In The Great Gatsby, what does Gatsby's association with Wolfsheim say about Gatsby?

The appearance of Meyer Wolfsheim in chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby, leads the reader to believe that Gatsby may not have obtained his wealth in a legal manner. This can be inferred from the interaction between Wolfsheim, Nick, and Gatsby while meeting for lunch. Upon first being introduced to the reader, Wolfsheim tells a story of a mobster friend who was killed in a nearby restaurant. Following this story, he is introduced to Nick Carraway. During this exchange, Wolfsheim says to Nick "I understand you're looking for a business gonntion (meaning connection)" (Fitzgerald p70), to which Gatsby quickly replies "this isn't the man" (Fitzgerald p71). This interaction suggests that Gatsby has a history of having a business connection to Wolfsheim in the past. Later in the chapter, Nick asks Gatsby who Wofsheim is after he excuses himself from lunch, to which Gatsby replies "he's a gambler", who "fixed the World's Series back in 1919." (Fitzgerald p73). This revelation shows that Gatsby is friends, and does business, with people who are involved in the criminal underworld, and suggests that Gatsby may have done the same to acquire his fortune. This disclosure plays into the larger theme of the novel, corruption of the american dream.

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What is the moral lesson in the story "To Build a Fire" by Jack London?

The moral lesson in Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" is that people should not think they are more powerful than nature. In addition, people should listen to others who have more experience than they do. London writes of the protagonist of the story, "The trouble with him was that he was not able to imagine." Though the man is new to the Yukon Territory, he ventures out on a sunless day while thinking that he can survive the cold. Though it is fifty degrees below zero, he has no real conception of what that means to him, his body, and his safety. As London writes, "It did not lead him to consider his weaknesses as a creature affected by temperature. Nor did he think about man’s general weakness, able to live only within narrow limits of heat and cold." The man is limited by his previous experience, so he thinks, without any evidence or reason, that he can outwit the cold, though people have warned him that he can't. In reality, the temperature is even colder than 50 below zero, and as the man dies, he thinks, “You were right, old fellow. You were right" about the old man in Sulphur Creek who had warned him not to venture out. In the end, the man realizes that nature is more powerful than he is and that he should've listened to people with more experience in the region. 

What is the summary for chapters 16, 17, and 18 in The Catcher in the Rye?

Chapter 16 from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye begins right after Holden has breakfast and talking with a couple of Nuns. It's about noon and he has two hours until he meets Sally Hayes for their date. As he's walking towards Broadway, he sees a family that seems to have been coming from church. He hears the boy humming the song "If a body catch a body coming through the rye" and that gets him feeling better (115). He later tells his sister that he wants to catch little children running through the rye before they fall off a cliff. This is symbolic because it's as if Holden wants to catch children before they experience the horrible disappointments of becoming an adult; and of course, this scene points to the title of the book and its main theme.

Next, Holden notices everyone wanting to go to the movies, which he doesn't like, so he goes over to a music store to hang out for awhile. He then thinks of giving Jane a call. When he actually does call, her mother answers and he hangs up because he doesn't like talking to girls' mothers. Then he goes to choose a movie for him and Sally to watch and he chooses one she might like, but in the process, he calls her "queen of the phonies" (116). He thinks all actors are phonies, too, such as Sir Lawrence Olivier in Hamlet.

He goes on to say how his big brother D.B. took him to see the movie Hamlet but Holden didn't think the actor did a good job portraying the lead role. Holden explains:

"The trouble with me is, I always have to read that stuff by myself. If an actor acts it out, I hardly listen. I keep worrying about whether he's going to do something phony every minute" (117).

Then Holden goes to the park and thinks about his sister. He talks to a girl who happens to know his sister and tells him she might be at the museum. He tells her it is Sunday and she realizes her mistake; but this conversation motivates him to go visit the Museum of Natural History.

While walking to the museum he thinks about Gertrude Levine, a girl whose hand he had to hold while on field trips to the museum, and it was always sticky. Once he gets to the museum, he puts on his hunting hat and decides not to go in. He remembers his date with Sally and heads towards the Biltmore to meet her. 

While waiting for Sally at the beginning of chapter 17, Holden notices all of the girls and then thinks that most of them would marry "dopey guys" (123). Then he thinks of Harris Macklin, a good whistler from Elkton Hills, who was intelligent, but boring. Then Sally shows up and their date begins.

Sally and Holden take a cab and they make-out in the back. This is when he tells her he loves her and she returns the sentiment. He discusses phony actors again and phonies at Ernie's. Then he gets jealous because Sally meets a good-looking guy and socializes with him. He almost takes her home because he's so jealous but she mentions ice skating so they go do that for awhile.

Eventually, Holden has an episode and asks her to run away with him. He says that they'll eventually get married, but they'll play until his money runs out and then he'll get a job and settle down. Sally tells him nicely that they are still kids and shouldn't do anything crazy. Holden's response is the following:

"C'mon, let's get outa here, . . . You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to now the truth" (133).

Sally won't put up with being treated that way, so she cries and leaves him, even though he tries to apologize.

Finally, in chapter 18, Holden thinks about Jane again and a guy she dated named Al Pike. He muses that Jane said Al was nice, but he had an inferiority complex. He tries to call Jane again, but no one answers. So he calls Carl Luce, an older buddy from Whooton School, and sets up a meeting at the Wicker Bar at ten o'clock. He kills the time before the meeting by seeing the Rockettes' Christmas show, which makes him think about believing in God and his dead brother Allie. He then watches a war movie that he hates, but it gets him thinking about the war and how his older brother D.B. had been in the army for four years. D.B. was actually a part of D-Day, too. Holden says, "I really think he hated the Army worse than the war" (140).

Holden remembers that D.B. got him to read A Farewell to Arms because he said it was a great book. Holden, like always, says that it and The Great Gatsby were full of phonies. It is interesting, though, that Holden speaks of literature, but then all of a sudden says the following:

"I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will" (141).

How do the two Houyhnhnms react to Gulliver's speech?

The first Houyhnhnm to arrive walks around Gulliver and seems to inspect him; when Gulliver tries to reach his hand out to stroke the Houyhnhnm's face, the Houyhnhnm shakes his head and removes Gulliver's hand with his foot.  Another Houyhnhnm comes, and the two walk off a ways, appearing to converse with one another, walking back and forth as though they were "deliberating upon some Affair of Weight."  They look back at him quite often, as if to make sure he isn't escaping.  When Gulliver does attempt to go in search of a house or town, the first Houyhnhnm neighs so expressively that Gulliver seems to know that it means he is to remain where he is. 

The Houyhnhnms touch him with their hooves then, both his skin and his clothing, and they are very gentle -- to Gulliver's surprise.  He could hear them say the word "Yahoo" many times, and when he repeats it back to them, they are shocked, and they try more difficult sounds with him.  Finally, the first Houyhnhnm indicates that Gulliver should follow him, and he takes Gulliver to his home.

In Of Mice and Men what does Carlson want Slim to do for Candy? Why?

Carlson is a laborer on the ranch where the main characters George and Lennie go to work in John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men. When the reader first meets Carlson in chapter two the setting is the bunkhouse and Carlson asks Slim about his puppies. Slim is the mule skinner and a leader for the men. His dog, Lulu, has just had a litter of puppies.

Carlson wants Slim to give one of his puppies to Candy, the old swamper. Carlson claims that Candy's dog should be euthanized because it is old and smells bad. Carlson says,

“Well, looka here, Slim. I been thinkin’. That dog of Candy’s is so God damn old he can’t hardly walk. Stinks like hell, too. Ever’ time he comes into the bunk house I can smell him for two, three days. Why’n’t you get Candy to shoot his old dog and give him one of the pups to raise up? I can smell that dog a mile away. Got no teeth, damn near blind, can’t eat. Candy feeds him milk. He can’t chew nothing else.”

Later in chapter three Slim agrees that Candy's dog should be put down and offers Candy a puppy. The old man is distraught and doesn't respond to the offer. Carlson uses his Luger to shoot the old dog. The purpose of the scene is to provide foreshadowing for George's eventual shooting of Lennie in chapter six. At one point Candy told George he should have shot his own dog. This leads George to the idea that he should be the one to kill Lennie after the accidental death of Curley's wife. 

Discuss Mansfield Park as a social document

Mansfield Park has become famous in recent decades as a critique of slavery. Part of the plot hinges on Sir Thomas's journey to Antigua to personally visit his plantation, a plantation run by slave labor. When he returns, apparently altered by the experience, Fanny wants, but fears, to question him about slavery. Similarly, through an offhand, throwaway comment, Maria Bertram airily dismisses the disgraceful hovels on her fiance Rushworth's grand Sotherton estate. These hovels are passed by quickly--but Austen includes them for the astute reader to see. They stand as a critique of a system in which landlords spent vast sums on picturesque landscaping (something that becomes a subject of conversation around dinner tables in Mansfield Park) but won't spend the least amount so that their tenants can have decent dwellings.

 Fanny herself is treated as a virtual slave by Lady Bertram and her sister Mrs. Norris. Mrs. Norris, especially, runs her around mercilessly. In one scene, Fanny is forced to cut roses in the hot sun, while Lady Bertram and Mrs. Norris sit in the shade because the heat is uncomfortable even for people who are doing nothing. Fanny ends up with a "sick headache" and Edmund is furious, although unable to get his mother to conjure the most basic understanding that if she was suffering in the shade, asking somebody else to toil in the hot sun was perhaps a cruel and insensitive demand. Austen here shows the ways lack of imagination can lead to abuse. It doesn't take an astute reader much to leap to what the slaves must have suffered on the brutally hot plantations in the Caribbean.

Further, the book critiques a marriage "market" in which women are routinely sold to the highest bidder. Maria Bertram is essentially sold off by Mrs. Norris, who brokers the marriage, to the wealthy but not very bright Rushworth. Maria despises him, and her father has doubts about the wedding, but all of these are repressed in the pursuit of wealth and status. Maria will, in the end, rebel against her marriage with unfortunate results. Likewise, the family is anxious to marry Fanny off to the wealthy Henry Crawford, and tries to coerce her when she resists his proposals. Money and status in their eyes--and society's eyes--trumps love. Likewise, Mary Crawford's downfall comes from her inability to accept that the man she loves, Edmund, really wants a career as clergyman that is, in her eyes, lacking in social status. Society has "deformed" her so that she can't accept love without high social status. Austen will never advocate for a wild "love" that breaks social barriers, but she does argue throughout her novels for marriage based on mutual respect, love and compatibility. She condemns sacrificing a woman's chance at happiness solely to money or status. She condemns selfishness in this novel about all the ways society has institutionalized and normalized selfish behavior. 

Describe Zaroff's conditions for the hunt in The Most Dangerous Game.

General Zaroff's conditions for the hunt include giving the man he is hunting good food, a hunting knife, and a three hour head start. Having these conditions tells the reader that General Zaroff is not interested as much in the killing of men, but in the hunting of men.  He is excited by the chase so he gives the men an even playing field.  If his sole intent was to kill, without regard for the experience of hunting, he would not give them men means for survival when he sends them on their way.  If the men survive three days, General Zaroff says that he will return them to the mainland, but to date that had not happened.

When Zaroff hunts Rainsford, the conditions change slightly in order to ensure an exhilarating  hunt.  When hunting Rainsford, Zaroff suggests that he wear moccasins to camouflage his footprints and make it harder to be tracked. He even tells Rainsford to avoid certain areas of the island that will make his capture inevitable.  

The purpose of these conditions in the story, and the slight change in conditions when it was time to hunt Rainsford, suggests that Zaroff is more interested in the hunt than in the killing of his quarry.