What is the theme of the chapter Lead?

Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around individual elements. Some parts are factual memoir, others are fiction, and some read like fairy tales or ancient fales.
Two such fables, written while he worked as a chemist before joining the resistance, are paired according to the elements' radically different properties, also metaphorically present in people. These are lead, which is stable and represents stolidly persisting, and mercury, which is volatile and linked to instability and rapid change.
Levi incorporates the qualities of the element into the tone of the story and makes the character's personality compatible with those qualities as well.
"Lead" centers on a lead artisan, or smith, apparently in ancient times. His itinerant progress to find work takes him to many places and stimulates him to try different jobs and crafts. But lead is what he understands and excels at. Another quality of lead is that it is toxic. Continued exposure poisons the person who touches or ingests it. By not changing his craft, the leadsmith is signing his own death certificate. However, he is returning to his emotional home as well, to his pregnant wife, in time to meet their new baby before he passes away—a child who seems destined to follow his path.

What kind of images online could represent the meaning and theme of Sonnet 18? Think about how the colors, images, ideas, and emotions expressed in the sonnet help convey its meaning and theme.

Considering that Sonnet 18 is a comparison between the object of the poet's affection and a summer's day, a summer-themed image would make the most sense. However, the sonnet makes it a point to mention the ugly or at least less-attractive sides of summer—its winds, hot sun, obscuring clouds, and impermanence. The poet tells us that, because of these things, the sonnet's subject is superior to summer. Perhaps when looking for an image, you can consider one that shows the ugly side of a summer's day.
Samuel Palmer's mid-19th Century painting Summer Storm Near Pulborough, Sussex comes to mind as a good image to choose from. This painting shows some of the less attractive sides of summer. Even though there are hints of blue sky and far off sunshine, a torrential rainstorm is moving in and the wind is picking up. Peasants rush to get the laundry off the line, and a shepherd urgently moves his flock down the road. The colors are a mix of light and dark, further showing the dual nature of the season. After viewing this painting, it is clear that comparing a person to this particular summer's day would not be much of a compliment. Even more, this painting is set in the English countryside, so it is an image of a subject and landscape that William Shakespeare would have been familiar with.

How does the setting function in the story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"?

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway that takes place on the African savanna; The protagonist, Harry, and his wife are sitting outside having a discussion about his leg, which is decomposing at a worrying rate. The two are waiting for a plane to arrive for medical treatment for Harry. Everything about the savanna is a reflection of Harry's physical state; this is a hot, unfamiliar, confusing, dismal place. Harry does not feel welcomed here, nor is he comfortable. In fact, Harry longs to be near Kilimanjaro, which he sees as a symbol of truth, purity, and benevolence; he reminisces about the peak with ardent fondness throughout this story. Since his decaying leg is a constant reminder of his decaying soul, it is no wonder that he needs to be reminded of something that exudes purity.
Flashbacks are also part of the setting, and there are several throughout this story. As he gets sicker, his flashbacks become intermingled with real life, and it becomes difficult for him to distinguish one from the other. At one point he actually feels Death's breath upon him. In the next scene, however, Harry is boarding a plane and is flown right up to the peak of Kilimanjaro. At this point, Harry

knew that there was where he was going.

Then the woman wakes up because the hyena has finally stopped making one sound and started making another, and she realizes that Harry has died. Only in death is Harry physically free to ascend to Kilimanjaro. Until then, his diseased body was bound to a diseased place.

Define pluralism, assimilation, and suppression.

Pluralism implies that different communities and cultures that enter a foreign one will hold on to their culture and traditions. This will lead to small pockets of people holding on to their cultural identity while at the same time respecting the values of the larger group that they enter. An example of pluralism can be seen in larger cities that have neighborhoods defined by foreign cultures (ie. Little Italy, Koreatown).

Assimilation is different because it means that the minority cultures will abandon their culture and values and wholly adopt those of the larger community. This can lead to less cultural conflict at the loss of original traditions and values.

Suppression is when the dominant culture imposes values and traditions with the purpose of eliminating the minority values. Suppression also generally involves the elimination of the rights of a minority culture. Two recent examples of suppression are the Jim Crowe era in the United States, and apartheid in South Africa.

These are valuable distinctions regarding how a society responds to diversity.
Pluralism is often conflated with multiculturalism or cosmopolitanism, though each is its own reality. Pluralism occurs when different groups coexist on essentially equal footing. In this instance, the goal is to avoid hierarchies of power and to disperse power across multiple stakeholders. Decentralized power theoretically invests more people in the governing entity. Many people suggest that Canada offers an example of what pluralism might look like, though they cannot claim a purely decentralized government.
Assimilation assumes the presence of diversity as well. In this case, however, the non-dominant group takes on the qualities and values of the dominant group, such as to be largely indistinguishable in any practical way. In the United States, for instance, immigrants from many nations were not initially well-received and clustered in tight-knit areas that replicated their homeland. Over time and generations, the distinguishing qualities they possessed and the discriminatory attitudes toward those qualities waned. In Chicago, the old neighborhoods were strongly defined by the ethnicity of the largely European immigrants who settled them. Over time, these ethnic groups have assimilated, moving to suburbs where Lithuanians feel comfortable living among Irish, German, and Ukrainian descendants. Each of these groups may celebrate certain holidays or foods differently, but in matters of great importance now, their ethnic background does not play a major deciding factor.
Suppression also assumes the presence of diversity, and in this case diversity is viewed as a problem to be solved. The minority group's culture, language, and value differences are seen as a threat or a burden to the dominant group, which seeks to minimize or eliminate these differences, on the way to the minority group's assimilation. We can see suppression in certain movements that insist that the dominant culture's language, religion, and values must be incorporated into governing policies so that all others will be assimilated or will at least keep their own customs out of the public sphere.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/pluralism-politics

https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/43865_2.pdf

What conditions might produce a reversal of the "virtuous circles" that have brought increasing peace to much of the world?

Conditions that might produce a reversal of the “virtuous circles,” or advantageous feedback loops, that have brought increasing peace to much of the world would mean returning to the conditions that existed before those circles were established—for example, re-establishing authoritarian systems of government, patriarchal culture, and capitalist economies would reverse the virtuous circles that are now thriving in some areas.
For example, what has brought peace to much of Africa, after decades of bloody internal warfare, has been the education and the equal voice of women in politics and economics. Micro-lending among women’s collectives in East Africa has rescued devastated economies, and the Women’s Mass Action Movement gained peace for Liberia in 2003, ending their civil war. In the Western Hemisphere, war has returned when virtuous circles have been uprooted. For example, when the privatization of NAFTA threatened the sharing economies of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Zapatistas raised arms. El Salvador experienced its bloody revolution after a capitalist, authoritarian regime dominated the culture and economy. Pinochet's capitalist, authoritarian government also led to revolution in Chile.
Where women have the economic power to take care of their families, and a voice in government, economies can stabilize, more collective decisions can be made, and peace can be achieved. These virtuous circles of peace are also evident in pre-Columbian North America, where there was already relative peace and stability among First Nations and where their economies and cultures were more matriarchal, their system of government was non-authoritarian, and they enjoyed sharing economies.
History shows that overturning any egalitarian culture or economy will eventually and inevitably reverse their virtuous circles.

What does Hamlet say about Yorick?

As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him off on a contemplation of mortality. Upon unearthing the skull in act V, scene 1, Hamlet recalls fond memories of Yorick. He recalls the many jokes that Yorick was full of and how the jester used to carry him around on his shoulders in play.
Upon gazing at the skull, Hamlet's thoughts turn more existential. He asks the skull what happened to its former jokes and songs. Yorick was a person "of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy," but now he is just dusty bones.
Ever the one to brood, Hamlet compares the fate of Yorick to that of Alexander the Great. Despite the vastly different lives and accomplishments of the two, their fate is the same: to die "and returneth to dust." It seems that here, while contemplating what has become of the once merry jester, Hamlet truly accepts that he too will meet the same end, as all people do. After this scene, Hamlet appears to have accepted his own mortality.

Hamlet's interest in the skull of Yorick shows his introverted character. The introvert, according to C. G. Jung, who coined the terms "introvert" and "extrovert," is interested in the subject, whereas the extravert is interested in the object. The skull does not especially interest Hamlet as an object, as can be seen from the train of thought he expresses while he is holding it up in front of him.
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times. And now how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chop-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come. Make her laugh at that.
Hamlet is thinking of himself--his own thoughts, memories, and impressions--when he says, "I knew him," and "He hath borne me on his back a thousand times," "how abhorred in my imagination it is!" "Here hung those lips I have kissed I know not how oft," etc. It is because of his ceaseless introspection that Hamlet is not able to act effectively in the real world. His thinking interferes with his emotions. He is the exact opposite of the extremely extraverted Laertes, who is guided by his emotions and acts impulsively and rashly.
The introvert sees everything that is in any way valuable to him in the subject; the extravert sees it in the object. This dependence on the object seems to the introvert a mark of the greatest inferiority, while to the extravert the preoccupation with the subject seems nothing but infantile autoeroticism. So it is not surprising that the two types often come into conflict. - C. G. Jung
In this famous scene, Shakespeare seems to have wanted to show the contrast between the object which Hamlet is holding directly in front of him and the subjective thoughts which that object is capable of arousing. "Alas, poor Yorick!" characterizes Hamlet very effectively. Everything causes him to think, and once he starts thinking he can't stop.

How have women’s actions remade the world for women, and how not, from 1790 to present? To what extent have the things that Olympe de Gouges called for in the 1790s “Declaration of Rights of Women” been realized, and to what extent are they things women are still struggling to attain two centuries later?

De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women, on the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and Maria Edgeworth, and on early American feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Declaration of Sentiments. Since the publication of these works, women have partially achieved changes in access to work, education, voting, political representation, laws regarding rape and abuse, and family structure. However, women continue to be less protected or respected than men in a majority of nations in the world.
De Gouges's Declaration was part of a worldwide pattern of women asserting their equality. Many tribal nations, such as the Iroquois Confederacy, had strong traditions of women governing, and the Iroquois were used as a model by western feminists like Stanton. Women were central to the abolitionist movements in England, France, the United States, and Latin America. Many abolitionists were feminists, and vice versa. Women were part of revolutionary movements in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. It was women, the Lowell Mill Girls, who led the Ten Hour Movement and were central to labor struggles.
To date, almost sixty nations have had a female president or prime minister. Over seventy have a quarter or more of their congresses or parliaments made up of women. (The United States is not among them.) In the United States, where it was once standard and legal for women to earn half of what men did, white women typically earn about eighty percent of what white men do. Practices that were once completely legal, including sexual harassment, firing people for getting pregnant or married, marital rape, and child marriage, are now outlawed and condemned.
Women continue to have higher rates of poverty than men, especially among the newly divorced or widowed. In dozens of nations, women are barred from most education and physically isolated, often kept out of the public sphere by force or threats. While rape is outlawed everywhere, powerful stigmas make prosecution difficult. There remain striking examples of backlash against women's rights, such as chauvinism in the 2016 US presidential election and the ensuing election of Donald Trump, a man accused by two dozen women of harassment or assault.