Why did Quakers come to America?

Like other groups of Protestant dissenters, the Quakers came to America primarily to escape religious persecution. In the 17th century, when the Quakers first set foot in the "New World," religion wasn't a private matter—it was intimately bound up with the political life of the nation. Anyone who didn't subscribe to the articles of the Church of England was regarded with suspicion by the authorities, both secular and religious. As the Quakers refused to swear oaths on principle, they were unable and unwilling to do this, and they were persecuted by the state.
At the same time, the Quakers were motivated by missionary zeal, hoping to spread the Gospel to English settlers who'd already established themselves in America. The Quakers's understanding of the Bible was radically different from that of the official Church of England, and they needed to find a place where they could safely preach their unique interpretation of Scripture without fear.

Why is it ironic that the Gutres ask Espinosa's blessing and the daughter weeps?

There's a two-fold irony here. The Gutres ask Espinosa for forgiveness but then immediately proceed to treat him like the Romans treated Christ: mocking him, spitting at him, and physically attacking him. It would appear that the Gutres have convinced themselves that Espinosa is the Second Coming of Christ, and yet they've learned no lessons from the original Incarnation.
What's doubly ironic is that the Gutres seek forgiveness from someone who's not in a position to give it to them. Not only is Espinosa not Jesus Christ, he doesn't even believe in God. His physical appearance may resemble that of Christ as depicted in countless paintings, murals, and icons, but he really isn't the Messiah. And, by the same token, although the Gutre girl may weep like the women who followed Christ to Golgotha, her previous actions indicate that she, in common with the rest of her family, is no follower of Christ.

What evidence in the text hints at or suggests Mr. Hooper's reasons for wearing the black veil?

We never get to find out exactly why Mr. Hooper wears the black veil, which merely adds to its mystery. Nevertheless, there are one or two subtle hints in the text that point towards a possible answer. When his fiancee, Elizabeth, comes right out and asks him why he insists on wearing the veil, Mr. Hooper's response is cryptic:

"If it be a sign of mourning," replied Mr. Hooper, "I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil."

Precisely what those dark sorrows are we do not know, and Hooper certainly doesn't care to elaborate. But at the very least we can surmise that the reverend has experienced a good deal of sadness in his life worthy of mourning. And as a black veil is traditionally a sign of mourning, he feels it entirely appropriate to wear one, even if it scares and unnerves virtually the whole of his congregation.
Even on his deathbed, Mr. Hooper refuses to spill the beans. But once again, there are hints. The suggestion is that Mr. Hooper harbors a secret sin that is a matter between him and his God. It would therefore be inappropriate to divulge what causes him to wear the veil. As he looks around him, everyone else appears to be wearing a black veil—i.e. has their own secret sin—but unlike Mr. Hooper they are not prepared to acknowledge their faults, choosing instead to castigate someone for wearing an unusual item of clothing:

"Why do you tremble at me alone?" cried he, turning his veiled face round the circle of pale spectators. "Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!"

How do the village men prepare for a hunt?

In the story, the village men prepare for a hunt by picking out their weapons of choice the evening before.
Hunts always begin early in the morning, so the hunters must prepare during the night. Kira sees this firsthand when she witnesses the distribution of weapons one evening.
Essentially, all of the long spears are taken out of a storage building beside the Council Edifice and laid out in piles at the center of the village plaza. Then, the hunters test each weapon for themselves and eventually make their choices.
However, this process is not without conflict. Sometimes, hunters fight among themselves when they each favor the same weapons. In the story hunters are an especially important group of people. Without hunters, no one gets any meat to eat.
In the story, we learn that Kira and her mother went without meat after Kira's father was reported missing (supposedly killed by wild beasts). Since only men could hunt, both Kira and her mother had to make do with fish from the river and the occasional small animal they could trap.

In Romiette and Julio, what did Julio say to Romiette when he first met her?

This question could have two different answers depending on how a person interprets it. Romiette and Julio "meet" in an internet chat room before they meet in person. The novel was written in 1999, so email and chat rooms were the upcoming, popular things to use. If meeting in an online chatroom counts, then Romitte and Julio meet in chapter 7. She is "afroqueen" and he is "spanishlover." If this meeting counts, then the first thing that Julio says directly to Romiette is "16/m and ready for action." It is in response to her demand to state his stuff. If this question is asking about what Julio first said to Romiette in person, then the answer has to be that the reader can't possibly know for sure. At the end of chapter 12, the two characters agree to meet in person. Chapter 13 is then Romiette's journal entry. She describes the meeting, but readers can't be sure of exactly what Julio said. The closest her journal entry gets to his first words is a summary of what Julio supposedly said about the rose and the hot sauce.

He said he brought the rose because the hot sauce was too great a treasure and he couldn’t give it up.

At the end of Shakespeare's Hamlet, it is said by Fortinbras, the prince of Norway, that Hamlet would have made a good king. Justify this statement with qualities that suffice Hamlet being King if he survived, including three examples from the play as evidence. Please include quotes, citing acts and scenes..

In order to be King, Hamlet would have to be proven mentally stable first and foremost. So establishing Hamlet's sanity (and feigned madness) would be crucial. He certainly spends a great deal of time making people believe that he's insane in order to further his primary goal of killing Claudius. However, underneath it all, he always returns to a place of reason, if only in his own monologues and in speaking with Horatio. One place where Hamlet's sense of reasoning is clear appears in act 3, scene 2 when he lays a trap for Claudius by devising the "play within a play" to test his guilty (or not-so-guilty) reaction. This took quite a bit of planning and also some interpretative skill as he judged the reaction of his uncle. He even directs the actors with great precision:

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently, for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. (3.2.1–8)

This precision is not directed by an irrational thinker. Hamlet proves himself quite steady and meticulous in his plans.
Hamlet does not react impulsively—most of the time. When the ghost of his father tells him what Claudius has done, Hamlet seeks to first establish the credibility of the source. Once he is convinced that the ghost is his father's spirit, he knows that he must seek revenge on Claudius. He carefully weighs out his plans, trying to then be certain that Claudius is guilty. After the play, he has this certainty but still doesn't kill Claudius, because he finds him in the midst of prayer. Hamlet notes,

Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying.And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven.And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned.A villain kills my father, and, for that,I, his sole son, do this same villain sendTo heaven. (3.3.77–82)

Hamlet wants to make sure that he completely thinks through this important decision. His one rash act is the murder of Polonius, whom he didn't actually plan to kill. He was in a bit of an emotional state when this happened, which could explain the change of character.
Third, Hamlet is intelligent. He navigates the complicated relationships of his uncle/stepfather, mother, the ghost, friends who try to betray him, and Ophelia without getting himself killed (well, at least until he achieves his revenge) and without deviating from his plan. He single-handedly concocts a plan to illuminate the deception of Claudius. Hamlet creates an alternate persona to throw everyone off track in order to propel his revenge without raising too much suspicion. He plays with words masterfully, and Polonius notes the craft of his skill in act 2, scene 2: "Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t" (2.2.217–218). His speech about whether to live or die shows calm and deep musings about why people often choose a life of suffering.
Based on these credentials, you could build a solid paper defending Hamlet's suitability as king.

What structural devices and stylistic devices are used in John F. Kennedy's famous "We choose to go to the Moon" speech?

One stylistic element which Kennedy uses to great effect is juxtaposition. At several points throughout the speech, he juxtaposes two contrasting elements against one another, creating a tension between them. For example, early on in his speech, he states:

We meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

There is a tension here between the themes: knowledge is weighed against ignorance, as is hope against fear. Contingency could push the balance either way, and this creates a sense of stakes, as to which direction the balance can turn.
In addition, he makes effective use of analogy. One of the most striking passages in the speech, from a stylistic perspective, involves an analogy. He collapses fifty thousand years of human history to the equivalent of fifty years, and in that sense, he describes the degree to which human knowledge and civilization has accelerated. He discusses the first forty years (of which "we know very little") to the ten-year mark (when "man emerged from his caves"), to the five-year mark (the discovery of writing and the wheel), and forwards through the beginning of Christianity, the discovery of the steam engine, Newtonian physics, electricity, and so on (which are all unfolding in increasingly short timespans).
It's easy to overlook the full degree to which science, knowledge, and technology have accelerated; given that people don't tend to think on a geological timeline, this analogy expresses that acceleration in terms that are far more accessible to most human imaginations. This creates a sense of excitement and possibility as well as an appreciation for this extraordinary sense of scientific progress over time.

President John F. Kennedy's famous "moon" speech was delivered at the Rice University campus in Houston, Texas, in 1962. By its nature, the speech was unique in that, at face value, it was focused on the promotion of scientific advancement and America's progress in the engineering sciences. In the history of speeches, especially by presidents, there are very few that are science-centered. However, Kennedy's speech about going to the moon was highly political. In essence, the speech was a subliminal message to the US's Cold War foe, the USSR.
The United States and the Soviet Union were not only locked in a nuclear arms race, they were also racing to space. It was important for President Kennedy to deliver a memorable and invigorating speech during his visit to Houston. Kennedy was considered one of the great American orators of the twentieth century.
In the famous "moon" speech, Kennedy uses various stylistic and structural devices.
1. Repetition: President Kennedy says the word "space" over twenty times throughout his speech. He wanted to drive home the magnitude of such an accomplishment. Space had never been explored physically before, and by repeating the word "space," Kennedy constantly reminds the audience of the monumental voyage.
2. Alliteration: Kennedy had a poetic quality in how he delivered his speeches. One of the stylistic devices he used was alliteration. For instance, he uses many s-based words, as in the phrase "in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three." Coupled with the multiple repetitions of the word "space," Kennedy's speech has a lyrical quality to it.
3. Hypophora: This technique is when the speaker asks a question and then immediately answers it. This allows the speaker to set up a "punch line" or to move on to other topics and sub-topics within the speech. For example, in the speech, Kennedy asks a series of questions:

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, thirty-five years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

This sets Kennedy up to deliver some of his most memorable lines:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

What is Haymitch's training strategy for Katniss and Peeta?

Haymitch’s strategy for training Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games is to keep their strengths hidden for the most part and to make allies. He doesn’t want them drawing too much attention to themselves. Because they get evaluated and rated, he wants to have them rank somewhere in the middle level—there, it is relatively easy to get sponsors, but you won’t be perceived as a particularly threatening individual.
Additionally, he wants them to spend time identifying potential allies with whom they can work together in the arena. This will help them combat the large bands of career fighters from the inner districts. The two do what they can to ensure they don’t draw too much attention to themselves and just observe the others, trying to learn some additional skills. Unfortunately, Katniss ruins her cover when she shoots an arrow precisely at a pig in front of the judges in anger.

Did Leo take Stargirl to the Ocotillo Ball?

No, Leo does not take Stargirl to the Ocotillo Ball. At this stage in the story, Leo has broken off his relationship to Stargirl, as he can no longer handle being a social outcast due to his involvement with her. Stargirl has become deeply unpopular at school, and the last thing Leo wants is for some of that unpopularity to rub off on him. Turning up at the Ocotillo Ball with Stargirl on his arm would mean instant social death; no one would want to have anything more to do with him.
Nevertheless, Leo does pop his head around the door later in the evening. But he does so under cover of darkness so that no one will see him. When he gets to the Mica Country Club, he sees Stargirl make a characteristically grand entrance. She arrives in quite some style, in her usual wacky attire, riding in a sidecar of a bike covered in sunflowers.

What was America called under British rule?

The question will be taken to refer to what America was called in the time leading up to the American Revolution, in the decades just prior to independence.
The most direct way of answering this question is to go straight to the primary sources. In repealing the Stamp Act in 1766, the British Parliament wrote of "the British colonies and plantations in America." In the Albany Plan of Union in 1754, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Hutchinson, aside from mentioning the colonies by name (e.g. Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire), refer to the "colonies" collectively and to "America," seemingly having in mind the collective territory of the colonies. If we look at other documents of the era, we will see "America" and "North America" used somewhat interchangeably. We will also see references to certain regions, like "New England."
You can probe this question further by examining eighteenth-century primary sources at the third link provided below. If you're interested in the evolution of the names and labels over time, the Avalon Project also has documents from the preceding two centuries, as the English colonized and settled in North America.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/albany.asp

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/repeal_stamp_act_1766.asp

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/18th.asp

Why did Loung write this story?

The story First They Killed My Father is a passionate and tear-jerking account by Loung Ung, one of the survivors of the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields. Loung, now an adult, retraces her childhood journey and mainly focuses on the ages between five and nine. She starts the story with her happy life in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital city, as a child of a well-to-do family. Her father is an employee of the Cambodian government, and thus her family is able to enjoy all the good things in life, including plenty of food, enrollment in quality schools, and nice clothes. However, all this comes to an abrupt end when the Khmer Rouge assumes control of the country. It was because of this new development that Loung decided to write a memoir explaining how the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia and killed nearly half of the nation’s population.

What important lesson had the narrator learned by the start of the next spring?

By the start of the next spring, the narrator (Bright Morning) had learned that a good shepherd never leaves the sheep to fend for themselves.
In chapter 1, we learn that the narrator had left the sheep on the mesa the previous spring. She did so because she was afraid of a gathering storm.
The storm had begun innocently enough, with a little rain. Bright Morning remembers herding the sheep into an aspen grove. Her goal was to wait out the storm there. However, the rain soon turned into snow, and she began to fear. Eventually, Bright Morning left the sheep, resolving to return the next day for them.
When she returned, she was greeted by her sister (Lapana) and her mother. Bright Morning remembers that her mother had handed her a blanket then, put one on herself, and walked out the door. The two climbed the trail all the way to the mesa in the falling snow. That night, Bright Morning and her mother waited out the storm on the mesa with the sheep. Bright Morning remembers that it was a long night because her mother remained silent the entire time.
When the morning came, the two drove the sheep back down the trail, across the river, and into the brush corral. Bright Morning remembers that her mother didn't even speak to her then.
Bright Morning relates that her mother has never spoken of that night again. Additionally, her mother didn't allow her to take the sheep up to the mesa for the rest of the spring. Bright Morning remembers that someone else took the sheep up to the mesa in the summer and fall.
So, now that a new spring is here, Bright Morning hopes that her mother will again trust her with the sheep.
The text tells us that she needn't have worried. Her mother is waiting at the gate of the corral when Bright Morning returns from the river. She tells Bright Morning to take the sheep to the south, beyond the aspen grove.

According to Ruth Edmonds Hill, "Rosa Parks" African American women have overcome discrimination and have courageously defied and protested against segregated facilities with historical effects. Write a paragraph about it.

Rosa Parks was one of a number of African American women, including Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman (both abolitionists who lived long before Parks) and others, who fought against discrimination and protested segregation. Parks was a soft-spoken seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, who had served as the secretary of the local NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) chapter, as Ruth Edmonds Hill explains. Parks was tired of the way in which African Americans were treated after World War II; even her own brother, Sylvester, who had fought in the war had to move north to Detroit because he was not allowed to vote in Alabama. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person in a segregated city bus in Montgomery in 1955, and her bravery sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. During this time, African Americans deliberately stayed off buses for over a year until the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation was illegal on Montgomery city buses and the buses were desegregated. In your paragraph, you should write about the historical consequences of Parks's brave act.
http://www.rosaparks.org/biography/

How does the tree heal itself?

The tree in the poem heals itself by "absorbing years of sunlight, air, water." Even if attacked, hacked, and chopped, the tree will heal itself by drawing upon the earth and its surrounding environment. It will absorb the sun's energy and water from the soil.
The speaker says that the only way to kill the tree is to pull out the root, "Out of the anchoring earth." The implication, therefore, is that, if the root is not pulled out, then it will be through the root that the tree continues to heal itself. It will continue to absorb energy from the soil.
The whole poem is in part a celebration of the strength and endurance of trees. They survive despite being hacked at and chopped at, despite being scorched and choked. It takes a huge effort to kill a tree, which in turn implies an attack on those who make the effort nonetheless.

In this poem, Patel is emphasizing the fact that killing a tree is not something that happens accidentally—it requires a prolonged attack and is an effort of will. He illustrates this by describing the process by which "bleeding bark" will actually heal itself. This is a natural process by which trees seek to protect themselves from attacks. Trees have an active mechanism to try to prevent disease and injuries, and the purpose of bark is to protect a tree. At the same time, new shoots, "curled green twigs," will rise up from near the ground, so even if the original strong tree which people destroyed can never completely recover, the tree can "heal" itself by regenerating and creating new offshoots Eventually, then, the tree will "expand again" to the size it once was.
As Patel goes on to explain, the only way to fully kill a tree is to pull it out by its roots. He describes the action of killing a tree in almost gruesome detail, underlining the fact that this is a disruption of the natural process by which trees can survive most attacks. Trees are hardy creatures, and it is only through sustained and deliberate abuse that humans have succeeded in killing so many of them.

Were Hamlet and Laertes justified in their quests for vengeance?

Yes, absolutely! Hamlet's father was murdered in cold blood by Hamlet's uncle, his father's own brother, so that Claudius could take not only the king's crown and status, but also his wife. Worse yet is the fact that Claudius murdered his brother before his brother had an opportunity to confess his sins and be absolved, and so he was sent to Purgatory, a place of pain and suffering where he might be purged of his sins so that he can go to heaven. If Hamlet were not outraged and desirous of revenge, he would not be able to count himself a true or loyal son.
The father of Laertes, Polonius, was likewise murdered. Although Polonius is demonstrably less innocent than old Hamlet had been -- he was killed by Hamlet while he hid behind an arras in Hamlet's mother's bedroom -- he was still wrongfully killed nonetheless. He did not deserve to die; he was not a criminal as Claudius is. Moreover, he was not given any sort of significant honors after his death, and his funeral was rushed and his demise hushed up in a way that seemed to confirm some wrongdoing. Therefore, Laertes is likewise justified in his desire for revenge.

What was the inspector's intention in visiting the Birling family, and how successful was he?

The man who calls himself Inspector Goole is investigating the death—an apparent suicide—of a young woman, Eva Smith. Goole arrives at the Birling home to interview the family members about Eva’s death. He seems intent on getting each and every one of them to admit some complicity in the tragedy. Arthur Birling, the husband and father, tells the inspector that Eva had worked for him. Sheila, Arthur’s daughter, and Eric, his son, next learn of the death and disagree with their father about Eva’s involvement in labor activism. As the investigation advances, it is revealed that under an assumed name of Daisy Renton, Eva had been the mistress of Gerald, Sheila’s fiancé. Furthermore, she was pregnant when she died; Eric was not only the father but also stole money to help her, which she refused to accept. Sheila also had a hand in her ruin, having pushed her father to fire Eva for attitude. Mrs. Birling played a role when the pregnant woman sought charity, urging her benevolent association to refuse it.
The playwright leaves the audience wondering who Goole really was, as he was apparently not a policeman. Rather than solve the crime, therefore, it seems he intended to sow discord within the family; as they argue furiously, it seems that in that respect he succeeded.

Where is the climax in Second-Class Citizen?

In Buchi Emecheta's novel, Second-Class Citizen, Adah dreams of moving to the United Kingdom as a little girl. When she is old enough to work, she finds a job that pays well, and which guarantees her as a suitable bride. She marries an ambitious and hardworking man named Francis, who eventually ends up going to the United Kingdom to study for several years. When Adah asks Francis and his family's permission to relocate her and the children to the UK, Francis obliges, although hesitantly.
One could view Adah's dream of going to the United Kingdom finally coming true as the climax of the story. However, it is somewhat short-lived, as it is revealed that Francis becomes abusive and cold towards her when Adah decides to pursue a career as a writer. Her decision to become a writer could be considered the climax as well, because, despite suffering abuse from her husband, she has broken the anachronistic structure of marital control and pursues another dream of hers.

The scope of Operations Management is a necessity critical to making effective business propositions in order to address and aggregate productive work performance. Is this really true?

Operations management is undoubtedly a critical component of making the kind of propositions that make improvements in work performance possible.
Operations management is essentially about planning and organizing the staff and resources required to get the job done. Efficiency is a key word in any operations manager's job description, and any proposed increase in the company's productivity or work performance boils down to effective operations management.
The type of propositions that would lead to improvements in work performance includes (but is not limited to) increasing output in a factory, changing the types of raw materials used, and implementing a new assembly line. All these actions fall under the scope of operations management.
For example, if a factory that manufactured golf clubs proposed branching out into the manufacture of baseball bats, operations managers would be required to source the materials required for these baseball bats, acquire the machinery required to make them, and build the new manufacturing process into the factory time schedules.
https://www.topmba.com/mba-programs/what-operations-management

The field of operations management allows businesses to think about how they might allocate effort to achieve what economists call an efficient frontier. For a set of mutually exclusive business functions (put simply, functions that an employee cannot accomplish simultaneously), an efficient frontier is the allocation of work to each of those functions that is predicted to maximize return.
Of course, businesses can still operate without landing on an efficient frontier, and no business can claim that it actually achieves perfect efficiency. This is because human projections about any complex system, such as business behaviors and their outcomes, are never completely accurate. However, to approach perfect competition with other businesses, learning about operations management and implementing certain principles can reduce unnecessary friction, or inefficiency.
Operations management also provides frameworks for extracting useful metrics about individuals' work performance in order to give constructive feedback.

What does Kate throw out the window at Hortensio and Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew?

In the 1967 movie version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor), Katherine—played by Elizabeth Taylor—throws a red fabric-covered, three-legged stool at Hortensio and Gremio out of an upper story window at her father Baptista's house.
Hortensio and Gremio are suitors to Katherine's younger and more amiable sister, Bianca, and Baptista tells them that they can't woo Bianca until a husband has been found for Katherine, the "shrew" of the title of the play.
The stool-throwing in the movie occurs in the scene at the line, "To comb your noodle with a three-legged stool" (1.1.65).
There's no stage direction for Katherine to throw a stool at Hortensio and Gremio anywhere in the same scene in Shakespeare's original play. The stool-throwing was added to the film version by the director or actors.
It's interesting to note that there are very few stage directions in Shakespeare's plays as they've come down to us from the earliest printed versions of the plays. Entrances and exits of the characters and only the most important actions in a scene appear in the original texts. It's not even certain that Shakespeare wrote those stage directions, which might simply have been added at the time of printing.
Two of Shakespeare's most interesting stage directions are, “Enter a messenger with two heads and a hand,” in act 3, scene 1 of Titus Andronicus, and, “He exits, pursued by a bear,” in act 3, scene 3 of The Winter’s Tale.

In Plato's, "Gorgias" why according to Socrates does rhetoric pose potential dangers for political society? Explain by using Socrates speech with Polus and Callicles.

In this dialogue, Plato pits dialectic (Socrates) against rhetoric (Gorgias). Gorgias is a trained rhetorician who claims to be able to teach the art of rhetoric to others. In his dialectic probing, Socrates elicits from Gorgias that in rhetoric, the manner of speaking (style, technique, canons of rhetoric, and such) are more important as a means of persuasion than the truth expressed. In dialectic, by contrast, the act of speaking is designed to distinguish valid from invalid thinking and to therefore clarify what is likely true from what is likely false.
Gorgias is not technically a Sophist (a rhetorician for hire who will speak in favor of anything), but his elevation of rhetoric over dialectic troubles Socrates, as does the idea that rhetoric can be morally neutral--an instrument.
Turning to Polus, Socrates encounters a more hot-headed man who believes that rhetoric is a useful instrument of power. Polus and Callicles both discuss desire, and how rhetoric might aid us in getting what we desire. Socrates clearly wants to create a low opinion of Polus, who believes that the powerful rightly use rhetoric as a means to their egotistical desires, which can easily be evil or self-serving. By valuing rhetoric so highly, Polus fails to attend to what end any given rhetorician may be using the art. To Socrates, this is an abuse of rhetoric, since rhetoric is used properly (usually after dialectic) to make audiences love the truth that has been discovered. By making falsehood or evil seem equally beautiful, the position Polus advances is a debasement of rhetoric.
Callicles is the opposite to Socrates, believing not in a democracy but in a tyranny of the one over the many. As Socrates uses dialectic on him, it becomes clear that he has little rational grounding for his argument. He likes power because he has it, and he thinks people who have power deserve it but cannot identify in what way they are deserving. Rhetoric is a useful tool to keep the powerful in power. Socrates abandons his discussion with Callicles, but the reader recognizes the folly and danger in his position.
Each of these men show in descending order the danger that rhetoric can pose to the state. If one's rhetoric is not grounded in truth and used to make the true beautiful, the people in a democracy can be led easily astray. They can be made to love that which is not true and good and beautiful. For Gorgias, this seems like a worthwhile risk in order for rhetoric to be able to prosper; he minimizes the danger. For Polus, the clever man will use rhetoric to pursue his desires and, perhaps by means of his cleverness, will also be a decent enough leader. There seems to be a sense to Polus that if one can use rhetoric well, one should because others will also be pursuing their individual desires. For Callicles, we see the danger of a man who has neither intelligence nor moral excellence, and who will use this powerful tool to manipulate citizens into loving that which is evil and harmful to themselves, thereby clouding their understanding of truth. Callicles would be what we now call a "politician," rather than a statesman.

In The Tempest, what does the boatswain say just before the comment about royal people?

In Shakespeare's The Tempest, a storm rages as the nobles are aboard their ship. The boatswain is, at the moment, very occupied with the matters are hand. They are trying to prevent the ship from breaking up in the storm, and the nobles depart from their quarters to ask them why the ship is buffeting about. The boatswain knows that he obviously is doing everything he can to prevent the disturbance, but he nobles are getting in the way of the sailors. Here is the exchange between the nobles and the boatswain:

ANTONIO: Where is the master, boatswain?
BOATSWAIN: Do you not hear him? You mar our labor: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.
GONZALO: Nay, good, be patient.
BOATSWAIN: When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of the king? To cabin: silence! Trouble us not.

The boatswain is understandably frustrated because they are doing everything they can to keep the ship upright and safe in the storm, but the nobles are walking through and interrupting everyone's work. Their arrival prevents them from doing their job in that moment, and the boatswain lashes out angrily at them.

It's the opening scene of The Tempest, and the royal party's ship is being battered and buffeted by a violent storm whipped up by the vengeful Prospero. The most important nobles aboard the ship emerge from their cabins and go on deck to see what's happening. But the boatswain's not very happy about the nobles' appearance; they're getting in the way of the crew's work at such a dangerous time:

Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm.

The boatswain is no respecter of rank and reputation at the moment. He has a job to do, and he's not about to be prevented from doing it by anyone, no matter how socially important they may be. The crashing waves that batter and buffet the ship don't care that there are kings and officials aboard, and nor does he. So the boatswain has no hesitation in telling the king and the other worthies to shut up and go back to their cabins:

When the sea is. Hence! What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin, silence! Trouble us not.

What did Henry the Navigator do to change the conception of Europe's globe?

Henry the Navigator was instrumental in expanding Europeans' understanding of the globe in the early 1400s and sparking what would come to be known as the "Age of Discovery." Prince Henry was not an explorer himself, but he was a significant patron and supporter of voyages of discovery. Starting around the year 1418, Henry funded a new exploratory voyage almost every year. These voyages mostly focused on the west coast of Africa, greatly adding to the European knowledge of that previously little-explored region. It was under Henry's encouragement and patronage that Europeans sailed farther south than they had been willing to before and conducted explorations for both commercial and scientific purposes. This eventually led to some of the first European voyages in areas of Africa that were south of the Sahara Desert.
Henry the Navigator also helped change Europeans' perception of the globe by founding a navigational school in Sagres, Portugal. At this school, cartographers learned new mapping techniques, engineers developed better navigational equipment, and carpenters improved shipbuilding methods. Without these advances, it is possible that subsequent European explorations—which unfolded over the next century—may have turned out differently.
https://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=resources&s=char-dir&f=navigator

Prince Henry the Navigator provided some monumental gains for Europe in terms of global expansion and exploration. In fact, Henry is often credited with starting the Age of Discovery. The explorations that Henry patronized (he didn't actually "navigate" or voyage himself, but he financially supported many explorers) were important for a few reasons. First, they identified winds that made sea travel much easier than in the past. This allowed for new routes of trade and the connection of different continents and cultures. However, it was the exploration of western Africa that is arguably Henry's most influential accomplishment. This put Europe into direct contact with western Africa, farther down the coast than Europeans had ever traveled before, which fatefully and unfortunately enabled the Europeans to begin the Atlantic slave trade.
As for the globe itself, Henry was a skilled cartographer. With his voyages, he was able to map new routes around the ocean. He also created a school for mapmaking in Portugal that was integral in creating new maps of the globe. Imagine the significance that these explorations had on colonialism and trade, which ultimately changed the globe.
https://www.biography.com/explorer/henry-the-navigator

Who is the worst grotesque in Winesburg, Ohio?

What an interesting question! Of course, to deem any part of a literary work as either the “worst” or the “best” is entirely subjective. Nonetheless, in order to offer up opinions on the subject, it is first important to discuss just what Sherwood Anderson means by “the grotesque” in this bizarre collection of short stories.
In the first book of the collection, “The Book of the Grotesque,” Anderson introduces the reader to “the writer,” an old man who has a dream after climbing into bed one evening. In this dream, he saw a “long procession of figures” appear while on the verge of sleep. He describes these figures as “all grotesques” (22). However, Anderson goes on to describe the grotesque figures not as “all horrible,” but rather a rich mix of “amusing, some almost beautiful” figures (23). The one thing all of these figures have in common is their attachments to the notion of truth. Anderson writes:

"[I]n the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as a truth . . . And then the people came along. Each as he appeared snatched up one of the truths and some who were quite strong snatched up a dozen of them. It was the truths that made the people grotesques.” (23–4)

In this context, it is not their appearance that makes the figures grotesque, but rather their reliance upon various universal truths and then living their lives according to those false doctrines.
So which character is the most grotesque in Anderson’s novel? That is largely up to the reader to decide. One of my personal favorites is Alice Hindman from the story “Adventure.” The truth she snatches up and holds on to for dear life ties to her devotion to her first love, Ned Currie. She waits and waits for Ned to return to her after sending him away to make a life in New York, but even after years of waiting, she refuses to acknowledge that he is never coming back. Instead of reaching out to Ned herself or even moving on with her life with another man, she instead decides that she will “live and die alone” (120). What draws me most to this story is its many feminist implications. A woman who becomes a grotesque over the truth of unrequited love is incredibly interesting and ripe with analytical potential; however, only you can decide which character you deem the “worst grotesque” of the bunch.

What are the characteristics of poetry?

Because poetry encompasses a broad range of styles and forms, each with its own set of characteristics, any given poem may display some but not all the characteristics of poetry as a whole. Here are some devices or approaches poets have at their disposal:
Rhyme: Many people expect poems to rhyme, but blank verse and free verse are two types of poetry that don't. Rhyme is the use of words, usually at the ends of lines but sometimes in the middle, that have the same internal vowel and end consonant sounds, such as meet and greet. Rhyme can also include near rhyme or slant rhyme—words that almost rhyme but don't quite—like chime and line.
Rhythm and meter: Traditional poetry uses prescribed rhythmic patterns such as iambic, trochaic, and anapestic in regular line lengths. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, many poets have forsaken such formal rhythms for the rhythms of natural speech. In both cases, the words are placed within the lines in a way that creates a pleasing cadence.
Sound devices: In addition to rhyme, poetry uses other techniques to make the sound of the lines pleasant or evocative. These include consonance, assonance, and onomatopoeia.
Figurative language: Poetry has been called "condensed language." Poets often use figures of speech to communicate a great deal in just a few words. Some figures of speech are simile, metaphor, personification, irony, and hyperbole.
Repetition: A common characteristic of poetry is strategic repetition of words, phrases, or lines. Repetition can enhance the lyrical quality of the poem, create rhythm, and add emphasis.
Poetic form: Poems are written in lines rather than in paragraph form. Some poems use specifically designed spacing of lines or words to add meaning or visual appeal.
Emotion: William Wordsworth said that poetry is "emotion recollected in tranquility." Most poetry is written to produce strong emotions and feelings in the reader.
Not all poetry contains each of the above characteristics, but these are commonly seen in both traditional and modern verse.
https://literary-devices.com/content/assonance/

https://literary-devices.com/content/rhythm-rhyme/

Where did Brian try to aim the plane for his best chance of landing in Hatchet?

After the pilot of his small plane has a heart attack, Brian focuses his efforts on landing a plane in a lake. He feels that this offers his best chance for surviving impact, and takes over the controls in a desperate attempt to save his own life.

If he went down in the trees he was certain to die. The trees would tear the plane to pieces as it went into them.

When the reader joins Brian's story, they are quickly thrown into a scenario of peril. Because the situation is brought on so early in the story, this is one of the first instances where the reader really gets to know who Brian is. By learning of his desire to land the plane on water, they also learn that he is smart and has at least a vague understanding of what it will take to live through the ordeal.
Having a main character that exhibits intelligence can be crucial to the story. Keeping the reader interested in seeing what happens and how the character is going to work themselves out of the situations in which they find themselves helps to keep the story suspenseful and interesting. When Brian decides to land the plane on the lake, the reader has hope that his journey through the rest of the novel will be successful, though difficult.

The answer to this question can be found in chapters 2 and 3. The book doesn't waste any time with putting Brian into a harrowing situation. The pilot of the little bush plane has a heart attack at the end of chapter one, and Brian is forced to fly the plane and consider the various scenarios in which his plane is no longer flying. Brian knows that the plane can't fly forever. The fuel load limits that; therefore, Brian knows that he is going to have to land the plane somewhere. In his mind, putting the plane down on a lake is his best chance for survival. He knows that a lake is his best chance for a clearing free of trees that would otherwise cut the plane to pieces.

Just the lakes, and it came to him that he would have to use a lake for landing. If he went down in the trees he was certain to die. The trees would tear the plane to pieces as it went into them.

Chapter 3 has Brian put the plane down onto/into the water. His lake plan works, but it only just barely works.

So far to the surface and his lungs could not do this thing, could not hold and were through, and he sucked water, took a great pull of water that would—finally—win, finally take him, and his head broke into light and he vomited and swam, pulling without knowing what he was, what he was doing.

Describe how Native Americans way of life was transformed by the English settlers

Native Americans' way of life was completely transformed by the arrival of English settlers. For one thing, they now found themselves competing for land which had been theirs for centuries. In order to establish settlements the newcomers had to find somewhere to live. Inevitably, this meant that at some point land would have be taken from Native Americans, especially when the population of the new settlements expanded. Moreover, the English settlers needed a regular food supply, and this involved intruding on the natives' traditional hunting grounds, meaning that in addition to competing with the English for land Native Americans would also have to compete with them for food.
Although some English settlers, such as the Quakers who founded Pennsylvania, managed to establish generally amicable relations with indigenous tribes, most of them were deeply hostile to Native Americans, seeing them as wild, dangerous savages following a primitive heathen religion. This unshakable prejudice determined how most English settlers subsequently treated Native Americans, leading to suffering on an appalling scale.

Why does Dally ultimately decide to rob the grocery store in Chapter 10 of the Outsiders?

After Johnny dies in a fire, Dally starts to develop something of a death-wish. He's so upset by his friend's death he doesn't know how to handle it. By holding up the grocery store he plans to attract the attention of the police, whom he hopes will shoot him dead. In modern-day terms, this is a phenomenon known colloquially as "death by cop." This is where suicidal individuals, unable or unwilling to kill themselves, deliberately provoke police officers into doing the job for them. Dally's gun is unloaded, which indicates that he has no intention of harming anyone; he simply wants the cops to shoot him dead.
Dally is successful—if you want to call it that—in his endeavor as he's shot and killed by the cops as planned. Like Johnny, Dally achieves some kind of redemption in his death. Ponyboy for one thinks that Dally's actions were heroic and showed him to be so much more than just a hoodlum.

How can Thomas Sutpen's story can be interpreted as an allegory of the South itself.

"Absalom, Absalom!" is a detailed story about Thomas Sutpen, who moves to the south to gain wealth and power. He creates a plantation, gets married, and takes on slaves—eventually amassing all the wealth and luxury he intended to gain. His plan having succeeded, things start to go awry when a child from a previous marriage, when he was in the West Indies, shows up unexpectedly and tries to woo his daughter.
A myriad of terrible events befall him and his family because of his former actions, much of this happening during and immediately after the Civil War.
Allegorically speaking, this story portrays the bigger picture of the South at large. White landowners took advantage of the South, amassing large estates and essentially creating dynasties and enforcing their will on everyone around them, only to have it stripped from them with the righteous liberation of the slaves during the Civil War. His former relationship in the West Indies is a portrayal of the old slave trade, and how its descendants were the undoing of slave owners in the South. When they were liberated, the economy of many of these plantations faltered, and they were able to rise up and overthrow their former oppressors.
The inbred, violent society of the South reaped the reward for what it had sown. Its greedy and perverse nature caused it to amass too much and destroy itself in the process by trying to control everything and oppress others around it.

How is the plant kingdom useful to us?

The plant kingdom is one of the five kingdoms of the living beings. Plant kingdom consists of all the eukaryotic phototropic organisms. The main function of the plant is to carry out the process of the photosynthesis. Photosynthesis in the simple word can be defined as the synthesis of food in presence of sunlight. Apart from a synthesis of food, photosynthesis also generates oxygen which all organism uses to respire. Plants are the only organisms that can fix the atmospheric Carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) and thus reduce the amount of Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helps in reducing the temperature of the earth surface. Plant kingdom also gives us food that we eat. Fruits, vegetables are some other plant products that we eat. Papers, furniture, are some of the plant products that we use in our day to day life. Plant products such as Azadirachtin, curcumin digoxin and digitoxin also have medicinal property.

The plant kingdom has many uses for us. Through the process of photosynthesis, plants convert the solar energy into food (carbohydrates). They are primary producers, and we are dependent on them for our food. We, along with animals, either directly consume plants (fruits and vegetables, etc.) or indirectly by consuming animals. Thus, plants are the source of food for us.
Plants also consume carbon dioxide and generate oxygen. They are the primary supplier of oxygen in the atmosphere and also help in keeping the carbon dioxide concentration in check. We all need oxygen for our survival and thus, plants are essential for our existence.
Plants also minimize the soil erosion and protect the soil. Plants also provide us with wood which has a number of uses for mankind. Many plants also have medicinal properties and their parts are used in the pharmaceutical industry.
Hope this helps.

Why was the Ilbert bill was rejected by British parliament?

The Ilbert Bill wasn't actually rejected by Parliament as such -- it was never voted on in its original form. This was because it was so obviously unpopular from the moment it was proposed that taking it to Parliament would have been a mistake. Key opposition to the bill came from British people living in India who said that it would be humiliating for Europeans to have to face a white judge. More specifically, however, there was a lot of opposition to it from British women. Much propaganda was spread suggesting that Indian men were likely to rape white women and that having an Indian judge and jury would mean these rapists were likely to be freed. British women also contended that, because Bengali men habitually treated their wives badly, an Indian judge could not possibly understand a circumstance in which, for example, a British woman had been abused by her husband, because they would not see this as criminal, but rather would assume a man had a right to treat his wife in such a way.
At any rate, the bill was passed, but only after concessions had been made. These concessions stated that if the judge was Indian and the defendant was white, the jury had to be made up at least 50% by other Europeans. By this time, the bill was called the Criminal Code Procedure Amendment Act (1884).

What are some symbols in Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn?

The book isn't exactly overwhelmed with symbolism, but one possible symbol you might like to consider is Nick's journal. Nick's forced to write the journal by the judge as part of the conditions of the restraining order taken out against him by Caitlyn. The judge tells Nick that he must write 500 words in the journal each week, detailing everything that's happened between himself and Caitlyn, from the moment they first met to the day of the court hearing. It's hoped that Nick will find the experience educational. He certainly has a lot to learn given his arrogant, disrespectful demeanor in court.
The journal could be said to symbolize the personal voyage of self-discovery that Nick undergoes throughout the course of the book. In writing about his tumultuous relationship with Caitlyn, he's forced to come to terms with his abusive behavior towards her. Not only that, but he's forced to confront the source of all the pent-up rage inside him, the years of physical abuse to which he himself has been subjected by his father.

Discuss N. V. M. Gonzalez's writing style.

N. V. M. Gonzalez's first love and first job was playing music. As a young boy in the Philippines, Gonzalez earned money as a violinist at weddings. This background in music can be seen in Gonzalez's style of writing, especially in his poetry and fiction. Gonzalez has also stated in interviews that his second love after music was poetry and that it had set the foundation for his prose writing style.
This can be seen in many of his fiction projects and even in his essay writing. Like a musician, Gonzalez's narrative flow and word usage can sometimes veer off from a logical structure. It is similar to a musician improvising mid-song. The lyrical quality of Gonzalez's fiction has a musicality to it.
There are times when Gonzalez focuses heavily on the aesthetic of language or a sentence's musical quality rather than paying close attention to the actual story structure. This has led some critics of Gonzalez to note that his fiction works appear to lack a clear form.
Gonzalez's fiction stories often follow simplistic plot lines, which can contribute to his reputation for "formless" writing. It is not often that his long fiction works have complex subplots or heavily detailed backstories. Like his favorite subject—rural life in the Philippines, especially concerning the daily lives of farmers—his prose style is slow-paced and steady. Many of his works of fiction have a pastoral quality in which natural settings act like secondary characters. Critics have lauded this slow pace, because it captures the essence of rural life, especially in the Philippines.
A native of the Philippines and a self-proclaimed "provincial boy," Gonzalez is able to replicate the speech patterns of locals from rural communities and then apply those linguistic nuances in English translations. This not only adds further musicality to how his characters speak in novels but can also be considered an ethnographic type of fiction, in which hyper-local settings are depicted naturally and the people are portrayed true to life.

The Happy Prince had compassion for the poor. How do you think the swallow came to know about the prince?

The story tells us how the swallow comes to meet the statue of the Happy Prince. The swallow had been courting a reed who had attracted him earlier in the spring with her graceful, slender waist. However, when she tells him she is too attached to her home to go away with him, he decides to leave her and fly to Egypt to find the other swallows.
Before he leaves, however, he decides to sleep one night in a nearby city. He settles down on the statue of the Happy Prince, pleased that he has a "golden bedroom" with lots of fresh air. He plans to sleep on the statue's feet.
It's only when he is hit with the statue's teardrops that he meets the statue. The statue then tells the swallow the story of his life, saying:

"When I was alive and had a human heart," answered the statue, "I did not know what tears were, for I lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci where sorrow is not allowed to enter. In the daytime I played with my companions in the garden, and in the evening I led the dance in the Great Hall. Round the garden ran a very lofty wall, but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it, everything about me was so beautiful. My courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness. So I lived, and so I died. And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but weep."

The swallow is as compassionate as the Prince, so rather than fly away, he stays put, and the two work together to help the poor of the city.

A person uses a fixed pulley to raise a 75-N object 40m. The force exerted on the object is 120N. What is the efficiency of the pulley?

The efficiency of a pulley is the number of units of work needed to lift the object, divided by the number of units of work being exerted on the pulley. Assuming there is no friction, these two quantities are always equal, giving the pulley an efficiency of 1.
We can verify this using the formula Work = Force * distance. The force needed to lift the load is is 75 N * 40 m = 3000 J. Again assuming no friction, the force exerted on the pulley is 3000 J. Additionally, by solving 120 N * x = 3000 for x, we can determine that the length of rope that the pulling action must travel is 25 m.
(If there is any friction in the system, it reduces the efficacy of the units of work applied to the pulling action by a multiplier between 0 and 1.)

How can empathy help us survive as a species?

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Empathy is a fundamental attribute of human psychological makeup; without being able to conceptualize other people's perspectives, each of us would perish alone rather than survive together. Individual human beings are rather frail physically and we function within social groups, so empathy is crucial to our collective way of life. Even at the most basic level, an adult must be able to emphasize with an infant to nurture it, as our memories of our own infancy fade quickly.
One excellent example from literature is from To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch repeatedly gives advice to his children that they need to try to understand the other person by imagining what it's like to put on their shoes or crawl inside their skin and walk around. That sort of identification with another will help stop rash judgments and generate ways to open dialogues.
Too much empathy can have negative consequences, such as the burnout social workers often face, or interference with decision-making because of excessively anticipating the effects on others.
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/empathy

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/empathy

Is it fair to blame religion for the Salem Witch Trials?

It is fair to say that religion played a major role in the Salem Witch Trials. A majority of people in Salem were Puritans and believed in the existence of evil. The Puritan way of life was derived from Christianity. The church was the foundation of the Puritan society. Puritans had to adhere to strict rules that demanded moral uprightness. Anything that went against their beliefs was viewed as a sin that warranted punishment. The Puritans were fearful of God and afraid of His wrath, which explains why people did not support the thought of living among witches. There was widespread belief that women who did not follow the Puritan lifestyle were witches. In addition, Puritans victimized people who were viewed as outcasts because they did not follow their values.

What happened when Waverly ask for a bag of salted plums in "Rules of the Game"?

While she's shopping at the store with her mother one day, Waverly asks for a bag of salted plums. But her mother refuses to buy her one. It's not that she's being cruel or vindictive; she just wants her daughter to exercise self-control, which she believes is a necessary precondition of achieving success in life. Nevertheless, whatever her motives, Mrs. Jong angrily scolds Waverly, telling her that, in future, she should learn to bite her tongue in order to control herself.
Whether or not this is the right approach for a parent to take in such circumstances, it seems to work. The next time Mrs. Jong and Waverly go shopping, Waverly doesn't ask for any plums. This tells Mrs. Jong that her daughter has matured and learned her lesson. As a reward for Waverly's self-control, Mrs. Jong quietly plucks a small bag of plums from the rack and puts it on the counter with the rest of the items she's bought.

How does Marguerite learn of the Scarlet Pimpernel's identity?

Marguerite discovers that her husband is, in fact, the Scarlet Pimpernel completely by accident.
One morning, Marguerite is expecting a visit from her dear school friend: little Suzanne de Tournay. Having nothing else to do but wait for Suzanne to arrive, she goes downstairs and, after a moment of hesitation, decides to go to her husband's apartments.
Once there, she enters her husband's small study, which he always keeps locked and hidden—the only person who is allowed to enter it is his valet, Frank. Fortunately, Frank is busy elsewhere in the house, and Marguerite is left to freely explore Sir Percy's sanctum.
She discovers that the room is kept very clean and organized and that Percy keeps two maps of France and a large portrait of his mother inside. Thinking that there's nothing more to see, she turns to leave and accidently knocks her foot against a small, golden ring which is engraved with a small, star-shaped flower: the device of the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Thus, Marguerite uncovers the true identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Explain the ending of True West.

I think the ending of True West by Sam Shepard shows the brothers becoming part of the West. Their mother's kitchen seems to fade away as "the figures of the brothers now appear to be caught in a vast desert-like landscape." This change in setting shows them becoming part of the wild outdoors. Also, their actions reflect their wildness. Throughout the play the brothers have argued and fought, but this comes to a peak at the end when Austin strangles Lee with a telephone cord. At first Lee appears to be dead, but then he gets up. They square off, and "they are very still but watchful for the next move." This makes me think of a standard Western film, where two cowboys stand across from each other, wondering who will make the first move.
The ending also makes me think of the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Cain murders his brother Abel out of jealousy, and God punishes him to a life of wandering. The image of the two brothers standing across from each other also makes me think about how similar they are. They start off the play as very different characters, but here they are together at the end with the same animal instincts.

Why did Gram have to go to the hospital in Walk Two Moons?

Gram is taken to the hospital in chapter 15 because she has just been bitten by a poisonous snake. The snake is in the Missouri river, where Gram, Gramps, and Sal have been swimming.
Gram feels a pain in her leg and then reaches into the water and brings up a snake, which she thinks is "a water moccasin." She says that the snake has "had a snack" out of her leg. The water moccasin is a species of viper which has a bite that can be fatal.
Gramps cuts a slit in Gram's leg "across the snake bite" so that he can suck the poison out of the wound. Gram is treated at the hospital and spends the night, but is released the next morning with nothing worse than a bit of heatstroke and a bit of shock.

What is the best summary of the events the stanzas describe in "The Chimney Sweeper"?

William Blake's poem "The Chimney Sweeper" begins with the speaker's sad story of his young life. When his mother died, his father sold him, and he became a chimney sweeper. We know that the speaker was quite young at the time because he was not even able to say the word "sweep"—he said "weep" instead.
Stanza two shifts the focus from the speaker to another young chimney sweeper, Tom Dacre, who cries because his head was shaved. The speaker tries to make his friend Tom feel better by reminding him that at least the soot from the chimneys won't dirty his hair.
The speaker begins the story of Tom's dream in stanza three. Little Tom dreams that the chimney sweepers are dead and "locked up in coffins of black." Clearly, Tom is unable to escape the horrors of his life even during sleep.
Stanza four introduces an angel who releases the children from their coffins. Now they are able to be children again, instead of working and suffering. The children run "down a green plain, leaping, laughing" and wash themselves in the river.
We realize in stanza five that the children have not been released from death; they have been taken into the afterlife. Leaving everything behind, "They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind." The angel promises Tom that if he's a good boy, God will be his father, and he will be happy.
In the final stanza, Tom awakens; leaving his comforting dream behind, he and the other children must go about their workday. However, something has changed in Tom—he is no longer upset by the misery in his life. His dream has showed him "they need not fear harm" because one day they will be happy with God.

What was the religion practiced by the townspeople?

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is a short story published in 1835 and is one of the best-known of Hawthorne's pieces. The religion practiced by the townspeople and, eventually, by Goodman Brown himself is not necessarily a religion per se; rather, it is a disavowal of Christianity.
The story features a recently-married Goodman Brown, taking leave of his (aptly named) wife Faith, who is reluctant to see him go on an unnamed errand. The obliquely-described journey takes place at night, through a dark forest, with travel companions who are known to Goodman Brown. Some of these characters represent religious affiliations (e.g., Goody Cloyse, a former religious mentor of Brown's). Faith, too, appears in the woods. Goodman Brown, a heretofore pious community member, occasionally falters in his resolve to participate in the unnamed ritual. Referring to his mentor Goody Cloyse, Brown states,

Not another step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil, when I thought she was going to Heaven! Is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith, and go after her?

The night-time ritual, attended by so many townspeople, is a form of devil-worship; however, its culmination is left ambiguous by Hawthorne, as Goodman Brown wakes up and finds himself in the woods. It is proposed that Brown perhaps "only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting." Whether in a dream or in reality, Goodman Brown declares, "Come, devil; for to thee is this world given." The story therein describes Goodman Brown raging among the pines "brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures... giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy."
The religion exhibited in Young Goodman Brown could, broadly speaking, be called witchcraft. Specifically, this "witch-meeting" takes the form of devil-worship, as the characters in the woods evoke and emulate the devil by carrying a staff. This devil-worship, however, is defined solely in counterpoint to the Christianity it rejects. This is made clear in the story's conclusion, in which the town minister preaching is declared "anathema," and Goodman Brown fears to himself "lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer." Hawthorne's focus on "blasphemy" and on the devil reinforce the notion that the occult, town-wide religion is best defined as anti-Christianity.

Think about the 6 roles in the civil war: Radical Republicans, Moderate Northerners, Moderate Southerners, Northern Business Leader, Southern Business Leader, and Freeman, answer this question based on the 6 roles above---Under what social, economic, and political terms, should the Union be put together after the Civil War?

This is actually a tricky question, because you need to consider an array of different perspectives and experiences, viewed within the context of the highly destructive and divisive experience that was the American Civil War, and then determine a path for rebuilding. With that in mind, consider that these different groups will not be in agreement—in fact, some will conflict quite vociferously with one another—which means you will have to prioritize, just as the politicians of real life Reconstruction ultimately had to. So, what is the best plan here? Rebuilding Southern Society in such a way as to address and ultimately confront the inequalities of the past (which would mean siding with Radical Republicans and working for the benefits of Freedmen, even as it alienates those among the more Moderate Republicans and large segments of Southern whites)? Bringing the country back together, even if it means forgiving the act of secession, or abandoning the Freedmen? Should the goal be to find some kind of middle ground between the two, or something else altogether? Ultimately, that's the real question your answer has to address.
So, let's talk about the perspectives of some of these different groups. The Freedmen are the former slaves within the South, recently freed by the the Thirteenth Amendment. Uneducated, poor, recently released from slavery with an uncertain future, they represent a legitimate humanitarian crisis. Here, consider the existence of a group like the Freedmen's Bureau, as well as the hostility the freedmen face across the South.
The Radical Republicans are, as the name says, the most radical wing of the Republican Party, and their main goals are to punish the Southern Confederates, break the power of the Southern aristocratic class, and advance the interests of the Freedmen.
Next there's the Moderates to consider, both for the North and the South, especially from the perspective of the Civil War which had just divided the country. Many in the country would prefer a policy of reconciliation, and furthermore, and consider that there's still a lot of racism within the country. Even among those who had opposed slavery, there would still be opposition to racial equality. Now, consider what that means when it comes to those who had never been abolitionists to begin with, or had been active defenders of slavery.
As far as business leaders go, consider that their primary interests would probably run along economic lines: maintaining economic growth and stability, as well as pursuing opportunities for personal profit. Northern business leaders would primarily be looking to restore economic stability in the south, and look for opportunities to further advance their own economic interests in the rebuilding process.
Finally, I am not sure what you mean by Southern business leaders, which in its own way could reflect several different perspectives. For example, there were Southerners who would align with Northern interests to rebuild the economy. On the other hand, we might also talk about the former plantation owners and the aristocratic class which had dominated southern society and politics, and there you should expect extreme hostility should you make even a hint of siding with the Radical Republicans for example. In any case, I'd suggest that a lot of the most powerful and influential voices in the South would be interested in restoring economic stability, and in the case of the aristocratic class especially, trying to restore as much of the status quo as they possibly can.
There's a lot of different perspectives to navigate and address. You're task is to keep this wide range of perspectives in mind, while creating a functioning plan for Reconstruction that can accurately address the realities and advance the vision you have in mind.

What would be the thematic statement for "Rules of the Game"?

"Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan explores the relationship between the main character, Waverly, and her mother. The protagonist becomes more and more proficient in chess, with less proficiency in dealing with the tense relationship between her mother, a constant source of tension in her life.
Because of the distinct conflict between Waverly and her mother, the reader explores the thematic subjects of family, power, and control. Specifically, the subjects that reflect the mother-daughter relationship.
Through this thematic subject, the reader can trace the conflict and character interaction to develop a thematic statement, specifically that of "conflicts in our family can shape our own intentions in life."
Her mother is overbearing, incredibly critical, and often at odds with the goals and desired outcomes Waverly has for herself. Thus, the reader begins to see that within this family, there is a struggle for power—a desire for control and correctness. Due to this power struggle, Waverly more and more desires her own independence, a life away from the control her mother insists on inserting on her life. She seeks the clarity that exists when she is free from this structure.
Take the following quote, for example, for a deeper dive:

Each morning before school, my mother would twist and yank on my thick black hair until she had formed two tightly wound pigtails.

Even in such a seemingly simple action, the reader is exposed to the control of her mother exhibited in something like the way she has her daughter wear her hair.
Or here:

My mother had a habit of standing over me while I plotted out my games. I think she thought of herself as my protective ally.

Literally standing over her, Waverly's mother wants control. Sure, one can make the assumption that there is protection within this power, but the feelings Waverly has for this control more and more throughout the story shape her desire to be free from it.
All in all, when a reader explores a thematic subject, such as family and the power that derives from it, one is able to expand on this subject to create a thematic statement.

What happens to the German student in the end?

In the end, the German student loses his sanity and is committed to a mental institution.
The story is about a young German student by the name of Gottfried Wolfgang. Gottfried is said to be of a melancholy disposition and prone to wild fancies about the supernatural world. Because of his unhealthy predilections, Gottfried's family sends him to Paris to finish his studies.
In Paris, the unfortunate Gottfried is dismayed to find the country engulfed in the bloody Reign of Terror. So, he keeps to his apartment and spends many hours in the great libraries of Paris. During this time, he begins to indulge in romantic fantasies about a very beautiful woman. Gottfried has never seen this woman before, but he becomes obsessed with her. She appears in his thoughts during the day and in his dreams at night.
One night, on his way back to his apartment, Gottfried passes by the fearful guillotine, the instrument of the French Revolution. He is shocked when he sees a woman at the foot of the murderous instrument. Upon further investigation, Gottfried discovers that the woman is none other than the one who has been haunting his dreams.
Gottfried takes the woman back to his apartment. When he discovers that she has no family, he pledges himself to her. During the night, they consummate their love. The next morning, Gottfried leaves in search of larger quarters. When he returns, he finds his new bride dead, with her head hanging over the bed. Frantic with grief, Gottfried calls the police. When the policeman sees the body, he proclaims that the dead woman was guillotined only the day before.
Additionally, when the policeman unties the collar around the corpse's neck, the head rolls onto the floor.
Upon seeing this, Gottfried loses his composure altogether. His old anxieties return, and he imagines that the evil spirit that once dogged him has returned to claim his soul.
In the end, Gottfried loses his sanity and is committed to an asylum.

How do I explain the motif of light verses darkness from act 1 scene 5 in Romeo and Juliet?

In act I, scene 5, Romeo first lays eyes on Juliet at the Capulet ball. He sees her as a stunning light, and in contrast, everything else becomes darkness. As he says:

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear ...

In other words, she is brighter than torches: she teaches them from her example how to burn more brightly. She also sparkles like a jewel against the night. Romeo expresses her beauty as a form of brilliant light.

For Capulet, it is physical light which bring joy to his party. He asks more than once for

More light, more light!

And later, Lord Capulet asks for more torches.

As can be seen, this is a light filled scene, and the light reflects a time of exuberance and happiness. Capulet does all he can to quell unhappiness and anger, for instance by forbidding Tybalt to cause trouble over Romeo, a hated Montague, having crashed the party. Meanwhile, Romeo, newly lovestruck, describes his beloved as as brilliant light.

What is the narrative in Roald Dahl's "Cinderella"?

A narrative is a story or plotline. In Dahl's poem, he retells the Cinderella fairytale to make it scarier or more "gory," saying that the story that has come down to us is sanitized and "sappy" to keep children "happy."
In Dahl's version, Cinderella is locked in a basement with rats as her stepsisters go to the ball. When her magic fairy appears, this more assertive "Cindy" beats on the wall and demands to be sent to the ball. The fairy agrees, and Cinderella ends up dancing with the prince at the ball, clutching him so hard he "gasps." When the clock begins to toll, the Prince tries to hold on to the fleeing Cinderella, tearing off her dress so that she runs away in her underwear and loses a shoe.
In a twist on the original, one of the stepsisters takes Cinderella's shoe, flushes it down the toilet, and replaces it with her own shoe. The shoe fits the stepsister's foot, but the prince refuses to marry her, and instead chops off her head and kills the other stepsister as well. This upsets Cinderella, who appeals to her fairy to wed her to a decent guy. She ends up married to a kind jam maker and lives happily ever after.

Why is it important for human service agencies and providers to be educated in issues of diversity? What can this understanding contribute to the agency? How does this understanding of diversity issues improve assisting those in need?

The blanket term "Human Services" usually refers to fields such as social work, counseling, sociology, psychology, and children's education. In the vast majority of cases, the highest demand for a human services professional's expertise will be among people from lower socioeconomic classes, such as children in the care system, children of lower income and single parents, the unemployed, and those with substance abuse issues. Another demographic likely to feature highly in the working life of a human services professional will be immigrants and asylum seekers, largely because these people will often have escaped traumatic situations and be in need of counseling, as well as safe housing and other areas where a social worker might provide assistance.
Unfortunately, there is a high level of overlap between those in lower socioeconomic classes and those who represent some kind of minority—for example:
1. Racial minorities—many people who will require the services of human services agencies will be, as noted, immigrants or asylum seekers with different cultural backgrounds. There is also a higher proportion of low income and formerly incarcerated people among non-white populations. These people may have been brought up and educated within the dominant culture, but may represent religious minorities or otherwise diverge from the cultural norm.
2. Gender minorities—there is a high level of homelessness, unemployment, and substance abuse among members of the transgender community, largely due to discrimination and the likelihood of trans people being rejected by their families and social support systems.
3. Sexual minorities—suicide rates are highest among gay and bisexual youth, meaning that these youths will frequently require human services professionals. Gay and bisexual people are also incarcerated, abused and made redundant at a higher rate than heterosexuals.
These are only three examples, but we can see immediately why human services professionals should have an understanding of diversity. It is highly likely that a human services professional will see more diversity in his or her working life than outside of it. As such, it is important that the professional should have an understanding of the particular problems facing those they are seeking to help. This might include:
1. Education and training about LGBTQ issues—the professional should be able to understand what psychological challenges the client is facing. They should also understand the discrimination faced by the client in daily life in order to be able to counsel them adequately and relate to their situation.
2. Religious and cultural sensitivity training—particularly where clients are immigrants, already feeling out of place in a new dominant culture, it is important that the professional should not do anything which is discourteous in the client's context. This means understanding religious differences, such as the strictures upon Muslim women in terms of how they should interact with men. It also means that professionals should take it upon themselves to understand the culture the client has come from, so as to appreciate any difficulties that are happening in terms of adapting to a new culture.

In Hatchet, how did Brian escape the moose?

It's Chapter 16 of Hatchet and Brian is washing his hands in the lake. He's suddenly aware of a strange presence behind him. When he turns round to see what it is, he's confronted by the sight of a large, angry moose. Brian may have grown skilled in hunting rabbits and trapping foolbirds, but a moose is a different ball game entirely.
Before Brian has had time to think, the moose attacks him, throwing him into the water and coming after him to finish the job. Brian is badly injured in his ribs and shoulders, but somehow needs to escape—and fast. This is truly a life and death situation, the most serious incident that Brian has faced since crash landing in the wilderness. The moose keeps driving Brian deeper and deeper into the muddy water, filling his lungs with filth, until, all of a sudden, she stops, giving Brian an opportunity to struggle to the surface.
But no sooner has he done so than the moose attacks again. Once more, she charges straight at him, sending him crashing back into the lake. And once more, she leaves him alone to continue calmly munching away on a lily pad root. Brian figures that the best way to escape is not to make any sudden movements that might antagonize the moose. So he gets down on his hands and knees and crawls very, very slowly away from the lake until he finds a place of relative safety behind a tree.

What is Ezra Pound's relation to T.S. Eliot's mythical method? Does he follow it?

T.S. Eliot's "mythical method" refers to a technique of modernist writing in which the present is constantly juxtaposed with allusions to elements out of myth and the literature of previous ages. He apparently first coined the term in his review of Joyce's Ulysses, indicating that Joyce had used this method of writing in place of what would conventionally be considered "narrative." Probably the most famous illustration of mythical method in Eliot's own work is "The Waste Land." The whole poem sometimes seems a patchwork of quotations and references which represent the distant past, our roots, and are transformed into a parallel with modern life to illustrate both similarities and differences. The very opening of "The Waste Land" confronts us with a striking paraphrase of Chaucer:

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

The Prologue of The Canterbury Tales begins:

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of March had perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Eliot takes Chaucer's description of the positive quality of spring and inverts it into a symbol of death and pessimism. Pound's technique employs allusions to the past and to past literature, but in a different way, since his personal style is quite distinct from Eliot's. In the first few stanzas of "Hugh Selwyn Moberley" we see a veritable blitz of quotes, names out of myth, names of past authors, and a direct statement that the speaker feels himself out of sync with the time in which he is living:

For three years, out of key with his time,
He strove to resuscitate the dead art
Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime"
In the old sense.

Pound then gives us a quote from The Odyssey, which some editions show in Greek and others transliterate into Roman script, along with a reference to Penelope, but stating that his (Moberley's) "true Penelope was Flaubert." So we're immediately seeing allusions to myth, quotations from an epic poem in the original language, and a reference to a (relatively) recent author, Flaubert.
Though Pound is clearly employing the mythical method not only in these stanzas but throughout "Hugh Selwyn Moberley" as a whole, his verse does not sound like that of Eliot. In general Eliot's tone is quietly contemplative in expressing his negativism and parallels with the past (to the detriment of the present.) Pound's verse has a manic, angry quality, and in my view is even more difficult to understand than Eliot's. I also tend to think that Eliot's poetry, except for the foreign quotations, is accessible even if one is not necessarily familiar with the texts to which he is alluding. For example:

A crowd flowed over London bridge, so many.
I had not thought death had undone so many.

One does not have to know that this is a paraphrase from Dante's Inferno to understand the point that London, in the modern age, seems to the speaker a city of the dead. Pound's verse is more esoteric, but he often uses a more conventional formal structure, with regular meter and rhyme (though Eliot sometimes does also). Part III of "Hugh Selwyn Moberley" begins:

Turned from the "eau-forte
Par Jaquemart"
To the straight head
Of Messalina:
"His true Penelope
Was Flaubert"
And his tool
The engraver's.

Here Pound is quoting his own poetry (the line about Penelope and Flaubert), so the mythical method has become self-referential within the same poem. Arguably, more intense study is required of the reader to understand Pound than even his modernist contemporaries, including his close friend Eliot.

How does Breathing Underwater by Alex Flint begin?

The story begins at the Justice Building in Miami, Florida. Nick, the book's protagonist, is up before the court after hitting his girlfriend, Caitlyn. Caitlyn's seeking a restraining order on Nick to keep him away from her. The presiding judge, Judge Lehman, is none too impressed by Nick's arrogance and lack of remorse and has no hesitation in granting Caitlyn's request. Under the terms of the restraining order, Nick is not to contact her in any way, not even talk to her at school. If he does, then he's going straight off to jail.
In addition, the judge also orders Nick to attend anger management classes for six months and to keep a regular journal. In that journal, he's to write 500 words a week explaining all the things that have happened between himself and Caitlyn from the very first day he met her until his court date. The judge hopes that writing the journal will force Nick to confront his unacceptable behavior and perhaps make him learn something.

What was Bacon's Rebellion and why was it important?

Bacon’s Rebellion was an armed uprising that occurred in 1676 between Nathaniel Bacon and the government of Virginia. Bacon led the Virginia settlers of all classes against the government of William Berkeley. While Berkeley was the governor, tobacco prices fell and taxes rose, leading to economic problems. The right to vote was restricted to land owners, and the colonists no longer felt protected. When the colonists wanted to push westward and take Native American land, Governor Berkeley denied them. He also refused to retaliate against Native American attacks on the colonists. For these reasons, the colonists rebelled under the leadership of Nathaniel Bacon.
Bacon’s rebellion was important because it was the first time that colonists fought against tyranny. Many historians claim that Bacon’s Rebellion planted the seed for the American Revolution, which occurred 100 years later.

Describe the character of Harrison in terms of both his physical qualities and his personality traits.

Physically, Harrison Bergeron is a very impressive specimen. Strong, good-looking, and extremely tall for his age, Harrison is blessed with a naturally athletic physique. He's not too shabby in the brains department, either. Harrison takes after his father in that he's a highly intelligent young man with the capacity to think deeply about the world around him.
Unfortunately, Harrison's brain and brawn are considered dangerous in this radically egalitarian society. Under the dictatorial rule of Diana Moon Glampers, everyone must be completely equal. This means that those blessed with physical and/or intellectual superiority are forced to wear handicaps that drag them down to the same general level of mediocrity as everyone else.
In Harrison's case, this means having to wear weights to curb his natural athleticism. He's also lumbered with large headphones that emit white noise at regular intervals to stop him from thinking; massive, outsize spectacles that impair his vision; and a red rubber ball for a nose and black caps on his teeth that make him look deeply unattractive.
However, despite the best efforts of the regime, Harrison's spirit cannot be broken. He's a romantic, adventurous soul, and it comes as no surprise when Harrison escapes from prison, casts off his handicaps, declares himself Emperor, and dances with a ballerina on live national TV. When all's said and done, Harrison has the soul of an artist, and it is this, more than anything else, that allows him to enjoy his all-too-brief taste of freedom. The artistic soul, in all its creative, imaginative depth, is ultimately impervious to any attempt by the Handicapper General to break it.

Who was Edward Jenner?

Edward Jenner (1749-1823) was an English doctor known primarily for his work in developing the smallpox vaccine. Smallpox was one of history's most deadly diseases. Highly virulent, it killed millions of people over the centuries before it was officially eradicated in 1980. Jenner's contribution was observing that those who had previously contracted cowpox, a related but significantly less dangerous virus, would not later contract the more lethal smallpox. Based on these observations, Jenner believed that inoculating people with the weaker cowpox strain would grant immunity against smallpox. He tested his assumptions in 1796, giving a child cowpox and later introducing smallpox into his system. As expected, previous exposure to the cowpox virus rendered the child immune. This discovery was a landmark moment in medical history and provided a means of combating one of history's most terrible diseases.
Jacquelyn G. Black, Microbiology: Principles and Explorations (8th edition), John Wiley & Sons: 2005, p. 586

What did the bodhisattva do in the tale of The Merchant of Seri?

A bodhisattva is a person who consciously works toward enlightenment. Gautama Buddha, in his former lives, is known as a bodhisattva. Jataka Tales depicts the previous incarnations of the Buddha—at various times an animal, a bird, or a human being. A total of 547 stories, the fables impart values of honesty, compassion, and sacrifice.
The Merchant of Seri is a story of two merchants who trade brass and tin ware. One merchant is greedy and dishonest. The other merchant is the bodhisattva. The unscrupulous merchant tries to cheat a poor, old woman and her granddaughter, who do not realize that they possess a golden dish.
The moral and virtuous bodhisattva gives up all that he has in exchange for the golden dish. He sells the dish and makes a good fortune. The greedy merchant laments his loss.
The story has a simple moral: Honesty is the best policy.
https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-folktales/jataka-tales/merchant-of-seri.html

https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/jt/jt05.htm

In chapter 2 of Of Mice and Men, describe the frequent tension and suspicion between characters, as well as the indications that everyone at this ranch is "mean", to use Lennie's description. Point out two examples of kindness in this chapter.

In Chapter 2, George and Lennie arrive at the ranch to work. They were supposed to get there in the morning, and the old man who greets them lets them know that the boss isn’t happy with them. He says, “He was sore as hell when you wasn't here to go out this morning."
George ignores this comment and instead remarks on the yellow can of bug killer he finds. He becomes upset and suspicious about what their living situation will be like, and the tension which had already surfaced mounts. The old man tries to assure them it will be fine, explaining that the man who slept there before him was very clean, and would have had something like that just in case. George spends some time inspecting the bed before deciding that it will be acceptable. We can see that neither side is going to be easy to please.
The boss comes in and is, as the old man had indicated, upset that George and Lennie hadn’t arrived when they were supposed to. George explains why they were late, but he isn’t exactly apologetic, and because he’s speaking for both himself and Lennie, the boss becomes suspicious of what George is trying to hide. He says, "Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is."
George lies and says that he looks out for Lennie because they’re cousins, and he told Lennie’s mother that he would. Once the boss has left, Lennie remarks on George’s lie, and George realizes that the old man is outside listening. The tension becomes even thicker as George is angry, but the old man is able to convince him he’s not trying to make trouble.
Curley, the boss’ son comes in, and it is clear he’s going to create problems for Lennie. Curley is a small man but a fighter, and he likes to instigate things with men much bigger than him. George is very worried about what will happen to Lennie, and Lennie is afraid. The old man shows a curious sort of kindness by gossiping about Curley and his wife, explaining that Curley’s wife gives other men “the eye.” This makes George and Lennie feel a little more welcome, and softens the old man toward them as well. It has a calming effect on the entire situation.
The other kindness shown to George and Lennie is by Slim, the jerkline skinner. He expresses hope that George and Lennie will be assigned to his team, and is admiring of both Lennie for the amount of work George says he can do, and George, for complimenting Lennie. It is clear that Slim is a fair, even man.

How can I write a monologue based on the character Katniss after the games/while she is on the train back to District 12? What will she fear now that she’s won the games, what is she feeling or experiencing now (e.g., trauma from the games, etc.)?

In order to properly approach this, it's best to consider the context you want the monologue in, there are three different approaches:
1) Dramatic Monologue: A long speech used typically in a stage play or other similar works, in which a character is addressing a second character in conversation.
2) Soliloquy: A long speech used typically in a play, when a character is addressing the audience, making them aware of the the character's thoughts. This character can be alone or with others.
3) Interior monologue: This is used in literature and not intended for stage use. An interior monologue is used to let the audience know what the character is feeling.
Once you discover which one you would like to use, begin to consider what Katniss has gone prior to and through out the first novel: her father has passed away, leaving her family in a vulnerable situation; she was the main provider for her household for some time; yet she still elected to go in for her sister; she was treated to riches and fortunes in order to prime her for those in the Capital to be willing bet on her; she entered the games; was forced to consider her alliances; saw her friend die in the games; had to nurse Peeta back to health, with her limited knowledge of medicine; mercifully killed Cato; contemplated committing suicide with Peeta; was transported back to the Capital, as the winner of a horrible prize; and would be on her way back to District 12, with riches, a home, and a life that she never considered possible for her and her family. To her knowledge, she will also now be preparing future District 12 children for the games, grooming them for the same situation she just went through.
There's a lot to work with here. Katniss will no doubt be suffering from PTSD after the games, but, as mentioned, she will continue to have to prepare children from District 12 for the same horrors despite her nightmares and fears. The best way to approach is to think about what Katniss would want for her future, and what she's imagining on that train ride home, as the country zips by and she's silent, with no fear of her life at that moment. Ask questions: Would she feel guilty? Would she be excited to see her family? Would she be relieved to see them?

One of the purposes of a monologue is to give readers an opportunity to hear what is going on inside a character’s mind. A monologue can be written to reveal a stream-of-consciousness, thus giving readers the feeling that they can hear the character’s thoughts.
On the train back to District 12, Katniss is depressed, and she demonstrates the classic symptoms of PTSD. Characteristic of the syndrome, she struggles to reconcile the realities she witnessed that assaulted her strength, her emotions, and her moral code. Katniss has a psychological need to understand the terror she experienced during the games and come to terms with it. However, at the same time, she has a need to bury the pain and ignore it, as to contemplate the terrors requires that she relive them in her mind—an idea that is threatening in itself and seems too much for her to bear. On the battlefield, Katniss was a soldier in combat; her life was constantly threatened, and she was forced to kill others, but unlike typical soldiers, she was forced to kill people she knew and loved as friends. All these traumas are fresh and real to Katniss, and quite likely, they dominate her thoughts on the train back to District 12.
By returning home, Katniss hopes to live a simple life and escape from the government, and the control, and the horror of the games. However, she faces the same dilemma many other soldiers have faced when they return to civilian life after fighting in wars. She must come to terms with what she saw and experienced—she must understand it and learn to accept—before she can put it behind her and have a more or less “normal” life where she is not constantly tortured by nightmares and flashbacks of past horrors.

What characteristics of a novel does Bunyan's allegory share, or perhaps prefigure?

The debate over whether The Pilgrim's Progress is a true allegory or a precursor to the novel has raged over centuries. The great poet and literary critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge regarded it as a kind of proto-novel which expressed the growing individualism of Bunyan's time. Whether or not one agrees with Coleridge's assessment, we can nonetheless identify certain characteristics that the book shares with the novel, which first developed as we know it today in the eighteenth century.
For one thing, The Pilgrim's Progress boasts an extensive cast of memorable characters. Those characters may well be allegorical, but they nonetheless possess a distinctive human quality that makes them more engaging to the reader. Though Bunyan is keen to ensure that his religious message comes across clearly, he doesn't lose sight of the fact that the characters through which he conveys that message need to be believable.
An additional factor that The Pilgrim's Progress shares with the novel is its narrative structure. Christian's journey isn't simply a religious allegory; there's a human story to be told here, too, and Bunyan proceeds to tell it using the kind of narrative arc one normally associates with the novel. In the course of his epic journey, Christian must overcome many obstacles and vanquish numerous enemies before he finally enters the Celestial City in glory to the sound of trumpets.
Maybe The Pilgrim's Progress isn't technically a novel, but in substance at least it certainly has all the hallmarks of a novel, and a very great one at that.

What are the racial sentencing disparities when it comes to incarcerations, and are there any regional variations in these disparities?

According to The Sentencing Project, the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, with 670 out of every 100,000 Americans currently imprisoned. This number has increased sharply beginning in the 1980s and beginning to decline slowly in the last decade. Overall, non-white Americans are more likely to be incarcerated. One in every seventeen white men (about 6%) will be incarcerated at some point during their life, while one in every three black men will (33%) and one in every six Latino men (17%). For women, the difference is even more dramatic. One in every 111 white women (less than 1%) will go to prison in her lifetime, while 5.5% of black women, one out of eighteen, will. For Latina women, one in forty-five will serve time in prison, a rate of around 2%.
Looking at incarceration statistics by state reveals notable differences in incarceration rates by state. The states with the highest rate of incarceration are Louisiana (760 of every 100,000 residents), Oklahoma (673 of every 100,000), Mississippi (624 of every 100,000). Arizona and Arkansas also have high rates, with more than 500 of every 100,000 residents incarcerated. The states with the lowest rates have less than one third as many as the highest states. The following all have less than 2% of their population incarcerated: Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In general, northern states have lower rates of incarceration, while southern states have higher rates. There are some exceptions to this, such as New Mexico’s relatively low rate (329 per 100,000) and Idaho’s higher rate of 489 per 100,000.
https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/