam as a loyal supporter of his.  Parris views himself as quite holy and important.  That's one reason why John Proctor can't stand Parris.  Because of Parris's pompous view of himself, he thinks that anybody who doesn't agree with him, must not be a good Christian.  The following sequence is a good illustration.  

Hale: Is every defense an attack upon the court? Can no one -?

Parris: All innocent and Christian people are happy for the courts in Salem! These people are gloomy for it. To Danforth directly: And I think you will want to know, from each and every one of them, what discontents them with you! 

Essentially Parris says that anybody who supports his witchcraft hunt is innocent, and anybody that doesn't must be witches or bad Christians.  It's an incredibly ironic line, because Miller makes it clear that Parris is the antithesis of holy, while characters like John, Elizabeth, and Rebecca are pillars of Christian holiness.  Yet, they are accused of witchcraft.  

Parris's view of Putnam is ironic, because Putnam is the one character that Parris should actually see as an evil influence on the church.  Putnam's main motivation for crying witch is so that he can gobble up the farms now vacated by the accused witches.  Parris supposedly should be a humble minister who loathes greed, but Parris is actually acting like a "best bud" to the greedy Thomas Putnam (the one guy that Parris should not like).  

How many elements shows catenation property?

Catenation is the property of an element, wherein the atom binds to like atoms. The most common example of catenating element is carbon. It's atoms can bind with each other to form large chains. This is the reason we have large number of carbon-based compounds, more commonly known as organic compounds. Carbon atoms can form covalent bonds with other carbon atoms and each atom is capable of forming upto four covalent bonds. Apart from carbon, other elements capable of catenation include, silicon, sulfur, boron, phosphorous, etc. However, none of these elements form as long a chain as carbon. For example, sulfur naturally occurs as S8 molecule. Similarly, silicon chains are also possible, but with up to 8 silicon atoms. The catenating chains formed by non-carbon elements result in inorganic polymers.

Hope this helps.

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, would Boo Radley’s problems be viewed and treated differently by his parents and teachers today?

To answer the above question, we must first consider what we learn about Arthur (Boo) Radley in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. If we do that, we can see possible reasons for why he was treated in the way he was, which will help us see if his treatment would be any different today.

Arthur Radley is what today we would call an agoraphobic, a person who is afraid to leave his or her house. While we don't learn much about his reasons for agoraphobia from reliable sources, we do learn a few things.

We actually gain our greatest insight when Scout meets him for the first time at the very end of the book. In Chapter 29, Scout describes Arthur as having "sickly white hands"; his hands are "so white they stood out garishly against the dull cream wall in the dim light of Jem's room." I addition, his face is as "white as his hands." Finally worth noting are Scout's following descriptions:

His gray eyes were so colorless I thought he was blind. His hair was dead and thin, almost feathery on top of his head. (Ch. 29)

These descriptions actually all match the descriptions of an albino. A person with albinism has little to no pigmentation in his of her "skin, hair, and eyes" due to the absence of melanin in the skin ("Albinism," U.S. National Library of Medicine). One symptom of albinism is extreme light sensitivity, and extreme light sensitivity can also make a person with albinism phobic of the sun ("Albinism," Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health). While we understand much more about albinism today then we did in days of yore, the fact still remains that people have a tendency to reject and ostracize those they see as being "different." Therefore, due to his albinism, it is sadly likely that Arthur may have been treated by his parents, teachers, and other Maycomb citizens in much the same way today as he was in the book.

While we learn rumors at the beginning of the book about Arthur's mental status being questionable, we only learn such rumors from an unreliable character, Miss Stephanie Crawford, the "neighborhood scold" (Ch. 1). From the reliable character Miss Maudie, we later learn that Arthur's father was a "foot-washing Baptist" (Ch. 5). According to Miss Maudie, "Foot-washers believe anything that's pleasure is a sin" (Ch. 5). Miss Maudie offers Scout this information as a means of offering a possible explanation for why Arthur never leaves his house. It is possible he has been taught enjoying leaving his house would be sinful. There certainly are still Baptists today who interpret the Bible very literally. Therefore, it is even likely that today Arthur's parents would have instilled in him a fear of leaving his house, which, coupled with his albinism, would have made him even more afraid to leave his house.

What is the conflict and resolution of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty?

A conflict in any story is a battle between two opposing elements; the battle is usually fought between the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist in any story is the one who overcomes the conflict and changes as a result; the antagonist is the one who fights the protagonist, trying to keep him/her from succeeding. The resolution of any story occurs the moment the protagonist solves the problem that causes the conflict.

In Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, the title character is the protagonist, while the cruel men he encounters and the hard fates he suffers serve as the antagonists. Unlike most protagonists, Black Beauty has no control over the outcome of the story and no way to actually fight against his antagonists. His story is resolved the moment Fate decides to place him once again under the best care he has ever known.
 
As a colt, Beauty is warned by his mother of the evil in the world:

[T]here are a great many kinds of men; there are good thoughtful men like our master, that any horse may be proud to serve; and there are bad, cruel men, who never ought to have a horse or dog to call their own. (Ch. 3, Pt. 1)

She further advises him to always remain good, gentle, and hard-working no matter whom he winds up with. The conflict of Beauty's story begins the moment he begins seeing the truth of her words for himself. He is first put under the excellent care of Squire Gordon and his grooms, but under this care, he begins to witness the cruelty inflicted by other men upon other horses. As the story progresses, his conflict grows more intense as he begins experiencing the cruelty firsthand for himself under crueler and crueler masters, making him do harder labor.

The conflict begins to resolve when, driven to the point of collapse, he is ordered by a veterinarian to be given rest and proper care; he is then sold at a horse fair where he is luckily purchased by a kindly elderly man and his grandson, who nurse him back to health. The story reaches its resolution when he is sold one last time to some kindly ladies and winds up back under the care of one of the best grooms he has ever had--Joe Green:

My ladies have promised that I shall never be sold, and so I have nothing to fear; and here my story ends. My troubles are over, and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple-trees. (Ch. 49, Pt. 4)

Though Beauty has not had an active role in the resolution, the story is resolved nonetheless because he is finally free of his antagonists. Plus, he has grown as a result of his experiences because he is now worldly-wise about the nature of people and the suffering in the world.

Compare and Contrast how Iago sees Desdemona and how Cassio sees Desdemona.

Firstly, Iago's perception is informed by his misogyny. It is clear throughout the play that Iago has a generally negative attitude towards women. This becomes clear in his demeanour towards Emilia, his wife, and the conversation he has with her and Desdemona in Act 1, Scene 2.

Iago treats Emilia as if she is a servant. He asks favours of her which are demeaning. He, for example, entreats her to steal Desdemona's precious handkerchief, which Othello had given her as a gift. It is unfortunate that Emilia, eager to please him, obediently and without question, complies to his strange request.

In his interlude with Desdemona and Emilia in Act 2, scene 1, his disdain for women becomes apparent: 

 ... you are pictures out of doors,
Bells in your parlors, wild-cats in your kitchens,
Saints m your injuries, devils being offended,
Players in your housewifery, and housewives' in your beds.

The remarks he makes of women here are quite bawdy. Without me going into too much detail, he is implying that women are the exact opposites of what they pretend to be whenever it suits them, suggesting that they are deceitful and misleading. Desdemona is quite disgusted by the slanderous nature of his comments.

When Desdemona asks him his opinion of her, he remarks that it is a difficult task to do so. He mentions in general, that if a woman is both attractive and wise, she would always, by using her intellect, find a way to exploit her beauty. The two continue in the same vein and Iago finally remarks that a beauty such as Desdemona is a spirit (or witch) as much as such a spirit can be.

Iago also admits in a soliloquy that he has feelings for Desdemona:

Now, I do love her too;
Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure
I stand accountant for as great a sin,
But partly led to diet my revenge,
For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leap'd into my seat;

He acknowledges that his 'love' for her is not born out of lust only, but that he has an ulterior motive in feeling as he does for her. He suspects that Othello had had an affair with Emilia and wants to take revenge for this. As he later states, 

Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife,

Unlike Iago, Cassio has real affection for Desdemona. He is a handsome and charming character and one can perceive from his general behaviour that he is somewhat of a playboy, as illustrated by his relationship with Bianca, who falls in love with him. He forms a close relationship with Desdemona, who out of kindness after his dismissal by Othello, promises to intervene and speak to Othello on his behalf in an attempt to get him reappointed, which, we later learn, is a grievous error.

Iago believes that Cassio is in love with Desdemona:

That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it;

He plans to use that affection as a weapon against both Cassio and Othello, creating a pernicious and vindictive lie - that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair.

Cassio's affection for Desdemona is clearly illustrated in his conversation with Iago about her. What Cassio unfortunately does not, and cannot realise at this point, is that Iago through his enticing remarks, is baiting him and setting him up for his vile plot.

CASSIO  She's a most exquisite lady.

IAGO  And, I'll warrant her, fun of game.

CASSIO  Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate creature.

IAGO  What an eye she has! methinks it sounds a parley of
provocation.

CASSIO  An inviting eye; and yet methinks right modest.

IAGO  And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love?

CASSIO  She is indeed perfection.

What happens when Lyddie goes to sign the petition? What is her reaction?

Lyddie goes to sign the petition in chapter nineteen of the book. Lyddie is already feeling down and incredibly lonely by this point in the novel. In the previous chapter, Lyddie briefly reunites with her brother, Charlie. He says the Phinney family treats him incredibly well, and they want to take on the care for Rachel as well. This means that Lyddie has to give up caring for Rachel. Additionally, Lyddie finds out that the farm has officially been sold. Lyddie feels as if all of her hard work has been for nothing. She was not able to save the family and the farm.

When chapter 19 begins, Lyddie feels lost and without a purpose. Perhaps as a way to gain a purpose again, she goes to a meeting with the intention of signing the petition. Unfortunately, Lyddie is told that it is too late. The petition had already been sent off to the legislature. The news sends Lyddie deeper into her depression. She declares, "I'm always too late to do any good." On top of that, Diana announces that she is leaving the factory because she is pregnant. The entire evening comes as one giant punch to the gut for Lyddie.

What were the three main goals of the New Deal?

The three main goals of the New Deal are usually described as the "three Rs": relief, recovery, and reform. To achieve these goals, the administration of Franklin Roosevelt passed an array of programs and created a number of federal agencies to administer them. I will elaborate on these goals, including some of the programs and agencies that were created, below.

• Relief: By the time Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933, the nation's economy was mired in the very worst period of the Great Depression. Nearly 1/3 of the nation's workforce was unemployed, and a far greater percentage were underemployed. Banks were closing and businesses were shutting their doors. This led to a desperate need for direct relief, something the federal government had been reluctant to do under FDR's predecessor Herbert Hoover. One major relief program was the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which attempted to provide work, as well as relief payments, to those stricken by the Depression. Like the FERA, the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, put people to work, namely young people who worked to combat soil erosion and on other conservation projects. 


• Recovery: A major goal of the programs of the first "Hundred Days", the flurry of programs implemented in 1933, was to bring about economic recovery by stabilizing prices and by putting more money into the economy. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) attempted to regulate wages as well as prices in industry, while the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) tried to do the same for farmers. These were the programs that met with the most resistance from conservatives--the Supreme Court struck down both on the grounds that they involved excessive government intervention in the economy. 


• Reform: Another, and perhaps the most important, goal of the New Deal was to enact structural reforms that would make another economic disaster less likely, removing a degree of uncertainty from American capitalism and from the lives of the American people. One example was the FDIC, or Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. This program insured bank deposits, making people less likely to panic and remove their funds from banks as they had done in the  bank panics of the early 1930s. Congress also passed the Glass-Steagall Act, which limited the investments that banks could make. Finally, the Social Security Act created a pension for the elderly financed by a payroll tax. 

How would you compare the opinions of Uncle Axel and Joseph Strorm on mutants in The Chrysalids?

Joseph Strorm believes that mutants are an insult to God and must be eliminated, but Uncle Axel believes they are just humans and deserve support.

Joseph Strorm is a religious extremist. He believes that it is his function to protect the people of Waknuk from violations of the True Image. He will not even look the other way for members of his own family. He is a brutal and harsh leader and father. His house is decorated with symbols of his intolerance.

The one on the left of the fireplace read: ONLY THE IMAGE OF GOD IS MAN. The one on the right: KEEP PURE THE STOCK OF THE LORD. On the opposite wall two more said: BLESSED IS THE NORM, and IN PURITY OUR SALVATION. The largest was the one on the back wall, hung to face the door which led to the yard. It reminded everyone who came in: WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT! (Ch. 2)

He gets extremely upset, for example, when David makes an offhand comment about wanting another hand. If Strorm knew that his son was a telepath, there is no doubt that he would turn him in like he did his wife’s sister’s baby. David knows this, and that is why he doesn’t tell his father, or anyone, about his friend Sophie with her extra toes. When his father does find out he is hiding a mutant, he beats the truth out of him.

David says that Uncle Axel is “not a real relative” because he is an in-law. He calls the man his best friend. Unlike most of David’s other relatives, he is not harsh or hypercritical. David says he is lucky that Axel and only Axel found out about his telepathic abilities. He makes David promise to be more careful.

"I want you to keep it secret. I want you to promise that you will never, never tell anyone else what you have just told me — never. It's very important: later on you'll understand better how important it is. You mustn't do anything that would even let anyone guess about it. Will you promise me that?" (Ch. 4)

Axel can’t protect David for long, however. When he and the others are found out, his father behaves predictably. They have to go on the run, and end up in the wilds known as the Fringes. There we meet another relative of David’s, his father’s brother, also cast out. He is the leader of the mutants.

What connection does Scout make during the current events lesson at school?

Scout realizes that her third grade teacher, Miss Gates, is a hypocritical racist. During the Current Events portion of her class, Cecil Jacobs brings in an article that discusses how Hitler is rounding up Jews and persecuting them. A student asks why the government doesn't put Hitler in jail for what he was doing to the Jews and Miss Gates tells the class the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship. She goes on to say that Hitler is the government and everyone in Germany follows what he says.

She also teaches them that the Jews are great people and she doesn't know what Hitler has against them. Cecil makes an interesting connection, too, and asks why one white person would persecute other white people--as if persecuting blacks was alright. Miss Gates doesn't recognize the hypocrisy saturating the conversation, but Scout does. Scout doesn't say anything in class, but she does ask Jem later at home, as follows:

"Well, coming out of the courthouse that night Miss Gates was. . . talking with Miss Stephanie Crawford. I heard her say it's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an' then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home" (247).

Scout is so young, but she senses the hypocrisy. She doesn't even know the word hypocrite, yet, but she is right on the cusp of discovering it. Scout doesn't know what else to think, but she does know that it doesn't seem right to treat any one poorly, no matter what color their skin is. 

Define society. Distinguish between society and community.

One way to define a society is to say that it is a group of people who all share a common culture, who all live in a given territory, and who are relatively independent of people outside of their territory.  We generally use the term “society” to refer to the population of an entire country rather than to parts of a country.  This is the major difference between a society and a community.

A community is also a group of people who share a similar set of cultural assumptions and values.  However, these are generally people who live in a smaller geographic space and who tend to interact with one another on a fairly frequent basis.  People in a community all live near to one another.  This allows them to interact regularly.  These factors are not true of the people in an entire society.

So, at least, to social scientists, communities are distinct from societies because they are a small scale phenomenon whose members interact regularly.  Societies are people who share a common culture and a common (though large) geographic territory and who do not necessarily interact with one another often (if at all).

How do the following two poems compare with respect to the theme of difference: "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes, and "Speaking a Foreign...

In the poems "Theme for English B" and "Speaking a Foreign Language," by Langston Hughes and Alastair Reid, respectively, both poets speak of differences while also recognizing there is an underlying sameness that unites all of humanity.

Hughes starts his poem by listing the things that distinguish him as an African American, such as where he was born, being the only "colored student" in his class at Columbia University, and living in a room at Harlem's YMCA. He also speaks of his taste preferences while acknowledging that "being colored doesn't make me not like / the same things other folks like who are other races." His indication that he likes some of the same things other people of other races like is his first reference to the unity of humanity while also acknowledging differences. He further expresses unity when he refers to his white instructor as being "a part of me, as I am a part of you," since they both learn from each other. By speaking of human beings as all being a part of each other due to what we learn from each other, Hughes again acknowledges the unity of humanity while also acknowledging differences.

Similarly, Reid speaks of differences by speaking of the worries and difficulties associated with trying to communicate in a foreign language. Yet, by the end of the poem, he speaks of "foreign friends" being seen as "endearing" as they "[stumble through] the wreckage of word or tense." He further speaks of the heart uniting us all in the language of love. Therefore, Reid acknowledges that though we are all different and those differences are seen in the foreign languages we try to speak, we are also all united in the need to communicate with each other and in our ability to express and understand love despite being unable to speak well in a foreign language. Hence, like Hughes, Reid acknowledges differences among humanity while also acknowledging that all of humanity is united.

In "The Devil and Tom Walker," which words and phrases use imagery to describe a horse?

Let's look closely at those lines. They appear near the beginning of the story, when it's a particularly good time to pay attention to any imagery. (Why? Imagery, especially near the very start of a story, tends to set the mood, foreshadow the ending, and even give us hints about the theme.)

"A miserable horse, whose ribs were as articulate as the bars of a gridiron, stalked about a field where a thin carpet of moss, scarcely covering the ragged beds of pudding stone, tantalized and balked his hunger; and sometimes he would lean his head over the fence, look piteously at the passer by, and seem to petition deliverance from this land of famine."

So we’re looking at a very unhappy horse, one who’s so skinny that the ribs are visible. And the horse is standing in a field that’s mostly rocks with just a little bit of moss on them. He makes hungry sounds and looks sadly at people who walk by.

Some of those imagery-laden phrases are particularly telling:

1. “ribs were as articulate as the bars of a gridiron”

We’re told that the horse’s ribs are so easy to see that they look like a gridiron. (If you’re not sure what a gridiron looks like, it’s a utensil made of parallel bars; you broil food on it, such as meat.) Now we know for sure that the poor creature’s ribs poke out horribly.

2. “lean his head over the fence”

Here’s a definite image of the pitiable horse, trapped in that barren field by the fence, leaning over it to stare at people who walk by, putting his sadness and suffering and begging on display. How awful.

That’s really all the phrases we can identify that provide imagery of the horse himself, but we could also consider the imagery of the area around the horse:

3. “a thin carpet of moss, scarcely covering the ragged beds of pudding stone”

Here we’re definitely not looking at a verdant field full of abundance and greenery. No, this field is “ragged” and full of “stone,” and the only green stuff is “a thin carpet of moss.” It’s a picture of barrenness, sparsity, hardship, and hunger.

What's the point of all this imagery? By holding in mind a clear picture of Tom’s poor hungry horse, we realize the extent to which the man who owns him is cruel, greedy, and immoral. Why else would he let his horse live in such abject distress?

What were Charles Dickens' hobbies?

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is one of the most famous writers of the nineteenth century. As well as writing 15 novels, numerous short stories, biographies and editing journals, Dickens had a number of hobbies and interests.

The supernatural was a particular favourite of Charles Dickens. He was allegedly a member of the London Ghost Club, an organisation which investigated cases of hauntings. He was also very interested in mesmerism, the Victorian term for hypnosis, and he often practised it on other people, most famously his wife, Catherine. 

Dickens also spent a lot of his free time in acting. Before becoming a writer, Dickens had dreamed of being a performer and he spent many years on stage and working as stage manager. He also acted out many scenes from his books while on speaking tours around England and the United States. 

Finally, Dickens was a committed philanthropist who spent many hours involved in charitable projects across the country. One of his most famous projects was Urania Cottage, a home for reformed prostitutes which he established in London in 1847. 

What were Diana Moon Glampers' motivations in "Harrison Bergeron"?

The thing about authoritarian governments is this: the leaders all believe that they are doing the right thing for their respective countries regardless of the negative consequences. Diana Moon Glampers is no different. This idea of everyone being "equal" would be, to most at least, a desirable trait and Diana Moon Glampers is enforcing that trait. So, even though we might look at Moon Glampers's ideas regarding "equality" as warped, she probably sincerely believes she is doing the right thing. 

Throughout the story, George Bergeron, the father of the title character, explains why equality is important. He sums it up here when his wife suggests he temporarily removes some of his handicaps (the devices he has to carry to make him "equal" by lowering him to others): 

"If I tried to get away with it ... then other people'd get away with it and pretty soon we'd be right back in the dark ages, with everybody competing against everybody else."

This thought process, in addition to the society being prohibited from thinking, is why there is not outrage when Moon Glampers walks into the studio and immediately kills Harrison and the ballerina who ripped off their handicaps and were "leaping" into the air. But, according to this society's thought process, Harrison and the ballerina were in the wrong. Moon Glampers killed two people who tried to destroy the current social order, which seems to have brought a sense of peace to this society. 

Summarize Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death from the perspective of Prince Prospero. How do you feel about the red death?

If I'm Prince Prospero, as this character is described in Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death, I'm frightened of the plague sweeping the countryside, killing thousands of peasants. As Poe's unseen narrator notes, "No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous." The prince would know that those infected with this disease--a disease inspired by the real-life plagues of smallpox that ravaged much of Europe and parts of Asia in earlier times--would die horrible deaths. It is for this reason that Prince Prospero sought to isolate himself and 1,000 of his closest friends within the walls of his castle. It was his great mistake, however, to believe that stone walls could keep that pestilence at bay. Be that is it may, the prince was a "happy and dauntless and sagacious" autocrat who believed that he could 'ride-out' the plague in the comfort of his abbey, all the while being entertained and provisioned with copious amounts of wine. To quote the narrator, once again, "[t]here were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the 'Red Death'.” I, the prince, am convinced that I have cheated death.

I, the prince, am also a little eccentric, as evident by the design of my “imperial suite.” Each room is both shaped and decorated differently, with each assigned its own color scheme. There is one room that I have even decorated in black, with “scarlet window panes,” a particularly nice touch, if I don’t say so myself. That particular room, however, definitely gives off a more somber and even menacing vibe than the other, more gaily-decorated chambers. One could summarize the situation as follows:

“And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber the effect of the firelight that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.”

After five or six months, I decide to host a huge ball for all of my friends and assorted hangers-on. There is, as expected, much merriment, as we have survived the plague that is causing millions now to die painful deaths outside my castle walls. In fact, we are doing quite well, and our revelry knows no bounds. Sure, there are those who may think me mad, but they’re pretty much at death’s door by now, as I wouldn’t deign to invite such critics into my sanctuary. The masquerade ball, however, is the ultimate in decadence:

“There were much glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm—much of what has been since seen in “Hernani.” There were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions.”

And, the big clock with the pendulum swinging back-and-forth and chiming at each passing hour even lends an air of mystique to the proceedings. It is strange, however, that, at midnight, the clock’s usual chime is met with a noticeable change in the tenor of the night’s entertainments. Something peculiar is happening. All of a sudden, my guests are noticing a “masked figure” who had previously “arrested the attention of no single individual before.” This strange figure is actually scary. Everyone is gazing upon him (it?) with expressions of “disapprobation and surprise—then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.” It actually appears as though this masked figure has disguised himself as the dreaded “red death” itself. Is he mocking me? Has my success in shielding myself from the plague inspired him to suggest that my impregnable fortress is anything but? This guy’s pissing me off. I have cheated the horrible fate that has befallen those beneath me, and this figure arrives to ridicule my guests and me? I shout at my minions, “Who dares . . . who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him—that we may know whom we have to hang, at sunrise, from the battlements!” I will not be mocked; I will attack him with a vengeance, my dagger I will plunge into his heart. He is heading into the seventh chamber, the one adorned in black, the image of blood streaming in through those specially-made window panes.

And, thus ends the prince’s narrative. As we know, having actually read Poe’s story, Prince Prospero drops dead then and there, the masked figure being revealed as the Red Death. How did the prince feel about the Red Death? He knew it for what it was, but he believed that, by walling himself off from the less-fortunate, who were dying by the million, he could survive, and survive in style. In a remarkable display of hubris, however, he convinced himself that the spread of a plague could be stopped by man-made enclosures. The problem, here, though, is that smallpox can be spread through bodily fluids, and through prolonged face-to-face contacts, and the prince and his friends were doing a whole-lot of that kind of stuff. My guess is that one or more of his guests unknowingly brought the virus into the castle and, what with all that debauchery, it spread through the morally-questionable use of those six chambers (not the black one, of course). The Masque of the Red Death is fiction, but the Red Death was not. Prince Prospero took it seriously, he merely underestimated its ability to spread within his castle walls.

What was the main cause of Shakespeare's death?

There is no precise record for the death of William Shakespeare, as is the trouble with so many historical figures. We do know that he was buried on the 25th of April, 1616, and it is commonly said that he had died two days before. 

About a month before his death, William Shakespeare had a will prepared, leaving most everything in his possession to his daughter. The urgency with which the will was prepared implies that Shakespeare had taken a turn for the worse and saw the need to get his affairs in order. An account written fifty years after his death by John Ward (vicar of the church where Shakespeare is buried) says that he may have contracted a fever after drinking too hard with colleagues by the names of Drayton and Jonson. Though the vicar was in no way a primary source on Shakespeare's death, it has come to light that an outbreak of typhus was raging in 1616. It would not be unlikely for Shakespeare to have died of such a rampant virus.

What key idea did Copernicus contribute to the Renaissance?

The key idea contributed by Copernicus is that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the other way around. This theory, known as "heliocentrism" was very radical. Copernicus's contemporaries, and most importantly the Catholic Church, accepted the ancient Ptolemaic theory, a "geocentric" model that placed the earth at the center of the universe. According to this model, the Earth was stationary. This view accorded with a literal understanding of the Bible, which, in several passages, seems to portray the Earth as a non-moving body. Copernicus's theory, published in the last year of his life in a book entitled De Revolutionibus, thus flew in the face of Church doctrine, and was banned by the Church. It should be noted that Copernicus's model needed significant revision, as it argued that the sun was at the center of the universe, with all the stars and other heavenly bodies revolving around it as well. Like Ptolemy, he thought orbits were traced along perfect spheres. Later astronomers, working from observation, showed that orbits were in fact elliptical, and that the sun was not the center of the universe. 

What are the four factors of industrialization?

There are a number of factors that lead to industrialism.  First, technologies for production are necessary.  These technologies can take the form of any mechanized machines from steam powered engines to robotics.  A second important factor for industrialization is a large population from which to draw labor and to sell finished goods.  The third factor for industrialization is the availability of natural resources that can be utilized to make finished goods.  The fourth factor of industrialization is a means for transportation to get the goods to consumers.  This can take the form of highways, but waterways like rivers and seas are more useful.  Another factor for industrialization is the presence of a stable political situation, especially one that supports the idea of manufacturing and the free market.  

How does Dave show growth at the end of the story, "Split Cherry Tree"?

Dave demonstrates growth because he acquires a more mature attitude about his father after Pa comes to the school and meets with Professor Herbert. 

As the first of his family to attend high school in what is most likely rural Kentucky in the 1930's (the story was published in 1939), Dave starts to feel that his father is rather backward in his attitudes about certain things. For instance, he fears telling his father that he has had to stay after school and work to pay for a tree he and others have damaged while on a science class outing, knowing that he will probably get a whipping. Dave knows that his father will not understand what happened, nor will he approve of Dave's staying after school when he has chores to do in the afternoon.

When Dave explains his tardiness, Pa is originally angry with him; however, when he hears that Dave alone stayed late because the others were able to pay for the damages, Pa's sense of pride is ignited,

"Poor man's son, hun,..I'll attend to that myself in the mornin'....He ain't from this county nohow....What kind of school is it, anyhow?

Dave pleads with his father to not go, but his father vows to "straighten this thing out" and insists upon accompanying Dave to school the next day with his "long blue forty-four" pistol. Fortunately, Professor Herbert remains calm when accosted by Pa and speaks reasonably with the big man. Then, in an effort to explain why the class goes outdoors, Herbert shows Pa around, speaking of incubators, germs, and other things. When Professor Herbert tells Pa that he has a black snake that the class will chloroform and dissect to view his germs, Pa becomes upset:

"Don't do it....I believe you. I just don't want to see you kill the black snake. I never kill one. They are good mousers and a lot o' help to us on the farm...."

Overhearing his Pa, Dave begins to perceive a different side of his father, a kinder part. After school, Dave notices something different about Pa. He sees that his father

...looked lost among us. He looked like a leaf turned brown on the tree among the treetop filled with growing leaves.

Then, when Dave begins to sweep the classroom floor as he works off his fine, Pa comes to his aid, telling Dave that the teacher, Professor Herbert, is a good man. School has changed, he adds, calling himself a "dead leaf," and confirming what Dave has observed. Further, when Herbert tells Pa the debt is "on me" and they can go, Pa refuses, 

"We don't do things like that...we're just and honest people. We don' want somethin' for nothin'....I ain't got much larnin' myself but I do know right from wrong atter I see through a thing."

Pa apologizes to Dave, saying that he has misjudged Dave's teacher and the school; moreover, he encourages Dave to further his education because he can do better than his father. But, he reminds Dave to always be honest and kind to animals.

While Pa has called himself "a little man," meaning he is unimportant in society, Dave realizes that his father is really no "little man." For, he now perceives in his father a reasonableness, a sense of fairness, and a certain dignity in the pride that he takes in being honest and knowing right from wrong. In this new perception of his father, Dave grows in his understanding, of this man as well as in his recognition of those values that really count in life.

Why is Mr. Pearson called "Jack and the Beanstalk" in Raymond's Run?

Mr. Pearson is called “Jack and the Beanstalk” because he is very tall.  Squeaky says that “he sticks out in a crowd because he’s on stilts.”  We can assume that he isn’t really on stilts, and this is just a reference to the fact that he has very long legs.  Squeaky also says that when they used to make fun of him, she was the only one who could outrun him, a testament to her undeniable speed when pitted against someone with such long legs.  She also says that she’s too grown-up to enjoy poking fun at him anymore, and takes umbrage at him calling her by her nickname when she isn’t allowed to call him by his nickname.  So while the kids used to call Mr. Pearson “Jack and the Beanstalk”, or just “Beanstalk,” they only ever do it in their heads nowadays.

Why did European countries engage in imperialism?

European countries engaged in imperialism for a number of reasons. For one, they sought new secure, captive markets for manufactured goods. This would be profitable and guard against the danger of industrial overproduction, which many blamed for economic downturns in the late nineteenth century. Along with this, many industrialists and investors also wanted access to the cheap natural resources and labor to be found around the world. So colonies were seen as business opportunities.

Europeans also had ideological motives for expansion. Many Social Darwinists thought that white Europeans were superior to non-white peoples around the world, and that they should have no qualms about conquering them. Indeed, many believed that it was the obligation of Europeans to bring culture, technology, and Christianity to others deemed primitive and "savage." 

Social Darwinists also tended to view relations between nations as a brutal, pitiless struggle, and the process of imperialism was thus also a "race" to gain the most territory. Great Britain was far in advance of the others, having control of a massive empire by the 1870s. France and the new nations of Germany and Italy were eager to gain territories to rival the British and each other. There was a sense in which the old territorial competitions between European nations on the continent gave way to struggles in colonial lands around the world. These conflicts were somewhat managed by the Berlin Conference of 1885, which effectively carved up the continent of Africa between the European powers. 

These motives, economic, ideological, and strategic, were the primary motivators for European imperialism.

What is a person? What are the characteristics of personhood?

Webster's Dictionary defines a person as (1) a human being.  A person is one who has the body and characteristics of a human being.  A person is a noun and can be a man, woman, or a child.  Persons have both a body and a mind. They have the ability to feel pain.  They often possess thoughts and beliefs that differentiate an individual from those around them.  The concept of a person was first articulated in the 4th and 5th century Trinitarian and Christological debates.

Personhood is simply having the status of a person.  What beings have the status of a person has not always been defined the same way throughout history.  Throughout American history, there was a time when Blacks only counted as three fifths of a person.  Personhood is often defined in terms of the law, citizenship, liberty, and equality.  Thus, for legal purposes, animals, corporations, sovereign states, and estates in probate can hold the status of a person.  Therefore, the characteristics of personhood are those that are attributed to a person under the law in the society in which one lives.

How might the people of the American colonies describe the King of Great Britain?

The words people in the colonies would use to describe Britain’s King would depend on which side of the conflict they supported and how they viewed the various events occurring in the colonies. Those who supported the Patriots would likely call him a tyrant or a brute. They would say that he didn’t listen to the concerns of the people. They would point to some of the tax laws that were passed that, in the some of the colonists’ opinion, violated their rights as British citizens. They would say he didn’t want peace or respect the colonists. They would point to the rejection of the Olive Branch Petition as an example.

Those who were loyalists would describe the King in positive terms. They would say he was doing what the King was supposed to do. These were his colonies, and he could do whatever he wanted to do with the colonies. The King didn’t have to answer to the colonists if he didn’t want to do that. They also would have reverence for him because he was the head of the Anglican Church, which is the Church of England. Some of these people couldn’t imagine criticizing their religious leader even if they didn’t agree with everything he did. Additionally, some of the loyalists would have spoken kindly of the King because they worked for the British government.

Each person’s opinion of the King depended on how they viewed the various issues affecting the colonies. Also, their views were affected by which side they supported as well as their position in the colonies.

How did British attempt to reform the American Empire contribute to the growth of the Revolutionary movement?

In the immediate aftermath the French and Indian War, which resulted in massive territorial gains but also enormous expense for the British government, the British determined to maintain tighter control over the colonies. This involved significant alterations in the colonial relationship. First, the British attempted to regulate trade more tightly through the Sugar Act of 1764. This angered many colonists, especially merchants that had become quite wealthy through violating the requirements of the old Navigation Acts (essentially acting as smugglers in the process). Second, the British attempted to tighten control of the territorial expansion of the colonies by establishing a barrier at the Appalachian Mountains with the Proclamation of 1763. This upset many colonists, from ordinary settlers to influential land speculators. Finally, Parliament, seeking to recoup some of the expense of the French and Indian War, passed the Stamp Act in 1765. This was a direct tax on the colonists, and marked a significant change in the relationship between the colonies and the mother country, one which angered almost everyone and sparked such vehement and violent protest that it was repealed a little over a year later. These three reforms in the immediate aftermath of the French and Indian War were aimed at exerting more power over the colonies. They would prove a disastrous failure.

How does Huck feel about the killing of Boggs in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

Huck has seen plenty of death in a few short chapters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  In Chapter 18, he sees his friend Buck die in the bloody shoot out during the family feud between the Shepardsons and the Grangerfords, and just a few short chapters later, he sees the unnecessary killing of Boggs in Chapter 21. Both deaths were on account of pride and honor, something Twain feels isn’t reason enough to kill someone. Through Huck and these two episodes, Twain shares this message. 

In many ways, Huck might also see his own father, Pap, in Boggs.  Like Pap, Boggs is the town drunk, and for some reason, Boggs has gotten on the bad side of the rich and powerful, Colonel Sherburn.  When Boggs insults Sherburn, the Colonel tells him to get out of town, or he will shoot him.  Boggs doesn’t heed the warning although he is starting to sober up and is attempting to get out of town when Sherburn steps out and shoots him in cold blood.

Just like Buck, Boggs is harmless and didn’t deserve to die because of a person’s misguided pride and honor.  These two episodes affect Huck’s understanding of the cruel, inhumane world in which he lives.  Throughout the novel, Huck must deal with violence and cruelty in not only the treatment of the slave, Jim, but also with the needless deaths he witnesses.

What are two major provisions of the Treaty of Versailles regarding the War Guilt Clause?

The war-guilt clause of the Versailles Treaty was a very controversial one. It basically said Germany was responsible for World War I and all of the events that happened during the war. The Germans resented this tremendously. The Germans said it was Austria-Hungary that declared war on Serbia, starting World War I. The Allies believed that since Germany agreed to support Austria-Hungary that Germany was, therefore, responsible for the start of World War I. The Allies believed Germany could have prevented the war by not agreeing to support Austria-Hungary if Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The anger this caused in Germany was one of the factors that led to the rise of Hitler to power.

In return for this statement being added to the Versailles Treaty, the Germans would pay less money in damages to the Allies. Even with a reduced reparations amount, Germany was still burdened with heavy reparations that ultimately caused its economy to collapse, leading to the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Is Pammy Gatsby's child with Daisy?

There is really no indication in the novel that Pammy is Daisy's child with Gatsby. Even though Daisy says, "She doesn’t look like her father...She looks like me. She’s got my hair and shape of the face," she does not indicate in any way that the father is someone other than Tom (Chapter 7).

As well, Nick describes Gatsby's reaction to meeting Pammy for the first time, saying, "Afterward he kept looking at the child with surprise. I don’t think he had ever really believed in its existence before" (Chapter 7).  The existence of Pammy is one crack in Gatsby's argument to Daisy that you can repeat the past.  He wants for Daisy and himself to start back where they ended 5 years ago, but Pammy is a very real reminder that they cannot.

Why is the diary of Anne Frank so well known ?

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank has become so well-known because it serves as a moving first-hand account of the Holocaust and because it is also a "coming-of-age" story set within a tumultuous time. Anne Frank, a Jew, wrote the diary for more than two years while her family was hiding from the Nazis in a small annex. Unfortunately, her diary was cut short because the Nazis discovered them and placed them in concentration camps, in one of which Anne later died.

Anne wrote much about how difficult it was to live in such a confined space while in constant fear of being discovered and imprisoned, but she also wrestled with topics which all children do, such as puberty and religion. Because of this, young people across the world have found themselves able to relate to and empathize with Anne. Consequently, The Diary of a Young Girl is an excellent way for teenagers to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust. 

In Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, who does Montag go visit?

Guy Montag is a fireman who creates fires by burning people's books. After a decade or so of this, he starts to wonder about what books might have to offer him. Three people influence Montag's decision to abandon his career and fight for a literate society. Two of those influential people are dead--Clarisse and the woman who torches herself in the name of books. The only other person Montag can turn to now is an old English professor whom he met a year earlier in the park named Faber. He and Faber had discussed books that day in the park. Faber even seemed to have recited poetry when he said the following:

"I don't talk of things, sir. . . I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and I know I'm alive" (75).

Remembering this meeting encourages Montag in "The Sieve and the Sand" to go visit Faber and see if he can help him with his current situation. The two of them come up with a plan to sabotage the practice of burning books by secretly planting books in the homes of firemen's houses. 

What are Charlie and Lyddie's plans in the book Lyddie by Katherine Paterson?

When their mother abandons them to go await the end of the world with her sister, Lyddie and Charles stay behind and try to keep the farm running by themselves. They plan to keep the farm going until their father returns. They tell themselves that "in another year, after another harvest, they would be experienced old farmers and sugarers." But then they receive a letter from their mother telling them that they have been hired out to repay the family debts, and they must leave the farm. They both view this as a temporary setback. Lyddie determines to sell the calf and keep the money so that when their father returns, they can all be together again and they will "have a little seed cash to start over with." They don't actually know whether their father is alive or dead, but if he should ever send for them, "we'll persuade him to stay," Lyddie says. Her persistent dream is to return to the cabin and the farm again to live with her family. Therefore, she and Charlie take care to bar the door against intruders. Once working at the Inn and later at the Concord Corporation, Millie meticulously saves her money so that she can pay off the debts of the farm and return to it with Charlie and then send for the others. Her unwavering goal is to live together again with all her family on their family farm. 

How important is the character "Pickering" in Pygmalion? Does he help to disprove Higgin's theory about class distinctions and the gaps between...

Colonel Pickering isn't a character so much as a narrative device. His presense appears to challenge Higgins' ideas, but he's actually just a sounding board, an opportunity for Higgins to say what he's thinking out loud. If Pygmalion had been a novel, Shaw could have indulged in a lot of interior monologues and Pickering might well have never existed.

Also, since Pickering and Higgins both came from at least the upper middle-class, Pickering's ideas about the gaps between the haves and the have nots are kind of academic, and not much different from the doubts Higgins certainly had about his own theories.

Pickering was similar to Dr. Watson (Sherlock Holmes' sidekick) in this regard. Pickering doesn't really drive any of the action and things happen despite him, not because of him. Really, he could be a figment of Higgins' imagination, like Tyler Durden (from Fight Club). A "bet" is the hoariest of all possible plot devices (a dance competition is a close second) and it's the weakest element of Pygmalion.

What is the conflict in the statement "for nothing pleased him so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places"?

The king seems to prefer when things are going wrong so that he can fix the problem.

Although the king claims that his kingdom runs smoothly, he runs it in a completely autocratic way.  Everything runs smoothly because he is the one making all of the decisions and no one dares defy him or they will get thrown into the amphitheater.

When every member of his domestic and political systems moved smoothly in its appointed course, his nature was bland and genial; but, whenever there was a little hitch, and some of his orbs got out of their orbits, he was blander and more genial still …

The king seems to actually enjoy trouble, because it gives him something to do.  He is not just a little bit sociopathic.  His trial system is a perfect example.  He created what he considers a perfectly fair system, and it is fair because he says it is fair.  He believes that the outcome is ruled by fate.

This vast amphitheater, with its encircling galleries, its mysterious vaults, and its unseen passages, was an agent of poetic justice, in which crime was punished, or virtue rewarded, by the decrees of an impartial and incorruptible chance.

The reason the system is so perfect, in his mind, is that a person has to choose a door.  He believes the innocent will choose the lady and the guilty will choose the tiger.  Actual evidence of innocence or guilt matters nothing to him and has no place in the trial.  He believes he is right, and his system is just, so that should be enough for everyone.

Semi-barbarism seems to mean that the king likes to toy with his subjects.  He has created a source of amusement not just for himself but for them.  The spectacle of the trial demonstrates this.  As much as the king claims to want things to run smoothly, he clearly prefers drama.

Whom did the boss punish when Lennie and George were late? And is he a nice guy like Candy says?

The boss is largely an invisible figure. He emerges in the beginning of the story and after that he disappears. 

When George and Lennie arrive late, Candy is quick to point out that the boss is not happy.  In fact, Candy also says that the boss will give the stable boy hell. No reason is given for this action of the boss, other than the fact that the stable boy is black. It seems that the boss is a racist man who takes out his frustration on black people, because of the color of their skin.  Here is the quote:

"I guess the boss’ll be out here in a minute. He was sure burned when you wasn’t here this morning. Come right in when we was eatin’ breakfast and says, ‘Where the hell’s them new men?’ An’ he give the stable buck hell, too."

Is the boss nice? From the above point, no.  He is a racist man.  But most men in this context are probably racist.

Candy says that the boss is nice owing to the fact that he tries to be nice to the men at times. For instance, during Christmas, the boss gave the men a gallon of whiskey.  George is impressed with this point as well. 

What can be inferred about Mrs. Mallard's Marriage in "The Story of An Hour"?

Given her initial reaction to the news that her husband had been killed, we might suppose that Mrs. Mallard's marriage was very good and filled with love and devotion. The narrator says, "She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms." Mrs. Mallard then retreats to her room to grieve some more. Such a dramatic reaction suggests that she had truly loved her husband and the news at losing him is devastating. 

But this initial reaction is just that: mostly a reaction. It is the reaction of a woman who had been playing the role of a dutiful, loyal wife. In this role, she had been fully dependent upon her husband. So, some portion of her dramatic grieving is the result of losing the person upon whom she depended so much. The reaction stems from living this role. 

When she begins to experience her new feelings of freedom and independence, it becomes clear that, while her marriage might have been good on the surface, her spirit had actually been repressed. So, her initial reaction of grief seems to have stemmed from that role of the loyal wife. But with her great awakening of independence, she reveals that her true happiness had been repressed by that role of living for her husband, rather than living for herself: 

There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination. 

No longer burdened by her husband's will, she feels liberated from that old role. She can now live for herself. Given this discovery of happiness in independence, the conclusion is that their marriage was functional. There may have been some degree of genuine love, but this was all on the surface. Inside, Mrs. Mallard's spirit was oppressed to the point that she repressed any notion of living for her own happiness. In that respect, the conclusion is that the marriage was deeply flawed because Mr. Mallard did not know how to, or simply would not understand and encourage his wife's free will and happiness. 

In the book, The Westing Game, what is Turtle's or Tabitha-Ruth Wexler's occupation?

During the actual events of The Westing Game, Tabitha-Ruth (Turtle) Wexler does not have any occupation.  She is, at that time, a 13 year-old girl.  The only occupation you might say she has is that of student.  However, at the end of the book, we find out what happens to her later in life.  At that point, she does have an occupation.

In Chapter 30, we find out what happens to Turtle later in life.  At the beginning of the chapter, she is at Julian Eastman’s deathbed.  We are told that she, “T. R. Wexler,” got and MBA and a law degree.  She had been the “legal counsel to the Westing Paper Products Corporation” and she is now Eastman’s lawyer.  She is also a wealthy woman, having made $5 million playing the stock market.  So, we can say that her occupation is “lawyer,” but she is not a lawyer during the time when most of the book is set.  Instead, she is a 13 year-old kid.

Describe the organizational structure of the story "There will come soft Rains". What effect does the structure of the text create on the story...

Bradbury uses a ticking clock and a voice calling out the time to count down the final moments and hours in the destruction of the dead family’s house.  Like the nuclear bomb’s countdown to destroying the citizens in the story, the house that survived the nuclear blast is on limited time as well.  Many paragraphs use the repetition of “tick tock” to signal the end is coming or near.  This repetition builds suspense and panic in the reader’s mind, and the passage of time brings with it feelings of fear and anxiety.

This pattern does stop twice in the story. When Bradbury describes the dog outside trying to get in and when the house is in its final throes of the fire destroying it, the clock seems to temporarily stop.  The dog and the house are the last two “living” things in the story.  The house is “alive”, almost “motherly”, because of how it lovingly takes care of the family’s needs.

Bradbury achieves an effective mood in the story through repetition, suspense, and the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the family.

What is the most dramatic event in "The Leap" by Louise Eldrich?

The most dramatic event in "The Leap" is the mother's rescue of the daughter from her burning bedroom.

While the leap of Mrs. Avalon under the circus tent is, indeed, dramatic, it is not described with the amount of detail that is present in the daughter's narration of her own rescue by her mother. With so much description of the incident and the daring of the mother's leap onto fragile tree branches, added to the fact that the daughter was successfully rescued, there seems to be a more heightened emotional impact upon the reader. Added to this, the daughter/narrator ties the first leap of her mother to the rescue of herself that she always recalls as she sits sewing in the rebuilt house where her childhood bedroom once was.

I would...tend to think that all memory of double somersaults and heart stopping catches had left her arms and legs were it not that for fact that sometimes...I hear the crackle, catch a whiff of smoke from the stove downstairs and suddenly the room goes dark....and I am sewing with a needle of hot silver, a thread of fire.

The sewing room of the narrator was once her bedroom that caught fire when her father may have inadvertently emptied warm coals that he presumed cold into a wooden or cardboard container.  While the parents were out for the evening, the baby-sitter, unfortunately, had fallen asleep in the den, and she awoke to find the stairway already cut off by flames.

When the narrator's parents returned home, volunteers had already drawn water from the fire pond and were trying to wet the outside of the house and then go inside and rescue the narrator. However, they did not realize that there was only one stairway and it was ablaze, cutting off the bedroom above. Then, when someone tried to climb the extension ladder, it broke. The noise awakened the narrator, who touched her door and realized the fire was outside it. She rolled up the rug and shoved in under the door; then she waited.
By this time the narrator's mother realized that there was no rescue; she looked at the tree and saw only a narrow branch that just "scraped the roof." Appearances suggested even a squirrel would have difficulty jumping onto the roof from this branch; however, the mother reached a different decision.

Her mother stripped off her dress and climbed what was left of the ladder in her underclothes. She reached for branches and inched along on her stomach to a bough that curved above the narrow branch over the roof. Balancing on the bough, she leaped, caught the narrow branch that broke in her hands, but only after she had already vaulted toward the edge of the house's roof.

I didn't see her leap...only heard the sudden thump and looked out my window. She was hanging by the back of her heels from the new gutter we had put in that year, and she was smiling.

The mother tapped gently on the daughter's window. When the girl opened it, her mother told her to prop it open with a stick. Then she swung down, and crawled into the bedroom. She picked up her daughter, held her girl in her lap, and with toes pointed downward, the two leaped toward the target on the firefighter's net.

I know that she's right. I knew it even then. As you fall there is time to think.

This is what the mother has always explained to her daughter about her own leap when she was young with her first husband as the Flying Avalons. No one but an experienced trapeze artist could accomplish such life-saving feats. Indeed, the narrator owes her life to her mother.

Why does everyone lie about the witchcraft in The Crucible?

While the contemporary consensus on the Salem witch trials is that the witchcraft was imagined, there is evidence to suggest that many of the Salem citizens believed in the witchcraft at the time. This can be seen throughout The Crucible, from Reverend Paris to Tituba believing in the devil's ability to possess a person through witchcraft. It is easy to write off the characters as intentionally lying about the witchcraft, but that is a tad reductive. Ultimately, many of the characters in the play believe the witchcraft exists, and these beliefs have grave consequences.

It can be helpful to examine the sociopolitical context that surrounded the creation of The Crucible. Arthur Miller created the story as an allegory for the Red Scare and the hunt for communists in America. At the time, many American citizens and politicians believed that communists had infiltrated the country. This belief created a witch hunt that hurt many people's careers and livelihoods.

Instead of viewing the characters as lying, it may be more helpful to understand them as giving into hysteria. 

In "The Bet" why does the lawyer move from novels to classics?

Evidently the lawyer's only activities after the first year of confinement were reading and thinking. His reading during the first year suggests that he was only using books as a way of killing time. Many people do this all their lives. Much of the literature that gets published is trash. Much of the material in magazines is only there to fill up pages. Romances and mysteries are especially popular. They are escapist reading. The books are often formulaic, and after a while an intelligent reader will realize that they are reading the same plots with different characters and different settings. The reader gets little out of them except temporary diversion.

The lawyer's taste changes because he is in a serious situation. He has to spend fifteen years in isolation. He naturally becomes more serious in his thinking, and this leads to his becoming more serious in his tastes in reading. Like a lot of professionals, he may be realizing that he is woefully ignorant about almost everything except his speciality, which happens to be the law. The banker cannot really know what is going on in the lawyer's mind, and neither can the reader. This can only be guessed at from the books the prisoner requests. Books become a big part of his life because they can serve as companions, acquaintances, even friends. In other words, they are serving the lawyer as substitutes for interaction with real people. The classics offer better "company" than the works of hack writers whose main interest is in making money.

In the first year the books he sent for were principally of a light character; novels with a complicated love plot, sensational and fantastic stories, and so on. In the second year the piano was silent in the lodge, and the prisoner asked only for the classics. 

Books offer opportunities for anyone to meet some of the wisest and most sincere and interesting people who ever lived. Chekhov himself is an example. Leo Tolstoy is an even better example. Holden Caulfield, the lonely boy who narrates The Catcher in the Rye, writes:

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.

The reader himself becomes a better and wiser person as a result of forming friendships with such intellectual and creative people. This was an unexpected benefit of the bet the lawyer made with the banker. The lawyer thought he could stand fifteen years of solitary confinement, but he didn't know how he was going to do it until he found himself all alone.