In A Raisin in the Sun, when Walter arrives back home, what does he say he has done? And what does Walter plan to do?

's made
the fateful decision to sell's house to Mr. Lindner from the Clybourne Park Improvement
Association. Walter knows that Lindner only wants to buy the house so he can keep the
neighborhood white, but he's so desperate to make...

Why did the South want to win the Civil War?

Though slavery became the symbol over which
the Civil War was fought after Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, prior to that, the grounds
for war were not so much slavery as that the North fought to preserve the Union of the entire
country while the South fought to preserve a way of life. 

The South was very
much an agricultural entity. The culture revolved around agrarian lifestyle or the maintaining
of cultivated land. Huge plantation owners had acres of land to cultivate and maintain without
enough laborers to maintain it. While the North had a much higher population twice the size of
the south, its culture revolved around a more mechanized lifestyle. Over 90% of all industries
of all types in the entire country existed in the North as did most of the railroad system. The
only way the South could maintain the large plantations and exist as a mainly agriculturally
sustained economy was to maintain slave use. To do that, they must win the Civil War. 

In short, the South wanted to win the Civil War to maintain their way of life. The only
way they knew to maintain the huge plantations without having the population and mechanization
that the North had, was to utilize slave labor. 

href="https://www.ushistory.org/us/33b.asp">https://www.ushistory.org/us/33b.asp

What is the impact of alcohol on the body? Please give at least two impacts.

Educators
are permitted only to answer one question at a time; this response will try to address the topic
of your question in a thoughtful and thorough way.

Alcohol can have a serious
impact on many parts of the body, and one of the most important body parts affected by alcohol
is the brain. Alcohol's effect on the brain is clearly very damaging; this damage explains why
people often experience blurred vision, difficulty speaking, memory loss and other impairments
that reflect a powerful toxin engaging with delicate cells. The damage to the brain can be
short-term or long-term, depending on how often alcohol is consumed, how much, and how young the
consumer.

Alcohol also impacts the liver, another very important organ. The
liver has to break down the alcohol a person consumes, and this process can be very damaging to
liver cells. Also, alcohol is a toxin, and it can damage the intestine, so when alcohol is
ingested, it can cause toxic bacteria from the intestine to enter the liver. Acute liver disease
can take place over the course of a few months, while chronic liver disease can develop over
years.

Alcohol consumption is a deeply personal decision. Being informed
about the effects of alcohol is a great way to start that decision-making
process.

Why do Arabs not have names in The Stranger?

Though
Camus himself was not a racist or a believer in European supremacy, the namelessness of the Arab
characters is reflective of just such an attitude that was prevalent among white people in the
colonial world.

European writers of that period who were progressives were
open in pointing out the reflexively racist tendencies among their compatriots. For instance,
George Orwell, in his essay "Marrakech," wrote that non-white people, to the European
eye, tend to blend into the landscape and to appear undifferentiated from iteven to people such
as himself who presumably were unprejudiced. In the novel The Jewel in the Crown,
Paul Scott describes a situation in which a man of Indian descent brought up in
England, after he has returned to India, is not recognized by his closest English friend when he
sees him on the street in a group of Indian men. The implication is that non-Europeans lose
their specific identity and simply become part of the masses of "natives" and of the
physical...

In "The Crucible" how did Mary Warren accuse John Proctor?

Mary Warren
went to the courts in act three determined to confess that she and the girls were merely
pretending.  John Proctor helped to convince her to do this, because he is desperate to get his
wife, Elizabeth, freed.  Mary knows that it is all a fraud, but thus far has been too chicken to
come forward and state it.  She is worried that if she does, "they'll turn on me," as
she says in act two, meaning, Abby and the other girls will accuse HER of being a witch.  Mary
is terrified of this accusation; she knows what power Abby has over the courts, and that if she
crosses Abby, Abby will take revenge on her.  Mary doesn't want to be accused of being a witch;
she fears it and avoids it at all costs.

However, after Elizabeth Proctor is
arrested on the ridiculous claim that she stabbed Abby in the belly with a needle, John
convinces Mary to be brave and tell the courts that she and the other girls are all pretending. 
And, she tries to do this, she really does.  She gets up there, tells the judges that "it
were all pretense" and tries to explain how that could be.  After the judges turn on her
and command her to faint, she says that she can't, that she's all alone, and when she fainted in
the courtroom all of the other girls were screaming and fainting "and you seemed to believe
them," and so she got caught up in the mass hysteria of it all.  However, as soon as the
judges start listening to Mary, Abby turns on her.  Abby starts pretending to be super scared,
and to see a "yellow bird" that is supposedly Mary's spirit, that wants to come down
and pluck her eyes out.  All of the other girls follow suit, and pretty soon Abby has the judges
believing that Mary is sending her spirit out to attack her.  Mary sees how Abby has turned the
judges against her, and because she fears being accused of being a witch, she denounces her
previous claims of having pretended, and accuses John of influencing her.

So,
instead of sticking to her guns and being brave, Mary, in order to get out of being accused of
being a witch, turns on John and calls him a "devil's man" who came to her and forced
her to sign his "black book" and told her that she must come to the courts to
overthrow them.  As soon as she does this, Abby stops with the ridiculous (and fake) bird act,
and accepts Mary back into her good favors.  John ends up being accused of witchcraft, and Mary
saves her own neck.

I hope that clears things up for you a bit; it's a
confusing scene with lots going on in it, so I hope that helps.  Good
luck.

How did World War II affect the Soviet Union domestically? Were the effects, on balance, positive or negative for the USSR? Consider geography,...

Whether the
effects ofon the Soviet Union were positive or negative surely depends on the time frame in
which we consider the question.  For the short and medium terms, the wars impact would have to
be seen as negative.  In the longer run, the war might be said to have had somewhat of a
positive effect on the USSR because it helped the country become a world power.

In the short and medium term, WWII was a terrible thing for the Soviet Union.  More
than any other country, the USSR was devastated by the war.  The Soviet Union lost a huge number
of people to the war.  An estimated 24 million Soviet citizens died during the war.  Something
like 10 million of these were military deaths while others were killed by things like
starvation.  This amounts to approximately 14% of the pre-war population of the country.  This
is a higher percentage than were killed in Germany, even counting the people (like the Jews)
killed by...

href="https://www.shsu.edu/home/404.html">https://www.shsu.edu/home/404.html

How does Harper Lee symbolize family in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird?

Authors
create symbolism by referring to objects in such a way that the objects take on more than their
literal meaning. Beyond objects, authors will often create symbolism by choosing names forbased
on symbolic meaning. In 's To Kill a Mockingbid, one symbol
representing family can be found in Calpurnia's
name.

Not only is Calpurnia the name of the Finch's cook who
acts as a surrogate mother for the Finch children, Calpurnia is
also the name of Julius Caeasar's third and last wife before his
assassination. Calpurnia became stepmother to Caesar's daughter Julia and is especially
celebrated for her faithfulness. Caesar is known to have been a man
who carried out multiple affairs, yet, despite his infidelity, Calpurnia remained loyal. She was
so loyal that she sought to protect him by begging him not to go to the senate meeting when she
had what she felt was a premonition of his death, a premonition captured in Shakespeare's play
titled Julius Caesar.

Similarly, Harper
Lee's Calpurnia can symbolically be seen as the stepmother ofanddue to how
muchrelies on her to help him raise them. Often, Atticus must leave the children to her sole
care when he is called away on business, especially business with the state legislature.
Throughout the years, Calpurnia has faithfully remained loyal to the Finch family, just as the
historic Calpurnia remained faithful to Caesar. Also, just as the historic Calpurnia is tempted
to disloyalty due to Caesar's infidelity, Harper Lee's Calpurnia is tempted to
disloyalty when Aunt Alexandra joins the household
and, due to her racist beliefs, tries to convince Atticus to let Calpurnia go. Regardless,
Calpurnia remains faithful by remaining, and Atticus shows
his faithfulness to Calpurnia by
telling Alexandra that Calpurnia doesn't leave the household until she wants to:

Alexandra, Calpurnia's not leaving this house until she wants to.
You may think otherwise, but I couldn't have got along without her all these years. She's a
faithful member of this family and you'll simply have to accept things the way they are. (Ch.
14)

The faithfulness symbolized by Calpurnia's name
represents the closeness of the Finch
family. The historic Calpurnia remained faithful to Caesar and her stepdaughter
due to her ability to value family. Similarly, Calpurnia remains faithful to the Finch family
while Atticus remains faithful to Calpurnia because they value family.

Miss Stephanie Crawford

Miss
Stephanie Crawford is one of the Finches' neighbors and is labeled the neighborhood scold
throughout the novel. Miss Stephanie Crawford is the most notorious busybody in Maycomb and is
the source of the majority of 's fantastical stories about . She shares information concerning
Boo's traumatic childhood with Jem and swears that Boo only leaves his home at night to peep
into people's windows. Throughout the novel, Miss Stephanie shares gossip concerning the Tom
Robinson trial and witnesses Bob Ewell spitting in 's face. While many of the citizens receive
their information from Miss Stephanie, Miss Maudie openly rebukes her several times for her
uncouth behavior. Miss Stephanie is also relatively ignorant and shares the community's
prejudice towards African Americans. Asdevelops into a morally upright individual, she gains
perspective and is able to perceive Miss Stephanie as an uninformed gossip who simply enjoys
being the center of attention.

What is the difference between "closed form" poetry and "open form" poetry? Please explain.

In terms of
poetry, there are two kinds or forms, based upon the "structure or pattern of
organization" that a poet adopts when writing his verse.

These are
called "open" or "closed" forms. When looking at a poem's form, you can
observe the following; with more than one of these in a poem, there is probably a set pattern.
Look for the rhyme used: it may be end rhyme (where a word at the end of
one line rhymes with the word at the end of another line). There may be a rhyme
scheme (which is a specific pattern of rhyme, such as ABAB,
where each letter represents a sound, and the pattern is followed in a stanza or an entire
poem). The meter is the poem's beat (which is found in sonnets, where, for
example, iambic pentameter is often used: ten syllables in a line, with emphasis on the second
syllable). There may even be stanzas used (which are often groups of four
lines, but not always). There are other elements as well: these are only a few
examples.

When a poem has a closed form, the
poet has adopted a pattern that the poem will follow in more than one area, such as those
mentioned above. As an example, a Shakespearean sonnet is a fourteen-line
poem. It has three quatrains (which are four-line stanzas), it ends with a rhyming(a pair of
lines that rhyme with each other), it follows a specific pattern of rhyme (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG),
and is written in iambic pentameter. In composing this kind of sonnet, the
poet follows these parameters. Other examples of a closed form poem are the traditional , the
tanka, the , the cinquain, and the villanelle.

Note the haiku below. It is
about nature; it has three lines; and, the syllabic pattern (number of syllables) per line is
5-7-5; (note that this is the traditional Japanese
format of the haiku):

The Rose by Donna Brock

The red blossom bends (5)

and drips its dew to the ground.
(7)

Like a tear it falls (5)

In
contrast, the open form poem does not follow
set guidelines. There is no required rhyme scheme, rhyming pattern, or set number of lines in a
stanza. One stanza, for instance may have four lines, as may the second, but a third stanza may
have five lines. A concrete poem is one that is spaced out so that it creates a picture. As an
example, a religious concrete poem might be shaped like an altar. However, for Halloween, a
concrete poem might be written in the shape of a pumpkin or a bat. This may be the only
guidelines present, and it is considered a poem with an open form.

Note the
lack of form (or the "open" form) of the following poem:

American History by Michael S. Harper

Those four black girls blown
up

in that Alabama church

remind me of five
hundred

middle passage blacks,

in a net, under
water

in a Charleston harbor

so redcoats wouldn't find
them.

Can't find what you can't see

can you?

 

According to Edwards, what do healthy, strong members of the town foolishly believe, and why do they believe it?

The healthy
strong members of the town foolishly believe that they are kept out of hell by

the good State of your bodily Constitution, your Care of your own
Life, and the Means you use for your own Preservation.

They believe this because they don't fully grasp the bigger picture that there is more
to life than what they see with the evidence of their own senses. A spiritual world sustains
them that exists above and beneath and around the physical world. They are fools if they put
their faith in their well-being solely in the material.

Edwards reminds them
they are alive through the will of God, not their own efforts. If God withdrew his protection,
all their good health and care of their lives would mean nothing. It would no more support them
than a spider's web would, or the air would, if they were suspended in midair. Edwards states
that humans are weighed down with sin and, if it were not for God's grace and providence, would
quickly plunge into hell. Therefore, it is more important to attend to spiritual and religious
matters, especially one's relationship with Christ, than to physical well
being.

How did Omri feel when he first heard the noise coming from the cabinet in The Indian in the Cupboard?

When, in
the opening pages of s novel , Omri, the youngwho has received the gift of
a small plastic Indian from his friend Patrick, awakens to mysterious sounds coming from the old
medicine cupboard given him by older brother Gillon in which Omri had placed the basically
unwanted toy.

Omri, Bankss narrator explains, has grown tired of receiving
plastic figurines, having accumulated many them over his brief years. Plastic soldiers and other
cheap figurines have provided the boys the usual center of attention when playing, but the small
plastic Indian is an anomaly for Omri. He has no other Indians and no cowboys with which to
establish the inevitable confrontation between good and bad or between his and Patricks figures.
At the suggestion of his mother, Omri places the Indian figure in the cupboard and goes to
bed.

No sooner does Omri go to bed then his brief slumber is interrupted by a
sound, a noise that ceased as suddenly as it had begun. In the morning, the young boy is again
awakened by a noise from the cupboard, a noise, as described, almost like a tiny voice. Bankss
omniscient narrator describes Omris as being petrified. Frightened, Omri considers the
possibility that he imagined hearing noises from the cupboard but proceeds to open the cupboard
door and discovers that the small figure is missing from the top shelf where he had left it the
night before.

When Omri observes the Indian on the bottom shelf, seemingly
sheltering in fear, he knew that the figure was as frightened of him as he was of the
possibility that the toy had come to life. As described by the narrator, Neither Omri nor the
Indian moved for perhaps a minute and a half. They hardly breathed either. They just stared at
each other.

After the initial shock wore off, Omris next reaction was to the
summon members of his family as witnesses to this surprising development. He decides against
leaving the scene to corral relatives because he was afraid to leave the tiny Indian figure
aloneand he is concerned that his family would think him crazy and subject him to
ridicule:

Maybe he was afraid that if he took his eyes off
the Indian for even a moment, he would vanish, or become plastic again, and then when the others
came running they would all laugh and accuse Omri of making things up.

So Omri pauses to contemplate the best course of action. Banks
provides another rationale, however, for Omris reluctance to summon his parents or
siblings:

[I]t was certainly the most marvelous thing that
had ever happened to Omri in his life and he wanted to keep it to himself, at least at first.
His next thought was that he must somehow get the Indian in his hand. He didnt want to frighten
him any further, but he had to touch him. He simply had to. He reached his hand slowly into the
cupboard.

Omris decision to attempt to grab the Indian
results in a minor stab wound to his finger when the frightened Indian defends himself with his
tiny knife. As the two come to understand one another, a relationship develops that propels the
novel toward its eventual conclusion.

In conclusion, Omris response to the
sounds from the cupboard begins with shock and fear. As he investigates the source of the noise,
however, he discovers that the Indian, an Iroquois known as Little Bear, who is initially
demanding and gruff, has much to teach him about the world.

What is an analysis of Robinson Crusoe?

Much
celebrated for itsand often referred to as the first English novel, has
inspired both intense devotion and intense revulsion. Few critics, however, remain neutral about
it.

Virginia Woolf, who writes appreciatively of this novel in her second
Common Reader, says this of it:

A
middle class had come into existence, able to read and anxious to read not only about the loves
of princes and princesses, but about themselves and the details of their humdrum lives.
Stretched upon a thousand pens, prose had accommodated itself to the demand; it had fitted
itself to express the facts of life rather than the poetry.

Woolf's stance has been a common take on the novel: Robinson
Crusoe celebrates the thrift, self-reliance, and common sense of a growing middle
class which depended on its own wits and resourcefulness to rise in the world rather than on
inherited titles or wealth.

In the modern era, however, critics have been
prone to critique it. Franz Fanon,...

Read Jill Alexander Essbaum's "The Heart" (1971): Four simple chambers.A thousand complicated doors.One of them is yours. My professor asked...

The poem
is addressed to somebody who the speaker loves. For the sake of clarity, we shall assume for the
moment that the speaker is a woman and that the addressee is a man. The speaker in the poem is
telling the man that there is a place in her heart for him or perhaps that there is a way to her
heart for him.

The human heart is comprised of four chambers, which are
called the right atrium, the left atrium, the right ventricle, and the left ventricle. Between
these chambers, there are valves which control the circulation of the blood between the
chambers.

In the poem, the speaker refers to "Four Simple Chambers"
and "A thousand Complicated Doors." The "Chambers" and "Doors" are
here intended as puns (or play on words). This is because they at once connote the biological
components of the human heart, whereby the doors represent the valves and also literal chambers
(meaning rooms) and doors.

The question I think your professor is asking you
to grapple with is why the poet would use these two words, "Chambers" and
"Doors," to mean two different things at once. On the one hand, the image of rooms and
doors connotes a physical space, and on the other hand, the chambers and doors (if we take doors
to represent valves) represent a human heart.

Perhaps the speaker
deliberately creates these two contrasting, simultaneous images to suggest that her heart, in a
figurative sense, is a complicated, labyrinthine place. The implication might be that her
emotions are complicated or that there are lots of people who she loves and who have a place in
her heart.

What are three different settings from 1984 with supporting quotations?

works as a clerk in the Ministry of Truth, so his job is one of the settings in the novel. Theis
one of solitude and resignation; no one seems to consider or care that they constantly rewrite
the "truth" over and over again. The space is designed to maximize space and minimize
movement; there seems to be no fraternizing between employees as the work is a serious
task.

In the walls of the cubicle there were three
orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages; to the
left, a larger one for newspapers; and in the side wall, within easy reach of Winston's arm, a
large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper.
Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, no only in
every room but at short intervals in every corridor. ()

Winston meets up with Syme, whom he might have described as a "friend" in long ago
days but who is now referred to as a...

What is symbolic about the name Jim Cross in The Things They Carried?

Lt. Jimmy Cross's last name (Cross) and his initials (J.C.) have led some readers to
associate him with Jesus Christ. This association is appropriate in some ways and ironic in
others, as I'll explain.

Jimmy Cross could be seen as a Christ figure
because he serves in a leadership role and takes on the responsibility of his men's lives, as
Christ took on the burden of the cross (his sacrifice representing the eternal lives of all
believers). When Ted Lavender is killed by a sniper, Jimmy blames himself, seeing his obsession
with Martha, a girl back home, as a distraction that diverted his attention from his men. After
Ted's death, Jimmy decides he must take even more responsibility for his men's lives onto his
own shoulders. He burns the remnants of his relationship with Martha, which could be seen as a
sacrifice. Jimmy is "determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence . . .
He would dispose of his good-luck pebble . . . He would be careful . . . He would accept
the...

What did Alexander Hamilton mean when he called the courts "the least dangerous branch"? In light of the judicial review powers assumed by the courts...

In The
Federalist No. 78, Hamilton wrote that the judiciary was "the least dangerous
branch" because the courts did not have the power of the executive branch and were not
ruled by the political fervors of the legislative branch. The court also did not, he wrote, have
the power of "the sword" (referring to the army), and it also lacked the power of
"the purse" (control over the treasury). The court's only power, he wrote, was its
judgment. 

Some critics argue that the Supreme Court has become too activist
at times and that it should restrict itself to the original Constitution. However, compared to
the growth of the power of the executive branch, which has massively expanded since the early
1900s, and the political passions of both the left and right wings in the Congress, one might
argue that the court system is the least dangerous branch. In addition, the court can't issue
policies but can only review lower courts' rulings or the rulings of the executive or
legislative branch. Given...

In Chapter 6 of "Animal Farm", how do the pigs manage to prevent any dissent from the animals?

Ironically,writes at the beginning of
:

"All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in
their work; they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was
for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after them, and not for a
pack of idle, thieving human beings."

The pigs have the animals convinced
that they are working for themselves. They usefor constant propaganda about the need for
self-sacrifice. Squealer is also great at re-writing history.He even re-writes the original
commandments.When the pigs move into the farmhouse to sleep in bed, he re-writes one commandment
to say, No animal shall sleep in a bed--with sheets. By adding "with sheets" he makes
it possible for the pigs to have their way without questions from the other animals Squealer
andalso make a scapegoat ofand the animals think that all the things that go wrong on the farm
are Snowball's fault even though theynever see him. And finally, there are always the dogs, who
are present in case the pigs need to use force. So by a combination of deceit, force and
outright lies, the pigs prevent the animals from openly dissenting.

What is a critical analysis of the short story "The Stoat" by John McGahern?

There
are a few interconnected stories happening in The Stoat that might influence your analysis.
The story takes place near Strandhill, a coastal village in Co. Sligo, Ireland, where a widowed
teacher vacations with his son. One story regards the teacher, who, looking for companionship,
puts out an ad in the paper seeking a potential wife. Then there's the story about the
relationship between the teacher, his son (the narrator, who's starting college as a medical
student), and the teacher's brother who lives nearby. Finally, there's the story of a stoat who
kills a rabbit at a golf course in the first scene. The narrator brings the dead rabbit back to
the cottage, intending to prepare a meal, and as the narrative progresses, we wonder if the
stoat and rabbit story serves to help us digest The Stoat.

The teacher
receives many responses to his ad and meets quite a few women before Miss McCabe, a
schoolteacher somewhere in her forties, rather frail, and excitable. McCabe...

Why art is not essential to life?

That's an
interesting question, and very subjective, because there are many possible answers and opinions.
Some people would argue that art is essential to life, while others would
say that it's not, that it's unnecessary and superfluous. While you could argue either way,
there are some possible reasons for why art is not essential to life.

First
of all, if we define essential by what we actually need to breathe and
survive, then only the basics would fall under that category: food, water, shelter, clothing.
Those four things are arguably the only things we actually need, that are
essential to our survival. Since art is not one of those things, it could be said to be
unessential.

Secondly, we could say that art is not essential to life because
humans are the only creatures who create art, and in the animal and plant kingdoms, they do not
have art and they continue to survive just fine. If there were no humans, the lives of plants
and animals would continue and perhaps even flourish in the absence of humans and art. Life
would go on, even if that life were not human.

Principally, the point is that
art is not part of the basic needs of life. To argue from the other side, however, while art may
not nourish the body it certainly nourishes the soul.

Which character is most relatable in Frankenstein?

The answer
to this question is subjective and will vary from person to person, but I find the one
thatcreatedthe most relatable character.

The creature is relatable
becausemakes him a rounded character with the same longings and desires as other human beings,
despite his misshapen form. Therefore, we feel for his pain. He didn't ask to be born, and yet
he is cruelly spurned by his "father" and creator, Victor, who is repelled at his
ugliness. Though the creature yearns for love, he elicits the same fear in other people as he
does in Victor. Even good people are frightened and react badly to his appearance.

This is relatable because almost everyone at some time in their life is rejected based
on a superficial judgment of who they are by people who haven't really taken the time to know
them. That is painful experience and one that the creature repeatedly has to undergo.

We can also relate to how terrible it must feel to be rejected by a parent figure and
left isolated to roam the earth without a set place to be or people to love you.

The creature attempts to explain to Victor the pain he feels at his misshapen body, and
we can empathize with what he is undergoing as he lashes out at his creator:

Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even
you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own
image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance....I am
solitary and abhorred.

In "The Minister's Black Veil," does Mr. Hooper's smile symbolize anything?

I
agree with the previous answer. I do not believe that Mr. Hooper's smile is symbolic of
anything. The veil is the predominant symbolic image throughout this story.

Mr. Hooper's smile is not an emotionally happy smile, though. In fact, it is frequently
described as "sad." The smile is also described as "faint" several times.
Hooper is not grinning ear to ear with pleasure. His smile is a smile of. He knows the reason
that he is wearing the black veil. It is symbolic of secret sin. He also knows that every other
person also wears his or her own metaphorical black veil. Hooper smiles because he knows that
there is a sad...

What is the "speak write" and "face crime" in 1984?

First
mentioned in Chapter Four of s novel of a futuristic dystopian society,
, a speakwrite is apparently some form of dictation system, in
which a user speaks into it and his or her words are displayed on a screen or, more probably
given the frequent association of paper to the speakwrite, the words on typed automatically onto
paper.  They are presented byas routine and oft-used pieces of office equipment.  Later in that
chapter, Orwells , , notes one of his coworkers busily engaged in using his speakwrite, although
under questionable circumstances:

Winston glanced across
the hall. In the corresponding cubicle on the other side a small, precise-looking, dark-chinned
man named Tillotson was working steadily away, with a folded newspaper on his knee and his mouth
very close to the mouthpiece of the speakwrite. He had the air of trying to keep what he was
saying a secret between himself and the telescreen.

Later, in Part Two, Chapter One, Winston is again using the speakwrite, this time in
the service of subversive actions:

. . .it was with
difficulty that he kept his voice from trembling as he murmured his figures into the speakwrite.
He rolled up the completed bundle of work and slid it into the pneumatic tube.

Given the period in which Orwell was writing €“
1984 was published in 1949 €“ it appears as though he his
speakwrite was modeled on the late-19th Century Dictaphone, in which one speaks into a tube,
very much like the speakwrite, and the words were recorded on a disc.

Facecrime, in contrast to the speakwrite, is not a thing, per se.  Rather, it is a
concept in which ones facial expressions, known to be a reflection of ones thoughts, can be a
violation of the law if those expressions are interpreted as subversive or disapproving of the
ruling regime.  In Chapter Five, Orwell describes facecrime as follows:

A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of
muttering to yourselfanything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having
something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous
when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a
word for it in Newspeak: FACECRIME, it was called.

In a
novel in which Thought Police play a prominent and particularly pernicious role, indicting an
individual on the basis of interpretations of that individuals facial expressions or nervous
tics is a part of the totalitarian nature of the society in Winston lives.

href="http://www.planetebook.com/free-ebooks/1984.pdf">http://www.planetebook.com/free-ebooks/1984.pdf

How has Albert Camus delineated radically distinctive existentialism in The Stranger?

The
radical existentialism thatoffers in inheres in the absurdist stance that
life is meaningless, rather than meaningful, precisely because it is all there is. Repeated
questioning of the meaning of life cannot, Meursault finds, alter the fact that we cannot know
what happens after deathnot because there is some greater power than human cannot access, but
because there is no such meaning.

Camus offer Meursault numerous
opportunities for remorse and redemption. While some of his behavior is both illegal and
immoral, especially shooting the Arab, other behavior simply fails to meet social expectations,
such as appropriately mourning his mother. Meursault is alienated not merely from society but
also from himself. After his conviction, his ultimate session with the priest, which could have
brought atonement and a hope of forgiveness, culminates first in anger and then liberation; he
embraces the absence of meaningwhat Camus sums up as the "benign indifference of the
universe." Thus, he will leave life happy if others show happiness in his passing, as
spectators at his hanging.

In Candide, describe one instance in which Voltaire is criticizing the government and one in which he is criticizing the church of the 18th century.

A great
example of 's satirizing of religion comes whenis in Holland, begging for food from a Protestant
minister. Instead of showing Christian charity towards Candide and saving him from starvation,
the minister inquires whether he believes that the pope is the Anti-Christ, a common position
among Calvinists at the time. When Candide doesn't answer in the affirmative, the minister
refuses him any assistance. What Voltaire is attacking here is the tendency of too many
religious people to be more concerned with doctrinal orthodoxy that the core Christian virtues
of faith, hope, and charity.

An example of Voltaire's critique of
government, especially absolutist monarchical government, comes when Candide dines with six
kings. Each monarch regales him with tales of woe of how they've lost their kingdoms and how
much blood and treasure it cost them. Yet none of these kings seems to have...

What is the value of critical thinking to one's personal, academic, or professional life?

George Bernard Shaw remarked that few people think more than two or three times a year
and that he had made an international reputation for himself by thinking once or twice a week.
Significantly, it was also Shaw who pointed out that the unconscious mind is the real genius,
since your breathing goes wrong the moment your conscious self starts to meddle with it. These
two observations taken together are helpful in determining the nature and scope of critical
thinking in any area of life. Few people think critically about their breathing and it is
probably almost always pointless to do so. It is also unlikely to be useful to perform a
sustained critical evaluation of the arguments for and against getting out of bed every morning.
Most tasks do not require critical thinking and twice a week may well be about the right
frequency with which to engage in it.

The value of critical thinking comes
when making a vital decision which will have important long-term ramifications. Should you
accept...

In Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, what choice does Archie want Leo to make? How does he try to help him make this important decision?

In
's , Archie is an old professor who helps Leo make sense of his relationship
with Stargirl. In chapter 7, when Leo and Kevin first ask him about the new girl at school,
Archie provides positive and open-minded information about Stargirl. The boys think he speaks in
riddles, but like a good teacher, Archie wants them to make their own choices based on factual
information and kind-heartedness. For example, when Kevin suggests that Stargirl is an alien,
Archie replies by suggesting that she is more human that most as in the following
passages:

"On the contrary, she is one of us. Most
decidedly. She is us more than we are us. She is, I think, who we really are"
(32).

"You'll know her more by your questions than by her answers. Keep
looking at her long enough. One day you might see someone you know" (35).

Archie does not want the boys to stay away from...

What happens to the lawyer at the end of the story "The Bet"?

In the end of
the story, "," the lawyer despairs of life, and he reneges on the wager with
banker.

In their bet about which is crueler, live-long imprisonment or
capital punishment, the banker and the lawyer wager their futures. The young lawyer argues that
life on any terms is better than death. In his , the lawyer raises the bet
that he can stay in isolation from five years to fifteen. 
And, so, the banker, who
reminds his young foe that "voluntary confinement is a great deal harder to bear than
compulsory," arranges for the lawyer to dwell in a small lodging in the his garden. The
prisoner is allowed a musical instrument, and he is permitted to write letters and smoke and
drink wine. 

The first year the lawyer is very lonely. In the second year,
his piano remains untouched, and he stops reading. He writes copious letters long into the
night; in the morning he rips up what he has written. By the sixth year, the lawyer begins to
study languages. He also reads the works of many of the great minds of the world, only to find
that "the same flame burns in all of them." Some years he reads, then others he does
not. Then, in the last two years, he reads books of all kinds indiscriminately. Finally, he
writes a long letter to the banker, stating,

I despise
freedom and life and health and all that in your books is called the good things of the
world.

Further, he declares that he has traveled and done
many things vicariously through books. In addition, books have given him wisdom. 
But,
he despises it all: 

It is all worthless, fleeting,
illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. 

From all his
readings, the lawyer has learned the vanity of human desires; certainly, the desire for material
gain corrupts the soul. The lawyer has spent the last fifteen years searching for meaning in
life and not found it. Moreover, he feels life is beyond comprehension. So, he writes that he
will prove how he despises all that people live by in renouncing "the two million of which
I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise." He declares that he will leave a
few minutes before the time fixed so that he will break the contract.

So, in
the end the lawyer departs as he has written that he will, breaking the contract. On the
following morning, watchmen run to the banker, telling him that they have witnessed the lawyer
climbing out of a window, going to the gate, and disappearing. Hearing this, the banker goes to
the lodging and grabs the lawyer's long letter, locks it up in a fireproof safe, and says
nothing of it.

 

 

In Candide, what are the major issues addressed by the text?

, a , was subtitled Optimism, and this work
satirizes, or makes fun of, Leibniz's philosophy that everything happens for the best in the
best of all possible worlds. This philosophy, predicated on the idea that God is benevolent and
good, was challenged by the death toll and suffering brought on by the Lisbon earthquake of
1755.was horrified by that earthquake, and his chief goal, therefore, was to attack philosophic
optimism.

Candide grows up learning optimistic philosophy from his
philosopher-tutor, Pangloss. It is a philosophy that only works while Candide lives a sheltered
life. Once thrust into the world, he learns that everything does not happen
for the best. In fact, what happens is so over-the-top horrible that one could laugh and cry at
the same time.

Voltaire does not only attack naive optimism but also attacks
the role governments and religious institutions play in adding to the miseries of the world
through their ignorance and corruption.

Finally, the work...

What were the major points in Howard Zinn's book that illustrate his point of view?

One of
Zinn's most critical points is the approach he takes in retelling history.  Zinn takes from the
Kissinger line that suggests that "history is the memory of states," and develops a
more "people's" approach to history. This is seen throughout his narrative.  From
using little known Morris Rosenfield's "My Boy" to using Nicola Sacco's letter to his
son, Dante, to the words of a cashier at a filling station in 2000 to highlight voter apathy,
Zinn's major point is that history should be told from the point of view of individuals who live
it.  Zinn is able to do this in using the words of individuals, of people, who...

What were some of the major causes of World War II?

The basic
cause ofwas the fact that the three Axis powers were generally unhappy with the status quo in
the world after the end of the First World War.  These three countries pushed to change the
international system leading the Allies, eventually, to go to war.

After
WWI, Italy, Germany, and Japan (particularly the last two) were unhappy with the international
order.  Germany was extremely...

Why is a working knowledge of suprasegmentals important in poetry study?

Suprasegmental features are things such as
stressed syllables, tone, pitch, intonation. In poetry, the pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables gives you the rhythm and meter of the poem. In that case, a knowledge of
suprasegmentals (or prosody) helps in determining the structure and cadence of the poem.
Changing the stress on syllables can also change or alter the meaning.

If the
rhythm and meter is not obvious, especially in cases with more modern poetry, the function of
suprasegmentals is usually up to the reader. In this respect, modern poetry lends itself to more
interpretations than classically structured poetry.

In linguistics, (this
includes poetry, prose and the spoken word or language in general), knowledge of suprasegmentals
can also help in determining meaning and context. For example, in some languages there are words
which are spelled the same but pronounced differently. Read is the past tense of read. This
is an obvious example of pronunciation. In Spanish, t©rmino means term. But term­no means
I terminate. So, different stresses and accents can change meaning.

Tone,
pitch and stress can clearly affect the meaning of a statement in audible speech as well. They
fooled me, Jerry! The speaker is upset that he
was fooled. They fooled me, Jerry! With the
stress on me, the speaker is more surprised that he was fooled, giving the indication that he
has a high opinion of himself and prides himself on not being fooled.

Describe how the war to save the Union became the war to end slavery.

When the
Civil War began with the secession of Southern states from the Union, Lincoln was quite willing
to allow these states to continue slavery if it would preserve the Unionin other words, if they
would come back to the United States.

However, as the war dragged on, and it
became clear these states were not going to return until they were utterly defeated, Lincoln
became anxious to hasten that victory. He thought freeing the slaves would encourage the
newly-freed slaves as well as already free blacks to fight for the union cause, further draining
resources from the South. When he issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, that effectively
turned a war against breaking up the union into a war to end slavery. The war did drag on for
two years longer, but after 1863, it was clear that the end of the war would mean
the...

Five-Day School Week Is the five-day school week good for students? why? I need to make an argument in favor of it.

Stuffing
five days of school into four days would be miserable and counterproductive for both teachers
and students.  Imagine having the last class of the day--whatever time it started, it would be
at the end of a nine-hour (or more) day.  Yeesh.  I'm exhausted thinking about it.  One meal
would not be enough for such long days, and the extra weekend day would probably be spent just
recovering from such an exhausting week.  More cost efficient or not, I vote
no!

What would be good resources for improving my skills in writing about literature?

There
are two things which correlate very strongly with student skills in writing -- how much leisure
reading (i.e. reading not assigned for school) students do and how much writing they do. So your
first strategy should be...

In the short story "All Gold Canyon", who is Mr. Pocket, and what was he?

The old
miner, also called the "pocket-miner," is addressing the canyon itself as "Mr.
Pocket." This pocket section of the canyon is pristine and the miner believes it will
provide him with a nice supply of gold. He even designs his system of panning in a V-shape, also
resembling a pocket. As he is looking for gold in order to make money, the notion of a pocket as
a place where one puts money (wallet, wallet in the pants pocket, etc.) is probably aLondon was
employing on purpose. 

Pockets are also hidden. We might be able to see the
pocket's opening but usually not in the pockets themselves. The miner discovers this hidden
pocket and, being alone except for his horses, begins talking to this pocket of the canyon as if
it were a person or as if he were addressing the spirit of this hidden place (where the gold is
hiding). However, he is only in it for gold and he does not really connect with the spirit of
the place as it is described before he intrudes on its peace and stillness: 

The hum of the bees and the whisper of the stream were a drifting of
sound. And the drifting sound and drifting color seemed to weave together in the making of a
delicate and intangible fabric which was the spirit of the place. 

The miner has a different concept of the spirit of the place. He believes the spirit
has to do with gold, not peace and tranquility. When he addresses Mr. Pocket, he is addressing
the gold itself, or the personified landscape containing the gold. A more ecological or
nature-loving hiker might have addressed the canyon with names such as Mr. Tranquility or Mr.
Whisper. The miner had money in his pocket on his mind. 

From Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, what quotations demonstrate that Tom Robinson symbolizes a mockingbird?

A symbol
in a piece of literature is a recurring object, color, etc., that is used to support a major
theme in that piece of literature.

To understand the significance of Tom
Robinson representing the symbol of a mockingbird, one needs to recall '
instructions to the children when they received their air rifles as gifts, and Miss Maudie's
explanation:

Remember its a sin to kill a mockingbird.
That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss
Maudie about it. 

Your fathers right, she said. Mockingbirds dont do one
thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. Thats why its a sin
to kill a mockingbird.

The overall concept is that it is
ethically wrong to harm anything or anyone that does nothing to harm othersit's wrong to harm an
innocent.

There are a couple ofin 's that can be seen
as mockingbirds . One in particular is Tom Robinson, a...

Who was an important activist of the civil rights movements of the 1960s? Who was an important activist of the civil rights movements of the 1960s?

I have to concur with
the first two replies.Dr, Martin Luther King Jr. was important because he was humble and
eloquent, but also tough and steadfast.He set the stage by pushing nonviolence and prevented
what would have been a long bloody battle.]]>

In "Araby," who is the protagonist? What is he striving to achieve and why?

The narrator is now,
evidently, a grown man reflecting back on his experiences as a young boy, as he tells the story
in past tense and with more emotional maturity than such a young boy would have. His younger
self is theof this story, as it is his experiences we follow and must grapple with.

This unnamed narrator was in love with his friend Mangan's sister. He frequently
describes her as being "defined by the light" while he was often in shadow. He would
spy on her in the morning to see when she was leaving for school so that he could follow her,
and when he saw...

In Animal Farm, does Napoleon contribute to the new society of the farm?

At the
beginning,works withto coordinate and plan the farm events. They are usually mentioned together
in a leadership role, and it is explained that the pigs are smarter than the other animals
anyway. Later, however, Napoleon begins to enforce his role as a dictator instead of an equal
citizen, and with the other pigs, he stops pretending to...

In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, how does Nick perceive Gatsby's attitude about money?

F. Scott
Fitgerald's is narrated by ; it is through his eyes that we see and know
the other , including . Nick's understanding about Gatsby and his money is different at the end
of the novel than it is in the beginning; as he comes to know Gatsby, Nick understands how
Gatsby really feels about (and uses) money.

Nick lives in a little house
(that is actually too grand a term) dwarfed by his neighbor's glistening mansion. Gatsby throws
lavish parties and spends his money quite extravagantly. When the two men finally meet, Gatsby
takes great pains to try to impress Nick with his past and his wealth.

I lived like a young rajah in all the capitals of Europe--Paris,
Venice, Rome--collecting jewels, chiefly rubies, hunting big game, painting a little, things for
myself only....

Nick should have known there is more to
the outrageous story, because Gatsby adds this:

...and
trying to forget something very sad that had happened to me long ago.

When he wants to ask Nick a simple favor, Gatsby does not have the
social skills to just ask, so he offers Nick an opportunity to make more money--the only thing
he has to offer anyone but , it seems. Nick is appalled at the idea and neither of them mentions
it again. 

Later Nick learns that Gatsby was unable to marry the woman he
loved, Daisy, because he was not rich enough to suit her parents. He dedicated his life to
making money and throwing elaborate parties because he hoped Daisy would one day attend one of
them. She has not, so now he asks Nick to invite Daisy (his "careless"cousin) for tea.
Nick says:

The modesty of the demand shook me. He had
waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths--so that he
could come over some afternoon to a stranger's garden.

Nick claims a personal disdain for money from the beginning (though he is a stockbroker
whose aim it is, presumably, to make a lot of it), and he does not admire Gatsby at first
because he seems to be so ostentatious with his. As he learns why money is important to Gatsby
and why he throws such lavish parties, Nick understands Gatsby's hunger for money.

Heroism in the Odyssey I am writing a lengthy essay over heroism in the Odyssey and how it applies to Odysseus. So my questions are what is the...

In
,often tells of his role in the epic:

"The Muse inspired the bard to sing the famous deeds of
fighting heroes."  

The
context is clear: the tale is divinely inspired by the gods for Homer, the poet-bard, to recite
as entertainment for the host and guests.  Tales of heroes is the highest form of recitation, a
form of religion.

Heroism is a function of the guest-host relationship that
the Greeks held so sacred.  Even Odysseus plays the role of the poet-bard in the frame tell as
he retells of his journeys to King Alcinous and the Phaeacians.  Once Alcinous learns that
Odysseus has been to Hades, the kings wants to hear of other hero's deaths from the Land of the
Dead.  So, heroism is passed on through stories from a poet to a host to honor the deeds of dead
or lost heroes and a way to preserve their memory in the form of poetry.  The hero must be
remembered with gifts and tales: 

"That's the man a
guest will remember all his days."

...and...

"...a hero's
welcome...[we...

In "Falling Song" by Daniel David Moses, what is the message, and how do the elements of this poem contribute to this message? "Falling Song"...

"Falling
Song" by Daniel David Moses uses metaphors, similes, and contrast to show that the
individual longs for freedom and independence. Moses uses a to
compare the honking of the geese to "bells that celebrate," choosing words with
positive connotations to characterize the geese and the sounds they make as happy and blithe. He
also uses a when he calls the geese a "line of winged
dots," emphasizing their wings, which is what gives them such freedom, and he uses another
simile to describe their motion,

shifting as if waves moved
easily through them, as if
waves floated
them south.

Their motion seems effortless, further
emphasizing the birds's freedom and ability to travel from place to place without effort.
Another metaphor compares the wind to a water's "wake,"
offering a similar meaning.

The speaker uses contrasting
when he describes his own "sooty window"something dirty, which is very
different from the fresh, watery words he uses to describe the birds's movement....

Who is Mrs. Jensen in Paul Zindel's novel The Pigman?

Mrs.
Jensen is Lorraine's miserable mother in 's . Mrs. Jensen is depicted as a
cynical, pessimistic woman, who is extremely insecure, hypocritical, and suspicious of her
daughter. Mrs. Jensen has a difficult life working as a home-care nurse for the terminally ill
as well as being a single mother. While she was pregnant with Lorraine, Mrs. Jensen discovered
that her husband contracted a venereal disease, which led to their separation. As a result of
her terrible marriage, Mrs. Jensen harbors negative feelings towards all men and continually
warns her daughter that men are only interested in one thing.

Mrs. Jensen is
also critical of her daughter and constantly criticizes Lorraine about her hair, weight, and
clothing, which negatively affects her daughter's self-esteem. Mrs. Jensen is also portrayed as
hypocritical. She tells her daughter not to steal things but continually takes food that belongs
to her employers. She also receives compensation from funeral homes by referring patients'
families to certain homes after their loved ones pass away. Despite her negative attitude
towards life and terrible parenting skills, Mrs. Jensen has a sensitive side, which she does not
show very often.

What happens to the pigs' appearance in Animal Farm?

The pigs
do begin to appear to be more human, demonstrating the type of leaders they have become.  The
significance behind this, however, is less literal than that.  It is important to note
thatchooses to portray the pigs in this way at the very end of the book to achieve one of his : 
that power may shift after a revolution, but oftentimes things will stay just about the same for
the proletariat, or working, class.  Power corrupts; as it did Mr. Jones in the beginning of the
book, so it has the pigs.  Life for the rest of the animals remains the same, or
worse.

What horrible realization does Elie come to about Rabbi Eliahou and his son, and what is Elie's response to this?

As Elie and his father are catching a bit of rest in a shed on the march/run to
Gleiwitz, Rabbi Eliahu, his mustache ice-laden, finds the father-son pair and inquires about his
own son. Elie notes that this rabbi's words always bring peace, and his countenance has never
lost its innocence.

For three years, the rabbi and his son have endured
everything together: physical abuse, starvation, and camp rotations. And now, the rabbi is in
desperate search of his son, having lost him somewhere along the road. He notes:

We lost sight of one another during the journey. I fell behind a
little, at the rear of the column. I didn't have the strength to run anymore. And my son didn't
notice. That's all I know. Where has he disappeared? Where can I find him?

At first, Elie can't recall seeing his son, and Rabbi Eliahu
leaves without any idea regarding his son's location. And then, suddenly, Elie does recall an
important memory. As they ran, Rabbi Eliahu's son had run alongside Elie for a while. But
the...

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having so many levels of subnational governments in the United States? Explain. 150 or more words

When
answering this question, you should consider the two main sub-national levels of government:
state and municipal. (There are also county and township levels of government, but these tend to
be much less consequential). When the Constitution of the United States was being drafted, there
was a debate as to where power would reside in government. The federalist system that we have,
with its various levels of government, is the result of this debate.

One
advantage of having lower levels of government is that it makes it easier for citizens to
participate. The national government is huge and complex and competing with all the other
citizens of the country to have your voice heard and make an impact would be difficult. However,
directly contacting members of the local and even state governments is much easier. Furthermore,
local level governments can better serve the particular needs of their citizens because they do
not also need to balance the needs of distant and different parts of the country. Another
advantage is that people are free to reside in a municipality or state whose government and laws
better aligns with their values and needs. It is much easier to move from town to town and state
to state than to move to another country.

When considering the disadvantages
of having lower levels of government, you should think about how this arrangement makes things
more complex. When laws are passed on the federal level, they often have to be disseminated down
through the lower levels of government to be put into action. Sometimes states and
municipalities do not comply with these laws and the matters get tied up in the courts for
years. There can also be inequality between states and municipalities where wealth or certain
liberties are available in one place but not the other. Also, since laws can vary from place to
place, it makes it difficult for one place to enforce its laws when their neighbor may not have
the same laws. Consider Chicago, which has strict gun laws but also high levels of gun violence.
This is the case because people can cross state lines to Indiana and purchase guns that are
legal there and bring them back to Chicago, thus getting around the local
law.

Discuss the gang's motivation, taking into account the age/beauty of the house, the gang's loss of concern over leadership, the burning of the...

First of
all, in terms of the age and beauty of the old house, the boys have no appreciation for it.
They've grown up in poverty in the midst of a charred, post-war landscape pockmarked by the
debris of war and destruction. To them, beauty is a totally alien concept, one that they've
never experienced at any time in their short lives. So they don't look upon Old Misery's home as
a thing of beauty; they just see it as presenting a great opportunity for some wanton
destruction.

The boys of the Wormsley Common gang don't ask for much in a
leader. They just want someone who can come up with innovative and exciting new ways to have
fun. Enter Trevor. It's his big idea to reduce Old Misery's house to a pile of steaming rubble.
The other boys don't hesitate to go along with his crazed plan. In doing so, they make Trevor,
or T, as he's now become, their leader. The chances are that he will retain that position for as
long as he can lead his merry little band to ever more outrageous heights...

The fire and brimstone sermon byis meant to throw fear into the hearts of those wayward
Puritans- of his congregation, for as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Fear is an instructor of
great sagacity and the herald of all resolutions." Paradoxically, Edwards was a Calvinist
who believed in predestination, yet he also believed people are responsible for their actions.
And, so, he preaches a sermon that is replete with fear-inspiring .

The
prevailing image of this sermon is the image of the bottomless pit of hell whose fiery floods
wax high enough to burn the gossamer thread that holds the unworthy souls who are weighted down
with wickedness in the first place. Edwards speaks in : "the floods of God's
vengeance"; "the fiery floods of fierceness"; the bow of God's wrath is bent, and
the arrow made ready on the string and justice bends the arrow at your heart."

This frightening sermon of Edwards is constructed around a passage from Deuteronomy in
the Old Testament of the King James Version of the Bible: "The foot shall slide in due
time."  Using theof a slippery slide, Edwards, at a revival where his famous sermon was
given, points to the dangers of spiritual sliding.  The yawning abyss waits for the sinners,
whose wickedness makes them "heavy as lead," and only the "mere pleasure" of
God keeps them from burning in the images of "fiery floods" and "fire of
wrath."  Especially, the image of the sinner held over the fires of hell by only a gossamer
thread is effectively fear-inspiring as many Puritans fled in fear from Edwards's
revival.

 ]]>

What is an example of a metaphor in The Odyssey by Homer?

This is a
good question. First, it is important to start off with a definition of a . 

A metaphor is a literary device where a word or phrase is used to describe something to
which it is not literally applicable. An example of this would be the great hymn of the
Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, when he penned, "A mighty fortress is our
God." 

When we come to , it is important to say that he does use
metaphors as much as he uses similes. An example of a metaphor in the Odyssey, is when Homer
writes, "Nine years we wove a web of disaster." Another example is when Homer says:
"[Odysseus is] fated to escape his noose of pain".

 

Look Like The Innocent Flower But Be The Serpent Under It

Ladyis
urgingto hide his feelings, saying that his facial expressions are too much like a
"book" where others can read "strange matters." In other words, Macbeth
looks as if he has something to hide.

Since she and Macbeth are planning to
murderthat night while the king is a guest in their home, it is imperative that nobody suspect
anything.tells Macbeth to

Bear welcome in your
eye,

Your hand, your tongue.

In other words, Macbeth has to look as if nothing is wrong. He must act as if he is
delighted to see Duncan. To drive her point home, she repeats it by saying Macbeth needs to look
as innocent as a flower. By then urging him to be the "serpent," Lady Macbeth is
reminding Macbeth he must be like Satanall smiles on the outside but secretly prepared to strike
treacherously. The serpent is linked to treachery because Satan invaded the garden of Eden in
the guise of a snake and, while pretending to offer kindness, beguiled Eve into eating the
forbidden fruit.

How does the story being told in a non-chronological order affect the reader's perception?

If the story were told
in chronological order, there is a good chance that we, the readers, would figure out what is
really happening in the text; we would be able to add up the clues and ascertain that
Misspurchases the arsenic in order to kill . Telling the story out of chronological order
prevents us from putting together the pieces of the puzzle and renders us as uncertain of events
as the other people in the town are. We hear the pieces of Miss Emily's story in much the same
way that they wouldsome new and some from years ago. For example, separating the story about the
horrible smell emanating from Miss Emily's house (a smell that was so bad that several people
complained and men had to sneak onto her property at night to sprinkle lime all over it) from
the fact that Homer Barron seems to disappear not only from Miss Emily's life but also from the
life of the town completely, Faulkner knows the reader will probably be unable to connect the
two right away. In the end, the townspeople who come to Miss Emily's wedding could not have
anticipated finding the decayed corpse of Homer Barron in her bed; Faulkner allows us to be
shocked as well by telling the story in this way.

Compare and contrast the grandmother in O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and Ruby Turpin in O'Connor's "Revelation."

In
comparing the main characters in 's short stories "" and "," I am struck
first as to how the women are similar.

In "A Good Man Is Hard to
Find," the Grandmother talks a lot. She never stops ranting at her son
Bailey or passing her opinion on to others, whether they are interested or not. Ruby Turpin in
"Revelation" also talks a great deal. In the doctor's office, she has quite a bit to
say about African Americans, and she is not charitable. In this story, she finds another woman
with ideas similar to her own, and they engage in extensive conversation.
Bailey's mom simply talks at people.

Both women see themselves as Christians. Flannery O'Connor's stories often deal with
religious themes, strongly present in both stories, and here again are similarities between the
two women. Neither woman is able to understand religion in her own life:

[Flannery'] characters are often too selfish or unobservant to see
the acts of grace in everyday...

Of Mice And Men Curley Quotes

Throughout the novel, Curley is continually looking for his flirtatious wife. He sticks
his head in the bunkhouse and says,

"You seen a girl
around here?" (Steinbeck, 18)

After Curley
mistakenly assumes that Slim is having an affair with his wife, he challenges Carlson after he
wonders why Curley allows her to hang around the bunkhouse with the other men. Curley's response
reveals his antagonistic nature when he says,

"You
keep outa this les' you wanta step outside." (30)

After Curley learns thatkilled his wife, he organizes a lynch mob to search for Lennie.
When Carlson mentions that he thinks Lennie stole his gun, Curley says,

"The nigger's got a shotgun. You take it, Carlson. When you see
'um, don't give 'im no chance. Shoot for his guts. That'll double 'im over" (48).

Curley's insistence that the men shoot Lennie in the guts reveals
his malevolent nature. Shooting a man in the stomach will not only kill the person but will also
inflict a significant amount of pain. Curley wants to...

How did the Second Punic War prove, according to Polybius and Livy, to be the true test of Roman character (which accounted for Rome's future...

The
Second Punic War was a huge test for Rome because the Republic could have been obliterated if
things had gone slightly differently. Hannibal's invasion devastated Italy and threw Rome into a
panic. The entire Adriatic coast (and the region Polybius calls Magna
Graecia) fell to the Carthaginians, and the battle of Cannae was one of the most
horrifying defeats in history for any power, especially one with the pretensions to power of
Rome. Livy gives accounts of the thousands of dead heaped on the field and the wounded men
committing suicide by suffocating themselves in the earth.

The implication of
both Polybius and Livy is that ultimately, when a people are brought into the most desperate
situation, they are paradoxically strengthened. Polybius says it was the constitutional system
of the Roman Republic that enabled it to survive. The war was an immense turning point in the
centuries old conflicts between Rome and Carthage for dominance of the central
Mediterranean.

One might ask why the Hannibalic war was different from
earlier times when Rome was attacked (for instance, by the Gauls 150 years earlier), and the
answer probably lies in the fact that the enormity of Hannibal's campaign was seen as an
existential occurrence without precedent. Rome emerged from near destruction to become a world
power.

The subsequent Third Punic War set the pattern for the ruthlessness of
Roman "justice," but in this Rome was hardly different from other powers in antiquity.
And the cruelty of Rome came to be exaggerated. The urban legend (which we would call it today)
of the Romans "sowing salt" in the earth of Carthage so that nothing could grow there
again was just thatan apocryphal account repeated to the point where even legitimate historians
sometimes stated it.

In Gulliver's Travels, how does Jonathan Swift bring the character of Gulliver to life?

Swift constructs a
notostensibly from the publisher addressed to the readerclaiming that Gulliver is a real person
and his "intimate friend." The publisher, supposedly Gulliver's old buddy, discusses
Gulliver's origins, his narrative style, and his evident truthfulness...

In "Harrison Bergeron," what does the "ear radio" represent and is there a modern equivalent?

The
government requires George, 's father, to wear a radio transmitter in his ear. Periodically, the
government transmits a signal to George's earpiece and the earpieces of other citizens who are
of above-average intelligence. Anyone who is smarter than Hazel, that is, who has an attention
span no longer than "short bursts," receives a screeching signal every twenty seconds
or so. The sound is so annoying and painful that it interrupts the thoughts of the intelligent
people so that they aren't able to take "unfair advantage of their brains" and
understand or discover things that their less intelligent counterparts can't figure
out.

This serves to equalize the population so that "nobody was smarter
than anybody else." Not only that, it keeps the intelligent members of society from having
the mental space and energy to question the wisdom and/or morality of the decisions of the
United States Handicapper General. Just as George begins to think about whether ballerinas
should be handicapped, he gets the transmission in his ear, and he loses track of that
idea.

Thankfully, nothing remotely resembling this level of totalitarian
control of citizens using technology exists today. However, the demand for "fairness"
that Vonnegut satirizes in the story was a reaction to trends that he observed in the US.
Measures like affirmative action, which attempts to balance the deficit of minority populations
in higher education, could be perceived to "inhibit" certain populations for the
benefit of other. However, the key difference between Vonnegut'sand Affirmative Action is that
affirmative action seeks to address a problem that is due to systemic societal oppression,
rather than an inherent lack of "talent," and that people are not being explicitly
prohibited from exhibiting any exceptional abilities.

To take an example from
reality, the government might also be thought to interfere with the free exercise of talent
today by passing regulations that make it harder for inventors or businesspeople to implement
their ideas in the marketplace. Biomedical devices, for instance, must go through a long and
expensive approval process before they can be sold to the general public. This might be one way
that the government is "holding back" talented people from exercising their talents
(and profiting from these inventions). However, once again, the rationale for such regulations
is not to level the playing field so that less talented citizens can competeit is mostly to
ensure the safety of the consumers of this product.

Vonnegut was also
satirizing government bureaucracy and its seeming removal from reality, illustrated through a
satirical situation that clearly demonstrates its absurdity. Vonnegut imagined an extreme
scenario that would probably never occur, but it is effective as satire that points out how
ridiculous valuing "equal outcomes" is (as opposed to creating "equal
opportunity").

What are some short-term and long-term effects Peter the Great had on history?

Peter the
Great's lasting legacy came out of his policies of westernization. When he was still young, he
actually traveled throughout Western Europe, and when he returned back to Russia, he implemented
reforms based on what he observed. These would have lasting effects in shaping the the Russian
Empire for generations to follow.

Peter the Great created the first modern
standing army in Russian history (inspired by what he observed from the military reforms in the
West). He implemented military drafts to create an infantry, hired Western military experts to
train his soldiers, and invested in Western-style armaments to equip them. At the same time, he
also invested in a navy. Under Peter the Great, Russia's military power expanded
dramatically.

In addition to military reforms, there were also administrative
reforms under Peter the Great: he created new forms of taxation as well as state monopolies to
increase state finances. He also instituted the Table of Ranks, which tied the Nobility to the
interests through the states because it

required all male
nobles to enter state service and serve in the army, navy, or bureaucracy, and allowed commoners
who rose through the bureaucracy or military to assume noble titles."(Merriman,
274)

In short, Peter the Great had a profound influence
on Russian political and social culture, overseeing a policy of extensive westernization. In
doing so, he dramatically increased his country's military power and did much the same for the
political power of the Russian state.

Citation Note: In answering this
question, I drew heavily on the following source for information on the various reforms carried
out under Peter the Great: John Merriman, Aof Modern Europe: From the Renaissance to
the Present (Third Edition). New York: W. W. Norton, 2010.
(271-277).

What is James Joyce's definition of "epiphany?"

If we took
Joyce's discussion in his work, "," then epiphany has to be a moment where one gains
insight into oneself and their place in the world.  A part of the narrative structure in the
life of the work's , Stephen Daedalus, is one where we see epiphany present in as many ways as
possible.  Stephen undergoes epiphanies from an early age, understanding his own conception of
self in relation to family, country, religion, and of love.  He understands who he is and in
what he believes because of these moments of realization, when there is a lucid understanding of
what one defines as value.  It is in these moments where Stephen demonstrates maturation in
embracing values and a set of ideas that were previously unknown.  It is here where we best see
the definition of epiphany.

In James Joyce's "Eveline," what is it that renders Eveline paralyzed?

This is a
tough question, partly because there is no clear answer. One of the enduring confusions about 's
"" is the 's unwillingness to leave with her lover, Frank, and escape from the
miserable life she so clearly detests. Eveline is clearly desperate to escape her backbreaking
life caring for her younger siblings and living with her abusive father - "Escape!"
she thinks to herself at one point. "She must escape! Frank would save her." (41) -
and yet, when Frank urges her to leave with him, Joyce says Eveline "set her white face to
him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or
recognition" (43). What are we to make of Eveline's paradoxical behavior?

While Joyce characteristically offers no definite answers to this conundrum, there are
a couple of potential solutions. For one thing, it could be that Eveline is unwilling to leave
her younger siblings. It's clear that her alcoholic father is unable to take care of anyone or
anything, and so Eveline functions as her younger siblings' only parental caregiver. If she were
to leave, her siblings would probably suffer considerably. As such, it's possible that Eveline's
paralysis at the end of the story might result from a selfless desire to protect her family from
harm.

Alternatively, Eveline's paralysis could be a result of her
unwillingness to rely yet again on a man for salvation. One of the most important themes of
Joyce's short story is the oppression of women in Irish society. Eveline is trapped in her dour
situation because she is forced to rely on a man, even a man as loathsome and useless as her
father, to survive. In that case, escaping with Frank would only be more of the same; Eveline
would once again be relying on a man to survive. It's possible that Eveline realizes this fact
and, even though she has little to live for at home, decides not to leave with Frank in order to
rebel against the sexist laws that govern her society. 

In the end, it's
impossible to say for sure exactly why Eveline is paralyzed. However, the complexity of the tale
ensures that plenty of possibilities exist, including those touched on in this
answer.

What are some examples of allusion, imagery, mood, tone, similes, metaphors, personification, irony, satire, symbolism, and foreshadowing?

The literary
devices you listed can be deployed in written literature, but also in the arts more generally
(e.g. film, TV, opera). Examples of each could be drawn from the arts more broadly
understood.

An example of anwould be when, for example, the commercial for a
Motorola zoom tablet indirectly referenced the famous Apple ad that aired in 1984 and borrowed
themes from George Orwell's novel, "1984". The Motorola ad used similar images and
showed two young people rejecting mindless conformism, not unlike Apple heralded its product as
a rejection of Orwellian conformity back in 1984.

in literature can be
witnessed when an author uses detailed description (often eliciting or appealing to the five
senses) to enable the reader to more easily imagine the story world. You might think of some of
the rich descriptions of Hogwarts in a J.K. Rowling novel as an example of imagery. 

Mood has to do with the emotional disposition an author takes to a story, which can
give the story a kind ofof feeling. The mood in many Edgar Allan Poe novels and short stories,
for example, is dark and macabre.

Tone refers to the attitude an author --
or, again, a director, filmmaker, etc. -- adopts toward themes, characters or life in a
particular narrative. The tone of John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath" is very
critical, revealing the human suffering and inequalities during the Great Depression in the US,
although there is also a slight sense of hope through resistance and perseverance conveyed
throughout the novel, especially toward the end.

Ais when an author refers to
something as being like something else (when an author likens something to something different).
A romantic poem might include lines like "Your eyes are like the ocean, and I can get lost
in them." (The first part of that line is a simile, the second comes close to .)

A metaphor involves ascribing meaning of one subject to another. For example, when
someone writes (or says) "He was a beast on the court," referring to how well someone
played a game of basketball, the writer (or speaker) is using a metaphor ("a beast")
to convey how well the person played the game.

entails ascribing human
traits or characteristics to non-human entities. If I write that "the wind treated me with
cold indifference," I'm using personification because the word choice is something you
would expect to be used in reference to how a person can treat another person.

involves incorporating into a story, narrative or other piece of work something that
one would not expect. In literature, it is usually seen when the literal meaning of a word or
words stands in stark contrast to what is actually meant. One can see this in everyday culture;
an example would be someone wearing a t-shirt showing a TV show or band, but it would be a TV
show or a band that they don't actually like.

encompasses a variety of
comedic devices and rhetorical devices for social commentary. The most famous example of a
satirical novel is Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," an essay in which the author
facetiously suggested the parents of impoverished children might sell their kids as food. The
device served to highlight the social problem of poverty while criticizing actual proposals that
were almost just as bad. More recently, you could say that TV shows that aired on Comedy
Central, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, used satire to poke fun at the major media and
politics.

Symbolism is in one a writer uses a symbol (something that can
stand for and/or invoke the idea or meaning of something else) to signify something. An obvious
example is the symbol of the heart used to signify love.

occurs in a
literary work (or in another work of art that can unfold over time) when hints are dropped as to
what is going to happen later in the story. Edgar Allan Poe uses foreshadowing throughout his
short story "The Cask of Amontillado," intimating through the dialogue between the two
characters that one (Fortunato) would soon meet his death and be entombed by the other
(Montresor) who takes revenge by sealing his former friend in the
catacombs.

Identify the speaker, plot and significance of following quotes from A Streetcar Named Desire: 1. " Sister and I in desperate situation" 2. " I was...

" Sister
and I in desperate situation"

The day after Stanley's awful poker night
where he was abusive to Stella, Blanche decided to write a telegram to a rich friend trying to
ask for financial assistance to get them both out of there. The significance is that Blanche
realized right in the middle of it that she had nobody to go for help because of the many
troubles she had gotten into in Laurel, and because of her reputation. Another significant point
is that her sister, although was the victim, thinks that Blanche's worries are nonsensical and
this shows how codependent Stella is of Stanley.

" I was just obeying
the law of nature"

During an outing with Mitch, Blanche refers to her
obeying the laws of nature in terms of pleasing a man and entertaining the way a Southern Belle
like herself are famous for doing. She was just buttering up to Mitch, trying to convince him
that she is a true gentle woman with lots of good manners and style. The significance is that
this is her only chance with a decent man, considering her past (which Mitch does not know).

"Well, I - don't see how anybody could be rude to u"

This is a phrase that Blanche tells her sister considering how rude Stanley was to
Stella. She made a plea to Stella to reconsider her marriage, and to get away from Stanley. She
always felt Stella was too sweet and nice to deserve a man like Stan. This is why she said this
phrase.

"Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?"

Blanche said this when the paperboy came over to the Kowalski home and she was in the
middle of a drunken haze. She told the teenager that all she wanted was a bit of conversation
with him. Later we find out that she was attracted to him sexually , perhaps because he reminds
her of the teenage student with which she slept and for which she was consequently fired. She
told him that phrase in the middle of her drunkenness, and perhaps this is what she would tell
the men she "pleased" in Laurel, when she lived at the hotel.

What was the Panic of 1819 and the Panic of 1837?

The Panic
of 1819 and the Panic of 1837 were both connected to increased speculation in western lands and
banking policies that fueled that speculation. In the Panic of 1819, the Second Bank of the
United States tried to slow speculation in western lands by reducing the amount of money
available to banks and by calling in loans. This caused state banks to also call in loans, and
when people couldn't pay back their loans, the banks foreclosed on mortgages, causing
unemployment levels to rise, bankruptcies to occur, and many banks to fail.

In the Panic of 1837, something similar happened. President Jackson disliked the national bank
and refused to extend its charter in 1832. He withdrew federal money from the national bank and
deposited this money and new revenues into state banks. These state banks had more lenient
policies regarding loans, and many people borrowed money to buy western land.
President...

What is the relationship between Romeo and his friends Mercutio and Benvolio in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

While it is
clear that is very close with his cousin
who is also his friend, as well as his friend ,
it's also very evident that Romeo and his friends have very different views on
things. In fact, Benvolio and Mercutio act as two different
dramatic foils to
Romeo.

Benvolio serves as Romeo's
dramatic foil by being the peace-loving, rational,
voice of reason in comparison to Romeo who is impetuous and emotionally driven.
We see the closeness of their friendship when Benvolio promisesto
find out what is troubling Romeo in the very first scene and to give him
counsel. However, their dramatic foil relationship also becomes evident when
Benvolio begs Romeo, "Be rul'd by me: forget to think of [Rosaline]," and Romeo's only
response is "O, teach me how I should forget to think!" (I.i.227-28). Romeo's refusal
to listen to Benvolio also shows us his refusal to think rationally, which helps us see their
dramatic foil relationship despite their close
friendship.

Mercutio serves as
Romeo's dramatic foil by taking love lightly and treating it as a
joke in contrast to Romeo's tendency to treat love with complete seriousness. Like Benvolio,
Mercutio's close friendship with Romeo is also seen in his
desires to give Romeo advice and bring him out of his gloomy state
of mind. Mercutio tries to coax Romeo out of his gloominess by trying to persuade him to crash
the Capulets' ball along with Benvolio. His persuasion techniques not only show us
his friendship with Romeo, they also show us his comic and even
lewd side, demonstrating just how lightly he views love. One example can be seen
in the lines, "If love be rough with you, be rough with love. / Prick love for pricking,
and you beat love down," which can be interpreted as a sexual innuendo
(I.iv.28-29).

List some objects of satire in Candide.

In
,satirizes the belief in a philosophy of optimism even in the face of misfortune.  He
also usesto poke fun at religion, kings, the state and people who behave
foolishly.

Five Elements Of Drama

     Drama
is a broad category and includes plays as a macro category or can be a portion of a work in a
sub heading.  Whether discussed in the macro or micro realms, drama has some definite
characteristics.

     Drama, as a work, is characterized due to the focus of
the work which is generally a serious subject matter with little comedy.  It could be argued a
work is either dramatic or comedic and all other works fall within those two divisions.  For
this discussion it will be classified as a work where the majority of the plot focuses on issues
outside comedy.  Scienceand horror are often given their own groupings, but they are in essence
just an intense drama centered around a particular genre.

     Within a work
drama is often played out along the plot of the work.  Body language can give clues to the
intensity of the action.  A person slowly walking down the hallway, heels clicking along a floor
and displays of strong emotions provide the basis for the assumption of drama.  This works
because of similar experiences in real life.

     Vocal ranges are another
clue of dramatic overtures.  The tone can be angry, conspiratorial, or even boring giving rise
to the intended drama.  Often the vocal tone and setting go hand-in-hand in determining the
actual events as dramatic rather than comedy.  A car chase for example could be either dramatic
or comedic depending on the dialogue which often sets the mood.  If dialogue is not present, the
soundtrack can substitute with intense music giving a clue to the nature of the work. 

     Typically the intention of drama is to bring the viewer on an emotional ride
through the scene where comedy had a more narrow intention of drawing a light hearted response. 
Drama uses the focus of the work, dialogue, soundtrack and staging to provide the necessary
context for the dramatic work.

What is the significance of the song the woman in the courtyard sings while Winston waits for Julia?

In Part Two,
Chapter Four, of ,listens to a prole woman singing a song in the courtyard
below his room in Mr Charrington's shop. While this song appears to have no relevance on the
novel, it is, in fact, significant for two reasons.

First of all, theof the
song has some importance. It is composed in English and makes a refreshing change to Newspeak,
the official language of Oceania. Newspeak is designed to make thoughtcrime an impossibility
because it restricts people's ability to think negative thoughts about the party. In contrast,
English remains expressive and emotive, even if the song has been composed by a
"versificator" and does not technically make any sense. The...

Compare the marriage proposals of Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and Elizabeth's responses.

marriage
proposal is arrogant - he is convinced thatwill accept - but it is also flowery and obsequious. 
He over-explains himself, laying out all his reasons for marrying and
explaining the "violence of [his] affection."   He insults
Elizabeth's fortune by insisting that he is "indifferent to it." 
He ends by insisting "no ungenerous reproach shall ever pass my lips when we are
married."  He doesn't even wait for a response.  His he assumes they are already
engaged.

's speech is less flowery and more straightforward.  He actually
proposes, rather...

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, what characteristics do the ancient Sumerians value, as evidenced in their hero, Gilgamesh?

As other
contributors have already expressed, celebrates friendship (via the
friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu), as well as personal bravery and strength (via
Gilgamesh's various triumphs). Based on this ancient story, you might expect ancient Sumerian
culture to have a certain aristocratic mentality, which celebrates personal excellence and
achievement.

In addition, however, I get the impression that The
Epic of Gilgamesh also contains a deeply pessimistic vision on the human condition.
Indeed, it's worth noting that Gilgamesh's great quest to achieve immortality ends in failure,
and while he is able to attain a plant that holds restorative powers (which would reverse the
effects of aging), he loses that plant when a snake eats it. For all of his many successes, he
ultimately fails in his greatest and most ambitious endeavor. Thus, the story makes a clear
statement: human lives are transient, and it is impossible for any human being to overcome their
mortal...

In Oedipus Rex, is Oedipus' fate sealed from the start? I need help understanding the question more. Here is some background on the rest of my...

Judging by your
synopsis, you have a good understanding of what the question is asking. However, you are also
right in believing that there is more to this question than a simple consideration of whether or
notis responsible for creating his fate (and if so, to what degree is he
responsible). 

To be clear, the question has three parts. 

• Part one asks, what events or outcomes in the play can be directly
  attributed to Oedipus? One of these would be the falling out he has with his brother-in-law,
  . 
• Part two asks, what events of the play are outside of Oedipus influence
  or control? The prophecy handed down in his childhood was outside of his control and it is this
  prophecy that propels Oedipus into action and toward doom. 
• Part three
  asks, which of these dynamics seems to be the stronger force in determining the action of the
  play (and is Oedipus really responsible for any events in the play if his fate is already
  determined)? 

One way to narrow this whole question down is to
look at some particular instances. Oedipus kills his father on the road. Does he do this because
it is part of his character to be proud and unyielding? If he were a different type of man,
would he have simply gotten out of the way and let the other man pass? Is this murder directly
attributable to Oedipus' attitude/personality?

Or, was Oedipus forced to act
this way because fate and the gods had put him in conflict with this man on the road (who
happened to be his father), thereby creating a situation where a person like Oedipus would act
in a predictable and violent manner? 

After all, Oedipus is fleeing his fate.
This is his intent. The only reason he encounters his father on the road is because he does not
want to kill him. We might say that Sophecles presents us with thisto suggest that Oedipus'
situation on the road is either extremely bad luck or is created by the gods, by his fate, and
outside of his control. 

Indeed, in the end, Oedipus feels that he had no
control over the outcome of his life and that this becomes especially true because of his
efforts to avoid his fate. Though he is not responsible for the prophecy that set his path, he
is the person who carried out all the deeds for which he punishes himself with
blindness:

"Oedipus, damned in his birth, in his
marriage damned, / Damned in the blood he shed with his own hand!"