In Krakauer's Into the Wild, does Chris McCandless ever change? For example, do his personality, attitude, or beliefs ever change?

The question is basically asking if Chris McCandless is a dynamic character.  In general, I would say that McCandless is not a dynamic character.  He really never displays any huge character growth or change over the course of the novel.  Keep in mind that Into the Wild is Krakauer's interpretation of McCandless and what happened to him.  It's possible that McCandless's personality changed a great deal at one point, but McCandless was by himself so often that drastic character changes were never witnessed.  

Throughout the novel, McCandless is portrayed as self-confident, focused, passionate, friendly, intelligent, and at times rash.  In general, McCandless is also averse to asking for help.  

The question above does ask if McCandless ever changes.  If I'm 100% honest, then I have to say yes, McCandless does change at one point.  Unfortunately, the change is too late.  Once he begins his trek into the Alaskan wilderness, McCandless is as full of self-confidence and joy as he has ever been.  

“There was just no talking the guy out of it,” Gallien remembers. “He was determined. Real gung ho. The word that comes to mind is excited. He couldn’t wait to head out there and get started.”

He's also a bit unwilling to take the supplies, help, and advice offered to him by Jim Gallien.  

Gallien offered to drive Alex all the way to Anchorage, buy him some decent gear, and then drive him back to wherever he wanted to go.

“No, thanks anyway,” Alex replied, “I’ll be fine with what I’ve got.”

However, once McCandless becomes stranded by the bus, it's clear that he has changed enough to be begging for help.  McCandless is so weak and injured that he is no longer the joyous, confident person he was months before.  He is so weak that he is only capable of searching for berries among the nearby plants.  In case somebody shows up at the bus, McCandless leaves a note begging for help.  

S.O.S. I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE. I AM ALL ALONE, THIS IS NO JOKE. IN THE NAME OF GOD, PLEASE REMAIN TO SAVE ME. I AM OUT COLLECTING BERRIES CLOSE BY AND SHALL RETURN THIS EVENING. THANK YOU, CHRIS MCCANDLESS. AUGUST?

Notice that McCandless even drops the "Alex Supertramp" name that he has been using when everything is going well.  He now uses his real name because he knows he is in real trouble.  If the question is simply asking if McCandless ever changes, even a little bit, then I have to answer yes.  He changes just before he dies. 

True or False? In Virginia, the ruling classes eventually bequeathed to the white indentured servants a “number of benefits” ranging from land,...

In the first part of the statement you want to assess, it is true that the Virginia’s General Assembly passed laws designed to regulate the contract terms, behavior, and treatment of indentured servants. In their Virginia Encyclopedia article online, “Indentured Servants in Colonial Virginia,” Brenden Wolfe and Martha McCartney write,

As indentured servants poured into Virginia, they came to account for fully half of Virginia's population. Such rapid change caused problems, however, and the General Assembly passed numerous statutes designed to address them. These laws served several broad purposes, including regulation of servants' contract terms, behavior, and treatment.

Nevertheless, the regulations were written to benefit the masters, not the indentured servants. Contract terms were granted based on the age of the servant, and primarily aimed to cover the costs incurred by the master for transportation to America, upkeep and health care, as well as to prevent “disruptive turnover, labor shortages and an unstable workforce.”

An indenture labor contract often, but not always called for “freedom dues” which were to be given when the contract expired. Freedom dues generally meant corn, clothing, and tools. Though masters did not always comply with freedom and the freedom dues, an indentured servant could take his master to court. Following are some examples of masters refusals to follow the rules as set by the Virginia General Assembly:

In 1675, an indentured servant who charged his master with cheating him asked the General Court to free him "and pay him corne & clothes." The judges ruled in his favor,…

Occasionally the owners of indentured servants refused to release them or give them their freedom dues. At Jamestown, when a male indentured servant who had fulfilled his contract insisted on receiving his "corn and clothes," his master exploded in rage and struck him on the head with his truncheon.      -Wolfe and McCartney

The second part of the true/false statement says, “Their African slave counterparts eventually received the same benefits by 1640.” If this part of the statement is true, the answer you should give is true. If it is false, the answer you should give is false.

No laws were passed by the Virginia General Assembly giving the right of freedom dues to African slaves by 1640 or anytime before the Civil War (1861-1865). It is interesting to note, however, that the 1675 court case above was brought by a black indentured servant, but he was not a slave.

Nonetheless, there were some individual slaveholders who gave what can be called “freedom dues” to slaves they freed. For example, an excerpt from the will of Charles Bagwell, who lived in Accomack Co, VA, says, “[t]o negro Daniel his freedom & 6 acres in Robins Hole for life.” This was a generous slaveholder who gave his slave freedom and land, but these instances were not, in general, “benefits conferred on African slaves” by the ruling class in Virginia by 1640.

Given this information, is the scenario true or false? Before deciding that a statement is true or false, keep in mind that if any part of the statement is false, the whole statement is false. In other words, all parts of the statement or scenario must be true for the answer to be true.

How is the motif of dualities present in Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities?

Dualities in A Tale of Two Cities serve to point to the similarities of internal problems in England and France as well as developing themes and characterization.

From the opening of this classic novel on, there are presentations of dualities. With thesis and antithesis, Charles Dickens points to the similarities between England and France in the opening chapter, as he compares the king of England with the king of France while the Woodman, symbolic of the guillotine, and the Farmer, symbolic of the peasants who stormed the Bastille, work unheeded.

Some characters act as dualities, as well, as Dickens often places an English character in contrast to a French one:

• Sydney Carton -- Charles Darnay (Evremonde)

The brilliant, but dissipated, Carton sees in noble Darnay what he could have been, and he is inspired by his idealized love for Lucie Manette to redeem himself through self-sacrifice. "For you and for any dear to you, I would do anything," he declares to Lucie in Chapter 13 of Book the Second. In the end, Carton finds redemption after he replaces Darnay in the prison and goes to the guillotine in place of Charles Evremonde (Darnay), who escapes with his family to England.

• Mr. Lorry -- Dr. Manette

The "man of business," as he describes himself, is often in sharp contrast to the delusional and irrational Dr. Manette. Often, too, he lends a sympathetic ear and moral support to Lucie and the weakened physician.

Mr. Lorry is a loyal and sensible friend to Dr. Manette as, for instance, after Manette learns the real identity of Charles Darnay on his and Lucie's wedding day, the physician has a relapse and pulls out his shoe-making kit.

After this relapse, Mr. Lorry consults with Dr. Manette about a "friend" who has resorted to working on his occupation, an activity from a time in his life that should be put behind him. Dr. Manette suggests destroying that which he occupies himself, and he agrees to its destruction if the object can be taken from him when he is not around.

• Dr. Manette -- Manette

In a sense, Manette is a duality himself. He is the imprisoned man, who has spent many years in the Bastille. On the other hand, he is a man who has been rescued from a living death, who sometimes loses his hold upon life and regresses to his old occupation when he was in prison.  

• Lucie Manette -- Madame Defarge

The stereotypical Victorian heroine, Lucie is kind and loving while, in contrast, Therese Defarge is a malevolent force. Lucie stands outside her husband's prison window so that he may see her. She also brings out the best in Sydney Carton, motivating him to sacrifice himself on the guillotine for Charles so that he may leave France with his family:

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."

On the other hand, Madame Defarge is a force of evil, knitting the names of her victims into the material that she fashions. Consumed by the desire for revenge against the French aristocracy, particularly the Evremonde family, who are responsible for the deaths of her sister and brother, Madame Defarge pursues Charles Darnay in her effort to annihilate the aristocrats. When her husband suggests that she be merciful to Dr. Manette because of the anguish of his daughter, Madame Defarge insists that the Evremondes are summoned to answer for the things they have done to her family. Guilt lies on Dr. Manette because he aided the Evremonde brothers. She tells Monsieur Defarge,

Then tell the Wind and Fire where to stop,...but don't tell me."

Madame Defarge is certainly a classic villain in her singleness of intent for vengeance, just as Sydney Carton is the redemptive hero. The contrasts of such characters and others in the motif of dualities certainly provide a strong effect for A Tale of Two Cities.

Every lesson that Helen was taught by her teacher was set amidst the beauty and magnificence of nature. Elaborate using examples from the text.

Helen Keller writes in The Story of My Life about how her teacher, Anne Sullivan, taught her in the outdoors. She writes in Chapter V:

"Long before I learned to do a sum in arithmetic or describe the shape of the earth, Miss Sullivan had taught me to find beauty in the fragrant woods, in every blade of grass."

Sullivan brings her student to nature to learn about the world around her and to teach her the names of objects in nature using sign language. 

Nature also helps Keller learn the meaning of abstract ideas. As she is trying to understand what love means, she observes the following in nature:

"The sun had been under a cloud all day, and there had been brief showers; but suddenly the sun broke forth in all its southern splendor."

The natural world allows her to understand more complex concepts such as love, as she equates the appearance of the warmth of the sun after a day of storms with the concept of love. By bringing Keller outside, Sullivan makes her lessons enjoyable. As Keller writes, "The loveliness of things taught me all their use." Keller's early enjoyment of her lessons outside causes her to be eager to learn more, setting her on a path that will take her to Radcliffe College (then the sister school of Harvard) and to a life of learning, speaking, and activism. 

In Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, how do Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss react to Charlie's intelligence?

Dr. Strauss was introduced to Charlie through Miss Kinnian. He, in turn, introduced Charlie to Dr. Nemur and their experiment on intelligence. Dr. Nemur was at first reluctant to use Charlie as the test subject. However, Dr. Strauss believed Charlie was the right subject because he was motivated to develop his intelligence. He succeeded in convincing Dr. Nemur to authorize Charlie’s participation in the experiment.

The first visible sign of Charlie getting smart was when he first beat Algernon. His intelligence continued to grow, and he noticed that Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur argued a lot. Charlie overheard an argument between the two doctors about the experiment. Dr. Nemur stated that it was his experiment, and Dr. Strauss claimed that he also contributed much to the research. Dr. Nemur wanted to publish the results of the test for recognition, but Dr. Strauss thought it was best to give it more time. Dr. Nemur was also intimidated by Charlie’s growing intelligence, and he was uncomfortable around him.

What was one key event from the 1850s that escalated tensions between the North and South? How did the push for western expansion impact this event?

One event from the 1850s that heightened tensions between the North and the South was the raid by the abolitionist John Brown on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, which was then in the state of Virginia.  This raid helped increase tensions because the North and South reacted to it in different ways.

In this raid, Brown and his followers took control of the federal armory.  Their plan, such was it was, was to give out weapons to the slaves who, they were sure, would flock to them.  These slaves would then carry out an armed rebellion.  Brown and his people were defeated and Brown was later executed. 

The “argument” on the part of the North (or at least on the part of many Northerners) was that John Brown was a hero.  Northerners saw Brown as a martyr for his cause.  They felt that he was a courageous man who had stood up for what he believed in.  This infuriated the South.  Their “argument” was that Brown was a killer who was breaking the law in an attempt to get the slaves to rise up and kill the people of the South.  They hated the idea that the North would lionize a man who wanted to cause the massacre of Southern whites.  In this way, the debate between the two sides was not really about the raid, but about how people should perceive Brown.

Westward expansion did not have a great impact on this event. It happened in Virginia, not in any western area.  However, expansion did have one impact.  Westward expansion brought about the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the violence of “Bleeding Kansas.”  John Brown was part of that violence.  He helped lead anti-slavery fighters in Kansas and was involved in an incident now known as the “Pottawatomie Massacre,” in which five pro-slavery men were killed in cold blood.  Although Brown was already an abolitionist, we could argue that westward expansion helped to radicalize him and make him more likely to carry out such an extreme act as his raid on Harpers Ferry.

How would you compare and contrast ancient Persia with ancient Greece?

Both ancient Persia and ancient Greece were societies that had an immense impact on subsequent cultures. Both were advanced civilizations which developed or adapted complex writing systems to daily life and administration. Both had sophisticated legal systems, relatively advanced technology for their period, and important artistic traditions. Both the Greeks and the Persians owned slaves and considered themselves far superior to "barbarians."

While Persia was a monarchy that imposed uniform political and administrative systems over a vast empire, Greece consisted on many independent city states, each of which had its own political system. While the Persian Empire had a vast network of roads and land transportation, the Greek city states were separated by mountains and they tended to rely more on naval transportation. While the Persian Empire tended to follow Zoroastrianism, the Greeks had a wide range of deities, of which the twelve Olympians were the most prominent. 

How does Pip attempt to change his life in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens?

After Pip comes into his fortune, he attempts to change his life by becoming what he thinks is a gentleman. He goes to London and studies with a tutor, Mr. Matthew Pocket, to become acquainted with great works. He also tries to master eating properly, as he has not been schooled in table manners. At the beginning of this process, he refers to utensils as "instruments of self-destruction" (page 192), as he finds it so difficult to eat genteelly. Along with his best friend Herbert Pocket, he takes up the pastimes of a gentleman, including rowing and joining a private club (and getting deeply into debt). He also attempts to court the haughty and dismissive Estella. In the process of trying to change his life, he stays away from his sister (who eventually dies), Joe, and Biddy. Later, after his fortune is lost, Pip realizes that in his attempt to change himself, he has distanced himself from the two true friends he has (other than Herbert), Joe and Biddy, and that being a gentleman means treating his friends well, not just eating properly. 

What conflict do the bells and the wind present to the speaker in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening?

When the narrator of "Stopping by Wood on a Snowy Evening" pauses on a dark, snowy night to watch the snow fall in the woods, his horse, accustomed to stopping in the town, is confused. "He gives his harness bells a shake/ To ask if there is some mistake." The horse is used to being driven from farmhouse to farmhouse, and he doesn't understand the reason the narrator stops in the dark woods to contemplate nature. The bells are the call back to the town and to human society. As the narrator pauses in the woods, "The only other sound’s the sweep/ Of easy wind and downy flake." In other words, all the narrator can hear is the wind in the woods. The wind is the call to stay in nature that is in opposition to the pull the narrator feels to go back to town. 

In "Ring out, wild bells," why is pride in place and blood considered to be false?

"Ring out, wild bells" starts with a plea for change, addressed to nature itself: "The year is dying in the night; / Ring out, wild bells, and let him die." It pauses on an image of snow, which is often associated with purity (think of the phrase "as pure as driven snow"), but is also harsh on the human body. The poem is informed by Tennyson's extreme grief at the death of his close friend, Arthur Hallam (to whom In Memoriam is dedicated), but it is also an expression of cautious optimism that not all change is bad. We're suffering right now, but purity is not entirely out of our reach.

While the poem begins and ends with thoughts of purity and spirituality, the middle becomes concerned with concrete, tangible human failings. These are impure, largely because they're concerned with material things. Now we're in the world of "party strife," "civic slander," "foul disease," "lust of gold," and "wars of old." Can't you just see a dingy, smelly city street, strewn with trash, as you read those lines?

Among this litany is "false pride in place and blood." In essence, you feel "false pride in place and blood" when you think you're important just because of where you live or who you're related to. Does being born in the United States make a person better than being born in Canada? Does supporting your local football team make you better than fans of other teams? Does having a hereditary title (one that you inherited rather than earned) make you automatically better than people who don't have one? This poem thinks not.

Look at the types of things identified as good in the poem: sweet manners; pure laws; love of truth and right and good; peace; valiance; kindness. What do they have in common? They are things you do. You have to choose to love truth or write better laws or act kindly. It doesn't just happen by accident.

The poem sees pride as false when it's not earned. Being born in a certain place or born into a certain family is arbitrary. There's nothing for you to be proud of, because you didn't do anything.

The reason this false pride is dangerous, and should be rung out, is that it creates needless conflict between people. It can lead to the civic slander and party strife—everything from football hooligans to nationalistic armies to peasant revolts to schoolyard bullying.

In a larger sense, the poem scorns pride in place and blood because it's one of many expressions of our moral failing—we value material things at the expense of spiritual ones. That's why the last line is an expression of hope that Christ will come: if anyone can help us get our priorities straight, it's him.

What's a possible thesis statement for an essay themed on conformity and rebellion?

Thematically speaking, a thesis that focuses on conformity and rebellion is very possible to do from the story "Two Kinds."  The thing to remember about writing a thesis statement is that it is largely a statement of opinion.  It is possible for you to write a thesis statement like the following:

"The story 'Two Kinds' shows the themes of conformity and rebellion."  

The above statement is a statement of opinion about the story.  In the body of your essay, you will need to prove to your readers where those themes are illustrated.  Broadly speaking, Jing-mei is rebelling against her mother's wishes instead of conforming to them.  

The previous thesis statement is manageable, but it is also really boring.  I would recommend doing a thesis statement that is a two-part statement.  That kind of thesis allows you to write about two sides of an issue.  For example:

"Although conforming to Suyuan's wishes would have been difficult for Jing-mei, rebelling against her mother was a much more difficult action."  

That thesis now allows you to focus on the themes of conformity and rebellion while also discussing the impacts that each action would have on the characters.   

What was the role of Montmorency in packing in Chapter 4 of Jerome's Three Men in a Boat?

Montmorency is a fox terrier, the “dog” in the title. His role in the packing process was to interfere. J., the narrator of the book, first packed all of the clothing and equipment into a large Gladstone suitcase. Then George and Harris packed all of the food and utensils into hampers. Montmorency got in their way. Harris later claimed that J. encouraged the dog to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; but J. replied that Montmorency needed no such prodding to do what a dog naturally likes to do.

He came and sat down on things, just when they were wanted to be packed; and he laboured under the fixed belief that, whenever Harris or George reached out their hand for anything, it was his cold, damp nose that they wanted. He put his leg into the jam, and he worried the teaspoons, and he pretended that the lemons were rats, and got into the hamper and killed three of them before Harris could land him with the frying-pan.

This scene serves as a precursor to later escapades in which Montmorency takes part. He has an encounter with a cat in Chapter XIII. He argues with the tea kettle and brings a donation to George’s Irish stew in Chapter XIV.

How did Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush's presidencies end the Cold War in the United States' favor?

Reagan's role in ending the Cold War was to ramp up U.S. military spending with the hope that the Soviet Union could not keep up. His Strategic Defense Initiative, derisively called "Star Wars" in the American press, intimidated the Soviet Union into scaling back their nuclear arsenal. Reagan also supported anti-Soviet rebellions behind the Iron Curtain, and the US backed the Solidarity movement in Poland. Reagan broke away from the detente arrangement held by the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations because he said America was prolonging the war by not being confrontational.

George H.W. Bush opened friendly negotiations with the Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Bush also helped oversee the reunification of Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1991, America and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Within a year, Ukraine and Belarus, traditionally part of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire, declared their independence and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.  

In "The Road Not Taken," why did the traveler find it difficult to make his choice on that particular morning? What impression do you form of the...

In Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” the traveler is making of choice of which path to take as he hikes through the woods. This becomes a modern metaphor for his life. As the traveler approaches a fork in the road he stops to examine both for use. On that particular morning, the roads seem very similar, but one seemed to be a bit less worn, thereforehe decided to take that one while keeping the other one for another day. He knows he will never travel that way again, yet he is introspective saying, “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

There are contradictions in the words as Frost tells the audience the two paths were quite the same, with the second one having a bit less wear on that particular morning. Later the traveler explains he took the one less traveled by and that made all the difference.

Since poetry is meant to be interpreted and appreciated, this one is generally associated the pursuit of individualism and adventure. Readers say the traveler was daring as he chose to take the path that “wanted wear” and feel this affected his life for years to come. Others feel Robert Frost was writing about his indecisive friend and the poem was never meant to carry its modern connotation of encouraging people to be adventurous and to follow their dreams. In either case, the traveler has to make a decision, which he looks back on pensively at the end of the poem.

What does "Art is long" mean in the third stanza of "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?

In line 13, "Art is long" is used in contrast to the "fleeting" nature of time. This line means the constructions of a man's record of experience [art] may last long after him as a witness to his talent and creative imagination, but the time a person has to create art is limited.

Certainly, art (this includes paintings, sculpture, music, and literature) is a form of communication of the human experience, all of which often lasts for ages. Nevertheless, the artist possesses only a "fleeting" amount of time in which to form his/ her work of art. Therefore, the artist must find it necessary to work diligently and with perseverance within the limitations of a lifetime. This fact is another part of the speaker's argument that one must "Act,—act in the living Present!" (line 23).

There is little doubt that Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life" stresses what is thematic of carpe diem verses, yet it also includes more, as in the idea that what one does in life can remain long after he or she is gone. Unlike traditional carpe diem poems, Longfellow's verse includes the theme of making the most of one's life in order to fulfill oneself, but also in order to leave something of worth behind for others. By doing so, others may find its beauty, value, and lessons to be learned in "the footsteps of time" and "take heart."

What are some short notes on Romanticism?

The Romantic period is generally thought to have begun in the late 18th century and continued into the first third of the 19th century. More specifically, it's thought to have started around 1789 and lasted until 1832. Some of Romanticism's most famous authors include William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The interior experience of the individual is one of the most important characteristics of Romantic literature. Rejecting rigid social, religious, and political traditions, the Romantics emphasized the subjective experience of the individual, arguing that feelings or emotions should be prized over logic. As such, much of Romantic literature presents us with radically isolated individuals who have rejected conventional society. Additionally, Romantic literature is often associated with the natural world and nature, and a great deal of Romantic poetry involves lengthy descriptions of expansive, natural vistas. That said, it would be a mistake to simply characterize the Romantics as "nature" poets. Indeed, most Romantic writers did not write about nature in order to focus solely on the natural world, but rather to introduce and explore a more abstract theme. Often, this theme explored the status of the individual's interior, and so the natural world often served as a starting point for the author's discussion of the state of the individual and the interior self. 

It might help to check out a sample poem to see how these ideas work in real time. The poem below (Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much With Us") illustrates many prominent Romantic themes, such as the rejection of conventional society, descriptions of nature, and a presentation of a radically individualistic self.

The world is too much with us; late and soon, 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— 

Little we see in Nature that is ours; 

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; 

The winds that will be howling at all hours, 

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; 

For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be 

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; 

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

Communication is occurring between two satellites. The transmission obeys the free space law. However, the signal is too weak. The vendor offers...

From the free space law (more specifically from the Friis equation), we know that the received power is proportional to the gains of each antenna and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them:
`P_{rec} / P_{trans} = G_{trans} G_{rec} (lambda / {4 pi R})^2`

Where `P_{rec}` and `P_{trans}` are the power at receiver and transmitter respectively, `G ` are the gains,` lambda` is the wavelength, and `R` is the distance.

Gain in turn is given by effective area and wavelength as follows:
`G = {4pi A}/{lambda^2}`

Where `A` is the effective area.

Thus, if we double the area of each transmitter, we will increase both gains by 2, and the overall power received by 4.

But if we double the frequency, we will cut the wavelength in half, which means we would reduce received power to 1/4 if gain remained the same; but in fact if effective area is held constant, gain will increase by a factor of 4, precisely canceling this effect out. Thus, the power received will be equal regardless of what frequency we choose.

The best option is therefore to increase the effective area, increasing received power by a factor of 4. Increasing frequency would not help.

Why is it important to Moishe that the Jews of Sighet believe his story?

Moishe the Beadle was a foreigner and a poor member of Eliezer's community in Sighet. He was one of the first people to witness the Nazi atrocities in Hungary after he was deported and miraculously survived the Gestapo's firing squad. When he returned to Sighet, he told the community about his horrific experience and said that the Nazis took the foreign Jews to Poland where they slaughtered men, women, and children. He mentions that babies were tossed into the air and used as targets for machine guns while men dug their own graves before being shot. Moishe pleads to the citizens to listen to his story and believe him. When Eliezer asks Moishe why it is so important that people believe his story, Moishe tells him, "I wanted to return to Sighet to describe to you my death so that you might ready yourselves while there is still time" (Wiesel 7). Moishe hopes that the community will believe him and start preparing to leave their small town before the Nazis arrive. He does not want the rest of the Jews in Sighet to experience a similar fate. Unfortunately, the Jews living in Sighet do not believe him and suffer through similar atrocities when the Nazis arrive.

Should gun manufacturers be allowed to advertise?

There are, of course, arguments to be made for either side of this question. I will briefly outline an argument for each side and you can decide which argument you prefer.

On the one hand, we can say that gun manufacturers should not be allowed to advertise.  Their product is one that is used to kill huge numbers of people every year.  Since their product is so dangerous, it is not something that should be advertised.  We should prevent such advertising so that not so many people would want to have guns and the amount of gun violence in our country would decline.

On the other hand, we can say that such ads absolutely must be allowed.  First, under current legal doctrine, the right to own a gun is protected by the Constitution.  It would be very odd to prevent manufacturers from advertising a product that is specifically protected by our founding document.  Second, people can have many reasons to own guns other than killing people.  A person might want a gun simply for target practice.  A person might want a gun for hunting.  A person might want a gun so they can scare away someone who might be trying to harm them, even if they do not kill that person.  Gun manufacturers, then, are selling a product that has a variety of uses and one which is protected by the Constitution.  Given this, it is unreasonable to ban advertisements for this product.

Which of these arguments makes more sense to you?

Explain America's industrial growth during the World War I era.

While the U.S. economy was in a recession when World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, the economy quickly rebounded while the U.S. provided war materials to Europeans. The period of American neutrality, which lasted until 1917, allowed the U.S. to convert factories to wartime use so that they were already running when the U.S. later joined the war.

The American government bankrolled a lot of the new production. During the period 1914 to 1918, 3 million people were added to the military payroll, while one million people were added to the government payroll. Unemployment declined from 7.9 percent to 1.4 percent (see the National Bureau of Economic Research statistics at the link below), as people were employed in the military and in defense plants. The government also controlled prices and rates of production through agencies such as the War Industries Board. Much of the industrial growth during World War I was fueled by government spending and controlled through government administration.

What impact does Horovitz make through his play The Indian Wants the Bronx?

The main impact that Horovitz makes with his play The Indian Wants the Bronx is to spread awareness and also to encourage self-reflection and awareness of how one's actions and understanding, or misunderstanding, of others can cause problems. Arguably, the play is mostly about communication, and how miscommunication and misunderstanding is the root of most problems between people. Horovitz himself says that the play is about communication, and he tries to show that through the clumsy attempts at conversation that the boys share with Gupta, the Indian man who they harass on the street. This inability to communicate with Gupta eventually leads the boys to become frustrated. This frustration builds to a tragic conclusion, an act of violence committed against the Indian man, who was just attempting to visit his son.

At first, it appears that the boys' attempts at making conversation and interacting with Gupta are relatively tame. They make wisecracks but they are not ultimately cruel until they start to judge one another. It becomes clear that they have been raised in a very misogynistic, racist environment after they call each other "rotten jap" and "turkie-humper" in an attempt to one-up and pigeonhole the other person. It is this need for competition that betrays their internal strife and frustration at their own shortcomings.

In fact, this play speaks to a time when these masculine ideals and racist beliefs were not only prevalent, but expected. The boys only know how to communicate with one another in this way, and because the "Turk," as they call him, does not, they see him as the "other"—someone separate from themselves. The "other" for them is someone whom it is okay to take their anger out upon, or to lash out at with all of their internal frustration and pent-up emotion. The play exposes racism and sexism, potentially confronting audience members with their own shortcomings and forcing them to consider the impact they have on the world around them. It is especially powerful in that it allows its audience to see the situation unfolding objectively, from both the point of view of the boys and that of Gupta.

What were the economical consequences of the Roman expansion in the Mediterranean Sea?

Before the Punic Wars, Rome had been a relatively small nation located on the Italian peninsula. It was primarily a land power. Economically, it was based on paid labor and small agricultural holdings. As part of the conflicts with Carthage, Rome gradually came to expand and transformed into an empire. 

The first major economic change resulting from this was the growth of trade and maritime power. Along with the benefits of trade came the import of foodstuffs, especially Egyptian grain, which caused a cycle of urban population growth, requiring an even higher volume of grain imports. This cycle was intensified by a change in the nature of Roman agriculture.

Partly as a result of imperial conquest, Roman agriculture expanded to include a vast estate called latifundia across the Mediterranean littoral, generally cultivated by slave labor. While these were more efficient than smaller plots, they led to a great concentration of wealth and income inequality. 

Roman conquests not only increased trade routes but also provided large numbers of slaves, something that contributed to economic expansion. 

In "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs, how would you describe the appearance of the monkey's paw?

The monkey’s paw is a disembodied mummified monkey’s paw.

The monkey’s paw is a talisman that supposedly had a spell put on it by a fakir in India.  You can wish on it, and your wish will come true.  It just won’t come true in the way you intended.  Sergeant-major Morris, who brings the Whites the paw, explains that the person who last had the paw wished for death after using it.

The sergeant-major describes the paw as ordinary.

"To look at," said the sergeant-major, fumbling in his pocket, "it's just an ordinary little paw, dried to a mummy."

Basically, someone cut the paw off a monkey, and over time it has been mummified.  The Whites seem to find its appearance disturbing even though Morris describes it as ordinary.  However, due to the spell it now has magical powers.

The monkey’s paw may make the Whites feel disturbed because of the way Morris describes its powers, rather than how it looks.  He makes it seem scary.  Let’s face it, parts of monkeys are a little gross anyway.

After throwing the monkey's paw into the fire, Morris warned the Whites to leave it alone.  They were curious though.  They ended up making a wish, as a lark.

Mr. White took the paw from his pocket and eyed it dubiously. "I don't know what to wish for, and that's a fact," he said slowly. "It seems to me I've got all I want."

  "If you only cleared the house, you'd be quite happy, wouldn't you?" said Herbert, with his hand on his shoulder. "Well, wish for two hundred pounds, then; that'll just do it."

They would later regret making this wish, because the Whites found out why the last person wished for death.  The Whites got their first wish in the worst way, when they got the money but their son was killed.  Then, Mrs. White wished him back to life.  Her husband used the last wish to reverse that wish.

Provide criticism of the poem "My Life Closed Twice" by Emily Dickinson.

Critics have noted in the poem "My Life Closed Twice" that the poet has undergone two traumatic events (see the links to the criticism below). It is unclear what these events were, but the poet felt that her life was over when these previous events happened. As critics have noted, there is a paradox in the line "My life closed twice before its close," as the words "closed" and "close" can take on different meanings. Life "closed" can mean that her life became poorer or narrower in quality, while the "close" of her life can refer to her death. 

The poet is now waiting for the "third event," or her literal death. She describes this death as an "unveiling," as a mystery will be revealed to her. She also describes parting as both heaven and hell; this is a paradox that might refer to the idea that people go to heaven when they die but their loss is experienced as hell or suffering. 

What is one disadvantage to a national policy that must be implemented by one agency of the federal bureaucracy?

The most important disadvantage to having centralized national policy instead of local policy is the inability to adapt to local circumstances. In any society, local regions are going to differ from one another to greater or lesser degree, and if their needs differ strongly enough, national policies that are one-size-fits-all could be ineffective or harmful.

A good example of this is minimum wage. Prices vary substantially between different regions within any large country; for example prices in San Francisco are much higher than prices in rural Tennessee. A federal minimum wage that is fixed at a nominal dollar figure like $10 or $15 could have very different effects in those two places; in San Francisco it might be beneficial in helping people afford the high prices, or not even matter because wages are already above that level, while in Tennessee it could be harmful as it requires paying unreasonably high real wages in some industries.

It is sometimes possible to design federal policies that work around this problem (in this case, you could set a minimum wage at purchasing power parity), but often a better solution is simply to allow local governments to make their own decisions on certain issues.

Why is it important that Santiago dreams of a child who tells him of his treasure in the abandoned church?

Santiago's dream of a child telling him about a treasure is important because it foreshadows the final location of the treasure.  I would like to make it clear though that the child in the dream does not tell Santiago that the treasure is in the church.  Here is that section of the text.  

"Then, at the Egyptian pyramids," — he said the last three words slowly, so that the old woman would understand—"the child said to me, 'If you come here, you will find a hidden treasure.' And, just as she was about to show me the exact location, I woke up. Both times." 

The child tells Santiago "if you come here."  Santiago believes that "here" is Egypt.  Egypt is not the location of the treasure; the church is the location of the treasure.  Believing that the treasure is in Egypt, Santiago leaves on his journey.  He has all manner of setbacks, but he does eventually get to Egypt.  While he is in Egypt, he is robbed (once again) by bandits; however, he hears the bandits talking about a treasure that is in an abandoned church in Spain.  

"In my dream, there was a sycamore growing out of the ruins of the sacristy, and I was told that, if I dug at the roots of the sycamore, I would find a hidden treasure."

Santiago now realizes that the treasure that he seeks is right back where he started his entire journey in the first place.  That doesn't mean Santiago's original interpretation of the dream was wrong though.  He thought "here" meant Egypt.  Had Santiago not gone to Egypt, he would not have been told the specific detail of exactly where to dig.  So in a way Santiago did find the location of the treasure in Egypt.  He learned the location of the treasure in Egypt, and he found the actual treasure in Spain. 

Does the banker distinguish his character in the story?

I'm a bit uncertain by what the question means exactly by "distinguish."  I believe that the question is asking whether or not the banker makes his character stand out as different from other characters.  

Yes, I believe that the banker stands out as different from other characters in the story.  Most of my evidence comes from the early parts of the story.  Specifically, I think the banker distinguishes his character before the lawyer enters solitary confinement.  

The first thing that I think is important for the banker's character is that he is the guy hosting the party.  Wallflowers and people that are not confident and self-assured do not host parties.  The banker has no problem hosting the party, nor does he have problems with hosting many distinguished guests.  From the first paragraph, a reader already gets the feeling that the banker believes that he is an important man.  

Then the banker talks, and my initial impression is that he has an elevated opinion about himself and his thoughts in relation to other people's thoughts.  The first thing that he says about capital punishment is the following:

"I don't agree with you."

Notice the "you."  The banker doesn't say "I don't agree with that."  He directs his comment to an actual person.  It's a confrontational way of entering the discussion.  It's here that the reader might begin thinking that the banker is a bit of a pompous and arrogant bully, but there isn't enough evidence . . . yet.  

Once the bet is made, the banker distinguishes his character by confirming earlier suspicions about his elevated opinion of himself and lack of respect for another person's opinion.  The banker berates and teases the lawyer about the bet.  

The banker, spoilt and frivolous, with millions beyond his reckoning, was delighted at the bet. At supper he made fun of the young man, and said: "Think better of it, young man, while there is still time. To me two millions are a trifle, but you are losing three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or four, because you won't stay longer. Don't forget either, you unhappy man, that voluntary confinement is a great deal harder to bear than compulsory. The thought that you have the right to step out in liberty at any moment will poison your whole existence in prison. I am sorry for you."

The banker is basically talking smack at a party for distinguished members of society.  The guy might be a member of high class society by his wealth, but he for sure is low class by his actions.  That character trait is further confirmed at the end of the story when readers discover that he is willing to commit murder in order to hold onto the rest of his wealth. 

How does Erdrich blur the themes of The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse?

It is an interesting theory to think of a theme being “blurred.”  This presents the idea that a theme could be either unclear or contrasted.  Let us consider the themes of devotion and Catholic religious life in this regard.

First, the theme of devotion is blurred by Agnes’ devotion to the piano and the Catholic faith.  First, we see Agnes leaving the convent because she is so very passionate about playing the piano that she cannot be contained by the convent walls.  This devotion is subsequently blurred in that it switches to her role as “Father” Damien (when Agnes decides to become a priest in disguise).  Can devotion continue to be devotion if it is so easily transferred? Next, we can talk about the theme of devotion being blurred through her Catholic faith.  Agnes is devoted to this faith in that she becomes a nun.  However, then Agnes decides to “become” a priest.  Women are not allowed to be priests within the Catholic faith (despite their devotion).  Further “Father” Damien allows polygamy and homosexuality within the Ojibwe tribe on the reservation.  Can devotion to the Catholic faith still be present if Catholic rules are not followed?  This is precisely how Erdrich blurs the theme of devotion.

Next, Erdrich blurs the theme of Catholic religious life through mixing traditional gender roles.  Catholic nuns are women.  Priests are men.  Both priests and nuns are celibate.  There are no exceptions in the Roman Catholic Church; however, there are certainly exceptions within this novel.  Agnes “becomes” Father Damien.  She also is sexually active with yet another priest who comes to “help” her with the Ojibwe tribe.  Is this truly Catholic religious life?  The theme is blurred.  Erdrich challenges our idea of nuns being women and priests being men.  Erdrich also challenges our idea about how priests and nuns should behave.  In these ways, she blurs the theme of Catholic religious life.

How does Hemingway's "code hero" connect to his story "Hills Like White Elephants"?

Hemingway's code hero is a man who could be identified as a man's man.  He likes to drink, have affairs with women, engage in physical activities such as hunting or fishing.  He is stoic and courageous in the face of danger, and handles the challenges of the world with grace and dignity.  The American in the short story "Hills Like White Elephants" shows some of the characteristics of this stock character.  This story is almost entirely a dialogue between a girl named Jig and the American.  It is told from an objective point of view, so what we know about the male character comes primarily from this conversation and a few descriptive details provided about the setting.  In this conversation we learn that the couple has been together for a while.  Their relationship has consisted of trying new drinks and traveling around Europe, and having a "fine time." 

The American is clearly knowledgeable about drinks, because the girl defers to his judgment several times when they order.  He also speaks Spanish and interprets for the girl the waitress's words.  He is clearly the dominant figure in the relationship, in his pressing Jig to have an abortion and her ultimate submission to his will. 

His actions portray the typical Hemingway hero--a drinker, a lover, and a man who does not want to be tied down.  The American exemplifies the attitudes of  of the Lost Generation about which Hemingway often wrote. After WW1, many of these young people seemed to reject the values of their parents and to have no sense of purpose and see no real meaning in life.  

However, even though the man may be the typical macho Hemingway hero, he does not come across as courageous, or acting with dignity and grace.  In his obvious desire to avoid any type of commitment to his lover, he chooses death over life, bachelorhood over family, and hedonism over love.  He says none of the words that Jig wants to him to say about marriage and family.  He seems callous and insensitive to Jig, and even though he offers to accompany her when she has the abortion, this offer seems self-serving and cowardly.  

What are specific examples of courtly love between Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare's play?

Romeo's relationship with Rosaline is more characteristic of courtly love than is the relationship between Romeo and Juliet. For example, courtly love involves no physical contact but a great deal of mooning on the part of the man, who is distracted and sleepless because he is obsessed with his beloved and willing to go to all extents to defend her. The woman, on the other hand, is haughty and pure. At the beginning of the play, when Romeo imagines he is in love with Rosaline, Benvolio tells Lady Montague that he has seen Romeo "underneath the grove of sycamore / That westward rooteth from this city side, / So early walking did I see your son" (I.2.111-113). Benvolio sees Romeo taking an early morning walk under sycamore trees, but Romeo is so distracted while thinking about his love that he does not even see his friend. Romeo's parents wonder what is wrong with him, but, as is characteristic of a courtly lover, Romeo keeps his love a secret from them and prefers to think about his love in private.

At the beginning of Romeo's relationship with Juliet, he also acts like a courtly lover, admiring her beauty from afar when he sees her at Capulet's ball. He is full of praise for her, saying of Juliet, "It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night / Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear" (I.5.43-44). He compares the brightness of her beauty to a jeweled earring hanging from the ear of an African person. Juliet, like a courtly lover, tells Romeo when he first takes her hand, "Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, / Which mannerly devotion shows in this" (I.5.97-98). She compares his hands to those of a pilgrim, who touches saints. She is pretending to only see pure intentions in Romeo's touch. 

However, once Juliet and Romeo meet, they quickly discard most of the conventions of courtly love and kiss. Juliet is not the traditional coy mistress. For example, after Romeo hears her declaring her love for him, she says, "Fain would I dwell on form. Fain, fain deny / What I have spoke. But farewell compliment!" (II.1.88-89). This means that she wants to follow conventions and deny what she has just said, but she is bidding farewell to what is considered conventional. She quickly discards the conventions of courtly love in her relationship with Romeo. 

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, what is Mr. Turkle's daily routine?

Mr. Turkle works the night shift on the ward, from 11pm to 7am. He is described as "an old Negro man with a big sleepy grin on the end of a long wobbly neck." He seems to spend much of his night shift sleeping because he works during the day at a race track, and he also often smells like he's been drinking. If Chief is having a bad dream, Mr. Turkle will loosen his sheet a bit, as Mr. Turkle thinks that the next aides will think that Chief loosened his own sheet. If Mr. Turkle thinks it will get him in trouble, though, he doesn't dare loosen or untie Chief's sheet.

When McMurphy brings a girl to the ward to visit with Billy, Mr. Turkle lets her in. McMurphy bribes Mr. Turkle with drinks. Mr. Turkle gets so drunk that McMurphy has to feign tying him up with sheets so that Nurse Ratched does not figure out what they have been up to. However, Mr. Turkle is found drunk in the linen room and is promptly fired from working on the ward. 

I'd like to know how to do finance research.

There are a number of organizations that allow for online open access to research in finance topics and issues. Some of these organizations make much of their finance research available through open access, while others require payment or access through your school library, such as through an OpenAthens sign-in. Some of these organizations have familiar names, like the World Bank, while others may be generally unheard of, like "Ideas" or "Sciedu Press." To illustrate variable kinds of access, World Bank has many finance research articles available through open access, while Wiley Online Library has a combination of accessible articles, OpenAthens sign-in access, and rentable or purchasable articles. Some of the sites are a bit challenging to navigate, like Idea, but others are more "user friendly," like World Bank.

World Bank: World Bank has fairly straightforward sidebar navigation offering "Subtopics," like "Remittances and Migration," and "Publications," indexing World Bank working papers to 2005. Current working papers are featured on their home page, as was this Chinese microfinance working paper.  

Idea: Idea has a vast collection of international working papers, articles, books and chapters. The papers and articles are sorted by country (in the USA, by state), while the books and chapters are sorted by publisher. NEP papers (side navigation bar) are sorted solely by date, as was this PDF download of a NEP paper on African regional economics of globalization.

Wiley Online Library: Wiley Online Library carries the Journal of Financial Research. Some journal articles require payment for rent of purchase unless you sign-in through your educational institution via OpenAthens. Other journal articles are open access, as was this 2015 archived article on capital structure dynamics.

Science Direct: Science Direct carries Finance Research Letters and is similar to Wiley in that articles are purchasable unless you have access through your school institutional account, as is shown by this purchasable article on investors' sentiment and premium risk.

The Wharton School: The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) Finance Department makes many finance research papers available online as downloads or online PDF files, like this paper on capital and labor.

Sciedu Press: Sciedu Press makes its archive of issues of accounting and finance research available online. A little tricky to navigate, the "Archive" link in the horizontal navigation cluster leads to archived issues going back to 2012. Selecting an issue volume and number [Vol., No. (year)] leads you to accessible article links, which lead to an article abstract with a PDF link, which leads to a page offering either a PDF download link or a page-embedded Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF file, as for this archived article on Egyptian bank risk-taking.

Is Hamlet psychoanalytic? Would you stage a production of Hamlet as a reproduction, realistic or contemporized/ modernized drama? How could the...

Sigmund Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis, was born in 1856, almost two and a half centuries after the death of Shakespeare in 1616. Thus there is really no way that the play Hamlet could have been influenced by psychoanalysis. While one can apply psychoanalytic theory to almost anything, as it purports to give a universal account of human nature, it would not be wise to do so for two reasons, first that its application to Shakespeare is anachronistic and second that traditional psychoanalytic theory has, to a large degree, been rendered obsolete by more modern, scientifically based accounts of how the human brain functions.

Although there are many different ways to stage Hamlet, I would choose an attempt to reproduce many elements of its original staging, albeit with female actors playing female roles. The reason for this is that many of the plot elements of the play, including Hamlet's outrage over his mother's marriage to Claudius, are clearly grounded in religious and court traditions of his period. Also, it just strikes me as glaringly incongruous to have people speaking Elizabethan English in productions set in other periods (although more abstract settings can be effective).

The main thing the creative team would need to do to stage such a production would be careful research to guarantee authenticity in everything from costumes to movement style and props to accents. 

What is Gladwell's claim in Chapter 5?

Gladwell's claim in Chapter Five is that a successful entrepreneur is the product of his place and relevance in a specific time period.

Gladwell cites the example of the New York Jewish lawyer. He claims that 1930 was the perfect year for a Jewish lawyer to be born:

Just as there is a perfect birth date for a nineteenth-century business tycoon, and a perfect birth date for a software tycoon, there is a perfect birth date for a New York Jewish law­yer as well. It's 1930, because that would give the lawyer the benefit of a blessedly small generation.

Gladwell cites the example of successful and influential Jewish lawyers born during this period. The Black Rock law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz perfectly exemplifies Gladwell's points. During their childhood years, most of these Jewish lawyers had parents or grandparents who worked in the world-class garment industry in New York City. In their youth, these lawyers also attended exclusively New York City public schools, then the envy of the world where public schools were concerned.

In fact, Gladwell cites the typical profile of the successful New York lawyer: he must have been born in the early 1930s, he must have had parents who worked in the "economically vibrant" garment industry in New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he must have, on account of his "antecedents," been an outsider who was able to grasp the opportunities afforded him in the time period he lived.

"There is no doubt that those Jewish immigrants arrived at the perfect time, with the perfect skills," says the sociologist Stephen Steinberg. "To exploit that oppor­tunity, you had to have certain virtues, and those immi­grants worked hard."

To come to New York City in the 1890s with a background in dressmaking or sewing or Schnittwaren Handlung was a stroke of extraordinary good fortune. It was like showing up in Silicon Valley in 1986 with ten thousand hours of computer programming already under your belt.

If you want to be a great New York lawyer, it is an advantage to be an outsider, and it is an advantage to have parents who did meaningful work, and, better still, it is an advantage to have been born in the early 1930s. But if you have all three advantages—on top of a good dose of ingenuity and drive—then that's an unstoppable combination. That's like being a hockey player born on January 1.

As Gladwell claims, "Success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and oppor­tunities." So, aside from intelligence, perseverance, and courage being necessary ingredients for success, Gladwell maintains that one's background and demographic luck matters very much in determining whether one is ultimately successful or not.

Does Hayden Christensen love Natalie Portman?

Natalie Portman began her acting career in the short film Developing. She was just 13 when that short film was released. She filmed many movies before becoming an adult. Her busy acting career and Harvard education certainly would have impacted the time she had for dating.

The pair are rumored to have dated during Star Wars. When Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace started filming in 1997, Portman was only 16. She was 19 when the second movie was filmed, and she was allegedly dating Christensen when the first movie was released. At that point, she was also enrolled in college and working towards her degree in psychology from Harvard. Hayden Christensen is not the only actor she's rumored to have dated before her later marriage. MTV also says she dated Jude Law and Sean Penn. 

In 2010, Portman became engaged to Benjamin Millepied, her choregrapher in Black Swan. She gave birth to their son, Aleph, in 2011, and the couple married in 2012.

Why was Mrs. Mary Maloney to be divorced by her husband in "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl?

In "Lamb to the Slaughter," Dahl does not reveal to the reader Patrick's reason for wanting to divorce his wife, Mary. Instead, the reader experiences this moment from Mary's perspective. As we might expect, such a shocking announcement happens in a blur for Mary: she is unable to grasp the details because his announcement is so unexpected. This is shown through Dahl's description of Mary's reaction:

She sat still through it all, watching him with puzzled horror.

In contrast, Patrick is relatively calm and collected: he responds to her in a very matter-of-fact way by emphasising the practical matters of the divorce, like the financial settlement. Ironically, he thinks that the worst is over because he has broken the news to Mary, not realising that his murder, the worst possible outcome, is about to take place.

What did Henry Cabot Lodge believe regarding American imperialism?

Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), was a Republican Senator from Massachusetts. He was a friend (and fellow Harvard graduate) of Teddy Roosevelt. When Lodge joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1896, he supported policies to promote American imperialism. To this end, he supported the idea of American preparedness to enter a war and the build up of the Navy under Roosevelt. 

When World War I broke out under President Woodrow Wilson, Lodge was opposed to Wilson's initial pacifist stance regarding the war. He also opposed Wilson's call for "peace without victory," and he wanted Germany to accept responsibility for causing the war. At the war's end, Lodge firmly opposed Wilson's "14 Points" and his call for a League of Nations. Lodge thought that the "14 Points" would take away the power of U.S. Congress to declare war, and he thought that the U.S. should have the power to intervene in world affairs as befitted a world power. Lodge defeated Wilson's plan to make the U.S. a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, and the U.S. did not sign the treaty. 

`y = x/ln(x)` Locate any relative extrema and points of inflection.

Find the extrema and points of inflection for the graph of ` y=x/(lnx) ` :

Extrema can only occur at critical points, or where the first derivative is zero or fails to exist.

Note that the domain for the function is x>0, `x ne 1 ` .

`y'=(lnx-1)/(lnx)^2 ` This function is defined for all x in the domain so we set it equal to zero. Note that a fraction is zero if the numerator, but not the denominator, is equal to zero.

`lnx-1=0 ==> lnx=1 ==> x=e ` . For 1<x<e the first derivative is negative and for x>e it is positive, so the only extrema is a minimum at x=e.

Any inflection point can only occur if the second derivative is equal to zero.

`y''=((ln^2x)/x+(2lnx)/x)/(ln^4x) ` or

`y''=(2+lnx)/(xln^3x) ` Which is negative for x<1, and positive for x>1. The graph is concave down on 0<x<1 and concave up on x>1, but x=1 is undefined so there are no inflection points.

The graph:

How is Atticus a good role model in To Kill a Mockingbird? (I need a little help writing an introduction and a conclusion about this)

Atticus is a good role model because he consistently is considerate of other people's feelings, he is polite and level-headed, and he is non-judgmental, ethical and professional.

• Considerate of others

--In Chapter 1 Atticus scolds the children for "putting his [Boo Radley's] life's history on display for the edification of the neighborhood." He tells them to leave the Radleys alone, issuing a stern lecture on propriety.

--In Chapter 3 when Walter Cunningham is invited to have lunch with the Finches, Atticus talks with Walter and treats him as a guest in his home. After Scout makes a critical remark about Walter's pouring syrup on his food, Calpurnia takes her to the kitchen and scolds her. Later, Atticus counsels Scout about getting along with other people. He tells her that to better understand people, she should

"...consider things from his point of view--...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

Rather than selfishly viewing people from one's own emotional perspective, Atticus suggests that people should try to perceive what others do from their perspectives. In this way, people can better understand others.

• Polite and level-headed

--In Chapter 11, despite Mrs. Dubose's rude and cruel remarks directed at his children and the invectives about himself, Atticus remains sanguine whenever he sees Mrs. Dubose on her porch as he walks home. He tips his hat and addresses her politely in his understanding of her medical condition. And, he insists that Jem repay Mrs. Dubose for his retaliatory destruction of her camellias.

--In Chapter 15 when the men come to his house and when the mob accosts Atticus at the jailhouse, he remains calm and rational. As Mr. Cunningham tells Atticus to move away from the door of the jail, adding, "You know what we want....," Atticus calmly says, "You can turn around and go home again, Walter."

--In Chapters 17 and 18, Atticus acts professionally and is courteous toward  Bob and Mayella Ewell even though he knows that they commit perjury with their false testimony about what supposedly happened with Tom Robinson.
In her ignorance Mayella accuses Atticus of giving her "sass," Judge Taylor corrects her,

"...Mr. Finch is always courteous to everybody. He's not trying to mock you, he's trying to be polite."

• Non-judgmental, ethical and professional

--Atticus does not pass judgment upon people. Regarding Mrs. Dubose, he says,

"She had her own view about things, a lot different from mine, maybe..."

Despite all the backlash from his community, Atticus accepts his responsibility to defend Tom Robinson. He tells his brother that he must be ethical and set an example for his children,

But do you think I could face my children otherwise?  You know what's going to happen as I do, Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb's usual disease.

Atticus treats everyone fairly and is respectful of all. When Tom Robinson dies, he personally goes to the Robinson home to console Helen, the wife of Tom.
Even when Bob Ewell spits in his face, Atticus behaves with professionalism.

___________________

With regard to an introduction, the student can introduce Atticus with a short description and a relevant quotation about him. The introductory paragraph begins with the motivator (the description and quote) and has as its last sentence the thesis statement which can be constructed from the three major points given.
Regarding the conclusion, there should be a reworded thesis, a short summation, and a "clincher," a final sentence which gives the essay a sense of finality. This is a sentence that leaves no doubt in the reader's mind that the essay is at its end (maybe something about Atticus Finch being a man for all times).

How is the ABC News report "Untested Chemicals in Beauty Products" related to the concept of the precautionary principle, and how might the U.S....

That ABC News report, which aired April 30, 2012, was about the great number of untested chemicals that are in the beauty products women use daily. According to this report, women use on average 120 chemicals every day in their beauty products, creams, and shampoos, and most of these chemicals have not been tested. Men use about 80 chemicals per day, most of which are also untested. Europe has decided to ban about 1,200 chemicals, while the U.S. has only banned 10.

The precautionary principle states that if a substance or action poses a potential risk to people or the environment, the person taking the action or making the substance bears the burden of proving it is not harmful. This concept is related to the ABC news report because it means the makers of the beauty products bear the social responsibility of proving these chemicals are not harmful and that the protections put in place against using chemicals suspected of being harmful can only be taken away if the chemicals are scientifically proven not to be harmful. The U.S. might follow Europe's lead in applying the precautionary principle and banning substances in beauty products that are suspected of being harmful until these substances are proven not to be harmful. 

Big mammals became extinct on the continent of Australia. According to Guns, Germs, and Steel, how did this impact the history of the people on...

To cobble together an answer to this question, we have to look in a couple different places in Guns, Germs, and Steel.  When we do, we will find that the extinction of large marsupials in Australia meant that the Australian people would have a harder time developing agriculture and would, therefore, have less of a chance to develop a wealthy and powerful civilization.

The first part of the answer can be found on p. 308 in the book.  There, Diamond tells us that there were many large animals in Australia during the Ice Ages.  However, these large animals either died off or were exterminated by hunters when humans arrived in Australia.  What this meant, Diamond says, was that Australia had no large animals that could be domesticated.  The largest animal that could be was the dingo, which is a species of dog.

This brings us to the other part of our answer.  That is, we need to talk about why it was important that there were no large domesticable animals in Australia.  For this, we can look at p. 88.  Beginning on that page, Diamond tells us why large domesticated animals can do so much to help people develop agriculture.  He says that, first of all, domesticated animals give people a source of protein in their diet. People can eat the animals and can get dairy products from some large animals as well.  Next, domesticated animals produce manure, which can be used to fertilize fields, thus making agriculture more productive.  Finally, large animals can also pull plows.  This, too, makes it much easier for farmers to grow more food on a given amount of land.  Without large domesticable mammals, Australians would have had a much harder time developing agriculture.

Throughout his book, Diamond tells us that agriculture is the key to developing a strong and wealthy society.  People who could not develop agriculture were not likely to develop as rapidly or as effectively.  Thus, the extinction of the large animals in Australia meant that humans in Australia would not be able to develop a rich and powerful society.

What is the thematic significance of the quote from Rahim Khan in Hosseini's The Kite Runner, “There is a way to be good again”?

In The Kite Runner (Hosseini), one of the most powerful themes of the story is set forth in the simple statement of Rahim Khan, the old family friend of Baba and Amir, "There is a way to be good again" (2).  Amir must live with the guilt of his sins against Hassan, amongst these a failure to rescue his friend from being bullied and raped by Assef and his despicable act of framing Hassan for theft.  He has no opportunity for redemption, even supposing he had been capable of it.  He and Baba are forced to flee Afghanistan, and Ali and Hassan, who have left Baba's house, are left behind to face the chaos that Afghanistan has become.  Amir, in his dealings with Hassan, has not been good.

What Khan is offering is a chance at redemption.  That is the overarching theme of the novel. In order to be redeemed from one's sins, at the most basic level one must atone and be good again, trying to make up for what one has done.  Amir cannot bring back Ali and Hassan, who have died.  Nor can he make up for all of the sorrows they must have endured, but he can face down the enemy he so cowardly ran from, Assef, and he can rescue Sohrab, Ali's son and, as he learns, his nephew, from the clutches of the Taliban.  The reader knows nothing of this at the beginning, but the more we read of the story, the more we come to understand Khan's wisdom in offering this chance to Amir.

Khan plays a very quiet role in the story, but he is best positioned to understand Amir and how damaged Amir's life has been, by forces beyond his own control and by his own behavior.  Khan is the one who knows that Hassan is the child of Baba.  Khan is the one who sees how easily Amir lords it over Hassan because Amir is from a wealthy Sunni Pashtun family while Hassan is a mere servant who is a Shi'a Hazara, part of an ill-treated minority.  Khan is the one who knows that love is not meant to stop at an ethnic or religious line because he himself loved a Hazara woman.  Khan understands that Amir has good in him, but fears that he will never be whole without some form of redemption.  To be good again implies that there was a time when Amir had been a good person, and Khan believes he can be one again. 

What is the explanation of "je pense donc je suis?"

"Je pense donc je suis" by Descartes can be translated into English as "I think, therefore I am" and into Latin as "cogito ergo sum." Descartes published this phrase in his Discourse on the Method in 1637, and the idea became central to the tenets of Western philosophy. The work addressed skepticism, a philosophical school of thought that questioned whether knowing something for sure was possible. The meaning of this phrase is that the act of thinking about whether one existed was in itself proof that one did exist. There must be a self in order for the self to have this thought. Descartes wrote, "But immediately upon this I observed that, whilst I thus wished to think that all was false, it was absolutely necessary that I, who thus thought, should be something." In other words, while he wanted to believe he did not have a foundation for believing anything, the very fact that he had this belief was proof that he existed. 

How does one conduct a SWOT analysis of a company like Apple, Google, Redbox, or Netflix? What steps has the company taken in the strategy-making...

Though Netflix experienced dramatic increases in stock value in September 2014, stock since then has fallen because increase in customer base has slowed. A slow increase in customer base can be attributed to higher subscription fees and competitors in the online streaming business such as Amazon. Netflix's recent declines in stock make business analysts start to wonder how successful Netflix will be in the future, and Netflix's future rate of success might be predicted through a SWOT analysis (Ingram, M., "Netflix Flies Too Close to the Sun, Stock Prices Melt," Fortune).

A SWOT analysis is a means of identifying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of a business in order to develop business strategies and make decisions. A SWOT analysis can help a business see possible "solutions to problems," determine what if any "change is possible," and develop new plans ("SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats," Community Tool Box, University of Kansas).

Strengths:
Most of the company's growth is dependent on its streaming market as opposed to the DVD rental system via mail developed in 1999.  In his article titled "Netflix: A Short SWOT Analysis," researcher Michael Napoli informs us that one area of strength is that the company has put in a great deal of effort into making streaming convenient, including making streaming available on multiple devices connected to the internet such as computers, smart phones, androids, and smart televisions. The company is also continually increasing the amount of streaming content available and even beginning to produce its own TV series and films. The company is confident its streaming customer base will continue to grow.

Weaknesses:
Napoli further informs us that one weakness concerns the membership losses for its "DVD-by-mail rental operation" ("Netflix"). When the company launched its streaming business in 2007, DVD rentals and streaming were offered in combined subscription packages. Starting in 2011, Netflix separated the streaming and DVD rental membership plans, making subscribers pay for two separate plans if they wanted both. As a result, DVD rental membership declined drastically and is expected to continue to decline. While the company's streaming membership rates are still high enough to compensate for losses in DVD rental membership, the company could suffer losses if DVD membership continues to fall "at a faster rate than previously expected" (Napoli). A second weakness is that expanding internationally is causing some problems, especially because new higher European taxes are causing profit loss (Napoli). Netflix reported its greatest contribution profit loss came from the oversees steaming market, with a total loss of 17.1%, as opposed to 32.9% a gain in profit in the domestic streaming market (Netflix, "Financial Statements").

Opportunities:
Despite higher taxes in Europe, Napoli informs us that Netflix is still pursuing growth oversees through its streaming market ("Netflix"). Expansion oversees still looks like the greatest opportunity for growth. As of 2016, Netflix reported gaining 30,024 international streaming memberships by the end of December 2015, resulting in a total of $1,953,435 earned (Netflix, "Financial Statements"). In addition, producing original content continues to be a great opportunity for growth (Napoli).

Threats:
Netflix's greatest threat is competitors in the streaming market such as Amazon Prime being offered by Amazon (Napoli). Netflix further reports that their competitors are "liner networks, pay-per-view content, DVD wtching, video gaming, web browsing, magazine reading, video piracy, and much more" (Netflix, "Netflix's View: Internet TV is replacing linear TV"). Netflix expects all of these avenues of entertainment to improve over the years, creating greater competition.

How does the teacher explain the concept of love to Hellen Keller in The Story of My Life?

This story comes in Chapter 6. Anne Sullivan was teaching Helen words for all sorts of things, using finger language. Abstract concepts were trickier. One day Anne spelled out, “I love Helen.” Helen responded by asking, “What is love?” Anne pointed to her heart and said, “It is here.” Helen was confused and made some guesses that weren’t quite on the mark. A few days later, while Helen was having problems working with beads, Anne stopped her, touched her forehead, and told her to “Think.” Helen suddenly realized what that word meant. And she related it to the kind of word she thought “love” was. Anne was able to make the additional connection when she described scenes of nature that made Helen happiest:

You cannot touch the clouds, you know … You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play.

This is when Helen understood the concept of love.

What was the first work of art?

There are two challenges in answering your question. First, art is subjective, so there is much disagreement over what may be considered artistic. Second, preservation is both nature's blessing and curse to archaeologists. Much of the intentionally created work people have produced throughout history has been destroyed by moisture, light, bacteria, and aging. The best-preserved examples of ancient art that we have are either entirely or partially made of stone. We have certainly lost much more wood, fiber, and plant material art that can never be accounted for in the archaeological record. There may even have been works of art much older than the ones I am about to describe that simply did not survive to be known to our time.

Anthropologists, including archaeologists, generally define art as something not solely useful (though useful items may be made beautiful with art) that has been created or transformed with human intention. After that, beliefs about beauty, design, and form really complicate things. For our purposes, let's work with the understanding that a piece of art is anything that has been made more attractive or interesting to humans for the sake of enjoyment. 

The earliest stone tools date to around 2.6 million years ago, and after a while, our ancestors realized that, in addition to helping them prepare food, tools could also make beautiful things. Several species who lived before us (Homo sapiens) created art, including Homo erectus. The absolutely oldest evidence of intentionally-altered material are the cupules carved into cave walls in places like Bhimbetka, India. These round, pock-like marks in cave walls would have been created by Homo erectus who spent time sheltering in such caves as early as 700,000 years ago. Of course, we don't know if they considered these anything spectacular or artistic — they might have just been bored and had a rock on hand.

Much later, around 100,000 years ago, the first beads (which remain preserved to this day) were created. At Skhul cave in Israel, perforated shells have been found alongside human remains. By this time, our own species was on the scene and getting creative, but members of the species Homo sapiens did not begin to migrate out of Africa until at least 70,000 years ago. For that reason, these shells were most likely poked and strung by Homo neandertalensis. Similar beads have been found in Morocco, dating to around 82,000 years ago, and may have been made by members of our own species. 

The oldest examples of intentional artwork made by Homo sapiens, our own species, come from Blombos Cave in South Africa. Here, around 100,000 years ago, humans were making decorative stone and bone tools and paints. Pieces of carved ochre, a rich red or yellow pigment, have been here and date to around 76,000 years ago. It has been suggested that this means of carving regular patterns into the ochre was for keeping track of information rather than decoration. If we accept this hypothesis, we can move on to the next oldest example of intentional manipulation of materials. At Diepkloof, also in South Africa, engraved ostrich eggshells have been found dating to around 60,000 years ago.

How can quotations support a structured analysis of a character in The Odyssey?

When you're analyzing a character, you end up having to use your own words to summarize and explain a lot about who this character is, what traits he or she has, how he or she changes, and so on.

Quotations help you prove that what you're saying is right. In other words, quotations help you point to the text and basically say "See this part right here? That's how I know for certain that I've interpreted this character correctly." The quotations you pick, then, can make your analysis clear, authoritative, and thorough.

To find good quotations to help you support your character analysis, you don't simply have to look for things the character says. You can also look for things the character does, things the character thinks, and things other people (including the narrator) say about the character.

Let's say you plan to write about Odysseus and want to structure your writing in one of these ways:

• A discussion of his character traits, from least to most important


• A discussion of his character traits, from least to most admirable


• A discussion of how he responds to adversity, from the easiest situation to the hardest


• A discussion of how he changes from the beginning to the end of the epic

Of course, those are just suggestions — there are many other ways you can structure your analysis.

Regardless, your analysis will probably be organized in paragraphs: say, one per trait, or one per adverse situation. If you're organizing your analysis based on how Odysseus changes, you might spend one paragraph on each major section of the story, such as the beginning, middle, and end.

If you can find one or more clear supporting quotations from the text to include in each of your paragraphs, they will help convince your reader that you based your analysis on a close, careful reading of the text.

When it's time to add your quotations to your paragraphs, try using a variety of different ways to integrate the quoted content into your own:

• Open a paragraph with a quotation, then discuss the trait it reveals about your character.


• Discuss a character trait, adding a brief quotation to illustrate what you mean, then discuss what that quotation reveals, exactly, about your character.


• Let some of your quotations stand by themselves in their own sentences, but try to include others within your sentences.


• Discuss a character trait, then end the paragraph with a particularly dramatic quotation illustrating that trait.


• Stack multiple, super-short quotations into a list. Example: "When Odysseus calls himself a 'sacker of cities,' a man with an 'ardent spirit' that can't be 'daunted,' he reveals his vanity."

Many students find it difficult to integrate quotes into their own sentences. Here are some sentence templates that can help:

• A character has a certain trait: "a quotation that shows it." (Example: "Odysseus is boastful: 'Cyclops, if any man asks how you came by your blindness, say that Odysseus, sacker of cities, Laertes' son, a native of Ithaca, maimed you.'")


• A character's trait, described by another character as "this," affects the story or the reader in a certain way.


• A character’s trait, evinced by his or her “certain action” and his or her “certain other action,” affects the story or the reader in a certain way.


• When a character thinks "a particular thought," he or she reveals a certain trait.


• A character reveals his trait when he or she "says or thinks something in particular."


• When a character claims/admits "this particular thing," it's clear he or she has a certain trait.


• "This particular thing," in the character's own words, illustrates a certain trait. 


• The narrator's description of "his or her particular thing" illustrates a certain trait.


• It’s clear that a character who “does or says this thing” must be a certain trait.


• Faced with "a particular threat or situation," the character reacts in a certain way, "doing something," revealing his or her trait.

What does Saki make us feel about Conradin in Sredni Vashtar?

By portraying Conradin's aunt as a domineering and suffocating presence in his life, Saki causes us to sympathize with the protagonist. Additionally, since Conradin's life is one of unmitigated "dullness," we are further receptive of his efforts to remedy his dismal situation.

One of these days Conradin supposed he would succumb to the mastering pressure of wearisome necessary things--such as illnesses and coddling restrictions and drawn-out dullness. Without his imagination, which was rampant under the spur of loneliness, he would have succumbed long ago.

In the story, Saki describes Mrs. De Ropp as insufferably self-righteous. Her only purpose in life seems to be that of depriving Conradin joy.

Mrs. De Ropp would never, in her honestest moments, have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him ``for his good'' was a duty which she did not find particularly irksome.

After a while Conradin's absorption in the tool-shed began to attract the notice of his guardian. "It is not good for him to be pottering down there in all weathers,'' she promptly decided, and at breakfast one morning she announced that the Houdan hen had been sold and taken away overnight.

"What are you keeping in that locked hutch?'' she asked. "I believe it's guinea-pigs. I'll have them all cleared away.''

As can be seen, any innocent and enjoyable pursuit of Conradin's immediately comes under the suspicion of Mrs. De Ropp. Her religion is predicated on maintaining a proper appearance of respectability at all times. As such, any departure from the norm is scrupulously and mercilessly punished.

In the story, Conradin has to hide his "secret and fearful" joys from his guardian. His prized polecat ferret, Sredni Vashtar, is chief among his possessions, and he does everything he can to shield it from Mrs. De Ropp's gaze. During private moments, he uses his imagination to conjure up a fantastic world ordered by a new religion he has created, one predicated on the "fierce impatient side of things."

Thus, from his portrayal of Conradin's cheerless existence, Saki causes us to feel great sympathy towards his protagonist.