What is Opera Seria?

Opera seria is a genre of opera. It was common in the 18th century. The term itself is Italian, but opera seria was performed in many European countries in addition to Italy. The style of this kind of opera has a more serious tone, as opposed to more comical and lighthearted operas.  

This type of opera was typically enjoyed by the more educated population, such as nobility. Opera seria was popular during the time...

Opera seria is a genre of opera. It was common in the 18th century. The term itself is Italian, but opera seria was performed in many European countries in addition to Italy. The style of this kind of opera has a more serious tone, as opposed to more comical and lighthearted operas.  

This type of opera was typically enjoyed by the more educated population, such as nobility. Opera seria was popular during the time of High Baroque music. Handel and Mozart were two famous composers who created music for operas in the opera seria genre.  

The genre usually centered around tragedy. Order and structure were also important. Operas in the opera seria genre had small casts of characters, rather than large choruses. Complicated arias were a key part of opera seria. These complexities showed off various vocal types, from a high-pitched male voice to a prima donna's voice.

What can we learn about the relationship between the boy and the guardian in "Sredni Vashtar" by Saki?

In the story, we learn that the relationship between Conradin and his guardian, Mrs. De Ropp, is fraught with tension and mutual dislike.

Conradin thinks of Mrs. De Ropp as a nemesis of sorts; for her part, Mrs. De Ropp views Conradin as an emcumbrance in her life. The conflict between Conradin and his guardian stems from the fact that both harbor different viewpoints about life, religion, and social obligations.

While Conradin pines for adventure...

In the story, we learn that the relationship between Conradin and his guardian, Mrs. De Ropp, is fraught with tension and mutual dislike.

Conradin thinks of Mrs. De Ropp as a nemesis of sorts; for her part, Mrs. De Ropp views Conradin as an emcumbrance in her life. The conflict between Conradin and his guardian stems from the fact that both harbor different viewpoints about life, religion, and social obligations.

While Conradin pines for adventure and action, Mrs. De Ropp is prepared to thwart her young cousin's every inclination. In the story, Conradin adopts a polecat-ferret who he names Sredni Vashtar. He keeps the ferret stashed in an unused tool-shed, where he creates an imaginary world he revels in. In this world, Sredni Vashtar is a god who lays "some special stress on the fierce impatient side of things, as opposed to the Woman's religion, which, as far as Conradin could observe, went to great lengths in the contrary direction."

Conradin creates unique, pagan-themed ceremonies to worship his adored god; red flowers and scarlet berries are offered before Sredni Vashtar's altar in deference to this preferred deity. Conradin's actions are the only way the young boy can rebel against the restrictions placed upon him by his guardian. In portraying Conradin's lonely pagan world as a balm against an existence bereft of affection and love, Saki is satirizing the hypocrisies of the upper-classes during the Edwardian era. In Conradin's life, respectability and religion are a facade that obscures the true apathy and animosity between him and Mrs. De Ropp. Indeed, from Saki's prose, we learn that Conradin and his guardian are often engaged in a constant battle of the wills.

How did the supernatural contribute to Macbeth's death?

Though it's Macbeth's own ambition that ultimately causes his downfall, his demise is helped along by the supernatural forces that lurk on the fringes of the play. Indeed, it's the Weird Sisters' prophecy that convinces Macbeth to embark on his murderous rampage in the first place. Though the witches are supernatural beings who don't seem to be fully part of the normal, conventional world, they don't seem to have any problem toying with the lives...

Though it's Macbeth's own ambition that ultimately causes his downfall, his demise is helped along by the supernatural forces that lurk on the fringes of the play. Indeed, it's the Weird Sisters' prophecy that convinces Macbeth to embark on his murderous rampage in the first place. Though the witches are supernatural beings who don't seem to be fully part of the normal, conventional world, they don't seem to have any problem toying with the lives of humans, as they tell Macbeth deceiving half-truths that encourage his rise to power and, later on, his false sense of security. Thus, though Macbeth makes personal choices that lead to his decline and eventual death on the battlefield, his decisions are influenced by the supernatural forces represented by the Weird Sisters. It makes one wonder what might have happened if Macbeth had never encountered the three witches.

What is the meaning of the poem "Ozymandias?"

"Ozymandias" by Shelley is about a narrator who encounters "a traveller from an antique land." The traveller tells the narrator about two enormous legs of a statue that stands in the desert, surrounded by a "shattered visage," or a battered face. On the face of this sculpture is a "sneer of cold command," meaning that the face on the sculpture is making a gesture that conveys disdain and mastery. The sculptor has captured the appearance...

"Ozymandias" by Shelley is about a narrator who encounters "a traveller from an antique land." The traveller tells the narrator about two enormous legs of a statue that stands in the desert, surrounded by a "shattered visage," or a battered face. On the face of this sculpture is a "sneer of cold command," meaning that the face on the sculpture is making a gesture that conveys disdain and mastery. The sculptor has captured the appearance and attitude of the subject. On the pedestal of the statue, Ozymandias, a leader of ancient Egypt, engraved the words "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Yet all around the statue, nothing remains except sand and the ruins of the statue. 

The meaning of the poem is that Ozymandias, an ancient leader, thought he could control his land forever. However, time has made his statue fall into disrepair, showing that no one can control the vastness of the world and of nature. Instead, nature has made his remark seem ironic, as his statue has crumbled into a headless wreck. 

According to Two-Bit, why don't the Socs fight fair in The Outsiders?

Two-Bit says the Socs do not fight fair because they gang up on a guy. 

When Johnny, Pony, and Two-Bit are at the movies with two Soc girls, Cherry and Soc, it is an usual experience for all of them.  It is not common for Socs and greasers to hang out together, but the girls have ditched their boyfriends for being drunk and they are being polite to the greasers. The girls find Pony and...

Two-Bit says the Socs do not fight fair because they gang up on a guy. 

When Johnny, Pony, and Two-Bit are at the movies with two Soc girls, Cherry and Soc, it is an usual experience for all of them.  It is not common for Socs and greasers to hang out together, but the girls have ditched their boyfriends for being drunk and they are being polite to the greasers. The girls find Pony and Two-Bit’s conversation about Dally and Tim Shepard interesting.  Two-Bit says that Shepard is looking for whoever slashed his tires, but there will be a fair fight.  Greasers fight fair, he says, but Socs do not. 

"A fair fight isn't rough," Two-Bit said. "Blades are rough. So are chains and heaters and pool sticks and rumbles. Skin fighting isn't rough. It blows off steam better than anything. There's nothing wrong with throwing a few punches. Socs are rough. They gang up on one or two, or they rumble each other with their social clubs. (Ch. 2) 

Basically, when two greasers have a problem, they fight.  The Socs gang up on one person as a group.  These are not fair odds.

The differences between Socs and greasers are many.  They are constantly feuding, with territory firmly drawn.  Cherry tries to explain to Pony that Socs are not all the same, and they have problems too.   She thinks that Two-Bit and Pony are being prejudicial, painting all Socs with the same brush and assuming they have all of the advantages. 

"I'll bet you think the Socs have it made. The rich kids, the West-side Socs. I'll tell you something, Ponyboy, and it may come as a surprise. We have troubles you've never even heard of. You want to know something?" She looked me straight in the eye. "Things are rough all over." (Ch. 2)

After the movies, Cherry asks Pony about Darry.  Pony gets defensive, even insulting Johnny when he gets involved, telling him that he isn't wanted at home.  Pony and Two-Bit discuss how the greasers "have all the rough breaks!"  Pony realizes that he forgot that the Soc girls were there.  They may have problems too, but the greasers and Socs will always be different.

Hello, I'm looking for a topic for a documentary project, but I didn't come up with anything good. Any idea will work! Thanks in advice!!

Let’s begin by defining what a “documentary project” is.  A documentary is a nonfiction research product in which a researcher gathers facts into a coherent, organized presentation designed to clarify a topic for its readership or audience.  So the first step for a student is to examine your interests and areas of expertise, since you will be dealing with the topic in depth for a considerable length of time.  You might want to list the...

Let’s begin by defining what a “documentary project” is.  A documentary is a nonfiction research product in which a researcher gathers facts into a coherent, organized presentation designed to clarify a topic for its readership or audience.  So the first step for a student is to examine your interests and areas of expertise, since you will be dealing with the topic in depth for a considerable length of time.  You might want to list the documentaries that have impressed or influenced you in the past – perhaps on a science TV channel or in a book on a documentary subject.  Next, look at your sources of information; do you have any special access to information, beyond mere googling.  For example, you might have access to a museum or art collection because of some special connection with a staff member.  Finally, choose a topic that works well with the medium your final product will assume: for example, if you choose music as your topic, it works well if your project presentation is a recording, but if it is visual, an art or photography topic may work better.  If your final presentation is a written essay or speech, you might want to choose a language or literature project.  So, to sum up, first, think of a topic that will hold your interest for a long time; second, choose a topic that allows you to make use of otherwise inaccessible sources; finally, select a topic that is compatible with the mode of final presentation.

In Chapter 16 of the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, how, according to Jared Diamond, did the Chinese develop and maintain Sinification?

Diamond portrays the relative cultural homogenization in China as almost without parallel around the world. "Sinification," he says, "involved the drastic homogenization of a huge region in an ancient melting pot," and indeed this process "offers the key to the history of all of East Asia" (324). It took place, for one thing, because China has some geographic characteristics that encouraged cultural unity. Long rivers that ran from east to west, like the Yangtze and...

Diamond portrays the relative cultural homogenization in China as almost without parallel around the world. "Sinification," he says, "involved the drastic homogenization of a huge region in an ancient melting pot," and indeed this process "offers the key to the history of all of East Asia" (324). It took place, for one thing, because China has some geographic characteristics that encouraged cultural unity. Long rivers that ran from east to west, like the Yangtze and Yellow, meant that similar crops were grown along the coast and far inland. Nor is it divided by a major desert. So when northern Chinese peoples developed what might be called advanced civilization, they spread their culture southward--it was their form of writing, for example, that caught on throughout China, because it had no competitors. Indeed, Chinese culture was heavily influential in the Korean Peninsula and Japan as well as Southeast Asia, in addition to what is today the nation-state of China. As Diamond puts it:

Within East Asia, China's head start in food production, technology, writing, and state formation had the consequence that Chinese innovations also contributed heavily to developments in neighboring regions. (332)

Within China itself, the ruling elites were deliberate in their promotion of Chinese culture and writing, taking sometimes brutal measures to stamp out what they regarded as the primitive culture of people in South China. Because of all these factors, Diamond tells us, the "Sinification" of East Asia was really complete by 100 B.C.E.

There is no one best leadership style. Leadership theory helps us understand the different types of leaders and define their characteristics from...

Angela Merkel has been in the news more and more lately, and it's not hard to see why. In 2015, she won TIME Magazine's person of the year award. As the Chancellor of Germany at age 59, she may be one of the most influential and successful world leaders today. Not only is she young, she has been, for all practical purposes, the leader of the European Union for about 9 years now. Her major accomplishments have been managing Europe's debt crisis, keeping the European Union intact, and managing to set Greece on the path to recovery from the brink of collapse.

Merkel is certainly one of the most powerful and influential female leaders in the world today, and this is due in part to her ability to negotiate under extreme pressure, her willingness to stand alone as a minority voice, her ability to "lead from behind," her unflinching dedication to her own values, and attention to hard data. All of this, coupled with her steadfast determination and calm demeanor have helped make her a respectable, moral voice for a group of nations desperately in need of someone to take a stand for them.

These leadership qualities are unique in that most politicians have built a career studying politics and leadership, and many are great at rallying people because they have a flair for the dramatic. Yet Merkel sets herself apart by refusing to play that political game, and instead remains focused on her values, which are based on hard evidence and proven effectiveness, and keeps a few manageable end goals in mind, which will serve to deliver what the people want to them and show that she is true to her word. In fact, she never studied politics at all, instead pursuing a career as a politician after studying chemistry.

According to Fiedler's Contingency Theory, which asserts that effective leadership depends on the unique situation and includes many factors, like the nature of the task, the leader's personality, and the makeup of the group being led. Make no mistake, Europe was desperate and in dire need of someone to take the wheel, and they wanted nothing short of a complete overhaul of the current solutions in place. Nothing was working, and they were eager for a change. Doing away with their current means of achieving a solution seemed the only way to manage the debt crisis that was threatening to tear them apart.

Angela Merkel was a shining beacon of hope that provided the perfect answer to their needs: she didn't have as much charisma as the other politicians, but she paid attention to data, offered a hard-working persona and an analytical mind, and delivered on her word. Not only was she the perfect candidate to solve a problem such as this one, she had the intelligence and determination to do it successfully, and that is what made her success as a leader so definite. Chemists by nature are very task-oriented people and Merkel is no exception.

In Path-Goal Leadership, a leader must consider employee characteristics and task and environment characteristics, select the best leadership style, and focus on a clear path with defined goals. In Merkel's case, she had goals defined almost immediately, as well as a clear path set out in order to achieve those goals. People trust her because she does not just spew the same lofty rhetoric involving "freedom" and "values" as other world leaders tend to do. First, she is pragmatic in both her goals and her vision for achieving them; she knows what the numbers are and she knows that Germany cannot continue to be so generous when it comes to spending. She also knows that she does not want to see her beloved country go through the same system collapse that it saw during the 20th century. The environment of Germany and the EU as a whole is one that is still recovering, and thus must be considered as such, in order to be able to ensure future prosperity. Because of this, a leader must be both competitive and practical, forging alliances and strengthening bonds where necessary instead of relying on national pride and emotional decision-making to get ahead.

Normative Decision Theory decides the best decision to make, assuming there is an ideal decision-maker who is both rational and able to compute with accuracy. The practical application of this would be "decision analysis," otherwise identified as how people should make decisions, given a set of values. It is an approach aimed at finding better ways to make decisions, such as different methodologies and software. This sort of lens works almost perfectly when studying Merkel's behavior as a leader because she is so analytical and rational that other leaders find it hard to compete with her data-driven arguments. Not only that, but her values seem to line up perfectly with her proposed solutions and the values that her people hold dear. As a leader, she makes a habit of shying away from choosing to do anything which is reminiscent of failed past endeavors and using hard data to fuel her arguments, which is certainly the most rational approach to problem-solving and planning.

As a general rule, visionary leaders are quite uncommon, but their characteristics include imagination, persistence, and unwavering conviction. Visionary leaders tend to possess an extraordinary amount of openness to new ways of doing things and to new information. Angela Merkel certainly possesses all of these qualities, and more. As Chancellor of Germany, she has continually sought new alliances, new ways of doing things which would bring Germany into the 21st century and level the playing field with other nations. While Merkel seeks knowledge, and listens to her contemporaries and predecessors, she by no means bows to their way of doing things. By ignoring these norms already in place, she is able to transcend the mistakes of the past and see clearly into the future. To do this requires imagination and vision and she has plenty of those as well.

To choose one leadership style for Merkel is difficult, but if one considers her history as a politician, it seems that Path-Goal Leadership is the clear choice. For example, Merkel has always remained very centrist in terms of German politics and her position on the polls. She was open-minded when it came to sacrificing conservative values to rule in favor of the German popular vote when it came to switching to renewable energies after Fukushima. Yet she is currently governing against the majority of Germans when it comes to the issue of the refugee crisis. Overall, Germans find that she is steadfast in her own values, yet reliable when it comes to serious issues, and that is the reason that she has remained at around 50% support in the polls. She has done controversial things, yes, such as meeting with the prime minister and president in Turkey just before the elections, but she has always had clear goals for her country in mind, and goals that are mainly shared by other Germans. Experts have defined her leadership style as "principled pragmatism" and I tend to agree with that assessment.

Does Huck experience a clear fulfillment at the end of his voyage in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

In the final chapter of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck announces he's going to continue his travels to escape Aunt Sally's attempt to civilize him. To some readers, this might seem to signify a lack of fulfillment or atonement. After all, some people might think that, if Huck were fulfilled by his journey, he would logically stop traveling. While you certainly could argue that point, it's not necessarily the proper perspective to take...

In the final chapter of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck announces he's going to continue his travels to escape Aunt Sally's attempt to civilize him. To some readers, this might seem to signify a lack of fulfillment or atonement. After all, some people might think that, if Huck were fulfilled by his journey, he would logically stop traveling. While you certainly could argue that point, it's not necessarily the proper perspective to take with this book. Indeed, it's possible to see Huck's determination to continue wandering and avoid becoming "civilized" as its own kind of fulfillment.

Consider, for instance, that Huck spends the bulk of the novel witnessing the corruption of society. From the racist institution of slavery to the heartless, swindling schemes of con men, Huck experiences the full spectrum of humanity's evil and vice. By the end of the novel, one could justifiably question whether the depicted society is "civilized" at all. As such, Huck's decision to continue wandering signifies a sort of fulfillment, as it is a decision that logically follows from and responds to the earlier experiences of the novel. Indeed, Huck's realization that maintaining one's freedom and personal dignity often requires separation from society and civilization is perhaps the clearest sign that he has been fulfilled by his journey down the mighty Mississippi. 

What was Jim's most prized possession in "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry?

In O. Henry's short story "The Gifts of the Magi," James "Jim" Dillingham Young's most prized possession is the gold watch that belonged to both his father and his grandfather and has been passed down from one generation to the next. This watch is so fantastic that O. Henry claims,

Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasure piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he...

In O. Henry's short story "The Gifts of the Magi," James "Jim" Dillingham Young's most prized possession is the gold watch that belonged to both his father and his grandfather and has been passed down from one generation to the next. This watch is so fantastic that O. Henry claims,

Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasure piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

Unfortunately, the Dillingham Youngs are not a wealthy couple. With Christmas approaching, Jim decides to make a huge sacrifice: he pawns off his watch in order to get money to purchase a lovely set of tortoiseshell combs for his wife, Della, whose beautiful hair is her most prized possession.

When Jim arrives home that night, he discovers Della cut off and sold her hair in order to purchase a chain for his watch. The pair is stunned by the sacrifices they each made that also ultimately render both gifts useless. Despite this, they are incredibly moved by their love for one another, and this willingness to give from the heart with no concern for one's own happiness serves as the lesson of "The Gift of the Magi." 

How would Petruchio from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew have been seen in Elizabethan and modern times?

The question most likely is asking for a comparison of the way Petruchio’s behavior in regards to women would have been regarded in Shakespeare’s time versus how it would have been regarded today.  In Shakespeare’s time, women really had no power, which is ironic considering that Queen Elizabeth reigned for most of the time. 

Petruchio is a male chauvinist who shows the reader that he believes women exist for the pleasure of men.  When he...

The question most likely is asking for a comparison of the way Petruchio’s behavior in regards to women would have been regarded in Shakespeare’s time versus how it would have been regarded today.  In Shakespeare’s time, women really had no power, which is ironic considering that Queen Elizabeth reigned for most of the time. 

Petruchio is a male chauvinist who shows the reader that he believes women exist for the pleasure of men.  When he is speaking to Hortensio  in Act I, he mentions that he is looking for a wife.  Hortensio, his friend, warns him away from Katherine, but Petruchio says: “And therefore, if thou know / One rich enough to be Petruchio’s wife, / As wealth is burden of my wooing dance, / Be she as foul as was Florentius' love, / As old as Sibyl and as curst and shrewd / As Socrates' Xanthippe, or a worse, / She moves me not, (I.ii. 52-57).  Petruchio really does not care if Kate is a shrew because he knows he holds the power in the relationship.  He deprives Kate of food, of nice clothes, of a comfortable house, and by the end of the play, she is willing to say or do anything he desires.  “Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot, / And place your hands below your husband’s foot: / In token of which duty, if he please, / My hand is ready, may it do him ease” (V.ii. 186-189).  Katherine’s statement here reveals that she has given in—an entirely appropriate reaction in Shakespeare’s time.

In our time, however, Petruchio’s actions would not be well-received.  Women are largely independent and able to stand on their own; it is unlikely that a woman would allow her husband to deprive her of food or clothing in order to make her “obey.”  Today, Petruchio would be viewed as an abusive husband or at the very least, a controlling one. 

What are the drawbacks of Modernism?

Modernism was an important aesthetic and cultural movement that is generally thought to have begun in the late 19th century and to have remained extremely influential at least until the WWII era. Though it is an important historical period, especially in terms of the art it produced, the Modernist era also wrestled with some seriously negative ideas, and these could be seen as potential drawbacks. For instance, Modernist literature often explores the lives of individuals...

Modernism was an important aesthetic and cultural movement that is generally thought to have begun in the late 19th century and to have remained extremely influential at least until the WWII era. Though it is an important historical period, especially in terms of the art it produced, the Modernist era also wrestled with some seriously negative ideas, and these could be seen as potential drawbacks. For instance, Modernist literature often explores the lives of individuals that have been alienated from society, or who feel isolated from the culture they live in. Moreover, many Modernist writers tended to suggest that, since many traditional values were destroyed by advancements in science, philosophy, and more, existence was meaningless and lacked any kind of solid foundation. Now, it's important understand that these were and are important concepts to explore. That said, these ideas could also be seen as the drawbacks of Modernism, as they advance a thoroughly pessimistic and depressing view of life. 

In "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury, how did the kids misbehave?

The children, Peter and Wendy, generally misbehave in a manner that we would expect; they act contrary to their parent's wishes when they aren't being directly observed, deflect blame, and then complain when they receive a punishment. Their key "misbehavior," if it can be called that, is the fact that they lock their parents in the nursery at the end of the story and allow them to be consumed by lions. Furthermore, this is foreshadowed...

The children, Peter and Wendy, generally misbehave in a manner that we would expect; they act contrary to their parent's wishes when they aren't being directly observed, deflect blame, and then complain when they receive a punishment. Their key "misbehavior," if it can be called that, is the fact that they lock their parents in the nursery at the end of the story and allow them to be consumed by lions. Furthermore, this is foreshadowed throughout the story, such as when Peter and Wendy's parents hear screams and discover their personal items in the nursery, in retrospect obviously having been mauled by the lions; we are meant to understand the children used the nursery to visualize, in graphic detail, their parents being murdered, which is arguably a much more severe misbehavior than lying or whining.

The first misbehavior we can be fairly certain of is Peter manipulating the nursery so it no longer accepts commands from adults. This is not actually evident until the end of the story, although evidence for it accumulates throughout. Second, Wendy is suspected to have changed the settings of the nursery in order to deflect suspicion. Finally, the tantrum the children throw when their father finally shuts the nursery off is a remarkable reflection of the earlier statement, that the children live for the nursery; indeed, it seems to be the only thing they care about, more so than even their own parents.

Who is Helen Keller's father in The Story of My Life?

Helen Keller wrote her autobiography, The Story of My Life, when she was in her twenties.  In it, she wrote about her family.  Her father was Captain Arthur Keller.  He had fought for the Confederate Army as a captain during the Civil War.  He was a newspaper editor who enjoyed hunting, playing with his dogs, and gardening.  He grew different kinds of fruits in his garden, and he had a special appreciation for nature.  He...

Helen Keller wrote her autobiography, The Story of My Life, when she was in her twenties.  In it, she wrote about her family.  Her father was Captain Arthur Keller.  He had fought for the Confederate Army as a captain during the Civil War.  He was a newspaper editor who enjoyed hunting, playing with his dogs, and gardening.  He grew different kinds of fruits in his garden, and he had a special appreciation for nature.  He passed this love of nature down to Helen.  Helen described her father as being "most loving and indulgent, devoted to his home, seldom leaving [them], except in the hunting season" (Chapter II).

He was married to his first wife, with whom he had two sons.  His second wife was Kate Adams.  Together, they had Helen.  They later had two more children.  When Helen was a toddler, she became very ill.  The illness left her deaf and blind.

Captain Keller was determined to help his daughter.  He contacted many experts until he was able to find help for Helen.  It was through his determination that Miss Sullivan came to teach Helen.

When Helen was sixteen, her father passed away after an illness.  She described his death as her "first great sorrow-[her] first personal experience with death" (Chapter II).

How can macroeconomic policy makers use their policy instruments to combat the problems of recession, overheating, and stagflation?

The main tools of macroeconomic policy are taxes, government spending, and monetary policy.  These can all be used to combat recessions and overheating and, to some degree, stagflation.

Recessions, which are characterized by high unemployment, and overheating, which is characterized by high inflation, are opposites of one another.  Therefore, policymakers have to do opposite things to combat them.  When an economy is in a recession and unemployment is high, policymakers have to try to stimulate...

The main tools of macroeconomic policy are taxes, government spending, and monetary policy.  These can all be used to combat recessions and overheating and, to some degree, stagflation.

Recessions, which are characterized by high unemployment, and overheating, which is characterized by high inflation, are opposites of one another.  Therefore, policymakers have to do opposite things to combat them.  When an economy is in a recession and unemployment is high, policymakers have to try to stimulate the economy.  They should do this by putting more money in the hands of the people.  This can be done in a number of ways.  It can be done by cutting taxes so less money goes to the government and more stays with the people.  It can be done by increasing government spending so that the government pays more money to people who provide goods and services.  Finally, it can be done by pursuing an expansionary monetary policy (lowering interest rates or buying government securities), which puts more money into the economy.  All of these policies should help to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment.

With overheating, the problem is switched around.  Now, there is too much money out in the economy and it is driving prices up.  Therefore, the government needs to reduce the amount of money available.  To do this, the government is supposed to raise taxes, cut spending, and pursue a contractionary monetary policy (raise interest rates and buy government securities).  This should reduce aggregate demand and thereby reduce inflation.

With stagflation, policymakers are at a loss.  As you can see in the link below, policymakers really do not know what to do to end this problem.  Any policy that a government takes to reduce inflation will increase unemployment while any policy taken to reduce unemployment will increase inflation.  Therefore, there is little agreement on how to end stagflation.

What was the significance of the exploits of Christopher Columbus?

Christopher Columbus made four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean for Spain. The Spanish sponsored his explorations in hopes of finding a shorter route to Asia. Columbus believed it might be possible to find a shorter route to Asia by heading west. The King and Queen of Spain also hoped he would find valuable minerals that would enhance Spain's treasury. Spain also hoped to spread Christianity to the places he would find. His voyages were significant.

...

Christopher Columbus made four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean for Spain. The Spanish sponsored his explorations in hopes of finding a shorter route to Asia. Columbus believed it might be possible to find a shorter route to Asia by heading west. The King and Queen of Spain also hoped he would find valuable minerals that would enhance Spain's treasury. Spain also hoped to spread Christianity to the places he would find. His voyages were significant.

As a result of Columbus's voyages, Europeans began to increase their interest in the Americas. It should be noted that Columbus didn’t discover the Americas, but he prompted many explorations to the Americas by the European colonial powers. European countries eventually set up colonies in the Americas. These explorations eventually led to the discovery of many minerals that greatly benefited the European countries. There also was an increase in trade between Europe and the Americas. The people who lived in the Americas suffered greatly as a result of these explorations. Europeans brought diseases that killed many of the native people because they had no immunities to these illnesses. The Europeans also enslaved some of the native people and took away their land.

In what fashion is the Marilyn French's The Women's Room a reflection of the past?

The Women's Roomtakes place between the 1940s and the 1970s, during the inception of the women's movement. This work reflects many of the gender norms and restrictions that affected women in the past. Mira, the story's protagonist, grows up feeling repressed by society's insistence that girls should act like young ladies. From proper posture to the activities her mother tells her ladies don't indulge in, such as rough play, Mira feels constantly at odds...

The Women's Room takes place between the 1940s and the 1970s, during the inception of the women's movement. This work reflects many of the gender norms and restrictions that affected women in the past. Mira, the story's protagonist, grows up feeling repressed by society's insistence that girls should act like young ladies. From proper posture to the activities her mother tells her ladies don't indulge in, such as rough play, Mira feels constantly at odds with the person she is inside versus the woman society expects her to become.

As she grows up, Mira finds society even more restrictive. Her desire to live independently contradicts the belief of the past that women should submit to their husbands and devote themselves to rearing children. When she meets a man who seems to respect her more than her classmates, Mira hopes she has finally found the companionship and support she always craved. Instead, her husband proves to be just as dismissive of her as her parents were, and Mira finds herself even more trapped once she has children.

The Women's Room is a strong reflection of the gender moors of the past, including society's beliefs about the role of women at home. As Mira makes her way through the restrictive 1940s and 1950s, she hopes the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s will finally bring the change she always longed for. In reality, she finds many of the same misogynistic attitudes are still present in society at large and in the minds of the men she meets, just disguised in different packaging.

The story is also a reflection of the different relationship dynamics in the past. Like many women of her time, Mira traded the authoritarian control of her parents for a husband who treated her both as child and live-in maid. She, like many women who went through the liberation movement of the 1960s, was forced to liberate herself through her personal decisions and, ultimately, by finding her own voice and telling her story in the form of a book.

How were towns and cities in the fifteenth century different from the Middle Ages? ` `

During the Middle Ages, towns and cities were usually small in population.  For example, the population of London reached just above 50,000 by the end of the Middle Ages.  Many towns and other cities were even smaller.

Death and disease were common in the Middle Ages and this also caused populations to fluctuate.  Poor disposal of human waste led to diseases.  Chamber pots were often dumped out of windows and onto the streets.  When it...

During the Middle Ages, towns and cities were usually small in population.  For example, the population of London reached just above 50,000 by the end of the Middle Ages.  Many towns and other cities were even smaller.

Death and disease were common in the Middle Ages and this also caused populations to fluctuate.  Poor disposal of human waste led to diseases.  Chamber pots were often dumped out of windows and onto the streets.  When it rained, the waters would wash the waste into rivers.  During periods of less rain and during the winter, waste lingered in the streets.  The bubonic plague killed millions of people throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.  Statistics say that approximately 60% of people in Europe perished from the plague.

Most structures in towns and cities during the Middle Ages were small.  Typically, churches and guild halls were the largest structures in a Middle Ages town.  Merchants who sold the same types of goods or provided the similar types of services tended to set up shop on the same street.  Many streets were named after a particular type of trade.  Fire sometimes destroyed cities and towns, as houses were constructed out of wood.

Population increased in the 15th century.  The population of London doubled and even tripled during the 1400s.  There were some developments in the study of medicine, and less death caused by the bubonic plague.  More people moved to cities from the countryside.

As cities grew and became more sprawling, more structures were built.  Most houses remained small.  More churches and other structures were constructed.  Trade increased as explorers and merchants began sailing farther distances.  

What were the limitations of the national government under the Articles of Confederation?

Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government of the United States was limited both because of its structure and because of the powers that were denied to it by the constitution.

First, the national government was limited because it had no executive branch.  The national government consisted only of Congress.  This meant that the national government could enact laws, but had no way of carrying them out.  This is a major structural limitation for...

Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government of the United States was limited both because of its structure and because of the powers that were denied to it by the constitution.

First, the national government was limited because it had no executive branch.  The national government consisted only of Congress.  This meant that the national government could enact laws, but had no way of carrying them out.  This is a major structural limitation for a national government.

Second, the national government was not given many powers.  It was not given the power to tax.  It was not given the power to force states to contribute any money to the government at all.  The national government was not given the power to issue a national currency.  This meant that it could not prevent states from each having their own kind of money.  Finally, the national government could not prevent the states from imposing tariffs or other trade barriers against other states.  This meant that states could, in essence, treat one another like foreign countries when it came to trade and the national government could not do anything about it.

The national government was severely limited in these ways because the people were not really ready for a strong national government.  The people of the various colonies/states did not feel much of a connection to the country as a whole.  They felt that each of their colonies/states could and should be practically independent and sovereign.  Therefore, they created a very loose confederation in which the national government was very limited.

How does the town of Maycomb react to Tom's death? Whom do they blame?

There are various reactions from residents of Maycomb when they learn of Tom Robinson's death.

When Atticus interrupts the Missionary Tea, he speaks to Calpurnia, asking her to accompany him to Helen Robinson's house. Aunt Alexandra asks what is wrong. "Tom's dead." Then, he reacts by saying,

"We had such a good chance [on the appeal]...." I guess Tom was tired of white men's chances and preferred to take his own."

• Aunt Alexandra

Aunt...

There are various reactions from residents of Maycomb when they learn of Tom Robinson's death.

When Atticus interrupts the Missionary Tea, he speaks to Calpurnia, asking her to accompany him to Helen Robinson's house. Aunt Alexandra asks what is wrong. "Tom's dead." Then, he reacts by saying,

"We had such a good chance [on the appeal]...." I guess Tom was tired of white men's chances and preferred to take his own."

• Aunt Alexandra

Aunt Alexandra is concerned about what the ordeal with Tom Robinson has done to Atticus. Of the town, she says,

"They're perfectly willing to let him do what they are afraid to do themselves....to let him wreck his health doing what they're afraid to do."

• Miss Maudie

Miss Maudie tells Alexandra that there are a "handful of people who say that fair play is not marked White Only, and they have sympathy for the black community. They are the "handful of people with background."
She adds that these people trust him to do right. 

• Helen Robinson 

When Atticus tells her the sad news, poor Helen falls to the ground.

• Mr. Underwood

Mr. Underwood writes a bitter editorial in the section marked "The Colored News." He writes that it is wrong to kill cripples, no matter what they are doing. Scout observes, "He likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children. As Scout reads on, she comprehends Mr. Underwood's meaning. Although Atticus had done all that he could,

...in the secret courts of men's hearts, Atticus had no case.Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.

The reprobate Ewell is reported to have said that it "made one down and about two more to go."

• The townspeople

"To Maycomb, Tom's death is typical.  Typical of a n****r to cut and run.  Typical of a n*****s mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw...." Some have said that Atticus could have gotten him off on the charges; others say you know how they are."

What was Jonas's solution to his problem in The Giver?

Jonas’s problem is that his community is overly restrictive and after he begins his training as Receiver of Memory he realizes this and wants to do something about it, so he runs away.

The situation in Jonas’s community is not something that he is aware of until he begins his training as Receiver of Memory.  Like everyone else in his community, he thinks that his community is perfect.  Once he becomes the new Receiver and begins training, he realizes that his community has made a lot of compromises and trade-offs for this perfection.

Jonas’s community wants everyone to be happy.  In the pursuit of this goal, the community has instituted a policy of Sameness. This means that there are strict rules for every aspect of life, and most decisions are made for the citizens.  They have common property and relationships are created for people.

Jonas's training gives him, and only him, access to memories of how things used to be.  As Jonas continues his training, he feels more and more isolated from people.  He starts to understand that they are living a life that is outside of what humans are meant to experience.  They do not live a full life.

They have never known pain, he thought. The realization made him feel desperately lonely, and he rubbed his throbbing leg. He eventually slept. Again and again he dreamed of the anguish and the isolation on the forsaken hill. (Ch. 14) 

Jonas’s community does not know pain, but they also do not know love.  There is no romance, because the population is controlled and people take special pills to prevent puberty.  Because of this, there are also no families in the sense that we know them.  No one knows affection.  Jonas realizes that people are missing out on a large part of the human experience. 

When Jonas realizes that his community has an even darker side, he decides to take action.  This comes when he sees his father give a lethal injection to a newborn baby.  His community calls this release, and it is fairly common. 

He killed it! My father killed it! Jonassaid to himself, stunned at what he was realizing. He continued to stare at the screen numbly.

… Then he picked up a small carton that lay waiting on the floor, set it on the bed, and lifted the limp body into it. He placed the lid on tightly. (Ch. 19)

Jonas decides to address this problem by running away.  He has the help of his mentor, The Giver.  When Jonas runs away, the community's memories will return to them, and they will no longer be able to maintain the Sameness than they have been trapped in.

What is the imagery used in the poem "Winter" by Andrew Young?

In analyzing poetry, imagery can refer to language that is visually descriptive, either through figurative language or literal description. An example of language in Andrew Young's "Winter" that provides a vivid but literal visual description is the following:

Against the stars the sacred treesSpread out their naked traceries.

This is an effective use of language describing the visual especially due to the word "traceries," which invokes a specific type of intricate patterning in the...

In analyzing poetry, imagery can refer to language that is visually descriptive, either through figurative language or literal description. An example of language in Andrew Young's "Winter" that provides a vivid but literal visual description is the following:

Against the stars the sacred trees
Spread out their naked traceries.

This is an effective use of language describing the visual especially due to the word "traceries," which invokes a specific type of intricate patterning in the tree branches. Imagery is also created by the personification of the moon and sky in the following stanza:

And in the night an amorous moon
Sings to the sea a tender tune,
And all the star-encrusted sky
Shivers with silent ecstacy.

This stanza contributes to the images of the poem by utilizing figurative language to describe the moonlight as gentle. The personification of the stars shivering silently adds yet another vivid image to the poem.

A certain full year course has 20 online quizzes spread through the course. The quizzes are optional in the sense that if a student does any of the...

(a) For each question, Tony knows the answer 25% of the time and is forced to guess 75% of the time. His probability of guessing correctly is 20% (1 in 5.)

So the probability that Tony gets a particular question correct on any given quiz is .25(1)+.75(.2)=0.4  (We multiply the probability of having seen the problem by the probability of getting it right; 1/4 of the time he has seen the problem and is guaranteed to get it right and 3/4 of the time he will not have seen the problem and must guess.)

(b) For a given quiz, consisting of 5 questions, we can determine the probability that Tony gets at least 3 questions correct. This is the sum of the probabilities that he gets 3 correct, 4 correct, and 5 correct.

Each of these is a binomial probability, where the probability of a success (getting an answer correct) is 0.4 and the total number of trials is 5:

P(3 correct)=`_5C_3 (.4)^3(.6)^2=.2304 `
P(4 correct)=`_5C_4 (.4)^4(.6)=.0768 `
P(5 correct)=`_5C_5 (.4)^5=.01024 `

So the probability of getting at least 3 correct is
.2304+.0768+.01024=.31744

(c) To find the probability that Tony passes at least 8 of the quizzes we recognize that this is also a binomial probability. The probability of success (passing the quiz) is .31744 and the number of trials is 20. The answer is the sum of P(8)+P(9)+...+P(20).

Computationally easier is to find the complement and subtract from 1: 1-[P(0)+P(1)+...+P(7)]

So we have:

`1-(0.68256^20+20(.31744)(.68256)^19+_20C_2(.31744)^2(.68256)^18+... `

`...+_20C_7(.31744)^7(.68256)^13)~~.2836161405 `

So the probability that Tony passes at least 8 of the quizzes is about 0.2836

(Of course the easiest way to compute this is using technology if allowed. On a TI-83/84 graphing calculator we take 1- binomcdf(20,.31744,7) .)

What is the meaning of the title of "A Silver Dish" by Saul Bellow?

The title of "A Silver Dish" references the silver dish that Woody remembers his now-deceased father, Morris, having once stolen.

Out of money for his business, Morris, accompanied by Woody, traveled through a blizzard to the home of Mrs. Skoglund in order to ask the woman for fifty dollars. While Mrs. Skoglund and her servant were out of the room praying, Morris picked a lock on the woman's cabinet and removed a silver dish from...

The title of "A Silver Dish" references the silver dish that Woody remembers his now-deceased father, Morris, having once stolen.

Out of money for his business, Morris, accompanied by Woody, traveled through a blizzard to the home of Mrs. Skoglund in order to ask the woman for fifty dollars. While Mrs. Skoglund and her servant were out of the room praying, Morris picked a lock on the woman's cabinet and removed a silver dish from it, hiding the item in his pants in order to sneak it out of the house. This thievery stunned Woody, who fought his father to try to get him to return the dish to its proper place. By the time Mrs. Skoglund and the servant had returned, Woody had been thoroughly beaten. Morris managed to leave the home with a check for fifty dollars and the silver dish he'd snatched.

This theft causes trouble later; Woody chooses to defend his father's reputation by claiming that he is innocent, despite knowing this lie could cost him his position at the seminary. It also becomes a point of contention between Woody and Morris, as they continue to argue about it for the remainder of their lives.

Ultimately, the theft of the silver dish represents Woody's departure from his previous role as "foil" to Morris' "anti-hero." Although he used to side with his mother, morally-speaking, Woody has been altered by the act of covering up his father's crime, which has “carried him back to his side of the line, blood of his blood.” Woody lives out the rest of his life in a manner that is much more his father's speed —dancing around a life of sin and rejecting the religious lifestyle of his mother and the other women around him.

What happened between the last day of Passover and Pentecost in Elie Wiesel's Night?

On the evening before Pentecost, the Jews find out they are all being deported.

Things have already not been going well. It happened in stages. First, the Jews were forced into ghettos. These were kind of like walled neighborhoods, but very much like prisons. The outer houses had their windows boarded and no one could leave. Conditions were harsh. Jews had to wear yellow stars marking them. Then, on the night before Pentecost, Stern is...

On the evening before Pentecost, the Jews find out they are all being deported.

Things have already not been going well. It happened in stages. First, the Jews were forced into ghettos. These were kind of like walled neighborhoods, but very much like prisons. The outer houses had their windows boarded and no one could leave. Conditions were harsh. Jews had to wear yellow stars marking them. Then, on the night before Pentecost, Stern is called to a special meeting.

"What's wrong?" we asked.

"I don't know. I have been summoned to a special meeting of the Council. Something must have happened." (Ch. 1)

Wiesel’s mother says she has a bad feeling about it. She is right to worry. Stern was a shopkeeper. He and anyone else who used to be important are being called in because something terrible is about to happen. Moishe’s predictions of doom are coming true. The Jews are all being deported now.

When Wiesel's father returns, they hope nothing is wrong, but they can tell from looking at him that this is not the case.

"The news is terrible," he said at last. And then one word: "Transports."

The ghetto was to be liquidated entirely. Departures were to take place street by street, starting the next day. (Ch. 1)

The way the Germans rounded the Jews up was very systematic. Of course, it would have been next to impossible to take everyone overnight. They put the Jews in ghettos first to get them out of sight and out of everyday life. It had the added benefit of getting them in one place. Then they were trapped and easy prey.

Pentecost, or Shavu'ot , is a two day harvest festival celebrating the Torah. This is a particularly disruptive time for the Germans to be transporting the Jews. To try to destroy an entire religious or ethnic group is bad enough, but to do it during a time of religious significance is worse.

Why was a form of writing important to civilizations?

We may not think very much about how people know what they know, but when we stop and do think about this, it is easy to see what a difference writing has made. Writing was a quantum leap for civilization.  It saved people from having to reinvent the wheel, it allowed people to share ideas, facts, and great beauty through time and space, and it even aided commerce.   

Imagine, if you will, a world...

We may not think very much about how people know what they know, but when we stop and do think about this, it is easy to see what a difference writing has made. Writing was a quantum leap for civilization.  It saved people from having to reinvent the wheel, it allowed people to share ideas, facts, and great beauty through time and space, and it even aided commerce.   

Imagine, if you will, a world without writing in which someone discovered an antibiotic a thousand years ago.  There are bound to be rumors through the years about a discovery like this, but without the knowledge being written down, millions of people who could have been saved will die.  We would all have to wait around for someone else to stumble upon this antibiotic again.  There is no history of much of anything without writing.  We would stumble around making the same mistakes over and over again, a sort of dreadful Fifty First Dates scenario in which we didn't know which tribes were historically our enemies and which were our friends or in which we did not know that those weeds we keep finding are actually edible and can save us from starvation.  And whatever lessons we glean, with writing, we can transmit them to others and transmit them to the future, too.

Without writing, we would have little of the riches we have now in our lives.  Philosophy has come down to us in writing.  Our works of literature have come to us in writing.  Beowulf probably emerged from an oral tradition, but had someone not written it down, it seems quite unlikely that we would be able to study and enjoy it today.  Our appreciation for the heavens is thanks to ancient astronomers who wrote down what they knew.  Music is handed down through the ages through writing now.  We can look at scores of music that are hundreds of years old and play them.  Mathematics is a form of writing, too, one that comes to us via Indian and Arabic cultures.  Most of the religions in the world are based upon one or more holy texts that encouraged and solidified membership in their respective religious communities.  And say what you will about the divisive aspect of religion, there is no question that its development has made substantial contributions to civilization, at the very least, creating community and building some of the most magnificent architecture ever built.

Writing helped commerce. People could create tallies, keep track of their inventories and profits, and take orders once we had writing. (Perhaps the first writing in commerce was a customer complaint!) Writing helped trade to expand, which spread civilization, as people went further afield and shared ideas.  While I'm not sure that I would consider Amazon to be the quintessence of civilization, the fact is that it could not exist at all without writing. 

There are probably hundreds more ways in which writing helped us to build civilization. It created a truly paradigmatic shift in the affairs of human beings.  But certainly, at the very least, it saved us from having to invent or discover things over and over again, it allowed beauty and wisdom to be broadcast through time and space, and it was crucial in the development of trade and commerce. 

In the poem "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold, how does the image of the light on the French coast in Lines 3-4 take on a more symbolic significance...

On the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone...

Arguably, this light symbolizes hope and connection with the rest of the world. It appears for a moment, inspiring hope, then dissolves in the distance.

"Dover Beach" is a poem that taps into an existential anxiety that will become more pronounced after World War I. Arnold's narrator anticipates the existential crisis of the Modernist age. The third stanza, beginning with "the Sea of Faith" is important as well. Religion, which provided meaning in an otherwise incoherent world, is fading in power and strength, "retreating, to the breath / Of the night-wind."

The coastal setting is significant. In literature, coast lines are the borders between the known world and the Unknown. It is the the line between the firm, stable land on shore vs. the mobile and violent sea.

In the final stanza, in response to this hopelessness and uncertainty, the narrator turns to his/her love. Companionship is one's only solace:

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another!

The first line of the stanza begins with a sigh, which can indicate relief, spiritual exhaustion, or both.

For the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain...

"The world," symbolized by the French coast, is not the place of abundance they had imagined. This previous sense of abundance is indicated by the use of the emphatic adverb "so." They are disenchanted by the loss of light on the other coast, causing them now to see the world as a place of absence, loneliness, and uncertainty. The only thing on which they can depend is the presence of each other, "on a darkling plain." 

"Darkling" is both literal and metaphorical here. It is night, so the sky is becoming dark. However, the world is also becoming a darker and more frightening place:

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

There is parallelism between darkness and confusion, as well as ignorance. There could very well be an ongoing battle on that other coast. 

Are there any examples of synecdoche, metonymy or apostrophe in Emily Dickinson's "'Why Do I Love' You, Sir?"?

One can find apostrophe, metonymy, and possibly synecdoche in this poem by Emily Dickinson. Apostrophe is a dramatic or formal address, often to an inanimate object, such as , "O Life!" However, it can be a kind of exclamatory address to someone absent. So the "Sir" in line one is an apostrophe, as is "Sire" in the first line of the last stanza.

Metonymy names a thing by using something associated with it. In this...

One can find apostrophe, metonymy, and possibly synecdoche in this poem by Emily Dickinson. Apostrophe is a dramatic or formal address, often to an inanimate object, such as , "O Life!" However, it can be a kind of exclamatory address to someone absent. So the "Sir" in line one is an apostrophe, as is "Sire" in the first line of the last stanza.

Metonymy names a thing by using something associated with it. In this poem, in the last stanza, the speaker is referring to the sun, but she names it "Sunrise." The idea is that a person is able to see simply because the sun produces light. In the same way, the speaker loves her lover simply because he produces those spontaneous feelings in her.

Synecdoche is harder to get from this poem. With synecdoche, a thing is named for one of its parts. One might think about the "Eye" being a synecdoche for the whole person, but that doesn't seem to be what Dickinson wants to say here. She seems to want to personify the Eye as its own separate entity. It's possible that "Wisdom" could be a synecdoche. One would expect the word used here to be "knowledge," and since "wisdom" is a subset of "knowledge," it might work as a synecdoche. I don't see how "Daintier Folk" can be a synecdoche. I would call that an epithet. 

In Chains, why did the men stop talking when Becky and Isabel entered the room, but then they started talking again as soon as Becky left?

The men do not consider Isabel a person capable of listening and understanding their conversation.  They believe this about Isabel because she is a black slave. 

Isabel has always known that white slave owners think less of her, but in chapter six Curzon flat out tells Isabel that the Locktons do not consider Isabel a human being.  Curzon asks Isabel to spy on the Locktons, but Isabel thinks that she won't hear anything worthwhile.  

...

The men do not consider Isabel a person capable of listening and understanding their conversation.  They believe this about Isabel because she is a black slave. 

Isabel has always known that white slave owners think less of her, but in chapter six Curzon flat out tells Isabel that the Locktons do not consider Isabel a human being.  Curzon asks Isabel to spy on the Locktons, but Isabel thinks that she won't hear anything worthwhile.  

"They won't say anything in front of me."  

"You are a small black girl, Country," he said bitterly.  "You are a slave, not a person.  They'll say things in front of you they won't say in front of the white servants.  'Cause you don't count to them.  It happens all the time to me." 

There was truth in his words, hard truth, a hammer striking stone. 

It turns out that Curzon is correct because Isabel overhears many important pieces of information while she is the same room as Lockton and his conspirators.  She overhears the plot to bribe members of the Patriot army, and she overhears the plot to assassinate General George Washington.  The entire assassination plot was discussed while Isabel was in the same room as the men!  They don't consider her a person at all.  They act like she is the house dog or something like that.  Isabel is present, but ultimately doesn't matter. 

What is a summary of the story Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams?

Peter Abraham's young reader's mystery thriller titled Down the Rabbit Hole opens with a very self-conscious, awkward thirteen-year-old Ingrid Levin-Hill having to visit the orthodontist. After her routine checkup and adjustment, she finds that her parents are late picking her up. At 4:10pm, she begins worrying about missing soccer practice since she is a star player on the A team. By 4:18, knowing she will have to miss a game if she misses practice, which is her coach's rule, she makes the fateful decision to run from her orthodontist's office to the soccer field. She thinks she knows the way, but winds up getting lost in a rough neighborhood full of "shabby gingerbread houses" (p. 11).

In this rough neighborhood, she has her fateful encounter with a woman in the neighborhood whom people call "Cracked-Up Katie." Cracked-Up Katie notices Ingrid looks lost and invites Ingrid inside her home, offering to call a cab for her. While waiting in Kate's parlor for the cab to arrive, Ingrid pulls her bright-red Puma cleats out of her backpack to show Kate as proof that she plays soccer. During their conversation Ingrid notices that Kate grows very pale and disappears upstairs just as the cab arrives outside and honks. Ingrid arrives at the soccer field to find that practice had been canceled due to rain and that her mother has been looking for her.

The next morning, Ingrid looks at the local paper to see a front-page headline reading that a local woman had been murdered: "ASSAILANT UNKNOWN" (p. 34). Below the headline is a photo of Cracked-Up Katie. Soon Ingrid realizes her beloved red Puma cleats are missing and that she must have left them at Kate's. Ingrid sees right away that the cleats place her at the scene of the crime; worse yet, Ingrid was probably the last person to see Kate alive.

Later, Ingrid returns to Kate's house, all blocked off with police tape, to retrieve her red Pumas. While there, Ingrid hears someone break a windowpane and come up the stairs, forcing her to hide under Ingrid's bed. From under the bed, she could tell the intruder was a man and that he wore Adidas sneakers "spattered with dark-green paint" (p. 92). She observes him retrieve from under the bed a playbill of Dial M for Murder, a show Kate once performed, and leave. Following clues, Ingrid is able to figure out who murdered Kate and convince the police.

A subplot concerns her and her grandfather pulling a stunt to prevent his property from being sold to the company Ingrid's father works for; the company wants the property for a new condo development. Other subplots concern Ingrid's involvement in soccer and her role as Alice in the play Alice and Wonderland, put on by the Prescott Players of the Prescott Hall, a theater owned by a man Kate was once engaged to.

Why is Educational Psychology considered a science?

While psychology is generally considered a “soft science” (meaning not provable by scientific means or physical laws), educational psychology has produced many years of data through experimentation and measurable results, and as such is not as susceptible to the criticism that human beings cannot be the subject of strict scientific analysis.  In modern times, the cycles of brain development in relation to age (see Piaget) have been thoroughly measured and substantiated both by exhaustive historical data...

While psychology is generally considered a “soft science” (meaning not provable by scientific means or physical laws), educational psychology has produced many years of data through experimentation and measurable results, and as such is not as susceptible to the criticism that human beings cannot be the subject of strict scientific analysis.  In modern times, the cycles of brain development in relation to age (see Piaget) have been thoroughly measured and substantiated both by exhaustive historical data and by neurological and brain-scanning measuring devices, so theories of education have risen above mere anecdotal evidence to provable results.  Many large programs have been constructed on various educational theories (Montessori, for example, which started as an educational experiment for Italian children, has proven its worth for a century), and these long-term results have been measured and proven viable "scientifically." 

What did John C. Calhoun mean when he said slavery was a "positive good"?

Calhoun literally meant that slavery was a "good" rather than an evil. A senator and leading defender of slavery, he described the institution of slavery in this way many times, growing more and more strident in its defense as the abolitionist critique in the North gained popularity. Calhoun said that "never before has the black race of Central Africa. . . attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually"...

Calhoun literally meant that slavery was a "good" rather than an evil. A senator and leading defender of slavery, he described the institution of slavery in this way many times, growing more and more strident in its defense as the abolitionist critique in the North gained popularity. Calhoun said that "never before has the black race of Central Africa. . . attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually" as it had under slavery. He argued slavery was not a "necessary evil" that would one day be eradicated, as some previous generations of slaveholders argued. He said slavery was the best labor system and the best way to structure society. In a common trope among slavery's supporters, he compared slavery favorably to the conditions faced by factory workers in the North, which he said created a dangerous working class which led to "disorders and dangers" in any industrialized society. Calhoun went on to argue that if the institution of slavery was threatened, the people of the South would defend it by leaving the Union, a right they were increasingly beginning to claim for themselves. Slavery and abolitionism, Calhoun asserted, could not coexist. Calhoun's views increasingly became dogma among the planter class in the South as midcentury approached, a development that contributed to secession and civil war.

What are all of the quotes from Chapter 7 that Bruno's mother says in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas?

Bruno recalls telling a story about their old neighbor, Herr Roller, to his mother and sister.  Herr Roller was mad, and Bruno had often seen him arguing with himself in the streets.  Bruno's mother had told him that he "shouldn't laugh at Herr Roller."  She went on to recall the man from many years ago:

"[He] was a very lovely young man--I knew him when I was a little girl.  He was kind and thoughtful...

Bruno recalls telling a story about their old neighbor, Herr Roller, to his mother and sister.  Herr Roller was mad, and Bruno had often seen him arguing with himself in the streets.  Bruno's mother had told him that he "shouldn't laugh at Herr Roller."  She went on to recall the man from many years ago:

"[He] was a very lovely young man--I knew him when I was a little girl.  He was kind and thoughtful and could make his way around the dance floor like Fred Astaire.  But he suffered a terrible injury during the Great War, an injury to his head, and that's why he behaves as he does now.  It's nothing to laugh at.  You have no idea of what the young men went through back then.  Their suffering."

She also recalled how Herr Roller and her husband had fought in the trenches during the Great War.  She then told Bruno that war was "not a fit subject for conversation."

In the chapter, Bruno makes a tire swing.  He falls and gets slightly injured.  Pavel, a Jewish man who works in his house, tends to his wounds.  Bruno learns that Pavel used to be a doctor.  Bruno's mother arrives home.  She asks "what on earth happened to" her son.  Bruno explains and she orders him to go upstairs to his room.  As he goes up, Bruno overhears his mother thanking Pavel, and telling him how she will say that she cleaned her son's wounds.  Her words show a more human side.  She is grateful to Pavel for helping Bruno.  She is also nervous about what might happen if it were discovered that Pavel tended to Bruno.

Why should the speaker not have stopped in the woods in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost?

There are two reasons mentioned in the poem why the speaker should not be stopping.  First of all, there is no farmhouse nearby. 

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year. 

The speaker mentions that the horse must think it is strange for him to be stopping there while the woods fill up with snow when there is...

There are two reasons mentioned in the poem why the speaker should not be stopping.  First of all, there is no farmhouse nearby. 

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year. 

The speaker mentions that the horse must think it is strange for him to be stopping there while the woods fill up with snow when there is no farmhouse near.  You normally would not stop somewhere unless there is someone to see.  The horse would expect the speaker to go from farmhouse to farmhouse, not stop in the middle of the woods. 

The second reason can be either metaphorical or literal, and it is that he still has miles to go.  The speaker says he still has miles to go before he sleeps. 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep. 

On a literal level, this means that he is far from home and he should not stop here because he needs to go home.  Stopping here is wasting time, even though it is nice, because he is miles away from home.  He should not stop here in the middle of nowhere.  It could even be dangerous to stop here long while it is snowing. 

On a figurative level, sleep is a metaphor for death.  It is not time to die yet.   The speaker still has a lot yet to do, and therefore it is not time to die yet.  The “miles to go before I sleep” can be interpreted as obligations the speaker has that have to be seen to before death, or just parts of life that the speaker has yet to experience.  In other words, the speaker is not ready to die.

When is Romeo ungrateful other than in Act 3, scene 3?

Shakespeare captures adolescence brilliantly in this play, showing its impulsiveness, impatience, angst, and self absorption. Romeo is ever impatient and caught up in himself, both traits that tend to crowd out gratitude. It is hard to take the time to say thank you, or even to notice when people are good to you, when you are completely absorbed in your own needs and when everything must happen right now.

In Act I, scene iv, Romeo...

Shakespeare captures adolescence brilliantly in this play, showing its impulsiveness, impatience, angst, and self absorption. Romeo is ever impatient and caught up in himself, both traits that tend to crowd out gratitude. It is hard to take the time to say thank you, or even to notice when people are good to you, when you are completely absorbed in your own needs and when everything must happen right now.

In Act I, scene iv, Romeo shows little gratitude towards his friends Benvolio and Mercutio, who attempt to get him out of his moony gloom by taking him to the Capulet masquerade ball, and, in Mercutio's case, telling him a long and fanciful story about Queen Mab. Romeo says "I am not for this ambling . . . I have a soul of lead." A more mature person might say "thanks for trying to help me," but that is not Romeo's way. 

In Act II, scene vi, Romeo shows no gratitude to Friar Laurence for the risky step of marrying the twosome,  and completely ignores the friar's wise counsel about calming down. The friar tells Romeo that "these violent delights have violent ends," but these words fall on deaf ears. Friar Laurence brings up the idea of thanking Juliet, but Romeo simply wants to get on with the "imagin'd happiness" that both will receive from "this dear encounter" of getting married. Any thank you to the friar? No. The friar is simply the means to an end.

What are three ways Fitzgerald criticized the American Dream in The Great Gatsby?

For the purpose of this question, we'll define the American dream as the idea that anyone can start out poor, and rise to become rich through hard, honest labor.

With that definition, here are three criticisms that can be drawn from The Great Gatsby:

1. 
   The American dream does not work for everyone. George Wilson has done hard, honest work for many years since his marriage, but is in the same economic and social class...

For the purpose of this question, we'll define the American dream as the idea that anyone can start out poor, and rise to become rich through hard, honest labor.

With that definition, here are three criticisms that can be drawn from The Great Gatsby:

1. 
   The American dream does not work for everyone. George Wilson has done hard, honest work for many years since his marriage, but is in the same economic and social class as when he began. He lives in the Valley of Ashes. His wife Myrtle is discontented with their life, and has an affair with a rich man (Tom) to enjoy the good things in life. George finally plans to move out West with Myrtle to get her away from her lover (and to pursue the American dream there?), but she is hit by a car before they can leave. 


2. 
   The rich are not any happier or morally better than the poor. This is seen from the decadent, foolish behavior of the guests at Gatsby's parties; the excruciatingly un-fun party given by Tom and Myrtle at the apartment where he keeps her; and Tom and Daisy's tortured lives.


3. 
   The new rich are not really accepted or admired. Gatsby is an example of a newly rich person. He gives lavish parties, and everyone loves to come to them. Once Gatsby is killed, though, Nick cannot convince any of the former partygoers to attend Gatsby's funeral. They are all too busy with trivial things, or "don't want to get involved." It becomes obvious people attended Gatsby's parties just for the good time they offered, but did not respect Gatsby or consider him one of them. 

What role did nationalism play in the politics of India and the Middle East before and after independence? What was the nature of the relationship...

Nationalism fueled the Indian independence movement, led by Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. Nationalist leaders had to first create the concept of a unified India, as many people saw themselves as only connected with their own region and religion. Many Muslims in India believed that they constituted a distinct people (qaum). The idea was that the Muslims in India were a minority and needed autonomy and protection. Therefore, in India, there were...

Nationalism fueled the Indian independence movement, led by Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. Nationalist leaders had to first create the concept of a unified India, as many people saw themselves as only connected with their own region and religion. Many Muslims in India believed that they constituted a distinct people (qaum). The idea was that the Muslims in India were a minority and needed autonomy and protection. Therefore, in India, there were two layers of nationalism before independence--a breed of nationalism that supported independence from Great Britain and that was supported by most Hindus and some Muslims--and another breed of nationalism that supported Muslim autonomy (which at first was not calling for a separate country). In 1947, when the British finally quit India, two countries were founded--Pakistan, led by the Muslim League leader Jinnah--and India, led by the Indian National Congress. Many Muslims went to Pakistan, while others stayed in India and have continued to be a part of India.

In the Middle East, before and after independence, Islam and nationalism went together. Before World War I, the Middle East was mainly under the political domination of the Ottoman Empire, which was Muslim and led by the sultan, who was considered to be the caliph of Islam. However, the Arabs and other non-Turks, such as Armenians, throughout the empire were already demanding more autonomy from the Turks. Nationalism was not primarily religious at this point. After World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Arab lands fell under the rule of France and England. As the rulers were not Muslim, nationalism became strongly associated with Islam. After independence (which came after World War II), Islam played a very strong role in defining national identity in some countries. Other countries were more defined by socialism. 

What idea or experience can you connect to Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan?

Whelan's Homeless Bird shows how the experience of being a girl is different throughout the world.

Reading about Koly makes us realize that being a girl is not the same throughout the world.  Koly's experience in India is different from a girl of the same age who lives in a place like America or England. For example, Koly's experience as a daughter differs from girls in other parts of the world. She must endure being...

Whelan's Homeless Bird shows how the experience of being a girl is different throughout the world.

Reading about Koly makes us realize that being a girl is not the same throughout the world.  Koly's experience in India is different from a girl of the same age who lives in a place like America or England. For example, Koly's experience as a daughter differs from girls in other parts of the world. She must endure being sent out of her home at an early age for marriage and then have to experience the fact that she will never be able to go back home.  This is something that many girls in the west do not have to endure.

Koly moves from a girl to a woman in a strikingly quick amount of time.  She marries early and then becomes a widow at an unnaturally young age.  She is subjected to abuse from her mother-in-law and then must wrestle with social sanctions about how a widow must behave.  Girls in the west do not have to wage such battles.  Koly must think twice about falling in love with Raji, a reality that girls in other parts of the world would not have to experience.  If a guy was good to them and wanted to be with them, girls could simply accept it.  However, Koly's experience as a girl in India forces her to respond differently to his overtures.

We are not in control of where we are born. It is jarring to realize that something we have no control over plays such a defining role in our life.  This triggers reflective thought about what we would do if we were in Koly's position. As a result, Homeless Bird increases our awareness that being a woman is different throughout the world.

"Two Kinds" by Amy Tan is about individuals struggling with complex sets of external forces that regulate and define their lives. The external...

External forces play an integral part in the plot of “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. Both mother and daughter struggle with at least two of the external forces. They are influenced by both society and tradition.

The first sentence of the story, “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America,” demonstrates how Suyuan Woo’s thought process was influenced by society. The mother left her broken life in China with the...

External forces play an integral part in the plot of “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan. Both mother and daughter struggle with at least two of the external forces. They are influenced by both society and tradition.

The first sentence of the story, “My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America,” demonstrates how Suyuan Woo’s thought process was influenced by society. The mother left her broken life in China with the belief she could rebuild a better one in the United States.

Social norms in the U.S. would allow her and her loved ones to accomplish anything they chose to, including her daughter, Jing-mei, becoming a child prodigy. The external influence of society could also be detrimental to relationships as demonstrated by the strained relationship that develops between mother and daughter when the daughter does not live up to expectations. Jing-mei’s cousin, Waverly, becomes a chess whiz, while Jing-mei struggles to see herself as anything more than an ordinary girl. She chooses to establish her own identity, never achieving the social goals set by her mother.

Tradition influences the mother-daughter relationship, and is evident when Jing-mei refuses to practice piano after her failed concert. Although Suyuan Woo left China, she reverts to her native language and expectations when dealing with her daughter’s need for independence. Traditions die hard.

"Only two kinds of daughters," she shouted in Chinese. "Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!"

Jing-mei retorts that she would rather not be her mother’s daughter if that is the case.  The daughter revolts and refuses to live by these expectations. Unfortunately, the rift between the two lasts for the rest of the mother’s life.

What kinds of landscapes do we see in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" by Walt Whitman? What roles do the ferry and nature play in the poem?

Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" is a poem that exemplifies Whitman's abilities as a leading proponent of the transcendentalism literary movement. The poem depicts a thoughtful narrator taking the Brooklyn ferry home. He absorbs the entire scene, and early in the poem he has an uncanny sense in his observations of the throng of humanity taking the ferry:

Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!

Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high—I see you also face to face.

Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me! (1057)

In this everyday scene, the narrator has a transcendent moment in which he realizes that this same ferry will host future generations long after its current passengers have died. He pictures the ebb and flow of a constant ocean, the buzzing streets of Manhattan, the hills of Brooklyn, and several other striking images. In the poem, the ferry plays a role as a potent metaphor: it is the bridge between the present and the future.

Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high,

A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,

Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide (1058).

Nature plays a similar role as something that remains constant in the face of a changing, evolving mass of humanity:

Flow on, river! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!

Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg'd waves!(1061)

The vivid, grandiose imagery Whitman presents is made more potent because he is focusing on what many would consider to be a mundane scene. He casts the ferry as a bridge between the present and the future, and exalts the natural scenery he depicts as a reminder of the constancy of our world.

All line numbers were retrieved from The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1 7th Ed

What were three events in the book Hatchet?

Three of the most important events from the book are the crashing of the plane, the finding of food, and the finding of the survival pack.

The plane crash is pretty obvious, but it is important because nothing else in the book could have happened without it. Brian is on his way to see his father because his parents have recently divorced after his mother’s affair. His father is in Canada. Brian takes a small plane, and it is just him and the pilot. The plane crashes in the wilderness when the pilot has a heart attack. 

But between the seventeenth and eighteenth radio transmissions, without a warning, the engine coughed, roared violently for a second and died. There was sudden silence, cut only by the sound of the wind milling propeller and the wind past the cockpit. (Ch. 2) 

Once the plane crashes, Brian is on his own. He has no way of calling for help and no one knows where he is. He must find his own sources of food and shelter. At first, he finds some berries. He eventually calls them gut cherries because they make him so sick. Brian eventually figures out how to use a bow and arrow to fish.

With his bow, with an arrow fashioned by his own hands he had done food, had found a way to live. The bow had given him this way and he exulted in it, in the bow, in the arrow, in the fish, in the hatchet, in the sky. (Ch. 13) 

Brian is able to eat better once he can fish, and not live off of berries. It is not enough, though. He wants the survival kit. The survival kit is in the plane, which is half in the lake. Getting it is a feat. Once he does, it is like winning the lottery.

TREASURE.

Unbelievable riches. He could not believe the contents of the survival pack.

The night before he was so numb with exhaustion he couldn't do anything but sleep. . . . But with false gray dawn he had awakened, instantly, and began to dig in the pack—to find amazing, wonderful things. (Ch. 19)

Once he finds the survival pack, the tide turns for Brian. It has many handy survival tools, of course, including food, a gun, and cooking pans. What it also has is an emergency radio that sends out a signal. Until then, no one was even looking for Brian anymore. They had given up.

What is the point of view in "There Will Come Soft Rains" ? Where is it shown in the text ?

Ray Bradbury's 1950 story "There Will Come Soft Rains" features a third-person omniscient point of view. This means that the narrator observes and describes action but does not participate in it and has the ability to understand and communicate the thoughts and feelings of the characters. The narrator's tone is dispassionate as the automated house continues to go about its programmed tasks in the absence of the family it served prior to the nuclear devastation that has claimed their lives. 

Though there are no humans in the story, the narrator describes the emotions of the robot mice who emerge to clean up after the family's dying dog tracks mud into the house: "Behind it whirred angry mice, angry at having to pick up mud, angry at inconvenience".

The house itself is anthropomorphized, "its bared skeleton cringing from the heat, its wire, its nerves revealed as if a surgeon had torn the skin off to let the red veins and capillaries quiver in the scalded air", as it is consumed by fire at the story's conclusion.

Bradbury, Ray. "The Will Come Soft Rains" Doubleday, 1950.

What is the effect of the one-sentence paragraph in "Salvation," by Langston Huges?

"Salvation" is a personal essay by Langston Hughes.  This short essay describes the author's attempt to experience the religious ecstasy that others in his church experienced.  His aunt, for instance, told him of her experience:

when you were saved you saw a light and something happened to you inside!. . .She said you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul. I believed her.  

When the narrator, who is Hughes himself, goes...

"Salvation" is a personal essay by Langston Hughes.  This short essay describes the author's attempt to experience the religious ecstasy that others in his church experienced.  His aunt, for instance, told him of her experience:

when you were saved you saw a light and something happened to you inside!. . .She said you could see and hear and feel Jesus in your soul. I believed her.  

When the narrator, who is Hughes himself, goes to a revival meeting, he expects to share this experience.  The preacher gives a "wonderful rhythmical sermon," and invites the young people to commit their lives to Jesus.  The congregation sings as several young people rush to the alter. 

The next line is the one-sentence paragraph that you are asking about, and it is the pivotal point in the story.  

Still I kept waiting to see Jesus.  

Until this line, we fully expect from the title and the preceding narration that the author is describing the night he dedicated his life to Jesus.  However, when we  read the above line, we know immediately that the narrator does not feel the same as the others in the church, and the story will go in a very different direction.  He feels the pressure to join the others but he hesitates.  He has not seen Jesus. It is important to note that "see" is italicized here.    Did the narrator take his aunt too literally?  Does he think he will actually see a vision of Jesus?  Is he an immature thirteen year old?   Or is he being honest about his feelings?  He cannot feel the others' religious fervor.  Now we know that this story is not about religious conversion.  It is about maturity or the lack of it.  It is about questioning the beliefs of others.  It is perhaps about a permanent alienation from the church, even if this alienation is only a private one.  

What are some examples of foreshadowing in the story "Charles"?

Shirley Jackson's classic short story "Charles" first appeared in Mademoiselle in 1948 and contains many examples of foreshadowing. 

The story is told in the first person point of view of the mother of a boy named Laurie, who is just beginning kindergarten. Laurie comes home from kindergarten every day with stories of the awful things his classmate, Charles, has done. His parents are appalled by the influence of Charles and worry that it will affect Laurie negatively. The irony is that at the end of the story, Laurie's parents discover there is no boy named Charles in Laurie's kindergarten class. A close look at the foreshadowing in this story reveals that Charles was invented by Laurie as a scapegoat for his own heinous actions.

The first example of foreshadowing is the manner in which Laurie returns from his first day of kindergarten. Jackson describes the scene when Laurie comes home from his first day of kindergarten, slams the door, throws his cap on the floor, and shouts "Isn't anybody here?" Laurie proceeds to speak rudely to his father and spill his sister's milk. This suggests that Laurie has changed from the sweet preschooler his mother describes in the first paragraph.

The next example of foreshadowing is when Laurie, after telling the story of Charles' spanking, slides off his chair, takes a cookie and walks off when his father is still talking to him.  

Another example of foreshadowing occurs when Laurie comes home with another story about Charles and tell his father: "Look up....look down, look at my thumb, gee you're dumb." He then laughs "insanely." 

After this, Laurie once again comes home with a story about Charles and says to his father "Hi, Pop, y'old dust mop." By this time, Laurie's parents are so involved in the stories about Charles they appear not to notice the insolent behavior of their son. 

When the mother describes a confusing positive change in Charles' behavior, the father tells her to wait and see if there is really a change, saying "When you've got a Charles to deal with, this may mean he's only plotting." This foreshadows the pinnacle of Charles' deviant behavior, who tells a girl to say a naughty word, and a few days later, says the naughty word in class himself.