How is Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" a metaphor for life?

Many people have interpreted Robert Frost's famous poem "The Road Not Taken" as a metaphor, or extended comparison, for life. In the poem, a man who is out taking a walk in the morning comes across a road that diverges, and he must decide which way to go. One path seems "less traveled by," although not significantly so. The man debates a long time about which way to go, knowing that he won't get a chance to try the other way once he makes his decision, and finally chooses the less traveled way. Then he imagines a point in the future when he will tell "with a sigh" that choosing the less traveled way "has made all the difference." 

The process described in the poem is a lot like life. We start out in the "morning," or in our youth taking the standard path that our culture offers us. Then there comes a point where a significant choice looms ahead. It could be whether to go to college and where, or what profession to pursue, or what friends to associate with, or whom to marry. To follow the analogy of the poem, the decision is made on the basis of doing something that not everyone else has chosen. This reflects making a decision that is right for one's personal preferences and talents--not just pursuing what everyone else seems to be pursuing. In this sense, one makes an individualistic, non-conformist choice. It's a choice that can't be undone--once a person heads down a certain path in life, it's often hard, if not impossible, to go back and start over. What is the outcome, then? Later in life, the person looks back and sighs, realizing that the choice to follow his own path has "made all the difference," hopefully in a good sense--that it has produced a positive outcome and satisfaction by the time one reaches old age. Thus the poem can be interpreted as an extended metaphor for a significant decision that influences a person's life.

How does Banquo's and Macbeth's reaction to the witches compare to the Elizabethan/Shakespearean's beliefs?

In Elizabethan England, witchcraft was taken seriously. Witches (usually women) who practiced witchcraft were seen as tools of Satan, intent on dragging human beings down into Hell for eternal damnation. Witches could appear as normal human beings or as figures such as the Three Sisters, with warts and beards and cackling voices. Many unusual appearing and acting people were accused of witchcraft and put to death during this time.

Banquo accepts that the witches may be telling the truth as to their prophecies for himself and Macbeth, but the truth is used as an instrument to lead them to their destruction. He warns Macbeth about this, believing that the witches have supernatural power to bring about his and Macbeth’s downfall, but Macbeth is by this time becoming consumed by his fatal flaw, pride (hubris). He is ambitious, and sees only that the witches are promising him a kingdom. His only concern is how this is to come about. Should he sit back and let it happen, if it is so prophesied, or is he supposed to take some kind of action? How much is the supernatural in control of his destiny beyond just foretelling it? With the help of his wife, he falls for the evil trap, in effect selling his soul to the devil, as the Elizabethans would say it.

What day was Stargirl scheduled to go on Hot Seat?

Stargirl was scheduled to go on the Hot Seat show on the day before Valentine's Day (February 13th) of her sophomore year.

As Leo, the narrator, explains in Chapter 1, Hot Seat is a television show produced for and by students. Leo and his best friend Kevin work on the show together; it's Leo's job to find interesting students to sit for an on-screen interview with Kevin, the host of the show. With Stargirl's odd yet captivating behavior causing a flurry of interest all throughout school, she was the perfect choice to be featured on the show. But as Leo starts to like and respect Stargirl, he's reluctant to put her on display like that. Kevin gets exasperated with Leo and doesn't understand why he won't schedule Stargirl for her Hot Seat interview.

By Chapter 10, Kevin has scheduled Stargirl himself for the show. It's about the middle of January when she's agreed to go on the show, and since Stargirl's appearance is still about a month away, the boys have plenty of time to plan their "promotional campaign" to build interest in Stargirl's interview.

In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, why are the last words of the novel “Poo-tee-weet”? What statement is Vonnegut making by closing his...

In the first chapter, when discussing the difficulty that he had writing the anti-war novel, Vonnegut explains that "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." Since the bombing of Dresden is a massacre, there is nothing intelligent to say about it. Since the last scene of the novel occurs shortly after the bombing of Dresden, Vonnegut ends with a nonsensical and unintelligible question: "Poo-tee-weet?"

By ending the novel this way (by asking a question that makes no sense), Vonnegut drives home the point that war makes no sense and that the bombing of Dresden was a senseless act. Furthermore, "Poo-tee-weet?" is a question and not a statement of fact. Thus, Vonnegut ends with a nonsensical question that the reader cannot answer intelligibly, and the reader is in a similar situation as Vonnegut, who can find "nothing intelligent to say about a massacre."

Finally, as Vonnegut states in the opening chapter, it is the birds that ask this closing question.

"Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like "'Poo-tee-weet?'"

Humans are the only animals capable of such destruction, and the birds are left to question this horrific act. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut shows that animals are innocent victims of war as seen in the wounded horse that Billy weeps for and in "Princess," the dog with its tale between its legs, who has been dragged into the war.

In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," how does Jonathan Edwards personalize hell for his listeners?

The bulk of Edwards's 1741 sermon proclaims that God is entirely disgusted with sinners and stands ready to damn them to hell. He uses the personal pronoun "you" copiously to speak directly to those hearing him preach, as when he warns,

there is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of, there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

Hell is personified with a mouth waiting to gobble up the souls of the unrepentant. Edwards intends to strike enough terror in the minds of his listeners to bring lapsed Christians back to their faith and convert the unconverted. His sermon is an epic, mass accusation that seeks to speak directly to sinners; he counsels each of them to "consider the fearful danger you are in."

Was a declaration written for the Civil War?

Technically, the answer to this question is no. Because Lincoln did not recognize the Confederate States as a nation, he could not legally ask Congress to declare war against them. Doing so would constitute recognition in the eyes of European nations, in particular. But Lincoln did issue what amounted to a declaration of war in the aftermath of the attack on Fort Sumter by Confederate forces. He ordered a blockade of Southern ports, declared the southern states in a state of rebellion, and called for 75,000 men to crush the rebellion. This action, which was approved by the Supreme Court and a special session of Congress (also called for in Lincoln's Proclamation) essentially marked the beginning of the Civil War. Many of Lincoln's actions while President, including the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, were framed as wartime measures. Others, like suspending the writ of habeas corpus, were justified by the existence of a state of insurrection (the formal legal status of the conflict from a Union perspective). But in any case, the distinction between "war" and "insurrection" was only a legal one. The armies of the Union and the Confederacy waged brutal warfare against each other for four years with hundreds of thousands of men killed as a result.

In the book Lord of the Flies in chapter 9, how have Jack and the hunters changed?

The hunters and Jack have changed in chapter 9 by considering themselves a new tribe, Jack's tribe, rather than part of the entire group of boys of which Ralph is chief. This new tribe operates differently from the original group. Instead of being a democratic organization where each boy has the right to speak his mind on equal footing, this tribe is a pure dictatorship with Jack as its head. The boys have set up a log as a throne for their leader, and "Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol." Jack gives orders with a wave of his spear, and boys trot to obey him. Jack relishes his new role: "Authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape." Ralph attempts to assert himself as chief, but none of the boys stands with him except Piggy. All the boys fall into Jack's savage dance on his command. During the dance, Simon appears, and all the boys are so caught up in the mob action that they all take part in tearing, beating, and biting Simon to death.

The change that has occurred with Jack and the hunters is that they have formed their own tribe and rejected the former group which was based on rules. Now they act solely out of their own savage instincts in obedience to Jack's orders.