In what portion of The Crucible does Tituba think that the devil is going to take her?

Tituba says,

" 'Take me home, Devil! Take me home!' "

at the beginning of Act 4.  This is the first time since the end of Act 1 that she has lines in the play.  At this point, the helpless Tituba has been jailed up with Sarah Good for the duration of the trials.  She and Sarah Good are convinced that his "majesty" (the devil) is coming for them.  Sarah Good reportedly had some psychological issues before her imprisonment, but some critics believe that the jail time stole Tituba's sanity, for she is certainly sane at the play's opening.

Miller includes this version of Tituba at the end of the play for several reasons. First, Tituba's strange behavior and changed thinking symbolize how much the town has lost because of the trial (similar to Rev. Hale's list of the town's changes in Act 3). Secondly, Tituba might believe at this point that she has "sold her soul to the devil" because she falsely accused others in order to save herself.  While most audiences understand Tituba's behavior in Act 1, it most certainly would have weighed on her conscience that innocent people were perishing in part because of what she started. Finally, after hearing about and witnessing the reign of terror in her Puritan town, Tituba might have truly believed that the devil was coming for her and others.This would be a reasonable theory for her because the town had strayed so far from what they attempted to be.

Is "The Middle Years" by Henry James an modernist literary work?I find some modernist tendencies in "The Middle Years" such as interior monologue,...

Henry James began writing in the Victorian tradition of literature as illustrated by the melodrama The American (1877) (Anthony Domestico, yale.edu). He moved away from this form and settled into realism inspired by Honore de Balzac as shown by The Portrait of a Lady (1881) (Domestico). After having his plays fail miserably in his dramatic debut, James' work became more "opaque" (Domestico), meaning obscure and difficult to understand.

James was influenced by the critical realist epistemology (philosophical theory of knowing) that depends upon sensa that may not exist, and this epistemological view influenced James to change his approach to literary form (Domestico) following his  failure in drama. As a result, his narratives went from obscure (hard to understand) to "oblique" (evasive, indirect; from the Latin for "sidelong") as Golden Bowl (1904) illustrates (Domestico); his prose being like a "puzzle to be decoded rather than a mirror clearly and simply reflecting reality" (Domestico). [As an aside, this move to opaqueness and obliqueness may be what led H.G. Wells to characterize James' writing as an empty church with nothing on the alter but empty egg-shells, a bit of string and dead kittens.]

It is this process of movement toward obliqueness that led to his further developing realism into a "psychological realism that closely examined the complex workings of the mind" (Columbia Encyclopedia), certainly an opaque and oblique entity to examine. By the time James wrote Wings of the Dove (1902), his literary form had many elements that were later developed by modernist writers like Woolf, Joyce and Proust, such as stream of consciousness and interior monologue. "The Middle Years" (1893) was written during the period of time that propelled the changes noted above, during his abysmal debut in theatrical drama, which occurred from 1890 to 1895. It was in this time of self-doubt and self criticism, a time that was "central to James' late style" (Domestico), that the formal (i.e., relating to form) and stylistic elements that later established him as a forerunner of modernism began to emerge.

What characteristics of Fahrenheit 451 are reinforced by our contemporary society?

Many of the characteristics of Fahrenheit 451 are reinforced by our society. For example, the video games and news shows are so short and quick, based upon presenting information that is sensational, in an attempt to delever a quick message, like an advertisement. It creates a world where people expect to get away with reading these little snippets of information and call it reading. It is information but without any true value.

Informercials paid for by pharmaceutical companies have no regard for the patient at all. Like in the book, where the wife has just swallowed sleeping pills and the paramedics suck her blood out and give her new. It is so like the mentality of medicine today, where pharamceuticals and surgery is touted as a quick cure for problems that have a deeper root.

Americans are eating themselves to death becoming morbidly obese then having bariatric surgery to loose the weight. In the mean time, the main diseases are heart disease and diabetes that are mainly caused by diet. The food produced by manufacturers are based on an over production of fructose  and when eaten cause the diseases of heart attacks and diabetes. The food industry has no regard for consumers. They only want to make money.

In addition to all of this, the illiteracy rate is escalating. Books for children are becoming shorter or video-enhanced so that children will buy videos to make the media companies more money. This only leads to more illiteracy.

Consumers are only seen as a means to an end, to make money. In the book,they can't keep up with the burning. It is like the act of burning books is their god; in our contemporary society making consumers buy products is the god. It is comparable.

How can structuralist theory be applied to an African text?

Your question is really interesting. I'm not certain that I fully understand it, but I'll do my best to answer, using a Q&A format of my own.

Q. Can you apply structuralist theory to an African text?

A: In our age of multiculturalism, many people tend to be skeptical about applying a Western theory to a non-Western text. They would answer the above question with a clear "no." The structuralists of the late 1950s and 1960s, however, would generally have answered "yes." They tended to believe that all languages (and all cultural productions, including literature, whether Western or not) are governed by the same hidden, universal rules. To them, something being Western or non-Western didn't matter all that much in the end.

Q: Can you give an example of how to apply a structuralist theory to an African text?

You may be interested in applying a structuralist theory to an African folktale and to a Western folktale and then comparing the results. One of the most diirect (and earliest) theories that you might consider applying is the list of 31 functions presented by Vladimir Propp in Morphology of the Folk Tale. Propp's list is very clear, as is his argument. He claims that folktales around the world follow very similar patterns, and he seeks to lay out those patterns in very clear and direct terms. You may find yourself agreeing with or challenging his view that all folktales (whether Western or not) can be approached and understood in the same way.

What is Harrison fighting against in "Harison Bergeron"?"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Harrison Bergeron breaks out of jail where he is held on suspicion of wanting to overthrow the government in Kurt Vonnegut's story, "Harrison Bergeron."  His act is rebellion against this suppressive government and its forced equality authorized by the Amendments to the Constitution.

In his act of rebellion, however, Harrison overreacts as he declares himself emperor; as a superhuman, he says he will be "a greater ruler than any man who has ever lived." And, ironically, his attempt to overthrow the totalitarian government is totalitarian itself as he orders the musicians to remove their handicaps and play as he selects his Empress by grabbing the beautiful ballerina.  His rule is extremely short-lived like that of most dictators.  Thus, Vonnegut implies that power must always corrupt.  Tragically, too, Harrison's attempt to free others ends in death, leaving the futility of trying to move upward in society intact.

What medications influence the effect of anticoagulants?

For example, Aspirin is renowned for its ability to imped blood clotting, that can causes heart attack and stroke, while, Celebrex, which is used as painkiller by the patients who suffer by arthritis, or experience other kind of pain, is known that interfere with Aspirin, reducing it's anticoagulant effects.

The solution for the problem presented above, could be an increasing of the Aspirin doses (from 81mg to 324mg), but not ingnoring the side-effects of the higher Aspirin doses on the gastrointestinal tract, which could become severe, if doses are taken on long term.

Another manner to avoid the underminning effect that Celebrex has on Aspirin, is to increase the time between taking both drugs, in this way, even Aspirin is taken in low-doses (recommended for the patients who have gastrointestinal disorders), nevertheless it will have the intended effect.

What was the cultural impact of the invention of the radio?

The previous answer does a great job of talking about the cultural impacts of radio that are more economic and political.  I'd like to add one other impact.

The beginning of commercial radio is associated with the 1920s, which was a time of great cultural upheaval in the US.  Along with other media, such as movies, and other technology, such as cars, the radio helped bring in a new era in which Americans had many more entertainment options.  This led, historians say, to a new culture whose nature is captured in the terms "Roaring '20s" and "Jazz Age."

This new culture was typified by the flappers and their new, more hedonistic values.  The new culture inspired backlashes as well, such as the rise of religious fundamentalism and of the KKK (which at that point was more focused on nativism and anti-newness than it was anti-black).

The radio didn't do this stuff all by itself, but it was an important factor.