Why would an apparently intelligent man such as Captain Beatty support a society that burns books?

It’s clear that both Beatty’s knowledge and his bitterness come from a close association with books. Beatty makes this clear in his conversation with Montag after Montag arrives back at the firehouse with a book to burn (part II). Montag’s guilt is evident, but Beatty reassures him that “we’re all sheep who have strayed at times,” and that now his “fever is over.”
Actually, Beatty’s fever seems to have never left. He describes learning as drinking, and readers as alcoholics, using a metaphor from Alexander Pope, an eighteenth-century English poet.

“I’ll tell you,” said Beatty, smiling at his cards. “That made you for a little while a drunkard. Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff. Bang, you’re ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children, destroy authority. I know, I’ve been through it all.”

While the Captain accepts the book from Montag, he goes on to describe a dream he had, in which he and Montag were engaged in a fierce debate over the role and power of knowledge. In the debate, both individuals used quotes from literature to support their points. Beatty is incredibly articulate and concise when quoting these authors, making it clear that he’s read these pages deeply. So why would he destroy the thing he knows so intimately and which he clearly craves interaction with?
The answer lies in his conversation with Montag at the end of part I. Beatty sees his role in society as maintaining its stability by preventing the discord that comes from literature, culture, art, and philosophy. “That way lies melancholy,” he claims, and he works to ensure the happiness of the population by destroying the items which would induce this discomfort. He claims that men who only focus on the mechanical aspects of their lives are happier than those who are trying to understand a universe “which just won’t be measured or equated without making man feel bestial and lonely. I know, I’ve tried it; to hell with it.”
Ultimately, Beatty’s own experience with literature, which often causes confusion and offense (as authors don’t always agree), has led him to believe that the only way to maintain a stable society is by destroying those things which would unhinge it. He ends the conversation by asking Montag to reconsider his position and come back to work soon.

“I don’t think you realize how important you are, to our happy world as it stands now.”

There are different kinds of intelligence, not all of which relate to the reading of books. Captain Beatty's intelligence is that of a cunning man-on-the-make, a highly ambitious state functionary who sees the burning of books as a means to an end: the acquisition of power and influence. And it's not just burning books that Beatty looks upon as a means to an end, but knowledge, too. He uses little snippets of information he's gleaned from books, succinct quotations and aphorisms, as weapons against Montag. It's an old cliché that knowledge is power, but it's no less true for that. For Beatty, knowledge has no intrinsic value; it's simply a way of gaining power and control over others. He feels no compunction, then, in consigning books to the flames, as he's already got what he wanted from them: enough information to throw in Montag's face to keep him in a position of subordination.

Why did Frederick Douglass give his speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"?

Frederick Douglass was invited to give a speech on the meaning of the Fourth of July, and he gladly accepted so that he could present his own views. By the time he gave his now-famous speech in 1852, Douglass was already a noted abolitionist. In speaking to an anti-slavery organization, he knew that the audience would contain many prominent Americans, including President Fillmore. Douglass made sure to include the meaning of “liberty,” encapsulated in the July 4th declaration, for all Americans. In particular, he focused on the hypocrisy of the founding fathers’s words and their subsequent deployment, as many Americans were decidedly unfree. Slavery, Douglass noted, constituted the most fundamental contradiction between word and deed.
Douglass took pains to distinguish between the rhetoric espoused in the past, showing its degree of success in the lives of white Americans but relative lack of value for black Americans. He addresses some contemporary policy decisions—notably the 1850 Compromise—that would deliberately allow slavery to continue into the future. Arguing that it is morally and legally indefensible, Douglass predicts that slavery will inevitably be abolished.

What does the Ebro river in "Old Man at the Bridge" signify?

The Ebro River is one of the longest and most important rivers in Spain. It cuts the country in two along a northeast/southwest line. It is also the name of one of the most important battles in the Spanish Civil War, the Battle of Ebro, which the Republican forces eventually lost to the fascists.
In the story, the bridge at the Ebro River is the road to safety. But for the old man, this bridge has no meaning. Crossing it, he realizes, will not help him. He knows nobody on the other side. For him, it signifies the end of the road.
The soldier tries to get him to cross and tries to comfort him about the animals he left behind. But in the end, the soldier lets the old man stay seated on the wrong side of the bridge. The soldier thinks,

There was nothing to do about him. It was Easter Sunday and the Fascists were advancing toward the Ebro. It was a gray overcast day with a low ceiling so their planes were not up. That and the fact that cats know how to look after themselves was all the good luck that old man would ever have.

The old man represents all the decent, humane people who are ground up by war.

This short story depicts the efforts of a narrator to assist a man struggling to leave his homeland due to advancing enemy forces. The elderly man is not only physically exhausted but also feels deeply connected to his home and all it has meant to him. He feels no particular political alignments, has no family to care for, and after twelve kilometers, believes that he has reached the end of his metaphorical road.
He sits by the side of a road just before crossing a bride that might take him to an area of greater safety. The bridge symbolizes the divide between life and death. By remaining where he is, the man likely chooses to die. Walking across that bridge would allow for greater possibilities. The bridge could bring hope.
The water underneath that bridge, then, symbolizes the never-ending flow of time and, for the man, a sense of loss. What has existed before is gone. The animals he worries about are gone. The people in his community all left before him. Everything has flowed away from the old man, much like water rushing its way downstream.
The story's hopeless tone conveyed through such symbolism carries through to the end, with the narrator noting that "cats know how to look after themselves" (and implying that the old man does not) and that this is this man's only source of "good luck."

The Ebro River is a river in Spain. Hemingway's time spent covering the Spanish Civil War as a journalist would have familiarized Hemingway with the Ebro. Indeed, he uses it again in "Hills Like White Elephants" and other stories.
In "Old Man at the Bridge," "river" is mentioned just once, and "Ebro" too is mentioned just once. Its specific name is important because it locates us in both time and space in the story (Easter Sunday, 1938, near the front of the war zone). Let's think about the title to begin to access the symbolic meaning of the river.
"Old Man at the Bridge" essentially captures all of the plot that happens in this story: the narrator encounters an old man sitting at a pontoon bridge, too tired and weak and dispirited to cross it and move safely away from the encroaching Fascists. The river is, essentially, the dividing line between life and death. If the old man stays on this side of the river, he will almost certainly die. If he gets to the other side, he can join the others who are fleeing to get on the "trucks up the road where it forks for Tortosa," eventually arriving at relative safety.
When the narrator urges the old man to try to cross the bridge, the man "got to his feet, swayed from side to side and then sat down backwards in the dust." Having lost his home and his beloved animals, the man cannot find it within him to want to live. He remains on the side of the river where death will find him. Thus, the river signifies the split between life and death.

Summarize the article by Earl Smith and Angela J. Hattery “African American Men and the Prison Industrial Complex.”

"African American Men and the Prison Industrial Complex" is an article published in The Western Journal of Black Studies by Earl Smith and Angela J. Hattery. The thesis of the article is the detrimental effects of mass incarceration in the African American community in the United States. The co-writers argue that the United States Criminal Justice System is systemically biased towards African American males when it comes to incarceration for non-violent crimes.
They also state that a culture of racist attitudes towards blacks by the predominantly white society contributes to the volatile relations between the community and the criminal justice system, citing the unjustified arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as an example of racial profiling.
Smith and Hattery believe that mass incarceration by the prison industrial complex creates profits for privately-own prisons and contractors that work in the penal system, while simultaneously depriving the African American urban community of male breadwinners, thus perpetuating poverty inner-city neighborhoods. They liken this to the slavery era when blacks were exploited and "incarcerated" all for the benefit of a white society's economic growth.
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-246098316/african-american-men-and-the-prison-industrial-complex

Why is there suffering and evil?

From the Christian perspective, suffering originates in the broken nature of our world, which stems from humanity's choice to rebel against their creator, Yahweh.
Humans disobeyed the rule that God had given them. This resulted in the what is called "the Fall of Man." Christians who follow the Armenian teachings believe that humans have free will, which is why humans could, and did, disobey God, even though they had been warned that it would lead to suffering and death. Death is a byproduct of the Fall and is the one of the most obvious forms of suffering.
Suffering and evil, according to biblical teaching, exist because humanity chose a world that is apart from God and is therefore deteriorating.
In addition, people make choices that affect other people. When the choices are selfish or ignorant, they often result in suffering.

Further reading: https://www.amazon.com/Problem-Pain-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652969

Why is there suffering and evil? A more complete statement of this question should include what is implied, and the question restated as “Why is there suffering and evil, if there is an all good God?” or “How can there be an all good God, if there is suffering and evil?”
Christianity answers this question in the following way. Only God is perfect and all good, and His creation, beginning from nothing, has the potential, and is intended to reflect His goodness, but is in a development process toward achieving that. In that process there is clearly a lack of that goodness, which is experienced as evil and suffering, or an imperfect world. In the case of human beings the process for developing the goodness or fullness of God’s life intended for us is done through the great gift of “free will,” which God has given us. It is through the choices we humans make, using that free-will, in confrontations and experiences of evil and suffering, which actually form our identity more and more as sharing in the goodness of God. By loving acts, through exercising our free will, we are actually capable of transforming suffering and evil into the goodness of God within ourselves. This is the message of the Cross of Jesus and His suffering to redeem us from evil, and bring us to the fullness of life. It is the self-sacrifice of pure love. Suffering and love prove not to be incompatible, but rather necessary co-relatives to one another empowering life and goodness through our free choices. The modern day epics of "Star Wars," "Lord of the Rings," and "Harry Potter," with their personal struggles of choosing good over evil teach us this same truth.
If God had created us in a finished state, reflecting His goodness, then we would not have had the opportunity to participate in His creation through our free will. Instead, we would be pre-programmed robots with no free will. If the world was perfect, and there was no evil, we would lack the opportunities to grow in love through our own free choices, and really not ever experience real love at all. For example, there would be no opportunities to serve one another’s needs, because there would be no needs to serve. We would lack the opportunities to escape egocentrism, by having the opportunity to sacrifice for the interests of others. For example, we often hear on the news, how people take great pride in helping each other when natural disasters hit. This demonstrates the human experience and fulfillment of growing in love.
In summary, evil and suffering are the absence of God’s goodness and love, not His creation. At the same time, evil and suffering, can be “redeemed” through the power of human free will, responding in loving acts. The result is the fulfillment of God’s intention for us to fully share in His goodness and life, but as co-creators of that goodness and life through our free will. By our loving acts, we establish our identity as reflecting the goodness of God. It is actually suffering and evil that give us this opportunity.

Suffering, according to Christian tradition, is a way for mortals to test their faith in the divine. In Buddhist traditions, witnessing and experiencing suffering will lead to spiritual enlightenment.
For example, Saint Lawrence of Rome was slowly burned to death on the orders of Roman Emperor Valerian during the persecution of Christians. His suffering, according to Biblical stories, led to ecstasy. Witnesses smelled a fragrant scent rather than the charred remains of human flesh. His martyrdom led to his canonization as a saint.
Evil, as defined by the Abrahamic religions (e.g. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), is the polar opposite of Good. In Christianity, the dualism of good and evil is mentioned throughout the New Testament. The Bible features various symbolism of good and evil: angels and demons; God and Satan/Lucifer; heaven and hell, et al.
Evil, according to secular Western Philosophy, is more broadly defined, and could be described as negative traits of the human psyche. In Western philosophical schools of thought, humans are capable of both good and evil deeds. Many literary and cinematic works explore the dualism of good and evil within a single character (e.g., the anti-hero).
Why is there suffering?
Suffering is an experience and a human emotion. There is no reason behind it or why it happens. Suffering is an emotional state that almost all humans experience in various levels and forms.
Why is there evil?
Evil, as a concept, is based on what we believe is moral. A person who doesn't abide by society's laws and social moral codes might believe that killing is not evil. The perception of evil is subjective. However, there are universal definitions of evil, such as rape and murder. Evil acts—such as terrorism or mass murder—happen due to various factors: politically-motivated actions; sociopathic and psychopathic behaviors; war; temporary insanity; bouts of anger; and so on.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/suffering/

Who went in the Westing house on Halloween in The Westing Game?

The answer to this question can be found in the chapter titled "The Corpse Found." It is chapter 4. Turtle Wexler is the person who goes into the Westing house that night. We are told that she is dressed up like a witch, and her clothes underneath are bulging with all of the stuff she needs for her plan. Her plan isn't to just go into the house, but she plans on staying the night, so she has with her two sandwiches, a flask of orange soda, a flashlight, and a silver cross "to ward off vampires." Her reason for going into the Westing house is to make money. The house scares people, and Turtle goes into the house on a bet. Doug, Theo, Otis, and Sandy agreed to pay her two dollars per minute that she stayed in the house. Turtle stayed in the house for 12 minutes. She ran quickly out of the house after discovering a dead body.

At two dollars a minute, twenty-five minutes would pay for a subscription to The Wall Street Journal. She could stay all night. She was prepared.
[. . .]
Turtle hid the folded newspaper in her desk drawer, counted her black and blue marks (seven), dressed, and set out to find the four people who knew she had been in the Westing house last night: Doug Hoo, Theo Theodorakis, Otis Amber, and Sandy. They owed her twenty-four dollars.

What is the lesson of the poem "Archaic Torso of Apollo"?

In the poem "Archaic Torso of Apollo" by Rainier Maria Rilke, the poet observes a sculpture of Apollo that no longer has the head and appendages. He writes that despite the fact that it is not complete, it shines forth brilliance and power like a lamp. This inner light that the sculpture emanates prevents it from seeming defaced or damaged due to the parts of it that are missing. The poet affirms that the sculpture is so beautiful in spite of its flaws that its light shines everywhere, even into your soul. As an observer, when you are confronted with such a work of art, writes Rilke, "You must change your life."
The lesson of this poem is that a work of art such as the Torso of Apollo can be so pure, beautiful, brilliant, and powerful that it can seem as if it sees you and judges you for your inadequacies. This can cause you to fundamentally change and live a life that is more just, upright, and honorable.