What is the meaning of second stanza of "Lines Written in Early Spring" by William Wordsworth?

This stanza reads as follows:

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

The pronoun antecedent for "her" in the first line is Nature, and that's key to understanding what the first two lines are getting at. The speaker is saying that Nature links her works to the human soul and to the speaker, specifically. He is part of the works of nature and so is every other human soul. Thus, it causes him great pain when he considers how humankind can bring such misery to other members of humankind, as we are all inextricably linked and bound through nature.
Wordsworth is ultimately conveying in these lines that humankind has a responsibility to do better in its treatment of each other because we are connected to Nature in the same ways.

What happens to cause the lieutenant's injury?

The lieutenant gets shot in the arm while doling out coffee rations to his men. At first, he doesn't know he's been shot; he thinks that someone's punched him in the arm. But fairly soon he realizes that it's much more serious than that, and the lieutenant screams in pain, blood running from his arm.
The men start wondering where the bullet could've come from. They look towards a nearby forest and speculate that it might have come from there. It seems to be the only plausible explanation. In any case, the bullet's mysterious journey prefigures the lieutenant's own journey as he staggers from the battlefield, his mind going in several directions at once, to seek medical treatment for the injury to his shattered arm.

How do you think the move affected Wes in The Other Wes Moore? What is the evidence that you have to support your answer? Select a quote, give the page number, and explain your answer.

On page 30, when describing the move from Maryland to New York, Wes says that, for the "first few days after the move, [he] became antsy." In other words, he became restless and didn't feel comfortable, in large part because the life he was used to in Maryland was very different to the new life he was confronted with in New York.
Wes says that he "missed [his] old friends and [his] old neighbourhood." To ease his feeling of restlessness, Wes explores the new streets and dribbles his basketball "up the concrete sidewalks towards the courts." The people he meets on the basketball courts are "different from [his] friends back in Maryland" (page 31) but Wes quickly makes new friends.
On page 34, Wes says that in the Bronx everything was "more intense and potent" and acknowledges that his "senses were assaulted." He describes "a fog of food smells," a diverse, multicultural mix of people, a jumble of different accents and languages, and crowded sidewalks. These observations suggest that the move to New York made Wes feel somewhat overwhelmed, though not necessarily in a bad way. He was, if anything, excited by the busyness of the Bronx.

How can I argue that The Handmaid's Tale is about blacks in America?

We could understand the position of the handmaids and the Rachels as analogous to that of female slaves in the United States prior to the Civil War. Like Offred, enslaved women were often renamed according to the whims of the whites. For example, attractive black women were often called "Venus" to help make them more likely to sell. The slaves also were forbidden to read, as the women are in Gilead. Like Offred, they would live in an oddly isolated world, cut off from news of the wider world and dependent on whatever secret networks they could establish with other people of their class to get information.
Slaves were told what to wear, and like Offred and the other handmaids, they were subject to severe physical punishment and mutilation for disobeying their captors. After importing slaves was made illegal, white men also deliberately raped black enslaved women to create more slaves, as any child born of a slave was automatically a slave.
Like Gilead, the antebellum south was a rigidly hierarchical society, with the wealthy white males on top and everyone else in a particular place in the social order.

The Handmaid's Tale is set in a future dystopian republic, Gilead, which is clearly the United States. This is indicated in part by the information provided that people try to escape by crossing the border into Canada, as well as mentioning specific states such as North Dakota.
The novel is about race in several ways. The overall conceit is that the handmaids are used as breeders for white babies, as the Gilead leaders worry that the white birthrate has declined. The novel contains some information that seems to be specifically about African Americans. In particular, Atwood tells us that the "children of Ham" are resettled as laborers in farm camps. This phrase alludes to the Biblical description for Africans as descending through the lineage of Noah's son Ham.

Did the British Empire deserve to lose the American Colonies?

The is a normative question without a correct answer, which can make it difficult to fully answer.
Things to look for when making an argument stating that the British did deserve to lose the colonies are instances of overreactions to colonist unrest. When the colonists became unhappy with British governmental action, the British could have chosen ways to obtain their objectives without continuing to pressure the colonists. However, the British worked to punish the colonists rather than seeking to work with them. When the colonists complained about the Sugar Act, more taxes followed. When they acted out against the Stamp Act, the British passed the Intolerable Acts and began placing more of the colonies under military rule. Every escalation by the British angered the colonists and strengthened the cause of independence.
From the opposite side, the colonists created headaches for the British. Colonists's movement across the Appalachian Mountains against British orders led to tensions with the French that culminated in the French and Indian Wars. Continual conflicts with Native Americans, usually prompted by the colonists, required more military spending than Britain desired. Additionally, the colonial representatives to the crown often failed to fully convey the complaints of the colonists to the King, which made it difficult to remedy the issues.
In summary, neither the British nor the colonists acted in ways conducive to long-term unity.

Is Columbus the real one who discovered America?

Columbus was definitely not the first person to discover America. In fact, America was discovered at least 10,000 years before Columbus arrived in the New World, and probably much earlier. Columbus was probably not even the first European to reach America. Additionally, although he possibly did briefly visit what is now Venezuela in South America, Columbus never even set foot on the North American continent.

The first people to discover and settle America were the ancestors of the Native Americans, who had already established complex civilizations in North and South America by the time the Europeans arrived. Scientists are still studying exactly when and how the first Native Americans made it to America. For a long time, the theory was that they were Siberian Asians who migrated across the Bering Land Bridge about 15,000 years ago. Modern DNA studies suggest that these people may have not have migrated directly from Asia, but rather may have lived on the Bering Land Bridge for thousands of years until the end of the most recent ice age and then journeyed into North America. Other theories posit that the original Native Americans traveled from Japan or other parts of East Asia by boat.

As far as the European discovery of America, many historians attribute that to the Viking Leif Erickson, who arrived in North America about 500 years before the time of Columbus. Leif Erickson's father, Eric the Red, settled on the island of Greenland, which is not far from Canada. Erickson explored parts of the east coast of Canada and spent an entire winter there before returning to Greenland. After this, other Vikings journeyed to Canada over the next decade or so. They possibly did not follow up on these trips because of the violent encounters they had with the Native Americans who were already there.

Although Columbus did not discover America, the importance of his expeditions lies in the fact that he made European rulers aware of the lands to the west and initiated the widespread settling of North and South America by Europeans.
https://www.history.com/news/the-viking-explorer-who-beat-columbus-to-america

https://www.nps.gov/bela/learn/historyculture/other-migration-theories.htm

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-americans-lived-on-bering-land-bridge-for-thousands-of-years/?redirect=1&error=cookies_not_supported&code=95a0d580-7e38-4369-8727-6233484b5dab

How is the poem "The Cambridge Ladies Who Live in Furnished Souls" organized?

The poem begins with an overview of the eponymous "Cambridge ladies." We are told that they "live in furnished souls," that they are "unbeautiful," and that they have "comfortable minds." This is not a particularly flattering introduction to the "Cambridge ladies." The description implies that they have a sense of entitlement, that they are in some way ugly, and that they are unthinking.
After this unflattering introduction to the "Cambridge ladies," the poet adds to our initial impression with the suggestion that they subscribe to a useless, lifeless piety. He calls them "shapeless spirited" after describing how they have "the church's protestant blessings." He also says they believe in Christ, who he then pointedly remarks is "dead."
While the first half of the poem is concerned with introducing us to the "Cambridge ladies" from, as it were, a distance, the second half of the poem seems to bring us closer to them as we are invited into their "present" activities and discussion. The ladies are, "at the present," knitting and gossiping about some local "scandal."
The poem concludes with a rather obscure image, as the poet says that the ladies do not care if "the / moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy." The implication here is that the ladies are so caught up in their own small world that they care nothing for anything which happens outside of it.
The overall structure of the poem is easier to understand perhaps if we imagine that we are looking at the ladies through a camera. At first the camera seems to be at some distance from the ladies, and, from that distance, we get a broad impression of what they are like. Then the camera zooms in, and we can see more clearly what the ladies are doing, and what they are talking about. And then, finally, the camera suddenly zooms back out again, but this time to a great distance, so that we are looking at the ladies from beyond the moon. And from this distance, of course, the definitive smallness of the ladies' world is made very obvious.

What are two effects that Rosie had on the characters in the novel?

Rosie the elephant is so central to the novel that she is as much a character as the humans are. She has especially strong effects on Jacob and August.
Jacob, who treats Rosie and the other animals, has the most opportunity to learn from her; in fact, they learn together. August, who is impatient and insensitive, does not manage to learn much from her. Unfortunately for him, he does not believe she has anything valuable to impart. The direct effect she has on him is death because he could not learn the consequences of his bad behavior. More generally, it is clear that Sara Gruen wants the reader to understand the value of the knowledge that animals possess and the ways it resembles human intelligence.
Jacob studied veterinary science in college, but working with Rosie is his first opportunity to interact with such a large, intelligent mammal. He begins the relationship with a solid grounding in the physical care of animals, which aids him in caring for the physical wounds that August inflicts with the hook.
Jacob, in this early stage, has relatively little understanding of animals’s mental processes. However, his personality is well-suited toward caring for the captive animals, as he is a kind and generous person. He can also see how much it bothers Rosie when August mistreats her. By observing her in the first parade in which she appears, he also learns that she is smart; this is confirmed when they all learn that she can pull up her stake so she can get lemonade. He later learns she understands Polish.
August’s understanding of the human to animal relationship is totally one of dominance; in that respect, his attitude toward humans is not that different, as evidenced by the way he treats Marlena. His behavior endangers others, as when Marlena begins to ride Rosie and August scares the elephant so she runs away and knocks off her rider. Rosie becomes August’s scapegoat; he takes out his frustration on her every time things are not going his way, using the hook or hitting her with his cane.
Although Rosie does not respond well to that treatment, August is incapable of changing his methods. When she gets the opportunity, she attacks and kills August using the metal stake she pulls out of the ground.

How is Sammy Johnstone important to the play Blood Brothers?

Blood Brothers by Willy Russell tells the story of struggling single mother Mrs. Johnstone. Soon after her husband abandons the family, she discovers she is pregnant with twins. She cannot afford to raise two more children, so she gives one of the babies to Mrs. Lyons. Mrs. Lyons is from the upper class and employs Mrs. Johnstone's cleaning services. Mrs. Lyons has had trouble conceiving, so she convinces Mrs. Johnstone to give up one of her twins. Edwards is raised as a Lyons, while Mickey grows up in the Johnstone household.
Sammy Johnstone is one of Mickey's seven older siblings. Sammy is a trouble maker and therefore is a bad influence on Mickey. Sammy is important because he involves Mickey in an attempted burglary that turns into a murder. As a result, Mickey ends up in prison, which leads to depression and addiction to pills.
At the climax of the show, Mickey retrieves the gun that Sammy has hidden under the floorboards. Mickey shoots Edward with the gun and then is shot by police.
Sammy is a minor character, but his actions influence Mickey's trajectory. Additionally, Sammy serves as another example of what can happen to a child growing up in poverty, not afforded the luxuries that a child like Edward has growing up.
https://www.samuelfrench.com/p/2996/blood-brothers-musical/

In The Odysseus Book 12, what type of leader was Odysseus?

Odysseus demonstrates leadership in Book XII in several ways. When he and his crew were preparing to set sail from Aeaea, Circle warned him of the dangers they would soon encounter. These are the Sirens, who lure men to their death; Scylla and Charybdis, with their respective ravenous appetite and whirling vortex; and—as he had already heard from Teiresias—the temptation to eat the cattle of Helios, the Sun God.
Although Odysseus was intellectually prepared to surpass those obstacles, he had to prepare himself psychologically as well, always keeping in mind his responsibility to his crew and his ship, not just to himself. His effective leadership demanded that he maintain a distance from the men, just reassure them of his involvement so that they would follow his instructions and not resent his authority.
The Sirens’ danger came from their irresistible singing. Once men heard them, they were compelled to continue listening. Therefore, the safest course of action was not to listen. Odysseus, however, had to be alert and aware. Therefore, following Circe’s advice, he ordered all the men to stop up their ears with wax, but he himself did not. Instead, he had them lash him to the ship’s mast. Circe, he tells them,

bade us avoid the voice of the wondrous Sirens, and their flowery meadow. [160] Me alone she bade to listen to their voice; but do ye bind me with grievous bonds, that I may abide fast where I am, upright in the step of the mast, and let the ropes be made fast at the ends to the mast itself; and if I implore and bid you to loose me, then do ye tie me fast with yet more bonds.

The strategy succeeded; he alone heard the song but was safe from temptation.
Scylla and Charybdis were two beings that controlled huge rocks on either side of a narrow passage, through which ran a fierce current. The crew had to keep the ship on an exact path between them. On one side, Scylla was a six-headed monster with an insatiable appetite; with her long necks, she could gobble up the men on deck if the ship came too close. Getting too close to the other side also meant certain death, as there was no escape from the raging whirlpool of Charybdis’ whirlpool. Concerned that the men will be petrified by fear, Odysseus decides that one hazard is enough to warn them about, and he chooses Charybdis. As they safely pass the whirlpool and are almost clearing Scylla, she scoops up six men at the ship’s stern. Scylla

devoured them shrieking and stretching out their hands toward me in their awful death-struggle. Most piteous did mine eyes behold that thing of all that I bore while I explored the paths of the sea. [260]

Odysseus berates himself for their deaths even though he knows that the survival of the entire ship had been the paramount concern, and his decision had ensured that.
Urging on his distraught men, Odysseus tells them to avoid Helios’ island. As Eurylochus entreats him to let them spend one night on shore, he gives in but tells them not to take any animals they might find.

"Eurylochus, verily ye constrain me, who stand alone. But come now, do ye all swear to me a mighty oath, to the end that, if we haply find a herd of kine or a great flock of sheep, [300] no man may slay either cow or sheep in the blind folly of his mind; but be content to eat the food which immortal Circe gave." So I spoke; and they straightway swore that they would not, even as I bade them.

Although they pass the night without incident, in the morning Eurylochus convinces the men to sacrifice some of the cattle in memory of their lost comrades, and take others onto the ship. They did this while Odysseus was asleep, and when he finds out in the morning, he pleads with Zeus for forgiveness, but it is not forthcoming. For six days they feast on the cattle, and it seems they escaped, but on the seventh day Zeus blasts them with a storm, which destroys the ship and kills the men. Odysseus tried to keep them safe, but their hunger and grief made the men disobey his orders, and they paid the price. Odysseus himself was spared, although he had to face Charybdis once again.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D12%3Acard%3D1

Why did Spain's American colonies revolt?

Spanish colonies in the Western Hemisphere followed a different path to independence than those of other European countries. Like in the land that became the United States, Spanish colonizers were brutal, violent, and led what was effectively a genocide of the native indigenous cultures in the Americas. However, surviving indigenous peoples intermarried with Spanish colonists, creating a unique Latin American identity in Spanish colonies that became increasingly separate and distinct from Spain.
The first steps towards independence were the result of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain by France in the early 19th century. During the Napoleonic war, Spain formed the Supreme Central and Governing Junta, which was an effort to coordinate Spanish efforts against the invading French after the Spanish monarchy abdicated the throne. This prompted some Latin American countries to form their own juntas (or councils) who refused to recognize the authority of an ad hoc government who they considered moments away from French takeover anyway. Eager to limit French involvement with the oncoming exchange of power, Latin American colonies began to express their own political power for the first time. Once they had a taste, it would be difficult for them to relinquish.
The Napoleonic invasion brought years of political turbulence to Spain and, eventually, the restoration of the absolutist monarchy of Ferdinand VII. Having grown accustomed to expressing their own political power, the Latin American colonies began to push back against the involvement of Spain. Seeing successful independence movements throughout the Western Hemisphere in the United States, Haiti, and Brazil, the Spanish colonies could see concrete examples of a future without the unstable colonial rule of a government thousands of miles away. In particular, it was a government that no longer represented the colonies, as their Latin American culture became increasingly distinct from Spain.
As Spain dealt with its own political instability at home, their American colonies seized the opportunity. Within several decades, almost all of the previously Spanish colonies had achieved independence. The only colonies that did not separate from Spain were Puerto Rico and Cuba, both of which would remain under Spanish rule until the Spanish American war in 1898.

Explain the theme of male dominance in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Both Theseus and his fairy counterpart, Oberon, show male dominance in the play.
Theseus kidnaps Hypolita, Queen of the Amazons, and is forcing her to marry him as the play opens. He admits this is not the kindest way to get a wife but promises to "woo" her more gently after they are married. He also shows male dominance by backing Egeus, Hermia's father, in the question of marriage. Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. Hermia, however, is in love with and wants to marry Lysander. Theseus tells Hermia that she must obey her father, conforming to his will. He tells her that if she does not marry the man her father chooses, she will have to face death or banishment to a nunnery.
Oberon wants the little Indian boy that Titania, his wife, has adopted, for his own retinue. Titania promised the boy's mother, a close friend who died, that she would raise the boy as her own. Therefore, she refuses to give him up to Oberon. This is not satisfactory to Oberon: he wants what he wants and must have the child. Therefore, he uses his power to command Puck to put a love potion in Titania's eyes so that she falls in love with the first creature she sees. Oberon believes this will preoccupy her and cause her to lose interest in the Indian boy, and this ploy works.
At the end of the play, Oberon allows Lysander and Hermia to marry. However, this is after Shakespeare has illustrated that both Oberon and Theseus are dominant males who are used to having their own way. They both expect women to give in to men's desires.

What did the 13th amendment establish?

The thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads as follows:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The thirteenth amendment, therefore, establishes that slavery is illegal in all states and territories of the United States.
The legislation amending the Constitution to outlaw slavery was passed and ratified in early 1865. Its passage was a top legislative priority of President Lincoln after his reelection in 1864. He wanted to ensure the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves could not be overturned.
Interestingly, however, slavery or involuntary servitude is allowed as punishment for a crime in this country, which is why people in prison can be set to work at very low or no wages.
This was a landmark amendment, finally settling the divisive question of slavery in the United States. Never again would there be free states and slave states. Issues of racism persist up until the present day, but the important principle of human freedom has never again been seriously questioned.

In Silent Spring, how people were trying to control the nature? Explain with examples.

In the second chapter, the author explains how people are trying to take control of nature by making speedy changes to natural elements and inventing synthetic chemicals. For example, human beings have created their own source of radiation by manipulating atoms to come up with nuclear energy. Human beings have also created chemicals to control the spread of "pests," or animals assumed to be enemies of progress. Companies invest millions to billions of dollars every year to come up with a new, enhanced version of a pesticide. Although no one is against progress, the pace at which people are trying to change the environment is dangerous. The author notes that it took millions of years for the ecosystem to reach balance and enable living things to live in harmony. Nature has always found a way to make things better. The author believes that without any human interference or the application of chemicals, nature would have found a way to control crop-eating bugs and nosy house pests. The need for speedy change is destroying nature instead of making it better.
https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=HeR1l0V0r54C&printsec=frontcover&dq=silent+spring+rachel+carson+-+pdf&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6pJjS8ofeAhVRPBoKHbO2BpkQuwUIKDAA

Who were the leaders and constituents of the Whig and Democratic parties?

The Democratic Party was born in 1828 as the result of internal divisions in the Democratic-Republican Party. This division occurred because of disagreement over who would succeed President James Monroe. Early on, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren were recognized as the leaders of this party. They strongly supported and advocated for Thomas Jefferson's vision of a decentralized agrarian society. The party was suspicious and sometimes outright hostile towards the power of the Federal government. Given the populist message of the party, their constituents tended to be farmers, frontiersmen, artisans, and the so-called "common man."
The Whig Party was born in response to Jackson's rise. It started as an amalgamation of the National Republican Party, the Anti-Masonic Party, and former Democratic-Republicans who disagreed with Jackson and Van Buren. Henry Clay emerged as an early leader of the nascent Whig Party. Daniel Webster, Truman Smith, John Crittenden, and William Seward were other early Whig leaders. It was their inability to agree on a single leader that allowed Jackson's successor, Van Buren, to take the presidency in 1837. The Whigs advocated for an interventionist approach to managing the economy of the United States. Their constituents tended to be leaders of corporations, banks, the wealthy elite, and supporters of a strong and active federal government. They tended to be more popular in cities than in rural areas. They also found support among evangelicals and abolitionists.
http://m.government-and-constitution.org/history-us-political-parties/whig-party.htm

Andrew Jackson was the leader of the Democratic Party. After the Era of Good Feelings had ended, Andrew Jackson was furious how the results of the election of 1824 unfolded. He believed he had the election stolen from him as a result of the “corrupt bargain” made between Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. After this election, Andrew Jackson worked tirelessly to get nominated by the Democratic Party in 1828, which had formerly been known as the Democratic-Republican Party. Andrew Jackson worked to promote the interests of the common people and railed against actions taken by the Bank of the United States. After getting the nomination from the Democratic Party and winning the presidential election in 1828, Andrew Jackson successfully worked to prevent the bank’s charter from being renewed. He favored states’ rights over the power of the federal government and had support from common people such as farmers, laborers, and individuals living on the frontier.
The Whig Party, led by Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and William Henry Harrison, believed the federal government should have an active role in the economy. When the economy declined after the election of 1836, the Whig Party favored an active government role to help bring the economic slide to an end. This was in contrast to the Democrats who believed in a laissez-faire, or hands-off, policy. When the Whig Party first formed, it had strong support from businesses and the financial industry. This party believed a national bank was essential to the economic success of the country. By 1840, the Whig Party also began to attract support from the common man. The Log Cabin Campaign was designed to help the Whig Party, particularly William Henry Harrison, get support from farmers and workers living in the West. William Henry Harrison won the election of 1840 and became President of the United States.

The Whig and Democratic Parties were two parties that ushered in the end of the Era of Good Feelings.
This version of the Democratic Party was born in 1828 when Andrew Jackson ran a campaign for the presidency speaking out against the alleged elitist Northeastern interests that backed the incumbent John Quincy Adams. Jackson won by courting the vote of the common man through means such as parades and barbecues. Jackson's domestic policies were marked by limited government; he was against infrastructure projects, which he thought were pork barrel projects for individual congressmen. He also failed to renew the charter for the Bank of the United States, leading to a financial panic which doomed his handpicked successor Martin van Buren in 1837. Jackson believed in the power of the veto, and his detractors often depicted him as a king; the Whig party was born out of a hatred of Andrew Jackson.
The leader of this party was Henry Clay, who believed that infrastructure improvements, a strong national bank, and larger tariffs on foreign goods would make the United States less dependent on European goods. The party started by Clay would also have common man appeal as its presidential candidate in 1840, William Henry Harrison, ran a campaign that depicted him as a common farmer when he was actually one of the richest men in Ohio. Whigs garnered support in the north Midwest, while Democrats largely controlled the South, especially after many expansionist Southerners backed the Democratic candidate for president James K. Polk. The Whig Party would ultimately split over the issue of slavery, with "conscience Whigs" having difficulty backing the slave owner Henry Clay. Many from the Whig party such as Abraham Lincoln and William Seward would go on to become the early stars of the Republican Party, which ran on a platform that included stopping the spread of slavery into the Western territories.

What did the astronauts fail to do which would have saved them from falling haphazardly through space in "Kaleidoscope"?

"Kaleidoscope" is the second story in Ray Bradbury's science fiction anthology The Illustrated Man. The story narrates the fate of a group of men who narrowly escape an explosion on their rocket ship but end up abandoned, floating away from each other in space. In the opening lines of the story, the men are described as "wriggling silverfish" who are "scattered into a dark sea," which emphasizes the desperate, hopeless situation they face.
The spacemen had some time to enact their survival protocols, but their rocket explodes before they can finish them. Bradbury writes:

They were wearing their sealed-tight space suits with the glass tubes over their pale faces, but they hadn't had time to lock their force units. With them, they could be small lifeboats in space, saving themselves, saving others . . . But without the force units snapped to their shoulders, they were meteors, senseless, each going to a separate and irrevocable fate.

Although the men can breathe and survive the frigid temperatures of space, they have no means of escape because they hadn't locked their "force units." The details of this technology are not provided by Bradbury, but it is evident that it would have been a lifeline for the doomed men. Without the life-saving device, the group of men are forced into a lengthy wait for their deaths.
I hope this helps!

What topic is addressed in the memoir The Best We Could Do?

There are several topics addressed at length in the memoir: parenting, family, immigration, and war are all discussed in Thi Bui's graphic memoir.
Parenting and family are some of the guiding topics in the memoir. It opens with Bui giving birth to her son as her mother waits outside the room for the birth to be over. Though her mother had flown from California to be with them, she couldn't stomach being in the same room during the difficult delivery. Bui learns more about being a mother and about the security provided by her family throughout the memoir.
War is another focal point of the story. Bui's parents live turbulent lives in Vietnam and even have to flee violence at times. Her father grew up being raised by his grandparents because his father left to be a member of the Viet Minh. During that time in Vietnam, there was both French and Japanese occupation, which added another element of uncertainty and danger to their lives. After her parents married, Vietnam began a civil war. It wasn't until after the war that Bui, her parents, and her siblings all left Vietnam and came to America by way of Malaysia.
Their immigration and the process of learning to live in a new culture and how to get along in that culture are charted as Bui recounts her parents' attempts to find work (since they weren't able to be teachers with their education from Vietnam). They had to take minimum wage jobs to support their children. As a new parent, Bui is able to have a better understanding of what and why they sacrificed for their children.

Which class does the work claim to represent?

Crazy Rich Asians was written by Kevin Kwan. It takes place in New York City and Singapore, where many millionaires reside. It is a story about a couple of professors named Rachel and Nick, who are in a relationship with each other. Rachel comes from a middle-class background, but Nick comes from a very wealthy background. Nick actually doesn't live like a rich man in New York City, so Rachel never suspects that he and his family have a lot of money. To her surprise, she finds out that Nick comes from a powerful family in Singapore when she goes with Nick to Singapore to attend his friend’s wedding. Before they depart New York to travel to Singapore, Nick’s mother becomes aware that her son will be bringing his girlfriend along. Nick's mother knows Rachel is a middle-class woman. She believes that Rachel is dating Nick to enrich herself. Nick's mother hires a private investigator to dig up dirt on Rachel in an effort to try to break up their relationship.
Among the many wealthy people in Singapore, the work claims to represent the extremely wealthy class of people who highly value family ties and prestige. The story distinguishes between those who are merely rich and those who are considered to be the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country. It seems to suggest that there is a class of people in the work whose net worth is in the top one percent of people in Singapore. This elite class of people is comprised of citizens who generally do not believe in violating traditional norms. They also generally do not want their offspring to marry or even date outside their extremely wealthy class. That seems to be the main concern of Nick's family. They do not seem to care whether Nick's girlfriend is American, but they do seem to care whether she is very wealthy and digging for gold. Rachel does not have nearly as much money as Nick's family, and she doesn't live as extravagantly as they do. But, ironically, Nick does not live like a wealthy man, either.

What is a summary of the tenth story from The Heptameron by Marguerite de Navaree?

A noble young man named Amadour falls in love with Florida, daughter of the Countess of Aranda. He has no hope of marrying her because of her higher social standing, but he is unable to forget about her either. To see Florida more often, he marries her friend Aventurada and so is admitted to the Countess of Aranda’s house.
He finds out that Florida loves the son of the Fortunate Infante. To spend more time with her, he listens to her stories about the man she is enamored with, concealing his own feelings. But one day, he confesses his love to her. He does not want any reward for his devotion. He just wants to keep their friendship and serve her all his life. For appearance's sake, Amadour begins courting a lady named Paulina. Amadour then goes to war, and his wife Aventurada remains with Florida.
Amadour is taken captive. His only joy are Florida’s letters. But her mother decides to marry her off to the Duke of Cardona, and Florida obeys her will. The son of the Fortunate Infante dies, which makes Florida sorrowful.
Upon returning from captivity, Amadour takes his lodgings at the house of the Duke of Cardona. Soon Aventurada dies, and Amadour finds it uncomfortable staying there. He becomes ill, and Florida comes to visit him. Thinking that his devotion deserves being rewarded, Amadour tries to violate her but fails to do it. Insulted by his attempt, Florida is disillusioned in him and does not want to see him anymore. Amadour leaves but he cannot reconcile himself with the prospect of seeing no more of Florida.
Amadour goes to war again and acts valiantly on the battlefield. In three years or so, he makes another attempt at winning Florida. He comes to the Countess of Aranda who hosts Florida at the time. But Florida rejects him again. By taking advantage of Florida’s magnanimity (she has never told her mother about Amadour’s disgraceful action), he puts the mother at odds with the daughter. The Countess has not been on speaking terms with her daughter for sever subsequent years.
Then the war between Grenada and Spain begins. Florida’s husband, the Duke of Cardona, her brother, the Count of Aranda, and Amadour fight the enemies with bravery and die glorious deaths. After her husband’s death, Florida retires into the convent:

taking for her spouse and lover Him who had delivered her from a love so violent as that of Amadour, and from the distress caused her by the society of such a husband.

The tenth story in the Heptameron tells about the love of Amador for the beautiful Florida.
The Countess of Aranda has a son and a daughter. The daughter's name is Florida, and the tenth story centers on her efforts to deflect Amador's sexual desire for her.
At the beginning of the story, the Countess of Aranda is entertained by the Viceroy of Catalonia. In the latter's service is one Amador, a youth of about eighteen or nineteen. Amador is not only handsome, he is also a brave warrior. Of course, this makes him very popular with the ladies.
However, Amador will love no one but Florida, who is only twelve years old when he sees her in her mother's company. Amador knows that he cannot marry Florida by reason of her age and heritage. Undeterred, he resolves to get married in order to remain close to Florida.
Amador begins by courting Avanturada, the daughter of an old knight. The lady Avanturada also happens to be a lady-in-waiting to Florida. After marrying Avanturada, Amador finds himself a trusted member of the Countess Aranda's household. In fact, Amador has so ingratiated himself to the Countess Aranda that the latter comes to trust his counsel in all things pertaining to her household.
Meanwhile, Amador is secretly delighted to find that he can freely converse with the lady Florida without undue suspicion. To further delude everyone, he advises Florida about the man she loves, the son of the Infante of Fortune. However, as time progresses, Amador finds it more and more difficult to hide his obsession with Florida.
At this time, he decides to pay court to Paulina, one of the most beautiful women in Spain. For her part, Paulina is not deceived. She perceives that Amador's heart is far from her, and she watches him with all diligence.
As for Amador, he soon confesses his love to Florida but portrays his affection as a virtuous one. At this point, Amador does not reveal that he actually wants to bed her. Instead, he tells Florida that he is only interested in protecting her virtue and that he would die for her if need be. All he asks for is her full trust in him and her complete favor. Of course, Florida consents, and Amador must content himself with less than what his heart really desires.
In due time, Amador goes to war and serves for two years under the King of Tunis. When he returns, he finds Florida married. Because his wife Avanturada is still in Florida's employ, Amador makes his way to her side. At this time, Florida still thinks of Amador as a loving brother and friend. She confides in him about her grief in losing her young lover, the Infante of Fortune, to a fatal illness. By her mother's wishes, Florida had to marry another man (not of her choosing).
As for Amador, he wants nothing more than to consummate his love for Florida. In desperation, he pretends to be sick and asks for Florida to tend to him. When she comes to his bedside, he falls upon her. Shocked by Amador's attack, Florida questions her old friend's supposedly "virtuous" love for her. Ashamed, Amador takes his leave of Florida. In the space of two to three years, he performs various noble deeds. Finally, after exhausting all of his pent-up emotions, he returns to Florida. This time, he is resolved that he must have her.
As for Florida, she tries to dissuade Amador by disfiguring herself. However, her efforts fail to quell his desire for her. Once more, Amador makes his advance. However, Florida will not consent; she calls out for her mother, and the moment passes. After this, Amador leaves Florida.
The story ends with Amador going to war against the King of Granada (he fights for the king of Spain). The battle fares poorly for the Spaniards, and Amador commits suicide to avoid being tortured in captivity. After Florida gives Amador a hero's burial, she enters a nunnery and commits herself to celibacy for the rest of her life.

I didn't think it was commonplace to have slaves from Africa, if in fact that is where Samson derives from. Where did the caravan come from?

Slavery was not a race-based practice in the Roman Empire. Slaves could be of any ethnicity or nationality, and possibly as much as one-third of the empire's population was made up of slaves. With that in mind, it's not unusual that Samson, the large and powerful deaf man that Rosh determines to capture, would be a black slave. Samson could have come from Egypt. In 30 BCE, after Cleopatra VII died, Rome annexed Egypt as a province, so people from Egypt could well have migrated or been brought to Palestine in the first century CE. Even before that, Rome had taken control of northern Africa along the Mediterranean coast. As far back as the First and Second Punic Wars, Rome had won battle victories in Africa and could have taken black Africans captive as slaves. Samson could have been a descendant of black people captured from Africa two centuries prior to the events of The Bronze Bow, or he could have been captured in some relatively recent skirmish in Egypt or northern Africa. Within the empire, some parents even sold their own children into slavery to help alleviate their family's poverty. Due to the widespread use of slaves in the Roman Empire, it would not be at all surprising to see a black slave or a slave of any race or ethnicity around the time of Christ.
https://www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/egypt02-07enl.html

Why was Thomas Hutchinson hated by colonists?

Thomas Hutchinson served as colonial governor of Massachusetts Bay (1771-1774). Prior to serving as governor, the well-connected Hutchinson held a variety of important offices in Massachusetts. His numerous enemies hated him because they believed he was too pro-British.
By the time he became governor, tensions between the colonists and Britain were high. Hutchinson—like many in the colonies—was a loyalist who favored Britain. One adversary was Samuel Adams, a leader in the opposition to London. Hutchinson had also been the target of a violent mob, which ransacked his home during the tumultuous Stamp Act period. He had also written some letters to friends. These letters, which were critical of anti-British colonists, were made public.
As governor, Hutchinson implemented harsh the measures London used against the colonists. For example, he insisted the colonists comply with the new law regarding imported tea, and this led to the Boston Tea Party.
Hutchinson moved to England before the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). As governor, he had come to personify London's perceived harshness toward the colonists.

Using the book, make an argument as to what Trout Fishing in America is. Define Trout Fishing in America.

Richard Brautigan's Trout Fishing in America, is considered by some to have acquired a cult-like following in the sub-realm of the 1960's Beat Movement.
Hard to exactly pinpoint down, the novella, is a series of mystical, abstract vignettes written in subsequent chapters, with little to no connection linking these anecdotes besides in the mind of the narrator.
Brautigan uses trout fishing as not just a physical act, but as an absurd placeholder for his thoughts and feelings towards mainstream American society. Inspiration came from an extended camping trip along Idaho’s famous Snake River and Red Fish Lake. In his non-linear fashion, Brautigan’s chapter plots and characters came from noted experiences and people he met along the way.
“Brautigan drew from his childhood memories to create chapters. Memories of Johnnie Hiebert, a childhood friend in Eugene, Oregon, who suffered from a rupture and drank pitchers of Kool-Aid contributed to the chapter and character called "The Kool-Aid Wino."
Even his camping gear made its way into the mind of Brautigan's story “-a tent, sleeping bags, pots, and a Coleman gas stove and lantern— provided the basis for the chapter ‘A Note on the Camping Craze That Is Currently Sweeping America.’”What draws many readers to this title is the mystique of what it is, and it's varying interpretations.

Your debate for categorizing this book probably comes down to three choices. Is it a novel? A collection of quick and unrelated short stories? Or an oddball sort of memoir, recounting random events and encounters that somehow really happened?
The first clue for defining the work comes on the title page. Right after the title, the book declares itself to be “A Novel by Richard Brautigan.” Now the reader can approach the book with certain assumptions. Many of the forty-seven vignettes are told in the first person, seemingly by the same individual. (You may want to make a list and count them and compare them to those chapters that offer just information.) We assume that he is the main character and the person that the novel focuses on—the one we should pay the most attention to. His experiences and how he reports on them tell us a lot about himself. They also present a perception of the state of both civilization and nature along the US West Coast in the 1950s and 1960s. Does this character change, grow, or learn anything valuable in his journey? Or do we change our opinion of him, from front cover to back? These would also be the marks of a novel.
The dictionary that I use defines a novel as

A relatively long fictional prose narrative with a more or less complex plot or pattern of events about human beings, their feelings, thoughts, actions, etc.

Does Trout Fishing in America fit this description? I think you can make the case that it does, for each element listed in this definition.
If we were told at the beginning that these forty-seven chapters were “stories,” then we readers would probably wonder if the consistent narrator was supposed to be the same person throughout the book. Maybe he is; maybe he is not. How would you read the chapters differently, if they weren’t assumed to have some cohesion? Wouldn’t you search for common ground anyway?
If we assumed these encounters to be true and to be a memoir of the author, would you believe them? Would you take them at face value? Or would you want to do follow-up research and check to see if what the narrator presented was really true? Would you believe that there could be a person named Trout Fishing in America? Or that this phrase would show up as much as it does in the main character’s life?
You may consider a compare-and-contrast exercise that poses Trout Fishing in America against Norman Maclean’s autobiographical story “A River Runs Through It.” Both use fishing as a background that ties the storylines together but to obvious varying degrees.

Who led the colonial army at the Battle of Bennington?

The colonial army at the Battle of Bennington was led by John Stark, a retired Colonel of the Continental Army, which was led by George Washington. John Stark came out of retirement because he had promised to protect New Hampshire against any threat. As it so happens, the Republic of Vermont (at the time) had quietly asked for New Hampshire's help following increased attacks from the British. With an 'army' of 2000 untrained men from Vermont, Berkshire County, and New Hampshire, the newly promoted Brigadier General Stark guided his men to victory. Instead of waiting for the British troops to arrive at Bennington, Stark ordered his men to move northwards and wait for the British at Wallomsac Heights. As the British troops advanced towards Stark's position, they encountered heavy rains and stopped their journey midway. Stark took advantage of the situation and surrounded the British where they had set camp, before attacking them on August 16, 1777, during the noon hours. By dusk, the British troops retreated.
https://www.benningtonbattlemonument.com/battle.html

What is the significance of the gyre in poem "The Second Coming"?

William Butler Yeats's poem "The Second Coming" can be quite confusing for readers who don't understand the poet's personal religious and philosophical leanings. Many readers familiar with Christian teachings equate the "second coming" of the poem with the second coming of Jesus Christ, when, according to Christian belief, he will return to earth from heaven to claim his followers. However, this was not the only idea Yeats was attempting to depict in this poem.
Like other English poets before him, including William Blake and Thomas Hardy, Yeats created a personal mythology that went beyond traditional religious teachings. His wife, Georgie Hyde Lees, whom he married in 1917, was his partner in developing his mythology. She practiced automatic writing and received messages that Yeats believed were dictated by spirits. Gyres, winding stairs, and spirals became important symbols that Yeats used to help explain the progress of history and the paradoxes of existence.
The gyre specifically figured into Yeats's understanding of historical epochs. He proposed that history consists of two-thousand-year cycles that can be represented as a gyre: a spiraling motion in the shape of a cone. As one gyre widened toward its culmination, it would spawn a new two-thousand-year spiral out of a violent countermotion. Yeats explained, "The end of an age, which always receives the revelation of the character of the next age, is represented by the coming of one gyre to its place of greatest expansion and of the other to that of its greatest contraction."
With this in mind, it becomes much easier to interpret "The Second Coming." The twentieth century was the end of a two-thousand-year period, "the widening gyre." As such, it took on the character of the epoch to come. Yeats envisioned the coming two-thousand-year period as a sphinx-like creature with "a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun." That creature now "slouches toward Bethlehem to be born." In this poem, Yeats implies that the horrors of the early twentieth century, namely World War I, foretold an unimaginably dire epoch that would come with the dawn of the twenty-first century.

The gyre is an imaginative visualization of Yeats's theory of history. Many thinkers, artists, and historians have represented historical development as a straight line; others have put forward a cyclical view of history. For his part, Yeats conceives of history as divided up into spirals, which come into being every two thousand years or so.
In "The Second Coming," Yeats heralds the imminent demise of the gyre that has existed since the birth of Christ: the Christian era. It will soon give way to a new, more frightening period of history, characterized by the undermining of the traditional aristocratic social order and its replacement by mob rule. There is a (deliberately) terrifying sense of inevitability about the arrival of the new gyre, the "second coming" of the title. In keeping with his thoughts on history, Yeats presents the impending era of violent social upheaval as something that cannot be stopped. Just as the gyre in which the first coming of Christ took place was always destined to happen, so too will be the gyre of the second coming. However, the second coming envisaged by Yeats will be of a radically different and altogether more ominous nature than that traditionally conceived by Christians.

The world "gyre" means spiral. In the first lines of the poem, the widening gyre is not just the circle or spiral the falcon makes flying in the air, but the idea that a cycle of history is ending.
Yeats conceived history as occurring in two thousand years spirals. According to his thinking, a new gyre or cycle of history began with the birth of Christ two thousand years ago. As he was writing the poem in 1919, it felt to him as if the spiral of Christian history had unwound to its farthest point and a new period was beginning.
The significance of this new cycle or gyre is that it is characterized by Yeats as full of darkness and violence. He sees civilization falling apart and writes that the "centre cannot hold." He imagines a Second Coming, not of Christ, but of a "pitiless" beast arriving at Bethlehem to be born.
Because of all the violence unleashed in the twentieth century, Yeats's poem was taken by many to be prophetic.

In Kim, what happens in Quetta?

Kim travels to Quetta—which is in modern-day Pakistan—where the horse-trader Mahbub Ali has secret business to attend to. Kim helps Mahbub with his business affairs by agreeing to spy on his behalf. Mahbub is himself a spy, working as an operative for the British colonial authorities. Later on in the story, Kim will develop his own espionage skills when he manages to spirit away some useful documents from the Russians that they'd been planning to use in their dastardly plot to undermine the Raj.
It's in Quetta, however, where Kim first displays his talents as a would-be James Bond. He manages to wangle himself a job as a scullion—a general dogsbody—in the office of a fat Commissariat sergeant. This gives him access to a ledger-book in the sergeant's box, which contains, much to Mahbub's disappointment, nothing but records of various cattle and camel deals, rather than the high-grade intelligence he was expecting to find. But Mahbub's quite stoical; he figures that the sergeant is just a small fish whose lowly position means that he doesn't have access to the kind of intelligence he was hoping Kim would find for him.

Considering setting as character. How does nature in “A White Heron” interact with the characters of the story? What are the two most important interactions between the character and nature? Why?

The natural country setting of the story is, apparently, what has enabled Sylvia to grow and thrive. Her grandmother believes that

There never was such a child for straying about out-of-doors since the world was made! Everybody said that it was a good change for a little maid who had tried to grow for eight years in a crowded manufacturing town, but, as for Sylvia herself, it seemed as if she never had been alive at all before she came to live at the farm. She thought often with wistful compassion of a wretched geranium that belonged to a town neighbor.

Sylvia, it seems, could not grow while living in the city, and it was this change in her home—moving from the manufacturing town (which we might imagine to be dusty and polluted from this description) to her grandmother's farm—that actually has allowed her to blossom (unlike the flower at her neighbor's in the city). Sylvia's name even comes from the same root as the word sylvan, which refers to one who frequents the woods or forest. She is often compared to natural objects, like flowers or stars. When she is forced to interact with the strange hunter, "She hung her head as if the stem of it were broken." When she climbs the great pine tree later in the story, her "face was like a pale star." It is as though Sylvia and nature are kindred spirits, as if she were something more natural even than the rest of us—certainly more "natural" than the hunter, who seeks to preserve by killing, whereas Sylvia seeks to preserve by protecting.
The most important interaction that a character has with nature in the story is when Sylvia climbs the pine tree to look for the heron's nest.

She stood trembling and tired but wholly triumphant, high in the tree-top. Yes, there was the sea with the dawning sun making a golden dazzle over it, and toward that glorious east flew two hawks with slow-moving pinions. How low they looked in the air from that height when one had only seen them before far up, and dark against the blue sky. Their gray feathers were as soft as moths; they seemed only a little way from the tree, and Sylvia felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds. Westward, the woodlands and farms reached miles and miles into the distance . . . truly it was a vast and awesome world.

Sylvia seems to be in awe of all she sees, especially the natural splendor of the earth from so high up with the dawn breaking and the birds soaring. Later, it is this experience with nature that seems to prevent Sylvia from telling the hunter where the heron's nest is, despite how much she longs to please him.
The other most important interaction is the first one when Sylvia attempts to find Mistress Moolly, her cow. It is here that we initially learn of Sylvia's love for nature. One of the first things we learn about her, as she drives the cow home, is as follows:

[Sylvia and the cow] were going away from whatever light there was, and striking deep into the woods, but their feet were familiar with the path, and it was no matter whether their eyes could see it or not.

She is described as animallike because her connection to the natural world is so strong.

What are the conditions of Warsaw?

In The Silver Sword, the Polish capital city of Warsaw is presented as a terrible place, a place of unimaginable death and destruction. When Joseph returns there after his escape from a Nazi prison camp, it's completely unrecognizable. The city has been ravaged by the destruction and chaos of war. Everywhere Joseph looks, there is nothing but ruined buildings and starving people with haggard faces doing whatever they can to survive amidst all the rubble.
Joseph's home is just one of many completely destroyed by the Germans. It's now nothing more than a heap of rubble. Yet among all the debris, he manages to find the little silver sword that he'd given his wife for her birthday. The silver sword is an important symbol as it represents the hope that still exists despite the horrors of war.

Poe is considered the "Father of the modern-day short story." Why do you think his works remain popular more than 150 years later?

There are a number of reasons Poe's works remain popular today:
First, Poe came up with compelling plots. He knew how to tell a frightening story and how to build suspense. In "A Cask of Amontillado," for example, the reader anticipates that something unfortunate is going to happen to Fortunato, though Fortunato himself has no idea that a terrible fate awaits hims. Poe delivers a satisfyingly horrible punch when he has Montresor wall up the living Fortunato to die alone in a dark, damp catacomb.
Other stories play on subconscious archetypes. Poe's gothic sensibility allows readers to experience the dark, uncanny side of life that we often repress. Tales like "The Fall of the House of Usher," for example, allow us to explore eery archetypes, such as that of the doppleganger or twin, which is often a symbol of our own death. In German, the eerie, unsettling feeling that Poe's stories create is called "unheimlich" or "un-homelike." It would be hard to find a less homey house than Usher, and through it we can experience the nightmarish and irrational side of life and death. Poe, although predating Freud, has a firm grasp on psychology and lets us know loudly and clearly that there is much going on beneath our facades of sunny normalcy.
Poe had a talent for describing and imagining creepy environments: his stories are set in catacombs and dark, moldering mansions and involve unusual situations, such as threats of being sliced in half by a giant pendulum. In other words, they allow us to experience satisfyingly dark and gothic settings. He is a cinematic writer who is interested in creating an effect.
Poe not only wrote horror stories, but invented the modern detective story: he is popular because was a master at carefully plotting a mystery.
Also, unlike other writers of his time, he is not judgmental or moralistic: he leaves it to readers to decide for themselves what they think of his often unhinged characters. People tend to like to be allowed to experience their own emotions and draw their own conclusions.
Finally, we can't discount Poe's dramatic life, including his alcoholism and marriage to a thirteen-year-old, as well as his early death, in propelling the popularity of his stories. Also, many of his tales have been made into films—often repeatedly. According the Internet Database, more than 200 films are based on his work. Most people have heard of Poe, and knowing about him undoubtedly drives interest in reading his writing.

In the first part of My Antonia, why do so many immigrants risk their lives to leave their homelands and attempt to start over on a harsh prairie with little or no money?

My Antonia showcases the lives of two different families—the Burdens and the Shimerdas—as they navigate their lives on a Nebraska plain in the late nineteenth century. The Burdens have lived there for many decades; the Shimerdas, on the other hand, immigrate from Bohemia, a move that proves to have many trials and tribulations. In short, the reason the Shimerdas even attempt to immigrate—despite having no money and no real sense of American life or culture—is because they genuinely believe their opportunity is still much greater in America than in Bohemia, or really anywhere else, for that matter.
It is worth noting that Mr. Shimerda ends up committing suicide within the novel, which showcases the genuine emotional struggles that can come with immigrating from another country. Mr. Shimerda was content with his life in Bohemia, but his wife thought they would be better off—economically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually—in the United States. So, even having little money and very little idea of the culture, they took the risk. This risk isn't unlike the risk that many immigrants took at the time—America has always served as an alluring option for religious freedom and opportunity, as well as opportunity for unlimited potential of wealth. While this certainly isn't the case for everyone, the idea of possibility is sometimes enough to convince people to leave their countries behind in hope of something better.

Why did Ponyboy snap when telling Cherry about Darry?

Towards the end of chapter 8, Cherry informs Two-Bit that the Socs are willing to play by the rules during the rumble and speaks to Ponyboy privately after Two-Bit walks away. When Cherry asks Pony how Johnny is doing in the hospital, Pony tells her that he isn't getting any better and asks if she will go visit him. Cherry responds by telling Pony that she cannot bring herself to visit Johnny because he is responsible for Bob's death, which upsets him and causes Pony to lose his temper. Pony then calls Cherry a traitor and tells her that he wouldn't want her seeing Johnny anyway. He then says,

"Do you think your spying for us makes up for the fact that you're sitting there in a Corvette while my brother drops out of school to get a job? Don't you ever feel sorry for us. Don't you ever try to give us handouts and then feel high and mighty about it" (Hinton, 110).

Ponyboy clearly resents the fact that Cherry has a comfortable, easy, secure life while his brother, Darry, works two jobs to make ends meet. He is also upset because he believes that Cherry is only helping them out because she pities them. After Pony expresses his negative emotions, he feels guilty for making Cherry upset and ends the conversation on a positive note.

What is the meaning of each stanza in Auden's poem "Spain"? What do the terms "counting frame," "column of stone," and "mover" mean in the poem?

This political poem by Auden is rife with allusions, many of which can be confusing. In the first stanza, he is describing "the past," specifically the growth of trade and globalization. He pairs the "counting-frame," or abacus used by tradesmen, with "the cromlech," the Welsh word for grave, to show how diverse were the cultures now coming into contact.
In the third stanza, he is referring to the development of the world beyond "fairies and giants," or belief in the old ways, and into a time of cathedral building and intense Christianity—"the carving of angels and alarming gargoyles" on vast cathedrals and churches being built at this time.
The "columns of stone" in the following stanza, then, refer back to these cathedrals. Auden is here talking about the many "trials of heretics" which occurred in the medieval period.
When Auden talks about the "belief in the absolute value of Greek" as something belonging to "yesterday," this is an allusion to school days and a time when theoretical and abstract things seemed of great importance, as opposed to "the struggle." However, it could also allude to the Greek volunteers who came to help in the Spanish Civil War because of shared political leanings, most of whom died—"the death of a hero."
Stanza seven is simply a rather romantic imagining of the "poet" in the abstract attempting to capture the realities of the present day, specifically Spain. The poet is imagined appealing, using archaic language ("O"), to greater powers to send him "the luck of the sailor," an idiom for good luck, in order to survive and prosper in these dark days.
In stanza, eight, the poet is contrasted to the "investigator," who uses instruments to map what is going on in the "provinces" he sees as "inhuman." The term "bacillus" means bacteria, so essentially this investigator is imagined as a scientist viewing the people of the country as a spreading disease. By contrast, the poet inquires about "the lives of my friends." These friends themselves are the "poor" who, in the following stanza, see each day as a loss and look forward to "time the refreshing river" as being the only thing which can possibly replenish the land and help organize things again.
When talking about the "city state of the sponge," the speaker is addressing the "life" force, or God. So, he is here asking: did you not found these underwater cities, creating everything that lives there, including living sponge? Did you not also create the tiger and the shark?
When "the life" answers, it says it is not "the mover," a term often applied to God as indicative of his powers of creation. In this instance, the life suggests that it is helpless and actually it is the people who must "move" the situation on.
In stanza 12 he refers to Africa as a "tableland scored by rivers." This is a reference to Africa's geographical features but also to how it was divided up on a table by Europeans, who drew countries onto it on a map and then divided it between them. He then goes on to describe mental "fever" as having shape and being alive: our fears can cause things to happen or not happen in reality. Fears which once made us susceptible to advertising (the "medicine ad," stanza 13) were originally because we did not want to die, but these fears can overtake us and lead us to "ruin."
In stanzas 19 and 20, Auden refers to the difficulties of "today" for those fighting the war on the ground, so different from the propaganda "pamphlet" and rally that might have drawn people to fight.

How does Thomas Paine's The American Crisis relate to postcolonialism?

The American Crisis, by political philosopher and intellectual Thomas Paine, was written to urge the colonists in present-day United States to support the American Revolution in order to separate from the British Crown.
The American Crisis is an example of revolutionary literature and could arguably be considered a call-to-arms in the same category as Vladimir Lenin's memo to the Bolshevik Central Committee advocating for a revolution, or Mao Zedong's early literary works such as his poem "Changsha."
While the United States of America would later be seen as an international aggressor and colonizer itself—acquiring originally-sovereign territories like Guam, Hawaii, the US Virgin Islands, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico—the general public has largely forgotten that the country itself started out as a colony that fought for its freedom from the grips of imperialism.
While The American Crisis was particularly written for and concerning the American revolution, it did not remain dated in modern times and can be considered a universal call to insurrection and post-colonial self-determination.
https://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/

In Winter Dreams, what motivates Judy Jones to get in her boat and approach Dexter? What do you think of her due to this interaction?

As the story progresses, one realizes that Judy Jones is primarily motivated by her desire to accumulate admirers who can deliver the validation she seeks.
In approaching Dexter, Judy is motivated by her overwhelming desire to acquire his attention and subsequent adulation. Despite her habit of serial dating, however, Judy never quite gains the sense of contentment she craves.
According to the text, Dexter swims out to the farthest raft on the lake at the golf club. There, he stretches out on the canvas of the springboard.
Before long, Judy races up to his location in her motor-boat. Upon seeing him, she asks, "Who's that?" However, one gets the idea that she already knows the identity of the man she's speaking to. After Dexter confirms his identity, Judy boldly asks him to drive the motor-boat so that she can enjoy riding the surf-board behind it.
Judy also tells Dexter that a man is waiting for her at her summer home on the Island. She coyly relates that she came out on the lake after he complimented her on being his "ideal" woman. Judy's words suggest that she's bored by men who worship her. Yet, male attention feeds her ego immensely.
During their time together, Judy orders Dexter to drive as fast as the boat will go. Her behavior and inclinations show that she's motivated primarily by intense experiences that feed her deep need for excitement and self-validation.

What characters play a part in this story’s conflict? Which ones are just onlookers?

There are many characters in "Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird,” but only some of them are central to the story’s conflict, while the rest are onlookers and observers. Granny and Granddaddy are most central to the conflict, as they are at odds with Camera and Smilin over whether the latter two have the right to photograph the couple's property and its inhabitants for the county without permission. These characters come up against one another’s interests throughout the story, through to its ultimate climax and resolution, when the men finally leave the property. The other characters—the children who live with Granny and Granddaddy, as well as their neighbors—are the onlookers in the story; much of the meaning and interpretation of the central characters’ conflict is teased out and explained through the observations of these characters.

Analyze in detail the ways in which the texts in A Passage to India by E. M. Forster and "The Encounter" by James Joyce relate to George Simmel's The Metropolis and Mental Life.

In The Metropolis and Mental Life, George Simmel argues that many psychological problems emerge from the shift in human civilization away from a rural culture to an urban culture. In particular, humans have evolved to be independent and self-governing, but urban life crowds people together and creates constraints on their time and movement. Many early twentieth-century works deal with the tensions imposed by city life.
For instance, in James Joyce's "An Encounter," the narrator and his friend are desperate for some sense of adventure that they are denied in their heavily regulated lives in the city of Dublin. During the course of their journey, they see poverty, stress, and anxiety, and the narrator even comes to realize that he views his friend negatively.
Likewise, in A Passage to India by E. M. Forster, many of the English characters experience mental tension because of their urbanized background, and they seek out the rough caves of India in order to challenge themselves and feel more alive. An exotic, outdoor space is seen as a cure for the mental stresses imposed by city life.

How does Lucky's speech in Waiting for Godot relate to God, and what is the meaning behind it?

Lucky is a secondary character in Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. Lucky only speaks once. He begins his speech speaking about "the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard." His entire speech is long and incoherent. Not much of the speech makes sense at all. After the speech, Pozzo, Didi (Vladimir), and Gogo (Estragon) do not even discuss Lucky's speech. It seems to have confused them to the point that it does not seem worth discussing.
Essentially, Lucky's speech plays to the idea that the play itself is an example of absurdism. His speech is, literally, absurd. That said, one could argue that elements of the speech do relate to God in some way.

Existence...personal God.

This part of the speech acknowledges that the relationship between one and God is a personal one. Here, Lucky is stating that the relationship between one and God cannot be defined on a universal level. Therefore, Lucky's speech cannot be understood by Didi and Gogo, because they are dependent upon one another, and a personal relationship with God is impossible.

Those who for reasons unknown but time will tell are plunged in torment plunged in fire.

Here, Lucky seems to contemplate the idea of hell. Sin tends to be personal. Humankind tends to sin on a personal level, and these sins ("reasons unknown" by others) are what send them into the "fire." It seems that Lucky is speaking on the idea of living an honorable and sin-free life. By living this way, one should be able to ensure he or she is not "plunged in fire."

Heaven so blue still and calm so calm with a calm which even though intermittent is better than nothing.

Here, Lucky seems to be making a statement on the idea that, if nothing else, believing in God will allow one to live in a calm world. The "blue still and calm" of heaven (and God) is important enough to focus upon in life.
At the close of his speech, Lucky falls down. He seems to have become exhausted by the revelations he has made because the speech has taken everything out of him. Lucky, figuratively, leaves the question of God up to the reader to determine, and when one tries to take all of the unnecessary diction out of the speech, Lucky seems to understand God more than readers may first acknowledge.
Lucky's speech, when reduced to only the points that make sense, states that one must have a personal relationship with God. God, who exists "outside time without extension who from the heights of divine" (outside of time and space), loves us dearly." God "suffers like" man when he (man) is "plunged in fire." Unfortunately, the man has "labors left unfinished." When examining the limited speech, one can see that Lucky openly discusses God.

What is the importance of Bella in the novel Fugitive Pieces?

Bella is important in relationship to Jakob Beer, the protagonist in Fugitive Pieces, who is a Polish Holocaust survivor. Bella was his sister. When Jakob was seven, the Nazis murdered his parents and abducted Bella. He never saw her again, and he presumed that she died in a concentration camp. Perhaps because he did not witness her death, he cannot escape his memories of her. While Jakob moves through the stages of his life, Bella is eternally a child in his mind.
Jakob was helped by a Greek scientist who was working in Poland and took him to Greece. The power of a sibling’s love combined with his survivor guilt keep Bella at the front of his consciousness. Even after he falls in love with Alexandra, Bella is always in his thoughts. His wife views this as an unnatural obsession, and their differences of opinion about this are a major contributor to their divorce. Later, Jakob meets another woman, Michaela, who is much younger. Although his preoccupation with his dead sister concerns her, she differs from Alex in being able to empathize with his loss. He can then imagine Bella as she might have been as an adult, rather than as a child frozen in time. Once this shift occurs, he frees himself and can enter into a full adult relationship with Michaela.
http://canadianpoetry.org/volumes/vol41/preface.html

What political party did Zachary Taylor belong to?

Zachary Taylor represented the Whig Party as president. The Whigs were very much the political descendants of the Federalist Party, the party of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. They believed in a strong central government and the development of an industrialized economy. They were also staunch supporters of a literal construction of the Constitution as a means of combating what they saw as the populist tyranny of the Democrats under Andrew Jackson.
For the whole of his adult life, Taylor had prided himself on being a political maverick, a man who belonged to no party. In fact, prior to his election as president in 1848, he'd never even voted. As a popular war hero and charismatic leader, Taylor was thought to be a natural for a presidential candidate. Both parties, Whigs and Democrats alike, therefore sought to have him as their man. Initially, Taylor was reluctant to commit himself, but eventually he plumped for the Whigs, and it was under their banner that he was elected for the first and only time in 1848.

April 4, 2018 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King is perhaps most remembered today for his “I Have a Dream” speech (held on August 28, 1968), in which he outlined his dream of a future American society which did not judge people “by the color of their skin but rather by the content of their character." Has Dr. King’s dream come true in the United States?

Regrettably, you'd have to say no. Despite the enormous strides made by the civil rights movement, the United States remains deeply divided along racial lines. Although formal desegregation has long since been outlawed, the existence of exclusively white and black neighborhoods up and down the country would appear to suggest a more insidious social system of segregation at work.
In recent years, activists in the Black Lives Matter movement have drawn attention to the number of unarmed African Americans shot and killed by police officers. In such situations, they argue, the police officers most certainly did not judge the people they killed by the "content of their character"—only by the color of their skin.
Then there are persistent inequalities in relation to the criminal justice system, where levels of incarceration among young African American males have reached epidemic proportions. Scholars such as Michelle Alexander have argued forcefully that this is a revival of the infamous Jim Crow laws, the legal system of segregation that lasted for the better part of a hundred years after the abandonment of Reconstruction. The full title of Alexander's book—The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness—is meant to indicate just how far society has fallen short of realizing Dr. King's noble dream.

What relationship between citizens and the law does Sieyès envision? What limitations on the law does he propose?

Sieyès was a figure within the French Revolution who fought to abolish the privileges held by the aristocracy of France. Sieyès was a part of the bourgeois faction within the French Revolution who sought to increase the control and power of the rising merchant middle class. He did not, however, push for more radical positions within the French Revolution that sought to abolish class altogether or that fought for the freedom of women and those enslaved in French colonies. Rather, Sieyès, a political moderate, helped draft the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, in which he took inspiration from Enlightenment era ideas and the US Declaration of Independence. As such, Sieyès believed in the natural rights of men and that these natural, inalienable rights could not be oppressed through the laws of the governing structure. All active citizens, who Sieyès only considered to be male, were envisioned to have full access to participating in the political process. Sieyès envisioned a restriction on the powers of the monarchy and an abolition of taxation exemption for the aristocratic class. Sieyès proposed that laws could only be made and enforced that forbid actions that were harmful to society. Other than that, Sieyès believed that government should not be a force in people's daily lives.

What is the meaning of "boundless and bare" in "Ozymandias"?

Shelley is referring here to the vast expanses of desert that surround Ozymandias's crumbling wreck of a statue. The desert is boundless in that, as far as the eye can see, it never ends. Whichever way you look, in whatever direction, all you can see is desert, desert, and even more desert. The desert is bare in that there are no natural features to be seen: no trees, no rocks, no plants or animals.
What Shelley is doing in these lines is emphasizing the arrogance of this long dead Pharaoh. He assumed that this statue would stand forever, a living embodiment of a great man and his earthly achievements. But the statue is no more. It has long since crumbled into the sand. Nature, in the form of the bare, boundless desert, has asserted its superiority over man, reclaiming the land that was once occupied by this statue.
Like the good Romantic he is, Shelley believes that man is a part of nature, and as such should not stand apart from it. He should recognize that he is intimately at one with every living thing, held together with rocks and trees, mountains, plants, and animals in a vast, all-encompassing unity. Ozymandias failed to realize this; he arrogantly asserted himself over nature and the rest of humankind. And yet now he's nothing more than a forgotten Pharaoh with a crumbling statue.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias

How are Blanche and Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire opposite?

As the two are sisters, Blanche and Stella DuBois of Tennessee Williams's 1947 Broadway play, A Streetcar Named Desire, are apt foils for one another. These two members of a fallen aristocratic family from rural Mississippi find themselves in a cramped apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Despite the shared fate of their family, the two women are in completely different circumstances. Stella is married to a rough man named Stanley Kowalski who is affectionate but objectifying. Blanche comes to live with Stella and Stanley in their small apartment after losing her family home in Mississippi. Tension immediately results from Blanche's polarizing personality. While both sisters have suffered the same fate involving the loss of aristocratic status and subsequent blue-collar existence, the younger Stella adapts to this change in a self-effacing and quiet way, maintaining (at least outwardly) her happiness. Blanche, however, uses manipulative tactics to deceive her friends and family (and even herself) in order to feed her already inflated ego.
Blanche is obsessed with her image and ego. Stella, on the other hand, is pregnant (and gives birth during the course of the play), thus symbolizing her implicit and utter surrender to the blue-collar but fulfilling life that Stanley provides for her. Blanche and Stanley are antagonistic from the get-go (and the relationship culminates in Stanley's angry rape of Blanche offstage while Stella is giving birth in the hospital).
During her stay in New Orleans, Blanche attracts the attention of one of Stanley's poker-playing friends, Mitch. Stanley divulges to Mitch the secret that he has uncovered surrounding Blanche's past (including the dismissal from her teaching job, which she claims to have left). Mitch, an honest and upstanding man, confronts Blanche with her past and insists that she is (contrary to her own opinion) not good enough for marriage. Mitch has a unique capacity to upset Blanche, as his disapproval is more meaningful to her than Stanley's coarse insults.
Neither woman is perfect, which makes the play more interesting and realistic; Stella passively allows Stanley to alternately strike and fondle her in exchange for a fairly comfortable and secure existence and family, while Blanche will not settle for anyone who is unable to provide ample material support and emotionally flattery to her. The play's conclusion finds Stella sitting at a poker table being fondled by her husband and Blanche duped into going to a mental hospital which (in keeping with her inflated sense of self) she believes is a cruise with a former boyfriend.

Discuss Leandro Fernández de Moratín's writing style.

In order to analyze Leandro Fernández de Moratín's writing style, one must first examine the philosophical school of thought that had shaped his artistry and political views. Fernández de Moratín learned mostly from his father's massive library of literary works, as he believed that Spanish universities were teaching students subjects that were biased and censored. Due to the fact that Fernández de Moratín distrusted the institutional flaws of the Spain's university system, he delved into the works of Enlightenment-era dramatists, poets, essayists, and novelists.
It was the ideals of the Enlightenment that influenced Fernández de Moratín's own writings. He was also a gifted translator and translated William Shakespeare's works, as well as the works of major French writers, into Spanish. This allowed Fernández de Moratín to develop a sensitivity toward language. This background and mode of thought can be seen in his earlier works that are poetic in nature but also in subtle wordplay that frames multiple character personalities through their dialogues. A character's use of a certain word or manner of speech tells the audience or reader that character's personality or background.
One of Fernández de Moratín's earliest works is a comedy called The Old Man and the Young Girl (translated), which highlights Fernández de Moratín's stylistic foundation that he would use for his later works. In that play, he criticizes the custom of arranged marriages and does so by using humor and clever wordplay—a way of constructing text and contexts he developed as a translator of works.
His love of Enlightenment ideals pushed him towards social commentary, and many of his major works have a political thesis. Using poetry and stage plays, Fernández de Moratín articulated what he observed in society. He was able to criticize political figures and the rigid institutions of Spain as well as other nearby monarchies by using his witty language and sharp observations. This would eventually lead to his exile from Spain to Paris.

As an administrator of a penal institution, what rights would you grant to an inmate? Consider special meals, length of hair, facial hair, special prayer times, and clothing when writing your response.

In the United States, administrative authorities do not have the ability to independently decide to grant or withhold a prisoners' rights which are set by case, statute, and constitutional law. The restriction of rights must be done under the limitations of law and not at the arbitrary discretion or whim of an executive authority.
In regard to special meals, hair length, and style, prayer times, and clothing, rights can be restricted or limited if a reasonable evaluation determines that the prisoner does not exhibit a "sincerely held belief" in the religion he or she professes that would necessitate some accommodation (see Vaughn v. Garrison). In imposing restrictions that interfere with religious beliefs, the prison administrator must apply the restriction neutrally and equally upon all prisoners, and not single out a specific practice (see Oregon v. Smith).
The case of hair length and style, however, has been the subject of specific scrutiny. In Hines v. South Carolina and other cases, the Supreme Court determined that hair length and style is almost invariably a matter of prison security and have granted administrators widespread discretion to establish and enforce grooming standards, subject to the neutral rule requirements of Oregon v. Smith.
In terms of meals, a prisoner has an absolute right to avoid eating certain foods that conflict with his or her religious beliefs and this right generally cannot be restrained by a prison official. Whether or not a prisoner can demand service of certain foods is a different question. The courts have generally held that such demands can be made, provided it is not unreasonable for the prison to make such provisions. So, for instance, a prisoner who demanded to eat lion meat as part of a religious belief could be denied that request, even if it were determined this was a belief that was "sincerely held" since the acquisition of lion meat by a prison kitchen would be difficult and unreasonable.

What are some ominous signs at the beginning of chapter 8?

Nick describes a fog horn as "groaning incessantly" all night so that it prevented him from sleeping soundly; when he did sleep, he felt "half-sick between grotesque reality and savage frightening dreams." Right away, Nick's feelings of sickness and dread seem to foreshadow an ominous future. Daisy has run over Myrtle Wilson while driving Gatsby's car, and Gatsby feels strongly about taking the blame for it rather than allowing Daisy to suffer, but Gatsby didn't see what Nick saw after the accident: Daisy and Tom sitting together over a plate of cold chicken and a couple of beers, talking familiarly and as though Gatsby was never there. When Nick and Gatsby go inside Gatsby's house to look for cigarettes, Nick describes the house as "enormous," with "innumerable feet of dark wall," and he even calls the piano "ghostly." It feels as though these two are lost in a frightening and cavernous place. They seem to grope around blindly as though what was once familiar is no longer, and this creates a mood of foreboding.

Why is his singing heard on a "distant hill"?

The answer in this case, as it is with most poems, really depends on the way you choose to interpret it. That's not to say that every interpretation has a sound basis in the work itself, but the symbols of Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird" don't offer an easy, singular answer. I'd offer you a few ideas and musings on what it could mean.
For one, as you read the poem you might notice that the free bird never sings. It "leaps" and "floats" and thinks of food, but it does not sing. Every reader is welcome to disagree, but personally I don't think it's accidental on the author's part. So why does the free bird not sing? It's possible he doesn't need to. Maybe he doesn't want to, or perhaps he's forgotten how to. In contrast, the caged bird does sing. That's pretty much all he can do, because:

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

So why is the caged bird's song heard on "a distant hill?" It's very likely that it has to do with desperation and passion. The song is everything the caged bird has; freedom is all he thinks about. The "bars of rage" stand between him and everything the free bird experiences. The caged bird doesn't even know what he is missing, because he sings:

of things unknown
but longed for still

We can imagine that kind of longing gives the song the power to be heard far away on the distant hill. Now this could mean that the song itself is powerful, but it could also mean that the message itself is. After all, Angelou says that the song is heard:

for the caged bird
sings of freedom

So we could interpret that as saying it's heard because he sings of freedom. It's possible the message is that freedom songs carry further than others. After all, most of us are free, but we can imagine being trapped and wouldn't wish that fate on others. The free bird isn't just symbolic of being free—he's also symbolic of being a bird. He does the things a bird is supposed to do, while the caged bird is trapped in an unnatural state. Therefore you could say that the caged bird's song is heard, since we care to hear to hear it.

The poem doesn't specify exactly why this is the case, but we can interpret that, in the context of the poem, this distant hill represents the freedom which the caged bird longs for, but has yet to achieve. The idea of his singing being heard on this hill, then, could be understood in more than one way. First, we might assume that those who have managed to make their way to this distant hill are others who have escaped oppression ahead of the caged bird and now hear the singing of their trapped fellows who are longing to break out—the implication being that those who have freed themselves should always be listening to others who are still in need of help. We could also understand this comment to be a rumination on the sheer power and constancy of the caged bird's cries as it yearns for freedom.

Who helped Marguerite stop "sopping around the house . . . like an old biscuit"?

Maya relishes the familiarity of Stamps after she and Bailey return from St. Louis, and she sinks into a withdrawn depression, rarely speaking aloud to anyone. In chapter 15 of the memoir, we learn that after almost a year of sopping "around the house, the store, the school, and the church, like an old biscuit," Mrs. Bertha Flowers enters Maya's life and helps the healing process begin. Mrs. Flowers is described as "the aristocrat of Black Stamps" and is kind, compassionate, educated, beautiful, well-dressed, and impeccably-mannered. She changes Maya's life by welcoming the girl into her home for regular visits, imparting wisdom in a stern yet sensitive manner and introducing her to a rich home library full of the classics. Maya describes the visits as "lessons in living," and she notes that being liked and respected by Mrs. Flowers simply for being herself made an impact on her life.

Why was Rosa Parks heroic?

In 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American woman from Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person, an act of defiance which violated the segregation laws of Alabama. Rosa Parks was arrested and her arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and, a little over a year later, a Supreme Court ruling which forced Alabama to desegregate its buses.
Rosa Parks is a hero firstly because her act of defiance was a moral stand, against the injustices and violence of institutionalized racism, and secondly because she took this moral stand at a time when the Ku Klux Klan were operating in Alabama (often with impunity given their close links with the police), bombing the homes of black social activists.
Rosa Parks's decision not to give up her seat for a white passenger is also often credited with providing the spark that gave life to the civil rights movement. Indeed, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was organized by a young pastor by the name of Martin Luther King, Jr., who of course rose to prominence as the figurehead of the civil rights movement.
In summary then, Rosa Parks was heroic because she stood up (or, rather, sat down) for what was morally right, because she did so at great personal risk, and because she helped bring about greater, lasting change.

In the novel of Being Henry David by Cal Armistead, what is the significance of the black bird? A figure of black bird comes up in chapter 4, and it is also the name of the song that Hank remembers from the Beetles. Are there any correlations between the two? What's the significance of it? Is this an example of a symbol? In a bigger picture, does this represent an element of American Romanticism/Gothics/Transcendentalism? How?

In the YA novel Being Henry David, a teen wakes up in New York City’s Penn Station without any clue of who he is and how he got there. Since all he has is a copy of Thoreau’s Walden, he calls himself “Hank.” And he uses some select inspiration from Henry David Thoreau to find his answers.
I am fortunate enough to have social media connections to author Cal Armistead, so I posed your query directly to her. She was surprised and honored to be asked such intricate questions about her book, which was published in 2013. She quickly replied, “The blackbird in Hank’s dream is a symbol of Magpie, the bad guy in NYC.”
It took her a bit longer to think about a connection between the appearance of the dream bird and the lyrics to the Beatles’ song “Blackbird.” After all, Ms. Armistead wrote this manuscript more than five years ago. As a writer myself, I can attest to the fact that some symbols and connections can be deliberately included by the author, and others can just materialize on the page as if by magic. We readers don’t know which is which. It’s possible she didn’t even formally consider the relationship at the time of the writing. After some thought, however, she said: “The blackbird is Hank's unconscious and the memories that are shrouded by amnesia. This knowledge can harm him, but it will also set him free. (As in “Blackbird, fly . . .”).”
If you listen to the song (through the link below), you may come to better understanding of the connection. You could see Hank in the blackbird. He could certainly be said to have “broken wings” and “sunken eyes” at the beginning of the story, and he needs to learn to fly and to see again. He’s reached a point in his life where he is “only waiting for this moment to be free.” Does he find this freedom? How?
It’s up to us to further compare this relationship to the characteristics of the literary movements you suggest. For example: Using natural elements to explain social behavior. Valuing individual freedom. Valuing intuition and imagination over reason and reality. Finding God in nature. The author may not have intentionally set out to make this book an example of American romanticism, but by using Thoreau as a centerpiece and by focusing on a main character in need, she certainly leads us to think in this direction.

When considering the bidirectional influence of career decision making and identity development, how does one’s identity impact one’s vocational choice(s) and vice versa?

Career decision making and identity development are interconnected in modern-day capitalist economies and societies. From an early age, the education system puts people on a path towards career goals as an adult.
From a psychological point of view, a person's identity--composed of a fixed or ever-changing personality, ideologies, and perspective on the self and the world--influences their chosen career(s). Personal experiences are also factors in choosing one's vocation.
For example, a child who experienced the loss of a parent due to cancer might be inspired to enter the medical profession, or a person who grew up in a military family might be influenced to follow the tradition.
Likewise, one's chosen vocation could influence their personal identity. For example, a person who has chosen a religious vocation (e.g. Catholic priest, Buddhist monk, et al.) will more than likely follow a lifestyle that reflects their vocational ethos and rules.
http://vuir.vu.edu.au/19360/1/Siriwan_Ghuangpeng.pdf

What power does the Bill of Rights give Americans if Congress refuses to act?

The 10th Amendment, which is one of the Amendments to the US Constitution in the Bill of Rights, was made law in 1791. Essentially, the 10th Amendment provides that the federal government possesses only those powers which the US Constitution grants to it, and any other powers are reserved for the states if those powers are not specifically denied to the states in the U.S. Constitution.
Based on a fair reading of that language, the consensus is that, if Congress refuses to act, then the states have the right to act in a policy area, such as education, healthcare, or the general welfare (such as emergency response, for example). This principle of governing does not mean that the states have the sole discretion to act in any policy area. It just simply means that the states can act if Congress refuses to act in any policy area.
State rights advocates mainly point to the text of the 10th Amendment and The Federalist Papers, as well as case law, to lend support to this principle of governing. For instance, if Congress refuses to act to address a crisis, such as an invasion or natural disaster, then the states undeniably have the right to act in place of Congress to address the problem or challenge.

Why did Mrs. Stoner make a cake for the two priests?

J. F. Powers’s story takes place in a Catholic church rectory on the 59th birthday of the resident priest, Father Firman. Mrs. Stoner, the titular valiant woman, is his housekeeper. She makes a cake as part of the birthday meal that she serves him and his dinner guest, Father Nulty. As they prepare to eat the cake, she criticizes Father Firman about the way he lights the cake’s candle. Mrs. Stoner, who is a widow, has her own room in the house and over the years has taken on a role more like the priest’s wife than just his housekeeper. She seems to take an active role in the parish management, as well as do cooking and other household tasks.

Did anyone know how Fogg had made his fortune?

I'm sure that Fogg knows how he made his own fortune (or inherited it); however, Fogg, the narrator, or a different character never explains to readers exactly how he became so wealthy. Fogg is a member of the British aristocracy. He's a wealthy gentleman that appears to have nothing but time on his hands and things to spend money on. That is the general appearance and stereotype of this class, and audiences are often given the impression that someone like Fogg is wealthy and always has been wealthy. He could very well have been born into the money. Often, this kind of thing creates a character that is not likable or relatable; however, that is not the case with Fogg. He doesn't flaunt his wealth by buying and doing frivolous things. He's fairly humble in general, and he's humble about his wealth. That said, he's not afraid to use large sums of money for a cause or a purpose. That is especially true when it comes to helping out a friend such as Passepartout.

We're never told exactly how Phileas Fogg came to be so incredibly rich. All that we know for sure is that he's a very wealthy man, albeit one who leads a fairly modest lifestyle. There's certainly nothing ostentatious or flashy about Fogg. He doesn't need to show off his vast wealth, but he does enjoy its trappings, nonetheless. Fogg's not very forthcoming about the provenance of his riches, and this merely adds to the air of mystery about the man. Even his closest friends and acquaintances haven't the faintest idea how he came by his money. But he genuinely is a rich man, all the same. And the evidence for this is extensive. He lives in a mansion on the fashionable Saville Row; he dines on the finest food whenever he drops by at the Reform Club; he has a line of credit at the world-famous Baring's Bank; and to top it all, he has a full-time manservant, none other than his faithful travelling companion, Passepartout.