What are the conflicts in "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"?

There are several conflicts in "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." The story opens with an obvious conflict between Granny and Doctor Harry: "   She flicked her wrist neatly out of Doctor Harry’s pudgy careful fingers and pulled the sheet up to her chin. The brat ought to be in knee breeches. Doctoring around the country with spectacles on his nose! “Get along now. Take your schoolbooks and go. There’s nothing wrong with me.”

 

After that, though, things get more complicated. Granny's present is fighting with her past, and her conscious explanation of things with her true heart's appraisal of past love. She's fighting to stay alive, and then, ultimately, fighting to control the meaning of her existence, even if this just means determining her emotional response to the end of her life.

In the "Grapes of Wrath" what does Ma's burning of the old stationary box illustrate?

In chapter 9, one of the interchapters, the narration asks: "  How can we live without our lives?  How will we know it's us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it."  Then in the next chapter, before the family sets off on the trip to California, Ma goes through things one last time and goes through the old box of stationery that also held some possessions such as clippings, photos, earrings, etc.  She lovingly went through the box, choosing just a few tiny items, then burned the rest of it.  Steinbeck in those two chapters wants the reader to see and to feel the utter despair of the migrant people as they had to leave behind everything they'd ever known.  Not only did they have to leave their homes, families, and friends, they also had to leave their possessions.  Many of the possessions that were left behind were momentos like those in Ma's stationery box.  There simply was no room for sentimentality, figuratively and literally. The migrants could not afford to let themselves become overly saddened by their plight.  They had to move forward and remain as positive as possible rather then let themselves become wrapped up in the sadness of what they had to leave.  Literally, there was no room on the truck, or car, or wagon for anything that was not essential and momentos were not essential.  Old photos and letters and souvenirs would not feed, clothe, or shelter them so those things could not go with them.

Does anyone know quotes in TKAM that expresses evil said by Bob Ewell referring to the Finch family?

Bob Ewell made only one specific threat against Atticus
following the Tom Robinson trial in To Kill a Mockingbird. Shortly
after the trial, Bob confronted Atticus outside the post office and spat in his face.
According to Miss Stephanie Crawford, who witnessed the encounter, Bob also "threatened
to kill him (Atticus)." He also called Atticus "'a nigger-lovin' bastard'" and other
"names wild horses could not bring her to repeat." In October, Bob "acquired and lost a
job in a matter of days"; Ruth Jones, "the welfare lady, said Mr. Ewell openly accused
Atticus of getting his job," and indirectly called him a
"bastard."

How long was Jeanne in Manzanar in Farewell to Manzanar? What happened to her father?

Jeanne Wakatsuki was at Manzanar for three-and-a-half
years. On February 25, 1942, all individuals of Japanese descent were ordered to
evacuate Terminal Island, California, where the Wakatsukis lived. Given only forty-eight
hours notice, they were forced to sell their possessions for "humiliating prices," and,
with the help of a charity organization, were able to resettle in Los Angeles. After a
short time, however, the order was given that Japanese Americans would have to be
relocated inland. In early April, 1942, Jeanne was interned at Manzanar, in California's
Owens Valley, where she remained until October, 1945. Jeanne was seven years old at the
time of her internment; ten-and-a-half when she was
released.

Because he operated a fishing boat off the
California coast for a living, Jeanne's father, Ko Wakatsuki, was one of the first to be
arrested in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. In the hysteria engendered
by the attack on American soil, it was suspected that Wakatsuki, and other Japanese
Americans, would be loyal to the country of his birth, and would potentially engage in
espionage for Japan. Wakatsuki was imprisoned in faraway North Dakota, where he was held
for almost a year. After that time, he was reunited with his family at Manzanar, but his
incarceration changed him, and he returned a bitter, angry
man.

At Manzanar, Ko Wakatsuki was subject to sudden,
ferocious rages. He drank copiously, and when drunk, was abusive to his wife and family.
Eventually, however, he became resigned to what had happened to him, and spent his days
peacefully tending a Japanese garden he created on the desert grounds. When the family
was released from Manzanar, Ko relocated them in Long Beach, California. While his
children were determined to assimilate into the American mainstream, he stubbornly clung
to his Japanese customs, trying to instill an appreciation for their heritage in his
children, with little success. Having lost everything when the family was interned, Ko
Wakatsuki found himself essentially "starting over from economic zero." Unable to
support his family, he began drinking again, while, to his humilitation, his wife took a
job at a cannery to keep food on the table. After a couple of failed attempts at
starting his own business, and a near-death experience brought about by his excesses, Ko
Wakatsuki returned to farming. He pulled himself together growing strawberries outside
of San Jose, California, and continued in this endeavor until his
death.

Could you translate these lines from John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud" into easy modern day English?And dost with poison, war, and sickness...

This is one of my favorite poems by John Donne. It is meant to comfort those facing death. In the poem, Donne makes it clear that death has no real lasting power. It is but a temporary pause between this life and eternal life.

The lines you asked about specifically could be summed up like this:

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,

(You, death, are only a slave. Fate, Luck, kings and even desperate men control you and tell you when to appear. You are so low that you live with poison, war and sickness--not a very good place to dwell.)

And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;

(Poppies are known for their sleep inducing qualities (morphine and other opiates are made from them, and many people have compared death to sleep) so here Donne is saying--Drugs and charms (maybe herbal) make people sleep as well as you can--and even better, so why do you, death, brag or feel pride in your ability? He goes on in the final line to say that death will die when people rise in eternal life.)

For the full text, see the link below.

You can also find information about Donne at the second link.

Where is the connection of "the loaded dice" in the book "In the Time of the Butterflies"?

Loaded dice are dice that are improperly balanced, so that the player who uses them has an unfair advantage. 

In the latter part of Chapter 6, Minerva gambles with the dictator Trujillo, using dice that were given to Trujillo by her Tio Chiche, a notorious cheater.  Minerva notices right away that the sides of the dice do not balance as they should, and sardonically realizes, "of course, my good-for-nothing uncle would give his buddy loaded dice".

The metaphor of the dice signifies the impossiblity of having a fair chance when going up against Trujillo.  Since both Minerva and Trujillo use the same dice when they toss, they end up in a draw, and have to "call it even, for now".  For a moment, Minerva imagines going up against Trujillo when the stakes are "evenly balanced, his will on one side, (hers) on the other", and feels that if such a situation should ever be possible, she might have a chance at beating him.  Minerva knows, however, that what she imagines will never happen.  At the playing table and in the larger scheme of politics and life, Trujillo always plays with "loaded dice" - he will always win, using whatever treachery that is necessary, and it is impossible to stand up against him.

In "Animal Farm," what do Napoleon and the other animals think of Snowball?

Snowball, is at first, an inspiration to the other animals.  Realizing that the humans might try to retake the farm, he devises a military strategy to defend the farm.  He is wounded in battle and considered a hero. 

Snowball fully embraces the ideology of animalism and comes up with the plans to build a windmill that will assist the animals on the farm by providing electricity. 

"The biggest controversy stems from Snowball’s plans to build a windmill. He paints a picture of a new Animal Farm, powered by electricity produced by the windmill. He promises the animals heated stalls, modern machinery to make their lives easier, and a three-day work week."  

Unfortunately, Napoleon's idea is not to make life easier for anyone but himself.  Clearly, his vision of Animal Farm consists of the other animals working as hard as they have to and Napoleon and the pigs sitting around doing nothing. 

Snowball, when he becomes too popular with the other animals must be removed.  Since Napoleon cannot garner the devotion of the other animals the way Snowball can, he uses threats and physical violence to take control.

"Napoleon makes a high-pitched sound and nine enormous dogs rush in and chase after Snowball. They are the nine puppies taken from their mothers and secretly raised by Napoleon. The startled Snowball runs for his life and barely escapes through the hedge. He is seen no more." 

What are 3 big conflicts in the story "Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963"? If you have an answer please post it before tomorrow.

One of the conflicts in the story is Kenny's difficulty with social adjustment. He has a lazy eye which makes him look different, and is very intelligent, a characteristic which does not endear him to his peers when he is held up as an example of academic excellence to other students. Kenny's only friend has turned out to be a thief, and he has trouble finding acceptance both with his classmates and his siblings.

Another very serious conflict in the story is Kenny's brother Byron's rebellious behavior. Byron is thirteen, and intent on being "an official juvenile delinquent". He is insolent and disobedient, hanging around with the wrong crowd, skipping school, starting fires, and straightening his hair in direct defiance of his parents' wishes. Byron's behavior is beyond his family's capablity to handle, and his parents, at wits end, decide to remove him from his familiar environment and leave him with his formidable Grandma Sands in Birmingham, Alabama for awhile to see if she can get him to modify his behavior.

A final conflict is Kenny's inability to come to terms with two terrifying experiences he has in Birmingham. Kenny almost drowns in the "Wool Pooh", and witnesses the aftermath of the tragic bombing of a black Christian Church. It takes the love and understanding of his entire family, even Byron, to help him work through his trauma and live life in health and normalcy once again.

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

Imagery is the use of words to create a mental picture--which Lucille Clifton was very good at doing.

This poem is about growing old in body but not in spirit. Clifton says there is a young girl inside her who "will not walk away/ and leave these bones/ to an old woman." She will not let the condition of her body make her mind and spirit old.

Clifton uses the image of a green tree in a "forest of kindling," meaning dried-out wood ready for burning, to symbolize the young spirit, the "green girl," inside her.

She uses the image of a nun waiting patiently for the second coming to symbolize her patience in waiting for that day, presumably after death, when she will have the new body promised to believers (I realize I'm reading a lot into this). She returns to the image of the green tree to symbolize that new, young body.

She turns from religious imagery to recall the metaphor of being "randy as a wolf" (meaning she's in "heat") from the first stanza. The wild growth of the woods after her lovers have "harvested" her "honey and thyme" symbolizes the sexual potency and fertility of her new body. 

What is the conflict in "To Build a Fire"?

There are several conflicts in the story. One is man vs. nature, the main character's struggle to survive in the wilderness. He isn't experienced traveling in the Klondike and doesn't take the necessary food and supplies he needs to survive. He also ignores the advice of veteran travelers who tell him never to travel alone when the temperature gets below minus fifty degrees. Our traveler doesn't respect the forces of nature and how cruel it can be.

Another conflict is man vs. death, coming to terms with one's own death. The main character must accept his death and goes through different stages before he can come to terms with it. He berates himself for not listening to the old-timer's advice, then becomes depressed, goes into a panic, and then makes one last attempt to survive. His last act is to "try meeting [it] with dignity", accepting that his death is certain.

Compare Frederick Douglass' and Harriet Jacobs' slave life.

Frederick Douglass, in his "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," recalls early memories of seeing slaves receive terrible beatings and horrific overseers who were cruel. Harriet Jacobs, in her "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" recalls a happy childhood, in which she was taught to sew and read, and was unaware that she could be bought or sold. It wasn't until Harriet was older that she was abused and treated badly. Frederick Douglass, on the other hand, had to sneak his reading and writing and does hard labor for slave owners who are very cruel his whole life, only briefly working under a kind family. When Douglass escapes, he goes North. Initially, Harriet Jacobs hides in a crawl-space at her grandmother's house for seven years before escaping to Philadelphia. Both Douglass and Jacobs end up working together in the abolitionist movement.

Why is Lenina's looking at the moon important?Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Apparently, the hypnopaedia conditioning was not 100%
effective with Lenina.  She enjoys being with just one man, and there is some atavistic
magnetism from the moon that she senses.  In the real, natural world, the tides are
moved by the moon, and animal behavior is affected by full moons.  During full moons,
fish tend to be more active, as well, and often breed at this
time.

It is significant that Lenina senses, perhaps, the
energy from the moon. Certainly, there is something primal in her nature that wants to
respond to it. However, she is not quite capable of genuine, whole feelings because her
conditioning tells her to reject it.  All Lenina experiences are twinges from a soul
long buried in conditioning, consumerism and soma. 

The intuitive John, who loves nature, senses
the inclinations that Lenina has towards it and assumes that she has some natural
feelings.  But, such is not the case.  For, Lenina is simply not capable of feeling as
John wishes her. 

What is a good thematic statement (universal theme) of the message/lesson the author of The Crucible conveys?

I would use some language that helps convey aspects of
those themes as well. For example, the use of guilt and manipulation play into those
topics as well.

1. Authority figures within Arthur Miller's
The Crucible allowed their hopes of maintaining great power
interfere with their care for humanity, the purpose of the very offices to which they
were appointed.

2. Fear manipulated the town of Salem
during Arthur Miller's The Crucible causing a mania that cost
people their very lives.

Are you writing a thesis statement
in two sentences? What is the purpose of your assignment?

In "The Red Badge of Courage," how do the scenes at the encampment affect the characterization of the Union soldiers?How does Crane characterize...

The scenes of the Union army's encampment reinforce the idea that the Union army is simply waiting and not really fighting a real war. The constant drilling and various rumors that run through the camp only serve to instill a sense of fear in Henry who is convinced the rest of his regiment will be good fighters who will not run in the face of eventual conflict. In Chapter 18 however, Henry and Wilson are stunned to hear their regiment insulted. They keep the insults to themselves but prepare for battle. By the end of the chapter, the regiment does fight and Henry sees his comrades die in horrible ways. Finally, Henry himself, gains courage, pries the flag from the injured flag carrier, and along with Wilson, leads the charge against the enemy.

Discuss the properties of English verbs with examples.

The properties of English verbs is a complex subject that
we can only touch on in part here. English verbs are a
word class that are lexically and morphologically distinct
and indicate an action, a state of being or an event
(occurrence). English verbs have inflectional
properties that indicate tense, aspect and
mood. They also show active and passive
voice, which indicates the relationship between the Subject
and the Verb of a sentence. There are regularly conjugated
and irregularly conjugated verbs. English verbs conjugate
for person: first (I; we), second (you; you) and third
person (she, he; they) in both singular and plural. English verbs have
non-finite, or infinitive, forms (to have, to be, to do)
and participle forms (singing, sang; staying, stayed).
English has auxiliary verbs and modal
auxiliary verbs. English verbs can be followed by article particles to
form phrasal
verbs.

Tense
locates verbs in time and shows past time, present time or future time. Examples are:
Past: Yesterday I swam. Present: Today I swim. Future: Tomorrow I will swim.
Aspect of a verb shows whether or not an action or
occurrence (event) is completed or not. Aspect shows that which is
incomplete through progressive aspect,
also called continuous aspect, and
complete through perfect aspect.
English verbs indicate mood, or attitude, as ordinary
indicative, questioning interrogative, urgent
imperative, contingent conditionals, and
doubtful or wishing subjunctive. Examples are: Indicative: I swam.
Interrogative; Will you swim? Imperative: You must not swim. Conditional: I might not
swim if it could be unwise. Subjunctive: If it were I, I would
swim.

Regularly conjugated verbs, or regular
verbs, are those that follow the standard English conjugation model for
present, past simple and participle forms: Root word: bake: bake, baked, baking;
infinitive: to bake. Irregularly conjugated verbs, or irregular
verbs, are those that follow a different conjugation pattern in the past
simple and past participle forms: Root: rise: rise, rose, risen. Root: bring: bring,
brought, brought. It is posited that these high usage words maintained Middle English
conjugation whereas lower usage words did not.

Finally,
English auxiliary verbs are do, be and
have. Modal auxiliary verbs, or
modal verbs, commonly known are can, may, could,
should, would, shall, ought (ought to), will, while some uncommonly known
ones are need, and dare. There are three
Simple tenses; three Perfect
tenses: have + -ed participle; three
Progressive (aka Continuous) tenses: be + -ing
participle; and three Perfect Progressive (aka
Perfect Continuous) tenses: have + be + -ing participle. The three
categories for each are Past, Present and Future yielding twelve English
tenses.

How are Antigone, Gertrude and Ophelia similar?

In the plays Antigone and
Hamlet, Antigone, Gertrude, and Ophelia are all tragic victims,
though only Antigone, I would say, is a tragic
hero.

Antigone is a tragic
hero because she incites the action of the play, makes a tragic mistake,
and suffers dearly for it.  Her rebellion against Creon's unjust civil law causes her to
suffer and die.  And, let's face it, she makes the tragic mistake of being stubborn even
after she proves her point.  She goes to her death full of tragic
hubris (pride), a romantic zealot with a death
wish.

Gertrude and Ophelia get caught in the cross-fire
between the tragic heroes Hamlet and Claudius, but their roles are not enough to be
classified as tragic heroines along side Antigone.  Instead, I would classify them as
supplients who provide vision
of unmitigated suffering and helplessness.  This is an archetypal term used by critic
Northrop Frye, who kind of wrote the book on classifying
characters.

Other
similarities:

• All three die, obviously, but
  their deaths can all be blamed on the state (unjust laws,
  kings).


• All three are blind: Antigone to her pride;
  Gertrude to her son and husband and Ophelia to her father.
  

Differences:

• Antigone
  and Ophelia suicide, but Gertrude's death is murder
  


• Antigone and Ophelia are victims of incest, but not
  Gertrude (who commits it herself).  Antigone's family is cursed by incest: she is the
  daughter/sister of her brother/father Oedipus.  Ophelia is caught up in Hamlet's revenge
  against incest and adultery, not to mention her brother's and father's incestuous-like
  jealousy of her and Hamlet.

Define and explain allotropy forms of carbon. allotopic forms of carbon

"Allotropy is
a behavior exhibited by some chemical elements. These elements can exist in two or more
different forms, known as allotropes of that
element."

In each allotrope
the atoms are bonded together differently.  The end result is different structural
modification of an element. Allotropy refers only to different forms of an element
within the same phase or state of matter.  "The changes of state between solid, liquid
and gas in themselves are not considered allotropy." 

The
following are some Carbon
Allotropes:

Diamonds form when
the carbon atoms are bonded together in a tetrahedral lattice
arrangement. 

Graphite forms
when the carbon atoms are bonded together in sheets of a hexagonal
lattice.

Fullerenes forms when
the carbon atoms are bonded together in spherical, tubular, or ellipsoidal
formations.

In chapter seven of "The Great Gatsby", what is significant about Tom's inaccuracy about the sun?I'm having particular trouble with this question...

I think that the following quote from Tom refers to his view on his life.  He knows that his wife is in love with Gatsby. Tom who once felt like the center of the universe is losing both his wife and his mistress.

Fitzgerald also uses the heat of the summer to symbolize the passion of these characters.  It is the hottest day of the year when Gatsby and Tom have their grand confrontation about Daisy. 

“I read somewhere that the sun’s getting hotter every year,” said Tom genially. “It seems that pretty soon the earth’s going to fall into the sun—or wait a minute—it’s just the opposite—the sun’s getting colder every year." (Fitzgerald)

It could also be a reference to the loss of heat or passion for his lifestyle.  Every year, the booze infused partying gets more and more boring.  

In Chapter 7, the heat has heightened Tom's confusion.  He feels like his life is spinning out of control.  He is no longer the center of attention in Daisy's world, he has witnessed his wife display her love for Gatsby.  

"There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control."

What were the major points of Wilson's peace plan?

Woodrow Wilson put forward a plan called the "Fourteen Points" as a basis for establishing lasting peace and prosperity after World War One in many countries. The main points of the peace plan was the usage of open covenants of peace, which there shall not be any "private international understandings of any kind", no secret or hidden alliances between countries that played a part in the war, as it brought a localised conflict into a global war. There should also be absolute freedom of navigation across the seas, in peace or in war. Removal of economical barriers and establishment of equality of trade conditions among all countries is enforced. He also encourages the reduction of arms amongst the world powers, reducing the chances of an arm race breaking out. Relocation of territories to former territories is emphasised to quell resentment and to supress riots among discontented countries. Also, "a general association of nations" must be formed after the war that would resolve international problems through negotiation, arms reduction and through the use of force against the aggressors as the last resort. The League of Nations was an expression of the world's hopes and determination to prevent another world war, and was the centrepiece of Wilson's ideals and plans to promote global peace and security. However, he could not get the votes from his own government as the US Senate supported the policy of isolationism, meaning that they did not want USA to become involved in another world affairs that require their young men to fight another war again. The abscence of this big power was a huge blow to the organisation, and severely weakened its credibility and structure, and power to control.

In "To Kill a Mockingbird", why does Boo Radley stay inside all the time?

Boo Radley never explains this to the reader, so we have to make a few assumptions about why his character stays inside all the time. The assumed reason he stays inside also changes throughout the novel.

The first reason we hear that Boo Radley stays inside is that he is forced to stay inside, first by his father, and then by his brother, Nathan. Boo was labeled a "bad kid" when his was in school. He got caught up with the wrong crowd and his father chose to punish Boo himself by keeping Boo locked up inside the house so he wouldn't be able to make any trouble.

However, Jem comes to the conclusion after the trial and after witnessing the injustice and hypocrisy of the town that perhaps "Boo Radley wants to stay inside." Jem considers the idea that Boo can see what's going on in their town--the prejudices, the gossip, the hypocrisy, the judging--and, being a topic of much of the gossip and judgements, Boo chooses to stay inside rather than subject himself to that type of environment.

In what way is "A Midsummer Night's Dream" a play full of pattern and design?

Another way to look at this concept is the plot within a plot design.  We have several plots in this play.  One is Titania and Oberon's fight over a young servant boy.  Another is the young lovers' troubles (Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena).  You also have the love story of Hippolyta and Theseus.  Another is the artisans story, with Bottom, Snug, Peter Quince, and the rest.  Finally, you also have the play within a play with the love story of Thisbe and Pyramus, which mirrors Romeo and Juliet in many ways!  All of these plots make the story very unique, complicated, yet endearing and funny. 

You can look at it as all of the subplots circling around the main plot of the young lovers.  The main action centers around them; yet, the subplots are also connected to them in one way or another.

Another aspect of patterns and design is the focus on the fairy world, on the one hand, and the mortal world on the other.  The play not only mingles the subplots, it mixes the mortal worlds and fairy worlds.

In The Call of the Wild, what does Francois mean when he says Buck is two devils?

Francois makes this comment in response to Perrault, who has just observed that Spitz, the most dominant dog on the team, is "one devil, dat Spitz".  Francois replies, "Dat Buck two devils", meaning that, in his opinion, Buck is an even more formidable opponent than Spitz.  Although Buck, new to the pack, has held back and avoided confrontation as much as possible, "in the beiiter hatred between him and Spitz...betray(ing) no impatience, shunn(ing) all offensive acts", on the few occasions when the two have tangled, Buck has shown a ferocity and strength that makes Francois believe he will one day vanquish the lead dog and take his place.

Why does Hester fear Chillingworth in "The Scarlet Letter"?

Hester was married to Roger Chillingworth (his real name being Prynne) in England before moving together to Amsterdam.  Hester was the first to leave for America, and Roger followed.  She believed him to be dead since he took so long getting to her, but we learn later that his ship sank and he, surviving the wreck, lived with the Indians before making his way to Boston.

Hester is afraid of Chillingworth because she knows what he is capable of doing.  He is a learned man and has devoted his life to the healing arts.  Having been with the Indians, he has added herbs and medicinal plants to his sagacious accomplishments. He   His humpback signifies him as a man capable of rage and revenge which he proves with his torture of Dimmesdale. 

When Chillingworth makes his presence known and discovers his wife's predicament, he turns his attentions and knowledge to finding the guilty party upon whom he directs his full knowledge of the arts of medicines.

One gets the feeling that their marriage was not one based solely on love, but more of an arranged union.  At any rate, his jealousy is abundant that she has found someone with whom she is in love enough to risk having a child out of wedlock and be branded an adulterer.  His revenge is swift and exact.  She knew it would be, and so her fears are founded.  This is why she goes back on her agreement not to disclose his identity to Dimmesdale.

What are the rhetorical devices in King Lear's speech in Act 4, scene 6?It is the speech where Lear is talking about adultry and saying that...

King Lear, Act IV, scene vi, is one
of the great monologues in literature.  It's full of sexual imagery, analogies, and
verbal irony (sarcasm).  Literally translated, it reads something like this (according
to my No Fear Shakespeare):

readability="11">

Women are sex machines below the waist, though
they’re chaste up above. Above the waist they belong to God, but the lower part belongs
to the devil. That’s where hell is, and darkness, and fires and stench! Death and
orgasm!

In the monologue Lear
uses the following rhetorical
devices:

Rhetorical question:
"What was thy cause?
Adultery?"

Animal
imagery: "The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded
fly"

Eye /
Sight imagery: "Does lecher in my
sight."

Verbal irony (sarcasm),
sexual imagery, and analogy: "Let copulation thrive;
for Gloucester's bastard son Was kinder to his
father than my daughters Got 'tween the lawful
sheets."

Animal
imagery: "The fitchew (a skunk), nor the soiled horse, goes to
't / With a more riotous
appetite."

Hell / fire
imagery: "There's hell, there's darkness, there's the
sulphurous pit," AND "Burning, scalding, stench,
consumption;"

Appearance
vs. reality motif (women are gods above the waist, devils
below):

readability="0">

"Down from the waist they are
Centaurs,"
Though women all
above:
But to the girdle do the gods
inherit,
Beneath is all the
fiends';

Analogy
and apostrophe (compares Gloucester to an apothecary; addresses an
apothocary not present):

readability="0">

Give me an ounce of
civet,
good apothecary, to sweeten my
imagination:
there's money for
thee.

In, "The Story of an Hour" What does the reader know at the end of the story that the characters do not? Support your answer with details from the...

At the end of this story, Louise Mallard drops dead when she sees her husband enter the house. The doctor and other characters presume that she has been overcome with "joy that kills" since she had been told that Brently, her husband, was killed in a train accident. This is a perfect example of DRAMATIC IRONY, which occurs when the audience knows what characters do not.

We, the readers, know that Louise was, after her initial shock, relieved that her husband was dead, not because she hated him, but because she felt suffocated by her marriage and her lack of personal identity. We know this from a number of clues in the story--the open window she looks out with the clouds parting could symolize her new open life. But the most clear evidence of her happiness over her husband's death is her realization that she is "free--body and soul free."

So when she sees her husband at the door, she isn't so overjoyed that her heart fails, she is so dissapointed that her heart fails. Her conflict is really internal. She has stuggled all her life with not having an identity. Women during the Victorian era were seldom given the opportunity to make thier own decisions. First they were considered the property of their fathers, and then of their husbands. Not marrying was somewhat of a disgrace. Louise had just gained her identity. Note that she didn't become LOUISE until her husband's death, but was only MRS. MALLARD. When Brently returns, she is crushed.

Describe the startling objects that Pip finds in Miss Havisham's opposite room in Ch. 11. What does she intend to have happen there after her death?

This room is the famous room that Miss Havisham has kept
as a reminder of how horrible it was when she was "left at the altar."  The most
startling thing about it is how it contains the rotting remains of the feast that people
were supposed to enjoy after her wedding.  There are mice and spiders all over
everything, for example.  The wedding cake is beyond recognition -- Miss Havisham points
it out to Pip.

Miss Havisham also tells him that she
intends to be laid out in that room after she dies.

What is "academic honesty?"

I recently had the assignment to teach a senior English
class.  I assigned them a research paper to work on, and gave them 6 weeks to complete
it.

I showed them examples of research papers, gave them
examples to use, and spent almost two weeks on how to not plagiarize other's
work.

Being seniors, they did not think they should have to
do much in senior English, but unfortunately, I didn't think that way.  So, the
assignment was given.

When the papers were due, I had more
than half of the class that hadn't even start, and then, when they did turn in the
papers within the next three days, most of them were copied, word for word, without
documentation, from the internet.  They wouldn't even read a book to get information. 
Of course, their grades reflected their work, but they didn't understand.  Their
thoughts and verbalization on this was that the internet was for anyone to copy what
they wanted.

At the beginning of the semester, I had a
student tell me that he didn't need senior English because he'd already taken a course
online for another student.  I spent the rest of the year trying to convince the
majority of these senior students that copying work or letting someone else copy their
work was dishonest.  This young man plagiarized every word of his research paper, but he
made one hundred dollars taking an online college class for another student, and he was
proud of himself for that accomplishment.

So, what is
academic honesty?  It's simple.  It is you doing your own work and getting your own,
hard earned grades.  What it isn't is copying other's work, letting them copy yours or
having them do your work for you.  That's just plain old
cheating!

If Montressor had met Fortunato during the day instead of at dusk, what is the outcome that would result from a change in setting?

The main thing I think would happen here is that the whole
story would feel less foreboding and spooky.  I think that if the two of them had met in
the middle of the day, it would have not felt like something bad was about to happen --
at least not so much.  Even though bad stuff can happen in broad daylight, we tend to be
afraid of the dark just because it seems spooky.  That is, I think, what the difference
would be.

I suppose that you could argue that if it had
been the middle of the day, maybe Fortunato would not have been so drunk.  Maybe if he
had been sober, Montresor would not have been able to trick him so easily.  To me, this
is the main possible reason for a totally different ending to the story.  However, it
was carnival time and Fortunato could have been drunk at any time of the day seeing as
how he seemed to like to drink a bunch.

I need to know what happens in Chapters 1,2,3, and 4 of "Buried Onions".Please give me a full description, I read it! But it was so boring, i didnt...

"Buried Onions" is a coming of age novel; the main character is Eddie.  

In Chapter One, Eddie gives the reader details about the neighborhood that he lives in, a poor area that is defined by run down houses.  The neighborhood is full of mostly Mexican people, like Eddie. One, Angel is someone that Eddie would rather avoid.  He longs to escape the death and violence of the neighborhood, but feels held back by many forces.

In Chapter Two, Eddie is given a job opportunity by a man named Mr. Stiles.  He is working on the north side, the nice side of town where everything is clean and new. Eddie and Mr. Stiles work well together, he begins to trust him. He borrows the truck, only to have it stolen outside his home in the barrio.  He does not know who the thief is, but his friend Angel does.

In Chapter three, Eddie must tell Mr. Stiles that the truck is stolen.  He goes home and finds his mother and aunt visiting, he wants to avoid them, but goes inside.  They want him to date a girl named Norma.  He is not interested, he goes out with another Norma.

In Chapter four, Norma tells Eddie that Angel killed Jes, he tells her he won't say anything.  Josy Dominguez, a friend of Eddie, who is now a Marine, comes home for a visit.  He sees the stolen truck and tells Josy what happened.  Josy tries to get the truck back and ends up stabbed by the thieves, his family blames Eddie.      

What are the character traits of Grendel's mother in "Beowulf"?

Like her son, Grendel's mother is a descendent of Cain on the warpath for revenge. However, while Grendel primarily resented the Danes for their warm camaraderie, and the fact that, as humans, they have God's blessing, Grendel's mother hates the Danes because they hurt her son. Indeed, it is not until Grendel returns mortally wounded from his battle with Beowulf that Grendel's mother leaves the swamp and seeks her revenge.

Unlike her son, however, Grendel's mother receives comparatively little attention in the poem: she wreaks havoc in Herot, and then is swiftly dispatched by Beowulf. Even so, it's worth noting that, monstrous as she may be, she actually acts in very human-like way. Like a human mother, she is motivated primarily by the need to protect her offspring. As such, while Grendel's mother might be characterized as a villain in the poem, its impossible not to feel some semblance of pity for her, just as one would feel for any human mother who had recently lost her only son and companion.   

What is the plot overview for chapters 30 and 31 of "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

In the aftermath of Ewell's attack of the children and his subsequent death, Sheriff Tate, Boo, and Atticus discuss what needs to be done. Atticus and Sheriff Tate are locked in a debate on what the public should be told. Atticus states that people should be told that Jem killed Ewell. He does not want people to gossip about a cover up. But, Tate convinces Atticus that it is better to tell them that Ewell fell on his own knife and died. They both agree Boo should be kept out of it. The community has never been kind to him, and would only fuel the fire if he were to be involved.

In the last chapter, Boo visits with Jem, and then Scout walks him home. She reflects on the change in perception she has had with regards to Boo. Later, Scout goes to Jem's room and falls asleep while Atticus reads to her. She falls asleep secure now that Ewell is dead, and knows her father will stay with them all through the night.

What is the significance of Macduff's comments in Macbeth, Act II?

This is the first time that Macduff speaks in the play (he appears in I/6, with no lines), and it establishes several key facts about his character: he is loyal, impulsive, and blunt to the point of tactlessness.

After his conversation with the gate-porter at the beginning of Act II scene 3, during which he banters ironically with this figure who has invoked Hell, Macduff goes to wake the king and thus becomes the first to "officially" learn of the murder. His horror is open and violent:

Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!
Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself! up, up, and see
The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!
As from your graves rise up....

There is a pointed contrast between the violence of his rhetoric and the behavior of Macbeth, whose speeches are much more consciously contrived but who still manages to "lose control" and kill the king's servants, the alleged murderers. The contrast is not lost on Macduff, whose question to Macbeth about his reasons for this action is curt and immediate.

His bluntness is underlined in the next scene, Act II scene 4, when Macduff, although he repeats the "official" story of the murder, states that he will not attend Macbeth's coronation. He adds,

Well, may you see things well done there,--adieu!--
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!

He is clearly sceptical, at the very least, of Macbeth's fitness to rule, and unable to hide his feelings behind a polite cloak.

Is Heathcliff a hero or a villain?

     Heathcliff is neither; he is an anti-hero.  For, he possesses qualities of the hero: loving, courageous, physically strong, with imperfections such as feeling overpowered by his obsessive and thus selfish love. Heathcliff feels forces him into certain actions, living only to prove his worth to his beloved Cathy.  While he becomes the master of his foster brother buying up the old home--and cruelly treating him--Heathcliff remains the slave of his love to Cathy, ever brooding over her, and marries her sister-in-law only to be close to Cathy.

     After Cathy dies, Heathcliff does not abandon his love for her, a testimony to the genuineness of his feeling.  But, again the love is not heroic.  Rather it is yet obsessive:  Heathcliff wakes to the ghost of Cathy, he fails to care for himself, living only to be reunited with the woman who gives him his soul.

    In a sense Heathcliff is merely a darker side of Catherine who herself is self-centered and fickle. For, does not Catherine at one point in the novel excalim, "Heathcliff is I"? 

Who was Dorothy Plunk and what happend to her?

Dorothy Plunk of course was the girl that Homer had fallen
in love with very early on in his high school career.  He studied with her and fell ever
more deeply in love with her as time went on but was broken hearted when his brother
took her out.  From that point on he vowed not to care for her anymore, but was
generally unsuccessful.

He writes that she (the girl whose
name isn't Dorothy Plunk but who the character was based on) went on to marry a
wonderful guy and raise a couple of wonderful daughters.  He writes that they are still
friends and that when he saw her again 25 years after their high school graduation, he
still loved her.

What happened to the children's superstitions as they have grown older over the course of the novel? What are some old superstitons? Also, how...

The biggest supertition introduced in the novel is that of Boo Radley.  No one really knows what happened in the house to make the boy seclude himself the way he did and continued to do in his adulthood.  It is all speculation, and with speculation comes lots of ridiculous superstition.  The kids displayed this by daring one another to go into the yard, or run and touch the house and back fearing that just going onto the property would cause some horrible thing to happen.  They played "Boo Radley" games where they spoke words as if they were him and acted out events they thought happened.  Eventually the superstition wore away as they became older and more mature.  The first sign of it was the little trinkets and gum packets he left in the tree for them.  It culminated in the night that Bob Ewell attacked the two on the way home from the pageant and Boo killed Bob and carried the very injured Jem home with Scout following in the moonlight.  She saw Boo in the room for the first time, and he didn't even have three heads.  This was a signal that growing up meant changing--the way they did things and the way they thought about things and people, too.

In paragraphs 6 and 7 of "The Ballad of Father Gilligan," what did Father Gilligan do and why?

W.B.Yeats' "The "Ballad of Father Gilligan" is a moving
story of how God comes to the rescue of a sincere priest whose only concern is the
salvation of the souls of his
impoverished parishioners.

Father Gilligan who was
exhausted in fulfilling his priestly duties day and night during an epidemic in the
Irish countryside,  either  in giving the last communion to his poor parishioners who
were dying in large numbers or conducting funeral services for them,  was at home
one evening taking a well deserved rest and had dozed off in his
chair.

Just as Father Gilligan had dozed he was disturbed
from his sleep by the urgent call of another dying parishioner. Wearily, Father Gilligan
began to grumble and murmur about his lack of rest:

readability="8">

'I have no rest, nor joy, nor
peace,
For people die and
die;

But the very next
instant he checks himself seeks God's forgiveness and kneels down by the side of his
chair and begins to
pray:

And after cried he,
'God forgive! My body spake, not
I!'

Father Gilligan
seeks God's forgiveness for his murmuring and grumbling by saying that it was his weak
and fatigued body which complained and not his spirit and mind which were keen to save
the souls  of the dying villagers. As he continues to pray he  is completely overwhelmed
by sleep. The tired Father Gilligan slept the entire night kneeling down by the side of
his chair.

In stanza 6 early in the morning, at dawn he
woke up to the cheerful sound of the chirping
sparrows:

Upon the time of sparrow-chirp When the
moths came once more. The old priest Peter Gilligan Stood upright on the
floor.

In the 7th stanza Father Gilligan wakes up
from his sleep and realizes that he has fallen asleep even while he was kneeling down
and praying - he was so tired and exhausted. He realizes that he has not attended to the
dying request for the last communion of one of the villagers and saddles his horse and
rushes off in a tearing hurry to administer the last communion to the dying villager and
thus hoping to save his
soul:

'Mavrone, mavrone!
the man has died While I slept on the chair'; He roused his horse out of its sleep, And
rode with little
care.

Poor Father
Gilligan realized his mistake and rushed off to the house of the dying parishioner, only
to be greeted by the dead man's widow with the news that he had actually come earlier on
and had ministered the last communion to the dying man and by doing so had ensured the
salvation of his soul:

readability="6">

The sick man's wife opened the
door,
'Father! you come
again!'

It is then that he
realizes that God the Creator had taken pity on him who had worn himself out completely
in His service, had sent an angel to minister the last communion to the dying
man:

'He Who
is wrapped in purple robes,
With planets in His care
Had pity on the
least of things
Asleep upon a
chair.'

In Act 5, Scene 1, Why does Lady Macbeth "take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed"?

Lady Macbeth's letter-writting is analogous to her emotional state. She "unlock(s) her closet" and presumably confesses her feelings into the letter she writes. This is analogous with Lady Macbeth unlocking her heart and pouring forth fears and anxieties she cannot confide to anyone during waking hours -- even her husband is away ("His Majesty went into the field"). It is only during night-time that her pent-up emotions find expression.

However, she always "seal(s)" up her letters, then return to bed as if nothing happened. This is just what Lady Macbeth emotionally has to do -- after briefly revealing her dark secrets, she has to promptly lock them back deep inside her heart again lest they be known to the others.

The correspondence between Lady Macbeth's behaviour and inner feelings is again seen in her act of washing. While outwardly she rubs her hand, it is in fact analogous with her desire to cleanse her mind of dark thoughts and emotions.

What was the importance of the Morrill Act?

The Morill Act, which was first passed in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln, which was to provide land grants, so that the new western states could fund to build a system of industrial colleges, and creating agriculture colleges, so that lower-class people, like farmers and people of the working-class could have greater access to more advanced education.

Firstly, it improved the lives of many millions of American citizens. Also, in the past, these institutions focused mainly on classical studies, agriculture and mechanics and home economics that were practical at that period of time but not in this fast modernizing world. So, with this act passed, they break free from old traditions. It allowed for more applied studies that would better prepare the students for the outside world when they left the classroom and start making a living in the merciless world out there, allowing them to have a head-start and a experience of working life right in their face, providing them practical skills and first-hand encounter to survive the brutal world when they graduate. The government also directly provide educational support to these schools.

However, these measure proved to be a flaw on its own. It supported the separation of races, racial segregation. In the south, blacks were not allowed to attend land-grant institutions but after the passing of the revamped Second Morrill Act, that ghastly situation was rectified and land grants was included amongst black schools.

These two acts change the whole foundation of the education system and prove to be the tipping-point of education, as financial support flood in and government support come in mass numbers to support these institutions.

What is the main conflict of Chinua Achebe's short story "Civil Peace"?

In a broad sense, the main situational conflict in "Civil Peace" is the condition of destruction and lawlessness that exists in Nigeria as a result of colonialism and the Nigerian Civil War.  Jonathan Iwegbu faces hardship with hard work and a positive outlook, however.  Although his house has been damaged in the fighting, it is still standing, and Jonathan thankfully has it repaired.  His whole family chips in to rebuild their lives in whatever way they can - Jonathan's children pick mangoes, his wife makes items to sell, and when Jonathan himself is denied his old job in the coal mines, he opens a bar for soliders out of his home.  There is extra help also from the government, which gives each family a cash payment of 20 pounds in exchange for their Biafran currency.  This windfall opens the door for the immediate conflict in the story, which is heralded by the arrival of robbers at Jonathan's house.  The robbers demand Jonathan's money, and he can get help against them neither from his neighbors nor the law.  Jonathan gives them the money, and continues on the next day with his optimism and resolve intact.  He reasons that he has little to complain about since a day earlier he did not have the extra 20 pounds anyway, and he continues to toil away to rebuild a life for himself and his family in the face of whatever adversity may come their way.

What are some similarities and differences between Frank McCourt's memoirs Angela's Ashes and 'Tis?My goal is to create a Venn Diagram on the...

Angela's Ashes chronicles what had to be one of the most miserable childhoods in the history of memoirs, that of Frank McCourt, growing up in England and Protestant-hating Limerick, Ireland in the 1930's and 1940's.  His father was an alcoholic who drank away virtually every dollar he brought in, and three of McCourt's younger siblings died over the years due to illnesses and disease that probably were a function of the horrible living conditions the family endured.  Although the family's situation was usually desperate, miraculously McCourt manages to weave some hilarious episodes into the tale, giving the reader much needed comic relief from time to time, and sometimes injecting humor into even the most routine of observations:

When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all,” the book’s second paragraph begins in a famous passage. “It was, of course, a miserable childhood: The happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and all the terrible things they did to us for 800 long years.”

'Tis picks up at the end of Angela's Ashes, when McCourt arrives in New York City, where he was actually born before the family returned to Ireland.  He takes janitorial work at the Biltmore Hotel, and is fairly miserable until being drafted into the Korean War; after the war, the GI Bill becomes his ticket into an education at New York University, where he becomes an educator and eventually works his way up to teaching creative writing at one of New York City's most prestigious high schools, Stuyvesant.  McCourt had always told his students that their lives were the best source material for creative writing, and practicing what he preached, he finally begin writing his memoirs in his sixties; although all three of his memoirs received critical acclaim, Angela's Ashes was by far the most successful and won a Pulitzer Prize.

The sum of all odd #'s between 2 and 30.

  Odd numbers between 2 and 30 would be the
sequence:

3, 5, 7, ....,
29 

 The sum of odd numbers from 1 to n, where n is an odd
number, formula is:

1 +3 + ....+ 2n-1 =
n^2

then,

1 +3+....+ 2(15)-1 =
(15)^2

by subtracting 1 from both
sides:

3+5+...+ 29 = (15)^2 - 1 =
225-1=224

the sum of the odd numbers between 2 and
30 equals 224

What are the poetic devices Poe uses in stanza 8 of "The Raven"?

Here is the stanza you're asking about:

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into
          smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance
          it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I
          said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from
          the Nightly shore—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s
          Plutonian shore!”
     Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Here are a few of the devices Poe uses in this stanza:

alliteration: shorn and shaven, Ghastly and grim. There are a few more for you to find.

allusion: Plutonian refers to Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld

personification: ravens can't talk, but Poe's raven does

rhyme: Poe uses not only end of line rhyme but also internal rhyme, meaning that words in the same line rhyme. I'll let you find those for yourself.

Hope this helps!

 

In Act 4, Scene iii of 'Macbeth', what news does Ross deliver to Malcolm and Macduff?

Ross is the "messenger Thane," and if he visits you early in the play, all is good; but if visits you in the later acts, you had better sit down, because it's not good news.

In Act I, Ross brings good news.  He tells Duncan of Macbeth and Banquo's valiance in defeat of Norway.  Later, he tells Macbeth that he is Thane of Cawdor.

In Act IV, Ross informs Lady Macduff that her husband has left them for England.  She calls her husband a coward, and right after Ross leaves, Lady Macduff and her son are murdered.

Later in Act IV, Ross goes to England to conference with Malcolm and Macduff, who plan invasion.  Macduff asks on news of his family, but Ross is reluctant to relay it.  Then, after some prodding, Ross says that Macduff's castle is surprised, his wife and child savagely murdered.

It's hard to tell whose side Ross is on.  He is like a character in the audience--he knows what we know.  His sadistic messages are little reminders to us as well.

Please explain the relationship between a hypothesis and an experiment; how do independent and dependent variables differ?

Scientists use the Scientific Method as a systematic
approach to discovery. First, a tentative explanation is made to explain some
phenomenon, this is called the hypothesis. Second, the hypothesis must be tested by the
process we call experimentation. Simplicity is important to try and avoid influences of
variables.

If the results of the experiment support the
original hypothesis, then it is accepted as true. If not, then the hypothesis is
rejected.

If other researchers can duplicate the results of
the experiment, then the hypothesis is widely accepted. A hypothesis that has gained
high levels of confidence is considered a law or theory.

Describe the two main steps of the French Revolution.How would I describe the scene of the revolution?

The French Revolution began in June 1789 with the Third
Estate's members convening in what has come to be known as The Tennis
Court Oath, a pledge signed by them that would effect a new
constitution.  This oath, which was a revolutionary act, was an assertion that political
power derived from the people and not from the monarchy.  The oath signified the first
time that French citizens were in opposition to the
monarchy.

The second event of the burgeoning revolution
is the march to and attack on the Bastille in July,
14, 1789.  Since the old prison held only seven prisoners [Dr. Manette is one], the
attack was more figurative than literal.  It signified the end of royal authority and
most prisoners in the Bastille were political ones.  After this storming of the
Bastille, the Declaration of the Rights of Man was written.  After some conflict between
liberal assemblies and a conservative monarchy intent, a republic was proclaimed in
1792. 

Monsieur and Madame DeFarge participate in the march
upon the Bastille. In Book the Second, Chapter 21, Madame DeFarge is
in

...the
howling universe of passion and contention that seemed to
encompass....

When an old
grim officer falls dead, Madame DeFarge  becomes "suddenly animated" and, placing her
foot upon his neck, and with her"cruel knife--long ready--hewed off his
head":

Saint
Antoine's blood was up, and the blood of tyranny and domination by the iron hand was
down--down on the steps of the Hotel de
Ville....

How does O'Brien's interrogation of Winston in the Minstry of Love relate to the destruction of rational thought as a prominent idea in the novel?

In 1984, George Orwell's ominous
vision of the near future, Winston Smith, the protagonist, finds himself in a world that
actively seeks to suppress any attempts to think independently.  As an employee of the
Ministry of Truth, Winston sees the evidence of these attempts.  As part of his job,
Winston "rectifies" past newspaper articles that provide information possibly damaging
to the Party and to the reputation of Big Brother.  In addition, Syme, a colleague,
actively works to develop a revised dictionary of Newspeak, an abbreviated language
intended to weed out any language with even shades of ambiguity in its meaning, thereby
eliminating the majority of the words in the English.  These efforts ultimately result
in filtering not only the information the general population receives about its
government and its foreign relations but also the very language in which it is
expressed.  As a result, the average person only sees what the Party wants them to see,
and the average person, having an increasingly smaller vocabulary, cannot formulate any
resistance to the Party.  They literally cannot express
themselves.

Winston is well aware of these possible
consequences when he meets Julia, someone he feels has a similar attitude toward the
Party as he does.  During their "relationship," they endanger their "freedom" by
speaking out about the Party (though semi-cautiously).  Ultimately, they are turned in
and sent to the Ministry of Love.  In O'Brien's interrogation of Winston, he seeks to
break down the foundations of Winston's knowledge.  In its place, O'Brien seeks to build
a epistemological structure based on "truths" held by the Party, with the ultimate
result being Winston's inability to question ideas put forth by the
Party. 

Orwell provides numerous instances throughout
Winston's interrogation to this effect.  Perhaps the most noteworthy is O'Brien's
ability to convince Winston to accept that "2+2=5."  This clearly runs counter to
accepted mathematical truth.  It represents the destruction of rational thought in the
sense that the possibility that "2+2=4" is not discounted, for, according
to "doublethink," one can hold contradictory ideas at the same time.  Furthermore, it
brings all of Winston's assumptions into question, replacing them with ideas without any
rational basis.  Their only basis is that the Party mandates them as truth.  The
individual's ability to reason is replaced by the will of the Party - no thought
needed. 

What is the function of Rebecca Nurse in "The Crucible"?

Rebecca Nurse, like John Proctor, is there to stand for the voice of reason.  She is older, respected, and has served as a midwife for many years.  She is logical, and has a no nonsense way about her.  She and John are among the first to blow off the idea of witchcraft among the girls.  She is called in to see Betty and Ruth, and her opinion is that when the girls are ready, they will wake up.  There is nothing wrong with them physically.  She has much experience with this as she, herself, has many children and grandchildren.  None of her children or grandchildren have ever died in birth or in early childhood which is unusual during the Puritan times.  This is the reason why she is targeted as a witch...Mrs. Putnam's babies have all died except for Ruth.  She accuses Rebecca Nurse of being a witch and killing her children simply because Mrs. Putnam is grief-stricken and jealous of Mrs. Nurse's fortunate state.

The fact that respected and well-thought-of members in the community of Salem are hanged like Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, and others underlines the effects of social hysteria and fear.  In any other situation, those people would have been the ones to calm the masses...not hanged by the very people who looked to them for guidance.

Who were the characters of the story The Twenty-One Balloons?who was in this story

The main character of this story is a teacher named Professor William Sherman who takes a balloon trip and lands on a Pacific island called Krakatoa.  The island is home to 20 families who share the wealth of a diamond mine and must keep their treasure a secret.

The 20 families, who live on the island have alphabet names, Family A, etc. The Professor is the only real character in the book.

Should Johnny and Ponyboy be charged with murder or manslaughter? Why?

Johnny and Ponyboy should not be charged with murder or
manslaughter, however, given their social status and economic situations, they probably
would have.  I agree that any decent lawyer would have claimed self-defense, if the
girls had the courage to testify in court, this defense would have held.  I often
wonder, given the place and time, if any lawyer would have done so and if the girls
would have willingly stood up for them.  Money and social status are often strong
elements that impact legal outcomes for this setting.

In the novel Fifth Business, what may one's opinions be about Mary Dempster? Is she crazy? Is she a modern day woman? etc.

If we interpret Mary Dempster along Jungian archetypes, we see her in various roles and see her as a dynamic character who changes as much as Dunny does in the novel since she is arguably, one of the active agents for change in Dunny's life. Firstly, she is the mother figure, brining forth a weakened child into the world. She then becomes a type of a saviour figure, not only because of her appearance to Dunny as he crawls through the mud in WWI, but also because she gave of herself unselfishly to the drifter in the gravepit. After this incident she is not crazy, but distracted. She becomes the jungian outcast in the novel since the small town mentality cannot accept why she would ever prostate herself to a drifter. Mary becomes other things through the novel. This is just a start. The point is that Mary Dempster cannot be dealt with so tritely. She fills a complicated function in the novel so we should have many opinions about her. 

What is the message of the short story "The Address" by Marga Minco. What are 3 points one may talk about in this short story?

The address is a story relating to the prosecution of the dutch Jews during the second world war.It is a very sad yet touching story about how a lady wants to relive the memories attached with the "things" her mom and she owned before the destructive and meaningless war took place.She visits the address of the lady who now has her things. She lives at Marconi street,house number 46.When she finally visits her house and looks at her things with detail and love she immediately realizes with a very heavy heart that these things don't feel like"hers" anymore and she doesn't wish to stay in the house any longer.

The main theme of the story is the redemption of the past and moving on.It is about having the courage of leaving your "THINGS" behind you and realizing  that it doesn't matter if your memories have a proof or not because they will linger in your memory and heart forever.

PS-I hope i could help. xx

In "Animal Farm," why does Napoleon allow Moses to return and tell his stories about Sugar Candy Mountain?

Napoleon allows Moses to return in Chapter IX "after an absence of several years" because his stories of Sugar Cane Mountain take the other animals' minds off the laborious conditions in which they now live.  Believing in some place that is miraculous and wonderful (Sugar Cane Mountain in this instance actually represents "Heaven")--even though the pigs repeatedly and contemptously deny its existence--gives the animals the hope and the wherewithal to keep going in this life.

Moses--note the name--is the character who represents in the novel organized religion.  He is upbeat, speaks of the "promised land" and is the only character in the novel who is allowed to eat without working.  Napoleon probably considers it Moses' job to keep the other animals working on the farm through his preaching of a better place.

In Daisy Miller, describe Daisy’s system of values.

Henry James issues the reader a direct challenge to determine Daisy Miller's system of values, or value system, in Chapter 1 of Daisy Miller, when Winterbourne, upon first seeing Daisy in the distance, says of her, "American girls are the best girls!" a remark instantly rebutted by Daisy's brother Randolf who says, "My sister ain't the best!" The novella then proceeds to examine the idea of whether Daisy is the best or not the best of girls. James makes one thing perfectly clear at the end of the story when at Daisy's graveside Giovanelli says unequivocally to Winterbourne that Daisy was the "most innocent" of girls; this refers to her moral innocence and purity. So the first thing it is possible to ascertain is that Daisy's value system stressed moral integrity and purity that in Daisy's case sprang from moral innocence.

The rest isn't so easy. When going with Winterbourne to Château de Chillon, she accepted the idea of a chaperon however nowhere in the rest of the novel does she actually appear with a chaperon. Mrs. Costello brands her as common and on the steamer to Chillon, Winterbourne has to agree, although her charm overrides her commonness in his eyes. In Italy, she willfully goes unchaperoned when visiting all around Rome escorted by Italian men, a prime offence in English society. In conversation with Winterbourne, she points out that she has a great deal of being in company is social gatherings ("society") in America, yet among the English tourist, she causes herself to be ostracized. Daisy is unembarrassed when in public with Winterbourne or her Italian cavaliers. She has what Winterbourne thought of as a "habitual sense of freedom," and required "a little fuss" of attention" from her admirers.

So it seems Daisy's value system, along with moral purity and innocence, includes guilelessness--what you see is what you get--and its converse being that what Daisy saw is what Daisy expected to get as the genuine article: society was to be as lovely, charming and genteel as it appeared to be. Her value system includes an unstudied freedom and independence: she didn't try to be these things, she just was by virtue of her American background. It includes trust. It includes the expectation of sincerity and genuine affection. It also very much includes the notion of making just enough trouble to get "just a little fuss." James indicates in Daisy's character that her value system is a double edged sword. On the one hand, it is good to not judge superficially or cruelly, as she was judged. On the other hand, having Daisy's inability to comprehend the dangers and risks in friendships and situations can lead to disastrous ends, such as Daisy's death.

What is the summary of the novel Kanthapura?

A summary is a brief restatement of the contents of an
essay, chapter, book, or any other written work. It should focus on the central idea of
the passage, and its organization will reflect the organization of the original
piece.

A summary should exclude minor details and personal
opinions.

What is a stanza-by-stanza summary of the poem "The Brook" by Alfred Lord Tennyson?

In its initial stages, the brook rshes down the hills and
valleys, while chattering energetically.

The poet has used
words like "chatter", "bubble", "babble" etc. to highlight the playful child-like
attitude of the brook.

Both, the human life and the brook,
encounter and overcome obstacles, make a perilious journey in order to reach their
ultimate destination.The brook goes down to join the river and the human beings see the
end of the circle of life.

The brook crosses a number of
villages, hills, valleys etc., carries with it whatever comes in its way(fishes,
flowers, weeds, pebbles/stones) in order to reach where it has to. The human life works
in a similar fashion. The brook is full of fishes(graylings, trouts), an indication
oflife inside it. This is just like the human body that too can carry
life. 

In the final stages of its journey, the brook sobers
down, it is described with words like "steal", "slide", "murmur", "loiter", "linger"
etc.. The human life also in the later years shows similar signs. While the brook flows
eternally, the human life is limited to a fewnumber of years, it is
mortal.

At the first time shift in The Sound and the Fury, what do we know that the narrator apparently does not? What is it that the narrator knows...

The Sound and the Fury begins with Benjy's point of view. He was born mentally retarded, and in the novel's first scene he is an adult. He is with Luster, one of his family's servants, whose job is to be Benjy's caretaker. Benjy and Luster are walking along the fence separating the Compsons' land and the pasture they used to own which has been turned into a golf course. They are looking for the quarter that Luster lost which he needs to see the minstrel show coming soon to Jefferson. Benjy likes to hear the golfers saying "caddie," which sounds like the name of his siter, Caddy, who he loves very much. The first time shift occurs when Benjy's clothes get snagged on a nail in the fence. That incident causes Benjy to flashback to a previous memory. The transition from the present time in which the novel starts, 1928, to this past event seen through Benjy's memory is the first time shift. The past memory is one of when Benjy was a child. His clothes had gotten caught on the nail of another fence, and Caddy, also a child then, was helping him get uncaught and through the fence. By this shift, what we know that Benjy does not know is his mental retardation. The readers are able to figure this out due to Benjy's childish behavior, despite being 33 years old, which we know when Luster refers to the thirty-three candles that will be on Benjy's birthday cake on his next birthday. Benjy probably doesn't realize this himself, as he is too unintelligent to grasp his own condition. What Benjy knows that the readers don't know is the whole story of his family, although the story is fragmented and blurry in his mind. Through Benjy's memories and vague observations, bits and pieces of the Compsons' family history are conveyed to the readers.

What is the main theme in "Batting Against Castro" ?

I would hesitate to pick out one main theme without having
the chance to ask the author, but one of the main themes is the quest for the
middle-aged baseball player to find his career again.  To find the spark that will
revive a very much on the downward slope career in baseball that has led him to a
three-team league in pre-revolutionary Cuba.  The duel between the player and Castro in
the end is a rather improbable way of resolving such a conflict, but it serves to
highlight perhaps the impossibility of this quest in the first
place.

Why did Abraham Lincoln issue the Emancipation Proclamation?

To the claim that the emancipation proclamation freed slaves in the north and NOT the south:

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

Notice the part that says ". . . the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States"

This is one of the first sentences of the Emancipation Proclamation. It did NOT free slaves in the North; in fact, it specifically abstained from doing so in order to keep the border states who still had slaves loyal to the union in the time of war.

Just wanted to clear up that misunderstanding for anyone who might happen upon this page and get the wrong idea.

What is a hung jury?

(1)  A hung jury is one where the jurors have not come to
a unanimous or clear decision. In the Tom Robinson jury's case, the vote would have to
be unanimous. At least one juror voted for acquittal (at least on the initial
vote).

(2)  Specifically, the Maycomb jury does not allow
women or African-Americans.

(3)  At first, Scout believes
Alexandra and Atticus are discussing the possibility of sending her away. But, after
listening further, she discovers that they are talking about
Calpurnia.

(4)  Atticus says he is not too afraid, but "too
old." He means this at least half-jokingly.

What was Saddam Hussein's outcome against the Kurds?why did he destroy the kurdish lands

There was another reason Saddam Hussein committed genocide
against the Kurds in the 1980s, and was generally brutal to them throughout his reign,
oil.

The northern city of Kirkuk is near one of Iraq's
richest oilfields.  To get the Kurds out of the way, he systematically encouraged Arab
Iraqis to move there and expelled Kurds from their homes, this solidified his hold on
the city and the oil.

The Kurds have always wanted
independence, and so they had (have) their own armed militia to fight Saddam's army
with, called the PKK.  Hussein also wanted to remove this threat to his control.  It is
one of the reasons he used poison gas against the Kurds in repeated attacks during the
1980s, killing an estimated 180,000 of them.

What is the exposition in "The Scarlet Ibis"?

Since virtually the entire content of the short story,
"The Scarlet Ibis," is told in retrospect, most of the narrative is of an expository
(exposition = background information that contributes to
the plot and themes) variety.

The narrator (known simply as
the "Big Brother") reflects about his deceased younger sibling, "Doodle." A sickly child
from birth, Doodle was not expected to live, much less ever walk or enjoy the normal
activities of a boy. But the narrator, spurred in part by his own embarrassment of
having a brother with such physical limitations, teaches Doodle to walk. Eventually, the
older brother presses Doodle into swimming, climbing trees and other typical boyish
frolic, amazing the entire family. But Doodle does have his physical limits, and the
narrator's goals for his brother eventually fall short. The turning point of the story
comes when a scarlet ibis--not indigenous to the area--appears outside the family home.
The ibis tumbles to the ground, dead. Doodle senses that this bird is somehow like him,
and the ominous death of the bird foreshadows Doodle's final
days.

What is the difference between art and science?

I think the best way to think of the differences between
art and science has to involve a discussion of
expectations.

In art, the emphasis is on the
subject's awareness/past
experiences/competence/sensibility.

In science,
we expect that the information is
discursive/objective.

However, there is a phase
during science research when there isn't enough information and the number of
possibilities are too great.  So, a scientist, who desires discursive/objective knowing,
has to use his artistic sensibility to narrow the number of possibilities. 

So in fact, depending on the type of science on
practices and how you define boundaries, art and science are the same or they are
separate. 

Goethe sought to nurture and develop
that subjective aspect of science, which he considered was constrained by natural laws. 
So in essence, the subjective is objective to the best trained.  It is only the
fallibility of the human condition that makes them different. 

How does the author use descriptive language and other literary devices to create the setting in "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

The setting in this novel is the town of Maycomb in the state of Alabama.  In order for the reader to understand the workings of this community, Lee uses many devices to bring this town alive.  In the first few pages, she uses allusions to let readers know that the history of the south and southern pride is important to the community:

"... it really began with Andrew Jackson.  If General Jackson hadn't run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be...?.... Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings."

Readers understand quickly that, although this book takes place 70 years after the Civil War, the history is a part of their lives - so much a part that a six year old narrator is familiar with the details.

Then, Lee uses personification to bring the town alive, talking about it as if it were a person by calling it "tired".  She uses imagery and other sensory language to create a feel about this character

"In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.  Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day..."

Words like "slop" and "sagged" suggest texture and motion, which add to the feeling that the town is alive and breathing.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout learns that Atticus has known one of her "crimes" for some time. Which one? Discuss his motives for not punishing her.

I wouldn't call this particular example a "crime," but in
Chapter 9 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout comes downstairs from her
Finch Landing bedroom for a drink of water and hears Atticus and her Uncle Jack talking.
So, she deliberately eavesdrops on their conversation. The two brothers are talking
about Scout's earlier fight with her cousin, Francis, and Atticus is giving Jack advice
on how to handle children. The conversation then shifts to talk of the upcoming Tom
Robinson trial. Atticus tells Jack that he took the case because he couldn't "face my
children otherwise... I just hope Jem and Scout come to me for their answers instead of
listening to the town. I just hope they trust me enough..." At this point, Atticus ends
the conversation and calls out "Jean Louise?... Go to bed." Atticus knew she had been
listening the entire time, but he wanted her to hear the conversation in the hope that
she would trust him enough to honor his decisions regarding his children. Scout
"scurried to my room... and it was not until many years later that I realized he wanted
me to hear every word he said."

How is the theme of loyalty presented in the play "Macbeth"?

Loyalty between kings and their warriors is something carried over from the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval eras.  The king pledged to take care of the warriors and their families in return for the warrior's pledge to protect and fight to the death if necessary for the king.

In Macbeth, we see this from the very beginning with Duncan checking on his warriors (Macbeth and Banquo among others) against the traitor MacDonwald.  The play begins and ends with a battle and a speech.  After the war, Duncan addresses the people and rewards his loyal thanes with titles, land, jewels, recognitions, and publie praise.  The same is true with Malcolm after the traitor Macbeth has been overthrown and his head is on a stake.

In addition to these examples, you have  Macduff's examples of loyalty to Malcolm by not going to Macbeth's coronation or his first banquet as King. 

Lady Macbeth shows loyalty to her father by not killing Duncan since Duncan resembled her dad.  She is also fiercely loyal to Macbeth even though he basically "dumps" her and leaves her on her own after their murder of the king.

Macbeth's household members and warriors and loyal to him through fear only.  Many of them flee the house and the battlefield to ally themselves with the opposing forces to escape his nightmarish rule.

An unknown servent is loyal to Lady Macduff and risks his life to warn her that hers is in danger.

Malcolm's warriors know they are aligned with "good".

When does Scout think she and Jem first begin to part company, and why?

As Jem approaches adolescence, he becomes quieter and more easily agitated.  He is not as willing to spend time with his little sister and her silliness. His patience doesn't last as long as it used to with her.  He spends much more time alone, reading, or walking off into the woods.

This happens about the time that Tom's trial begins because Jem is having trouble understanding all that is happening in terms of race and the differences in the people.  He is genuinely shocked that the verdict comes back as "Guilty" for Tom Robinson.

Scout does not seem to fully comprehend all that this means, but she does get that Jem isn't spending as much time with her and it upsets her.  Jem is distancing himself not because of a lack of love, but because he's trying to figure out where he belongs in the big picture.

Pick out at least five phrases from "The Story of an Hour" which you think are especially important to the story.

The first line that pops into my head right now is the
very ending line, the one where the doctor proclaims that Louise Mallard had died "of
joy that kills."  That line is loaded with meaning and irony.  First of all, there is
the fact that the doctor, and everyone else, just assumed that Louise had been so happy
to see her husband that she had died of a heart attack from the joy of it.  As we know
from earlier in the story, that is not true; in fact, she was dismayed and dealing with
her new-found freedom being torn away from her.  Secondly, it is interesting how her
sister had been so careful to tell her the news of her husband's death, because she was
worried that it would shock her.  It didn't as much as the opposite, news of her
husband.  That was the shock that did in her heart.

Another
sentence that is important:

readability="6">

There would be no powerful will bending hers in
that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a
private will upon a
fellow-creature.

That line
relays Chopin's, and Louise's, view of marriage, that it was someone forcing their will
upon another person.  That explains Louise's reaction to her husband's death.  Another
important phrase is when Louise declares, "Free!  Body and soul free!"  This reveals her
joy at being released from marriage.  I also like the description of her face as having
"repression and even a certain strength."  That tells us a lot about her, that she feels
repressed, and is a strong woman.  One last line is the ever-important intro. to her
heart problem, "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart problem" that is at
the very beginning of the story.

I hope that those help a
bit; good luck!

In chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby, who is Trimalchio and how does a reference to him describe Jay Gatsby?

The reference at the beginning of the chapter reads:

It was when curiosity about Gatsby was at its highest that the lights in his house failed to go on one Saturday night — and, as obscurely as it had begun, his career as Trimalchio was over.

Since Jay had now started an affair with Daisy, he firstly, did not want undue attention drawn to him and thus to Daisy, and therefore stopped his ostentatious celebrations. Secondly, the parties were only hosted anyway, in an attempt to pique Daisy's interest and draw her closer. Once Jay had succeeded in drawing Daisy in, the parties had become redundant.

The only value of the allusion to Trimalchio is to indicate the over-the-top nature of Jay's parties. They were hugely flamboyant affairs and gave all sorts of weird characters access into his lavish home, whether they had been invited or not. 

The fictional character, Trimalchio, whose name means, 'greatest king' featured in a chapter of a Roman work, Satyricon, by the author Petronius. In it, Trimalchio is described as a flamboyant character who had become a freeman and heir to his master's great fortune. He used used his fortune successfully in a variety of entrepreneurial ventures and boosted his wealth.

Trimalchio hosted excessively extravagant dinner parties in which he would brag about his success as a businessman and his great prosperity, to the disgust and envy of his guests. The purpose of his ostentation was therefor only to display his good fortune - there was no other purpose. The whole idea was just pure self-indulgence, unlike jay Gatsby's parties.

Jay hardly ever indulged in the frivolities at his festivities and remained aloof, always hoping that Daisy would, at some or other occasion, turn up. This led to all sorts of rumours and gossip about him, his activities and his past. Trimalchio, in contrast, was the centre of attention at his massive get-togethers. He indulged his and his guests' every whim, getting drunk and expressing his magnificence. The parties were essentially about him and his excesses. He would be incessantly boastful, whilst Jay, on only one occasion, actually bragged about his achievements, in a very private manner when he showed Daisy his huge collection of shirts.

Jay was a private person whose primary focus was Daisy, whereas Trimalchio was an exhibitionist who relished the attention, envy and admiration of many.  

What can you infer about the narrator's opinion of Simon Wheeler and his story based on his comments?

The framework narrator has this to say about Simon Wheeler and his story:

...if I asked old Wheeler about him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and he would go to work and bore me to death with some exasperating reminiscence of him as long and as tedious as it should be useless to me. If that was the design, it succeeded.

From his tone, you can tell that his opinion is not high. Terms like "infamous" are sarcastic, letting us know that he is only infamous to Wheeler. When he says flat out "he would go to work and bore me to death," this indicates just how badly directed he finds Wheeler's energies. The man bores him so profoundly it seems like he's working at it! He seems like a waste of time, and a painful one.

What does Tom Robinson's dad send Atticus? What else is brought to the Finch home?

I think that what you are asking about can be found in
Chapter 22.

In this chapter, the trial of Tom Robinson is
over.  Tom has been convicted of raping Mayella Ewell.  Even so, the black community in
Maycomb is really grateful to Atticus for defending Tom.  So they have sent him
stuff.

Tom Robinson's father has sent a chicken.  Estelle
from the hotel has sent rolls.  A lot of other stuff has been sent as well.  Calpurnia
says that most of the other stuff was left on the back porch and was there when she got
there that morning.

readability="9">

The kitchen table was loaded with enough food to

bury the family: hunks of salt pork, tomatoes, beans, even

scuppernongs. Atticus grinned when he found a jar of pickled pigs'

knuckles.

What is an example in the book that Scout is self-concious about her gender?

To me, the clearest example of this comes early on in the
book, in Chapters 4 and 6.  I suppose you could say these are examples that show that
she wants to be included in what the boys do, rather than being excluded because she's a
girl.  I think that counts as being self conscious.

What
Scout says that shows me this is in Chapter 6.  There, Jem and Dill want to go peek at
Boo Radley but Scout does not.  But when Jem tells her she is acting like a girl, she
says

With
that, I had no option but to join
them.

She had already
reported, back in Chapter 4, that Jem was saying stuff to her about her acting too much
like a girl.  Here, she responds in a way that makes me think she's self-conscious about
it.

Why are the rabbits are so important to Lennie in Of Mice and Men?Could you explain please?

Lennie does not kill little animals accidentally. He tells George that he usually kills them because they struggle to get away and sometimes bite him. It should be noted that rabbits are raised for no other purpose than to kill them and eat them. (They taste a lot like chicken.) Lennie is looking forward to tending rabbits for two reasons. One is that he will have the pleasure of petting soft little animals. The other reason is that, since he is the one who tends the rabbits, he will be the one who kills them when they are fat enough to eat. In other words, he gets pleasure from petting little animals, and he also gets pleasure from killing them. This sensual pleasure he derives from petting and killing animals is symptomatic of an incipient sexual interest in human females which Lennie does not understand and which George does not suspect until he sees the dead body of Curley's young wife in the barn. George

...was down on his knees beside her. He put his hand over her heart. And finally, when he stood up, slowly and stiffly, his face was as hard and tight as wood, and his eyes were hard.

George is beginning to detest Lennie. George also feels guilty of the girl's death because he brought Lennie to this ranch, because he protected him from the lynch mob in Weed, and because he "should have knew" that Lennie was becoming a menace to society, a potential serial killer of young girls. Lennie can't be blamed for being what he is, but that doesn't change what he has become.

"I should of knew," George said hopelessly. "I guess maybe way back in my head I did."

That is the most significant passage in the book. George "should have knew" that Lennie had not told him the truth about the incident with the girl in Weed. Lennie was not interested in feeling the girl's soft dress, but he was sexually attracted to the girl herself. And that girl in Weed might have been very young. When she got the idea that he was trying to rape her, she wasn't far from the truth--although Lennie himself probably didn't understand his own urges. George assumes that something similar happened with Curley's wife in the barn--and he wasn't far from the truth there either. Lennie didn't know what he was doing. If Curley's wife hadn't started struggling and screaming, Lennie probably would have raped her, and in the process he might have killed her, accidentally on purpose. Lennie is becoming a monster because of his low intelligence and enormous physical strength and emerging sex drive.