What is the relevance of studying comparative politics?

There are at least two main reasons for studying comparative politics.  One has to do with gaining a better understanding of the world outside your own country. The other has to do with learning more about how politics works in general.

One reason to study comparative politics is to learn things about countries that are not your own.  Most of us know very little about the political systems of foreign countries.  We know something about our own system but we do not think that other countries’ systems are important.  This type of ethnocentrism limits us and makes it harder for us to understand other countries.  If we study comparative politics, we learn about other countries and come to understand them better.  This is important since we live in a world that is globalizing rapidly and where other countries’ politics can affect our own lives fairly easily.

A second reason to study comparative politics is to understand more about politics in general (which can also help us learn about our own political system.  When we study comparative politics, we learn something about how different political systems work.  From this, we can extrapolate rules about how well various aspects of various political systems work.  We can compare different systems and think about them sort of as if they were experiments that tell us what types of political institutions are good in what situations.  This can be of interest to us if we are just interested in politics in general.  It can also be of interest if we want to think about how to improve our own political system.

Thus, the study of comparative politics is useful if we want to learn more about foreign countries, more about politics in general, or more about our own country’s political system.

When Pahóm receives news of a new commune, what plan forms in his mind?

When Pahom hears of a new commune beyond the Volga, he plans to sell his present homestead and to begin afresh at the new settlement. Pahom's decision is based on the fact that he has recently quarreled with his neighbors.

Because of a need for more pasture, Pahom's neighbors continue to let their cows and horses wander onto Pahom's land. On one occasion, someone even cut down five of his lime trees for bark. Even though Pahom thinks that Simon is the culprit, the judge and jury decide that there is not enough evidence against Simon to convict Simon for the crime. This greatly upsets Pahom; therefore, when the peasant tells Pahom that a man will be given twenty-five acres at the new commune, he jumps at the opportunity.

First, Pahom decides to venture to the new commune to ascertain matters for himself. What he sees there greatly pleases him. Aside from the twenty-five acres he will get at the new commune, Pahom discovers that he can purchase free-hold land for fifty cents an acre.

When he returns home, Pahom begins selling off his belongings. He is able to sell his land for a profit and to withdraw his membership from the present commune. After selling off his homestead and his cattle, Pahom moves his family to the new settlement in the spring.

Why is Huckleberry Finn considered the realist of the story?

In Mark Twain's time romanticism (books about adventure, exotic places, extreme emotions, etc...) was popular. Twain was interesting in that although he was critical of romanticism, he also wrote it in the form of his stories about Tom Sawyer. This novel contrasts the different values of realism and romanticism through the characters of Tom and Huck. Tom is a romantic. He wants to create a gang of bandits to go on adventures like he has read about in his romantic novels. At the end of the story he even creates an elaborate plot to rescue Jim, even though he knows that such a plot is entirely pointless. This ends up getting him shot. 

Huck, on the other hand, is the realist. Huck is less interested in glory or adventure. He leaves home not for adventure but to escape his father. While he naively believes some of Tom's stories, as the story moves on he starts to see things from a more realistic perspective. For example, he aims to stop the Duke and King from pulling their scam. This is because he sees them for the criminals they are. Tom might have gone along with the performance, simply because it was exciting. While Huck is superstitious and naive at times, he does almost everything he does for practical purposes, not because he is recreating something he has read in an adventure story.

In the Great Gatsby, why is it that nobody comes to Gatsby's funeral? What does this mean?

After Gatsby's death, Nick, his only true friend, arranges for the funeral and tries desperately to get other people who knew Gatsby to come and show their respects. The only ones who show up are Henry Gatz, Gatsby's father, the owl-eyed man, who Nick had met in the library at one of Gatsby's parties,  the minister and a few servants. None of the hundreds of guests who had attended Gatsby's parties bothered to come, which is significant because it shows that while he was alive they were very happy to drink his liquor, dance to his music and enjoy his benevolence but now that he is dead, they have no more use for him. Even Gatsby's business partner, Meyer Wolfsheim, doesn't attend and his words to Nick were:

"Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead."

It is more likely that Wolfsheim wants to hide his association with Gatsby, especially after the scandal surrounding the death. Most upsetting to Nick is that Daisy does not come to the funeral, nor does she bother to call. She and Tom had quickly left the country for an extended trip abroad, in order to avoid any repercussions regarding Myrtle Wilson's death.

In the end, Gatsby's funeral, unlike his parties, was a somber and lonely affair. No one showed up because Gatsby hadn't really cultivated friendships or personal relationships with anyone, except for Nick and of course, Daisy.

What are 2 physical differences between Caesar and Antony mentioned in "Julius Caesar"?

Antony is a strong man, able to run in the Lupercalian ceremonies at the beginning of “Julius Caesar”, and in some productions strong enough to carry Caesar’s body during his crucial funeral oration. Caesar is portrayed as physically weaker and more compromised: he mentions that he is deaf in one ear, Cassius remarks that Caesar once exhausted himself trying to swim a distance Cassius could swim easily, and we also learn that Caesar has the “falling sickness”, i.e. epilepsy. His physical frailty stands in contrast to the ruling authority he possesses and complicates the opposition to him in the play: he is on the one hand potentially in a position to become a tyrant, but on the other hand is not himself physically strong or intimidating. In many productions, Caesar looks unimpressive enough that it’s hard to see why he so threatens the conspirators, which makes their decision to assassinate him more difficult for the audience to support.

What evidence is there to prove that Sook is like a child?

Throughout this story, which is a semi-autobiographical portrait of Truman Capote's own childhood, the reader is given suggestions that Buddy's cousin Sook is like a child. In the third paragraph, after Buddy has described what she looks like he explains why she calls him Buddy:  

She calls me Buddy, in memory of a boy who was formerly her best friend. The other Buddy died in the 1880's, when she was still a child. She is still a child.

When Buddy relates memories of things they've done, he describes their activities as if they are things two children have done. For example, he describes the money they made with a "fun and freak museum" that had a three-legged biddy chicken:  "Every body hereabouts wanted to see that biddy: we charged grown ups a nickel, kids two cents." In saying "we charged grown ups a nickel" there is a sort of camaraderie and intimacy suggested in these words, since Sook is not included with the "grown ups" but rather is, like Buddy, a child who is making money from selling grown ups a ticket to the museum.

When Christmas morning arrives, Sook and Buddy are both like children, unable to sleep and eager to open presents. Sook mischievously makes noise to wake up everyone in the house, so they can get their Christmas morning started:  

Possibly we doze; but the beginnings of dawn splash us like cold water: we're up, wide-eyed and wandering while we wait for others to waken. Quite deliberately my friend drops a kettle on the kitchen floor.

This is another example of Sook behaving in a childlike way, and Buddy's fond remembrance of her youthful energy and happiness.

How does the speed-up affect Lyddie in Lyddie? How does it affect the other girls?

Lyddie does not complain about the speedup, but she does get hurt and sick.

Lyddie becomes a factory worker after her mother leaves.  She does not last long working at a tavern before she gets fired, and she has learned that she can make more money at the factory.  She needs the money to pay off the family debts so that her family can be re-formed.

Lyddie picks up how to do the factory work quickly.  She is a fast learner and a hard worker.

So it was that when the Concord Corporation once again speeded up the machinery, she, almost alone, did not complain. She only had two looms to tend instead of the four she'd tended during the summer. She needed the money. (Ch. 12)

While many of the other girls are going home because they can’t keep up the pace, Lyddie just keeps taking on more looms.  Many girls are getting sick, and some are just worn out.

Betsy explains why she is considering signing the petition for a ten-hour work day.

"… When I started in the spinning room, I could do a thirteen‐hour day and to spare. But in those days I had a hundred thirty spindles to tend. Now I've twice that many at a speed that would make the devil curse. I'm worn out, Amelia. We're all worn out." (Ch. 12)

No matter how much the machines speed up and how many she is assigned, Lyddie keeps up the pace.  She has become one with the machines.  With four machines to tend, Lyddie has to remain focused on her work.  The overseers get rewards for producing more goods.

As the New England workers leave, they are replaced with Irish immigrants.  These girls live in tenements in a rough part of town.  Rumor is that they work for lower wages.

One day Lyddie gets hurt when a shuttle from the machine hits her right temple.  She does not even want to go home from work.  Diana takes her to her doctor friend.  Later, Lyddie gets very sick.  After many days with a fever she recovers.  Many girls do not.