In the case of Liebeck vs. McDonald’s Restaurants, P. T. S., Inc. New Mexico District Court (1994). How would you have gone about arguing that your client had not committed negligence, or if you are the plaintiff, how would you have more strongly argued that negligence was committed by the defendant? Please focus on the specific elements of negligence as to why the case was won or lost by a party.

I'll give an explanation for both sides, because it is an intricate and complicated case. The repercussions of this case created many changes, and it is frequently regarded as the hallmark of overreaching litigation in spite of the fact that the woman in question was severely injured by the coffee.
On the side McDonald's and why they did not commit negligence:
The defendant produces millions of cups of coffee daily for individuals all around the globe. This coffee is kept at an operating temperature of about 180–190 degrees Fahrenheit, and yet relatively few individuals are ever burned by it (estimates say that at the time, around 700 individuals had experienced burns from the coffee, compared to the millions of drinkers). Statistically, this amounts to a fractional minority, which represents the frequent injuries anyone encounters performing routine tasks, especially caused by operator error. Additionally, each cup is marked with the words "Caution: Hot Beverage" as a warning to those consuming it. This should be enough to deter anyone from unsafely consuming the beverage.
As a final note, it is clear that the plaintiff, Mrs. Liebeck, had opened the beverage in a moving vehicle. This is an unsafe and inadvisable practice that McDonald's certainly does not condone. We believe that the primary responsibility for the injury is Mrs. Liebeck's improper use and transport of the beverage.
In the defense of Mrs. Liebeck:
While it is noted and accepted that Mrs. Liebeck opened the beverage container in the car, typical hot beverages are served around 150–160 degrees Fahrenheit, a significantly lower temperature. These temperatures, while still dangerous, take much longer to cause severe (i.e., third-degree) burning (in the range of 20–30 seconds), whereas the coffee supplied by the defendant has the propensity to cause severe burns in around 3 seconds, even through clothing, not allowing the plaintiff ample time to remove the hot liquid from herself. Additionally, the caution statement on the container implies that it is hot, but makes no mention of the dangerous nature of the beverage, nor how severe the burns could potentially be.
A final point should be made that, while 700 individuals experiencing burns is apparently statistically insignificant, it still represents many people who have received harmful results from the products supplied by McDonald's. It is the duty of the corporation to ensure that their products are not harmful, and it should also be noted that in many of these cases, the individuals were likely not driving in vehicles, nor were they opening the container, thus affirming the inherent danger of the product itself, as opposed to the improper use of Mrs. Liebeck.

I need help understanding the structure of the poem "Pet Panther" by A. R. Ammons. I think I am understanding him correctly in that he is using an extended metaphor (conceit metaphor) to compare his attention to a wild animal. I think the poem is free verse—it has 5 stanzas and 20 lines. I don't know if I am on the correct track, and I don't know how else to explain the structure of the poem.

You are indeed correct that Ammons uses an extended metaphor to compare his attention to a wild animal, and you are also right that the poem is written in free verse, meaning that it has no regular rhyme scheme or syllabic meter. Often poems are written in free verse to produce a more natural, conversational, spontaneous tone.
One other point that you might make about the structure of the poem is that it begins with a problem and ends with a solution. The problem is how the poet will manage his attention, which left unmanaged will "pommel the / heart frantic," and "dislodge boulders." The solution the poet offers is that he will try to tame his attention and make it "lie down" within himself, where he says there is as much for it to focus on as there is outside of himself.
You might also look, in terms of structure, at examples of repetition in the poem. For example, the phrase "it will" is used four times in the poem in reference to the tendency of the speaker's attention to do as it wishes. Interestingly though, this phrase is used four times in the first three stanzas, but not at all in the final two stanzas. This reflects the fact that the final two stanzas focus on the speaker's efforts to tame his attention.

What trick was played on Grayson his first day in the Minors?

In chapter 25, Grayson tells Maniac about his first day in the minors, when he was due to play for the Bluefield Bullets. When Grayson arrived in Bluefield, West Virginia, he asked a gas station attendant for directions to the ballpark. The attendant discerned that Grayson was a new ballplayer and then told him that all new ballplayers were treated to a free meal at the restaurant across the street. He encouraged Grayson to ask for "the biggest steak on the menu. And anything else you want, too, because it's all on the house." Grayson duly went to the restaurant and ordered "a sixteen-ounce steak, half a broiled chicken, and two pieces of rhubarb pie." When he got up to leave, the restaurant owner "came running after him . . . all mad." This is when Grayson learned that the gas station attendant was "a real card and liked to welcome dumb rookies with his little practical joke."
As a result of the gas station attendant's joke, Grayson spent his first day in the minors washing dishes to work off his meal, while his team was taking the field. He should have been playing with them, as their new pitcher.

Why does Edward feel so content and peaceful with the calf?

The young Prince Edward has been roughing it on the streets with a ragtag band of juvenile delinquents. They've been going round causing trouble, terrorizing the neighborhood, and thieving merrily as they go. Edward's not cut out for life as a beggar, and he takes the first opportunity to escape from the other boys. But Edward's frightened that the beggar gang will track him down and exact a terrible revenge.
Edward's understandably jumpy as he tries to get some much-needed sleep in a barn. Just as he's dozing off beneath a mound of horse-blankets, he feels someone or something touching him. Edward's absolutely terrified; he thinks it might be one of the beggar boys come to give him a good hiding, or worse. However, Edward's mightily relieved to learn that it's just a little calf, dozing away contentedly nearby. Edward feels warm and comfortable with the animal, not least because he's been so lonely and so friendless for such a long time. Unlike the members of the beggar gang he was forced to mix with, the calf has a soft heart and a gentle spirit.

What effect does Bartleby have on the narrator?

Bartleby has a strange effect on the narrator, a lawyer who employs Bartleby as his scrivener (a person who copies documents). The lawyer increasingly falls under Bartleby's spell as he comes to feel sympathy and compassion for what he calls this "forlorn" man. The lawyer identifies with Bartleby as part of what is sad and lost in all of us as human beings.
When the lawyer hires Bartleby as his scrivener, at first he is delighted with the man's hard work and accuracy. But as time goes on, Bartleby's work habits change. He starts refusing some forms of work, saying he would "prefer not to."
As the lawyer understands, under normal circumstances he would have fired such an employee. But there is something about Bartleby that makes him pause and decide not to dismiss him. The lawyer writes:

Had there been the least uneasiness, anger, impatience or impertinence in his manner; in other words, had there been any thing ordinarily human about him, doubtless I should have violently dismissed him from the premises. But as it was, I should have as soon thought of turning my pale plaster-of-paris bust of Cicero out of doors . . .

The lawyer comes to think often about Bartleby, who exercises an increasing fascination over him. He writes:

there was something about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed me, but in a wonderful manner touched and disconcerted me.

When the lawyer tries to find out more about his strange employee's past, however, Bartleby prefers not to speak. Once more, the lawyer considers firing him, but

Again I sat ruminating what I should do. Mortified as I was at his behavior, and resolved as I had been to dismiss him when I entered my offices, nevertheless I strangely felt something superstitious knocking at my heart, and forbidding me to carry out my purpose, and denouncing me for a villain if I dared to breathe one bitter word against this forlornest of mankind.

The lawyer eventually changes offices to try to get rid of Bartleby, who has started to live in his office, but it does no good. Eventually, Bartleby is carted off to an institution, but the lawyer continues to think about him obsessively. Bartleby, who refuses to do anything, adopts an utterly passive posture and eventually dies. The lawyer, who finds him mysterious, still wonders what the real story is. At the end of the story, he discovers that Bartleby once worked at the Dead Letter office in Washington, D.C, disposing of letters that never reached their destination. He speculates that seeing so much failed communication and human tragedy must have impacted Bartleby's psyche in a way that made it impossible for him to continue on with working.
Bartleby comes to stand in for all of humanity to the lawyer, representing us in our essential loneliness and isolation. Bartleby's impact on him is quite strong, causing the lawyer to meditate deeply and with melancholy on the meaning of life. Bartleby also helps the lawyer plug into his compassionate side as he tries, but fails, to help this fellow human being.

What is Hawthorne’s position on the nature of people’s honesty with themselves?

Perhaps Hawthorne's most impassioned address to his reader comes near the end of the novel, after Dimmesdale has revealed his sin:

Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!

The novel itself is a meditation not so much on sin as on guilt, and the guilt derives from not being honest. As dark as Hester's life in Salem is, she seems less inwardly damaged, in large part because she was never allowed to hide the sin of her adultery. Pearl is that living sign. While societal scorn and ostracism force Hester to become somewhat radical in her thinking, she herself is not nearly as self-tormented as Dimmesdale.
Dimmesdale's desire to live a double life (outwardly the ideal spiritual guide, while inwardly a desperate penitent) destroys him in every way possible. His guilt, stemming from this knowledge of hypocrisy, destroys his peace of mind, his physical health, and his spiritual confidence.
Pearl, on the other hand, becomes the most remarkable of characters. She is, not coincidentally, the character who lives closest to nature, with no impulse to hide her true self from anyone, least of all herself. She is also the character who asks questions prompting others to admit their truths, most notably Dimmesdale, who she rejects because he is unwilling to stand with Hester and Pearl publicly. As such, she leads the least distorted or compromised of lives in the novel.

What is the setting (where and when the story takes place) in Diary of a Wimpy Kid?

The setting of the story is a fictitious American suburb, a relatively affluent and secure place that provides (or should provide) a safe living environment for children to grow up in. For most kids in the neighborhood, this is naturally a good thing—but not for Greg. As the basics of his life are pretty much taken care of, he's free to sweat the small details, including relatively trivial matters such as social status and making friends at school.
In the overall scheme of things, these aren't issues you should really worry about, but to a kid like Greg they're everything. They define his whole existence in the comfortable middle-class world he inhabits. Suburban life places a high premium on fitting in, and the problem for Greg is that he just doesn't fit in anywhere. A socially awkward, self-described wimpy kid who isn't any good at sports, Greg is genuinely worried as to how he'll adapt to his new school. At least the suburban neighborhood in which he lives can provide him with some degree of anonymity. But at school it's a different story; here, there's nowhere to hide.

What is a summary of "The Bright Lights of Sarajevo"?

The poem "The Bright Lights of Sarajevo" describes the city of Sarajevo under siege. The entire "plot" of the poem takes place in the darkness of the city, which is enjoying a brief reprieve from the siege. People are massing in the streets, walking calmly and happily in the darkness. Ironically, the city is colorless and black as the citizens mingle together; however, the bright lights are not the true sources of illumination.
The poem describes flirtation occurring in the darkness between a boy and a girl, unnamed, who sneak away from the crowd. The poet remarks on all the destruction they pass—mortared buildings and shattered pavement, with foreign aid supplies littering the streets and dead bodies scattered around. However, in the darkness and depression, hope and joy are found as the two hold hands through the night, hiding from the masses behind the flour sacks after they share coffee and enjoy each other's company. Their joy represents the undying light of Sarajevo, as do the masses in the streets, showing that their light, that of their hope, shines brighter than the destruction around them. This illuminates Sarajevo even though it is veiled in darkness.

At night, after the hours when residents of Sarajevo line up for gas or bread, the speaker suggests that one might think the streets would be deserted. People may have had to dodge snipers or struggle up many flights of stairs to bring water home, and they must be exhausted. However, this is not the case. The young people come out at night, and it becomes difficult to distinguish any of the differences by which people usually judge others. Although they have no flashlights, the youth don't bump into each other, except, perhaps, when a boy is trying to get the attention of a girl he fancies. He must take his cues from her voice to see if she's interested in him (since it is so dark), and then he might light a cigarette to see what her eyes are saying. The speaker sees such a pair, and they seem just about to hold hands. There are holes in the ground where bombs were dropped some years ago, and those holes have filled with water that reflects the night-sky stars: these are the bright lights of Sarajevo now. It is as though these young people, with the hope and optimism of youth, see only the stars at their feet rather than the holes made by mortars, and the boy leads the girl away to a coffee shop lit by candles.

In writing about the “bright lights,” poet Tony Harrison ironically references the dark environment of a city under siege. Still, he suggests, there may be more than a glimmer of hope for Sarajevo, as its young people find romantic connections that may be more than pleasurable distractions from the hardships of war.
The poem begins by describing many of those hardships, such as breadlines, lugging water up stairs, and even dodging bullets. People spending their days that way might well stay home at home, but no. All kinds of people—Muslims, Serbs, and Croats—go strolling in the dark, all looking black as all lack even flashlights (torches). Sound is a better guide when there is so little light, and flirting boys or girls even bump into each other on purpose. If they want to find out more about someone they encounter, they strike a match. The narrator indicates their presence, observing

I see a pair who’ve certainly progressed
beyond the tone of voice and match-lit flare test.

As he is about to lead her by the hand, the scene is marked as one where violence was inflicted on the breadlines in the 1992 Serb massacre. The narrator switches from the present boy-girl encounter to the past blood and death of war, describing the damage to the city such as holes in the pavement caused by mortar shells. Today it had rained most of the day, leaving puddles in those holes but now in the clear sky the Pleiades shine and their light is reflected in the puddles. The city is under curfew, the streets are protected with sandbags formerly filled with food-aid flour from the United States. The boy and girl hold hands as they make their way to a candlelit café for a coffee.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/219/21954/tony-harrison.html

In this quote from Shoeless Joe, how are the literary devices used? Also, how do the themes, symbolism, and diction of the passage relate to the story? Building a baseball field is more work than you might imagine. I laid out a whole field, but it was there in spirit only. It was really only left field that concerned me. Home plate was made from pieces of cracked two-by-four embedded in the earth. The pitcher’s rubber rocked like a cradle when I stood on it. The bases were stray blocks of wood, unanchored. There was no backstop or grandstand, only one shaky bleacher beyond the left-field wall. There was a left-field wall, but only about fifty feet of it, twelve feet high, stained dark green and braced from the rear. And the left-field grass. My intuition told me that it was the grass that was important. It took me three seasons to hone that grass to its proper texture, to its proper color. I made trips to Minneapolis and one or two other cities where the stadiums still have natural-grass infields and outfields. I would arrive hours before a game and watch the groundskeepers groom the field like a prize animal, then stay after the game when in the cool of the night the same groundsmen appeared with hoses, hoes, and rakes, and patched the grasses like medics attending to wounded soldiers.

First, in the passage, there are a few examples of figurative language. Ray says that the pitcher's mound "rocked like a cradle when I stood on it." This is a simile (a comparison of two unalike things where one thing is said to be like or as something else); the pitcher's mound is compared to a cradle, something that rocks. For obvious reasons, the pitcher's mound should be stable and not move around when the pitcher steps atop it. He employs two more similes when he says that he would "watch the groundskeepers groom the field like a prize animal" before the game and patch "the grasses like medics attending to wounded soldiers" afterward. He compares the perfectly-kept field to a prize animal who is neatly and carefully groomed, and then he compares the groundskeepers who work on the played-on, banged-up field to war medics.
I think you could, perhaps, read the work the narrator puts into preparing the field itself as symbolic of the work one needs to put into any dream. Dreams certainly become possible when one puts such honest and good work into making them come true: this is also a theme of the work. Just as Ray must tend the grass so carefully in this passage, he must also tend to himself: he has to listen to his own inner voice and trust it, as we all must.
The diction used in this passage is quite conversational. Ray uses only a little bit of baseball jargon (left field, home plate, pitcher's rubber, cases, grandstand, and so forth), but nothing so extreme that the average reader cannot understand the gist of the passage. This seems pretty consistent and expected given the subject of the entire text.

How does King Lear view women?

In Act 4, Scene 6, the mad king expresses his disgust with women, obviously inspired by his recollection that it was his lust and copulation that produced Goneril and Regan, the two daughters who have made a fool of him with their false protestations of love and who have taken everything away from him, leaving him a dirty, homeless wretch.
Down from the waist they are Centaurs, Though women all above: But to the girdle do the gods inherit, Beneath is all the fiends'; There's hell, there's darkness, there's the sulphurous pit, Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie, fie, fie! pay, pah!
The pessimistic German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) has expressed his own unfavorable opinion of women and copulation as follows:
However, it might even seem to us that here the devil wanted merely to hide his game, for copulation is his currency and the world his kingdom. For has it not been observed how illico post coitum cachinnus auditur Diaboli? [‘Directly after copulation the devil’s laughter is heard.’] Seriously speaking, this is due to the fact that sexual desire, especially when through fixation on a definite woman it is concentrated to amorous infatuation, is the quintessence of the whole fraud of this noble world; for it promises so unspeakably, infinitely, and excessively much, and then performs so contemptibly little.
In Shakespeare's famous Sonnet 129, he writes:

Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action...
Shakespeare continues, "Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight." He seems to be expressing the same thought as Schopenhauer does in saying "for it [sexual intercourse] promises so unspeakably, infinitely, and excessively much, and then performs so contemptibly little."

What was the impact of the Great Awakening on colonial attitudes toward authority? Why is the Great Awakening considered to be the beginning of an "American" identity?

The Great Awakening is generally regarded by historians as sowing the first seeds of what would later become a full-scale rebellion against colonial rule. Like all religious revivals, The Great Awakening represented a stirring of the spirit, and it derived from a growing dissatisfaction among Protestant Christians with what they saw as the restrictions of authoritarian religious rule. Right from the outset, then, The Great Awakening had worldly as well as spiritual aims.
By the late 18th century, America was becoming more religiously diverse. Anglicans and Puritans no longer formed a significant percentage of Christian believers in the colonies. Instead, most Americans were attached to the almost bewildering array of small churches that had grown exponentially, and which jealously guarded their independence and their right to determine their own form of worship. The main consequence of this development was that Americans became much less deferential to authority, be it secular or temporal. The great chain of authority was no longer held to run from God to ruler to people, but from God to people to ruler. Just as more and more Americans were joining churches where they got to choose their own pastors and ministers, so they increasingly felt that the same principle should apply to their secular rulers.
In the aftermath of The Great Awakening, there developed a growing consensus that the institutions of government, like the churches, existed to carry out certain functions invested in them by the people themselves. It is just such a notion that finds its most eloquent expression in the Declaration of Independence:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

In theological terms, The Great Awakening was nothing new; the ideas it advanced had been established Calvinist doctrine for centuries. But in political terms, this great religious revival movement was new in that it took its inspiration from American soil. In that sense, one can indeed speak of The Great Awakening as representing the emergence of a distinctive American conscience, one that with its principles of self-government, independence, and religious freedom, found ultimate expression in the American Revolution, and the Republic to which it gave rise.

Is an Information Operations cell utilized by various organizations such as CENTCOM, SOCOM, etc., the best model for conducting operations at a combatant command or service center? If not, what would be a better process or model for conducting IO combat operations?

Information operations cells are certainly an integral component of military operations at the tactical level. An almost-hopelessly broad category of activities are involved with the protection of friendly or indigenous forms of communication, including defense against hostile efforts at disrupting those communications or injecting into information flows false or misleading information, and offensive measures including cyber attacks against hostile networks and the dissemination of information intended to influence foreign audiences (military and civilian). Information Operations has become extremely important to the conduct of all levels of military and civilian intelligence activities. Tactical-level cells play their role at the small-unit level of operation and should remain service-specific at that level.
At the combatant command or service level, the need to blur or eliminate service-specific distinctions is vital. That is why the relatively-newly-established United States Cyber Command was stood-up as a combatant command and collocated at Fort Meade, Maryland, alongside the Department of Defense-level National Security Agency. Even tactical-level activities require a certain degree of jointness, such as with the provision by the Air Force or Navy of close air support for Army units operating in the field. That is why Congress required in the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act the integration into military training and promotion activities the requirement for jointness between the services. Interservice rivalry had been self-defeating to the point of contributing to American deaths, and change was needed. In the age of cyberspace and almost-total dependence upon the national security apparatus of computer networks and satellite constellations vulnerable to hostile operations, unified command structures were properly viewed as a sine qua non of current and future military planning and operations.
CENTCOM and SOCOM are, obviously, unified commands, both created out of the need to compel the individual services to work together in a more fluid manner and environment. CENTCOM in particular is integrally involved in the conduct of military planning and operations. SOCOM, in contrast, is more of a unified organization designed to ensure the readiness of special operations force across the services. SOCOM ensures commands like CENTCOM have the special operations capabilities they require when needed. Information operations, however, is a function of both. “Information Operations,” after all, is specifically listed in SOCOM documents as one of nine core activities of the command, alongside “unconventional warfare,” “civil affairs,” and “combating terrorism.” CENTCOM, similarly, emphasizes the importance of “Information Operations” in its principal documentation, noting that such capabilities “deter aggression, counter destabilizing behavior, and decrease potential for direct action operations requirements.”
Influencing the thought-processes of foreign audiences, including governments and military commands, remains as important to success as it has throughout history, whether this involves the dissemination of accurate information to counter hostile-nation propaganda, or the dissemination of false or misleading information intended to divert hostile forces from friendly objectives and operations. It is a hopelessly-vast and complicated enterprise. Information operations will continue to be integral to military planning for the foreseeable future.

How does the author’s discussion of Shakespeare’s sister in paragraph 6 contribute to the meaning of the text?

Woolf wrote A Room of One's Own to refute the idea still commonly held in the 1920s that women had not written as much great literature as men because women were innately mentally inferior. Woolf argues instead that it is social and economic opportunities, not genetic inferiority, that has held women back from becoming great writers.
She imagines, for example, that Shakespeare had a talented sister named Judith. Judith wants to go to London and write plays like her brother. But when she runs off to join the theater, she is not taken seriously and is seduced and impregnated by her manager Nick Greene. In other words, she is seen as a sex object by the man who could have helped her, not a gifted artist. While her brother is nurtured and encouraged as a writer, she is destroyed.
This imagined story helps illustrate the point that it was social stereotypes about women and lack of opportunity that held them back, not lack of ability. As Woolf writes of women in the sixteenth century (and no doubt herself, as she was a woman of genius who was denied opportunities her brothers had, feared ridicule, and suffered mental breakdowns):

any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certainly have gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at. For it needs little skill in psychology to be sure that a highly gifted girl who had tried to use her gift for poetry would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity to a certainty.

What part of the housekeeper's body is deeply scarred and disfigured?

As well as being incredibly strong, Molly's wrists are covered with scars. Once upon a time, Molly was a serial criminal who was saved from the gallows by the expert legal defense of her current employer, Mr. Jaggers. While she was on trial for murder, Jaggers instructed Molly to cover up her wrists so that the jury wouldn't think she was strong enough to commit such a crime. The ruse worked, and as we have seen, Molly was acquitted.
The presence of scars on Molly's wrists indicates the wearing of manacles, a common practice even among petty criminals in those days, let alone suspected murderers. The escaped convict Abel Magwitch is also shackled when he first meets Pip at the graveyard. But in his case, he's shackled by leg-irons which are designed to keep him in the hold aboard a prison-ship.

Amongst the “accomplishments” of the progressive movement of the 1890s–1920s, there were at least 4 amendments to the Constitution signed in this period. These included which of the following? A. Federal income tax, Direct election of Senators, and Women’s right to vote B. End of Slavery, Voting Rights, and Citizenship C. Limits on Corporations to give Campaign Donations, Equal Rights for Women, and Civil Rights. D. Freedom of Speech, Religion, and the Right to Arm Bears.

"A" would be the correct answer. The 16th amendment, allowing a federal income tax, went into effect in 1913. The 17th amendment also went into effect in 1913, allowing the direct election of U.S. senators. Finally, the 18th amendment, extending women the right to vote, became effective in 1920.
While the importance of the 16th and the 18th amendments are obvious, the 17th amendment corrected a situation which people felt caused corruption, which was the right of state legislatures to appoint senators. Putting this choice into the hands of the people was believed to increase the average person's power and voice in a democracy. The 18th amendment, giving women the vote, also made the government more democratic by broadening the franchise.
The 16th amendment, increasing the power of the federal government to impose taxes, increased the power of the central government and laid the groundwork for a cohesive national social welfare state, which came into effect during the 1930s.

What does Mercutio think about the nurse when she appears at the end of act 2, scene 4?

In act 2, scene 4, the Nurse visits Romeo, acting as an intermediary for Juliet to attain more information about when Romeo plans on meeting her again. When the Nurse arrives on the scene, Mercutio completely disrespects her by hurling merciless insults at her to entertain himself. Mercutio begins by begging Peter to give the Nurse a fan so that she can hide her ugly face. Mercutio then proceeds to use sexual innuendos to insult the Nurse and even refers to her as an old, ugly prostitute.
He also compares the Nurse to stale rabbit meat—which he states is okay to eat if you can't find anything fresher. Mercutio's insulting, demeaning treatment of the Nurse reveals his extremely low opinion of her. Mercutio recognizes that she is not considered nobility and takes pleasure in upsetting her. After Mercutio leaves the scene, Romeo tells the Nurse that Mercutio is simply a gentleman who loves to hear himself talk.

At the end of Act 2, scene 4, Mercutio badmouths the nurse with impunity, calling her ugly and mocking her appearance with relish. He seems to be entertaining himself with his own rudeness towards the nurse, and his jokes understandably infuriate the nurse. She criticizes Peter for not coming to her defense and wastes time expressing her anger before talking with Romeo about Juliet, who wants to give Romeo a message; this message is the whole point of her confrontation with these young men. Romeo attempts to calm the nurse by describing Mercutio as a man who "loves to hear himself talk" but the nurse is too upset by Mercutio's words to be comforted by this explanation, and she goes on to warn Romeo not to toy with young Juliet.

Why would the animals be glad to believe that they are better off now, even if they know they are suffering? What idea is Orwell communicating?

Even as they suffer in amounts equal to or greater than the suffering they faced under Mr. Jones, there is a critical distinction between the work they did before and the work now; now they work for themselves. This is described succinctly in the opening of Chapter 6.

"All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a pack of idle, thieving human beings."
(Animal Farm, msx.org)

George Orwell's Animal Farm is allegorical, reflecting the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then following into the Stalinist era. With that in mind, an excellent way to understand Orwell's intent is to first understand the ways in which the text and history run parallel.
What pushes the oppressed animals into action is the leadership of Old Major and Snowball, and in parallel fashion Marx and Lenin were the figureheads needed to spark the Russian Revolution. However, as Animal Farm illustrates, reliance on figureheads, even in the name of just revolution, can recreate power imbalances. Reliance on figureheads allows for the entrance of less wholesome characters to take on said leadership positions. Although the animals are initially greatly rewarded for their revolution -- the farm runs smoothly and food is abundant -- Napoleon eventually takes control of the new paradise and pushes the animals to work for his benefit, a development which runs parallel to Stalin's acquisition of power and vilifying of opponents. Both Stalin and Napoleon maintain a sense of gratitude and loyalty despite the suffering they inflict using the same methodologies of propaganda and manipulation. This use of deceit and propagandizing are apparent any time Squealer speaks, but a critical example can be found in chapter seven, as Squealer rewrites history so that Snowball is the villain of their history and the cause of all their suffering,

"The plot was for Snowball, at the critical moment, to give the signal for flight and leave the field to the enemy. And he very nearly succeeded--I will even say, comrades, he WOULD have succeeded if it had not been for our heroic Leader, Comrade Napoleon. Do you not remember how, just at the moment when Jones and his men had got inside the yard, Snowball suddenly turned and fled, and many animals followed him? And do you not remember, too, that it was just at that moment, when panic was spreading and all seemed lost, that Comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a cry of 'Death to Humanity!'"
(Animal Farm, msx.org)

Orwell communicates, then, that the joy that comes from working for oneself rather than an oppressor -- such as the Russian autocracy or Mr. Jones -- is enormous, but it also renders a population vulnerable. Old Boxer ignores the pleas of Clover to not overwork himself because of his mottoes, "I will work harder," and "Napoleon is always right." If a population becomes convinced, under the instruction of a charismatic, deceitful, and selfish individual, that what they are doing is for their common good, they are willing to pour more of themselves into their work and do so unquestioningly. Orwell's hope is that through his allegory he can communicate these real world phenomena succinctly so that mistakes of the past are not repeated.

In Animal Farm, some of the animals are glad to believe that they are better off now, even if they know they are suffering, because this is the nature of denial. This is a human trait—which is one of the examples of the animals quickly transforming into human-like creatures—and is a form of defense mechanism triggered in our psyche when our beliefs are contradicted.
George Orwell has seen the rise of Marxist-based authoritarianism and was an officer in the British Army, thus making him a reluctant enforcer of Great Britain's colonialist policies. This background gave Orwell a firsthand account of the modern era's power struggles and power dynamics.
In Animal Farm, Orwell blatantly criticizes revolutionaries and supporters of authoritarian rulers who turn a blind eye to detrimental conditions created by failed revolutionary programs.
The animals did not become delusional, because they are well aware of the dictatorship, but they force themselves to believe that their sacrifices were not in vain. Thus the animals are forced to choose the new evil regime—one which they feel guilty for helping establish—over the old evil human regime, because they make themselves believe that the former is a lesser evil.

Why did Tom and Huck go to the old tree in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

Tom decides he wants to dig for a buried treasure left behind by pirates. He looks for a companion. When some of his first choices fail him, he approaches Huck. Huck, who is always up for an adventure, joins in.
Huck asks Tom how he knows where to dig, as the boys don't have a treasure map. Tom says:

"They always bury it under a ha’nted house or on an island, or under a dead tree that’s got one limb sticking out. Well, we’ve tried Jackson’s Island a little, and we can try it again some time; and there’s the old ha’nted house up the Still-House branch, and there’s lots of dead-limb trees—dead loads of ’em."

Hucks wonders, with all the dead trees to choose from, how they will decide which one to dig under for the treasure. Tom suggests the dead tree by the Still-House. The two boys dig there with no luck, and then Huck suggests the dead tree on Cardiff Hill:

"I reckon maybe we’ll tackle the old tree that’s over yonder on Cardiff Hill back of the widow’s."

Hucks worries, however, that since the old tree is on the Widow Douglas's property, she would claim any treasure they unearthed. Tom reassures him that any treasure they find will belong to them.
In short, Tom and Huck go to the old tree seeking a buried treasure left by pirates.

Compare and contrast the ways in which the children, women, and men react to the drowned man in "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World." How do you account for the differences in their reactions?

The primary difference in the villagers' reactions to the drowned man in Gabriel García Márquez's story is between the children and the adults. The children are very matter-of-fact. They acknowledge the presence of a corpse on the beach, but their involvement is in their own world of play, so they simply incorporate the body as a new item.
The adults, however, realize the significance and remove the corpse, taking it into the village for burial. At that point, the men's and women's behavior diverges. The men assume the role of investigators, going around to other villages to see if someone is missing (as no one is missing from their own village).
The women take on the responsibility of preparing the body. This activity draws them into elaborate fantasies. The author describes him as so large and well-dressed that they cannot fully incorporate him into their imaginations. They even give him names.
The gender difference is brought home as the women continue to compare the dead man to actual living men, seeing him as superior to those in their daily lives. The men, upon returning, indulge in fantasies as well. They identify with this superior personage. Having someone illustrious, even if already dead, in their village gives them hope for its potential future success.

Did Zachary Taylor have a nickname?

Zachary Taylor did indeed have a nickname: "Old Rough and Ready." He acquired it during his service as an army officer during the Second Seminole War, a long and bitter conflict between the United States Army and the Seminole tribe of modern-day Florida.
A career soldier, Taylor had earned the loyalty of his men by sharing in their hardships, always a sure-fire way for an officer to gain popularity. It was through such willingness to experience the privations of front-line troops that Taylor gained his famous nickname, one that stayed with him throughout the remainder of his long, illustrious military career, as well as his brief career in politics. Unfortunately for "Old Rough and Ready," his political career didn't last for very long, as he died in office just over a year after entering the White House as the twelfth president of the United States.

What are the characteristics of early literature in diverse part of the world, including the ancient Near East, Greece and South Asia, China and Rome?

This is in some ways a tricky question, because it's asking for a discussion encompassing a broad geographical expanse, which risks erasing the particularities of different regions and traditions. It is a difficulty further complicated by the tendencies for academic and scholarly research to be focused along particular regions. One can expect a classicist to be able to comment in great detail concerning the particularities of Greek and Roman literature, but their knowledge might be far more fragmentary as far as it relates to the specificities of Ancient China or Southern Asia. For this reason, I will tailor my answer to the specific literary traditions one can observe in the Mediterranean World and the Near East.
First, and perhaps most importantly, I would note that storytelling seems to be a recurring theme in the human condition, one which far precedes the written form. There were stories long before any literature was ever written down. Ultimately, the oldest stories tend to have evolved and emerged out of a still older oral tradition and were later, eventually, written down.
Of course, oral stories need to be memorized, a feature which lends itself to poetry much more than to prose. Thus, we find most of the oldest great works of literature to be works of poetry (e.g., Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowulf). Poetry is an ancient and popular art form.
In addition, there are certain themes in ancient literature which tend to recur. In the Babylonian creation myth, for example, we find a succession of primordial deities, beginning with Apsu and Tiamat, with Apsu desiring to kill the younger generations, for which he is overthrown and killed. Later, Tiamat launches her own revolt and is defeated by Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, who is made master of creation as a result of his victory. (In retelling the essentials of the Babylonian creation story, I conferred with Barry B. Powell, Classical Myth: 4th Ed., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson, 2004, 98–102). This narrative mirrors the more famous Greek creation story, as told in Hesiod's Theogony, with its own succession of gods, transitioning from Gaia and Uranus through to the Titans and then to the Olympians, with each generation overthrowing its predecessor. More broadly, in both cases, these are stories in which the forces of civilization overthrow these older forces of nature (see Powell, ch. 4). This theme, involving the conflict between civilization and nature (and the triumph of one over the other), can also be found in the exploits of Heracles, and perhaps also in the saga of Gilgamesh. There are also some more specific motifs that occasionally recur: the flood story, for example. We see it in the story of Gilgamesh, in the story of Noah, and in a much later version, there's the story of Baucis and Philemon, as told by the Roman Ovid.
As one final point of comparison, it's worth noting how many of the great heroes of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East are themselves tied to particular city-states and polities. Gilgamesh himself was the King of Uruk, while Marduk was the patron god of Babylon. When we look at the heroes of Greece, different city-states have particular heroes tied to them, such as Theseus, who was the king of Athens, or Oedipus, who was the king of Thebes.

What is the particular state of mind of the poet in which the poem was written?

The speaker is in a pretty despondent state for most of the poem, and no wonder: Everything seems to be going wrong in his life. The men whom he meets in society despise him, and fortune's wheel appears to have turned decisively against him. To make matters worse, he's eaten up by envy, desiring "this man's art and that man's scope." How the speaker wishes he could be just like them!
Venting his frustration doesn't do any good, either. The speaker's "bootless cries" are habitually ignored by God, who does not listen to his requests. The only thing that finally makes a difference is thinking about his lover, whose sweet love brings the speaker such unspeakable wealth that he now realizes he wouldn't change places with anyone, not even a king.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45090/sonnet-29-when-in-disgrace-with-fortune-and-mens-eyes

The speaker in this sonnet is in a low state of mind to begin with. His attitude to life is to "beweep" whatever has led to his "disgrace" in the eyes of both fortune and other people; he is cursing his own existence and envying others' "art" and "scope" which, he feels, prevent them from "despising" themselves as he does in this moment. However, the speaker's state of mind does not stay like this for long, because he has discovered a means of elevating it to something happier. The poet describes how thoughts of his beloved cause his mental state to rise "like a lark" ascending. When he thinks of his beloved, the thought of him and the relationship they have causes the speaker's attitude to change entirely. Where before, he had been cursing himself and his existence, looking at all around him and wishing he could be them instead, now he feels rich in himself and in his existence. Indeed, once he has thought about his beloved, the speaker would not even exchange his lot in life with that of "kings," knowing that his beloved exists in the world.

Which famous person does Jacqueline's father's family claim to be related to in Brown Girl Dreaming?

In the poem entitled "the woodsons of ohio," Jacqueline's father's family claims to be able to "trace their history back / to Thomas Woodson of Chillicothe, said to be / the first son / of Thomas Jefferson." Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States of America, serving for eight years from 1801 to 1809. He was born in 1743 and died in 1826.
As well as being the third president of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson is also famous as the principal author of America's 1776 Declaration of Independence and as a key proponent in the American Revolution. His image has been memorialized (along with three other presidents) in the granite face of Mount Rushmore.
In the poem, Jacqueline's father's family, the Woodsons, claim that the reason why there are so many "doctors and lawyers and teachers / athletes and scholars and people in government" in "the Woodson line" is because they had "a head start." Thomas Jefferson, they claim, is just one example—albeit a notable one—of their illustrious ancestry.

What was the long-term impact of the Stamp Act of 1766?

The British Government, deeply in debt and financially strapped for cash from the Seven Year's War, turned to the American colonists to recoup some the funds they invested. The government imposed a tax or fee attached to every document and printed piece of paper to be paid to the British government. The list of items taxed included everything from ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, books, miscellaneous publications, and playing cards—virtually any item made of paper!
The Stamp Act of 1765, as it became known, was one of the earliest in a series of taxes and fees imposed on colonial citizens. An unbiased observer might conclude, considering the amount of money the British invested in the American colonies (including providing military defense), that the tax would not have been considered unreasonable. That was not the case, as the American colonists immediately protested the tax and took steps to circumvent the collections of fees.
Although every American colony under British control had promised to support the British government in exchange for land grants and financial and military assistance, the colonists vehemently objected to the tax. In some cases, violent protests, including attacks on the tax collectors, occurred. The colonists argued that only the American colonial governments could impose taxes on the American colonists and that the British had overstepped their legal authority. The British countered the colonists were funded and supported by the British government. Many of the colonists had signed loyalty oaths with the British in exchange for passage to America. In the land grants and charters of the colonies was the language that required the colonies to be loyal to the British crown and remain loyal as citizens of Great Britain. As a territory of the British, the government had the legal authority to impose taxes and fees on every citizen.
The long-term impact of the Stamp Act as examined by historians is the tax provided fuel to the fire—if not for complete independence from Great Britain, then for an improved relationship that placed the interest of the American colonists on the same level footing as that of the British Government. The financial cost of the tax was not the only element of the Stamp Act in 1765 the colonists disagreed. There were provisions in the legislation that denied colonists a right to a jury trial if they were accused of not paying the tax. Denying jury trials for the accused agitated the colonists probably as much as the tax.
The colonists were told the tax was necessary so that the British military could continue their role protecting the colonists. American colonists openly complained about the British army and their cavalier treatment of the rights of the colonists. Some colonists questioned why British troops remained on the American continent years after the French had left, when colonial militias had proven effective in defending colonists from threats from hostile Native American tribes or potential threats from foreign powers. These complaints later made their way into the Declaration of Independence. In that regard, some historians argue the Stamp Act of 1765 was the precursor to calls for independence, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution.
Although the tax was repealed in 1766, the British continued to maintain they had the authority to impose taxes without the input of American colonists. The Stamp Act of 1765 and other similar taxes hastened the inevitable split between the American colonists and the British government, leading to the founding of a new nation.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/user/login?destination=node/82186

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/stamp-act

https://www.history.org/history/teaching/tchcrsta.cfm

Explore the evolution of power and control and the representation of power in The Handmaid's Tale.

As the novel opens, the Republic of Gilead is in full control, and we quickly realize the power of the state is based on a willingness to engage in extreme violence.
Compliance among the handmaids is ensured through the constant threat of bodily harm should they deviate in any way from their prescribed roles. Offred sees the dead bodies of traitors, homosexuals, and other "deviants" hanging from walls on a daily basis as she walks to and from the market to do her required shopping. While in training, the handmaids are subjected to cattle prods if they disobey. Once placed in a home, the handmaids have a vested interest in becoming pregnant, because if they fail to do so, they will be sent to the colonies to clean up radioactive waste, which is a death sentence.
Offred is deprived of any information about the wider world around her. She has no access to newspapers and other media and is, in fact, forbidden to read. She only knows what goes on in her very narrow world and has no context beyond that from which to act.
We learn that this state of affairs came around in what could be called "gradual lurches" in which males, even liberal males, were complicit. For instance, one day all wives found their bank accounts had been put in their husbands' names. Men didn't mind having this power over their spouses. Later, wives were fired from their jobs and became dependent on their husbands for support. Slowly the noose tightened until the rare women who were able to have children were forced into sex slavery with upper caste men.

The plot of the novel begins when the Republic of Gilead has already been established. June (Offred) is being held in a gymnasium with other women before she is sent to the Commander's home to be a handmaid. Through frequent flashbacks, the reader is given perspective on how the totalitarian rulership came to be. Prior to the Republic of Gilead, societal and political tension increased as birth rates declined. June describes a system of oppression solidified in stages. A right-wing religious group called the Sons of Jacob assassinate the President and Congress. The military suspends the United States Constitution, women's banks accounts are frozen, employed women are fired from their jobs, and women are denied from owning property. The new government deploys the Guardians of the Faithful and for several months after the assassinations, protesters and marchers are suppressed through violent means. The final stage before the new era of handmaids is training childbearing women for their new roles, which involves brainwashing methods and torture.

Why don’t the Socs feel anything while the Greasers feel too violently in The Outsiders?

In chapter three, Pony has an enlightening conversation with Cherry Valance, and she explains to him the primary differences between their social groups. Cherry goes on to tell Pony that being a Soc is like participating in one big rat race where everyone is competing against each other. Cherry mentions that the Socs are aloof and distant. She comments that they are more interested in looking cool and fail to have genuine relationships with each other.
Cherry also tells Pony that Greasers are more emotional and the Socs act too sophisticated to feel anything. In Cherry's opinion, the Socs have more than enough and refuse to lose their cool out of fear that expressing their genuine emotions would harm their reputations. After contemplating Cherry's comments, Pony agrees and is aware that the Socs hide "behind a wall of aloofness." Pony finally understands what truly separates the Socs from the Greasers and concludes,

It's not money, it's feeling—you don't feel anything and we feel too violently. (Hinton, 34)

Describe the setting of the story ‘Dusk’

The setting of the short story "Dusk" is Edwardian London; specifically, Hyde Park. When is starts to get dark, the protagonist Norman Gortsby likes nothing more than to sit on a bench and watch those around him, those sad, defeated souls who seem to emerge at this time of day.
Gortsby's detached perspective gives him a smug sense of superiority over those less fortunate than himself. But it's a very limited perspective, one that is ably symbolized by the onset of darkness. Gortsby seems to think he's a light in that darkness, yet as he eventually discovers to his cost, he belongs as much to the gathering twilight as any of the massed ranks of the defeated.
Gortsby's in the dark, both literally and metaphorically. He prides himself on being a man of the world, as someone who knows when he's being played for a sucker. Yet that's precisely what happens to him when a young con-man manages to wheedle some money out of him. After Gortsby returns to his bench and sees an old man looking about for the cake of soap that he's just given to the con-artist, he finally becomes one of those countless men and women who have "fought and lost."

In Funny in Farsi, what is a suitor?

A suitor, both in Funny in Farsi and in general, is someone who is pursuing a relationship with another individual. A suitor will typically court their prospective mate, generally with the intention to marry the other person.
Historically—until the early–mid twentieth century in the United States and continuing throughout many other countries, notably India—a woman will have several suitors who are courting her, attempting to gain both her favor and the favor of her parents and family in order to secure her hand in marriage. This is a practice that predates the idea of “dating,” where a suitor would spend a significant amount of time getting to know the woman and her family; instead, a suitor is typically expected to marry early on.

Throughout The Giver, author, Lois Lowry renames many everyday terms. Eleven-year-olds are "elevens", babies are "new children", stuffed animals are "comfort objects" and families are "family units". What is the purpose of these alternate labels? What effect do they have on the story?

Memory plays a significant role in The Giver. Without memory, people are left without pain. In order to save themselves from emotional pain and trauma, the people create a society that allowed them to forget the past. They gave names to everyday items, like "comfort objects", to understand their specific purpose. Additionally, the people living in Jonas' community did not allow themselves to feel anything, so they labeled objects and people in a way that would keep them from experiencing both enjoyment or pain. They did all of this to protect themselves.
The labels in the story give the reader the idea that everything has a place, and a purpose. I think the author chose to create a setting that was devoid of anything that made the characters unique. In doing so, she was able to show the importance of the individual, and the role that Jonas plays in becoming his true self.

The Giver takes place in a futuristic society which, at first glance, seems to be utopian. However, this society values conformity above all else. Throughout the novel, Jonas begins to see issues with this lifestyle and realizes that his home is not the perfect place it initially seemed to be.
Lowry gives common things in her world alternative labels. This is not by accident. She does this to make a point. You may notice that the labels Lowry comes up with often take the place of words that have inherent emotional value. In other words, using a word like "new children" instead of "babies" dehumanizes the idea of a baby in some ways. In this world, stuffed animals become "comfort objects" and children are called Elevens rather than eleven-year-olds.
Lowry's usage of alternative labels helps readers of The Giver recognize that Jonas' society has many problems of its own. It regulates human behavior and dehumanizes the most emotional parts of human life. The society has done this, it seems, to create a more perfect world. However, Jonas soon learns that the world he inhabits is void of many of the things that give human life meaning. Lowry's labels are a guide for what the society has taken away from the human experience.

Does Winston truly change?

Winston is not fully an appropriated "cog in the machine" in the novel's exposition. Throughout the novel, we see that there are parts of his life that actively embrace a world outside of Big Brother. His affair with Julia is one example.
Even when Winston is reeducated, he initially does not seem to be a completely changed person—as evident from the small doodles he does at the end while he is sitting at the Chestnut Tree Cafe. He also remembers his mother playing Snakes and Ladders with him. These "false memories" can be pushed aside, but they will always be with him. Winston might have been "changed," yet there is still a part of his consciousness, a small recess or corner of his being, that seems to remain untouched by Big Brother and the Party. However, by the very end of the novel, it is clear that Winston has wholly succumbed to his brainwashing as he looks up at a portrait of Big Brother with love.

How does one moment in Book One set up a conflict to be faced in a moment in Book Two? Which quotations connect?

Middlemarch is partly a book about illusion: the illusion of people who resist the movement of the world into the modern age and, as well, the individual illusions people cherish about each other. The fascination Dorothea has with Mr. Casaubon is an example.
In Book I, others don't see the virtue or attractiveness in Mr. Casaubon which the enraptured Dorothea sees. Though her feelings for him are surprising, it's a realistic phenomenon that people often create their own image of a potential lover or spouse and then are disappointed cruelly. Dorothea initially gushes to herself over Casaubon's stated ideals:

Dorothea said to herself that Mr. Casaubon was the most interesting man she had ever seen, not excepting even Monsieur Liret, the Vaudois clergyman who had given conferences on the history of the Waldenses. To reconstruct a past world, doubtless with a view to the highest purposes of truth—what a work to be in any way present at, to assist in, though only as a lamp-holder!

Everyone else seems to regard Mr. Casaubon as an old fuddy-duddy (which he is) and Dorothea's sister Celia regards him as especially unattractive, with the moles on his face with hair growing out of them. But Dorothea is smitten, in spite of his age and dour appearance and manner.
In Book II things are beginning to deteriorate between them. Married, and in Rome, Dorothea feels abandoned. She had intended to share in Casaubon's scholarly work, enraptured as she was with it. This is six weeks after the wedding, and she is already in "a fit of weeping." The observations George Eliot makes about this are partly ironic, implying that there is nothing "tragic" about it, and that her unhappiness is simply due to her being thrust into a strange environment in Rome after having been brought up a Protestant English girl. Dorothea notices that her reactions to Casaubon have begun subtly to change, and that the wide-eyed view of him in her initial impression isn't what it used to be. She debates with herself inwardly on this, and remembers how Casaubon's peculiar intellectual "prowess" impressed her so much before, but now:

. . . since they had been in Rome, with all the depths of her emotion roused to tumultuous activity, and with life made a new problem by new elements, she had been becoming more and more aware, with a certain terror, that her mind was continually sliding into inward fits of anger and repulsion, or else into forlorn weariness.

George Eliot is partly commenting on the nature of courtship in her time, in which people typically would get married without really knowing each other. It had been a mere six weeks from the time Dorothea met Casaubon until they were married. Dorothea was so taken by his supposed intelligence and scholarliness that she didn't really consider much else about him. George Eliot makes the Dorothea-Casaubon relationship into not merely a general commentary on the inadequacy of Victorian courtship, but on the way one can mistake one's own feelings for love when they are a form of hero-worship—and in this case, it's not even deserved hero-worship, because Mr. Casaubon's intellectual abilities are hardly what Dorothea imagined them to be. Nor is he even a nice person, as we see more and more as the story progresses. That moment in Book I in which Dorothea is so taken with Casaubon sets up the conflict that presents itself shortly into their marriage, shown so forcefully in chapter 20.

To whom is King writing the letter from Birmingham city jail?

King is responding to group of white Southern clergymen who'd openly criticized the civil rights movement for engaging in unlawful protest as part of its campaign against racial segregation. The clergymen claimed that they were sympathetic to the civil rights cause, but that the best way to achieve change was through exclusively legal means.
In his response, King justifies his actions on the grounds that unjust laws must be challenged, and that if the civil rights movement adopts a purely legal approach then it will never succeed, as it is the law itself that's part of the problem. He also enjoins the white clergymen as fellow Christians to understand that they have a duty to challenge injustice and repression wherever they appear, and that this will often entail defying and breaking the law.

Note the contrast of motion and stillness in "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. Why is the time of year so important?

The time of year is spring. It is important because in spring, everything is alive with new life and motion:

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.

At first, Mrs. Mallard is quite still in contrast to the motion outside. She sinks into a chair after the news of her husband's death, "pressed down" by an exhaustion that seems to penetrate into her soul.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless.

It is only after the realization comes over her that she is free of her husband's control that she begins to come bodily alive, as if she undergoing a rebirth just like the spring outside her window. As she realizes she is free, she springs into motion:

. . . "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. . . . Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

As she sees all the years of her life as her own:

she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

Mrs. Mallard's thaw and movement suggest she will begin to live more fully. Unfortunately, her new life doesn't last very long. As soon as her husband comes home and she realizes she is not really free, she dies of a heart attack.

Why did slaveowners consider Africans more desirable slaves than Native Americans?

There were many reasons. First, the Native Americans were quick to escape from their white masters. They knew the terrain, and there were other tribes willing to help those who escaped. African slaves, on the other hand, did not know the land well, and they were hesitant to join native tribes, though many did in the decades leading up to the Civil War.
Another was the mortality rate. Native Americans contracted white diseases quickly and died. Africans survived the hot climate of the South and the Caribbean better than many whites. Africans were more resistant to malaria and yellow fever than whites. This made the African slave more valuable.
Finally, African slaves were trained in European-style agriculture. Native Americans were not. Even though the companion planting style used by Native Americans is popular with gardeners today, it was considered disorderly in colonial times. African slaves were more easily trained. Even though they were more expensive, they were also readily available, and their ability to undergo extreme conditions made them quite valuable.

What was the goal of mercantilism after the 1600s?

The goal of mercantilism was to achieve prosperity through maximizing trade. And such trade should always result in a balance of payments surplus. In other words, trading nations should always export more than they imported.
However, this was easier said than done. Some countries would always be short of certain goods that had to be imported. For example, the growing demand in 17th-century England for tea could only be met by importing the stuff from places such as India. Inevitably, this meant that the balance of payments surplus so highly prized by supporters of mercantilism was under serious threat.
The government tried to get round this problem by slapping huge tariffs on imported goods as a way of protecting domestic industry. All too often, however, such measures had the effect of driving up the cost of certain items for both businesses and consumers alike, fueling inflation.

How does the narrator of The Old Chief Mshlanga describe white farms?

Physically speaking, white farms are described by the narrator as consisting largely of unused land, dotted with sparse cultivated patches. The farm is described as a "gaunt and violent landscape," dotted with thorn trees, msasa trees, rocky outcrops, and row upon row of mealie (corn) stalks.
From a sociological perspective, the farm is described as an environment in which black people were present only to be servants to the white farmers and their families. Natives (black Africans) were seen as objects to ridicule at will. They were seen as frightening enough that, when the narrator was old enough, she carried a gun on her walks.
The book describes a scene typical of Southern Africa's history, in which a white person was not free to befriend a black person, and society was governed by a deep racial divide.

The narrator of the story is a young white girl, growing up on a farm in what was then Rhodesia, but which is now Zimbabwe. She starts by describing her father's farm, which “like every white farm, was largely unused, broken only occasionally by small patches of cultivation.”
This description is incredibly important to the general theme of the story as it establishes the nature of land-ownership in Rhodesia at that time. Although the vast majority of Rhodesians were black, they were ruled, like black South Africans, by a white minority, who owned the country's wealth and all the best land. The narrator's description of the farm, with its lack of cultivation, indicates that land in this country is primarily a symbol of political power rather than a source of agricultural production. White farmers, like the narrator's father, occupy the land without really belonging to it. The lack of cultivation symbolizes the detached relationship to the soil that the white farmers have developed in a land which originally wasn't theirs.

How does Derrida's discussion of signs (signifier/signified) differ from de Saussure's notion of the sign?

Saussure laid a ground work for the field of semiotics, or the study of signs, in advancing his concept of signifier/signified to create the sign. To Saussure, the signifier is the sensorial form (word, spoken or read, image, physical thing, etc.), whereas the signified is the concept. These two things interrelate to become the sign, which creates meaning for the interpreter of the signs.
Derrida went a little further with his analysis of the concept, presenting several key concepts that are crucial to understanding his theory of Deconstructionism:
Logocentrism refers to a hierarchy of sorts in the interpretations of signs. He argues there is a primacy of speech, based on the immediacy of the transaction between speaker and hearer(s). Writing is a step removed, in that there is a transactional space between a signifier being written down and a reader encountering it to imbue it with meaning. It is not signified until it is read, which delays the transaction of meaning-making.
What complicates this further is Derrida's concept of trace, which is the absence surrounding a sign. In other words, when a signifier is written, the signified carries meaning derived from both the context (other words surrounding it or relative concepts such as tree/bush), as well as all the other meanings that are not present. To Derrida, the sign is perennially elusive, in that meanings are always changing for the person encountering the sign. With regard to writing, this is even more true as the transactional delay between signifier/signified (time of writing/time of being read) allows for more time and meaning-making to occur that can shade the understanding of the sign.
He coined the term différance to highlight these concepts, as it is an intentional misspelling of différence. In French, differer can mean to defer or to differ. Because there is no auditory distinction in words, there is abstraction in the meaning. However, in misspelling the term for his purposes, Derrida calls attention to the deferral of meaning-making in the transactional delay of written language, as well as the ever-changing associations that make up the signified.
In sum, while Saussure's foundation of semiotics creates the framework to understand that a symbol derives meaning from the representation of it (which we may sense through sight, sound, touch, etc. as well as the contextual understandings of that signifier), Derrida creates a framework of micro-analysis which examines the elements of meaning-making so thoroughly that it allows for the concepts influencing the meaning-making to remain in permanent flux and establishes a rationale for signs being interpreted not only on the basis of the elements of the sign that are present, but also as much by which elements are absent.

What's the significance of time in La Belle Dame sans Merci?

The speaker of the first three stanzas sees that the knight upon whom he happens is "haggard" and well past his prime, with "lily on [his] brow." Lilies are associated with death. The knight is, in fact, near death, and the "fading rose" that withers in his cheeks matches the scene around him, with "withered" grasses and no birds singing. It sounds like winter, which is often symbolic of the end of human life, as the speaker says that the "squirrel's granary is full / And the harvest's done." The knight's time came quickly and unexpectedly. It was summer, and he in his prime, when he met La Belle Dame sans Merci, as he "made a garland" of flowers for her hair, and flower bracelets too. She lulled him to sleep in this warmth and youth, and, when he awoke from this sleep, he found himself "On the cold hill's side," an old man. In other words, she took away his time, his youth, and he has awoken as one near death.

What is a summary of chapters 3 and 4 in The Oz Principle?

Chapter 3 attempts to define accountability. It discusses the ways that people normally define accountability—as reporting on what they're doing—and how that is ineffective. The author argues that it's confessional and causes people to use excuses rather than to focus on getting results. He says accountability should be redefined as "An attitude of continually asking what else can I do to rise above my circumstances and achieve the results I desire?" It's about identifying and doing the task rather than putting that responsibility on others.
Chapter 4 is about courage and how you have to use it to see things clearly even when times are difficult. Without courage, a person will have a harder time facing facts and doing what needs to be done. Sometimes, having this courage means accepting your imperfections, recognizing them, and working to improve them. The author says that people often fail to see reality because they don't want to change or have the environment around them change. Another issue is that people want to blame their problems and shortcomings on others.

Should all teachers including special area teachers (art, music, PE, speech, etc....) be involved in curriculum evaluation or just the subject area teachers of the program being evaluated?

This question is a little vague on exactly what we are looking for. If we are talking about a curriculum adoption cycle, then yes, a school should at the very least confer with special teachers such as fine arts, practical arts, and industrial education educators. This would be especially true if we are talking about elementary schools, where it is important to take a holistic approach to students' education. It has been my experience in public education (fifteen plus years) that these professionals have a lot to offer and that many schools miss important growth opportunities in their curricular planning. Naturally, if we are talking about textbook adoptions, then the primary focus will be on the staff in question, as they will be the ones using the textbooks day in and day out. I've found that we, as education professionals, tend to shut ourselves off in our own rooms and cut off from our colleagues. However, if our students are meant to work alongside multiple teachers and embrace multiple viewpoints, then should we not be doing the same?

How does Mike’s reaction to the swim demonstrate his personality?

Are you asking about Mike’s reaction to the swim team as a school organization, or to the individual swim contest he takes on against Chris Coughlin? We can look at both, because his reactions are similar.
Mike Barbour is the star linebacker on the football team at Cutter High School. He is a major protagonist to the main character, The Tao Jones, known as T. J. Mike also demonstrates the behavior of an arrogant bully, both verbally and physically, whenever he feels as if his semblance of personal power is being challenged. T. J. makes a habit of deliberately challenging Mike, since few others will do it. T. J. thinks his best way of putting Mike in his place will be to run a successful swim team whose members earn the prestigious school letter jackets.
After the team’s first swim meet, Mike confronts T. J. (near the beginning of chapter 9). “What was that, some Special Olympics swim meet?” he asks. “You’ll never see one of those goofballs you call swimmers in a Cutter letter jacket,” he says. And he uses his influence with the Athletic Council to change the requirements that the swimmers have to meet in order to earn the jackets.
The individual swim contest is arranged during the Athletic Council meeting near the end of Chapter 14. When T. J. hesitates a bit after making the offer, Mike immediately pounces by saying, “What’s the matter, tough guy? Open your mouth a little too quick?” But no, the contest between Mike and Chris stands. It takes place early in Chapter 15. Mike obviously thinks he’s going to beat Chris because he believes he is the better athlete and is smarter, too. We aren’t shown the background, but we can assume that Mike has done no extra preparation for this match. On the other hand, Chris has been swimming every day for three months and is used to the interval training technique. He has stamina. When Mike is told the rules, he quips, “Let’s just do it.” He “flies out over the water with a grunt,” to start. But this is not a race, it is a test of endurance. Mike loses after just four hundred yards. Instead of congratulating the winner in the spirit of a fair athletic contest, he says, “Get away from me, you little retard.” And he aims a put-down to T. J. too, saying, “You tanked that last race. You’re the only guy who doesn’t letter.”
Mike shows his bullying personality in both cases. Instead of supporting these budding athletes on their new team and their quests for jackets, he puts them down and insults them. He probably thinks that by doing so, he builds himself up in turn, at least in his own eyes and in the minds of his followers. He has to be the stereotypical “big man on campus.” He has some serious introspection to do in order to deal with his own demons. Maybe he learns something by the end of the book.

What are the main themes in Romeo and Juliet?

Love: Romantic love is the dominant theme in the play. The powerfulness and blindness of love is paramount to all concerned, and that is especially true for Romeo and Juliet.
Us vs. Them: The young lovers’ refusal to conform is the other dominant theme. Although society presents many obstacles and reasons why Romeo and Juliet cannot be together, the pair pursues their own happiness.
Fate: We know from the beginning that the lovers are doomed. As much as they may try to thwart fate, their destinies are predetermined.

What role did agricultural issues play in the emergence of Populism during the 1890s? How did the Populist (or People’s) Party attempt to address the social, economic, and political problems of the Gilded Age?

In the late 1800s, farmers across the United States began to collaborate, out of a fear that urban politicians were creating policies that would limit their potential income. Farmers at this time were facing many financial hardships. Many farmers held massive amounts of debt, and interests rates were continuing to rise. Farmers felt that they were being taken advantage of by banking institutions. The start of the Populist Movement was the creation of the Farmer’s Alliance. This was established in 1876 in Texas and aimed at eradicating crop-lien debts. This was a system by which farmers acquired land and supplies through a loan from a bank. The loan was then paid back in crop at the end of the growing season. This was a dangerous system because it all depended on the value of the crop. If the value dropped then the farmers were often left with further debt, unable to pay back their loan.
A second well-known organization was known as the Grange (The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry). This was founded in 1868 in New York and was led by Oliver Kelley. It was very popular, and chapters developed across the country. This organization functioned much like a secret society, with each chapter having traditions and rituals. Furthermore, the Grange provided farmers and their families with social opportunities, such as dances. The rise of the Grange can be attributed to the Panic of 1873, which resulted in a collapse of several major railroads. The Panic of 1873 became a pivotal political moment, encouraging farmers to lobby for government control of railroads. The panic devastated farmers and further increased debt. Compelled to make a better life for themselves and to have greater access to the American dream, many turned to the Grange. The organization developed the Granger Laws in 1874, which were passed in several states. This revolutionized the shipping of crops and targeted the railroad industry.
During the late nineteenth century, the federal government began supporting industry over farmers as their crop prices fell. Though there was growth in industry and technology, the poverty gap widened, at the expense of the working class. Shady and corrupt bankers and tycoons began emerging, thanks to the industrial advances of the Transcontinental Railroad. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould are two infamous shipping tycoons who gained enormous amounts of money from the US government through shady deals.
Following the Grange was the Northern and Southern Farmers’ Alliance. These farmers took highly political stances and often ran for office. Farmers pushed for an increase in inflation. This benefited them because less crop was needed to make the same amount of income. Farmers lobbied for the “Greenback Dollar.” This was a system that allowed money not backed by gold to be guarantees. This idea led to the Greenback Party, which did not garner enough national support. Farmers then turned to "Silver Money." Rather than backing money with gold, silver was a secondary option. These various initiatives were at the heart of the Populist Party.
The Populist Party, also called the People’s Party, was officially created in 1891 and was largely made up of the Farmer’s Alliance. The Populist Party sat at the heart of the Gilded Age. The term "the Gilded Age" was derived from Mark Twain's 1873 satirical novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. The era is marked from the 1870s to 1900. In support of agrarian interests, the Populist Party formed to represent their interests at the national level. By 1900, nearly 40% of Americans lived in urban areas. The Populist Party was developed to defend the rights and interests of farmers who remained in rural areas.
In 1892, the Populist Party elected James B. Weaver as their leader. In this election, the party held some sway, gaining 8% of the popular vote. The party campaigned for the support of farmers and a weakening of banks. The party developed the Omaha Platform at the founding convention. It was written by Ignatius Donnelly, an organizer of the Farmer’s Alliance. The platform consisted of a call for graduated income tax, the use of secret ballots, the direct election of senators, and an eight-hour work day. In addition, the party believed that the government should own and control all rail lines. In 1896 it officially folded into the Democratic Party. By 1908, the Populist Party’s intentions were covered by the Progressive Movement. These goals included anti-trust legislation, regulation of private industry, and stronger support for farmers. In addition, the party promoted a government for the people and by the people. Socially, the party opposed liberal immigration policies and believed that immigrants should not have access to land ownership.

Find an entry in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales by Donald Haase that could be useful in a "Cinderella" research paper. Create a works cited page that includes each chosen entry. Write an annotated bibliography for the chosen entry.

"Cinderella" has been the subject of many kinds of creative works, and quite a few of them have entries in the Greenwood Encyclopedia. This answer includes both a traditional version, with several references and related annotations, and the idea of modern interpretations, both with several references and related annotations.
The Haase Encyclopedia's "Cinderella" entry begins on Volume 1, page 201. Other relevant entries include Cinderella Films; Cinderfella; and Disney, Walter. You might also consult “Changing Attitudes Toward Fairy Tales as Children’s Reading,” which mentions both the Brothers Grimm and Perrault.
Traditional: Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault created the most well-known version of this “tale type...ATU 510A” (Haase, vol. 1, p 201, emphasis in original). The French original was called Cendrillon.
Perrault, Charles. "Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper." Full text, English. https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault06.html
Bettleheim, Bruno. 1978. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Knopf.

Bettleheim’s pioneering work provides a psychological, primarily Freudian interpretation of the tale as sibling rivalry.

Warner, Marina. 1994. From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales to Their Tellers. New York: Vintage. https://books.google.com/books/about/From_the_Beast_to_the_Blonde.html?id=B8NO-T2lOqMC&source=kp_book_description

Marina Warner provides the cultural and social context, as well as psychological interpretation of content, in which Perrault produced his story.

Modern Interpretations: Alcott (19th century); Disney; general
Alcott, Louisa May. 1860 “A Modern Cinderella, or the Little Old Shoe.” Full text online. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3806
This version has been analyzed by Claude Safir.
Safir, Claude. “'A Modern Cinderella'” by Louisa May Alcott: Subverting the Original Folktale.” https://www.academia.edu/9727489/A_Modern_Cinderella

"Alcott’s rewriting of Cinderella is a form of parody. By acknowledging the reader’s expectations and knowledge of the original Perrault's tale she is able to subvert a number of stereotypes and/or to attribute a value to what otherwise would be taken for granted. The revision of folktales is a common practice among women writers."

Walt Disney. 1950. Cinderella. DisneyMovies. Official website. https://movies.disney.com/cinderella-1950

“In contrast to the Disney makes the step-sisters extremely ugly and dumb. They are dominated by Cinderella’s stepmother, who is given a demonic dimension compared to a happy, chubby fairy godmother” (Haase, vol. 1, p 203).

Orenstein, Peggy. 2006. “What’s Wrong with Cinderella?” New York Times Magazine, December 24. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/magazine/24princess.t.html

Feminist critic Peggy Orenstein contextualizes Cinderella among other recent interpretations.

In sum, Cinderella is a perennially popular and controversial story, which these resources can help you analyze.
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Greenwood_Encyclopedia_of_Folktales.html?id=-sj5cJz0_OsC

In The Giver, what does Jonas dream about?

Jonas doesn't usually have dreams, especially not vivid ones. But one morning he reveals to his family that he had a dream the previous night about visiting the bathing room at the House of the Old, the place where older residents of the community live. In the dream he tried to convince his friend Fiona to take her clothes off and allow him to bathe her.
Jonas' mother recognizes that her son's experiencing his first Stirrings, that is to say, his sexual awakening. In most societies this would be regarded as a perfectly normal part of growing-up, but not in this one. Sexual stirrings among people of Jonas' age are not just frowned upon here, but actively suppressed. In fact, young people are urged by regular announcements over the loudspeaker system to report their Stirrings for treatment as soon as possible. As for Jonas, his treatment involves being given a pill by his mother. The pill works quickly, taking away the immense pleasure that Jonas derived from his dream.

What is the point of Tesman constantly saying "What?" throughout Hedda Gabler?

Tesman is the proverbial absent-minded professor, a scholar who is fixated on intellectual matters. His constantly saying "What?" is emblematic of his remoteness from others, including Hedda, and of his being disconnected in some way from the outside world and from other people's concerns. He either doesn't hear or doesn't understand much of what is going on around him.
Why is this significant to the plot of Hedda Gabler? For one thing, Hedda and Tesman are mismatched. She is not the sort of woman who needs a man whose head is in the clouds, and his absent-mindedness is really of the sort that would probably drive any person crazy. Her marriage is a source of deep dissatisfaction to her, creating a situation where she's vulnerable to other possibilities that present themselves. Ejlert is still in love with her, and Brack is interested as well (in his unscrupulous way).
But the odd, disconnected behavior of Tesman is merely a kind of superficial manifestation of the deeper source of Hedda's unfulfilled life. Hedda's unhappiness arises from an existential conflict with the workaday world around her. Even her playing with guns and the recklessness it indicates is a sign of a desire to escape from the mundane existence in which she finds no happiness. Tesman's rather goofy and stilted actions are only a single element of what pushes Hedda over the edge and makes her take her own life rather than continue in a world she finds meaningless.

What lessons do you think Aeschylus was teaching his audience about the role of women in society? What lessons can we take from the play today? You might look at individual treatment of characters for your response, as he treats them all very differently, humans and goddesses—Clytaemnestra, Iphigenia, Cassandra, Electra, Athena, the Furies, etc.

Women in ancient Greek society had few rights. A woman’s place was in the home, attending to the household and raising children. In Athens, women couldn't vote or own or inherit land. They weren't given an education, and they couldn't be citizens.
Not all city-states had the same restrictions as Athens. In Sparta, for example, due to the militaristic nature of Spartan society, women were given physical training, allowed to own property, become citizens, and be educated.
A woman had no voice in marriage. To whom a woman was married was decided by their father or other male relative, and a woman without a dowry was unlikely to be married at all. Marriage was a societal contract, not the culmination or expression of a romantic relationship.
As far as Greek drama was concerned, women were permitted to attend performances of plays, but they were seated in a section of the theatre separate from the men. Women took no part in the performance of ancient Greek plays. All of the roles in the plays, whether men or women, were acted by men, generally using masks to differentiate one character from another.
It's important to remember that the ancient Greek plays were not written as entertainment. The plays were performed as part of a religious festival, such as the Festival of Dionysus, and the plays were written to teach a moral lesson to the audience. Accordingly, the women depicted in the ancient Greek tragedies were not normal, everyday Greek women. The female characters in ancient Greek plays were based on the larger-than-life characters in Greek myths and legends, including female gods, who often behaved in ways that were outside the normally restrictions of Greek society.
This gave the female characters in the plays a heightened dramatic importance, particularly for those characters who challenged societal norms, and also demonstrated the considerable gap between the lives and abilities of mere humans and the oversize personalities and superhuman abilities of the gods.
The behavior of the characters in the plays was based on the moral lesson that the playwright wished to convey to the audience, not necessarily on the playwright's personal feelings about that behavior, or as an attempt to advocate a rejection of society's norms.
Aeschylus (c. 525–c. 456 BC), considered the father of tragedy, was the oldest of the three most famous ancient Greek playwrights, along with Sophocles (c. 497–c. 406 BC), and Euripides (c. 480–c. 406 BC). Of the three playwrights, Aeschylus was the most conservative in his depiction of women, such as the characters of Iphigenia, Electra, and Cassandra. Aeschylus adhered most closely to Greek society's perceptions and norms, and its treatment of women—except in his depiction of Clytemnestra.
In Agamemnon, Clytemnestra is portrayed as a very strong character, and this strength is interpreted as that of a woman who defies and rejects the woman's role in Greek society.
Clytemnestra is described by the Watchman in the very first lines of the play as having the heart of a woman but the strength and passions of a man. Other characters remark on her "manly" qualities. The Chorus remarks on the way that she presents herself and speaks like a man.
Clytemnestra often behaves like a man and expresses herself as a man would be expected to express himself. After Clytemnestra kills Agamemnon in revenge for his killing of her daughter, Iphigenia, and kills Cassandra for being her husband's lover, Clytemnestra readily acknowledges that she killed them—something that the Chorus declares is outside a woman's role. When she's confronted by the Elders, Clytemnestra defies her questioners: "Are you trying got frighten me as if I were a witless woman?"
It might be argued that although Aeschylus seems to be advocating and justifying Clytemnestra's seemingly villainous behavior, the lesson that he actually wishes to convey to the audience is the conventional attitude that women should stay in their place and adhere to imposed gender roles and societal norms, otherwise "manly" passions will get the better of them, and they'll behave contrary to their womanly nature.
Nevertheless, at the end of the play, Clytemnestra says to her lover, Aegisthus, that they should ignore the condemnation of her behavior because what she did was fully justified, and they're going to make a better world together.

Thou and I shall dwellAs Kings in this great House. We two at last will order all things well.

Clytemnestra and Aegisthus enter the palace while the Chorus of Elders—the would-be enforcers of gender roles and societal norms—and Agamemnon's disgruntled followers quietly drift away. It's a surprisingly subversive lesson from an otherwise conservative playwright.

What an interesting question!
The ancient Greek tragedies seem to distill human emotion and amplify it. In these female characters, we can see the complexity of women in the world, though each one seems to represent a different aspect.
Poor Iphigenia is deceived and sacrificed by her father. She seems powerless, and without agency at all. Electra, in this play, is someone more purposeful, but no where near as capable of directing action as she is in Euripides.
Cassandra, due to her broken promise to Apollo, loses the value of the gift of prophecy he had bestowed. While still able to see into the future in all its horror, she is cursed in such a way so that no one believes her prophecy. As Agamemnon's new concubine, she falls victim to Clytemnestra's anger as well.
Clytemnestra is full of agency but it is fueled by fury over the sacrifice of her daughter. She is a figure of blind passion and seething anger, irrational in her decade-long pain, but calculating in plotting revenge.
Athena and the Furies seem less subject to human challenges, but they represent the demands of human intellect and a moral universe. The Furies are not wrong to torment Orestes, but the play ends with the decision to allow a human jury to try Orestes for his matricide, deciding that he owed greater allegiance to his father.
The House of Atreus has been used for centuries to explore the impossible demands of personal and public duty. The curse on this family is the curse on all humans as we move through a world in which fate, the gods, and chance thwart our aspirations and intents.

Describe the other process that dominated world affairs during the years of decolonization. What forms did it take?

Decolonization of Asia and Africa took place between the years of 1945 and 1960. Several other processes took place concurrently, including the rise of Cold War tensions and the establishment of the Iron Curtain (a term made famous by Winston Churchill's 1946 address at an American University, with President Truman in attendance), and the corresponding rise in nationalism, or the emergence of the nation-state.
Decolonization marked the beginning of the end of European hegemony in world affairs. Newly independent countries in Asia and Africa practiced self-governance and were often remarkably stable. However, because these colonies had been exploited, many were poor. Additionally, the transition was not always peaceful. Especially in Asia, guerrilla fighters in Indonesia took up arms against the Japanese.
The United States was in a difficult predicament during the decolonization period, as nascent governments often appealed to them for military and economic support, but the United Stateswanted to resist the expansion of communism at any cost. The Truman Doctrine (issued in 1947) announced this new policy that promised to aid free people at the expense of supporting communist forces or guerrilla freedom fighters that espouse communist ideologies. Because of this motivation, the Truman Doctrine is often cited as the beginning of the Cold War.
The United States took a rather hard line against Communism under the administrations of both Truman and Eisenhower: the process of decolonization resulted in what the United States perceived as a power vacuum that the Communist Soviet Union could fill. The United States thus supplied aid to newly independent countries that supported Western governments.
In addition to the establishment of the Cold War, the creation of many new nations changed the political and economic global theater. For example, the United Nations grew from its 51 founding member states in 1945 to 127 members in 1970 (there are currently 192 members). The United Nations was designed to heighten economic security and promote international order, which became more important than ever with the emergence of so many new nations.

What inference can you make about the Loisels based on their efforts to replace the necklace?

One could draw the following inferences about the Loisels based on their response to the loss of the necklace: they are both proud and honorable.
One can infer that Madame Loisel is proud because she rushes from the party rather than be seen in her modest outer wraps when the other women wear furs. We learn:

She felt this [difference in her clothes] and wanted to escape so as not to be remarked by the other women, who were enveloping themselves in costly furs.

We can also infer they are both proud because they don't tell Madame Loisel's friend Madame Forestier that they have lost her necklace. Instead, they make up a story about the clasp being broken to buy time. We can infer it would be humiliating for them to confess that they were so careless with a necklace she was kind enough to lend them as to lose it.
They are honorable in that they work and scrape for years to replace what they think is a costly piece of jewelry. It never occurs to them to go to Madame Forestier and say that they are sorry, but they can't afford to replace the necklace. It also never occurs to them to do anything underhanded, so as resorting to crime, to try to make up for the loss.

How does social injustice impact the lives of protagonists in To Kill a Mockingbird and in The Help (film)?

Although the action in To Kill A Mockingbird takes place about thirty years prior to the events in The Help, both works of art demonstrate the prevalence of injustice in the American South. Tom Robinson, the black man falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell in To Kill A Mockingbird, is declared guilty and is sent to jail despite overwhelming evidence pointing to his innocence. He is later shot seventeen times when attempting to escape from prison. This vicious brutality demonstrates the community's and prison guards' hatred for Tom's blackness and highlights the unfairness of Tom's quiet, innocent life being tainted by false accusations. Tom's plight impacts each member of the Finch family, as Atticus incurs criticism and threats for representing a black man in court, and Jem and Scout are exposed to the ugly realities of Jim Crow culture as well as threatened physically by Bob Ewell.
The protagonists of The Help are primarily black maids working in white households in 1960s Mississippi. Their low socioeconomic statuses point to a history of slavery and Jim Crow laws preventing African Americans from accumulating wealth or social status. Minny Jackson is subject to disrespect by her employer, is fired from her maid position for using a white person's bathroom, and is unfairly labelled a thief by gossip Hilly Holbrook, which makes finding another job almost impossible. Aibileen Clark spends most of her adult life raising babies for white women, whose children respect and love her as a caregiver at a young age and then, later in life, adopt the racist views and lifestyles of their parents. Maids run errands for their employers in high-quality, whites-only grocery stores, yet they must shop on the other side of town, where produce is less desirable, for their own groceries. The contrast between the ritzy, spacious white side of town and the cramped neighborhoods designated for black families further highlights social injustice.

Do Romeo and Juliet deserve sympathy?

Romeo and Juliet arguably do deserve sympathy because they die for a feud between their families, the reason for which nobody in either family seems even to remember. If their families weren't feuding, then maybe Romeo and Juliet could have had a normal, enduring relationship. Speaking to herself (or so she thinks) in act two, scene two, Juliet says about Romeo, "'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; / Thou art thyself, though not a Montague." In other words, Romeo's family name is insignificant and is of no consequence as regards his character. In this sentiment, Juliet exposes the foolishness of the feud which would separate her from Romeo.
Romeo and Juliet also arguably deserve sympathy because they are pitted against fate, in a battle that they can't possibly win. Indeed, in the prologue to the play, we are told that their love is, from the beginning, "death-marked." In act one, scene five, Romeo's "mind misgives / Some consequence hanging in the stars" And in act four, scene five, Juliet, with "an ill-divining soul," has a vision of Romeo, climbing down from her balcony, "dead in the bottom of a tomb."
On the other hand, one might argue that Romeo and Juliet do not deserve sympathy, or at least not our unqualified sympathy. They both betray their parents, which in Elizabethan England would have been a much more grievous crime than it perhaps is today. They both also love recklessly, immaturely, and irresponsibly. Indeed, Friar Lawrence, in act two, scene six, warns them that "These violent delights have violent ends," meaning that they are loving too intensely, too recklessly, and need to slow down. He compares their love, with ominous foresight, to "fire and powder," implying that, like a trail of gunpowder, their love is headed for some kind of explosion. One might argue that if they had loved more moderately, and less recklessly, then they might have been able to eventually overcome the obstacles in their way.