Notes

Thursday, 3 April 2014

What does Ponyboy say he would rather have than pity?

In Chapter 11, Ponyboy is looking through one of Sodapop's old yearbooks and comes across a picture of Bob Sheldon. Ponyboy looks at Bob's picture and begins to wonder what kind of person he was. Ponyboy starts to look at Bob from a different perspective and questions whether he was a genuine person. Ponyboy then thinks about Bob's parents and wonders if they hate the Greasers. He then mentions that he hopes Bob's parents hated...

"I'd rather have anybody's hate than their pity" (Hinton 18).

The reason Ponyboy would rather have someone's hate than their pity is because he is a prideful individual. As a Greaser, Ponyboy has a reputation as a tough, intimidating person. Despite the fact that he is poor and doesn't share all of the advantages that the Socs have, he is still a proud person and doesn't want anyone's pity.

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

What are four main events leading to the Civil War? List them and explain their importance.

There are many important events that led up to the Civil War. Let us look at four of them.

Mexican-American War. This war added a great deal of territory to the United States. The slave states and free states then came into conflict over this territory, with each side wanting it for themselves. This conflict helped drive the two regions apart and bring about the Civil War.

Kansas-Nebraska Act. This law overruled the Missouri Compromise, opening up the possibility of slavery in areas north of the line drawn in that compromise. This brought about the violence in “Bleeding Kansas” and made for more conflict between the North and South.

Dred Scott Decision. This barred Congress from making any laws about slavery in the territories, which prevented any further compromises on the issue of slavery.

Election of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was elected with no votes from the South. This proved to the Southerners that they had no power in the country anymore and led them to secede.

All of these events helped create conflict between the North and the South. This conflict made war more likely.

What was the unusual item that the men found floating in the river, after they passed Reading?

This incident happens in Chapter XVI of Three Men in a Boat, and it may be the shortest chapter in the book. The men have passed the town of Reading (which is pronounced “red-ding”). The narrator describes its history and scenery. And then George notices something floating in the water. It is the dead body of a woman.

It lay very lightly on the water, and the face was sweet and calm. It was...

It lay very lightly on the water, and the face was sweet and calm. It was not a beautiful face; it was too pre-maturely aged-looking, too thin and drawn, to be that; but it was a gentle, loving face, in spite of its stamp of pinch and poverty, and upon it was that look of restful peace that comes to the faces of the sick sometimes when at last the pain has left them.

Others on the bank see the body. Fortunately, they take responsibility for dealing with the tragedy. The three men learn later that the unmarried woman had had a difficult life and that she had committed suicide. She worked twelve hours a day and earned a little money to support herself and her child, but it wasn’t enough. She gave the child “a penny box of chocolate” as a goodbye gift, traveled to this part of the river, and allowed herself to drown in the water. The narrator concludes that the woman had “sinned in all things —sinned in living and in dying. God help her! and all other sinners, if any more there be.”

What is the importance of the use of long stage directions in Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?

Williams uses detailed stage instructions in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to illuminate characters' emotional dynamics.

Williams's play is a study in the way human beings interact with one another. He shows a world where barriers to emotional connection exist in different ways. Such difficulties are essential to the play's development, and the use of stage directions enhance this. For example, in the play's opening, Maggie is ready to rail about how Brick's family wants to deny him his inheritance. However, Williams includes stage directions which show that "She freezes momentarily before her next remark. Her voice drops as if it were somehow a personally embarrassing admission." Another example of an extensive stage direction is when Maggie is talking and Brick responds through body language: "During the above swift flood of words, Brick has reclined with contrapuntal leisure on the snowy surface of the bed and has rolled over carefully on his side or belly." In these settings, Williams could have opted for shorter stage directions such as "Maggie interrupts herself" or "Brick turns over on the bed." However, in adding detailed stage directions, Williams seizes the opportunity to emotionally develop his characters. When Maggie "freezes," it reflects an aspect of her marriage, reflected through Brick taking sanctuary "on the snowy surface of the bed."

The world in which the characters live denies emotional development. Through Big Daddy's "mendacity" or through a clash of worlds, such as a setting described as "Victorian with a touch of the Far East," the characters experience difficulty with full emotional expression. Big Daddy finds that his life is filled with lies and deceit, a painful "vacuum" where truth is nowhere to be found. Maggie cannot fully communicate with her husband, and is unable to reach him. Brick is unable to fully connect with anything except tormented memories, confusion in the present, and alcohol. The main characters live in a world of emotional struggle. Williams uses his lengthy directions as a way to further communicate the disjointed nature of this world.

Duncan is talking about the thane of Cawdor. Why might his words apply equally to Macbeth?

Ross has just finished telling Duncan how the thane of Cawdor teamed with the Norwegian forces against Scotland, and how Macbeth and Banquo beat them back. Duncan says, "No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive / Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death." "Our bosom interest" here is the safety of Scotland. This is ironic, since Macbeth will almost instantly deceive another bosom interest--Duncan's life itself.

Later, when Malcolm reports that before the treasonous...

Later, when Malcolm reports that before the treasonous thane of Cawdor was executed, he "very frankly...confess'd his treasons / Implored your highness' pardon and set forth / A deep repentance." Duncan responds, "He was a gentleman on whom I built / An absolute trust." Then he immediately turns to Macbeth and says, "O worthiest cousin!"

More irony, in that while Macbeth is worthy at this point, he will soon betray Duncan's "absolute trust."

(Malcolm's reports of the thane of Cawdor, however, don't apply to Macbeth, for when Macbeth meets Macduff in the final battle and learns that he was "from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd," he tries to surrender, but Macduff points out that he'd be set up to be an object of derision, which Macbeth cannot bear. Macbeth then says, "I will not yield, / To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, / And to be baited with the rabble's curse." This makes him quite the opposite of the thane of Cawdor.)

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

In "The Road Not Taken," what does the traveler do when faced with a fork in the road?

When faced with a fork in the road, the traveler "look[s] down one as far as [he] could / To where it bent in the undergrowth" (lines 4-5). First, he checks one road out, noting that he cannot see very far down its path. Then, he decides to "[take] the other, as just as fair,/ And having perhaps the better claim,/ Because it was grassy and wanted wear" (6-8). So, he takes the second of the two roads, sort of arbitrarily. It seemed a little nicer, perhaps, because it was grassy, but he notes that "the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same,/ And both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black" (9-12). In other words, the same number of people have traveled each road because they were "worn [...] about the same" and "equally lay" in leaves that had not been walked on that day.

He does, say, however, that when he is older, reminiscing about his life, he is going to tell people that "[he] took the [road] less traveled by/ And that has made all the difference" (19-20). So, although he takes a road that has been no less traveled (because they are equally traveled), he is going to tell people that one was less traveled and that he chose that one. In other words, he is going to lie. Why? Because we all want to believe that we make unique choices that ultimately have value and shape our lives and give them meaning and direction. In the end, Frost seems to be saying that there really aren't unique choices but it is human nature to say that we have made them anyway.

In "Patriotism" by Mishima, why is Shinji determined to die by ritual suicide?

Yukio Mishima's short story "Patriotism" recounts the events leading up to a ritualistic suicide by Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama and his wife. The setting of this story, Japan in 1936, is integral to the plot. Seppuku, a form of ritual suicide, was historically a well accepted practice in Japan. Without the stigma attached to suicide within the Christian faith, the act in Japanese culture was seen as showing great honor, and represented the ultimate sacrifice one...

It is obvious within the text that Lieutenant Shinji has accepted that he will give his life for country and honor at some point. At the beginning of the story, the author writes, “A woman who had become the wife of a soldier should know and resolutely accept that her husband’s death might come at any moment.” Later as the lieutenant leaves the house for the day, his wife sees “the determination to die” in his face.

Once the mutiny begins, the Lieutenant’s loyalty becomes divided. His world and reality are turned upside down as close friends become enemies of the government that he has committed his life to protect and defend. The Lieutenant states of his close friends, “They’ll be posted as rebels, I imagine. I shall be in command of a unit with orders to attack them. . . . I can’t do it. It’s impossible to do a thing like that.” When faced with the choice to kill a close friend or turn against his government, Lieutenant Shinji decides the only way he can save his honor is to die at the hand of his own sword.