Why did Obi close the pathway?

The path in the story runs through a Nigerian village, connecting the cemetery to a shrine in the village. Not only do the villagers walk on it to the burial ground, they also believe that their dead ancestors use the path to visit them and that unborn children take it coming to be born.
This path goes directly through the schoolyard. Michael Obi, the school's new headmaster, is dedicated to purging the village of what he sees as harmful old ways. He feels that the established traditions are holding people back from the advantages the modern ways would bring. For Obi, a school is all about reason and logic.
Obi decides to stop people using the path and has a barbed wire fence put up. When the villagers make a new path, they destroy the school garden.

What are some of Rutherford B. Hayes's major accomplishments as president of the United States?

Rutherford B. Hayes was the nineteenth president of the United States. He became president in 1877 after one of the most contested elections in history, which led to the Compromise of 1877. This compromise allowed him to become President if he withdrew federal troops from the South. He agreed, which led to the end of Reconstruction. In the first year of his presidency, Hayes restored order from the Railroad Strike of 1877 by placing federal troops on guard at federal buildings. As president, he treated all people fairly regardless of their race and implemented civil services reform, which laid the groundwork for the future. Another one of his accomplishments related to the economy. Under his term, the economy recovered, and many credited that to his veto of the Bland-Allison Act. He believed that the gold standard needed to be maintained in order for the economy to do well.

Characterize Sam Spade.

Probably Sam Spade's chief characteristic is skepticism. He never quite believes in the genuineness of the fabulous black bird, so he is not really surprised or disappointed when the one he gets from Captain Jabobi turns out to be a fake. Spade is a realist. He has an extremely cynical attitude about people. He demonstrates this characteristic in Chapter 12 when he goes to see his lawyer Sid Wise. Spade had sent Iva Archer to him in order to find out what she had been doing on the night of her husband Miles' murder. Spade expected Wise to reveal everything she told him in confidence, and Wise told him everything Iva had told him about her night.

Sam's face was expressionless. He asked: "You believe her?"
"Don't you?" Wise replied.
"How do I know? How do I know it isn't something you fixed up between you to tell me?"
Wise smiled. "You don't cash many checks for strangers, do you, Sammy?"
"Not basketfuls."

Spade can hardly trust his own lawyer when he knows that Wise will violate his ethical obligation to Iva Archer by divulging everything she told him. Both Spade and Wise believe that you can't trust anybody. It is because Spade doesn't trust anybody that he stays out of the troubles that Brigid O'Shaughnessy is trying to cause him. In the end he tells her he is going to have her sent to San Quentin for murdering his partner Miles Archer. When she pleads with him and stresses her love for him, he says:

"I should trust you? You who arranged that nice little trick for—for my predecessor, Thursby? You who knocked off Miles, a man you had nothing against, in cold blood, just like swatting a fly, for the sake of double-crossing Thursby?: You, who double-crossed Gutman, Cairo, Thursby—one, two, three? You who've never played square with me for half an hour at a stretch since I've known you? I should trust you? No, no, darling. I wouldn't do it even if I could. Why should I?"

Spade has many women in his life, including Iva Archer, but he lives alone in a San Francisco efficiency apartment and sleeps in a Murphy bed. He is likely to remain alone for the rest of his life.

Write a thesis about parents should teach, manage and monitor their children eating habits on low income communities

As the article by Drewnoski and Eichelsdoerfer (2010) in Nutrition Today, cited below, states, low-income families have a difficult time finding and affording nutritious food for their families. They must often eat high-calorie, inexpensive foods that have a lot of sugar and little nutritional value, such as starchy food. However, the authors argue that families in low-income areas can afford a healthier diet by choosing food that is rich in nutrients but that is also affordable and that is palatable to American diets. These types of foods include milk, yogurt, beans, eggs, cabbage, fortified cereals, citrus, and other foods, according to the authors of this article.
Parents in low-income areas can help their children choose these higher-nutrient affordable foods by going shopping with their children and cooking with them. They can show their children choices that are healthy but affordable and help them steer away from fast-food options and starchy, sugary options such as potato chips, cookies, soda, and cakes. This program involves looking for stores in which people can purchase these staples, and it involves not shopping in convenience stores or fast-food stores, which can at times be expensive and not nutritious. In addition, parents have to monitor their children's food choices. Therefore, parents are critical in helping children in low-income areas learn how to choose healthier food options and in monitoring their children's choices over time to make sure they are following good habits.
Source:
Drewnowski, A., & Eichelsdoerfer, P. (2010). "Can Low-Income Americans Afford a Healthy Diet?" Nutr Today. 2010 Nov; 44(6): 246-249. doi: 10.1097/NT.0b013e3181c29f79
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847733/

In The Stranger, how does death symbolize both modernism and absurdism?

In Camus's The Stranger, the main character witnesses death firsthand and grapples with the meaning of life. He confronts his own existence and the distance he feels from other people, and he slowly spirals out of control.
In this work, death is related directly to the concepts of modernism and absurdism through how Meursault deals with the philosophy of life in the story. Modernism is a philosophy that breaks from traditional views of religion and morality, and absurdism is the belief that life and existence are inherently meaningless. Meursault comes to the realization in the novel that there is no point to the actions we take in this life, because, ultimately, we all die and decay. His despair laments the impermanence of human existence and mourns his belief that there is nothing after death, even for the morally superior. As a result, Meursault realizes there is nothing to be gained but to pursue pleasure and contribute to the chaos of life.
Death is a representation of this because it is the true end from a modernist perspective (there is no life after death according to that philosophy), and being such a definite end, life itself is meaningless (according to absurdist philosophy).

Modernism refers to a classification of art that made a point of consciously rethinking the very fundamentals of both structure and themes. It introduced new narrative techniques like stream-of-consciousness and themes that challenged the mores of society and the dogma of religion. Absurdism is like existentialism in declaring that life not only has no objective meaning but is also a completely futile exercise in trying to find meaning. Meaning is something that is created by each individual in their struggle against the inevitability of non-existence.
In The Stranger, modernism is at work with regard to death in the way Camus uses the first-person perspective of the lead character, Meursault. There is no huge emotional production regarding his narrative after his mother dies. Indeed, he thinks and talks about anything but her death. It's striking because opening the book with the line "Mother died today" would seem to open up an emotional floodgate, but instead, Mersault's response is entirely matter-of-fact. Meursault even thinks that he should probably have some kind of feeling about his mother's death, but he instead is only interested in physical pleasures: smoking, eating, drinking, and sex. That the protagonist of this novel is completely indifferent to others, even to their deaths, is another aspect of its modernism.
It's an absurdist novel in a very precise way: Meursault does not achieve true enlightenment until he acknowledges that there is a material difference between life and death and accepts that his impending death will bring about non-existence. The key quote here is as follows:

I was sure about me, about everything, surer than he could ever be, sure of my life and sure of the death I had waiting for me. Yes, that was all I had. But at least I had as much of a hold on it as it had on me.

There is no comfort against death: not religion, not material pleasures. Death is the only certainty, and our lives must be lived with full awareness of this struggle and the fact that we cannot overcome it. Only in accepting this for himself does he understand the implications of the death of his mother and the man that he killed; his detachment toward others doesn't end until he realizes that it is the inevitability and impassivity of death ("the gentle indifference of the world") that gives us meaning.

In Freak the Mighty, what things does Max like?

It takes readers a few chapters to start realizing that Max likes anything. When we are introduced to him, he comes across as a brooding, angst filled young teen. Based on the first few chapters, a reader could probably claim that the only thing Max likes is being alone in his basement bedroom.
That all starts to change once Kevin enters his life. The two boys couldn't be physically any more different, and there is a clear difference in their intelligence levels; however, they both have a grand sense of adventure. As the two boys spend more and more time together, it becomes clear that Max enjoys learning. He is fascinated by all of the knowledge that Kevin seems to have. This love for learning is obvious to Kevin, and that is probably why Kevin makes Max a very unique dictionary. Max also loves to imagine himself and Kevin on all kinds of crazy adventures. This just shows that Max has, and likes, a sense of play. If you are looking for a specific piece of text that has Max flat out announcing something that he likes, then look to the beginning of chapter six. He clearly expresses his feelings about the Fourth of July.

I love the Fourth.

How does Ehrenreich respond to the plight of the working poor?

The author’s tone in Nickel and Dimed - On (Not) Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich is that of an investigative reporter. She sees the struggles of the underemployed and underpaid, and she reports in a straight forward and factual manner about their lives and those of their children.That is until she experiences working at low paying, highly labor intensive jobs. In those instances, her anger and exasperation are evident. She says:
“I grew up hearing over and over, to the point of tedium, that "hard work" was the secret of success: "Work hard and you'll get ahead" or "It's hard work that got us where we are." No one ever said that you could work hard - harder even than you ever thought possible - and still find yourself sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt.”
At times, the author's tone is one of cynicism. Ehrenreich says, “What you don't necessarily realize when you start selling your time by the hour is that what you're actually selling is your life.” She expounds upon how the working poor have become invisible in society. So much so that when watching television at night, the plight of the working poor is not evident. Even sitcoms and reality shows are about people who are gainfully employed, and not by the hour, they are salaried workers or entrepreneurs who depend on the working poor over and over again to maintain their lifestyles.

What is a good summation statement to define J. G. Frazer's, The Golden Bough?

A possible summation statement could be the following: In The Golden Bough, Fraser argues that common themes unite myths and religions across cultures.
A common theme, for example, uniting many myths and religions is fertility, the idea of a being or god who must die in order to fertilize the land with his blood and allow new life to spring up. Fraser saw Jesus, for example, as a more advanced version of a magical fertility god bringing life to the soil.
Fraser also argues that in order to explain and try to control nature, cultures advance from magic to religion to science. He privileges science above both the mythological (magical) and the religious.
Fraser states that magic is a direct attempt to control nature. Religion uses appeals to gods or a god to try to control nature. Science uses reason and empirical study to understand how nature works in order to be able to control it.

Why is William Faulkner's poem "After Fifty Years" a good poem? Why does it work? How does he use his sonnet to truly make readers feel like what it would be to be fifty years older?

Faulkner's poem "After Fifty Years" focuses on the relationship between aging and loss of love.
Faulkner emphasizes the passage of time through the tense shifts that happen after the fourth and eleventh lines. The poem opens with the present tense, showing the subject of the poem as she is now:
Her house is empty and her heart is old.
Faulkner is directly telling us that part of her is old. The heart being old suggests that her heart has been through a lot, which suggests the passage of time. The phrase "still she tries to weave / with blind bent fingers" features three alliterations that help suggest time gone by; older bodies are more likely to be blind and bent, and the word "still" tells us that an action is being repeated.
The poem then shifts to past tense as Faulkner tells us what "once" was. The tense shift highlights the idea of then versus now. The phrase "'tis told" makes this feel like an ancient tale that has been repeated and spread around. "A crown she could have had" makes us think of what might have been.
The poem shifts back to present tense for the last three lines, again highlighting a change in time. Notice how "blind" and "bent" are repeated, this time describing "his young eyes." Her heart is called old, while his eyes are young. This puts him at a contrast to her, further showing that the main character is older and has experienced a passage of time.

What does "rumble" mean to each of the Greasers? How is having a "rumble" going to solve the problem between the Greasers and the Socs?

A rumble is simply a colloquial term for a large-scale gang fight. For the Greasers, no less than the Socs, it's a matter of pride. A rumble is a way of settling scores, of proving which is the stronger gang. To the Greasers, a rumble isn't simply an unseemly street brawl; it's more like an old-fashioned duel, a matter of honor between two combatants carried out according to certain rules. The Greasers may live a rough life, but when it comes to fighting, they prefer what they consider a fair fight to a rough one. As Two-Bit explains to Cherry and Marcia:

''A fair fight isn't rough,'' Two-Bit said. ''Blades are rough. So are chains and heaters and pool sticks and rumbles. Skin fighting isn't rough. It blows off steam better than anything.''

The forthcoming rumble, scheduled to take place in a vacant parking lot, is intended to be a "fair fight." In other words, no one will use weapons, only fists. Even so, one of the Socs, Randy, still doesn't see what the rumble will accomplish. He's come to realize that violence only begets violence: it doesn't really solve anything. All the same, he's worried that the other gang members will think of him as a wimp if he doesn't get involved.

Why has Shirley Jackson chosen common people for her characters?

“The Lottery,” which was widely criticized when published in 1948, has become one of the most well-known and admired American stories of the twentieth century. Through this and other stories and through her novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson came to occupy a singular place in popular fiction among writers of her generation.
A professional writer who depended on the income from her publications, Jackson was conscious of the elements of popular appeal. Nevertheless, she did not hold back from creating terrifying scenarios and characters. The characters's apparent normalcy at the beginning of a work, which may be revealed to cover up a deep psychological problem, accentuates the fear they strike in the readers.
“The Lottery” somewhat deviates from this pattern, as the author does not present, much less analyze, any mental illness or deviance. Much of the tension in the story derives from the fact that the characters are conducting normal, everyday conversations. They neither experience epiphanies nor reveal any secrets that might help the reader understand why the lottery continues aside from tradition or why none of them stand up to opposite it. The matter-of-fact tone combined with the ordinariness of the characters implies that such an event could happen anywhere, that it could be carried out by anyone. “They” are “we.”
In The Haunting of Hill House, the normalcy of an array of characters underscores the unique role and, in some cases, gifts of each one. The sensitivity of Eleanor Vance to paranormal activities stands in sharp distinction to her quiet, introverted, modest demeanor. Each of the other characters, drawn from various walks of life, has a more notable connection to the otherworldly phenomena, but only Dr. Montague is a trained “ghost hunter.” As the novel progresses, it is the very ordinary Eleanor on whom the house seems to be focusing. The reader is more likely to identify with a reluctant participant in such an expedition and to be more horrified at her apparent inability to escape.

Where do you think the climax occurs in Little House in the Big Woods?

The climax of a literary work usually coincides with a high point of emotional intensity. In Little House in the Big Woods, a series of loose episodes following an entire year in the life of the young Laura Ingalls through the four seasons, one could argue that the climax comes at the end. In the final chapter we are back to fall, where the book opened.
Laura is in bed, listening to Pa playing his fiddle. She asks him what the words of the song he is singing, "Auld Lang Syne," mean. He tells her they mean the days of long ago. The climax occurs as little Laura, lying in bed, muses about time:

She thought to herself, "This is now."She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.

Of course, as we know from the beginning of the book, everything that has happened in the book, including this moment, happened a long time ago. Time doesn't stop moving. Whatever "now" we are experiencing will inevitably one day be long ago, and Laura's thoughts are therefore ironic. As the story closes, we feel the poignance and power of this moment, both immediately present in the story and yet far away in time.

What happened to the colony originally known as New Sweden?

When we study the colonies, New Sweden is not the first colony we think of! It is unlikely we think of Swedish explorers as some of the earliest colonists in America. For a brief period of about twenty years, the tiny kingdom of Sweden maintained a colony in the territories of New Jersey, Pensylvania, and Delaware.
The New Sweden colony was the smallest in population. At any one time, there were no more than one-hundred colonists which contributed to the short life span of the settlement. Though short-lived, the Swedish contributed to American culture by bringing Lutheran religious beliefs and ideas to America. Some think the log cabin was the invention of Swedish colonists.
The colony was not well-funded by the home country but was self-sufficient having made peaceful agreements with native tribes in the area. Peter Minuit in 1638, the early leader of the colony was able to successfully negotiate a land purchase from the Lenape and Susquehannock Indian tribes. The land would cover portions of the area of Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Unfortunately for the Swedish, Dutch colonists considered the property accessible by the Delaware River they settled to be part of the Dutch territorial claims. From the New Netherland colony, messages were dispatched by leaders of the Dutch colony warning the Swedish they had trespassed on Dutch territory.
The lack of human resources plagued the colony for many years. Unlike other European nations, the Swedes were not able to attract enough people to move and settle the area permanently. A reliable workforce was in such short supply the Swedish government forced criminals to come to the colony. The lack of financial support of the Swedish government was a problem as well. The success of other colonies nearby was an incentive for Swedish colonists to desert New Sweden for better economic opportunities which they did further weakening the workforce.
Eventually, the lack of labor, financial resources, and the increasing threat of conflict with the Dutch military resulted in the New Sweden colony effectively being disbanded and what remained became part of the Dutch colonies until the English took it over in the 1680s.
https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/unearthing-past-student-research-pennsylvania-history/new-sweden-brief-history

https://www.history.com/news/americas-forgotten-swedish-colony

How does Steinbeck's detached point of view in "The Harvest Gypsies: Article II" help you understand the plight of migrant farm workers living in California during the Great Depression?

Steinbeck, in quite a matter-of-fact way, describes the circumstances of three families in one typical migrant workers' camp in California. His presentation of the facts pertaining to their lives is detached and unemotional, despite the incredible tragedies they have endured, because such a tone draws attention to the way these individuals have been treated by society. In the final paragraphs of the article, Steinbeck describes the social workers who have come and gone from the camp. Of the families, he says,

They are filed and open for inspection. These families have been questioned over and over about their origins, number of children living and dead. The information is taken down and filed. That is that. It has been done so often and so little has come of it.

Even the people whose job it is to help the workers and their families are impotent, possibly because they cannot really do anything of value to help these families or because the need is just too great. All they can do is take down information, keeping track of who is where, because there is little other assistance they can offer. Thus, the people are all but forgotten by the rest of the country, people who still have jobs and homes, because we have a tendency to look out for ourselves and ignore the suffering of others, especially if we cannot see it. Others might "hear much about the free clinics for the poor, [though] these people do not know how to get the aid and they do not get it." Steinbeck's tone emphasizes the detachment with which the rest of America views the migrants, if they are even thought of at all.
Further, this narrative detachment, when juxtaposed with the unimaginable details of these families' lives, renders their plight all the more horrible by contrast. In Steinbeck's description of the first family, he says, without emotion, "The spirit of this family is not quite broken." It's as though the breaking of spirits is so common in these camps that the mention of it does not even warrant emotion. Were one to become emotional every time a spirit is broken, one would not cease to emote. The detached voice reminds us that, although the lives of these families may strike us as exceptional and out of the ordinary, they are anything but for these migrant families who routinely lose their dignity, their children, and even their will to live.

Whats the setting in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is JK Rowling’s first novel about Harry Potter and is magical adventures. Just as in the other novels, the book takes place in England in the 1990s. The book opens at 4 Privet Drive in Surrey: the home of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, Harry’s Aunt and Uncle. There, Harry learns that not only are their witches and wizards but that his parents were famous ones, and he has been accepted to their alma mater: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Before going to school, Harry stops at Diagon Alley, where all the young witches and wizards pick up their school supplies. One of the most important stops is at Ollivanders, where Harry picks up his first wand. To get to his new boarding school, Harry must take the train. He goes to King’s Cross Station (an actual train station in London). He goes to the magical platform numbered 9¾. The rest of the novel takes place at Harry's new school, Hogwarts.

Be specific: How did “race” and “slavery” come to be almost synonymous? Was it not possible to extend slavery to “white” persons?

A number of different theories have been advanced about the reasons that African people were primarily those who were enslaved. It should be noted that Native Americans also were enslaved. In addition, Africans in Africa owned slaves, and African Americans and Natives in the American colonies did so as well. Therefore, the association of non-whiteness and enslavement does not actually hold up that well.
In terms of arguments for or against enslaving “white” people, these can be divided into heritage and appearance. In the colonies that were settled by people of northern-European heritage, those of the same heritage but who were poor or criminals were frequently bound into long-term contracts of “indenture.” While they might work off the contract over many years, very few were actually able to do that. Although they were not slaves, in that they were still considered persons rather than property, they were bound into highly unfavorable terms committing their labor for what amounted to their whole lives; their debts could be passed to their children, who would assume similar contracts.
Racism against dark-skinned peoples, many of whom were not Christian, is widely considered to have advanced along with slavery, rather than preceding and causing it. Taking people far from their homelands and locating them among people of very different backgrounds was seen as effective in keeping them fearful and obedient; the assumption was that they would be afraid to run away, would have nowhere to go, and would be easy to apprehend because they looked so different from the free colonists. None of those assumptions proved to be entirely true, as the large numbers of people who ran away from slavery and formed “maroon” communities, as well as the increasing number of slave rebellions, attests.
https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-262

What phases of baroque are tied to religion and how?

What is typical of artists labeled Baroque is the emotionalism and extravagance of their color and design. This ties into religion perhaps paradoxically because sensuous imagery could have been thought disrespectful or even blasphemous in an earlier time. The result of both the Protestant Reformation and the secular humanist trends of the 1500s and 1600s changed what artists and intellectuals regarded as appropriate forms of expression. To some commentators, the baroque has been considered a part of the counter-Reformation to restore the hegemony of the Roman Catholic church, but this is a simplistic way of looking at it. Artists in general began to appeal more directly to the emotions. The religious paintings of Rubens, for example, infuse a sexual energy into their subjects in a way that would have been considered improper in an earlier age.
What we see in the Baroque is a kind of sensual propagandizing for religion. Artists realized that the visceral, emotional appeal of a work is often more important than intellectual qualities or the purity and elegance of line so prized by the Renaissance painters.
A few examples might be in order. Caravaggio's "Judith Beheading Holofernes" and "The Crucifixion of St. Peter" are typical of a new boldness, a raw, unadulterated expression that seems to revel in violence and pain. It is a new, unimpeded, and immediate way of expressing religious faith. The same is true of works by Rubens such as "Samson and Delilah" and "Daniel in the Lion's Den." There is no distinction between the explicitness, the showing of naked, amply fleshed figures in these religious paintings and the same style in the depiction of pagan, mythological subjects, as in Rubens's "Prometheus Bound," among many others.
Ironically the new approach to religious art may have been partly a result of the changing, and increasingly secular, view of the value of earthly life and the increasing tendency in intellectual life to question the established ways of doing things. In the Baroque, we see a foreshadowing of the emotionalism that was to pour forth even more freely in the Romantic movement 200 years later, after European thought had been decisively transformed by the Enlightenment.

Who is the protagonist in Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman?

The protagonist in Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman is sixteen-year-old Alyssa. Alyssa is living in a world in which a severe drought causes there to be no water left in all of Southern California. After all the shelves of every store have been completely emptied of water and drinkable fluids, Alyssa's parents set out to try to find more water. Her parents never return, leaving Alyssa and her ten-year-old brother to fend for themselves. Alyssa decides to take her brother and embark on a journey to look for her parents. The story follows Alyssa's struggle to survive and to care for her brother, and chronicles the struggles that ensue as they traverse a deadly and unforgiving landscape.

What gift does the water from the spring give?

The gift that the water from the spring gives is the gift of everlasting life. However, readers must decide if immortality is a gift or a curse. Throughout the story, the author introduces members of the Tuck family, who happened upon the spring 87 years prior. Each member of the family experienced fatal accidents, yet survived. Eventually, they discovered that the source of their immortality was the spring in which they drank from many years ago.
Though the youngest son, Jesse, makes the most out of his situation, the rest of the Tuck family view their eternal life as a curse. Because of this, the family strives to keep the spring a secret. Unfortunately, a stranger in a yellow suit becomes aware of the magical water. He is desperate to find the Tuck family and the spring in order to make a profit.
To make matters worse, the immortal family kidnaps a young girl who witnessed Jesse drinking from the spring. They have no choice but to tell her their secret. It then becomes a matter of convincing the girl (Winnie) that immortality is not a gift at all.

Tuck s spring water flows and it gives the ‘gift’ of immortality. But is that ’gift’ really a blessing or a curse? To answer that question one must really decide if living forever, while truly amazing, is really a double edged sword as Winnie comes to realize.
In answering that question of if being immortal is a blessing or a curse, look into the main characters of the story of Tuck Everlasting itself. Jesse s character is young and inexperienced being only seventeen when he drinks from the spring. At first thought, you might think it be a grand thing to always be young, lively, handsome and virile. But, now take a deeper ponder. Jesse never grows up, never blossoms into the whole of a person that can only come from the propelling of life experience. In his eternal youth, human growth eludes him and depths of life experience evade him. We might possibly look to Jesse s father, Angus, for an honest look at the ‘gift‘ of immortality. Angus understands and conveys sadly yet honestly that true joy in life and experience lie in not only the fleeting time we have on earth but also sees the beauty of its fragility. The knowing of all things including one s own life ending is what gives the joy the precious fragility and to Angus with his eternal ‘gift’ there simply is never an end.

The water from the Tucks' spring gives the gift of immortality, of everlasting life. To most people, this sounds amazing. Just imagine all the wonderful things you could do, all the places you could go, safe in the knowledge that, whatever happens, you're never going to die. But in reality, immortality is a mixed blessing to the Tucks, as Winnie discovers.
Jesse, for example, had never experienced much of life before drinking from the spring, and so he'll remain as a seventeen year old for the rest of eternity. This means that he'll never get to grow as a person, either physically or emotionally. And Angus, Jesse's father, is pretty bored of the whole immortality thing. He illustrates the old adage that all joys are mortal; that we can only truly enjoy life in the knowledge that one day it will all end. For Angus, however, each day is just the same old same old, and with literally no end in sight, we can see why immortality is as much a curse as a gift.

According to the Gallup poll data, what is the current approval rating of congress among overall Americans? Is this a decrease or increase from one year ago? What is the approval rating for congress among Republicans, Independents, and Democrats? https://news.gallup.com/poll/240896/congressional-approval-steady-low-august.aspx The article from The Washington Post, discusses the nature of caucuses within given political parties. For this question, explain the following: What is the name of the candidate who upset the incumbent in the New York primary this past June? Explain, in detail, the differences between the two candidates regarding their endorsements, political values, social advocacy, etc. Explain, in detail, how this happened during a 2014 primary election in Virginia. What are some of the criticisms directed towards both the progressive and the tea party caucuses? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/06/28/yes-there-can-be-a-tea-party-of-the-left-but-heres-whats-different/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ccf0951b2dd0

In August 2018, the overall approval rating of the US Congress among Americans was 17%. This was a 1% increase from last year’s Gallup data. In August 2017, 16% of Americans approved of the job Congress was doing.
In this year’s data, 28% of Republicans, 7% of Democrats, and 17% of Independents viewed Congress favorably. In August 2017, the approval ratings by political affiliation were 16%, 12%, and 16%, respectively.
Note that these numbers were taken from the link provided, which concerned Gallup poll data from August 2018. Since then, Gallup has released their September data. In September 2018, the overall approval rating of the US Congress among Americans was 19%, a 3% increase from September 2017. The approval ratings by party affiliation varied slightly between August and September 2018 as well. In September 2018, 31% of Republicans, 8% of Democrats, and 17% of Independents approved of Congress.
In June 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez upset the 10-term incumbent, Rep. Joseph Crowley, in the New York primary election for the 14th Congressional District. Ocasio-Cortez ran on a platform farther to the left than her opponent, a fellow Democrat. Ocasio-Cortez was thought to be the underdog, a “political neophyte and self-proclaimed socialist”, according to the Washington Post article. She has never held office; her political experience was as a community activist and Bernie Sanders presidential campaign staff member. Recruited by Brand New Congress, a political action committee whose goal is to elect “ordinary people” with anti-establishment views, Ocasio-Cortez promotes many of the same social and political goals of other progressive candidates: universal health care, help for working-class families, free college tuition, criminal justice reform, and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As a Latina, she emphasizes her commonalities with the 70% of people in her district who identify as minorities. She is supported by the Democratic Socialists of America and the Black Lives Caucus. She does not accept corporate donations.
Representative Crowley ran as a more traditional Democratic candidate. He is the chair of the Queens County Democratic Party and received support and endorsements from corporations and labor unions. His incumbency and years of fundraising led to name recognition and a considerable war chest: according to Federal Election Commission data, Crowley’s campaign contributions totaled nearly four million dollars between 2017 and 2018. He eventually embraced the political and social agenda of the progressives but was seen as insincere (Crowley voted for the Protect and Serve Act, a congressional bill making the assault of police officer a federal crime). His loss to Ocasio-Cortez has been considered a harbinger of Tea Party-like division in the Democratic Party.
In June 2014, a similar upset occurred in the Republican primary for Virginia’s 7th District. Rep. Eric Cantor, the moderate incumbent House Majority Leader, was defeated by Dave Brat, a Tea Party candidate. Like Crowley, Cantor had been an establishment figure. Brat, like Ocasio-Cortez, was a firebrand newcomer backed by an organization committed to radical change. A similar line of criticism applies to the Tea Party and progressive movements, both then and now. Fringe groups are demanding change and renouncing tradition. In many ways, this is a good thing—sometimes the establishment must be challenged. But it can and has gone wrong. The Republican Party, now infused with insurgent members of the Tea Party, is often unable to pass legislation despite their congressional majority. Rather than compromise, the anti-establishment members frequently refuse to negotiate if they cannot get their way. The November 2018 midterm election will introduce members of the ultra-progressive fringe into the Democratic Party establishment. How they interact will surely be informed by the lessons of the 2014 and 2016 elections.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/242366/snapshot-congressional-approval-september.aspx

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/5698

How many plays did Shakespeare write?

William Shakespeare is believed to have written at least 37 plays, as well as a collection of sonnets which remains widely read today. However, it is possible that Shakespeare wrote more plays than the ones we know about today. There are several plays which no longer exist but which are mentioned in other texts, and which many historians believe to be "lost" Shakespeare plays. Remember also that the concept of authorship was different in this period, and collaboration, between multiple writers and between writers and actors, was common. It is very likely that Shakespeare also contributed to other plays, most notably "The Book of Sir Thomas More," for which he was only one of several authors.
The First Folio of Shakespeare's works was collected by his friends shortly after he died and contains 36 plays. It was this folio which first separated Shakespeare's works into histories (such as Henry V and Richard III), comedies (such as Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night) and tragedies (such as Othello and King Lear).

What was the Red Scare? How and why did it grow so quickly? How did it affect the politics and society of the United States during the 1950s?

The Red Scare refers to the wave of hysteria that swept across the United States and concerned the threat of Soviet collaborators within the country.
To describe where it came from and how it grew so quickly, the first thing you need to recognize is that there were legitimate concerns. This was the Cold War, and furthermore, the Soviet Union did employ espionage against the United States and its allies. To give just one example, consider physicist Klaus Fuchs, who gave the USSR information relating to the atomic bomb (and later implicated the Rosenbergs). Even before McCarthy entered the picture and the Red Scare really began to escalate, there were still serious undercurrents of fear and anxiety already present within the country.
The critical figure within the Red Scare was Senator Joseph McCarthy, who made fearmongering into a political weapon. Between 1950 and 1954, he built his political profile around this issue and made a series of denunciations and accusations concerning alleged communist infiltration. These political actions inflamed popular opinion across the country, resulting in an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia in which anyone could be a potential communist sympathizer.
The consequences were corrosive. Again, this was hysteria, so the mere suspicion of guilt was usually decisive in and of itself, and it claimed thousands of victims in the American public. People were blacklisted, lost their jobs, and had their reputations destroyed.

Although both sugar and salt are soluble in water, the way in which they dissolve is not the same. How is their dissolving process different? Explain why these differences exist.

Upon first glance, you might easily confuse salt and sugar. Both are small, crystal solids used to season your food. In order to determine how they dissolve in water, we would need to conduct an experiment. In this experiment, we would dissolve salt and sugar (solutes) into separate containers of water (solvents) to form a solution. In order to ensure accurate results, you would need to control for a few variables. First, ensure the water is the same temperature, the amounts of solute are the same, and whatever method you are using for agitation (i.e. stirring) is constant. Finally, repeat the experiment a few times to ensure accurate results.
When salt dissolves in water, the particle actually breaks apart (i.e. the sodium and chloride do not maintain their bonds). Sugar molecules, on the other hand, remain as whole molecules. This is because salt is bonded ionically and sugar is bonded covalently.
If you wanted to further this experiment, you could assess how the results change when the conditions change (i.e. hot vs. cold water), or you could assess the solubility of salt and sugar in different substances (i.e. vinegar or alcohol).

How far were states in the Middle East able to succeed in achieving modernization in the period before the first world war?

States in the Middle East before World War One could not achieve a great deal of modernization due to the influence of the Ottoman Empire. Many countries in the Middle East did not even become nations until the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1922. The Ottoman Empire reached its height of success during the 15th and 16th centuries and retained dominance over the Middle East for centuries.
From 1807 to the early 20th century, the empire lost territories stretching from central and southern Europe to the Middle East. It was during this time that the Ottomans embarked on various reform campaigns throughout the empire. In the early 19th century, Mahmud II created a European-style army to compete with the West. In addition, he stripped power away from religious orders and centralized the government through the creation of ministries and administrations.
Throughout the 19th century, the Ottomans also reformed education and Islamic law and adopted the first Ottoman Constitution in 1876. When the empire dissolved in the 20th century, Turkish nationalism became prominent, and the state of Turkey issued progressive reforms that matched the West. Other countries in the region such as Iraq and Syria gained independence and statehood after the Ottoman Empire's collapse.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire/The-empire-from-1807-to-1920

How is Amanda's character introduced?

Just after the curtain goes up, Tom gives us some brief details concerning each of the characters— including his mother, Amanda. But it's not until Amanda appears on stage that we get a good idea as to what kind of person she is. Straight away, we can see that she's a bit bossy, nagging Tom to eat his food in what she considers to be the correct manner. This is clearly a woman who exerts a great deal of control over her children by infantilizing them: trying her level best to keep them in a state of arrested development. By giving Tom lessons in etiquette, Amanda undoubtedly means well, but we can understand why Tom snaps at her ceaseless fussing.
Unlike her brother, Tom, the docile Laura is not in a position to resist her mother's constant nagging. She meekly does as she's told, practicing her shorthand and typing in the living room of the cramped apartment, in preparation for the vast hordes of gentleman callers that are supposedly going to turn up. Laura knows full well that this isn't going to happen, but Amanda's resolute that it will.
This reveals another one of Amanda's important character traits: her self-delusion. She's forever trapped in a fantasy world—in a dim and distant past when numerous eligible young gentlemen would beat a path to her door. She reminisces fondly about those long lost days, even though Tom and Laura must've heard all of her anecdotes at least a hundred times.

How does Walker deal with race and gender in In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens?

In this essay, Alice Walker looks to the words of Virginia Woolf as she contemplates the unfulfilled dreams of women and of African-American women specifically throughout history:

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

Walker considers the women throughout history who might have been some of the greatest artists who walked the earth: the poets, sculptors, writers, artists. But because they were women (and some of them were doubly impacted by race), their dreams never came to fruition. No one allowed these women a means of creative expression. It is not that in the hundreds of years spanning American history that only now are women emerging with creative talents; this talent was passed through our mothers and grandmothers. Walker notes that walking around with so much creative genius and no means to express it must have driven some women insane, forcing their "minds to desert their bodies."
Walker does offer a hope of tracing the threads of creative genius that have lasted into our society today by first looking back at her own overworked mother's handiwork: sewing. Walker's mother stitched every article of clothing for her large family and quilted every blanket that kept them warm. Walker visited the Smithsonian and noted a gorgeous quilt depicting the Crucifixion with a simple note about the artist: "an anonymous Black woman in Alabama, a hundred years ago."
Here, then, is the link to the creative genius of women in America's past. These women used whatever medium they had access to as an outlet for their creativity: quilts, stories, flowers. Women and, more specifically, African-American women have been weaving their creativity into daily life throughout the history of America so that, like Walker, they can view life's difficulties:

through a screen of blooms-sunflowers, petunias, roses, dahlias, forsythia, spirea, delphiniums, verbena . . . and on and on.

In Every Day, what is the evidence that Nathan’s story is spreading?

On day 6001 A wakes up to another email from Nathan, and a local newspaper article called "The Devil Made Him Do It." The article is published and accessible online, which gives more people access to reading the story.
On Day 6003 when A is in the body of James, he hears other kids joking about being possessed by the devil. While the kids are treating it as a joke and don't really seem to believe Nathan, the fact that they are joking about it shows that the story is spreading.
On Day 6008, A is in the body of AJ, a boy who goes to school with Nathan. At this school, he sees that Nathan is isolated socially, which also shows how the story is spreading—everyone at school has heard it and are probably aware of the attention the story is getting outside of school, which is why they don't associate with Nathan.
On Day 6014, A spends the morning reading Poole's website and examining the stories others have told. The fact that others are sharing similar stories shows how Nathan's story is spreading. One of the accounts is from a boy in Montana, which is significant because that is not where A is. This shows the story is not just a local tale, and is spreading to other states.

What bargain did Haroun attempt to strike with the blue haired man before threatening to call the cops in Haroun and the Sea of Stories?

Haroun finds a strange little man with blue hair lurking around in his bathroom. When he opens the door, the little man disappears into thin air, leaving behind a monkey wrench. Realizing he'd forgotten to take his precious tool with him, the little man soon returns, demanding that Haroun hand it over. But Haroun's having none of it; he wants to know the identity of this most unusual fellow. He tells him in no uncertain terms that he's not getting his monkey wrench back until he tells him what he's doing in the bathroom. If he doesn't, then Haroun will call the cops.
The blue-haired man is reluctant to divulge his identity. He claims that he's on a top secret mission, and it would be more than his job's worth for him to let Haroun in on what he's up to. But realizing that Haroun's not going to back down, the little man rises up to his full height and reveals himself as Iff, the Water Genie from the Ocean of the Streams of Story.

Identify Jeff Bezos's (Amazon chairman and CEO) strength, weaknesses, and characteristics as a leader, including charisma. Discuss the types of power Jeff Bezos uses/used for leadership. Discuss Jeff Bezos's leadership style and what makes him effective as a leader.

Jeff Bezos's greatest strengths are in his flexibility and in his ability to think long-term. These qualities have buoyed the fortunes of Amazon by allowing the creative development of programs on timelines that eclipse the availability of technology to implement those programs. This ultimately leads to innovations that might not otherwise be possible.
On the other hand, Bezos has personal weaknesses, as recently evidenced in his divorce, that have selectively undermined confidence in him.
Corporate power is generally divided into positional power and personal power. Bezos activates several different power centers for leadership.
In terms of positional power, Bezos uses his formal authority (as CEO), his autonomy (as the company's largest shareholder), and his visibility (as a self-confident commentator and spokesman).
In terms of personal power, Bezos uses his track record (Amazon has consistently delivered earnings for investors) and his personal attractiveness (he has cultivated a personal brand which has an aura of authority).

Explain some of the differences between the older southern society in which Emily Grierson grew up and the next generation

Faulkner juxtaposes the old Southern society represented by Emily with the younger one who must accommodate her eccentricities. A few ways in which he marks the contrast between a world still lost in an antebellum South would be the unusual decorum paid to women. Emily is tolerated as a vestige of the Old South, with families paying to have their daughters learn how to paint tea cups as a means of supplying her with an income. Men of the town find it impossible to suggest to a woman that she or her house stinks (despite what we later learn is the smell of rotting flesh), and they continue the tradition of allowing her to avoid paying her taxes due to an earlier arrangement.
The new society, on the other hand, is somewhat more tolerant of Yankees working among them. Homer, Emily's lover, comes to down to work on a construction project, seemingly a sign of the South growing out of its historical conventions. The younger generation grows impatient with Emily, the noblesse oblige of the world she represents, and the inconvenience her apparent refusal to change (or die) causes.
The story ends, of course, with a gruesome discovery of the grotesque ending Homer experienced. This cements an image of Emily as symbolic of a decadent and morally weakened Southern tradition, perverted in its sense of self and its desires.

What was the importance of tobacco in the development of America?

Tobacco grows in leaves, in warm climates, and is processed into various ingestible forms including smoking, snuff (snorting), and chew. Tobacco that is smoked includes cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, and pipe, and smoking is by far the most common form of consumption. Tobacco growing has influenced America, broadly, in three different ways: in the development of the Native American economy, development of the European-dominant economy, and by influencing a robust medical research and public health system.
First, tobacco was used as ceremonial tool in the development of native people's social, spiritual and political culture. Passing a pipe sealed deals, and the tobacco pipe was often used as medicine. Tobacco has been cultivated for over 7,000 years, and since its cultivation began in South America and spread to North American natives, its history parallels the development of crop production among North American Native Americans and is integral to their spiritual and civil histories. The mode of use for most tribes was spiritual, which includes healing rituals. Importantly, tobacco was used among these peoples ritually at all times and was not consumed daily or habitually. Tobacco use was well established by the time Europeans arrived, but its use was not marketed on a mass scale until the invaders realized its power as a drug, and more importantly its power to addict users and therefore make money for manufacturers.
Second, tobacco in the new world was an economic staple, especially in the southern colonies. The cultivation of tobacco paralleled the rise of the new world economy and, to some degree, drove the export economy. It was exported to Europe and to northern states. Export across the Atlantic began in the early 1600s, grew quickly within a few trading seasons, and soon tobacco became a primary export that helped the new American colony survive and prosper. In Virginia and Maryland, it became legal currency. Although it is a mind-altering drug, its economic value was such that church leaders and others looked past this and the morality of using it became a minor issue. The importance of tobacco as an economic powerhouse continued until the 1990s, when its health effects had been well-researched and data showed that over 400,000 Americans died each year from tobacco-related diseases, including COPD, lung cancer, and heart disease.
Third, tobacco in 1998 was part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, in which the four largest tobacco companies settled with the attorneys general of 46 states over the deleterious health effects of tobacco. States received large cash and Medicaid settlements, as well as ongoing financial payments in perpetuity to recover losses due to healthcare needs. Tobacco companies made sweeping changes to how they promoted and marketed tobacco (especially to youth) as a result of the Master Settlement. Twenty years later, the public health campaign—largely funded by tobacco companies—to help people quit smoking had reduced use prevalence from over 30% to roughly 15% of American adults and saved countless lives. This anti-tobacco campaign and use of the legal system to curtail healthcare costs has become a model for social justice and public health activism for the rest of the world.

How is April's conflict resolved?

The main conflict in the story is the internal one that April has with herself over her mother. April struggles to accept that her mother, having left her, is never coming back. Not surprisingly, April feels abandoned and lacks the emotional maturity to make sense of what's happened to her. Until she can resolve this inner conflict and accept that her mother's never going to return, April will remain in a state of constant tension, unable to relate to the people around her or form meaningful relationships with them.
Thankfully, her experiences with her Grandma and the other kids in the Egypt Game gradually allow April to feel loved, wanted, and accepted again. April becomes so happy with her life that she's able to turn down an invitation from her mother to spend Christmas in Palm Springs. In doing so, she finally resolves the inner conflict that had tormented her for so long.

What animal(s) symbolize a braggart/self centered character in literature?

The most common symbol of the braggart in European literature is the rooster, often named or personified as Chanticleer. The rooster’s crowing provides a good analogy for the voice of a person bragging, as shown by the common metaphorical use of "crow" for "brag."
At least as far back as the Middle Ages, a bragging rooster appears in French folk tales, such as the 13th-century Reynaud the Fox stories. The Grimm Brothers also included Chanticleer stories. In modern times, Edmond Rostand’s 1910 drama Chanticler (in French) features this boastful rooster.
Perhaps its most well-known incarnation in English is “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” which Geoffrey Chaucer includes in The Canterbury Tales. In this version, Chanticleer the rooster is not only boastful but also vain, and these flaws set him up to be fooled by the fox.
Another braggart animal is the donkey or ass, also based on the sound it makes,
https://www.britannica.com/art/Chanticleer-literary-character

What is a summary and analysis of "An Unstamped Letter in Our Rural Letter Box"?

This poem is in the form of a letter written by a tramp who has spent the night in somebody's garden. The tramp leaves a letter for the owners of the house to tell them of the beautiful night sky that he saw while he spent the night in their garden. He says that he saw "two stars' having coalesced . . . streaking molten down the west."
The tramp expresses his sympathy for the homeowners who could not have seen the beautiful sight because they had a roof between them and the sky. The tramp does speculate that perhaps they saw the sight "through a rusty screen," and hopes that they have had opportunities in their lives, "from sleeping out," or perhaps from "the work (they) went about," to witness such a sight as he saw as their "involuntary guest" in their garden.
Overall, this poem is about the joy that one can experience from being at one with nature. The tramp slept beneath a juniper tree in somebody else's garden, took comfort in the night sky, and witnessed there a beautiful sight which led to some sort of epiphany. In contrast, the homeowners, who we would assume are in every other respect more fortunate than the tramp, didn't have the same experience, and so, for this one moment at least, were less fortunate than their guest.

What political party did Grover Cleveland belong to?

Grover Cleveland was a democrat and served as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. He was the only president to leave office and then return for a second term with someone else serving in between. He was known as an honest president and fought against corruption. He believed in limited government and vetoed a lot of legislation that Congress brought before him, but he did have several accomplishments while in office.
In 1887, Cleveland established the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate the railroad industry and put an end to the monopolistic practices. In 1895, he intervened in the Venezuelan Crisis by adopting a broad interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. His actions strengthened the relationship between the United States and Venezuela. Another one of his major accomplishments was strengthening the United States defense system. He worked on a program to update coastal fortification, and he modernized the navy.

How was Maine founded?

Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest settlements in the regions that today comprise Maine go back to 3000 BCE.
European contact with Maine is believed to have begun in the 11th century, with the arrival of Vikings under Leif Erikson. The Portuguese explorer Estevao Gomes explored the coastline of the region in 1525.
The French and the English set up competing settlements in the region throughout the 17th century, such as those in Phippsburg and Castine.
The first reference to the Province of Maine occurs in 1622, with respect to a land patent that was awarded to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason for the area that lay between the rivers Merrimack and Kennebec. Settlements along present-day Somerset County and Portland contributed to the founding of Maine.
The region's boundaries, name, and ownership changed several times over the next 150 years.
Under the terms of the Missouri Compromise, Maine emerged as America's 23rd state on March 15, 1820.

Why is there a third murderer?

The Third Murderer may have been introduced primarily to explain something the other two murderers apparently did not know. The First Murderer says
His horses go about.
He is wondering why Banquo and his son Fleance are approaching on foot when they have been out riding all day. The Third Murderer explains:
Almost a mile; but he does usually,
So all men do, from hence to th' palace gate
Make it their walk.
This line may have been written to explain to his audience why Banquo and Fleance are walking rather than riding their horses up to the palace. It would have been impossible to bring two horses onto Shakespeare's Elizabethan stage. And even if Shakespeare considered doing such a thing, it would have been extremely difficult for the three murderers to attack the mounted riders. If three men suddenly leaped at two men on horseback, the horses might rear up and create chaos on the stage.
An alternative Shakespeare might have considered would have been to have Banquo and his son murdered somehow offstage. But the playwright wanted the audience to see Banquo being murdered so that they would be sure he was dead and had to be a ghost when he appeared at Macbeth's coronation banquet. Otherwise, some members of the audience might get the idea that Banquo had somehow survived the assault and had made it to the banquet looking bloody and disheveled. Shakespeare even has the First Murderer appear at the banquet in Act III, Scene 4, to assure Macbeth that Banquo is truly dead.
FIRST MURDERER
My lord, his throat is cut:
That I did for him.

Who was the astrologer?

One day a stranger comes to seek the advice of the astrologer. He wants to discover the identity of the man who once attacked him and left him for dead. The astrologer realizes straight away that he himself was the attacker. Ever since that fateful day, he's been wracked by guilt, believing that the man he'd attacked all those years ago had died. But now that he knows that the man survived after all, a huge weight has suddenly been lifted from the astrologer's shoulders. He can now say with confidence that the man who beat the stranger and pushed him down a well has died; he's really not the same person that he once was. As well as being able to reassure the stranger, the astrologer has, at long last, achieved the peace of mind which had eluded him for so long.

What is an analysis of "August" by Andrei Codrescu?

An analysis of Andrei Codrescu's short prose piece "August" would begin by identifying what the text is about. This piece is about the psychological and emotional impacts felt in the height of the northern hemisphere summer in the month of August. The speaker relays a few incidents to the reader: a conversation in a parking lot, visiting a computer showroom, being mugged, and a disagreement with his wife. All of these incidents are described minimally, only a few sentences for each.
The incidents are bizarre: a man, collapsed, staring at a cement parking lot talking about how there are "more leaves on the trees this year" (how does one tell that? And especially when he's not looking at any trees at the time); the speaker is paraded before "a thousand keyboards" in the IBM showroom (as if the man is the object of the parade and the keyboards are watching); when the speaker was mugged, he was so grumpy that the mugger only took half of his money (did they stand together and count it out?); the speaker disagrees with his wife about whether to include August in their household calendar (how would they measure the time between July and September, then?).
All of these incidents are just a little peculiar, almost as if in a dream; as the author puts it, they are "all sorts of delirious phenomena." The anecdotes that the speaker tells reflect back on the piece's opening paragraph: words like "dramatic," "madness," and "overwhelming" are used to describe the month of August. The speaker tells us that talking in short sentences, "in short clips," is desirable. This is why we don't have full stories about these August events, only small snippets The dream-like state of these August incidents is reinforced when the speaker tells us that in August "nobody is really awake."

Please discuss the role of women and what was expected of gender roles at the time of the Renaissance?

The Renaissance is a historical period that ushered in the “rebirth” of values in science, art, politics, and commerce in 14th–16th-century Europe. Coming from feudalism in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance saw a shift in political systems as a result of this humanistic change. The focus on individuality was a key component that led many scholars to believe the Renaissance to be the beginnings of modern Western society.
However, even with these advancements in thinking, Renaissance society remained highly patriarchal. The surge of individuality was exclusively enjoyed by men, as women continued to be deemed unworthy or incapable of expressing their own individuality and ability. Women’s subjugation was enforced by law. A woman did not marry out of her own choice, as she was subject to the decision of her father, who based this on the potential fortunes acquired from such bonds.
Women were also denied a higher education. The ideal woman was one who was silent, pleasant, and hardly seen in public. The way she dressed determined her social class.
Aristocratic women had only two vocations to choose from: marriage or the nunnery. A dowry was required either way in order to economically compensate for a woman’s inability to earn. Because of this, girls were often seen as liabilities to families, particularly to those who were not as well-off. They would decide to marry off only the most eligible daughter, and leave the rest to end up in nunneries where the dowry cost significantly less.
Women were also married off considerably young compared to men. Girls would be prepped to wed in their teens, while the men commonly married in their thirties. This made the existence of young widows common in society, and they would be encouraged yet again by their families to marry in order to maintain economic bonds or generate new ones.
A married woman had a rigid role cut out for her. She was to take care of domestic matters, assist her husband in his business, and remain publicly unnoticed. She was not to draw too much attention to herself by being too expressive, however she was required to decorate herself finely. She must, after all, bring honor to her (extended) family at all times.
An upper-class woman was socially expected to appear at church as well as functions related to her husband’s business or family. She was to be relieved of any work, including breastfeeding her own young, which was assigned to a lower-class woman—called a wet nurse—to do.
As for the non-elite, they enjoyed more social freedom despite their economical disadvantage, as they experienced more freedom to work and thus be seen in the streets. Female artisans were not as socially restricted to forming bonds only with their husbands and families as the elite women were. They mingled and formed friendships with others. Prostitution existed as a means for economically-disadvantaged women to survive a society that was explicitly male-dominated.
Amidst all the spirited changes that dealt with the artistic, political, and technological revival that shook up the scene, it seems the Renaissance period was not exactly a renaissance for the women during this time. Presently however, historians are paying more attention to the then-overlooked role of women. Joan Kelly Gadol wrote an article in 1972 called “Did Women Have a Renaissance?,” which served to ignite historians's fervor in uncovering the remarkable contribution women made during this era:

Forgotten lists of accomplished women began to surface, and (they) paid more attention to the role of women as patrons, purchasers and creators of art. Current scholarship reflects a wide interest in women's history, from studies of convents and nuns, to reflections on the lives of prostitutes and noblewomen, to examination of the work of female artists.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/w/women-in-the-renaissance/

What role does the idea of what defines true masculinity play in the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao?

The male characters in the novel struggle to achieve a positive, healthy masculine identity in part because they lack role models. The two protagonists, Yunior and Oscar, present two contrasting views of masculinity, although these differences are somewhat lessened by the end. Yunior embodies a more conventional, even stereotypical version of Latin American masculinity or machismo. His physical fitness and attractiveness to women are important to him, but he devalues women with his constant infidelity.
One of the more positive aspects of his masculinity is the protective role that he plays with his friend and roommate, but he is also arrogant in believing that Oscar’s problems can be easily fixed. Oscar is distinguished by his sensitivity and creativity, and his extreme weight keeps him from the social world of athletics in which other boys are absorbed. Nevertheless, Oscar’s strong heterosexual desire, couched in romantic idealism, makes him as much an embodiment of traditional masculinity as Yunior is. The minor characters, such as the Gangster, represent the negative force of excessive machismo, including violence and abandonment.

What is the contemporary relevance of Shakespeare in literature and the arts?

Shakespeare's abiding relevance lies in the fact that he deals in such a unique way with universal themes such as love, greed, and the desire for political power. Because these themes are universal, they transcend the time and place in which they were written, speaking to many different people in many different cultures, down through the centuries and right across the globe. And the arts—especially literature—are the primary vehicle for the transmission of such universal themes.
But it's how Shakespeare handles these themes that allows him to speak to us in the present age. Unlike any other artist, Shakespeare, having created his unforgettable characters, stands back and lets them speak—however good, bad, or indifferent they are. There's no finger-wagging with Shakespeare, no telling people what they ought to do or how to live their lives. He simply gives each character, even the incredibly wicked ones, the space in which to tell their own stories. Once he's done that, he leaves it up to us how we should judge them.
In an age where agreement on common standards of morality is increasingly difficult to secure, Shakespeare's morally neutral rendering of his characters and their worlds has much greater salience for a contemporary audience than a more narrowly didactic, rhetorical approach.

In Chains what two characters have work together? Why? What do they do together? How do they help each other?

I suppose that the two characters that have the most synergy with each other are Isabel and Curzon. They are both current/former slaves working to forward the cause of the American Rebels against the Loyalists. At first, it might not appear that the two characters work well together, but their bond deepens as the book continues. Curzon first helps Isabel find her way around town. He shows her where to get water, and he helps her get back to the Lockton household after she becomes lost. Along the way, it is clear to the reader that Curzon is out to protect Isabel. He does this in small ways by giving her his share of the food that he secured, but his help continues to grow. He is the character that enlists Lady Seymour's help to nurse Isabel back to health after her branding. Curzon's efforts do not go unnoticed, and Isabel returns his favors by providing for him while he is in prison and eventually breaking him out of prison. Isabel and Curzon might not work hand in hand to do their work against the Loyalists; however, synergy doesn't require them to be in the same room. Their individual efforts combined to have a greater effect than simply the sum of their individual efforts. Isabel's relationship with the Lockton family allows her to provide Curzon's network with valuable intel that they wouldn't have without Isabel.

Using the book Links among Familial Gender Ideology, Media Portrayal of Women, Dating, and Sexual Behaviors in African American, and Mexican American Adolescent Young Women: A Qualitative Study, write a paragraph about the media portrayal of African American women's sexuality, reinforcement of stereotypes, and role of gender.

Links among Familial Gender Ideology, Media Portrayal of Women, Dating, and Sexual Behaviors in African American, and Mexican American Adolescent Young Women: A Qualitative Study examines the gender roles and dynamics within an African American and Latino household. The researchers found that African American households tend to hold a more egalitarian perspective on gender roles. For example, African American women are not as constricted or chastised in displaying their sexuality compared to Mexican American women. This gives African American women relatively more freedoms in terms of exploring and expanding their sexuality. However, the media often portrays African American women as promiscuous and, in many cases, objectified. Many films and television shows—especially during the Blaxploitation period in American cinema—portrayed the black female body as a commodity, thus portraying a less human perspective on the African American female experience.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-017-0739-x

What are the main themes in the book of Genesis?

The main theme of Genesis is, as its name suggests, origins. The first book of the Bible provides us with an account of the origins of the universe, life on earth, humankind, and sin. It thus accounts for the fallen state of the world and of humankind's need for a redeemer. The precise identity of this redeemer isn't spelled out in Genesis, but of course we know that it refers to Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God.
In the very first book of the Bible, then, we can see the thematic continuity between the Old and New Testaments. We can also understand why, in orthodox Christianity, the New Testament is seen as the fulfillment of prophecies made in the Old Testament. What is begun in the Old Testament is completed in the New with the coming of Christ.

What does it mean when Dr. Martin Luther King said that a society based on making all the money you can and ignoring people's needs is wrong. How is it applicable today

Martin Luther King purportedly told his future wife, Coretta, that "making all the money you can and ignoring people's needs, is wrong."
By this, he meant there is a bigger picture in life than taking care only of yourself and your family. He wanted to help, first blacks, and then all people, to achieve social justice and to have opportunities to succeed. He devoted his life to the cause of helping others, not to enriching himself. He gave up his life for this cause.
At the end of his life, King increasingly turned his attention to economic justice for all Americans. He envisioned a "Poor People's campaign" that would bring blacks and whites together to fight poverty.
In his final book, written in 1967, called Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, King advocated for a basic universal income. He thought that government attempts to provide poor people with better food, housing, and education were too piecemeal. We need, he wrote, "full employment or we must create incomes." Money needed to put directly into people's hands, he said, so they could consume.
King also wrote:

The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the middle and upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent.

King felt we would not have a truly free society until everyone had enough money.
In recent years, inequality in wealth and income has grown. The situation is much worse than it was in 1967. The handful of very richest people in this country have as much wealth as the bottom fifty percent of all Americans combined. The idea of a guaranteed basic income has again grown more popular, showing that King's ideas remain relevant. He would argue, too, that beyond meeting people's economic needs, a more equitable distribution of wealth is important to safeguard democracy, a concept that is also increasingly discussed today.

How many years pass before Nina returns with Sophia in A Gentleman in Moscow?

Nina informs the Count that she is leaving in 1930, eight years after the Count was first sentenced to his lifelong house-arrest in the Metropol Hotel. Nina is seventeen at this point, having been a young girl when she first met the Count at the beginning of his imprisonment. She informs him that she is going to help with the collectivization of farmland. Nina returns another eight years later with her five-year-old daughter, Sophia. She informs the Count that her husband has been arrested and sentenced to hard labor and that she needs the Count to look after Sophia temporarily while she attempts to find a solution for the dire circumstances of her life. While the Count feels uncomfortable with the arrangement at first, the two eventually are able to bond. Despite attempts at communication, Nina is not heard from again.

Deborah Kamen's essay the "Life Cycles in Archaic Greece" explains the cycles of birth, initiation, marriage, and death. Do you find the essay to be informative? Explain the depth of the information.

“The Life Cycle in Archaic Greece" by University of Washington professor Deborah Kamen offers a summarized but detailed account of Archaic Greek society. Kamen starts her article by providing the context of Archaic Greek life cycles; that ancient Greeks believed that life cycles happened in sets of seven years called Hebdomads.
This information is important in setting up the subsections of the article, which are dedicated to specific life cycle phases such as birth and marriage. Kamen goes into specific details regarding each life cycle phase. For example, Kamen details the medical practices of the period regarding birth. Kamen then talks about the birth rites.
Kamen explains the general social structure of Archaic Greece–that they are community-oriented–to provide a context for the specific rites and initiations performed. She uses primary sources, such as the biographies and records of Greek historian Plutarch. The details in Kamen's article is a detailed primer for scholars. Although each subsection pertaining to life cycle rites and initiations are relatively short, they offer enough details to inform readers about life in Archaic Greece. The descriptions Kamen uses are vivid, which helps paint a cinematic view of ancient societies and their lifestyles.

For each of the three situations below, choose a radio-nuclide from those studied and explain why its attributes make it suitable to the imaging method in question: i) Gamma camera scans to establish kidney function ii) Studying the functioning of the thyroid gland iii) Studying the functioning of the lungs

Since I don't have a list of all of the radio-nuclides you have studied this year, I will simply give you what elements are typically used for this kind of radio-imaging.
Technetium-99m is used in 80% of Gamma emission imagery and is well-known as the isotope of choice to study the kidneys.
Iodine-123 is another gamma emitter with no beta-radiation, so it is less harsh on the thyroid. It is frequently used to study thyroid gland function because of this.
Xenon-133 or Krypton 81m are both frequently used for lung imaging to establish ventilation and functionality. They are both isotopes of noble gases, so they are very non-reactive as well as being very excitable; they respond well to imaging because they fluoresce when certain frequencies are applied to them.

In Looking Backward, how does Edward Bellamy reimagine the role of women?

For a novel with radical ideas given the time in which it was published, Bellamy speaks only briefly on the role of women in his "new America," instead dedicating most of the book to discussion of economic changes. The most prominent feature of the role of women is the legal power women have over their own affairs. In the book, women have their own female high-ranking government official with ultimate say over how women are treated, are tried by female judges, and work in a different general labor system meant to compensate for less physical strength while giving equal compensation. Significantly, when these aspect are combined it removes any financial or social dependence on men, allowing women to choose lifestyles and partners for themselves. For a nineteenth-century reader, this idea of full rights and self-control would have been shocking. In the later chapters when Bellamy eventually discusses women's rights in his utopia, it becomes clear that there is an idea of separate but equal. While controversial today, this notion would have given women far more leverage than was present at the time the novel was published.
Bellamy remained a product of his time, leaving the domestic work of childcare to women; however, he made it clear this was considered an equal type of work. It is likely that the concept of true gender equality was either beyond him (those ideas did not become prevalent for many decades) or was deemed too radical for his predominantly educated, male readers to accept.
Bellamy discussed the role of women in much greater detail in his second book, Equality.

Comment on the elements of fatalism and death in Appointment in Samarra.

The elements of death and fatalism are evident in the story Appointment in Samarra. The story begins with a quote from Somerset Maugham. In the quote, Maugham personalizes death and presents it as a woman who scares a servant from Bagdad, forcing him to flee to Samarra. However, when asked by the master why she made a threatening gesture to the servant, the woman says that she had an appointment with the servant in Samarra later that night. This is an element of fatalism, and a foreshadow in which the author seeks to have the reader understand that no one can run away from his or her own fate and death. The element of death is evident in the story at the point where Julian puts a gun into his mouth in the bathroom after realizing that his dealership was headed towards a financial disaster. Julian does not kill himself at that point, but it does not take long before he commits suicide in his car via carbon monoxide poisoning. This is a clear element of fatalism because, despite Julian not taking the shot in the first instance, he still does not run away from his fate and eventually ends up dead. Additionally, the element of fatalism is also depicted in the story where Ed Charney calls for Al Grecco to watch his mistress, Helene Holman so that she does not offer herself to other men. However, despite Al Grecco keeping watch on Helene, she still ends up offering herself to Julian. This suggests that fate cannot be averted, and no matter what precautions are taken, fate always takes its own course.

How did demographic, environmental, medical, and technological changes shape the experience of everyday life in late nineteenth-century Europe through the years 1848 to 1914?

The significance of the period outlined in this question cannot be understated for European history. During this time, Europe saw an unprecedented rise to global prominence and power precisely because of changes within each of the categories included in your question. To illustrate this and encourage further exploration, I will trace a number of developments in each category to illustrate how life transformed during this period.
The 19th century as a whole ushered in a new era of economic intensification that allowed for explosions in demographics across the European continent and the world beyond. This was made possible by advancements in agriculture that enabled population booms as food was produced more efficiently. The birth of modern factories facilitated mass migrations of lower-class citizens, who moved into urban centers across the entire continent, and increased travel between nations created new opportunities for fluid demographic exchange. Factories began mass producing consumer goods that fed economic enfranchisement of lower-class citizens into the middle classes.
The birth of technologically-driven mass agriculture facilitated these demographic explosions but had cascading impacts on the European environment. Increasingly larger areas of European territories were devoted to agriculture and animal husbandry, and deforestation during this period was rampant to feed development and urbanization. However, these advancements proved fragile, as seen in the Irish potato blight that devastated the Irish countryside and sparked mass migrations due to environmental instability.
This period saw the birth of truly modern medical establishments, including hospitals, professional doctors' organizations, and more accurate models of disease, such as the bacteriological model. Phenomena such as epidemics began to be combated effectively by medical interventions, and efficacious vaccinations started to demonstrate the usefulness of medical technology to solve the health needs of the day. French, British, Scottish and German doctors all contributed to a thriving international culture of medical research in pursuit of medical advancements that served as the origin for many of Europe's most successful pharmaceutical companies to date.
No arena of public and private life went unchanged by technological advancements, whether in textile and iron manufacturing allowing for cheap mass consumer goods or the birth of rapid transit in the form of trains, steam engines, and airplanes. Military technology, too, saw major advancements during this period of relative inter-European calm. Besides a number of brief conflicts, including the Crimean War and the Franco-Prussian war, most European powers were focused on imperial conquests elsewhere, and the tenuous international order that followed the Napoleonic Wars held until the end of this period.
With all these changes, Europeans could expect to lead longer, healthier lives due to medical advances, be more hunger-free than any prior generation due to mass agriculture, travel with far more ease across Europe and the world, and witness the birth of thriving urban life that had major consequences for European culture in all aspects of life.

Describe the most important achievements of the French Revolution.

The French Revolution produced many reforms and changes for French citizens. Obviously, the main reform that happened was the removal of the monarchy and the nobility, who were oppressive to the citizens at large. This led to the installation of democracy, taking after the actions of the United States and establishing a constitution.
Some additional reforms that were extremely important were the changes made to land rights and agriculture. While land remained expensive and difficult to acquire, it now became available to all, not simply parceled out to the nobility and distributed as they saw fit. Additionally, changes to agriculture and farming vastly improved the resources for the nation and the earning potential of formerly impoverished farmers, resulting in better lives and eventually, further privatization of land.
http://westerncivguides.umwblogs.org/2011/11/27/accomplishments-of-the-french-revolution/

What example of anagnorisis in Hamlet is shown in Prince Hamlet's soliloquies in act 3, scenes 2 and 3, and act 1, scene 2?

In act 3, scenes 2 and 3, Prince Hamlet puts on a play for the court in which actors perform a scene where a queen assures her husband, the king, that she would never remarry, even if he were to die. In the next scene in the play, the king's own brother murders the king by pouring poison into his ear. This is exactly how Hamlet believes his uncle Claudius (now King Claudius) has recently murdered his father, King Hamlet. He wants to watch Claudius's reaction to this performance to see if he shows guilt. Claudius stands up from his seat and leaves the room in haste upon witnessing a re-enactment of the murder. Hamlet realizes he is guilty. This is the anagnorisis, the point at which Prince Hamlet discovers the horrible truth of his situation.
A previous anagnorisis occurs in act 1, scene 2, when Prince Hamlet rehearses recent events and realizes that his mother must not have loved her husband, his father, as much as she had pretended if she was able to remarry within a month. He ironically remarks that they used the food from the funeral to furnish the wedding. His mother must be selfish, dishonest, and conniving, he concludes. If that is true, then everyone must be false, and the world is hardly worth living in. This horrible realization leads him to the contemplation of suicide.
Anagnorisis is the moment in a story when the protagonist realizes the truth of their predicament or the truth about some other character's real identity.

How does it end?

"Goodbye, My Brother" ends with the narrator expressing a vast relief to have finally gotten his pessimistic, misanthropic, negative brother Lawrence out of his life and out of his system. The words "Goodbye, my brother" apply both ways. The narrator says goodbye to his brother, but his brother has already said goodbye to him and to the rest of the family. The narrator wakes up on the morning of Lawrence's abrupt departure with a feeling that a black cloud has blown away and left a perfectly gorgeous day.

Jesus, what a morning! The wind was northerly. The air was clear. In the early heat, the roses in the garden smelled like strawberry jam.

The blustery Atlantic air seems to play an important part in the story. It is as if that cold ocean air has blown away the gloom that Lawrence ("Tifty") brought with him from Albany. The narrator does not even express any guilt or regret over the fact that he had tried to kill his brother on the beach the day before by hitting him over the head with a waterlogged tree-root. Fortunately for both of them, he hadn't succeeded but had only stunned his brother and left him bleeding. Apparently Lawrence did not really resent the blow. He might have been asking for it, even expecting it. Such a blow was what this man expected from life.
Many famous writers have commented on the relief that can come from terminating a destructive relationship. Here are three pertinent quotes:

Do not keep on with the mockery of friendship after the substance is gone--but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming.William Hazlitt
It’s no good trying to keep up old friendships. It’s painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.Somerset Maugham
A relationship is like a shark: it has to constantly keep moving forward or it dies. And I’m afraid what we’ve got here is a dead shark.Woody Allen

This was supposed to be a big family reunion. Big family reunions often turn into big family debacles, especially if a lot of drinking is being done. Everybody dreaded the arrival of Lawrence, including his own mother, who had to stay drunk on gin during most of his visit just to be able to tolerate him. Nobody was sorry to see him go. It did not seem likely that they would see him again except for his mother's funeral. He is the kind of man who would be punctilious about attending family funerals and would probably enjoy them.

What are the important contributions of the Indus civilization to later societies?

The people of the Indus Valley may not have left behind huge monuments like the Egyptian pyramids, but they nonetheless made a significant contribution to civilization. Indus cities were laid out according to a grid pattern, with streets constructed in straight lines and at right angles. This method of town planning is largely taken for granted these days—a quick look at a map of Manhattan will give you some idea of what it looks like—but at the time when Indus civilization reached its peak, this was virtually unheard of.
In relation to town planning, Indus civilization was also renowned for its sanitation system. A sophisticated system of drainage ensured that waste from people's houses was emptied into drains in the street before flowing out of the city.
Indus Valley civilization produced innovations in a number of other areas such as metallurgy, crop cultivation, and the manufacture of clothes. Moreover, its writing system was the first of its kind in South Asia.

What happens to Captain Nielsen and the crew when they get near Ship-Trap Island?

At the beginning of the short story, Whitney and Rainsford are on the top deck of the yacht having a conversation about hunting when Whitney mentions that the island they are passing has a bad reputation. Whitney proceeds to tell Rainsford that the crew seemed "a bit jumpy" today and Captain Nielsen mentioned that the island has an "evil name among seafaring men." Whitney goes on to say that Captain Nielsen even stopped to ask if he felt anything strange or ominous in the air. When Rainsford comments that the ship's crew and captain simply have overactive imaginations, Whitney says that he believes sailors have an extra sense that warns them when they are in danger. Captain Nielsen and the crew's ominous feelings about Ship-Trap Island create a foreboding atmosphere and foreshadow Rainsford's horrific experience on the island, where General Zaroff hunts him during the most dangerous game.

Captain Nielsen and his crew are more than a little jumpy as they approach the notorious Ship-Trap Island. Nielsen's a hardy old sea dog, but even he is feeling quite unnerved as this God-forsaken place comes into view. Whitney asks the tough old Swede what's wrong, but the captain won't let on. He simply mumbles something about the island having an evil reputation amongst sailors. This isn't just an old sailor's superstition, either; even Whitney can feel a certain chill in the air as they draw nearer and nearer to this terrible place.
Rainsford's not convinced; he thinks it's all just a load of mumbo-jumbo. However, Whitney replies that perhaps sailors have a kind of sixth sense that allows them to detect the presence of evil. That Whitney and the sailors are absolutely right about this is something that the skeptical Rainsford will find out for himself in due course.

What does Matilda Cook look like in the book Fever 1793?

Fever 1793 was written by Laurie Halse Anderson in the year 2000. The main character of the book, Matilda (or Mattie), finds herself caught up in an yellow fever epidemic that all but destroys Philadelphia in the summer of 1793. Mattie lives with her mother, her grandfather, and a hired cook named Eliza, and together they run a coffeehouse in Philadelphia.
We know that Mattie is a teenager of fourteen years of age, but there are few descriptions of her actual physical appearance. Instead, the novel chooses to focus on how the epidemic changes Mattie as a person.
At the beginning of the story, Mattie behaves as a typical teenager: more concerned with her own affairs than those of her family. She enjoys sleeping in, is content to let others do her chores, and isn't particularly physically strong. As she sets out to depart with her grandfather in one scene, we get some sense of Mattie's physicality:

"She looks like a china doll," observed Grandfather as we departed.
"I will break just as easily," I muttered.

Once the yellow fever outbreak is in full swing, Mattie herself falls ill but recovers fairly quickly. Mattie's mother then becomes seriously ill, so Mattie has no choice but to take on much more responsibility. This includes the harrowing task of having to inter her Grandfather's body once he dies from the fever. Mattie also decides to keep the coffeehouse open and asks Eliza to become her equal partner. By the end of the novel, Mattie is making very adult decisions. I would argue that her appearance is not nearly as important as the development and growth of her character.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/fever-1793-discussion-guide/

There is very little physical description of Matilda (Mattie) Cook, but it is mentioned that she has brown eyes. She is said to have changed from a soft, young girl (page 43)—a typical teenager—to looking more like her mother by the end of the story. She is strong, both emotionally and physically, but I understand that she was a relatively small and thin young lady. Other than that, most of the descriptions of Matilda have more to do with her maturity than her physical appearance. Fever 1793 is the story of an ordinary teenager growing up in extraordinary times, having to grow up quickly and make hard choices. Matilda learns to be responsible and to survive in a city that is panicked and stricken by yellow fever, and this character development is shown more through her actions than through any physical changes.

What role does money play in A Raisin in the Sun?

Money is one of the central themes in the story "A Raisin in the Sun." The characters begin the story by arguing over what to do with the money from a life insurance check, as Walter feels like he should get to do what he wants with it but Mama is the one with the ultimate responsibility for making decisions.
Throughout the story, the family plans to buy a new house in a nice, all white neighborhood with the sum of money they received. Unfortunately, a large portion of the money is stolen after they buy the house and they are left without security or an ability help their financial situation.
The majority of the story revolves around money and the opportunities it gives. While it can be seen as a vice, it is clearly shown that lack of money is a much worse situation than having the vices that come with too much money.

Money has a significant role in the play and is the source of conflict among the members of the Younger family. Money also drives the plot of the play and helps characterize the members of the Younger family. The Younger family lives in poverty and resides together in a cramped, worn-down South Side apartment. However, the Younger family's financial situation seems to greatly improve when Lena receives a ten thousand dollar insurance check after the death of her husband. Each member of the Younger family has their own ideas of how to spend the money in order to attain their individual dreams and aspirations.
Conflict immediately arises regarding how to spend the insurance money. Walter Jr. is a passionate, desperate man who is sick of working as a chauffeur and wishes to attain financial freedom by investing in a liquor business. However, Lena does not initially support her son's dream because of her Christian ideals, which greatly affects Walter's attitude as he becomes extremely depressed about not fulfilling his dream. Beneatha, who is an intelligent, confident young woman, wishes to use the insurance money to pay for her college education so that she can become a doctor. However, the other members of her family do not support her dream because it challenges the social conventions of the time. Lena wishes to use the money to buy a newer, spacious home where her family can live comfortably and enjoy themselves. Ruth is the only member of the family who shares Lena's dream, and Lena ends up purchasing a home in the white neighborhood of Clybourne Park.
After Lena makes an initial down payment, she sympathizes with her son and ends up giving him $6500 to invest in his liquor business and pay for some of Beneatha's education. Unfortunately, Walter Jr. gets cheated by one of his business partners and loses the money his mother gave him. The loss of $6500 presents another conflict in the play and negatively affects the dynamic of the Younger family. Beneatha turns on her brother and Walter wallows in self-pity. Towards the end of the play, Walter Jr. decides to meet with Mr. Lindner and plans on selling Lena's home back to the white community in order to make up for losing the money. Before Walter Jr. signs the necessary paperwork to make the transaction, Lena tells Travis to watch his father make a deal with Mr. Lindner while she speaks about their family's proud ancestors. At that moment, Walter Jr. experiences a change of heart and demonstrates his integrity by refusing to sell Lena's home back to the white community of Clybourne Park. Overall, money symbolically represents hope for the Younger family and is a constant source of conflict throughout the play. Money also drives the plot and helps reveal the characters' different aspirations and values.

What is a character sketch of Yang Sun in the play The Good Woman of Setzuan?

Yang Sun is an unemployed mail pilot. He's in such despair at his lack of prospects in life that he tries to kill himself. Fortunately, Shen Te, the archetypal prostitute with a heart of gold, saves him just in the nick of time. Unfortunately, she falls in love with him.
Like just about everyone else in the play, Yang Sun proceeds to take advantage of Shen Te's kindness, and he cruelly exploits her, seeing her as nothing more than a piggy bank to be raided as and when it suits him. At no point does the selfish and manipulative Yang Sun ever reciprocate Shen Te's affections.
In due course, Yang Sun rises, socially (if not morally) to the position of factory manager. Brecht, a Marxist, uses Yang Sun as an example of how money and power can so easily corrupt the working-classes, diverting them from the path of revolution—which history has destined them to follow.

When Poor Richard discusses the invention of the telescope and the orbits of planets around the sun, what does he assume about his readership?

Franklin's relationship to his reader in the Almanac is one of equality. That is, while Franklin may think of himself as a kind of educator, he is never condescending to his reader, even when explaining complex topics like astronomy. Rather, he appeals to his reader on the basis of common sense: much of the comic tone of the almanac comes from Franklin's tacit recognition that he and his reader share certain common values and beliefs.
This extends to his discussion of Copernicus, for example. After explaining the Copernican "system of the world" (and noting that Pythagoras had had the same idea 2,000 years before), he launches into a succinct comparison of the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems. This explanation does not pander to his audience; Franklin even references the work of a modern astronomer, "Mr. Whiston," who provides figures for the size of the sun and its distance from earth. These facts are evidence of the truth of Copernicus's system, but Franklin is not here engaging in argument, nor does he appear to assume that his reader is ignorant of Copernicus.
This sense of familiarity with his reader is best expressed by a concluding joke. Franklin compares Ptolemy to a "whimsical Cook," who, rather than rotating his meat on a spit over the fire, instead has the fire whirling around the meat! This analogy serves to show "how much more natural is Copernicus's Scheme," but also exemplified the kind of easy, joking relationship Franklin has with his audience.

Benjamin Franklin, under the pseudonym "Poor Richard", acted as America's general education teacher with his writings, much like Bill Nye the Science Guy is today. He took it upon himself to write about a wide array of subjects so that the average individual who reads his paper would receive a broad overview of different subjects in an easily digestible way.
When Franklin discusses the invention of the telescope and the motion of the planets, it is clear that he is talking to laymen. His phrasing does not include technological jargon or overly complex language that would confuse the average reader, and makes sure to go over a broad range of topics within these categories, instead of going in depth on a subject that they have never heard of before.

Ben Franklin, writing as "Poor Richard," sought to inform his readership about the workings of the solar system, to demystify the process of scientific observation, and to challenge some of the prevailing, unscientific attitudes about astronomy. By using simple words and a clear, explanatory voice, Franklin is locating his work in the broad Enlightenment tradition. He makes it clear that scientific knowledge belongs to everyone, not just an elite able to speak a particular jargon. He clearly regards his readers as intelligent laypeople, who may lack a technical background but can understand concepts explained through clear analogies to everyday experience.
Franklin also uses this voice to lampoon and satirize some of the common unscientific explanations for astronomical events. By puncturing these theories, he is trying to show that truth can belong to everyone, and that even those who claim to be experts can fall into error.

Poor Richard was the pseudonym for Benjamin Franklin. In Poor Richard's Almanack, Franklin attempted to provide wisdom, news, and entertainment to the colonists. Franklin was a world-renowned scientist who had a large following in Europe as well as the United States. Franklin realized that his readership did not have his scientific background but they had an interest in stargazing. Franklin reported on developments with the telescope and planetary tables in order to enlighten his readership. The goal was for his readers to appreciate the science behind astronomy and to do away with superstitions. Franklin was always challenging the "knowledge" held in superstitious beliefs and he encouraged his readership to do the same. Franklin's astronomy tables also had practical applications as many people used the stars and planets for navigation. Before the electric light, the night sky was quite visible. Franklin knew that astronomy was a major part of everyone's life and he wished to report the latest developments in the field.

"Poor Richard" was the pseudonym of Benjamin Franklin. As Poor Richard, Franklin published Poor Richard's Almanack. The yearly publication was popular among the American colonists during Franklin's time.
The almanac was not written for academic intellectuals and scientific scholars, but for the layperson. Rather than complicated explanations on the weather, astronomical phenomena and scientific inquiries, Poor Richard's Almanack featured clever wordplay and other literary tropes that entertained the common person.
Even the pseudonym that Franklin chose reflected his intended readers. By adopting the name Poor Richard, Franklin was able to relate with the uneducated colonists. Franklin himself stated that education should be available to all colonists, not just to the wealthy elite.
In the articles about the invention of the telescope and the orbits of planets around the sun, Benjamin Franklin assumed the role of the teacher—possessing great knowledge that seemed esoteric to the common people—but he wrote them in an entertaining and simple-worded fashion.
Having a background in science and philosophy, Franklin sought to disprove occultist beliefs and the supernatural. However, many of the colonists were religious common folk who still believed in superstitions. So when Franklin wrote his articles on the telescope and astronomy, he articulated scientific ideas with common person's beliefs in mind. Through Poor Richard's Almanack, Franklin sought to disprove old, anachronistic ideas with proven scientific knowledge.
http://theconversation.com/eclipsing-the-occult-in-early-america-benjamin-franklin-and-his-almanacs-80309

https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-ben-franklin-poor-richard-eclipse-20170811-story.html