We do not learn that Miss Strangeworth is writing letters until we are well into the story. Reread the opening and note the clues the author provides to alert the reader to Miss Strangeworth’s true nature.What are some clues that Miss Strangeworth is not a nice person? What lessons does the story teach about human nature? Do you think the title is appropriate? Identify the significance of the following (what do they mean? How are they important in the story?): Miss Strangeworth’s name Miss Strangeworth’s roses The color of her envelope and writing paper “...as long as evil existed in the world, it was Miss Strangeworth’s duty to keep her town alert to it"

Clues that Miss Strangeworth is not a nice person
She never gives away any of her roses. She expected the store clerk Mr. Lewis to remember exactly what she buys every Tuesday and scolds him for not reminding her to buy tea. She notes the negatives in everyone’s appearance rather than the positives: Mr. Lewis looked tired and worried, Mrs. Harper looked old, Mrs. Chandler looks distracted and her hair is messy. Only her own home seems perfect to Miss Strangeworth.
What lessons does the story teach about human nature?
Mrs. Strangeworth is concerned about the possibility of evil, so she wants everyone to be aware of the possible evil around them. She ruins people’s lives by making them worried about things that aren’t true. The theme is that people who are bent on stamping out evil in the world are often the ones who cause the most evil themselves.
Do you think the title is appropriate? Explain why or why not.
The title is appropriate because the evil that Miss Strangeworth writes about is only a possibility. They are not even probabilities, just very unlikely possibilities. She writes that the Crane baby she just saw that morning is an idiot child, without any proof. She writes that Mrs. Harper should be suspicious of her husband, with no evidence that he has done anything wrong. She wrote Miss Chandler the librarian a letter insinuating that the man she loves may have killed his first wife, thus causing Miss Chandler grief and worry. She has made Mr. Lewis worried that his grandson may be stealing cash from the register without any facts to back up such a suspicion.
Miss Strangeworth’s name
Miss Strangeworth is a strange person. She thinks that she has a lot of worth, as she has lived in the town all her life and her family were one of the first families to settle the town. It is strange that Mrs. Strangeworth would consider the letters she writes as having any value or worth when in fact they only cause evil, suspicion, and misery.
Miss Strangeworth’s roses
Mrs. Strangeworth is very proud of her house and especially proud of the beautiful roses that her grandmother planted and her mother tended, like she tends them now. She can’t stand the thought of any of them being given to a tourist or a stranger and thus leaving her perfect little town. In fact she has never given away a single rose, as if these roses are more precious than any of the people to whom she could have given one in her long life.
The color of her envelope and writing paper
Miss Strangeworth uses the same paper everyone else in the town uses. She may have selected a pink sheet for her letter about the Crane baby because the baby is a girl. She may have selected a green sheet to write to Mrs. Harper because green is color associated with jealousy and envy and she wants Mrs. Harper to suspect her husband of adultery.
“...as long as evil existed in the world, it was Miss Strangeworth’s duty to keep her town alert to it.”
This is Mrs. Strangeworth’s mission in life—to alert the people in her town of the evil that may possibly be threatening them. But because all her letters concern only unfounded suspicions, she is in fact bringing evil into relationships between people, causing them to suspect each other, rather than actually doing anything to stop evil.

What is an analysis of "The Stream's Song"?

"The Stream's Song," a poem by Lascelles Abercrombie, is the fearless story of a stream as it pushes up against things which are traditionally harder and stronger than it. The stream sings its song of triumph as it continues forward, asking if the boulders and rocks fear it. It is interesting from a metaphorical perspective because it is the story of persistence versus traditional strength. The rocks and boulders are certainly harder and more steadfast, but the perseverance of the water proves more powerful, and the lines "crumble, crumble voiceless things; no faith can last that never sings" show that it is destructive in its fervent persistence.
The poem is broken up into stanzas of four brief lines which give the poem a feeling of short bursts—leaping to and fro. This brings to mind the image of a stream, jumping and surging between rocks. The verbiage used in the poem begins curious and almost cautious—asking if the rocks have fear of the water—but eventually becomes forceful and exultant, saying the rock shall be carried away and the stream will continue laughing ever more. This represents a stream continuing on its path and getting stronger as it wears away the channel around it.

In 1984, Orwell describes the imperialism using the fictional book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein, which is clearly inspired by Marx's doctrine. But he never uses the world "class", saying instead that "there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle and the Low." Why?

While Orwell's (Goldstein's) book is inspired by Marxist theory, Orwell tries to accentuate the differences between Oligarchic Collectivism and Marxism. Both Marx and Goldstein have a theory of history, but they veer away from each other in significant ways. Marx saw an inevitable end of history in which the working classes rose up, killed the capitalists (he saw no alternative to violent revolution), took over the means of production, and distributed profits equally among the people to create, ultimately, a stateless utopia. Goldstein, on the other hand, theorizes a quite different outcome: the "High" will consolidate and perfect their power and use it to stay in control forever, increasingly crushing and dehumanizing the Middle and Low.
Using Marxist class markers such as "working class" and "upper class" would not only have the potential to confuse this theory of history with Marxism, it would overcomplicate what Orwell/Goldstein is trying to say. A larger context for the quote follows:

. . . there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age: but the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium.

Marx talks about how society changes as the basic ways of creating wealth changes: hunter/gather societies differ from Medieval land-based societies, which differ from modern industrial societies. Orwell/Goldstein simply isn't interested in all this: the concern here is simply with the mechanism of power.

The Scarlet Guard’s motto is "Rise red as the dawn." Explain the symbolic significance of the motto. Questions to consider before you answer: Why do they say it? What does it symbolize? What does it mean? How does it represent them?

The Scarlet Guard's motto is wholly appropriate for a number of reasons. First and foremost, this resistance movement's dedicated to rising up against the Silver nobles in their fight for justice and equality. So the Scarlet Guard is determined to rise up just like the dawn. Also, red is a color traditionally associated with revolutionary or radical political movements. The Scarlet Guard definitely falls into this category as its avowed aim is to overthrow the cruel, tyrannical regime of King Tiberias. It doesn't get much more radical or revolutionary than that.
But The Scarlet Guard wants to do so much more than just destroy an old order; it wants to build a new one, too. The foot soldiers of the rebellion such as Elara and Maven want to usher in a bright new dawn of freedom and equality. So once again we can see why The Scarlet Guard's motto is well-chosen: like the dawn, it will rise, it will be red, and it will herald the arrival of a new day.

Is Carson's technique of describing environmental problems in a fictional town in Silent Spring effective? Explain.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is a creative nonfiction book about the dangers of pesticides and their detrimental effects on the environment. The main goal of Carson's text is to raise awareness about these harmful effects and to inspire people to change their habits regarding pesticide use.
To answer your question, it is important to keep this main goal in mind. On the one hand, one could certainly argue that Carson's use of a fictional town to describe the environmental effects of pesticides is effective in achieving her goal. This technique serves as a metaphorical illustration of what can happen should widespread, indiscriminate pesticide use continue as it has. This lets the reader visualize what could happen, making it more real for him or her.
Furthermore, at the time Carson wrote her book, there were few studies or cases in which pesticide use was shown to cause these effects. This was not because the effects didn't exist but rather because it was underreported and undocumented. As a result, Carson uses the fictional scenario to demonstrate how these things could happen, making it an effective addition to the text.
Conversely, one could argue that Carson's use of the fictional town is ineffective precisely for the same reasons. One might assert that Carson's fictionalized accounts of environmental detriment do not carry the same weight as factual data, thereby undermining her claim that pesticides are harmful.
Personally, I think there is more evidence to support this technique being effective within the context of Carson's main goal.

During the 1850s, the political fabric of the United States began to unravel. What were the key events and individuals during this period that helped to propel the nation towards Civil War?

The most significant factor in propelling the nation toward disunion was the Mexican War. Concluded in 1848, it, as Ralph Waldo Emerson predicted, "poisoned" the politics of the United States by pushing the expansion of slavery to the forefront. The Compromise of 1850 was one significant event that helped to propel the nation toward civil war, primarily because a more robust Fugitive Slave Act, included as a concession to southern slaveholders, outraged Northerners, intensifying the justifiable belief that a "slave power" controlled national politics.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was another event that pushed the nation toward disunion. Its sponsor, Stephen Douglas, was a key figure in this process by urging the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the use of popular sovereignty as a means to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories encompassed by the Louisiana Purchase. This led to the emergence of the Republican Party, which was devoted to halting the spread of slavery to the western territories, and was seen as an existential threat by southern proslavery forces. It also created a crisis in Kansas, which erupted into civil war—"Bleeding Kansas"—as antislavery forces battled "border ruffians" determined to establish a proslavery government there. In the presidential election of 1856, the collapse of the second two-party system became a reality as the Republicans, loathed by Southern slaveholders, replaced the Whigs in opposition to the Democrats.
In 1857, a Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, a case involving an enslaved man suing for his freedom after living in the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was illegal, divided the nation even further. One year later, a Senate campaign in Illinois between Douglas, a Democrat, and a Republican named Abraham Lincoln brought the latter into national prominence. It also fatally divided the Democratic Party, enabling the decisive event in the collapse of the Union, the election of Lincoln to the presidency in 1860. Seven states in the Deep South reacted to the election by seceding from the Union, a decision that brought the nation to the brink of war when Abraham Lincoln took office in March of 1861.
There were many more events that contributed to the collapse of the Union in 1860, but these national political events were undoubtedly central to the process.
http://www.americanyawp.com/text/13-the-sectional-crisis/

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3277

Even in the very beginning of this decade, the crisis of the 1850s was already underway with the debates surrounding California's application for statehood, which was only managed by the Compromise of 1850. However, this compromise would prove unable to calm the rising tensions emerging between North and South over the issue of slavery. Just consider the impact of 1850s Fugitive Slave Act which incited outrage throughout the North.
As an earlier contributor has already noted, one of the key moments in this history came with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which caused sectarian violence to arise in Kansas, as abolitionists—John Brown among them—came into armed conflict with slavery's supporters). Later, in 1859, John Brown would lead a raid at Harpers Ferry, attempting to start a slave revolt.
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln would challenge Stephen Douglas for his Senate seat. While Douglas would win that contest, these debates would have the lasting effect of bringing Lincoln into national awareness. He would later be selected as the Republican candidate for president in the election of 1860, running against opponents Stephen Douglas and John Breckinridge. This earlier political encounter (between Douglas and Lincoln) would thus play a key role in influencing that later presidential election, the results of which would prove so critical in shaping the crisis of secession.

Several interlinked factors in the 1850s accelerated the advance of the United States towards Civil War, a process that effectively began with the Nullification Crisis of thirty years prior.
The first of these was the presidency of James Buchanan. Buchanan was personally opposed to slavery but believed that ownership of slaves was protected by the U.S. Constitution. In fact, during his inaugural address, Buchanan even called slavery "a matter of little practical importance." The president's misreading of this key national issue, combined with the general weakness and ineffectiveness of his administration, helped decay the central strength of the United States federal government.
Another factor was the collapse of the Whig Party and the consolidation of the political opposition in the stalwartly abolitionist Republican Party. This provoked a panicked reaction from Democrats and southern political leaders who saw in the ascendant Republicans a threat to their economic way of life.
A third major factor was the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This led to the civil unrest known as "Bleeding Kansas" which foreshadowed the national civil conflict that began in 1861.
Other critical events and personages of the 1850s that helped propel the United States to Civil War included the Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford, and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859.
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/causes-of-the-civil-war/

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/james-buchanan-why-is-he-considered-americas-worst-president/

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/trigger-events-civil-war

Based on the evidence in Just Mercy, why are wrongful convictions and illegal trials involving young children very common?

Young children are considered very unreliable witnesses. Their memories are not fully developed and they are more vulnerable to the emotional pressures associated with interrogation. The memories they do have are easily manipulated by prosecutors' lines of questioning, particularly questions that are suggestive and lean toward certain answers. These observations are supported by contemporary psychologists and lawyers. This is just to give you perspective on children as witnesses (this will become relevant in a few paragraphs).
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption explores the opposite perspective in which juveniles are wrongfully persecuted. Bryan Stevenson offers an authoritative perspective as a lawyer. In the 1980s and 1990s, he represented juveniles in Alabama, the state which had the most children sentenced to death per capita in the country. During this time, children could be sentenced to die in the United States.
Stevenson notes a vast number of issues in the justice system associated with juveniles. He asserts that children should never be tried in an adult court; even a child of 14 cannot adequately defend themselves in the adult criminal justice system. Issues also arise when another child (or multiple children) testify against another child, as I mentioned previously. These same issues can be seen with children who have been convicted; in particular, there is a common phenomenon referred to as "confession contamination," which is a tactic that can be used to illicit false confessions and operates on the same principles as a witness testimony.
Moreover, there are a substantial number of cases in which juveniles are tried for murder using a firearm. For example, if a child is being physically abused by a parent or guardian, they are unable to effectively defend themselves using physical force. There are also many cases in which children have been convicted of murder using a firearm to defend a sibling or a parent from another adult.
Issues also arise in cases involving rape and self-defence cases. In rape trials, DNA evidence is required. Many children are uncomfortable disclosing the fact that they have been raped, and some never feel comfortable disclosing this—especially if it involves a parent, sibling, or family friend.