What does this simile mean? "The facts closed in on him like prison-warders handcuffing a convict. There was no way out...."I'm terrible at...

The trick to understanding the simile or metaphor is to visualize it. Place yourself in the convicts shoes for instance. Imagine yourself surrounded by prison wardens, say four to gain a good understanding, and they are all trying to handcuff you. The prison wardens are overpowering and may make you feel suffocated or trapped. Then compare that to facts overwhelming someone as if they were huge wardens with handcuffs, trying to trap you. Get the idea? The handcuffs symbolize constraints on the prisoner as the facts do on the main character. Remember: a simile is a comparison of two unlike things using the words "like" or "as".

How did the congregation of Calpurnia's church sing their hymns without hymn-books?

They had one hymnal. Calpurnia's son, Zeebo (the town trash collector), was taught to read by his mother, and he uses the call and response technique. He'll sing a line or two from the hymnal, and the congregation repeats it. This episode in the novel highlights many important elements, not the least of which is what the children learn about Cal. That her son is literate is important. In addition, they get a first hand sense of the scale of poverty within the town.

In Into the Wild, how is Krakauer's life related to McCandless'?

Krakauer's life and McCandless's life are similar in a few ways. Concretely, there is the similarity that both men decided to venture out, alone, into the wilds of Alaska.  Both men did so at relatively young ages as well.  

Another similarity between Krakauer and McCandless is their relationships with their fathers.  During college, McCandless quickly became disillusioned with his father.  As a result, McCandless began distancing himself from his dad and developed an aversion to his father's financial support.  For example, McCandless ended up donating his remaining college money to a charity.  Krakauer doesn't go into detail about his own father, but he does admit that he feels kinship with McCandless because of their father issue.  

But I believe we were similarly affected by the skewed relationships we had with our fathers. And I suspect we had a similar intensity, a similar heedlessness, a similar agitation of the soul.

A key difference between the two men though is that McCandless, by all accounts, was not likely to ever return to civilization. He was too much of an idealist for it.  Krakauer, on the other hand, is more of a realist. He realized that while he enjoyed his adventures, he ultimately saw them as exactly that -- adventures.  Not a way of life. 

What is the rising and falling action in this short story?

This short story is really all about the conflict between Jing-Mei and her mother. One useful exercise I get my students to do is to trace this conflict throughout the story on a graph with two lines: one representing Jing Mei and the other her mother. The distance or closeness between these two lines indicates the closeness in their relationship.

For me, the rising action begins when Jing Mei's mother comes up with the piano idea. Jing Mei talks about "warning signs" and then regrets defending the Chinese girl her mother is watching playing. After this we can see the conflict escalating between Jing Mei and her mother. Jing Mei feels like she has been "sent to hell" when told about her piano lessons and this leads to an outburst where she demands to be accepted for who she is: "Why don't you like me the way I am? I'm not a genius!" The centre of the conflict is clearly Jing Mei's disastrous performance and the accompanying fall-out with Jing Mei screams that she wishes she was dead like her dead baby brothers and sisters. The falling action therefore is what remains of the story between this point and the end - Jing Mei's gaining of the piano and her final self-acceptance. This period, before the end, Jing Mei describes as follows: "In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own will, my right to fall short of expectations."

Why does Hawthorne choose the forest as the setting for the meeting in "Young Goodman Brown"?Is it a suitable setting?

Nathaniel Hawthorne's setting of the forest is appropriate for the story "Young Goodman Brown" because the forest is where all the "dark, black" events occur, thus where the devil (evil) presides.  The setting provides the perfect backdrop for the main theme of Good vs Evil.  In literature, it is universally known that the forest is where the devil resides.

In addition, Hawthorne's story is an allegory where "symbolic elements...represent various human characteristics and situations" such as the forest being the appropriate place where Goodman Brown challenges his "Faith."  Unfortunately for Brown, his spiritual journey begins in the forest and also ends there.  Upon returning home, Faith greets him with open arms, but Brown "looks sadly and sternly into her face and passes without greeting".  His spiritual journey into the forest has changed him forever in that he realizes that all mankind possesses evil.

Also, Hawthorne uses this setting as a characteristic of the literary movement, Romanticism.  In keeping with the characteristics of romanticism, "its writers emphasized the dignity and freedom of the individual; rebellion against restrictions, whether political, cultural, or social; the importance of emotion over intellect; and the need for a personal relationship with God and the natural world".  All of which the setting in "Young Goodman Brown" provides by having Brown search his spirituality in the "natural world," that being the woods. 

What happens at the end of Hamlet?

A lot of things happen, all in quick succession. Osric brings Hamlet an invitation to fence with Laertes, and Hamlet agrees. The duel will happen before the court and, when it does, everything comes apart. To be specific, Claudius poisons a cup of wine hoping to kill Hamlet that way. However, Queen Gertrude drinks it, accidentally killing herself. Laertes is using a poisoned blade. He wounds Hamlet, then they scuffle and end up swapping swords, and Hamlet wounds him. When Laertes asks forgiveness, pointing blame to Claudius, and Hamlet realizes that he's been betrayed again, Hamlet stabs his uncle with the poisoned blade. By the end of Act V, Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes are all dead; Fortinbras is handed the Crown of Denmark thus according with Hamlet's last request.

In "Ozymandias," what is the thematic significance of the poem? What are its universal connections?

The poem deals with the transitory nature of power. The mighty Ozymandias lived and ruled with great power and cold arrogance. His words to future generations reflected his attitude: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" The "king of kings," however, dies and with the passage of time, his "works" consist of the remains of a shattered statue strewn about on the desert sands. The theme is clear: Powerful rulers and great empires rise, but eventually they fall; they are no match for the ravages of eternity. Considering the history of the world, this is certainly a universal theme.