Who are the dynamic characters in the book Holes by Louis Sachar?

First, I will define a dynamic character. Any character who changes his or her values, characteristics, or worldview from the beginning of a text to the end could be called dynamic.
In Louis Sachar’s Holes, the most obvious dynamic character is Stanley Yelnats, the protagonist. Before being sent to Camp Green Lake, Stanley is self-conscious and passive, frequently allowing others to take advantage of or bully him. After the summer at camp, Stanley is able to become both physically fit and mentally strong, understanding that he has the power to change his world for the better.
Another obvious dynamic character is Stanley’s bully, Derrick Dunne. Dunne is Stanley’s constant tormenter at the beginning of the book, a character with seemingly no empathy or kindness. However, Derrick is ultimately the one whose testimony exonerates Stanley. This is considered dynamic because the boy who causes Stanley so much suffering becomes the one who saves him.
Finally, a dynamic character by chance only is Stanley’s father, Mr. Yelnats. An inventor, Mr. Yelnats's creations have always failed due to the Yelnats family curse that was begun long ago at Green Lake. When Stanley finally succeeds in breaking the curse, Mr. Yelnats succeeds in finding a cure for foul foot odor. While this doesn’t represent a fundamental change in Mr. Yelnats's personality or values, this dramatic change in luck could certainly be interpreted as dynamism.

What does the line, "What man has made of man," mean in "Lines Written in Early Spring"?

This line is found in the following stanza:

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

The complete line of thought is that Nature (personified) has made the speaker aware of her beauties. By doing so, the speaker feels a both a connection with Nature and a unity with mankind. This oneness makes him keenly aware of the contrast in the way Nature’s “fair works” encourage man, yet mankind is so destructive to itself. Man initiates war on mankind. Man deprives its members of freedoms, food, joy, and basic necessities. In so many ways, mankind often destroys mankind, intentionally and unintentionally.

This is the message embedded in this line. If man took Nature’s lead and instead sought to encourage a sense of unity, perhaps there would be more “fair works” in our members.

How is the theme of jealousy portrayed in The Sun Also Rises?

Jake, who has been rendered impotent from a wound received in World War I, loves Brett, but can't consummate the relationship. Brett takes lovers, but Jake becomes particularly upset and jealous when she enters a sexual relationship with Robert Cohn. Jake doesn't think much of Cohn, and Brett's love affair with him is a particularly hard pill to swallow because Cohn didn't fight in the war. Ironically, in Jake's view, because Cohn has consistently been less of a man than Jake (not fighting, for example, and thereby not getting wounded) he is able to earn the prize of Brett.
For revenge, Jake helps Brett pair up with the young bullfighter Pedro Romero. Jake is jealous of Romero for a different and deeper set of reasons. Romero is not only physically potent, he is also emotionally whole, which gives him power. The "lost generation" alienation and loss of direction that tortures Jake is not part of Romero's makeup. He is still at one with his world, never questioning its values. That gives him a wholeness that is deeper than whether or not he suffers a physical injury.

What was the old man's occupation?

The old man is just one of many thousands of refugees caught up in the middle of the Spanish Civil War. Having already been forced to up sticks from his hometown, the old man has to move on once more to escape the imminent arrival of Fascist troops. Yet the old man's too tired, too world-weary to comply with the soldier's advice to leave immediately.
The soldier asks the old man some questions about his background. Although we never discover what, if anything, his profession was back in San Carlos, we do find out that he used to take care of some animals. In fact, the old man can think of nothing else but the welfare of the animals he was forced to leave behind. We get the impression that the animals were his whole life; and that now he's no longer able to take care of them, that life effectively has no further purpose. So the old man remains seated by the side of the dusty road, unwilling to go on any further, seemingly indifferent to his fate.

What is the difference between Pangloss and Martin as philosophers in Candide?

Pangloss and Martin have two conflicting viewpoints on life and on the nature of the world. Pangloss is the champion of optimism (and a mocking satire of Leibnitz). For Pangloss, this world must be rationally understood as "the best of all possible worlds"—a position through which he would rationalize away the suffering and misery that surrounds him. At times, this philosophy even forms a kind of willful delusion.
In addition, there is a kind of irrational absurdity that underlies Pangloss's demonstrations. We see this on display in the first chapter, where he gives a lengthy argument to demonstrate that, just as this is the best of all possible worlds, so too is the Baron's castle the best of all possible castles, but this entire line of argumentation amounts to nonsense. Pangloss is a fool, and at times a dangerous one, given what he argues and the way in which he would justify the suffering and cruelty of the world.
Martin's viewpoint is very much the opposite of the Pangloss's: if Pangloss holds that this is the best of all possible worlds, Martin would hold that this is the worst. For Martin, misery is the defining inescapable truth of the world around him, and happiness is ultimately ephemeral. To a certain degree, one might hold that Martin, in addition to being more pessimistic, is also more of a realist than Pangloss is. Pangloss's philosophy is informed by rationalism and abstract speculation. Martin's perspective, on the other hand, has been shaped by his own experience of suffering and the suffering he sees all around him.
That being said, in its own way, Voltaire's narrative condemns Martin's reasoning just as it does Pangloss's. Early on, Martin defines himself as a Manichean (chapter 20), but it's worth noting that, on technical terms, Martin has mislabeled himself. Manichean cosmology implies dualism and the struggle for mastery between good and evil, but for Martin, this bifurcation does not exist—there is no good, only evil. This is not an unimportant detail, but rather a subtle hint that Martin himself might be deluded in his own way, just as Pangloss is in his. Martin's mistake, I would hold, is that his pessimism is ultimately self-defeating, because even if he recognizes the injustice and cruelty of the world around him, in his pessimism, he is unable to seek out an alternative, or to oppose it, or to do anything constructive in the face of it.

Would you have voted for John Adams to be re-elected in 1800? Why or why not?

Personally speaking, I wouldn't have voted for Adams. The main reason for my choice would've been his passing of the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts. The first of these draconian pieces of legislation gave the government broad powers to deport foreigners and to make it harder for immigrants to vote. This was because the Federalists, under President Adams, saw foreigners as a potential source of treachery and sedition.
But the Acts didn't just go after foreigners. They also made life hard for Adams's Republican opponents. Astonishing as it may seem, the Sedition Act effectively criminalized opposition to the government. The Act stipulated that huge fines and even imprisonment could be meted out to anyone who wrote, printed, or uttered anything against the government that could vaguely be construed as false, malicious, or scandalous.
Like many others, I would've regarded such measures as a betrayal of the precious liberty which Americans had fought so long and hard to preserve. In defeating the British in the Revolutionary War, Americans had removed one form of tyranny. The last thing they needed was the establishment of another one. Most Americans at the time would've been in agreement with me, which is why Adams lost the 1800 presidential election to Thomas Jefferson in a landslide.

What was Atlantis and what did Professor Aronnax think about it?

The sequence that you are looking for can be found in part 2, chapter 9. Nemo and Aronnax are out exploring the ocean floor, and they come across some stones that don't look natural. Nemo and Aronnax continue until they reach a summit, and Aronnax sees a lava-spewing volcano. Beyond that, he sees an ancient city. Nemo writes on a rock the word "ATLANTIS." Atlantis is an ancient, fictional city and is the stuff of legends. Verne's narration of Aronnax's thoughts actually does a really nice job of explaining just how important Atlantis has been in terms of historical texts. Supposedly, it was a city and civilization of great learning and technology; however, it was catastrophically destroyed and lost forever.

Atlantis, that ancient land of Meropis mentioned by the historian Theopompus; Plato's Atlantis; the continent whose very existence has been denied by such philosophers and scientists as Origen, Porphyry, Iamblichus, d'Anville, Malte-Brun, and Humboldt, who entered its disappearance in the ledger of myths and folk tales; the country whose reality has nevertheless been accepted by such other thinkers as Posidonius, Pliny, Ammianus Marcellinus, Tertullian, Engel, Scherer, Tournefort, Buffon, and d'Avezac; I had this land right under my eyes, furnishing its own unimpeachable evidence of the catastrophe that had overtaken it! So this was the submerged region that had existed outside Europe, Asia, and Libya, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, home of those powerful Atlantean people against whom ancient Greece had waged its earliest wars!

Aronnax's reaction is predictable. He is inspired by the sight and even feels that he is walking on and seeing hallowed ground. Aronnax then begins contemplating basic plate tectonics and considering the possibility that the ruins might some day be lifted off of the ocean floor.

One day perhaps, some volcanic phenomenon will bring these sunken ruins back to the surface of the waves!

Nemo then urges Aronnax back to the submarine, and Aronnax is disappointed with his short time in the amazing ruins.

Tips for writing a formal analysis on the artwork, " French Cottage " by Abraham Archibald Anderson using the format below: 1st page: Introduce your piece and in which museum it was founded. Describe the piece as though the reader cannot see the piece. Start to develop your formal analysis: describe the piece and it's formal qualities. Describe the artwork and articulate what physical attributes you can see in front of you. 2nd page: connect your formal analysis to the elements and principle of art. Line, shape, value,space,texture, color,form,contrast, unity/variety, pattern, rhythm, balance, emphasis/focal point. Explain technically how this artist could have made this work of art. Understand the materials the artist used to work. Do your research. Explain and describe details that make the work stand out. What is the content? what is this work about? 3rd page: explain the context of the piece. You should study and research any information about the piece or the artist or the time in which this artist made this work. Using web, books, or any text from the museum.

Formal analysis essays can be a lot of fun to write! This type of artwork discussion gives you an opportunity to explore what you see in the painting as well as dig deeper into the artwork’s background. Below, I’ll suggest tips for organizing each page (per instruction guidelines), ways to support your points, and additional information to craft a well-developed essay.
Page 1: When introducing an art work you’ll want to do your best to include the title (in italics), artist (full name), date (typically just the year will suffice), size (height and width for two-dimensional works and height, width, and depth for three-dimensional works), medium (e.g., oil on canvas or woodblock print), and where the painting can be located (e.g., the Metropolitan Museum of Art). To present this information in a way that starts an essay rather than just lists facts, you could say something like: “In [date] [artist] created [title, date, medium], which is housed at [location].”
Next, you’ll begin your formal analysis. A formal analysis basically explains what is visible in the work. One way to think about writing a formal analysis is imagining you are describing the art piece to someone on the phone. You want to describe the major parts and details in the art piece and discuss their relationship to one another. For example, you could begin by discussing the focal point, or what you eye is drawn to first, which may be, for instance, a figure, building, or object. Then describe where your eye travels next; perhaps this is an object or part of a building or landscape. Keep describing each of the figures/objects/nature your eye is drawn to because this will help you discuss all the parts of the image.
Page Two: Once you have described the artwork, then discuss how the artist has organized the piece using the elements and principles of art. Elements of art (line, shape, value, space, texture, color, and form) are like the building blocks of an artwork and the principles of art (contrast, unity/variety, pattern, rhythm, balance, and emphasis/focal point) is what the artist does with these building blocks. For example, a painter may use contrasting colors and shapes to create a pattern or draw our eye to a focal point.
Since you already mapped out how your eye traveled around the painting in page one, you can incorporate a discussion of elements and principles of art to explain how the artist created that visual path. For instance, you could discuss how the artist draws your eye to the focal point (what you noticed first). Maybe the artist created contrast with color or value. Or, perhaps, the figure’s or object’s shape catches your attention. Either way, be sure to give specifics and examples to support your assertions.
An artist might also use elements of art such as line to direct the viewers eye around the piece (e.g., we might follow the lines on a building or follow a figure’s line of sight). In this section, it’s also useful to discuss how the parts of the image are related to one another. This could mean discussing spatial location (if figures/objects are near or far from one another), color palette (if the artist is using similar colors or contrasting colors), and/or scale (the size differences between the figures/objects).
As you describe the painting’s content (what it is depicting) and meaning (which you gathered from your research and viewing the work) you can also connect your discussion to how the specific medium the artist is working with impacts the way the artwork looks. If, for example, the artist is painting with oil you could discuss the texture (an artist can build up the surface with a thick application of paint, which is referred to as an impasto technique, or the paint may be smooth and blended). How the artist fashions the figures/objects can also add to the content and mood of the piece.
As the instructions suggest, researching into the art-making process for the particular medium will help you explain the work in more detail. It’s important to understand the different steps artists take to create an image depending on whether they are carving in marble, creating a color woodblock print, drawing with charcoal, or painting with watercolors. For "French Cottage" by Abraham Archibald Anderson, it would be worth researching oil paint (what it’s made from, painting techniques, and drying time) and en plein air.
Page 3: On your final page it would be useful to situate your description of the artwork within the time and place the work was created. Based on the time period, geographical region, and style art is typical placed within a period, movement, or style. Based on the time period Abraham Archibald Anderson was working (beginning at the mid-1870s) it would be worth looking into Realism, Impressionism, and Romanticism. Sometimes there may not be much information about the artist or your sources do not explicitly connect her/his work to a specific movement. In these cases, you may be able to glean more insight by looking at any master artists your artist studied under and what type of movement their work belongs to. For instance, if an artist studied under a well-known Realist painter and you see similarities between their styles, you could argue that your artist was influenced by Realist painting. Information about the culture, political climate, and historic events occurring during the time the artwork was created can also inform our understanding of a work of art.
Finally, as a general tip for all writing assignments that involve research, remember to cite your sources. A good rule of thumb is to include a citation for any information that you borrow from a source whether it is a website, article, or book. If you are unsure how to cite your sources or what citation method to use, touch base with your teacher.

1st part: In your analysis of "French Cottage," you may want to include a description of the artistic style of the painting. As this piece was created in 1883, does it reflect more of Romanticism (style of the 1800's) or Impressionism during the Modern Art period (late 1800's-early 1800's) ? In your explanation, you should include the details of the art, such as the focus upon the young lady painting and her surroundings. You should include close observation of the simple objects in the painting, such as the chair, wall, easel, flowers, and open window. Could this piece depict a scene anywhere, or specifically France, and why?
2nd Part: In this section, you may want to begin with the focus of the painting. Artists choose either a clear focus in the center of their piece or they offset their subject. You can address if the young lady is in the center of the piece and why or why not. As well, you should include an analysis of light and paint colors in the piece. You can mention if the piece feels light or heavy in relation to the content matter and lighting. As the lines are soft, as well as the colors, explain how that presents the overall feeling. You could also address the only real contrasts of color in the dark green. Also, as you consider if there is much variety in this piece, evaluate why or why not the artist approached his piece this way. You may also consider if the oil on canvas technique affects the feeling of the piece.
3rd Part: In this last section, research a few of the events which were occurring in the late 1800's or in Anderson's own life. As an American artist living and painting in New York City, Anderson's subject is a French cottage. Does he represent his subject realistically? You should consider if his painting reflects the typical tonalism of American art of the 1880's or not. You could also explain if this specific piece appears representative of the artist's style or completely different. As well, you could consider if his subject matter had any great significance to him or his family.

How does Doyle use foreshadowing?

"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" begins with a revealing opening sentence:
ON GLANCING OVER my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic.
Doyle uses Watson to get the reader intrigued in the coming story by suggesting that Sherlock Holmes "refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic." Naturally the reader assumes that the story Watson is about to narrate will be unusual and possibly even fantastic. Doyle could not say this if he were the narrator himself because it would sound like self-advertising. Watson could not even say it about himself as the putative author of the published work because it might sound boastful. The reader might be skeptical. After all, any author could claim in his opening words that the story he was about to tell was gripping, spellbinding, fantastic, or anything else. But when Watson attributes everything in the story to his friend Sherlock Holmes, who only takes cases that are interesting and challenging, the reader is easily beguiled into assuming that "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" will be interesting because it fits Holmes' specifications.
Doyle often introduces his Sherlock Holmes stories in a similar manner. He has Watson state, in so many words, that the case he is about to describe is not only weird but that it demonstrates Sherlock Holmes' remarkable powers of deduction. In the opening sentence of the story about the Speckled Band, Watson also states that Holmes works for the love of his art and doesn't especially care about money. This will help to explain why Holmes gets involved in so many cases in which there is no possibility of his receiving any remuneration. In "The Red-Headed League," for example, Jabez Wilson comes to Holmes with his petty problem because he has heard that the great detective will often work for nothing if a problem intrigues him. The same is apparently true in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." Helen Stoner has no money to pay Holmes to help her, since her stepfather has control of all her assets. Holmes takes the case because it interests him and also because he feels some sympathy for the frightened girl.
The word "Adventure" in the title also suggests that there will be something more than mere investigation and deduction. It suggests an element of danger, either to Holmes himself or to his client. In this case the danger threatens both Holmes and his client Helen Stoner in the person of the half-mad Dr. Roylott. So the reader is promised adventure as well as an unusual and possibly fantastic story.
Doyle wrote fifty-six Sherlock Holmes stories. He was continually seeking variety in settings, characters, and crimes in order to avoid becoming formulaic, as could so easily have happened. In "The Adventure of the Scarlet Band" the story begins in London at familiar Baker Street, but all the significant action takes place out in the English countryside, where Holmes and Watson must travel by train and then by dogcart. The character of Dr. Roylott is unusual because of his personality and his specialized knowledge; and his fiendish method of committing his first crime and attempting his second crime is also unusual. The setting is a familiar English country manor, but Doyle has enlivened the place a little by adding a baboon, a cheetah, and a swamp adder, all from India.
Holmes often goes out into the country, as he does, for example, in the famous story "The Hound of the Baskervilles." In one case a swamp adder does the killing, in the other it is a gigantic hound. It was quite an achievement for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to create fifty-six Sherlock Holmes stories as well as four Sherlock Holmes novels which all seem different in so many ways.

Who were the winners, and who were the losers, in late 19th century U.S. society? Why do you think so? Do you think things might have turned out differently if poor and working-class Americans hadn’t been so divided by race?

Reconstruction, the period in which the Confederate states were brought back into the Union, lasted until 1877. During that time, the former slaves gained, then lost, many fundamental rights. They were largely losers in the new reality created in the late 1800s. While they were granted the right to citizenship and the right to vote (for men), these rights were slowly taken away in the South. Laws such as vagrancy laws restricted the movements of former slaves, and they, for the most part, did not become land owners but instead worked as sharecroppers. Their right to vote was largely curtailed.
Poor whites were also largely the losers. In the South, they continued to be divided by race so that they supported the white aristocratic class. They worked as tenant farmers or held small landholdings in the South and increasingly worked at factory jobs in the North. If they had joined the former slaves, how do you think this might have changed the situation? Would former slaves have been treated more equally? The winners in this time period were the wealthy white industrial class and white large land holders in the South, who gained more power and wealth.

What are 3 times Piper is being an emotional bully in Al Capone Does My Shirts?

Al Capone Does My Shirts, written by Gennifer Choldenko, is a great piece of children's literature. In this novel, a group of children living on the island of Alcatraz become determined to meet Al Capone.
One of these children is the warden's daughter, Piper Williams. Piper is not the nicest person on the island. In fact, she is somewhat of an emotional bully. One example of how Piper is a bully can be seen in all of the crazy schemes she devises. Most of these schemes involve breaking rules (such as not talking with or about the prisoners on the island). By encouraging her friends to be involved in these schemes, Piper is emotionally affecting her friends.
Another time she is a bully is when Moose, another character, asks her for help on a project. Piper puts him down and says, "why should I help you?" Piper does not care about her friends and treats them poorly unless it will benefit her in some way.
A third way Piper is a bully is when the children get caught during one of Piper's schemes and she instead shifts the blame to other children. By doing this, her father only gets mad at the other kids while she sustains her false innocence. After this, Piper disappears to go live with her grandmother.
Overall, Piper is someone who pushes blame to others, will not help when asked, invites herself to birthday parties, and encourages bad behavior. She is not a nice friend: she is a bully.

Please describe the social condition in which "Ode to a Nightingale" was written.

John Keats wrote "Ode to a Nightingale" during the Regency era, but his work became popular in the Victorian era—a time when England was fiercely divided religiously and politically. Wars, revolutions, and political turmoil in France, America, and Ireland added to a tense national state. Also, the industrial revolution was beginning to pick up—creating poor working conditions and air quality in large cities.It is easy to see why the narrator in "Ode to a Nightingale" longs for the past—the present he inhabits contains pollution, death, and division. Romantic poets like Keats wanted a simplified past: Roman and Greek culture. We see this in Keats's allusion to Hippocrene—the fountain of the muses—and Bacchus, the Greek god of wine.Keats also glorifies nature imagery in "Ode to a Nightingale." He wishes throughout the poem to be the bird whose haunting song he hears. He imagines wine boiling from the earth, "Tasting of Flora and the country green." This longing likely stems from the destruction Keats saw in industrial development. We can also see that religious concerns on Keats's mind in the poem when he describes the "sad heart of Ruth." This biblical story describes a woman who defies societal expectations of marriage. Perhaps Keats admires the sorrowful perseverance in rejecting the status quo.

The spirit of Romanticism characterizes Ode to a Nightingale, Keats and many other of the Romantic poets of the period. Culturally, there was an nostalgic artistic movement that idealized ancient Greek and Roman culture, which explains the frequent references throughout the poem such as Hippocrene, a spring from mythic Greece. In addition to this yearning for the past, there is also an idealization of nature. Escaping civilized life and reuniting with natural settings was a common theme among Romantic poets and reaches its height in Ode, as Keats imagines transforming into a bird and flying off into the trees.
Politically, the world was engaged in rebellion, the French Revolution, American Revolution and the Irish uprising of 1798 created a cultural dualism similar to the culture changes of the 1960's, in which there was an optimism for change coupled with uncertainty about change.

Compare the Sand Creek, Fetterman, and Wounded Knee massacres.

In stark contrast to the Sand Creek and Wounded Knee massacres, The Fetterman Fight was fought between soldiers. The Fetterman Fight, or the Fetterman Massacre, happened in Wyoming on December 21, 1866. Ten Native Americans lured union troops into an ambush. The eighty-one soldiers under the command of Captain William J. Fetterman found themselves overwhelmed by over 1,000 Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians. They killed all 81 soldiers. At the time it was an unprecedented defeat in the Great Plains.
Each event fell within a thirty-year period, bloody punctuations in the relationship between the United States and the Native American populations. The tragedies of Sand Creek and Wounded Knee resulted from broken treaties, seizure of land, and the overall dehumanization of Indian peoples.
On November 29, 1864, the Sand Creek Massacre occurred in the Southeastern Colorado Territory. Under US Army Colonel John Chivington, 675 men from the Colorado US Volunteer Cavalry destroyed a village of Arapaho and Cheyenne people. The soldiers killed between seventy and 500 Native Americans, two-thirds of whom were women and children.
The Wounded Knee Massacre took place in South Dakota on December 29, 1890. The US army had surrounded and was in the process of disarming a camp of Lakota Indians. Tensions were high, as a spiritual Ghost Dance was being performed, which some Americans interpreted as a war ritual. Additionally, a Lakota named Black Coyote resisted the seizure of his property. At some point, his rifle went off, and the US army opened fire. The Lakota fought back, but ultimately around 300 men, women, and children of the camp had died, with another fifty-one injured.
The Sand Creek and Wounded Knee massacres were both unprovoked attacks on vulnerable Native American communities. These were not armed battles between combatants. In both events, most of the slain were practically defenseless Native civilians. At Sand Creek, the village openly displayed their peaceful intentions by flying an American flag tied to a white flag. While the Fetterman Massacre resulted in a significant loss of life, it was not a surprise attack on an unarmed population.
http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.war.056

https://www.nps.gov/sand/learn/historyculture/massacre.htm

https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/fetterman-battlefield

Does Twain wants us to feel sympathetic for Injun Joe?

Twain, on the whole, does not want us to feel sympathetic toward Injun Joe. After all, Injun Joe is a thief and vengeful murderer. He kills Dr. Robinson, for instance, in revenge for Dr. Robinson driving him from his father's kitchen five years ago when he came looking for something to eat.
He also wants to harm Widow Douglas in revenge for her husband, the judge, having had him whipped:

He had me horsewhipped!

He is especially angry that he was whipped publicly, in front of other people.
Injun Joe, of course, goes after Tom in revenge for testifying against him.
While Twain shows some awareness that Injun Joe is angry because of the racism against Indians in white society, Injun Joe also likes being seen as the violent, bloodthirsty Indian of stereotype. As he states to explain his lust for revenge:

The Injun blood ain't in me for nothing.

Injun Joe's death by starvation after being trapped in the cave can be seen as a just, if harsh, punishment for a ruthless killer.

What is a summary of "Triceratops Herd Running"?

Dan Schneider's trisonnet "Triceratops Herd Running" begins with an epigraph that dedicates the poem to the late rock-star Chris Cornell, who died in 2017. The dedication is critical to bear in mind because, while the literal contents of the poem are far removed from the modern world, the thematic implications of Schneider's poetry are easy to connect to Cornell's sudden death.
The poem is a trisonnet, or three individual sonnets united by a singular theme or purpose. The three sonnets describe a herd of Triceratops thundering across the plain in what is now Wyoming. The herd is mindless and driven by instinct. A pack of "juvenile T. Rexes" pursue the hoard and see the Triceratops as "just meat on horns." Both creatures are described as

victims of this driving primitive dance,collective soulless minion of its genes

In this opening sonnet, the speaker of the poem presents an ordinary natural moment from millions of years in the past. There is no intelligence in the life raging across prehistoric America; only the drive to survive from both the powerful Triceratops and the predators hunting them.
The second sonnet records the death of one of the young T. Rexes, killed by the "living cyclone" of Triceratops. Another juvenile T. Rex pauses and quits the hunt when it smells "its others' end in every breath." After retreating a safe distance, it appears that the T. Rex experiences its "first fear," perhaps a realization of its weaknesses and vulnerability.
The third sonnet records the silence and destruction left by the Triceratops as the relentless hoard rumbles into the distance. As the young T. Rex stands over the body of its companion, the speaker of the poem asks a rhetorical question:

Does the cosmos take namesor make note of the slaughter?

The obvious answer to this query is, no. The universe does not care about the death of a young predator in prehistoric Wyoming. The cosmos does not maintain a scorecard for the living and dead. Like the mindless Triceratops hoard, the universe exists with no overarching purpose.
As the juvenile T. Rex is called back to the pack by an adult "bull," the speaker ends with a blunt fact:

Soon, they all will be dead.

The final sonnet explores the universality of death. For humans and dinosaurs alike, death is inevitable. In this manner, Schneider's trisonnet serves as an elegy for Chris Cornell. While Cornell left the world too soon, Schneider reminds his audience through this poem that the end will be the same for all of us. I hope this helps!

"Triceratops Herd Running" is subtitled "a trisonnet for Chris Cornell." Chris Cornell was the lead vocalist of the rock band, Soundgarden. He died in 2017.
The first sonnet describes the eponymous triceratops running across "the steppes" that will, one day in the far future, be the location of Wyoming. In the second half of the sonnet, there seems to be a "dino-swarm" stampeding across the steppes in what the poet calls a "driving primitive dance."
The second sonnet seems to anticipate the extinction of the dinosaurs with the impending impact of an asteroid. The asteroid is described as a "living cyclone (which) rages" as it "sunders the sod." The impending impact of the asteroid stops a "T. Rex" in its tracks, as it "smells its others' end." In other words, it smells in the air the impending death of all other dinosaurs.
In the third and final sonnet, there is described the aftermath of the asteroid's impact. There is "a poverty of bones" and the skies are "flesh-riven." The cosmos, meanwhile, is implied to be indifferent to all the "slaughter" and doesn't "take names / or make note." This third sonnet ends with the idea that all life is pitted against itself, in a relentless drive for supremacy, or "oneness." Every species will fight for supremacy, until it is the only one that remains. And after that, "all will be dead."

What are 3 things that can be taken away from Ray meeting his dad and repairing their relationship?

Shoeless Joe is Canadian writer W. P. Kinsella's 1982 story about a baseball-devoted farmer who is inspired to build a ballpark in the middle of his corn field. Shoeless Joe, despite its grounding in sport, focuses on themes of religion, family, and reconciliation, using strong biblical allusion and metaphor to argue that the power of faith is strong enough to transform even nature and reality.
In the background to the story, main character Ray's twin brother—Richard—has an angry exchange with their father. The ruptured relationship is never repaired before Ray's father dies and the lack of reconciliation weighs heavily on the family. Ray's father was an unsuccessful baseball player and, when Ray begins hearing voices telling him to build a ballpark, he decides to act on the commands.
Once the field is built, Ray is visited by a young version of his father who takes the form of a catcher. Ray helps his brother to see and interact with this image of their father.
The first thing that can be taken away is that the "he" and "his" which Ray has been hearing throughout the story ("if you build it, he will come" and "ease his pain") refers to Ray's father.
Second, both the reader and Ray learn that Ray and Ray's father are more alike than the protagonist would have thought. Ray is initially confused about how he should approach his father but ultimately decides to interact with him as an equal, observing that "we'll hardly realize that we're talking about love, and family, and life, and beauty, and friendship, and sharing." Like Ray, Ray's father had to deal with setbacks and heartbreaks and address them in the best way he could. Despite being his father, he is ultimately a human.
Finally, the story's theme of transcendence and the ability of raw belief to heal achieves a penultimate finality and significance. The game of baseball—which represents the power of faith—has trumped death itself to reconcile family and undo the mistakes of the past.

How does Markus Zusak execute death's point of view (e.g. humour, personification, etc) in The Book Thief?

In The Book Thief, Death is a presence from the very beginning and appears throughout the novel. Although Death is personified in terms of having human-like capabilities including emotions and sometimes performing human actions, the character is not physically described in human form. As the narrator, Death controls the flow of action and the reader’s understanding of the other characters. Because so many deaths are occurring during the war, Death is constantly busy. He has visions of the human souls he takes, including each soul’s color. He is aware of distinctions in the various humans’s reactions and attitudes about whether their time has come.
Markus Zusak handles this characterization with a certain delicacy. Death is not greedy or crass. We do not see Death gloating or claiming victory over those whose lives he takes; rather, he seems to approach the necessity of death, regardless of circumstance, as a learning experience. When someone succeeds in temporarily fighting him off, that person gains his respect. Death takes an interest in some characters, such as Liesl, in part because he knows that she has met glimpsed Death at a young age through the experience of losing her brother.
The vast scale and high frequency of the deaths causes Death some concern. In this respect, the author introduces some humor. Death seems like an overburdened worker who cannot keep up with the accelerating pace, like a speeded-up assembly line. At one point, he complains about the stress, stating that distractions can keep him sane. Death then puts himself in the reader’s position, suggesting that the reader would be asking why Death would need a distraction: “why does he . . . need a vacation”? The humor is moderated by his somber reflections, noting that those who do not die, the “leftovers,” are what make the job hard for him.

What makes Jane Eyre a gothic novel?

There are numerous Gothic elements in Jane Eyre. For one thing, Jane has a very powerful, vivid imagination, which she uses to construct images out of Bewick's History of British Birds in her own unique, individual way. The Gothic tradition in literature also incorporates elements of the supernatural. One such example in Jane Eyre occurs when our heroine encounters the ghost of Uncle Reed in the spooky red room at Gateshead. The dark, brooding manor house is a regular feature of Gothic fiction, and Gateshead—a place of misery and suffering for Jane—fits the bill to a T.
Mr. Rochester's hidden wife Bertha, though not a ghost, conforms to the standard Gothic trope of the madwoman in the attic, a figure of terror, mystery, and infinite strangeness. She's also the dark secret at the heart of the book, whose constant gloomy presence in the background drives much of the plot, especially the relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester.

What is the historical significance of primogeniture in the American colonies?

Primogeniture is a European tradition that was adopted in colonial America. Many colonists supported the law because it ensured that their wealth would remain within the lineage of their respective families. For example, if a colonist died without any will, there was the possibility that his or her wealth would go to someone who was not part of the deceased’s family. Therefore, to secure their wealth, colonists advocated for primogeniture.
Primogeniture was also important because a person’s wealth could remain in his or her family in the event of a divorce or marriage. Wealth was also protected from children who were born out of wedlock through primogeniture. In colonial America, many rich families ensured that their wealth was passed on to their respective generations by enforcing the law.

Where did king Arthur die in Le Morte D'Arthur?

Le Morte D’Arthur tells the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable from the time of Arthur’s conception to death. Near the end of his life, Arthur was away at battle, and his son, Mordred, makes himself the King of England and attacks Arthur’s army after taking Guinevere as his wife. During the battle, which is known as the Battle of Camlann, Gawain is mortally wounded, and although he warns Arthur not to continue, there is a misunderstanding. The battle continues, and Arthur kills Mordred, but he is also mortally wounded in the process. Arthur’s body is moved to Avalon, but it is not known where the Battle of Camlann was fought, so the exact location of Arthur’s death is unknown.

Who is La Migra?

La migra generally refers to immigration officials or border patrol agents. Along the United States–Mexico border, it's the word for agents whose specific job is to arrest Mexican immigrants who have crossed into the United States illegally.
"La Migra" is also the title of a poem by the Mexican American writer Pat Mora. In the poem, the speaker says, "Let's play la Migra," first suggesting that she will be the border patrol, and the person she's addressing will be the "Mexican maid." In the second stanza, the proposed roles are reversed, and the speaker becomes the Mexican girl. She speaks to a border patrol agent whose Jeep has a flat. The girl then has the advantage because she knows the country and the desert surroundings, while the agent, who cannot even speak Spanish, is stuck in what is essentially a foreign land to him.

Who killed Nancy?

In Oliver Twist, Nancy is a young girl who is a member of Fagin's gang. Fagin sells goods stolen by the young boys he recruits and trains. While she is a criminal, and Dickens alludes to her being a prostitute in his preface, she is depicted as both sympathetic and caring. She worries about Oliver and is fiercely protective of him. She gives information to Oliver's benefactor about Fagin's activities in order to prevent him from being kidnapped again, but Fagin's spies report on her betrayal. Though she never mentions Fagin's accomplice Bill Sikes by name, Fagin manipulates the information so that it seems as though she also turned on Sikes, who becomes so angry that he kills her.
It is Nancy's murder that ends up being the downfall of Fagin's gang. The investigation into her murder leads authorities to the gang's activities.

What are some quotes that show how unhappy and alone the Veneerings are in their pursuit of respectability?

Charles Dickens shows the consequences of the Veneerings’ social climbing at several points in Our Mutual Friend. When the newlyweds are first presented, the most notable thing about them is that in their “new house,” every single thing is new. They initially have no friends and commence to make friends one at a time by inviting them. As long as they continue their ascent, they both seem satisfied, as they apparently believe the fictions they promote and are largely unaware of the disdain others have for them.
As they acquire enough friends to have larger dinner parties, Dickens offers a scene in which each guest assesses the others. Most of them are strangers to each other, and many are dining at the Veneerings for the first time. The dinners are successes. As the guests continue to converse, however, it becomes apparent that they do not do so with the hosts themselves. They are well-regarded only as sources of food and entertainment.

The Veneering dinners are excellent dinners—or new people wouldn’t come. . . . It is always noticeable at the table of the Veneerings, that no man troubles himself much about the Veneerings themselves, and that any one who has anything to tell, generally tells it to anybody else in preference.

Once the Veneerings are sufficiently well established, they decide to offer their home for the wedding of Sophronia Akershem and Alfred Lammle. As he visits with them while they plan the event, he meets Mr. Podsnap at their home. The Veneerings presume friendship with every new acquaintance, but they have no genuinely close friends. One guest, Mr. Twemlow, thinks about Podsnap’s aura of familiarity as embracing the “fiction” of being old friends that the Veneerings put forward.

Apparently, Podsnap has been so wrought upon in a short time, as to believe that he has been intimate in the house many, many, many years. . . . Twemlow has before noticed in his feeble way how soon the Veneering guests become infected with the Veneering fiction.

Although the wedding goes off as planned, and the guests enjoy themselves, they also fail to engage with the hosts. The narrator calls their behavior similar to being in a hotel.

Nobody seems to think much more of the Veneerings than if they were a tolerable landlord and landlady doing the thing in the way of business at so much a head.

The full extent of their distance from true friendship and intimacy is brought home when Mr. Veneering decides to stand for parliament for the borough of Pocket-Breaches. The narrator phrases this as though the country decided it needed him, then explains that a “legal gentleman” suggests the idea to Veneering, explaining that he can start his campaign with five thousand pounds, but he needs an answer within four hours. Veneering agrees to sound out his friends about their endorsements.

Veneering declares himself highly flattered, but requires breathing time to ascertain “whether his friends will rally round him.” Above all things, he says, it behoves him to be clear, at a crisis of this importance, “whether his friends will rally round him.”

He begins by visiting Mr. Twemlow, who is related to Lord Snigsworth, and asks him as “the dearest and oldest of my friends” to secure that gentleman’s endorsement. Twemlow refuses but offers to work on the campaign. Mrs. Veneering does the same with Lady Tippins, who often dines at their home. When she goes to see her friends, she is straightforward about considering her efforts a charade. Her mocking description of the couple, their home, and their parties summarizes their true alienation from society’s serious consideration. She explains to each one that her “dearest friend . . . in all the world” has committed to taking the seat.

And who is the dearest friend I have in the world? A man of the name of Veneering. Not omitting his wife, who is the other dearest friend I have in the world; and I positively declare I forgot their baby, who is the other. And we are carrying on this little farce to keep up appearances, and isn’t it refreshing! Then, my precious child, the fun of it is that nobody knows who these Veneerings are, and that they know nobody, and that they have a house out of the Tales of the Genii, and give dinners out of the Arabian Nights.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/883/883-h/883-h.htm

How does Ramone mature in The Black Pearl?

The Black Pearl is a classic coming-of-age story. The protagonist, Ramon, matures considerably over the course of the book, turning from a naive, arrogant boy into a wise, respectful young man.
As the story opens, Ramon, like a lot of boys his age, is keen to prove himself. He looks up to the Sevillano, his father's best diver, and wants to be just like him. He figures that if he goes diving in the nearby lagoon, he will impress the Sevillano, as the lagoon is a dangerous place, allegedly home to a gigantic manta ray called the Manta Diablo. ("Diablo" is the Spanish word for "devil," which gives you some idea of how deadly this creature is supposed to be). This is the story told to Ramon by a local Indian man by the name of Soto Luzon, who warns him not to go diving in the lagoon.
But the immature Ramon is so determined to impress the Sevillano that he doesn't think of the dangers involved. He just brushes off Soto's warnings as a piece of superstitious nonsense that he can safely ignore. Once Ramon retrieves the pearl, his father donates it to the local church in the hope that it will ensure the safety of his fleet.
Sadly, it doesn't work out like that. Ramon's father and almost his entire crew are lost at sea in what appears to be a tragic accident. It would seem that Soto was right after all; Ramon shouldn't have gone diving in the lagoon and shouldn't have stolen the Pearl of Heaven from the Manta Diablo.
It is at this point in the story that Ramon starts to show some much-needed maturity. He takes the Pearl of Heaven from the church, determined to give it back to Manta Diablo. Though a much older man, the Sevillano is nowhere near as wise as Ramon. When he sees Ramon about to give the pearl back to the giant manta ray, he steals the pearl himself, only to end up being dragged beneath the waves to his death by the Manta Diablo.
By the end of the book, we can see that Ramon has realized how important it is to respect certain customs and traditions. This is an important part of growing up, yet is something that all too many adults, who really should know better, fail to appreciate.

In "A Wagner Matinee," Aunt Georgiana travels to Boston for the purpose of what?

At the beginning of the story, the narrator receives a letter from his Uncle Howard. In the letter his uncle says that his Aunt Georgina is coming to Boston "to attend the settling of the estate." Uncle Howard says that one of Aunt Georgina's relatives, a bachelor, has died and left Aunt Georgina "a small legacy." And so Aunt Georgina must come to Boston in order to collect whatever it is that her bachelor relative has left for her. The "settling of the estate" is when somebody's will is read out to the named beneficiaries, and arrangements are made for those beneficiaries to collect or take possession of the gifts they have been left.
Uncle Howard asks his nephew, the narrator, who we can presume lives in Boston, to meet his aunt at the station.
Aunt Georgina is already familiar with Boston because she used to be "a music-teacher at the Boston Conservatory." It was also in Boston that Aunt Georgina met Howard. They fell in love and she eloped with him to the Nebraska frontier.

What are the values of New Orleans subculture?

New Orleans has a diverse and vibrant culture, which includes an overriding subculture related to the history of the city and the Mardi Gras parade. The Mardi Gras subculture refers to a variety of organized "krewes," or groups, primarily of African Americans, whose costumed parades and traditions date back to the post–Civil War era, when Jim Crow laws prevented African Americans from participating in the Mardi Gras festivities. Because originally festival groups excluded African Americans, along with other people, such as Italians and Jews, a strong protest tradition developed, and the ostracized groups formed their own clubs and marching groups that flourished into a vibrant subculture that calls attention to the racial divisions that characterized the city’s history. This subculture includes not only these marching groups and their traditions but also Creole cuisine and jazz and blues music, all of which call attention to the cultural contributions of African Americans, who historically have been marginalized and excluded from the white culture of New Orleans.
In addition to elevating the status of African Americans and celebrating their contributions to the cultural richness of city, the subculture of New Orleans fuels the city’s economy by bringing in thousands of tourists each year. According to statistics from 2013, the cultural sector of the city was responsible for close to 14 percent of the city’s workforce and 1.1 billion in wages. Furthermore, the city’s music and food traditions are a fundamental part of the New Orleans subculture and a significant force in building community, as they bring people from all races, religions, and ethnicities together in a unifying cultural experience.
https://www.myneworleans.com/adding-up-new-orleans-cultural-economy/

How would you compare and contrast Enkidu's fall from a state of nature to that experienced by Adam and Eve? To what extent is it meaningful/ distracting to discuss Biblical parallels in analyzing the Epic of Gilgamesh? Why or why not engage in such an exercise?

There are certainly parallels between the story from Genesis and the story from The Epic of Gilgamesh. Both stories are ultimately about the acquisition of knowledge (and the loss of innocence that results). Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, gaining an understanding of good and evil; for this they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Enkidu's story represents his initiation into civilized life. Just as Adam and Eve cannot return to the garden, neither can Enkidu return to his life in the wilderness.
There are key differences as well. Enkidu's transformation primarily impacts himself. He was created outside the bounds of civilization, but he holds no greater responsibility for the larger course of human history. Human civilization has preceded him and it will continue long after his death. The story of Adam and Eve, on the other hand, speaks of the very first human beings created on Earth. Thus, their expulsion from the garden has shaped the lives and experiences of every human being that has ever lived upon the Earth. Adam and Eve are father and mother to humanity, and their story is one of the human condition.
Personally, I think it's very appropriate and meaningful to compare and contrast these two texts (and other texts much like them). Keep in mind, these stories are not only literature but are also cultural and historical artifacts of the Ancient Near East and provide a great deal of insight and knowledge into their respective cultures. Furthermore, be aware that these different civilizations did not exist in isolation: cultural exchanges and diffusion were carried out across the larger Mediterranean World. By reading these stories in conversation with one another, we can better hope to understand this larger context that created them.

Enkidu's "fall" does share similarities with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, though his is not so much a case of sin as it is a case of civilization.
Enkidu starts life as a wild man, only communing with animals and living as one with the natural world. After the sacred prostitute Shamhat sleeps with Enkidu, he has lost his "wild" state. He is shunned by the animals, who see him no longer as one of their own but as a man. Enkidu finds this state of affairs initially sorrowful, and in his low moments, he blames Shamhat for bringing him into the human world. But without this loss of animal communication, Enkidu would have never found love with Gilgamesh. His "fall" was necessary to come to greater understanding.
In traditional Christian doctrine, the fall of Adam and Eve is viewed as wholly tragic. Adam and Eve are more civilized than Enkidu in that they are already ordained by God as being higher than the animals; however, they do commune with the animals, and they exist in a state of innocence, not even aware of their own nudity. When the two eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, then add insult to injury by trying to shirk their responsibility in the act before God, they are thrust into a fallen state and expelled from Eden.
However, there are alternate views of the Adam and Eve story, from both Christians and Jews, which line up more with the idea of Enkidu's "fall." Rabbi Harold Kushner argues in his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People that the fall is more an allegory about what it means to be human than a tale of why man is corrupt and deserving of suffering. While the animals remain unaware of morality, Adam and Eve, in eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, become aware of morality and therefore suffer in making moral choices. In Kushner's view, this is what makes humans different from the animals, just as Enkidu's carnal knowledge of a civilized woman (who is also a representative of the gods in her profession) makes him closer to gods than to beasts.
As for comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh to the Bible, there are a few reasons why scholars do so. Firstly, Gilgamesh features one of the earliest Great Flood narratives, even predating the one presented in the Book of Genesis. Secondly, both are early works of literature which detail how earlier civilizations related to the divine and to the never-dated question of what makes us human.

Who are the characters in the story "All Gold Canyon" by Jack London? Who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist in the story?

There are only two characters in the story "All Gold Canyon" by Jack London, both of whom are anonymous miners.
The protagonist is the first of the miners we encounter. He is sometimes referred to as the "pocket-miner" but is not actually given a name. Although the story is written in the third person, this miner is a viewpoint character. The story follows his experience closely and the narrator has full access to his thoughts and perceptions. The narrative arc of the story follows his experiences, beginning with the discovery of the canyon, followed by a growing rise in his fortunes as he discovers the gold, his excitement as he traces its precise location, and then a decline in fortunes as he is shot by another miner, a climax which reports his struggle with the other miner, and a resolution in which he leaves the canyon with his gold.
The antagonist is the second miner or "stranger" who shoots the pocket miner in the back, struggles with him, and is eventually killed by him. The stranger has apparently followed the miner to the canyon, waited until the miner found the source of the gold, and then, after letting the first miner do all the work of prospecting, attempted to kill the first miner and steal the gold. After his death, the pocket miner comments about him:

"Never laid eyes on him before," the miner concluded his scrutiny. "Just a common an' ordinary thief, damn him! An' he shot me in the back! He shot me in the back!"

In the story, the miner refers to the vein of gold for which he is searching as "Mr. Pocket." Although the source of the gold is not human, it almost functions as a character in the eyes of the miner.
The miner's horse and a buck (male deer) that inhabits the canyon are also described in the story, but are not really characters.

What makes the ants intelligent?

The Brazilian official who comes to see Leiningen makes it clear that he believes the ants are more than a match for Leiningen. He describes them as "elemental," each one of them "a fiend from hell," suggesting that they are driven by pure devilry and will set upon devouring not only the plantation, but Leiningen himself. Initially, Leiningen dismisses this, believing that his brain will be enough to see off the ants.
Of course, he is proven wrong. Leiningen builds a "girdle of water" and thinks the ants will be unable to get through it unless they are able to build rafts. However, when he sees the ants approach in perfect formation, he begins to see that he may be wrong. The ant scouts report back to the others what is in their way—the water. The watchers imagine that there is some kind of "telepathy" at work among the ants, as they become more and more aware of the true situation and the shape of the horseshoe ditch. Every time the ants become more aware, they regroup. The ants dying in the water serve as stepping stones for others. They advance across the ditch like an army making a tactical advance.
At one point, Leiningen thinks he has won, but no—it seems that the ants actually can build their own rafts out of leaves. They are intelligent enough to learn from their initial failure and to think tactically of a different strategy. This is the sort of intelligence Leiningen had thought impossible from such creatures.

What is the significance of the title "The Bear"?

Popova is a widow who, in an attempt to remain faithful to her late husband's memory, has locked herself in her house for seven months and plans to continue to do so indefinitely. Her melancholy is interrupted by Smirnov, a man who insists that Popova's husband owed him money and will not leave the estate until the debt is squared. The conversation slowly deteriorates into an argument about true love according to both of the sexes punctuated by the feud over the money. At the peak of the shouting match, Popova starts screaming insults at Smirnov, including calling him "a bear." Smirnov outrageously challenges the widow to a duel, which she even more outrageously accepts. Because Popova actually accepts the duel, Smirnov claims to have fallen in love with her.
The title is a reference to the insult that Popova deals Smirnov. It is in this moment that the absurdity of their dynamic reaches its peak. The comedy of the play is made rich by both characters pretending to be more than they are.

In the play, Anton Chekhov pokes fun at Russian social conventions of his day. One of the two main characters, Smirnov, tries to chart his own course and not adhere to the social niceties expected of the bourgeoisie.
His mission is to recoup some money owed to him by collecting it from the widow after her husband's death. Popova, the widow, has retreated from society since his death and initially refuses to consider Smirnov's demand when he comes to her home. Stunned at his effrontery, the widow accuses him of boorish behavior.
He continues to insist that he is behaving properly to her as a lady, but yelling while he does so. She, in turn, shouts "Bear!" at him over and over, as that's what he is acting like.

How did Puritanism wind up shaping American values?

Puritanism was a sect of strict Christianity that taught that the Christian should keep themselves pure of worldly activities and attempted to control and legislate these beliefs. For the most part, they were pious, but with good intentions. There beliefs shaped many aspects of American culture, especially in the pre-revolutionary society.
Because of their beliefs in raising children to be future ministers of the Word of God, they had a high view of education, where other groups tended to prefer the children begin working in the fields and doing labor at an early age. This led to higher levels of education and literacy. Additionally, their staunch opposition to any practice on the Sabbath strengthened the American resolve against Sunday labor, sports, and events. They also were very adamant about the existence of witches and demons, and their beliefs spurred the early American witch hunts.
There are numerous beliefs that the Puritans contributed to American society, and the majority of their ideals are likely held in some shape or form to this day. These few mentioned here are by no means exhaustive, but are representative of how they influenced society.

Why was Sal in a hurry to get to Idaho?

Sal was in a hurry to get to Idaho because she wanted to make it in time for her mother's birthday, which was seven days away. Although Sal knew that her mother wasn't coming back, she still believed that reaching Idaho on time would make a difference. It would allow her to "reclaim" her mother.
In Sal's mind, her mother wasn't dead; she was just "away." Although Sal didn't know what she would find in Idaho, she was convinced that she could bring her mother back if she reached Idaho by a certain date.
The text tells us that Mrs. Cadaver confirmed the death of Sal's mother to her. However, Sal didn't want to believe it. She imagined that she would find her mother somehow, connect with her again, and bring her home.
Sal's denial is indicative of someone going through the stages of grief. It's only after she sees her mother's tombstone that she's finally able to admit the reality of her mother's death.

Sal's in a hurry to get to Idaho because she wants to arrive there in time for her mother's birthday. Sal has ambiguous feelings towards her mother. On the one hand, she walked out on Sal and her father. On the other, Sal still misses her mother an awful lot and wants to see her again as soon as possible. It's imperative for Sal that she reaches her mother by her birthday—August 20th—so that she can be brought back home.
Of course, Sal knows full well that her mother can't come back as she was tragically killed in a bus accident. But although Sal knows about her mother's death, she still can't quite believe it, and so she remains in a state of denial, unwilling to accept that her mother's never coming home.

What word can be used to describe the relationship between the Jamestown colonists and the Powhatan living nearby?

Wariness characterized the relationship between the Jamestown settlers and the nearby Indians under Chief Powhatan.
Overt hostility was avoided during the first years of contact—1607 to 1609—because both sides had other concerns. Powhatan initially seemed to treat the English favorably because he hoped they would bolster his position as the most powerful Indian tribe in the region. The English, for their part, were preoccupied with survival during their first few years in North America. Under the capable leadership of John Smith, the settlers traded for maize with the Indians.
But relations were never truly amicable. After Smith returned to England due to an accident in 1609, relations deteriorated. Powhatan cut off trade and killed any settlers who left the fort. The colony nearly failed. In 1614, peace was made between the English and the Indians. Pocahontas, Powhatan's daughter, married a settler, John Rolfe. This led to a temporary truce.
By 1618, both Powhatan and Pocahontas were dead. Powhatan's brother, Opechancanough, nearly wiped out Jamestown a few years later. However, the English finally prevailed after a bloody war.

What was Miss Strangeworth's motivation to write the poison pen letters in "The Possibility of Evil"?

We are never told exactly what motivates Miss Strangeworth to write her anonymous poison pen letters, but we are given several clues. In both of the quotes below, Miss Strangeworth dwells on the idea that the world is an evil place. She also repeats that she is the last Strangeworth left in the town. This suggests that the Strangeworths are the kind of people who have a history of being judgmental and seeing evil where none exists:

There were so many wicked people in the world and only one Strangeworth left in town. Besides, Miss Strangeworth liked writing her letters.
. . .
The town where she lived had to be kept clean and sweet, but people everywhere were lustful and evil and degraded, and needed to be watched; the world was so large, and there was only one Strangeworth left in it.

The quotes also give us some clues as to what might be going on beneath the surface of Miss Strangeworth. She is seeing evil lurking everywhere, and she believes she is the last of her family left to uphold morality by rooting out wickedness.
First, we learn that Miss Strangeworth likes writing the letters and that she perceives a divide between a town facade that is "clean and sweet" and the underlying (to her) reality that people are really "lustful and evil and degraded." It seems that Miss Strangeworth herself has felt forced to keep up too much of facade of sweetness and perhaps been trained to repress too many of her negative or aggressive emotions. They have welled up inside her as a poison, and she "likes" writing the letters because they help her express some of the anger and negativity she has been forced to hide. She is projecting her own evil onto others so she can continue to feel pure and good, and at same time, let some of her aggressions out.

Miss Strangeworth has been sending her poison-pen letters to people in her town for a long time. Does she just enjoy making trouble? Or is there a reason why she targets certain people? She is called Miss Strangeworth because she is obviously an old maid. This might seem to put her in the same category as Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and Emily Grierson in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," both of whom are consumed with hatred. Miss Strangeworth may hate people who are happy because she has never been loved.
When she gets home she writes three of her letters. One of them goes to Don Crane. Miss Strangeworth had just been talking to his wife Helen, and she knows they are both worried about their six-month-old baby daughter's development. She may be motivated by jealousy of this young couple who love each other and now have a baby to love. So she writes:
Didn't you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn't have children, should they?
Her next letter is for Mrs. Harper. She may be jealous of her because she has a husband. She writes:
Have you found out yet what they were all laughing about after you left the bridge club on Thursday? Or is the wife really the last one to know?
She obviously would like to poison the long marital relationship between the couple by planting the suggestion that Mr. Harper is having an affair with another woman.
Miss Strangeworth's third and final letter is "to old Mrs. Foster, who was having an operation next month." She writes:
You never know about doctors. Remember they're only human and need money like the rest of us. Suppose the knife slipped accidentally. Would Doctor Burns get his fee and a little extra from that nephew of yours?
It could be surmised that Miss Strangeworth is jealous of Mrs. Burns because she has a lot of money and also because she has a nephew who loves her and looks after her.
Miss Strangeworth has created trouble for a couple of teenagers, Linda Stewart and Dave Harris. These two are going steady and are in love. This could easily make Miss Strangeworth sufficiently jealous to do what she did. She sent Linda's parents a letter suggesting that their fifteen-year-old daughter was having illicit relations with the Harris boy. She overhears the two youngsters talking when she gets to the post office to mail her three letters.
"I can't tell you, Dave," Linda was saying—so she was talking to the Harris boy, as Miss Strangeworth had supposed—"I just can't. It's just nasty."
"But why won't your father let me come around anymore? What on earth did I do?"
"I can't tell you. I just wouldn't tell you for anything. You've got to have a dirty, dirty mind for things like that." ....
It is a touch of irony that Dave Harris, who has no idea that Miss Strangeworth is the cause of his troubles with Linda's parents, tries to help the old lady out by hand-delivering her poison-pen letter to Don Crane and telling Don that Miss Strangeworth accidentally dropped it at the post office.

Explain three reasons why some kids didn't like Maniac.

While Maniac Magee is a relatively easy-going, kind adolescent, his decision to live with the Beales on the East End creates tension in the black community. The town of Two Mills is racially divided into two areas, the East End and the West End. Since Maniac is white, characters like Mars Bar initially bully him and cause him trouble simply because he is a white kid living in the East End. In chapter 17, an old black man during a block party begins calling Maniac Magee a fishbelly and demands that he leave the East End immediately. Similarly, racist white characters like the McNabs and the Cobras dislike Maniac for associating with black people—particularly when he invites Mars Bars over to celebrate Piper's birthday party.
Aside from racial prejudice, characters like John McNab and Mars Bar do not like Maniac because he excels in athletics and embarrasses them in front of their peers. For example, Maniac Magee hits several home runs and even bunts a frogball inside-the-park home run against John McNab, which embarrasses him. On another occasion, Maniac races Mars Bar and beats him running backward.
The third reason people don't like Maniac Magee is simply because he is different. In chapter 16, Spinelli writes that some of the older kids did not like Maniac because he was allergic to pizza, did the dishes without being told to, and never watched Saturday morning cartoons.

In Maniac Magee, racial tensions between residents in different parts of town generate some problems. When Maniac, who is white, goes to live with the Beales, a black family, some other residents of their primarily black East End neighborhood are upset; they reject the boy because of race.
Some of Maniac's specific behaviors, not necessarily attached to race, are bothersome to some people. For example, he gets up early and runs through the streets. Some people object to his running on their street.
In addition, Maniac gains a reputation in the Beales' home for being a cooperative child who does his chores without the adults having to remind him. When other children hear of this, they think that he is strange and that his example might reflect badly on their less cooperative behavior.

What were the social and cultural conditions that informed and set the stage for the birth and spread of Buddhism?

An important social context for the rise of Buddhism had to do with developments within Hinduism. The rigid caste structure endorsed by Hinduism in the fifth century BCE had become distasteful to many who disliked the opulent lifestyles and corruption of the priestly Brahman caste. So when Siddhartha Gautama (himself a member of the priestly Kshatriya caste) became the Buddha, the Enlightened One, his message of simplicity and rejection of earthly pursuits resonated with people. Its rejection of caste especially appealed to people who occupied lower stations in society.
Another reason that Buddhism spread and flourished was that it enjoyed the protection of powerful political figures, including kings and emperors. Perhaps the most important of these men was Ashoka, the ruler of the Mauryan Dynasty who may have converted to Buddhism in the third century BCE. Under his friendly leadership, Buddhism spread throughout much of the northern reaches of the Indian subcontinent and into modern Afghanistan. Buddhism, like other religions, also spread along the trade routes that connected peoples throughout Asia. Known later as the "Silk Road," this was an important network for cultural exchange, including religion. In was along these trade routes that Buddhism reached China, the Korean peninsula, and Southeast Asia within five centuries of the Buddha's death.
http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/artl/buddhism.shtml

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people/reference/ashoka/

https://www.pbs.org/edens/thailand/buddhism.htm

The tire swing is commonly used by a lot of characters. What themes or ideas does the swing convey through this?

After settling in at "Out-With," Bruno gradually starts to explore his new surroundings, but with no one to play with, he finds himself bored most of the time. To make the time pass more easily, he builds himself a tire swing. He gets the spare tire from Lieutenant Kotler, grabs some rope from the garage, ties them together, and hangs them from a large tree.
At first, the tire swing is an agreeable way for Bruno to fight off boredom, but the fun doesn't last very long because he soon falls off the swing and scrapes his knee. Bruno's family's Jewish servant, Pavel, comes to the young boy's assistance. It is while he's tending to Bruno's injuries that Pavel reveals that he used to be a doctor. For the first time, Bruno is able to see Pavel not as a servant to be barked at and physically abused but rather as a human being.
In that sense, the tire swing could be said to symbolize freedom—not just the kind of personal freedom you enjoy when you go off and do your own thing, but the freedom to think for yourself, and that's something that Bruno's never been allowed to do before. Like many German children under the Nazi regime, he's been indoctrinated from an early age to believe that the Germans are the master-race, but his brief encounter with Pavel after falling off the swing has given Bruno food for thought and made him start to think that maybe the warped Nazi worldview that he's been taught isn't true after all.

What did Warren G. Harding accomplish?

Harding accomplished very little and is often ranked by historians as one of our worst presidents.
Harding ran on a platform of "return to normalcy," meaning what many describe as isolationism. After WWI's inconclusive peace (to many Americans), he called for an end to involvement in foreign wars and treaties. Ironically, one of his few accomplishments was limited disarmament, reducing the size of the navy and asking Britain and Japan to do the same. Relations with the new governments of the Soviet Union and Mexico remained strained. There was aid sent to the Soviet Union but no recognition. Mexico was finally recognized, but US troops continued to occupy three Latin American nations invaded by the previous president, Woodrow Wilson.
Domestically, Harding did little. The postwar recession ended on its own. Harding did not foresee the rise in tariffs contributing to the coming Great Depression. He did little for civil rights. He believed in an anti-lynching bill but was unable to pass it. He spoke to segregated audiences, publicly supported literacy tests, and restricted immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.
His was one of the most scandal-ridden administrations. "The Ohio Gang," as the press called them, used public office to enrich themselves. Harding admitted what they did "kept [him] up at night." Attorney General Dougherty and Interior Secretary Fall took bribes for oil leases. Veterans Bureau Chief Forbes hired personal friends, most of whom didn't work, and himself embezzled two million dollars and took kickbacks, fleeing to Europe before later returning to be sentenced.
Harding himself was not part of the scandals outside of urging Forbes to flee. Harding died of a heart attack before his term ended. After his death, many of Harding's mistresses came forward, including Nan Britten, with whom he fathered a child outside of marriage.

What are Holden's perceptions of Mr. Antolini?

Holden Caulfield is portrayed as an exceptionally intelligent, observant, sensitive, and articulate but still an immature, naïve adolescent. His description of Mr. Antolini shows both his perceptivity and naiveté. In Chapter 22 he writes,
I wanted to phone up this guy that was my English teacher at Elkton Hills, Mr. Antolini. He lived in New York now. He quit Elkton Hills. He took this job teaching English at NYU.
Holden does not realize the implications of what he has written. Later, the reader will guess that Antolini probably did not “quit” Elkton Hills but may have been asked to leave because he was showing the same interest in boys he subsequently shows in Holden at his apartment. Holden says, “He lived in New York now.” This implies that Antolini was a resident teacher at Elkton Hills.
The job he “took teaching English at NYU” was most likely part-time and untenured, because a man teaching at a prep school for adolescent boys would have been highly unlikely to have a PhD to step into a secure, full-time faculty position. Married to a wealthy woman, he might only want the university as a sort of aegis or facade, just as his relationship with an older woman was evidently a mariage de convenance as well as a meal ticket. Being married would have disguised his sexuality, and his older wife would have known that her money had bought her a pleasant companion, escort, host, and conversationalist.
When Antolini answers the door,
He had on his bathrobe and slippers, and he had a highball in one hand. He was a pretty sophisticated guy, and he was a pretty heavy drinker.
Antolini continues drinking heavily throughout their conversation and right up until the time he makes up the couch for Holden. The young guest misses most of the implications in Antolini’s questions and remarks, which become more and more suggestive. With his heavy drinking, Antolini seems to be working up the courage to hit on Holden, who is described as a handsome young man. Here are a few of Antolini’s questions which should have given Holden a warning:
“How’re all your women?”
“They’re okay.” I was being a lousy conversationalist, but I didn’t feel like it.
“How’s Sally?” He knew old Sally Hayes. I introduced him once.
“She’s all right. I had a date with her this afternoon.” Boy, it seemed like twenty years ago! “We don’t have too much in common any more.”
“Helluva pretty girl. What about that other girl? The one you told me about, in Maine?”
“Oh—Jane Gallagher. She’s all right. I’m probably gonna give her a buzz tomorrow.”
Antolini evidently gives up trying to get Holden to talk about his love life. He says,
“All right. Good night, handsome.”
By now, Antolini must be very drunk. Holden should have taken that comment as a warning—but he sees and does not see. That is what is unique about him, what characterizes him. He sees everything but does not necessarily understand everything, because so much is new to him in this complicated and devious world. He is a good example of a faux naïf narrator. He mentions that
I didn’t have any pajamas either and Mr. Antolini forgot to lend me some. So I just went back in the living room and turned off this little lamp next to the couch, and then I got in bed with just my shorts on.
Mr. Antolini most likely did not forget. The entire novel is about how a sheltered young man from an upper-class home learns many lessons about the real world, and this experience with Antolini will be one of the most significant. The man Holden respects and trusts ends up violating that trust when Holden is at his most vulnerable.

Why does Caliban hate the way he is treated by Prospero in The Tempest?

Caliban hates the way he is treated by Prospero because, as he says himself, "This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou takest from me." In this sense, Prospero is like a European colonizer, who lands in a foreign country and enslaves the indigenous people he finds there. Caliban also claims that Propero only ever treated him nicely when he first arrived so that Caliban would show him "all the qualities o' the isle." After Prospero had got all that he wanted from Caliban, he imprisoned him "in this hard rock" and treated him as a slave.
Prospero also tortures Caliban. He uses his magic to inflict Caliban with "old cramps" and "aches." Caliban describes the tortures as "like apes that mow and chatter at me, / And after bite me." He says that "sometime am I / All wound with adders who with cloven tongues / Do hiss me into madness." Thus, Caliban hates Prospero for two reasons. The first is that Prospero took from him the island which was rightly his. And the second is that Prospero has enslaved him and continues to torture him.
Prospero, in his defense, claims that he only ever started treating Caliban badly after Caliban tried to "violate / The honour of my child." In other words, Prospero treated Caliban kindly until Caliban tried to rape his daughter.

Caliban deeply resents being treated like a slave by Prospero. Yes, the exiled Duke of Milan did Caliban a huge favor by saving him from his evil witch mother, Sycorax. But Caliban doesn't think that gave him the right to take over "his" island and turn him into a glorified lackey. Although, to be fair to Prospero, he only started treating Caliban badly when Caliban attempted to rape Prospero's daughter, Miranda, so he has perfectly valid reasons for keeping this revolting brute under control.
Nevertheless, Caliban seethes with resentment at being under Prospero's thumb. In fact, he's so bitter at what he perceives as his unfair treatment that he actually tries to convince Trinculo and Stephano to kill Prospero. Caliban daren't do it himself; he's too scared of Prospero to even think of trying. But it's a measure of how hard he thinks he's been done by that he should want to see his lord and master dead.

How do authors ensure that readers will connect with characters through reactions or interaction with environment?

One major way that authors can help to promote a connection between readers and characters is through their choice of point of view. Certain points of view permit readers access to a character's thoughts and feelings about the events that take place in the text, and knowing more about characters' reactions can certainly lessen the perceived distance between reader and character. For example, all first-person points of view include narrators who speak from personal experience of the story's events and who often participate in the story. First-person subjective narrators tell the story as events unfold, in the present tense, and first-person objective narrators tell the story after the events have taken place, in the past tense. Because a first-person subjective narrator has not had time or opportunity to reflect on events—because they are narrating these events as they occur (you might think of them as happening in "real time")—their narratives tend to be more exciting and raw; we cannot know what comes next because they do not. The revelation of their honest, visceral reactions may help to establish more of a connection with readers since we go through whatever they go through as they go through it; this closeness might inspire more sympathy than we would feel for someone who can more calmly detail events that have taken place in the past.
Another option available to authors is the third-person limited omniscient point of view. This perspective means that the narrator is not a participant in the story itself but can tell us the thoughts and feelings of just one character (this is the "limited" part of the description). This point of view contrasts with the third-person omniscient perspective, in which the narrator can tell us the thoughts and feelings of all the characters. These narratives can have a slower pace than the limited-perspective narratives because there is simply more information to tell the reader, but they also keep the reader at the same emotional and figurative distance from all characters. By choosing to use the third-person limited omniscient perspective, in contrast, the author decreases the distance between the reader and that one character whose thoughts and feelings the narrator knows, allowing readers a greater opportunity to establish an emotional connection with them. The narrator can tell us not only how that character appears to engage with their environment and the characters around them but also how they react privately, what they think and feel about those interactions—information that we might not get if the author chooses a third-person objective perspective (where the narrator cannot relate the thoughts or feelings of any of the characters).
Ultimately, point of view may be the most powerful way that authors create a sense of connection between readers and characters, as it allows us to understand and relate to a particular character or characters in the story.

Please give me a better understanding of the social learning theory and how it goes with delinquency?

The social learning theory is among the various development theories developed by different scholars. The social learning theory was developed by Albert Bandura in the 1960s. This theory stipulates that behaviors are learned through observation and modeling. According to Bandura, new values, behaviors, and attitudes can be acquired through the social learning theory. Various factors are necessary for effective modeling, and those include attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.
Since values, behaviors, and attitude are acquired through observation, the level of attention to the details of what is happening greatly influences the learning process. High attention means that the learner is able to capture everything that is going on. Retention depends on the ability to remember what one paid attention to. On the other hand, reproduction entails the ability to imitate or carry out the activities that were observed and retained. Finally, motivation refers to having a good reason as to why one should imitate what was observed.
Social learning theory adequately explains how delinquency comes about. Delinquency refers to minor crimes, more so those committed by young people. Social learning theory stipulates that values, behaviors, and attitudes are acquired through observation and modeling. Therefore, as young people observe their peers or other people participate in delinquent behavior, they are tempted to replicate the same behavior in the future as long as there is adequate motivation and ability to do so. For example, a student who observes his/her friend cheating on an examination and gets high grades may also be tempted to do so in the future with the hope of attaining high grades as well. Therefore, they emulated the behavior, attitude, and values as acquired through observation and modeling as stipulated by the social learning theory.

A student reacted 1.50 g salicylic acid with 2.00 g acetic anhydride. The yield was 1.50 g aspirin. Calculate the yield and the percent yield for this experiment.

The process we will use is simple. First, balance the chemical equation. In this case, we have the following equation:
C7H6O3 (Salicylic Acid) + C4H6O3 (Acetic Anhydride) => C9H8O4 (Aspirin) + C2H4O2 (Acetic Acid)
This is already balanced, and the reactants have a one to one ratio with the product. Then, we calculate the molar mass of each reactant and find the limiting reactant. The limiting reactant defines the maximum theoretical product yield. The molar masses are 138.12 g/mol for salicyclic acid and 102.09 g/mol for acetic anhydride. To find out how many moles we have of each reactant, divide the mass of the reacted chemical by the molar mass. For example, we have 1.5 g / 138.12 g/mol = .0108 mol of salicyclic acid. Likewise, we have .0196 mol of acetic anhydride. In this case, salicyclic acid is the limiting agent, and the theoretical maximum molar yield of aspirin is .0108 mol.
To calculate percent yield, divide the experimental yield by the theoretical maximum. Here, the reaction yielded .00832 mol of aspirin, and the theoretical maximum is .0108 mol. The percent yield is thus 76.66%.

What articles in the Treaty of Versailles foreshadowed WWII?

The Treaty of Versailles has been viewed for a long time as being a major cause of the Second World War. The link between the treaty and the outbreak of the war is undoubtedly Hitler and the strong rhetoric he used on the election campaign trail to protest the unfairness of the treaty to the German people. It was this rhetoric that so caught the imagination of the the Germans to elect Hitler and the Nazis.
One specific article which enraged the German people was Article 231 which assigned blame for the war and reparations to the Germans. Most Germans believed that the war was not their fault but rather due to Russian aggression and French arrogance. Furthermore the imposition of reparations with unlimited indemnity hobbled the German economy for years to come.
Other articles of the treaty to cause anger were 42 to 77 which stripped territorial possessions from Germany and gave them to their neighbors to the east and west, the return of Alsace and Lorraine being a particular issue for Germany. Article 160 reduced the German military to a shell and made most Germans feel that they could be attacked at any time and have little defense.
One final outcome of the Treaty of Versailles which can be argued led to the Second World War was the creation of the League of Nations and the subsequent failure of the United States to join. This isolationist approach by the US emboldened the Axis Powers in the 1930's and undoubtedly contributed to the start of hostilities.
Certainly no one aspect of the Treaty of Versailles led to the Second World War, however the combination of excessive punishment for Germany and a weak global security created int he conditions in which the Germans, Italians and Japanese embraced extremism and eventually conflict.

The Treaty of Versailles, signed by Germany and the Allied Powers in 1919, ended World War I. One article that many believe helped lead to World War II was Article 231, the so-called "War Guilt Clause." This clause stipulated that Germany had to accept the responsibility for causing the losses that the Allies suffered in the war. While the clause did not directly state that Germany caused the war, Germans read the article in that way. The clause did, however, set up a system of reparations that Germany had to pay to the Allies. The result was that Germans were humiliated and felt that the onus of the war rested unfairly on them. The Weimar Republic had the burden of explaining and rationalizing this clause to the German people, and Hitler used German resentment about this clause to help cause the downfall of the Weimar Republic and pave his path to power.
In addition, other articles in the treaty restricted Germany's territory. For example, Article 42 forbade Germany from constructing any fortifications along the Rhine. In Article 45, Germany had to give up all coal production in the Saar Basin to France. Germany had to renounce other territories as well, and these articles also enflamed German resentment in the years after World War I. These stipulations hurt German pride and made the Germans more amenable to the promises of the diabolical Hitler, who promised a return to German territorial expansion and to nationalistic pride.
http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versa/versa7.html

What inspired Roald Dahl to write Lamb to the Slaughter?

In Roald Dahl's television series Tales of the Unexpected (1979–1988), he explains the inspiration behind Lamb to the Slaughter, originally published in 1953:

My friend, the late Ian Fleming, the James Bond man, is really responsible for the story you're going to see now. We were staying the weekend at the house in Vermont, and, at dinner, the roast leg of lamb was so dry and tough that Ian looked across the room and whispered, "This ruddy thing must have been in deep freeze for ten years; you ought to be shot."

Fleming's joke that the lamb was in the deep freeze for so long and that Dahl should be murdered for serving it, inspired the author of the short story to use a frozen leg of lamb or mutton as a murder weapon (a leg of lamb that is room temperature would not have done much damage).
Roald Dahl had a definite tendency toward dark humor, even in his books written for children. For instance, in Matilda, headmistress Trunchbull's most dangerous form of punishment is placing children who misbehave in the Chokey, a cupboard so small that children were forced to stand, with broken glass sticking out in the walls and nails on the door.

What are the main points of the arguments in Teaching, Studying, and Theorizing the Production and Reception of Literary Texts? Give your response.

McCormick advocates for her cultural studies position on text and the act of reading. Reception theory is the idea that consumers of a film, text, or photograph develop the meaning of it. In other words, the meaning behind a text is always changing and out of the hands of the author. The reader is an integral part of text. It is similar to the philosophical question: if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound? She argues that a text has no meaning without a reader. The meaning is developed from the reader. Every reader may have a different interpretation, making it a fluid space of creation. The text is being recreated with each reading. It is continually redefined. This is most obviously played out in the endless interpretations of the Bible. This piece of text has been reinterpreted and argued over in countless ways. Meaning is made based on the reader of the text. However, McCormick acknowledges that the way readers interpret text is not in a vacuum. Rather, our social surroundings play an integral role in how we come to make meaning. She says,

The position of reader or spectator is increasingly seen as balanced between autonomy and social determination...

As such, readers have some free will in their interpretation of a text, however, they are also influenced by all they have learned up until that reading. McCormick is one of many theorists arguing against textual determinism.

Teaching, Studying, and Theorizing the Production and Reception of Literary Texts by Kathleen McCormick promotes reception theory, which states that meaning is constructed upon the reader or viewer’s reception of a text or film. As such, according to McCormick, readers and viewers are active participants in work. Furthermore, McCormick puts forth the argument that there is no such thing as “the text itself,” but rather that the text exists only as long as there is a reader to respond to it. It results from this theory that a text develops a historicity, and is more properly considered a “function” or set of “effects” based on its history of interpretation. Furthermore, the readers’ interpretations are naturally subjective, and subject to change in the course of history. Any text, this theory holds, is primarily bound to the structures and social norms in which it was produced, but the reader is an active participant nonetheless.

Who is Cassius Clay, and what is he known for in One Crazy Summer?

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was the original name of the famous boxer Muhammad Ali, who later became the World Heavyweight Champion. Clay’s father was named after a well-known nineteenth-century abolitionist, but Ali associated the name with slavery. In One Crazy Summer, the girls see posters of Ali at the People’s Center. The book takes places in 1968. Ali had changed his name in 1961 after converting to Islam. He first won the title of Heavyweight Champion in 1964 by defeating reigning champion Sonny Liston. He held onto this title by beating a total of 21 boxers. In 1966, when he was drafted, he refused induction into the US Army as a conscientious objector, citing his opposition to war because of the Qu’ran’s teaching and especially to the Vietnam War because he saw no need to fight the Vietnamese people. For taking this position, he was convicted of draft evasion and temporarily banned from professional boxing, but the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971 so he was able to resume competing.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad-Ali-boxer

What’s the conflict of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

The conflict between the Fairies falls between Titania and Oberon, the King and Queen of Fairy, who are quarreling over the fate of a newly acquired changeling. Oberon wants to use the boy as a servant, but Titania resists his desires. For the memory of his recently deceased mother (who had herself been a close follower and friend to Titania), she has taken the child and refuses to hand him over to Oberon. This dispute has created tension between the King and Queen of the Fairies, and Oberon enlists the assistance of Robin Goodfellow (aka Puck) to be-spell Titania, after which he could then acquire the boy. This results in the subplot by which Titania falls besotted for Bottom, who Puck has also enchanted, so that his head is turned into a donkey's.

The queen of the fairies, Titania, and the king of the fairies, Oberon, are quarreling over an Indian boy. A close friend of Titania's died recently and left Titania as the guardian of her young Indian son. Titania takes seriously her promise to care for the boy. However, Oberon wants Titania to give him the boy for his own retinue. Titania refuses. This makes Oberon very unhappy, as he is used to having his way.
This fight causes trouble among the fairies but also means that humans are subjected to bad weather because of the upset in the fairy kingdom.
Oberon believes that if he makes Titania love-besotted, she will lose interest in the Indian boy and let him have the lad. Therefore, Oberon has Puck use a love potion on Titania that causes her to fall in love with Bottom—a man who Puck has transformed to have an ass's head. Part of the play's comedy arises from the beautiful and noble Titiania falling head over heels in love with a ridiculous creature like Bottom, which shows that love is a crazy business.

What does the Criss Jami mean by "When I look at a person I see a person—not a rank, not a class, not a title"?

This quote could be interpreted in a couple of different ways. I believe that the quote expresses Jami's feelings that she will judge a person for who they are to her. The rank, class, and title classifications are issued by a society or a business of some kind. To Jami, the fact that a person is a five star general or a duke or duchess doesn't matter. Those people could be wonderful, friendly people, or they could be complete jerks, and that is what Jami is getting at. She judges a person based on who they are and not what they have done to obtain a particular title. On one hand, that is a nice way of looking at people because it appears to be unbiased. She doesn't see race or privilege. She see's people. Unfortunately, I can't say that Jami's statement is always good or always a solid way of looking at people. There are possible times when a particular rank or title has been given to a person because that person deserves it. The title could be good or bad, but it has to be said that titles can be given because they reflect the type of person that somebody is. Saint Mother Teresa would be a good example of how a title accurately reflects who that person was.