After the "success" of his experiment, what does Frankenstein choose to study?

After Victor creates the monster, he grows to loathe and be intensely sickened by the study of natural philosophy. Due to this, and the arrival of his dear friend Henry, Victor eventually switches his main field of study at the University of Ingolstadt. 

Victor chooses to study the same thing Henery came to Ingolstadt to study -- literature and language. They study several dialects and the base languages of said dialects. All of their learning is concentrated on languages originating from "the orient." For instance, Victor specifically mentions they were taught Persian, Arabic, and Sanscrit. Henry and Victor even plunge into the literature associated with such "oriental" languages. 

It is important to note that at first Victor had little interest in his new subject of study. Victor and Henery have always had quite different tastes in literature and Victor only wanted to study "the orientalists" because he hates to be idle and because Henry was studying them.

How does Dillard's meditation in Holy the Firm on seemingly senseless destruction complicate the coherency of morality and ethics emanating from...

Dillard's Holy the Firm suggests that the coherency of morality and ethics emanating from the divine is not simple.  Its complexity is the reason why seemingly senseless destruction can be embraced.

Dillard's mediation offers a nuanced view of the divine world.  She feels that since the divine created us, its universal plan might lie outside of our understanding:  We did not create this world and do not understand all of its aspects:

We sleep to time's hurdy-gurdy; we wake, if ever we wake, to the silence of God. And then, when we wake to the deep shores of time uncreated, then when the dazzling dark breaks over the far slopes of time, then it's time to toss things, like our reason, and our will; then it's time to break our necks for home.

Reflecting on the "silence of God" enables us to see the world as beyond human comprehension.  It spans "to the deep shores of time uncreated."

Violence and destruction have a role in this configuration. Dillard argues for their purpose in a complex design. The moth's dying and Julie's disfigurement are seemingly pointless acts of horrific violence.  Yet, Dillard argues that violence and hurt brought on by destruction are essential "materials" that the divine "artist" uses to create our world.   Dillard suggests that such realities are not senseless, but real parts of divine creation:

The pain with the millstones' pitiless turning is real, vaulting, insofar as it is love, beyond the plane of the stones' sickening churn and arcing to the realm of spirit bare. And you can get caught holding one end of a love, when your father drops, and your mother; when a land is lost, or a time, and your friend blotted out, gone, your brother's body spoiled, and cold, your infant dead, and you dying: you reel out love's long line alone, stripped like a live wire loosing its sparks to a cloud, like a live wire loosed in space to longing and grief everlasting.

Our response to painful realities defines our place in the world.  Dillard argues that solely focusing on these "senseless" acts of destruction causes us to live in pain, "like a wire loosed in space to longing and grief everlasting."

However, Dillard offers another path.  When we see hurt as a part of the divine understanding, a connection emerges.  Dillard argues that this link is the bedrock of faith:  "Faith would be, in short, that God has any willful connection with time whatsoever, and with us. For I know it as given that God is all good. And I take it also as given that whatever he touches has meaning, if only in his mysterious terms, the which I readily grant."  The moth that died provided the wick for Dillard to read.  She believes that its purpose was essential because "when the candle is out [and] the world is without light," the result is "wasteland and chaos."  In this construction, a "life without sacrifice is an abomination."  At the same time, she recognizes that the suffering of the little girl compels her to action.  She will sacrifice for Julie:  "So live. I'll be the nun for you. I am now."  In both instances, violence created the opportunity for new links to the divine to emerge.

Dillard argues that in our darkest moments, when we turn towards the divine, our connection increases.  We develop greater capacity for loving God and the divine plan, thereby ensuring that we are never alone: "Held, held fast by love in the world like the moth in wax, your life a wick, your head on fire with prayer, held utterly, outside and in, you sleep alone, if you call that alone, you cry God." When we "cry God," Dillard argues that we see the universe in its true form.  We view it as something we did not create, but was created for us.  Violence is not senseless in this universal understanding.  While complicated and intricate, the coherence of morality and ethics in this world remains quite intact.

What similes were used in the book The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen?

A simile is “a figure of speech in which two things, essentially different but thought to be alike in one or more respects, are compared using “like,” “as,” “as if,” or “such” for the purpose of explanation, allusion, or ornament” (“ Guide to Literary Terms”).  Similes are often used because their descriptions bring a lot of life to a story.  

One example of a simile is Hannah’s description of how she felt after her argument with her mother about the Passover Holiday.  Hannah’s mother did not feel that she was taking the holiday seriously enough.  When her mother told her that the holiday was about remembering, Hannah complained that all Jewish holidays were about remembering. 

Hannah rolled her eyes up and slipped farther down in the seat. Her stomach felt heavy, as if the argument lay there like unleavened bread. (Ch. 1) 

Hannah’s simile emphasizes how bad she feels about this conversation, as she compares her feelings to the heaviness of unleavened bread. Hannah has heard too many times about the impact of World War II’s Holocaust on her family.  It doesn’t really mean anything to her anymore.  She has heard all of her life about Nazis and relatives she never knew, but she is just a kid. 

When Hannah arrives at her grandparents’ house, she sees her grandfather watching a documentary of the Holocaust on television and uses another haunting simile. 

He was sitting in the big overstuffed chair in front of the TV set, waving his fist and screaming at the screen. Across the screen marched old photos of Nazi concentration camp victims, corpses stacked like cordwood, and dead-eyed survivors. (Ch. 1) 

This terrible simile reinforces the graphic nature of the images, and also perhaps the fact that they seem almost unreal, because she compares the bodies to stacked wood. It would be difficult for Hannah to see Grandfather Will shouting at the television as these terrible images flash across the screen, while her grandmother apologizes for him.  Hannah doesn't really understand, and dismisses his actions as "fits."

How are Nadine Gordimer’s political beliefs reflected in the story "Once Upon a Time"?

Nadine Gordimer expresses a strong opposition to the apartheid of South Africa in her short story "Once Upon a Time."  In this story, structured like a fairy tale, Gordimer shows the detrimental effects of apartheid on those at the top of the power structure.  Gordimer's story describes a family living in a community in which they fear the invasion of the "other."  To keep their possessions safe, they and their neighborhoods put up neighborhood signs to discourage intruders with words such as "You have been warned," purchase electronic security systems, build higher fences, and install vise-like contraptions over these fences.  

All these precautions ironically result in a less safe and less attractive community.  With their tall fences, the neighborhood begins to look like a concentration camp. To protect themselves, they imprison themselves. The alarm system provides cover for thieves.  The Dragon Tooth contraption results in the death of their son.  Through this story, Gordimer shows quite clearly what an apartheid system does to those who continue to enforce it. 

But we also see more socialistic tendencies in the story.  The story itself is a frame story.  The frame is the author's writing a children's story when she is awakened and frightened by a noise she heard.  She finds out that the noise was caused by the fact that her house was built over an underground mine that had perhaps in earlier years collapsed upon and interred the workers down below.  This small detail is important because it can serve as a metaphor for Gordimer's political leanings.  The foundation of the house is shaky (like the apartheid government), and its first victims are those down below or the lower class, but eventually the tremors that have such devastating effects on the lower class will result in the collapse of the entire household or government.  In other words, when one segment of society keeps getting poorer while another segment of society keeps increasing their wealth and possessions, that society is no longer stable and will eventually fall.  A vastly uneven distribution of wealth negatively affects the entire society.  

How can I write an analysis about the relationship between Helena and Demetrius in Act 2, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare?

Part of the fun of writing a literary analysis is choosing the approach you wish to take. You could choose a reader response analysis, discussing your impressions of the work, a feminist critique, discussing the representation of women in the piece, or even a historical analysis, discussing why Shakespeare used Ancient Greece as the setting for this love triangle. 

Let's look at the context of the interaction between Demetrius and Helena. Helena, named as an allusion to Helen of Troy, has been in love with Demetrius for a long time, but Demetrius doesn't return her affection. Demetrius insults and humiliates Helena, even threatening to assault her if she does not leave him alone:

You do impeach your modesty too much
To leave the city and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
To trust the opportunity of night,
And the ill counsel of a desert place,
With the rich worth of your virginity (Act 2, Scene 1, line 218).

The fairy king, Oberon, overhears their interaction, and he feels sorry for Helena, calling Demetrius a "disdainful youth" (line 266). Oberon decides to give Demetrius a love potion that will make him love Helena even more than she loves him (line 271).

Given the content of the scene, one angle for analysis would be the idea of virtue. What is virtuous behavior? How do Helena and Demetrius exemplify or go against virtuous behavior? Another angle would be to examine how the interplay of fairy and human relationships compare and contrast. Why does Shakespeare have fairies meddling in human affairs?

How do Maggie's scars affect her life in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker?

Maggie's scars cause her to turn inward in life.

After having been so badly burnt that she "stands hopelessly in corners," it becomes apparent that Maggie feels inferior to her sister and looks at her with a "mixture of envy and awe." Like a lame animal, Maggie sidles when she walks and lowers her head with downcast eyes. 

Because Maggie feels inferior and is unworldly and timid, she stays at home. And, as a result of this intimidated nature, Maggie turns her interest to things of the family, respecting them and learning their history. So, when Dee asks about such things as the butter churn, Maggie corrects her sister when she says that Uncle Buddy whittled the dash to this churn, telling Dee it was their Uncle Henry, called Stash by the family, who actually did the whittling.

Unlike Dee, Maggie treasures things made by family members. Later in the day when Dee goes into the bedroom, she selfishly grabs the quilts sewn by hand by Grandma. However, the mother informs her daughter that she has already promised these quilts to Maggie. Angered at not getting her way, Dee complains,

"Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!....She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use."

"I reckon she would....God knows I been saving 'em for long enough with nobody using 'em. I hope she will!"

The mother replies in this manner, remembering how some years ago she offered Dee quilts to take to college, but Dee refused them. Then, the submissive Maggie comes from the kitchen, with her feet scraping over each other. "She can have them, Mama," she says.

Overwhelmed by this submissiveness and humility of Maggie, the mother feels that something has hit her "like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me...." She hugs Maggie, then drags her into the room, and grabs the quilts away from "Miss Wangero's" hands, dumping the quilts into the lap of Maggie, who sits on the bed in amazement. 

This assertion of the mother of her love for Maggie causes the daughter to smile--"a real smile, not scared" or inward. After Dee departs, the mother and Maggie sit together enjoying their dips of snuff until darkness falls and they must return to the house.

What is Saki's tone and style in general and in "Sredni Vashtar" in particular?

In general, Saki employs irony in his stories along with satire of the foibles of Edwardian society. In his short story "Sredni Vashtar," the author adopts an ironic tone and he satirizes in an imaginative and macabre style the oppressiveness of Edwardian society as represented by the character Mrs. De Ropp.

"Sredni Vashtar" is a story of a boy's efforts to survive. While the doctor has pronounced that he will die within five years, Conradin's greatest adversary is Mrs. De Ropp, his rather disagreeable cousin and caretaker. Because he is aware of her antipathy,

from the realm of his imagination she was locked out—an unclean thing, which should find no entrance.

Conradin's goal each day is to enjoy things Mrs. De Ropp does not approve of, and to find a place where he can privately go. He chooses an abandoned tool shed where a Houdan hen lives. Conradin treats the hen affectionately because he has little else to love. In a hutch, Conradin also has a large polecat-ferret, smuggled in by a butcher-boy. 

Its very presence in the tool-shed was a secret and fearful joy, to be kept scrupulously from the knowledge of the Woman, as he privately dubbed his cousin. 

Because he has little else, Conradin, who actually fears this animal, assigns it a special significance. Its presence becomes a "fearful joy" because the Woman has no knowledge of its existence. In time, the boy's imagination makes the creature into a god with the name Sredni Vashtar, and Conradin holds festivals of worship for it whenever possible. When Mrs. De Ropp takes Conradin's beloved hen from him, Conradin prays to his little god, "Do one thing for me." 

After a while, the Woman notices Conradin has not stopped his visits to the shed even though the hen has been removed. She asks him,

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

Conradin continues his prayers as Mrs. De Ropp goes out to the shed. Time passes and the maid brings in the tea, wondering where her mistress could be. After a while, Conradin hears the maid scream. Conradin then hears,

"Whoever will break it to the poor child? I couldn't for the life of me!" exclaimed a shrill voice. And while they debated the matter among themselves, Conradin made himself another piece of toast.

Once again, Saki ironically disposes of the adult. In this story, the adult meets a horrific death, a death depicted as a something in which the boy delights as he calmly continues to butter his toast.