5/6·1/2+2/3÷4/3 How do I solve this problem?

5/6.1/2+2/3 '/. 4/3

Reading: 5 diveded by 6multiplied by1 plus divided by 2 divided by3 divideb4 divided by 3.

The operation   / or '/. are dividing operation.

The operation  . is multiplication.

The operation + is addtion.

Procedure: In this case, division and multplication are of equal priority. So do them in first come first serve basis.The addition is last.

Therefrore,

In 5/6*1/2+2/3'/.4/3, we take 5/6*1/2 first

5/6*1/2=5/12  +                                           (1).

Now we take 2/3'/.4/3:

2/3'/.4=(2/3)/4=2/12=1/6.

The result (1/6) divided by 3=(1/6)/3=1/18        (2)

Now do the addtion + between the result flagged at (1) and (2):

5/12+1/18. make them equivalent fractions with a common denominator 36:

5/12=5*3/(12*3) =15/36

1/18=1*2/(18*2)=2/36

So.5/12+1/18=15/36+2/36 =17/36=0.47222....

If you still have doubt check this with a scientific calculator, or a Ms exel  and feed the data in the same fashion you posed here and check the result. They are programmed and order of operations are taken care of in them.

Most people may confuse with second term after plus + here while simplification:

2/3'/.4/3 is equivalent to 2divided by 3divided by4divided by3

Successive divisions are here. No parantesis. / and '/. are the same operations and no priority arises as they look in different shape. There is no freedom to pick any two successive numbers in the middle or last. So you have to effect the divsion from left only , 'On first come first serve basis'.

Therefore 2/3'/.4/3=2/3/4/3 does not give us the freedom to choose the last 4/3 first. So,2/3'/.4/3= 2/3/4/3 = 2/3 first and the result/4. Then divide by3. So,2/3'/.4/3=0.666.../4/3=0.166666/3=0.05555...... or

2/3'/.4/3=2/12/3=2/12/3=2/36=1/18

Hope this helps.

What happens in Chapters 10 and 11 of The Egypt Game?

Ever since a little girl in the neighborhood is murdered and suspicion falls upon the Professor, the Egypt group has been kept under tight supervision and has been unable to return to their play area in the Professor's back yard.  The furor dies down by Halloween, however, and, led by April, the group is waiting for a sign that it is time to return to Egypt.  In Chapter 10, April, Melanie, Marshall, and Elizabeth go trick-or-treating with the children from Casa Rosada, but they are more interested in looking for their omen than getting candy from the neighbors.  They run into Ken Kamata and Toby Alvillar, "the most disgusting boys in the sixth grade", and while they are trading playful insults, Melanie spots a shooting star.  April says it is "the secret omen", and the four friends scurry away from the other children to go back to Egypt.  In the darkness of night, Egypt is especially fascinating.  April instigates "the Great Ceremony of the Celebration of the Return to Egypt, and the four prostrate themselves before the altars of Set and Isis (Chapter 10).

April says that the gods are angry that she and the others have been away for so long, and are demanding that they make a sacrifice of atonement, "a horrible and bloody sacrifice".  Elizabeth suggests that they should stick their fingers with a needle and write the gods a letter in their own blood, an idea she remembers from reading Tom Sawyer, but alas, the group has no needle.  April says that they should sacrifice something dear to them, like Security, but Marshall vehemently shouts his objectiion.  He says they should sacrifice April, and everyone laughts, even Marshall.  Melanie then comes up with the great idea of sacrificing some of their hair and nail clippings, and the group builds a small fire and does just that.  Suddenly Elizabeth and Melanie see "a huge misshapen figure teetering on the top of the high board fence".  The figure "teeter's) wildly in the dim light, and then (springs) forward to land in a horrible threatening crouch, right in the middle of Egypt" (Chapter 11).

In Chapter 4 of The Chrysalids, what series of three consecutive crises temporarily distract David from his concern for Sophie?

In Chapter 4 of The Chrysalids by John Wyndham the crises that occur are a raid; a strange spider-like man; and a challenge about horses. (1) Some of the deviant mutants of Waknuk who have escaped to or been exiled to the outlying lands called the Fringe, raid David's part of Waknuk. Some of the leaders are captured along with a peculiar spider-like man who shocls David because he looks almost identical to David's fathre Joseph Strorm. (2) Causing another crises, this spider-like man eventually escapes and succeeds in making his way back to the Fringe.

(3) A third crisis occurs when Joseph Strorm's antagonist Uncle Angus Morton, a man with questionable principles on mutant-free purity and who is David's friend Rosalind's father, brags to Joseph Strorm that he just bought two horses that were of exceptional good build. Strorm suspects that Morton has gotten deviant mutation horses and calls in the government inspector, who vouches for the authenticty of the horses, which had been selectively bred by the government and were not the result of mutations.

In the play Macbeth, compare and contrast Lady Macbeth's previous attitudes and actions and her current condition.

As Lady Macbeth is not a real person, she does not have a "current condition." But, if what you want to know is how Lady Macbeth is different when we first meet her in the play and what becomes of her in the end, well that can be answered.

We first see Lady Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 5. She is reading a letter written to her by Macbeth. The letter tells of the prophecies of the witches. After reading the letter, she says:

...Hie thee hither

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,

And chastise with the valor of my tongue

All that impedes thee from the golden round

She can't wait for Macbeth to come home so that she can get him to kill the king. She figures all she has to do is be cunning, strong, and merciless, and they will live happily ever after as King and Queen of Scotland.

She eventually convinces him to do the deed, but everything doesn't go as swimmingly as she had planned. First, her husband gets all upset and guilty about murdering the King, then there's a knock on the castle door, and they have to change and go to bed, then Macbeth has to kill more people to cover his tracks, and all the while Macbeth is feeling more and more guilty... he can't sleep and does more and more awful things. Lady Macbeth tries to keep it together and to calm her husband, but it's a very tough job.

By Act 3, both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, now Queen and King, are quite unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives. She says ruefully:

Nought's had, all's spent,

Where our desire is got without content.

’Tis safer to be that which we destroy

Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

Macbeth tells her everything will be alright; all he has to do is kill Banquo. He has Banquo killed, but Banquo's ghost appears to Macbeth and ruins a dinner party. Lady Macbeth is mortified and horrified by her husband's reactions to the ghost and has to make all kinds of excuses for him, and then she sends all the guests home.

In short Lady Macbeth has had to hold her composure all through the play, and she has had to deal with her husband's state of mind at the same time.

It obviously all becomes too much of a burden for her, for, by Act 5, a doctor has been sent for because Lady Macbeth is losing her mind. She is sleepwalking and sleep talking, and what she sleep talks about is blood and murder and murder and blood. Eventually everything falls apart for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and she kills herself.

So, to summarize: in the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth started off saying, Leave everything to me, and things will be great. But by the end of the play, she has seen the world crumble smash down on both of them; Macbeth is killed by Macduff and Lady Macbeth ends her own life.

A & B is 2 points on a plank on 2 trestles 3m apart. A man standing 1m from A with 700N & a block of concrete 1m from the man with..400N. If the...

We suppose that the plank XY is resting on the trestles at A and B  which are  3 meters apart. Further the mass of the  plank plank m is not given. The total length of the plank L is also not given. We, obviously, pressume L to be very much greater than 3 meter. Also we pressume that L is symmetrically supported on the trestles at A and B.

Let , M , C and G be the points  on the plank where the forces of weight of the man, concrete block and the  mass of  the plank act on the plank. Let Ra and Rb be the reactions at A and B.

By the given data the picture is   now like:

AM =1 MC =1 , given AG = 1.5 meter, as the plank rests symmetrically of A and B.

Since the system is in equilibrium, the net force and the moment are each equal to zero.Therefore,

Ra+Rb+700+400+mg = 0, the net force...................(1)

Ra*0-(AM*700+AC*400+AG*mg+AB*Rb) = 0, the net moment about A. Or,

0-(1*700+2*400+1.5*mg+3*Rb) = 0 ...................................(2), minus sign is due to moments about A is considered clokwise.

From (2) Rb1 = -(1500+1.5mg)/3  N or (500+0.5mg) N upwards.

As the man walks past A, at a distance x past A, the moments about A are:

700*x -(2*400+1.5mg+3*Rb) = 0 or,

3Rb - (700*x-800-1.5mg) = o or,

Rb  = (700*x-800-1.5mg)/3 is the reation at B, when the man is  x meter away past A. Or

Rb - (700*x-800)/3 if the weight of the plank is to be neglected.

When the planks at B just about to topple, Rb = 0. Or the reaction force at B is zero. So, 0= (700x-800-1.5mg)/3  or,

700x = 800+1.5mg 0r

x = (800+1.5mg)/700 = (8/7 +1.5mg/700) meter past A , beyond which if the man walks, the plank falls.

x= 8/7 meter if the plank weight is negligible. And Rb = 0.

In Fahrenheit 451 what are parlor walls and what are on them?

Usually, the parlor walls contain wall-sized television screens.  They get a screen that is as large as the wall in a room, and if they can get all four walls of a room covered in television screens, then you have a total and complete interactive and entertainment package.  At the beginning of the novel, Mildred and Montag have three t.v. walls in their "parlor" or living room, and Mildred is hinting around to Montag that she wants yet another one.  However, the cost for a t.v. wall is exhorbitant--it is nearly 1/3 of Montag's yearly salary, so it is a hard decision to make.

Mildred is addicted to watching television on these parlor walls.  The programs that are on the television allow her to play an interactive role in the storyline, almost like a video game of sorts, where she is one of the characters in the drama.  She spends most of her day watching and interacting with the television, and discusses all of the programs with her friends.  It is a way for her to escape, and to not have to think about her life and how miserable she is.  Montag jokes with her about the programs, calling the characters "the family," because she cares for them just like they are family members, and because she spends as much time with them as she does with him, if not more.  So, the parlor walls are just large television screens that show programs.  I hope that helps--good luck!

To hear more about Farenheit 451 from the author himself, check out this interview:

What impressions do the poem "Dream Variations" by Langston Hughes create? What techniques does Hughes use to create these impressions?

The poem is written in free verse by the African-American Langston Hughes.

The organization within the stanzas suggests music and dance, since the poet structures words between stress and unstressed syllables in order to create a sense of musicality.

As usual is always good to look at the title of the poem, in this case "Dream Variations." What this title suggests to you? It suggests dance and music, precisely what the speaker wants to communicate: he wishes to whirl his arms, to spin and to dance all day until the evening.

The second stanza includes the same thematic: the speaker wishes to dance until the dark comes. The theme of the poem is the joy of dance and the pleasure to listen to music and follow its rhythm. The reader may ask why he only wants to dance in the day and rest under a tree in the evenings. As he uses verbal irony by comparing the dark night with himself, one can speculate that the speaker being Afro-American feels safe in the nights: “Night black like me, night coming tenderly” (lines 7-8; second stanza“). Being dark he is less unidentified during the nights

The tone of the poem is joyfulness. The speaker uses a low diction, which makes this poem uncomplicated, however the theme is ambiguous since the act of dancing may be symbolic.

One of the techniques used in the poem is the consonance of the words “whirl, white and white”. Another method used is the repetition of the words: “whirl, whirl,” that are also onomatopoeic words suggesting rhythm and dance. The speaker attains his goal by leaving impressions of joy and pleasure.

What is the importance of sleep with dreams?

In Los Angeles,a study was conducted on laboratory rats to show the importance of REM sleep (rapid eyes movement). From a health perspective, sleep is divided into 4 stages, during the period when we sleep we go through all these stages. REM sleep (ie sleep appearing rapid movements of eyeballs and  during which dreams occur) is one of those stages.

The study was conducted on male rats that were artificially deprived of REM sleep,and it was used  a control group of rats which weren't deprived of sleep. There was a drop of 63% of cell proliferation in the batch of rats which were deprived of sleep, compared with controls.

A conclusion was:after that 4 days of REM sleep deprivation leads to a decrease in cell proliferation in rats.

The people had a similar effect, with the mention that repeated REM sleep deprivation leads to a decrease in capacity of concentration and ultimately to depression.

The study was conducted only on REM sleep effects, such benefits should not being neglected at the other stages of sleep. People who suspect that he suffers from sleep disorder are advised to contact the family doctor or a doctor specializing in sleep problems.

In "The Crucible" what does Mary Warren tell the court?

Mary Warren tells the court that this entire time, all of the girls that have been accusing people of witchcraft have been faking it.  She tells Danforth and the other judges that "it were all pretense."  This is a HUGELY serious claim, one that, if true, would undermine the authority of every single conviction of witchcraft.  Everyone that had ever been accused of being a witch would have to be let go.  It is also a rather unbelievable claim to the judges--why would a group of girls purposely send other people to their deaths?  That's preposterous.  Plus, as Parris points out, when they all screamed and fainted, it seemed so real.  He says, of the times that Mary fainted,

"But you did turn cold, did you not?  I myself picked you up many times, and your skin were icy."

They are having a hard time grasping the idea that Mary could fake fainting and being icy cold.  It just seems to far-fetched.

Mary tries to explain by saying that she saw everyone else freaking out, and it was easy to pretend, and even to believe that she was terrified herself.  This makes sense, especially if you have ever been in a large crowd of people that starts screaming; it's a bit contagious.  Unfortunately, the judges don't believe Mary's claim, and Abby and the girls get away with it all.  I hope that helps; good luck.

In the novel Speak by Laurie Anderson, what are some examples of Melinda portraying herself differently on the outside than internally?

Its been years since I read this book or did a lesson on it, but if I remember correctly, Melinda was raped at a party by a guy that Heather likes. When Heather and Rachel find out, they sort of stop being her friend. Melinda doesn't talk at all to anyone after that event. The comparison of there three personalities are typical of that age group and status. They are all attention seeking teenagers trying to fit in and be cool with boys. When Melinda replays the night in her mind, she knows that she wanted to make out with the guy, goes into a room with him at a party, but doesn't want to go all the way. The mood and her choices kind of lead you to believe that she is not telling the truth. However, you have no reason not to believe her either. After she stops talking, you see a different side of her that she never let out when she was trying to fit in. You see an artistic side of her when she finds a place in the school where she can be alone. In the other two girls, you see them still trying to fit in with the boys. One of them gets involved with the guy who raped Melinda. She ends up having sex with him. The other girl Rachel is the highest ranking girl of the three. Her status is popular among all her friends and she sort of sets the stage for what the majority will believe. If she says it, then it must be true. However, she also has a very close knit family and not much freedom so most of what she shows others is a rebellion against what is trying to be forced upon her at home.

What is William Wordsworth's view on children and nature in his writings?

"The Child is the Father of the Man."

The positive and life nurturing impressions that get deeply etched in our minds when we are small children remain with us for the rest of our adult life. These early spiritual life sustaining childhood memories form the foundation of our adulthood and determine our personality. Hence, a happy childhood filled with pleasant life giving positive spiritual influences -here symbolized by the pleasant associations linked to the beautiful rainbow - is the 'father' or the creator or the architect of a mature adult, the 'man.'

William Wordsworth was a Nature poet who worshipped Nature as his God and it was his main source of spirtual comfort  and escape from all the cares of this world. His association with life giving and life sustaining Nature began even when he was only a child and remained with him till his death.

In this short lyric, the 'rainbow' symbolizes the life sustaining and life nourishing goodness of Nature. The sight of the beautiful rainbow which he saw when he was only a child is deeply etched in his memory and the same joy that he experienced when he saw it as a child contiunes to remain with him through his adulthood. He desires that this same childhoood joy should continue to sustain him even in his old age. Wordsworth says that he would rather die than not being able to experience the same joy that he experienced when he saw the rainbow when he was a small boy after he becomes an old man.

The memory of the beautiful rainbow and its pleasant associations form the link between his childhood, adulthood and his old age:past, present and future. Wordsworth concludes the poem by expressing the desire that each day of his existence be linked with the next by beautiful and simple natural sights like the rainbow.

For Wordsworth the life nourishing and life sustaining memories of beautiful natural sights like the rainbow are very precious and he deeply desires that they link each day of his life on this earth and remain with him till his death.

Were American Indians used as slaves? Did they resist or help navigate and teach how to live on their land? Both?I'm very interested in the...

You should check out James Loewen's book Lies My Teacher Told Me. The chapter on Columbus, and the chapter entitled "Red Eyes" are a wealth of information regarding native/European interaction. He discusses the native slave trade in great detail, including how the Puritans "sold the survivors of the Pequot War into slavery in Bermuda in 1637." The Spanish missionaries in California had the largest population of enslaved natives, although the encomienda system kept many enslaved in Florida. 

Native tribes also began to enslave each other, to sell to the Europeans for guns and other goods. In addition, settlers began transporting native slaves (who were able to escape while in their native country) to the West Indies in exchange for African slaves. So the native slave trade actually drove and influenced growth of the African slave trade as well. Along with rampant disease, the slave trade was one of the leading factors in decimating the native population soon after European settlement.

There was certainly resistance, although the spread of disease before mass immigration from Europe essentially halved native populations. Combined with differing cultural definitions of property and ownership, this created the idea of American Indian tribes as "savages" who merely roamed the land. In fact, the reason New England especially was described as "park-like" in so many first hand accounts of European arrival in America is because the native tribes had cultivated the land and grown crops there before.

What is the conflict/problem in "Old Yeller"?

There is not just one conflict in the novel. Several events, or conflicts, occur to help carry the story along. If you want to put it in a nutshell, you might say the conflict is the hardship of life in 19th century Texas.

The overriding conflict is that the father is away on a cattle drive, leaving his wife and young sons to fend for themselves. Having to be the "man of the house" puts Travis into conflict with his little brother, Arliss, who wants to play and doesn't recognize Travis as an authority figure. Arliss creates another conflict when he finds the "old yeller dog" and begs to keep him. Travis is set against keeping the dog, but eventually he begins to grow attached to the dog as well. And that attachment creates another conflict when Yeller is infected with rabies.

Visit the sites in the Sources section for more information.

Why is it that Emily’s crime goes undetected until her death? Please include and support your answer with references to the story. Five or more...

Miss Emily's crime goes undetected for a few reasons, most of which are related to the social strata of the time and place. 

First, no one ever gets beyond the first floor, and after awhile, no one even goes into the house. We know this because in the first section of the story we are told,

...no visitor had passed through the door since she had ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier.

Second, the townspeople are accustomed to the difference in social status between Miss Emily's family and their own families. This makes them reluctant to call upon Miss Emily. Again, in the first section, first, when the tax collecting delegation comes to call, she does not even ask them to sit. In the second section, we are told,

A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received.

Many of the townspeople are people who would probably have not even been allowed in at the front door, and would have only been allowed to make deliveries at the rear of the house. 

Third, because Miss Emily has chosen a construction foreman, who is not even from the South, no one suspects anything when he is no longer seen.  If he had been from the town or a person of means, his disappearance would have been a source of concern, and Miss Emily might have been a "person of interest." 

If you are wondering about why Miss Emily's "Negro" manservant knew nothing, or perhaps did nothing, it is probably because he was not permitted to enter Miss Emily's bedroom at all, because he was too frightened as a black man to say anything, or, less likely, because he was devoted to Miss Emily. 

There are many other passages in the story that support the reasons I have listed.  Why don't you try to see what you can find? 

Which department or service in a hospital will you recommend to be outsourced and why?

It is not as if the same departments or services are the right ones to be outsourced by any and every hospital. This decision has to be based on the specific situation faced by each hospital. The question provides no such information that is needed to make a meaningful recommendation of this type.

However I will give below the main criteria that should be taken into consideration for taking decision of this kind.

• The objectives and priorities of the hospital in terms of the services to be provided by it. A hospital may provide medical facilities for a very wide range of health problems, or it may specialize in some special area such as obstetrics, orthopedics, or ophthalmology.


• The level of operation in terms such as number of beds in hospital or number of patients to be treated per day.


• Capital and other resources available for setting up facilities for different departments or services.


• Availability of suitable alternate medical services of different types. This will also include the consideration of adequacy of such services and their cost.


• Criticality of having a particular type of service to the patients of the hospital immediately and conveniently.


• The expected utilization of the facility by the hospital. If a very expensive medical facility is utilized less than 10 percent of optimum utilization, it may be better to outsource such services.

What did Dan Cody do for Gatsby? What did Gatsby learn from him?

We first hear of Dan Cody on the enchanted--and rainy--afternoon that Daisy and Gatsby first reunite after five years. Gatsby is showing Daisy the house with Nick in tow. Nick stops in front of a large photograph of an old man in a "yachting costume." The picture hangs over Gatsby's desk and "attracted" Nick. Nick asks who it is. Gatsby tells him Nick it's Dan Cody and then says:

He's dead now. He used to be my best friend years ago.

Given how mysterious and misrepresented Gatsby's past has so far been, this photo and Gatsby's statement that Dan was his "best friend" offer important and concrete glimpses into his real past. But they remain glimpses for now. For when Daisy sees a small photo of Gatsby, taken when was about 18, she exclaims

I adore it ... You never told me you had a pompadour--or a yacht

Gatsby hurries her past it without any explanation, diverting her with newspaper clippings he has gathered, about her, Daisy.

We find out later why Gatsby rushed Daisy past the photo. The yacht was never Gatsby's but Dan Cody's. We learn that Gatsby, then named James Gatz and the son of shiftless, poor parents, sees the yacht on Lake Michigan while "loafing on the beach in a torn green jersey and a pair of canvas pants."

The yacht drifting on the water ignites and focalizes Gatz's desire. He wants what it represents and by the time he is rowing out to it, he had become "Jay Gatsby," a reinvented person on his way up.

James Gatz/Gatsby had recently left St. Olaf's, a small Lutheran college that had shamed him by forcing him to work as a janitor to earn his tuition. When he arrived at the yacht, he met Cody, 50 and a self-made millionaire. We are told that the yacht "represented all the beauty and glamour in the world" to Gatz/Gatsby. Noting that Gatsby is "quick and extravagantly ambitious," Cody takes him under his wing, buying him new clothes and bringing him with him to the West Indies as an assistant "in a vague personal capacity." Cody grows to trust Gatsby more and more over the next five years, until Cody dies. He leaves Gatsby $25,000, which Gatsby is cheated out of, but that doesn't seem to matter: the real legacy Cody has given Gatsby is a "singularly appropriate education"--in what we are not informed but we can guess in making money in shady ways--and the legacy of having helped his young friend mature from a teenage boy into a man.

Nick leads us to suspect that although Gatsby might name Cody as his "best friend," the education and maturity Cody offered Gatsby veered to the dark side. Nick describes Cody as a man "with a hard empty face," calling him a "pioneer debauchee" and one who brought "savage violence." Nick suspects that it is Cody's abuse of alcohol that keeps Gatsby from drinking.

The story suggests  that Cody offered Gatsby a hard schooling in life, with hints that Cody was attracted to Gatsby sexually: Gatsby, young and handsome, becomes the "debauchee" Cody's intimate assistant in "a vague personal capacity," is dressed by him, left money by him and trusted by him. But whatever the nature of their relationship, Cody was Gatsby's ticket out of a poor and dead-end life in the midwest. Cody gave Gatsby his start, and it is poignant and telling that the secretive Gatsby keeps a large photo of him hanging over his desk.

What is the setting, including imagery and symbolism, in the story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"?

"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is set in Dr. Heidegger's gloomy and eerie study. There is a lot of imagery in the study-- there is a book of magic, a strange mirror, a portrait of a woman, and a skeleton. It is said that when the book of magic was lifted by a maid, the skeleton rattled, the woman stepped out of the portrait, and the bust of Hippocrates spoke out.

Other imagery includes Dr. Heidegger bringing the wilted, dead rose back to life when he tosses it into his magic water. Also, the guests get very lively after they drink the water. They act young again, dance, and fight.

Symbols include the mirror, the rose, and the portrait of the woman. The mirror, which shows the faces of the doctor's dead patients, seems to be a source of truth. Maybe the dead patients are implying that Dr. Heidegger was a bad physician and he caused their deaths. Maybe Dr. Heidegger is haunted by ghosts. The mirror also reflects the four rowdy guests as their true selves--it shows them old, even when they believe that they are youthful again. The mirror could symbolize truth--even though the guests' outward appearance has changed, they are still morally corrupt inside.

The rose was given to Dr. Heidegger by his lost love Sylvia. Dr. Heidegger values the rose even though it is old and has lost its beauty. The rose might symbolize Sylvia herself. Dr. Heidegger has moved past caring about youth and beauty, and his experiment reveals just how vain his four guests really are.

The portrait of the woman along with the skeleton makes the reader wonder how Sylvia really died. The text says that she swallowed one of Dr. Heidegger's prescriptions and died before they were married. Did she do it on purpose? Did he kill her? The skeleton (like the expression "skeletons in the closet") makes the reader wonder if Dr. Heidegger is keeping a dark secret about his fiance's death.

I need help with my son's homework. I need to find 1 metaphor and 2 similies in the Wednesday Wars book. Can anyone help fast? I am stuck!

Similes compare two things using the word "like." In other words "the lights twinkled like stars" is a simile.

On page 4 of the book, the look comes over the teacher's face "like the sun had winked out..."   That's a smile.

Page 8 -- asking your sister... is like asking Nova Scotia...  That's a simile too.  Both of those use the word "like" to compare two things...

Metaphors also compare one thing to another, but don't have "like" or "as" in them. So the idea of your "mind's eye" is a metaphor. Metaphors are also used in sentences like "his attempts were just a drop in the ocean..."

One example of a metaphor comes in the first sentence of the book where the teacher hates him with "heat whiter than the sun."  This metaphor compares her hate to the sun.

Find three phrases in which Lennox is speaking ironically in Shakespeare's Macbeth.Page 153 lines 1-24

Lennox is the "Fickle Thane," as he gravitates to whoever is in power.  First, it's Duncan; then Macbeth; finally, Malcolm.

And he's none too bright.  Shakespeare uses him as a mouthpiece for dunces.  He has many dim-witted, deadpan lines that show verbal irony.  Like this one in Act II, just before Duncan's murder is discovered:

Goes the king hence to-day?

Monty Python has made many skits out of guys like Lennox and lines like these.

Then, there's Lennox who echoes Macbeth's lies.  The propaganda pitch man.  Look at these gullibly ironic lines from after the murder:

Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:
Their hands and faces were an badged with blood;

And then we return to the one-liners.  At the banquet scene, when Banquo's bloody ghost has already taken the spot:

May't please your highness sit.

And there's the Lennox that's both so gullible and fawning for power that he has to get the last line in after Lady M has rousingly dismissed the guests:

Good night; and better health
Attend his majesty!

Macbeth needs a doctor about as much as the Bleeding Captain needs a Band-Aid.

And now, my favorite.  A monologue that's so bad that most directors cut it from the staged play.  Did Shakespeare really write this scene?  It's so full of logical fallacy that it's parody:

And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late;
Whom, you may say, if't please you, Fleance kill'd,
For Fleance fled: men must not walk too late.

"Duncan was murdered, and Malcolm fled.  Therefore, he must have murdered his father.  So, if Banquo was murdered, and Fleance fled, it must mean--Ipso facto--that he murdered his father too."

Sounds again like Monty Python.  "If she weighs the same as a duck...she must be made of wood...and therefore...a witch!  Burn her!"

In Chapter 19, how have Pip's expectations changed? What does he expect now?

It is actually in Chapter 18 that Pip finds out about his "Great Expectations" from Jaggers, who says that Pip "will come into a handsome property" and also that he will :

be immeidately removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman - in a word, as a young fellow of great expectations.

It is important to note Pip's reaction to this news; he is clearly delighted and feels that he is now able to have all he has ever wanted:

My dream was out; my wild fancy was surpassed by sober reality; Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a grand scale.

Together with this change in Pip's expectations, he is due to be educated and to be given a maintenance in fitting with his new position. It is clear that Pip expects and hopes that this drastic jump up the social ladder will propel him into the society of Estella and enable him to gain her hand in marriage, yet it is also interesting that in a Chapter of such great news for Pip, there are many indications of disappointment, regret, and sorrow. For example, the chapter ends:

I put my light out, and crept into bed; and it was an uneasy bed now, and I never slept the old sound sleep in it any more.

Despite Pip's overt enthusiasm and joy and receiving his great expectations, it is clear that, unconsciously at least, he recognises a loss and that his life has not necessarily changesd for the better, which of course ties in with a key theme of the novel - that of whether material wealth and social position by themselves can necessarily buy you happiness.

What is a marketing information system? its areas

Marketing Information System is a sub-system within a larger system often called Management Information System (MIS), which is an interrelated collection of all facilities and processes in an organization that provides to to its managers information required by them. However it should be noted that a marketing Information needs inputs from non-marketing activities of the company. In turn, it also needs to provide inputs for information systems in those areas.

Marketing information is very much like an the full MIS except that it concentrates primarily on meeting the information need for marketing functions. Such systems gather, process, and provide a range of different types of report to marketing personnel to support their work. These people use such information for various purposes like anticipating changes in demand, understanding nature of customers and competition determining selling productivity, and controlling costs.

Input data for preparing reports and other information outputs provides by a marketing information system is taken from both internal and external sources. Some of main areas and activities on which MIS provides information inputs include sales force management, logistics and distribution, market intelligence, competition analysis, budgeting, promotion and customer service.

One specialized area of marketing information system making intensive use of modern information and communication technology is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, A CRM system consists of methodologies, technology and capabilities that help companies manage their customer relationships better.

Was Philip Larkin a pessimist, and was he a member of the so-called "Movement"?

Philip Larkin was a "pessimist" in several respects. First, he did not believe in an after-life. He believed that death was final and that religion was a somewhat delusive human invention designed to help people cope with this brutal fact. Secondly, Larkin was a "pessimist" in the sense that he seemed to believe that most of what he valued in life, such as love and beauty, is mutable and cannot last.

Perhaps the classic expression of Larkin's bleak view of death appears in his poem "Aubade":

. . . this is what we fear -- no sight, no sound,

No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,

Nothing to love or link with,

The anaesthetic from which none come round. (27-30)

Death, the speaker says, is something

. . . that we can't escape,

Yet can't accept. (44-45)

Some might call this pessimism; Larkin himself might have preferred to call it realism -- a simple willingness to face facts, however unpleasant.

More evidence of Larkin's "pessimism" can be found in his poem "Church Going," in which the speaker assumes that religion will and almost certainly must fade and lose most of its influence. The speaker is left wondering,

When churches fall completely out of use,

What we shall turn them into . . . . (22-23)

Note the inevitability implied by the word "When": the speaker does not wonder if churches will become obsolete; he takes it for granted that they will.  Likewise, he later assumes that even "superstition, like belief, must die" (34). Although the poem does end by suggesting that a few people, at least, will always seeking wisdom of some sort (59-63), in general the tone of the work might aptly be described as "pessimistic."

Similarly, in the poem "Talking in Bed," the speaker describes a now-strained romantic relationship in which

It becomes still more difficult to find

Words at once true and kind,

Or not untrue and not unkind. (10-12)

Here even love, which might have seemed at least a temporary answer to (or refuge from) nothingness, is mutable and fades.

It is not difficult to find many works by Larkin which seem to suggest a "pessimistic" view of life, such as the poem "High Windows." At the end of that work, the speaker thinks of "high windows":

The sun-comprehending glass,

And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows

Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless. (18-20)

Likewise, an emphasis on unappealing mutability appears in the final lines of "Sad Steps," where the speaker thinks of

. . . the strength and pain

Of being young; that it can't come again,

But is for others undiminished somewhere. (16-18)

Youth is a source of both "strength and pain," but it is inevitably mutable, even for those who "somewhere" presently enjoy it.

As to the second question, Larkin was indeed associated with the so-called "Movement" poets of the late 1950s. However, this was never a formal group with a defined or shared manifesto. Larkin himself was too much of an individualist ever to sign on for membership in any group that would dictate how and why he would or should write poetry. He sympathized with some of the principles associated with "the Movement," especially their desire to make poetry accessible again and their desire to avoid the excesses of both modernism and the sort of neo-Romanticism associated with Dylan Thomas. But in the final analysis Larkin was always his own man.

Why should Roderigo pay particular attention to Iago's speech?

Assuming that you are referencing Iago and Roderigo's conversation in Act 1, Scene 1, Roderigo should closely follow Iago's comments regarding what he plans to do to Othello because they demonstrate not only how Iago will seem to follow Othello even as he is betraying him, but the villain's words are also a warning to Roderigo that Iago serves only himself and could be putting on a facade when he is dealing with the "love-stricken" Roderigo.  Iago even admits:

" 'I am not what I am' " (1.1.63).

Unfortunately, Roderigo, like most of the play's other characters, falls prey to Iago's masterful manipulation and acting until it is too late to save his own life.

What is the proper relationship between a lord and his warriors in Beowulf?

The ideal relationship between king and thane or between lord and warriors is known as "Comitatus."  This is a sworn bond to protect the lands the thane inhabits and to protect the king when his kingdom is threatened.  If the king demands, the thane must lay down his life it this defense.  If the king is killed, the thane is obligated to enact revenge.

The king, in turn, is bound to provide protection for his thanes, to share in the wealth when there is a boon, and to parcel out his fiefdom in accordance of reputation.

It's a symbiosis that comes full circle in Beowulf.  Beowulf comes to Hrothgar's defense early in the poem, and other thanes come to Beowulf's late.  What the monks who edited the poem over the years seem to be saying, by way of Christian allusions, is that "Comitatus" leads to constant revenge and blood feuds.

What is the significance of the allusion, "The thing that Saul's daughter had done to David"?

Saul's daughter Michal first married David but then had a falling out with him over family matters, left him and married another man. David went after her, though, and forced her to come back in spite of the protestation and weeping of her present husband.

Micah seemed to never be fully reconciled to David as later it is recounted that she "despised him in her heart" when he was worshipping God, even dancing in joy. But let it also be said that David had also other wives with whom he could find consolation!

To see the specific Biblical passages related to David and Michal's turbulent relationship, visit the last site posted below.

Using "The Crucible," write a letter to a friend describing the conditions and events occurring in your town.

This is an assignment that you should write out for yourself, so that it sounds like you, with your own personality and voice.  To help you to get started, I would suggest that you pretend to be your same age, and that your mother, aunt, or a friend's mom has been accused of being a witch, and has been taken into the courts and jail.  That will give the letter a lot of emotional impact, and you can describe how upsetting it is that she was accused (have her be accused of something silly, like making someone's crops not grow because she sneezed on them once or something), how you know that she is innocent and how you can't believe the courts would condemn her.

Then, describe some of the proceedings in the court. I would have Abigail pretend that she is super cold, and then faint away, along with all of the other girls, when the woman comes into the room.  Have the courts use that as evidence for her conviction.  Then go on to describe how so many people have been arrested that the farms are going to waste, that cows are roaming the country, and that children are left without their parents.  Describe the sadness and chaos that results from all of that.

Since most of the people of Salem were religious people with faith in God, I might talk about that througout your letter--appealing to god for help, hoping he'll save the accused, etc.  And, through it all, keep your own voice and personality so that it seems authentic.  Does that help to get you started?  I hope so; good luck!

In The Witch of Blackbird Pond, what is preventing the Dolphin from going up river? Describe "walking up the river".

In order to move, the Dolphin is dependent on the tides or the wind.  Since the journey from Saybrook to Wethersfield is upriver, or against the tide, the wind is the only natural force that can propel it forward.  The wind is capricious and unpredictable, however, and on Kit's first trip along this leg of the journey, "the fresh sea breeze drop(s) behind, and by sunset it (dies) away altogether".  As the sails sag "limp and soundless", there is little choice for the passengers and crew but to wait until the wind comes up again in the desired direction.  The crew is used to long delays in the area, but Kit is overcome with impatience.  On one or two occasions a "temporary breeze" raises hopes on the little ship, only to die away again after a short while.

Finally, after making little progress for seven days, the captain of the Dolphin resorts to an arduous process to get the ship moving.  The procedure is called "walking up the river", and relies on sheer manpower to pull the heavy boat, inch by inch.  Two sailors in a small boat row on ahead, carrying a long rope fastened to a small anchor.  They go as far as the rope will reach from the Dolphin, dropping anchor when it is stretched to its limit.  "Ten hearty men" then line up on the deck of the ship, each grasping the rope, and begin "a rhythmical march from one end of the ship to the other...as one man reach(es) the end, he drop(s) the rope, and race(s) back to grasp it again at the end of the line".  In this manner, the Dolphin is pulled, in almost imperceptible increments, forward through the water (Chapter 2).

Jem says there are four kinds of folk, but Scout says there is one kind. Which view is correct?

I'm assuming the rest of that question is "correct" or "accurate". This is a highly subjective question that really connects to your own value system or prejudices. As for myself, I agree with Scout. The exchange between the siblings is as follows:

You know something, Scout? I've got it all figured out, now. I've thought about it a lot lately and I've got it figured out. There's four kinds of folks in the world. There's the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there's the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.

Jem is attempting to understand the prejudice he sees surrounding him. His division of people into four groups accounts for the hatred and discrimination he witnesses everyday. When Scout replies "Naw, Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks," she is revealing her own understanding of the world around her. she is not attempting to understand prejudice; she is accepting that it exists. this allows her to see that all people are one, no matter their background. But Jem doesn't agree:

"That's what I thought, too," he said at last, "when I was your age. If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time . . . it's because he wants to stay inside."

Jem is worried by Scout response, because it basically means that there's no logical reason for discrimination based on race or class. This contrasts with his view of the world as a logical place. That is why he is so upset at the end of Tom's trial: Logically, Tom should be found not guilty. Jem is very sensitive to how people treat each other, & his connection to Boo Radley shows that he understands more every day.

When did Emily Grierson from "A Rose for Emily" die?what was the year of her death?

Faulkner gives his reader only one exact date in "A Rose for Emily." At the beginning of the story, he writes that Miss Emily's taxes were "remitted" in 1894.  At this point, Miss Emily's father would not have been dead for long, and the mayor most likely told Miss Emily that she did not have to pay taxes because of her isolation as a single woman and because she represented the "aristocracy" of the town.

Based on that year, Miss Emily meets Homer Barron several years after that--near the turn of the century (1800 to 1900), and has a brief relationship with him before he disappears.  At the story's end, as the curious townspeople enter the deceased Miss Emily's room, the narrator states:

"Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years."

The closing off of the room and Emily's house from the town occurred after Homer's disappearance, so you could argue that with adding on the forty years to 1900 (give or take a couple of years) that Miss Emily died somewhere around the late 1930s or early 1940s.

In regards to the last post, just because a work is published during a certain decade, it does not dictate that events in that work cannot take place in the future. Authors often include events that are outside of the publication time of their works (whether those events be centuries early or decades later).

What are the 'Fixed Assets' for the purpose of building financial projections in a business plan?Are building improvements ie. HVAC, Grease Trap,...

Fixed assets are physical things owned by a business firm that is expected to be used in the business for some extended period are considered fixed assets. This would include things like land, building and machinery.

Fixed assets do not get consumed as they are used as compares to current assets which include assets like stock of raw material and finished goods, amount receivable form debtors, bank balance and cash.

Building improvements will be treated as fixed assets only when these amount to significant addition to the value of the building. In case there is no significant increase in the value of a building then these will be treated as building maintenance charges. Let us assume a hypothetical case in which a building gets damaged due to an earthquake. The expenses that will be incurred in repairing the building to its original condition will be treated only as maintenance charges, and therefor there will be no increase in the value in the book of accounts. However while repairing the building, some major improvements are also undertaken that increase the basic value of the building, then the additional expenses incurred in such improvement should be treated as investment in capital assets and the value of the building should be increased in the books of accounts accordingly.

However, to simplify the accounting process, very small expense on things that continue to give service for extended period are often treated as expenses rather than investments. For example, a stapler used in a office may by have a useful life of several years, but is not likely to be treated as an item of fixed asset.

What is the paraphrase version of the line in Macbeth-- 'That which cries, “Thus thou must do,” if thou have it' mean?

Macbeth has sent Lady Macbeth a letter. In Act 1, Scene 5, she reads the letter out loud to herself. The letter tells her about how Macbeth met with the witches and what they said to him about one day becoming the Thane of Cawdor and eventually the King. She is quite moved by the news but doubts that her husband has what it takes to act decisively, boldly, and viscously. She says:

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be

What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature;

It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great;

Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,

And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'ldst have, great Glamis,

That which cries, “Thus thou must do, if thou have it;

And that which rather thou dost fear to do

Than wishest should be undone.” Hie thee hither,

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,

And chastise with the valor of my tongue

All that impedes thee from the golden round,

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

To have thee crown'd withal.

Very knotty use of the English language there in bold face, for sure; no doubt it was a quote more familiar to people in Shakespeare's time than in ours. But what she is saying to her absent, but shortly-to-arrive husband, is this: "You need someone to tell you what have to do, and you shouldn't be afraid to do something to the point of wishing it never happened." Then she says, as befitting the quote: "Come on home, and I'll make sure to convince you to get what you were promised and what you so richly deserve."

Ah, what a woman!

What are some things that make Romeo and Hamlet different?Basically compare and contrast Romeo and Hamlet

1)  The role of the supernatural is profound in Hamlet, while absent in R & J.  Hamlet's Ghost gives impetus to Hamlet.  His presence looms over the entire play.  It wants revenge, which Hamlet is either unwilling or tactically unable to carry out.  There is no such otherworldly presence in Romeo & Juliet.

2) There is metadrama in Hamlet; none in R & J.  The "Mousetrap," the play-within-the-play is very important to implicating Claudius in his brother's murder.  It shows that art can bring about catharsis.  Romeo & Juliet has no such equivalent.

3) Denmark is a police state, at war with another nation; Verona, while its families wage war against each other, is not threatened by outside forces.  Verona's problems seem tame by comparison to Denmark's threats.  The global affairs in Hamlet resonate with us today in our wars and diplomacy.

4) The language of Hamlet is far superior to R & J's.  Shakespeare's verse is much more mature, much more developed in Hamlet.  It is much more introspective, less preoccupied with cute oxymorons and dualities of love vs. hate.  Hamlet is a meditation on death, whereas R & J deals with puppy love.

5) Hamlet, as a character, is the pivotal character in literature.  There was none like him before.  He is psychologically complex, nothing like the stock characters of R&J.  He was Freudian before Freud.  He defined himself not by God or country or parents or social mores.  He is a self-propelled, intricately conflicted character.

In the book Of Mice and Men, the story takes place next to what river?

In the novel Of Mice and Men, the story takes place next to the Salinas River.  The river marks the beginning, as well as the end of the story.  It is important to understand that the river is a symbol of life.  At the beginning of the story, George and Lennie take refuge by the river bank, make plans for their future, and Lennie trustingly drinks from it, even though the water may be unsafe to drink.  At the end of the story, the river represents the end of life, as Lennie takes refuge by the river, trusting once again that he is in a safe place, but meets with his demise.

I need some help with my paper on Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird":Analyze the social, political, and historical situation that existed at the...

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the Depression-era South. The novel was published in 1960. (I'm not sure exactly when the novel was written, but I remember reading that Harper Lee worked for more than a year on the novel.) These two pariods are very different, of course, and your question is a good one for a paper.

You may want to conduct some research (especially if the paper assignment calls for research) on the status of black Americans in the American South in the 1930s and in 1960. In the 1930s, for example, sharecropping (an institution that, in all honesty, wasn't all that different from slavery) was still very common. You can find an interesting discussion of sharecropping (complete with excellent photographs, including many of African American farm workers) in the work Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Tom Robbinson seems to me to have no better a life than a sharecropper in the novel; he lives in a small settlement of blacks and works a white man's farm for little pay.

The year 1960, the date of the novel's publication, is interesting in terms of race relations in the American South, too. It is the year in which sit-ins sprang up across the region to challenge segregation (i.e. the exclusion of blacks) at lunch counters and in other public spaces. The novel's treatment of the theme of tolerance seems to me to be very conservative or even ineffectual in the face of the radical actions and dramatic changes that were taking place across the country in the year the novel was published.

You will probalby also want to note that the novel's setting and narration are shaped by these two periods. THe narrative voice is of an adult woman (maybe in the last years of the 1950s) talking about her childhood (in the Depression years).

How do you describe the love between Viola, Olivia and Count Orsino?I find it really hard to wirte something worthwhile. I dont know what their...

Concerning love as it hits Viola (Cesario), Olivia and Orsino (Duke), in the simplest terms, they all suffer from unrequited love (unreturned and unfulfilled love). This trio of unrequited lovers forms a triangle of love: Viola loves Orsino who loves Olivia who loves Cesario, Viola's male-disguised persona. The viewer (reader) of the play is prompted to wonder which one of these is the most foolish in their feelings of love.

On another level, Shakespeare is presenting the painful side of love. Each lover uses expressions denoting pain and suffering: plague, cruel, desperate. An underlying suggestion is that their personal choices have brought this on each lover, but they themselves insist that their suffering is an affliction bestowed on them against their will, as it were. It is up to the viewer/reader to entertain these two separate notions and decide whether the ills of love are self-inflicted or inflicted by Fate.

The element of disguise can't be overlooked in considering the loves of Viola, Olivia and Orsino. In the simplest terms, Viola's male disguise opens, for some, the question of the shallowness of love's attraction but, for others, it opens the question of what traits are actually attractive and worthy of love.

To elaborate, if Olivia is not a superficial, shallow, unobservant specter gliding mindlessly through life, then her love for Cesario/Viola can be presumed to be built on traits that are appealing. Because Cesario/Viola is really a woman, some can conclude that Shakespeare is suggesting that it is Viola's traits of kindness, gentleness, rational conversation and personableness that attract Olivia, who is then the Shakespearean represetative of universal woman.

[It is interesting to note that this resonates with the contemporary question of women's seeming attraction to "dangerous" men who are cold and unloving.]

For more information read Lee Lady at Hawaii.edu.

What is the irony of "The Catbird Seat"?What is considered to be dramatic, verbal, and situational irony?

Erwin Martin manages to turn the tables on his nemesis in James Thurber's short story, "The Catbird Seat." Martin appears to have little chance of maintaining the status quo at F&S once Ulgine Barrows becomes employed. As the new special advisor to the company president, Mr. Fitweiler, Ms. Barrows has gained the confidence of her boss and the changes that are being made throughout the firm appear to be headed Martin's way. Although he has no definite plan, Martin goes to see Barrows at her home with the intention of killing her. He does not even take a weapon along, looking around her apartment for something that will put an end to her along with his own misery.

But, as he puffs on a Camel cigarette that he has purchased,

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a vague idea stirred, sprouted... The idea began to bloom, strange and wonderful.

Martin realizes that no one could ever believe that he would show up in Ulgine's apartment, much less while smoking a cigarette. He was a creature of habit, of routine. So, Martin begins the transformation that he knows no one will accept. He berates Fitweiler, promises to kill him with a homemade bomb, and admits that he will be "coked to the gills" when he does it. He then warns Ulgine to keep quiet, knowing that she will report the incident to Fitweiler first thing the next morning. When she does, the president assumes that the pressure of her job has gotten to her and orders her away.

Martin has reversed the situation and assumed the catbird seat himself on which Ulgine Barrows seemed so secure. It is the supreme irony of the story.

What is Jack preoccupied about in Chapter 3 of Lord of the Flies? It's in Lord of the Flies.

While Ralph is working with most of the others making shelters down on the beach, Jack is up in the forest and down on his hands and knees. He is sniffing, smelling the ground for any scent of pigs or their droppings.

Jack has become obsessed with meat, with pigs, with killing. The idea of killing a pig has taken over Jack's mind and body, and it stands in sharp opposition to Ralph's plan for the need for huts, for protection. Here in chapter 3, aggression is pitted against cooperation for the sake of shelter. This exchange between Ralph and Jack shows the dichotomy, the opposing human needs on the island:

“I went on,” said Jack. “I let them go. I had to go on. I—”

He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.

“I went on. I thought, by myself—”

The madness came into his eyes again.

“I thought I might—kill.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I thought I might.”

Some hidden passion vibrated in Ralph’s voice.

“But you haven’t yet.”

His invitation might have passed as casual, were it not for the undertone.

“You wouldn’t care to help with the shelters, I suppose?”

“We want meat—”

“And we don’t get it.”

Now the antagonism was audible.

“But I shall! Next time!

And soon Jack will kill and they will eat meat, and he will kill again.

Can Atticus, Tom Robinson, Bob Ewell and Dill be considered secondary characters in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird?

All of the characters you have named play pivotal roles in this story, yet none is the central protagonist. Scout, whose real name is Jean Louise Finch, is both our narrator and our main character. And while Atticus's defense of Tom Robinson becomes a main concern of the novel's plot and climax, and eventually its resolution, Scout remains the eyes through which we as readers view the events of this story, and as such, she is the character with which readers empathize the most.

As for Bob Ewell, who could be considered our central antagonist, his role is important (as mentioned above), but he remains secondary as a character when contrasted with the radiant performances of Scout, Jem, and even Atticus. Due to Dill's limited presence and role in the novel itself, I would definitely relegate him to the label of secondary character as well. And Tom Robinson, while critical to plot development and evolution, is not our central player in this story, either. While your list contains many strong and identifiable characters, none is the protagonist, meaning that yes, they could be considered secondary, depending upon your teacher's definition.

What is the relation between Shelley's "Love's Philosophy" and the idea of romanticism?

1. "Love's Philosophy" demonstrates one of the key elements of Romanticism--lessons from nature. Many Romantic poets use elements of nature (seashells, the wind, the ocean, etc.) to discuss truths about the human condition.  Shelley certainly does so in his poem. Every line except the last line of the two stanza discusses how natural elements blend and interrelate. Thus, the speaker of the poem questions why he cannot "mingle" with his love as nature does.

2. One of the themes of the poem (personal relationships) also connects closely to Romanticism.  Romantic writers tend to focus more on individuals and their connections with nature or with other individuals rather than discussing man's relationship with society as other philosophies do.

3. Finally, the structure and style of the poem represent Romantic tendencies.  The poem possesses a strict rhyme scheme, meter, and stanza formation. 

"Magi" has to come to imply "wise men". What is ironic in the title "Gifts of the Magi" by O. Henry?

Rather than being ironic, the argument can be made that the title "The Gift of the Magi" is metaphoric. For, in the conclusion of the story, O.Henry, intrudes as narrator,

The Magi, as you know, were wise men--....They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones....And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house.  But in a last word to the wise of these days, let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest.  Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest.

O. Henry clearly states overtly his theme that the "foolish" love of Della and Jim is really the truest love and overtly states also that Jim and Della are the magi and they are "the wisest."  While the reader initially recognizes the Biblical allusion of the title, as he/she reads, the reader then realizes that the title is a metaphor for Jim and Della, ironically stated, perhaps, since the "foolish" children are "wise."  Typical of his endings, O. Henry sets on end coventional ideas in "The Gift of the Magi."

What is Holden’s mental and emotional state in The Catcher in the Rye? How do you know?

Holden is suffering from several psychological problems (that we all suffer from), but his are compounded because he is still in the grieving process, due to his younger brother Allie's death.  Holden is stuck in the denial, anger, and depression stages of Kubler-Ross' grieving process.  His anger is manifested in passive aggressive verbal attacks and self-inflicted pain (the incident with Maurice; talk of suicide).

He is also sexually repressed, according to psychoanalytic theory.  He cannot rationalize his physical (sexual) desires with his emotional denial of them.  Therefore, he expresses his "id," childlike self to others in the form of lying and lashing out (verbally) at society (everyone's a "phony").

He is also morally conflicted: he does not want to participate in the materialistic adult world, and so he rebels to the point of near suicide.  He admits to being a coward; otherwise, he would have killed himself like James Castle (his ideal hero).  Instead, he offers a rebellious middle-course (similar to Mercutio in Rome and Juliet).  He lashes out verbally in order for others to hurt, or even kill, him (like the way Tybalt kills Mercutio).

What was the author's purpose for The Phantom of the Opera?

The author uses the phantom as a symbol to represent the differences between what is only appearance and what is, indeed, reality. The fact that he wears a the mask is a cue to his need to be seen another way, rather than for who he is. Because of the mask, Christine can believe him to be a poor, misunderstood artist. When she sees him without a mask she is applauded and can no longer think of him as she did before. His appearance is not only all that the author wants the reader to notice. The reader should notice that he is hiding his true self from the world. He  has many gifts but they are never acknowledged for that which he is truly talented. He is the phantom because nobody is quite sure even if he exists.

The author's purpose is to show readers that hiding behind a mask has a dual function: 1.) to present to the world what they or society wishes to see and 2.) to hide from the world what one wishes they or society would never see. Either way, one cannot be recognized for one's true self in the guise of a mask.

Discuss the similarities between Rosalind and Celia in Act I, Scene III of As You Like It.

There are similarities between Rosalind and Celia that are apparent in Act I, Scene III of As You Like It, but there are also some important differences that are significant. The most obvious similarities between Celia and Rosalind are that they are both princesses and daughters of dukes, who are actually brothers, Celia's father Duke Frederick being the younger. The second most obvious similarity is that they are both adept at word play and puns, making jests and persuasive arguments out twists on words and creatively used words:

Celia: No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs; throw some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons.

Finally, a very important similarity is that they are both courageous. Rosalind and Celia both stand up to Duke Frederick and assert the truth of their position and the falseness of his.

The differences that are apparent in 3.1 are that Rosalind feels herself to be alone in her misfortunes whereas Celia believes that Rosalind and she are united as one since they have lived together so long as beloved cousins:

Celia:Rosalind lacks then the love
Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one...

And finally, it is Celia who can think more clearly under pressure and is more logical. It is Celia who decides they will go together. It is Celia who decides where they will go, to the forest of Arden where Rosalind's father is in exile. It is Celia who thinks of the first half of their plan for escaping. She suggests they both dress as "poor and mean" (lowly) maidens with dirt smudged faces. Rosalind finally contributes with the suggestion that because of her height, she could easily dress as a male and carry weapons, an act or courage in its own right considering the laws pertaining to men's and women's clothing.

How does the Surpreme Court case, Brown vs. Board of Education,play a role in the plot of this book? Do you agree with the court's...

The case Brown Vs the Board of Education was monumental in ending segregation because it dismantled the opposing sides argument, that separate is equal. Since Brown won, integration was seen as the best way for blacks to get a good education, because the rights of all people is to get an equal eduaction.

In Melba Beals' book Warriors Don't Cry, the fifteen year old  shares her experiences as teenager among black students who went to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. She suffered all the violence of the civil rights movement. She learned to be a warrior, to be strong. She didn't belive she was a strong person but told herself she was, to survive. She changes from a scared girl to a warrior who is truly fearless and brave.The book's title  is her command to herself while she lives day in and day out at the integrated high school. However as she grows older she realizes the sacrifices she made, in taking a stand. She ignored the tender and accepting part of herself. She is glad she did what she did; howver she can see how it changed her and the true sacrifice she made.

The court's decision made it possibe for integration. Because of the court's decision, the high school in Little Rock was integrated; and that school symbolized all the changes of the civil rights movement, with all it's mixed emotions and violence.

The court's decision was right when you realize that when education is separate and one group of those educated, like poor black people, have poor classrooms and less educated teachers, it is no wonder why they stressed integration. On the other hand, it was very difficult during those early years of the civil rights movement when the young people had to suffered the brunt of people's mixed feelings about the movement.

In the story "The Most Dangerous Game," why does Zaroff think of himself as "civilized"? In what ways is he uncivilized?What does "civilized" mean?

General Zaroff thinks of himself as civilized for two reasons.  First, he has all the trappings of aristocracy -- nice clothes, a butler, a fine mansion with a hunting preserve.  Second, he sees hunting as a very civilized pursuit (as it is seen by, for example, English aristocrats).

His lack of civilization is best evidenced by the very fact that he purposely causes shipwrecks in order that he can hunt and murder the people who wash up on his shore.

What is civilization?  You can ask yourself which is more important -- having material goods that look civilized, or acting in some way that we see as moral.  Then you can ask yourself if anyone in this story really is moral and whether Rainsford is civilized or not.

What is a summary of "A Mystery of Heroism" and some symbolism?

Stephen Crane  describes in the short story, Mystery of Heroism, why a young man would risk his life to get two buckets of water. In the beginning ofthe story the character, Collins, is cheered on by his comrades to get the water in the middle of a skirmish and he risks his life which is so precious. Crane describes the battlefield in which thousands of wounded and dying soldiers show what war is really like, death and destruction. Stephan Crane uses many symbolic ways to show that war is feudal and destructive.

The story shows that war is dehumanizing. In Crane's short story, he writes of a character who risks his life for a pail of water, because someone joked him about his thirst, "Well, if yeh want a drink so bad, why don't yeh go git it?"The character, Collins, shows that war is so dehumanizing that he will die to fetch a pail of water.

Crane is using Collins to express the way war can tear someone apart, by risking a life that is held to most so dear, over a pail of water. Collins has nothing else to live for. If Collins died he would be in a place where he was no longer hungry, tired, cold, or thirsty. He describes that people who join the army are raised to drill then die, suggesting that anyone who may join the army will drill to accept death. Here Crane is showing the dehumanization process by saying to accept death when it comes. To be human you have the right to live, no one should accept death not even war should take that away from anyone. In the story Stephen Crane shows how war is dehumanizing.

The story shows that the only result of war is death and destruction. The setting shows how war is so destructive and can take you away from something that we strive to keep close to us. Crane's unique style of the usage of irony shows the reader how war is destructive and deadly.

Crane shows us that army is pretty on the outside but horrific and terrifying on the inside.

What character developments does Hamlet go through between his 7 soliloquies/speeches?the way he thinks, his actions, his motivations for them, how...

I will just pick the difference between two soliloquies, or pieces of them to suggest the character changes he has gone through between them.  The first is in Act I, scene ii and the second is at the end of Act II, and they show some pretty clear changes in Hamlet's character.

The opening lines of the first soliloquy paint a picture of Hamlet as a completely static person, unable to make any sort of decision and mainly contemplating suicide as a way out of any responsibility for action:

O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!(135)
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

The soliloquy at the end of Act II gives a completely different view of our prince, one who has seen now more of the causes and underlying treachery present in Denmark and ahs decided to take action, to find proof of his uncles treason:

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ, I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father(590)
Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick. If he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be a devil; and the devil hath power
T' assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps(595)
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
More relative than this. The play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.

For though the murder cannot actually tell its story itself, Hamlet has finally decided to do something about it.  He will get proof, as best he can, by using the play and examining the reaction of the king.

So now he has become a man of action rather than inaction, he has some resolve instead of just whining (according to some) about the terrible nature of everything and the fact that he can't even commit suicide to get out if it.

What is the beginning, middle, and end of Frindle?Can you help me find out the beginning, middle, and end?

The beginning of the story is mostly exposition; setting the scene and introducing the characters.  It would most likely extend from Chapter 1 to Chapter 6.  In these chapters, the reader learns about Lincoln Elementary School, as well as the main character, Nick Allen.  Nick has a reputation as being a bit of a troublemaker, and has engineered some pretty amazing pranks in third and fourth grade.  In fifth grade, though, he has the notorious Mrs. Granger for a teacher, and things get a little more difficult.  Mrs. Granger is tough, and a stickler for words and using the dictionary, which sets the stage for Nick's greatest stunt of all - the invention of the word "Frindle."

The middle of the story, which occurs roughly between Chapters 7 and 12, tells about all the ruckus that occurs as a result of Nick's new word.  The students think it is loads of fun to use it, and do not mind taking the consequences of defying Mrs. Granger and continuing to say "frindle" instead of "pen" all the time.  The students organize and everyone holds up a "frindle" for the class picture, and the newspapers publish an article about the new word that has become so popular, even beyond the school.  Nick appears on a television talk show, and a young entrepreneur gets a lawyer to gain the rights to market the new word, and sends Nick royalties from his sales.

The end of the story begins in Chapter 13 and continues through Chapter 15, as all the commotion about Nick's new word begins to die down.  "Frindle" continues to be used popularly, however, replacing the old word "pen" in the language of the people.  At the very end of the story, several years have passed, and "frindle" has actually been incorporated into the dictionary, and Mrs. Granger reveals to Nick that she had suspected this is what would happen all along.  Nick's creative prank and its reception by the public is a fine illustration of how words make their way into the dictionary.

What is Communication and the Process of Communication? What are the Barriers and how can Managers deal with these barriers?

Communication is the process of being able to articulate visions, ideas, and concerns to an employee or to others, in general.  The process of communication can take on many forms.  There can be direct and spoken communication, or written correspondence, or even technological methods of conveying information.  Managers have to balance the demands with their preferred method of communication and also gauge which method garners the most amount of effectiveness.  Some are excellent with sending emails or notes about important elements, while others succeed at face to face communication.  The barriers to communication usually reside when a manager is not comfortable with a particular approach.  Understanding that communication is critical for any manager's success, perhaps repetition and continually striving for improvement could be a way in which individuals can become better at that where deficiencies might reside.

For Henrik Ibsen, what is the significance of the title A Doll's House, rather than "The Doll's House"?

Henrik Ibsen's choice of the title A Doll's House, rather than "The Doll's House," signifies a quantitative reference. In other words, Ibsen's choice refers to quantity. The word "the" is referred to as "the definite article" because it is the only English language article that is used to point to a very specific noun (Parts Of Speech, ESL Resource Center). For instance, if we say "the cat is sitting on the mat" we are verbally pointing to a very specific cat on a very specific mat. Furthermore, if we were to combine the definite article "the" with a singular noun, such as doll's house, we are also referring to one, and only one noun, or doll's house. Thus, if Ibsen had chosen the title "The Doll's House" he would be pointing to one very particular "doll's house" and only one particular "doll's house."

But that was not Ibsen's intention. Ibsen wrote the play A Doll's House to protest the treatment of women in his society. Ibsen saw all women, especially middle class women like Nora, as being treated like "dolls." Ibsen saw that society was denying women the basic human rights of education, financial freedom, and even basic respect. Thus, Ibsen wanted to incorporate all women and all "doll's houses" into his play and into his title.

Let us now look at the English language article that Ibsen did choose for his title, the article "a." While the definite article "the" refers to only specific things, the article "a" refers to general things. For instance, in the famous phrase "My Kingdom for a horse!" the article "a" tells the reader/listener that any old horse will do. The writer/speaker is not referring to any single horse, but any horse at all (Articles, Determiners, And Quantifiers, Guide to Grammar and Writing). The same idea applies to Ibsen's title A Doll's House. His title refers to any woman's home, or "doll's house," and it can even be applied to all women's homes or "doll houses."

Why you think frankish women died so much earlier than men?

The biggest reason that women during and before the Middle Ages tended to live shorter lives than men was childbirth. Women typically  got married and started having children very early in life. Because there was no real contraception, they would typically become pregnant many times. And, ofcourse, becuase there was very little medical knowledge, many died during child-birth. Conditions that are now easily dealt with were, at that time, fatal and life risking.

Probably, if there had not been the problem about childbirth, then men would have lived shorter lives because they went to war.

Explain the dark romanticism in "The Devil and Tom Walker."

Much like romantic paintings of this same era, the setting and plot of "The Devil and Tom Walker" are rich with color and beset with the supernatural.

Romantic painters often included mystical beings such as cherubs and angels in their work, particularly since the era was still largely influenced by Christianity in its various denominations. Along with this belief in heavenly hosts came a belief in Satan (the devil), who is referred to in this work as "the dark woodman" or "Old Scratch." It was not uncommon for people of this era to believe that one could strike deals with the devil in a Faustian fashion, but the other portion of that belief always stated that the price paid by those who did such dealings was entirely too great -- meaning one had to sacrifice one's soul in order to receive the promised benefits from Satan himself.

In addition to the plot, the setting is a key to this story's dark romanticism. Our protagonist, Tom, meets the devil when he goes into "the woods," always a place of danger and evil in any symbolic literature (Hansel and Gretel, Mythology, etc.). The woods represent a straying from the true path of life, and when one strays, he/she becomes prone to the influence of evil, represented here by Old Scratch. Romantic literature frequently uses wilderness to foreshadow evil or wrongdoing, and this story is no different.

What are some quotes that fall under the theme of Personal Trials in To Kill a Mockingbird?Please include where the quote is from. Quotes that...

    Many of the characters in Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, undergo personal trials and tribulations during the story. Below are some examples with quotations.

1.  ATTICUS TAKES THE CASE.  Atticus knows the Tom Robinson case will be a threat to his family.

"What bothers me is that she and Jem will have to absorb some ugly things pretty soon.

2.  UNCLE JACK & CHILDREN.  Uncle Jack, the confirmed bachelor, may know how to doctor children, but he doesn't understand them.

    "I shall never marry, Atticus."
    "Why?"
    "I might have children."
    Atticus said, "You have a lot to learn, Jack."

3.  JEM & MRS. DUBOSE.  Jem has a true love/hate relationship with old Mrs. Dubose. When she leaves him a gift just before she dies, he doesn't know how to feel.

"Old hell-devil, old hell-devil!" he screamed, flinging it down. "Why can't she leave me alone?"

4.  TO FIGHT OR NOT TO FIGHT.  After Cecil Jacobs defamed Atticus, Scout had a decision to make.

My fists were clenched and I was ready to let fly. Atticus had promised me he would wear me out if he ever heard of me fighting any more; I was far too old and too big for such childish things, and the sooner I learned to hold it in, the better off everybody would be. I soon forgot.

5.  HUMOR IS BETTER THAN VIOLENCE.  Most people could not resist fighting back if Bob Ewell had spit tobacco in their face. But Atticus is not like most people.

"Too proud to fight, you nigger-lovin' bastard?" Miss Stephanie said Atticus said, "No, too old," put his hands in his pockets and strolled on. Miss Stephanie said you had to hand it to Atticus Finch, he could be right dry sometimes.
    "I wish Bob Ewell wouldn't chew tobacco," was all Atticus said about it. 

Why did William Shakespeare write Hamlet?

While there could be many reasons why Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, there is not one reason or another that scholars can point to and say, "He wrote it for this reason and here is the proof." Shakespeare was influenced, as most writers and artists were of the time, by the world around him. Early works with similar elements existed and there were the works of Thomas Kyd which Shakespeare was aware of and most likely borrowed from. One work that scholars have pointed to as a possible source is the Ur- Hamlet. Though there has not been definitive proof of who wrote this work, it has served to influence both Thomas Kyd and Shakespeare. Hamlet was first performed around 1600 and first published in 1603; one suggestion would be to research events that transpired during this period, perhaps through more research, a better idea of why he wrote Hamlet can be gained.

What position does John hold among the hill people? What privileges and responsibilities arise from the position?

John is the son of a priest in his village.  Because he touched the metal handed to him by his father "and did not die", by his people's laws, John was then destined to become a priest himself.  As such, he was treated with more respect than his brothers who were destined to be hunters.  He was given the choice bits of meat at meals, as well as a warm spot near the fire for his bed.  However, because more was expected of John, he would be punished more severely for infractions than his brothers would be.  He was then allowed to go to the dead houses with his father to search of metal, and he was taught the secrets of the priesthood-- spells, chants, and healings.  It was expected that John would honor the ways of the Hill People in preparation for being a leader in his community one day.  When John learns the truth about the Place of the Gods (it was the ruins of New York City after being bombed), John's father expects the boy to keep the truth to himself.  Telling the people that their "gods" were merely men who'd been destroyed in a great war would have destroyed not only their belief system, but their political system as well.  Chaos would have been a result, and therefore, would have been detrimental to the society.

What is known about King Tut's life and death?

Tutankhamen was the son of Amenhoptep IV (who changed his name about five years into his reign to Akhenaten) and a lesser wife Kiya.  Akhenaten ruled from 1350-1334 B.C.E. During that time he was responsible for a revolutionary break with the ordered religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptian pantheon, instituting the monotheistic belief in the Aten. Egyptian society was turned inside out upon his decree. Akhenaten moved the capital from Thebes to the new city of Armana. In the past the temples' innner sanctuaries were off limits to the common people, however Akhenatan opened them to the public.  These actions caused considerable concern among the priests and military elite.  From their perspective the pharoah's actions were irresponsible and could be destructive to the nation. Akhenaten died about 17 years into his reign. Since Nefertari's children were all female the throne passed to Akhenaten's son from a lesser wife.  Due to his young age historians and archaeologists alike agree that the visier Ay and the general of the army Horemheb groomed the young prince for his future. If they could dismantle all of Akhenaten's decrees, reinstitute the old religious practices in the name of the boy king all would be well. There is little doubt that these policies came from Ay and Horemheb in the name of Tutankhamen, which by the way was changed from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamen by Ay and Horemheb..

Tut died when he was about 18 or 19 years old.  Howard Carter's discovery of King Tut is the only one to date that was found in tact in The Valley of the Kings.  Archaeologists use the tomb as a sort of measure...for example, if this wealth was found in Tut's tomb...a minor king....what possible treasures could have been in the other tombs such as Ramses II etc.  The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death, immortality...they were the first resurrectionists...and when you really think about it, King Tutankhamen's legacy is definitely one of immortality. The minor king of a heretic pharoah is more well known in our present reality than he was ever known is his own.

What was the meaning of "I,I,I,I..." used by the Angel(s) in the HBO series Angels in America?

In the HBO adaptation of Angels in America and in the play itself, the angel always repeats this first-person pronoun. Your question is very good but also very specialized. You would probably do well to review several analyses by critics of the play or the televised series.

For example:

Sam Staggs, in his book When Blanche Met Brando, sees this repeated "I" as "a dazzling, otherworldly trope" as well as an allusion to the statement by Stella to Blanche ("I, I, I took the blows..") in A Streetcar Named Desire (327).

William W. Demastes, in his book Staging Consciousness, sees the repeated "I" both as contributing to making the angel difficult for us to understand and as reinforcing the content of her speeches: personal freedom can be destructive (126).

You can review these two sources on books.google.com. A better resource, of course, would be a good library that has access to the MLA bibliography and Academic Search Premier.

In any case, I'd be very interested in hearing how you ultimately make sense of this repeated phrase!

How come small firms can't affect one another's prices, but large firms can?

It is not the absolute size of the firm that determines its ability to affect the market price. It is the size of the form in terms of percentage of total market demand it is able and willing to supply. Also it should be noted that a firm can decide only its own prices. It cannot decide on the prices charged by other firms in the market. When a firm changes is prices the other firms may or may not change their prices. also the exact increase or decrease in prices will be decided by each firm independently.

When a firm is meeting only a small percentage of the total market demand, any any increase in market price will induce customers to shift to other suppliers, and the demand earlier met by the firm will be distributed to the its competitors, who are so numerous that the change in the sale of an individual competitor firm will be insignificant to induce them to change their price.

On the other hand, when the firm reduces its price below the market price, all the customer will want to shift their purchases to this firm. Thus theoretically the entire market demand will shift to this firm. However, as the firm has the ability and capability to meet only a small percentage of the total market demand, it will not be able to meet all this entire demand. It will only be able to increase its supplies marginally above the original supplies level. Again the impact of shift of demand on individual competitor will be too small to induce them to reduce their prices.

It is worthwhile to note that the price adjustment process described above exist only in markets that approach perfectly competitive markets. In oligopolistic markets, the prices of one company are likely to have significant impact on prices of other firms in the market. In monopolistic market there are no other firms to be affected by the prices of the monopoly firm.

What does it mean when Scout says the Ewells live as guests of the county in To Kill a Mockingbird?

"The disgrace of Maycomb," Bob Ewell and his large family live in a rundown home near the local dump. Ewell does not have a job (although he lands one for a short period and then blames Atticus for losing it), but he does receive a welfare check regularly.

    "I'll repeat the question," said Atticus. "Can you read and write?"
    "I most positively can."
    "Will you write your name and show us?"
    "I most positively will. How do you think I sign my relief checks?

Atticus had previously told Scout about his drinking habits and poor treatment of his family.

"... but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey, his children have a way of crying from hunger pains."

He later is given a job with the WPA (Works Progress Administration), a New Deal program instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to increase employment through public works programs. But that doesn't last long.

He was the only man I ever heard of who was fired from the WPA for laziness.

How did the incorporation of western territories into the United States affect Indian nations such as the Sioux or the Nez Pierce?

The formal addition of Indian lands into territories of the United States served as a population magnet for land hungry immigrants, prospectors, and railroad barons.  The frontier always represented opportunity for America, and especially in the Gilded Age of laissez faire capitalism.  This meant that population pressure on Indian tribes would inevitably grow, resulting in conflict, the spread of disease, and the decimation and conquest of the native peoples, including the Sioux and the Nez Perce.

The Sioux were particularly vulnerable to such expansion, as they were a nomadic buffalo culture, roaming the Great Plains, and living on prime land for white settlement, farming and the intercontinental railroad.  In short, the addition of the western territories to the US was the beginning of the end for native tribes and their independence in America, as well as their cultural integrity.

In the book The Crucible, who is Elizabeth Proctor and what does Abigail think of her?

In The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, Elizabeth Proctor is the wife of John Proctor, the central figure of the play. Elizabeth has had three children with John Proctor and is expecting a fourth child. Elizabeth employs Abigail, who is the niece of Reverend Parris to work for her as a servant, that is, until Elizabeth let her go.

Elizabeth, the expectant mother of three, discovered that John is having an affair with Abigail. This of course soured Elizabeth on retaining Abigail's services. Abigail, being released of her duties and being separated from the man she covetously loves, pretty much soured Abigail on Elizabeth. Since Abigail is neither afraid nor ashamed to lie and manipulate people and create disastrous circumstances for entire communities all because she can't have her way, she is also unafraid to loath Elizabeth for no better reason than being married to John and being the mother of his children and for not wanting John's mistress working in her home.

What is the setting of "The Scarlet Ibis"?

"The Scarlet Ibis," by James Hurst, was first published in the July 1960 issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine. The story focuses on the troubled relationship between two young boys: the narrator and his mentally and physically disabled brother, Doodle. In the course of the story, Doodle becomes symbolically identified with a rare and beautiful scarlet ibis which, finding itself in a hostile environment, dies.

"The Scarlet Ibis" opens with the narrator, Brother, reminiscing about a remarkable event that took place when he was a young boy at his family home at the end of the summer of 1918. The events of the story take place between 1911-1918 on a cotton farm in North Carolina.

Dix Hill in "had anyone stopped to listen to us, we would have been sent to Dix Hill," is a reference to the famous Dorothea Dix Hospital which was a psychiatric hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina.

I need study notes for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry for the final exam. Please help!Main points, themes, etc.

There are three main motifs in Mildred Taylor's novel.  The prevailing motif of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is that of pride in one's independence.  From the example of Little Man who takes pride in his neat clothes, to the young narrator Cassie, who questions why her grandmother must sell her goods behind behind the white sellers' wagons, to Mrs. Logan who teaches the children historical reality in school and organizes the boycott of the Wallace store because the Wallaces participate in the lynching of blacks, the Logans embody the independent spirit who refuses to acquiesce to the Jim Crow society in which they live in the South in the 1930s.

Another motif is commitment to family.  Although Mrs. Logan agrees with the punishment of Cassie and Little Man for refusing to use old textbooks, she will not allow her children to be condemned summarily for their behavior.  While David Logan demonstrates great pride in wishing to hold onto his land, he also loves his family enough to work to maintain the farm so that they will own it, too, in the future.

In keeping with another motif, that of fairness and integrity, Jeremy Simms befriends the Logans, advising them of the attitudes of the whites while attorney Wade Jemison is supportive of the Logans' efforts to retain ownership of their property.