How does the narrator feel about being Native American in "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"?

As a Native American, the narrator in “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” suffers from a sense of alienation in an America where “he didn’t fit the profile.” This sense of alienation results in anger, which reveals itself through the narrator’s damaged relationships and overall sense of apathy.

The story begins with the Indian narrator wandering around Seattle after a break-up with his white girlfriend. He explains that he doesn’t know what he’s looking for and says he often feels like he’d “spent his whole life that way, looking for anything I recognized.” A few paragraphs later, he explains that despite knowing where he wants to be at times there are “none he was supposed to be.” The narrator makes several mentions of how this sense of not belonging because of his ethnicity has made him angry to the point of his girlfriend saying that’s the cause of their breakup.

The narrator finds his place of belonging when he returns to his Spokane reservation. After months of sitting around and doing nothing, not even looking at the job postings his mother circles for him, the narrator symbolically returns to his roots and begins playing basketball, something that helped forge his identity as a youth. He responds positively when he finds himself inferior to a white basketball player, while earlier in the story he took a liking to a white man who worked the late shift at 7-Eleven only because he felt superior to him. Immediately after his symbolic rebirth on the basketball court, the narrator wakes up the next morning and explains that he “woke up tired and hungry” and “drove to Spokane to get the job I wanted.”

This idea of alienation because he's Native American is a motif Alexie employs throughout many of his stories. Usually Alexie explores this motif using his Victor or Junior personas, but not always. His Indian protagonists often end up accepting their roles in America or the community by the story’s or novel’s end (see: “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian).

In Lord of the Flies, what do the little kids really like about the conch?

The youngest children stranded on the island in Lord of the Flies are called little 'uns. We first meet them when Ralph uses the conch to call an assembly. Ralph blows with all his might into the shell, and it makes a noise like a trumpet. The first little 'un who appears comes and squats directly in front of Ralph and begins to "look satisfied," that satisfaction coming from "the assurance of something purposeful being done." Similarly, other little 'uns find their way to the source of the trumpet sound and begin dutifully submitting to the roll call Piggy tries to take. Golding mentions that they obey in the same way they had obeyed the men with megaphones. Presumably when they had been put onto the ship that brought them to the island, men used megaphones to get the attention of the boys. The little 'uns associate the conch with the megaphones, and since Ralph is significantly older than they are (from their perspective), they regard him as an authority figure similar to the men on the boat. This gives structure to their behavior and someone to listen to, which is very reassuring to the children who suddenly and traumatically find themselves without any adult care or guidance.

From Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, describe Anne's relationship with her mother.

Anne is the second of two daughters born to Mr. and Mrs. Otto Frank. Anne's older sister Margot is 16 years old in 1942 when the diary begins and Anne is just 13. Since Margot is more mature, and not the baby of the family, it seems as if Anne's mother treats her with more dignity. Anne's biggest complaint throughout the book is that her mother treats her like a baby and loves Margot more. As a result, Anne refuses her mother's attempts to show affection or concern and she says that she loves her father the most out of anyone in the world. In the entry dated 7 November 1942, Anne reveals the following feelings about her mother:

"We are complete opposites in everything, so naturally we are bound to run up against each other. I don't pronounce judgment on Mummy's character, for that is something I can't judge. I only look at her as a mother, and she just doesn't succeed in being that to me; I have to be my own mother . . . because I have in my mind's eye an image of what a perfect mother and wife should be; and in her whom I must call 'Mother' I find no trace of that image" (45).

This passage is powerful because Anne basically declares that her mother is a failure at motherhood. Anne never truly feels as though she understands her mother; but by 1944, she at least starts to grow from her bitter feelings towards her mother and strives not to hold a grudge. She realizes that her mother has gone through many stresses and anxieties in life, and while in hiding, that she understands when her mother has not responded as she would have liked. Ann also comes to the understanding that her own responses to her mother may have been too serious at times. The relationship between Anne and her mother never turns into what she would call perfect, but she does say the following:

"The period when I caused Mummy to shed tears is over. I have grown wiser and Mummy's nerves are not so much on edge . . . so we appear to get on much better together" (128).

This is good for Anne to learn about how to show more maturity towards her mother; however, she never really loves her, either. At least Anne and her mother find a way to establish peace between the two of them and to stop the yelling and arguing that once plagued their relationship.

Are different isotopes of carbon still carbon?

Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons, and therefore different masses. All atoms of the same element have the same number of protons, which determines their identity. Any atom with six protons is a carbon atom. There are three common isotopes of carbon: Carbon-12 with 6 neutrons, carbon-13 with 7 neutrons and carbon-14 with 8 neutrons.

A naturally occurring sample of carbon is about 99% C-12 with very small amounts of the other two isotopes. There's no difference in the chemical behavior of the different isotopes, but carbon-14 undergoes radioactive decay. It's used to date very old artifacts based on the percent of carbon-14 remaining.

Carbon occurs in nature in different forms: Coal, graphite and diamond. Different structures of an element with different properties are called allotropes. The differences between the allotropes of carbon are due to different types of bonding and have nothing to do with the number of neutrons. 

Determine the angle whose sine is .23345.

If we assume the angle to be say "a" degrees, we have

sin a = 0.23345

We can use either the standard sine tables or a calculator to determine the value of a.

Using a calculator, a = 

Thus, the required angle is of 13.5 degrees. It can also be written in radians as 

We can carry out the conversion between degrees and radians, by using the fact that  radians contain 360 degrees.

Since, the sine function is a period function, the same value of sine will be obtained at 166.5 degrees (or, ) in the interval [0, ]. The same values will also be obtained in the next sine curve (spaced by 2 or 360 degrees), that is at  and . 

Hope this helps.

Explain the political environment of business with the help of current references and examples.

The political aspect of the business environment is usually discussed in conjunction with the legal environment, since it is the political environment that affects legislation of businesses.  An understanding of both is important for any business, small, medium, or large.

Political and legal environments vary from one country to the next, and the country I am most familiar with is the United States.  In the United States, politics plays an important role in business, and this can be seen in the current presidential election cycle.  As a general matter, there are two political extremes on the spectrum, at one end, low taxes for business, small government, a balanced budget, minimal government regulation, anti-immigration policies and at the other end, higher taxes (particularly for the wealthiest), government borrowing and spending, more government regulation, and pro-immigration policies. There was a time at which it was safe to say that Republicans strongly favored trade agreements, but what either party's position is on this is not clear anymore. 

Any business needs to know what the prevailing winds are for all of these matters.  For example, if corporate income taxes are going to be going up, there are companies who will choose to move elsewhere, which, in fact, many have already done.  If small government is going to prevail, those companies who reap the benefit of government contracts can no longer count on that work such as road or bridge repair. If government is going to borrow and spend, many businesses will reap the benefit of new contracts.  Less regulation always seems like it should be of great benefit to businesses, and I'm sure there are some silly regulations out there.  For the most part, though, government regulations are meant to ensure a level playing field for businesses and to protect the safety of the public.  Without many of these regulations, there would be far more lawsuits against businesses.  Immigration policy affects the supply and demand of the labor market.  I have read that when Alabama passed a Draconian anti-immigration statute, the crops rotted in the fields because there was no one to harvest them. 

You can see in order to successfully run any business, it is necessary to keep track of the political and legal environment.  Whether this is going to be a good time to start a business, a good time to expand, or a good time to take a business abroad is going to depend a great deal upon knowledge of this environment and the ability to make a reasonable prediction about which way the wind is going to blow in the next four years.                

Compare and contrast the political philosophies of Rousseau and Aristotle.

To analyze each philosopher's view of politics, you must first examine his ideas on man's place in society.  Aristotle proposed in Poetics that mankind is only a part of a whole; he claimed that the state came first, and that the family and then the individual evolved from the state.  He theorized that if a physical body ceases to be, you can not be left with an independent hand or a foot, because a part can not exist separated from its whole.  The same, Aristotle says, is true for individuals apart from society:

"Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god."

This society is what makes mankind morally upright, and our morality is what makes us better than the animals.  Rousseau, on the other hand, believed that society actually corrupted mankind, and that our moral evolution worked backward from what Aristotle described.  Rousseau describes the "noble savage," the man that, if left to nature, would be uncorrupted in his natural state.  Rousseau theorized that society only works because we (somewhat subconsciously) enter into what he called a "social contract" that allows us all to band together so that our common needs are met.  He felt that this mutual agreement had many political drawbacks, as it caused the development of pride over natural self-love, and pride caused vanity:

“The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murders, what miseries and horrors would the human race have been spared, had some one pulled up the stakes or filled in the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: "Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all and the earth to no one!” 

So while Aristotle believed mankind thrived on society and was born a political being, Rousseau believed mankind was forced to become political out of a mutual benefit that outweighed remaining independent.

What kind of person is Ozymandias as he is depicted in Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem of the same name?

We learn something about Ozymandias from line three of the poem. These lines provide a description of the individual whose image has been sculpted in stone, which now lies broken in the sand.

Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

The words in bold inform us that the sculpture expresses a frown which suggests a serious expression; 'wrinkled lip' informs of a haughty expression, possessed by one who regards others with contempt. This is further supported and accentuated by the word 'sneer', which tells us that the person so depicted had disdain for those whom he commanded. The fact that his command is described as 'cold' suggests that he was heartless and cruel. Our perception is therefore of a cruel, hard, ruthless taskmaster who led without any love for his subjects. We can therefore rightly assume that he must have been either a dictator or tyrant.

The speaker tells us that the sculptor 'well those passions read,' which is an indication that the skilled artist was not remiss in the manner in which he portrayed his subject in this now decayed work. The line "The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed" further informs us that Ozymandias saw his subjects as buffoons and treated them as if they were idiots. He relished abusing his subjects and he fed his overblown ego by treating them with utter disregard and making fools of them.

Further insight is provided into Ozymandias' unpleasant superciliousness in the lines:

And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

So vain and egotistical was he that he expressed his greatness on the pedestal of his statue, stating that he was greater than any ruler. Even the mightiest of the mighty could not challenge his glory for he was so all-powerful and great that all any other ruler could do was to become disparaged when they witnessed his magnitude and magnificence.

It is therefore ironic that all that has remained of Ozymandias' so-called prodigious power is a broken statue, enveloped by the sands of the desert.

 Nothing beside remains

Ozymandias has been defeated by death and time. The lonely, open and vast desert has become his final resting place, leaving a poor testament to his once, as he believed, incomparable might.

What is your impression of the Cunninghams after reading Chapter 15, and how is it different from your initial impression in Chapter 2?

Initially, when we are introduced to the Cunningham family in Chapter 2, they are depicted as honorable, hard-working individuals. The fact that they don't accept anything that they cannot pay back displays their integrity. Although they are poor, they find ways to get by and Walter Cunningham Sr. is able to pay his debts via bartering. Walter Cunningham Jr. is a rather harmless character who displays respect for his teacher and classmates, unlike Burris Ewell. In Chapter 15, the audience is introduced to Walter Cunningham's "bad" side. Walter Cunningham hails from Old Sarum and is the leader of a drunken mob intent on harming Tom Robinson before his case. Atticus confronts Walter outside of Tom's jail cell, and Scout unknowingly diffuses the situation by running into the middle of the group. In Chapter 15, Walter is viewed as a drunk racist who is easily affected by "mob mentality." Walter Cunningham made the poor choice to participate in a criminal act that night but ultimately came to his senses at the last moment. Walter's ability to recognize the precarious situation Atticus was in, depicts him as a thoughtful man with a conscious. One of the main themes throughout the novel is the duality of human nature. The Cunninghams are no different than the majority of Maycomb's citizens who are friendly, but harbor prejudice towards African Americans. Chapter 2 and Chapter 15 display both the positive and negative sides of the Cunninghams.

Discuss your experiences with technology and how comfortable you are using technology both personally and professionally.

This is personal question, and an answer must be drawn from your personal experiences with technology and examples from your own life.  To help you out, let’s think about the pervasiveness of technology and all the different ways we experience it today.

Consider all the ways people use technology in a personal capacity – do you have a smartphone or a laptop?  Maybe you have a tablet or an e-reader – do you use these things every day?  You can probably download an app or transfer a podcast from your laptop to your iPhone without even concentrating; it’s second nature.  I would imagine most people have a very high level of comfort with these sorts of personal technological devices.  In addition, these things are changing the way we experience the world and the way we process information.  If we want to learn about the constellations, we can simply go to the app store and download Night Sky Tools or something similar – no need to go to the library and check out books and star charts.  In the blink of an eye we can have all the information we need about meteor showers and the movements of the planets in our pockets, in the same device onto which we store libraries full of music and textbooks and records of months-long conversations with friends.  A certain level of comfort comes with knowing we immediate access to the answers for any questions we might have, all the time.

Or perhaps you’re technically illiterate, like my mother, who can’t figure out how to access the internet on her iPhone, doesn’t know the difference between wifi and cellular data, and until yesterday thought a podcast was something similar to a youtube video.  For my mother, technology is an imposition.  She feels much more comfortable writing a letter and sending it off in the mail and recalls Blockbuster Video with almost violent nostalgia.

Or perhaps you’re suspicious of technology, and while you’re comfortable using different devices from an operational standpoint you are very uncomfortable divulging any information about yourself on the internet and have a secret personal vendetta against the NSA and make all your monetary transactions in cash.  There are dozens of ways you can be comfortable or uncomfortable with technology in your personal life, and they all depend on your own opinions and interactions with devices and methods.  This of course extends to medical technology – perhaps you must go often to the doctor for tests and medicines, and depend on these sorts of tech advances for your health.  Or perhaps you fear the increase in paranoia and unnecessary testing and prescriptions these health advances make us think we need, when in fact they could be causing lasting harm.

Professional technology is a different matter, and without knowing any context it will be difficult to give examples relevant to your situation.  But think of all the ways technology is altering the way we interact with the workplace:  ever since the early twentieth century machines have been replacing humans in factories, and more and more jobs are being performed by computers that once were performed by people.  Maybe this idea makes you uncomfortable.  Or maybe the use of computers makes your job quicker and easier – you are able to organize and process data in half the time using spreadsheets and programs, which frees up your time for other job-related matters.  Workplace satisfaction and quality of work might be improving because of this extra time allowed by digital input and organization of data.  Maybe you’re a computer engineer, or a web designer, careers which wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for technology.

In order to answer this question you must draw from your own experiences.  Hopefully this has given you some idea for a starting point when considering the various ways technology has a lasting impact on our lives – it could also help to imagine what your life would be like if all of a sudden someone denied you access to your phone, or to a washing machine, or to the radio in your car – how uncomfortable would that make you feel?

What are three clues Jackson gives that indicate that Laurie, not Charles, is the problem?

At first glance, Shirley Jackson's short story "Charles" seems to be a simple tale of a young boy convincing his parents that a fictional student is responsible for his own antics at school. However, much has been written about the complexity that may underlie Jackson's writing, including the fact that she based some of the exploits on real characters. Additionally, Jackson may have written "Charles" with the intent that the story mean much more than the words at face value seem to.

Jackson provided readers with several tips indicating that Laurie himself is causing the problems he attributes to Charles. Early in the story, Laurie tells his parents of Charles' antics but wanders off without answering his father's probing questions.

Laurie thought. “It was Charles,” he said. “He was fresh.The teacher spanked him and made him stand in the corner. He was awfully fresh.”

“What did he do?” I asked again, but Laurie slid off his chair, took a cookie, and left, while his father was still saying, “See here, young man.”

Laurie is again asked about Charles and reveals another of his antics. After the below exchange, he also tells a joke in which he says to his father, "Gee your dumb" as part of the joke. These reveal to the reader that there is much more than an innocent little boy to the personality of Laurie.

"The next day Laurie remarked at lunch, as soon as he sat down, “Well, Charles was bad again today.” He grinned enormously and said, “Today Charles hit the teacher.”"

Later in the story it is revealed that Laurie came home late from school with the following tale, at which point readers may wonder if Laurie is Charles since Laurie was late getting home.

"On Monday Laurie came home late, full of news. “Charles,” he shouted as he came up the hill; I was waiting anxiously on the front steps. “Charles,” Laurie yelled all the way up the hill, “Charles was bad again.”
“Come right in,” I said, as soon as he came close enough. “Lunch is waiting.”
“You know what Charles did?” he demanded, following me through the door. “Charles yelled so in school they sent a boy in from first grade to tell the teacher she had to make Charles keep quiet, and so Charles had to stay after school."

Of course finally, at the end of the story, the author includes that Laurie's teacher tells his mother there is no Charles in kindergarten as a final clue that Laurie is in fact Charles.

Does the narrator live in Omelas?

I would have to say that the narrator does not live in Omelas, since Omelas is not meant to be understood as a literal city, in the same way the story is really not a story but a kind of thought experiment or philosophical problem. That is, the narrator seems to challenge the reader to imagine a city like Omelas, for the purpose of posing a moral question. When the narrator writes that "I do not know the rules and laws of their society, but I suspect that they were singularly few," or says later, after attempting to describe the city, "Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all," I think the point is not about whether the city is real, or whether the narrator lives in the city, but to provide an opportunity for the reader to imagine their own version of Omelas, one they can believe in. Once this notion is fixed in the reader's mind, Le Guin poses the problem of the child kept in misery. ("Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing.") The problem she poses the reader is one of credibility -- how much evil does one need to include in the vision of Omelas to make it "believable" -- and of the imagination. The people who leave Omelas are the ones who choose to imagine a place where goodness can exist without evil and misery -- a place the narrator "cannot describe at all." Le Guin seems to challenge the reader to try to imagine a similar place.

How is Langston Hughes's "Soul Gone Home" a portrayal of typical poverty-stricken African-American life?

Statistics show that the account of African-American poverty Langston Hughes gives in his one-act play "Soul Gone Home" is still very true today.

In the play, as Ronnie, who has just died of tuberculosis contracted as a result of malnutrition, complains to his mother about her inability to be a good parent, we learn that Ronnie grew up in a single tenement room, undernourished, and left on his own to roam the streets. His mother was forced into prostitution because Ronnie's father "ruint" her, meaning impregnated her outside of marriage, leaving her to raise her "little bastard" son on her own through whatever means she could find, which was prostitution.

Though it has been nearly 80 years since Hughes wrote the play in 1937, we find that even today 27% of African Americans live in poverty, concentrated in ghettos, in comparison to "just 11% of all Americans" ("Poverty in Black America," Black Demographics). Among the impoverished African Americans, 46% are families with children, and 55% of those families are headed by single African-American women ("Poverty in Black America"). The percentage of single African-American women raising children is significantly lower than the 9.4% of single non-Hispanic white women raising children ("Household Composition," Women's Health USA 2012). These statistics show us that, just like in Ronnie's situation, nearly half of African-American children are still growing up in poverty, abandoned by fathers. In addition, 37% of African-American youths are incarcerated even though they only make up 16% of the total US youth population, which shows us that, like Ronnie, a large percentage of African-American youths today are still either growing up on the streets with all of its incriminating influences or being unjustly incarcerated (Kerby, "The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color"). Hence, as we can see, Hughes's "Soul Gone Home" is still an applicable portrayal of African-American poverty.

What are the sins of Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter? Why I can say that he has committed the greater sin?

The biggest sin that Dimmesdale commits, aside from the adultery and fornication he already has committed with Hester, is the fact that he does not own up to what he does and continues to lie to his flock. He does this while secretly inflicting private punishment upon himself. He does this by perpetuating the image of the "young divine" that the villagers have bestowed upon him.

Not only does he do this to his flock, but he also does this to Hester. He never supports her, and the only times that Hester and Dimmesdale get to speak and make "plans" for the future are at the times when she orchestrates the meetings. To add to the shocking nature of his behavior, he is neither loving of nor entirely accepting of his own daughter, Pearl, even as he is not entirely loving, forgiving or accepting of himself as we learn at the end of the novel when his chest and back are bared.

The reason why you can say that Dimmesdale commits the greatest sin (if "greater sin" means as between his and Hester's sins) is because Dimmesdale, worldly, educated, sophisticated, in a position of leadership, not only should be setting the example but is bound to know much better than to do what did.

As her minister, Dimmesdale was in a position to comfort and support Hester upon her arrival at the village and considering the knowledge that her husband could have died in a shipwreck. He was not, however, in a position to consider her as a potential love interest. He did just that.

Additionally, Dimmesdale's job in the village is offering moral and spiritual guidance to the flock. He continued to do so while still hiding the truth about Hester. He also allowed Hester to suffer the wrath of the village alone while Dimmesdale himself continued to enjoy his reputation and the respect of the people.

The worst part is that there is a side of Dimmesdale that Hawthorne only touches upon briefly in the novel. It is a part of him that seems to succumb quite easily to the practice of evil even while calling the practice holy. If we were to make a deeper study of Dimmesdale, we might conclude that he is actually a very bad man who forces himself to be or appear to be good in a nearly supernatural way. Thus, Dimmesdale has more trouble abiding by the true Christian way of life than many people. We can only wonder about him, though, as Hawthorne is never specific about Dimmesdale's inner thoughts and just focuses on the man's emotions post-Hester, even though both the narrator and hester intimate that Dimmesdale's sin of adultry was spurred by real love (suggesting it is real love betrayed that drives him secret evil against himself and public repudiation of Hester).

Chillingworth's excuses for his wrath against Dimmesdale are jealousy and his bruised ego. Hester's excuse for her doings is the lack of love and passion in her young life. What are Dimmesdale's excuses for all of his actions toward Hester? Lust? Desire? Ego? True love betrayed by his own cowardice? Which ever is settled upon, his is certainly not the behavior of a true man of God (Hawthorne's suggestion is that Dimmesdale knows this and that this is the root of his cowardice and self-torture).

What is the organization of the plot in John Steinbeck's "Flight"? I need to discuss exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and...

Like many of John Steinbeck's stories, "Flight" is set in the area of California around Salinas and Monterey. In the exposition of the story Steinbeck describes a meager farm "on the wild coast." It is a simple homestead on "sloping acres" with a modest house and barn that are set low on the landscape. The reader may get the impression that this is difficult land to make a living on.

The Torres family consists of a mother, a 19-year-old son, and two younger siblings. Mama Torres is described as "lean" and authoritarian as she brings up her children after the death of her husband ten years earlier. The son, Pepé, is described as lazy and the mother says she must have encountered a "coyote" when he was born because the animal is "sneaking lazy." In Native American folklore the coyote often symbolizes a trickster and can take on both positive and negative character traits. In some stories he is reckless, lazy, and arrogant.

The conflict of the story revolves around Pepé's figurative journey to manhood. When we meet Pepé he is just a boy playing with a knife which the mother calls "toy-baby," representing Pepé's childish nature. When Pepé claims he is a man, the mother scoffs and calls him "peanut" and "little chicken." Nevertheless, she sends him on a man's errand to Monterey for salt and medicine. He is allowed to wear his father's hat and ride on his father's saddle.

The rising action begins with Pepé riding off to Monterey. After he leaves, his mother comments that when he returns it will be nice to have a man on the farm again. In Monterey, Pepé's newfound manhood is challenged and he kills a man with his knife in a bar fight.

When he returns, his mother outfits him for a "flight" away from the law that will eventually track him down. But, unlike the man he proclaims to be, he makes numerous mistakes as he flees. He takes a "well worn path" which makes him easy to track. He loses his knife and then leaves his hat under a tree where he stops to water his horse. He ascends high into the mountains above Monterey and never seems to have a set destination.

He is plagued by fear as he continually looks back along the trail and sometimes sees shadowy figures far away. Early the next morning as his horse climbs the steep trail in an open area, a shot from the valley drops his horse from underneath him. He has now lost his horse and becomes almost animal-like as he crawls and "wriggles" his way out of sight. He then discharges his rifle at something he imagines seeing along the trail. He gives away his position and a bullet from below causes a "sliver of granite" to pierce his hand. 

After losing his rifle he is reduced to a primitive state and has lost the manly dignity he had bragged of in the beginning of the story. His hand becomes badly infected and he knows he will eventually die from the wound. Instead of allowing himself to die a miserable death like a rabid animal, he makes a decision to go out as he envisions a man would.

In the story's climax he crawls to the top of a rock and makes himself clearly known to the men below. Steinbeck writes, "He braced his feet and stood there, black against the morning sky." In the final moments of his life, and the resolution of the story, he affirms what he believes is manly behavior by dying a proud death confronting his attackers.  

What is the average speed of a cross country runner running 50 km in 25 minutes?

For a cross country runner, as for any other physical body, the instantaneous speed may vary over time. He may slow sometimes and accelerate at other times.

It is difficult to measure the instantaneous speed over the total distance. Moreover, although this hypothetical data has all the information about the movement, it does not answer the question of whether the runner was fast overall for the distance or not.

For such a situation, the notion of the average speed was invented. It is simply the total distance divided by the total time spent. It is the same as the real (instantaneous) speed if the real speed is constant throughout the run.

In our case, the average speed is    But isn't a generally accepted unit.

The SI unit used is To convert to this, recall that 1 km = 1000 m and 1 min = 60 s. The converted value is You could also convert it to km/h:

This is an impossible speed for a runner. More likely, the runner went a distance of 5 km, not 50.

How is Melinda Sordino suffering from post traumatic stress disorder? What effects does it have on her?

Melinda Sordino is the protagonist and narrator of the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. She is indeed suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, stemming from a date rape she experienced during a summer party that occurs before the action of the novel and before Melinda begins her freshman year at Merryweather High School. Because her rapist is a senior at the high school, his presence and the memory of his actions are inescapable, making her trauma worse.

Melinda's PTSD affects her live in several ways. The most clear effect comes from the title of the book - Speak. Only Melinda doesn't speak. Time and again in the novel, readers see an ellipsis (...) where Melinda chooses to say nothing rather than respond to other people's questions, concerns, anger, etc. Not only does she tell no one about the rape for months, she communicates almost none of her other thoughts and feelings either. As an explanation, she narrates, "It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say" (pg 9). Even though she seems to know she needs help, Melinda believes for a long time that there is no point in asking for it.

A related motif in the novel that shows Melinda's PTAD is the motif of mouths. Melinda mentions many times in the book that her mouth is chewed and scabbed. Readers can infer that she has developed a nervous habit of chewing on her lips, probably when she is feeling particularly frightened or confronted with her attack. Other characters notice this too. One of The Marthas, Siobhan (pronounced Sha-von, by the way - it's an Irish name) says about Melinda, "She's creepy. What's wrong with her lips? It looks like she's got a disease or something" (pg 45). Here again, Melinda's symptoms are driving the people around her away. Instead of seeing her actions as a cry for help or the result of a traumatic incident, Melinda's classmates are disgusted and mock or ignore her.

Another huge effect is how withdrawn she becomes from the world around her. She makes no effort to reconnect with her friends and explain herself or to find new friends - Heather and her only begin hanging out due to Heather's ambitions of popularity and fear of being alone. Instead of going to class, Melinda hides in her closet, or skips school altogether. As the principal says in the parent meeting on page 114, Melinda was a friendly, bright student in middle school, so these behaviors are clearly new and out of character for her. Yet the adults in her life react with anger rather than concern, confirming Melinda's belief that no one cares enough to hear the truth about the rape.

Melinda also experiences a number of unhealthy behaviors and signs of depression. These are more subtle; Melinda casually mentions them in her narration of the story and they are easy to miss. Added up, however, they show a serious problem. One of these signs of depression is her sleeping habits. Melinda mentions several times her difficulty sleeping, or staying asleep. There are some excellent quotes that showcase this in another answer. Both depression and PTSD (of which depression is a symptom) affect people's sleep habits, and Melinda is no exception.Another sign is her eating. She mentions a few times eating more than is normal for a 14 or 15-year-old girl. One example is when she goes to buy jelly doughnuts. Rather than getting one as a treat, she gets several. This might seem like no big deal, but later in the story, she mentions outgrowing her clothes and having to buy new jeans with her mother. A careful reader can see and infer that Melinda is overeating from the stress caused by her attack.

Finally, the symptom that gives new readers the clues they need to figure out Melinda was raped - her flashbacks. Again, a previous answer gave an excellent description of Melinda's most prominent flashback to her rape, while dissecting frogs in biology class. However, it's also important to consider when Melinda flashes back to recall the night of the rape in detail - right after declining an invitation to a pizza party given by David Petrakis. Melinda likes David. She's angry she can't feel safe enough to go to the party. But she also knows that because of Andy's rape, she will be living in this state of fear for a long time. That's why a simple invitation to a group pizza party from a nerdy boy in her biology class fills her with fear. A clear symptom of her PTSD.

What is the setting of "Games at Twilight?"

“Games at Twilight” takes place in India, at the home of a large family on a very hot summer day.  We first see the children in mid-afternoon, an “arid time of day” when “no life stirred…the birds still drooped, like dead fruit, in the papery tents of the trees; some squirrels lay limp on the dead earth under the garden tap.”  Desai provides very vivid imagery such as this throughout the story, reminding us of the dogged, unforgiving heat by direct description and also through the contrast with evening, when the light becomes “fuzzier” and the gardener is “soaking the dry yellow grass and the red gravel and arousing the sweet, the intoxicating scent of water on dry earth….”

As the story progresses it zeroes in on Ravi hiding inside a shed during a game of hide-and-seek, and the spooky crepuscular interior soon mirrors the twilight that descends outside.  This, as well, is part of the setting – the “less definable, less recognizable horrors” of the shed, the dank, dusty, close space that is so similar to the feeling Ravi has at the end of the story, when he discovers that the other children have completely forgotten about him and have moved on to a different game as he stood huddled in his lonely space.

What news comes as a disappointment to Michael Obi's wife?

In the story, Michael Obi is the newly appointed headmaster of Ndume Central School. While her husband looks forward to modernizing what he considers an antiquated school system, Nancy is excited about her new position in society. She wants to be known as a trend-setter among all the other schoolteachers' wives.

It never occurs to Nancy that there may not be any other wives to bolster her dubious position as a society matron. When she expresses her concerns to her husband, he does not appear perturbed. In fact, Michael Obi happily asserts that all the schoolteachers are 'young and unmarried.' He considers this 'a good thing,' as it means that his subordinates' inherent energies will be concentrated on implementing his philosophical ideas about education. Nancy is disappointed to hear that she will not be a highly positioned society wife among a bevy of other wives. However, her dismay is short-lived when she considers the powerful influence her husband will exert on the culture of the school and surrounding village.

How did European exploration impact Europe?

European exploration, or the Age of Discovery, occurred mostly from the 15th to 18th centuries. It began with the Portuguese exploration of West Africa and the Spanish exploration of the Americas. This exploration greatly expanded Europe's power and land through its colonial powers and increased its resources and trading abilities.

The connection of Europe, Asia, and Africa to the Americas created a new trade route known as the Columbian Exchange: the transfer of plants, animals, food, humans (slavery), diseases, and cultures between the east and west. Trade routes to India and China, notably for spices, were also discovered. Eventually the Pacific Ocean was also explored in search of gold. In addition to increasing European power and resources, it also led to increased knowledge of the world and the first world maps. 

What does Freak call the hospital?

Kevin calls the newly built wing of the hospital “the Fortress.” Even though Kevin does not have a blanket term for the entire hospital, the term “the Fortress” refers to the new building in the back (the new wing) that is important to the story. In fact, there is a sign hanging above the doors to the new wing that says “MEDICAL RESEARCH” in capital letters. “The Fortress” becomes the site of a new adventure for the boys.

In this particular adventure, Kevin insists that this is the area where scientists are creating a “bionic body” for him. In their travels both there and elsewhere, Kevin talks about how there are secret tests going on in that location “to develop a new form of bionic robot for human modification.” Kevin insists that he has been coming to “the Fortress” for these secret tests for months and months. Further, Kevin says that sometime “in the future,” he will become “bionically improved” through the efforts of the scientists at “the Fortress” and their work on a “bionic transplant.” In the future, Kevin says that he will receive his new body, which will be both “enlarged and improved.” Even though Max is skeptical, he is enthralled by Kevin’s story and wants to believe these wonderful improvements will be true for Kevin.

What material is "a soft, fuzzy fabric that can be used to make a variety of things?"

Fleece is a soft, fuzzy material that is used to make a variety of things. Fleece is a common alterative of wool.  Fleece is often used to make sweaters, jackets, throw blankets, mittens, hats, scarves, and other garments to keep people warm. It is usually used for items that will provide warmth because it is durable, holds in warmth, and whisks away moisture. According to the website How Products Are Made, fleece has also been used in the suits of scuba divers, the underwear of astronauts, and the ear-warmers of calves that are born during the winter.

Fleece is made of polyester. It was first created in the 1980s at Malden Mills, a manufacturer that is located in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Polyester fleece became popular in the 1990s under the trademark names Polartec and Polar Fleece.  

What is the message or lesson learned from Toni Morrison's Sula?

Morrison’s Sula is difficult to simplify down to a single moral, yet there are a number of salient themes and messages that we might identify in the novel.

Part of the reason that Sula is hard to simplify is that one of its principal elements is inscrutability. The character of Sula, in particular, is inscrutable – a woman, driven by impulses that she embraces but does not seem to fully understand and that she certainly cannot (or will not) control.

As a child, Sula accidentally throws Chicken Little into the river, killing him. She does not feel remorse but instead seems only to worry about getting caught. Her response is to make sure that no one besides Nel witnessed the event. This leads her to run to Shadrack’s house where she suddenly becomes embarrassed.

Why, exactly, does she run to the house of the man everyone believes is crazy? What would she do if he did see Chicken Little go into the river? Why does she grow embarrassed when she gets there? Why does never feel remorse for what she has done?

There are no clear answers to these questions. Sula is subject to the forces of an inner life that resist explanation and which do not yield to scrutiny.

Nel too fails to feel remorse for Chicken Little’s death. She is instead fascinated by her own response to the boy’s death. Thinking, years later, about her feelings that day, Nel is stung by a realization that she may have enjoyed watching the boy die.

“Now it seemed that what she had thought was maturity, serenity and compassion was only the tranquility that follows a joyful stimulation. Just as the water closed peacefully over the turbulence of Chicken Little’s body, so had contentment washed over her enjoyment.”

Why does Nel react this way to a boy’s accidental death? There is no clear answer provided in the text.

Sula explores the notion that people do not always know why they feel how they do (or why they do what they do). There is a deep, inner drive that animates the body and the mind, it would seem, and there is not always a way to consciously articulate or explain how this mechanism works.  

In other parts of the novel a mother (Eva Peace) kills her adult child (Plum) when he becomes a drug addict. A daughter (Sula) watches her mother (Hannah) burn to death without making a move to help. A group of people enter a tunnel that is under construction and destroy it out of a sense of pent up outrage, destroying their own lives in the process. These behaviors grow out of human nature. The novel insinuates that human nature is part of the natural world in much the same way that weather is part of the natural world, coming and going regardless of the conscious will of men and women.

The idea of human nature being similar (or identical with) capitalized Nature is one potential message of the novel and it parallels another thorny theme of the text. The difference between good and evil is not always clear.

While Sula is seen as evil by the people living in the Bottom, she also is responsible for bringing people together and tightening social bonds in the town. The question of moral goodness versus a larger, abstract sense of goodness as a force beyond human will is underscored in the exchange between Nel and Sula just before Sula dies.

Despite the fact that Sula has effectively destroyed Nel’s marriage, she is still able to pose a question about who is the good one in the friendship.

“‘How you know?’ Sula asked.

“‘Know what?’ Nel still wouldn’t look at her.

“‘About who was good. How you know it was you?’

“‘What you mean?’

“‘I mean maybe it wasn’t you. Maybe it was me.’”

Goodness is complicated and directly brought into question here as a concept. Should we see goodness as an intentional, cleanly understandable personal attribute or should we instead see goodness as impersonal, as the net result of the cumulative acts a person may undertake?

If Sula brought together the people of the town (even though it was in hate) and strengthened the social bonds in numerous families while Nel only looked after herself and her own kids (albeit in harmlessness and humility), who should we say did more good for Medallion?

Is Nel good by virtue of what she abstains from doing? Is she good because it was not her who threw Chicken Little into the river? Or are things more complicated than that?

The novel invites us to question Nel’s complicity in the event, despite her specific role as a non-actor in it. And this question may be another one of the novel’s messages - - by what measure do we judge goodness, especially when joy and tragedy can get so mixed up as to be, sometimes, one and the same?

Other more overt messages are presented in the novel as well. This is a book about self-discovery and self-empowerment, about the privacy and solitude of experience, and about the resilience and subtlety of Black community culture. It is about friendship and female agency. It is also about change. 

What are centripetal forces and centrifugal forces present in South Africa?

Centripetal forces are those that, within this limited context, unite a nation that might otherwise fragment from the many fissures that exist within it, such as ethnic and religious differences. Centrifugal forces, in contrast, are those that threaten to tear a nation or other polity apart. The Republic of South Africa, as is the case with most nations, has both types of pressures or forces.

The centripetal forces that keep South Africa a cohesive, united country include a shared sense of identity among its population of 53 million people, 80 percent of whom are black, with another eight percent identified as white and the rest of mixed-race and South Asian heritage. South Africa's history has been somewhat unique for the fact that it survived the transition from a minority, white-ruled system to a majority, black-ruled one at a time when many observers believed the country would disintegrate into civil war.

While racial tensions continue to fester between the Afrikaner community of primarily Dutch descent, which had imposed the system of racial separation known as apartheid, and the black-dominated African National Congress political movement, which had violently opposed apartheid before emerging triumphant in democratic elections, the dual-sense of nationalism among both is key to holding this otherwise fractious nation together. Afrikaner bitterness about having to give up power and to subsequently be forced to endure the corruption and frequent incompetence of the ANC while being targeted for retribution by poor blacks, vengeful after decades of oppression at the hands of those whites, remains potent, but South Africa’s white populations continue to identify as South African. The majority black population similarly identifies as South African, although it has struggled to compensate for this history of oppression that condemned most blacks to lives of enforced servitude within their own country. South Africa is the most technologically-advanced country in Africa and its economy was, until 2014, the largest on the continent (it was replaced as the largest by Nigeria, which has a population of 173 million compared to South Africa’s 53 million). Its long-time status as the continent’s most advanced and productive economy is a factor in the population’s ability to retain that crucial centripetal sense of national unity irrespective of ethnicity.

The centrifugal forces that threaten to tear South Africa apart, as the above discussion of centripetal forces suggests, are strong and resilient. Afrikaner bitterness about the nation’s transition to black majority rule, despite the astonishing display of dignity and magnanimity on the part of Nelson Mandela following his release from prison, appears to be a permanent feature of South Africa’s political environment. The ANC’s continued political domination in the post-apartheid era also threatens the nation’s unity, as the black majority population is less cohesive than many assume. Even during the era of apartheid, there were serious divisions between the ANC and its white, mostly communist, supporters and allies and the KwaZulu nation, which is South Africa’s largest. Under apartheid, the white South African regime established a series of “homelands” for its black population intended to present the veneer of multiple independent nations. The most powerful of these “independent nations” was KwaZulu-Natal, a vast province dominated by Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, which strenuously opposed the ANC and, more significantly, strongly opposed the movements in the United States and Europe to diplomatically and economically isolate the white-ruled country.  While the ANC was, as it remains, the dominant political force in South Africa, the legacy of the bitter and violent feud between it and the Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party remains a divisive phenomenon in South Africa.

In short, the majority black population of South Africa has been less unified, even in its approach to apartheid, than many Americans realized, and those tensions remain, although in a far less contentious and violent manner than had existed under white rule.

While there are serious centrifugal forces in the Republic of South Africa, those forces are contained, and its problems are minuscule compared to those of neighboring Zimbabwe, another formerly minority white-ruled country and British colony. The reason is South Africa's late President Mandela’s commitment to democracy. The governing structures he ushered in in the wake of apartheid’s collapse have prevented, for the most part, the reinstitution of an autocratic form of government comparable to that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

What did Scout want to do with Jem's chemistry set in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird?

In Chapter 9, the Finch family gets together to celebrate Christmas at Finch's Landing. Uncle Jack buys Jem and Scout a pair of air rifles as Christmas presents. Scout explains to her cousin, Francis Hancock, what they got for Christmas and mentions that Jem also received a chemistry set. Scout tells Francis that it is a "real" chemistry set and that Jem is going to make invisible ink. Scout plans to write letters to Dill using the invisible ink.

Throughout the novel, Scout is found writing letters to her best friend Dill, who lives in Meridian, Alabama. On the first day of school, Scout gets caught by her teacher, Miss Caroline, while she is writing Dill a letter during a class activity. Dill's character is based on Harper Lee's childhood friend, Truman Capote. Similar to Dill, Truman Capote had a fascinating imagination and lived out of town. Like Dill, Truman would travel back home to Monroeville, Alabama to visit Harper Lee during the summers.

Where is Homer Barron from? And why does he come to Jefferson in "A Rose for Emily"?

In part III of "A Rose for Emily" we learn for the first time about Homer Barron, Emily's love interest. 

Homer Barron came to Jefferson as the foreman of a Northern construction company. This is the reason why he is dubbed "a Yankee". The epithet "Yankee" is associated to anyone who is originally from any of the U.S. Northern states, or from the area of New England. For more information on the etymology of this word follow the link included. The story does not specify exactly which Northern state Homer comes from. 

The reason why the construction company was in Jefferson is because the town had a need to pave sidewalks and do work in the streets. The summer after the death of Emily's father, the company who got the contract came to Jefferson and started working in town. 

The construction company came with ni**rs and mules and machinery, and a foreman named Homer Barron, a Yankee--a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face. [...]. Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere about the square, Homer Barron would be in the center of the group.

Emily had been very sick. She had recently emerged back into society looking quite differently, wearing her hair short, and looking quite youthful. It is during this time period that she meets Homer. As we can infer from Homer's description, he is quite different from Emily. He is brash, loud, and sociable. This does not mean that he is well-liked, as we will find out in the story. However, it is no surprise that a match between he and Emily would have been shocking to the people of Jefferson. 

Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable.

A lot of interesting things will occur from this point on. The lives of Emily and Barron, a man from the Northern states, are changed forever from the moment that they meet while he is there as foreman of the construction crew, and this will lead to the shocking, final discovery in the story.

How do the depictions of New York in The Great Gatsby and in The Catcher in the Rye compare?

(Note: While there are locations mentioned that are very New York, to answer this question, I believe it's important to look at what happens to the characters while in the city.)

New York is seen as a very different place in The Great Gatsby and in The Catcher in the Rye. In Gatsby, New York is a place of dreams; it's a place where "Anything can happen" ... "Even Gatsby could happen." However, in Catcher, New York is the place Holden ultimately suffers a mental breakdown. In both novels, New York is a destination though. Holden wants to go to New York to hang out after being expelled from school and it's where Nick goes to work as a bondsman. 

In both Catcher and in Gatsby, New York is the place where Gatsby's false dream of Daisy and Holden's struggles reach their climax. In New York, on the hottest day of the year, Gatsby's dream of having Daisy dies. After arguing with Tom in New York's famous Plaza Hotel, Gatsby (subconsciously) realizes that he will not end up with Daisy as she is appalled that he is a bootlegger. Nick describes Gatsby this way:

"[W]ith every word [Daisy] was drawing further and further into herself, so [Gatsby] gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room."

In Catcher, Holden's ultimate psychological breakdown occurs while walking through Fifth Avenue. He describes this event as "something very spooky" and then goes on to describe his break this way:

"Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddam curb, I had this feeling I'd never get to the other side of the street. I thought i'd just go down, down, down, and nobody'd ever see me again."

The Catcher in the Rye goes into much more detail about specific New York places. Holden describes the Museum of Natural History in detail and he also spends a lot of time in Central Park, particularly the carousel and the frozen pond where the ducks no longer reside. Both of these descriptions, however, have to do with Holden's desire to keep things the same or to help maintain the innocence of children, particularly his sister, Phoebe.

How does Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself present the subjugation of Blacks...

Douglass shows an uncompromising view of slavery in order to communicate how whites subjugated people of color.

Douglass does not hesitate in his harsh depiction of the institution of slavery. When Douglass speaks about slavery, he presents white subjugation of Black people as criminal:

The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men.

In using terms like "successful robbers," "stolen" and "meanest," Douglass passes swift judgment against whites who participated in slavery.  He presents the institution and those who perpetrated it as "wicked." 

When confronted with slavery, many people ask the question how it could happen.  How could human beings do that to one another?  Douglass suggests that slavery was like poison that caused people to embrace dehumanizing cruelty.  Douglass highlighted this with the case of Mrs. Auld:

The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon. 

Mrs. Auld was caring towards Douglass.  She started his advancement education in teaching him how the alphabet. However, her husband rebuked her for this with ideas like ‘‘If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.’  As a result, Douglass saw Mrs. Auld's "angelic face" transform into a "demon."  This is an example of how slavery changed whites by distorting their nature to embrace dehumanizing cruelty in their subjugation of people of color.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, what are some quotes about the camellia flower that Jem breaks in chapter 11?

Mrs. Dubose--who Scout describes earlier in the book as "just plain hell"--insults Atticus as Jem and Scout are passing one day, saying, "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" (117). They buy a couple of toys in town then walk back by her house, and her porch is empty. Jem--not Scout--loses his mind, snatching Scout's new baton and using it to dismember every camellia in Mrs. Dubose's yard. When Atticus comes home, he's holding the broken baton and a handful of camellia buds. 

When confronted, Jem admits he did it but tells Atticus why. Atticus responds that behaving this way toward a sick woman is inexcusable, and orders him to go apologize to Mrs. Dubose. Jem returns having apologized ("but I didn't mean it"), and explains that he'll have to work every Saturday to help her garden recover, and will have to read to her every Saturday for two hours for a month. Atticus requires that he do it. 

After the ordeal is over, Mrs. Dubose dies one month later, whereupon she has Jessie (her maid) prepare a box for Jem. It contained a perfect camellia, a snow-on-the-mountain. Jem initially throws it to the ground and screams, "Old hell-devil! Why won't she just leave me alone?" (128). Atticus then explains that Mrs. Dubose, who used the Saturday readings to distract her from her morphine withdrawals, which she was determined to break her addiction to before she died, was "a great lady"--despite the awful things she said about Atticus. Atticus wanted Jem to understand what true courage was: It wasn't "a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. ...Mrs. Dubose was the bravest person [Atticus] ever knew" (128). 

When Scout goes to bed, Jem is fingering the flower's petals, deep in thought. 

Incidentally, white camellias are symbolic both of purity and of death--both appropriate connections in this passage. 

Is a pond an ecosystem or community?

It's both. It's both because it depends on what you are including in the pond. An ecosystem includes both biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors. The pond contains both. It contains things like water, rocks, mud, sand, available oxygen, temperature, pH, etc. It also contains living items like bacteria, fish, frogs, etc. That's an ecosystem. A community contains only biotic factors that interact with each other. It's more than likely all of the living things that I listed above influence the quality of the pond itself. That's interaction, and all of those creatures would be the pond's community. If I have to pick between ecosystem and community, I would say that a pond is an ecosystem, because I immediately begin thinking of all of the abiotic factors involved.

Evaluate the integral by making the given substitution.

You need to evaluate the indefinite integral by performing the substitution  , such that:

Using the formula yields

Replacing back  for yields:

Hence, evaluating the indefinite integral yields

Who destroyed the windmill for the last time in the book "Animal Farm?"

The windmill was blown to smithereens by the humans. Frederick, the owner of Pinchfield farm, had cheated the animals out of their timber by paying with forged money. When Napoleon found out, he was stupefied and pronounced a death sentence on Frederick. He also warned the animals to prepare for another attack on the farm, considering the circumstances. Sentinels were placed all over the farm to keep watch.

When the attack came, the animals could not overwhelm the humans as easily as they had done during The Battle of the Cowshed, for Frederick and his men came prepared and fired at the animals as soon as they launched their attack. The animals had to flee and sought refuge in the farm buildings. They were at a complete loss. The humans had control of most of the pasture including the windmill.

Meanwhile Frederick and his men had halted about the windmill. The animals watched them, and a murmur of dismay went round. Two of the men had produced a crowbar and a sledge hammer. They were going to knock the windmill down.

Napoleon believed that it would be impossible for the men to knock the windmill down for the walls had been reinforced and were twice as thick as they had been before. However, it was Benjamin who realized what the men were up to, for those with the hammer and crowbar were drilling a hole at the bottom of the windmill. Benjamin commented:

‘I thought so,’ he said. ‘Do you not see what they are doing? In another moment they are going to pack blasting powder into that hole.’

The animals could not respond and:

Terrified, the animals waited. It was impossible now to venture out of the shelter of the buildings. After a few minutes the men were seen to be running in all directions. Then there was a deafening roar. The pigeons swirled into the air, and all the animals, except Napoleon, flung themselves flat on their bellies and hid their faces. When they got up again, a huge cloud of black smoke was hanging where the windmill had been. Slowly the breeze drifted it away. The windmill had ceased to exist!

This pernicious and vindictive act encouraged the animals and with ignited fervour, they viciously attacked the humans, driving them off the farm. They were victorious! There were great celebrations and the battle was named 'The Battle of the Windmill', but sadly, the windmill was gone forever. The animals' hard work had come to nothing. The windmill would later be rebuilt for a different purpose. instead of generating electricity, it would be used for milling corn. 

If the integral from 1 to 4 of f(x)=7, then what does the integral from 1 to 4 of 2f(x)+5=?

Find .

To solve, express this as sum of two integrals.

Then, factor out the 2 in the first integral.

Plug-in the given .

For the second integral, apply the formula int c dx = cx.

To evaluate the definite integral, apply the formula .

Therefore,   .

Why did the senators kill Julius Caesar?

Julius Caesar was very popular. He was part of the First Triumvirate government in Rome. Julius Caesar, along with Pompey and Crassus, ruled Rome. Caesar had a command in Gaul, Pompey had a command in Spain, and Crassus had a command in Syria. After Crassus died, Julius Caesar was ordered to give up his rule. Caesar was very popular and this alarmed some people.

Of course, Julius Caesar didn’t give up his command. He fought and defeated Pompey. Julius Caesar was made dictator in 45 BC. As dictator, Julius Caesar made many reforms. He gave land to the poor and increased the number of senators in the Roman Senate to 900. However, some of the Roman senators thought Julius Caesar would remain dictator and take power from the Roman Senate. There was concern that Julius Caesar would end the Roman Republic. Thus, they developed a plan to kill him, which was eventually successful on Ides of March.

What character traits are used to describe Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird?

One thing we learn early on in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is that Scout Finch is very precocious, meaning that she's very advanced for her age. We see her precociousness in the fact that she taught herself to read well before she started school. We learn this fact when Jem says to Dill, "Scout yonder's been readin' ever since she was born, and she ain't even started school yet" (Ch. 1). We further see Scout prove she is precocious when she later says she's not sure how she learned to read and can't really recall a moment when she could never do it. According to Scout, "[R]eading was something that just came to [her], as learning to fasten the seat of [her] union suit without looking around, or achieving two bows from a snarl of laces" (Ch.2). Interestingly, most children need to be taught how to tie their shoelaces, which further proves how precocious Scout is.

A second character trait of Scout's is that she has a poor temper, which she usually unleashes in physical violence upon her victims. She has such a dominant tendency to get into physical fights that one of Atticus's main concerns is teaching her to control her temper and keep her head. The first example of her poor temper we see is when she attacks Walter Cunningham. When asked by Jem why she was attacking Walter, Scout responds, "He didn't have any lunch," which refers to the fact that she explained to the new teacher why he didn't have any lunch nor was willing to accept any money for lunch, an act that made her get into trouble as a know-it-all (Ch. 3). Scout's decision to unleash her wrath on Walter, though he is actually innocent, shows us just how foul her temper can be.

What are the names of all the music pieces Robert Neville listens to?

In I Am Legend, the protagonist, Robert Neville, plays music in order to retain his sanity while living among vampires. As he listens, he is thankful to his mother for having taught him to appreciate classical and symphonic music. As the novel begins, he is listening to Beethoven's Third, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies while he makes stakes for killing the inactive vampires he sees during the day. Every night Neville must barricade himself in the house; during this time, he is forced to resort to crucifixes, mirrors, and strings of garlic in order to keep the marauding groups of vampires away. 

Another piece of music we see mentioned is Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht (or Transfigured Night), a string sextet. Later, as he listens to Roger Leie's The Year of the Plague, Neville loses his temper. The fury of instrumental chaos and 'atonal melodies' which assault his ears remind him of his present abysmal situation, and he breaks the record in a display of frustration.

In Chapter Three, Neville listens to Brahms' Piano Concerto no. 2 as he reads Bram Stoker's Dracula, drinks whiskey, and smokes a cigarette. Later, after having cut his hand when he crushes the whiskey glass he is holding, Neville changes the record to Leonard Bernstein's Symphony no. 2 (The Age of Anxiety).

In Chapter Six, after cleaning up house and garage and making some improvements on his house, Neville settles down to listen to Mozart's Symphony no. 41, the Jupiter. In Chapter 9, Neville recalls the day his wife, Virginia, died. He remembers going to his neighbor, Ben Cortman's house, to borrow his car so that he can bury his wife quietly. At Ben's house, the door chimes play How Dry I Am by Irving Berlin.

In Chapter 11, Neville thinks that he has found the cause for the presence of vampires: the 'vampiris' germ. Alas, despite this new and hard-won knowledge, he has no way of finding an immediate cure; he doesn't know enough about bacteria to concoct a defense against the germ. As he sits down and ponders his predicament, he listens to Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe Suites One and Two.

In Chapter 17, Neville promises Ruth, the sole infected survivor he finds, that he will do everything he can to cure her. They listen to Schubert's Fourth Symphony as they ponder the ramifications of their experiment; Ruth reluctantly agrees to let Neville test her blood to determine whether she is infected with the bacillus germ. Later, Ruth asks whether she can play Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto no. 2 on the record player. Neville replies in the affirmative, and Ruth soon settles down to ask him some personal questions.

The novel ends with Neville being given some pills by Ruth so that he can die without being executed by members of the new, infected society.

What frightens the Lilliputians more than Gulliver's scimitar?

Even more than Gulliver's scimitar, the Lilliputians fear Gulliver due to his incredible size. They are only six inches tall, and Gulliver is about six feet tall; therefore, they are one twelfth of Gulliver's height, and it makes perfect sense that they would be absolutely terrified of him. Swift portrays such a fear as somewhat natural as, when Gulliver lands in Brobdingnag and sees the inhabitants there, he figures that they are about twelve times his size, just as he was twelve times the size of the Lilliputians. His first reaction to seeing such huge creatures is to fear that one of them will pick him up and dash him to the ground, just as Gulliver considered doing when he saw the Lilliputians.

Reflect on Chapter Seven, "As Long as Grass Grows of Water Runs," in Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

Chapter Seven of A People's History of the United States deals with the troubled relationship between the United States and Native peoples. Its specific topic is, as Zinn writes, "Indian removal, as it has been politely called." Analytically, Zinn wants to show how the removal of Native peoples east of the Mississippi was essential to American expansion. Thus the growth of the United States and the development of Jacksonian Democracy that accompanied it was contingent upon the oppression of other peoples. This policy had the support of both ordinary whites and wealthy Southern planters, both of whom benefited from it. The focal point of the chapter is the removal of the Southeastern Indians, especially the Cherokee. These peoples, who had in many cases adopted some cultural and political practices of white society, were nevertheless forced off of their lands by Jackson and his followers, who Zinn portrays as relentless in their greed and racism. The consequences for the Cherokee, in particular were tragic, as thousands perished on the "Trail of Tears" to Indian Country in modern Oklahoma. Zinn cites estimates that over 4,000 died, and sums up Indian policy in the following way:

The Indian, not needed--indeed, sometimes an obstacle--could be dealt with by sheer force, except that sometimes the language of paternalism preceded the burning of villages.

Why is the old man at the bridge?

The old man has just crossed the bridge and has sat down beside the road because he is too tired to go any farther. He is one of the many civilians fleeing before the advancing forces of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the Fascist leader who eventually became supreme ruler of Spain. The Fascists, or Nationalists, were killing peasants and workers as a means of spreading terror and also under the assumption that these impoverished people must be supporters of the lawfully elected Loyalist government. There were terrible atrocities committed by the Fascists during the war.

The narrator is standing there because he is watching for the approach of the Nationalist tanks, trucks, and soldiers. He is evidently an American and one of the many foreigners who volunteered to help the Loyalist cause against the fascist rebels. Hemingway wrote at length about the Spanish Civil War in his best novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. It features an American volunteer assigned to blow up a bridge to stall the advance of Fascist tanks. The dialogue in "Old Man at the Bridge" is in English, but it is to be understood from the simplicity of the vocabulary and some of the syntax that the narrator and the old man are speaking in demotic Spanish. Hemingway did this in For Whom the Bell Tolls. He was very good at writing dialogue and used dialogue to characterize the speakers as well as to provide exposition.

The narrator is primarily concerned about the advancing army, but he is also concerned about the old man.

"This is not a good place to stop," I said. "If you can make it, there are trucks up the road where it forks for Tortosa."

When the narrator again advises him more urgently to get up and go on,

"Thank you," he said and got to his feet, swayed from side to side and then sat down backwards in the dust.

It is pretty obvious that this old man is going to get killed when the Fascists cross the bridge. He is too old and too worn out to flee any farther, and he doesn't really have anything left to live for. He might be said to symbolize the Liberal government and its Loyalist supporters, gradually being overwhelmed by the Fascists who were backed by Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy.

This little story, or vignette, or slice-of-life, is intended to represent the big picture of the war. Hemingway was a foreign correspondent and was accustomed to sending brief dispatches because of time and communication constraints. Foreign correspondents were fond of finding little scenes that symbolized great historical events. Hemingway wrote this story as a dispatch and then decided to publish it as a short story instead. Many of Hemingway's dispatches are collected in an interesting book titled Byline Ernest Hemingway.

33. Given what the General told Rainsford earlier about using dogs, what do you conclude the General has decided? 34. Trapped between his deadly...

Richard Connel's short story "The Most Dangerous Game" is about a deadly duel in an island jungle between two big game hunters. It is an excellent read with plenty of intrigue and suspense.

33. Showing Rainsford his pack of dogs early in the story serves as foreshadowing for later when Zaroff uses the dogs to track Rainsford. Rainsford is successful in killing Zaroff's best dog, Lazarus, as well as the general's servant, Ivan.

34. With no other option, as Zaroff and his dogs move in on him, Rainsford jumps from a cliff into the ocean below. Both Zaroff, and the reader, think Rainsford is dead. As he relaxes in his chateau the general looks back on the recent events:

Two slight annoyances kept him from perfect enjoyment. One was the thought that it would be difficult to replace Ivan; the other was that his quarry had escaped him; of course, the American hadn't played the game--so thought the general as he tasted his after- dinner liqueur. 

35. The game has a very profound effect on Rainsford. Earlier in the story he says that he believes that hunted animals have no feelings of fear. Once he becomes the hunted he realizes just what it is like to be "a beast at bay." The reader may assume that Rainsford will never hunt again after his experience with Zaroff.

1. At the beginning of the story there is a mood of foreboding and that something sinister is about to happen. Connel is building suspense for the action to follow. Whitney tells Rainsford that the captain and crew of the yacht they are traveling on are very much on edge as the ship passes a mysterious island, nicknamed "Ship-Trap" island. Whitney says,

"Yes, even that tough-minded old Swede, who'd go up to the devil himself and ask him for a light. Those fishy blue eyes held a look I never saw there before. All I could get out of him was Don't you feel anything?'--as if the air about us was actually poisonous. Now, you mustn't laugh when I tell you this--I did feel something like a sudden chill. 

2. While still on the yacht, Rainsford hears a gunshot. After he falls into the sea and gets to the island he hears another shot and a scream from an animal he can't recognize. He assumes someone has been hunting and, when he finds a small caliber (.22) shell, he is amazed that the hunter used such a light weapon to hunt a large animal. Rainsford says,

"A twenty-two," he remarked. "That's odd. It must have been a fairly large animal too. The hunter had his nerve with him to tackle it with a light gun. It's clear that the brute put up a fight. I suppose the first three shots I heard was when the hunter flushed his quarry and wounded it. The last shot was when he trailed it here and finished it." 

3. Ivan is the deaf, mute servant that lives on the island and caters to the general. Ivan probably feels an almost militaristic duty toward Zaroff. They fought together in the Russian civil war and Ivan is totally loyal to his former commander.

4. Amenities are features that provide comfort, convenience or pleasure. The general has many amenities on the island, including a beautiful chateau, fine food and wine and a large library. It is ironic that the general considers himself and what he is doing on the island as civilized because his hunting of men is a totally savage act and one might consider Zaroff far from civilized.

5. Rainsford had hoped to kill Zaroff with the Ugandan knife trap, but the general survives as the knife kills Ivan. Rainsford's last chance is to jump into the sea and try to swim for the chateau which is across the cove. We know that Rainsford is a strong swimmer from earlier in the story when he swims from the yacht to the island. It is obviously a calculated risk on Rainsford's part to jump, but, as we know, it works out and at the end Rainsford "had never slept in a better bed". 

What are examples of ambition shown in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451?

Ambition is a strong desire to achieve something such as power, money, and/or glory. It can be a desire for anything, really. It is also the driving power or motivation to go after what is wanted most. Examples of ambition in Fahrenheit 451 can be seen mostly in Montag as he continually and restlessly seeks for understanding what books offer humanity, as he plans to overthrow some of the firemen, and as he saves his own life.

First, as Montag decides to discover what is missing in life through books, he doesn't go back. He steals and hides books, Beatty implicitly threatens him, and his wife doesn't support him, but he keeps seeking the answers he desires. In fact, Montag shows ambition by seeking out Faber, the former English professor, for help. He and Faber soon come up with a plan to secretly protest the laws against literacy by planting books in firemen's houses. They figure that if some more firemen are made examples of, that people would start to wonder more about books and possibly end the laws against them.

Unfortunately, he gets reported by his wife and forced to burn his own house down. This doesn't stop Montag, though because he continues to fight for his life and his belief in books. He eventually kills Beatty, so he knows the authorities will be coming after him. Before he gets out of town, though, Montag still goes through with the plan to plant a few books in firemen's houses. He is finally chased by a Mechanical Hound, which is programmed to kill him. He saves himself by first dressing in Faber's clothes to throw off the scent, and then taking the river out of town.

Montag finds a group of people who have memorized books and whose ambition is to keep those books safe in their heads until a more literate society exists. Granger indirectly defines the difference between living with ambition and not by what his grandfather told him in the following passage:

"'Stuff your eyes with wonder,' he said, 'live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away'" (157).

How does the author sympathize Shmuel and Bruno in "Boy in the Striped Pajamas"?

John Boyne creates sympathy for the characters Shmuel and Bruno throughout the novel by placing them in challenging situations and surrounding them with difficult people. Boyne chose to depict Shmuel as a sickly, skinny boy who is typically sad throughout the novel. The reader feels sympathy for Shmuel's difficult situation, and his physical appearance. Shmuel is often hungry and scared throughout the novel. He explains what it is like living with eleven people in one room, and recalls how his family was separated. Boyne also creates sympathy for Shmuel by putting him compromising situations, like when Lieutenant Kotler beats him for supposedly "stealing" food from Bruno's fridge. When Shmuel tells Bruno that he lost his father, the reader feels sympathy for his character because they can assume Shmuel's father is dead.

Boyne creates sympathy for Bruno throughout the novel by placing his character in an unfamiliar, dreary environment in the middle of nowhere. The reader feels sympathy for Bruno when he comments on how bad he hates his new house, and how he misses his friends at home. Bruno lives with his difficult sister and has to deal with Nazi guards who treat him with contempt, like Lieutenant Kotler. Bruno does not get his way throughout the novel, and is forced to keep his best friend a secret. The reader sympathizes with Bruno's difficult circumstances when he cannot play with his only friend. Boyne creates the utmost sympathy for both characters when they unknowingly are being led to the gas chambers. By juxtapositioning the innocence of childhood with the inhumane conditions of a WWII concentration camp, readers begin to sympathize with these helpless children stuck in a horrendous circumstance.

In Hamlet, what does Lord Polonius' statement, "Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth," mean?

Lord Polonius says this to Reynaldo, his servant, in Act 2 scene 1. He is sending Rynaldo to Paris to give him some notes and money, but more importantly, to spy on his son. Laertes has been given permission by his father and king Claudius to leave the country and travel to France. The purpose of Lord Polonius' instruction is to teach Reynaldo how to be deceptive so that he may obtain information about Laertes' actions and his whereabouts. It is clear that he wants Reynaldo to learn as much as possible about his son. It is clear that Polonius is not only devious but also quite meddlesome in this regard.

He, for example tells Reynaldo that he should not enquire about Laertes directly but should act as if he was only a passing acquiantance and that he would like to know more about him since he is looking for him. He must ask whether Laertes was seen in the company of other Danes and what kind of company they were.

He encourages Reynaldo to mention a few negative things which he knows about Laertes, but that he should not slander his good name. He must speak as if what he mentions is part of the nature of unbridled youth and since Laertes is young, it would be normal for him to behave as he does. Polonius believes that in this way Reynaldo would be able to draw further information from the one/s he speaks to.

It is essential however, that Reynaldo never makes it obvious that he is close to Laertes or that he knows him intimately. He must seek information in a roundabout way, by even lying about things, which would encourage his listener to add to what he has said about Laertes.

In this sense then, Lord Polonius uses the following metaphor:

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out:
So by my former lecture and advice,
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?

What he means is that whatever made-up stories Reynaldo has created about Laertes, would act as bait to encourage others to provide further information, i.e. the truth, and so will he be able to establish exactly what Laertes is up to. By using deception, Reynaldo would be able to learn much more about Laertes' comings and goings and general conduct than he would otherwise.

It is apparent that Polonius does not entirely trust his son, even though he had advised him about proper and honourable behaviour when he is in France. he made it a point that Laertes understood what he, as father, expected of his son. We also learn here that Polonius is somewhat of a hypocrite. He expects Laertes to display moral excellence and be at his best behaviour, whilst he encourages Reynaldo to tell lies and be misleading, supposedly to get to the truth.  

Does Shakespeare want us to believe that the witches in Macbeth are real, supernatural or projections of Macbeth's imagination?

I think Shakespeare definitely wants his audience to believe that the Weird Sisters are real and have some supernatural ability for several reasons.  First of all, they speak and make decisions in the play even before Macbeth is aware of their existence.  Secondly, the Weird Sisters cannot simply be projections of Macbeth's imagination because Banquo sees and interacts with them as well.  Further, the Weird Sisters do meet with Hecate, goddess of witchcraft, an interaction that could not occur if they were not truly otherworldly.

Also, and perhaps most telling, is the fact that the audience sees the Weird Sisters, too.  We can tell this even if we only read the text because they have stage direction.  When Macbeth is hallucinating, as he does at the end of Act 2, Scene 1, he must tell us exactly what he sees because we cannot see it.  He must describe the dagger that appears in front of him, as well as all the changes it undergoes, because it is not really there.  Because the Weird Sisters are not treated in the same way by the text, we can understand that they do exist outside of Macbeth's mind.

How the respiratory system and circulatory system evolved in different organisms? Example, between human and fish.

The respiratory system in living organisms works in tandem with the circulatory system to provide oxygen for the cellular respiration going on the organism's cells.  In fish, the circulatory system is what is called a "single circuit" system, and in humans, a "double circuit" system is the norm. For fish, deoxgenated blood enters a single atrium, then a muscular ventricle, then on to an bulbous arteriosis, to the aorta, then to the gills.  The gills, in fish, facilitate the gaseous exchange, while lungs serve that purpose in humans.  In humans, the circulatory system has a two-chambered atrial unit, which delivers blood to a two-chambered ventricular unit.  The right side of the heart in humans receives blood from the body and sends it to the lungs, where the gaseous exchange occurs.  The blood returns to the left side of the heart and is then sent to the rest of the body.

Both respiratory systems serve the same purpose, to facilitate gaseous exchange between oxygen intake and carbon dioxide outtake.  Gills are used by fish, as their oxygen is dissolved in water, while lungs are used by humans, who breathe air.  Both circulatory systems serve the same purpose, to pump blood throughout the organism's body, distributing needed oxygen to all cells and at the same time picking up carbon dioxide for elimination from the organism's body.  The main difference here is the two-chambered heart exists in fish, while humans have a four-chambered heart.  Fish generally have lower energy requirements than do humans, so that would be a reasonable explanation for why humans need a more complex circulatory system.

Could the United States ever be a place where all citizens are actually equal?

The United States could be a country where all people are equal. For this to happen, there would need to be a major shift in attitudes in our country. Throughout our history, many people have believed that racial and religious minorities, women, and those with different lifestyles should have fewer opportunities in life. African-Americans and women were denied the right to vote for many years. Eventually, with the passage of the 19th amendment for women and the passage of the Voting Rights Act mainly for African-Americans, more people from these groups are voting. Attitudes have slowly changed in this area.

We are seeing some progress in other areas also. We now have women and racial minorities running for and winning contested elected offices, including President of the United States. We are seeing more diversity with executives of different companies. We are seeing more opportunities for people of color than in the past. There are more educational and career opportunities available. Religion seems to be less of an issue. We have elected Catholic presidents. While there still is room for improvement, for example with the pay of women compared to the pay of men, progress is being made.

As people become more accepting and change their attitudes and viewpoints, more progress will be made. There is no reason why everybody can’t be equal in our country. It is up to the American people to make this happen.

What were the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?

The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were many, and it is important to remember that they were, in large part, deliberate. The Articles were written in the midst of the American Revolution, and its framers were understandably reluctant to replace Crown rule with another powerful government. But many of these weaknesses compromised the ability of the government to meet the challenges that confronted the new nation. They included:

• a lack of an independent executive or judiciary. This made it difficult for the government to enforce its own laws.


• the fact that the delegations of nine out of the thirteen states had to approve a law before it went into effect. This made it very difficult to pass laws.


• Congress lacked the power to tax. While it could essentially request money from the states, this meant that the national government struggled to finance the nation's mounting debt from the Revolutionary war.


• Amending the Articles required unanimous approval of all of the states. This made the government inflexible and unable to respond to the needs of the nation. This was especially true of the issue of taxation, which was often before the Congress and usually overruled by a small minority of the state delegations.

What are six songs that match up with the themes of Romeo and Juliet (one for each act), but don't actually reference Romeo and Juliet?

This is a fun assignment and I'm happy to help. Of course, there are multiple directions you could go with this assignment. Since you stated the songs should not directly reference Romeo and Juliet, I'm going to suggest more popular music, as opposed to music that would have existed in Elizabethan England.

PROLOGUE: The prologue is ominous and foreshadows the entire play, so it would be good to choose a song that is epic and ominous. Try "Anarchy in the UK" by The Sex Pistols.

ACT ONE: Act One involves the party and the first tensions between the two houses. A song that is celebratory but filled with tension would fit. Try "Life On Mars?" by David Bowie.

ACT TWO: Act Two has the classic balcony scene. This is one of the most famous romance scenes in history, so the song should fit. Try "In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning" by Frank Sinatra. 

ACT THREE: Act Three is filled with tension and the dramatic escalation of Romeo and Juliet's actions. Romeo and Juliet also have their last romantic night together, so a dramatic and romantic song would be good. Try "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division. 

ACT FOUR: Conspiring occurs in the fourth act. Plans are put into place and hopes rely on these plans. A song that conspires would fit. Try "Help!" by The Beatles.  

ACT FIVE: The finale is classic. It has the tragedy as well as a hope for a reunion. Try "Purple Rain" by Prince.