How does Daisy affect other people?

Daisy is shown to be very alluring to the other characters. In the scene in which she is first introduced, she laughs "an absurd, charming little laugh, and I [Nick] laughed too." In this instance, Daisy is depicted as someone with an infectious charm, as evidenced by Nick's inclination to laugh with her despite the lack of dialogue between the two characters. Daisy's charms prove to be very alluring, for she is loved both by...

Daisy is shown to be very alluring to the other characters. In the scene in which she is first introduced, she laughs "an absurd, charming little laugh, and I [Nick] laughed too." In this instance, Daisy is depicted as someone with an infectious charm, as evidenced by Nick's inclination to laugh with her despite the lack of dialogue between the two characters. Daisy's charms prove to be very alluring, for she is loved both by Gatsby and her husband, Tom Buchanan. While Tom did partake in an extramarital affair, he is shown to care for Daisy by his efforts to keep her away from Gatsby. And in Gatsby's case, the elaborate and expensive parties that he hosts are eventually explained to have been concocted solely for the purpose of coming into contact with Daisy after having been estranged for a number of years. Gatsby's rabid and enduring devotion to Daisy establishes her as a prize of sorts—a prize over which both Tom and Gatsby both compete throughout the novel. 

Is there any occasion in Shakespeare's play Othello where Othello reflects on his own race, possibly relating to his insecurity?

In Act 3, Scene 3, Othello does refer to his race. He uses the reference in a monologue after the devious Iago has manipulated him into believing that Desdemona was involved in an inappropriate liaison with his lieutenant, Cassio. Iago has, throughout their conversation, made suggestions by using innuendo, intimations and equivocation to encourage the general's jealousy and then, ironically, suggesting that he should 'beware of jealousy.'

Othello is overcome by Iago's scheming and deceit...

In Act 3, Scene 3, Othello does refer to his race. He uses the reference in a monologue after the devious Iago has manipulated him into believing that Desdemona was involved in an inappropriate liaison with his lieutenant, Cassio. Iago has, throughout their conversation, made suggestions by using innuendo, intimations and equivocation to encourage the general's jealousy and then, ironically, suggesting that he should 'beware of jealousy.'

Othello is overcome by Iago's scheming and deceit and seeks justification for Desdemona being involved with Cassio. He is quite honest about himself and exposes his insecurities.

He mentions: 

Haply, for I am black
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have, or for I am declined
Into the vale of years,--yet that's not much--
She's gone.

The implication here is that it is a matter of chance that he is black and thus lacks the ability to speak softly, gently or sweetly as fashionable or intriguing men do. He believes that since he has not constantly whispered sweet nothings in Desdemona's ear, she might have turned from him. Othello's admission here links to his earlier contention in Act 1 when he also mentioned his inability to use beautiful or florid language, where he stated that he 'is rude in speech.'

Later, in Act 3, Scene 3, when Othello is fully convinced about Cassio and Desdemona's adulterous affair, he again refers to his race. In this passionate statement, he swears to take revenge on them for cuckolding and humiliating him. Iago has convinced him that Cassio, through his behavior, has definitely proven that he is having an affair with Desdemona. He also tells the highly upset general that he had seen Cassio wipe his beard with the napkin Othello had given Desdemona as a gift. Othello passionately cries out:

O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.
Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago;
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven.
'Tis gone.
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!

The general then kneels and makes a vow to take revenge. Iago kneels with him and promises allegiance. Othello then, out of gratitude for Iago's 'exceeding honesty,' awards him the title of lieutenant, which is the greatest irony of all. 

How can I write a poem on my favorite color in 5-6 stanzas? What are 5-6 poetic devices I could use?

I am not going to be able to write your poem for you, since this is your assignment and your favorite color is not something I can guess!  However, I can offer you some help and some examples.  I have some ideas on how to create the requisite number of stanzas and some ideas on poetic devices. 

One way to create that number of stanzas is to make each about something that is your favorite color. For example, if your favorite color is blue, you can choose five or six things that are blue to write about.  You could write a verse about the sky, a verse about the ocean, a verse about a favorite dress or shirt, a verse about someone's beautiful blue eyes, a verse about a blue flower, and a verse about a blue drink that you like.  That would be six altogether.  If your favorite color is green, you might write about grass, trees, a lime, and a few other green things you can think of.  No matter what your favorite color is, there are bound to be plenty of objects or places to write about. 

Another way to approach this is to write a series of stanzas on what a particular color makes you think about. For instance, the color blue makes me think about music, the blues, feeling down, coolness, calm, and water. Each of those could have its own stanza, I think.  Yellow has a great many associations to it, as do black and white. 

There are so many poetic devices that can be used to write your poem.  One is alliteration, in which you use the same beginning sounds in words, so that you might write, "Yellow seems like sunny skies."  I have three words in that line that begin with an "s," and that is alliteration.  Another device is the metaphor, in which you write that something is something else, a concrete image that helps the reader understand a particular quality.  If I say "Purple is a king," that is a metaphor, since clearly a color is not a king. I am conveying the idea that this color was used by royalty.  Similarly, you can use similes, which are like metaphors, but more in a comparative way, so that you are writing that something is "like" or "as" something else.  I might say, "Blue is like the sea."  That gives the reader an image in the form of a simile.  Another device used in poetry is personification.  With personification, I am giving something a human quality, for instance, writing that the "sun smiled down on us."  The sun cannot smile, of course, but I am giving the sun that quality for poetic effect.  Rhyming is certainly an often used poetic device, and you can devise a rhyme scheme in which all the lines rhyme, in which every other line rhymes, or in which only the last lines in all the stanzas rhyme. I have included a link to our Guide to Literary Terms for you, so you can explore other poetic devices you might use.

This might have seemed like a difficult assignment to you when you got it, but I hope that this will help you see that it is not so difficult after all. And actually, it looks like it will be fun!

What life lessons are we taught in the poem "If"?

There are several life lessons taught in Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "If." For, this poem, addressed to Kipling's son, is a paean to the stoicism characteristic of the British of the Victorian Age, and to uprightness.

In this first stanza, Kipling initially stresses that one must "keep" one's head; that is, remain rational while others are becoming irrational and placing blame upon others rather than accepting responsibility:

If you can keep you head...

There are several life lessons taught in Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "If." For, this poem, addressed to Kipling's son, is a paean to the stoicism characteristic of the British of the Victorian Age, and to uprightness.

In this first stanza, Kipling initially stresses that one must "keep" one's head; that is, remain rational while others are becoming irrational and placing blame upon others rather than accepting responsibility:

If you can keep you head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you...

Kipling also stresses self-discipline: "trust yourself when all men doubt you." "..wait and not be tired by waiting...."
And, he emphasizes manly rectitude: " Or being lied about, don't deal in lies."

Kipling emphasizes that it is important to dream and have an imagination, but control of one's imagination is necessary, as well, for one must be realistic:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master...

One must also be strong and willing to take risks and lose, then turn and start again after watching the

...things you gave your life to, broken, and bend down to pick them up and "build'em up with worn-out tools.

In this stanza Kipling emphasizes fortitude and the ability to begin anew when necessary. A man must be able to suffer losses and start over:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

This stanza emphasizes and extols the virtues of moral uprightness.  Kipling praises the virtue of humility--"the common touch"--and making the most of time--

...fill the unforgiving minute...with sixty seconds worth of distance won,

Then, he can conquer anything and be a true man.

How could Gulliver’s character be briefly described based on his experience with the Lilliputians and Blefuscudians?

Gulliver has a mild and fair disposition, which he exhibits when he is with the Lilliputians. When they have tied him up, he thinks that he can easily free himself from their chains, as they are so small. However, he doesn't attempt to flee, in part because they pierce him with small and relatively painless arrows and in part because he is thankful to them for their hospitality. When a colonel of the Lilliputians rounds...

Gulliver has a mild and fair disposition, which he exhibits when he is with the Lilliputians. When they have tied him up, he thinks that he can easily free himself from their chains, as they are so small. However, he doesn't attempt to flee, in part because they pierce him with small and relatively painless arrows and in part because he is thankful to them for their hospitality. When a colonel of the Lilliputians rounds up the ringleaders of the crowd that is shooting arrows at Gulliver, the colonel hands these small men to Gulliver. Though he could easily eat them alive, Gulliver instead lets them go free. Later, he also saves part of the palace from fire (which he does by putting his urine on it). In addition, he learns their language and offers the monarch to protect him against the Lilliputians' mortal enemies, the Blefuscudians.

However, Gulliver refuses to violate his ideas about fairness when the Lilliputians ask him to do so. When the monarch of Lilliput wants to enslave the Blefuscudians, Gulliver refuses to support him, saying, "I would never be an instrument of bringing a free and brave people into slavery" (page 33). Eventually, he is accused of treason and must leave Lilliput, but his behavior while he's there shows him to be fair-minded and of a gentle temperament.

Based on the five elements of a quest, which character/s enter into a quest in the book Fahrenheit 451?

Guy Montag goes on a quest in Fahrenheit 451. The first element of the quest is the quester. Montag is the quester, as he is searching for something different and something that can make him happy at the beginning of the story. His life with Mildred leaves him lonely and sad, and he wants something new, away from the government-controlled television screens. When he meets Clarisse, he finds the second element of a quest--somewhere...

Guy Montag goes on a quest in Fahrenheit 451. The first element of the quest is the quester. Montag is the quester, as he is searching for something different and something that can make him happy at the beginning of the story. His life with Mildred leaves him lonely and sad, and he wants something new, away from the government-controlled television screens. When he meets Clarisse, he finds the second element of a quest--somewhere to go. He leaves the world he knows and gets to know her family, who, unlike most people in the society, walk and have discussions rather than watching television all day. He also has the third element, a reason to go on a quest, as he begins to feel alienated from his life and his work as a fireman. He also encounters the fourth element, challenges. Beatty, his fire captain, becomes suspicious of him, and then the mechanical Hound changes Montag as he tries to escape. Finally, Montag meets the fifth criterion of the quest, as he gains self-knowledge by leaving the world he knows and joining the people who have memorized books and who live far from his city. 

What points can I write about in regards to Macbeth's downfall for an essay?

Macbeth is not respected by his subordinates or by the Scottish people, because they all know he is a murderer, a traitor, and an usurper. He cannot rule by being loved, as did Duncan, so he ends up trying to rule by force and fear. Macbeth is a good warrior but not a good ruler. This leads to chaotic conditions in Scotland, and it is the chaotic conditions that cause his downfall. These conditions are...

Macbeth is not respected by his subordinates or by the Scottish people, because they all know he is a murderer, a traitor, and an usurper. He cannot rule by being loved, as did Duncan, so he ends up trying to rule by force and fear. Macbeth is a good warrior but not a good ruler. This leads to chaotic conditions in Scotland, and it is the chaotic conditions that cause his downfall. These conditions are described by Ross when he goes to see Malcolm and Macduff in England.

Alas, poor country,
Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot
Be call'd our mother, but our grave. Where nothing,
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air,
Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstasy. The dead man's knell
Is there scarce ask'd for who, and good men's lives
Expire before the flowers in their caps,
Dying or ere they sicken.

Macbeth's downfall is caused by the army sent to Scotland by the English king. He would not have sent the army unless he felt that his own country might suffer from the conditions described by Ross. Such conditions might lead to disruption of trade between the two countries, to an unmanageable influx of refugees from Scotland, to hostilities between Scotland and England, or to incursions by desperate homeless men who had formed into bands of killers and plunderers. 

In "The Tiger in the Tunnel" by Ruskin Bond, what is the similarity between Baldeo and Tembu?

Baldeo and Tembu are both courageous. Baldeo took up the job as a railway watchman in a dangerous part of their location. He heard stories about a marauding tiger, but he still reported to his night duty without fail. On the night of the attack, he stood his ground and defended himself against attacks by the tiger. Tembu knew how dangerous the job was, but he still took up his father’s post after he was killed by the tiger.

Baldeo and Tembu are both responsible individuals. They understood the economic importance of the job in spite of the dangerous working conditions. The rice farms barely sustained their family and the situation forced Baldeo and later Tembu to take up the job as railway watchmen.

Why do you think that in "Dusk," the young man made up his story on the spur of the moment at the park?

If you want to take the position that the young stranger who sat down beside Norman Gortsby had just made up his hard-luck story on the spur of the moment, there are several clues you can offer. For one thing, there is the soap. If he had rehearsed his story and prepared himself to tell it to a likely- looking stranger, it should have occurred to him that he ought to invest a little money in a cake of soap just in case he was asked to produce it. Norman easily catches him off guard and embarrasses him when he asks about the soap which the young stranger had supposedly just gone out to buy. Then there is the young con-man's awkward and guilty behavior when he can't produce the vital evidence.

"To lose an hotel and a cake of soap on one afternoon suggests wilful carelessness," said Gortsby, but the young man scarcely waited to hear the end of the remark. He flitted away down the path, his head held high, with an air of somewhat jaded jauntiness.

It would have been hard for this young man to make up such a complex story on the spur of the moment, but he might have already been using some of the elements to make an impression on strangers. There are some people who are congenital liars. They do it just for the pleasure of making an impression of strangers. The young con-man may have told many strangers that he was a country gentleman, that he had traveled in foreign countries and stayed at the best hotels, and even that he had been to Eton and Oxford. It might have occurred to him on the spur of the moment to put his various lies together to see if he could make money from his creative imagination.

There is something about this young man's story that seems experimental. When he rushes off after having been outed by Gortsby, one feels that this will not be the last time the con-man tries his story. He is a little bit unsure of himself, but he is also bold, aggressive, and ambitious. If he could pick up a sovereign every day just for telling a little story, he would have a better income than most men his age in London. A sovereign was equivalent to a pound. Most clerks were earning one pound a week in those days, but this enterprising youth could be earning six or seven pounds a week if only he could perfect his story. No doubt when he flees from the bench where he met his first setback, he is already thinking of how he can improve his story. It is a case of trial and error--and there are millions of people on whom he can try the hard-luck story, as long as he doesn't get discouraged and lose his cool. For one thing he would certainly be planning to buy a cake of soap, and he might even be thinking of actually showing the soap to his next potential victim.

The would-be confidence trickster may have been toying with his story for a long time before he actually got up the nerve to try it out. Unfortunately for him, Norman Gortsby was quite familiar with hard-luck stories. He was not just sitting there for a rest. He was in the habit of sitting there every evening for an hour or two before going home. He was familiar with all the types of people to be seen in that vicinity, and he was an exceptionally hard prospect for this novice con-man who was not experienced in choosing "marks," or suckers, either. Gortsby enjoys hearing these stories. They interest and amuse him. After the other man leaves, Gortsby even considers the story's faults and merits.

"It was a pity," mused Gortsby; "the going out to get one's own soap was the one convincing touch in the whole story, and yet it was just that little detail that brought him to grief. If he had had the brilliant forethought to provide himself with a cake of soap, wrapped and sealed with all the solicitude of the chemist's counter, he would have been a genius in his particular line. In his particular line genius certainly consists of an infinite capacity for taking precautions."

By the sheerest coincidence, Gortsby finds a cake of soap and goes rushing after the young stranger, thinking it must be his. The way the other man reacts shows he is a novice and must have invented his hard-luck story quite recently, if not on the spur of the moment.

"Lucky thing your finding it," said the youth, and then, with a catch in his voice, he blurted out a word or two of thanks and fled headlong in the direction of Knightsbridge.

Explain the concepts of utility and its importance in economics.

Utility is in one sense extremely simple, and in another tremendously complex. The basic idea of some things being better than other things is something we intuit, probably from birth, wired into our brains by evolution: we like eating sugar, we don't like getting burned. But actually formalizing utility into something that can be applied in economic theory to understand human behavior is fiendishly complicated.

In general what we do is abstract away from all this, and simply take it as given that we can assign some number to each thing (each good we might buy, or each event that might happen to us), where higher numbers are better than lower numbers, and call that the utility. Then, we assume that people seek to maximize that utility, choosing things that will lead them to higher numbers.

Economists generally distinguish between two concepts of utility, a "weak" or ordinal utility which only says whether A is better than B, but cannot say how much, and a "strong" or cardinal utility that actually says that A is some number X units of utility better than B.

Cardinal utility is much easier to work with, especially when dealing with matters of risk; but it is also much harder to measure in the real world. We can relatively straightforwardly determine whether people like A versus B by giving them the choice and seeing which one they go for; but in order to determine how much more, we need to devise far more complicated and clever experiments. Worse, it's actually quite common for people to behave in experiments in such a way that they can't possibly be acting by a coherent utility function, but instead must be using some sort of heuristics to make their judgments; the field of behavioral and cognitive economics arose from such findings.

The units of measure for cardinal utility are also quite strange, and there is no standard unit for utility currently used by economists. Hypothetically we may speak of "utiles" or "utilons", but in reality there is no way of actually measuring such a thing. Most real work in welfare economics tries to assign utility as dollar values of "willingness-to-pay", which is simplest but carries many pitfalls; to avoid these some economists have borrowed welfare measures from public health and use measures such as Disability Adjusted Life Years or Quality Adjusted Life Years---but these too are not without their flaws. For these reasons, sometimes ordinal utility is more useful, and we can simply try to determine what people prefer, without worrying about the magnitudes of the differences.

Still, the essential concept that people try to maximize their own welfare and seek what they like over what they do not like is a very fundamental and useful one. Humans do not behave randomly, nor do they generally seek out things that hurt them without some commensurately large benefit. If we could actually precisely measure utility, it would provide us with very detailed information about how people make decisions.

Why does Gortsby not believe the story of the young man? What eventually makes him feel sorry and part with a sovereign also?

The author establishes that Norman Gortsby is accustomed to sitting on a bench in this park at dusk and watching the passing crowd. Gortsby must have heard many hard-luck stories on these evenings. He has become cynical. It would be hard for anyone to get any money out of him. He listens to the young man's story patiently, but he feels sure it is nothing but a scam, and he has no intention of parting with any money. Then when the young man is finished, Gortsby points out the one flaw in his story.

"Of course," said Gortsby slowly, "the weak point of your story is that you can't produce the soap."

The young man is completely flustered. All he can say is:

"I must have lost it."

But Gortsby shows the con-man he is wasting his time.

"To lose an hotel and a cake of soap on one afternoon suggests wilful carelessness," said Gortsby, but the young man scarcely waited to hear the end of the remark. He flitted away down the path, his head held high, with an air of somewhat jaded jauntiness.

This young man is obviously a novice. He has tailored a very good story but hadn't thought about being asked to show the cake of soap he supposedly went out to buy. His story was intended to make the "mark" or "prospect" believe that he was a country gentleman who didn't know a soul in London. Whoever would lend him enough money for one night's room rent might be making a friend of an aristocrat who would conceivably repay his generosity by inviting him to dinner, inviting down to his country manor for shooting, and introducing him to members of a higher social class. This was never said, but implied.

When Gortsby finds a cake of soap on the ground by the bench, he naturally thinks it belonged to the young man and that his whole story was true. Gortsby goes hurrying after him because he thinks he missed a chance to make an extremely valuable friend. He does not have to part with a sovereign. The young man only wanted a loan which he would return as soon as he could get a wire from his people in the country informing him of the name of the hotel he had sent them when it turned out he wasn't going to be staying at the Patagonian. Evidently it would take until the next day for the young man to receive the return telegram from the country.

Gortsby eagerly and apologetically gives the young con-man a sovereign plus the cake of soap.

"Here is my card with my address," continued Gortsby; "any day this week will do for returning the money, and here is the soap — don't lose it again it's been a good friend to you."

No doubt Gortsby has great expectations until he sees the elderly gentleman searching all around the bench they had previously been sharing. It turns out that the soap unmistakably belonged to the old man. Gortsby has not been made a fool by feeling sorry for the young man but by being conned into thinking that the young man was a country gentleman who didn't know a soul in London and might become a friend who could help him to rise in the world socially and financially. Gortsby wanted something for himself. The best way to manipulate people is to appeal to their selfish interest.

Would you persuade? Speak of interest, not of reason.
               Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac

 

How can you determine how many hairs are on a person's head?

If you're trying to develop a method of estimating how many hairs are on your head, it would be best to take on this task in two parts: background research and sampling. 

Firstly, I suppose you have a reason for asking how many hairs are on your head that is based in something you heard, something you want to know, or something you want to prove wrong. For example, maybe you heard that women have...

If you're trying to develop a method of estimating how many hairs are on your head, it would be best to take on this task in two parts: background research and sampling. 

Firstly, I suppose you have a reason for asking how many hairs are on your head that is based in something you heard, something you want to know, or something you want to prove wrong. For example, maybe you heard that women have more hair per square centimeter on their heads than men. Or, maybe you heard that we have 60,000 hairs on our heads (on average). 

Step 1: Before you dive into this question, ask yourself what you want to know and why. There may be research out there that either talks about how many hairs are on your head or provides a way for you to get at the question thorough a specific method. After you conduct a literature review, you'll have a better idea as to how you will proceed with the next step.

Step 2: Take a sample and count hairs within that sample. Depending on your literature review, you may have many ways of doing this. For example, you may choose to take a 1cmx1cm square on someone's head and count all the hairs within that square, then generalize that to the rest of their head. But, how will you know you're accurately counting the hairs? How will you know your method works? There may be existing literature that walks you through best practices. You may also learn that different places on peoples' heads have different concentrations of hair follicles, thus, different amounts of hair. You may also determine that other factors such as age, ethnicity, health, gender, or location play a huge role in the number of hairs a person has on their head.

The combination of literature review and sampling should help you develop a method of counting hairs on your head (or someone else's) to answer your research question. Please take a look at the attached article that talks about counting hairs to answer a research question regarding hair loss (linked).

Good luck!

What epic elements do you find in Homer's Iliad?

The Iliad is one of the first epics and so became a model that followers have imitated for more than two thousand years. Some elements of the epic in this work include:

It begins with with an invocation to the muses.

It begins in media res: this means it begins in the middle of the action. The Iliad begins near the end of the raging Trojan War. 

It uses epithets, which are metaphors or descriptive...

The Iliad is one of the first epics and so became a model that followers have imitated for more than two thousand years. Some elements of the epic in this work include:

It begins with with an invocation to the muses.

It begins in media res: this means it begins in the middle of the action. The Iliad begins near the end of the raging Trojan War. 

It uses epithets, which are metaphors or descriptive terms repeatedly applied to a person or thing: an example would be swift-footed Achilles or rosy-fingered dawn.

The main characters are noble figures or figures with high status in society. The stars of an epic are not everyday people, fumbling fools or peasant farmers. The Iliad features the top people in the society: kings, princes, commanders and warriors. The main character, such as Achilles, is a hero. 

The hero embodies the values of the culture: Achilles is the exemplary brave and strong warrior of a warrior culture. He also has to choose between two of his culture's main values: homecoming or fame. He begs not to have to make the choice but ultimately chooses fame. 

The gods are directly involved in the action of an epic. This is definitely true of the Iliad. For instance, Hera and Athena are angry at Paris, a Trojan, so actively side against Troy in the war. And the list goes on.

It contains epic catalogues or lists. The Iliad contains a famous Catalogue of Ships and the Trojan Battle Order.

It contains long speeches.

At the end of the Meno (around 100b), Socrates says that if Meno can convince Anytus of the things they have concluded in the dialogue, he will...

The first important fact here is that Anytus was one of the accusers of Socrates in Apology. Unlike Plato, Alcibiades, and many of the followers of Socrates, Anytus was not born into an aristocratic family, but was a tanner whose father had become newly wealthy, something mentioned as Socrates draws him into the conversation in Meno(90a-b). He also was a supporter of the extreme democratic party, which was politically opposed to the the...

The first important fact here is that Anytus was one of the accusers of Socrates in Apology. Unlike Plato, Alcibiades, and many of the followers of Socrates, Anytus was not born into an aristocratic family, but was a tanner whose father had become newly wealthy, something mentioned as Socrates draws him into the conversation in Meno (90a-b). He also was a supporter of the extreme democratic party, which was politically opposed to the the aristocratic faction. 

The main theme of the discussion has been whether virtue can be taught and whether the sophists live up to their claims as teachers. Anytus agrees with Socrates that in terms of skills such as leather working, music, and medicine, the best teachers are themselves experts in their crafts who charge fees for teaching. When asked, though, about whether he thinks people should pay fees to sophists to acquire political knowledge and virtue, he vehemently condemns objects to sophists.

Socrates moves the discussion on to an investigation of whether anyone, sophist or not, can inculcate virtue, proving the negative by several examples of eminent fathers with undistinguished children. Anytus leaves angrily after expressing vague threats against Socrates (95e).

In the end, Socrates concludes with a few related points. First, correct opinion is not the same as knowledge, but is often useful in areas in which true knowledge is not possible. Second, as true knowledge and virtue are not teachable, they must be acquired by a form or "recollection" (of what the soul knew before it descended into the body) or divine inspiration. This is a hint that Socrates' own form of wisdom is connected to his divine sign; the divine sign becomes the basis for the accusation of impiety in Apology.

The benefit to the Athenians is leading them to self-understanding and dispelling false beliefs as well as undermining the sophists. Also, of course, if Meno can convince Anytus to have a better opinion about Socrates, Athenians will continue to have the benefit of Socratic questioning. 

What is the meaning behind the title "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown? Why is it the perfect title to describe the clash of cultures...

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is an iconic work by historian Dee Brown that describes the Indian Wars of the Trans-Mississippi West from their first contact with Europeans to the final "battle" of Wounded Knee in 1890.  The battle of Wounded Knee is also listed as the Wounded Knee Massacre, as due to a misunderstanding, the U.S. Army opened fire on hundreds of unarmed Lakota, killing many women and children.  The massacre started when...

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is an iconic work by historian Dee Brown that describes the Indian Wars of the Trans-Mississippi West from their first contact with Europeans to the final "battle" of Wounded Knee in 1890.  The battle of Wounded Knee is also listed as the Wounded Knee Massacre, as due to a misunderstanding, the U.S. Army opened fire on hundreds of unarmed Lakota, killing many women and children.  The massacre started when the leaders at Pine Ridge Reservation wanted to end the Ghost Dance religion, as they thought it would lead to a native uprising.  When the natives resisted, the reservation agents rounded up the Indians and tried to disarm them.  A gun accidentally discharged, and in that charged situation, the Army opened fire, killing hundreds and thus ending five hundred years of native resistance.  The whole event summarizes the relationship between natives and Europeans that existed in the Americas since 1492.  The natives had a certain culture.  The Europeans either did not trust the native belief or were actually repelled by it.  When the two cultures clashed, it usually ended in bloodshed and the native tribes suffered.  

What is the real tragedy in Loman's family in Death of a Salesman?

The real tragedy with the Loman family in Death of a Salesman is a combination of lack of action, aptitude and attitude to attain the superbly high goals that the men of the family set for themselves.

Most people argue that the Lomans' true problem was their obscene ambition with attaining an American Dream that Willy built for them. The argument is also that such an American Dream was phony because it is based on shallow parameters, such as being "well-liked," attaining financial success with little work, and becoming popular. Although those are indeed the tenets of Willy's dream, calling the Lomans "ambitious" would be a problem.

First, ambitious people know what they want, stick with a plan, and fight until the end to get their goal. Additionally, truly ambitious people are not scared of defeat because they are willing to get up and try again by all means necessary. Third, people who really want a lot often already have a lot. Think of the quintessential "rich getting richer" paradigm, which presupposes that the ultimate ambitious person is that who has achieved a lot and still wants to achieve more.

Now, look at the Lomans. Here is Willy, dreaming of being like Dave Singleton, the salesman who could sell anything out of his hotel room. Biff wants to be "something" but he does not know what. Happy wants women, looks, popularity, and the position of his boss at his job. All three men are justifiably ambitious, but none of them has a single plan in place to carry on. They simply dream, hope, make limited attempts, and then find blame in one another, or something else, to diffuse their lack of action.

This being said, the true tragedy in the life of the Lomans can be summarized in one word: "indolence." Lack of movement, planning, changing, and moving toward a goal is their true problem. It is something that they have learned to live with, and they believe it to be the norm. It is also the reason why the three men are stunted compared to their peers, and why the Lomans may never really amount to anything as great as what they think.

How does Eliezer describe the impact of the madness of Mrs. Schächter on his companions in Night?

At first, the passengers of the car are panicking because they are not sure what is going on.  This woman is just screaming about a fire in the middle of the night and there is no fire to be seen.  They don’t know that at first, though. 

There was a moment of panic. Who had screamed? It was Mrs. Schächter. Standing in the middle of the car, in the faint light filtering through the windows,...

At first, the passengers of the car are panicking because they are not sure what is going on.  This woman is just screaming about a fire in the middle of the night and there is no fire to be seen.  They don’t know that at first, though. 

There was a moment of panic. Who had screamed? It was Mrs. Schächter. Standing in the middle of the car, in the faint light filtering through the windows, she looked like a withered tree in a field of wheat. She was howling, pointing through the window … 

Wiesel says that it took them “a long time to recover” from being woken up in this manner, and they were trembling.  The woman’s son tried to calm her down, and so do some other women.  She doesn’t quiet, and it wears on them. 

But it was all in vain. Our terror could no longer be contained. Our nerves had reached a breaking point. Our very skin was aching. It was as though madness had infected all of us. We gave up. A few young men forced her to sit down, then bound and gagged her. 

Their treatment of the woman may seem harsh, but you have to picture their situation.  The woman scares them.  Her screams make the experience, which is already frightening, terrifying.  She wears away at their nerves until they just gag her to get some peace. 

When she breaks free and starts screaming again, they hit her.  Wiesel says that these “several blows to the head” could have been fatal.  Again, the passengers are desperate.  They do not know where they are going or what awaits them, thus their cruelty.  Somehow, the woman’s screams are prophetic.  There is indeed a fire waiting for them.  The Nazis burned people alive in giant ovens or killed them in cyanide showers.  Few in this car would survive.

What type of graph would be appropriate for visualizing a data set of dissolved oxygen vs number of fish observed?

Since we have two variables that may bear some relation to one another, a scatter plot is probably the best option for visualizing this data. A scatter plot would show us whether there is any relationship between the two variables, and give us a place to start in devising models to analyze and predict that relationship.For example, if all the points lie close to a straight line, we have a linear correlation, and we...

Since we have two variables that may bear some relation to one another, a scatter plot is probably the best option for visualizing this data.

A scatter plot would show us whether there is any relationship between the two variables, and give us a place to start in devising models to analyze and predict that relationship.

For example, if all the points lie close to a straight line, we have a linear correlation, and we could run linear regressions to understand the relationship between the two variables. But if they follow a different shaped curve such as a logarithmic curve or a parabola, this won't be picked up in a linear regression even though it could be a real effect.

The hardest part in this case would be to determine which variable to put on the X axis, normally the independent variable, and which to put on the Y axis, normally the dependent variable. There are plausible theories that would make causation run both ways: Perhaps fish survive better in highly-oxygenated water, so more oxygen causes more fish; on the other hand, perhaps large fish populations deplete the oxygen in the water, so more fish causes less oxygen. Both effects could exist, and drive the system toward an equilibrium---in which case we might observe no correlation despite the two variables being closely related. (This happens in economics all the time; price and quantity are almost never directly correlated, even though price and quantity drive each other directly by supply and demand.)

What is the meaning of the phrase "talking overmuch is a sign of vanity"?

For modern speakers of English, this phrase may be somewhat difficult to understand because the word “overmuch” is not one that is commonly used today.  It is a much more archaic usage.  The phrase that you have given us means something like “if a person talks too much, it shows that they are vain.”

In English, we can use the word “over” in a variety of ways.  One way we can use it is as...

For modern speakers of English, this phrase may be somewhat difficult to understand because the word “overmuch” is not one that is commonly used today.  It is a much more archaic usage.  The phrase that you have given us means something like “if a person talks too much, it shows that they are vain.”

In English, we can use the word “over” in a variety of ways.  One way we can use it is as a prefix meaning something like “excessively.”  For example, if I “overbake” a cake, it means I baked the cake too long and it is excessively cooked.  If I say that someone “overstayed” their welcome, it means that they stayed too long.  In the phrase you have given us, “over” is being used in this way.  The word “overmuch” means “excessively much.”

Once we understand this, we can understand the phrase better.  It is saying that talking overmuch (talking too much or excessively much) is a sign of vanity.  Vanity is the quality of being excessively proud of oneself.  If you talk too much, it could very well mean that you are too proud of yourself.  You think that your own opinions are so great that everyone should hear them.  You think everyone will be fascinated by the stories you tell.  You are, in a word, vain.

Thus, this phrase means something like “if a person talks too much, it is evidence that they are vain.”

What is a brief summary of Chapter 21 of The Story of My Life by Helen Keller?

In this chapter, Helen Keller discusses how she began to read. She first started reading stories in Braille again and again, as she became interested in the words and improving her vocabulary. At times, her teacher, Anne Sullivan, also signed stories into her hand. When Keller visited the Perkins Institute in Boston, she began to read more assiduously. She loved the book Little Lord Fauntleroy so much that she became an even more avid reader.

...

In this chapter, Helen Keller discusses how she began to read. She first started reading stories in Braille again and again, as she became interested in the words and improving her vocabulary. At times, her teacher, Anne Sullivan, also signed stories into her hand. When Keller visited the Perkins Institute in Boston, she began to read more assiduously. She loved the book Little Lord Fauntleroy so much that she became an even more avid reader.

She mentions all the difficult types of books she has read, including works from ancient Greece such as the Iliad and Aeneid. She particularly enjoyed reading the Bible and says, "For years I have read it with an ever-broadening sense of joy and inspiration; and I love it as I love no other book." In addition, in college, she read works in German and French, and she has read Shakespeare, poetry, and works of history. At the end of this chapter, she says, "In a word, literature is my Utopia." Literature opened worlds to her that were not accessible in other ways. 

What are the challenges of participating in a group project? What skills are needed to participate in a group project?What could someone learn...

There are many challenges a person may face when working on a group project. When working on a group project, you must be aware of the needs, desires, and goals of the other people working on the project. While you might have a clear vision about what should be done, you will need to consider what other people are doing and thinking. If you were working on this alone, you could do whatever you wanted,...

There are many challenges a person may face when working on a group project. When working on a group project, you must be aware of the needs, desires, and goals of the other people working on the project. While you might have a clear vision about what should be done, you will need to consider what other people are doing and thinking. If you were working on this alone, you could do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted.

You also have to be able to handle different personalities and work styles. Other people may have a very different way of attacking a project. Some people like to wait until a deadline approaches. Others like to start working on the project right away. Some people like to think of many different options. They may think outside the box. Others want to focus on one or two key ideas.

When working in a group, it is important to validate other people’s thoughts and opinions. It is important to make people understand they are important to the group. It is important to communicate respectfully and openly. Failure to do this may lead to team members shutting down and not contributing, which can affect the final product.

To be successful when working in a group, you need many skills. One skill you must possess is to be a good listener. You need to make a person feel their ideas, thoughts, and concerns are being heard. You need to have empathy for a person who feels they aren’t being treated well. You must be a person who can collaborate with others. You need to realize your ideas will not always be accepted. You need to know when to pick your battles and when to let things slide.

By observing a group, you can learn what strategies work and are most effective under specific circumstances. You can also learn what doesn’t work, and then avoid repeating those mistakes when you are working on a group project. You can also focus on individual people and watch how they operate. This will give you some insight into different work styles people have.

Working on a group project can be rewarding. It can also be challenging. Your skills and the skills of the people with whom you are working will help determine if the group project will or will not be successful.

In Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, war is a potentially stressful experience for those involved: combatants, support staff, medical personnel,...

The formidable amount of stress caused in war makes it difficult to remember details from wartime experiences correctly.

In no way would the inability to fully recall all wartime experiences correctly indict the person who has suffered through war.  However, it is clear that the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that war triggers impacts the memory of the individual.  In a study on the topic, Dr. Kristin Samuelson from the California School of Professional Psychology concluded that...

The formidable amount of stress caused in war makes it difficult to remember details from wartime experiences correctly.

In no way would the inability to fully recall all wartime experiences correctly indict the person who has suffered through war.  However, it is clear that the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that war triggers impacts the memory of the individual.  In a study on the topic, Dr. Kristin Samuelson from the California School of Professional Psychology concluded that "Memory dysfunction" is a significant result of PTSD.  She argues that the "trauma exposure" intrinsic to war creates "Memory disturbances" that "are predominant in the presentation of post-traumatic stress disorder."  The mind that emerges from war must experience a tremendous amount of processing to make sense of what happened. This processing takes place on multiple emotional and psychological levels, and can impact recollections from memory.  Making sense of such an experience would take priority over isolated factual recall and minutiae.  For example, someone who is trying to make sense of seeing injustice done to their family might not focus on the time and date it occurred.   

Wartime experiences impact the ability to meet a perfect standard of detailed recollection.  Some of the criticism leveled against Ishmael Beah and his account in A Long Way Gone comes from questioning the idea that the memories offered are absolutely accurate.  The critique suggests that because of the intense trauma Beah experienced as a child, which included subjugation, murder and drug use, his account might not be fully correct. Given how it is entirely first hand, some details could have been changed since the mind's processing of such an experience is so intense and difficult to chart.  

However, even if we stipulate that some of the details might not mesh with places and dates, we should not discard what Beah presents.  He was a child soldier, subjected to the worst of treatment, and children have experienced and continue to endure this same reality. While the fact-recall elements can be debated, the narrative that Beah depicted is quite real, according to Amani M'Bale, a worker with a humanitarian organization in Sierra Leone:

There are thousands of young people who weren't as lucky as Ishmael...They remain here, their lives interrupted, simply without the means to secure a livelihood. Many are illiterate. It's important for us to do something to give these people hope.

War makes it very difficult for people to remember details from their wartime experiences correctly.  However, that should not be a reason to discredit what they endured. Acknowledging the horrors of war is one of the most important ways to stop it from happening, as Beah illuminates in A Long Way Gone.

What strong social statement is Bradbury making about the future of humans in a technological world in Fahrenheit 451? What does he feel society...

While many science fiction writers are techno-optimists who assume the advance of technology will improve human wisdom, Bradbury is a pessimist who sees the technology of mass media and electronic entertainment as leading to stultification of the human spirit and a tyranny of the lowest common denominator of thought. He sees the very difficulty of books as their virtue and the ease of consumption of television as leading to a dumbing down of the populace.

...

While many science fiction writers are techno-optimists who assume the advance of technology will improve human wisdom, Bradbury is a pessimist who sees the technology of mass media and electronic entertainment as leading to stultification of the human spirit and a tyranny of the lowest common denominator of thought. He sees the very difficulty of books as their virtue and the ease of consumption of television as leading to a dumbing down of the populace.

In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury argues that mass media becomes a narcotic (similar to Marx's notion of religion as the "opiate of the masses") and that the way it contributes to its mental pacification of the populace is by avoiding anything that might give offense to anyone and thus anything that might awake people from their mental torpor.

On these grounds, Bradbury is especially opposed to all forms of censorship. Although when he wrote this book, the dominant anti-censorship battles had to do with issues of sexuality and religion, he would have found equally abhorrent recent efforts to stymie free speech under such guises as "trigger warnings" or "hate speech". He would not feel that college students should be protected from things they found offensive. Instead, he would argue that being offended is a form of active engagement and that the job of the writer is to make readers think and react—even if some readers are offended in the process. 

He feels that to save society one must sustain the possibility of dissenting voices saying things that make us feel uncomfortable and that challenge accepted beliefs and certainties. 

Who is Nestor?

Nestor is not actually a character in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Instead, he is one of the leaders of the Greeks in the Trojan War and figures prominently in Homer's Iliad. Because of the importance of classical culture in anglophone literature, most people writing in English assume their readers will be familiar with the Homeric epics, and thus allusions to figures such as Nestor are common.

Nestor was the King of...

Nestor is not actually a character in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Instead, he is one of the leaders of the Greeks in the Trojan War and figures prominently in Homer's Iliad. Because of the importance of classical culture in anglophone literature, most people writing in English assume their readers will be familiar with the Homeric epics, and thus allusions to figures such as Nestor are common.

Nestor was the King of Pylos. His distinguishing characteristics in the Iliad are his age and his wisdom. Unlike many of the other heroes, he is not described as being at the peak of his fighting prowess, but because of his age, brings considerable patience, experience, and expertise to the Greek army and offers sage counsel to Agamemnon and the other leaders. He is renowned for his wisdom. Unlike Odysseus, who is clever and unscrupulous, Nestor is wise in a way that includes good moral judgment.

What is the author's style in The Color of Water by James McBride?

The Color of Water is a combined autobiography and memoir. In the odd-numbered chapters, McBride tells the story of his mother in her own voice, and these chapters use italics. He is able to capture the voice of his mother, a Jewish woman who later told her children that she was a light-skinned black woman. For example, in Chapter 1, he writes in his mother's voice, "My family mourned me when I married your...

The Color of Water is a combined autobiography and memoir. In the odd-numbered chapters, McBride tells the story of his mother in her own voice, and these chapters use italics. He is able to capture the voice of his mother, a Jewish woman who later told her children that she was a light-skinned black woman. For example, in Chapter 1, he writes in his mother's voice, "My family mourned me when I married your father. They said kaddish and sat shiva" (page 2). He uses the Hebrew words that his mother might have used as a child, and he captures his mother's world. 

In even-numbered chapters, he tells his own story in a non-italicized font. He writes about his confusion about his mother's identity in his own voice, one that is very different from that of his mother. He writes, for example, "Mommy's contradictions crashed and slammed against one another like bumper cars in Coney Island" (page 29). Eventually, he puts together the story of his mother's identity in a memoir that is made more powerful by combining his voice with that of his mother. 

What are "lie detector" questions that could be posed to different characters in The Crucible by Arthur Miller?

"Lie detector" questions should be directly designed to evoke a physical reaction that could be seen in the results.  

The answers to questions put forth in a polygraph test (the technical term for a 'lie detector') should be binary. Little in way of explanation should be present. We are looking to see what the machine can find in the reactions of the subject. For example, Abigail should be enlisted in taking a polygraph test....

"Lie detector" questions should be directly designed to evoke a physical reaction that could be seen in the results.  

The answers to questions put forth in a polygraph test (the technical term for a 'lie detector') should be binary. Little in way of explanation should be present. We are looking to see what the machine can find in the reactions of the subject. For example, Abigail should be enlisted in taking a polygraph test. The questions asked of her would delve into her actions. For example, "Did you have sexual relations with John Proctor?" or "Did you lust after John Proctor?" would be the type of questions that could force Abigail to acknowledge her feelings about John. Throughout the play, Abigail's emotional state regarding Proctor is never vetted. If some level of delving had occurred, Abigail's credibility might be questioned. Another question that might generate interesting polygraph results would be to ask Abigail if she went into the woods to conjure a spell against Goody Proctor. Parris begins the process of asking Abigail about that night in the woods, but she does a great job of inverting the dialogue and creating misdirections so Parris relents in his questioning. In a lie detector test, Abigail could not successfully utilize her evasive tactics.

Near the end of Act I, the girls follow Abigail's example and identify "witches" in Salem. The girls are taken at their word. No one questions their claims. As a result, putting them under a polygraph test is entirely appropriate. I would ask Betty when she saw Goody Bibber with the Devil, and I would ask Abigail when she saw Goody Hawkins and Goody Booth with the devil. I would further ask Abigail where she was when she saw Goody Sibber with the devil. I would try to ask direct questions that would force the girls to give specific details that do not exist. I think subjecting the girls to direct and focused questions that would force them into lies would be when the lie detector could be most effective.

Can mercury react with water? If so, what is the reaction?

Mercury does not react with water. Mercury and water do not mix, as mercury is almost 5.43 times more dense than water, causing it to sink to the bottom of a container if the two are mixed. 

Mercury can react with oxygen molecules at high temperatures, so if the water were to be chemically altered, such as through electrolysis, the mercury could bond and form a salt. Mercury can also react with some acids, so...

Mercury does not react with water. Mercury and water do not mix, as mercury is almost 5.43 times more dense than water, causing it to sink to the bottom of a container if the two are mixed. 

Mercury can react with oxygen molecules at high temperatures, so if the water were to be chemically altered, such as through electrolysis, the mercury could bond and form a salt. Mercury can also react with some acids, so if the water is impure, there may be smaller reactions occurring and corrupting your mixture.

Because mercury has such a high surface tension, if water and mercury are mixed and agitated, you might be able to cause small beads of mercury to separate themselves from the main body of mercury, but this is a physical change, not a reaction.

How does energy get from the sun to a second-level consumer?

When the sun's energy strikes the earth, plants can capture some through the process of photosynthesis. Plants are then eaten by first level consumers (herbivores). By definition, a second level consumer is a carnivore--an animal that consumes these herbivores. In this way, the sun's energy is accessed by the second level consumers.

Autotrophs (plants, producers) have the ability to capture the energy of the sun--virtually all life on earth is dependent on the ability of...

When the sun's energy strikes the earth, plants can capture some through the process of photosynthesis. Plants are then eaten by first level consumers (herbivores). By definition, a second level consumer is a carnivore--an animal that consumes these herbivores. In this way, the sun's energy is accessed by the second level consumers.

Autotrophs (plants, producers) have the ability to capture the energy of the sun--virtually all life on earth is dependent on the ability of plants to photosynthesize. This is the process performed in plants that takes carbon dioxide and water, and with the energy of the sun transforms them into sugar and oxygen. The sugar that is a product of photosynthesis contains chemical energy. The plant itself uses some of this energy. Some is transferred to the animal that consumes the plant. The transfer is only about 10% efficient; that is, the animal can only obtain about 10% of the energy available in the plant. The rest is lost as heat. This 10% efficiency continues up the successive levels of the energy "pyramid"--10% of that available at each level is utilized by the next consumer.

How is the first line of Pride and Prejudice "It is a truth universally acknowledged..." an example of authorial intrusion?

Authorial intrusion describes when an author sort of steps away from the story to address the audience directly.  It has the effect of making the reader less of an outsider to the story and establishes something more like a one-to-one relationship between author and reader.  It lessens the distance between the two.  The first line of the novel, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must...

Authorial intrusion describes when an author sort of steps away from the story to address the audience directly.  It has the effect of making the reader less of an outsider to the story and establishes something more like a one-to-one relationship between author and reader.  It lessens the distance between the two.  The first line of the novel, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife," is so famous, in part, because of its irony.  Austen infuses such irony throughout the entirety of the novel, and she uses it to help us understand that she does not agree with such a statement. 

Further, this kind of irony allows us to ascertain that she takes serious issue with the way the marriage market, in general, works.  Consider the choice of someone like Charlotte Lucas: she can either marry an idiot or run the risk that she will become a burden and embarrassment to her family.  Therefore, one could read this line as an example of authorial intrusion because Austen is using irony to show the reader that she disagrees with a statement such as this as well as alerting us to the fact that this text will vigorously employ irony to skewer common attitudes about everything from marriage to women's reading.

What is the impact of software engineers in society?

First, some clarification--software engineers develop algorithms and solve generalized problems--while they can write the code that generates a particular computer program, it is not likely to be their main job.  Software engineers can work for a large company and can project growth in order to sell an organization a program.  They can also be involved in setting up networks between computers in an organization and creating firewalls for added security.  

Software engineers have a...

First, some clarification--software engineers develop algorithms and solve generalized problems--while they can write the code that generates a particular computer program, it is not likely to be their main job.  Software engineers can work for a large company and can project growth in order to sell an organization a program.  They can also be involved in setting up networks between computers in an organization and creating firewalls for added security.  

Software engineers have a massive societal impact.  Computer hacking software is quite sophisticated and engineers work to encrypt data so that it does not fall into the wrong hands.  Engineers also discuss ways to secure electronic transactions such as purchases made on the Internet or in a store using a credit card.  Software engineers convince businesses of their need for software in order to ensure growth--this growth drives the local and national economy as businesses hire more people to work with the software.   

What does Miss Trunchbull want to do to Nigel Hicks in Matilda by Roald Dahl?

Probably because Nigel is such a smart, confident little boy, and because Miss Trunchbull feels threatened by people who are clever, she really doesn't like him. She's also obsessed with cleanliness, but Nigel is a messy kid. So, she wants to scare him, bully him, and make him submit to her, but he won't.

When Miss Trunchbull visits Miss Honey's class to take over the lesson one afternoon after lunch, Miss Trunchbull and Nigel have...

Probably because Nigel is such a smart, confident little boy, and because Miss Trunchbull feels threatened by people who are clever, she really doesn't like him. She's also obsessed with cleanliness, but Nigel is a messy kid. So, she wants to scare him, bully him, and make him submit to her, but he won't.

When Miss Trunchbull visits Miss Honey's class to take over the lesson one afternoon after lunch, Miss Trunchbull and Nigel have a very tense conversation during which Miss Trunchbull wants to

• force Nigel to be polite to her and address her by her name after every sentence he says aloud;


• make Nigel admit, because his hands are dirty and he has a bean on his shirt, that both Nigel and his father are filthy, stupid people;


• banish Nigel from her sight, making him remain in the corner, faced away from her, while standing on one foot;


• and embarrass Nigel and his class by proving that they are bad at spelling.

Of course, Nigel is so clever that he absolutely does not let Miss Trunchbull get the better of him. In fact, toward the end of the story, when Miss Trunchbull faints, Nigel is the one who gleefully douses her with a pitcher of water--essentially scoring a victory over her.

What should I do after I graduate high school if I don't want to go to college?

There are many alternatives to college. First of all, there are many trade schools and programs. You do not have to spend a lot of money for these. You can become an apprentice to a carpenter, for example. Carpenters make quite a bit of money. You can also become a plumber or a mechanic. These are good paying jobs where there are other paths to certification than expensive programs.

The first thing you should do is talk to adults you know. You can consider family members who have careers you are interested in, especially ones that do not require degrees. You would be surprised at which jobs do not require degrees. Many jobs do require on-the-job training, but you can get paid while you work.

If you have a hobby, an interest, or a family business, this is a good place to start. Even if it is not what you want to do with your life, it is a good place to begin. Also, sometimes you can just start applying for jobs. Often you have no idea that you are interested in something until you see it. Some jobs train you and only require a high school diploma.

Most communities have job fairs. They will also provide information on trade schools, community colleges, and other secondary education options. Every community is different and it depends on where your interests lie and how much money is available to you. You can also contact local trade unions about their apprenticeship programs, such as the carpenters’ union, plumbers’ union or electricians’ union.

Community colleges often have more than just Associate of Arts degrees offered. They usually have certificate programs of various kinds available. For example, you could learn computer programming, video game design, project management for construction, or earn some other kind of certification there.

How can I come up with a sequel to Boyle's "Greasy Lake"?

A sequel is a story that launches from a previous story and tells what came after or as a result of the first story. In the case of the violently graphic short story "Greasy Lake," a sequel would unravel what happens to the narrator and his friends when the ordinary circumstances of daylight life meet the aftermath of a cannabis and alcohol filled night, a night of violence and tragedy.

More specifically, your sequel would tell what happens after they commit the primal crimes, the "Ur-crimes." Your sequel would also need to tell what happens after the psychological shocks of the separate incidents of horror, realization and primitive urge: hot-bloodedly hitting his foe with the tire iron; coming face-to-face with a watery corpse; the attack on the girl. While the story is particularly violent and brutal, with scenes that are intense and graphic, the writing of these scenes comprises only a few lines: 8 to 10 lines for the attack on the girl and the image of their being "dirty, bloody, guilty." Your sequel would maintain the ratio developed in the story, proportioning the amount of space given to psychological introspection versus that given to dirty, bloody guilt.

Finally, your sequel would develop the allusion at the end of the story that suggests an association of his fate with "fence," a symbol for incarceration. At the end of the story, the narrator can only imagine what is facing him, but there is a suggestion of certainty that it will have something to do with fenced-off imprisonment. The sequel would fulfill this fence allusion, an allusion reinforced by the earlier imagined conversation: "'I don't know, the murderer said. Something came over me.'"

Stylistically, your sequel would preserve the elements of craft that develop mood, foreshadow events and reveal character psychology. More specifically, your sequel would continue the poetical references to nature: "eastern half of the sky ... cobalt"; "the birds had begun"; "buds and opening blossoms." Nature references develop the contrast between what will happen in daylight and what happens that night. A critical element of the nature references is the inclusion of harsh descriptors: black, take over, lay slick, sun firing, fence round the perimeter. These harsh words in the heart of a poetical reference to birds, flowers and a dawn sky set the mood and develop foreshadowing, foreshadowing that provides key indicators of what the sequel would reveal as the fate of the narrator and his friends (who seemingly would share the same fate but not necessarily so).  

The writing style of the sequel would demand intelligent writing. The narrator uses Biblical, Classical and cultural allusions in his ordinary course of thought: e.g., cultural allusion, "Louisville slugger," a kind of baseball bat. For integrity in his character, which would not change during the confrontation and punishment part of his story (think of Camus' The Stranger)--and they will face punishing consequences since they themselves are walking evidence of horrible deeds as the Bel Air is driven evidence--his mode of personal inner thought needs to stay the same, and his mode of thought indicates a high intelligence and a quality education, this notwithstanding his existential angst-ridden psychological state.

One other stylistic consideration based on the psychology of the narrator strongly suggests the inclusion of flashbacks to horrors, shocks and primitive urges: e.g., flashbacks to the dead man in the water, the blow with the tire iron, the screams of the foxy girl, the wobbling of the stoned girls in stilettos. Note that part of the stylistics of the original story is the use of labels, like "the fox," instead of names, a technique that makes use of Jungian primal archetypes to develop character psychology, while the narrator's psychology is further developed by his stream-of-consciousness musings.

"I contemplated suicide, wondered if I'd need bridgework, scraped the recesses of my brain for some sort of excuse to give my parents .... Then I thought of the dead man. ... and felt the tug of fear, felt the darkness opening inside of me.... Who was he I wondered, this victim of time and circumstance...." (narrator, "Greasy Lake")

How do you know that your memories are true?

As it turns out, our memories are not true in the sense that we believe they are. In what we would think of as a true memory, we would have something more like a video in our minds, one that recorded everything we were experiencing.  In fact, every time we pull out a memory and dust it off, it changes a little, getting a kind of overlay of the new person we have become since...

As it turns out, our memories are not true in the sense that we believe they are. In what we would think of as a true memory, we would have something more like a video in our minds, one that recorded everything we were experiencing.  In fact, every time we pull out a memory and dust it off, it changes a little, getting a kind of overlay of the new person we have become since we last retrieved it.  This is how we remember people whom we do not see too often. Did George go bald? It is likely that your memory has picked up on that and stored it where his long hair used to be.  And our memories are completely selective, such that two people can be at the same event and remember entirely different people and actions.  The more we learn about how memories are formed and retrieved, the more we come to realize how unreliable they really are, one of the reasons that eyewitness testimony has resulted in many erroneous convictions. 

Having said that, though, I will say there are ways you can check on various facets of what you remember. Another person might confirm by having the same or similar memory.  A newspaper account might include something you think you remember, and you can check that way.  Some people keep a journal where they write down various "facts" they can check on later.  What you will often find is that people do have slightly different versions for themselves. If I didn't know better, I might swear that my sons were raised in completely different households, based upon what they remember.  But it is in the overlap of memories like these, what people agree happened or was said, that you can sometimes confirm what you believe you remember.  At the very least, they agree on what their parent's names are and where we went for family vacations when they were young. 

What do you think would happen if Earth's tectonic plates ever stopped moving? Why?

The tectonic plates stopping per se would not be catastrophic. It would reduce the formation of new crust on volcanic vents and stop the formation of mountains. Eventually, the Earth would erode until almost all land was at the same level, meaning everything would be underwater. Life could definitely still survive that, though; indeed, most of the world's life lives underwater. Moreover, it would take millions of years to do this, so land-dwellers would have...

The tectonic plates stopping per se would not be catastrophic. It would reduce the formation of new crust on volcanic vents and stop the formation of mountains. Eventually, the Earth would erode until almost all land was at the same level, meaning everything would be underwater. Life could definitely still survive that, though; indeed, most of the world's life lives underwater. Moreover, it would take millions of years to do this, so land-dwellers would have a lot of time to prepare. In the meantime, there would be no more earthquakes to deal with!

The real catastrophe would come from why the tectonic plates stopped moving. The only really plausible way this could happen would be if the Earth's core cooled and solidified, meaning there was no longer hot magma being fed upward into and through the mantle. If that ever happened, it would be catastrophic, though it would take a long time.

While the flow of the core—and the resulting magnetic field of the Earth—has changed direction and strength over thousands of years, it has never completely stopped. If it did, solar radiation reaching the surface would increase dramatically. This would have a direct effect of killing many organisms on the surface (it would be like the whole world was sitting in the Van Allen Belt), but the now-freed solar wind stripping away the Earth's atmosphere would be even more problematic. It would take a few billion years to strip away completely, and life might be able to adapt, but we're pretty sure this is what happened on Mars and that's why no life has been discovered there.

What are parens patriae and due process? What are the unintended consequences of providing youths with greater due process rights in juvenile...

Parens patriaemeans "parents of the country," and refers to the right of the state to take action against negligent or abusive parents or legal guardians and to act in the place of the parent for children or people who are legally adults but unable to take care of themselves, such as incapacitated adults. Due process of law is the requirement that the state provide all people with their legal rights; due process rights mean...

Parens patriae means "parents of the country," and refers to the right of the state to take action against negligent or abusive parents or legal guardians and to act in the place of the parent for children or people who are legally adults but unable to take care of themselves, such as incapacitated adults. Due process of law is the requirement that the state provide all people with their legal rights; due process rights mean a person has the right to be heard in court before being sentenced. Juveniles accused of committing a crime have four basic rights: to be informed of their rights and of the charges against them; the privilege against self-incrimination; to be represented by legal counsel; and to confront their accuser and cross-examine witnesses. These rights come from the 1967 Supreme Court case In Re Gault. This case provided many — but not all — due process rights to juveniles. For example, juveniles do not have the right to a trial by jury. 

The juvenile court system has been moving from a position of parens patriae to extending due process rights to juveniles. The unintended consequence of providing juveniles with greater due process rights is that juvenile cases are now more like adult criminal cases. Under a parens patriae system, prosecutors have to be fair but interested in the welfare of the juveniles. The judges in a parens patriae system often act like social workers and try to find solutions to help juveniles. They have more latitude to figure out courses of action that might help the juveniles. Under a due process system, however, prosecutors have to be fair but not necessarily interested. That means prosecutors try to convict juveniles of crimes in a more adversarial way than they do in the parens patriae system. 

In A Long Walk to Water, what is Salva's role to the reader influentially and morally?

In the novel A Long Walk to Water, Salva plays a significant role to the reader in several different contexts. This novel is unique in the sense that it tells the stories of one fictional character and one real person. Salva is the main character, and his story is one of a young Sudanese boy who overcomes tragedy to save thousands of lives through his courage and charity.

Salva's Influential Role

As the main character, Salva's influential role in the story is made clear to the reader from the beginning. After he is separated from his family at the age of 11, Salva is forced to travel a long distance on foot in order to escape other gunmen. Without food or water, he struggles to survive in a harsh environment while helping others. Salva's influence becomes apparent when he takes on a leadership role among other lost boys of Sudan. He leads the group to safety at a refugee camp and is taken to America seven years later. While in America, Salva uses the influence he gained from telling his story and his act of heroism to start a charity called Water for South Sudan.

Salva's Moral Role

Salva is a strong moral character, and his story gives the reader insight into the complex moral issues that caused the conflict in Sudan. Even while struggling to survive in a country torn apart by the Second Sudanese Civil War, Salva demonstrates great moral courage. His voice as a character is strong and compelling, helping the reader understand each decision he makes throughout the story. By the conclusion of A Long Walk to Water, the reader understands the moral importance of investing in charities such as Water for South Sudan.

In addition to his role as an ambassador for the Sudanese water crisis, Salva also helps the reader understand the complex nature of the Sudanese civil war. Salva makes a strong moral argument against the violence that characterized much of his childhood in Sudan and separated him from his family. He also serves as a moral exemplar by caring for the other lost boys of Sudan despite his own fears and all he has suffered.

Salva's Role in Relation to Nya

Throughout A Long Walk to Water, Salva is a strong, influential, and moral character. His true story is engaging and told in a manner that makes it easy or the reader to relate to his emotions and motivations. Nya's fictional account is a poignant complement to his journey, as it carries the moral themes of Salva's story through to the present-day life of a young girl in a Sudanese village. Both stories combine to support Salva's message of compassion, bravery, and the importance of access to clean water as a basic human right.

What are the climax and themes of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

The climax or point of highest interest in the plot of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet occurs in Act III, Scene 1 when Romeo kills Tybalt after the death of Mercutio. Romeo is subsequently banished, leading directly to the falling action and resolution of the play when Romeo and Juliet commit suicide. There are several themes in Romeo and Juliet,but the three that seem to stand out are the contrast between love and hate, the...

The climax or point of highest interest in the plot of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet occurs in Act III, Scene 1 when Romeo kills Tybalt after the death of Mercutio. Romeo is subsequently banished, leading directly to the falling action and resolution of the play when Romeo and Juliet commit suicide. There are several themes in Romeo and Juliet, but the three that seem to stand out are the contrast between love and hate, the power of fate and the contrast of light and dark. 

The contrast between love and hate is at its most extreme in the middle of the play as Romeo and Juliet marry each other in Act II, Scene 6. The wedding is quick and secret, but there seems to be no denying the fact that the two young people are blissfully in love and grateful to be married. This act of ultimate love is immediately followed in Act III, Scene 1 by the violence of hate as Tybalt kills Mercutio and is, in turn, killed by Romeo in a fit of revenge.

The power of fate, which is often referred to as the "stars," pervades the plot. It is first pronounced in the Prologue as the audience is informed that "A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life." It is also hinted at in different sections as both Romeo and Juliet entertain the idea that their love may eventually lead to death. In fact, Romeo foreshadows his own death in Act I, Scene 4 as he claims that his attendance at the Capulet party may be the beginning of the end:

I fear too early, for my mind misgives
Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels, and expire the term
Of a despisèd life closed in my breast
By some vile forfeit of untimely death.

The imagery of light and dark is also pervasive. In Act I, Scene 1, Romeo is said to go into his room and shut out the light because he is in love with a girl who does not return his affection:

Away from light steals home my heavy son
And private in his chamber pens himself,
Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,
And makes himself an artificial night.

When Romeo first sees Juliet, she lights up his world and "teaches the torches to burn bright." Throughout the balcony scene (Act II, Scene 2), Romeo again uses the the metaphor of light to portray Juliet. The imagery of light and dark, however, is sometimes juxtaposed in the play. In Act III, Scene 5, as Romeo and Juliet are waking up from their honeymoon night, the dark, in the form of the nightingale, is the couple's ally. It is the lark, "the herald of the morn" and daylight, which is their enemy. 

What is the difference between Jane Austen and William Shakespeare's novels? I need the answer for a power point project.

The question leads us to a discussion of literary kinds (further broken up into genres).  Technically, Shakespeare didn’t write “novels,” if we look at the definitions given us by Aristotle:  epics (the forerunners of novels) have several narrators (the classic example is The Odyssey); poetry has one narrator (often in the first person – “I think that I shall never see…”); drama has no narrator – this is where Shakespeare’s work (excluding for this...

The question leads us to a discussion of literary kinds (further broken up into genres).  Technically, Shakespeare didn’t write “novels,” if we look at the definitions given us by Aristotle:  epics (the forerunners of novels) have several narrators (the classic example is The Odyssey); poetry has one narrator (often in the first person – “I think that I shall never see…”); drama has no narrator – this is where Shakespeare’s work (excluding for this discussion his poems) fits in – his stories are told by the characters themselves with no interloping narrator.  Jane Austen wrote “novels,” defined as full-length stories told by a narrator (omniscient) and including dialogue, which is another narrative form (sometimes called an “unreliable narrator.”  Of course, the literary works of these two authors differ in many other respects, also.

What is the plot of the short story "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe?

Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Black Cat" was published in 1845. Written in first-person point of view, it is the story of one man's descent into madness as a result of an addiction to alcohol. It bears many similarities to Poe's story "The Tell-Tale Heart." 

The narrator begins by describing his gentle and kind nature. He has a great affinity for animals. He and his wife have a collection of animals, including a large black cat named Pluto. The narrator describes Pluto as his favorite of all the animals. The narrator is the only one who feeds this cat, and the cat follows him nearly everywhere he goes. 

The narrator describes the disintegration of the affectionate relationship with the cat as a result of his growing addiction to alcohol. His alcoholism changes his demeanor, as well as his feelings for the cat. The narrator, returning home from a night of drinking, thinks the cat is avoiding him, and for that reason, he grabs the cat. Pluto reacts by biting him on the hand, and the narrator flies into a rage. He takes out a pen knife and gouges out Pluto's eye. 

After this, the narrator describes feelings of great remorse, but confesses the remorse never really fills his soul. The cat recovers but avoids the narrator. The narrator describes his descent into what he calls "a spirit of perverseness." He claims he causes further harm to the cat based on his perverse human nature. 

Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart—one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?

The narrator hangs the cat from a tree in the garden. He explains that he did it for no other reason than that he knew that by harming the cat he was committing a sin. That night, his house is destroyed in a fire. The narrator is careful to point out there is not a likely correlation between these two events. The house is a total loss except for one wall, the wall on which the narrator's bed rested. The neighbors gather around the wall and marvel at what they see. The narrator discovers there is an image of a cat on the wall. He describes this image as containing so much detail that he compares it to a bas relief. The image contains a noose around the cat's neck  

Insanely, the narrator reasons that since neighbors gathered in the garden where the cat was hung, one of them must have cut the cat down and threw it in the window of his bedroom in order to warn him of the fire. He thinks the lime of the still-wet plaster and the ammonia from the carcass could have caused the picture of the cat. 

Later, the narrator is drinking, and he sees a cat sitting on a barrel of gin. The cat is a clone of Pluto in all ways except a white mark on his breast. The cat shows the narrator great affection and follows him home. In the morning, he sees the cat is missing an eye. He begins to dread the animal. The cat follows him everywhere, rubbing up against him constantly, which causes him to trip frequently. 

One day, he goes down to the cellar for an errand. His wife accompanies him, as does the cat. The cat nearly trips him on the steep stairs. He is incited to rage and raises an ax to kill the animal. His tender-hearted wife raises her hand to stop him, so he plunges the ax into her head instead. 

At this point, all confessions of remorse are gone from the narrator's speech. He sets about describing how he will dispose of the body. He decides to place his wife's body in a wall and plaster over it. He accomplishes the feat so well that the police suspect nothing when they arrive. He nearly gets away with murder until the howling begins in the wall. It sounds like the wailing of a child, and when the police break into the wall, they find the woman's body and a black cat sitting on her head. The cat is all black except the white outline of a noose on its neck.

Where is there a synecdoche in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights?

A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is used to stand for a whole (or sometimes, a whole is used to stand for a part). The following sentence from Wuthering Heightscontains a synecdoche: "Mr. Heathcliff may have entirely dissimilar reasons for keeping his hand out of the way when he meets a would-be acquaintance, to those which actuate me." Mr. Lockwood, Heathcliff's tenant, says this about Heathcliff in Chapter 1...

A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is used to stand for a whole (or sometimes, a whole is used to stand for a part). The following sentence from Wuthering Heights contains a synecdoche: "Mr. Heathcliff may have entirely dissimilar reasons for keeping his hand out of the way when he meets a would-be acquaintance, to those which actuate me." Mr. Lockwood, Heathcliff's tenant, says this about Heathcliff in Chapter 1 in reference to Mr. Lockwood's own tendency to be shy and retiring. In this example, "hand" is a synecdoche because it is a part that stands for the whole. Heathcliff does not only keep his hand out of the way when he meets people, but instead keeps his whole body out of the way. "Hand" is used to represent his entire self. 

In Animal Farm, how does Orwell create a sense of panic and fear in chapter 7? What language does he use to show this?

In chapter seven of Animal Farm, Orwell is able to create a sense of panic and fear through his description of the pain of starvation and the terror of Napoleon.

The opening to chapter seven details how the difficult winter led to food shortages.  Orwell refers to the "dry frosty weather" and how the animals hand to endure "cruel work."  This toil was different than what they had experienced before because they did "not feel so hopeful about it as they had before."  At this point, the reality of Animal Farm is settling into the animals' psyche.  The post-revolution euphoria is gone as the animals were "always cold, and usually hungry as well."  With such a physical description, Orwell is able to establish the fearful mood that grips the animals.

This is enhanced with Napoleon's response to the food shortage.  Orwell describes how rations were reduced and further hardship was brought to bear on the animals so that the outside world would not realize how bad things were on the farm. Orwell describes how "starvation seemed to stare them in the face."  

Reminding us of how bad things are for the animals only sets up how much worse it is going to get.  Animals like the hens and the Minorca pullets who protest Napoleon's actions are dealt with severely and brutally. Napoleon orders all the animals to the courtyard in order to publicly address the rising tide of insurrection.  Orwell's language reflects the fear that the animals have as "They all cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was about to happen."

Fear turns into panic once the animals witness Napoleon's brutality.  Orwell describes how the dogs act on Napoleon's orders in dealing with "traitors." The dogs attack their victims as they are "squealing with pain and terror," and bring them to Napoleon's feet.  The animals stare in horror as the "dogs had tasted blood and for a few moments they appeared to go quite mad."  As different animals confess, "the dogs promptly tore their throats out."  Orwell conveys what the animals see in harsh detail: 

They were all slain on the spot. And so the tale of  confessions and executions went on, until there was a pile of corpses lying before Napoleon's feet and the air was heavy with the smell of  blood, which had been unknown there since the expulsion of Jones. 

After seeing all of this, the animals were "shaken and miserable," shocked by "the cruel retribution they had just witnessed."

In detailing Napoleon's cruelty, Orwell is able to create a sense of panic and fear.  Weakened by hunger and terrorized by Napoleon's brutality, the animals are besieged with negative thoughts.  They are a very long way from "Beasts of England."  The chapter closes with the hungry animals walking into an future filled with fear and doubt.

How did the European settlers have a negative impact on the Native Americans?

European settlement in the Americas had a devastating effect on the Native Americans. When the Europeans came to the Americas, the Europeans brought diseases with them to which the Native Americans had no immunity. As a result, many Native Americans died from these diseases such as cholera and chicken pox.

The Europeans also exploited the land on which the Native Americans lived. The Europeans took minerals from the land in order to help their economy...

European settlement in the Americas had a devastating effect on the Native Americans. When the Europeans came to the Americas, the Europeans brought diseases with them to which the Native Americans had no immunity. As a result, many Native Americans died from these diseases such as cholera and chicken pox.

The Europeans also exploited the land on which the Native Americans lived. The Europeans took minerals from the land in order to help their economy and financial situation. The Europeans had no hesitation in harming the Native American culture when taking these minerals.

The Europeans also began to expand once they settled in the Americas. In North America, the expansion of the Europeans led to conflict with the Native Americas. After the Americans won their independence from Great Britain, they began to move westward. There were many battles with the Native Americas. As the Native Americans were defeated, they had to give up land. The government also had policies that were harmful to the Native Americas. The Indian Removal Act forced the Native Americas to relocate to lands that were west of the Mississippi River. As the Americans expanded west of the Mississippi River, the Native Americans were then forced onto reservations. This forced relocation disrupted and destroyed the way of life of the Native Americans.

European colonization had a very harmful impact on the Native Americans.

What is a summary of chapters 6, 7, and 8 in Gary Schmidt's Okay for Now?

One of the most important events in chapter 6 of Gary Schmidt's Okay for Now is that Doug is called into Principal Peattie's officeand told he needs to make up the wrestling unit he has missed, and he must make it up during his fifth-period lunchtime. Most importantly, Principal Peattie says something to Doug that further develops the feelings of hurt, rejection, and inferiority Doug struggles with all throughout the book. When Doug replies...

One of the most important events in chapter 6 of Gary Schmidt's Okay for Now is that Doug is called into Principal Peattie's office and told he needs to make up the wrestling unit he has missed, and he must make it up during his fifth-period lunchtime. Most importantly, Principal Peattie says something to Doug that further develops the feelings of hurt, rejection, and inferiority Doug struggles with all throughout the book. When Doug replies that Coach Reed "must really love me to want to see me twice," Principal Peattie says, "He doesn't," then says something so very hurtful Doug decides not to relay it to his reader (p. 170). The principal's hurtful words remain weighing on his heart throughout the rest of the chapter and book until Principal Peattie finally apologizes, admitting he was wrong. Another major event in chapter 6 is that Doug's older brother, Lucas, returns home from the Vietnam War, having lost his legs.

One important event in chapter 7 is that Doug begins developing a better relationship with Coach Reed as Doug begins helping the coach fill in the "Presidential Physical Fitness charts" (p. 206). Doug further begins bonding with the coach by talking about how silent Lucas is after having returned from the war and about his bad dreams. At first Coach Reed doesn't respond much to Doug's comments about Lucas, but soon enough, the coach asks Doug how his brother is doing; the two of them then enter a conversation about the coach's own dreams from the war.

Multiple important events happen in chapter 8 that, once resolved much later, are a part of the book's overall resolution. The first important event is that Doug arrives home one day to find that his prized baseball, autographed by Babe Ruth, and Joe Pepitone jacket have been taken. Another major event is that his brother Christopher is implicated in a Tools 'n' More Hardware Store robbery. Feeling humiliated by what the town believes to be his brother's behavior, Doug begins skipping classes, which leads him to another run-in with Principal Peattie.