Why does "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin start in a subway? What could the subway symbolize?

Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" opens in the subway as a way of setting a particular kind of scene, and it also acts as a symbol.  A subway is generally an urban form of transportation, and this tells the reader that the narrator is on a crowded subway in a city.  There is a certain kind of anonymity in being on a subway, I think, and I have always found it interesting that the narrator is in that state of anonymity as the story begins, and that the narrator remains anonymous--that is nameless--throughout the entire story. A subway runs beneath the ground, in the dark, and that darkness is a symbol of the darkness that runs through the lives of these characters, as African-Americans, dark in skin, as people suffering from poverty and prejudice, dark in their lives, and of course, the darkness of the blues that Sonny plays and suffers from in his drug addiction.  The subway also represents the trapped quality of the characters' lives, as the narrator describes himself as "trapped in the darkness that roared outside" (Baldwin 1), as good a way as I've ever seen to set the tone of a story.  

What is the role of music in the culture of a place?

The role of music in the culture of a place has more than one dimension, including the dimension that music expresses current changes in the culture and engenders further changes in that culture. 1. According to scholars of musical change, music may have the role of resisting change to culture thus holding cultural past and present together through its unchanging form. 2. Another perspective is that music "stands outside" of culture where its role is to comment on culture in such a way as to draw different cultures together, allowing the cultural outsider and insider to come together. 3. Another perspective points to how music springs from the culture of a place as expressions of deep-seated concepts of being.

1. As reported by ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl, African music research conducted by Melville Herskovits draws the conclusion that in all domains of culture--from economics through to religion--music resisted change (remaining more African) more than any other cultural domain when face with a collision with Western culture.

2. As explained by Nettl, Daniel Neuman offered the proposition that a role of music in culture is to stand outside of culture to comment on it and to unite outsider with insider as a way to confirm the humanity of both groups, though from different cultures. Music standing "outside the rest of culture" can function to "build bridges between a society and the outside world."

3. As an example of how music springs from within the culture of a place as an expression of deep-seated concepts of being, consider Michigan State University's discussion of music in African culture. Music, perceived as embedded in African culture, is sprung from the earliest beliefs about being related to every aspect of living, including religion, death, birth, rites of passage, cultural values, marriage and interactions with outsider groups.

What does Jerry do that makes the native boys accept him in "Through the Tunnel"?

An excellent swimmer, Jerry is able to dive well, too. The native boys, who have been diving off the rocks in the wild bay themselves, accept and like Jerry when they see him dive. 

When Jerry accompanies his mother to the beach they frequented on past vacations, he looks longingly off at a distant bay that has rather large rocks. Noticing that he yearns to go to the distant beach, his mother asks him if he wants to go somewhere else, but Jerry is afraid to ask. The next day, Jerry tells her he wants to go to the wild beach. Worried she has been mothering him too much, Jerry's mom replies,

Of course, Jerry. When you’ve had enough, come to the big beach. Or just go straight back to the villa, if you like.

Jerry swims out to the wild bay, and he makes his way down a steep descent. He then sees the native boys, who are diving off the rocks. They call to Jerry, but when he does not understand their language, they ignore him. Jerry is undeterred; he swims around and he, too, climbs onto the rocks. 

They were big boys, men, to Jerry. He dived, and they watched him; and when he swam around to take his place, they made way for him. He felt he was accepted and he dived again, carefully, proud of himself.

Jerry is very pleased the other boys are impressed with his diving and accept him.

Why was the Virginia Company granted a charter?

The Virginia Company was granted a charter to set up a colony. This colony was established at Jamestown.

One reason why the Virginia Company was allowed to set up a colony is that private investors provided the money to start the colony. The British government wasn’t willing to provide public money for colonies in North America at this time. The colony at Roanoke, which was started by Sir Walter Raleigh with his own funding, had failed. Since the Virginia Company had investors willing to put up the money, the King gave the Virginia Company a royal charter. The Virginia Company was able to appoint leaders of the colony as well as a Governor. It also was responsible for providing the materials needed for the colony to operate.

The goal was to make a profit on the operation of the colony. The investors hoped they would find gold and silver to help make a profit. Unfortunately, this didn’t occur. Many people died due to a lack of food, attacks by the Native Americans, and disease. Eventually, the King took the charter away from the Virginia Company and made it a royal colony.

Some employees are called managers without subordinates. Are they managers and why?

There are situations in which an employee without subordinate employees might be considered a manager.  Bear in mind that human resources are only one aspect of management. Managers are called upon to manage time, materials, information, and/ or money. If they have control over and responsibility for these resources, it is reasonable to call them managers. A finance department might have just one employee, who is the Chief Financial Officer. He or she is often considered a management employee because he or she is there to manage the money. A manager might be in charge of a production facility that "employs" only robots working at various machines. In spite of having no employees to control, this person manages the material resources for production, as well as being responsible for managing at least one technological resource: the robots.  This manager is also managing time, since the production manager is the one scheduling production. There might be just one person in the public relations office of a smaller company. That person is managing information, certainly outgoing information, and likely incoming information, too.  Whether companies choose to designate such people as managers is up to them. There is no management god in the sky who dictates this, but you can see there is plenty to manage in a company, not just people.

What weapons were absent from WWI that would be present in later conflicts?

WWI is unique in that industrial processes were used to make new weapons.  Poison gases that were otherwise byproducts of industry were used on the Western Front as were belt-fed machine guns, tanks, and barbed wire.  

For the sake of your question, I will compare WWI with WWII to give you an idea of how weaponry changed.  First, there was no such thing as the personal machine gun in WWI--machine guns often had a team of at least three people--someone to aim and fire, someone to keep the barrel cool with a bucket of water, and someone to ensure that the belt of ammunition fed in smoothly.  The average WWI infantryman carried a bolt-action Mauser, Enfield, or Springfield rifle, depending on which side he represented.  In WWII, men could carry their own automatic weapons--the Soviet Union carried weapons that were similar to the AK-47.  WWI flyers also had very primitive planes that did not have aluminum frames--in WWII, aluminum would be a key airplane component.  WWII naval craft also used sonar--in WWI, this technology did not exist yet.  Of course, atomic weapons and jets did not exist in 1918 either.  

In Julie of the Wolves, why was Miyax afraid?

This question could be referring to several different parts of the book, but I think that it is likely asking about the opening events in part one of the book.  

Miyax is afraid because she is lost on the tundra of the North Slope of Alaska.  Miyax is afraid of her entire situation, because she is also without food.  

Miyax knows that her situation is fairly dire.  She needs food, and she needs it soon.  Her best option is to befriend a small wolf pack and convince them to share some of their food.  She's lost in the Alaskan wilderness with no food and is attempting to befriend wild wolves. . . yes, she's scared for a good reason.  

What's amazing about Miyax is that she isn't too afraid of the wolves themselves.  She is afraid that the wolves won't accept her and help her. That's her main concern, because it means death by starvation.  

Her hands trembled and her heartbeat quickened, for she was frightened, not so much of the wolves, who were shy and many harpoon-shots away, but because of her desperate predicament. Miyax was lost. She had been lost without food for many sleeps on the North Slope of Alaska.