When they meet again at Hannah Tupper's, what do Nat and Kit discover that they have in common in The Witch of Blackbird Pond?

Hannah says she first met both
Nat and Kit crying in the meadow. 

Kit and Nathaniel Eaton are both good friends of Hannah Tupper, the supposed witch of
Blackbird Pond. They do not realize this at first. Kit finds the meadow on her own, and it is
the first place she has felt comfortable in Wethersfield. 

Coming home through the meadow everything had seemed so simple, and here it was all
tangled again. Only one thing was sure. She had found a secret place, a place of freedom and
clear sunlight and peace. (Ch. 10) 

Kit befriends Hannah
even though the people of Wethersfield think she is a witch. Kit is amazed that the Quaker woman
does not go to meetings (she has to pay fines), and lives by herself out by the pond in the
swampy land. 

When Nat shows up, Hannah says she should have known that the
two of them would find each other. They have a lot in common. One thing she says they have in
common is that she met both of them the same way, in the meadow.

"'Tis a strange thing, that the only friends I have I found in the same way, lying
flat in the meadows, crying as though their hearts would break." (Ch. 10) 

Nat protests that he was only eight years old at the time. He is
surprised that Kit found Hannah, since her aunt and uncle would not approve. He is definitely
glad to see Kit. 

The friendship between Kit and Nat grows through helping
Hannah. Kit does not realize at first that Nat likes her. She thinks that she should just marry
a local man, William, and be a good Puritan. However, she does not fit in. 

"I can still see the green feathers if I look hard enough. But
they've done their best to make you into a sparrow, haven't they?"

"It's these Puritans," Kit sighed. "I'll never understand them. Why do
they want life to be so solemn? I believe they actually enjoy it more that way." (Ch.
12) 

Later, when Nat illuminates the house William is
building and is banished from Wethersfield, Kit realizes that he really cares about her and she
cares about him. Eventually, she marries Nat instead of William. It is definitely a better
choice for her, since he is the one person who understands her.

What does Voltaire see as the limitations and dangers of optimism?

With the theme
of "" as the human condition, Votaire sees optimism as a stutifying limitation upon
understanding this condition.  For, Dr. Pangloss's doctrine of optimism holds that everything in
life has reasons for its existence in the "best of all possible worlds."  Instead,
through the misadventures of Candide, the world is not, the best, but absurd.

does not simply protray Dr. Pangloss's thinking as foolish; he perceives it as
dangerous because such thinking allows people to justify any inhumanity since "there is a
reason" for it.  This ignoring of inhumanities prevents people from alleviating the
suffering of others or justifies them.  Voltaire demonstrates the ridiculousness of this
thinking in Chapter IV when Candide meets his former philosophy teacher, who is impoverished. 
Thinking he is giving alms to a beggar, Candide is instead addressed by Pangloss, who describes
his horrible conditions, telling him that Cunegonde (Voltaire's love interest) is dead, having
died by being

disemboweled by Bulgar soldiers after having
been raped as much as a woman can be.  They smashed the baron's head...the baroness was hacked
to pieces...not one stone was left standing  [in the castle]

After this horrific description of what has happened, Pangloss states,

But we were well avenged, because the Avars did the same thing to a
nearby estate that belonged to a Bulgar lord.

Voltaire
further demonstrates the deadly effects of this thinking when Dr. Pangloss prevents Candide from
saving Jacques the Anabaptist, who falls overboard during a storm, thus

proving that the bay of Lisbon has been formed to expressly for this
Anabaptist to drown in.

This bold absurdity excuses Dr.
Pangloss's passivity and lack of courage to risk death in order to save another human being. 
Pangloss's rationalizes explanations for his behavior repeatedly.   Critic Darren Felty writes
in his "Candide:  Voltaire's Satirization of Optimism and Pessimism,"

By presenting many such moments, Voltaire makes the philosophical
justification of rampant injustice and destruction into a caustic joke of seemingly cosmic
proportions.

Was the US justified in using the atomic bomb against the Japanese?

The US was
justified in using the atomic bombs against Japan.  Using the bombs saved tremendous numbers of
American lives.  In addition, while the US may not have actually considered this at the time,
the atomic bombs surely saved many more Japanese lives than they took. 

When
a country is at war, its first responsibility is to win the war while taking the fewest possible
casualties.  Of course, there are some rules about how the enemy must be treated, but the atomic
bombs did not break these rules. ...

Was Romeo really in love with Juliet or was he just using her to get over Rosaline?

I agree with
the previous answer that was given, however, there is more to be considered here.is only 13
years old andhimself not much older. In the simplest form, Romeo believes he is in love with
Juliet but this comes rather quickly.

The play takes place over 5 days and
during Act I, Romeo professes his love, not for Juliet, but for Rosseline. He is depressed and
his parents,andworry that he is being moody and too romantic. Rosseline cannot be
with...

What are some examples of metaphors and allusions in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

There are
many examples of allusions found in the short story "." Here are a few
examples:

• References to the American Revolutionary War, including
  the battle of White Plains.
• Cotton Mather's History of New
  England Witchcraft figures prominently.
• The Dutch old country is
  mentioned; an example is the town of Saardam.
• Irving refers to the Russian
  "Don Cossacks."
• There is a reference to "the cap of
  Mercury."
• There is a comparison to the "knight-errant" of
  medieval times.
• The patron of dance, St. Vitus, is referenced.


• The British spy, Major Andre, who was hanged in the area, is mentioned several
  times.

 

In the poem "The Fish" what is the poet's attitude towards the fish? Where does it change as the poem progresses?

In her
single-stanza poem, ","uses the speaker's increasing attention to the details of a
fish to shift the speaker's perception of  and feelings about the fish. It's a lesson in how
attention to details can grant subjectivity to a seemingly lifeless object -- in this case, a
fish.

The speaker's relationship to the fish changes at two key points.
First the speaker observes that "He didn't fight," and that in fact, "He hadn't
fought at all." This observation sparks a curiosity for the speaker, who then continues to
note the fish's bloody gill, and the barnacles which had lodged on the fish's skin along with
seaweed. The speaker then begins to personify the fish through noting the bone structure and
physique until he/she gets to the jaw where "hung five old pieces of fish-line...with all
their five big hooks/grown firmly in its mouth." This is the second and more startling
realization. The speaker realizes that the...

What is the theme of the poem "The Story" by Karen Connelly?

One theme that runs through "The Story" is that, while taking a risk is often
considered in positive terms, there are inherent and varied dangers in doing so.

The speaker begins by saying that humans are all swimming around in the metaphorical
ocean of lifemost of the time staying in safe, shallow water. Eventually, however, the speaker
narrates in second person ("you") how the reader will take a risk and leave these safe
shallows (i.e., dive into "deeper" waters, not knowing what dangers lay beneath the
surface).

The speaker states that there is an awareness of the dangers of
this risk-taking:

You know you are a fool
For
having come this far.
You know you could never
Swim fast enough

And often, the speaker states, we find that our fears are over
nothing. The thing we are afraid of is simply a piece of drift wood or even a dolphin that was
"lurking" out in the waters of life (metaphorically representing things that at first
seem dark and menacing but which actually turn out to be...