Why was waltzing with his father "not easy" for the narrator in "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke?

Waltzing is "not easy" for the boy in "My Papa's Waltz" because of the fear he has of his father.

The waltz in "My Papa's Waltz" could be seen as difficult because of the size difference between father and son. The "small boy" hangs on to his father "like death."  With this height disparity, "such waltzing was not easy." However, a darker vision might exist.  Many interpretations of the poem suggest that "My Papa's Waltz" depicts an abusive relationship between the father and his son. This makes the waltz physically and emotionally difficult for the boy.

As he begins the dance, the father's state makes it difficult.  The boy notes how "the whiskey" on his papa's breath "could make a small boy dizzy."  That represents one level of difficulty in the dance.  The father's inebriated state causes him to spin the boy and have no regard for the objects around them. This is why both father and son "romped until the pans / slid from the kitchen shelf."  

The father's physical force is so strong that the boy experiences a scraped ear from his father's buckle with every step he missed.   It is as if the father is "dancing" his abuse towards the son.  The father's "battered" hand "beat time" on the little boy's head with a "palm caked hard by dirt."  The father's "waltz" is an exercise in displaying power over the boy. The emotional difficulty of this dance is confirmed with how the mother's facial expression "could not unfrown itself" as she watches the spectacle unfold.  

This waltz is difficult because the father is a towering and dominating figure. He revels in his abusive display of power.  The boy is terrified as he clings to his father's shirt.  There is little chance he enjoys this nightly tradition.  The boy's fear of his father and the pain he experiences during this dance make it emotionally and physically difficult.  Such a realization underscores how this dance "is not easy."

How would I write a character sketch of Helen Keller?

Helen Keller was born with all of her senses, but contracted an illness as a child that left her blind and deaf.  Despite her disabilities, Helen Keller learned to read and write, went to college, and became an advocate for the blind. 

When writing a character sketch, you want to give details about the person that are included in the story. These can include physical and personality traits. You can support these with examples from the text and quotations.

Helen is determined, intelligent, and sensitive. These traits initially made it difficult for her teacher, Anne Sullivan, to teach her language. When she began to learn, though, there was no stopping Helen. She learned quickly and came to love knowledge.

In The Story of My Life, Helen describes how she felt at the end of the first day in which she learned words:

I learned a great many new words that day… It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of the eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come (Chapter 4).

Helen had existed in a state of darkness and ignorance, unable to communicate with anyone. Once she learned her first word, “water,” she was able to learn many more. Anne Sullivan spelled into her hand. Helen came to associate this with the words. 

Even after this, Helen did not have an easy life. The world was still sometimes foreign and difficult for her to navigate. For example, she loved nature, but was frightened when she climbed a tree and a storm hit. Without being able to see or hear, Helen sometimes found the world confusing and scary.

Helen was successful enough that she even went to Radcliff College. College was not easy for Helen Keller, since few of her schoolbooks were in braille and everything took her longer. Still, Helen persevered and became a writer and a successful advocate for the blind.

What happens in the poem "The Explosion"?

Philip Larkin wrote ‘The Explosion' after viewing an 1969 BBC documentary about coal mining. The specific event described may well have been the disaster at the Trimdon coal mine, near Durham in northern England on 15 February 1882 in which 74 people died, although many aspects of the poem are relevant to any coal mine explosion. 

The poem starts out on a ordinary day in which miners are headed into the mine. Above ground, the scene is pleasant and pastoral. One miner steals eggs from a lark's nest for food. They head into the mine. At noon, there is an explosion, kicking up dust that dims the sun. 

After the explosion, the speaker and the wives of the miners who died, shift to a religious viewpoint, momentarily lifted out of the mundanity of daily life by the enormity of the event. 

In To Kill a Mockingbird, what is Lee trying to convey regarding the concepts of Tom's conviction and death? How are these two concepts important...

Harper Lee was attempting to convey the message that both a broken judicial system and racial prejudice are deadly. Tom's death is a result of a prejudiced jury's decision to wrongly convict an innocent man of assault and rape for the simple fact that he was black. After Tom is convicted and serving his sentence in an Alabama jail, he attempts to escape by climbing the fence surrounding the yard during an exercise period. Tom is shot seventeen times and dies tragically. His death not only results from the prejudiced jury's verdict, but also the corrupt and broken judicial system which allowed the decision to stand. Throughout Atticus' closing remarks, he comments that the place where every man should be treated equally, regardless of class, race, or gender, is in a United States courtroom. Unfortunately, the justice system fails Tom Robinson, and he eventually dies in the prison where he was sentenced to stay.

The concepts of a fair judicial system and tolerant populace are significant aspects of a civil society. Courts should judge individuals based on evidence and truthful testimonies in order to avoid injustice. Wrongful convictions devalue a society's judicial system and can destroy the lives of those who are convicted of crimes they did not commit. Society, in general, should be tolerant of people regardless of differences in race, social class, religion, culture, or gender in order to have a peaceful, productive community. Through Tom's wrongful conviction and death, Lee emphasizes the importance of an effective and fair court system, as well as a tolerant, understanding society.

What is it that Valjean steals that turns him into "a slave of the law" in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo?

Jean Valjean was born into a poor family, and after the death of his parents he and his sister had to support one another. When his sister is widowed, Valjean's meager income is not enough to feed himself, his sister, and her many children. In an attempt to literally put food on the table, he steals a loaf of bread. Valjean is caught and initially imprisoned for five years, but after many attempted escapes, his sentence totaled nineteen years. Upon release from prison, as a parolee, Valjean is issued an identity card which marks him as a criminal. As part of his parole, he is supposed to go to Ponterlier and live in highly controlled circumstances, but he flees instead and tries to make a new life under a new name. Because he is marked as a criminal and an outcast everywhere he goes, Valjean feels barely more free outside of prison than he did inside. 

Why do the children make Boo's story into a game in Chapter 4 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird? Who plays the part of Boo? Why? Is the game...

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the children invent their Boo Radley game due to their strong curious drive to know the truth about their neighbor.

Their curiosity became piqued the summer prior to their invention of the new game, the summer they first met Dill. Dill is a very intelligent, creative child with an active imagination. Since Dill has such an active imagination, once Scout and Jem begin informing Dill about the mysteries and rumors surrounding their neighbor Arthur Radley, whom the children call Boo Radley, the more Dill hears, the more curious he grows about Arthur. Scout describes that Dill would stand, hugging the light-pole on the same corner of the street the Radley Place resides, "staring and wondering" (Ch. 1). Prior to meeting Dill, Scout and Jem had been content just staying as far away from their mysterious neighbor's house as possible; however, the more curious Dill grew about Arthur, the more curious Scout and Jem grew as well. It is during this first summer that Dill comes up with the idea to "try to make [Arthur] come out," an idea that fueled Jem's invention of the Boo Radley game at the start of the next summer. Hence, Jem invents the Boo Radley game because the children's curiosity has driven them to the point that they want to try and compel Arthur out of his house so that the children can confirm the rumors and myths they have learned.

All the children know about Arthur comes from Miss Stephanie Crawford, a very unreliable source of information since she is known as the "neighborhood scold" and gossip. Since their information comes from Miss Crawford, we can be certain that events the children are acting out in their game are not accurate representations of what happened in the Radleys' home. As the children act out the events, Scout is assigned to play Mrs. Radley; Dill is to play "old Mr. Radley, Arthur's tyrannical father; and Jem chooses to play Arthur (Boo) Radley. One can assume that since Jem invented the game and is essentially the group's leader, he chose to take the funnest, most active role for himself. Plus, Dill is best at playing the villain's part and is, therefore, assigned the role of the tyrannical old Mr. Radley.

The following paragraph ends Part One of Things Fall Apart and summarizes a number of the doubts that have begun to plague individuals in the clan....

This excerpt occurs at the end of Part One, and Obierika is considering Okonkwo's crime (inadvertently shooting and killing a young man of the tribe) and subsequent exile. In this paragraph, the reader sees Obierika begin to question the practices of the clan and their belief system, as he has trouble reconciling Okonkwo's position in the tribe and the lack of malice in his crime with the traditions followed by the community.

Rather than simply accepting that Okonkwo's punishment is appropriate because it is "the will of the goddess" and is the action required to satiate "the great goddess" and "the Earth," Obierika wonders why Okonkwo should "suffer so grievously" for something that was clearly accidental. Thinking about this only leaves Obierika with more doubts and questions: "He was merely led into greater complexities." The structure and tradition that the tribe has relied on for so long no longer provides the easy answers and assurance they perhaps once did (it seems that Obierika has not questioned punishments this way in the past). He questions the practice of throwing twins into the woods, a long established tradition in the clan. Obierika wonders, "What crime had they committed?" The fact that seeds of doubt have entered his mind signals that the hold of tradition is beginning to wear in the clan. This allows the missionaries to have influence over them later because the new religion provides the logic that counteracts some of the questionable practices (for example, the missionaries take in twins instead of having them thrown into the woods).

Toward the end of the excerpt, Obierika brings up the idea of the individual and community and how one person's actions can reflect badly on the others. The concern is that if the goddess is not satisfied with the punishment exacted on the individual, the whole tribe will suffer. For the greater good, Okonkwo must be exiled. Obierika remembers, "As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled the others." Later, when the missionaries arrive and Okonkwo is back from his exile, the idea of community works a bit more in the missionaries' favor. Okonkwo wants to rebel, but the community is not willing to take the drastic action Okonkwo takes. Without the group effort, the missionaries maintain their hold over the community and it is again the individual, Okonkwo, who suffers because of his misdeeds (this time intentional).

The changes in the tribe that will continue during Okonkwo's absence can already be seen here in the thoughts of Obierika. When Okonkwo returns, the seeds have already been planted for the missionary/colonizer's influence to override the traditions of the clan.