Notes

Thursday, 6 April 2017

What is the shredding of Harrison's handicaps symbolic of?

Harrison's shredding of the handicaps in Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" is symbolic of his removal of society's limits on human achievement.

Throughout the story, the positive idea of equality has been defined as making citizens equally bad at everything. The citizens in this society, illustrated by George Bergeron, are more than willing to wear handicaps to make themselves equally bad at all things. Early in the story, George's wife, Hazel, suggests he take off his handicaps to "rest the bag for a little while." However, George, who has been innundated by loud noises in his ears to prevent him from thinking and had to carry around 47 pounds of birdshot in a bag to bring his strength down to the average person's, vehemently defends the handicaps saying that if he tried to get away with it "then other people'd get away with it-and pretty soon we'd be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else."

However, Harrison does not believe in these restrictions. Already, at 14 years old, Harrison has forced the handicappers to come up with new handicaps because he keeps improving in all categories. Among the things Harrison had to wear were a pair of eyeglasses with "thick wavy lenses" that would "give him whanging headaches," three hundred pounds of physical handicaps, and a "tremendous pair of earphones" instead of the small transmitters George wears. But again, these handicaps aren't enough to keep Harrison from growing. When he escaps and enters the studio, he shouts, "[W]atch me become what I can become!" That's when he ripped off the padlock, which "snapped like celery," and then "tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support five thousand pounds."

Harrison's removal of these handicaps allowed him to leap "like deer on the moon" and kiss the 30-foot-high studio ceiling. Symbolically, Vonnegut is suggesting that once people rip off their self-installed or socially installed handicaps, they can leap like Harrison "neutraling gravity with love and pure will."

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

What is the mood of Julius Caesar?

There are many different moods created throughout Julius Caesar. In the early part of the play there is a mood of growing tension and suspense. Everything seems to be building up to the attempted assassination of of the formidable Julius Caesar. Although the audience should know that Caesar was killed, Shakespeare manages to raise obstacles, fears, and doubts. Brutus doesn't know whether he wants to get involved in the conspiracy. Portia is dreadfully afraid the plot will be thwarted, in which case she would lose her husband and perhaps lose her home and everything in it. There seems to be some possibility that Calpurnia will succeed in talking her husband out of going to the Capitol on that fateful day. There are all kinds of supernatural signs that something dire is about to happen. But then the mood changes when Antony makes his funeral oration and turns the whole city against Brutus, Cassius, and all the other conspirators.

The principal mood, if it can be called a mood, is one that might be called "time travel." We are brought back into the distant past and seem to be viewing great historical events as they actually happened. This is true even though the actors are all speaking English, most of it in poetic unrhymed iambic pentameter. Anthony's funeral oration is the crowning glory of this play. Shakespeare must have relished the opportunity to re-create that speech in English. We feel we are hearing the actual oration. The original theater audience must have been hypnotized, spellbound by the feeling of actually being present when these things happened.

When we think about the historical event, many of us think of Shakespeare's interpretation of it. We think of Shakespeare's Brutus, Shakespeare's Antony, Shakespeare's Caesar, and not of the real Brutus, Antony and Caesar or of Plutarch's histories. And this is true even though the actors are speaking English rather than Latin and are reciting Shakespeare's immortal poetry. We must feel that Shakespeare's version of Mark Antony's funeral oration is much better than the one the real Mark Antony actually gave. Antony calls himself "a plain blunt man" but moves the mob to frenzy with wild extemporaneous subjunctives:

But were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

How is social justice reflected in Chapter 30 of To Kill a Mockingbird?

Social justice, as per dictionary.com, refers to the "distribution of advantages and disadvantages in a society." In Chapter 30 of To Kill a Mockingbird, there are two main instances of social justice. First, Scout's treatment of Boo -- offering him refreshments rather than playing mean-spirited games about him -- offers him the "advantage" of friendship. This response to Boo is better suited to the friend he has been to Scout. From offering her a blanket...

The major instance of social justice in the chapter, however, has to do with Atticus' and Heck Tate's treatment of Boo. While it is clear to them that Boo is the hero of the scene, having stabbed Bob Ewell and rescued the children, both Atticus and Heck realize that telling all of Maycomb would thrust Boo into a spotlight that he is not ready for. While they privately thank Boo for his heroism, Atticus and Heck act responsibly from a social justice perspective by telling the residents of Maycomb that Bob Ewell fell on his knife (as opposed to being killed by Boo). In that way, they take Boo out of the equation and return him to the quiet that he no doubt prefers.

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

Why is the town in the film adaptation of the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" so much nicer than the description of the town in the novel?

When a director and cinematographer design the setting of the movie, they often have to take some liberties with how things look in order to get the feel or atmosphere of the time period or location. It may require a directorial interpretation of what the author is describing and means for things to look like.

Filmmakers will often adapt things, changing things to make the story clearer or more relevant to their audience. They may...

Filmmakers will often adapt things, changing things to make the story clearer or more relevant to their audience. They may take things out of the story, rearrange time and sequence, or may choose actors who may not seem appropriate for characters. Remember that a movie squeezes a novel’s worth of action, ideas, themes, etc. into a compressed hour and a half.

The fact that the movie was filmed in black and white gives the aura of a period piece to the setting, the 1930’s. The opening scenes establish the town as a quiet town, well-ordered and archaic as a horse-drawn delivery wagon rolls along, leading the camera. There are two significant reasons for this introduction to Maycomb: (1) order is torn down through Tom's arrest and trial; (2) even though the story and themes show the dark side of human experience and nature, it is not a noir film because the three main characters strive, survive and develop positively, not negatively.

Even though you might have pictured Maycomb a little different than the movie’s portrayal, the film does capture the overall nostalgic feel and atmosphere of this town that is in conflict with its values and beliefs.

Despite his own adversity, Ponyboy's life was still preferable to many of the other characters' lives. Do you agree? This is an essay prompt.

Your first step on this essay is to have an opinion on Ponyboy's life. If you agree, write about that. If you disagree that his life is better, then write about that. If you really, truly have no opinion on Ponyboy's life, you can still answer the question. If that is the case, then choose whichever option you think will be easier to defend. You don't have to agree or disagree with what you write...

I recommend defending that his life is better than other characters' lives. He is the main "hero" character, so it is easier to see him as a positive character rather than a negative character. You could easily make the case that Pony's life is better than Johnny's life. Granted, Ponyboy's parents are dead, but Johnny's parents are abusive dead beats. At least Ponyboy's brothers clearly love him. Additionally, Johnny is a walking, talking case of post traumatic stress disorder. If somebody claps too loud, Johnny is reaching for a knife. The Socs beat him and scared him badly, and Johnny hasn't been the same since.

You could also argue that Ponyboy's life is better than Darry's life too. They are brothers, so their quality of life isn't that much different, but the pressures of life are so much greater for Darry. Because the Curtis brothers' parents are dead, raising the family has fallen on Darry. That's a huge responsibility for somebody of his age. He's barely keeping it all together. Ponyboy has none of those pressures.

If you were Hamlet, would you pretend to be mad in order to take revenge?

In Hamlet, the title character should not have acted mad in order to take revenge when he learns of his father's murder. Hamlet's actions to take revenge on the new king, his uncle, while justified ends with the death of everyone who matters to the prince—his mother, Ophelia, Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guilderstern.

Hamlet's friends see danger in his increasing madness throughout the play. In Act I, Horatio warns Hamlet that listening to his father's...

Hamlet's friends see danger in his increasing madness throughout the play. In Act I, Horatio warns Hamlet that listening to his father's ghost might "deprive your sovereignty of reason / And draw you into madness?" It does. When Hamlet pretends to be mad when he speaks to Ophelia in Act II Scene I ("My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet...), he sets in motion suspicion from all, including Polonius, King Claudius and Hamlet's mother. In addition, this action puts Ophelia, a woman Hamlet may have loved, on edge, which eventually leads to her suicide. In addition, King Claudius uses Hamet's "madness" to turn the prince's former friends Rosencrantz and Gilderstern against him.

No, if I was Prince Hamlet, I would not pretend madness. Hamlet's idea to stage a play in which a king is murdered much in the same way his father was murdered is a sane action and it works. In the scene after King Claudius watches the play, he admits his guilt while praying. With this knowledge of the king's guilt, Hamlet could have fled and seeked help from other nobility loyal to his father. While this might lead to a civil war in an already war-ravaged kingdom, it would have been honorable and would, perhaps, have made Hamlet a better man and then a noble king.

How many Lithium ions are present in 75.3 grams of lithium sulfate?

There are three steps to solving this problem:

1. Calculate the molar mass of lithium sulfate. The formula is Li2SO4. We know this because the lithium ion has a charge of +1 and sulfate ion is SO4 2-. The ratio of lithium ion to sulfate ion is 1 to 2 to give a net charge of zero.

2. Convert grams of lithium sulfate to moles

3. Find the number of lithium ions in the calculated...

There are three steps to solving this problem:

2. Convert grams of lithium sulfate to moles

3. Find the number of lithium ions in the calculated number of moles of Li2SO4. The chemical formula indicates that there are two ions of lithium per formula unit, so moles of lithium sulfate is multiplied by 2 to get moles of lithium ions.

The molar mass of lithium sulfate is:

2(6.9 g/mol) + 32.1 g/mol + 4(16.0 g/mol) = 109.9 grams/mole

Moles of Li2SO4 = (75.3g)(1 mol/109.9 g) = 0.685 moles

lithium ions = (0.685 moles LiSO4)(2 Li/1 LiSO4)(6.02x10^23 ions/1 mol)

= 8.25 x 10^23 lithium ions