Can you help me with analysis of two monologues from Hamlet that highlight his mental state?

1. Act I sc2.  "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt...But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue."

This soliloquy is spoken by Hamlet after he sees his mother whom Claudius has married, completely reconciled to her new state.  She does not mourn the death of her husband  (Hamlet's father)  and seems happily married to Claudius. Hamlet is shocked at the change in his mother's attitude and this soliloquy expresses his disgust towards all women in the now famous line: "fraility thy name is woman!"  In fact, he is so disgusted that he wishes that he could die and that he is even prepared to commit suicide. It is this soliloquy which has led many psychoanalytical critics to conclude that Hamlet suffers from an 'Oedipus Complex.'

2. Act I Sc5. "O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?....I have sworn 't."

This soliloquy is spoken by Hamlet after the Ghost reveals to him how Claudius had murdered him. Hamlet is completely overwhelmed by hatred towards his uncle Claudius and vows to kill him in obedience to his father's wishes. Hamlet's father's ghost reminds him to never give up his idea of revenging his murder.  So Hamlet practises  what psychologists would today term as 'selective amnesia.' That is, deliberately  forget everything that has been stored in his memory but always to remember only one thing  - to kill his uncle Claudius and fulfill his father's ghost's wishes.

In "The Odyssey", what happens at the homecoming of Agamemnon?What happens when Agamemnon returns home after the Trojan War is over?

When Agamemnon comes home, he finds (too late) that Aegisthus and his wife Clytemnestra had been having an affair.  Aegisthus invited him over for a feast, and then he killed Agamemnon and a bunch of his noble men.  Clytemnestra killed Priam's daughter as well.  She would not go near Agamemnon, and his wrath has been strong ever since that moment.

This is important because Agamemnon warns Odysseus to be wary of his wife upon his return.  He is to make sure that she has been faithful all these years, or he may face the same demise.  He tells all this to Odysseus in the Land of the Dead.

On page 56, Scout says, "It was then, I suppose, that Jem and I first began to part company." Why does this happen and what does it mean?

Jem has to go back and get his pants from the Radley fence.  If he doesn't, he would be caught, and as he said, "Atticus ain't ever whipped me since I can remember.  I wanta keep it that way."

Scout can't fathom him going and getting "killed" by Boo or any other phantom on the Radley property.  She is thinking like a kid who has grown up with superstitions.  Jem, on the other hand, is thinking a little more in an adult manner.  He knows what he has to do, and he knows that he'll be ok.  His pride and his father's approval is far more important to him at this point.  He is going to go.  She can hardly stand the thought of it.  That is where she realizes that they think and act differently because of both the age difference and their level of experiences in life.

What is the significance of the play within the play Pyramus and Thisby in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

The 'play within a play' is simultaneously an example of intertextuality and metatheatre. As such it impacts the audience /readers in a very subtle  manner.

Intertextuality: When the main play begins it looks as though it is going to end as a tragedy (Hermia will be executed if she does not obey her father and marry Demetrius). This is immediately underscored in the very next scene itself-Bottom and his company choose a tragedy to be enacted to celebrate Theseus' wedding. But the way they go about rehearsing the play is farcical and the audience/readers  immediately realise Shakespeare's comic intentions.The intertext which has been borrowed from Ovid would have been familiar to Shakespeare's Renaissance audience which would have immediately seen the parallel connection to the main story of the play: parental opposition to romantic love.

Pyramus and Thisby were two lovers living in adjacent houses. Their parents are opposed to their weding and they die under tragic circumstances.

Metatheatre: The discussions of how exactly the story is to be adapted to the actual performance on Theseus' wedding day[ActI sc.2] clearly expresses the unlikeness of art to life and the mysterious likeness of life to art itself. It begs the question does art reflect life or does life reflect art? Shakespeare thus uses the intertext to contrast art and life.

Most importantly all of us play different roles in life and we have multiple identities. Acting in a play is an expression of an individual's (Bottom) strong desire to  take on another  identity atleast for a short while.

Who or what are the main characters, settings, genre, and theme of "The Wife Of Bath's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales?

The main characters in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" are the knight (who rapes a woman at the beginning of the story and, therefore, is given the option of finding out what women most desire or otherwise losing his life), the hag (who tells the knight the answer to the riddle in exchange for her hand in marriage) and Guinevere and Arthur who, taken together, could be seen as representing wisdom (Guinevere) and force (Arthur).  The setting of the story is "In th' olde dayes of the King Arthur" in England, where "Al was this land fulfild of fairye:".  In other words, it is a fantastic setting and, for this reason, the genre of the story can best be described as a courtly romance (though, with all of Chaucer's tales, it is not an entirely conventional romance; there are no dragons to slay nor noble objects to discover.)  The theme of the tale can best be described as what women desire, particularly from their relationships with men.  The answer to this riddle is self-governance; in other words, there is no consistency for all women, but this lack of consistency is the rule.

In connection with "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", how did the Imagists measure the success of the poetic career?

According to Ezra Pound, the poet who started the Imagism movement:

It is better to present one Image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous works. . . .

This is the purpose of the poetic career, according to the Imagist - to create a single image that will outlive him.  Pound believed that abstraction distracted from the presentation of the truth.  Here is an example from him:

Don't use such an expression as 'dim lands of peace.' It dulls the image. It mixes an abstraction with the concrete. It comes from the writer's not realizing that the natural object is always the adequate symbol.

Thus, poets who wanted be successful - according to the Imagists - would get rid of all extra words, unneeded adjectives, and vague nouns.  Instead, they would focus on presenting the truth in statements of clear vision.

Eliot does this in Prufrock.  He begins with a description of city streets, uses metaphors that are concrete ("pair of ragged claws on the floors of silent seas"), and uses the narrative and dialogue of the speaker to show us a story of alienation.  Eliot never states his theme - he allows the images of Prufrock to tell it for him.

What are the internal and external conflicts regarding Jacob Black in the Twilight series? I would prefer answers from the book, Twilight, but any...

Well, here are some conflicts about Jacob:

1. Bella knew him when they were kids, but now they're all grown up (sort of) and he has a crush on her, which he forms almost immediately upon seeing her at LaPush.  She uses that to get information out of him about the Cullens, so she feels conflicted internally over the guilt of using Jacob, and it sort of starts the external conflict between Jacob's and Edward's affections for Bella.

2. Jacob wasn't supposed to tell the secret about the "cold ones" and the members of his tribe.  But he did it anyway, to impress Bella.  So that kind of puts him in conflict with his tribe/tribal traditions.

3. Jacob gets into the middle of the conflict between Billy and Bella when he agrees to go to Bella's prom to warn her about Edward.

4. Beginning in Twilight but mostly in the later books, Jacob is like a walking conflict between his loyalty to his tribal heritage and his modern and personal desires.  This is evident by his love of motorcycles and fast cars, his torn emotions about the pack, and his ties to the Cullen family.

In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," how does Walter relate to his wife, and how does she relate to him?

Walter Mitty's wife is an emasculating and meancing presence: She dictates to him what he must do and stifles his masculine sense of adventure. This repression is what causes Mitty to daydream; his dreams create heroism and leadership.

Mitty must drive with his wife to the city for the weekly shopping, etc. When they first arrive in town and Mrs. Mitty gets out to get her hair done, she tells her husband to get overshoes. Mitty retorts, "I don't need overshoes," but she patronizes him as one would a child:  "We've been all through that...."

As compensation for his lack of masculine assertiveness, Mitty's first daydream is that of his being a famous surgeon who "saves the day."  Later, he imagines himself a bombardier, a hero.  Yet, in reality he cannot change the chains on his tires in winter, and despite his attempts at defiance, he acquiesces to his wife's menacing orders and retreats again and again into  daydreams in order to escape his overbearing wife.

In The Phantom of the Opera, what does the phantom give Christine near the end of the play?

In "The Phantom of the Opera" as Christine is giving her final performance of Faust, the Phantom or Erik, kidnaps her while she is singing a particularly moving aria. The aria is one in which she asks the angels to take her to heaven. It is appropriate that Erik, or Christine's own Angel of Music, comes to take her at that moment. Though Raoul follows Erik and Christine with the help of the Persian, he ends up in a torture chamber.

Soon after, Erik raises his voice at Christine. He is furious and accuses an already mentally exhausted Christine of lying and of betrayal. If she does not marry him, he plans on ruining the Opera Garnier. Though Christine accepts and soon begins to show empathy toward Erik, he feels remorse for what he has done and he lets Christine and Raoul go free. However, Erik does hold Christine to a promise that she come back after he dies to bury him with the ring he gave her.

What do I need to have in order to get in the field of journalism?

You need to have a college degree, but not necessarily in journalism. Many journalist minor in journalism and then major in a specific field that they may be covering. For general coverage, a degree in English, history or political science is often helpful. However, many newspaper, television stations, etc. are looking for people with a science background or technology background who can explain new developments in these fields. With all the economic news today, a degree in business or economics would also be valuable. The secret is to major in a field you like and minor in journalism. Then, when you are a junior or senior in college--or beforehand if you can manage it, be sure to write for a school paper, report for a campus radio station or TV station and/or get an internship at a local news outlet. Many of the people I knew who got good jobs in journalism right after graduation were great interns, who made no money during their internships, but impressed the editors who hired them after they got their degree. Finally, any conference you can attend where there will be professional journalists you can meet, attend. This will give you a chance to introduce yourself and let them know you are interested in working in the field. Oh, and don't forget to keep a notebook or portfolio of your work for all potential employers to see. Good luck!

How is the structure of a lysosome related to its function?

The lysosomes are found in cytoplasma of cells of plants and animals and they are produced by Golgi aparatus. The lysosomes are single layer membranous sacs that contain enzymes.

The enzymatic content of lysosomes digests the cellular macromolecules through phagocytosis process and the membranous structure of lysosomes repairs the damaged plasma membrane.

The membranous boundary of lysosomes offers also protection to cell, against the enzymatic content of lysosomes.

How does Eugene Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" demonstrate the qualities of Theatre of the Absurd?

Ionesco's Rhinoceros fits most definitions of the theatre of the absurd because:

1. It is a play about being and existence. Berenger is the "last man" in that he is struggling against a chaotic universe which ultimately becomes absurd and nonsensical.

2. It is concerned with language, communication, and understanding. There is a humourous discussion of the definition of "cat" and "catness" by a logician who is not very logistical. Many characters cannot communicate and understand eachother throughout the play and it only deteriorates as most of the characters turn into or join the rhinos.

3. It is humourous, but at the same time it's tragic and carries with it serious social undertones. Ionesco's play is a comment on facism and how some people blindly subscribe to ideas and messages because "everyone else does."

4. It has absurd elements. A herd of rhinos running amuck in a small, provincial French town?!?!?! The inhabitants are uncaring save the difference between an "Asiatic" and "African" rhino?

In "To Kill a Mockingbird", what more do we learn about the Ewell's family from Atticus' cross examination?

Scout tells us that

 "Atticus was quietly building up before the jury a picture of the Ewells' home life. The jury learned the following things: their relief check was far from enough to feed the family, and there was strong suspicion tht Papa drank it up anyway-he sometimes went off in the swamp for days and came home sick; the weather was seldom cold enought to requre shoes, but when it was, you could make dandy ones from strips of old tires; the family hauled its water in buckets from a spring that ran out at one end of the dump-they kept the surrounding area clear of trash -and it was everybody for himself as far as keeping clean went: if you wanted to was you hauled your own water; the younger children and perpetual colds and suffered from chronic younger children had perpetual colds and suffered from chronic gournd-itch; there was a lady woho came around sometimes and asked Maella why she didn't stay in school- she wrote down the answer- that two people who could read and write in the family there wasn't any need for the others to go."

The reader also learns that Mayella is lying because she tells us that Tom Robinson strangled her with an arm he couldn't even use.

In The Lovely Bones, what are all of the objects Mr. Harvey collects from his victims?

In Chapter 11, readers learn that Mr. Harvey kept the bodies of animals he'd killed hidden in his crawlspace. In Chapter 14, readers see that he keeps an odd sketchbook. In Chapter 15, though, we get the most explicit statement of what you're looking for: Mr. Harvey has drilled a hole in the foundation of his house, and he keeps the souvenirs he took from all the dead women there. That's where you'd find his "trophy bag." Of course, the materials he doesn't keep he throws in the sinkhole, and I suspect there's some trace  in the secret place where he raped Susie, but those are accidental.

When is inference used in the scientific method?

You make an inference when you combine a new observation with what you already know to form a conclusion.  This is how a hypothesis is generally formed.  You observe something new, for instance, you observe that ants only leave an ant hole during the day.  You know from science class that the ants that leave the ant hole are looking for food.  You infer that food can only be found by ants during daylight.

Inference is generally the process used in forming a hypothesis and it combines something you observe with your previous knowledge.

Please explain the context and the setting of Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey."

The complete title of the poem is "Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour. July 13 1798."

The river Wye is the fifth longest river in the UK and part of it forms the border between England and Wales. It flows through regions famous for their natural scenic beauty. The spectacular ruins of the medieval Tintern Abbey are located on the banks of the river Wye at Monmouthshire.

Wordsworth begins the poem by telling us that he is revisiting this scenic and tranquil spot after five years. He tells us how the memory of  "these beauteous forms" have had a benign influence on him even during  their absence when he was alone or in crowded towns and cities.

The entire poem is a monologue about the benign and life sustaining power of childhood memories of a beautiful scenic spot in the wild open Nature. The poem reveals to us how these memories serve to link his past, present and future: "While here I stand, not only with the sense/Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts/That in this moment there is life and food /For future years."

In which chapter of 1984 does the quote about controlling the past appear?

George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984, is in many ways intended to satirize the Soviet Union, and especially the way that, during the Stalinist regime in power during 1949 when 1984 was published, Soviet revisionist historians rewrote history to support their version of Marxist-Leninist ideology, expunging from history books anything not flattering to their regime or belief system.

In the same way, the Ministry of Truth, at which Winston Smith works, is tasked with constantly revising or destroying all records of the past which might discredit the Party or Big Brother. For example, Oceania is alternately allied with Eastasia and Eurasia. Whenever the alliances change, all books and newspapers are edited to make it appear that the current ally was always, in fact, an ally, and to eliminate any evidence of shifts in allegiance.

Winston first explains how and why this system works in Part I Chapter 3, saying:

...if all records told the same tale--then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' ... 'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'.

It is repeated in Part 3 Chapter 2 by O'Brien, after Winston has been captured and during the process in which he is being tortured and brainwashed into complete submission to the Party.

Why does George kill Lennie in Of Mice and Men?

George kills Lennie by shooting him in the back of the head to save him from a more painful death at the hands of Curley, who has vowed to make him suffer for the death of his wife. George loves his friend Lennie, whom he has looked after faithfully, and he doesn't want Lennie to die horribly, especially since Lennie has unwittingly taken the life of Curley's wife in much the same way as he petted the puppy too hard or squeezed the mice to death. Lennie didn't know his own strength. When Curley's wife screamed, he didn't know how to make her stop except to do what he did, but he did not intend to kill her.

Curley, of course, is also looking for a way to achieve revenge for Lennie's crushing his hand, so he will definitely try to kill Lennie in the most cruel way possible. He says he will "gut shoot" him. George must save his friend by a mercy killing.

Here is a video summary of the novella:

How many of each of the following molecules are produced in each step of cellular respiration: ATP, NADH, FADH, and CO2? Please include...

Glycolysis yields a total of 4 ATP, 2 pyruvates, and 2 NADH molecules.  However, since the cell needs to make an initial investment of 2 ATP, it is generally considered that glycolysis only yields 2 ATP, 2 pyruvates, and 2 NADH.

The transition reaction yields 2 molecules of carbon dioxide, 2 NADH, and 2 acetyl Co-A molecules.

Krebs cycle contributes 4 more carbon dioxide molecules, 6NADH, 2 FADH2 and 2 ATP.

Oxidative phosphorylation produces 34 more ATP.

Examine the character of Lady Macbeth throughout the play. How does her character change throughout the course of the play? we have to use quotes...

Lady Macbeth is strong-willed in the beginning of the play. She decides as soon as she reads her husband's letter in Act 1, sc. 5, that Duncan must be killed. She hounds her husband until he agrees, in Act 1. sc. 7, to kill Duncan. She attacks his manhood, telling him that he won't be a man in her eyes if he doesn't do this deed. In reality, she does have a conscience, even though she tries to hide it. She even chastises her husband for showing sadness and regret after Macbeth kills Duncan in Act 2.

By Act 5, sc. 1, the guilt of all the deeds gets to her and she goes insane. While she sleepwalks in that scene, she laments over the murders that have been committed - that of Duncan, Banquo, and the Macduff household. Whether Macbeth ever told his wife or not about the murders of Banquo and the Macduffs is unclear, but she knows that her husband committed them. She is able to keep her head about her until after the murder of the Macduffs.

In Act 3, sc. 4, she is the one who tries to keep order when Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo at the banquet and reacts, startling his guests who do not see the ghost. She goes from a strong woman to a mad woman.

What are dominant and recessive factors in genetics, as identified by Gregor Mendel?What are genetic disorders?

Gregor Mendel discovered that the genotype is an organism's genetic makeup. For example, all of your genes are what comprise your genotype. The expression of those genes is called your phenotype, your traits that result when the instructions in your genes are carried out.  "Alleles are variations of a gene. We get one set of alleles (genes) from one parent and the other set of alleles from the other parent.

Some of the traits that we have are based on simple inheritance where one version of a gene (dominant allele) masks, or hides the expression of the other version of that gene (recessive allele).

In writing, we represented dominant and recessive alleles with letters that distinguish the different types of alleles. A capital letter is used to represent the dominant allele and a lower-case letter is used to represent the recessive allele (example: dominant gene = P; recessive gene = p)." For a recessive trait to appear the offspring must receive two recessive genes from the parents.

Genetic disorders are caused by a mutation of a gene on a strand of DNA.  This can come from a parent who is a carrier of the recessive gene and doesn't know it, or it can come from a mutation during development of the embryo.

In "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," whom do you expect to have more understanding, the old man or the younger waiter? Why?

To clarify, there are three characters in the story, two of whom are older than the young waiter. Hemingway's "old man" is a deaf patron of the cafe who stays late to drink alone on the terrace. The young waiter, wanting to close and go home early, resents his presence and treats him rudely. The other waiter, however, is an older man himself, developed in contrast to the young waiter.

The reader logically might expect the older waiter to demonstrate more understanding simply because he has lived longer and experienced more of life; this inference would be correct. The older waiter is far more understanding and empathetic than is the younger man. The young waiter shows his ignorance of life and human experience early in the story when he talks about the old man's recent suicide attempt, saying the old man had no reason to despair because "[h]e has plenty of money." 

The older waiter lacks the young man's brash confidence; he knows life better:

I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe . . . With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night . . . Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the cafe.

When the older waiter does leave work, he does not go home. He goes to another bar, not as nice as a cafe, but a place of light, as well. Eventually, he must leave even this place:

Now, without thinking further, he would go home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, it is probably only insomnia. Many must have it.

Unlike the young waiter, the older man understands personal loneliness and the ultimate spiritual loneliness that comes from the belief in "nada": "It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was nothing too."

What effect does the repeated mention of Paul's eyes have upon the reader in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"? Why do you think the writer chose this...

The description of Paul's eyes progress from innocence to madness.  The author uses adjectives like unsure, glaring, fiery, wild-eyed, and blue stones. These adjectives go from a pure innocence of unsure eyes, to his obsessed wild-eyed, and finally before death the eyes like blue stones. The affect on the reader is one of suspense and emotional attachment to Paul.  Lawrence wrote this way to draw the reader into Paul's emotions.  Most people show all of their true feelings in their eyes.  This was a perfect characteristic for us to see Paul's travel toward death. By focusing on Paul's eyes the author creates a bond between the reader and the boy.  We can't help but become invested in this child's emotional well-being.

Which values do Jack, Ralph, Piggy and Simon represent?

Well, let me make the caveat first that there's no absolute right answers to this one, and it depends on how you read the book...

Piggy. The easiest to symbolically analyse. Common-sense, intelligence, democracy and "clear-sightedness" (his glasses, of course, providing fire - and rescue). The chief proponent of the conch.

Jack. "I'm chapter chorister and head boy", he says, right at the start, a little clue from Golding that he was top dog at school, and he'll want to be top dog here. Jack effectively performs a back-handed, thuggish political usurpation of Ralph, replacing the civility and democracy of the conch-law with fear, violence and a tyranny in which he is the all-powerful "chief". I always find it difficult to forget that "Lord of the Flies" was written only shortly after Hitler's rise.  

Ralph. Is the everyman figure, who goes on the traditional "rites of passage" journey from innocence and worldly optimism ("My daddy's a pilot..." and he's going to save us!) to realising the "darkness of man's heart". He doesn't, I would argue, stand for anything other than you and I - the "normal", everyday guy.

Simon. A strange, weak, Christ-like figure who knows the right answers but can't tell them to people. Very intelligent, sensitive and perceptive, but not a natural leader - the artist in society? A real paradox.

the religious prophet or seer who is sensitive and inarticulate yet who, of all the boys, perhaps sees reality most clearly.

Is the short story "My Son, the Fanatic" by Hanif Kureishi based on an true story or is it a fictional one?

I think that there is much in way of truth in Kurieshi's short story.  I am not entirely certain that one can discount it as fiction.  The reality is that being young, Muslim, and British carries with it a set of preconditions that makes their predicament unique.  The fact that Kurieshi shows Ali to be someone who gravitates to religion in a cosmopolitan and secular setting is reflective of this.  In the view of many sociologists, Ali's generation is uniquely poised in issues of spirituality and how this vision fits into the "Western" vision of progress and modernity:

This pivotal generation is already defying many of the experts. They are not conforming to the theories of secularisation common for 20 years; they are perhaps even more devout than their parents, and are certainly more assertive of their faith and its requirements. According to our poll, half of British Muslims pray five times a day every day, while 80% pray at least once a day; even allowing for some religious guilt inflating the figures, the evidence is of a level of religious practice which is higher than any other community in the UK. The poll showed that they want public accommodation of their faith - time to pray where they work and sharia courts in Britain for civil cases (as long as the penalties do not contravene criminal law). They are not showing much sign of conforming to earlier patterns of migration and cultural assimilation, while the "war on terror" is radicalising them into a wide range of political activity - from human rights campaigning to radical jihadism.

In this configuration, Ali's experiences, Parvez's reaction to them, and the overall lack of clear identity is something quite real, authenticating a voice that is noticeably absent from the discourse.  When Britons, and all Westerners, ask themselves why young men of Muslim faith find themselves committed to radical jihadism, the narrative of Ali is a stunning reminder that there is a need to reach out to this particular group of individuals and validate their experience.  The July 7 attacks in London would only serve as testimony to this.

I need a few quotes regarding savagery in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn involving Tom Sawyer, duke and dauphin or society in general?the quote has...

The duke and the dauphin, and even Tom Sawyer, often represent the savagery of civilization. All three characters use Jim and Huck for their own personal gain. The following quotes are some examples:

The duke says the following when they discover Jim is a runaway. They decide they can use Jim as a cover, and Jim has no say in the matter. "Whenever we see anybody coming we can tie Jim hand and foot with a rope, and lay him in the wigwam and show this handbill and say we captured him up the river..." (Chapter 20)

The Duke and the King decide to sell the Wilkes' slaves, splitting up families in the process, and reap the profits. "So the next day after the funeral...the girls' joy got the first jolt. A couple of nigger-traders come along, and the king sold them niggers...and away they went, the two sons up river to Memphis, and their mother down the river to New Orleans. I thought them poor girls them niggers would break their hearts for grief." (Chapter 27).

Tom's conversation with Aunt Sally Phelps reveals that Tom already knew Jim was freed by Miss Watson, but didn't tell anyone about it so he could have an adventure. He uses Jim and exposes him to danger and suffering just so he can have fun.

"Old Miss Watson died two months ago, and ...she set him free in her will..."

"Then why on earth did you want to set him free seeing he was already free?"

"...Why, I wanted the adventure of it; and I'd's waded neck-deep in blood to -- goodness alive, Aunt Polly!" (Chapter 42)

Why does the speaker want to watch the “woods fill up with snow”?

On the contrary my dear engthcr5 and Tim, I think the answer is somewhat more straight forward and actually rather stark and poignant, hidden within the setting like a great but terrible secret. Yes the coating, edgeless quality of snow is at once soothing, and also very romantic. The narrator is reflecting on the world in flux, for the scene perfectly matches his heart, which is also in flux. He is under pressure, possibly simply the pressure of life. The end of the poem, "promises to keep" etc.. means that life must go on, and whatever pressure the narrator is under, he cannot simply stand by and watch and creep into the woods to be buried with the land while the world moves on. After all when the snow melts the land will return once again. But what he is contemplating is irrevocable. It is a poem about suicide: he is contemplating it and the horse and his promises represent both life's natural urge not to end itself and also the effect of his actions on others - friends and family etc... He realises he has "miles to go before he sleeps" - and in this moment as watches the snow cover the woods he has resolved that it is not his time yet (consider Eliot's Wasteland: "Winter kept us warm, covering earth in forgetful snow"). It is the darkest night and he knows he is alone. The poem has a very private feel, somewhat quasi-rhetorical on the part of the poet. The melancholy and haunting winter scene is an evocation of much earlier romantic poems, and though beautiful does not convey the complexity of the English romantics. A truly measured response might also consider Wordsworth, Keats, et al for top marks!  Milford (a.k.a Milf).

What are the times in "There will Come Soft Rains" and what happens in time?What are the times & explain what happens in the time. In your own...

"There Will Come Soft Rain" begins with a talking clock announcing "seven o'clock, time to get up."  The next time the clock speaks, which is controlled by the house computer, "Seven-nine breakfast time, seven-nine"

"Eight-one, tick-tock, off to school, off to work, run,run.."

The clock continues to announce times and appointments all day long.  It lists birthdays, appointments, meal times, time to clean, when to water the lawn and all of the chores the house is responsible for in notifying the occupants who are no longer there. 

It ends at ten-o'clock when the house dies.  The specifc times in the story are numerous and can be found in the text of the story.

List three things that are forbidden in "By the Waters of Babylon".

Straight from the very first paragraph of the reading it states,

"It is forbidden to go east. It is forbidden to go to any of the Dead Places except to search for metal...It is forbidden to cross the great river and look upon the place that was the Place of the Gods--this is most strictly forbidden.

In The Outsiders, why are Sodapop and Two-Bit thrown in jail after Darry had taught them acrobatics?

Darry taught Sodapop and Two-Bit and the rest of the boys acrobatics when he had taken a class at the Y one summer. He figured it would help them out in rumbles. Well, one day Soda and Two-Bit were flipping down sidewalks and walking on their hands. The basically got arrested for being a menace to society and a public nuisance.

"They were doing mid-air flips down a downtown sidewalk, walking on their hands and otherwise disturbing the public and the police. Leave it to those two to pull something like that."

Why does Heck Tate not want to shoot Tim Johnson in "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

The rabid dog, Tim Johnson, is in the middle of the street directly in front of the Radley house.  He needs to be stopped where he is, or else he might go down a side street where there may be unsuspecting people out.  The shooter must have impeccable aim, however, because if he misses, the bullet will go straight into the Radleys' house, possibly hitting someone inside.  Heck Tate knows that he is not as good a shot as Atticus, so he does not want to take a chance on missing in such a critical situation.  He asks Atticus, whom he knows "was the deadest shot in Maycomb County in his time", to do the job instead.

An extremely humble man who accepts violence only as a last resort, Atticus has not picked up a gun in thirty years.  His children know nothing of his reputation; he has never said a word about it to them.  When Tim Johnson comes staggering up the block, Atticus recognizes the danger and tries to urge Heck Tate, the sheriff, to shoot him quickly, but Heck Tate, in evaluating the situation, concludes that they will only have one chance, and that Atticus is the better man for the job.  At Heck Tate's insistence, Atticus takes the rifle, and with obvious skill fires off one shot.  Apparently, Atticus's ability with the rifle has not diminished over the years, because he hits Time Johnson right above the left eye; the poor dog never even knows what hits him (Chapter 10).

In "Fahrenheit 451" how is Montag going to try and escape?

He goes to Faber's house, and Faber helps out quite a bit.  He tells Montag to head for the river and try to find the tracks; he's heard of people, "old Harvard degrees on the tracks" that are outcasts and have gathered together.  He suggests Montag try to find those people then meet up with him in St. Louis.  Then, there is the problem of the Mechanical Hound, whose sense of smell will track Montag right to Faber's house.  So, Montag tells Faber to

"burn the spread of this bed that I touched.  Burn the chair in the living room...wipe down the furniture with alcohol, wipe the doorknobs...turn the air conditioning on full in all the rooms...turn on your lawn sprinklers as he as they'll go and hose off the sidewalks."

All of this is to try to kill Montag's scent, and keep Faber safe from the hound.   Montag then runs for it.  It's not a very elegant plan, but he doesn't have much time to plan, so he does the best that he can with the time that he has.

In "The Crucible" I need some quotes relating to the prompt "who we are is truly tested when we encounter conflict".

In Act 4 of the play "The Crucible", John Proctor is brought out of jail and pressured into confessing that he was a witch, even though he was not one.  In this situation, John is up against huge conflict; and, he chooses to not confess.  In this test, his true character is revealed to be a man of integrity and grit, and that only came out as he was put into that conflict.  After he tears up his confession, he says,

"You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor."

This quote shows that who he was was truly tested through his conflict; he calls that conflict "magic" that has revealed his "goodness".

Another situation is Rebecca Nurse.  She is made out to be a saintly and kind old lady.  She too is accused of witchcraft.  Imagine being very old and being imprisoned for months, then brought out and pressured to confess to witchcraft.  Under this stressful conflict, her only response to being accused of being a witch is,

"Why, it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself?  I cannot, I cannot."

Under diress, she stays true to that goodness, even when tested under awful circumstances.

One last example is Giles Corey, who in the play is arrested because he won't reveal the name of a man who accused Thomas Putnam of "killing...neighbors for their land."  He is strapped down, and stones are put on his chest.  This is a true test of his character; they add more and more weight each time he denies giving them the name.  Giles reveals his true firey yet honest self when his only response is, "More weight."  Under his test, he is revealed to be a strong man, committed to his convictions.

I hope those help; good luck!

In "Fahrenheit 451", what two observations does Clarisse make about Montag's conversational mannerisms?

The first observation that Clarisse makes about Montag's conversational mannerisms is when they first meet.  Montag begins to laugh when Clarisse asks if firemen didn't used to put out fires.  When Montag laughs at that Clarisse says,
"You laugh when I haven't been funny and you answer right off.  You never stop to think what I've asked you."

The second remark from Clarisse comes the next time the two meet.  They are talking and Clarisse wants to know from Montag how he chose to become a fireman.  She tells him he is not like the other firemen she has met.  She says, "When I talk, you look at me.  When I said something about the moon, you looked at the moon, last night.  The others would never do that."

Clarisse is indicating that she is intrigued by Montag, because he doesn't act like most people who burn books for a living.

How does the author create suspense in "The Monkey's Paw"?

In The Monkey's Paw, the author creates suspense through the mystery surrounding the monkey's paw.  When Sergeant Major Morris visits the Whites, he brings with him the very vague and mysterious story of the monkey's paw.  He tells the Whites that he wants to get rid of it, the Whites are very interested, especially Mr. White.

Sergeant Major Morris goes on to tell the Whites that the monkey's paw, which he produces, and shows them, has the ability to grant three people, three wishes.  And, Sergeant Major Morris was the second owner.

The author never tells us what Sergeant Major Morris wished for, nor does he tell us the first two wishes of the first owner.  We only know that his final wish was for death.

Further in the story, the suspense is built through the unknown quality of how the wishes made on the monkey's paw by Mr. White will be granted.  After the first wish for 200 pounds is granted through the accidental death of Herbert, the White's son, they are well aware of the evil, dark magic that the monkey's paw is capable of, however, they continue to use it.

When Mr. White and Mrs. White are scrambling at the end of the story, he looking for the monkey's paw on the floor, and she dragging a chair to the door to open it to let in whatever is on the other side, should be Herbert raised from the grave.  The suspense is very intense, it is great reading  

In Hamlet, what does Hamlet mean when he says, "I am too much i' the sun"?

Hamlet is being sarcastic in regards to his new relationship with Claudius. Two months ago, Claudius was his uncle, now he is Hamlet's step-father. That is kind of mind-boggling and gross to us, and it undoubtedly is to Hamlet as well.  His first line, an aside, is "a little more than kin and less than kind." He is specifically talking about this change in their relationship.  When he says he is "too much in the sun" of course he is punning sun/son. He is saying he is too much a son now that Claudius has married his mother so soon after the death of his father. In several lines in this scene, Claudius calls Hamlet his son, which only serves to highlight Hamlet's attitude about all of this.  Throughout the play, Hamlet feels dirtied by the corruption of Denmark -- a theme that starts with his first lines.

Why is it important that it is Simon who discovers the truth about the beast: that it was harmless, but horrible?

Simon serves as a religious figure in the novel. Therefore, he often uncovers amoral behavior and criticizes it through either internal dialogue or with other characters. The beast was harmless because it did not exist. However, Jack was able to make the threat of the beast real and thus enforce his ruling policies based on a fake threat. We see some of this behavior with leaders in power today. Citing a threat to the general public and leading them to beleive a threat is real allows for public approval of policies that remedy the threat.

Also consider Simon's death. The boys believed that Simon was the beast just before killing him. The boys' first instinct was to kill instead of find out if the "image" moving in the darkness was actually a beast and not another person.

Moving to kill first and ask questions later was a profound symbol of the boys' decent to savagery. In addition, it is said that a lot can be told of a society in the way a death is mourned and a funeral respected. The boys, however, simply allow Simon's body to float out to sea.

For the first time in Lord of the Flies, Ralph knows fear, recognizing that the savagery of the boys has arisen to dominate their actions.

It is more than a little difficult to figure out what you are asking, but this point in the book comes as Ralph starts to see how the boys are changing and how they are drawn to Jack's "tribe" as they get to act out the savage tendencies within them.  His fear is mainly that of the loss of control and the sense that somehow he has to hold things together so that they can be rescued, so that if adults were to come to the island they could be proud of the boys.

Of course, as time goes on, the fear comes to completely dominate the boys and drives them to further and further depravity, particularly in the case of Roger.

What is the summary of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 35"?

A summary of "Sonnet 35" must first focus on its intention expressed in lines 1 and 5: Be no longer "grieved" and everyone makes "faults." The poetic speaker's attempt to persuade the recipient to this intention is summed up in the sestet (9-14) but mostly in the ending couplet (13, 14) where he claims that he himself is an "accessary" to the recipient's fault, thereby (1) making himself equally guilty and (2) removing the recipient's guilt.

In the first quatrain of the octave (1-4), the speaker gives the reasons that the transgressor (the recipient of the sonnet) should not be grieved: everything in nature has beauty and faults too. The second quatrain (5-8) is built upon plays on words. He uses a complex string of word play to say that while all "men make faults," he also commits a fault (1) by excusing the other's error through a comparison to the duality of beautiful nature that has thorns as well a blossoms and (2) thereby causing himself to have a fault because (3) to thus forgive the other's fault is to (4) make that fault larger than it actually was; thus he ironically sins against the sinner.

The sestet brings in another string of word play beginning with "sensual" and "sense" wherein "sensual" refers to physical love (most likely withheld) and "sense" is rational reasoning. He says that by bringing reason to their quarrel, he (1) ceases being the other's adversary (the one wronged) and becomes the advocate (the defending lawyer) who, in a legal allusion, (2) files a complaint against himself (as the adversary), thus (3) causing a "civil war" of "love and hate" (he is the one wronged and he is the advocate of the other's innocence both at the same time) and in thus accusing himself before the court, which is being alluded to, makes himself an accessory to the wrong committed against himself: an "accessary" "To that sweet thief which sourly robs [love] from me."

How does connotation work to develop the theme in "After great pain, a formal feeling comes--"?

Denotation is the exact meaning of a word; connotation refers to the meanings/temperatures of the word ... what it says or suggest over and above the meaning.

In this poem, almost all of the images connote the reaction of pain as being a hardening, a stiffening, a formality in dealing with whatever realities that follow.  Consider these images:  ceremonious, tombs, wooden, quartz, stone, lead and freezing. In describing how one draws back in reaction to great pain, Dickinson selects images that all suggest a hardening, building a shell.  She mentions the word "tombs" in the beginning of the poem, and comes around to freezing to death at the end.  As we freeze, we "harden," but it happens slowly, not immediately.  But the end results is the final hardening, rigor mortis. 

All of this is done through the common connotation of these words, not through their denotation.

Explain Hamlet's state of mind. Consider the following quote:"o that this too solid flesh would melt thaw and resolve itself into a dew"

Hamlet is talking about the unbearable nature of existence and the feeling of being trapped in a imperfect, physical body (in an imperfect physical world) 

He wants to escape his body and the dirty, bloody mess of life. So he wishes that his body would melt and thaw like ice and become pure and clean like fresh morning dew.

There is an on-going argument about the text for this quote. Some early versions of Hamlet are,

"O that this too too sullied flesh would melt"

and some are

"O that this too too solid flesh would melt"

('sullied' means dirty and corrupt.) Either way, Hamlet wants to leave the dirty physical world and become pure spirit.

Who is Marley in A Christmas Carol?

Marley, Scrooge's former partner, is the instrument of Scrooge's redemption.

Jacob Marley has died deep in the sin of indifference to the needs of others. It is a fate that is illustrated as one of aimless wandering, heavily burdened with the chains "he forged in life, link by link" through his callous, stingy, materialistic behavior.  

Marley plays a central role in convincing Scrooge that he must change his life or face an eternity of suffering.  It is Marley who visits Scrooge as a ghost and acts as his conscience, reminding him of all the indifference they, as business partners, showed in their efforts to grow wealthy.

Marley must convince Scrooge that there are consequences to his behavior.  He tells Scrooge to expect three spirits.  

Why is Jordan Baker again described as looking contemptuous in The Great Gatsby?

Jordan Baker is one of the more complex characters in this novel, and it's not clear that Nick ever fully understands her. I would argue that she uses her scorn as a defensive mechanism to keep people and their messy emotions at bay. For instance, when Nick attends one of Gatsby's parties for the first time, he starts to get "roaring drunk," then runs into Jordan. She looks "with contemptuous interest down into the garden" as a way to distance herself from Nick's "loud" behavior, though she does let him join her. It's her compassion in taking the drunk Nick on at the party that we must note, as we note that she helps Daisy pull herself together when she gets drunk on her wedding night. 

But while Jordan helps people, she also tries to distance herself from their messy emotions. When Gatsby and Tom are quarreling over Daisy in the Plaza, Jordan first tries, with Nick, to leave, then withdraws emotionally, seemingly balancing "an invisible but absorbing object on the tip of her chin."

At one point, Nick attempts to analyze her and says her "bored, haughty face ... concealed something." He sees her as an expert in "subterfuges" who began while young to keep her "cool, insolent smile turned to the world and yet satisfy the demands of her hard, jaunty body."

Nick may misread the reasons for her concealment, but he does perceive that she projects a protective facade and that a contemptuous look is part of this. That Jordan is not simply hard also comes out at the end of the novel, when she runs into Nick and tells him that although she had thought he was careful and honest, he's not. She cares that he broke up with her over the phone, a cold thing to do. Despite her facade, it's clear he disappointed her.

What is the central/primary purpose of "The Catcher in the Rye"?Is the purpose important or meaningful?

"The Catcher in the Rye" is a coming of age story.  It involves understanding the main character, Holden Caulfield's anxiety at becoming a young adult.  Holden is challenged by the responsibility and requirements of a young adulthood, rejecting them time and again.  He repeatedly fails out of school, won't apply himself and is emotionally isolated from his family and his peers.

Holden's story is a typical teenage story of the fear that dominates the mid to upper teen years, when young people are on the verge of adulthood, but still have one foot in childhood.  For Holden, he does not want to fully step into adulthood, he struggles to find a way to make his way back into childhood, resisting growing up, as if it were possible to stop the process . 

The book's title is a affirmation of Holden's dream job.  He wants to be a "catcher in the rye," literally interpreted to mean standing at the edge of a field of rye where children play and stopping them from falling over the cliff out of the rye.  Symbolically meaning, preventing children from losing the innocence that dominates childhood, keeping children safe from the phoniness of adulthood that Holden fears.

Holden's journey in the book leads him to a nervous breakdown, the physical and emotional exhaustion he experiences as a result of emotional confusion, his unwillingness to accept the inevitable, and suppressed grief over the death of his younger brother, Allie.

What is the area in square feet from a radius of 70 feet?what is the formula

The formula for the area of a circle is

π  times  radius ^ 2

You can use 3.14 for the value of Pi (π)

So, in your case the calculation is:

3.14 x 70 x 70 = 15,386

Since your radius was measured in feet, the answer is in square feet.

15, 386 sq. ft.

What is the measure of an average kinetic energy?

Kinetic Energy is the energy of motion.  Another kind of energy, Potential, or Static Energy,  is the energy of position. Both energies are understood to refer to force acting upon matter. Together, these energies add up to a system's total energy, or

E(total) = E(potential) + E(kinetic)

Potential and Kinetic are convertible, one to the other. If you consider the system of a book on a library floor, it has no Potential (it's already on the floor and can't go anywhere else) and no Kinetic (it's not moving.)  However, picking it up and placing it on the library counter imparts Kinetic energy (motion) to the book, and causes the book-floor system to increase in Potential energy, since the book now has the potential to fall to the floor when subjected to the force of gravity, and exhibit Kinetic energy in falling. Both energies, Potential and Kinetic, are further increased if you move the book to the top library shelf; once there, there is no Kinetic, (it's not moving again) and all the energy is Potential.  Kinetic energy can be defined in terms of mass (m) and velocity (v) of an object in the form E(kinetic) = 1/2 mv^2.

 In the small scale world, the average kinetic energy is a statistical measurement of a large # of particle's energy content, expressed in absolute temperature (degrees kelvin).  Absolute Zero (0 deg. kelvin)  occurs when no kinetic energy exists.

 Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., vol.9  pg. 399.

In "The Crucible", why do you think Danforth and Paris are so reluctant to believe Mary Warren?

After Mary Warren is asked to pretend to faint in court to prove that she was also faking this when she originally testified in court, and she cannot, Danforth and Parris are convinced that she is being coerced into telling this "new truth" to the court by John Proctor. 

Danforth and Parris are reluctant to believe Mary Warren because they are suspicious of her motives for suddenly coming into the court to tell the supposed truth.

Danforth and Parris suspect that because Elizabeth Proctor has been arrested, that Mary Warren is there because John Proctor has forced her into it.  They believe that Proctor has brought Mary Warren to court against her will and is pushing her to tell the court that the girls are making up the story about witchcraft to save his wife's life.

Afterall, the poppet at the heart of the arrest of Elizabeth Proctor was given to her by Mary Warren.  So, if Mary Warren really put the needle in the doll's belly, then Elizabeth is innocent.  It seems too convenient that Mary Warren would confess that the girls are all faking at this moment when Elizabeth has been accused of witchcraft by way of the poppet against Abigail Williams.

Danforth and Parris are suspicious and they push Mary Warren, reminding her that she will hang if she lied to the court before, she breaks down and takes back her new truth and turns on John Proctor, accusing him of forcing and threatening her and she accuses him of cavorting with the devil.

How are family relationships portrayed in "Pride and Prejudice"?

There are many different families, all with different dynamics.  Consider Darcy and his sister.  He has an extremely fond devotion towards her, is good friends with her (as it is alluded to the fact that he told her about Elizabeth), and she reciprocates those feelings.  Then there is the infamous Mr. Wickham, who, though growing up like a brother to Darcy, earned Darcy's disrespect forever through bad actions.  Darcy's father seemed a kind man that was fond of all of his children, and Wickham seems to have manipulated that relationship a bit, or at least taken it for granted.

The Bennett family is more dynamic; Liz and Jane are very close together, but Liz doesn't share that same bond with her other sisters.  In fact, she is aware of her other sisters' lack of social tact, and finds them embarrassing.  She holds an interesting relationship with her high-strung mother.  She tolerates and helps her, without endorsing her sometimes erratic behaviors and beliefs.  She seems to be close to her dad; he is fond of her and she of him.  She turns to him for help when Collins proposes, and  he supports her. 

The other families in the book play such minor roles; extended family offers a good vacation for the girls here and there, and are good for favors or mentions every once in a while.  All in all, the relationships are diverse, from disdain to fond affection. 

What do these lines mean: "I kept the first for another day! yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."

These lines from the third stanza of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" follow the lines in which the speaker says that he chooses a path that is just "as fair" as another road; a path that is attractive because it shows no indication of people having traveled it.  As he chooses the one path, the speaker reflects that he thinks that he can come back to the other one at another time:  "Oh, I kept the first for another day!"

However, the speaker realizes that once a person chooses a course of action, there are subsequent actions that one  takes, so "way leads on to way," and one is drawn further from the crossroad from where one starts.  Therefore, it is doubtful, if not impossible, that one can return to the original starting point; that opportunity is lost.

Another explanation of the "first for another day" not being returned to is in Thomas Wolfe's novel, "You Can't Go Home Again."  In this novel the main character reflects that once a person has moved away from home and had different experiences from those of his childhood, he "cannot go home again," he cannot return to the innocence or naivete of his youth, he can no longer be the person that he once was.  To paraphrase the rock singer, Bob Seger's words, he is unable to "not know now what he did not know then."  Therefore, the can never save "the first for another day" for the timeliness of this path/choice is gone.

In Frost's poem there seems to be a tone of regret over not taking the first path which may have been one of obligation:  "I shall be telling this with a sigh" and this decision "has made all the difference."

How is the theme of death used in the Wife of Bath's tale?

In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” there is a recurrent theme of death as the ultimate punishment.  An interesting first example is the Wife of Bath’s loaded revelation about the death of fairies.  Fairies, she says, were killed by the friars who used their blessings to purge the world of fairies because fairies were not religious.  Most of the examples, however, involve the main character of the knight.  The king threatens the knight with death as the ultimate punishment for raping a young maiden.  The queen agrees, but only if the knight fails to answer her question.  Finally, the old woman rewards the knight with beauty and faithfulness, threatening herself with death by suicide if she does not remain true and, more importantly, threatening death to any man who doesn’t give his wife sovereignty. 

How can I compare and contrast the story "A Rose for Emily" by Faulkner and "A Good Man is Hard to find" by O' Connor?I do not know what to write a...

Similarities:  They are both rather horrific; one tale is about a woman who murders her love interest and sleeps next to his rotting corpse, and the other is about a family and grandmother brutally murdered in cold blood.  So, they have that horrific element, a "shock" factor, especially in the endings. They are also both insights into families in the old south, and the older class system of wealth and nobility. Both the grandmother and the family that Emily came from have very strict notions about the "upper class" society, and what is decent behavior.  They are both rather snobbish, prejudiced, and hold to outdated customs that are not current in today's changing times.  Another similarity in the stories is the unknown factor that changes everything.  In "A Rose for Emily" it is Homer Barron; for the first time, Emily has a love interest that she is free to choose.  The second they start being seen together, things change.  She flies in the face of tradition, and then in the face of decency and morality as she is about to lose him.  In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" things change when the Misfit and his gang come onto the scene.  All of a sudden all of the beliefs and prejudices of the grandmother don't matter anymore; she is up against a force that will change things irrevocably.

Contrasts:  In Emily's situation, only one man's life is taken, in the grandmother's her entire family is wiped out.  Emily is the "murderer" in one, in a subtle and psychologically understandable way; the Misfit is an out-right, merciless and senseless killer.  The settings differ; Emily's story is all in one house, and the grandmother's span a state, and end in a foreign place to her.  At the end of O' Connor's story there is a message of redemption as the grandmother has a vision of sorts before she dies, where she realizes that we are all connected, equal, and loved in God's eyes.  But there is no message of redemption in Emily's tale; just pity, repugnance, and distaste for the situation.

Those are just a few ideas to get you started; if you mention them, along with some ideas of your own, and use quotes from the stories to back them up, I think that you should be able to whip out 5 pages no problem!  Good luck!

What are some examples of rising actions in "Twilight?"

The best example of rising action in "Twilight" is when the Cullen family is playing "Vampire Baseball with Bella as an observer. During the game they are approached by a group of rogue vampires, James, Victoria and Laurent. James "smells" Bella the action takes off, and the story hits the ground running. James tries to track  Bella while the Cullen family tries to protect her. This eventually leads to a huge climax and many things come to a head at the end of the book.

What is the resolution in Julius Caesar?

The resolution is a little unsettling, since so many of the characters have died by the end of the play.  Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius are all dead, and many more have died in the battles that ensued after Caesar's murder.

The resolution, though, comes in the idea that hope, and Rome, will live on.  Octavius and Antony are left to lead Rome into the future, and the reader can hope that they will have learned from the preceding events and carry that knowledge on with them.

Please list the three types of rumours in Chapter 7 of "Animal Farm."

1. The rumours spread by the humans: They spread the rumour that the animals were dying of famine and disease and that "the animals were continually fighting among themselves and had  resorted to cannibalism and infanticide."

2. The rumours spread by Napoleon to counteract the rumours spread by the humans: During Mr. Whymper's weekly visits some of the animals, especially the sheep, were instructed by Napoleon to remark casually and spread the rumour that their rations had been increased. Mr. Whymper was deceived and he "continued to report to the outside world that there was no food shortage on Animal Farm."

3. The rumours concerning Snowball: It was rumoured that "he was hiding in one of the neighbouring farms, either Foxwood or Pinchfield" and that he was the cause for anything untoward that hapened on Animal Farm: "whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Sowball."

Why is Nick an outsider in The Great Gatsby?

Nick is definitely an outsider.  This is important to the reader so that we can see the different personalities and traits of the West Egg people, the East Egg people, and even the Valley of Ashes people. Not only is his cottage not a mansion, nor is it slovenly, it just doesn't fit in anywhere.  His way of thinking is so very different from all of them.  The character who thinks most in line with Nick would be Jay Gatsby.  Jay doesn't use people.  In fact, he lets them use him.  All he wants is for Daisy to show up one night so that he can see her again and win her back.

People like Daisy and Tom use others and then throw them away when they're done with them. We wouldn't see it quite that way if Nick wasn't the narrator.  As for the party, Nick never goes until he gets an invitation.  All the other people who flock to his house and drink and eat his drinks and food appear without invitations.  Finally, Jay sends a messenger over with an official invitation.  So Nick does eventually go, but he went about "participating" in the correct and proper way.

In Great Expectations, what do we learn about Pip's personality from his conversation with Miss Havisham and Estella?

Pip first meets Miss Havisham and Estella in Chapter 8, when Pumblechook, after bullying Pip with mental arithmetic questions, takes him to the door, and Estella takes him into Satis House. From his first entrance to Satis House, Pip is easily cowed and very conscious of his position. When Estella comments to Pip about the beer, he responds "in a shy way", and he is diffident and respectful towards her. Estella´s demeanour and pride makes him accept her calling him "boy":

Though she called me "boy" so often, and with a carelessness that was far from complimentary, she was of about my own age. She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl, and beautiful and self-possessed; and she was as scornful of me as if she had been one-and-twenty, and a queen.

Pip is already accepting the position that others are putting him into - as being low-bred, ignorant and servile. This is an impression that is strengthened throughout the passage, as Estella continues to delight in mocking him:

"He calls the knaves jacks, this boy!" said Estella, with disdain, before our first game was out. "And what coarse hands he has! And what thick boots!"

I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before, but I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious, and I caught it.

This meeting thus marks the entrance of the themes of social class, ambition, and advancement. Note how Pip has been encouraged by Pumplechook and Mrs. Joe to believe that Miss Havisham intends to raise him into wealth and high society. His attraction towards Estella combined with the mystery of Miss Havisham and Satis House evoke within Pip a class consciousness that dogs him for the rest of the novel, and we also see that Pip, overawed by Estella and the house, is all too ready to believe and accept Estella´s criticism of him.

In "To Kill a Mockingbird", what is the parellism in Chapter 9 (end) and Chapter 10 about disease? "had" disease?? If you don't get it, please...

Atticus is talking to Jack and says, "I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb's usual disease." The clue to this passage is in the next sentence. "Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand.." This is discussing the theme of prejudice and dislike for people that are not like you. It is discussing the lack of tolerance and acceptance of people who are different. The parallelism comes into chapter 10 when Scout talks about how Atticus is "older" than the other fathers.  How she and Jem don't "fit in" with the other children because of the differences of their family to the other children's families. Differences are not tolerated in Maycomb on any level and it doesn't matter if it is rich to poor, black to white, two parents or a single parent household. 

In "The Necklace," what does Madame Loisel's last conversation with her friend reveal about her character? At the end Madame Loisel says that she...

Madame Loisel, from the beginning of the story is a shallow individual who does not have a clear perception about the meaning of life.  She puts so much emphasis on material wealth and how it can divide people, that she never communicates the loss of the necklace to Madame Forrester. 

She assumes that she will be rejected by this woman who has more money and position than her.  She fears Madame Forrester's reaction to the loss of the necklace, she feels terrible shame at having lost it.   

Instead of confronting the problem of the lost necklace honestly and openly with Madame Forrester, Madame Loisel and her poor husband struggle and suffer to replace the necklace, become enslaved by a loan that is difficult and nearly impossible to pay back.

If she still blames the woman for her ten years of hard work, it is because she was intimated by her social status, believing that rich people are better people than poor people or working people.

Madame Loisel may be jealous of Madame Forrester even at the end of the story, because by then she has also lost her physical beauty and delicate appearance to the harsh reality of years of back breaking labor.  In an effort to be honest and upstanding, trying to replace the necklace, Madame Loisel only proves how silly and shallow she really is, sacrificing her life for nothing.

Jack says that sometimes he feels like he is being hunted when he is alone in the forest. Why does he feel this way?This is in Chapter 3 of 'Lord...

Jack feels the urge to stalk and hunt so strongly that it is visceral,  much like a hunger in his gut. It would be logical that by the process of projection, he would assume other people felt the same way as himself.

Remember also that the jungle is personified up to a point, beckoning the boys to explore its interior (and their "interior" as well!) This is no simple game of tag or hide-and-seek but is a true test of survival of the fittest. Jack, too, feels vulnerable as he pushes his skills to the limit.

(Remember that Jack is just a "virtual" character and not a real person who exists outside of whatever the writer shows. We cannot know more than what is stated or implied about him.)

In Stargirl, for what three things is Hillari Kimble famous?

The reader discovers in chapter 4 of "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli that Hillari Kimble was famous for "her mouth, The Hoax, and Wayne Par."  (pg 19)  Hillari had a big mouth and didn't mind using it for gossip and rumors.  The Hoax was when she tried out to be a cheerleader, but when she was selected she turned it down and said "she just wanted to prove she could do it."  The third thing she was famous for was Wayne Parr being her boyfriend.  As we learn in the book the important thing about Wayne was that he was really not that special.  He didn't talk much because with a girlfriend like Hillari you didn't have to.  He wasn't into sports, or anything else.  He just came to school and really didn't care.

How did Montresor NOT get his revenge in "The Cask Of Amontillado"?

Because of the voice of the narrator--erratic, obsessed--the reader must wonder when Fortunato does not question the reason for Montesor's behavior if, indeed, Fortunato has really insulted Montesor.  For, the opening lines are as ambiguous at the end of Poe's story as they are in the beginning. Has Fortunato really dealt Montesor a "thousand injuries" and has he "ventured upon insult" on Montesor, afterall?

Throughout the story does not Fortunato stand "bewildered" and "recoiled" from hints that Montesor ironically puts out for the connosieur?  If Fortunato were the man to insult and injure so many times a man of Montesor's intrique, would he not have to be much more clever than he appears throughout the narrative even if he is inebriated? 

In "The Crucible" how does Parris exhibit self-centeredness when he relates Abigail's disappearance to Hathorne and Danforth?

Parris has a couple selfish concerns about Abby's disappearance.  The first is money.  Abby broke into his strongbox and stole 31 pounds.  Parris' reaction to this: "I am penniless," and then Miller adds in the stage directions:  "He covers his face and sobs."  Parris doesn't weep when any one of his beloved congregation were supposedly in cahoots with Satah himself, or when people are hanged, or when his niece runs away.  But he sure weeps when his money is pilfered.  The second demonstration of selfishness is that he is worried that the people of Salem will rebel against him, and call him out for his role in the accusations. He fears Abby knew there was a rebellion is afoot, which is why she left.  And never mind that people would be saved from hanging if there were a rebellion, Parris fears that "there is danger for me.  I dare not step outside at night!"  So, his precious money and safety are threatened when Abby bails, and Parris comes whining to the judges, trying to find any way to protect himself.

What is the main lesson of "The Interlopers"?

Saki's "The Interlopers" is a wonderful short story that shows the reader how detrimental a long standing grudge can be.  The story deals with an argument that begins over a piece of land and over the years grows into personal grudges that pits one family against another.  It is a story of how these two families can affect their whole community and what the consequences of these grudges can do to people on a personal level.  In Ulrich and Georg's situation it eventually comes down to death because they are so hateful toward one another.

When they finally decide to lay the grudges down and decide to become allies they become trapped and it is too late to change the situation.

Saki uses these men to show how bad long term hatred can be on individuals, families, and communities.

In "My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close", how does Dickinson describe the two events that befell her?

In the first line of the poem, Dickinson says, "My life closed twice before its close -"  These were 2 events that were so dramatic and overwhelming, that she is comparing them to death, to her life actually shutting down, and closing.  These events could have been the death of a loved one, or another extreme form of disappointment or trial. 

She goes on to say that these events were "So huge, so hopeless to conceive".  She is anxious of another event that would be so hugely difficult, and concludes that "Parting is all we know of heaven./And all we need of hell."  These events were so awful, the "partings" that she had to take (of a loved one, of hope, of her previous perceptions, whatever it might have been) that she calls them "hell".  She also calls them "heaven" because in death, that is the closest mankind comes to heaven.  As usual, Dickinson's words are few but packed with meaning.

When sodium combines with water to produce sodium hydroxide and hydrogen gas, what is the balanced equation?

All you need to do is to break down the problem one by one, this will help you a lot.

sodium = Na

combines= +

with water = H2O OR H+OH-

to produce = --->

sodium = Na

hydroxide = OH

hydrogen gas = H(g)

Na + H+OH- ---> NaOH + H2(g)

now all you balance out the equation: 

2Na + 2H+OH- ---> 2NaOH + H2(g)

What is the difference between slavery in the United States and slavery in Mesopotamia?For instance, if slavery in Mesopotamia began in 1980...

Slavery, in ancient times, was part of human history because slaveowners wanted to advance themselves as much as possible without doing all the hard or dirty work.  Mesopotamian slaves were captives, war survivors, or even criminals, who, though enslaved, could fulfill their designated duties to their master in the hope of one day gaining freedom.  Most importantly, Mesopotamian slaves were not the slaves of exclusively one race or culture.  A Mesopotamian slave could gain their freedom and possibly return to their homeland without having to bear the stigma of being forever identified as a slave because of race.

The foundations of early slavery in the United States of America rested primarily on the assignment of Black Africans and their descendants to the role of the enslaved.  Post-Revolutionary American history gave rise to philosophical thinkers such as de Tocqueville, who observed that Blacks, by their skin color, would remain relegated to the class of slaves.  The evidence of de Tocqueville's revelations have revered itself all throughout American history, up until a point in time today, where the election of a Black man to the White House was declared on the cover of the New York Times as  "Obama: Racial Barrier Falls in Decisive Victory".

I just dont understand the irony in "The Moths". Can you help me understand the irony in this story?

This story by Helena Maria Viramontes begins with the main character, a 14 year-old girl stating, "Abuelita requested my help.  and it seemed only fair.  Abuelita (grandmother) had pulled me through the rages of scarlet fever by placing and removing, and replacing potato slices on the temples of my forehead; she had seen me through several whippings, an arm broke by a dare-jump off Tio Enrique's tool shed, puberty, and my first lie."

The first irony is that the narrator's grandmother protected her, nursed her back to health, and loved her, but she could do little to save her grandmother from dying of cancer.

Another irony is when the narrator goes to church and says that she doesn't like to go because she feels "alone."  Yet when she is at her grandmother's house she feels safe, loved, and protected.  She says "this is the way God is supposed to feel.'

What is the plot of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"?

Honestly, I would say that this question doesn't really apply. By that I mean, the story is so brief, and depends so heavily on mood, that I would argue it doesn't have a fully developed plot in the sense of one event leading causally to another. In fact, the plotlessness fits with the story's themes. Look at the lines late in the story where one man is thinking on the nothingness of life: "… Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada…"

Nada = nothing, which means, also, no plot.

Alright, So I need to find 3 epithets in "The Odyssey" Book IX. Can someone please help me?I'm having a really hard time understanding what an...

According to the Webster Dictionary and epithet is: “a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing; b: a disparaging or abusive word or phrase There are epithets that Homer used on the basis of how many syllables he needs for the meter Some examples  from book nine are:

“Soon as Aurora, daughter of the dawn,"

“From Maron, offspring of Evanthes, priest"

“My vessel, Neptune, Shaker of the shores,
At yonder utmost promontory dash’d
In pieces, hurling her against the rocks
With winds that blew right thither from the sea,
And I, with these alone, escaped alive.”

I hope this helps.

Please explain the irony of Scout's statement about the "pink penitentary" in Chapter 14 of "To Kill a Mockingbird." “I felt the starched walls...

The lines before your quotation say,

"You've got to do something about her," Aunty was saying. "You've let things go on too long, Atticus, too long."
"I don't see any harm in letting her go out there. Cal'd look after her there as well as she does here."
Who was the "her" they were talking about?

The irony is that Scout assumes Atticus and Aunt Alexandra are talking about her. She is so frightened that things will change she wants to run away. However, the subject of the conversation is Calpurnia. Aunt Alexandra wants Atticus to fire Calpurnia but Atticus refuses.

What kind of irony is present in "The Necklace" and what is its role?

The most important example of irony is that Mathilde had spent years of hard work to make up for the money it cost her to replace her debt (for buying a diamond necklace) when in fact the necklace she borrowed and lost was a fake necklace. 

In the beginning of the story, Mathilde refused to go to a party because she didn't have anything to wear, let alone any jewelry to accent it with.  After she borrows the necklace, she loses it somewhere on her way home from the party.  Had she told the truth, Mathilde would have found out that the necklace was not genuine.  Instead, she went out and bought a real diamond necklace to replace the one she borrowed.

Another example of irony is that Madame Forestier didn't even look at the necklace that was returned after Mathilde borrowed it.  Mathilde was worried that if she looked at it, she would see that it wasn't the exact same necklace.  The irony here is that if she DID look at it, she would have seen that it was a genuine necklace, not the fake one she owned.  All would have been resolved at this point instead of years later after the "social climbing" Mathilde dropped her status by having to do hard labor.

What does the following quote from "Macbeth" mean? "That I may pour my spirits in thine ear."

Act I sc5. opens with Lady Macbeth reading Macbeth's letter in which he conveys to her the predictions of the witches and how one of their  predictions, that he shall become the Thane of Cawdor, has come true. She next reads what he has written about the important prediction concerning how he will become the king of Scotland. Macbeth has innocently shared this news with his "dearest partner of greatness" merely to cheer her up and encourage her. 

But lady Macbeth  reveals to us that although her husband is an ambitious man he will not use any "foul" means to achieve his ambition. He is, as she rightly remarks, "too full o' the milk of human kindness" to take any short cuts to achieve his aim.

Macbeth can never ever hope to become the King of Scotland because Duncan has two sons, either of whom will become King after his death.  Lady Macbeth clearly understands her husband's dilemma: 'how am I to legally acquire something which I am not legally entitled to?--"wouldst not play false/And yet wouldst wrongly win."

She remarks, that she will solve his dilemma by poisoning his mind with her evil plan of murdering Duncan. Unlike her husband she is made of sterner stuff and has no moral scruples because she is evil to the core and decides to convince her husband to murder the king.

What does the Nurse give to Romeo in Act III, Scene 3 of "Romeo and Juliet"?

The Nurse gives Romeo a ring from his fair Juliet in Act 3, Scene 3.  The meat of the scene contains Friar Laurence, Romeo, and the Nurse contemplating Romeo's banishment from Verona after slaying Tybalt, but it ends with hope of Romeo and Juliet being reunited.  The Nurse is just about to leave in order to let Juliet know that Romeo is going to visit her secretly; however, right before she exits, she says, "Here sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir.  Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late."  Romeo's response is, "How well my comfort is revived by this!"  Romeo, then, prepares for his secret visit with Juliet, the reader can assume, while he is wearing his precious ring.

In "The Cask of Amontillado", what is the significance of Montressor's family coat of arms and motto?

Montresor has not been telling Fortunato the truth since he encountered him on the streets and told him he had just bought a cask of Amontillado at a bargain price. Why should the reader believe that the coat of arms Montresor describes to Fortunato is genuine? Why should the reader believe that the motto Montresor describes is genuine? Montresor may enjoy deceiving Fortunato and at the same time hinting that he is going to murder him in revenge for past injuries. Montresor quotes the motto in Latin. Fortunato probably does not even understand Latin. Evidently they have known each other for a long time. The fact that Fortunato inquires about Montresor's coat of arms at this late date suggests that he either holds him in low esteem or else that he knows Montresor has no coat of arms and that in either case this is a subtle insult, a social snub. A comparable insult might be for an Englishman to ask an acquaintance, "Did you go to Eton or to Harrow?" when he knows full well the acquaintance went to some obscure school in a poor part of London.

The reader should not take it for granted that Montresor is seeking revenge in part because he comes from a proud and noble family. He may be filled with hatred just because he does not come from a proud and noble family. The fact that he has a palazzo means nothing. Venice is in decline and few people want the expense of maintaining the crumbling palazzi. Montresor could be renting the place just for show. The bones in the catacombs below the mansion may belong to someone else's ancestors, and he may be prevented from removing them by terms of his lease or by local laws or for some other reason.

In As You Like It, describe the theme of town versus country life.

The theme of town life versus country life in As You Like It is first shown in its controversial oppositional form, but the conclusion unifies the opposing forces and puts the two in balance through the changes in Oliver, Duke Frederick.

First, the idyllic pastoral life of the shepherds living in the forest of Arden is painted as one symbolized by communing with the birds in song, as Amiens' song reveals and as Corin's conversations suggest. Yet country life is not without trouble and conflict as seen by Corin's unrequited love for Phebe and Phebe's misguided and shunned love for Ganymede/Rosalind.

The courtly life is represented in keeping with Duke Fredericks' and Oliver's character traits and actions as they betray family members and friends and try to do murder to get their ways. Rosalind is exiled from town because of her openhearted embrace of that which is genuine and sincere. Celia goes with her because she would rather lose everything of material value than lose the values of integrity and sincerity.
In the ending, Oliver falls in love with Aliena/Celia who, like Rosalind, represents purity and sincerity as symbolized by the forest and the pastoral life. Later, Duke Frederick gives up his pursuit of vengeance and retires to a religious life in which Jaques joins him.

These character changes restore the country life exiles to safe lives in town, symbolizing that the villainy of the town life has to yield at some point to higher virtues. The changes also show that it is the nature within the character that creates villainy or goodness whether in town or country. Shakespeare thus has balanced the divisions between town life and country life by showing the villainy or virtue is in essence a problem of human nature, which he suggests, can be changed.

What does, “I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er,” (Macbeth:Act 3) mean?

I think you can puzzle out the meaning if you try to visualize the image Shakespeare is trying to describe.

"I am in blood stepped in so far" -- if you change the word "am" to "have" it will help you to see what he is saying -- I have in blood stepped in so far.

Now take the "in blood" which seems out of place to our modern ears and put it on the other side of "stepped": I have stepped in blood so far . . .

I know you can visualize yourself stepping in blood. But you're probably picturing a smallish puddle of blood, such as would be on the floor after you cut yourself. Or maybe even a bigger puddle resulting from a bigger injury. That's not exactly the image Shakespeare wants you to see.

Look at the next part: "that should I wade no more."  The word wade changes everything. Imagine an amount of blood so copious that you could wade through it.  That's not a puddle; that a river of blood, deep enough to cover your ankles, maybe even your legs.

Imagine wading through that much blood, trying to get to the other side of it. The next line makes you see Macbeth's dilemma as he sees it:

"Returning were as tedious as go o’er"--He could turn around, go back to the bank of that river of blood, but it's too late. He's half way across, so he keeps going. Seeing Macbeth stepping deep into the river of blood that he has himself created, trudging across, getting tired but realizing he can't go back, is to feel the horror and despair that he must feel.

Merely translating Macbeth's words does not get at the horror of his experience in the same way that Shakespeare's image does. That's why, I believe, it's always worthwhile to try to figure out what Shakespeare's trying to get you to see or hear or feel because that imagery is an important part of what Shakespeare's words mean. (3.4.135-7)

I have this problem with special triangles. I have read the lesson over and over again but I still can't seem to grasp it.Here are some sample...

The given quadrilateral  is AECF , as per the measurement,

AE=12, EC=20, given. CF=AE=12 and FA=EC =20

Therefore, the perimeter= AE+EC+CF+FA=12+20+12+20=64 units.

To find coordinates of R:

The coordinates P qnd Q is known. By distance formula find PQ. Since PQ is known right angled triangle PQR, with angles P=30 and Q=90,  QR  must be  half the  PR.

See the Y  coordinates  of  P and Q . They are same. Therefore, PQ ||  to X axis.

Q being a right angle, QR must be || to Y axis . Therefore the the X cordinate of R remains the same as that of Q , Y cordinate of R is either  Y cordinate of Q  + (1/2)PR or Cordinate of Q - (1/2) PR.

How does the oligopoly model differ from other structural models of firms?

An oligopoly is a market structure whereby a few large firms dominate the entire industry. The cereal market is a good example. Kelloggs, Post, General Mills, Quaker are among the few sellers that constitute the entire market. Icons, advertising, free toys inside the boxes are among tactics used to persuade consumers to purchase products.The oligopoly differs considerably from perfect competition because in this type of market structure competing products are virtually the same. The old saying 'an egg is an egg' defines this type of market structure.  There is little the egg market can do to influence the consumer to buy one brand of eggs over another. Monopolistic competition is another type of market system where by there are many sellers and buyers of similar products. In this case a tactic known as product differentiation is used to influence consumers by suggesting one product is better than another. This is primarily accomplished through advertising. A leading example is aspirin, generally speaking the chemical formula for aspirin (not advil or tylenol) is the same. However, consumers believe that 'Bayer' aspirin is better than the generic brand due to product differentiation.

How many sides and angles are on a square, circle, triangle, and rectangle?

 square, circle, triangle, and rectangle

a square has 4 sides that are all equal, and 4 90 degrees angles

a circle, round no angles or sides 360 degrees

triangle - has 3 sides and 3 angles (The name triangle) 180 degrees all together

Rectangle  - 4 sides, each pair equal add up to 360 degrees 

In Ch 20 of To Kill a Mockingbird, how is Atticus' closing statement in defense of Tom Robinson also an attack upon racism?

Atticus tells the men of the jury to do their duty. He knows that they will allow their prejudices speak for them, and they will convict Tom because he is black. His closing paragraph is very powerful. "I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system--that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up. I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty."

That is very powerful.  He is openly explaining what each open-minded man should do without directions.  He shouldn't have to do that.  He is openly attacking racism.

Which organ removes toxins from the blood?This organ is partnered with the urinary tract system.

The liver is the main organ that removes toxins in the blood and can do this in a very specific way.The functions of the liver include

1. detoxify a variety of substances

2.  secrete about a pint of bile a day

3. aid in metabolism of fats, proteins and carbohydtrates

4. Store several substances, iron, for example and vitamins A, B12 and D

The function of the hepatic lobule , one of two in the liver, receives arterial blood form the portal systems that passes through the liver for "inspection". In the lining  there are cells which can remove toxic materials from the bloodstream.  Bile Ducts eventually meet with ducts from the gall bladder which connect to the duodenum  for removal from the body.

What type of writing style does Nicholas Sparks employ in The Wedding?

Sparks' novel features traditional narrative techniques found in many novels. The story is told by a first-person narrator, Wilson Lewis, who relates the events of the story. Sparks employs the narrative technique of flashback in that his narrator tells the story many months after the events. Thus the reader views the events as Wilson experienced them and learns from Wilson's experiences.

The novel develops strong thematic parallels or symbols. The swan, as well as Noah's neglected house and overgrown garden, communicate ideas in the story. The swan is representative of Noah's dead wife Allie and Noah's once beautiful home symbolizes the state of Wilson's marriage to Jane before he resurrects it. The restoration of Noah's home to its former beautiful state parallels the rebirth of Wilson and Jane's relationship.

Sparks' diction is descriptive and evocative. His imagery is rooted in emotion and evokes emotion in the reader. There is nothing cold, objective, cynical, or unfeeling in Sparks' writing.

In All My Sons, why does Sue Bayliss hate the Kellers?

Sue Bayliss, the wife of next door neighbor Jim Bayliss, resides in the house that used to belong to Joe's partner, Steve Deever. She dislikes the Kellers because she thinks Chris really knows his father is guilty and is using his pretended innocence to benefit himself. She thinks Chris is a "phony" and she deeply resents Chris' friendship with her husband. She thinks her husband also really knows the truth about Joe Keller, and cannot understand how her husband can like Joe. 

What is unusual about the appearence of the bearded Elder and what is significant about this characteristic in the book "The Giver"?

The bearded elder, also known as the Giver, has a couple of unique features. First, he does have a beard, which is not a trait we hear about when anyone else is described. In fact, based on what we know of the Ceremonies, children's hair is kept fairly short and uniform in style, so a beard sounds unique. His ability to wear a beard may be an exception allowed by his position of honor in the community, as he is granted several other exceptions as well.

The Giver also has pale blue eyes, as do Jonas and Gabriel. Pale blue eyes seem to portend the ability to see beyond, a characteristic of both Jonas and the Giver. Everyone else in the society is colorless, eyes and hair included, so this trait is unique to only a few, apparently special, people.

By giving Jonas, Gabriel, and the Giver all blue eyes, Lois Lowry helps draw a connection for the reader between each of the "special" members of the community. Although we do not find out until later that Gabe can receive memories, we are not terribly surprised by that point because we know he has blue eyes like Jonas and the Giver, which provides a slight foreshadowing that he, too, will have their same abilities.

Why did Thomas Hardy write the novel, "Tess of The D'urbervilles?"

Thomas Hardy was a popular writer during his era. One reason he wrote “Tess of the D'Urbervilles” was to support himself and his family.  “Tess brought him notoriety—it was considered quite scandalous—and fortune.” Another reason for the novel was to through a light and questions on society's sexual mores by compassionately portraying a heroine, Tess, who is seduced by the son of her employer, Angel, and who thus is not considered a pure and chaste woman by the rest of society.  She was considered “fallen.”  Hardy criticized the social mores of his own late-Victorian era and considered not only the “rights of men, but also the rights of women”  in his criticism of what he saw as stifling aspects of the institution of marriage and conventional views of sexuality,  This novel is often said to be a “bridge” between 19th century and 20th century literature.   Hardy also wrote “Tess” because he found himself often torn between different social spheres with which he could not fully align himself. Tess of the d'Urbervilles reflects that divide.  Hardy was very aware and condemning of the class system in Victorian England.  He tried to voice his dislike for this through his novel.   

What does the spirit show Scrooge when he asks to "see some tenderness connected with a death"?

When Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come for a little tenderness connected with this man's death, he is shown the Cratchit family. There is an emptiness in the family now, a chair in a corner that is empty.  This family is mourning the loss of their child and brother, Tiny Tim.  Bob Cratchit comes home from work.

" 'Yes, my dear,' returned Bob. 'I wish you could have gone. It would have done you good to see how green a place it is. But you'll see it often. I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little child!' cried Bob. 'My little child!'" (Dickens)  

Scrooge is shown the suffering of another, the family of his clerk, Bob Cratchit.  Although this family is suffering with grief, they are still together as a family and have each other for comfort.

In "The Things They Carried", why does O'Brien relate his experience as a pig declotter?

In the section of his book The Things They Carried titled “On the Rainy River,” Tim O’Brien describes the period of his life when he was inducted into the army to fight in war the purpose of which he found uncertain and the shedding of blood within which he found nonsensical.  After this discussion of his political opposition to the war and the somewhat ambivalent approach he had taken to express that opposition, O’Brien pauses to relate the story of when he worked at a meatpacking plant in his hometown in Minnesota.  His job was removing blood clots from the necks of the dead pigs, a position for which he labeled himself “Declotter.”  O’Brien provides a detailed description of the process by which the pigs are slaughtered and gutted as part of the process by which their remains are processed into food for human consumption.  In relating this story of a position he held prior to his induction into the armed forces, O’Brien is drawing a parallel between the slaughterhouse and the slaughter to which he would soon become an integral part: the war in Vietnam.  Describing the sensations that accompanied his work in the meatpacking plant, the author writes the following:

 “At night I'd go home smelling of pig. It wouldn't go away. Even after a hot bath, scrubbing hard, the stink was always there—like old bacon, or sausage, a dense greasy pig-stink that soaked deep into my skin and hair. Among other things, I remember, it was tough getting dates that summer. I felt isolated; I spent a lot of time alone. And there was also that draft notice tucked away in my wallet.”

O’Brien is indicating that he is transitioning from one slaughterhouse to another, and that, just as he could never quite cleanse himself of the stench of the meat plant, he will be unable to ever fully rinse from his body and mind the stench of the bloodletting he will witness in Vietnam.

In "A Christmas Carol", how well does Scrooge live up to his promises?

Very well. The last paragraph of the story outlines his activities after he changes his disposition, becoming a second father to Tiny Tim and a benefactor to the town, and it became said of him "that he know how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge." The Christmas morning after his visits by the spirits, his first act is to reward the boy for his efforts in purchasing the prize turkey, then present the turkey to the Crachit family, then heartily recompense the portly gentlemen who was endeavoring to collect for the poor the day before, dine with his niece and nephew, and endeavor to assist Bob's struggling family.

What are some examples of perception versus reality in Macbeth?

Perception and reality is one of the more seminal themes of Macbeth. The first example of perception and reality is the entire episode with the witches' prophecies. What the witches say and what Macbeth and Banquo construe them to mean are two entirely different things. Macbeth especially "mis-perceives" reality.  The Polanski film version of the play and the witches' prophecies treats reality and perception well--especially with the scene of the refracting mirrors.

Another instance occurs as Macbeth follows the dagger to King Duncan's chambers. In reality there is no dagger, but Macbeth perceives that there is. We know it will turn into a "dagger of the mind."

Another instance is Lady Macbeth's blood stained hands. She wrings and wrings her hand but cannot get the blood off. Yes she is sleepwalking, but it is indicative of her conscience trying to process the bloody deed.

One final example is Banquo's ghost at the Macbeth banquet. In reality there is no ghost, but Macbeth's sick and stained conscience makes him perceive that there is one.

There are a number of different ways you might handle a discussion of reality and perception, I've started you off considering the plot based ones.

Describe the main character of 1984.

Winston Smith is a fictional character and the protagonist of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The character was employed by Orwell as an everyman in the setting of the novel, a "central eye ... [the reader] can readily identify with".[1] Winston Smith works as a clerk in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical documents so they match the constantly changing current party line. This involves revising newspaper articles and doctoring photographs—mostly to remove "unpersons," people who have fallen foul of the party. Because of his proximity to the mechanics of rewriting history, Winston Smith nurses doubts about the Party and its monopoly on truth. Whenever Winston appears in front of a telescreen, he is referred to as "6079 Smith W".

Winston Smith, lured into joining a secret organization whose aim is to undermine the dictatorship of "Big Brother", is actually being set up by O'Brien, a government agent. Captured and tortured, he eventually betrays his accomplice and lover, Julia. His freedom is finally and completely stripped when he accepts the assertion 2 + 2 = 5, a phrase that has entered the lexicon to represent obedience to ideology over rational truth or fact. Winston's death at the hands of the party is not depicted in the conclusion of the novel (aside from the simple statement "the long hoped-for bullet was entering his brain"), but is deeply foreshadowed at the start of the novel.

Orwell conceived of the character sometime around 1945. His first name comes from Winston Churchill and the common surname Smith.[2] He was also partly inspired by the character of Rubashov from Arthur Koestler's novel Darkness at Noon, especially his response and reaction to his interrogation.[3]

The character of Smith has appeared on both television and film in adaptations of the novel. The first actor to play the role was David Niven in an August 27, 1949 radio adaptation for NBC's NBC University Theater. In BBC One's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) Smith was played by Peter Cushing, and in a 1965 BBC adaptation by David Buck. In the 1956 film, Edmond O'Brien performed the role. In a 1965 dramatisation broadcast on BBC Home Service, Patrick Troughton voiced the part. John Hurt played Smith in the 1984 film adaptation, 1984. Coincidentally, Hurt also played a Big Brother-style figure named Adam Sutler in the 2005 film V for Vendetta.