How can I analyze the use of symbols in "The Garden Party"? What is the way to analyze symbolism?

Analysing symbolism takes a little work and a little digging. First, the definition of a symbolic word, object, statement or concept is that it is one that stands for itself (e.g., a rose is a rose; a budding flower is a budding flower) and for something greater at the same time (e.g., a rose is love; a budding flower is a new and growing understanding or relationship ). With this is mind, notice anything (e.g., word, phrase, image, characteristic, scenes) that seems to have more meaning than others. For example, in a coming-of-age story, if the heroine lives at the top of hill, that may symbolically mean she is remote and isolated. If, on the other hand, she has to climb a steep hill to get to some important destination, that may symbolically mean that she is faced with a difficult and challenging situation to overcome.

Along with that, look for imagery words, like colors, shapes, sounds, smells, textures, etc.. and descriptions that may symbolically represent concepts that are important to the story's meaning, theme, motifs, character development, or plot development. For instance, in "The Garden Party" the colors and light and flowers and food at the Sheridan home stand in stark contrast to the darkness, gloom, flickering candle light of the cottages in the lane. This symbolically represents the very different lives the people therein live, one of sheltered luxury and the other of bleak survival and necessity. This is important to the theme of the story because it is in the bleak surroundings of survival, not the surroundings of pampered luxury and plenty, that Laura encounters immortal peace and happiness.

Also look for significant names of things. For example, in "The Garden Party" the flowers that are ordered and delivered in profuse abundance are not just "flowers," they are "lilies." Lilies are a classic symbol of death, therefore the lilies symbolically represent death that Laura will encounter. This points out another element of how to analyze symbolism in a work of literature. Be aware that some things have a tradition attached to them of a convention of symbolic meaning. For instance, something symbolically associated with a lion in a positive manner is being symbolically represented as mighty, kingly, powerful, majestic, like Aslan the Lion in the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. Red has a convention of being associated with anger or passionate love or of death, as is the case in Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death."

What are the best quotes in the story "The Yellow Wallpaper"?

In order to maintain control over women and to ensure that they remain second-class citizens, men attempted to prevent women from achieving their intellectual and creative potential. Treating women as children, men were able to usurp their human rights and have complete authority over them. John patronizes and dominates over his wife in the same way that many husbands did during this time period. Treating her as though she is an incompetent child, Gilman’s character writes,  “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” She is stripped of all autonomy. With no intellectual or social stimulus, she retreats completely into her own imagination and finally loses touch with reality altogether.

Historically, “the resting cure” was a treatment prescribed at the turn of the nineteenth century to women who had a tendency towards “hysteria”. Developed by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell this treatment essentially imprisoned women, isolating them from any social contacts. Intellectual stimulation, such as reading, writing, drawing or painting was expressly forbidden. “John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.” All activity was limited to the extent that some women were restrained initially until their protests ceased.

Gilman’s character is forced to hide her frustrations and passively comply with her husband’s intolerable “treatment plan”. Her work, her writing, even the care of her own baby, is forbidden. Any sane person placed in this atmosphere eventually would lose their mind. Her desire for an emotional and intellectual connection with life are so compromised that in her isolated state she focuses on the patterns on the yellow wallpaper where she sees all the women struggling to get out. But she knows all too well that any attempt at escaping is futile for “the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down and makes their eyes white.” Finally, she finds herself inside the pattern and “shakes the bars hard.” Inside the wallpaper was the only place she was safe to express her anger, fear, and frustration. This was her only freedom.

Dylan Thomas' poem "Fern Hill" reflects on the joys of childhood. What are the negative aspects of childhood that he touches?

The poem discusses a carefree and joyful childhood, where time doesn't seem to matter, the sun shines, and life is easy. However, the last line states, "Time held me green and dying/though I sang in my chains like the sea." this last stanza discusses the fact that, though the author or speaker had a "carefree" and "heedless" childhood, time eventually runs out. The same concept of time that in stanzas one and two lets the speaker "hail and climb" and "play and be," eventually no longer allows him these freedoms. The comparison of Adam and Eve's fall from the Garden of Eden shows the boy's fall from the paradise of childhood ("before the children green and golden/followed him out of grace...). Time holds him "green and dying" as an adult, yet he still "sang in (his) chains like the sea." It is a beautiful metaphor, although he is chained by life, by only the certain amount of time that is given him, he can still sing in those chains. The knowledge and experience that comes with adulthood teaches us that time is fleeting and ignorance cannot last forever.

In Chapter 3 of "A Separate Peace," state two of Finny's major character traits.

In Chapter 1 Gene explains one character trait of Phineas: 

Phineas...considered authority the necessary evil against which happiness was achieved by reaction, the backboard which returned all the insults he threw at it...[he]combined a calm ignorance of the rules with a winning urge to be good,,,and never more than when he was breaking the regulations..and in the truant's corner.

Somehow Finny is able to disobey without angering the faculty too much.  The faculty "threw up its hands over Phineas" and loosen the grip on all the boys.

There is a carelessness (insouciance) to Finny.  He forms the "Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session," tempting fate as the boys jump off tree limbs into the water; persuasive and influential, he is able to induce Gene to do things that he does not want to do, such as jumping.  Gene reflects, "Every time, when I got myself into position to jump, I felt a flash of disbelief that I was doing anything so perilous."

Phineas perceives sports as the "absolute good."  Phineas declares that when "you play a game you win," never permitting himself to realize that when he and his team win, the others lose.  He creates the game of "blitzball" after Germany's blitzkrieg, the tremendously fast-moving army crushing whomever was in their way.  In blitzball everyone is the enemy to be knocked down.  This game "brought his own athletic gifts to their highest pitch," Gene comments. "Finny sould shine with everyone, he attracted everyone he met." His confidence, athleticism, and leadership in sports have powerful influence on others.

Compare and contrast the setting and irony in O. Henry’s “The Last Leaf” and “Ransom of Red Chief".

Similarities in setting:  They are both set in the past.  And, that's about it. To contrast, Red Chief is set in an old western location and time-frame, mostly in the desert and in a cave, where three males make camp for a few days.  In The Last Leaf, it is in a highly civilized city, in an artist's studio that belongs to two women.  There are more differences in setting than similarities.

As for ironic events, they both have endings that are rather unusual for the situation; in "The Last Leaf" it is that Behrman turned out to be an unlikely hero, tragically sacrificing his life to help Johnsy.  You do not expect that the gruff Behrman, who mocked Johnsy's silly notion about the leaf, would take such pains to validate her fantasy by painting a leaf on.  The ending of Red Chief is ironic in that the ransomers pay to get rid of their troublesome charge; usually, the ransomers walk away with the cash, not the other way around.  So there are a couple instances of irony in the stories.  To contrast the ironic moments in the stories, Red Chief is a lot more predictable as the ransomers slowly, throughout the course of the story, lower the ransom price.  So, having to pay to get rid of him isn't as big of a surprise as the ending to "The Last Leaf".  There isn't much foreshadowing on that ending, and it is definitely more tragic too, and less comical.

What is a summary for the story "A Piece of String"?

M. Hauchecome is on the road to the market one day and picks up a piece of string from the dirt.  As he bends down he notices that his arch enemy M. Malandain is watching him from his shop window, so Hauchecome pretends to be looking for something valuable on the ground to cover up his shame at being seen picking up the piece of string.

When he goes to the local tavern for lunch, everyone is talking about a purse that was lost on the road with 500 francs inside.  Malandain tells the authorities that he saw Hauchecome picking up something from the road at the same time, so he is accused of taking the purse.  Hauchecome pleads with the authorities that he did not find the purse, and he only picked up a piece of string.  No one believes him, even though he does not have the purse.

Shortly after, the purse is returned, and Hauchecome is accused by the townspeople of having had an accomplice who returned the purse to clear his name.

Hauchecome thinks that once the purse is returned that his name will be cleared, however, the townspeople still suspect that he stole the purse and no matter what he says they don't believe him.  This process exhausts him and makes him ill.  To his dying breath, which comes shortly after his ordeal, he utters, it was only a piece of string.

At the end of the story, Hauchecome dies a broken man, exiled by the town because of assumed guilt, even though he is innocent.    

In th book The Giver, why has Asher beeen punished for confusing the words snack and smack?

In the Community of that book, precise word usage is very important.  We see this in the beginning, when Jonas struggles to figure out how he feels about the upcoming ceremony, finally settling on "apprehensive."  Children are taught from an early age to only say things they truly mean.  Asher says he wants a smack, so they smack him; this shows him that he should be careful what he asks for, and to be correct in his pronunciations and word usages. 

Though this example seems a little extreme, especially for a toddler just learning to talk, it illustrates a philosophy of their community.  In another scene, we learn that Jonas was scolded for using the word "starving," when he really just meant "hungry."  The community does not want its citizens to ever think they could starve; they are self-sufficient and so thoroughly organized that starvation has become an impossibility.  But to be reminded of this, children are taught not to use that word.

Later, when Jonas becomes the Receiver, he learns that most of the community misuses words, especially emotional words.  He understands that only he and the Giver have ever felt any real, strong emotions; everyone else has only felt a faint glimmer of that.  Their lives are so sheltered, so orderly, that they don't ever experience anything extreme enough for a true range of emotions.  So really, even though the community strictly enforces correct word usage in some ways (the smack vs. snack issue), in other ways they gloss over it (emotions).