What is the principle of rights?

The principle of right theory, developed by Immanuel Kant in "Theory and Practice" and "Metaphysics of Morals," proposes that individuals in a society should have access to the maximum amount of freedom possible, withholding the freedom to infringe on any other individual's freedom. In other words, society should be organized so that people can coexist with legal equality, and have unrestricted freedom to act except when those actions would impact the rights of another. The principle of right, according to Kant, exists in societies with governing authorities because people knowingly sacrifice some freedom to government in exchange for the benefits, protections, and social organization of government. The role of government under this interpretation of society would be to provide protections and benefits while minimally restricting the freedom of each individual.

What are three examples of foreshadowing in "The Possibility Of Evil?'"

In "The Possibility of Evil," Jackson uses foreshadowing to provide subtle clues about the conflict which will take place. In the opening of the story, for example, Jackson describes Miss Strangeworth which includes an example of foreshadowing:

It bothered Miss Strangeworth to think of people wanting to carry them away, to take them into strange towns and down strange streets….

This line suggests that something bad will happen to her roses and, in fact, foreshadows the story's closing scene when her roses are massacred.

Next, we can find another example of foreshadowing when Miss Strangeworth is walking around the town:

Many people seemed disturbed recently, Miss Strangeworth thought.

This line suggests that there is an uneasy atmosphere in the town and, in doing so, foreshadows Miss Strangeworth's next bout of poisoned pen letters.

Finally, Jackson also uses foreshadowing to hint at Miss Strangeworth's intended victims. The following sentence provides one such example:

Don and Helen Crane were really the two most infatuated young parents she had every known, she thought indulgently.

The use of the word "indulgently" infers that Miss Strangeworth is not being open and honest with the Crane family. While she acts friendly in conversation, she feels, in fact, that they are not good parents and this foreshadows the poison pen letter that she later sends to them.

How does the daughter change over the course of the story?

In “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan Jing-Mei grows from an obedient child into an independent young woman.

As a young girl she shares her mother’s enthusiasm for the American dream. When her mother explains the opportunities in America and how June could be a prodigy, the little girl willingly participated in her mother’s plans. Together they watch shows, and read magazines about child prodigies.

In fact, in the beginning I was just as excited as my mother, maybe even more so. I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, and I tried each one on for size.

June based her self-worth on pleasing her mother and becoming the perfect child.

In all of my imaginings I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect.

Suyuan choose the piano as June’s talent. When June realizes the amount of practice needed to become a talented pianist she begins to question her mother’s motives. June is aware she does not have the innate talent of a prodigy. She fails during her piano recital and her internal conflict comes to light. The internal conflict soon surfaces during an argument with her mother, and creates a wedge between the pair. As June advances through school, she is determined to be perfectly average. Her grades are mediocre, and she flounders in college.

It was not the only disappointment my mother felt in me. In the years that followed, I failed her many times, each time asserting my will, my right to fall short of expectations. I didn't get straight As. I didn't become class president. I didn't get into Stanford. I dropped out of college.

At the beginning of the story, June is a little girl who sees life through her mother’s eyes but soon decides to assert her individualism in spite of her mother’s feelings. At the end of the story, June plays two musical pieces on the piano. The compositions entitled “Perfectly Contented” and “Pleading Child” are symbolic of her life.

`dy/dx + y/x = 6x + 2` Solve the first-order differential equation

Given  `dy/dx +y/x=6x+2`

when the first order linear ordinary differential equation has the form of

`y'+p(x)y=q(x)`

then the general solution is ,

`y(x)=((int e^(int p(x) dx) *q(x)) dx +c)/e^(int p(x) dx)`

so,

`dy/dx +y/x=6x+2--------(1)`

`y'+p(x)y=q(x)---------(2)`

on comparing both we get,

`p(x) = 1/x and q(x)=6x+2`

so on solving with the above general solution we get:

y(x)=`((int e^(int p(x) dx) *q(x)) dx +c)/e^(int p(x) dx)`

=`((int e^(int (1/x) dx) *(6x+2)) dx +c)/e^(int 1/x dx)`

first we shall solve

`e^(int (1/x) dx)=e^ln(x) =|x|`      as we know `int (1/x)dx = ln(x)`

so then we get ` e^(int (1/x) dx) =x`

since x must be greater than 0, or else`ln(x)` is undefined.

Proceeding further with

y(x) =`((int e^(int (1/x) dx) *(6x+2)) dx +c)/e^(int 1/x dx)`

 =` (int x *(6x+2) dx +c)/x`

 = `(int (6x^2 +2x) dx+c)/x`

 =` (6x^3/3 +2x^2/2 +c)/x`

 = `(2x^3+x^2+c)/x`

So, ` y= (2x^3+x^2+c)/x`

Where does the wedding take place in Romeo and Juliet?

The wedding of Romeo and Juliet takes place in Friar Laurence's cell. It is not part of the action on stage, though as Act II comes to an end, we witness the young couple, having again declared their mutual love, preparing to take their vows in front of the friar. The wedding takes place in secret, of course, because Romeo and Juliet are from two feuding families. Father Laurence, in fact, hopes to use their wedding to reconcile the two families, who he imagines will seek some sort of truce if they discover that their children are now married. His hopes seem dashed, however, when Romeo, having returned after spending his wedding night in Juliet's chamber, encounters Juliet's cousin Tybalt in the streets. In the fight that ensues (after Tybalt kills Romeo's friend Mercutio) Romeo kills Tybalt, a crime that results in his exile from Verona. This sets in motion a series of events that eventually leads to the death of the two young lovers (but also the end of the blood feud between the families).

How did Helen Keller overcome her feelings of helplessness?

Helen Keller was dependent on others before Miss Sullivan came. She was deaf, blind, and struggled to find independence when she was a young girl. When she could not, she became frustrated and threw tantrums. She communicated using a few crude signs, but she felt very limited. Helen described this time in her autobiography, The Story of My Life:  

The few signs I used became less and less adequate, and my failures to make myself understood were invariably followed by outbursts of passion (Chapter III).

When Miss Sullivan arrived to be Helen's teacher, she worked with determination. It took many attempts before Helen learned to communicate using the manual alphabet. When Helen did finally learn the manual alphabet, her world changed. Learning how to communicate with others helped Helen overcome the helplessness she experienced for years. Helen became an independent woman when she was older. She was able to do this because of her strong communication skills.

True or False: The Austro-Prussian War in 1866 was the result of Austria's opposition to unification.

I would say that this statement is false.  Austria was not opposed to the idea of Germany uniting.  What Austria opposed was the idea of Germany uniting under Prussian domination.  Austria wanted Germany to unite, but it wanted to dominate the new, united country of Germany.

At this point in history, the area that is now Germany was divided into many little states.  Prussia was the biggest of these and the most powerful.  It wanted to unite Germany and it wanted to dominate the new country.  However, Austria was also an ethnically German country.  It wanted to create a larger united Germany than Prussia wanted to create.  Austria wanted a larger Germany that would include Austria and it wanted to dominate this new country.

The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 came about because of this dispute.  The two countries fought over whether a united Germany would be bigger or smaller and whether Austria or Prussia would dominate the new country.  This means that the war was about the unification of Germany, but it happened because Austria and Prussia could not agree on how the unification should happen, not because Austria opposed unification completely.  Therefore, the statement in your question is false.

What are some reasons why Wolfsheim would have Gatsby killed?

This question seems speculative since Gatsby did not die as a result of his association with Meyer Wolfsheim; he was shot by George Wilson because Wilson thought that Gatsby was the man who'd been having an affair with and then killed his wife, Myrtle.

However, it is possible to consider reasons why a known gangster like Wolfsheim might wish to have Gatsby killed.  First, Gatsby and Wolfsheim have apparently known each other for several years, have conducted and still do conduct some kind of clearly illegal business dealings together.  The simple fact that Gatsby knows so much about Wolfsheim's business and partners and activities could be enough to make him a liability.  Further Gatsby rather off-handedly remarks that Wolfsheim is the man who fixed the 1919 World's Series, so we can understand that he is involved in some really huge and really shady things.  His human molar cufflinks are a good clue that his regard for human life is perhaps not the highest, and that he might not find it grotesque or at all upsetting to have someone killed if it meant protecting his own interests.

How did Jeanne react when they moved to Terminal Island?

Near the beginning of the novel, when Jeanne and her mother and siblings have to move to Terminal Island, where the extended family can stay together and feel safer, Jeanne doesn't feel safer at all; she actually reacts with terror and discomfort:

But for me, at age seven, the island was a country as foreign as India or Arabia would have been. It was the first time I had lived among other Japanese, or gone to school with them, and I was terrified all the time.

Ever since Jeanne was in kindergarten a few years prior, she'd lived with a strange, deep-seated fear of other people of Oriental descent. As an adult narrating her own story, Jeanne explains that this fear is probably rooted in a threat that her father often made to her and her siblings in order to keep them behaving properly: "I'm going to sell you to the Chinaman." For this reason, Jeanne figures, she's profoundly fearful of strangers with Asian facial features.

Also, Jeanne had only spoken English as a child, but her new peers and neighbors on Terminal Island spoke Japanese exclusively, in a dialect she didn't comprehend at all. These others were not just incomprehensible but also rude, boisterous, and generally menacing to Jeanne. Even with her older brother to walk her home from school, and even though she was never actually attacked by any of her neighbors, Jeanne describes her time living on Terminal Island as living under a "reign of fear," a time when a period of just a few months actually felt like years.

What are three ways suspense is created in Lather and Nothing Else by Hernando Tellez? How?

Hernando Tellez builds wonderful suspense in his short story Lather and Nothing Else (also translated as Just Lather, That's All).  The story is written from the perspective of a barber who is secretly part of a rebellion against the government.  Captain Torres, the villain in the story, is a hard driving, cruel dictator of the local militia and terrorizes the town.  Entering the shop Torres sits down for a shave, placing the barber in a difficult situation.  He could easily kill the captain, but the barber also has his pride and life to consider.

The suspense begins within the first few lines of the story.  As Captain Torres enters the shop, the narrator states that he begins to tremble from the sight.  This draws the reader into the story and hints at the danger later revealed.  The ambiguity of the appearance of Torres and the setting allows the reader to build their own creation for the scene.  The only description first given for the captain is how he hangs his gun belt.  The focus on danger and the guns provides hints as to the monstrosity of the man.

The main focus of suspense begins after Torres is resting in the chair awaiting his shave.  The barber begins the steps to shave the beard but an internal struggle rages within him.  As a rebel he has some duty to aide in the rebellion, yet as a barber the customer came to him in confidence and there is a duty to perform his best services.  The barber goes back and forth in an internal dialogue while questioning the captain about his plans on punishing captured rebels.  The question quickly becomes will the barber murder Torres?

The author allows the suspense to build by limiting the information about the rebellion.  In the greater context it's hard to know if the government represented by Captain Torres is right, or if the rebellion is a worthy opposition to a tyrant.  This gives the reader the opportunity to impart their own feelings into the story and onto the characters.  Rather than give the backstory for each, the author has allowed the characters to be different for different people.  The other ploy Tellez uses is the use of the internal dialogue to envision the murder, but also analyze the repercussions of it.

The final suspense in the story comes in the last few paragraphs.  Captain Torres leaves the chair and puts his gun belt back on.  The barber admits to being pale and says that his shirt is soaked with sweat, a clue to his rebellious convictions.  In the doorway Captain Torres pauses and turns to speak to the barber.  The final words show that Torres knew all along the barber might kill him, but also that killing a man wasn't as easy as it might seem. 

The cliffhanger style ending is a great tool for leaving the reader in suspense.  Although the true nature of the barber is revealed, the last lines gives hint that Captain Torres is not entirely understood.  He trusted the barber despite his allegiance to the rebellion and shows guilt over killing.  This causes the reader to pause and may cause them re-evaluate their position on the character.  By leaving the ending in this manner, Tellez has left the reader wondering what will happen next for the barber and Captain Torres.

How do the townspeople try to help Miss Maudie in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird?

In Chapter 8 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the coldest winter in quite a while sets in, bringing a sprinkling of snow. That night following the snowfall is extremely cold, so cold that Calpurnia's lighting of every single fireplace in the Finches' household has very little effect. Burning fireplaces often lead to houses catching fire, and Miss Maudie's does, sadly, catch fire that night. The townspeople help Miss Maudie by doing all they can to battle her fire.

All the men in town gather around Miss Maudie's house to do what they can. Sadly, the engine of the "old fire truck" is too frozen to start, so the men must push it to her house. Scout further describes, "When the men attached its hose to a hydrant, the hose burst and water shot up, tinkling down on the pavement"; in other words, the night is so cold that water from the fire hose uselessly freezes as soon as it hits the air. Since the town was unable to put out the fire, the townspeople do what they can to help Miss Maudie salvage her belongings. Scout describes seeing all sorts of men carrying Miss Maudie's furniture to safety across the street; even Atticus is able to rescue her "heavy oak rocking chair." Most surprising of all is that Miss Maudie's elderly next-door neighbor, Mr. Avery, also does what he can by pushing her mattress out an upstairs window; however, Mr. Avery must escape the house through the window because the stairs are consumed by fire. Sadly, Mr. Avery gets stuck in the window. He is able to free himself but next falls into Miss Maudie's shrubbery from an upstairs porch. Later, Jem notes that he even saw the reclusive Nathan Radley helping out at Miss Maudie's fire.

Finally, fire trucks arrive from Abbottsville and Clark's Ferry to put out the fire, though it is too late to save the house, and Scout describes the demise of the house in the following lines:

Miss Maudie's tin roof quelled the flames. Roaring, the house collapsed; fire gushed everywhere, followed by a flurry of blankets from men on top of the adjacent houses, beating out sparks and burning chunks of wood. (Ch. 8)

In addition to all able men in the town helping out at Miss Maudie's fire, Miss Maudie's second next-door neighbor, Miss Stephanie Crawford, invites Miss Maudie to stay with her while Miss Maudie's new and much smaller house is being built on her property.

What confessions does Usher make to the narrator during the final storm?

During the storm, Roderick Usher insists on opening a casement (window) so that the narrator can experience the "whirlwind" outside as the wind changes directions, along with the dense clouds and "huge masses of agitated vapor" that light everything up outside with an eery, unnatural light.

To divert Usher from the storm, the narrator begins to read to him from a story called "Mad Trist." As he reads, the sounds in the story—"cracking and ripping," the shriek of a dragon, and the reverberation of something metallic—are echoed in real life in the house. The narrator is frightened. At this point, Usher reveals that he has known for "many, many days" that he buried his sister alive in a crypt beneath the house. Because of the heightened sensitivity of his senses, he has known for a long time that she was trying to break out of her vault.

Usher confesses this to the narrator, as well as that he did nothing to try to save her from being buried alive: he simply repeats that he "dare not. . . dare not. . . dare not. . . speak." He says he should be "pitied" for having been forced to listen to her all this time. Then, he confesses that he is terrified she will "upbraid" him for his "haste" in burying her. While he is clearly terrified and horrified, he is much more concerned for himself than for his sister.

In what ways have you been affected by world politics?

There are many ways that we have been impacted by world politics. A few examples should prove this point.

In the 1930s, countries like Japan, Germany, and Italy decided to pursue a policy of aggression. These countries had believed they weren’t being treated fairly, had been disrespected by the Versailles Treaty or other international agreements, or wanted to pursue a policy of nationalism. Their actions eventually led to the start of World War II and other events tied to the war. Many people lost family members as a result of the Holocaust and as a result of the fighting in the war. The war directly impacted these people.

In today’s world, a political decision in one country can have a major impact in our country. When the British decided to begin the process to leave the European Union, our stock market dropped significantly. When news of a recession in China occurs, we also are impacted, often with a drop in the stock market. When North Korea tests a missile, the world is on edge about the possibility of a war occurring.

When a civil war breaks out in a country, we may be impacted in several ways. We may see a surge in the number of refugees who want to come to our country. This is currently happening with the large numbers of people fleeing Syria to escape the fighting there. The recent surge in the number of terrorist attacks also impacts us. As these terrorist groups try to accomplish their goals, we must be prepared for these events. Entrance into many public places is restricted to help try to prevent terrorist attacks. People often have to go through metal detectors before entering a stadium or a sports arena. Our baggage has been screened for years at the airport because of the concerns about possible terrorist attacks.

We are impacted significantly by world politics today. Something may happen very far from the shores of the United States, but it might have a direct impact in your local community.

In Macbeth by Shakespeare, does Macbeth himself prioritize himself or the community more? (individual vs. community). What were the values that...

Macbeth prioritizes himself over the community because he is willing to kill the king just so he can be king.

Macbeth is very selfish.  Although he might have been a valiant and successful solider in the recent battles, as soon as he gets it into his head that he should be king, he is willing to do what it takes to grab and keep power.

The witches tell Macbeth that he will be king, and then he finds out that Duncan has chosen Malcolm as his heir to the throne and not him.  His reaction is one of power-hungry greed.

The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires:
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (Act 1, Scene 4)

When Macbeth returns home, he starts to wonder if killing the king in order to make himself king is the best idea.  He brings up a lot of reasonable and rational objections.  Duncan is his guest and his kinsman. He should not be killing him.  There is also no reason to kill Duncan.  He is not a bad king!

Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off … (Act 1, Scene 7)

Macbeth is clearly not thinking of his community.  He is thinking of himself.  The best thing for his community is a stable monarchy.  Macbeth kills the king and throws his kingdom into turmoil.  He is a terrible king, who only thinks of himself.

Once Macbeth is king, he will do anything to stay there.  He framed the king’s two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain.  He kills Banquo and tries to kill his son Fleance as well, because he is worried about the prophecy that Banquo’s sons will be king and because he thinks that Banquo suspects him of killing the king.  He even sends murderers to Macduff’s house, and they kill his wife and children.

The best thing for Scotland is stability.  Malcolm, the king's younger son and heir, has the community's interests in mind.  He wants to oust Macbeth and return the throne to the rightful person, himself.  Macduff helps him do this.  

Malcolm proclaims the kingdom safe for those who fled.

As calling home our exiled friends abroad
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny;
Producing forth the cruel ministers
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
Took off her life ... (Act 5, Scene 8)

In the end, Malcolm is a much better king than Macbeth.  He is more stable.  He is not ambitious, and he cares about his kingdom more than himself.  Scotland is in good hands with Malcolm on the throne.

What is the value of personal bonds in the Ibo society?

Throughout Chinua Achebe's classic novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe constantly demonstrates the value of personal bonds within the Ibo society. Indeed, even though Okonkwo prides himself on his self-made success, he is ultimately dependent upon his friends and extended family to help him in key times of need.

The main section in the novel that illustrates the value of personal bonds within the Ibo tradition is when Okonkwo is exiled from Umuofia and sent to live in his mother's homeland. When he arrives, he receives help from his mother's kinsmen in Mbanta:

Okonkwo was given a plot of ground on which to build his compound, and two or three pieces of land on which to farm during the coming planting season. With the help of his mother's kinsmen he built himself an obi and the symbols of his departed fathers. Each of Uchendu's five sons contributed three hundred seed-yams to enable their cousin to plant a farm (129-30).

This familial bond ensures Okonkwo can survive and even prosper in Mbanta.

Moreover, Okonkwo's relationship with his friend Obierika further demonstrates the value of personal relationships in this society. While Okonkwo is in exile, Obierika brings him money from his crops and news from his homeland, saying,

That is the money from your yams. . . I sold the big ones as soon as you left. Later on I sold some of the seed-yams and gave out others to sharecroppers. I shall do that every year until you return. But I thought you would need the money now and so I brought it (142).

Obierika is Okonkwo's greatest friend and ally, and even stoic, rigid Okonkwo acknowledges the depth of his friendship and how valuable he finds his relationship with Obierika.

Personal relationships carry a lot of weight in the Ibo society that Achebe presents, as evident by examining Okonkwo's exile.

What is the average surface temperature of Mars?

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and is situated at the edge of the habitable zone in the solar system.

The surface temperature of Mars varies depending on time and location. For example, the temperature of the equator at midday can be as high as 20 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, the temperature at the poles can be as low as -153 degrees Celsius. 

Mars' orbit can also influence its temperature. When Mars orbits closer to the sun, it can be as much as 20 degrees warmer. 

Overall, Mars is much colder than Earth for two reasons: 1) Mars is farther from the sun, 2) Mars has a thin atmosphere which prevents it from retaining heat.

The average surface temperature on Mars is - 55 degrees Celsius.

How does the setting of Trifles contribute to our understanding of Minnie Wright’s position?

Although Minnie is never seen on stage, the setting represents her and her marriage to John. The kitchen is cold, like their marriage. Her preserve jars are broken, suggesting barren feelings and lack of hope for the future. Her sewing basket, which should be a center of creativity, is instead used to hold the dead canary's body, which in turn symbolizes her happiness and singing spirit—shoved lifeless into a basket and covered in darkness.

When the men belittle the kitchen as just holding "kitchen things" they are, at the same, relegating Minnie to just being a "kitchen thing" of her own. In doing so, they overlook critical evidence pointing to the murderer. They disrespect the kitchen, as well as the things and people within it, which says a lot about many men's consideration of women at the time the play was set. Considering this, the fact that all of the action happens in the kitchen becomes even more meaningful. The murder happened in the bedroom. The men search everything in the house except the kitchen looking for evidence. A critical viewer would look at this and question the playwright's intent.

The setting contributes to the reader's or viewer's understanding by focusing our attention on "kitchen things" and what it means to be a woman. The women who stay in the kitchen and reveal the clues to the identity of the murderer use the setting to explore who Minnie is. They mention that they didn't visit as much as they should have, and as they analyze her housekeeping (or lack thereof), the reader or viewer gains insight into Minnie's plight.

What are some pros and cons of appointed judges?

In essence, there is just one pro and one con to having appointed judges.  The pro is that appointed judges are free of the political process.  The con is the same, worded differently.  Appointed judges are bad because they are not democratically elected and therefore are not subject to the will of the people.

If you need more points each way, you can split each of these up to some degree, creating “subpoints” that are part of the larger idea.  In favor of appointed judges:

• Appointed judges are chosen on merit.  Judges or good or bad based on how well they know the law and how to apply the law to court cases.  They should be picked by legal experts, not by the voters who have no real basis on which to choose between them.


• They do not have to ask people for money.  If judges have to raise election funds, it will seem that they are biased in favor of those who give them money.


• They do not have to think about public opinion when deciding cases.  We don’t want judges thinking “what will be the popular decision” when trying to make decisions based on the law.

Against appointed judges:

• Appointed judges are undemocratic.  We don’t allow experts to pick presidents and members of Congress so why should we allow them to pick judges.


• They don’t have to listen to the will of the people.  Officials in a democratic system should have to follow the will of the people, expressed through elections.


• The appointment process can be corrupt too.  What if the “experts” who select the judges are giving money to the judges.

Please follow the links below for editorials arguing for and against appointed judges.

`f(x) = arcsec(2x)` Find the derivative of the function

The given function: `f(x) =arcsec(2x) ` is in a form of an inverse trigonometric function. 

For the derivative formula of an inverse secant function, we follow:

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

To be able to apply the formula, we let u` =2x` then` u^2 = (2x)^2=4x^2` and

`(du)/(dx) = 2` .

It follows that `f(x) =arcsec(2x)` will have a derivative of:

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

`f'(x) = 2/(|2x|sqrt(4x^2-1))`

Cancel out common factor 2 from top and bottom:

`f'(x) = 1/(|x|sqrt(4x^2-1))`

This can also be written as :` f'(x)= 1/(sqrt(x^2)sqrt(4x^2-1))` since

`|x| = sqrt(x^2)`

Then applying the  radical property:` sqrt(a)*sqrt(b)= sqrt(a*b)` at the bottom, we get:

`f'(x) = 1/sqrt(x^2*(4x^2-1))`

`f'(x) = 1/sqrt(4x^4 -x^2)`

The derivative of the function f(x) =arcsec(x) can be :

`f'(x)= 1/(|x|sqrt(4x^2-1))`

 or  `f'(x)= 1/(sqrt(x^2)sqrt(4x^2-1))`

or `f'(x)= 1/(sqrt(4x^4-x^2))`

What were the new challenges that the ending of the Cold War brought to the United States at the end of the 20th century?

The biggest challenge that the end of the Cold War brought to the United States was in the realm of foreign policy. Basically, the question was: What should the role of the United States be in the post-Cold War world? Then-president George H.W. Bush referred to a "new world order," and intellectual Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and the communist bloc as the "end of history." But the reality was that nobody knew what to expect from the post-Cold War world. The Cold War had offered a sort of stability that vanished with its end. One immediate challenge emerged in the Balkans, where the collapse of communism unleashed long-simmering ethnic tensions that degenerated into a brutal civil war. Eventually, under President Bill Clinton, the United States and NATO launched airstrikes to stop the potential genocide that accompanied this development. During the Bush administration, in 1990, Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait. The United States and a broad coalition of nations, including Arab leaders, launched "Operation Desert Storm," which successfully drove Iraq from Kuwait. But the Bush and Clinton administrations struggled to find a response to flashpoints in the African nations of Somalia and Rwanda, the latter of which resulted in the genocide of hundreds of thousands of people in that country. So the end of the Cold War created questions of how and to what extent the United States should play a role in shaping the new world order.

`f(x,y) = tan(y/x)` Determine whether the function is homogenous and if it is, determine its degree

A function `f(x, y)` is called homogeneous if for some integer `n`

`f(tx, ty) = t^n f(x, y).`

The given function satisfies this condition with `n = 0:`

`f(tx, ty) = tan((tx)/(ty)) = tan(x/y) = f(x, y),`

and therefore it is homogeneous with the degree 0.

(although we have to note that for some x and y  `f(x, y)` is undefined)

What is the biological basis for drug dependency?

Dependence on a substance, whether legal or illegal, has very much to do with human biology. Our bodies and minds function thanks to lots of minute chemical processes taking place all throughout our many systems and tissues. Some people feel that the determining factor for legality of a substance, and therefore dependence upon it, is whether it impacts the brain or the body and in what way.

An example of a legal substance dependency is insulin use in people with diabetes. People with diabetes have a chronic deficiency or inability in their natural production of insulin. This is an important chemical in the body, as it helps us properly use or store sugars in the blood. Without insulin, people who have diabetes may suffer from fatigue, dehydration, dry skin, blurry vision, and even be at risk for coma. The drug insulin helps a diabetic person's body to function normally to metabolize the sugars in foods. 

An illegal substance dependency is the dependency on a drug which has been criminalized, like heroin. Heroin is not used to treat a specific condition, though many people self-medicate conditions like anxiety, depression, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by using mind-altering substances. When heroin is taken into the body, it binds to opioid receptors in the brain. This drug is highly addictive because it produces an overwhelming sense of euphoria and calm. Because the drug is so powerful and works so quickly, these opioid receptors in the brain can become "lazy" and fail to function normally when there is no heroin in a person's system. This can also contribute to an increased tolerance level, meaning it will take a person more heroin to achieve the same state of euphoria. Heroin poses a major risk for overdose because people are prone to taking more and more of the drug to keep feeling good.

In both cases, the substance dependency is preceded by a biological failure to function "normally" without exposure to the substance. 

Is there anything known about King Fortinbras in the play Hamlet?

What we know about King Fortinbras we learn from Horatio in the first scene of the play. Horatio says that Fortinbras, King of Norway, had previously made war against Denmark and that King Hamlet (the title character's deceased father) killed him in hand-to-hand combat:

[King Hamlet was] Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet— For so this side of our known world esteem'd him— Did slay this Fortinbras.

For this reason, the lands belonging to Fortinbras passed to King Hamlet. Now that he is dead and replaced by Claudius, Young Fortinbras, the son of the man in question, is seeking to regain these lands. The brother of Old Fortinbras sits on the throne of Norway in an interesting mirror image of the situation in Denmark. This subplot reaches its conclusion when the dying Hamlet names Young Fortinbras as his successor to the Danish throne. So though we do not know much about the old Norwegian monarch, his death is an important event in the backstory of Hamlet.

How does Gulliver escape from Lilliput?

Gulliver escapes from Lilliput by, first, visiting Blefuscu. He is treated very well there, and the king does not seem nearly as warlike and unreasonable as the emperor of Lilliput. Gulliver learns of the plot against him in Lilliput, that he has been branded a traitor and that the emperor and his vicious advisers have devised a way to execute him for his crimes against the state (which include such charges as urinating on the palace to put the fire out as well as Gulliver's refusal to decimate the Blefuscudian fleet when asked to do so by the emperor). He is essentially granted asylum in Blefuscu, and the king there provides him with resources to repair a boat he finds offshore. It is in this boat that he eventually escapes this land of tiny people and makes his way home, back to England.

What is ironic about Finny's remark that he knows Gene better than anyone else in A Separate Peace by John Knowles?

It is, indeed, ironic that Finny tells Gene in Chapter 11, "I know you better than anybody," because he truly believes that Gene is his loyal friend. Despite what others suspect and know, Finny does not suspect Gene of any jealousy or of having jounced the tree limb, an action which has caused Finny's terrible fall and broken leg--a shocking fact that Finny learns at the end of this chapter.

Finny's statement about Gene's loyalty comes as he listens to Gene, who helps him with Latin. Gene translates Julius Caesar's recounting of his war against the Gauls. It is revealing of Finny's character that he has never believed that Caesar and ancient Rome ever existed, but thinks that tales of Caesar and Rome were merely created to be the "bane and bore of schoolboys." Nor has he believed that a world war exists now. 

"Naturally I don't believe books and I don't believe teachers,...but I do believe--it's important after all for me to believe you. I've got to believe you, at least. I know you better than anybody."

In affirmation of his faith in Gene, after Gene informs Phineas that Leper has "cracked," Finny tells his roommate that he believes him, and he now believes that there really is a war: "If a war can drive somebody crazy, then it's real all right." But, he does admit that at first he doubted Gene's words, thinking that perhaps Gene's imagination became "a little inflamed in Vermont" when he visited Leper. 

This conversation hints at the possibility of doubt in Finny's mind about everything that Gene says.  This doubt is raised later when Brinker and three "cohorts" enter their room and escort Gene and Finny to the Assembly Room for an "inquiry" into what actually happened on the night that Finny's leg was broken.

Still believing in Gene during his questioning by Brinker about their positions that night, Finny turns to Gene, "You were down at the bottom, weren't you?" When Gene lies and says that he was, Brinker then questions Gene. Further, he asks if Leper Lepellier was there at the river, and a voice affirms that he was, and also states that Leper is on campus. Brinker sends the two cohorts after this new witness, and Leper soon enters the room. Leper testifies that he was standing at the bottom of the tree, and he shaded his eyes against the sun so that he could see above him the two boys:

"The two of them looked as black as--as black as death standing up there with this fire burning all around them."

He testifies that he could not make out the boys; they were just "two shapes." Then he says, "The one who moved first shook the other one's balance." But he will not "implicate" himself; he refuses to answer Brinker on specifics. "I know when I have information that might be dangerous."

Shortly after this, Finny rises and interrupts, "I don't care." Frantically, Gene runs to him, but Finny closes his eyes with his face revealing no expression. "I just don't care. Never mind." He then rushes from the room, shouting with emotion, "You get all your facts!...You collect every fact there is in the world!"

Finny's hurried departure is heard as his cane raps along the corridor; then, his tumbling body is heard striking against the marble stairs. Finny has been devastated by the terrible irony of his having believed that Gene is his loyal friend.

I need questions for a Macbeth interview, and it should be based on Act I Scene II (where the soldier tells the King about Macbeth's bravery when...

Often, when people conduct interviews, they are less interested in factual events and more interested in the humanity of the person they interview, how that person felt when they accomplished something, what prompted them to act how they did, and so on.  Therefore, you could consider questions you might put to Macbeth that would satisfy the kind of "human interest" aspect of an interview.

Macdonwald was formerly thought to be loyal, and he has turned traitor against the Scottish crown, an action that would likely be quite shocking to Macbeth at this early stage.  Therefore, you might ask Macbeth if he knew Macdonwald well, and if he was surprised when he learned that Macdonwald had been revealed as a traitor.  

Then, the captain continues, as soon as Macbeth had defeated Macdonwald's troops, he turns around to find fresh Norwegian troops ready to fight him.  You might ask Macbeth how he was feeling in that moment.  He must have been exhausted and yet he somehow managed to carry on.  What gave him the strength he needed to win yet another battle?

You might also ask about the relationship between Macbeth and Banquo.  They seem quite close during the early scenes of the play, and it stands to reason that they were a huge support to one another during these battles.  You might ask Macbeth to describe how important that support was.

What does the play "MASTER HAROLD" . . . and the Boys by Athol Fugard suggest about being a good father?

That's an interesting question because Hally's actual father does not have a speaking part in the play.  It's also tough to fully understand what kind of father Hally's dad actually is because the audience doesn't even get to see him interact with Hally.  All we know is that Hally definitely does not want his father to come home from the hospital.  We learn a few details about why.  Hally's father is a deadbeat and a drunk. He's wealthy enough to have servants, but he's a bad enough father to cause Hally to become quite violent at the thought of his father returning.  

Contrast that with how Hally interacts with Sam.  Sam is much more than a servant to young Hally.  In fact, I would argue that Sam is much more of a father figure in Hally's life than Hally's father is.  Sam listens to Hally, they fly kites together, and they tease each other.  Despite being a servant of Hally's, Sam isn't afraid to offer contrasting opinions to his young master when they are discussing who are some of the greatest thinkers in history.  The interactions between Sam and Hally show what a father and son relationship should look like.  There is mutual respect between the two of them.  

Unfortunately, Sam can never fully be a complete father figure.  Ultimately, he is still a servant of Hally's and Hally knows it.  By the end of the play, Hally has destroyed his relationship with Sam by spitting in his face.  Hally also insists that Sam call him Master Harold. The last part cements the broken relationship. They are no longer surrogate father and son, but rather master and servant.  

Why did Miranda have such empathy for the men in the ship in The Tempest?

Miranda is a very open and loving person.  She seems to be caring and empathetic toward everyone immediately.  She also has not met many people, and as soon as she meets people she is very excited.  She is thrilled when she first sees Ferdinand.  She is also very excited to see all of the other men when she sees them in person.

When Miranda learns of the storm, she feels sad.  There has been a wild storm, which was caused by Ariel and her father.  This is an island with a lot of magic users.  Miranda is used to that.  Miranda feels sorry for the ships' occupants and what they might be going through, because Miranda never wants to see anyone suffering.  She asks her father to stop the storm.

MIRANDA

If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
... O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. (Act 1, Scene 2) 

Miranda cares about people, possibly because she has no one around.  She has had few examples of people.  Her father is a very interesting person, himself a mixture of compassion and revenge.  Caliban is also a mix of contradictions.  At first he and Miranda got along.  She taught him language and other cultural elements, but then he tried to take advantage of her and now they hate each other. 

When Miranda first sees Ferdinand, she doesn’t believe he is real.  She is entranced by his beauty.

MIRANDA

What is't? a spirit?
Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,
It carries a brave form. But 'tis a spirit. (Act 1, Scene 2)

She falls in love with Ferdinand really fast, because she is of the right age to fall in love and her prospects on a deserted island are pretty low.  She seems to think he is quite attractive.  He is noble, after all, at least he would be if his father remained king. 

When the other people come to the island, Miranda utters her famous line, demonstrating how enthralled she is with all of the men she is seeing (though she has no idea of the role most of the them have played in tormenting her father).

MIRANDA

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't! (Act 5, Scene 1) 

Miranda just knows that these people have been shipwrecked and here they are.  At least, we can assume that this is what she knows.  Ferdinand must have told her something by now.  Miranda has a big heart and a sweet nature.  She takes a childlike joy in people and experiences, and wants to see the best in others.

Write a note on Katherine Mansfield as a short story writer.

Katherine Mansfield, born Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp, left her native New Zealand for London when she was nineteen and lived in Europe for most of her life until she died in 1923, at 34, from tuberculosis.

Her early exposure to the Maori led her to write sympathetically of them in her later years. Stories like "Prelude" and "How Pearl Button was Kidnapped" observe the repressive nature of colonialism.

Mansfield lived as a bohemian and was influenced by artistic movements like Fauvism, with its emphasis on individual expression, and the literary movement of Modernism, which rejected traditional structural aspects of stories like expositions and conclusions and sought to capture the disillusionment of life after WWI.

One of her most famous stories, "The Garden Party," revisits and refines themes found in her earlier works, especially the divisions of social class along both racial and economic lines. Despite a comfortable upbringing, Mansfield was sensitive to people whose circumstances were reduced through no fault of their own.

In Act III, Scene 2 of Julius Caesar, how does Mark Antony convince the crowd to adopt his point of view?

Antony gives a meticulously crafted speech that has the sole purpose of inflaming the crowd. Antony is in a difficult position since Brutus, an excellent orator himself, has just won the crowd over by providing sensible reasons for Caesar's assassination. The crowd, therefore, is not in the mood to hear anything negative about him.

In his opening, Antony gives the crowd a reason to listen to him. He stresses their shared companionship and allegiance: "Friends, Romans, countrymen" and then uses an equivocal statement that whatever evil one commits is remembered beyond death and that one's good deeds are forgotten. In this instance, Antony could be referring to both Caesar and the conspirators. Brutus made a point of Caesar's ambition, which he deemed an evil, but it could also be argued that the conspirators' evil deed will follow them, for there was nothing good in what they did. Antony is subtly introducing a cynical element into his speech.

He then says that he is not there to sing the dead general's praises, just to bury him. When Antony refers to Brutus as "noble," he obviously intends for the crowd to support him because they believe Brutus performed an honorable deed. It will soon become apparent, however, that Antony is using verbal irony. Antony then weaves a tapestry of contrasts with his words by comparing what Brutus said to what Caesar actually did.

Once he contrasts Brutus' statement with what Caesar actually did, Antony cleverly erodes the meaning of "honorable" when referring to Brutus and the conspirators. The tone becomes sarcastic and the crowd gradually catches on.

Antony repeats that he has come to speak at his friend's funeral, indicating he had a deep love of and trust for Caesar. When Antony contrasts this with the statement that Brutus was an "honorable man," he creates doubt as to Brutus' actual intent. Antony, being so close to the deceased, would have known more about Caesar's intentions than Brutus. How then could Brutus's actions have been honorable?

In addition to creating doubt about Brutus's character, Antony really rubs it in when he tells the crowd that Caesar generously inflated the public coffers by selling slaves he had captured for ransom. Antony also states that Caesar wept for the poor, implying Caesar cares for the common folk. If Caesar was as ambitious as Brutus claimed, why would he have even cared?

The rhetorical question Antony uses is deliberately fashioned to make the crowd doubt the veracity of what Brutus said. To disqualify Brutus' assertion that Caesar was ambitious, Antony refers to the occasion during Lupercal when Antony thrice presented the crown to Caesar and he refused it: 

You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honorable man.

Antony cleverly states that he did not come to citicize what Brutus had said but that he was there to speak of what he knew, indirectly implying that Brutus did not know what he was talking about. Antony states that, with good reason, all Rome once loved Caesar. Antony asks what cause prevents the crowd from mourning Caesar, and closes his initial address by crying out that the crowd's judgment was irrational and driven by savage thoughts. Antony says this to instill guilt. He then takes a dramatic pause when he asks the crowd to excuse him, saying he is overcome by the moment—he has lost his heart and needs time to gather himself.

By this time, the crowd has great sympathy for Antony and again believes Caesar was a good leader who cared for them.

Antony then continues his address and slyly suggests that, if he were to ask the crowd to turn against Brutus and Cassius, he would be doing them a great wrong, as they are honorable men. Antony claims he would rather wrong the dead, himself, and his audience, than do Brutus and Cassius any harm. The deliberate reverse psychology is clear: Antony is, in effect, calling the crowd to mutiny.

Antony then introduces Caesar's will. 

But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar;
I found it in his closet, 'tis his will:
Let but the commons hear this testament—
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read—

He now knows he has the crowd in the palms of his hands. Telling the crowd that he does not want to read the will makes everyone more insistent to hear its contents. Antony says its contents are so favorable to the crowd that, if he should read Caesar's bequests, they would kiss Caesar's wounds and dip their napkins in his blood out of gratitude. The crowd cries out to Antony to read the will, but he says it would drive them to madness if they knew Caesar's legacy for them.

Antony further mentions that he is afraid he would wrong the 'honorable men' if he reveals what Caesar said in his testament. Antony deliberately mentions that the ones who stabbed Caesar would be wronged. The crowd, however, has lost its patience and insists Antony read the will.

Antony then calls the crowd closer and asks all to surround Caesar's corpse while he reads the document. He then dramatically points out the dagger wounds on Caesar's corpse, reminding the crowd of how foul the assassination was. The citizens express their grief and then passionately cry out for revenge, but Antony stays them.

The crowd has become like a ravenous beast of prey, ready to strike. Antony reads the conditions of Caesar's will. At the end of it all, the multitude carries off Caesar's corpse and goes on a murderous rampage, seeking out the conspirators. Antony, who is satisfied with the devastating effect his speech had on the crowd, remarks:

Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot,
Take thou what course thou wilt!

What specific steps does Montresor take to ensure his plan works?

Montresor seems to be bragging about his cleverness in planning his perfect crime and his success in bringing it off as planned. First he takes pains to ensure that everyone will think he and Fortunato are the best of friends, including Fortunato himself. He refers to Fortunato as "my friend," "my good friend," and "my poor friend" repeatedly throughout the story.

He prepares the materials he will need for Fortunato's "immolation." The stones for the wall are piled in front of the recess. The mortar is already mixed and covered with human bones dripping water to keep it from drying and hardening. He keeps the trowel on his person because he doesn't want it rusting in that damp atmosphere.

He takes plenty of time to hone his story to perfection. He not only tells Fortunato that he has purchased a pipe (125 gallons) of Amontillado at a bargain price, but that he is on his way to Luchesi to get him to sample it, since he has been unable to find Fortunato. This is important. Fortunato is interested in the bargain and in showing off his connoisseurship. He has a bad cold and might beg off going to Montresor's palazzo that night--but he doesn't want Luchesi to hear about the Amontillado.

Montresor ascertains that Fortunato is not expected anywhere on that fateful night. He wants to leave a cold trail. Tomorrow morning no one will remember much because everybody on the streets is drunk and will be hung-over. Fortunato is extremely conspicuous in his gaudy jester's costume, but Montresor is like a shadow in his black cloak and black mask. There will be no one to say they saw Montresor and Fortunato together on the night of Fortunato's disappearance. 

Montresor has made sure his servants will all be gone. There will be no witnesses to say they saw him bring Fortunato home. He says:

There were no attendants at home; they had absconded to make merry in honour of the time. I had told them that I should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned.

This does not mean that all domestic servants would do the same thing. Montresor doesn't have first-class servants. They don't respect him. They aren't afraid of getting fired.

Montresor keeps Fortunato drunk while they are underground. Fortunato is already drunk when Montresor finds him in the street, and Montresor gives him two bottles of French wine. 

Montresor walls Fortunato up in a remote place where there is no chance of his being heard when he screams for help. Montresor does a perfect job of building the stone wall and then plastering it over with the same mortar he used in building the wall. He makes the plastered-over wall look like part of the granite wall of the catacombs, and then he covers it over with what he calls a "rampart" of human bones. Even if the authorities were to search his premises, they would not be likely to find Fortunato's body--but Montresor has had the foresight to be sure he was above suspicion when Fortunato disappeared. Everybody believes that Montresor and Fortunato were the very best of friends.

It is not certain how long Fortunato remained alive. Montresor used big, heavy stones rather than bricks in building his wall. Fortunato would not be able to hear anyone approaching through the wall, the mortar-plaster, and the bones. If he screamed for help, no one would hear him on the other side. It was extremely unlikely that anyone would come down there anyway.

The crime was perfect. Montresor concludes his narrative with these words:

 I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!

Why is Iris so secretive? What is the purpose of her dishonesty throughout The Blind Assassin?

Iris' dishonesty and secretive behavior in The Blind Assassin express the tension between her powerlessness and her attempts to regain power throughout the novel.

Her identity and her life are controlled by men, especially her father and her husband Richard. Consequently, Iris' secretive behavior is a symptom of her powerlessness and her lack of agency or choices. Because she is forced to marry Richard, whom she doesn't love, she turns to Alex for love and sexual fulfillment in a secretive affair, and this affair becomes one small way to take back her power.

Iris' secretive behavior is also a tool that she can use--perhaps one of the only tools at her disposal--to fight back against her own powerlessness and take revenge on the men in her life. Her affair with Alex becomes a kind of revenge against her father, who forced her to marry Richard. It also is a revenge against Richard, who she doesn't love and who betrays her by hiding her father's death. Similarly, the fact that she makes everyone believe the novel The Blind Assassin was written by her sister Laura is a way for Iris to preserve her sister even after Laura has died.

Also, Laura endured Richard's abuse, and Iris was powerless to stop this abuse at the time. Pretending that the novel is written by Laura is a way for Iris to give her sister some power through creating a literary legacy for her.

Thus, Iris' secretive behavior and dishonesty reflect a culture of sexism, abuse, and powerlessness, and they allow her to regain a small amount of power and agency.

How does Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" support the idea that equality is not always fair?

"Harrison Bergeron" uses the word "equality" ironically. Many political groups over the years have attempted to use this story as a way to criticize the implementation of policies that attempted to make American society more "equal" (Civil Rights Acts, affirmative action). However, these policies only attempt to raise the rights of minority groups and to make public institutions more accessible.

In "Harrison Bergeron," equality means lowering all of society to a lowest-common denominator. Competition, which America generally sees as a good thing, is reduced to a negative. When Hazel suggests that George reduce his handicaps, George replies that if he did it "other people'd get away with it—and pretty soon we'd be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else."

Now, there are ways in which standards can be lowered in order to give everyone a fair shot, which is bad. However, much of the time, this type of "equality" is self-inflicted. Like George with Hazel, people generally don't like making others feel bad. George is more intelligent than Hazel, but is okay reducing himself for her. Certain people are more talented than others and when placed on an equal playing field, the more talented person will generally come out ahead. 

Whether this is "fair" or not is a loaded question. What does "fair" mean? Does it mean that everyone has an equal opportunity? Or does it mean that everyone has to perform the same?

What does the word "rapier" mean in the novel The Red Pony?

A rapier is a long, thin sword.

The rapier belongs to the old man, Gitano.   Gitano seems like an old cowboy, a vestige of the Mexican occupation of their land. Jody sees Gitano with a rapier one day, and decides to never tell anyone about it.  He is mesmerized by the sword, and Gitano’s careful care of it.

Jody stood overwhelmed by the thing in Gitano’s hand, a lean and lovely rapier with a golden basket hilt. The blade was like a thin ray of dark light. The hilt was pierced and intricately carved. (Ch. 2)

He asks Gitano where he got the sword, and Gitano tells him he got it from his father.  He does not know where his father got it.  Jody understands that the sword is very important to Gitano.  He is also very curious about Gitano’s close-lipped discussion of the sword.

What do you do with it?"

Gitano looked slightly surprised. "Nothing. I just keep it."

"Can't I see it again?"

The old man slowly unwrapped the shining blade and let the lamplight slip along it for a moment. (Ch. 2)

Gitano tells Jody he needs to go in.  As Jody goes inside, he thinks to himself that it would be a “dreadful thing” if he told anyone about the rapier.  It seems like a personal, deep secret.  He feels sorry for Gitano in general, and therefore decides to respect his privacy.

To Jody, there is something very romantic about Gitano and the rapier.  It is an old-fashioned heirloom, a vestige of a nobler time.  He is aware that that sword is a connection to Gitano's heritage, though he does not even know the sword's whole story himself.  It was something his father gave him.  Jody longs for this time of adventure, represented by Gitano and his old rapier.

From "The Tell-Tale Heart," what is some evidence that the narrator is insane?

One of our first clues that the narrator is not in his right mind is that he has become obsessed with the old man's "vulture eye," as he calls it.  He says that once he conceived of the idea to kill the old man, he becomes obsessed with it.  However, he says, "Object there was none.  Passion there was none.  I loved the old man.  He had never wronged me.  He had never given me insult.  For his gold I had no desire."  First, he wants to murder the old man, a big clue to his insanity on its own.  In addition, the only reason he has to kill him is to get rid of the man's eye; it freaks the narrator out.  If there is such a thing as a good reason to kill someone, this is not it.  We might be able to comprehend greed or passion or something like this, but murdering someone because their eye is offensive to you is not sane.

Another clue is the narrator's obsessive, seemingly compulsive repetition, night after night, of approaching the old man's door "just at midnight" and the slow process of inserting his head and lantern into the old man's room.  A totally sane person would simply not feel such satisfaction in this repetition, or the need to continually repeat the same process again and again.  Further, he cannot kill the old man when he is sleeping, with his eye closed.  It is the rage produced by the sight of the eye that finally enables the narrator to complete the deed.

Further, the narrator believes that he is hearing the old man's heartbeat, first across the room when the old man lies awake and listening, next after the narrator has actually killed and dismembered the man and buried him beneath the floorboards.  A sane person would realize that someone's heart cannot continue to beat after they have died.

Compare and contrast reductionist biology with system biology.

In reductionist biology, and science in general, the approach is to limit the possible variations in what is observed by observing as little as possible at any time. In reductionist biology today, this would be studying a single protein or gene to exhaustion, observing everything that the protein does at different temperatures, under different enzymes, and in different combinations.

Systems biology is just that; the biology of a system. Rather than limiting oneself to a single thing, systems biology will apply a change to a system, from a cell to an organism, to try and elicit responses.

Often times, reductionist observations are more reproducible than systems observations, because reduced problems are far simpler and have less opportunity for error. Systems biology, however, often yields more unexpected results, and can be used to deal with interactions between things so complex that the reductionist approach would be unable to handle.

Find the area of the zone of a sphere formed by revolving the graph of `y=sqrt(9-x^2) , 0

The function `y = sqrt(9 -x^2) `  describes a circle centred on the origin with radius 3.

If we rotate this function in the range `0 <=x <=2 `  about the y-axis we obtain a surface of revolution that is specifically a zone of a sphere with radius 3.

A zone of a sphere is the surface area between two heights on the sphere (surface area of ground between two latitudes when thinking in terms of planet Earth).

When `0 <=x<=2 `  for this given sphere (which can be written equivalently as `x^2 + y^2 = 9 `) the corresponding range for `y ` is `sqrt(5) <=y <= 3 `

Since this range includes the top of the sphere, the zone we are considering is more specifically a cap. The equivalent on planet Earth would be a polar region.

To calculate the surface area of this cap of a sphere with radius 3, we require the formula for the surface area of revolution of a function `x = f(y) ` (note, I have swapped the roles of `x ` and `y ` for convenience, as the formula is typically written for rotating about the x-axis rather than about the y-axis as we are doing here).

The formula for the surface area of revolution of a function `x = f(y) ` rotated about the y-axis in the range `a <=y <=b ` is given by

`A = int_a^b 2pi x sqrt(1+ ((dx)/(dy))^2) \quad dy`

Here, we have that `a = sqrt(5) ` and `b = 3 ` . Also, we have that

`(dx)/(dy) = -y/sqrt(9-y^2) `

so that the cap of interest has area

`A = int_sqrt(5)^3 2pi sqrt(9-y^2) sqrt(1+(y^2)/(9-y^2)) \quad dy `

which can be simplified to

`A = 2pi int_sqrt(5)^3 sqrt((9-y^2) + y^2) \quad dy`  `= 2pi int_sqrt(5)^3 3 dy = 6pi y |_sqrt(5)^3`

So that the zone (specifically cap of a sphere) area of interest A = `pi(18 - 6sqrt(5)) `

This can also be calculated using the formula for calculating the surface area of the cap of a sphere as A = `pi (a^2 + h^2) ` where a is the radius at the lower limit of the cap and h is the perpendiculat height of the cap. Here this would give A = `pi (4 + (3-sqrt(5))^2) = pi (4 + 9 -6sqrt(5) + 5) = pi(18 -6sqrt(5)) ` (ie the same result).

What are Morrie's rules for love and marriage in Tuesdays With Morrie?

In the book, Morrie shares with Mitch his rules for a happy marriage. He tells Mitch that most people don't really understand what love is, and he asserts that marriage is essentially a test of one's character.

Morrie informs Mitch that respect is the key to happiness. He believes that it is essential that married people respect their partners. Morrie also maintains that the ability to compromise is essential to securing peace and harmony within a marriage.

He tells Mitch that couples need to share a common set of values in order to preserve their marriage from divorce. The most important value a married couple should share is a strong belief in the importance of their marriage. Most of all, couples also need to be honest with each other and to be able to talk openly about problems within the marriage. Morrie's motto for marriage is 'Love each other or perish.'

How do I find the force that the projectile is implied with?

By definition, projectile motion is the motion under the influence of only one force--gravity. In other words, only one force acts on a body that is undergoing projectile motion and it is the gravity. Thus, if we were to draw a free-body diagram of a body undergoing projectile motion, only one force will be drawn on it and it will have a downward direction (since gravity acts downwards and is the pull of the planet Earth on the body). Note that the body may be traveling in the upwards direction or downwards direction, the only force will still be gravity.

Projectile motion is a motion in 2-dimensions, x and y. Thus, a baseball thrown by a pitcher or hit by the hitter undergoes projectile motion. Similarly, projectile motion can be observed in basketball. A bullet fired from a gun, also undergoes projectile motion.

How does the Duke advise Brabantio in Othello?

Observing Brabantio's distress over what he regards as the loss of his daughter in marriage to Othello, as well as the strength and genuineness of Othello and Desdemona's affections for one another, the Duke counsels Brabantio to accept the situation and to make the best of it. The Duke appears to share Brabantio's general opinion that the relationship is an unfortunate development; he describes it as a "mangled matter," and echoes commonplace racist assumptions of the inferiority of dark-skinned people when he says "If virtue no delighted beauty lack, / Your son-in-law is far more fair than black." But he nevertheless urges the old man not to make his loss greater by disowning Desdemona. "Men do their broken weapons rather use / Than their bare hands," he says, an analogy between warfare and domestic relations which eerily foreshadows the play's larger conflict, a career soldier's failed adjustment to married life.

He continues, "When remedies are past, the griefs are ended / By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended." In essence, he advises Brabantio that there is no use in continuing to regret and suffer over what has already occurred; Brabantio should take comfort in the fact that "the worst" is behind him. But as Edgar tells us in King Lear ("The worst is not / So long as we can say 'This is the worst.'"), this is a fallacious line of thinking. Things can and will become far worse for Desdemona, and Brabantio is right to fear, though he fears for the wrong reasons. Neither he nor the Duke can possibly anticipate the malicious intent of Iago; Brabantio's empty fears that Desdemona has been deceived, spellbound, or corrupted by Othello will be reflected in an unexpected way as Othello is deceived, spellbound, and corrupted by Iago.

The Duke's final bit of advice urges Brabantio to regain what dignity and agency he can by "smiling" in spite of what has happened: "The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief." Once again, these words are unintentionally relevant to the larger Othello/Iago drama which occupies the remainder of the play. Iago, deprived of his expected military promotion, is the "robb'd" who, with perpetually growing self-satisfaction, steals from Othello everything that he has. Othello, on the other hand, is partly responsible for his own undoing, and "robs himself" in his "bootless" (useless) agony over Desdemona's suspected infidelity.

How can I get Judge Taylor's voice in TKAM monologue? Below I have written a monologue from Judge Taylor in To Kill A Mockingbird but I...

How can I get Judge Taylor's voice in TKAM monologue?

Below I have written a monologue from Judge Taylor in To Kill A Mockingbird but I struggle to accomplish that nonchalant voice of his. You have no idea how thankful I would be if you would help me edit my piece (voice, grammar-errors, accent, believability, etc.). Thank you all for your help:) 

I chose to write about his opinion on Tom Robinson's conviction (he was clearly upset about the verdict, but did not do anything further about it) and the town's prejudice. Here is my monologue:

Time: Few hours after the trial.

Place: Outside the courthouse in a public opening. Some of Maycomb’s citizens have come to hear Judge Taylor’s speech.

A Confession From Judge Taylor

Today I killed a man. No, that is not the whole truth; today I killed an innocent man. Today I killed Tom Robinson. I had the authority to declare a verdict unjust, but in the case of Tom Robinson, I did not do so. Why, you may ask? Well, that is a question I cannot answer with certainty, but I will give it a try.

I believe in the justice system and walked to court the morning of Tom Robinson’s trial, determined to keep the case as fair a possible. But when the moment came for me to declare the verdict biased, I hesitated. When the time for me came to do my duty truly, I hesitated. What would happen if I, the man who is believed to be near careless, went above and beyond to demonstrate my support for blacks? Would my own wife be able to face me, seeing a stranger? Would I lose the town’s respect for me, the respect that I’ve fought to earn and maintain? I, John Taylor, Judge of Maycomb, was too preoccupied with preserving my reputation to give Tom the liberty he deserved, and that cowardly action of mine will haunt me to the day I die.

I sincerely regret the unforgivable harm I have done to the lives of Tom Robinson and his family, however, I did not come here to solely weep over my mistakes. No, I will not take all the blame.

As I was born and raised in Maycomb, I know everyone, their achievements, their secrets, and their sins. I also know, though many of you will contradict me, that this town is infected by prejudice. This is a fact, and there is nothing to be denied in that statement. I appointed Atticus as Mr. Robinson’s defense counsel in hope of maintaining an unbiased court, but, in the name of god, how was I wrong.

Though I committed a severe mistake in approving the verdict, I cannot deny that I did not attempt to influence the jury into making the right decision. I admit to deliberately make Bob Ewell look like the fool he is, with the hope of showing the jury that the man cannot be trusted. The jury remained ignorant as if blinded. Now, I have a simple question for you all: Why? Why do you have a repulsive need to oppress others? Why destroy an innocent man’s life, for goodness’ sake? Innocent! To you he may be a mere object to satisfy your cravings of feeling superior, but he is of flesh and bone just like everyone in this goddamn place. Is this really what you want, hide under prejudice whenever you feel like it, and then push the guilt away? You cannot pretend to be innocent anymore, and I can assure you of one thing: I will not tolerate more of such behavior in my court. And you are as guilty as the jury that does the nasty job for you. The whole confounded town was on trial and, yes, you won, but was it worth it? Do you feel better now that you’ve got it your way, or will life just go on as if nothin’ happened? Let me tell you this, Tom Robinson’s blood is on our hands, and no matter how you hard you try to twist the situation, you are responsible for a man’s death. You shall take that crime with you to the grave. I hope you will let that sink in.

There is no more to say on that matter; I have admitted my part, now, is anyone going to do the same? May some of you too find the strength to stand up against the evilness that occupies our world.

What reasons does Iago provide for hating Othello?

At the end of Act II, Scene 1, Iago provides a few reasons why he despizes Othello so much. First, Iago acknowledges that, even though he cannot stand Otehllo, Iago knows Othello is

of a constant, loving, noble nature,
And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona
A most dear husband.

This, of course, gives him all the more reason to hate Othello, as he has qualities Iago obviously does not possess. Furthermore, the fact that Othello deserves Desdemona's love because he has these attributes gives Iago more reason to dislike him so intensely for, as he says,

Now, I do love her too;

Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure
I stand accountant for as great a sin,
But partly led to diet my revenge.

Iago concedes that he also has feelings for Desdemona, but knows these sentiments are borne from his desire for revenge, not just his desire for her. Iago also says another reason for his hatred springs from his suspicion that Othello had an illicit liaison with his wife, Emilia.

For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leap'd into my seat; the thought whereof
Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards.

For this reason, Iago is intent on getting even. He will punish Othello for humiliating him. He plans to do this through manipulation and deceit. If Iago fails, he wants at least to make Othello incredibly jealous. 

And nothing can or shall content my soul
Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife,
Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor
At least into a jealousy so strong
That judgment cannot cure.

Many commentators believe, however, that Iago's hatred is born from an innate evil. He relishes the thought of hurting others just for the sake of it. The fact that he gives reasons for his hatred is just an excuse for the fact that he is evil by nature. It is for this reason that Iago bears only contempt for the good in others, as the first excerpt most pertinently indicates. 

How does the character of Claudio portray the gender expectations of men back in the time when Shakespeare wrote Much Ado about Nothing?

Claudio represents a male-dominated society where women were expected to remain chaste before marriage. 

There is a definite double-standard represented in the play.  Shakespeare’s play involves the story of a girl whose reputation was threatened, and she was so mortified that she faked her death. A reputation was all a girl had, and when Don John soiled hers, Hero was doomed to a life of misery. 

Claudio is very chauvinistic.  He believes Don John when he tells him that Hero has been having an affair.  He sees what he thinks is her and another man at the window, and he accepts it.  He supposedly loved her, but he never questions that she has been untrue. 

Worse than this, Claudio condemns Hero in front of everyone on their wedding day.  It is a very public display.  He mentions nothing to anyone, and then during the wedding he rejects her.  She has no idea why, and she is horrified.  This event does much more harm to her than to him. 

Hero’s father Leonato seems to accept Hero’s wrongdoing pretty easily, on only what Claudio says and the fact that Beatrice cannot alibi her. 

Confirm'd, confirm'd! O, that is stronger made
Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron!
Would the two princes lie, and Claudio lie,
Who loved her so, that, speaking of her foulness,
Wash'd it with tears? Hence from her! let her die. (Act 4, Scene 1) 

Even worse than his behavior at the wedding, Claudio apparently thinks that women are interchangeable.  Since Hero is supposedly dead, he agrees to marry another girl in her place when he is told that Leonato has a niece he can have instead.  Shakespeare’s audiences might have accepted this, but most modern audiences consider it despicable. It shows that a woman has no worth or personality on her own.  One is as good as another.

What are quantitative interviewing, qualitative interviewing, and focus groups?

The primary difference between qualitative and quantitative interviewing is that qualitative interviews are exploratory and focus on opinions and motivations while quantitative interviews focus on measurable data and facts. A focus group is a type of qualitative interview that is used to gather opinions and other qualitative information from a group.

Qualitative interviewing is used to gain understanding of the motivations behind human behavior and to develop hypotheses that can be used as the basis for experimental research. Qualitative research focuses on thoughts and opinions, giving people the chance to voice subjective concerns. Focus groups are a common type of qualitative interview that involves multiple participants.

In a standard focus group, participants are chosen either because they have a particular trait in common or because they represent the diversity of a broader group. Companies often hire researchers to conduct focus groups in order to test the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. For example, a focus group may be conducted to gain insight into how the target demographic of a company will respond to a new line of products.

Quantitative research is focused on numerical data that can be turned into statistics for analysis. Quantitative data may be used to measure subjective reactions, such as opinions, or to analyze facts, such as demographic information. In a quantitative interview, the participant is typically asked a series of questions or given a form to fill out. These questions are translated into answers that yield patterns that can be used in research. Face-to-face interviews are common in quantitative research, as are phone- and paper-based surveys.

It is important to remember that there can be significant overlap in quantitative and qualitative interviews. Many researchers use a combination of the two approaches to gain qualitative data that can be used to expand research as well as statistical data that is easy to analyze. Focus groups are generally qualitative, but they may feature quantitative elements as well.

How can I make a claim about an example of the use of perspective development, tone, mood, or irony in Riding Freedom?

In literature, perspective development references the growth and maturation of a character over the course of a book; it demonstrates the creation and evolution of a character's identity and how their wants, needs, desires, and abilities shift over time. 

Thus, we might claim the following:

Although Riding Freedom is told from a third person point of view, meaning that Charlotte does not dictate her story as she would with the "I" POV, we are still able to get a strong sense of her perspective and character development through the use of descriptive language and dialogue in the book. 

The book opens with the a description of Charlotte's uniqueness:

After ten years at the orphanage, Charlotte wasn't like most girls her age. And who knew if it was growing up like a follow-along puppy in a pack of ruffian boys, or if it was just her own spit and fire. But she never had a doll or a tea party. She couldn't sew a stitch and she didn't know a petticoat from a pea pod. Wild hairs sprang out of her brown braids, and her ribbons dangled to her waist, untied. Her frock was too big and hung like a sack on her small frame. Smudges of dirt always covered her, and instead of girl-like lace, for as long as anyone could remember, she wore a strip of leather rein tied around her wrist.

This passage gives us a very clear portrait of Charlotte's appearance and spirit. She is a wild girl who eschews traditional femininity and refuses to behave in a way that is "lady-like."

Despite her outward and inward traits, Charlotte still faces a great deal of trouble due to her gender. For example, William, a young bully, tries to prevent her from participating in the pasture races by insisting that there are "No girls allowed." She is also never considered for adoption, with only a line of boys forming to be evaluated by Mr. Millshark, the head of the orphanage, and the prospective parents because "People wanted boys to help with their farms, or a son to carry on the family name, or they wanted someone young and cute."

With all these restrictions and limitations in front of her, Charlotte makes the bold choice to run away and pose as a boy, "Charley." This act is the first mark of her development, as it allows her to gain the freedom she so desperately dreams of and the confidence that she requires to make it on her own. We see that perspective mature as Charlotte grows older and faces both problems (like an accident that claims her left eye) and adventures (such as becoming a stagecoach driver and the first woman to vote in the United States). While she may pose as a man to have access to these opportunities, her perspective as a woman is still alive and flourishing.

What are the two categories of seed plants?

Seed plants are called Spermatophytes. There are two groups of seed plants.

Gymnosperms

There are four divisions of Gymnosperms:

• Conifers


• Cycads


• Ginkgo


• Gnetophytes

Characteristics:

• Pollen grain is delivered to the ovule


• Seeds develop uncovered


• Lack vessels


• Pollen grains are carried by the wind


• Many have needle-like leaves, thick cuticles, and sunken stomata


• Used to produce paper, lumber, and resin

Angiosperms

There is one division of angiosperms called Anthophyta. Anthophyta is made up two classes, Dicotyledones (dicots) and Monocotyledones (monocots). Dicots and monocots can be distinguished based on their leaf vein patterns. In monocots, the veins are evenly spaced along the entire leaf. In dicots, the veins show extensive branching.

Characteristics:

• Pollen is transferred by wind, animal vectors, bees, other insects, bats, and birds


• Seeds develop inside the ovary


• Ovary develops into fruit


• Leaves can be undivided or contain many leaflets


• Produce flowering plants

Explain the shift from artisan to factory worker, and discuss the factory system. What were the advantages and disadvantages? Who was left out? Who...

An artisan makes goods by hand from raw materials, and every item created is unique and special. They perform a variety of tasks in that construction, and may spend days making a single item.

A factory worker uses machines to make one part of a good, interchangeable with other parts of the same type, which is then passed down an assembly line to other workers with other machines. They perform the same simple task over and over again, hundreds of times a day.

As a result of this, there are two major differences between artisans and factory workers, one positive, one negative.

The positive is that factory workers are vastly more productive---in many cases hundreds or even thousands of times more productive.

The negative is that factory workers have far less autonomy over what they produce, what hours they work, and what type of work they do.

Much of the political debate over the upsides and downsides of capitalism ultimately boils down to those two facts. Adam Smith's defense of capitalism rests upon the first fact---enormous increase in productivity and thus standard of living---while Marx's attack on capitalism largely rests on the second fact---alienation and loss of autonomy.

The greatest benefits of the shift to factory work of course fell upon the factory owners, some of whom became fantastically rich. One's opinion of capitalism also often rests upon how much one believes that this is deserved for their investment of useful capital as opposed to undeserved rent extracted by exploiting workers.

Factory work is also usually easier than artisan work (though that definitely depends on a number of factors), so workers with lower skill levels generally benefit from a shift out of artisanship into factory work. Workers with high skills can either lose or gain, depending on whether they try to cling to artisanship or become designers and engineers for the factory-made products. In the best-case scenario (which sadly rarely happens), everyone can benefit from the increased productivity of factory work, as low-skill workers become employed, high-skill workers become designers and engineers, and factory owners become wealthy from their investments. But in practice many people have difficulty adjusting to a different kind of work, and thus the shift to new industries causes unemployment and discontent.

We are seeing similar effects today as new technologies emerge that replace many types of workers---robots that replace welders and machinists, soon self-driving vehicles that replace truck drivers. These technologies are good for productivity and probably ultimately for overall economic growth, but that doesn't make it any easier for the machinists and truck drivers who become unemployed.

Moreover, the loss of autonomy is very real, and especially early on in the transition to industrialization workers were often very heavily exploited.

One response to that exploitation was to resist the entire process of industrialization---as the Luddites infamously did. This response was understandable, but ultimately harmful. It really only had two possible outcomes (both of which were observed in different places): Either you succeed, and hold back your society's economic growth; or you fail, and the exploitation proceeds.

Eventually unions formed as a better response to this exploitation; while no single worker in a factory of hundreds can have much influence over the direction of the company, all the workers together can have an enormous influence. By organizing into unions, workers were able to preserve the high productivity and economic growth that comes with new technology, while ensuring that they received their share of that growth. (Of course, this meant that capital owners received a smaller share, which they weren't happy about; so in many countries there has been a backlash against unions, and the conflict goes on.)

In Three Men in a Boat, why is Montmorency wary of the river and of boats? Is he right for feeling this way?

Montmorency is a dog, the fox terrier who goes along with the three men on their journey along the Thames River in England. At the end of the first chapter, as the group is voting on where they will go for a vacation, the narrator J. imagines in his storytelling that Montmorency casts his own vote, too. The trip doesn’t appeal to the dog because he won’t have anything to do unless and until the boat goes ashore. The men consider that they could sit back and smoke as the scenery goes by. By contrast, J. surmises:

He never did care for the river, did Montmorency. “It’s all very well for you fellows,” he says; “you like it, but I don’t. There’s nothing for me to do. Scenery is not in my line, and I don’t smoke. If I see a rat, you won’t stop; and if I go to sleep, you get fooling about with the boat, and slop me overboard. If you ask me, I call the whole thing bally foolishness.” We were three to one, however, and the motion was carried.

It’s true enough. A dog wouldn’t be as interested in a slow boat ride along a river as a person would be. He could be bored out of his fur.

What is the drive of the Otis family from the railway station to Canterville Chase like?

The drive from the railway station in Ascot to Canterville Chase is initially uneventful and peaceful. Members of the Otis family are able to delight in happy pastoral scenes that correspond with their own high spirits. The first leg of the seven mile journey from Ascot to Canterville Chase is restful and uneventful.

The Otis family is able to revel in the pleasant summer weather; as the family drives through the forest, its senses are teased by the redolent (fragrant) scent of pinewood. Along the way, the Otis family enjoys glimpses of pheasants, squirrels, and rabbits. The wood-pigeon's sweet song also contributes greatly to the pleasantness of the journey.

On the second leg of the journey, however, as the family enters the avenue of Canterville Chase, the atmosphere changes. Clouds gather ominously, and a flight of rooks mysteriously fly over the sky. Soon, raindrops begin falling even before the Otis family reaches the house on Canterville Chase.

So, the Otis family enjoys a pleasant drive until it reaches the avenue of Canterville Chase. There, the weather suddenly changes, and rain comes upon the unsuspecting family. Nevertheless, the family is able to reach the house safely, without any untoward incidents to mar its journey.

What kind of political economy does Russia have?

According to the CIA World Factbook, Russia has a mixed political economy, with some industries controlled by government central planners and others controlled by the private sector. During the Soviet era, Russia was a predominantly socialist economy, meaning that the government controlled nearly all industries. However, as the Soviet Union transitioned into the Russian Federation, the government passed many reforms which allowed for market-based competition in some industries. Nevertheless, there is still a high rate of government interference in private sector businesses, so Russia is far from pure capitalism.

The Russian government retains control of several major industries, specifically the transportation, banking, defense, and energy industries. The Russian economy is particularly reliant on the government-controlled oil and natural gas industries, so the recent plummet in oil prices has caused Russia to enter a severe recession.

How is betrayal shown in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver?

There are numerous instances of betrayal in The Poisonwood Bible.  In many of them, the betrayal when examined turns out not to have been a betrayal after all.  Often it is better described as the act of a limited person, doing the best they could under difficult circumstances, which then caused damage to someone else.  However, examining the betrayal takes a long time - the whole book, in fact - and during that long time, the betrayal seem inexcusable. 

The clearest example of this is the scene when the driver ants come to the village.  These are ants that run over everything and bite anyone who is in their path.  When they come in a huge flow, in the middle of the night, the only way to escape them is to get across the river.  So the whole village is rushing to the river to get on boats.

The Price family, as is typical of them, don't stop to help one another.  They flee, each on their own, except for Orleanna, the mother, who carries out Ruth May, the littlest one. 

Adah, at age 14, is one of the twins. She is lame because of a birth defect, and can only walk dragging one leg.  She asks her mother for help, but their mother is carrying Ruth May, and the only way she can help Adah is to say "Come on" and turn and start off for the river.   As far as Adah is concerned, her mother has left her behind.  She gets knocked down in the crowd, trampled on, and could have died, but their Congolese friend Anatole (sent by Adah's twin Leah) comes and saves her.  

To Adah, this incident "marks my life's dark center."  For many years, she goes on thinking that her mother has rejected her.  She imagines that her mother thought her life less worthy of saving than Ruth May's because Adah was an awkward, crippled teenager rather than a sweet little blond girl. 

Years later, she finds out that this was not so.  "After Ruth May you were my youngest, Adah.  When push comes to shove, a mother takes care of her children from the bottom up." 

Other instances of betrayal in The Poisonwood Bible:

• Nate Price betrays his family in many ways.  He is a Pharisaical, abusive husband and father.  But his ultimate betrayal comes when he insists that the family stay in the Congo when independence, with its almost certain violence, is coming up and the mission is recommending the family evacuate.  His willingness to sacrifice his family ushers in an era of starvation for them and ultimately leads to the death of one family member and the dispersal of the others.  But when Orleanna tells us his back story, we can understand Nate's motivations, even if we cannot forgive him.


• One major theme of the book is the betrayal inherent in colonialism.  Belgium ruled the Congo very harshly, then suddenly granted it independence with no training or preparation.  Nate Price, who is ostensibly coming to do God's work among the Congolese people, refuses to learn about their culture, and disrespects, offends and misunderstands them at every turn.  Some of the white characters (Orleanna and Leah) struggle with guilt over their own behavior in the Congo.  Their stories explore the question of whether it is possible, as one of a race that has practiced colonialism, to come to a foreign country without participating in betrayal.  As Orleanna puts it in her introduction, "We stepped down there on a place we believed unformed ... But what else could we have thought?  Only that it began and ended with us.  What do we know, even now?"


• The twins, Leah and Adah, have their own issues with betrayal.  Adah was born with a slight brain injury that caused her to limp.  Both of the twins believe that Leah, who was born healthy and strong, somehow caused this in the womb by taking more than her fair share of nutrients or space.  Thus Adah resents Leah for being the healthy, strong twin, and Leah feels guilty and frustrated with her sister.  Both of them deal with this on their own separate tracks, and it is not until middle adulthood that they become friends. 


• Orleanna feels guilty for the fact that Ruth May dies.  She wishes she had stood up to Nate before such a thing could happen, and gotten herself and her girls out of there.  She feels that she betrayed them, when in fact, she was doing the best she could.  In fact, for most of the book, the older girls spend a lot of time blaming Orleanna for not being able to make things better: She cannot make a decent meal out of the food that's available, she goes all passive and silent when Nate goes on an abusive rant ... she cannot save them from their father or from Africa.  It's not until the end of the book that they realize she did a very good job with them. 

What were the characteristic features of the Renaissance?

There were a number of characteristics of the Renaissance that set it apart from the centuries that preceded it in Europe. The period saw a renewed interest in the classical works of Greece and Rome. For this reason, humanism was an important element. Humanism placed an emphasis away from divine images and focused on the greatness of the human form. In the same vein, Renaissance artists and philosophers stressed personal and individual achievement, particularly in the areas of science and architecture. Out of this environment, scientific discovery and business enterprise flourished. Many of the Renaissance artists and thinkers pursued a number of different fields and excelled in a wide array of endeavors. This was a reflection on the importance of learning.  With the increased interest in humanism, religion, particularly Catholicism, declined in importance and influence.