Why were the Etruscans important?

The Etruscans were a group of people that lived on the Italian Peninsula, north of where Rome was located and between the Arno River and the Tiber River. The Etruscans ruled the Romans at one time, but later the Romans conquered the Etruscans.

The Etruscans were important for a few reasons. First, they had a fairly well-developed culture. They had major cities and a well-developed trade. They also had their own alphabet. Second, they controlled land beyond the Italian Peninsula. They had expanded their influence and had established colonies in places such as Corsica and Sardinia. However, after they lost some battles to the Greeks, their influence began to decline. Eventually, the Romans overtook them. Another reason why they were important was that the Romans adopted some of their cultural ideas. For example, the Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet.

The Etruscans were an important group of people.

`g(t) = log_2(t^2+7)^3` Find the derivative of the function

`g(t) = log_2 (t^2+7)^3`

Before taking the derivative of the function, apply the logarithm rule `log_b (a^m)= m*log_b(a)` . So the function becomes:

`g(t) = 3log_2(t^2+7)`

Take note that the derivative formula of logarithm is `d/dx[log_b (u)] = 1/(ln(b)*u)*(du)/dx` .

So g'(t) will be:

`g'(t) = d/dt [3log_2 (t^2+7)]`

`g'(t) = 3d/dt [log_2 (t^2+7)]`

`g'(t) =3 * 1/(ln(2) * (t^2+7)) * d/dt(t^2+7)`

`g'(t) = 3 * 1/(ln(2) * (t^2+7)) * 2t`

`g'(t) = (3*2t)/(ln(2) * (t^2+7))`

`g'(t) = (6t)/((t^2+7)ln(2))`

Therefore, the derivative of the function is `g'(t) = (6t)/((t^2+7)ln(2))` .

Customers with high expectations make a business better. The secret is to use a customer’s high expectations as an opportunity to maximize...

While some companies such as natural monopolies and companies with a strong pricing advantage in their markets or a unique product may think that they can afford to skimp on customer service, any company which does not have a strong relationship with its customers is vulnerable to disruption. Companies, therefore, increasingly think of customer service as part of their branding and marketing, and as a source of profitability rather than just an expense. Thus many companies are moving to a philosophy of total "customer relationship management" of which customer service and loyalty programs are part. 

The key to providing superior customer service is hiring the right people. They should be friendly, cheerful, and familiar with your products. Providing a good work environment and a genuine career path means that you will be able to retain your best staff. Next, you should make your customers feel that you care about them by aiming for quick response times and giving them a sense that you are concerned as much about their needs as your profits. Be proactive rather than reactive, following up rather than waiting for complaints. 

One pitfall to avoid is inadequate staffing on or just after peak periods. You need to closely monitor staffing patterns to avoid bottlenecks. A second pitfall is social media. Both good and bad customer service can go viral very quickly. This means that you need to constantly monitor social media and proactively intervene before any negative issues become viral. 

A recent survey shows that 9 out of 10 customers are willing to pay more for better customer service. If a customer has a good experience at a given store or website, the customer is not only likely to return, but to make recommendations to friends and to give the company positive reviews. 

How could the character of the sentry in "The Purple Children" by Ellis Peters be described?

To deduce the character of the sentry, let's turn to the sentry's words and actions for some clues.

First, a brief description of the sentry himself: he is eighteen years old and new to the job. In the story, he is proclaimed to be the "weakest spot in the defenses," presumably by the rebels themselves. He is approached by a girl of about fifteen (named Mariposa), who leads him on a wild-goose chase for her cat. The cat, we later learn, doesn't belong to the girl. It merely serves as a diversion, so that Mariposa's accomplice can replace the occupying forces' flag with one of their country's own.

Because the sentry himself is young and inexperienced, he is deceived by Mariposa's pitiful appearance. However, we must bear in mind that the sentry is also a tenderhearted young man. This can be evidenced in the way he treats Mariposa. He is reluctant to be unkind to her, awkwardly reassuring her that the cat will appear again in the morning.

As a nightwatchman, the sentry has orders to "treat the natives politely and considerately," as long as they aren't making trouble. For his part, the sentry wants to follow the orders he's been given, which demonstrates his loyalty to the occupying forces. However, he isn't exactly a battle-hardened warrior either; so, to rationalize his less-than-soldier-like behavior to himself, he concludes that Mariposa can't possibly be a threat, and that his kind actions actually fall under the jurisdiction of treating the "natives politely and considerately."

Later, when his major addresses him, the sentry defends his actions. He politely argues that Mariposa was actually looking for her cat. However, the older soldier quietly explains that the cat belongs to the caretaker of the grounds and that the rebels always send out "kids of fifteen." Because of his inexperience, the sentry finds it difficult to understand why a flag should be the cause of so much trouble; he doesn't realize that the rebel flag is an important statement of rebellion.

So, from the story, we can deduce that the sentry has not yet lost his innocence; he is by turns kindhearted and compassionate.

What is H2SO4?

H2SO4 is most commonly called sulfuric acid.  It is a classic strong mineral acid that readily mixes with water and is commonly used in industrial chemical processes due to its cheap production cost.  It consists of a sulfate polyatomic anion (SO4-2) which has a -2 negative charge.  This anion is electronically offset with two protons (H+) to make a neutral chemical species.  These protons are what make sulfuric acid highly acidic.  Concentrated sulfuric acid is 98% H2SO4 and only 2% water.  

Sulfuric acid is the rare strong acid that has more than one acidic proton.  The loss of the first proton produces HSO4- via the equation below.

H2SO4 --> H+ + HSO4-

The HSO4- species is also acidic and can lost its other proton to produce the sulfate anion via the equation below.

HSO4- --> H+ + SO4-2

"The Lottery" was published in 1948, just after the end of World War II. What other cultural or historical events, attitudes, institutions, or...

While the easiest way to approach the cultural aspects of "The Lottery" is to look at the connection between the story and the persecution of Jews in Germany—completely decent-seeming people doing atrocious things—the story also calls to mind traditional elements of mid-20th Century America, particularly the treatment of blacks and women in the country. However, the theme of scapegoating based on tradition is universal.

In "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson creates a village that is full of kind, if not a little bit strange, people. They are polite to one another ("[The women] greeted one another and exchanged bits of gossip as they went to join their husbands."). And they seem to believe this tradition of stoning people to death in order to encourage their crops is somehow progressive ("Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work anymore...") Yet this activity of stoning a person to death in order to encourage their crops, if that's what the lottery really is meant for, represents the kind of thinking that says, "This is the way things have always been done" and that change would bring about social disorder.

This theme could be applied to any mid-20th Century issues: if African-Americans gained equality through civil rights, traditional America would be in disarray; if women went to work, traditional American families would be destroyed; if the Communist Party or even Communist thinking became part of the political process, America would be destroyed.

The universality of this story's major theme is why it bothered so many people when it was published. It forced the public, subconsciously at least, to think about their traditions and how many of these might be harmful to others.

In George Orwell's Animal Farm, if the animals don't understand Squealer's words, why do you think they accept his explanation?

The answer to this question can be found in Chapter Five of Animal Farm. By this point, Napoleon has, using the dogs, driven his rival Snowball from the farm, and he has taken Snowball's plans for the windmill, which he always opposed, as his own. Squealer, who has emerged as Napoleon's propaganda minister, explains that the plan for the windmill had been Napoleon's all along. Apparently, according to Squealer, Snowball stole the brilliant plans for the windmill from Napoleon, who then pretended to oppose the plan in order to get rid of Snowball. Squealer describes this plan as "tactics," a word with which the animals are unfamiliar. Why do they believe it, even though they don't understand? The answer is partly because they don't understand. They are so bewildered by what has happened that perhaps Squealer's version of events is as plausible as any other. Also, Squealer, we see through the book, embodies the totalitarian's ability to twist the truth in service of power. He is good at what he does, even if what he is saying is ridiculous. But perhaps the most compelling reason why the animals believe Squealer is summed up in the chapter's final sentence:

...Squealer spoke so persuasively, and the dogs who happened to be with him growled so threateningly, that they accepted his explanation [for Snowball's exile and Napoleon's new-found support for the windmill] without further questions.

This combination of fear and misinformation is very effective in allowing Napoleon to consolidate his power.

What are the characteristics and features that make Romeo and Juliet a tragedy?

A good way to approach the assignment is to create a file in your word processor listing the elements of Shakespearean tragedy from your class notes. As you read through the play, look for each of the elements, and then note down examples and quotations as you encounter them.

First, you will note that the play starts out in a temporarily stable but inherently precarious situation. The feud between the Capulet and Montague families is harming the city of Verona, but the situation is essentially a stalemate. When Romeo decides to attend the Capulet party and falls in love with Juliet, the situation becomes radically unstable. 

Romeo and Juliet count as tragic heroes because they are noble and potentially admirable characters whose downfalls occur because they fall in love with each other and act on it. The audience is sympathetic to them. Their impulsiveness is a tragic flaw. The key conflicts are between the families and between the young couple and their families. The sad ending includes the death of both protagonists.

In 1984, what kind of imagery is depicted in Part One, Chapter One and Part Two, Chapter Two?

In both of these chapters, Orwell uses a wide range of sensory images to bring to life the experiences of the protagonist, Winston Smith. In Part One, Chapter One, Orwell opens the story with a tactile image of a "vile wind" which bites at Winston's neck. He also employs a gustatory image to describe the setting, Victory Mansions:

The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats.

In Part Two, Chapter Two, Orwell continues with the creation of vivid, sensory images to depict Winston and Julia's first meeting in the woods. There are a number of tactile images, including:

The mass of dark hair was against his face. . . he was kissing the wide red mouth.

These are followed by a strong gustatory image to depict the sensation of eating the black-market chocolate Julia brings with her:

The first fragment of chocolate had melted on Winston’s tongue. The taste was delightful.

Finally, Orwell closes this chapter with a visual image of Winston studying Julia as she sleeps:

There was a line or two round the eyes, if you looked closely. The short dark hair was extraordinarily thick and soft.

This visual image leads Winston to his important conclusion: having sex with Julia is a "political act" which represents the beginning of his rebellion against the Party.

What quote sums up Miss Maudie's reaction to Tom Robinson's verdict in Chapter 22 of To Kill A Mockingbird?

One of the best quotes that sums up Miss Maudie's reaction to Tom Robinson's verdict is when she says,

I waited and waited to see you all come down the sidewalk, and as I waited I thought, Atticus Finch won’t win, he can’t win, but he’s the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that. And I thought to myself, well, we’re making a step—it’s just a baby-step, but it’s a step.

Although the jury's decision saddens Miss Maudie, it does not surprise her. As a pragmatist, she always knew Tom Robinson stood little chance of prevailing in the court of public opinion, but she notes that Judge Taylor's decision to name Atticus as Tom's defense lawyer was no accident. Atticus was specially chosen for the job because he was the only one who could argue a strong case for Tom's innocence.

Although Atticus fails to clear Tom's name, he manages to draw attention to the injustices the black community faces on a daily basis (a very important accomplishment on Atticus's part). During the trial, Atticus skillfully exposes to the jury and courtroom audience Bob Ewell's ugly attitudes about race. Prior to this, Maycomb has never candidly discussed the prevalence of bias within its communities in such a public setting. This is possibly what Miss Maudie refers to when she rejoices in the "baby step" Maycomb takes on the day of the trial.

Miss Maudie thinks things are actually going in the right direction. Atticus's work inspires an ongoing conversation about race and bias:

“We’re the safest folks in the world,” said Miss Maudie. “We’re so rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we’ve got men like Atticus to go for us."

What book, movie or song can I compare with "Zenas Witt" by Edgar Lee Masters?

One must first consider what Zenas's problem is:

I was sixteen, and I had the most terrible dreams,

And specks before my eyes, and nervous weakness.

And I couldn't remember the books I read...

And my back was weak, and I worried and worried...

Zenas sees eye floaters ("specks before the eyes"), has a poor memory, and worries obsessively. In my reading of the poem, I associate his symptoms with the onset of madness, particularly schizophrenia. It's important, too, that he is sixteen, as signs of schizophrenia usually arise when someone is in their late-teens or early-twenties. 

He "worried" more after reading "Dr. Weese's advertisement," which outlined all that was wrong with him and predicted "an early grave." Perhaps Zenas read that he was likely to commit suicide. 

In the end, he does not die of this, but of "a cough," probably tuberculosis. In death, he is relieved of the "terrible dreams."

If you choose to use this reading of the poem in your paper, there are a myriad of comparisons you can make. I will list a few in each form of media that you have mentioned.

Books: Girl, Interrupted; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Movies: If you do not care to read the aforementioned books, both were turned into films. If you like classic films, check out The Snake Pit starring Olivia de Havilland, one of the first Hollywood films to deal with the subjects of mental illness and treatment. 

Song: "Christine" by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Pay particular attention to the following lyrics: "She tries not to shatter / Kaleidoscope style...This big-eyed girl sees her faces unfurl / Now she's in purple, now she's the turtle / Disintegrating..."

I hope this helps. 

In To Kill a Mockingbird, what is an example and analysis of why Mayella lives in misery, other than that she's lonely and her father abuses her?

Mayella has no education and is overworked because she has to take care of all of her siblings by herself. 

Mayella’s misery is manifold. It is based in the fact that she is overworked.  As you know, her father hits her and possibly does more.  He also drinks away the family’s government assistance and Mayella is forced to make due with animals he hunts out of season to feed her siblings.

Mayella makes friends with Tom Robinson because she is lonely, but also because she needs help.  Mayella does not care that Tom Robinson is black.  He is a man. 

During the trial, Tom Robinson testifies that he helped Mayella because there always seemed to be a ton of children around, and she had to do everything on her own.  He did not ask for payment because he knew she had nothing to give him. 

“... I was glad to do it, Mr. Ewell didn’t seem to help her none, and neither did the chillun, and I knowed she didn’t have no nickels to spare.” (Ch. 19) 

Mayella has a lot of brothers and sisters.  None of them even go to school.  She herself did not go to school. She is responsible for taking care of her siblings, and it must be a very big job.  Her father usually drinks the government relief checks away, as we know. 

“It’s against the law, all right,” said my father, “and it’s certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains. I don’t know of any landowner around here who begrudges those children any game their father can hit.” (Ch. 2) 

Tom Robinson felt sorry for Mayella because he saw that she was in a desperate situation.  She was mother and housekeeper to a brood that wasn’t hers.  How could she ever escape?  He points out that she was always watering her flowers.  Despite her misery, Mayella tried to find small elements of beauty.

What is the theme of destiny in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley?

Although Victor Frankenstein and Captain Robert Walton seem to believe that they are destined for greatness, that they would make discoveries which significantly and positively impact humanity, the book itself reveals that destiny is not, ultimately, in control of our lives; rather, it is our choices that determine our futures.  The monster Victor creates blames his father for his neglect as well as the monster's physical appearance; however, he chooses to be good and kind for quite a while, despite his harsh treatment from others.  Later, after he realizes that he also has power to make his creator miserable (when he kills William), he chooses to become evil and vengeful, killing innocents in order to exact his revenge on Victor.  He is not destined or compelled by some force outside himself to murder Victor's loved ones; he exercises his free will in order to make his creator pay. 

Likewise, Walton exercises his will in the end to turn away from the greatness he seeks.  When his crew is unwilling to continue their voyage as a result of the grave personal danger it poses, Walton will not take their lives into his hands, and so he turns back (even though he really doesn't want to).  This choice also shows that destiny is not controlling him; he can and does make a decision antithetical to his original goal.  Therefore, we can see that free will, not destiny, is ultimately the controlling force for Shelley. 

What do the riots in "Once Upon a Time" symbolize?

The riots in "Once Upon a Time" represent the outside world that threatens the fairy tale life the family lives.

In telling her "bedtime story," Gordimer constructs a tale of a family living the perfect life. Their world is the fairy tale world: "In a house, in a suburb, in a city, there were a man and his wife who loved each other very much and were living happily ever after." The family keeps the outside world at a distance to protect this flawless existence. Through examples such as the purchase of different types of insurance policies and the gate with the sign reading "YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED," the family does their best to keep the threats of the outside world away from their lives.

The riots represent a part of this outside world that the family does not want to acknowledge. The riots are a reality that the family wishes to avoid. By insulating themselves from worldly elements such as riots, the family does not want to acknowledge "the other" that lives alongside their idyllic world. The riots scare them because they embody the uncertainty, discomfort, and danger that the world can pose. They symbolize a part of existence that the family cannot control and from which they wish to retreat.

Differentiate case studies from focus group discussions.

Case studies in social science research involve examining individuals or groups over time and in multiple ways to understand that person or group in deep ways. A case study can investigate the ways in which individuals or groups understand or deal with conflicts or other issues, and this method can produce rich qualitative data that result from direct and indirect observations, interviews, and use of tests and written records. Focus groups, on the other hand, involve gathering a group at one time to ask them questions about their attitudes or opinions. In this format, members are usually only observed once, unlike in case studies, and the data that result are less rich. In addition, focus group members can often interact with each other, so the result of the focus group is in part a result of this interaction. Focus groups do not generally concentrate on the experiences of the individual in a very descriptive way as case studies do; instead, focus groups aim to understand the ways in which people or group feel about an event, product, experience, or other issue. 

What is Johnny's conflict in The Outsiders?

Johnny’s conflict is that he is afraid of being jumped by Socs because they beat him up badly.

Johnny has several conflicts throughout the book, but they all stem from his fear of the Socs.  It was his fear of the Socs that led to him killing Bob, which caused him to be on the run.  If he had not been on the run, he would not have been injured badly in the fire at the church while trying to save the children.

Johnny is regularly beaten by his father and emotionally abused by his mother.  Despite this conflict, which makes his home life miserable, his biggest conflict is with the Socs.  He is a greaser, and the Socs will attack him when he is alone just because of that.  Even though he is used to being beaten by his father, the attack by the Socs leaves him traumatized.

Ponyboy explains how the experience affected Johnny.

I had never been jumped, but I had seen Johnny after four Socs got hold of him, and it wasn't pretty. Johnny was scared of his own shadow after that. Johnny was sixteen then. (Ch. 1)

When Johnny and Pony meet two Soc girls, Cherry and Marcia, it turns out to be a monumental event for Johnny.  He is polite to the girls, standing up for Cherry when Dally acts crudely toward her.  Cherry thinks Johnny is nice.  The problem is her boyfriend.  When they are walking, Johnny realizes that it was Cherry’s boyfriend Bob and his friends who jumped him before.

When Johnny sees the blue mustang again, he freezes in fear.  Pony is not sure why at first.

"Your boyfriends?" Johnny's voice was steady, but standing as close to him as I was, I could see he was trembling. I wondered why--- Johnny was a nervous wreck, but he never was that jumpy. (Ch. 3)

The Socs see them with their girls.  Cherry gets in their car, hoping to avoid a conflict.  It prevents a fight for then, but later on Johnny and Pony are in the park and the Socs come back.  Bob is drowning Pony in the park fountain and he doesn’t have a weapon.  Johnny, who does have a switchblade, intervenes.  He kills Bob and saves Pony’s life, but the event horrifies him and leaves him wracked with guilt.

What was LBJ’s “Great Society”? What is its connection to the “welfare” system?

President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” was a set of programs that he proposed to improve (as he saw it) American society in numerous ways.  Johnson became president in November of 1963 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  Within his first year in office, he had gotten Congress to pass a few “Great Society” programs.  A year later, he was elected in his own right by a landslide margin, largely because most Americans believed that his opponent, Barry Goldwater, was much too conservative. After he was elected, Johnson felt that he had a mandate to push for more Great Society programs.  This set of programs was very extensive.  As this link tells us, the most important parts of the program had to do with

bringing aid to underprivileged Americans, regulating natural resources, and protecting American consumers.

However, there was much more to the Great Society.  In addition to the major aspects, the program also included

the profoundly influential Immigration Act, bills establishing a National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Highway Safety Act, (and) the Public Broadcasting Act.

Clearly, the Great Society was a very broad set of programs that aimed to improve (in Johnson’s view) many aspects of American society.

As the first quote above tells us, one of the major parts of the Great Society was programs to help underprivileged Americans.  This is where it is connected to the “welfare” system.  Broadly speaking, the welfare system is a system of programs that is meant to help poor Americans.  Johnson’s Great Society greatly expanded the number of programs that were meant to do this.  In addition, the Great Society (and the War on Poverty, which was a part of it) made more Americans believe that the federal government would and should make sure that poor people had a decent standard of living. Therefore, we can say that the Great Society is connected to the welfare system because it created or expanded many of the programs that we associate with welfare and made more people expect that the government would take care of the poor.

How are shattered illusions presented in The Lonely Londoners?

Shattered illusions are directly related to the main theme (and the appropriate title) of this novel:  loneliness in London (especially felt by immigrants from West India). 

The illusions that are shattered are all about what life would be like in London vs. what life is really like in London.  What is the illusion that is shattered?  The illusion that is shattered is that Moses Aloetta from Trinidad (as well as other characters such as Galahad and Cap, who are not as developed as he is) would have adequate work, money, food, shelter, and happiness.  What the black immigrants from the West Indies come upon is racism.  As a result, they are forced to hope for something much less.

[They want only] a little work, a little food, a little place to sleep … [they] only want to get by … [they] don't even want to get on.

Their monetary hardship can be seen in almost every aspect of their lives.  The illusion is wealth and abundance.  The reality is poverty and loneliness.

[We live] in seedy furnished rooms in run-down areas and have to scramble for what jobs there are or go on the dole.

There are social hardships as well.  For example, Galahad has a very specific illusion: he wants to be successful in dating many white women.  As we can see from Galahad’s date with Dolly, the reality is very different from the illusion.  Galahad’s hospitality is not appreciated and Dolly is not what Galahad expected.

It is the reality, or the shattered illusion, that is the focus of The Lonely Londoners.  The immigrants from West India are never truly accepted in their new home in England.  Despite the humor used to tell the story, the immigrants’ isolation is always felt.

Who was Benjamin Franklin?

Benjamin Franklin is most remembered today as a member of the founding generation of the United States. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at a young age and rose to prominence as a printer, a trade he had picked up from his older brother in Boston. He became an influential figure in Philadelphia society, starting the Junto, a group devoted to discussing practical philosophy that would eventually become the American Philosophical Society. He published newspapers, books, and other materials, many of which, like the famous "Poor Richard's Almanack," he composed himself. He emerged as a leading politician in the city, representing the colony for many years as a colonial agent in Great Britain. At the time, he was most famous as a scientist--his experiments in electricity in particular made him a celebrity in Europe. In the imperial crisis that broke out between Great Britain and the North American colonies, Franklin was initially a moderate, but over time, especially after being insulted in front of Parliament by one of King George's ministers, he became committed to American independence. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and he served the revolutionaries in France, helping to negotiate French military intervention in the war for independence. The last major public act of his life was to sign the U.S. Constitution. Franklin was thus present, and an active participant in, almost every significant event in the founding of the United States.

In The Hiding Place, does Corrie have an eyewitness account when she talks about the Holocaust?

Corrie Ten Boom is renowned for her bestselling book, The Hiding Place, in which she relates her own personal story of the struggle to help Jews fleeing from Nazi persecution in Holland. It also describes her own (and her family's) detention and transfer to the concentration camps. It is a true story in which Corrie emphasizes her sister's compassion and ability to forgive their tormentors. Corrie survives, but her sister and father do not.

Having been identified as sympathizers, the Ten Booms are not spared the wrath of the Nazis, and their modest home (and watch shop) is raided. Corrie and her older sister Betsie are sent to Scheveningen. When Corrie is arrested, she watches Jews be ridiculed, kicked, and stripped of their possessions and their dignity. She spends time in Scheveningen in solitary confinement, where she learns her efforts have not been in vain and receives a message that reads, "All the watches in your closet are safe" (chapter 10). This means the Jews hidden in the shop escaped undetected.

After a transfer to Vught, Corrie witnesses merciless beatings and hears the firing squad on numerous occasions. There is much talk that the Germans will be defeated imminently; instead, Corrie and Betsie have to face their biggest fear when they eventually find themselves in Ravensbruk, Germany, a notorious labor camp for women (chapter 13). In Ravensbruk, "the most savage place yet," Corrie muses that "there was too much misery, too much seemingly pointless suffering." The women are known only by their prison numbers, are subjected to humiliating weekly inspections, and have incredibly hard lives.

Towards the end of her ordeal, and after Betsie's death, Corrie talks about a prison train that had been bombed, leaving the survivors "horribly mutilated and in terrible pain." Corrie is shocked at the seeming indifference of other prisoners and guards alike, and she calls this indifference "the fatal disease of the concentration camp" (chapter 15).

Accordingly, Corrie has a first-hand understanding of the circumstances and effects of the Holocaust in terms of her efforts to support the Jewish cause, and her own enormous personal loss.

Describe the impact of electricity and the light bulb on people's lives.

The invention of electricity and the light bulb had a tremendous impact on our lives. Before electricity existed, people had to work much harder. Humans had to provide much of the power or manual labor to get jobs successfully completed. With the rise of electricity, electric powered machines could do some of the work that humans used to do. The vacuum cleaner and the washing machine are some of these machines.   Factories also began to use more electric powered machines. Electricity also made it easier to communicate, as both the telegraph and the telephone relied on the use of electricity.

The light bulb, of course, also depends on upon electricity. With the light bulb, people could have a well-lit environment regardless of whether it was daytime or nighttime. It made it easier for people to read. It also made it easier for people to perform work-related tasks and to study. People didn’t have to depend on candles or kerosene lamps in order to be able to see.

In today’s world, we couldn’t imagine what life would be like without electricity or the light bulb. Almost everything we do, from logging in to this website, to watching television, and to cooking our meals, depends on electricity. We depend on light to see our computer screens and to make our homes brighter.

These two inventions have been very important to our lives.

In William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, why are the characters on the island children, and not adults? What message is Golding trying to...

William Golding uses children, instead of adults, to inhabit and attempt to create a civil society on an abandoned island to demonstrate and reveal humanity's inherent wickedness. Golding chose to comment on the Christian concept of original sin in the novel which suggests that humans are born immoral with a predisposed affinity for violence and savagery. Children obviously have spent a lesser amount of time living in civilized society than adults. Their brief exposure to the rules and regulations of civil society bring them closer to man's original condition. The biguns are old enough to understand concepts such as democracy and moral behavior while the littluns are essentially "blank slates." Adults would more than likely possess the ability to establish an organized civil society because these concepts are deeply ingrained in them. The children's innocent nature and brief experience in civilized society allow Golding to express how man's inherently evil nature destroys any hope in morality and civility.

What was happening during the Renaissance that relates to Romeo and Juliet?

William Shakespeare's most famous play, Romeo and Juliet, is set during the Renaissance period in Italy. Though Shakespeare himself lived quite a while after this time, and in a different country, he masterfully created characters and a fictional narrative that work in their historical context. The entire social setting of the play greatly reflects the values, aspirations, and conflicts of Renaissance Italy. For example, young Juliet has been raised in her wealthy family with the expectation that she will marry a well-off man. Her mother and father expect her to have little agency in her relationships in life and would love to quickly marry her off to the well-matched Paris. As we find out, Juliet has other things in mind and at heart. 

Which brings us to the major conflict of the play... Juliet falls in love with Romeo, the young son of a rival family. In Renaissance and Early Modern Italy, families were often engaged in long-standing feuds with one another. These feuds could be sparked by a quarrel over land, business, resources, or honor, and often they went on for so many generations that people forgot why they started in the first place. Noble families were almost always engaged in feuds with another, using their money and names to gain sway in various cities and territories. Families came to consider each other like natural enemies, just like the Montagues and Capulets. Shakespeare chose a thrilling conflict when he decided to pen his young lovers as being of rival clans! 

How did westward expansion change the world?

American westward expansion changed the world in several ways. Of course, it permanently altered the lives of the millions of Native Americans who lived in the West, but it also had major geopolitical implications. For example, the expansionist ambitions of the American colonies were a major cause of the French and Indian War, which in turn gave rise to the Seven Years' War, a massive conflict with major implications. The importance of the port city of New Orleans to westward expansion played a major role in diplomatic maneuvering between the United States, Spain, and France in the period following the American Revolution. This situation was resolved with the conclusion of the Louisiana Purchase. In the 1840s, westward expansion led to war with Mexico, which lost a vast swath of its territory to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. In the late nineteenth century, westward expansion had two major effects. First, the west became a destination for millions of immigrants, both from the eastern United States and the rest of the world--from China to Ireland. Second, westward expansion increased the strategic and commercial role of the United States in the Pacific, a development that contributed to American imperialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Conflict between the United States and Japan over influence in the Pacific would erupt in war between the two nations in the 1941. Overall, westward expansion was a major factor in the emergence of the United States as a major world power by the end of the nineteenth century.

In "There Will Come Soft Rains" what is the meaning behind the phrase "tick tock"?

The ticking noise represents the technology and the impact it has had on the house as time passes. 

Something terrible happened in this story that turned the people into nothing but spots in paint.  There was a catastrophic event, probably a nuclear bomb.  Since it was obviously a technology that caused the damage, created by people, the house’s technology is significant.  Throughout the story, the house ticks itself closer to its doom. 

In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o'clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o'clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would. The morning house lay empty. The clock ticked on, repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness. 

The house is fully automated, and these automations are designed for the convenience of the people.  It is comforting people who are no longer there.  However, they also make the house almost alive too.  It continues to cater to people who are long gone, until its own inevitable destruction. 

The ticking of the clock not only represents the technology that has destroyed the people, it also foreshadows their doom.  As the clock ticks its way through its routine, it is getting closer and closer to the fire. 

Eight-one, tick-tock, eight-one o'clock, off to school, off to work, run, run, eight-one! But no doors slammed, no carpets took the soft tread of rubber heels. It was raining outside. The weather box on the front door sang quietly: "Rain, rain, go away; rubbers, raincoats for today…" And the rain tapped on the empty house, echoing. 

The people do not come back.  They are never coming back.  Yet the storm that destroys the house is an act of nature, not technology.  The house cannot save itself.  Slowly but surely, everything is going back to nature, and back to nothing.  The clock will tick no more.

What was the "pattern set by Columbus" that Cortes followed in Mexico and the English in Virginia and Massachusetts?

Christopher Columbus set a pattern of conquest over the native populations that the Spanish conquistadors and English colonists would emulate.  Columbus used the superior weapons and technology of Europe to dominate the native people. The natives did not even utilize iron, which put them at a major disadvantage.   Columbus and his successors also utilized an unexpected advantage in the diseases that they brought to the New World. Diseases like small pox, measles, and influenza devastated the Native American population that was not immune because they were never exposed to these diseases.  The Europeans, starting with Columbus, did not view the indigenous population as equals.  For this reason, they did not feel that the Indians had a right to the lands that they had inhabited for centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards.  Superior technology, disregard for the humanity of the Indian, and disease warfare are all aspects of Columbus's conquest that Cortes and the American colonists also used in their conquest of their respective native people.

In Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, what does Antonio and Bassanio's friendship reveal about their personalities?

Antonio and Bassanio are very close friends throughout the play The Merchant of Venice. Antonio willingly takes out a loan to fund Bassanio's trip to Belmont despite the fact that his assets are lost at sea. Antonio essentially risks his life for his friend's happiness by accepting terms from Shylock that indicate that Antonio will have to give a pound of his flesh if he defaults on the loan. Bassanio is overwhelmed with grief when he receives the news about Antonio's ships and the fact that Antonio will have to forfeit on his loan. Bassanio does not consummate his marriage with Portia and leaves Belmont immediately to return to Venice. Right before Shylock is about to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio's breast, Antonio tells Bassanio that he loves him. Bassanio responds by telling Antonio that he would gladly give up his wife and friends to see Antonio live. Antonio's willingness to risk his life for Bassanio's happiness reveals his magnanimous personality. Bassanio's loyalty is portrayed in his decision to leave Belmont to come to his friend's aid. Both Antonio and Bassanio are caring, selfless individuals who value each other.

`f(x) = 2arcsin(x-1)` Find the derivative of the function

The derivative of function f with respect to x is denoted as` f'(x)` .

To take the derivative of the given function: `f(x) =2arcsin(x-1)` ,

we can apply the basic property: `d/(dx) [c*f(x)] = c * d/(dx) [f(x)]` .

  then` f'(x) = 2 d/(dx) (arcsin (x-1))`

  To solve for the `d/(dx) (arcsin(x-1))` , we consider the derivative formula of an inverse trigonometric function.

 For the derivative of inverse "sine" function, we follow:

`d/(dx) (arcsin (u)) = ((du)/(dx))/sqrt(1-u^2)`

To apply the formula with the given function, we let` u= x-1` then `(du)/(dx) = 1` .

`d/(dx) (arcsin(x-1))= 1/sqrt(1-(x-1)^2)`

 Then `f'(x)=2 d/(dx) (arcsin (x-1))` becomes:

`f'(x) =2 * 1/sqrt(1-(x-1)^2)`

`f'(x) =2 /sqrt(1-(x-1)^2)`

To further simplify, we can evaluate the exponent inside the radical:

`f'(x) =2/sqrt(1-(x^2-2x+1))`

Note: `(x-1)^2= (x-1)(x-1)`

Applying FOIL or distributive property:

`(x-1)(x-1)= x*x + x*(-1) + (-1)*x + (-1)(-1)`

                       `=x^2 –x –x+1`

                      ` =x^2 -2x+1`

Simplify the expression inside radical:

`f'(x) =2/sqrt(1-x^2+2x -1)`

`f'(x)=2/sqrt(-x^2+2x) or f'(x)=2/sqrt(2x-x^2)`

What is the structure within cells? What do clusters of cells create? How does cell nutrition work and what is the role of specialized cells?

Cells contain organelles inside of them. Each organelle has a job for the cell to function. All of the organelles work together for the cell to function as a whole. For example: the mitochondria provide energy for cells by producing ATP. Clusters or groups of cells make tissues. This is part of the levels of organization. Cell ­­-->Tissue --> Organs --> Organ System --> Organism. Cells need nutrients to survive and then to make more cells. They get their nutrients from the body and those nutrients can enter the cell through the cell membrane. The membrane is composed of a phospholipid bilayer. Some materials can pass through the membrane through simple diffusion, meaning they just slip through. Some materials enter through facilitated diffusion, meaning they need a protein to get through. An example of this is glucose entering a red blood cell. Others that are large may need to get into the cell through active transport. An example is a Sodium/Potassium pump. Our bodies are made of lots of different specialized cells. Neurons are a specialized cell to transport electrical signals. Muscle cells are specialized for contraction to help our bodies move (skeletal muscle), help food get through our digestive system (smooth muscle), or make our heart pump (cardiac muscle). Muscle cells tend to have more mitochondria than a skin cell because they need more energy (mitochondria produce energy). Our bodies need to have specialized cells to be able to perform the variety of functions we have.

The following sentence is ambiguous. Provide two explanations which illustrate the different meanings of the sentence. "We need more empathetic...

The key word here is the adjective “more.” Does it modify “empathetic,” or does it modify “leaders?”

If “more” modifies the adjective “empathetic,” then it indicates the degree of the emotion. The sentence would refer to the fact that we need leaders who are more empathetic, more understanding, more compassionate, and more connected to us followers and to the situations that we are experiencing. The leaders need to imagine themselves in our shoes sometimes, in order to understand what’s going on with us.

If “more” modifies the noun “leaders,” then it merely indicates quantity. Yes, we do indeed need leaders who are understanding, compassionate, and connected; but we need more of these people than we already have. The implication is that we already have a few of these kinds of leaders; but we don’t yet have enough of them. At least, not in the speaker's opinion.

Of what does Doodle seem to be most fearful in "The Scarlet Ibis"?

Doodle seems afraid of being left behind by his brother.

Perhaps, it is the fact that the narrator is the one who urges Doodle to make physical accomplishments that effects Doodle's dependency upon his brother. Then, too, the brother is made to take Doodle with him after his father fashions a cart in which to pull the small boy. Thus, having to transport Doodle everywhere with him, the narrator decides,

Doodle was my brother, and he was going to cling to me forever, no matter what I did, so I dragged him across the burning cotton field to share with him the only beauty I knew, Old Woman Swamp.

The ironic thing about Doodle's "clinging" is that it becomes his tragic undoing because the brother is what he himself characterizes as a slave to his pride, and he coerces the frail Doodle into learning how to swim and row a boat so that he will not seem so pitiful. Then, when a storm comes up one day that they are out on the water, 

The knowledge that Doodle's and my plans had come to naught was bitter, and that streak of cruelty within me awakened. 

The narrator races ahead of Doodle, who pleads for his brother to wait for him. When the brother's "childish spite evanesced," he finally stops. However, he does not hear Doodle, so he turns back and discovers that his frail "scarlet ibis" of a brother has died.

Several times Atticus emphasizes the need to consider things from another's point of view. How does following his advice change the children's...

When Scout is having trouble with her teacher at school, Atticus gives her some of his most valuable advice. He tells her that you have to look at things from another person’s perspective. He is teaching her empathy. 

“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-”

“Sir?”

“-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (Ch. 3)

Empathy is an important skill for life. It is more than just working with your teacher so that you do not get into trouble. It is about appreciating what others are going through. Scout has to learn empathy to understand Boo Radley, and Mayella Ewell, and even her brother, Jem.

Scout demonstrates her newfound empathy during the trial, when she hears about Mayella’s circumstances and begins to feel sorry for her.

As Tom Robinson gave his testimony, it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years. (Ch. 19)

This shows that Scout is growing up.  She can see Mayealla as a victim.  She put herself in Mayella’s shoes and realized that being her would be difficult.  She had no friends, she was isolated from most contact with people, and she had to take care of all of her siblings.

Scout also shows empathy with Boo Radley.  When he protects her and her brother from Bob Ewell, she meets him in person for the first time.  It is a remarkable experience for her.  As she walks him home, she stands on his porch and looks at her childhood from his point of view.  She has come full circle, seeing Boo Radley as a person.

`y = cosx` Determine whether the function is a solution of the differential equation `xy' - 2y = x^3e^x`

To check whether the given function is a solution of the given equation, we first need to calculate the derivative of the function.

`y'=-sin x` 

Now we substitute that into the equation.

`-x sin x-2cos x ne x^3e^x`  

Obviously, the two sides of the equation are not equal, hence the given function is not a solution of the differential equation.                           

What is an example of a stanza in Romeo and Juliet?

The Petrachan sonnet that is spoken by Romeo and Juliet when they first meet is in the form of a stanza that is broken by alternate speakers, who each say seven lines.

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet contains three Petrarchan sonnets, poems written in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of abbaabba cdcdcd that have fourteen lines, composed of an octave and a sestet. Whereas the Petrarchan octave and sestet are often separate stanzas, in Shakespeare's play the sonnets are written all in one stanza. Specifically, they are the Prologues of Acts I and II, and the first encounter of Romeo with Juliet in Act I, Scene 5, in which each speaks seven lines of this sonnet.

The Petrarchan sonnet is of Italian origin. Francesco Petrarca, a Renaissance poet, created this form to write about obsessive and unrequited love. In Petrarca's pattern for love, a young man falls in love at first sight; however, the lovely woman who is the object of his love tests his passion by prolonging the courtship. Her resistance causes the lover to become mired in melancholy to the point that he isolates himself from his friends and family. He then expresses his deep emotions and feelings of rejection in poetry. 

Certainly, Romeo's character follows the pattern of the Petrarchan lover as in the first scene of Act I he has avoided his parents and friend Benvolio and expresses his deep melancholy for his loss of love from Rosaline in oxymorons. But, in Scene 5, he is dazzled by the beauty of Juliet and falls in love with her at first sight. Boldly, he approaches her and declares his passionate feelings:

If I profane my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this,
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss....(1.5.93-96)

Then, Juliet responds, resisting his advances:

Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss..... (1.5.94-97)

(After line 97, Romeo and Juliet, who each have seven lines of the sonnet, alternate by speaking only one or two lines at a time.)

How do I compare Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird and Jonas in The Giver?

Scout and Jonas are similar because they are both coming of age, or maturing into an adult consciousness.  They also are both in a position to examine their society as they come to understand how it really operates.  They lose their childish innocence and face the reality of unfair societies.

Scout is very young when her story starts.  Her first shock is when she starts school.  School doesn’t match her idealized view.  Her father is also defending a black man, Tom Robinson, in a rape case. His defense of Robinson is very unpopular in Maycomb, and Scout hears some rough language directed at her father.  That is a lot of growing up for a little girl to do.

Growing up with a father like Atticus, who treats everyone with respect regardless of race or class, it was somewhat of a shock for Scout to learn what life is really like in Maycomb.  It is a town steeped in racial tension.  A mob of men even tries to lynch Tom Robinson, but her father stops them.

As she gets older, Scout learns that things are not quite what they seem. Her mysterious neighbor Boo Radley turns out to be a friend, not a monster.  Tom Robinson is convicted, even though her brother and father are convinced that he was proven innocent.  Bob Ewell, the victim’s father, tries to kill Scout and her brother Jem.  Boo Radley saves them, and Scout finally gets to meet him.  She learns that he is actually quiet and shy.

Jonas’s community isn’t what it seems either.  It is presented as a perfect world.  Citizens have to follow strict rules, and as long as they do the community will remain stable.  Everyone is the same, so everyone is happy.  The community prevents people from having strong emotions, and administers every aspect of their daily lives.

When Jonas becomes Receiver of Memory upon turning Twelve, he learns that Sameness is not what it is meant to be.  Instead of sending people somewhere else, known as “Elsewhere,” the community is actually killing members who do not fit their conception of a perfect community.  This includes people who break rules, the elderly, and babies who do not meet growth targets. Jonas watches a video of his father, whose job it is to take care of infants, administering a lethal injection to a newborn who happens to have an identical twin.

Jonas and Scout share some personality traits too.  They are both inquisitive and precocious.  They do not accept the world the way it is, but actually pay attention to the world around them.  Jonas and Scout remember what they learn.  As different as their two words are (Scout's is racially divided, and Jonas's has no races), they are similar in their realizations that the world is more complex than they thought.

Explain why the colonists wanted to break away from England.

By 1776, many colonists had come to believe that breaking away from England was, in Thomas Paine's memorable phrase, "common sense." The colonies and the mother country had been at war for almost a year, and the king had rejected efforts at reconciliation under conditions they were willing to accept. The fact of the matter is that by the time independence was declared, most of the colonies were governed by revolutionary committees in any case. But they needed to make it official in order to begin writing state constitutions. This was a major factor in wanting to break away from England, as was the urgent need to seek recognition (and receive loans) from European nations like France, Spain and the Netherlands. By 1776, in short, the ties that bound the colonies to England had become severed in any case, and independence made sense to many (but by no means all) the colonists.

What does Lily point out about Jonas and Gabriel in The Giver by Lois Lowry?

Lily feels that Jonas and Gabriel must have some kind of connection because they have similar eyes.

Jonas’s father is a Nurturer. His job is to take care of Newchildren. When one of the Newchildren does not mature at the rate he is supposed to, Jonas' father gets special permission to bring him home. When Jonas’s father first brings baby Gabriel home, Lily points out the similarity between him and Jonas almost immediately. 

"Isn't he cute? Look how tiny he is! And he has funny eyes like yours, Jonas!" Jonas glared at her.  He didn't like it that she had mentioned his eyes” (Chapter 3).

Jonas has light-colored eyes, while almost everyone else in the community has darker eyes. He thinks Lily is rude for pointing out there is a difference, but Lily is a chatty little girl and does not realize the effect her pronouncement has on Jonas. 

The lighter eyes seem to add depth to the baby’s expression, and Jonas realizes he probably seems the same way to people. He finds this unsettling. 

Why would these two have the same color eyes, when no one else does? Lily has an idea about that, too: 

Father put his bike into its port. Then he picked up the basket and carried it into the house. Lily followed behind, but she glanced back over her shoulder at Jonas and teased, "Maybe he had the same Birthmother as you" (Chapter 3). 

Jonas ignores her, but in fact Lily is probably right. Children are not born to parents in Jonas’s community. Jonas and Lily are not related, but Gabe and Jonas probably are. Gabe will not be allowed to remain with Jonas’s family after his special extension, as only two children are allowed per family. 

The light eyes are significant; they denote special powers.  When Jonas first meets Gabe, he has no idea that he has the Capacity to See Beyond. As Jonas trains as Receiver of Memory, he learns that Gabe has it, too. Jonas is able to transmit memories to him. Jonas’s teacher, The Giver, also has light eyes.

When is militarism used in the book Things Fall Apart?

Militarism crops up often in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Achebe uses scenes that depict the desire for military action throughout the novel to reinforce Okonkwo's bellicose nature. Indeed, early in the novel, Okonkwo first believes that the promise of war is the reason why all the important men in the village are called for a meeting:

“Okonkwo on his bamboo bed tried to figure out the nature of the emergency-- war with a neighboring clan? That seemed the most likely reason, and he was not afraid of war. He was a man of action, a man of war” (10).

Okonkwo hopes for the opportunity to be violent and prove his abilities as a warrior.

However, it should be noted that militarism in not only used to describe and reinforce Okonkwo's brutal masculinity, but is also used when white settlers begin to become pervasive forces in Umuofia. When Okonkwo returns from exile, he questions why his tribe does not simply overthrow the white settlers and run then from town. His best friend Obierika informs him of the violence these settlers are capable of:

“'Perhaps I have been away too long.... But I cannot understand these things you tell me. What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight?

'Have you not heard how the white man wiped out Abame?'” (175).

Thus, militarism is used throughout the novel to show the violence and upheaval of both Okonkwo's life and Umuofia as a whole.

In Chapter 16 of The Giver, how does the author show the growth of Jonas through color and feelings?

At this point, Jonas is beginning to be overwhelmed by the memories.  After growing up with no feelings and in a world where everything is completely controlled, the full experience of emotions is almost too much for him.  The addition of painful memories in particular makes it difficult to accept. 

Jonas did not want to go back. He didn't want the memories, didn't want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn't want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games. (Ch. 16) 

Jonas does experience some good memories though. He continues to compare his world to the world of the memories.  He asks The Giver which memory is his favorite, and he is shown a memory of grandparents and family.  The emotion in the memory is one he has never experienced.  In his community, there is no such thing as family in this sense.  There are no grandparents, and children have no connection with the people who act as their parents once they are old enough to be on their own. 

Jonas hesitated. "I certainly liked the memory, though. I can see why it's your favorite. I couldn't quite get the word for the whole feeling of it, the feeling that was so strong in the room."

"Love," The Giver told him. (Ch. 16) 

Jonas thinks that this way of living, with attachments, is more dangerous, but also more complete.  He realizes he prefers it.  His parents have no idea what love is.  They chide him when he asks if they love him.  They tell him he has used an antiquated word with no meaning.  He knows better though.  He realizes that there is way more to the human experience than their community knows. 

Through the memories and colors, Jonas gets to be a real, whole human being.  This can be painful, but it is more meaningful.  He understands that his parents and sister, and everyone else in the community, will never experience love.  There is something wrong about that.  A life of color and emotion may be a more dangerous way to live, but it is a better way.

Provide textual evidence that portrays Scout Finch as an honest individual in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

There are several scenes throughout the novel that depict Scout Finch as being an honest individual. In Chapter 2, Scout is asked to read most of My First Reader and stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register on her first day of school. Miss Caroline tells Scout to tell her father that he is no longer allowed to teach Scout anymore because it would interfere with her reading. Scout says, "He hasn't taught me anything, Miss Caroline. Atticus ain't got time to teach me anything" (Lee 12). When Miss Caroline comments that Scout wasn't born reading, Scout says,

"Jem says I was. He read in a book where I was a Bullfinch instead of a Finch. Jem says my name's really Jean Louise Bullfinch, that I got swapped when I was born and I'm really a---" (Lee 12).

Scout then mentions that Miss Caroline thought she was lying when Miss Caroline told her not to let her imagination run away with her.

Despite the fact that Scout was not a "Bullfinch" who was switched at birth, she naively believes Jem's story. Scout is a typical innocent child who believes anything that her older brother tells her. Scout actually believed that she was born reading and that Atticus didn't teach her. In Scout's mind, she is being completely honest which is why she is confused at Miss Caroline's response.

Another scene that depicts Scout being honest takes place in Chapter 4 when Jem is explaining to Dill what a Hot-Steam is. Scout interrupts Jem and tells Dill, "Don't you believe a word he says, Dill...Calpurnia says that's nigger-talk" (Lee 24). Scout knows that her brother is lying about the existence of Hot-Steams and tells Dill the truth about them.

In The Merchant of Venice, which quotes support prejudice as a major theme?

There are a number of quotes which indicate prejudice. I have selected the most pertinent ones. The first significant one is Portia's disdainful references to the waiting suitors, who all wish to chance their luck in choosing the right casket to win her as a bride. Nerissa mentions each suitor and Portia mocks them by pointing out their shortcomings or iniquities. It is obvious that she does not like foreigners and seems to relish making fun of them. To summarise her evident prejudice, she tells Nerissa in Act 1, scene 2:

I am glad this parcel of wooers
are so reasonable, for there is not one among them
but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God grant
them a fair departure.

In the same scene, when Portia is informed about the arrival of the prince of Morocco she utters a blatantly racist remark about him:

...if he have the condition
of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had
rather he should shrive me than wive me.

She states that she would rather have the prince hear her confession than marry him since he is black.

Shylock provides pertinent evidence of his prejudice against Christians when he tells Bassanio in Act 1, scene 3:

...I
will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you,
walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat
with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.

This abhorrence for Christians is specifically expressed with regard to Antonio when Shylock says in the same scene:

How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian . . .

Antonio expresses a similar sentiment when he later tells Bassanio about Shylock in Act 1, scene 3:

Mark you this, Bassanio,
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart . . .

Shylock confirms the fact that Antonio despises him when he refers to his abuse at the merchant's hands:

'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurn'd me such a day; another time
You call'd me dog . . .

In his response, Antonio does not apologise for his ill treatment of Shylock, but rather says:

I am as like to call thee so again,
To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too.

In Act 2, scene 2, Launcelot, Shylock's servant, expresses a particular hatred for his master. His comment is not only based on the fact that he feels that Shylock has ill-treated and underpaid him, but reflects a general prejudice by Venetians, in general, towards Jews, who are deemed stingy money grubbers:

Certainly the Jew is the very devil
incarnal . . .

In his estimation, Shylock is the devil himself.

In Act 2, scene 8, Salanio expresses the same feelings about Shylock by calling him a villain and a dog.

It is this intolerance between the different characters which forms the basis of the play. All the ensuing events arise from the characters' mutual hatred for one another. Although the problems which arise are eventually resolved, the solutions are not perfect since the characters still bear their prejudice.

The fact that Portia marries Bassanio, the one she loves, does not cure her of prejudice. She would, most probably, maintain the same bias she has against foreigners. The same holds true for all the other characters. Lorenzo, although he marries Jessica, Shylock's daughter, does not suddenly express tolerance for Jews and embrace his father-in-law.

Even though Antonio extends some mercy to Shylock, he still requests an extremely harsh punishment for him—that the devout Jew should sacrifice his religion and become a Christian. Launcelot still hates his erstwhile master whilst all the others do not, at any point, express any regret for their bitterness and hatred. They, instead, celebrate their revenge for they believe that the Jew has gotten what he deserves.

In this sense then, there is no real victory, for prejudice still continues on its maliciously merry way.

Help. I need 1 quote to show the end of the American Dream during the scene of Curley's wife's death in the novel Of Mice and Men. Please, it's due...

Just before Lennie inadvertently kills Curley's wife, they both discuss their own dreams. Curley's wife laments that she might have been a famous and successful actress if her mother would have let her. Lennie, of course, shares his own story about the rabbits and the farm. They both go back and forth with their respective hopes. Curley's wife tries to dominate the conversation because she wants sympathy. She wants someone to hear about her missed opportunities. After she is killed, the narrator describes her lifeless body. With this description, one can see how Steinbeck suggests the loss of the American Dream. In this description, it shows how Curley's wife had missed her opportunity in life and, in the end, how she could no longer seek sympathy or understanding for that loss: 

Curley’s wife lay with a half-covering of yellow hay. And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. 

The "plannings" symbolize her past hopes and the "discontent" and "aches" symbolize her regret. 

What did Malcolm X mean by "homemade education" in his essay, "Homemade Education"? What did he learn?

In his essay, Malcolm X refers to how he became knowledgeable and informed through what he calls "homemade education."

In fact, as you mentioned, Malcolm's essay is titled "A Homemade Education." This by itself is noteworthy: Malcolm came to learn more by teaching himself than by relying on others to educate him. Malcolm himself had dropped out of school in the eighth grade after his teacher contemptuously dismissed his ambitions to become a lawyer.

As time progressed, Malcolm came to feel his lack of an advanced education. He struggled to write proper sentences, and he experienced difficulty in understanding all that he read. In prison, he decided that it was up to him to make some needed changes. This was how his exploration into "homemade education" began. Essentially, Malcolm X began educating himself, first by taking hold of a dictionary from the prison library and then, copying pages out of the dictionary to improve his diction.

With each exercise, Malcolm found his comprehension improving, along with his command of the English language. To Malcolm, "home education" meant self education. After copying through the entire dictionary, Malcolm was able to explore other reading materials. Since he could now understand everything that he read, Malcolm found himself devouring other works that had until now, been off-limits to him.

Malcolm began reading books about ancient, modern, and American history; he also read abolitionist material, philosophical works, civil rights literature, and archaeological treatises about black history. Later, in conversation with an English writer, Malcolm X was asked where he went to college. Malcolm's answer was that his alma mater was "books, a good library." So, Malcolm X concluded that his own brand of "home education" propelled him beyond the level his previous teachers had envisioned for him.

What do we learn about each character by the end of Act 2, Scene 3, in Macbeth? Please use bullet points and include relevant quotes.

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How can we apply psychoanalytic theory to The Great Gatsby? I need a professional answer.

If you would like a trained professional to address this question of a psychoanalytical reading, you might look at the Youtube video on shame and Gatsby by Jared Defife, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Emory University. It's called "A Psychoanalysis of Jay Gatsby." In it, Defife argues that Gatsby is motivated by shame at his background. As lay readers, we certainly can tell that more than just Daisy herself motivates Gatsby's desire for her: to him, she represents security and what it would be like never to have known financial need. You might also try the following article, which is in pdf format on the web: http://www.cusd80.com/cms/lib6/AZ01001175/Centricity/Domain/963/Psychoanalytic%20Crit%20-%20Gatsby.pdf

This article discusses the fear of intimacy experienced by all the main characters in the novel, including Tom, Daisy, Nick and Jordan.

I would like to know which programming language is best to learn for building website. I'm a beginner student of management so I don't know...

There are a few languages that you will want to learn in order to develop web pages. The first two are not programming languages but, rather, could be considered formatting languages. These would be Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). These two languages allow you to create and format content. HTML lets you develop information that would be unique to each page on your site and CSS allows you to create unifying features that carry across all your pages. 

While you can create websites just using these two languages, if you want your page to look like it was created somewhere after 1998, you will need to learn some programming languages. These languages allow you to give your webpage functionality. Javascript is a flexible language that allows you to create buttons that your readers can push as well as certain kinds of graphics and animation. PHP allows you to work with data that users input in order to generate webpages geared toward user needs and interests. 

Why does Scout prefer the world of men to the world in which "fragrant ladies rocked slowly, fanned gently, and drank cool water?"

Scout is a "tomboy" who prefers playing outside and going on adventures to wearing frilly clothing and indulging in many of the feminine pastimes her peers enjoy. She would rather play with the boys and discuss what she perceives to be masculine topics than relate to other girls her age or to older women. In this sense, Scout finds herself able to relate to the theme of being an outsider, which is portrayed throughout "To Kill a Mockingbird."

While Scout's wily personality stands on its own, a possible secondary explanation for her preference for the "world of men" is the fact that the two most important people in her life are men. Scout enjoys playing alongside her brother, Jem, and grew up as an accomplice to his wild adventures. On another level, Scout idolizes her father, Atticus, because he has always treated her with respect. While many of the women in Scout's life treat her like a child and assume that she isn't capable of knowing her own mind, Atticus treats Scout and Jem as an equal. As the primary male role model in Scout's life, Atticus represents a world of intellect and maturity that Scout herself prefers to what she sees as the shallow world of the women around her.

Although Scout's description of the ladies around her is somewhat condescending in its own right, her attitude towards the "world of women" is a reaction to a society that restricts her right to self-expression based on gender norms that dictate what a lady should and should not do.

What are the five special rocks Bud always keeps with him in Bud, Not Buddy?

The reader finds out near the end of Bud, Not Buddy that the rocks Bud keeps in his suitcase (inside a tobacco bag) “with writing and numbers on them” are actually mementos from each band performance of his father.   His mother kept these rocks as special memories because Calloway himself had inscribed them with the date of the performance as well as the city. 

When Bud is riding in the car with Mr. Calloway, Bud finds a large collection of similar rocks in the glove box.  When Bud shows Mr. Calloway a few of his own rocks, Mr. Calloway gets angry and accuses Bud of stealing them.  Bud finally convinces Mr. Calloway and the other band members that the rocks aren’t stolen, but were given to Bud by his mom (Angela Janet).  This is the altercation that makes Mr. Calloway realize that Bud is truly his grandson.  It is at this point that the reader finds Herman E. Calloway crying in his bedroom due to the magnanimity of this information.

How would you describe "Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now" as philosophical poetry?

The philosophy underlying A. E. Housman's deceptively simple poem might be summed up as "carpe diem," or seize the day. The poem, narrated by a 20-year-old, dwells on how fleeting or ephemeral life is. The narrator looks at the bloom of a beautiful cherry bough and reflects that, since he is expecting to live to 70, he only has 50 springtimes left to enjoy the beauty of the cherry bough. That is not much time, he notes, to grasp and drink in all the beauty it offers. The poem says we need to live life to fullest while we have it because it goes by far too fast. The narrator ends the poem by saying he will take the time to enjoy the cherry bough while he can. The cherry bough represents all the small beauties and joys in the world that we can too easily miss by not seizing the day.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, what is the testimony of Sheriff Heck Tate about?

In chapter 17 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Sheriff Heck Tate is called as the first witness for the prosecution in the Tom Robinson trial. The sheriff is a witness to the night in question after the alleged crime was committed. This means that he only sees the aftermath of whatever happened, and is not a primary witness to any real crime. Thus, Sheriff Tate's testimony revolves around Bob Ewell fetching him on the night of November 21st, and claiming that a black man had raped his daughter. Like a good officer of the law, Sheriff Tate goes out to the Ewells' home and finds Mayella Ewell on the floor. He notices that she is badly beaten up, so he picks her up, washes her face and asks her who beat her up. She claims that Tom Robinson did it.

Then Atticus Finch gets a chance to cross-examine the sheriff and the first question he asks is if the sheriff called a doctor. Sheriff Tate says he didn't call a doctor. Without a doctor's diagnosis, the only thing Atticus can do is take the sheriff's eye-witness account of the wounds on Mayella's body. After much discussion, it is decided that she was mostly hurt on the right side of her body. Specifically, her right eye was bruised the worst. The sheriff's testimony that Mayella was beaten on the right side of her body is critical to the defense because that means that a left-handed man must have hurt her. Atticus later proves that Tom Robinson couldn't have beaten or raped Mayella because Bob Ewell is left-handed and Tom Robinson's left arm is disabled.

Would the following evidence support the thesis "True courage is demonstrated by taking action" based on Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?...

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus's brave choices to defend Tom Robinson and to fight for Robinson's life in the face of a lynch mob, despite the town's ridicule and eminent danger to his own life, certainly serves as excellent evidence to prove true courage is demonstrated in actions.

It is also true Scout courageously rebels against society's dictated role for her as a girl by wearing only overalls and playing "boyish" games involving dirt and mud.

It can also be said that Scout demonstrates courage by bravely accompanying her brother when he reads to Mrs. Dubose. We might also say that Jem receives the greatest lesson in courage through this experience because he learns to associate courage with being able to treat others with respect, no matter what. Scout recognizes Jem has internalized this lesson due to the new way he responds to Mrs. Dubose anytime she says something antagonizing:

Through the weeks he had cultivated an expression of polite and detached interest, which he would present to her in answer to her most blood-curdling inventions (Chapter 11).

In addition, through his experience with Mrs. Dubose, Jem comes to realize that to be a "great lady," as Atticus phrases it, is to be extremely courageous, whereas Scout doesn't internalize this lesson in bravery until the day Tom Robinson dies.

Rather than argue, Scout acted courageously by accompanying her brother as he read to Mrs. Dubose. One might argue that Scout acted bravely in joining her aunt's missionary circle for refreshments and finally learning to accept the idea of being a lady because she saw how much courage being a lady requires. Scout is finally able to associate being a lady with courage when she observes her aunt and Miss Maudie put on brave faces and resume entertaining their company after the distressing news of Robinson's death. Scout reflects on her newfound association of being a lady with being brave in the following:

I carefully picked up the tray and watched myself walk to Mrs. Merriweather. With my best company manners, I asked her if she would have some. After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I (Chapter 24).

We can associate entertaining company with being brave because it takes a great deal of courage to set aside one's own troubles for the sake of putting others' needs first, for the sake of treating others with the utmost respect.

Hence, while Atticus acted courageously by defending and protecting Robinson, it can be said that Scout acted bravely by learning to be herself while also accepting her role as a lady, as she was able to associate being a lady with being courageous. Additionally, both Atticus's and Scout's acts of bravery directly relate to their moral value of treating others with the utmost respect at all times.

What is the difference between management and administration and how they work?

The question is to define the difference between Management and Administration, both conceptually and in their daily functioning. Conceptually, the difference is between decision making and problem solving on the one hand (management) and execution of pre-defined processes or procedures on the other (administration). Management tends to be people focused and creative in the sense that it looks to determine the solution to problems, define goals, provide direction, motivate and ultimately hold people accountable for results. Administration tends to be information focused, recording, reporting and processing information according to pre-determined procedures.

In past ages, administration was often accused of “paper shuffling”, moving paper about without contributing actual value to the organization. In reality, management and administration go hand in hand. As management develops work practices, motivational and accountability processes to address business needs, it turns these practices into defined procedures (standard operating procedures, or SOP’s). These need to be monitored and implemented, which are generally administrative tasks. Management generally leads while administration follows.

In Wilfred Owen's poems like "Greater Love" and "Apologia," do you feel like Owen explores any positive virtues associated with combat?

Wilfred Owen was a British war poet famed for his vivid and visceral verses about the atrocities of World War I.  For a span of twenty-one months, from January 1917 until his death on the frontlines in November 1918, Owens served as a solider on the Western Front, but it was during this short period that Owen penned some of the most moving proclamations about the Great War. His poetic imagery is graphic, often detailing the physical carnage and destruction of battle, and he uses his words to not only provide a realistic snapshot of the battlefield, but challenge the notion of “just” warfare.  Yet, while Owen uses his candid imagery to capture the bloodshed and gore of World War I, nearly all of his works uphold an inseparable theme of camaraderie between soldiers on the front lines. His poems tell the tale of sacrifice and love between the men serving in the war, and he glorifies the brotherly bond of his fellow soldiers, often calling on the memories of his fallen friends, as in “Wild With All Regrets.”

Therefore, in “Greater Love” and “Apologia Pro Poemate Meo,” both poems that capture the horrors of combat and the subsequent mutilation of the human body, Owen explores the positive virtues of camaraderie through tropes of honor and brotherly love.  First and foremost, the title of “Greater Love” is a biblical allusion to John 15:13, which states, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”  Owen begins his poem with the concept of noble sacrifice and aligns it with the bond between men on the battlefield, and he does this by juxtaposing the love of a woman with the love between soldiers.  The poem begins:

Red lips are not so red

As the stained stones kissed by the English dead.

Kindness of wooed and wooer

Seems shame to their love pure. (1-4)

The poem opens with a simile comparing an unidentified woman’s lips to the blood-stained stones of the battlefields.  On one level, the grotesque image is intended to be a sensational depiction of reality, but on a deeper level, the simile uses an iconic image of beauty (“Red lips”) to represent the dead English soldiers.  This suggests Owens is trying to find beauty in the notion that the fallen men served with honor and dignity.  This is supported in lines three and four.  For Owen, the love of a woman, the “kindness of wooed and wooer,” cannot compete with the selfless, “pure” love between soldiers.

“Greater Love” is in fact a poem that contrasts the heteronormative love between man and woman with the brotherly love between soldiers in battle.  Stanza two again addresses the unidentified woman, stating, “Your slender attitude / Trembles not exquisite like limbs knife-skewed” (7-8).  The simile again pairs two unlike things together: attitude and severed limbs.  Yet, the diction of “not exquisite” suggests that Owen is again glorifying the sacrifice made by the soldiers.  To Owen, the woman is not as beautiful as the honor of fallen men.  Similarly, the poem concludes with an anthropomorphism addressing the heart: “Heart, you were never hot / Nor large, nor full like hearts made great with shot” (19-20).  This simile conveys the idea that nothing compares to the hearts of men serving on the battlefield, again upholding Owen's theme of camaraderie. 

In “Apologia Pro Poemate Meo,” a similar stance on camaraderie and brotherly love is found amongst the vivid imagery of the battlefield.  Again, Owen places more value on the love shared between soldiers than any other forms of conventional love.  The persona delivers the following lines:

I have made fellowships, -

Untold of happy lovers in old song.

For love is not the binding of fair lips

With the soft silk of eyes that look and long. (17-20)

The stanza begins with an acknowledgment of the friendships the solider has made on the battlefield, but then a litotes, a literary device used to emphasize a point by denying the opposite, is used to say what “love is not.”  The persona states, “For love is not the binding of fair lips,” suggesting that true and pure love is not the attraction between a heteronormative couple, but rather a sacred and honored bond between comrades. This idea is later supported with the alliteration of “But wound with war’s hard wire whose stakes are strong” (22), which metaphorically says men are bound together with “war’s hard wire,” emphasizing the strength and durability of the bond. 

Thus, in both “Greater Love” and ““Apologia Pro Poemate Meo,” Owens combats the brutal carnage of wartime destruction with threads of honor for the bond shared between fellow soldiers.  He relies on similes and metaphors to compare traditional notions of love with battlefield camaraderie, and he uses contrasting diction, such as “exquisite,” “dear,” “merry,” and “great,” to describe seemingly awful images of slaughter.  This, in fact, paints the fighting soldiers in a glorified light, despite being surrounded by the chaos and atrocities of World War I.

From A Separate Peace by John Knowles, how does Gene feel about having seen the tree? Why?

In the opening scene of A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene, the protagonist and narrator, visits the infamous tree from his high school fifteen years after the death of his friend Phineas. Because the tree is the location for the tragedy that occurred in the summer of 1942, Gene visits the scene to find closure for his part in it. Gene describes the tree as follows: 

"This was the tree, and it seemed to me standing there to resemble those men, the giants of your childhood, whom you encounter years later and find that they are not merely smaller in relation to your growth, but that they are absolutely smaller, shrunken by age" (14).

In the above passage, Gene realizes that the tree seems physically smaller than how he remembers it. Gene's impressions of how the tree looks fifteen years later symbolize how the effects of his personal trauma have also diminished. The next passage explains how Gene feels having seen the tree:

"The tree was not only stripped by the cold season, it seemed weary from age, enfeebled, dry. I was thankful, very thankful that I had seen it. So the more things remain the same, the more they change after all. . . Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence" (14).

In this passage, Gene expresses gratitude for having taken the time to visit the scene of the accident because his feelings about it seem to have changed "after all." He's relieved to discover that he can find peace in his lifetime after carrying around the devastating effects of the loss of his friend's life because of his responsibility for the first broken leg. This moment of viewing the tree after fifteen years leaves Gene "changed" because he also says "it was time to come in out of the rain" (14). When Gene refers to coming in out of the rain, he is also saying that it is time for him to let go of the past, accept the tragedy for what it is, and move on with life without any more guilt.

How are Jo and Laurie alike in their behaviour when it comes to gender norms? How does Laurie protest against male stereotypes in the same way that...

Jo and Laurie are alike in terms of the way neither one really embodies the qualities typically associated with their own gender. Jo is bookish and headstrong; she hates getting dressed up, and she envies the men who go away to the war as well as Laurie when he gets to go away to school. She is quite prideful rather than submissive, even refusing to ask Aunt March for money when Marmee needs it. Instead, she sells her own hair, wearing it short (like a boy's) until it grows out again.

Laurie prefers music to study; he is sentimental and romantic. Jo is more logical than Laurie, another apparent gender reversal. For example, Jo tries to subtly prevent Laurie from proposing to her, and then, when he does, she rebuffs him. Society would dictate that Jo, a girl from a poor family, ought to jump at Laurie's offer, that she should be not only grateful but also wildly in love with him, the handsome well-to-do family friend who is so solicitous of her happiness. Then, she goes far from home to strike out on her own and become a published author (also a profession usually associated with men at that time). Even their nicknames are gender-swapped: Jo is typically a boy's nickname, and Laurie is typically a girl's.

What similarities do we find in the Assyrian and Persian Empires?

The Persians and Assyrians were both large empires in the Middle East from the Iron Age world. Both kingdoms boasted powerful militaries that protected their vast holdings and expanded their borders. The empires were not protected by natural barriers so a strong military was a necessity. Despite this geographical shortcoming, the empires utilized arable land, both being located in the fertile crescent around two rivers.

The two empires were both ruled by monarchs. The empires employed organized bureaucratic systems to enforce laws and collect taxes. Both empires are mentioned in the Old Testament, or Torah as having conquered the Hebrews, although the Persians are painted in a more positive vein in the scriptures. While both empires were known for their decisive military strength, both treated their new subjects with tolerance as long as the new citizens paid their taxes.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, how does Scout describe the physical appearance of Mrs. Dubose? How is this similar to the description of Boo Radley...

In Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, young Scout does not like to look at Mrs. Dubose any more than she must. Mrs. Dubose is so old that her wrinkles are very deep, she has liver spots, and she drools profusely. In chapter 11, Scout accompanies her brother to Mrs. Dubose's house to read to her. On the first day that the children visit her, Scout describes Mrs. Dubose as follows:

"Her face was the color of a dirty pillowcase, and the corners of her mouth glistened with wet, which inched like a glacier down the deep grooves enclosing her chin . . . from time to time she would draw her nether lip to her upper plate and carry her chin with it. This made the wet move faster" (106).

Through Scout's analysis of Mrs. Dubose's physical appearance, there seems to be a significant amount of drooling going on. Scout's description mostly focuses on Mrs. Dubose's face, but she also notices her old hands and "knobby knuckles," which must look terrifying to a young girl. The first physical description of Boo Radley is given by Jem in chapter 1 as follows:

"Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained--if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time" (13).

One common denominator between the description of Mrs. Dubose and the one for Boo Radley is the drooling. There is also a connection between the scar on Boo's face and the deep wrinkles found on Mrs. Dubose's. These details provide visual images that are usually associated with villains or monsters as children might interpret them.

How does George interact with Lennie in John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men'?

George is Lennie's caretaker, first and foremost. Based on an agreement with Lennie's Aunt Clara, George watches out for Lennie, who is severely mentally disabled yet overly physically strong. 

George is a man of his word, and he takes Lennie in to watch over him. George sees himself and Lennie as a team of two. George knows that, while he can be annoying sometimes, Lennie provides George with companionship that the other men simply do not have. Because of this, he has a level of respect and admiration for Lennie that shows in his actions.

With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don't have to sit in no bar room blowin' in our jack jus' because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us."

Though George does this caretaking willingly, he does struggle from time to time with the burden of care. He has to defend his relationship with Lennie to Curley.

"We travel together," said George coldly.
"Oh, so it's that way."
George was tense, and motionless. "Yeah, it's that way."
Lennie was looking helplessly to George for instruction.

And, every time George lies about his relationship with Lennie, Lennie will call him on the lie.

"You said I was your cousin, George."
"Well, that was a lie. An' I'm damn glad it was. If I was a relative of yours I'd shoot myself." 

Throughout the novel, readers see interactions between George and Lennie that are loving and supportive, as George protects Lennie from Curley and from being a victim of his mental disability. 

Why does Winston call his and Julia's sexual encounter a political act?

At the end of Part Two, Chapter Two of 1984, Winston and Julia have their first sexual encounter. For Winston, this act is as much about politics as it is about passion:

It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.

The reason for this attitude lies in the nature of life under the Party. Party members, like Winston and Julia, for instance, are not allowed to have sexual relations with each other, unless it is for the purposes of procreation and is approved by a committee. Failure to abide by this rule can result in imprisonment in the Ministry of Love which Winston and Julia know can lead to torture and possible death.

When Winston and Julia have sex, then, they know that they are breaking this rule. In addition, they know that their lives are at risk, but they do it without regard for the consequences and they do it because they no longer wish to be controlled by Big Brother. In other words, this is their first step on the path to rebellion.