What does the imagery surrounding Simon's death imply about good and evil?

In Chapter 9, Simon becomes the victim of an attack from Jack's frenzied, manic group of boys who mistake him for the beast. Simon's lifeless body lays on the sand while the dead paratrooper's body flies from the top of the mountain toward the beach. Golding describes how the tide swells and covers everything with a "layer of silver," depicting Simon's hair as having bright features. Golding writes that Simon's shoulders "became sculpted marble." (Golding 154) Simon's body is carried to sea by the tide and surrounded by illuminating sea creatures that create the image of a halo around his body. The imagery used in this text suggests that good ultimately triumphs over evil. Silver, which is a precious metal, and marble are long-lasting, valuable materials that Golding uses to describe Simon's body. Simon, who is a morally upright, understanding individual is depicted as a Christ figure throughout the novel. The imagery illustrating the illuminating sea creatures carrying his body to sea in a peaceful manner suggests a positive afterlife for Simon. The paratrooper's flight parallels Satan's rise to power after a Christ's death on the cross. Similar to Jesus Christ, who experiences death before his ultimate victory, Simon brutal death is followed by a serene journey out to sea that symbolizes his everlasting life.

`tan^2(2x)cos^4(2x)` Use the power reducing formulas to rewrite the expression in terms of the first power of the cosine.

It is known that

`cos^2(y)=(1/2)(1+cos(2y))`  and

`tan^2(y)=(1-cos(2y))/(1+cos(2y)).`

Repeating the first formula we obtain

`cos^4(y)=(1/4)(1+2cos(2y)+cos^2(2y))=`

`=(1/4)(1+2cos(2y)+(1/2)(1+cos(4y))=`

`=(1/8)(3+4cos(2y)+cos(4y)).`

Finally, for `y=2x` 

`tan^2(2x)*cos^4(2x)=(1-cos(4x))/(1+cos(4x))*(1/8)(3+4cos(4x)+cos(8x)).`

Why did the 2nd spirit take Scrooge to the miners' hut?

The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to a variety of Christmas celebrations, including a party aboard a ship and Fred's party, which Scrooge had been invited to, but declined to attend.  While the miners' hut is not given a great deal of attention, one can picture it as a desolate and isolated place.  Yet, even in such a lonesome outpost, the miners are celebrating Christmas.

This is in direct contrast to Scrooge.  Even though Scrooge is in the midst of a town of celebrating Christmas, and even though he has a party invitation from his nephew, Scrooge is not celebrating in anywhere near the scope of that of the miners; in fact, he is not celebrating at all.  Contrasting him to the remote miners only helps to further drive home this point.

If you were Jim or Della, how would you feel about the gift you recivied?

To me, Della’s gift would be like the embodiment of true love. Without doubt it would be my most prized possession, symbolizing pure love.

Della’s long hair had been her most precious belonging, something that she had always been proud of and had never parted with. She felt no less than a princess with it hanging “below her knee.”  

“Della knew her hair was more beautiful than any queen’s jewels and gifts.”

Della got her enviable hair cut off to earn a few dollars so that she could buy me a Christmas gift!

No, that money didn’t buy her a gold fob, but it bought her me. The gift would be a constant reminder that I’ve been bought by somebody at the price of deepest, selfless and true love.

Holding the gift I would feel myself the most blessed and fortunate soul.

However, my first reaction might have been different. I might have been very upset. Knowing why she got her beautiful hair chopped off would have aroused a complex feeling in me mixed with different emotions including anger, helplessness, guilt, pity and immense love for Della. But soon, I know, these feelings would subside leaving the strongest one: the feeling of immense love for my beloved Della.

All my life the gold fob would be among the few dearest things I had, perhaps dearer than my life itself.

Faber tells Montag that they will have to work together to face Captain Beatty. Faber then tells Montag that he will read to him from the book of...

The allusion to the book of Job has significant symbolism that relates to Montag's stressful situation. Throughout the book of Job, Satan makes a bet with the Lord that Job will not remain faithful after he loses all his possessions, family, and household. Despite suffering significant losses and having his health decline, Job remains faithful to God. Job petitions God and asks God why he has allowed him to suffer after being such a faithful servant. The Lord speaks to Job and tells him humans will never have the capacity to understand how God operates. Like Job, Montag has also suffered losses. Montag has lost his job, his wife, and his good friend, Clarisse. Another similarity to Job is how Montag is searching for answers. Montag asks Faber to help him explain texts and is searching for meaning throughout the novel. In the story of Job, the Lord restores Job to greater glory and wealth than he had previously for remaining faithful during difficult times. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Montag finds meaning to his life and is given the opportunity to rebuild a literate society. Both stories end with positive outcomes and involve searching for meaning in life.

In "Heritage," what problems does Countee Cullen face as he tries to reconcile African heritage with African American identity?

Countee Cullen faces several obstacles as he tries to reconcile his African ancestry with his American identity.

The first is isolation and distance. As the opening line of the poem asks, "What is Africa to me"? He doesn't have an answer to this, and must find or construct one by himself, rather than knowing it as part of his culture.

Second, there is the question of time, and the related issue of knowledge. As the first stanza of the poem says, it has been over 300 years since his fathers lived in Africa. As a result, he doesn't really know Africa, and so his mind and poem are full of images of Africa, and he doesn't even know if they fit, or how well they fit.

Third, religion. Cullen is Christian. The Africa of his fathers was not. His beliefs, and his spirit, divide him from his African heritage.

In what ways does the life of the author of "The Story of an Hour" parallel the life of the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard?

“The Story of an Hour” is a short one, and simple.  It tells of a young Mrs. Mallard with a weak heart who learns that her husband has been killed in a work accident.  After she sobs uncontrollably at the news, she isolates herself in her room and, after examining her emotions, is struck with the feeling of freedom.  Her husband’s love, up to that point, had been a burden, had been restricting, preventing her from living entirely for herself.  And now that he has died, she begins to envision with relish what her life will look like alone.  Indeed, she wishes “that life might be long.  It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.”  What she dreaded as a married woman, she now eagerly anticipated as a widow.  However, there had been a strange miscommunication – her husband, in fact, had not been in the accident, and the shock the woman feels at seeing him walk through the door is enough to stop her heart.

In the story Mrs. Mallard believes her husband to have died; in reality, Kate Chopin’s husband Oscar died in 1892, when Kate was still quite young.  He never reemerged as Bently Mallard did, but we can imagine that Kate drew on her own experience with her husband’s death for this piece.  In addition, one of the most common themes in Chopin’s works is that of female empowerment – she was a very strong woman herself, and believed that women should have the opportunity to be in control of their own lives.  And here, in “The Story of an Hour,” we have a woman who is given that opportunity.  Moreover, rather than cede her newfound freedom back to her husband at the end of the story, she dies.  They say in the story that she dies “of heart disease – of joy that kills.”  Indeed, it was the shock of that joy being stripped away from her – she could not live as she once had.