How do Rappaccini and Baglioni use Beatrice and Giovanni for their own needs in "Rappaccini's Daughter"?

When Giovanni first speaks with his father's old friend, Professor Baglioni, the professor tells him that Dr. Rappaccini cares a great deal more about science than he does about people and that he only sees individuals as potential subjects of his experiments.  However, the narrator implies that Baglioni has an axe to grind because Rappaccini and Baglioni are at odds professionally and that Rappaccini "was generally thought to have gained the advantage" in their disagreements. Therefore, it should not be terribly surprising when Baglioni continues to try to arouse Giovanni's suspicions of Rappaccini and his daughter's motives.  In the end, he gives Giovanni an antidote that should reverse Beatrice's poisonous nature, and, when it kills her, he calls out triumphantly to rub the death of this experiment in his rival's face.  Thus, it appears that he has manipulated Giovanni so that he could use the youth to ruin Rappaccini's most precious experiment: his daughter.

However, Rappaccini has also manipulated Beatrice and Giovanni in order to see if he could convert and procure a husband for his poisonous daughter.  He seems to have purposely cultivated her poison from her birth for the sake of science, and now he wishes to take the experiment to the next level.  He wants to see if he can transform a healthy youth into a poisonous one to be a mate for her daughter in this corrupted Eden.  He doesn't ask his daughter what she wants, and he certainly doesn't consult Giovanni before his conversion.  Beatrice ends up so miserable that she actually embraces death because "the evil" that her father has "striven to mingle with [her] being, will pass away like a dream."  It doesn't seem to be her happiness that her father has sought but rather a continuation of his experiments.

When did Jonas first lie to his parents in The Giver?

Jonas lies to his parents in the end of Chapter 16, after they ask him if he understands that love is a vague concept.

No one in the community is allowed to lie, as far as Jonas knows.  Precision of language is very important.

He had been trained since earliest childhood, since his earliest learning of language, never to lie. It was an integral part of the learning of precise speech. (Ch. 9)

The community values Sameness, and the entire goal of his civilization seems to be avoiding discomfort.  They want to ensure that everyone is toeing the line.  That means that children are indoctrinated from a young age to the community’s procedures and expectations.

When Jonas is selected for the prestigious assignment of Receiver of Memory, one of his instructions is that he can lie.  This confuses and horrifies him.  It never occurred to him that anyone in his community might lie.  He wonders if anyone else has the same instruction, and begins to doubt from that point on if anyone in his community is telling the truth.

This is a pivotal moment in Jonas’s character development.  It is the first time when he begins to wonder about his community.  Jonas will soon learn that his entire community is a lie, in a way.  It professes to be perfect and orderly, with content citizens and no negatives.  Jonas soon learns that the community has carefully constructed this illusion by keeping its citizens almost completely cut off from the human experience.

No one in the community feels any emotion at all.  They are carefully trained from birth to avoid attachment.  Jonas learns through the memories that attachment is part of being human. He realizes that his people do not experience humanity because they are cut off from love and joy as well as suffering.

When Jonas experiences the concept of love, he has already seen many memories of things that the community has stamped out.  The concept of family bothers him the most though.  He enjoys the connectedness that he feels in the memory, and he realizes that it is important.  In an effort to see if any of that connectedness is there, Jonas asks his parents if they love him.  He knows that he is not likely to get expressions of love back, but is totally unprepared for confusion and amusement.

His parents both explain to him that “love” is an imprecise word that has come to be meaningless.

Jonas stared at them. Meaningless? He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory.

"And of course our community can't function smoothly if people don't use precise language. You could ask, 'Do you enjoy me?' The answer is 'Yes,' " his mother said. (Ch. 16, p. 160)

When Jonas’s parents ask him if he understands, he lies and says he does.  He lies because he knows that they are the ones who do not understand.  Since no one in the community can experience real affection, or attachment, there is no way that they can understand love.  His entire community has been carefully constructed to avoid it.

While different versions of the book will have different page numbers, you should easily be able to find this incident because it is near the end of Chapter 16.  In my edition of the book, it can be found on page 160.

What kind of objects may Scout have or represent her in Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird? Please explain each.

A character's personal objects and treasures say a lot about his or her personality. For Scout, some of those objects include her overalls, her air rifle, and the objects she receives from Boo Radley. First, the overalls are a symbol of Scout's tomboy/childhood self. She is free to romp and play with the boys in pants where she would be less free in a dress. It is always a source of discomfort for Aunt Alexandra, though.

"Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed to be doing things that required pants" (81).

Second, her air rifle that she receives at Christmas also symbolizes her personality as a tomboy; but also, Scout is like a gun because she can attack verbally, physically, and just as violently and quickly as one. She attacks Walter Cunningham, Jr., Cecil Jacobs, Francis and Jem just like a quick trigger when she wants to defend herself or her father. The best one is when she pops Francis as follows:

"This time, I split my knuckle to the bone on his front teeth. My left impaired, I sailed in with my right, but not for long. Uncle Jack pinned my arms to my sides and said, "Stand still!" (84).

The other objects are the ones she receives from Boo Radley. She keeps these objects to remind her of him, but they are also great to symbolize who Scout is:

"He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives" (278).

Boo Radley also gave her a blanket to keep warm on a winter night while Miss Maudie's house burned down. But the two soap dolls and the pennies represent her running around with Jem, just the two of them; and the broken watch and chain could symbolize how time seemed to stop for Boo and for Scout. Memories seem to exist in our minds forever, and are never erased by time. Scout also talks about time as she reflects back on her childhood in the following passage:

"People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but it seemed longer" (5).

Thus, as the watch is broken, then it is as if her childhood time has stopped; but the memories of her childhood are suspended in time through her older self and the book.

How did geography play a role in the development of early societies in Ancient India?

Geography played a critical role in the early history of India, as it did in most locations around the world. Some key geographical factors played a role in the development of civilization and cities. First, the availability of rivers allowed farming settlements to grow into large urban areas. The Saraswati, Indus and Ganges Rivers were important water sources for irrigation.  The flooding of the rivers left behind fertile soil for cultivation. Rivers were also used for transportation which allowed trade.  The seasonal monsoons also brought plenty of water for the fields.

Another advantage of the geography for early Indian settlements is that it isolated India from potential invaders. Mountains and deserts formed a natural geographical advantage and separated the people of India from other areas including the Middle East and China. These barriers assured the city-states that they were safe and allowed civilization to develop without excessive military expenditures for defense. The city-states used these resources instead to develop water systems and paved streets.

How did Andrew Jackson solve the nullification crisis?

The nullification crisis that arose during Andrew Jackson’s presidency was a serious challenge that he had to face. The people of South Carolina was very unhappy with the high protective tariff of 1828 because they believed it hurt the South while benefitting the North. John C. Calhoun believed a state should be able to reject a law if it hurts a state or region while helping another state or region. This would violate the Constitution because the Constitution states that federal laws are supreme.

President Jackson had a clear stance on this issue. He said that states couldn’t nullify federal laws. He indicated that the tariff would be enforced throughout the country. When South Carolina threatened to secede over this issue, Jackson indicated there would be a military response by the federal government. President Jackson was not going to just allow South Carolina to secede. Fortunately, a compromise was reached that allowed for a gradual lowering of the tariff over a ten-year period. South Carolina stayed in the Union and the issue was resolved, at least in the short-term.

What do you think of Odysseus's plan for escaping Polyphemus?

I think Odysseus's plan to escape Polyphemus is pretty ingenious.  He first considers killing the Cyclops by stabbing him in the liver while he sleeps, but then Odysseus correctly realizes that they need Polyphemus to roll the stone away from the door because it is too big for his crew to move.  If he kills the monster, there will be no one to let them out of the cave and they will all perish.  Despite the danger they're in, Odysseus still exercises rationality and forethought and cunning.

Therefore, when Odysseus comes up with the idea to blind Polyphemus so that he can still roll away the stone door, it is quite shrewd and intelligent.  He gets the monster really drunk, he and his men plunge an olive stake into his one eye, and then they ride out of the cave tied underneath the sheep so that Polyphemus will not be able to feel them.  Further, Odysseus had told Polyphemus that his name was "No man," so that when other Cyclopes came to check on him, he would have to tell them that No man had hurt him.  Hearing this, they left him alone. 

Finally, the plan succeeds, and all but the six men Polyphemus ate escape the cave, so it must have been pretty sound!

What is the evidence that Lady Macbeth does not know that Macbeth will kill Banquo?

In Act 3, Scene 2, Macbeth and his wife discuss their mutual problem involving Banquo. They have attained their objective of becoming king and queen, but they dread the thought that Banquo will profit by their crime in having his descendants rather than theirs become the rulers of Scotland. Macbeth assures his wife in cryptic terms that something will be done about that.

Ere the bat hath flown
His cloister'd flight; ere to black Hecate's summons
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

When she asks him specifically, "What's to be done?" he tells her:

Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
Till thou applaud the deed.

This is the best evidence in the text that Lady Macbeth does not know that her husband will kill Banquo. Macbeth is not concerned about keeping his wife in ignorance of his plans in order to protect her from being an accessory or in order to insure that she does not inadvertently arouse suspicions. Shakespeare has already made his plans perfectly clear in Act 3, Scene 1, and the playwright does not want to risk boring his audience with having everything spelled out to Lady Macbeth which the audience already knows. The words "dearest chuck" may have been intended to suggest that Macbeth had suddenly become protective of his sweet, sensitive wife, but the term of endearment is a weak excuse Shakespeare employs to get out of having to have Macbeth explain what he has already arranged to have done and what the audience will actually see being done in the very next scene when Banquo and his son Fleance are ambushed by the three murderers.

So at this point in the play, Lady Macbeth does not know that her husband intends to have Banquo (and Fleance) killed. Shakespeare probably intended to establish this fact in this scene because she will be all the more bewildered when, in Act 3, Scene 4, her husband sees Banquo's ghost occupying his place at the coronation banquet. She still does not even know Banquo is dead.