Discuss the relationship between the Western and the African cultures as presented in The Color Purple in terms of sexism,racism, or colonialsim. For what reason is Walker critical of Western Colonialism in this novel?

Celie's sister Nettie goes to Africa as a missionary, along with Samuel and Corrine and their two children (who are actually Celie's biological children). Through Nettie's letters to Celie, we are exposed to the different cultural practices of the Olinka tribe vs. those of the African American characters living in the American South. Both seem to be patriarchal cultures. In the South, Celie and Sofia are beaten by their husbands. Celie is sexually abused by her stepfather, who she thinks is her biological father (this is how she bears the two children later adopted by Samuel and Corrine) and forced to marry Mr. __ with no real say in the matter.
Samuel the missionary, on the other hand, is more compassionate and Nettie falls in love with him and they marry after Corrine's death. Samuel is an example of a more enlightened man who does not gain power by oppressing women. In terms of racism, Samuel and Corrine, and Nettie, are in an interesting position because they are African American missionaries. They are not portrayed as taking advantage of the tribes in the same was the white colonizers are, but they are still there trying to impose a Western belief system on the tribes.
In the Olinka tribe, Nettie describes the lifestyle as a bit more idyllic that what we see in the American South, but it is clear that the tribe does not completely welcome Western influence. For example, they continue their practice of female genital mutilation. Tashi, a young tribal woman whom Adam (Samuel and Corrine's son) marries, undergoes the practice as part of her cultural tradition. This is the most controversial moment for the missionary family, as Nettie both wants to be sympathetic to Tashi and to enlighten her to the danger and oppression the practice represents, according to Western standards.

What are Orwell's overall purposes through 1984? In what ways does Orwell's writing serve to accomplish these objectives?

George Orwell's primary purpose in 1984 is to depict a totalitarian society and warn readers against allowing the world to fall into such a dystopian future after World War II.
Orwell creates an entire world in the novel, one that is marked by surveillance and lack of individual freedom. Big Brother's face is seen everywhere, along with the message that he is always watching. The Thought Police seek to punish those who even consider rebellious action. No one trusts anyone else, to the point that even parents and children would turn each other over to the Party if they suspected treason or transgression. Telescreens are in every citizen's home, monitoring their every move. Newspeak has been devised to dumb down the language so that people cannot speak nor even conceive of rebelling. The Ministry of Truth exists to destroy and rewrite history to fit the Party's current agenda. That is where the protagonist, Winston Smith, works.
Winston's ordinary name demonstrates that he stands for the common man. His journey illustrates what any citizen might do while living under the gaze of Big Brother. He begins to rebel in small ways and eventually wants to pull down the entire government. Winston is caught and tortured in the ironically-named Ministry of Love until he "loves Big Brother" again. The ending shows that there is no hope for escape from such a totalitarian system.

“The most memorable protagonists in plays are significantly flawed in some way.” Do you agree with this statement? Respond with close reference to Death of a Salesman.

There is a lot of potential directions that you can go with this writing prompt. You are certainly able to disagree with the statement and say that the most memorable characters are those that are perfect. I don't recommend doing this. First, I legitimately think that disagreeing with the prompt is a more difficult task. Second, agreeing with the prompt and supporting the prompt is likely what your teacher is looking for.
In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is at least two things. He is flawed and also quite memorable, so he works as a good supporting character to your writing prompt. A direction to go might be to go the standard hubris angle; however, I do hesitate to fully claim that Loman suffers from excessive pride. He's definitely delusional. In his mind, he's hugely successful, but he also suffers from serious self-doubt. All of this combines to form a character that comes across as extremely arrogant at times, and that makes him very memorable.
If you need to support the prompt with other characters, I might look to another Miller play. You could pick John Proctor from The Crucible. I would explore his flaw of lusting after Abigail or his pride in his good name. He ultimately lets himself be killed to protect his name. Macbeth would be another great character to explore as his flaw would the flaw of unchecked ambition. Ambition is good, but he lets the means justify the end, and he's been a memorable character for 400 years.

What are some character traits for George Corrigan in Don't Look Behind You?

When Lois Duncan’s thrilling novel Don't Look Behind You begins, the Corrigan family is a stereotypical family. George Corrigan is an airline employee with a wife and two kids (April and Bram). However, one day everything changes, and April learns that her father doesn’t really work for an airline; instead, he works for the FBI. George’s current case has him working undercover in order to catch a well-known drug dealer. While testifying in court, a hitman, hired by the drug dealer, attempts to shoot George. At this point, the Corrigan family most enter The Witness Protection Program to ensure their safety.
George Corrigan is a caring father who accepts responsibility for the upheaval his family most face. April and Bram (now called Valerie and Jason) are not happy to give up their friends and life and move to Florida. The pressure on the family causes Mrs. Corrigan to begin drinking. George realizes that his actions are the cause of his family’s pain, but as the novel continues, he just wants to find ways to make sure that they stay safe.

Why is Mary Maloney's transformation surprising?

Mary Maloney proves herself a very round and dynamic character. That, in and of itself, shouldn't be shocking or surprising. Protagonists should be characters that show some depth to them and are changed because of the events that happen to them over the course of a given plot. With all of that said, I think Mary's transformation is surprising for two reasons. First, she is introduced to readers as a very stock/static character. Second, her transformation is so unbelievably drastic in a ridiculously short amount of time.
When readers are introduced to Mary, she is characterized as a quintessential doting housewife. She practically worships the ground that her husband walks on. She patiently waits for him to get home, she pours him his drinks, and we are told that her favorite part of the day is luxuriating in his very presence. If I'm honest, it's a bit gag worthy. Then Mary becomes a completely different person within moments of receiving Patrick's terrible news. She moves without thinking and clubs him over the head with a leg of lamb so hard that she kills him. You could argue that she acted without thinking and perhaps forgive her; however, everything she does after realizing Patrick is dead is incredibly cunning and manipulative. She figures out how to establish an alibi, she practices it, and executes the plan. Mary then figures out a creative way to permanently dispose of the murder weapon. Then the story ends by giving readers the final piece of information that shows that Mary is no longer an innocent, doting housewife just trying to protect her unborn baby. She giggles at what the police are talking about. She finds her husband's death and her getting away with the killing humorous. That's a magnificent transformation from the Mary Maloney we were introduced to at the story's start.

Perhaps the most prominent theme in Roald Dahl's story "Lamb to the Slaughter" has to do with the sudden and surprising change that comes over Mary Maloney when her husband tells her he wants a divorce. She was herself literally a "lamb" up to that point, but she changes into a murderess and kills her husband with one blow in a violent outburst of rage. The theme has been a common saying for centuries.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
It was originally derived from William Congreve's play The Mourning Bride (1697), in which the character Zara says:
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned. Act 3, Scene 7
A good example of love to hatred turned can also be found in Medea (431 B.C.) by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides (480-406 B.C.). But many examples can be observed in our everyday modern life, or read about in the newspapers.
The most striking thing about "Lamb to the Slaughter" is not that Mary Maloney gets away with her crime, nor that she has the investigating policemen eat up the murder weapon, but it is the totally surprising change in her meek, loving character which motivates her to kill her husband with a single, violent blow to the head with a frozen leg of lamb.

How are birches described in the poem? What can they signify?

The birches signify the speaker's love of life, earth, and nature.
The speaker describes the birches using imagery that is both beautiful and melancholy. He describes how the sun's warmth melts hard shell of ice around the birch trees, so that the ice cracks and falls in a thousand crystals:

Such heaps of broken glass to sweep awayYou'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen

Likening the ice to "the inner dome of heaven" is a lovely image that expresses the speaker's desire to find heaven back on earth.

The speaker also explains how the birches can become bowed by the ice, saying they are


Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hairBefore them over their heads to dry in the sun.

This is another lovely image.

The birches bring back to the speaker memories of childhood. He happily remembers (somewhat problematically, given that the trees have been likened to females) how he "subdued" and would "conquer" the trees by riding on them.

Finally, with melancholy, he says that he longs sometimes to start life over by climbing a birch tree toward heaven and coming back to earth again:


I'd like to go [die] by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.

The speaker longs not for heaven but for a chance to live life again, and hr dreams of the birch tree, which represents what he loves about earth, offering him that possibility.

What is the role of mythology in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe?

I find that one of the most compelling aspects of Achebe's novel is the way the reader is brought inside the culture of Umuofia in order to understand it from the inside out. In this sense, I find the use of the term "mythology" a bit misleading, since in Umuofia the stories and practices that we might identify as "myth" in fact play a vital role in the daily lives of the people and form a historical practice that we as readers of the novel grasp but which outsiders, like the missionaries, can't comprehend.
Take, for instance, the episode in which Enoch "unmasks" one of the egwugwu. The egwugwu are the living gods of the clan; even though to the Christians they are simply men wearing masks, to the people of the village, they represent the highest divine authority. When Enoch attacks one and reveals the man underneath the mask, this desecration does not show that the egwugwu are frauds but instead causes the other gods to rise up in anger. As a result, the gods of Umuofia gather in force and burn the Christian church to the ground. While the missionaries might see this as a form of mob violence, for Umuofia this act is a form of divine justice.

Scholars have suggested that the use of mythology in Things Fall Apart stresses the relationship between nature and culture and the significant role of the cultural past in defining African identity. A myth that recounts a quarrel between Earth and Sky is central to the story, and other myths of the natural world play a significant role as well. They all contribute to the author's message and help reveal the African perspective.
These types of myths exist among cultural groups all over the world, and they help solidify cultural identities in new and changing societies. The African people have a history of connecting with the natural environment. Holding on to this history through myth helped them bond as a group during and after the colonial invasions. The mission to colonize the people of African included efforts to obliterate their culture; keeping the myths of their culture alive help them hold on to their values and perspectives. Myths that explain the natural world promote cohesion in the group by revealing a uniquely African perspective. They link the people to their homeland and encourage them to embrace their historical roots.

What dream has Mr. Lorry awoken from in A Tale of Two Cities?

I assume from your question that you're referring to Mr. Lorry's dream in chapter 3, "The Night Shadows." As he rides in the mail-coach, Mr. Lorry "nodded in his place, with half-shut eyes." As Dickens describes,

Though the bank was almost always with him, and though the coach (in a confused way, like the presence of pain under an opiate) was always with him, there was another current of impression that never ceased to run, all through the night. He was on his way to dig some one out of a grave.

This "someone" never becomes clear to Mr. Lorry, though the faces in his vision are "the faces of a man of five-and-forty years" and look ghastly in their "worn and wasted state." Mr. Lorry repeatedly asks this person how long he has been buried for, to which the "spectre" replies, "Almost eighteen years." When Mr. Lorry tells the spectre that he has been "recalled to life" and asks, "I hope you care to live?" the ghost responds, "I can't say."
Next in the dream, Mr. Lorry asks, "Shall I show her to you? Will you come and see her?" and it is here that the dream varies: sometimes the spectre replies, "Wait! It would kill me if I saw her too soon"; other times he says "Take me to her"; or else he is confused, saying, "‘I don’t know her. I don’t understand."
After this conversation occurs, the Mr. Lorry in the dream digs the spectre out of his grave, at which point "he would suddenly fan away to dust" and Mr. Lorry would "start to himself, and lower the window, to get the reality of mist and rain on his cheek." The exchange about the spectre having been buried for eighteen years recurs several times, as well as the spectre's seeming ambivalence about coming back to life.
When Mr. Lorry finally truly awakes, it is dawn, and the "shadows of the night were gone." As the chapter closes, Mr. Lorry marvels at the horror of being buried alive for eighteen years.

By the end of the story, is there any source of hope? What message (if any) does Voltaire leave the reader with?

The answer to this is unclear, because Voltaire's Candide is such a pessimistic work overall. It is very difficult to find much optimism within it, and the main character, who seems at times to be the incarnation of optimism and hope itself, is torn down until he loses his own positive attitude. However, the end of the book gives something of a challenge, which offers hope in the context of the work.
Optimism is clearly the enemy in Voltaire's eyes. He embraces cynicism and encourages his main character to eventually accept that the world is not necessarily a happy and optimistic place. Most prominently, he seems to be decrying the majority of European civilization and the world at large, blaming humanity for the state of the world (which would not be an unfair assessment).
After seeing wickedness and corruption (e.g., the Portuguese Inquisition, thieves and cannibals trying to take both his possessions and his life, admirals and soldiers who abuse and fight with him, people being quartered and tortured, and so much more), Candide has experienced the worst humanity has to offer. He receives a shimmering gleam of hope, however, when he enters El Dorado and finds a land of peace and intelligence, without the violence, religious turmoil, or bitterness inherent in the rest of the land. But he unfortunately departs and loses everything he has gained in that experience.
Following all this, Candide is eventually overcome by despair. However, the one hopeful sign in the book comes at the very end, when Candide and his companions gather together on the farm that he purchases with the remnants of the finances acquired during his travels, and they set to work on their own version of civilization. The group focuses on their own talents and endeavors to work together, in a situation that resembles communism, and Candide states at the very end that "we must cultivate our own garden." This final line is the one area of optimism and hope—by working hard and eschewing the evils of society, it implies, we can make a better place in the future.

What are the themes of the novel Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee?

In the novel Jasmine, as the title character moves through different phases of her life, she also changes her name. This constant reinvention suggests one prominent theme, the search for identity. That theme is also conveyed through other characters, notably Du and Devinder. Many of the characters are immigrants to the US, as is Jasmine herself. This supports a primary theme of the challenges of immigrant adjustment to foreign life. As a woman, Jasmine—first as the young Jyoti in India—has many experiences that seem exclusively or primarily gendered. In this regard, one of the main themes is the role of women in society. In the ways the author strongly contrasts life in India and the US, another theme is the influence of religion on national culture.
For Jasmine as an individual and for her native country of India and the Punjab region within it, the process of identity formation entails considerable violence. While Jasmine moves away from using violence to resolve problems, such as defense against a rapist, she cannot escape its presence in her life. This repeated presentation suggests a theme of the inevitability of violence, giving the novel a realist orientation, in comparison to an idealist view that could endorse nonviolence or pacifism.

In The Chronicles of Narnia, what made Lucy upset when she returned after her meeting with Mr. Tumnus from the land of Narnia?

Lucy is upset because no one will believe her story about meeting Mr. Tumnus. Lucy had taken tea with the faun, after which he briefly sent her to sleep by playing a little tune on his pan pipes. After Lucy suddenly wakes up, Mr. Tumnus confesses that he's a spy for the White Witch, and has been instructed to kidnap any human child that comes across his path and turn them over to her. Lucy pleads with him not to do this, and Mr. Tumnus agrees, even though he knows he will be in serious trouble if the White Witch finds out. Lucy and Mr. Tumnus part on good terms and Lucy quickly makes her way back to the wardrobe.
However, when she tells the others about her little adventure, no one believes a word she says. They think she's just making up a story. Lucy tries to convince Peter and Edmund of the reality of the magic land of Narnia, but they remain stubbornly unconvinced. Lucy is incredibly frustrated and upset by her brothers' treatment of her. She knows what she saw; she knows that Narnia is real.

Explain at least three ways in which Plato demonstrates that he has drawn upon the ideas of Homer, the Pre-Socratics, Sophocles, and Euripides. Pay close attention to the participants in the dialog of the Symposium, the themes of their statements and the progression of their arguments. Base your conclusions on the works of Plato, and the other Greek authors.

In the Symposium, Plato has the banquet guests make numerous references to earlier Greek writers. Much is made, in one stretch of the dialogue, of Homer's alluding to Menelaus's having been an inferior to Agamemnon in battle but nevertheless coming uninvited to a feast. It is merely an incidental allusion, but a point is made about one of the interlocutors, Aristodemus, having come to the banquet uninvited, and it may have some bearing on the value of the comments Aristodemus makes within the dialogue. Eryximachus, another guest, then indicates he will make the exordium of his speech in the style of the Menalippe of Euripides. Eryximachus goes into a long quotation of a statement by Phaedrus, in which Phaedrus has lamented the lack of praise for Eros (Love, the main subject of the Symposium) "even by the sophist Prodicus" and others who had extolled the exploits of Heracles. Additional references are made to the "deeds of Love" by the gods as recorded by Hesiod and Parmenides.
These allusions to the Greek poets of the past, though they are done in passing, establish a framework in which Plato contextualizes the debate about Love. They also, to some extent, serve as a foil to the deeper thinking which is to follow. The centerpiece of the dialogue is, of course, Socrates's own analysis of Love, which he himself attributes to the foreign prophetess Diotima, Socrates being too modest to present the ideas as his own.
It is clear that Plato intends the speech of Socrates, which he withholds until the others have finished, to show not necessarily the wrongness, but at least the relative superficiality, of what the other guests have stated. Even if we as readers didn't know that Socrates was Plato's idol, this would be obvious from the fact that Socrates takes the discussion about Love specifically into a further realm where he talks about the motivations and drives that lie at the heart of human life overall. Other interpretations are possible, of course, and I am not entirely sure I fully understand all the points Plato has Socrates make. However, the Symposium incorporates a wealth of ideas, presented in the guise of a discussion among friends and rooted in the literature of Homeric and classical Greece.

The speech of Phaedrus in Plato's Symposium praises Eros, the god of love. In the speech, Phaedrus refers to many important earlier works by poets and philosophers in support of the importance of love and how love can inspire brave and noble actions.
An example of how love makes people brave and self-sacrificing, according to Phaedrus, is the case of Alcestis, the eponymous heroine of a play by Euripides, who volunteers to sacrifice her own life for that of her husband.
Phaedrus states that in Homer's Iliad, Achilles is inspired to return to the battle, despite knowing that it will lead to his death, out of his love and grief for his lover, Patroclus.
Finally, Phaedrus cites Parmenides as an example of an early philosopher who describes Eros as among the oldest of the gods.

In Plato's Symposium, seven very different men get together for a drinking party ("symposion" in Greek, literally 'drinking together') and talk about the definition and nature of love; each of the men offers an encomium to Eros, the god of love and desire. I'll mention three examples from the different speeches that show that Plato has drawn upon earlier thinkers:
1) In the speech of Erixymachus, the doctor, he makes a reference to the pre-Socratic natural philosopher Heraclitus when he talks about love, harmony, and the coming together of opposites. Erixymachus criticizes Heraclitus who thinks that opposites come together; Erixymachus argues that it is only similar things that are capable of being attracted, one to another. Aristophanes' tale of the round people is also presumably inspired by Empedocles.
2) Socrates refers to a story from Homer's Odyssey in his speech (at 198c):

For his speech so reminded me of Gorgias that I was exactly in the plight described by Homer: I feared that Agathon in his final phrases would confront me with the eloquent Gorgias' head, and by opposing his speech to mine would turn me thus dumbfounded into stone.

This is a reference to Book XI of the Odyssey.
3) At 199a, Socrates refers to Euripides' Hippolytus by quoting the famous line about his tongue having sworn but not his mind. This is but one of numerous references to Euripides. The very character of Agathon, the tragedian, alludes to Euripides and perhaps also to Sophocles.

What is the purpose of the yellow vest movement in France?

The yellow vest movement takes its name from the gilets jaunes, which are safety vests, that the protesters wear. French law requires motorists to carry such vests in their vehicles. Beginning in the provinces, the initial protests were led by drivers who put on the vests and created roadblocks. As the movement gained steam and spread to urban streets, especially in Paris, all the participants began to wear the vests. While there has been violence, many protests remain peaceful.
Beginning in November 2018, the demonstrators opposed a fuel tax that President Macron announced would be imposed starting January 1, 2019. By early December, the official government estimates reached almost half a million protestors, though participants say the numbers are much higher. They reject Macron’s claim that the tax is a “green” or ecological measure that will lead to decreased driving, thereby reducing gasoline and diesel usage and air pollution. Especially those who live in rural areas, have low incomes, and must drive long distances to work pointed out that the tax would unfairly impact them. From there, the movement has grown to encompass the working poor and middle class, who have seen their incomes and/or purchasing power shrinking in recent years.
Accusing Macron of being rich himself and of disproportionately favoring the rich through income tax cuts for the wealthy, some protestors call for his resignation or that of the National Assembly (similar to Congress), with the members to be replaced through new elections. More generally, along with a repeal of the tax, most call for an increase in the minimum wage.

What changed about Bobbie at the end of The Misfits?

The main changes that Bobby undergoes are becoming a more compassionate person and becoming an activist, both of which change his future path. Working for Mr. Kellerman, Bobby had thought primarily about the difficulties of his situation as a child with his first paid job and had understood the adult’s actions only in relation to being a supervisor. When he learns that his boss has lost his mother, he realizes that he is a person too. This change is related to the development of Bobby’s activism at school. He and his friends take on the cause of ending bullying by creating a political party that opposes name calling. He persuades Addie and the others to make it their platform and then writes and presents a speech about the issue. Bobby not only extends himself to understand another person but also develops confidence in standing up for himself and others. We learn at the end that this entry into politics led to his becoming a senator.

What is the rhyme scheme of the poem "Death, be not proud"?

John Donne’s “Death, Be Not Proud” belongs to a collection of poems he entitled The Divine Meditations, or Holy Sonnets. As such, it is written in iambic pentameter and adheres to the Petrarchan rhyming scheme—at least for the most part. The first of its two stanzas consists of eight lines which employ two rhyming strands, alternating in order, to establish death as a malevolent force within the poem.
The second stanza provides a resolution to the problem that death poses. These lines progress the rhyme scheme in a manner different to the traditional Petrarchan form. While most Petrarchan sonnets use CDCDCD for their second stanza, Donne favors a scheme that returns to the A rhyme in the poem’s concluding couplet. Moreover, the poem’s concluding couplet uses a half rhyme between “eternally” and “die,” which is a further break from Petrarchan convention—perhaps intended to mirror the waning of death’s influence.

Why was Ulysses S. Grant so bad as a president?

Ulysses S. Grant was not the worst president in history, and he did provide some stability and peace with regard to Native American relations. However, his largest failing was his reliance on individuals he knew personally, mostly from the army, to fill cabinet posts. Most of these individuals had never served in public office and were unschooled in civilian ethics. This led to a number of ethical scandals, from bribery claims to complaints about the use of the spoils systems in disbursing jobs and benefits. These individuals also lacked political skills and viewpoints, leading them to take steps that would clearly be unpopular among members of their own party and the public at large. This was a major failing for Grant: his own understanding of political realities was also thin, so the use of unqualified cabinet members exacerbated his shortcomings.

When did the family of Martin Van Buren stop speaking Dutch?

Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York, to a family of Dutch descent. He was born in a state that was originally owned by the Netherlands until the British took over, saying they had a prior claim. Van Buren grew up speaking Dutch in the home, so English was his second language, learned after he began school. He is the only US president for whom English was not the first language.
Van Buren, the eighth US president, was also the first president not of British ancestry. His wife, Hannah, was of Dutch descent, too, and she also grew up speaking Dutch as her first language. Both the president and the First Lady were reported to speak English with a slight Dutch accent.
As both Van Buren and his wife were Dutch speakers, it is very possible they taught their children Dutch in the home. Hannah died when her children were young, but not before they would have acquired language skills.

How is Six Characters in Search of an Author an example of metatheater, and what are its metatheatrical aspects?

The term "metatheater" refers to drama which is self-referential and makes references to its own theatricality. In other words, in "realistic" theater, actors on stage pretend to be the characters in the play and do not "break the fourth wall" by referring to the fact that they are actually actors or talking directly to the audience. Instead, they act as though they are simply people living in a world with a transparent "fourth wall" through which the audience can view them. Metatheater in the western tradition begins with the "parabasis" of Greek comedy, in which an actor addresses the audience asking for the audience to vote in favor of the play winning a prize at a festival. Since antiquity, comedy has tended to retain a metatheatric component, with actors making asides that directly address the audience for humorous effect.
The plot of Pirandello's play is metatheatric in that it is entirely about how plays are made, written, and rehearsed. The "characters" are constantly talking about themselves as dramatic characters, and the process of crafting and rehearsing plays is the main subject of the plot and dialogue. There is no attempt at a realistic illusion of a fourth wall, but instead the audience is constantly reminded of the artificial and artistic nature of the theater. Even "improvisation" is shown as something self-consciously crafted rather than natural and spontaneous.

Metatheatre is a type of a play (or a part of a play) that exposes the normally hidden aspects of theater, most importantly the distinction between fiction and reality. A regular performance in a theater does everything to make the audience forget that they're looking at a play. Modernist plays experiment with that idea: for example, how many props and other visual tools can you take away to still allow the audience to "see" what's supposed to be on stage.
Metatheatre goes a step further and straight-out draws attention to it, which is the reason why a common metatheatrical element is play-within-a-play, as it is with Six Characters in Search of an Author. Pirandello's work is one of the best examples of metatheatre, since the premise itself is metatheatrical. The play begins with a director conducting a rehearsal, which is interrupted by six Characters who want to have their story told and finished. The fact that the Characters are "intruders" in a way is only the first element, but it does set the tone. The Characters are sort of lost, they're not supposed to be a part of the story. The audience gets the feeling that they're watching something that's happening behind the curtains.
Pirandello explores the metatheatrical aspects further, however. The Director agrees to let the Characters solve their tale, but they are not happy. First, they're not pleased with the setting and the stage, saying it's not realistic and truthful. Secondly, they can't stop laughing when the Director tries to make his Actors play them. Everything is wrong: from the accents to their movements. Again, light is shown on something that usually takes place off-stage and long before the play is ever seen.
Reality and fiction fuse together the most at the end of the play where the Characters resolve some part of their story line on stage, continuing the re-enactment with real-time interaction. They move smoothly from putting on a play about themselves to actually being themselves—only on a metatheatrical level they're still on stage, from the point of view of the real audience watching Pirandello's play. It's these types of meta-fictional moves and elements that make Six Characters in Search of an Author a very prominent metatheatrical work. The play constantly blurs the lines between acting, reality, and some kind of mixture of both.

Mr. Velez is a single parent with an infant and a 4-year-old. Mr. Velez works 40 hours a week while his children are in a childcare center full-time. Take a look at the average cost of care in Connecticut.

In my response, the cost of care will include child care, groceries/necessities, and housing expenses. Connecticut is currently ranked as having the sixth highest child care costs in the nation. In Connecticut, Mr. Velez can expect to pay an average of $14,000 per year for daycare costs. Private nannies and other child care options will be more expensive at around $30,000 per year. The costs of transporting the children to and from child care can vary depending on whether Mr. Velez utilizes public transportation or commutes. Mr. Velez can also expect to spend approximately $1,800 for groceries and other necessities each month. Depending on whether Mr. Velez rents or finances his home, the expense can vary. He will pay an estimated $1,600 - $2,000 in rent each month. A mortgage will be slightly less expensive.

I'm going to assume this question is in reference to the cost of childcare. In Connecticut, full-time childcare is, to put it simply, very expensive. A 2016 report I'll link below declares the average cost can be as much or more than in-state college tuition, presumably before factoring in multiple children and infant care, as Mr. Velez would require. The Washington D.C. based think tank New America collaborated with multiple sources including government-collected data and childcare sites, such as Care.com, to create a site they call the "Care Index." They state their project "examines cost, quality, and availability data in all fifty states . . . no single state does well in all three categories." The cost for in-home care runs around thirty thousand dollars, childcare centers run a little less than half of that amount at eleven thousand, which averages to $19,000 per year. However, for the presumably working-class Mr. Velez, there is help. The Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance offers what they call Care4Kids, which recognizes the huge burden full-time childcare places on low- to mid-class families. It is a Congress-approved childcare subsidy program, and although it has been hit with drawbacks and closures, it recently received an expected $14 million in funding. So although childcare expenses can reach nearly thirty percent of the median household income in Connecticut, with the Care4Kids program it's possible Mr. Velez could receive assistance in paying for childcare as a full- time working single parent.
This is a general overview of your question, but I'd recommend, depending on how in-depth your answer needs to be, researching specific care centers that might tell you the particular costs for two children or for infant care.
http://www.earlychildhoodalliance.com/care4kids2

https://ctmirror.org/2016/09/30/average-child-care-in-ct-costs-as-much-as-in-state-college-tuition/

How does Orwell use literary devices to establish a theme in Animal Farm?

Allegory and symbolism are utilized heavily throughout the story. In fact, the entire story functions as an allegory to the rise of the Soviet Union. Many of the characters are allusions to real historical figures, the most obvious being Napoleon as Joseph Stalin. Further allusions include Snowball as Leon Trotsky, Old Major as Karl Marx, and "animalism" as communism itself, with "Old Major's Dream" being a symbol of The Communist Manifesto. Major political events in real life are shown in a shortened way, such as the Battle of the Cowshed being an allusion to the Russian Civil War and the rebellion of the hens representing Stalin's purge. When Boxer dies, it is one of the most tragic moments in the story and in the allegory as it represents Stalin's open betrayal of the proletariat he had sworn to represent. These are just a few examples of the allegories and symbols within an allegory that Orwell uses to display the farcical nature of true events and, to a larger extent, his disdain for totalitarianism.

In Animal Farm, Orwell freely uses irony in presenting his powerful critique of Soviet Communism. A great example comes in the book's subtitle, "A Fairy Story," implying that this is just another fable involving talking animals with human personalities. But being as how this is an example of irony, Orwell actually means the exact opposite; this is an allegory on the very real events of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath.
In the actual text, there are numerous examples of irony. We have the famous example of verbal irony in the altered Seventh Commandment of Animalism, which used to state "All animals are equal," but which now says, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." This is an example of irony because it means the exact opposite of what it says. The animals are either equal or they're not; some can't be "more equal" than the others. Yet the Commandment has been cynically changed, like all the others, to serve the pigs' selfish interests.

How did black americans try to fight against segregation at the time of the Gilded Age

The Gilded Age in the United States spanned between 1870 to 1900. This was the post-Civil War era, and slavery was abolished throughout the country. African Americans who were former-slaves began to leave the agrarian economy of the South after gaining freedom of movement, and freedom in general, to move to more urbanized areas of the United States. Many black citizens moved to cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Detroit during the Gilded Age.
This was due to the fact that although slavery was abolished on a national level, Jim Crow state laws were implemented in the South, which segregated blacks and whites and continued the oppression of African Americans. Freedom of movement and economic engagement were ways that African Americans fought against segregation. For instance, many former-slaves joined the land rush in Oklahoma between 1889 and 1891, and this led to the creation of Black Wall Street.
While Afro-centric political activism and direct action did not become common until the mid-twentieth century, black people who moved to urban areas above the Mason-Dixon line had marginally more freedom to express their political beliefs.
https://19th20thcenturyurbanization.weebly.com/african-americans.html

Analyze how globalization transformed popular culture. To what extent does global popular culture reflect American culture?

Aside from having a profound effect on the social, political, economic, geographical, and legal climate of the world, globalization can also affect culture and the cultural values of the world. These effects can vary in nature, and they can sometimes be positive, negative, or neutral. Furthermore, the most common and probably most prominent cultural notion on which globalization has an effect is pop culture.
The term "popular culture" first appeared in the nineteenth century and was associated with the lower and less educated social classes. It has various definitions; however, it is most commonly regarded as a type of a post-modernistic subculture which incorporates the fields of entertainment (such as movies, music, comics, television, and video games), technology, sports, news, fashion, advertisement, and other consumer goods and services. Thus, it is considered a global phenomenon.
While globalization can be an augmentative process, opening the doors to new ideas, concepts, and experiences, especially in the field of pop culture, it can also be quite concerning and risky. Because of its global power, pop culture carries a system of socially and politically relevant beliefs, norms, values, and expectations, which are of extreme importance for younger audiences.
For instance, people (mainly young adults) don’t listen to rap music just because they enjoy the beat, the lyrics, and the musical arrangement or because they like the artist. Rap music can also be a lifestyle; it constitutes a subculture of its own and, as such, dictates certain ways of self-expression and self-representation. So, if a child was to be influenced by a rapper who raps about violence, racism, or discrimination and writes lyrics that promote and support a crime mentality, then how will that child contribute to society in the future?
Additionally, many analysts argue that the globalization of pop culture is, essentially, Americanization. The United States benefits greatly from the entertainment industry, which is considered one of its most important and most profitable economic spheres. Through globalization, the US is able to share its products overseas and thus spread American popular culture, which only strengthens the link between globalization and pop culture.
In conclusion, globalization has transformed pop culture into a universal concept which has the power to greatly influence our views and opinions of many areas of life, model the way we construct images, and (re)shape the way we communicate with and understand the different cultures of the world.

What is the most significant ideological challenge presented by the Gethenians' sexuality in Left hand of Darkness?

The Left Hand of Darkness presents a lot of ideological issues as it explores the clash of two vastly different cultures. Regarding the sexuality of the Gethenians, the most significant challenge seems to be acceptance of something completely foreign.
There is a term used in theoretical approach to science fiction: the novum. It means something we encounter in sci-fi that has no equal or comparison in the real world. It is usually strange, a little weird and it takes time to find the words to even describe it—sometimes for both characters and readers. In Le Guin's novel, the novum of the ambisexuality hits the protagonist Genly Ai hard. He struggles to come to terms with the concept and the culture that has formed around it. His own experience has been built on completely different building blocks and while he theoretically understands how the Gethen society could work without a fixed sex/gender, he can't seem to grasp the practical part of it. Genly Ai's own mind keeps wanting to force the Gethenians into the box he thinks in. For him, it's initially impossible to imagine or interact with a culture that doesn't give him the social cues he's used to.
The ideological challenge in the novel is whether Ai can accept the novum or will it present too big of an obstacle. As the story progresses, he learns that by letting go of preconceived notions of human interaction, he can achieve meaningful communication.

How did Wesley Moore’s old neighborhood manage to follow him in The Other Wes Moore?

It follows him in the sense that it holds him back, making him less confident than he ought to be about furthering his education. Although Wes may no longer physically be in Baltimore, his mind still remains there to a considerable extent. As such, he finds it difficult to get rid of a debilitating mindset that tells him that higher education isn't really for people like him.
We can see this mentality at work when Wes contemplates applying for Johns Hopkins. As well as being worried over his relatively low SAT scores, Wes is discouraged from applying because he doesn't know anyone from the neighborhood in which he grew up who actually went there. He's also concerned that college will be full of people who don't look or sound anything like him; he's sure that he'll be out of place there.
This is the neighborhood speaking. Despite no longer living there, Wes has internalized its prevailing attitudes concerning education to such an extent that simply entertaining the prospect of applying to Johns Hopkins is incredibly scary.

In Warriors Don't Cry, does Melba’s teacher seem excited or nervous about the Brown case?

In Melba Pattillo Beals’ memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Beals recalls her teacher at the all-black Dunbar Junior High School dismissing students early on the day the Supreme Court handed down the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
The teacher cautioned Melba and her classmates to be careful and walk home in groups. This shows that Melba’s teacher was nervous or even afraid for her students’ safety after the court decision was made public. This is likely because the teacher understood there would be white people in the community who would not approve of segregation and might be looking to take out their anger on vulnerable black children.
In fact, this is basically what happens to Melba when she ignores her teacher’s advice and walks alone in order to avoid a bully of hers. A white man attacks and attempts to rape Melba on her way home from school, and she is saved only because the bully she tried to avoid shows up.
This foreshadows the violence that Melba and the other members of the Little Rock Nine face when they try to integrate Central High School.

How is it possible for Bruno and Shmuel to have fun together and maintain their friendship despite their circumstances in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

Bruno and Shmuel are both naïve, innocent young boys who do not grasp the gravity of their situations or truly understand the nature of the Auschwitz environment. Instead of viewing each other's differences as negative aspects that divide and separate them, Bruno and Shmuel embrace their friendship and continue to meet up on opposite sides of the fence simply because they enjoy each other's company. Without Shmuel, Bruno's life would be extremely boring and lonely. Similarly, the time Shmuel spends engaging in pleasant conversations with Bruno offers him a much-needed respite from the horrific conditions inside Auschwitz.
Neither boy despises the other for their ethnicity or religion, which allows their friendship to flourish. Even though the boys desperately wish to play together without the dividing fence separating them, their conversation and company mean everything to the boys. Bruno even begins sneaking food to Shmuel and looks forward to their meetings throughout the week. Both boys are able to meet up at a distant part of the camp away from the prisoners and guards, which allows them the necessary privacy to develop a friendship. In the end, Bruno finally crawls underneath the fence to the other side, where they tragically die in a gas chamber looking for Shmuel's father.

How is semiotics (the study of a system of signs to determine how symbolic meanings are created and transmitted through the use of words, concepts, images and so forth) used in the short story "The Silver Trout Fishing Network" by Yun Dae Nyeong?

In the short story "The Silver Trout Fishing Network," semiotics is used to communicate the idea of destiny or fate. The selected symbol, the silver trout, is introduced at the same time that the audience is introduced to the narrator, inextricably linking the two from the moment the story begins. The narrator explains that his father returns from a successful fishing trip to discover his birth and pronounces that he will "take him trout fishing when he's old enough." Trout fishing becomes an integral part of the young narrator's life, as he accompanies his father every summer.
The recurrence of the silver trout throughout the story indicates an inability to escape one's destiny, especially to the narrator. The invitation from the Silver Trout Fishing Network is the initial catalyst in the narrator's adult life, causing him to delve deep into his past as he attempts to understand his immediate future. His discussion of the silver trout with a young model draws the two of them together almost magnetically. When they separate, the narrator puts on his fishing attire and examines himself in the mirror, using it as a way to return to himself. The Silver Trout Fishing Network is revealed to contain only members born in the same month and year as the narrator; even in a room full of other people, he is unable to escape himself. As the story draws to a close, the symbol of the silver trout becomes indistinguishable from reality as the narrator reunites with the model and surrenders to his past.
However, the narrator is not the only one who feels the pull of destiny. The model, upon her first meeting with the narrator, asks a number of questions about the silver trout, symbolizing her desire to know her own destiny. Later, she develops the Silver Trout Fishing Network, demonstrating her continued searching. She draws together people who share certain characteristics with her (and with the narrator) in the hopes that, as they move toward their destiny, she will find her way toward her own. Eventually, the narrator is drawn back into her reach, reuniting their destinies once more.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/253604

If the owls represent nature, how could you describe the related conflict?

The central conflict in Hoot is between man and nature. The owls' natural habitat is going to be bulldozed to make way for a Mother Paula’s All-American Pancake House. The young owls represent just how vulnerable nature is to humankind's destructive impulses. But nature has a way of fighting back sometimes. We see this illustrated by the cottonmouth snakes that scare off the guard dogs brought in to stop the building site being vandalized. However, Mother Nature's resistance to the encroachments of humans sometimes needs a helping hand from humans themselves, and in the story such assistance comes from Mullet Fingers, the culprit behind all the attempts to hold up construction on the building site. Roy and his classmates also get involved, linking arms as they face down the might of the bulldozers.

How did Zeus come to Danae, the imprisoned daughter of Acrisius?

King Acrisius of Argos has been told by an oracle that he will never have a son but that his daughter will. But before Acrisius can start celebrating, the oracle goes on to tell him that this future grandson will kill him. Understandably spooked by the oracle's ominous prophecy, Acrisius resolves to make sure that his potential assassin will never be born. He won't kill his daughter, Danae, as that would incur the wrath of the gods. Instead, he puts her in an underground bronze chamber with only a single window for ventilation. This way, Danae will literally never see the light of day and will be unable to give birth to any future usurpers.
Unfortunately for Acrisius, the mighty Zeus has other ideas. The father of the gods desires Danae and wants to sire a child by her. So he comes down to her in the form of golden rain, which falls through the roof of the bronze chamber and into the princess's womb. Not long after, Danae gives birth to a son, Perseus, who will grow up to become a great hero and warrior.

What is William Henry Harrison best known for?

William Henry Harrison is famous for being the shortest-serving president in American history. He'd been in office for just thirty-one days before he succumbed to what is thought to have been typhoid fever. It's widely believed by historians that Harrison contracted his fatal illness on the day of his inauguration, when he turned out on that cold, wet March day without an overcoat or hat.
Aside from Harrison's death being a tragedy for his family, it was tragic for the country as a whole, as Americans never got to see their new president make his mark in office. Harrison had distinguished himself as a soldier, serving his country well during the War of 1812. There is every reason to expect that he would've shown the same positive qualities during his presidency. The sad fact is that we will never know.

Write about some useful and harmful effects of fungi.

Fungi play an important role in all kinds of ecosystems because fungi are decomposers. This means that they break down dead plants and animals. Fungi perform this decomposition role because they can break down tough organic materials like cellulose and lignin which invertebrates find difficult to digest. Fungi can also be used in the food production process. Yeast is critical to the baking and brewing processes. Certain fungi are also edible and can be found on something as common on pizza. Finally, fungi can be used to produce medications like penicillin.
As the question states, fungi can be harmful as well, and that is why a person should never eat a fungus unless they are absolutely certain of its safety. Many fungi are extremely harmful when ingested, and symptoms can range from slight gastrointestinal discomfort to death.
http://www.els.net/WileyCDA/ElsArticle/refId-a0000369.html

What, according to the Declaration, makes the American colonists a distinct "people," entitled to a "separate and equal station" among the people of the world?

The Declaration of Independence states that it is the laws of nature and the God that created those laws which determine the separate and equal station of a people. What the Declaration is trying to establish here is the idea that there is a higher law that has been violated by the British in their high-handed treatment of the American colonists. In this reading, the principle of national self-determination is natural, not artificial; it is one of the natural, inalienable rights with which God has endowed humankind.
As with elsewhere in the Declaration, we can observe here the influence of the Enlightenment, which insisted that human beings enjoyed a number of rights simply by virtue of being human. And one of these rights is the right to join with other like-minded individuals to form an independent nation, free from the control of a colonial power.
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

In which pose is Marchbanks lying on the hearth rug in Candida?

As act 3 of Candida begins, both Candida and Marchbanks are sitting in chairs near the fire. She invites him to sit on the hearth-rug and talk his usual sort of “moonshine,” or romantic ideas, to amuse her. Nervously, he accepts, and she shifts her chair to make room for him. The young man stretches out on the rug, face up, and places his head on her knees so that he is gazing upward at Candida. Rather at a loss for words, Marchbanks tries to figure out how to begin his declaration of love.
Opting for irony, he tells the older woman that he is “ever so much older” than she is—presumably through the strength of his emotions. At this point, he turns over onto his knees, and clasps his hands together and places them in her lap. Her husband soon enters and is distressed to find them in that position.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4023/4023-h/4023-h.htm

How does Franklin track his activities? How many will he work on at a time?

Ben Franklin, in addition to being a scientist, ambassador, political leader, businessman, and author, probably should be credited for being the father of time management. His autobiography containing the list of thirteen virtues for success ironically was perhaps the only thing he never finished! Written over decades, the modest Franklin never conceived there would be such a great interest in his life and his lifetime of accomplishment.
Franklin sometime around the age of twenty observed the difference between successful and unsuccessful people. In deep personal reflection, he developed a list of thirteen virtues which he meticulously tracked on a chart every day. Each week, Franklin chose one attribute for his weekly focus for improvement. He continued to monitor the other twelve but concentrated on the one virtue to master for the week. At the end of the week, Franklin, after recording his progress, would move to the next attribute. By the end of the year, he had completed the list four times. Rather than record if he had achieved a daily goal of living up to the standard of the virtue, Franklin would mark on his chart where he had not attained the intent of the virtue. Franklin's goal was for moral perfection, which he readily admits in his autobiography (Franklin referred it as a memoir, believing autobiography was inappropriate self-serving) he never fully achieved.
His autobiography contains numerous references to how the application of the daily habit of having a clear set of goals and maintaining an accurate record guided Franklin's decisions the entirety of his life.
http://www.thirteenvirtues.com/

https://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page38.htm

How does Juana treat Coyotito's scorpion sting?

Immediately after Coyotito is stung by the scorpion, Juana attempts to suck the venom out of his wound before she and Kino travel into town to see the European doctor. Unfortunately, the supercilious European doctor refuses to see Coyotito because Kino and Juana are too poor to pay him for his services. When they return to their hut, Juana gathers brown seaweed and makes a flat damp poultice to place on her son's swollen shoulder. Steinbeck writes that Juana's ancient remedy was probably better than anything the doctor could have prescribed to heal the infant, but the remedy lacked his authority and was simple. Towards the end of chapter 2, Juana removes the poultice from Coyotito's shoulder and discovers that the swelling has gone down significantly. Once the European doctor learns that Kino has found the Pearl of the World, he visits his hut and seems to poison Coyotito, who has been recovering. Since Kino lacks education and knowledge, he cannot tell if the doctor has purposely harmed his son in order to cure him of another ailment. It is implied that Juana's ancient remedy healed Coyotito.

Juana and Kino are too poor to afford a doctor so they use an old-fashioned natural remedy to treat Coyotito's wound. Juana makes a poultice out of seaweed, which she then applies to her son's swollen shoulder. The treatment seems to work and the swelling goes down immediately after Kino discovers the valuable pearl. It's almost as if the pearl has brought Kino and his family good luck, at least for now.
The use of an old natural remedy to treat Coyotito's wound illustrates the significant cultural gap that separates Kino's family from the modern world. Natural remedies are an important part of indigenous culture, and Kino and Juana want to maintain the old traditions for as long as possible. Although they are prepared to resort to modern medicine if needs be, they're forced by the doctor's indifference to stick to what's tried and trusted. Besides, the doctor proves himself to be a devious, trustworthy individual, who as well as trying to cheat Kino out of his valuable pearl, cynically prolongs Coyotito's suffering for his own selfish gain.

What is the significance of chapter 9, book 3 in Hard Times?

The last chapter of Hard Times, called “Final,” both ties up some loose ends of the plot and gives a glimpse into the future lives of some (but not all) characters. While virtue may be rewarded and malice penalized, settling moral accounts does not seem Dickens’s purpose. Rather than simply narrate these developments, the author intersperses numerous questions encouraging the reader to inquire into the characters’ minds and lives.
As could be predicted, the unpleasant Mrs. Sparsit will continue to live an inharmonious life. Mr. Bounderby undergoes no significant character transformation, and we see how his life will end. Mr. Gradgrind descends in the political universe as his philosophy, however amended, goes out of fashion. Tom, however, repents his actions and tries to reach his sister, but dies before doing so. It seems that Rachael will just keep on with the factory’s daily grind.
Asking about how Louisa sees her future, the author also conjures up the visions of the different characters’ outcomes.

Herself again a wife—a mother—lovingly watchful of her children, ever careful that they should have a childhood of the mind no less than a childhood of the body…? Did Louisa see this? Such a thing was never to be.

As he hints at here, he contrast between Sissy and Louisa is perhaps most striking, as Sissy does becomes a wife and mother; Louisa, instead, devotes herself to good works.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/786/786-h/786-h.htm

What are the characteristics of a varsity novel?

The varsity novel is one that takes place, exclusively or primarily, on a college or university campus. The term may be broadly applied to such a work from any country, but in the United States such works are often referred to as “campus novels.” Both of these terms may be included in the broader term “academic novel.” The primary characters of the varsity novel are usually students, but they often interact with faculty; some literary critics include works whose main characters are faculty in this category. The works are often, but not exclusively, satires. Notable British examples include Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, which is student focused, and Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim and David Lodge’s Changing Places, which are both faculty focused. American novels in this category include Vladimir Nabokov’s Pnin, Mary McCarthy’s The Groves of Academe, and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.
https://books.google.com/books?id=rVAoDwAAQBAJ&dq=varsity+novel&source=gbs_navlinks_s

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/oct/02/featuresreviews.guardianreview37

Compare and contrast Emily Dickinson's "The Soul selects her own Society—" and Robert Frost's "Desert Places."

Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul selects her own Society—” is a poem about one’s choice to remain isolated. The speaker personifies the human soul as one who “shuts the door— / To her Divine majority—” once it has found a single focus.
In contrast, the speaker in Robert Frost’s “Desert Places” is haunted by the loneliness he feels deep within: his isolation is “so much nearer home.” While Dickinson’s poem views isolation as chosen and potentially favorable, Frost’s poem depicts it as terrifying.
Stylistically, the poems couldn’t be more distinct. Dickinson’s use of dashes could indicate clipped thoughts, while the imagery relates to an opulent world: “chariots,” “gate,” “emperor,” and “nation.”
Frost, in turn, employs a regular AABA rhyme scheme to indicate continuity of thought. The diction in his poem is focused on the natural world: “snow,” “weeds,” “woods,” and “animals.” This shows that the speaker is reflecting on how the snowfall mimics his inner bleakness.
While both poems address a similar theme, their messages are distinguished from one other by the speakers' feelings about isolation.

Formula for surface area of a cone: S=πrl + πr^2. Solve for l. Then find l when S=283cm^2 and r =5cm.

Hello!
Here r is the radius of a (right circular) cone. S = pi r^2 is the area of its base, and l is its slant height.
To solve the equation S = pi r l + pi r^2 for l (when we know S and r ), we move pi r^2 to the left: S - pi r^2 = pi r l, and then we divide both sides by pi r. This way we finally obtain
l = (S - pi r^2)/(pi r) = S/(pi r) - r.
It is the formula we want (any of the two versions).

Now we can use this formula for the given S = 283 cm^2 and r = 5 cm:
l = 283/(pi * 5) - 5 approx 283/(3.14 * 5) - 5 approx 13 (cm).
So the slant height l of the cone must be approximately 13 cm.

Why is the young man compared to "his grandsire cut in alabaster"?

In the opening scene of the play, Antonio is depicted as a depressed, melancholy man and his friends Salario and Solanio attempt to discover the cause of his sad attitude. While both men guess that Antonio is worried about his merchant ships at sea or that unrequited love is the cause of his melancholy mood, Antonio insists that neither is the cause of his sad disposition. After Salario and Solanio leave the scene, Gratiano mentions that Antonio does not look healthy. When Antonio comments that he is simply sad for the sake of being sad, Gratiano comments that he would rather enjoy life by celebrating and drinking wine. He then asks Antonio

Why should a man whose blood is warm within Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster, Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice By being peevish? (Shakespeare, 1.1.85-88)

Gratiano is essentially asking why Antonio or any young man would want to behave like an alabaster statue of a grandfather. Gratiano is challenging Antonio to have a positive attitude instead of moping around. Gratiano believes that young, healthy men should be active and celebrate their health rather than sit still like the statue of a grandfather (grandshire).

How did Bassanio become poor in The Merchant of Venice?

In the opening scene of the play, Bassanio visits his close friend Antonio to petition him for money in order to finance his expensive journey to Belmont, where he hopes to win the heart of the wealthy heiress Portia and restore his finances. Before Bassanio asks Antonio for money, he briefly explains his recent financial troubles. Bassanio tells Antonio that he has squandered and spent all of his money by living well beyond his means.
As a young Venetian nobleman, Bassanio must live up to society's expectations by maintaining appearances and engaging in rather expensive social events. Unfortunately, Bassanio cannot afford to live such a lavish lifestyle and has acquired significant debt by doing so. Essentially, Bassanio became poor by living well beyond his means in order to impress his fellow noblemen and maintain society's superficial standards.

Bassanio is a young nobleman, who despite his aristocratic background is perennially short of money. Constantly in debt and desperately in need of cash to woo the high-born, super-rich Portia, he goes cap in hand once more to his good friend Antonio, looking for yet another hand-out.
Like a lot of young men of his class, Bassanio is hopeless with money. The problem is that he just doesn't respect it. As soon as he has any, it's gone, frittered away on maintaining a lavish lifestyle that's way beyond his means. To be fair to Bassanio, he's largely the victim of society's expectations. A young nobleman such as himself would've been expected to spend large sums of money on keeping up appearances, especially if they wanted to marry well. If an aristocrat couldn't be rich, he at least had to give the impression that he was, otherwise he would lose his place in society, which to someone like Bassanio would've been catastrophic. Hence Bassanio's need to borrow large sums of money from Antonio, and hence also his constant poverty.

What is your opinion of William H. Harrison?

William Henry Harrison (1773–1841) served as president for only one month before dying in office. He was the oldest man ever elected and the first to die in office. Because of his brief presidential tenure, any evaluation of his importance in US history should focus on his career before the presidency. Indeed, his career before the White House was important to military, political, and territorial facets of American history.
Harrison was a skillful military leader. He abandoned his study of medicine to join the army in 1791. He served ably in combat in the 1790s and was promoted. His greatest battlefield achievements occurred much later. He defeated Native American tribes at the battles of Tippecanoe (1811) and at Thames (1813); the tribes at the Thames were supported by British troops.
In 1798, his appointment as secretary of the Northwest Territory was the start of his political career. He also went to Congress as a territorial delegate. In 1800, he became governor of Indiana Territory and held that post for a dozen years. In this role, he negotiated treaties with NAtive American tribes that opened lands to settlement. (These treaties, like most nineteenth-century treaties with Native Americans, were not fair to Native Americans.)
Harrison's military and political service helped the United States strengthen its grip on the Northwest territories. His exemplary record was one reason for his victory in the 1840 presidential election.

In the political cartoon "You read books, eh?" (1949), how does the artist critique the "anti-subversive" efforts that took place during the Second Red Scare? In what ways does the McCarthy era continue to influence American society?

This political cartoon by Herbert Block satirizes the extent to which the American government, during the McCarthy era, sought to interpret almost anything as anti-American and subversive. The cartoon's title ridicules the idea that even something so seemingly innocent as reading books could now be used to judge and damn someone: the reference to "books" is particularly relevant, as it suggests that it is intellectual curiosity and cleverness which were viewed as particularly dangerous by McCarthyists.The artist seems to be implying that what the government really wants is uncurious people content to do as they are told and also believe what they are told.
The cartoon deliberately shows an ordinary person—in this case, a schoolteacher—doing an ordinary job and yet being swarmed by representatives of the "anti-subversive committees." It is therefore implying that:
1. Under McCarthyism, even doing one's own ordinary job could be dangerous;
2. Any type of remotely "intellectual" occupation, such as being a teacher, could put one in particular danger.
Look at the items the cartoonist brings out as details in the picture. One of them is an image of Thomas Jefferson, surely one of the most patriotic figures in American history, but even he is being scrutinized by the squad. Why? Is it because he himself was working against the government of his time—the British government? Are the squad reading too much into this? Evidently, yes: they are also shown trying to cut the USSR out of a map of the world, as if even acknowledging the existence of the USSR in geographic terms is dubious.
American society is certainly still influenced by McCarthyism and the manifest terror of communism or anything that could be considered socialist. In many countries in the world, socialized healthcare and university education are an innocuous and basic human right, but many right-wing American politicians over the decades have used the negative connotations of "socialism," dating from the McCarthy era, to keep these initiatives at bay.

“The Man I Killed” begins with a detailed list of characteristics of the dead body of a young man who has died of a wound. What is the emotional effect of describing the dead body in this way? What is the emotional effect of O’Brien’s detailed description of the victim’s life? Why does he include these details? Does it matter that this may be “story-truth”?

The text you refer to is from Tim O’Brien’s anthology The Things They Carried, which tells fictionalized accounts of his experiences as an American soldier during the Vietnam War. In the chapter “The Man I Killed,” O’Brien opens the narrative with a grotesque description of a dead Vietcong guerrilla. The opening sentence catalogs the dead soldier’s wounds:

His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole, his eyebrows were thin and arched like a woman's, his nose was undamaged, there was a slight tear at the lobe of one ear, his clean black hair was swept upward into a cowlick at the rear of the skull, his forehead was lightly freckled, his fingernails were clean, the skin at his left cheek was peeled back in three ragged strips, his right cheek was smooth and hairless, there was a butterfly on his chin, his neck was open to the spinal cord and the blood there was thick and shiny and it was this wound that had killed him.

The syntax is important here; this is a single sentence! O’Brien’s decision to format this gruesome list in this way mirrors the experience of the protagonist as he examines the corpse. Each minute detail washes over the young narrator and sears itself into his memory. This cascade of detail forces the reader to become a participant in the narrator’s guilt as if they are staring at the body alongside him.
O’Brien further evokes the narrator’s guilt through the invention of a backstory for the body who had been a living, breathing, feeling person mere moment before. Making inferences based on the body’s slight build, the narrator invents an elaborate backstory for his opponent. He imagines that the Vietnamese soldier had been an aspiring “mathematics scholar” who had laid in bed at night “wishing the Americans would go away.” This displays the narrator’s sensitivity and highlights his guilt. The image of O’Brien’s narrator staring at the body and imagining the life he had just ended packs a powerful emotional punch.
Tim O’Brien includes the gruesome list and the imaginary backstory in “The Man I Killed” because he hopes to communicate the horrible waves of conflicting emotions that accompany killing in war. Regardless of whether this story is factual, "The Man I Killed" captures the “story-truth” experience of thousands of young American soldiers in Vietnam.
I hope this helps!

How does Pseudolus reflect the Roman worldview?

Plautus’s comedy is a biting satire of Roman society that is partly softened by his use of a Greek setting and characters. The conventional class divisions that keep lovers apart and particularly the unfairness of the slave system are two aspects to which he draws attention. However, Plautus is not necessarily anti-slavery; like most people of his time, he seems to consider it socioeconomically inevitable. The patriarchal control of fathers over their children is another standard fact of Roman society, which the lovers try to manipulate rather than challenge outright.
The excesses of particular characters’ behavior are what give the satire its bite. Pseudolus establishes the Roman norms by focusing on the villains’ misuse of Roman institutions. Calidorus goes behind his father’s back to arrange a way to be with his beloved, Phoenicium. He loves her although she is a slave, but his father does not approve. This probably reflected common Roman beliefs and practices. However, Phoenicium’s owner, Ballio, violates social conventions by selling her to a man who is unlikely to be a good master. Calidorus, being of good family, tries to be noble; Roman audiences would have understood his plan to purchase his girlfriend as a valid way to rescue her from the evil Ballio and then from slavery.

How did Faber and Grangers actions either fights against or give acceptance to the burning of books?

In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the main character Guy Montag first met Professor Faber in the park before start of the events in the novel. After being exposed to illegal literature, Montag is realizing that he is against what he is doing as a fireman (burning books), and he needs an ally. He finds Faber and convinces him that he is not trying to get Faber in trouble. Although Faber is on Montag’s side, he is reluctant to take major steps against the government out of fear. He ends up providing Montag with an earpiece through which they can communicate so that Montag can escape. Once he gathers his courage and assists Montag with getting out of the city, and then getting himself out of the city before it is destroyed, he has taken his first major step toward fighting against burning the books.
Granger, on the other hand, actively works to disrupt the effects of burning books, and yet even his efforts are not targeted toward the burning of the books themselves, but retaining their content. No longer a part of society, Granger leads a group of people who have left society, and together they memorize all the books they can, so that they may preserve the knowledge and ideas they contain. Once Montag has made his way safely to this group, Granger welcomes him and teaches Montag how they will do their part to keep literature alive.

Why was Canada helping Britain in the Revolutionary War?

During the time of the American Revolution, Canada existed of two main regions: Nova Scotia and Quebec. Nova Scotia was fairly isolated and had a large British military presence, so they remained loyal to Britain throughout the war. However, some of those living in Nova Scotia did go into the colonies to fight alongside the colonists. Quebec was comprised of French Canadians, and in 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act. This act guaranteed the French Canadians’ rights to language, religion, and civil law. Although many French Canadians were not happy with the English, they mostly stayed out of the war. Their culture was protected under the Quebec Act, and they didn’t know what the future would hold if they sided with the colonists, who had denounced the act. During the Revolution, the colonists invaded Canada, but were held back by Canadian forces, and Canada became the place that many loyalists fled during and after the war.

What was Cotton Mather's role in the Salem witch trials?

Cotton Mather was a Puritan minister and one of the most interesting characters in American history. Mathers was the son of a well-established Massachusetts family. His academic prowess was noted at an early age. Mathers was fluent in Greek and Latin by the age of twelve. At age eighteen, he earned a master's degree from Harvard, where his father served as president.
Cotton Mather was an enigma. Though deeply religious, Mather had a passion for science and at one time considered the field of medicine as a possible vocational choice. Historians believe Mather was a stutterer and thought his speech was too much of an impediment to preach to a congregation. Through hard work and practice, Mather overcame his speech impediment and began a career as an ordained minister in 1685. He served in the role of a minister for forty years.
Mather was an enigma. In many ways, he was extraordinarily forward-thinking and progressive for men of his time; at other times, he was deeply rooted and stubborn in religious matters. He promoted public education and education reform. One of the education reforms he promoted is that schools should use rewards instead of punishment to motivate students.
In science, Mather saw the threat that smallpox presented. While others in the medical and scientific community held steadfast to anachronistic treatments held over from the sixteenth century, Mather actively promoted the idea of vaccination. Needless to say, the dignified members of the community were appalled. To prove the effectiveness of his approach, he inoculated his son, further distancing himself from the established medical community's idea of how smallpox should be treated. From the pulpit, he was known as a defender of the traditional Christian values associated with the times he lived in, but he drew the ire of government officials when he included criticism of them in his sermons.
Cotton Mather has the unique distinction of being one of the main instigators of the witch hysteria that resulted in the Salem Witch Trials. Mather believed, like many people steeped in the religion of the day, that some individuals had traded their souls to the devil in exchange for the powers associated with witches or sorcerers. In 1689, Mather published Memorable Providences, Relating to Witchcraft and Possession. The publication was widely distributed and read. Much as Uncle Tom's Cabin spurred people to think about ending the tragedy of slavery, historians believe that Mather's stature in the community and this publication resulted in an active interest in rooting out witchcraft. Mather lent his credibility to arresting and prosecuting witches. He was very supportive of the judicial punishment for accused witches and had little problem with trusting hearsay evidence against the accused.
Cotton Mather was a brilliant, forward-thinking person of science, on the one hand; paradoxically, he was also very comfortable with using unscientific and nonempirical data in his pursuit to persecute people believed to have made a covenant with the devil.

Who started the Egypt game?

Soon after arriving in California, April befriends a girl in her apartment block called Melanie. Melanie and her kid brother Marshall share April's love of history. They're especially fascinated by ancient Egypt, and read just about every book on the subject they can lay their hands on. Not only that, but they combine their love of history with imaginative play. And it is from this exciting combination that the Egypt Game is born. April and Melanie devise the game one August during the school holidays. However, it's only when the new term starts the following month that they begin playing the game in earnest. The initial catalyst for the game is the discovery of the creepy professor's abandoned yard. The kids pretend that they're in ancient Egypt, building makeshift altars to the gods in the Professor's yard and coming up with all kinds of strange new rituals.

What was Mrs. Bennet's plan and Mr. Bennet's reaction to it in Pride and Prejudice?

One of the plot lines in Pride and Prejudice is Mrs. Bennet’s plan to marry off her daughters, preferably to rich men. Throughout the novel, Mr. Bennet responds to Mrs. Bennet’s marriage machinations with mocking and disdain, sarcasm, or resigned acceptance.
Within the first chapter, Mrs. Bennet expresses her delight at Mr. Bingley’s move to the neighborhood because he is rich and single. She declares it a “fine thing for our girls,” because she intends for him to marry one of them. Upon hearing this, Mr. Bennet mocks Mrs. Bennet’s desire for him to set her plan in motion by visiting Mr. Bingley. He insists that he won’t, suggests that she do so instead (contrary to the societal mores of the time), and claims that he will send a note with her suggesting that Mr. Bingley choose their daughter Lizzy to marry.
Despite his posturing, Mr. Bennet does indeed visit Mr. Bingley in order to establish the family acquaintance. In chapter two, he reveals this to his wife such a roundabout, convoluted manner that she soon becomes frustrated with the conversation. It is at the height of her frustration that he reveals his visit:

“While Mary is adjusting her ideas,” he continued, “let us return to Mr. Bingley.”
“I am sick of Mr. Bingley,” cried his wife.
“I am sorry to hear that; but why did not you tell me that before? If I had known as much this morning I certainly would not have called on him. It is very unlucky; but as I have actually paid the visit, we cannot escape the acquaintance now.” (chapter 2)

Once the rest of the Bennet family meets Mr. Bingley, Jane, the eldest daughter, takes a liking to him. When she is invited to dine with him, Mrs. Bennet suggests that she go on horseback, so that she can stay the night if it rains. Jane does, in fact, get caught in a downpour, which results in her taking ill. She sends a note to her family, informing them that she will need to stay at Mr. Bingley’s home until she recovers. Mrs. Bennet is pleased by this development--the more time Jane can spend with Mr. Bingley, the better. After all, it's only a cold. Mr. Bennet responds with his usual mocking manner:
“Well, my dear,” said Mr. Bennet, when Elizabeth had read the note aloud, “if your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illness—if she should die, it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley, and under your orders.” (chapter 7)
Throughout the novel, Mrs. Bennet engages in ploy after ploy to marry off her daughters while Mr. Bennet suffers through them all. Although three of the five daughters are married by the close of the book, this happens in spite of Mrs. Bennet rather than because of her.

I assume that you mean Mrs. Bennet's plan when it comes to getting Mr. Collins to marry one of her daughters. Mr. Collins has already hinted that he is interested in smoothing over past family conflict by proposing to one of the girls, whose home he will inherit when Mr. Bennet dies. However, when it becomes clear that Mr. Collins wishes to propose to Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet is prepared to do everything in her power to see the match go ahead. When Elizabeth definitively refuses Mr. Collins's proposal of marriage, Mrs. Bennet threatens Elizabeth, saying that she will never speak to her daughter again if the young woman persists in her refusal. Mrs. Bennet then tries to rally her husband to her side so that Elizabeth will feel the full brunt of parental disapproval. However, much to Mrs. Bennet's chagrin, Mr. Bennet tells Elizabeth that she has a difficult choice to make: if she refuses to marry Mr. Collins, her mother will never speak to her again, but if she chooses to marry Mr. Collins, her father will never speak to her again. In this comedic way, Mr. Bennet registers his absolute dislike of the man as well as his support of his daughter's good sense, thwarting his wife's plan to get at least one daughter married.

How does Anne express herself after being disillusioned with MLK?

Anne Moody writes about attending the March on Washington in 1963. She says that she discovers that there are "dreamers" leading the Civil Rights movement instead of real leaders, and she feels that the people in rural Mississippi where she had worked to register African Americans to vote do not have time to sleep, never mind dreaming.
Later, when she prays to God, she says, "nonviolence is out" (349). She is tired of being the brunt of white people's violence and aggression, and she tells God to tell Martin Luther King, who might also be praying to God, that nonviolence has taken black people as far as it can. Now, she is resolved never to be beaten by a white person again, as she was at Woolworth's. She later says that she thinks Martin Luther King is without sense if he thinks non-violence will work for the South the way it worked for India. She believes that he is out of touch with where the movement is going, and she feels that the leaders of the Civil Rights movement do not understand the needs of African American people in rural Mississippi, who do not have their basic needs met.

How can I start an argumentative essay about Fences? Which conflict does Wilson use to drive all other elements of the story?

The first step to creating an argumentative essay is forming a thesis statement. If your aim is to discuss the most present conflict in the play, you could arguably either talk about Troy's conflict of facing his own mortality, or you could just as easily discuss the generational conflict between Troy and his son, Cory. Either conflict could be seen as a by product of the other. When discussing Troy's conflict with mortality, it is helpful to always relate back to Troy's endeavor of building the fence. The fence, like so much else in Troy's life, is a challenge to death. He is taunting death to take him if it can, which eventually, of course, it will. Troy's fundamental disagreement with death comes from the feeling of Troy's that he has not lived a complete and satisfying life due to circumstances beyond his control.
This puts him at odds with Cory, who does have the potential for a successful life simply based, as Troy views it, on the time period in which he was born. By attempting to keep death away from himself, Troy fails to have a meaningful relationship with his son. Troy is always clipping his son's wings and beating him back from success because Troy sees his son's maturation as a harbinger of his own impending death.

The conflict that drives all the other conflicts in the play is Troy's battle with death. This could form a potential thesis for your argumentative essay.
At the beginning of the play, Troy is constructing a fence in an attempt to keep death away from him. His attempt to keep death at bay is fruitless and it is the genesis of the other conflicts in the play. For example, he fights with his son, Cory, because he does not want Cory to play football. Troy fears that Cory will meet with disappointment and racism and instead wants his son to take the safer route of continuing to work in a grocery store or driving a garbage truck as he does. Troy wants to keep forces that can challenge his family, such as death and racism, away.
Troy also has an affair because he feels weighted down with responsibility in his marriage to Rose. His relationship with his mistress produces a daughter, whom Rose adopts. The affair drives him and Rose apart. All of these conflicts arise from Troy's fear of death and his attempt to outwit it.
An argumentative essay might examine why and how Troy attempts to keep death—and everything that could challenge him—away from him and his family. The essay could also explore the ways in which his attempt to keep death at bay is, in the end, not successful.

An argumentative essay is one in which the author takes a position on a topic and then backs up their position with specific evidence from one or more texts, other sources, personal experience, or a combination thereof. In writing about Fences, an argument based on the central conflict would be very effective and easy to support from the play's text. Another type of argument could relate the conflict to real life as a window into the play's impact on the reader or audience.
Fences has both types of conflict—internal and external—and numerous conflicts between characters. The internal conflicts in both Troy and Rose are most apparent. Both are torn, in different ways, about their appropriate roles as parents. The external conflicts between husband and wife—of the human versus human type—are played out in the dialogue and action as well.
One key conflict that could provide ample evidence for an essay is between father and son—or more broadly, parent versus child. This type of conflict has a long history in real life and literature, so an argument emphasizing the conflict between Troy and Cory could not only draw on this text but be related to other cases.

Introductory paragraphs can be tough! You will need a hook to grab in the attention of your readers, you will need to introduce what you will be discussing, and you will need a thesis statement that answers the question.
Once you pick which conflict you want to focus on, you can craft your thesis statement. Your thesis and what you are arguing may give you ideas for the very start of your essay. For example, perhaps you want to open with a quote from the play. If you are examining Troy's conflict with his son, then perhaps start with a quote of him yelling at his son. You could also start by providing a description of the conflict as a way of setting the scene. Let the readers envision the argument in their minds, and then explain why this conflict is so important to the rest of the plot. Another idea for an opening sentence is starting with a question: Have you ever had one argument that changed your life?
I hope this helps you start your essay!

To answer your first question, to begin an argumentative essay, make sure that you develop a thesis statement, or a statement that outlines the essay’s main points. To check if you have a solid, workable thesis, you should be able to gather plenty of textual evidence from the play that supports your arguments. Depending on the essay length requirements, the thesis may have to be more complex and contain more sub-arguments that you will prove in the body paragraphs.
As to your second question about the play itself, one could argue that the main conflict in Fences is Troy’s internal conflict with himself and his dissatisfaction with his own life. He feels a sense of resentment for life’s injustices, most of which grew out of his status as a black male. This sense of inadequacy taints his relationships with his son, Cory, as Troy sabotages his football career. It also impacts Troy’s marriage to Rose: his infidelity could be interpreted as a manifestation of his unhappiness in their relationship but also with himself and his life accomplishments—or lack thereof.

Which concern resulted in the US Congress rejecting membership in the League of Nations?

American opponents of the League of Nations voiced a number of concerns. But the most important was the potential loss of sovereignty that was widely believed would follow from the United States signing up. In the immediate aftermath of the First World War, a mood of isolationism descended upon the country. It was felt by many that the United States had done its bit during the recent conflict and that it was time for other countries to sort out their own affairs. The League of Nations and all it stood for was clearly out of step with the prevailing mood.
Opponents of the League—and not just die-hard isolationists—argued that it would curtail America's power to develop its own foreign policy in the pursuit of its own interests. They further went to allege that the United States would effectively become subordinate to the League and would end up taking orders from this unelected, international body unanswerable to the American people. There had been a long-standing tradition in American politics of hostility towards "foreign entanglements," as George Washington famously called them, and opponents of the League successfully tapped into that sentiment in putting forward what was ultimately a winning argument.

Analyze the text Mistaken Identity by Mark Twain.

"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveling by train to New York. When he and his companion change trains, Twain asks the young man in the booking office if he can have a sleeping berth. The clerk rudely informs Twain that no such berths are available. So Twain asks another official if he can find him some modest little corner somewhere in a sleeping car. But the official brusquely tells him that every available space is full and to stop bothering him.
However, things suddenly change when it becomes clear that the porter and the conductor recognize Twain—or so he thinks. They immediately start acting all helpful and obliging; nothing's too much trouble for them. The conductor finds Twain and his companion a big family compartment complete with two berths and a couple of armchairs. Twain is convinced that they're only receiving this special treatment because the porter and the conductor realize there's a famous writer on board.
But Twain's ego receives a bit of a knock when the porter wrongly identifies him as McClellan, that is George B. McClellan Jr., former mayor of New York. This is somewhat ironic as Mark Twain wasn't of course his real name, but Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Twain was also once mistaken for Melville Fuller, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, whom he greatly resembled. When asked for Fuller's autograph one day, Twain obliged with a characteristically witty response:

It is delicious to be full, but it is heavenly to be Fuller. I am cordially yours, Melville W. Fuller.

Consider the following statement: The persistence of racism in both the North and the South lay at the heart of Reconstruction's failure. Agree or disagree, and explain your position

While racism remained a central fact of life throughout the post–Civil War United States, the reasons for the relative success and failure of various Reconstruction policies and practices are extremely complex; oversimplification explains little. In addition, Reconstruction was never intended to eliminate racism. Rather, its primary goal was to reintegrate into the Union all the states that had seceded to form the Confederacy. Those states were placed under military commands and occupied by Union troops for twelve years (the Civil War itself lasted only four years).
One of the key requirements for each state's readmission to the Union was ending slavery, which meant endorsing the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution and rewriting state constitutions to eliminate slavery.
With African Americans free and sometimes becoming property-owners (although many were impoverished), poor whites' resentment sometimes increased. Many scholars have argued that, rather than thinking that persistent racism causing Reconstruction to fail, we can view Reconstruction as actually increasing or intensifying racism.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconstruction-United-States-history

What does Shug want Mary Agnes to do in The Color Purple?

While Shug Avery is on the road building her own singing career, she marries Grady, and they come back from Memphis for a Christmas visit. As she has become increasingly involved in music, Shug develops an interest in other singers as well. Hearing Mary Agnes sing, she is impressed by her talent. She also discourages Harp from denigrating her, including using the nickname Squeak. Shug suggests that Mary Agnes take her music seriously and branch out into different genres. Turning away from church music and the “funny” voices in which it is sung, Shug encourages Mary Agnes to sing the blues—or the “devil’s music.” Shug sees the earthy, sensual character of blues as a better fit for both Mary Agnes’s personality and her voice.

Why are characters important in this story?

We must remember that Vera is not a real person but a character in a story. The same applies to Framton Nuttel and Mrs. Sappleton. They were all "cast" to serve a purpose. Saki probably had the germ of an idea for a story. Someone tells a visitor a cock-and-bull story about how three male family members got killed by being sucked into a bog while hunting birds. When these three carefully described men return towards the French window, the visitor naturally takes them for ghosts and flees in terror. It has to be established, of course, that the visitor is a newcomer who knows no one in the region and nothing about the Sappleton family.
But who should tell the visitor such a story? It might be a mischievous boy--but a boy would probably be out hunting with the men. And a boy might be less believable. It could be some senile family member or old servant who sneaks into the living room while the visitor is waiting for the lady of the house. But a mischievous young girl seems like the best choice. She has to be young enough to be mischievous but old enough to be believable. Vera seems like the most interesting character in the story. She pulls off her complicated practical joke to perfection, both as a story-teller and actress. She seems harmless. Who would suspect that such a polite and innocent-looking girl would be capable of making up such a story?
Saki also created two characters who would fit into Vera's scheme. The visitor would be a city man suffering from what is now called neurosis. He is a nervous wreck. This explains why he has come to the country and why he knows nothing about the family. Mrs. Sappleton is a rattlebrained, housebound woman whose life revolves around her husband and two brothers. Vera knows exactly what her aunt is going to talk about when she appears, and the girl also knows exactly what the three hunters will do and say when they arrive at the expected time for tea. In fact, Vera's motivation in creating an uproar may be that she is terribly bored with the maddening monotony of life in this English country household.
Without Vera, "The Open Window" would not be nearly as compelling as it is. We, the readers, are completely taken in by this demure young girl, just like Framton Nuttel. We do not realize that she has been telling him a "ghost story" until after the terrified visitor has fled from the house and is last seen running down the country road. Then we are let in on the practical joke when we read the dialogue between Mr. and Mrs. Sappleton.
"Here we are, my dear," said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through the window, "fairly muddy, but most of it's dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?"
"A most extraordinary man, a Mr. Nuttel," said Mrs. Sappleton; "could only talk about his illnesses, and dashed off without a word of goodby or apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen a ghost."

How does Sherlock Holmes make money?

This is a very interesting question, and one which is not answered specifically or fully in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. It seems that although Holmes does not actually charge all his clients for his services, he is certainly paid by some of them, particularly the wealthier ones. Essentially, he seems to be able to serve poorer clients because of the remuneration he has received from richer and more corporate or official ones—in "The Final Problem," Holmes says that his recent engagements with the French government and the Scandinavian royal family "have left me in such a position that I could continue to live in the quiet fashion which is most congenial to me"—that is, he has been paid by these institutions on such a scale that he could actually stop working if he wanted to. There are hints throughout the stories that other royal clients in particular have given Holmes money or at least material wealth—he is given an emerald tie pin by Queen Victoria at one point, for example, and Irene Adler and the King of Bohemia present him with rewards for his services in "A Scandal in Bohemia."
What is important to note, however, is that one is not supposed to ask this question—Holmes is a gentleman by breeding, so it is entirely possible that he has some sort of family money; while Watson comes from a professional family and obviously earns his keep as a doctor and from his army pension, Holmes is from a rather mysterious background, and even Watson doesn't know the full ins and outs of it. It was not unusual for a gentleman in the Victorian era to live on "independent means"—an inheritance or similar—and not work, in which case Holmes's income from his work may be only supplementary.

One of the things we like best about the Sherlock Holmes stories is being able to identify with the great detective's lifestyle. He does not have to go to work in an office, and he has acquired such a reputation that he never has to worry about money. He can spend most of his time doing whatever pleases him in his comfortable lodgings, where Mrs. Hudson serves his meals in his own living-room and takes care of all the housework. Holmes as a general rule does not even need to call on potential clients. They come to him, even kings, high-level government officials, police detectives, aristocratic ladies and gentlemen--and he may refuse to accept any client if the case fails to interest him. In the case of the "Adventure of the Speckled Band," Holmes involves himself because of its intriguing aspect and his sympathy for Helen Stoner. He doesn't get paid a cent, but that is of no importance to him. If we readers should wonder about how he manages to maintain such an enviable lifestyle of virtual retirement and leisure, we are shown in other Sherlock Holmes stories how he makes a great deal of money; and so we are satisfied that he can live in comfort and security for the rest of his life. In "The Adventure of the Priory School," for example, Holmes receives a check for six thousand pounds from the Duke of Holderness for a few days of work. That would have been equivalent to $30,000 at the time, and over half-a-million American dollars today.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle acknowledged his indebtedness to Edgar Allan Poe's detective stories as the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. Poe's private detective C. Auguste Dupin is also a gentleman of leisure who occasionally gets involved in a case that interests him. In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" Dupin solves the case pro bono. He explains to his friend, the narrator of the story:
“As for these murders, let us enter into some examinations for ourselves, before we make up an opinion respecting them. An inquiry will afford us amusement,” (I thought this an odd term, so applied, but said nothing) “and, besides, Le Bon once rendered me a service for which I am not ungrateful. We will go and see the premises with our own eyes. I know G—, the Prefect of Police, and shall have no difficulty in obtaining the necessary permission.”
Dupin is not concerned about money. He is looking for "amusement" and wishes to help a young man wrongfully accused of the gruesome murders. But in "The Purloined Letter" Dupin is told by Monsieur G., the Prefect of the Parisian Police, that a huge reward has been offered for the recovery of the letter:
“Why, a very great deal—a very liberal reward—I don't like to say how much, precisely; but one thing I will say, that I wouldn't mind giving my individual check for fifty thousand francs to any one who could obtain me that letter.
At the story's conclusion, Dupin collects that share of Monsieur G's reward, which should be sufficient to keep Dupin in comfortable indolence for many years.
In both "The Adventure of the Priory School" and "The Purloined Letter," the intention of the authors seems to be to assure the reader that their detective-heroes are able to maintain an enviable lifestyle without having to hold any kind of regular job. Both have complete freedom from work and freedom from financial worry. We would all like to be like them, and that is one of the reasons we find their stories so interesting that we can read them over and over again, even when we know how they are going to end.