Who is Mrs. Windemere in Gary D. Schmidt's book Okay for Now?

Mrs. Windemere is one of the customers that Doug Swieteck delivers groceries to on Saturdays.  

In the beginning of the story, Doug and his family move to a new area. Doug struggles with making friends, and his family struggles financially. Lil Spicer is an early friend to Doug, and her father owns a local deli. Mr. Spicer kindly gives Doug a job delivering groceries on Saturdays, and Mrs. Windemere is one of the people...

Mrs. Windemere is one of the customers that Doug Swieteck delivers groceries to on Saturdays.  

In the beginning of the story, Doug and his family move to a new area. Doug struggles with making friends, and his family struggles financially. Lil Spicer is an early friend to Doug, and her father owns a local deli. Mr. Spicer kindly gives Doug a job delivering groceries on Saturdays, and Mrs. Windemere is one of the people that Doug delivers to.  

Her other important function to the story is that she (in a roundabout way) helps Doug retrieve the Large-Billed Puffins plate. Doug knows that a father of a classmate of his has the Large-Billed Puffins. Doug also knows that this father is a fan of Aaron Copland. Mrs. Windemere happens to have a manuscript edition of Copland's autobiography. She gives the autobiography to Doug. Doug trades Mr. Russel the manuscript for the Puffins.

Why did Keller compare the climbing roses of her greenhouse with the asphodels of God's garden?

Keller was long fascinated with nature, and she found refuge in the natural world before and after the illness that made her blind and deaf as a young child. She writes that after she had a tantrum as a baby (before her illness), "I went to find comfort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass." She writes that she never found in the greenhouses of the North the beautiful kinds...

Keller was long fascinated with nature, and she found refuge in the natural world before and after the illness that made her blind and deaf as a young child. She writes that after she had a tantrum as a baby (before her illness), "I went to find comfort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass." She writes that she never found in the greenhouses of the North the beautiful kinds of climbing roses that grew in her house in Alabama. She writes, "I could not help wondering if they did not resemble the asphodels of God's garden." Homer's The Odyssey describes the afterworld as being covered in asphodel flowers. For example, Achilles's ghost walks across a field of asphodels to the afterworld. Keller's comparison implies that her roses were heavenly in appearance and scent. They are a cherished memory of the period of her childhood when she had sight.  

When Roger throws stones at Henry, what keeps him from hitting Henry? How are Roger and Henry affected by civilization?

In Chapter 4, Henry is playing on the beach, and Roger begins to throw stones in his proximity. However, Roger is careful not to aim directly at Henry and hit him. Golding describes the six-yard diameter surrounding Henry that protects him and mentions that inside of the invisible circle was a "taboo of the old life." Roger's insistence on not hitting Henry with the stones demonstrates how he has been conditioned by society not to...

In Chapter 4, Henry is playing on the beach, and Roger begins to throw stones in his proximity. However, Roger is careful not to aim directly at Henry and hit him. Golding describes the six-yard diameter surrounding Henry that protects him and mentions that inside of the invisible circle was a "taboo of the old life." Roger's insistence on not hitting Henry with the stones demonstrates how he has been conditioned by society not to harm others. Roger has not been on the island long enough to distance himself from the rules of society and still believes that it is wrong to hit others with stones. While Roger is throwing stones at Henry, Henry continues to play on the beach and does not worry about being hit. Even Henry has been conditioned by society and takes it for granted that Roger will not aim directly at him. Henry finds it funny that Roger is throwing stones close to him and is not afraid of being hit by them. Both boys demonstrate how society's rules and regulations have affected their behavior.

Why is The Help an appropriate title for this novel?

Authors and publishers sometimes deliberately use titles that can be interpreted in several ways. The fun lies in letting the readers discover the multiple references.

At its core, the name and the main concept of The Helppoints to the African American domestic servants traditionally employed in homes in the Deep South region of the United States. The verb “to help” turns into a noun to mean “the paid workers.” Some folks – especially those...

Authors and publishers sometimes deliberately use titles that can be interpreted in several ways. The fun lies in letting the readers discover the multiple references.

At its core, the name and the main concept of The Help points to the African American domestic servants traditionally employed in homes in the Deep South region of the United States. The verb “to help” turns into a noun to mean “the paid workers.” Some folks – especially those without ties to the American South -- may see this term as a dehumanizing one. “The help” sounds as though the employees should be treated as objects, and not as people. This use is therefore appropriate for the title of this book, since many members of the Jackson Junior League do not see their black maids as their equals.

We can consider another interpretation of “the help” by associating it with the writing projects undertaken by Miss Skeeter Phelan. First, she needs help in answering the housekeeper questions sent to Miss Myrna at the local newspaper. Skeeter is the new columnist. In order to write the columns, she has to get assistance and tips from Aibileen, the maid for the Leefolt family. Then because of something Aibileen tells Skeeter about her deceased son, Skeeter gets the idea to compile stories from the black maids. The resulting book will unveil a variety of both good and bad practices, as well as racist attitudes and behaviors, regarding their employers. But all of their identities will be masked. “The help” ends up giving Skeeter “the help” she desperately needs to flesh out the book and to get it published. She could not finish the project without them.

What is a summary of Alfred Noyes' poem "Song of the Wooden-Legged Fiddler"?

Alfred Noyes wrote "Song of the Wooden-Legged Fiddler" in 1805. It is the tale (song) of a youngster who ran away to sea, to "fight like a sailor for country and king" (19). The poem is five stanzas, with seven lines in each. At the end of each stanza is a one-line chorus, which echoes the last line of the stanza.

In the first stanza, the singer speaks about his life as a boy. He lived in a cottage in the West, but had a restless spirit that forever called him to sea:

But I knew no peace and I took no rest

Though the roses nigh smothered my snug little nest;

          For the smell of the sea

          Was much rarer to me,

And the life of a sailor was all my joy (3-7)

The boy has a "snug" home, described as a picture-perfect cottage, surrounded by roses. However, it was not the flowers that he smelled that overwhelmed him, but the rare smell of the salty ocean water.

In the second stanza, the narrator tells of his mother's wishes for him:

My mother she wept, and she begged me to stay... (9)

He notes that she wanted to keep him close to home, tied to "her apron-string" (10), to help with the hay—we can assume with its harvest. (Hay is the crop of a season's growth of grass that is harvested before it goes to seed.) The singer relents to his mother's wishes for the cutting of the hay, but sneaks out and runs off the following spring.

On a night of delight in the following spring,

                With a pair of stout shoon

                And a seafaring tune

     And a bundle and stick in the light of the moon,

                Down the long road

                To Portsmouth I strode... (13-18)

He takes a pair of strong shoes ("shoon"), and he whistles a sea chantey, having packed a few belongings in a piece of cloth (like a kerchief), carried on the end of a stick—walking to Portsmouth to follow his dream. We can infer this is some distance if his home does not afford him the smell of the sea.

In the third stanza, the sailor is returning home, though the sea still calls him away. The memories of sailing the Spanish Main—chasing French and Spanish frigates—are still fresh in his mind. Perhaps the most poignant line is found in this section of the song:

For at heart an old sailor is always a boy... (25)

This is the line that reminds the listener, even until the end of the song, that the ocean's call never loses its power as the boy grows into a man, and eventually an aged sailor who can no longer make his living on the sea.

The listener (or reader) can believe that a sailor's heart never ages and the draw of the profession never fades: even after all of his experiences, the sea still calls to him like a mythical siren. The smells of gunpowder (for the canon) and pitch (tar to waterproof the ship) are still in his nose. His heart will belong to the sea (he notes) until he cannot tell the difference between either of them—and even when (as he looks out over the ship's side) he cannot distinguish the "grin o' the guns from a glint o' the sea" (27). At this point he will lack the mental capacity to tell the difference between the legendary Nelson and some other jack-tar like himself.

The fourth stanza lets the listener know that the sailor is no longer young:

Ay! Now that I'm old I'm as bold as the best... (32)

By now he has lost his leg—a wooden peg has taken its place; and he is as bald as an egg. Even in light of these drastic changes, his love of the sea has not diminished:

The smell of the sea

              Is like victuals to me... (37-38)

In other words, living on the ocean is as necessary to him as food ("victuals"). Even in his grave, he is certain he will still be calling "Ahoy!" When his body is "ready to rest" (die), he echoes the sentiment he shared earlier:

At heart an old sailor is always a boy. (41)

Interestingly, while he recalls whistling a sea song when he left home, his story has become a sea chantey, based upon his life rather than another sailor's, as he has lived the life he was called to so many years before. It would also seem that his choice was true to his heart and he has no regrets—other than, perhaps, having to leave his life on the sea because he can no longer sail. For the boy's heart in him is still passionately in love with the sea.

Brown (B) is dominant to white (b), and tall (T) is dominant to short (t). What is the probability of producing a brown offspring from two...

By considering the information given and the relationships between phenotype and genotype, we can definitely conclude with the initial information: 

B = brown, dominant

b = white, recessive

Therefore BB and Bb will be brown, and bb will be white.

T = tall, dominant

t = short, recessive

Therefore TT and Tt will be tall, and tt will be short.

We are told that both parents are heterozygous; in this case, we're looking specifically for...

By considering the information given and the relationships between phenotype and genotype, we can definitely conclude with the initial information: 

B = brown, dominant

b = white, recessive

Therefore BB and Bb will be brown, and bb will be white.

T = tall, dominant

t = short, recessive

Therefore TT and Tt will be tall, and tt will be short.

We are told that both parents are heterozygous; in this case, we're looking specifically for brown offspring. Because of independent assortment and the fact that the color gene appears to have nothing to do with the height gene, we can simplify this problem; the T and t alleles will be irrelevant. We only need to look at the B and b alleles.

We know both parents are heterozygotes, which means both parents are Bb. 

This means they have a 25% chance of having BB children, 25% for bb, and 50% for Bb. 

Again, the T and t alleles are irrelevant here because the color of the children is a totally separate ratio from the height.

Since we're only looking for brown offspring, and 75% of the children will have a dominant B allele, then 75% of the offspring will be brown.

How did learning to read save Frederick Douglass?

According to Frederick Douglass, slaveowners denied their slaves the ability to read and write because they feared that literacy would provide slaves with knowledge and self-sufficiency that would threaten slaveowners' abilities to control their slaves. Additionally, keeping slaves illiterate ensured it would be nearly impossible for slaves to control the national perception of slavery because they would be unable to contribute their own narratives. Douglass believes his education was crucial to freeing himself for these...

According to Frederick Douglass, slaveowners denied their slaves the ability to read and write because they feared that literacy would provide slaves with knowledge and self-sufficiency that would threaten slaveowners' abilities to control their slaves. Additionally, keeping slaves illiterate ensured it would be nearly impossible for slaves to control the national perception of slavery because they would be unable to contribute their own narratives. Douglass believes his education was crucial to freeing himself for these reasons. Additionally, the texts he used to become literate provided him with intellectual defenses against slavery that he used throughout his career as an abolitionist. Specifically, Douglass references a speech about Catholic emancipation in The Columbian Orator that inspired much of his anti-slavery writing throughout his life.