How did Helen Keller keep herself busy?

Helen Keller wrote The Story of My Life when she was in her early twenties.  During the early part of her life, Helen stayed busy.  When she was not in school, she travelled with Miss Sullivan.  They went to Niagara Falls, New York City, Nova Scotia, and many other places.  Another memorable time in her life was when Helen "visited the World's Fair with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell."  She enjoyed being able to experience the wonders of the fair through touch.

She also had many hobbies.  Helen considered her "favourite amusement... [to be] sailing" in the summertime.  She spent a summer in Halifax, and she enjoyed sailing in the Halifax Harbour and on the Bedford Basin.  In the wintertime, Helen enjoyed going tobogganing.  She was filled with joy when she was "plunging through drifts, leaping hollows, swooping down upon the lake..., [and shooting] across its gleaming surface to the opposite bank."  Helen loved spending time out in nature.  She enjoyed going into the garden and touching the flowers and plants.

What are the themes of "Othello" written by Shakespeare?

There are many themes in this play, but here a few that are frequently discussed and studied.

The fragility of human relationships and the nature of jealousy:

Shakespeare does an excellent job of showing the main characters' weaknesses in this play. Even though Othello loves Desdemona he is easily tricked into hating her. Iago doesn't need to do much to destroy their relationship. Othello is ready to believe that his wife has been unfaithful. Quickly his rage turns to anger. The tragedy explores the relationship between jealousy and love, and reveals how fragile romantic love can be.

Race and prejudice:

Othello is a Moor. This means he is a darker-skinned man. Despite his accomplishments on the battlefield, many characters, including his father in law, have a difficult time accepting him because of his ethic background. The play explores the nature of race relations through this character.

Iago and evil:

Iago is based on the idea of a tempter. The name Iago actually means the planter. In many ways this is the way the devil is thought to work. He finds human weaknesses and uses temptation to destroy us through these weaknesses. Unlike many other villains, Iago doesn't even have proper motivation. While he claims to want a promotion and lightly suspects his wife has been unfaithful, one gets the idea that Iago is doing most of this for sport. He enjoys it. This explores the nature of true evil, and how sometimes wicked people can take joy in tormenting others.

How would you describe Sherman Alexie's style in "Every Little Hurricane"?

When discussing style, I find the most useful literary elements you must look at are the following: point-of-view, narrative presence, diction, and figurative language.

In "Every Little Hurricane," Sherman Alexie uses a third-person limited narrator who follows the actions of Victor, a boy in the story. For the most part, this narrator tells the story in a matter-of-fact way ("It was January and Victor was nine years old. He was sleeping in his bedroom in the basement of the HUD house when it happened."). In addition, this narrator is clearly sympathetic toward Victor, who, when all the fighting and destruction is happening, "pulled the strings of his pajama bottoms tighter. He squeezed his hands into fists and pressed his face tightly against the glass."

However, the narrator takes this matter-of-fact voice and uses an extended metaphor throughout the story to create this meaning. Throughout the story, the narrator calls the conflict that occurs in this reservation home "a hurricane." The story begins with Victor's uncles, Adolph and Arnold, fighting on the lawn tearing down a tree. To Victor, this fight is a natural occurrence, like a hurricane. The narrator says that Victor had seen footage of hurricanes before, and like those storms, this fight was like "a photograph of a car that a hurricane had picked up and carried five miles before it fell on a house."

But this hurricane, according to the narrator, extends far beyond this fight between his uncles. The hurricane, for indians living on this reservation, is something that naturally occurs. The narrator makes this statement in a matter-of-fact way: "[T]he storm had that had caused their momentary anger had not died. Instead, it moved from Indian to Indian at the party, giving each a specific, painful memory."

This ability to take something that might seem insignificant, like the fight between two brothers, into something grand and almost metaphysical is an Alexie trait. This story is a perfect example of that.

In Paradise Lost, if Satan is the protagonist then who is the antagonist in the poem?

In Paradise Lost, if Satan is the protagonist, then the antagonist in the poem is God. Why is this so? It is because God stands in the way of Satan’s devious plans. God is the righteous being who expelled Satan from Heaven when Satan (and the third of the angels he influenced to revolt and who became demons) went against God and his laws.

Now Satan wants to reclaim his former position. Not only that, his intention originally was to ascend to the throne of God and above God’s throne. Essentially, he wants to be ‘God’ and be above all. He was jealous of God and is still jealous of God. Satan also wants to prevent human beings from having a relationship with God. Therefore, in the poem by John Milton, Satan is fighting God and also His Son, Jesus Christ.

An antagonist stands in the way of a protagonist’s plans. This is what God is doing; he is standing in the way of what Satan wants to do. In the Bible, it is evident from reading the Book of Revelation that Satan will ultimately lose. No matter what Satan does as a protagonist, he cannot win, because he is less than God.

His powers are not as great as God’s as he is a being created by God. He was given free moral agency to decide between right and wrong, and gain the rewards or suffer the consequences depending on his choices. He, and his follower-demons are not robots with no free will. They were given the freedom to choose the right way or the wrong way and they chose the latter. They are fighting God and his Son and their way of thinking is contrary to God (their antagonist).

The Book of Revelation talks of this protagonist’s defeat as it states that, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10)

What happens to Fortunato at the end of "The Cask of Amontillado"?

The end of "The Cask of Amontillado" is a little ambiguous. It is not quite clear whether Fortunato is dead or stubbornly remaining silent. 

“For the love of God, Montresor!”

“Yes,” I said, “for the love of God!”

But to these words I hearkened in vain for a reply. I grew impatient. I called aloud—

“Fortunato!”

No answer. I called again—

“Fortunato!”

No answer still. I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells. 

It seems unlikely that Fortunato could have died of fright. More likely, he has just given up trying to escape from his tight chains and is resigned to his fate. The jingling of the bells on his cap suggests he is still alive in there. He might have remained alive for days or weeks. He would not die of thirst because there was plenty of water dripping along the granite wall. He could have licked the wall to assuage his thirst. He was more likely to have died of starvation. There may have been just enough oxygen in his crypt to allow him to breathe.

If Fortunato remained alive for several weeks, he must have suffered terrible mental torture. He may have imagined he heard footsteps coming outside the stone wall. He might hope searchers would rescue him, or that Montresor had relented and was coming back. Edgar Allan Poe leaves the rest of the story up to the reader's imagination. One way or another, Fortunato died in his chains.

For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!

In The Outsiders, why was Ponyboy upset with Cherry? Explain Cherry’s rationale of Bob’s behavior.

In Chapter 8, after Ponyboy and Two-Bit come back from visiting Johnny and Dally at the hospital, they run into Cherry Valance sitting in her Corvette near a vacant lot. Cherry tells Ponyboy that the Socs will fight fair without weapons and that Randy will not be showing up to fight. Cherry asks, "How's Johnny?" and Pony tells her that he's not doing so good. Ponyboy gets upset with Cherry for telling him she wouldn't visit Johnny in the hospital. Cherry claims that she couldn't look at Johnny because he was the person who killed her boyfriend. She explains to Ponyboy that Bob was a really nice person who was sweet and friendly. Cherry blames Bob's actions on alcohol and says, "when he got drunk...it was that part of him that beat up Johnny" (Hinton 128). Ponyboy understands that Cherry was attracted to Bob's good side, but is still upset that she won't see Johnny. He mentions that it's not Johnny's fault that Bob was a drunk and that Cherry only went for guys who caused trouble. Ponyboy then tells Cherry that he doesn't want her to see Johnny anyway. He calls her a traitor and says,

"Do you think your spying for us makes up for that fact that you're sitting there in a Corvette while my brother drops out of school to get a job? Don't you ever feel sorry for us. Don't you ever try to give us handouts." (Hinton 129)

Ponyboy feels that Cherry pities them, and that is the only reason she is helping. Pony is prideful and would rather have someone's hate than their sympathy. Cherry explains that she wasn't trying to show them sympathy, but was only trying to help because she thought Pony was a nice kid. Ponyboy realizes that Cherry is telling him the truth and is honestly trying to help them as a friend. The two share a connection after Ponyboy asks whether she can see the sunsets good from the West Side. Cherry says, "Real good" and Ponyboy tells her he can also see sunsets from the East Side real good.

What prompts Simon Wheeler to tell the story of Jim Smiley?

The first three paragraphs of the story reveal the answer to this question. Simon Wheeler was sitting in a chair, dozing, when he was approached by a stranger (the narrator of this story) who asks him if he knows anything about a man named Leonidas W. Smiley. This narrator explains that he's hoping to find out about Leonidas because a friend of the narrator's specifically asked him to find Simon, who might have news about Leonidas.

Well, Simon doesn't know who Leonidas is, but the last name "Smiley" reminds him of a guy that Simon does know an awful lot about: Jim Smiley. So Simon launches into an extremely long story about this guy, Jim Smiley--a story which the narrator has to listen to.

It's very funny for a few reasons! First, there's no relationship between Jim Smiley and Leonidas Smiley, so the story is totally useless to the narrator and wastes his time. You can just imagine the narrator's awkward, impatient expression as the story seems to be wrapping up only to keep on going in another direction. And second, the narrator realizes that his friend has played a joke on him by sending him to Wheeler and asking him to ask about a Smiley. The narrator's friend must have known that this would happen. So, the narrator will probably have a few peevish words to say to his friend the next time they meet. 

In John Updike's "A&P," find examples (min two) of satire in the story, and explain what is being satirized.

Even if we call this an illustration and a celebration of youthful rebellion, that doesn't mean that parts of the rebellion are not being satirized as well. Sammy fits a role that is part knight, part existentialist, and part rebel. He challenges authority for his own rebellious whims but also for the honor and approval of Queenie. This act of rebellion and romance is significant to Sammy, but in the context of other larger forms of rebellion and courageous acts of knights and so forth, there is a slight satire on Sammy's gesture. He is not rebelling against unforgivable social oppression nor is he slaying a dragon to save the maiden. He simply quits his grocery store job. So, this is a celebration of rebellion, but it certainly has an ironic or satiric component if we compare it to other, more grandiose notions of rebellion and romance. But such is the nature of learning how, why, and when to rebel. This is a learning epiphany more than a triumph of a seasoned rebel. 

Lengel represents the "powers that be." In this case, Lengel (to Sammy) represents the establishment, the infrastructure, and the authority that he must challenge in order to complete his rebellious gesture. Sammy succeeds, even though this leaves him in a limbo state of having no job and no recognition by Queenie and her friends. It is a bit satiric that Lengel fulfills this role as the oppressive, reactionary generation of Sammy's parents' era. All he does is enforce his store policy of wearing clothes. He is not being terribly oppressive. So, Lengel is satirically morphed (from Sammy's perspective) into this stubborn authority figure that just doesn't get kids these days. Although Sammy and Lengel are satiric versions of rebel and authority, the story is nonetheless about a legitimate moment in a young man's life when he first tries out rebellion. It is a legitimate gesture because it will have consequences for him, and therein lies the courage. 

At the end of "Just Lather, That's All" by Hernando Tellez, Torres says to the barber, "Killing isn't easy. You can take my word for it." Does...

In this story, we have a hard-hearted, sadistic man – Captain Torres, who roots out and destroys political rebels.  He has come to get a shave – and the barber, who is also the narrator, is part of the rebel forces.  He is tortured as he shaves Torres; tortured with his own indecision.  He has an enemy leader in his hands, voluntarily giving himself up to his blade – he could kill him and rid the village of a man who amuses himself with hanging rebels before the schoolhouse and mutilating their bodies.  But, the barber says, “I’m a revolutionary, and not a murderer.”  He is completely distracted by the potential logistics of killing a man, hiding the body, going into hiding himself…and all for what, he muses?  There will be someone else to take Torres’s place, and then they would be right back to where they started.  Throughout the entire story we operate under the assumption that the barber and Torres are polar opposites – one man redeemable, the other contemptibly inhumane.

If you consider Torres’s words at the door of the barbershop in full:  “They told me that you’d kill me.  I came to find out.  But killing isn’t easy.  You can take my word for it;” you can get a lot of information about the captain hinting that the opposite is true.  First, this suggests that despite the casual attitude with which the captain kills and makes an example of the rebels he rounds up, he does not find the practice to be easy.  That is, he is not a natural-born killer with a talent for torture.  We can assume that there are many emotions that he has had to suppress in order to do his job.  The very same emotions and mental conflicts, perhaps, that the barber underwent himself.  And yet Torres most likely did not have the luxury of deciding for himself whether to kill or not – he is a captain; there are others more highly ranked who give him his orders.  His actions are evil, yes, and inexcusable – and yet perhaps the man himself was only as evil as the barber, once. 

In addition, we learn that Torres is not only, as he is described, “calm,” but also brave, and has a strategic mind.  The fact that he came to the barber to be shaved, for the sole reason to discover if the barber truly would kill him or not, as they said, is testament to this.  So although he is cold-blooded, he does have some positive qualities that earn him his rank.  If he were on the barber’s side, the latter would most likely consider him an asset.  But as it happens, they are fighting for different ideals, and he remains a threat.  What is remarkable here is that Tellez has given us insight and opened up an entire channel of viable speculation about this character Torres with a single line of dialogue.  And while the reader will still most likely sympathize with the barber at the end of the story, he or she will also feel they understand a bit more that the psychologies of the friend and the foe aren’t necessarily as different as each would like to believe.

How are the exoskeletons of mollusks and arthropods different?

Composition, growth, and formation are three differences between the exoskeletons of mollusks and arthropods. 

The first difference mentioned was composition. The exoskeleton of a mollusk is largely composed of calcium, whereas the exoskeleton of an arthropod is largely composed of chitin.

The second difference mentioned was growth. Examples of mollusks are clams, oysters, and snails. The exoskeletons of such organisms are shells that hold and protect the internal organs of the organisms. These shells grow with the mollusks. Examples of arthropods include lobsters, crabs, and insects. These organisms are born with a soft exoskeleton that hardens over time. The exoskeletons do not grow with the arthropods. Instead, arthropods molt as they outgrow their exoskeletons. 

Formation was the last difference between the exoskeletons of mollusks and arthropods. The exoskeletons of arthropods are segmented, whereas the exoskeletons of mollusks are not. 

Why is magnesium oxide used to line industrial ovens?

Magnesium oxide (MgO) is a compound of a metal and a non-metal. It is held together with double ionic bonds (two positively charged Mg ions bonded with two negative oxygen ions) which makes it non-reactive and tightly bound together. Because of this strong attraction, MgO has a very high melting point of nearly 3,000°C (over 5,000°F), which makes it suitable for lining furnaces, fire-proofing building materials, and for crucibles, those small, white vessels you may have used to melt other substances in your lab. You ask about industrial ovens--in addition to its very high melting point, MgO is also very non-reactive, meaning that when used to line ovens, no particles of MgO will be released from the lining and incorporated into any food baked inside. MgO is also a very strong refractory material; it maintains its structural properties at very high temperatures, again, making it desirable for use when extremely high temperatures are generated.

What are the examples Martin Luther King provides in his "I Have a Dream" speech of the "rude awakening" that could be expected?

In his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King is actually a bit vague as to what he means when he warns America "will have a rude awakening" if Americans fail to see the urgent need for change and return to their everyday, segregated, racist affairs because they believe African Americans will back down after venting a little frustration. He is, however, very clear on what he believes the "rude awakening" should not be.

In a later paragraph, he speaks out against the "militancy," or violence being promoted by the Black Power Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Instead, as a staunch advocate of peaceful protest, King supports protests in the forms of boycotts, demonstrations, sit-ins, and marches. We know the "rude awakening" lead by King would continue in these forms because he gives his people the following warning:

In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.

He further warns, "We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence." His use of the phrase "creative protest" implies that he will continue to promote peaceful means of protest, even in the face of giving the nation a "rude awakening."

While we are not told specifically what to expect of such an awakening, we are told what triumphs he expects such an awakening to bring. He expects true equality to be acknowledged, true freedom, true justice, brotherhood among whites and blacks, an end to oppression, an end to discrimination, and an end to segregation.