How is the tension between individual and society treated in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe? I read that Pride and Prejudiceis more typical of...

I don't
know that I can agree with the idea that society is thein Pride and
Prejudice and not the "self-reliant" individual. I think that Elizabeth is
the protagonist, and she is, in many ways an extremely
self-reliant woman, much to the chagrin and annoyance of other characters in the
story.

Regardless of this, however, is the concept of man (or woman) vs
society, a common conflict in both Pride and Prejudice and 's
.

When Robinson Crusoe begins,
Crusoe wants to leave his life in England and travel the world because of a need for adventure.
His parents will not give their blessing, first because they have lost another son to this
desire when he was killed in battle; second, because there is no need.
Crusoe's father assures his son that he has the best possible life because he is not hampered by
poverty or riches. He exists in the "middle state," one that
kings envy because of the lack of hardships in that kind of life.

Crusoe
refuses to abide by the wishes of his parents, and departs for a life of adventure anyway. One
source states that Crusoe has committed a sin in leaving the place where God and nature had put
him (in England) to pursue a life he was not born to. His "original sin" lies in his
refusal to adopt a "conventional" life:

...refuse[ing] to be 'satisfied with the station wherein God and Nature hath placed'
him.

Although Crusoe is ultimately stranded alone on an
island, his need for society is what keeps him sane. By living his life as closely to the manner
in which he would in England, Crusoe manages to bring "civilization" to the
island.

Crusoe struggles to maintain reason, order, and
civilization.

Seemingly, English society expected that a
man should face his fears, and do what he must to conquer nature and make it
his realm. When Crusoe finally does this, order is in place and Crusoe's
quality of life is improved.

Once Crusoe is able to
overcome his fear and subdue nature, he is rewarded handsomely.

As noted previously, Crusoe's society expects that he should have
followed the plan based upon the place in life allocated for him by God and Nature. In light of
this, we find that Crusoe also experiences a religious conversion when he becomes extremely ill:
he is alone on the island and believes that he comes close to dying. His faith in God is
awakened and he begins to acknowledge God's power in his own survival. This is also his choice
to adhere to societal expectations of the time.

This was
the first time I could say, in the true sense of the words, that I prayed in all my life; for
now I prayed with a sense of my condition, and a true Scripture view of hope, founded on the
encouragement of the Word of God; and from this time, I may say, I began to hope that God would
hear me.

It would seem that the character of Crusoe is
rewarded when he acts in accordance with the expectations of society, God and nature. When he
defies any of these, he is "punished." Even Crusoe's behavior withand treatment
ofFriday ("saving his soul"), shows his faithful dedication to the expectations of
English society: conforming to the expectations of society, even on a deserted island, allow
Crusoe to survive his thirty-five year ordeal, returning home eventually to resume his life in
England, even marrying and having children.

The message in this novel seems
clear: he who conforms with society is rewarded. He who does not, is punishedonly to be saved
if he changes the way he lives.

How does Clifton employ symbolism and imagery in her poem "There Is a Girl Inside"?

is when the poet uses
language meant to convey sensory information; so it can be visual (seeing), auditory (hearing),
tactile (touch), gustatory (taste), or olfactory (smell). The image of "a green tree in a
forest of kindling" is a very clear visual image, as is the image of the speaker
"break[ing] through gray hairs / into blossom."

The "girl
inside" is actually a for the way the speaker, presumably a
woman of advanced years, feels inside: she does not feel like an old woman
on the inside. We can identify it as a metaphor and not a symbol, proper, because the speaker
does not literally have a girl inside her (and a symbol must work both literally and
figuratively).  Instead, she feels like a young woman, a woman who is "randy as a
wolf," which is a  used to convey the continuation of the
speaker's sexual desire. She is a "green tree in a forest of kindling,"
which...

In To Kill a Mockingbird, what life lessons does Scout learn from her father that allow her to mature and grow up?

learns compassion from
her father when she observes his treatment of Mrs. Dubose, a woman who was only too willing to
call him names and judge him. Despite her abusingto his own children, of all people, Atticus
still feels compassion for her, keeping in mind her addiction and how it might have altered her
and makes her deserving of sympathy and kindness, even when she does not offer sympathy or
kindness to others often. Simply the fact that she is another person in the world seems to
compel him to offer her kindness. One of his most famous statements supports this idea. He
says,

You never really understand a person until you
consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in
it.

Atticus seems to employ this philosophy, which
basically amounts to not to judging others because one can never understand what another person
is going through, with a great...

Why did Salinger set The Catcher in the Rye in the winter?

First, from
a plot point of view, it would make sense thatwould be in New York City between semesters, which
would be winter time: he is expelled from Pencey only after he fails all his courses. He is
living in a liminal or "in between" period in which the school is no longer
responsible for him and his parents are not yet expecting him.

Winter as a
season also reflects his frozen mood. Holden is stuck, not able to move on...

How does Shakespeare explore Juliet's struggle when she hears the news of Tybalt's death?

experiences a range of emotions when the nurse enters the room to tell her what has happened. At
first, she misunderstands the nurse, who wails "Hes dead, hes dead, hes dead...O ,
Romeo!" and believes that Romeo is dead. Then when the nurse begins to speak ofshe believes
that both Romeo and her cousin have been killed. When she learns the truth, she is initially
(and understandably) angry at her lover:

O nature, what
hadst thou to do in hell 
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend 
In
mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?(85) 

I need a good hook for my essay about "The Necklace" revolving around materialism.

There are many
ways to approach writing an essay about the theme of materialism in the story "," so
here's some different angles you might try to create a hook from.

The
narrative centers around Mathilde's obsession with wealth and how it causes her to look past the
good things in her own life (and eventually to destroy them), but that's probably the most
straightforward interpretation. From another angle, it could be said that the Loisel family
learns how expensive it can be to pretend to have money. To me, however, the most interesting
approach to the theme of materialism in "The Necklace" would be an analysis of the
ways that Mathilde's desire to be, or at least appear, rich leads her to believe completely that
the necklace must be real. It never occurs to Mathilde that Mme. Forestier would give her a
necklace that wasn't real, because a fake necklace wouldn't meet Mathilde's
standards for or ideas of wealth.

Answer true or false to the following statements: For the trial balance to balance the debits must equal the credits. The normal balance of all...

True. The
trial balance uses the double entry system, which means that debits have to balance with the
credits.

False. Liability accounts have credit balances.

True.

True.

False. The trial balance can still
balance even with errors. For example, someone may mistakenly put a credit entry as a debit
entry and vice versa.

False. If a transaction has been recorded twice the
trial balance is not guaranteed to balance; it can go either way.

False. The
transactions are recorded in the journal first.

False. The old rule for
journal entries is to record the debits before the credits.

True.

False. The system uses a numerical system for easy identification.

True.

False. Sometimes the error may be caused by failure to record
a certain transaction. You don't always have to post a transaction to recognize the
error.

In chapter 7, where else have we seen the rose-bush motif in The Scarlet Letter?

Two instances
inThe Scarlet Lettershow the motif (repetitive symbol) of the rose-bush: , and .

In chapter one, the rose-bush appears in complete juxtaposition to its location. The
"ugly building" from where it suddenly sprung contrasts dramatically with the
delicately beautiful nature of the plant. The narrator tells that legend suggests that this
particularly rose-bush miraculously sprang after the feet of Anne Hutchinson, the persecuted
religious leader, walked over it on her way to being jailed. However, there is an additional
meaning to this motif:

It may serve, let us hope,
to...

How did Charles Dickens develop the relationship between Scrooge and Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol?

Dickens also
develops the relationship between Scrooge and Bob Cratchit through his glimpses into the present
and the future.

Through the Ghost of Christmas Present, for example, Scrooge
learns intimate details about Bob Cratchit and his family. Specifically, he becomes acquainted
with Tiny Tim, Bob's son, who still manages to exhibit Christmas cheer and goodwill to all men,
despite his life-limiting illness.

Similarly, through the Ghost of Christmas
Yet to Come, Scrooge is shown the devastation caused to the family by Tiny Tim's death. Bob, in
particular, is completely destroyed by his son's death but musters on, determined to stay as
cheerful and kind as his son.

Through these glimpses, Scrooge sees a part of
Cratchit's life that he has never seen before. He sees the reality of poverty and hardship and,
more...

Why does Henry Hudson say that "Chaucer was not in any sense a poet of the people," in relation to his indifference to contemporary events and his broad...

You
seem to be referring to a mix of quotations or paraphrases. Henry Hudson wrote "Chaucer was
not in any sense a poet of the people" in An Outline History of English
Literature. Moody and Lovett wrote of Chaucer (1343-1400) that "the suffering of
the poor was a matter of the utmost indifference" in A History of English
Literature. Robert Huntington Fletcher wrote "Chaucer is an artist of broad
artistic vision" in A History of English Literature. If you have
specific sources for "indifference to contemporary events" and "broad human
sympathy," the Moody/Lovett and Fletcher quotations will serve to achieve the needed answer
to your question.

Hudson's point about Chaucer is that he lived a charmed
life at court as an agent of the nobility going on diplomatic missions and having court
appointments as did other courtiers. He was by position and by personality removed from the
daily strife of the common people, strife like the plague of 1300-1348. [Even though he was
five-years-old at the end of the plague, the suffering and struggle and famine it caused
continued for a long while afterward.]

As a consequence, Hudson asserts that
Chaucer did not write about the common people or for them. Instead, he wrote for the amusement
and interests of the court. He wrote about the life he saw as a man of world travel. He wrote
about the political and religious concerns, like the corruption of the clergy, that he was
exposed to at court. He wrote about the intellectual interests that held the attention of the
privileged classes, thus his French and Italian periods before his English period.

Chaucer was not in any sense a poet of the people. He was a court
poet, who wrote for cultured readers and a refined society. The great vital issues of the day
never inspired his verse. He [wrote for] the favoured few, who wanted to be amused ... or moved
by romantic sentiment, but who did not wish to be disturbed by painful reminders .... Thus,
though he holds the mirror up to the life of his time, the dark underside of it is nowhere
reflected by him. (Hudson)

The second quote or
paraphrase, "indifference to contemporary events," refers to what critics historically
interpret as Chaucer's lack of interest in the life struggles of the common people. It might be
successfully argued, though, that this does not indicate indifference but a privileged refuge
from those struggles and a description of the life and issues he does live and see (similar to
Jane Austen's later approach).

The third quote or paraphrase, "his broad
human sympathy," indicates that  Chaucer's exclusion of contemporary issues is no
indication of his having a mean spirit or character: he is a poet of broad sympathies or
"broad artistic vision." This encompassing accord with humanity and breadth of vision
gives the charm universally attributed to his poetry in which we glimpse Chaucer's own
personality and humor.

Briefly, according to Moody and Lovett, Gower was
antithetical to Chaucer. His poetry reflects the style and interests of the Medieval period,
with an emphasis on Greek and Latin, though his last work was in English, Confessio
Amantis. Gower had a bitter resolve to speak out against uprisings against the
aristocracy. Langland was also very different but was dedicated to expressing a deep concern for
moral and religious instruction in his allegorical works, like the dream vision Piers
Plowman.

Why did the colonists feel the British were oppressing them?

In some ways,
the American colonists felt that the British were oppressing them because the British actually
were doing so.  One example of this would be the Massachusetts Government Act, in which the
British essentially took away any right of self-government from the people of the various towns
in that colony and gave the governor (appointed by the British) the right to take complete
control.  It is not hard to see this as an act of oppression.

In another way,
the American colonists felt that the British were oppressing them because the British were
acting differently than they had been in previous times.  Before the French and Indian War, the
British had more or less left the colonists alone.  They had not really taxed the colonists much
and they had not strictly enforced their laws about things like trade.  The Americans had gotten
used to being left to rule themselves.  When the British took more control, the Americans felt
oppressed even though what the British were doing (taxing, enforcing laws) was not really all
that oppressive.

These were the main reasons for which the American colonists
felt oppressed in the years leading up to the Revolution.

What type of picture I can put with this sentence, "as spider's web would have to stop fallen rocks"

Thebeing
developed here is that man is traveling a slippery sloop between life and death, heaven and
hell. Edwards wants his audience to feel that there life is as guaranteed as a spider
web...

Why might Octavia Butler have kept Kevin in the past for 5 years in Kindred?

Butler might have had Kevin stay in the past to get a better
understanding of Dana, and to give Dana more time in the past to fully experience the lives of
her slave ancestors.

Kevin was understanding, but concerned,
when they realized Dana was time traveling.  He was also concerned when he figured out that she
could only return when her life was...

According to the text, how does Mr. Hooper's veil probably affect his vision?

The
narrator in Hawthorne's "," who is a limited narratorthat is, who records events as
they appear to an observernotes that Reverend Hooper's veil

. . . seemed to consist of two folds of crape, which entirely concealed his features,
except the mouth and chin, but probably did not intercept his sight, further than to give a
darkened aspect to all living and inanimate things.

The
veil, as perceived by Hooper's congregation, imposes a slight barrier only to Hooper's vision,
and it would not have occurred to them that the veil could have effects that transcend the
physical and affect Hooper's vision of the world on a spiritual leveleven more debilitating than
if he had lost his sight.

When Reverend Hooper performs a marriage ceremony,
those in attendance feel the oppressiveness of the veil, even though the occasion is a happy
one. While he is toasting the newlyweds, he happens to catch his reflection in the
mirror:

catching a glimpse of his figure in the
looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed
all others. His frame shuddered, his lips grew white, he spilt the untasted wine upon the
carpet, and rushed forth into the darkness.

Up to this
point, Hooper has felt the effects of the veil only through the eyes of his congregation, but
seeing himself in the veil forces him recognizeto seethat the veil serves as a symbol of fear
rather than as a symbol of the "secret sins" that men and women hide from each other.
The veil, rather than shielding his eyes, has compromised Hooper's ability to see the world as
it is.

Hooper's encounter with his fianc©e, Elizabeth, makes it clear that
the veil has done more than cast a shadow over his ability to see. When Elizabeth implores him
to remove his veil just for a moment, he refuses and pleads for her understanding:

O! you know not how lonely I am, and how frightened, to be alone
behind my black veil. Do not leave me in this miserable obscurity forever!

For Hooper, the veil has not only obscured him from the eyes of his
congregation, it has obscured him from himselfhe is isolated from his fianc©e, from his
congregation, from mankind. What began as a symbol of "secret sins"meant as a teaching
lesson to his congregationhas, in part because of Hooper's insistence on the importance of the
lesson, become the instrument of Hooper's own visual and spiritual isolation from the
world.

What is the significance of the conch shell shattering in The Lord of the Flies?

We learn
that asdies, the "conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to
exist."

Ifis horrified,is elated, stating in high excitement:

There isnt a tribe for you any more! The conch is gone

He ran forward, stooping.

Im chief!

The conch is the symbol of order and the rule of law on the island. The conch stands
above the will of any single individual.

The conch, significantly, is the
communication tool that beckons and draws all the boys together initially into a civilized
community. The breaking of the conch, as Jack understands, creates a chaos in which he can take
over control of everyone for the purpose of his own self-aggrandizement, rather than for the
common good.

As Ralph understands:

The
breaking of the conch and the deaths of Piggy andlay over the island like a vapor. These painted
savages would go further and further . . .

Barbarism and
savagery have smashed the order that the more ethical boys tried to establish and which the
conch...

Use Newton's method to find all the roots of the equation correct to eight decimal places. Use Newton's method to find all the roots of the...

Using a
graph we get approximations for the 4 real zeros: -2.2,-1,1,3.2

Note that
`f'(x)=6x^5-5x^4-28x^3-2x+1`

Newtons method begins with a "guess",
`x_1` , and then generates a new "guess" by `x_n=x_(n-1)-(f(x_n))/(f'(x_n))`

(1) Let `x_1=-2.2`

`x_2=-2.2-(1.897024)/(-122.80192)=-2.184552163`

`x_3=-2.184552163-.059782097192/-115.10915551=-2.184032812`

`x_4=-2.184032812-.0000659453474/-114.85541759=-2.184032238`

How did Douglass' soul change after he escaped? What was the effect of slavery upon Frederick Douglass' soul?

One of
the overwhelming effects of slavery on Douglass' life was the denial of a complete notion of
self.  Douglass' work teaches about how the dehumanizing institution of slavery robs individuals
of the notion of being able to live their own lives.  The institution of slavery was driven with
the need to...

What is the definition of Romantic poetry?

It's not
possible to provide a hard and fast definition of Romantic poetry, but we can still identify
some notable characteristics all the same. The Romantic approach to poetry was marked by a
tendency to abandon the quite formal, rigid standards of Neo-Classicism, both in relation to
prosody and subject matter. The Romantics consciously broke with this tradition, creating an
entirely new poetic language of their own.

Up until the late 18th century or
so, it was widely thought that poetry should strive for objectivity, emulating an unchanging
natural order that provided much-needed stability and moral guidance in human lives. Unlike
their Neo-Classical forbears, however, the Romantics did not attempt to mirror the world around
them, but they attempted to express their individual selves. They embraced a more subjective
style of poetry, one that was concerned with the unique and the strange, the unusual and the
idiosyncratic. The emotional life of the poethis loves, his feelings, his desiresbecame an
acceptable subject matter in its own right. What had once been thought self-indulgent and
eccentric was suddenly elevated to a high art form.

A notable feature of
Romantic poetry, especially in the early work of Wordsworth, was the way in which it often dealt
with the lives of ordinary working people. The tenets of Neo-Classicism had held that such
uncultivated livesnasty, brutish, and shortwere hardly a fit subject for poetry. Yet in works
such as Wordsworth's "Lucy" poems and "Resolution and Independence," we are
treated to a sympathetic portrayal of the rural poor, whose harsh, stunted lives provide ample
material for an elevated insight into the human condition.

The role of nature
took on huge significance for the Romantics. The natural world was regarded as almost a force in
its own right, complete with its own unique personality. Nature wasn't just an object of study,
or something pretty to look at; it had the power to inspire, to meld with the individual poet's
imagination to conjure up a deeply philosophical vision. As Wordsworth wrote in "Tintern
Abbey":

And I have felt A presence that disturbs me
with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the
blue sky, and in the mind of man: A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all
objects of all thought, And rolls through all things.

Neo-Classicism distrusted the imagination, seeing it as leading to flights of
self-indulgent fancy. Yet for the Romantics, it was a faculty whose free exercise was essential
for the creation of art. The imagination combined with nature to generate poetry of depth and
sublimity, which gave the fullest expression to all elements of the human soul, both rational
and instinctual. Romantic poetry was holistic, rejecting the more narrowly rationalistic
approach of Neo-Classicism to embrace the whole person.

Why does George kill Lennie in Of Mice and Men?

Arguably,killsfor multiple reasons. Though
the most obvious reason is to save Lennie from the the mob, there are several other factors we
might want to consider. The following list are some alternative ideas I have thought up. Not all
of these are the most plausible scenarios, but they are interesting to think about.

•       The reason most commonly offered is that George wants to save Lennie
  from being tortured by the pursuing lynch mob. This is probably valid, but it does not explain
  why he doesnt help Lennie escape. Lennie is hiding on the bank of a shallow river. The two men
  could wade across the river and climb into the Gabilan Mountains. The lynch mob might never even
  think of looking for them up there. Even if the mob finally guessed they had fled into the
  mountains, George and Lennie would have too much of a head start, and it would soon be getting
  dark. According to Lennie, the mountains have many caves. A mob would have to search each cave,
  and in the meantime the fugitives could be getting farther away.
•        
  George didnt intend to help Lennie escape. This is proved conclusively by the fact that he stole
  Carlsons Luger from under his bunk at the ranch. He intended to kill Lennie as painlessly as
  possible, just as he had seen Carlson kill Candy's dog with a single shot. When George saw the
  body of Curleys wife in the barn, he assumed, like all the other men, that Lennie had tried to
  rape her and had unintentionally killed her while they were struggling. George realizes that
  Lennie is becoming a menace to society and that he would probably kill other girls if allowed to
  live in freedom.
•         This is the first time Lennie has killed a human
  being (although he has killed lots of animals). George is in some danger of being charged as an
  accessory to second-degree homicide. He told Lennie where to hide if he got into trouble. If he
  tried to help his friend escape, he would definitely be an accessory to murder. George is also
  potentially in double-trouble. Curley suspects him of helping Lennie escape and telling him
  where to go. The police could arrest George just because he was a friend of Lennie and was
  responsible for Lennie's behavior. If they couldn't catch Lennie they might turn on
  George--either the lynch mob or the police, or both. After all, George was not responsible for
  what Lennie did in the town of Weed, and yet George's life was equally in jeopardy. George is
  getting fed up with being tied to an irresponsible man who could get him killed. Many of us have
  had the experience of deciding to break off relations with a friend who keeps causing us
  trouble. There are plenty of such people!
•         George feels guilty for
  the death of Curleys wife. In fact, he really is guilty because he brought Lennie to that ranch
  and the girl would still be alive if he hadnt brought Lennie there. He is Lennies caretaker. He
  is responsible for any kind of trouble Lennie gets intoand he is beginning to realize that
  Lennie is growing into more of a problem than he is competent to handle.


•         George wants to rid himself of a big burden. He cant handle the stress
  anymore. When he kills Lennie with the Luger he has mixed feelings, which include pity, sorrow,
  and remorse, but also a vast relief. He frequently abuses Lennie verbally, telling the childish
  giant that he could enjoy a much happier life if only he were free of him. Lennie is a burden
  because he is always getting into trouble and also because he has to be watched all the time.
  Lennie has caused George to lose jobs, and jobs are hard to come by. Lennie almost got both of
  them lynched by assaulting a girl in Weed.
•         George is angry at
  Lennie. He feels sorry for Curleys dead wife. She was just a girl. She should have had a chance
  to live out her whole life and not have it snuffed out the way Lennie had killed his puppy and
  so many other small animals. George kills Lennie for the same reason that the lynch mob wants to
  kill him. George is really fed up with his companion.
•         George cant
  turn Lennie over to the authorities with the hope that they would put him in an asylum. He
  doesnt have the power to determine Lennies fate. If he could manage to get Lennie arrested
  rather than lynched, the authorities would be likely to charge Lennie with murder. There would
  be plenty of evidence that he had killed Curleys wife, and there would be plenty of witnesses to
  testify that he was guilty. The motive would be attempted rape. Nobody saw what happened in the
  barn. Lennie would be incapable of defending himself, and he wouldnt have much of a defense
  anyway. He wouldnt let go of the girl, she started screaming and struggling, and he killed
  her.
•         Lennie is showing many signs of rebelling against Georges
  control. He lies to George, threatens to run away and live by himself, doesnt follow Georges
  instructions, sometimes deliberately disobeys. (For example, George told him to have nothing to
  do with Curleys wife.) George may be a little bit afraid of Lennie, and with good reason. A time
  might come when Lennie might accidentally kill his keeper.

Steinbeck was a realist. His characters are not all good or all bad. George
shows his good side by looking after Lennie for a long time. He shows his darker side by
verbally abusing Lennie, by wanting to be rid of him, and finally by executing him. Lennie
himself seems like a gentle, likeable characterexcept that he kills everything he touches,
including his little puppy. Lennie is developing an interest in sex, and because of his feeble
mind and giant strength he is potentially a monster who needs to be destroyed.  Slim is probably
the most faultless character in the story, but he is a member of the lynch mob. He wouldnt be
present at the ending if he hadnt come along with the mob. And there is no indication that he
had any intention of giving Lennie any kind of help.

Damon won a charity raffle with a price of $7,500. If he invests the money at an interest rate of 4.3% compounded continuously, determine the number...

P=
Ae^(rt)

Given the initial amount is A= 7500

Also, given
the rate r= 4.3% = 0.043

What are the two main epiphanies in "A Good Man is Hard to Find?"

The first epiphany comes just as the grandmother utters her final words. Prior to this
moment, she has proven a woman of much professed religion and great hypocrisy in the way she
lives her life. For example, early in the trip, as they pass an African American child, the
grandmother reacts with great prejudice:

"Oh look at
the cute little pickaninny!" she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of
a shack. "Wouldn't that make a picture, now?" she asked and they all turned and looked
at the little Negro out of the back window. He waved.

Unbelievably, comments and thoughts such as...

Why is "the age of the common man" or "the age of Jacksonian Democracy" an ironic name for the period from 1816 to 1840?

The first
answer is absolutely correct.  The Jacksonian Era did ignore the rights of women and
non-whites.

However, I would argue that it is not ironic to call this the age
of the common man.

During the Jacksonan Era, the "common man"
really was represented by American government.  There was universal white male suffrage and
government policies generally followed what common people wanted.

What I'm
trying to say is that the first answer is correct about what was ignored.  But we must also
realize that common men of this era wanted those groups to be ignored.

So,
the name "Age of the Common Man" is only ironic if you go by our current
understandings of racial and sexual equality.  If you compare the era to what had come right
before it (or to other countries of the time) it really was the Age of the Common Man.

How can I briefly describe the town of Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Christopher Jerde

Maycomb is a fictional town. It is located in Alabama and based on the author 's own
childhood town, Monroeville, so there is an autobiographical element to its details.

The town is small and possesses a rather rigid class system. Poverty is rampant, with
people either struggling to make do or already living in bad conditions. Some white families are
well-to-do, such as the Finch family, who are essentially American aristocracy due to the
respect of their names and their long family history.

The town is also
racially segregated. Whites and blacks live in different parts of town and go to different
churches, only ever seeming to interact when black citizens work as cooks, handymen, and
housekeepers for the whites, or in a worst-case scenario, when black citizens are tossed into
some controversy, such as with the case of Tom Robison.

In general, the town
is reluctant to embrace change. Everyone seems to accept the classicist, racist, and sexist
attitudes that have persisted in...

]]>

What did Crusoe mean when he said in the chapter that The expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering?

This quote
occurs in chapter 13. In this chapter,is horrified to spot men he calls "savages" on
his side of the island, on the beach only about two miles from where he lives. He tries to
disguise the evidence that he lives on the island, fearing they will hunt him down if they
realize a human occupies the place. After they leave, he examines the beach where they were
feasting and dancing and finds the remains of...

Examine the main idea that emerges from Chapter 14 of A People's History of the United States.

In this
chapter on the U.S. involvement in World War I, Zinn continues a theme that he began in writing
about the Civil War: despite the way history books have been written, wars have not been popular
with or enthusiastically supported by the average person. In fact, he argues, wars
disproportionately serve the ruling classes. Wars allow the wealthy to get wealthier by selling
arms and supplies, and they give the ruling elite an excuse to clamp down on the rights of the
average person.

Zinn outlines the sheer carnage of World War I and the vast
numbers of lives wasted so that one side or the other could gain a tiny bit of territory in
France. He then turns to the reason the U.S. entered the war on the side of England: to protect
the financial investments of its wealthiest citizens. Zinn writes:

 in 1915, [when] Wilson lifted the ban on private bank loans to the Allies, Morgan
could now begin lending money in such great amounts as to both make great profit and tie
American finance...

As a manager, what are you to do if you have an employee that is not doing the work they were hired to do?

Technically, a manager serves the role of enforcing the rules and order of the company and/or
the boss of a company. While a manager is sometimes presented as a person who can represent the
needs or concerns of workers, the manager's purpose is definitely to represent the specific
needs of the boss, and as an extension, the owning class. Workers, under this...

Explain why Berlin was a Cold War flashpoint in the years 1957 - 63.

Berlin was
a flashpoint in the Cold War largely because it was the place where it was easiest for people to
move from the communist bloc to the West.  East Germans could very easily go to West Berlin and
declare themselves refugees, thus gaining the ability to go to other parts of West...

Why did Thoreau live on the shore of Walden Pond, and why did he write Walden?

Thoreau moved to
the woods ofPond to learn to live deliberately. He desired to learn what life had to teach him.
He moved to the woods to experience a purposeful life. He did not want to have lived his whole
life and not truly have lived:

I went to the woods because
I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not
learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not
lived.

While living in the woods, Thoreau desired to
simplify his life. He claims that too many people's lives are "frittered away by
details." No doubt, Thoreau enjoyed his simplistic life, claiming that all men need to
simplify their lives:

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!
I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a
million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.

Specifically, Thoreau did learn that one meal a day would suffice.
He learned that a few plates are better than "a hundred dishes." Simple living is the
key to a fulfilled life.

Thoreau wrote Walden to share
his experiences gained while living in the woods. He desired to help others understand that a
simplified life is a meaningful life. No doubt, he learned to live intentionally while keeping a
record for posterity. He wrote a detailed account:

Walden (1854), is an eloquent account of his experiment in
near-solitary living in close harmony with nature; it is also an expression of his
transcendentalist philosophy.

At the very heart of
Walden is one man's ability to move away from materialistic living and
experience living off the natural land. Today, we have his masterpiece which gives us a
idealistic view of living life in a simple manner:

In
solitude, simplicity, and living close to nature, Thoreau had found what he believed to be a
better life.

How did Diamond answer Yali's question? (Epilogue)

In theto
his famous book : The Fate of Human Societies,credits Yali's question with
providing the impetus for the research that led to writing this nonfiction masterpiece. Yali, a
native of New Guinea, asks, "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and
brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" Diamond spends
the entire book answering Yali's question, and he summarizes his answer in the . At the
beginning of the epilogue's second paragraph, Diamond states:

I would say to Yali: the striking...

href="http://www.jareddiamond.org/Jared_Diamond/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel.html">http://www.jareddiamond.org/Jared_Diamond/Guns,_Germs,_an...

Who benefited the most from imperialism?

Imperial
nations benefited from imperialism, which is why it happened in the first place. They benefited
for a number of reasons. First, colonies provided outlets for manufactured goods. This happened
at a time when many feared that the efficiency of new technologies might lead to surpluses which
could have crippled economies. This was disputed at the time and since, but it is certain that
the owners of major manufacturers benefited by having captive markets for their
goods. 

Colonies also provided cheap raw materials. Big companies bought up
large swaths of land in places like Africa and Latin America for mines, timber, and agriculture.
These were acquired more cheaply, and under better terms, than they could have been
domestically. In Latin America, for example, American businessmen owned vast sugar and fruit
plantations. When these holdings were threatened by political instability, they turned to the
United States government, who often supported them through military action. 

Colonies could often be seized for strategic purposes, another benefit to the parent
countries. In order to guard access to its colony in the Philippines and markets in China, the
United States took possession of islands like Hawaii (which also had rich sugar plantations) and
Guam. These islands became the sites of naval bases like Pearl Harbor.

If it
could be said that imperialism had any benefits for subject nations, these benefits largely
accrued to elites who were chosen to serve as an administrative class. For the vast majority of
colonial peoples, imperialism was a net negative that tended to impoverish the many at the
expense of the few. Indeed, imperialism was mostly beneficial to corporations and business
owners within the imperial nations themselves. 

How can I apply the following characteristics of realism to Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"? (1. Character is more...

Of the
five choices offered to support theof 's "," the two that are most applicable are the
third and the fourth. As a humorous story, this account doesn't rely on typical events or
characters. But Twain did create a character in Jim Smiley who controls his destiny rather than
one who is merely acted upon by outside events. Smiley loves gambling; rather, he is addicted to
it. So he finds animals that can perform in superior ways even though they don't seem
impressive. But his passion outweighs his reason in the end, allowing him to be tricked by
someone he challenged to a bet.

The best way in which Twain complies with
realism is in his descriptions of characters and environments. Writing for an Eastern audience
who wanted to know what the West was like, Twain realistically presented the people and
environment of the mining camps in this story. Simon Wheeler is a non-stop talker who speaks in
the regionalusing...

Difference Between Verbal And Nonverbal Communication

The other
answers do a good job when it comes to verbal communication. So, I will focus on nonverbal
communication.

Nonverbal communication is communication between people
through nonverbal or visual cues. This includes body language (kinesics), distance between
people (proxemics), voice quality (paralanguage), and touch (haptics).

Based
on these considerations, nonverbal communication communicates just as much or, at times, more
than verbal communication.

For example, if a person has an angry facial
expression, enters into an aggressive stance (kinesics), encroaches upon another person's
personal space (proxemics), and touches another person in an inappropriate way (haptics), then
it is clear that a confrontation is in view, even if the verb communication sounds neutral. The
nonverbal cues override anything verbal.

Another consideration is that even
in written text, there is nonverbal communication such as handwriting style, spacing, and the
like.

In conclusion, communication is both verbal and nonverbal, which shows
that human communication is more complex than it might first appear.

How is nature versus nurture portrayed in In Cold Blood?

At the
heart of lies the question of how the central eventthe brutal and
meaningless killings of the Clutter familycould have been perpetrated by two men whose outward
appearance and behavior were basically that of ordinary human beings. The one who actually
committed the murders, Perry Smith, was a man who might have been described as
"sensitive" and who had artistic ambitions. Everyone who dealt with the case struggled
with the mystery of what motivated these men. The "nature" vs. " nurture"
issue has always been one of importance to psychologists, but there has never been a definitive
resolution of it. In this book, Capote makes no attempt to draw an actual conclusion as to which
of these forces is the decisive or more powerful one. He merely lays out the evidence and leaves
it to us as readers to evaluate it.

Most observers would regard the
"nurture" aspect of Perry's background as significant: he had an abusive father and an
alcoholic mother. With Dick, on the...

In George Orwell's 1984, what problem most represents the detriment of society, and what does the society in the novel do to perpetuate the problem?

In 's
, he presents a vision of the future founded on theof knowledge and power,
as well as power's most common manifestation, control.  The Party thrives on its ability to
control - and even mold - the population of Oceania.  It does so through the manipulation of
knowledge, specifically the development of an abbreviated language - Newspeak - which
stifles one's ability to express him/herself as an individual.  The Party "rectifies"
news stories that present Big Brother or his policies in anything other than the most positive
of lights.  The Party will silence any dissenting thought, both from within the Party and
without.  The Party's ability to do these things without a real, unified opposition represents
the greatest problem in the society of the novel - ignorance and apathy. 

The
population are largely oblivious to what the Party is doing to them.  As such, they certainly do
not raise a finger to address the problem.  The society of Oceania are spoon-fed what the Party
wants them to know, from the "rectified" news stories to the "Two Minutes of
Hate."  The population are therefore not motivated to question the nature of
things, something on which democratic systems thrive.  The general apathy of the society
perpetuates the problem, because as long as the people are apathetic, they will continue to
remain ignorant of what the Party's true intentions are, and they will not seek the knowledge
that will empower themselves. 

Why did people's daily lives change in the decades following the Civil War?

The daily lives of
Southerners changed more drastically than those of Northerners in the years following the Civil
War.  The Southerners faced personal financial difficulties, as well as a severely weakened
economy.  The Northerners experienced a period of prosperity after the Civil War.

The South once again joined the Union after the Civil War.  The Confederate States were
dissolved and the Southern states became part of the United States again.  Slaves were freed,
which caused significant economic changes in the South.  The agricultural industry had relied
heavily on slave labor.  Slaves had planted and harvested crops on large plantations.  Planters
had to hire laborers for the first time after the war ended.  Many were already suffering
economic ruin from the war and did not have the cash to pay workers.  Sharecropping became a
common solution to this lack of funds.  Many formerly wealthy planters became poor.  Rather than
produce crops like tobacco and cotton on smaller scales, they had to produce mass amounts to
make enough money.  Many people had to borrow money and debt grew in the South.  Families who
had previously lived comfortably had to do without.  Some people even went hungry.  Members of
entire families had to do their share to help provide.

Former slaves were
able to attend school for the first time after the Civil War.  Some former slaves also were able
to own land for the first time.  They were able to live with relative freedom for the first
time, though racism made their lives difficult.  Some slaves also faced uncertainties as they
lived independently for the first time.  They were freed, but not given any money, food, or
shelter.  They had to find ways to provide for these basic necessities for the first time in
their lives.

In the Northern states, there was economic prosperity.
 Factories were built and jobs were plentiful.  Railroads were built throughout the northern
United States.  Railroads expanded to the West from the North, as well.  These railroads were
federally funded, and they also provided many jobs.

Soldiers on both sides
returned home.  The male workforce resumed, so many women who had served as nurses and in other
capacities had to return home.  Many former soldiers in the South had trouble finding work and
were forced to live in poverty, while former soldiers in the North were able to get jobs in
factories and for the railroad companies.

 

 

href="http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhibits/reconstruction/section3/section3_intro.html">http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhibits/reconstruction/...

How are surrealism, fauvism, Dadaism, social realism, and cubism different from each other based on the style that they use?

historyauthor

Surrealism is a style that tries to be deliberately unnerving or illogical. Painters
often try for a near photographicbut in ways that reveal the unconscious mind.

Fauvism is almost the oppositeit uses broad brush strokes, vivid colors, and simplified
themes. Fauvism is often abstract.

Dadaism is often...

]]>

WHAT ARE THE TEN ROLES OF CITIZENS IN A DEMOCRATIC SETTING

This
question makes it sound as though you are expected to know ten particular duties that a citizen
has in a democracy, a list perhaps from a textbook. Since we have no way of knowing what that
textbook and list might be, I will list the duties that I think should be expected of a citizen
in a democracy. I am basing my response on a presumption that we are speaking of a
constitutional democracy. 

First, a citizen in a democracy should have the
duty to vote. If it were up to me, voting would be a requirement.  What is wonderful about a
democracy is that we choose who will represent us.  There is no point to a democracy in which we
do not participate.

Second, a citizen in a democracy should have an
obligation to understand the powers and duties of the government, generally set forth in a
constitution. If we do not know this, the government that does not act properly has no checks
upon it and can avoid carrying out its duties. 

Third, a citizen in a
democracy should have the responsibility of knowing his or her rights, which are also generally
set forth in a constitution. If we do not know what our rights are, they are
meaningless. 

Fourth, a citizen in a democracy should always know who his or
her representatives are. If we do not know who is representing us, we do not know whether or not
that person is representing us properly, to whom we should complain if that is the case, or to
whom we should state our own opinions and preferences.

Fifth, a citizen in a
democracy should assume the responsibility of being informed about the issues that affect the
country as a whole, for example, the economy, immigration policy,  environmental policy, and
foreign policy. 

Sixth, a citizen in a democracy is also a citizen of the
world and as such, should be informed about the major issues that affect other countries.  These
inevitably have an impact on the citizen.  A drought in one country might mean providing foreign
aid or might mean a rise in prices of a commodity that the citizen needs. 

Seventh, a citizen should be concerned and informed about local conditions, those that
affect him or her most directly, what a city is doing about urban blight or homeless people. 
This is one of the most important aspects of living in a democracy when a citizen is informed,
since the information closest to home is usually the best information, and this provides one's
greatest opportunity to participate in the democratic process.

Eighth, a
citizen should be willing to pay taxes, since without taxes to provide a democratic government,
there would be no democracy. A democracy must provide for all of its citizens.

Ninth, a citizen must have a duty to obey the law.  A democracy cannot exist in a
lawless society, and without the willingness of citizens to obey the law, which is really a
social contract, no government has the wherewithal to police a nation of lawbreakers, and
anarchy results.

Tenth, a citizen must support public education in every way
possible, through the payment of taxes, through local volunteer efforts, through affording this
system the respect to which it should be entitled. Public education is the foundation of
democracy, meant to educate children to be responsible and knowledgeable participants in the
democratic process. Education is our power to perpetuate the democracy.   

What different ways do the clones have of dealing with fourth donation? What do you think would be the best way to deal with it? What deep fear do...

The donors in
know that they will most likely die after their third or fourth donation,
but they have been conditioned since early childhood to accept this fate as natural. Even the
vocabulary they adopt has words that serve as euphemisms to minimize the reality and injustice
of their fate; for example, they use the...

An atom has 25 protons , 30 neutrons and 25 electrons . What is the charge of the atom's nucleus?

The charge of the
nucleus of an atom with 25 protons is +25 regardless of the number of other particles. Protons
are the only charged particle in the nucleus. However, the overall charge of the atom is zero.
That's because protons in the nucleus and electrons outside the nucleus have opposite charges
and the sum of +25 and -25 is zero. The nuclear charge of any atom is given by its atomic
number. 

Here are the charges, locations and approximate masses of the
sub-atomic particles:

proton - in nucleus, charge = +1, mass = approximately
1 amu

neutron - in nucleus, charge = 0 (neutral), mass = approximately 1
amu

electron - outside nucleus, charge = -1, mass = approximately 0
amu 

(The mass of the electron is often neglected when calculating the mass
of an atom. It has a value of 5.49 x 10^(-4) amu, or 1/1840 of an amu.)

In A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, what was "the other Civil War"?

Zinn sees
"the other civil war" as the conflict between the rich and poor in mid-nineteenth
century America.

Zinn's "other civil war" is meant to challenge the
conventional thinking about the Civil War that took place in the United States.  Most sources of
American History argue that the Civil War was between slavery in the South and the Northern
desire to abolish it.  Zinn's problem with this retelling is how it fails to adequately explore
the emerging economic division in mid-nineteenth century America. 

Zinn's
"other civil war" is rooted in America's emergence into an industrialized nation.  He
speaks of how the movement from farms to factories, the consolidation of urbanization, and the
rapid rise of technology helped to facilitate the power of the rich over the poor.  Such a shift
advanced the agenda of the wealthy and neglected the needs of everyone else.  Zinn focuses on
different examples of resistance in the mid-nineteenth century that sought to challenge a
structure where...

In Oedipus Rex, please help identify two instances of indirect characterization of Oedipus. Please include quotes and references.

Sincefollowed closely the tragic structure
that required the tragic Hero to have a tragic flaw, it is important, when considering examples
to answer your question, to identify that ' tragic flaw was his rash and prideful quick
temper.

Beginning on line 673,says to Oedipus:

I see you sulk in yielding and you're dangerous

when you are out of
temper; natures like yours

are justly heaviest for themselves to
bear.

And earlier,the seer, says (from line
338):

You blame me my temper but you do not see

your own that lives within you

The reason that
it is important the theseobserve that Oedipus is sort-tempered and rash, is that this is the
quality that prompted him to murder his father, Laius, when he met him at a crossroads and
neither would give way to let the other pass.

It was that murder that led him
to Thebes and(his mother) and the kingship that would be his undoing.

 

What recent local examples are there of the use of governments power of eminent domain?

In the
United States, US oil/natural gas companies, in conjunction with enforcement by police, have
enacted eminent domain to force landowners to allow pipeline companies to bury pipes along
private land. This use of eminent domain in the last decade has been the center of an ongoing
struggle of environmentally-inclined landowners against powerful resource extractive companies
and their allies in governmentsuch as the Dakota Access Pipeline company in the midwest and the
Mountain Valley Pipeline in central Appalachia.

The Dakota Access Pipeline
was heavily resisted in 2016 through mass protests across the country and through a
multi-thousand person encampment that resisted the laying of pipeline through indigenous land in
so-called North Dakota. Direct action protests and law suits have both been used for years to
fight against pipelines such as the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Often, landowners have turned to the court system in an attempt to challenge the use of eminent
domain by pipeline companies in order to push through dangerous and environmentally harmful
extractive projects.

In October of 2019, a federal court issued a ruling that
challenged private companies' use of eminent domain. The court argued that private natural
gas/oil companies should not be able to use eminent domain in order to force land owners to sell
the rights to their land because the companies do not inherently benefit the public. However,
the state continues to be divided and often continues to allow companies to use eminent domain,
such as was the case with the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Please answer this question on Never Let Me Goby Kazuo Ishiguro: The teacher Lucy Wainright wanted to make the children more aware of the future...

The
issue that the adults and the children confronted in different ways was when and how the clone
children would be prepared for their ultimate purpose. It can be argued that the point at which
a clone learned of their identity and purpose would be the point when their childhood ended. It
can also be argued that for parents and other adult caregivers, the process of raising children
always involves lying to them about crucial existential matters, including the nature of
mortality. From Lucys perspective, education and honesty were more important in the childrens
formation. To Emily, providing some degree of innocence would shield the children for as long as
possible. However, both women deluded themselves into believing that these actions would
ultimately make a difference. More than helping the children, each was assuaging her own guilty
conscience over being complicit in guiding them toward the ultimate fate.

Where did the pigs get the money to buy whiskey in the end of Animal Farm?

In ,is
sold to a Horse Slaughterer. This is the last we see of Boxer, but we can assume that the Horse
Slaughterer would have killed Boxer and then rendered his body into a variety of sellable
products including glue, soap, tallow, and animal feed. It's likely that the pigs would have
taken a payment from the Horse Slaughterer for Boxer, and that the Horse Slaughterer would have
then made a profit by selling the aforementioned products.

At this point in
the story, it makes good economic sense for the pigs to sell Boxer. He is injured because he has
been working so hard, to complete the windmill, and because he is injured he is of no further
use to the pigs. Ironically, this is more or less the same fate thatpredicted for Boxer at the
beginning of the story. Old Major told Boxer that, "Jones will sell you to the knacker, who
will cut your throat and boil you down for the foxhounds." The only significant detail that
Old Major got wrong was that it would be Jones, rather than the pigs, who would sell Boxer to
the knacker.

At the end of Chapter 9,writes that "from somewhere or
other the pigs had acquired the money to buy themselves another case of whiskey." The
phrase, "from somewhere or other," is an example of the dramaticthat characterizes
much of the story's narration. The reader will likely understand where the money has come from,
especially given that Boxer has just been taken away in a van marked "Horse
Slaughterer." The animals, however, are unable to make the connection, and it is their
perspective that we are exposed to when Orwell writes "from somewhere or
other."

What are three examples of totalitarianism within 1984 by George Orwell? Include a quote from the book for each one.

Like most
totalitarian states, Oceania has a supreme leader to whom everyone is expected to give their
total loyalty and obediencenot to mention adoration. In Oceania, this is Big Brother. His image
is everywhere. This larger than life figure is supposed to be the epitome of all that is good.
He also represents the power of the state to look into and control every aspect of a person's
life. In the quote below, we note that posters of Big Brother are plastered all over, with the
warning that, like God, Big Brother knows all:

The black
mustachioed face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front
immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said

Afteris arrested,tells him that one of the four emotions people
will eventually be allowedalong with fear, hate, and triumphis adoration of Big Brother. Big
Brother is an amalgam of Hitler and Stalin, two totalitarian dictators who were projected as
all-wise and all-powerful...

How does the movie Mean Girls relate to the beatitude "Blessed are the Peacemakers?"

This is
an interesting question. The premise of the movie, Mean Girls , directed by
Mark Waters in 2004, is that there are a group of socially elite girls in school that seek to
assert their dominance over the others. They will do anything to claw their way to the top and
maintain that position. When a new girl comes to school that threatens...

Describe the transformations Eliza Doolittle undergoes in Pygmalion? How do these transformations affect the ways that others think about her and...

Eliza Doolittle
undergoes various transformations as she is changed from a poor, Cockney, downtrodden flower
girl to a lady who is desired by men of social standing.This transformation occurs under the
tutelage of Professor Henry Higgins, a linguist, with the help of his friend and fellow
linguist, Colonel Pickering. The wager that Higgins makes with Pickering begins Eliza's changes
at the onset of the play: "Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a
duchess at an ambassadors garden party" (act 1).

When she shows up the
next day, Higgins describes her as "so deliciously lowso horribly dirty" (act 2).
Eliza then begins the metamorphosis from an uneducated street vendor to a lady, starting with
her physical appearance and language, and ending with self-realization. Eliza's first
transformation entails learning how to speak proper English and acting like a lady. When Freddy
meets her later on in the play, he is captivated by Eliza even though her transformation is
still superficial and not complete.

However, the largest transformation
occurs towards the end of the play when Eliza tells Pickering, "The difference between a
lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how shes treated" (act 5). She realizes
her self-worth even if it means giving up Higgins because he affirms that he will give her no
more than "good fellowship." Eliza has gained self-acceptance and realizes that she
cannot accept any less than what she deserves from Higgins: "If I cant have kindness, Ill
have independence" (act 5). Eliza becomes a strong, secure woman in her own
right.

What is the main theme of Sherwood Anderson's book Winesburg, Ohio?

The
introductory section to s book titled €“ a section labeled The Book of
the Grotesque €“ lays out many of the key assumptions that underlie  Andersons book as a whole. 
One passage in this introductory section is particularly relevant to the main theme of Andersons
text.  This passage describes an old writer who has a theory that most human beings are
grotesques €“ that is, distorted in some way, so that they never achieve a comprehensive
wholeness. The narrator of the chapter reports that

the
interest in all this lies in the figures that went before the eyes of the writer. They were all
grotesques. All of the men and women the writer had ever known had become grotesques.

The grotesques were not all horrible. Some were amusing, some almost beautiful, and
one, a woman all drawn out of shape, hurt the old man by her grotesqueness.

The old writer works on a book that will depict and explain
examples of the kinds of grotesqueness just described. Andersons own book will function in
much the same way: it will describe various kinds of grotesque people and various kinds of
grotesque behavior. The very idea of grotesqueness implies some healthy norm from which a
grotesque person deviates. A grotesque character is limited and narrow-minded in some
important way and has thus lost the capacity for a richer, deeper, better-balanced life. A
grotesque, Anderson believed, is a person who has embraced one limited truth to the
exclusion of others, thus turning each truth into a falsehood (Winesburg,
Ohio, edited by Malcolm Cowley. New York: Penguin, 1992, p. 24).

A
grotesque person need not live an ugly life. As the passage quoted above makes clear, the old
writer considered some grotesques amusing and some almost beautiful. But almost is the key
word here: a grotesque, almost by definition, cannot achieve true beauty, because true beauty
implies harmony and wholeness, and those are precisely the qualities that grotesque persons
lack.  Winesburg, Ohio is a multifaceted gallery offering the portraits of
many different kinds of grotesques. The great Russian novelist Tolstoy once wrote that Happy
families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This quotation might
easily be adapted so that it is applicable to Winesburg, Ohio: whole
persons are all alike, but each grotesque person is grostesque in his or her own way.

 

 

Why does the author go to such lengths to describe the furnishings of the Younger familys apartment in A Raisin in the Sun and what do these...

Hansberry begins the play by illustrating the
crowded, depressed condition of the Younger family's apartment in the South Side of Chicago. The
furniture that was once selected with great care is now worn-down and personified as being
"tired." The older furniture shows visible signs of wear and theof the apartment
permeates "weariness" on many levels. The old furniture has also been moved to
accommodate the many family members living in the tiny apartment, which is too small for such a
large family. Hansberry goes to such great lengths to describe the furnishings and
characteristics of the Younger family's small South Side apartment because the depressed
environment corresponds to the feelings and relationships of the family members.

Similar to the worn-down furniture and carpet, the members of the Younger family are
also tired and exhausted.Jr. is sick of being a chauffeur and desperately wants to be a
successful businessman while his wife, , is stressed out and worried about having another baby.
Similar to the nature of the overcrowded apartment, Walter and Ruth's relationship is strained,
and they continually bicker with one another.can only dream of becoming a female doctor whileis
aware that her entire family is depleted and exhausted with life. The worn-down, depressed
condition of the small apartment is also Lena's motivating factor to move into a home located in
Clybourne Park. By emphasizing the depressed, congested condition of the apartment, Hansberry is
able to not only illustrate the negative emotions of the Younger family but also highlights the
important plot device that drives the narrative forward. After receiving the ten thousand dollar
insurance check, Lena puts a down payment on a home in Clybourne Park, which gives Walter an
opportunity at redemption towards the end of the play and symbolizes the family's hopes and
dreams.

What do literature books have that make them suitable to be studied? I have to do a book review on why that book should be studied in the syallbus,...

This is
a tough assignment. I can only offer a few suggestions to hopefully get you started.

First, you ought to tell what the book is about and not assume that your reader has
ever read it. Your description and synopsis should include a little information abouthimself.
You could mention that he was one of the first science- writers and name some of his other
works, such as  Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Then you might
describe...

How do Odysseus and his companions expect to be treated by the Cyclops?

When Odysseus and his
crew find the cave of the Cyclops, along with all his animals and cheese, the crew begs him to
take some food and return immediately to the ship.  The men seem to sense, intuitively, that
they should not be found in the cave.  Even Odysseus had had a bit of a premonition, before he
left the ship, that he would "meet a man arrayed in mighty power, a savage, ignorant of
rights and laws."  He was right, because Polyphemus -- although he isn't ignorant of rights
and laws -- chooses not to adhere to the codes that most ancient Greeks found acceptable.
 

Odysseus, hoping that the Cyclops would feel bound by the religious
imperative to provide hospitality to travelers, since they were believed to be protected by Zeus
himself, refuses his men, and he stays to meet the owner of the cave in the hope that "he
might offer gifts."  Odysseus believes he might get a gift because, often, a host would
offer such a guest-gift to a traveler as a kindness.  Despite his premonition, he still seems to
expect the Cyclops to behave hospitably, and this was a big mistake!

What is an important quote that Ralph says in chapter 2 of Lord of the Flies?

In
chapter two,calls an assembly and addresses the group of boys regarding their current situation.
As the elected chief, Ralph confirms that they are on an uninhabited island and makes a rule
concerning the use of the conch. After explaining how they will proceed to use the conch, he
assures everyone that they are on a good island and will have enough food to survive.
Unfortunately, the littlun with a mulberry-colored birthmark mentions the existence of a beastie
and Ralph is forced to quell the groups anxiety and excitement. Ralph then comments on the
importance of being rescued and tells the boys that it is imperative that they create a signal
fire.

The boys end up racing to the top of the mountain, where they
successfully start a fire using 's glasses. Unfortunately, the fire is too large and quickly
spreads to the nearby forest. After the fire goes out,and Piggy begin to argue and Ralph
intervenes. He proceeds to hold the conch and says,

"Weve got to have special people for looking after the fire. Any day there may be
a ship out there...and if we have a signal going theyll come and take us off. And another thing.
We ought to have more rules. Where the conch is, thats a meeting. The same up here as down
there" (Golding, 58).

Ralph's comment illustrates
his dedication to cultivating an organized, civil society on the uninhabited tropical island.
Ralph also recognizes the importance of being rescued and creating rules to develop a structured
community. After Ralph addresses the group, he puts Jack and his hunters in charge of
maintaining the signal fire. As the novel progresses, Ralph's number one priority concerns
maintaining the signal fire in hopes of being rescued.

How has the neighborhood changed? Why does it matter to the story that his surroundings are no longer the way they used to be?

Here's
Miller's description of Willy's house. It may as well be a depiction of Willy himself:

Before us is the Salesmans house. We are aware of
towering, angular shapes behind it, surrounding it on all sides. Only the blue light of the sky
falls upon the house and forestage; the surrounding area shows an angry glow of orange. As more
light appears, we see a solid vault of apartment houses around the small, fragile-seeming
home.

Like the house he has lived in all these
years, the house where Biff and happy grew up, Willy is a tired little man surrounded by a world
that is hemming him in and exhausting him. What was once the peaceful countryside with
sheltering elm trees, is now a threatening city, where people compete for the very air they
breathe:

WILLY: Why dont you open a window in here, for
Gods sake?

LINDA (with infinite patience): Theyre all open, dear.

WILLY: The way they boxed us in here. Bricks and windows, windows and bricks.

LINDA: We shouldve bought the land next door.

WILLY: The street is
lined with cars. Theres not a breath of fresh air in the neighborhood. The grass dont grow any
more, you cant raise a carrot in the back yard. They shouldve had a law against apartment
houses. Remember those two beautiful elm trees out there? When I and Biff hung the swing
between them?

LINDA: Yeah, like being a million miles from the
city.

WILLY: They shouldve arrested the builder for cutting those down. They
massacred the neighbourhood. (Lost.) More and more I think of those days, Linda. This time of
year it was lilac and wisteria. And then the peonies would come out, and the daffodils. What
fragrance in this room!

LINDA: Well, after all, people had to move
somewhere.

WILLY: No, theres more people now.

LINDA: I
dont think theres more people. I think

WILLY: Theres more people! Thats whats
ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. The competition is maddening! Smell
the stink from that apartment house! And another one on the other side...

Willy is being crowded out by his age, by change he can't keep up
with and by his own failed and contradictory dreams and inner conflicts. More and more, he
drifts into the past, which is the only refuge for this man on the verge of utter collapse. His
peace of mind, like the peaceful surroundings of the home as it once was, is now beset by his
weary present and his almost unbearable toil and struggle to make a living and still walk with
pride. He is losing ground on all fronts.

Regarding the scientists he admires, Augustine writes, No, unhappy is the man who knows all this [about the universe], but does not know you; happy...

In this and
other passages from his Confessions, Augustine very strongly asserts that
our happiness is rooted in the Christian God. As he writes, "our heart is restless until it
rests in you."

Augustine states that science and other forms of
knowledge cannot of themselves bring us happiness unless they lead us to the source that created
all knowledge, which is God. Knowledge is subservient to God. More happiness comes from
gratitude to God for creating a tree and making it useful to us than from knowing every sort of
scientific fact about it.

This differs from Cicero's and other ancient
thinkers, such as Aristotle's, ideas of happiness in that they thought happiness was rooted in
living a morally virtuous life. For example, Cicero wrote that

anyone who is self-controlled, unwavering, fearless, undistressed, the victim of no
cravings or desires, must inevitably be happy.

This put
the burden on the individual to change himself to become a morally virtuous person, as the
ancient world understood virtue. In Augustine, the burden of happiness shifts to God. The
individual does not need to give up all desires, but to give in to the one good desire in the
human heart: the desire to rest in God. At this point, the individual's will to transformation
becomes secondary to God's will. Rest in God, Augustine says, and the creator God will transform
you and lead you to happiness.

What are the differences between the Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian visions for the United States?

Hamilton's vision was a Federalist vision. He
believed in the establishment of a strong, centralized government that would restore order at
home and allow the United States to become a major player in international affairs. To this end,
he was a staunch advocate of the Constitution. He was also instrumental in setting up the first
federal bank, which allowed the United States to pay off the enormous debts it had accrued
during the Revolutionary War.

Hamilton's vision was of the United States as a
world power whose wealth would be based on finance, industry and commerce. And it's this vision
which closely approximates to how the United States has developed since Hamilton's
day.

Jefferson's vision was radically different to Hamilton's. As a firm
believer in radical republicanism, he was deeply distrustful of strong, centralized government.
To him, this smacked of the kind of tyranny that the American colonists believed had been
established by the British. Under the Jeffersonian vision, ultimate political sovereignty
resided with the individual states.

Jefferson's economic ideas were also the
polar opposite of Hamilton's. He believed that land was the source of the nation's wealth. His
ideal was an America of independent farmers, working the land that would provide both economic
and political stability. In common with other Republicans at the time, Jefferson distrusted the
commercial and financial elites of the East coast, the very people that Hamilton believed
provided the key to America's future prosperity.

What effect of the quote "whoever controls the past controls the future and whoever controls the present controls the past" did it have in 1984?

The mutability of the
past is one of the key ideas brought out in "".  This means that the past can be
changed to reflect the ideas of whomever is in control.  The controlling powers can then make
people believe that things happened that didn't really happen, thus giving the illusion that the
controlling powers were always right and always good. 's job in the Ministry of Truth in the
story was to do just that - rewrite the past.  He would receive little tidbits of old news
stories to rewrite so that the stories now reflected what the Party...

In Death of a Salesmanby Arthur Miller, Willy states: "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away- a man is not a piece of fruit!" What does...

"You can't eat the orange and throw the
peel away" is aand obviously a very poor one. That is exactly what you do with an
orange:you eat the orange and throw the peel away. You do the same thing with a banana. What
Willy means, although he didn't express himself correctly, is that you can't treat a man as
if he is an orange and toss the peel away after you have consumed all the
fruit. Eithermade a slip or else he wanted to have Willy express himself badly. If this faulty
metaphor is Willy's invention, then that would show that he is getting old, that he is highly
emotional during this interview, and that he doesn't understand the reality of modern-day
business under capitalism. Arthur Miller probably felt strongly that under capitalism people
like Willy only last as long as their employers can make a profit off of them and that they get
tossed aside heartlessly when they are no longer productive. Business is highly competitive. An
employer cannot afford to be softhearted. Business is business! In recent years we have seen
business of all sorts "downsizing" and "outsourcing" in ways and numbers
that would have been unimaginable in 1949 when the play was written. Americans by the millions
have lost their jobs--and we are told that a young person should be prepared to change careers
several times between entry into the work world and retirement. might be
called aof what is happening right now. "Robotization" is a threat that still remains
largely in the offing. Is anybody secure?

Why does the Party simply not kill Winston Smith in 1984?

The goal
of the Party is relatively straightforward. The authoritarian regime wishes to maintain power
for eternity by controlling the populace through violence, manipulation, propaganda, economic
disparity, war, and fear. The Party does not simply execute dissidents but attempts to change
their opponents' perspective by psychologically torturing them to the point that they capitulate
and end up supporting the government they once challenged. As a means of
maintaining complete control over society, therefore, the Party wishes to convert their enemies
into loving, enthusiastic supporters.

During Winston's
imprisonment in the Ministry of Love,uses various methods of torture and mind-altering
procedures in order to change Winston's view of the Party. By the end of the story,transforms
into an enthusiastic supporter of Big Brother. Altering their opponents' minds is
a more effective way of preserving the authoritative regime's power than simply executing
dissidents. Opponents of the Party are not depicted as martyrs and essentially
switch sides by becoming avid supporters of the Party. The Party's ability to alter one's mind
and spirit is especially disturbing and illustrates the power of Oceania's authoritative
regime. 

Walter Sokel has suggested that Kafka's Metamorphoses parallels Goethe's Faust in that both stories involve a "devil's gift" that exchanges humanity for...

The idea
that humanity is exchanged for inhumanity features prominently in both Johann Goethes
Faust and s . The protagonists of these works offer
contrasting examples of human beings who lose significant elements of their humanity. In the
case of Faust, the devils gift to which Walter Sokel referred is a bargain in which Faust
plays an active role. Kafka, however, offers the character of Gregor Samsa as one who received
this gift unbidden while he was sleeping. The characters had very different personalities
which shaped their specific desires and their lives overall.

The large
questions, with which Christianity is deeply concerned, of salvation, damnation, and redemption
feature in both works, but in strongly different ways. Sadly, for Gregor, the gift he receives
is to sacrifice not just his humanity but his life. In this regard, while Faust is identified
with the devil as Satanthe proud, fallen angelGregor is identified with Christ, the sacrificed
son. Gregor also suggests Old Testament allusions to another sacrificed son, Isaac and to Job,
whose faith was tested.

In Faust, theis not satisfied
with his earthly life and longs for more. Although part of him understands that he is
trespassing on Gods territory, he pushes aside his qualms thanks to Mephistopheles tempts him to
enjoy the fruitsthings that he should not have and that will be regenerated rather than die.
Faust demands:

Show me the fruits that, ere they're
gathered, rot,
And trees that daily with new leafage clothe them!

For trading his soul, the supernatural ability he gainsthe gift
that the devil bestowsis the ability to return to his youth and enjoy a moment of terrestrial
bliss. This enjoyment is explored in his seduction of Margarete and her mothers related death,
as well as her ongoing suffering, for which Faust is responsible. While damnation seems a
reasonable price for such sacrilegious behavior, the entire arrangement is at bottom a test that
God arranged, confident that Faust would prove Him right. In that respect, the idea that the
gift was the devils to give has certain flaws.

Gregor is also bored and
dissatisfied with his life, but there is no indication that he actively wished to gain nonhuman
powers or privileges. Rather than see his new state as liberating himself or rendering him
superior to earthly concerns, Gregor worries that he will not be able to help his family as he
had proudly done before:

he must show patience and the
greatest consideration so that his family could bear the unpleasantness that he, in his present
condition, was forced to impose on them.

Although he
shows that he is relieved when his insect status disables him from going to work, he does not
speak about divine or devilish interventions. Gregors body is transformed from human to
nonhuman, but his essential humanity is not destroyed; he places others concerns above his own
and meets his end in peace.

href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14591/14591-h/14591-h.htm">https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14591/14591-h/14591-h.htm
href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm">https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5200/5200-h/5200-h.htm

What is the difference between ancient and modern tragedy?

Christopher Jerde

Ancient tragedies tended to focus on "great" people: members of royalty,
generals, and the like. Even early modern tragedies went with this bent, though they sometimes
featured people who the audience could more easily relate to on an emotional level (for example,
the infatuated teenagers Romeo and Juliet).

Around the twentieth century,
playwrights started putting ordinary people as their tragic heroes and heroines. Think Willy
Lohman in Arthur Miller's The Death of a Salesman or Blanche Dubois
in A Streetcar Named Desire. These characters are not members of royalty or
mythic heroes but everyday people that one might know.

Ancientalso tends to
feature awhich comments on the action in a formal way. In modern tragedy, a chorus is not viewed
as necessary, though one may still be included (think the tragic 1979 musical Sweeney
Todd, which has the people of London as the Greek chorus).

]]>

What are some quotations (with page numbers) about why Atticus should take the Tom Robinson case in To Kill a Mockingbird?

1. In chapter nine,explains tohis primary reason for
defending Tom Robinson. Atticus tells his daughter,

The
main one is, if I didnt I couldnt hold up my head in town, I couldnt represent this county in
the legislature, I couldnt even tell you ornot to do something again. (Lee, 78)

Atticus knows that the right thing to do is to defend Tom Robinson
despite the enormous backlash and consequences attached to defending a black man in a prejudiced
society. However, Atticus is a noble individual with integrity and refuses to dismiss his moral
responsibility to protect an innocent, vulnerable man.

2. Even though Atticus realizes that he has no chance of
winning the case, he is willing to valiantly defend Tom in front of a racist jury. Atticus
demonstrates his character and positive outlook by telling Scout,

Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not
to try to win. (Lee, 78)

3.
In chapter eleven, Atticus attempts to explain to...

How are the female characters in George Orwell's 1984 weak?

I would push
back against the question and argue that the female characters are not weak but most often show
strength and resilience. However,was a product of his time, and he adheres fairly firmly to
stereotypes about women's roles.

can be seen in terms of stereotypes of
women as representing "nature," whileis the male figure representing
"culture." Julia pursues the sensual and practical creature comforts, ranging from sex
to real coffee, while Winston is more concerned with working out the intellectual knots of the
culture he is trapped in. Nevertheless, Julia is consistently depicted by Orwell as a strong,
assertive, capable, and practical woman. She is the one who initiates the relationship with
Winston and, especially at first, masterminds all the practical details. She is as determined as
Winston is that they will not betray each other if arrested. Throughout the novel, she reveals
her intelligence, courage, and practical wisdom.

We can't underestimate the
washer woman, either, who (though a minor character) is of central importance to Winston as he
rehumanizes through love for Julia. As he watches this large older woman in the courtyard,
singing and hanging laundry, he comes to admire her as the humane face of the futureand even to
find her beautiful. She seems a pillar of strength to him, in her family ties and continuity
with the past.

Weak women would be those ground down by the social order,
like poor Mrs. Parsons, who has to cope with the endless problems of life in Oceania, along with
children who spy on her and frighten her. Katherine might also be seen as weak, in her brittle
adherence to Party orthodoxy.

Is "The Tyger" by William Blake Romantic? If so, give examples of how it is Romantic.

is
usually considered one of the major early Romantic poets. His visionary Songs of
Innocence and Experience, the collection in which Tyger
appeared, had significant influence on later Romantic writers. The first Romantic...

How explicitly does the prophet Teiresias reveal the guilt of Oedipus?

When the blind
prophetfirst appears in , he is purposely vague as he begins to answer s
questions. He knows the terrible truth, and is not eager to share it. When Oedipus asks why he
looks so despondent, Teiresias says he wants to go home as they each have their own fates to
face. Teiresias goes on to say that it is . . . because I see thy lips speak words /
ill-timed, ill-omened, that I guard my speech.

As the interrogation
continues and Oedipus becomes demanding and harsh, Teiresias becomes agitated, and also somewhat
more direct. When repeatedly challenged by Oedipus to tell what he knows, Teiresias responds,
Thou art the accurs¨d plague-spot of the land. While this is more direct, Oedipus refuses to
understand the meaning of the words and continues to ask what he means, threatening him into
being more precise. When Teiresias hesitates, Oedipus begins to accuse him of orchestrating the
murder that has led to the plague. Teiresias finally...

What is the main conflict in terms of "Man versus [what?]" in "Araby" from Dubliners by James Joyce?

The
conflict of this very complex story relates to
allusions in the story (1) to the theme song of the actual Dublin
fair, which begins "I'll sing thee songs of "; (2) to Caroline Norton's poem "The
Arab's Farewell to His Steed"; and (3) to the bazar being anof a church.

When all these elements are taken together, it can be recognized in this cryptic and
elusive story that Mangan's nameless sister is a symbol for hypocrisy and
falseness in the Church (the bazar) and in religion in Ireland.

In light of this, the conflict is best described as
Human (Man) versus Society. If we only focus
on the narrator's actions, it is possible to ascribe a less acceptable Human versus
Self conflict, but this approach leaves so many threads of the stroy unaccounted for
and raises so many more questions than it answers that it must eventually be seen as an
unsatisfactory analysis of the conflict.

To cover further detail, the
theme song of the fair, "I'll
sing thee songs of Araby," is about bright illusions, "rainbow visions rise,"
that "cheat thee of a sign." This confirms Mangan's sister as one who cheats the
narrator by tempting him insincerely with a bright sign. The meaning of Norton's
poem, which ends happily though with a note of upcoming repraisal, "who
overtakes us now shall claim thee for his pains!" is about betraying that which is
precious.

This poem meaning is the inverse
meaning of the song, thus one
represents the story addressing the reader from the girl's point
of view while the other allusion represents the story addressing
the reader from the boy's point of view. The girl's point of view
is: I shall weave illusions to attain what I want from you. The
boy's point of view is: I have been betrayed and sold away for gain
(with the hope of a happy ending for his fate as well).

When these
allusions and their meanings are taken into account, the
primary conflict is clearly Human versus Society (since Mangan has
a larger role than a romantic interest as the symbol for the Church
and for religion), with a secondary conflict of Human versus Human
or versus Other.

I heard a voice call from one end of the
gallery that the light was out.
    Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a
creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.

[Allusions taken from "Wallace Gray's href="http://www.mendele.com/WWD/WWDaraby.notes.html" title="Wallace Gray's Notes
for James Joyce's "Araby"">Notes for 's
'Araby'."]

href="http://www.babsonarabians.com/Readers_Corner/Arabs_Farewell.htm">http://www.babsonarabians.com/Readers_Corner/Arabs_Farewe...

In Gulliver's Travels, why are the Houyhnhnms represented as horses?

The last
section ofis partially aof race-relations in European society. It would have been easy to show
the superior race as, for example, a darker-skinned race that Gulliver discovers ruling over
whites, but that would have been obvious and too easy for a writer of Swift's skill. Instead, he
uses a common beast of burden that no person thinks of as intelligent, the horse. Horses have
been domesticated and used for labor for centuries, and to show them as the rulers of a Utopian
society is to call into question every...

Explain what Fitzgerald achieves by using Nick's point of view to tell Gatsby's story.

Numerous
answers exist to your question about what the author gains by creatingas the narrator
of .  He gains a narrator, a narrator who is a part of the action, and a
narrator who on the surface is an outsider who can objectively describe the shortcomings of the
eastern .  The author gains a persona who can contrast his midwestern ways with the eastern ways
of the other characters.  The author gains a persona who experiences for the first time much of
what he describes:  parties like

In Jonathon Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," what are three places Edwards describes God in particular anthropomorphic terms?

To begin,
anthropomorphic needs to be defined. This term is also known as . Both terms refer to times
where non-human and non-living things are given human characteristics. This include the giving
of human characteristics to god/Gods (since they are considered supernatural). 

In the case of Jonathon...

What are ethical reasons for the active pursuit of diversity and, conversely, ethical reasons for a more passive approach? Assume the type of...

Ethically,
it is important to value diversity in the workplace. Without actively pursuing diversity, a
workplace might exclude certain certain groups and potentially express subconscious biases that
prevent diversity from naturally arising. In this way, it is vital to pursue diversity
intentionally.

On the other hand, active inclusion could almost be seen as
more detrimental simply because you are still singling out minorities and focusing on people's
differences, even if the intent is positive. Additionally, it may mean intentionally selecting a
minority who has less experience than another candidate, which could be considered detrimental
to your workplace and discriminatory against the individual with more experience.

The problem with the diversity issue is that there is no solution that will make
everyone happy. Eventually, when equality is common throughout workplaces, it will be simpler to
utilize passive inclusion, because there should be no discrepancy in the number of
diverse...

What is the symbolic meaning of dust in "1984"?

Dust
permeates life in Oceania, among both Party members and Proles. It is within one way or another
from the start of the novel to the finish.

Dust symbolizes the decay and
oppression that the state has visited on the people. It is also evidence of the constant warfare
which Oceania engages in with its enemies, for much of the dust comes from bombs destroying
buildings. Dust lays over everything, a real indicator that Oceania is not experiencing the
progress the Party claims for it. Winston's flat is dusty, his office is dusty, Mr.
Charrington's shop is dusty, the streets are dusty, and...

In Act 1, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, why does Romeo want to go to the Capulet's party and why does Benvolio want to go with him?

In Act I
Scene 2,andcome across Capulets servant, who is charged with inviting the guests to Capulets
ball; however, he cannot read the guest list, and must ask Romeos aid in the matter.  In this
way the two Montagues learn of the ball and of the many women who will be there €“ Signior
Martino and his wife and daughters, some beautious sisters and lovely nieces €“ and of
course Rosaline, Romeos lost love, destined for the nunnery rather than his arms.  After Romeo
has read the list, the servant invites him and his companion, on the condition they be not of
the house of Montagues.

When Romeo and Benvolio first come onto the scene,
Benvolio is trying to comfort Romeo after losing Rosaline.  He argues that all his cousin need
do is find another lover €“ "Take thou some new infection to they eye,/And the rank poison
of the old will die."  And yet Romeo will have none of it, preferring to be a prisoner of
his misery.  So, when they are invited to Capulets ball, the event falls perfectly into
Benvolios attempts to distract Romeo.  He states that at the party, Rosaline will be surrounded
by all the admired beauties of Verona, and when Romeo sees her compared to such beauty, he
will forget her instantly, and see how ignorant he had been for loving her. 

Benvolio wants to go to the party to end Romeos moping heartache €“ he asserts proudly
that when Rosaline is weighed against the other many women at the ball, she shall scant show
well that now shows best.  Romeo, the hopeless romantic, will not be swayed by this argument,
but avows that he will go along€¦to rejoice in splendor of mine own.  He will go for his own
reasons €“ likely to see Rosaline again. So really, it is Benvolio who desires to go to the
party, and who persuades Romeo to tag along in hopes that the feast will raise his spirits.