How did Tom’s imprisonment affect his character and conflicts/resolutions in the novel? Please include quotes and examples. Thank you!

Tom Joad, imprisoned for four years after being charged with manslaughter, learned a lot about life while he was locked up. These lessons impact his character and his way of looking at the world, which, in turn, affects how he manages conflict. As Tom develops throughout the novel, his character changes and with these changes come new realizations.
At the beginning of The Grapes of Wrath, Tom has just been released from prison. His interaction with the truck driver who gives him a ride is the reader's first indication of the impact of prison on Tom's character. Tom persuades the driver to give him a ride despite the sign posted on the driver's truck saying "No riders." This action introduces the reader to Tom as a clever character who knows how to get what he needs.
Later, when the driver is fishing for personal information about Tom's past, Tom resists the questioning, and then says, "I'll tell you anything. I ain't hidin' nothin'." Tom is short with the driver, but he says more than he needs to, which suggests that Tom might actually have something to hide. This exchange, as well as later exchanges with the driver of the truck, reveals Tom's character. He is a proud man who wants to be understood as a tough character, but he has his secrets too—secrets that might cause him to feel shame and to shut down when faced with a potential conflict.
Later, Tom encounters Casy on his way home, and his relationship with Casy grows to become something that also reflects changes Tom experienced while imprisoned. The two men discuss Casy's time as a reverend, and Casy reveals his new attitude towards love and connection. Tom reacts to Casy's new philosophy with this statement: "People would drive you out of the country with idears like that. Jumpin' an' yellin'. That's what folks like. Makes 'em feel swell." Tom's cynicism reflects an attitude he may have learned in prison, a place where he likely observed all sorts of dark motives in all sorts of criminal people.
The reader meets Tom at the start of the novel, when he is fresh out of prison, so the effects of his time there are more obvious at this point in the book. These two examples offer a reader a place to start examining Tom's character, which changes throughout the novel as Tom develops into a character more concerned with his family and with the social good than with himself.

Single Variable Calculus, Chapter 3, 3.6, Section 3.6, Problem 33

Determine $y''$ of $9x^2 + y^2 = 9$ by using implicit differentiation.

Solving for the 1st Derivative


$
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}

9 \frac{d}{dx} (x^2) + \frac{d}{dx} (y^2) =& \frac{d}{dx} (9)
\\
\\
(9)(2x) + (2y) \frac{dy}{dx} =& 0
\\
\\
18x + 2y \frac{dy}{dx} =& 0
\\
\\
2y \frac{dy}{dx} =& -18x
\\
\\
\frac{\displaystyle \cancel{2y} \frac{dy}{dx}}{\cancel{2y}} =& \frac{-18x}{2y}
\\
\\
\frac{dy}{dx} =& \frac{-9x}{y}

\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
$


Solving for the 2nd Derivative


$
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}

\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} =& \frac{\displaystyle y \frac{d}{dx} (-9x) - (-9x) \frac{d}{dx} (y)}{y^2}
&& \text{Apply Quotient Rule}
\\
\\
\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} =& \frac{\displaystyle (y)(-9) - (-9x) \frac{dy}{dx}}{y^2}
&& \text{Substitute $\large \frac{dy}{dx} = \frac{-9x}{y}$}
\\
\\
\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} =& \frac{-9y + (9x) \displaystyle \left( \frac{-9x}{y} \right) }{y^2}
&&
\\
\\
\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} =& \frac{-9y + \displaystyle \frac{(-81x^2)}{y}}{y^2}
&&
\\
\\
\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} =& \frac{\displaystyle \frac{-9y^2 - 81x^2}{y}}{y^2}
&&
\\
\\
\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} =& \frac{-9y^2 - 81x^2}{(y)(y^2)}
&&
\\
\\
\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} =& \frac{-9 (9x^2 + y^2)}{y^3}
&& \text{We know that $9x^2 + y^2 = 9$}
\\
\\
\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} =& \frac{-9(9)}{y^3}
&&
\\
\\
\frac{d^2y}{dx^2} =& \frac{-81}{y^3} \text{ or } y'' = \frac{-81}{y^3}

\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
$

Trace the changes that occur in the portrait over time. How does Wilde make the reader feel that the portrait is in fact magical and not just a figment of Dorian Gray’s imagination? Why is it important that Wilde makes this distinction?

Dorian's first awareness of the portrait's change occurs in Chapter 7 after he returns from the theatre, having just told Sibyl Vane that their relationship is off and he wants nothing more to do with her. At first, in the "dim, arrested" light of the curtained room he thinks only that "the face appeared to him to be a little changed," showing "a touch of cruelty in the mouth." One gets the feeling it might simply be an optical illusion at this point, until Dorian looks at the portrait after raising the blind. In the direct sunlight, and especially after comparing the picture with his own face in a mirror, he sees that

There were no signs of any change when he looked into the actual painting, and yet there was no doubt that the whole expression had altered. It was not a mere fancy of his own. The thing was horribly apparent.

Yet at this point, and later, Dorian himself is the only one who has seen the portrait change. When he goes to bed in the early morning, he has somehow still convinced himself that the altering of the painting was just an illusion "wrought on his troubled senses."
When he looks at the painting again after waking from a long sleep, there finally can be no doubt that it has changed. At first Dorian speculates that there might be some "chemical affinity" between the atoms of the paint and his own soul. He knows that in rejecting Sibyl his cruelty was horrible, and so he resolves to go back to her, not knowing yet that she has committed suicide. When Lord Henry finally gives him the news of it, this seems to clinch not only Dorian's fate but that of the portrait.
Yet there is still no positive proof that it's not a hallucination on Dorian's part, since no one else sees the picture until he finally shows it to Basil the night he murders him. By this time it has changed much more, and is barely recognizable to the man who painted it. Dorian stabs Basil to death in revenge for what he believes the painter has done to him, as if it has been the portrait controlling Dorian all along.
The close of the novel, where Dorian stabs the portrait but the knife is then found by the servants in the body of a loathsome, withered old man (while the portrait is in perfect condition showing Dorian as a young man), is Wilde's expression of the illusion vs. reality theme. He seems to be asking, is "real" life more real than art, or is art the "true" reality? The answer is anybody's guess.

What are some Southern Gothic literature traits?

The Southern Gothic style of literature has roots in the romantic and Gothic styles of literature that originated in Britain. This style of writing has certain identifiable characteristics, and one of them is that they are set in the southern part of the United States. This type of writing is filled with imagery and symbolism, which is another characteristic. 
The Gothic style was interested in the themes of decay and isolationism. Edgar Allan Poe is a good example of an American writer who uses this style. Southern Gothic style usually centers around a character who is different from the norm of society. The themes of Southern Gothic literature often explore how marginalized people are misunderstood and often shunned by society. Another common theme in this style is for innocence to be surrounded by corruption. 
In "Good Country People," Joy, who changes her name to Hulga, is the oddball, or misfit character. She is educated beyond everyone she encounters. She lost her leg in a hunting accident. She has no desire to fit into the norms of society by marrying and having children. A Bible salesman comes to their house, and at first, Hulga is unimpressed and suspicious of him. But like all good con-men, he finds a way to break down her defenses. She thinks he is simple and good, and she doesn't believe in what he's selling but thinks she might like to have his attention for a while. Here is a quote from when her opinion of him begins to change. 

"The girl looked at him almost tenderly. “You poor baby,” she murmured. “It's just as well you don't understand,” and she pulled him by the neck, facedown, against her. “We are all damned,” she said, “but some of us have taken off our blindfolds and see that there's nothing to see. It's a kind of salvation.”
 

In the end, Hulga is duped by the con-man, who wanted to collect oddities, like the glass eye he got from another woman and the artificial leg he was going to take from Hulga. She is shocked to find he's not just good country people.  

What color are Annemarie's eyes?

The author does not mention the colour of Ann Marie's eyes anywhere in the story, but does give enough descriptive detail about her appearance to suggest that they are probably a light color, most likely blue. For example he states that she has "silvery blonde hair." In addition, the author writes that her sister Kirsti has "bright blue eyes." So it is logical to think that Ann Marie's eyes are similarly colored.
The eye color and appearance of the characters in Number the Stars does matter. Darker eyes and complexions are generally associated with the Jewish characters, such as Ann Marie's friend Ellen who has both dark hair and dark eyes. At one point Ellen manages to pass herself off as a member of Ann Marie's family, but not without the German soldiers questioning why she has different colored hair and eyes to her supposed sisters.

The color of Annemarie's eyes was not mentioned in the novel Number the Stars.  By looking at textual evidence, the reader can find clues which show the probable color of Annemarie's eyes.  One can do this by looking at the descriptions of her family members in the book.
Annemarie's hair was described several times in the novel.  In the first chapter of the book, "Annemarie's silvery blond hair flew behind her" as she ran.  Her hair was later described as being long.  Annemarie and Kirsti, her younger sister, had similarly colored hair.  One can assume that they probably had similarly colored eyes.  In Chapter 17, Kirsti was described as "waving a small flag... [and] her blue eyes were bright."  Annemarie and Kirsti's uncle was also described.  Annemarie noticed that "his deep blue eyes [were] kind and questioning" (Chapter 9).  By looking at the descriptions of other characters in the book, the reader can assume it is likely that Annemarie also had blue eyes in the story.

How were early Christians viewed by non-Christian Roman authors and why? How can I start a research paper on this topic?

Your starting point in your essay should be to mention that from the Roman point of view, early Christianity was simply a minor offshoot of Judaism. It was not particularly important and thus gets very little attention. Christianity tended to be regarded as a rather secretive and fanatical cult, and garbled descriptions of the Eucharist led some Romans to consider them cannibals. The main concern was that because they refused to offer even a single pinch of incense to the imperial cult, they were possible rebels or traitors, something of far greater concern in the religiously diverse Roman Empire than their theology. The main sources are:
Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, (93–94 AD): This discusses Jesus as a teacher and miracle worker who was crucified by Pontius Pilate.
Tacitus's Annals (116 AD) refer to "Christus" being killed by Pontius Pilate. He sees the Christians as one of many cults and superstitions that arose in the period and argues that persecution caused the religion to spread.
Lucian of Samosata (c. 115–200 C.E.) writes about Christianity satirically in The Passing of Peregrinus. The work satirizes credulity and superstition in general. The most distinct feature of Christianity he mentions is that because Christians believe themselves immortal, they seem almost actively to seek out death.
Pliny (112 AD letter to Trajan): In his correspondence with Trajan, Pliny is concerned about how to treat Christians brought before him for breaking the law. He describes them as stubborn but basically harmless and is mainly concerned with balancing mercy with a need to discourage rebellion.
Suetonius (c. AD 69 – c. AD 122) in Lives of the Twelve Caesars has two sentences which seem to indicate that he thought someone named Chrestus was associated with a group of rebellious Jews. 
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/did-jesus-exist/

What agreements came from the Berlin Conference?

The Berlin Conference of 1884-85 essentially formalized what became known as "The Scramble for Africa." This was the name given to the long-standing project of European colonial expansion in Africa. As the name suggests, the "Scramble for Africa" was a somewhat haphazard affair, often leading to petty territorial disputes which had the potential to develop into more serious incidents. So the Conference was convened by Bismarck to end the current confusion and divide the colonial spoils among the European powers on a formal legal basis backed by international treaties.
The Conference ended in the issuing of a General Act, which codified the principle of closer co-operation between the colonial powers. The most important provisions of the Act were the abolition of the slave trade throughout each power's respective sphere of influence and the maintaining of the Congo Free State as a place open to European investment. All of the various clauses of the Act were influenced by the principle of "Effective Occupation." Essentially this meant that European powers were only entitled to those territories which they already occupied politically and militarily. This was supposed to be a way of preventing future disputes; but as the provisions of the General Act referred only to those lands fronting the African coast, the precise division of colonial spoils continued to be a bone of contention up until the First World War.
 
 
https://www.thoughtco.com/berlin-conference-1884-1885-divide-africa-1433556

How would you summarize the main points of the article "Police Mistakes of Law" by Wayne A. Logan? (http://law.emory.edu/elj/_documents/volumes/61/1/articles/logan.pdf)

Wayne A. Logan addresses in this article what he sees as a problematic trend that threatens individuals’ constitutional rights—courts condoning police mistakes of law. These mistakes of law occur when police wrongly stop or arrest someone based on incorrect legal understanding. Logan cites as a major concern that when courts excuse these mistakes of law, the exclusionary rule cannot be applied. This means that courts may permit evidence secured as a result of mistakes of law. This evidence often supports prosecutions of unrelated, more serious offenses, typically relating to guns or drugs. Logan argues for courts to return to what has historically been their no-excuse position of condemning police mistakes of law. The article seeks to bring attention to the significant role police play, not just as enforcers, but as interpreters of law.
Part I discusses two categories of police mistakes, constitutional and substantive law errors. Logan focuses on the latter, specifically in the context of police search and seizure authority. Part II argues that the justice system should incentivize police knowledge of the law, rather than indulging or excusing “reasonable” mistakes of law. Part III further examines negative consequences of courts deferring to incorrect police interpretations of law, including the violation of separation of powers because police, in effect, become lawmakers, rather than law enforcers. Part IV suggests as a solution improved police training in substantive law.

What is the main point or purpose of The Man Who Turned Into a Stick, by Kobo Abe?

Kobo Abe wrote The Man Who Turned into a Stick as part of a series of plays intended to serve as a commentary on the nature of dehumanization.
Exploitation and dehumanization are central themes in the play based on Abe's short works. Abe uses this story to explore the idea of one group exploiting another due to perceived differences between them. The play also focuses heavily on the theme of alienation or the separation and isolation of the individual within modern society. The story follows a man who physically resembles a stick and whose only meaning in life seems to be serving as a pawn for others. This character faces both internal and external punishments due to his passive nature. Over time, in a transformation similar to that of the main character in The Metamorphosis, he actually turns into a stick.
After the newly transformed stick falls from the roof of a department store, two other characters in the story are tasked with transporting it to Hell. In Hell, it is revealed that there is no shortage of human beings who have been turned into sticks due to societal pressures. Through this unusual, symbolic work, Abe criticizes the tendency within society to use people as objects. By transforming human characters into literal objects, the author presents a dramatic metaphor for the gradual transformation of people into tools to be used by the masses. Throughout the course of the play, it is made clear that the subtle objectification that occurs in reality is just as dangerous as the surreal transformation that occurs in the work.
Although the play is short, The Man Who Turned into a Stick delivers a powerful message. There are many layers of meaning to the play that critics continue to discuss to this day. At the conclusion of the play, one of the characters remarks accusatorily that the members of the audience resemble sticks as well. The central point of the story is that no one is exempt from objectification. In a world that sees humans as objects to be used for material gain, anyone could be dehumanized next.
 

Which two characters helped Squeaky realize winning is not always important in "Raymond's Run"?

Gretchen and her brother Raymond help Squeaky realize that winning is not always important. 
Throughout most of the story, Squeaky pits herself against others, feeling that because they are seemingly antagonistic to her, she must defeat them by winning races. For instance, she distrusts Gretchen's and any other girl's smile, declaring,

"...girls never really smile at each other because they don't know how...."

In addition, she has fought with Rosie and finds her antagonistic when she tells Squeaky that she will not win the race, 

"I don’t think you’re going to win [the May Day race] this time....”

Squeaky is also very defensive of her brother and resents anything that others say to him if it is derogatory. When one of the girls asks Raymond, “What grade you in now, Raymond?” Squeaky quickly retorts, 

“You got anything to say to my brother, you say it to me, Mary Louise Williams of Raggedy Town, Baltimore.”

It is not until she enters the competition of the May Day Race that Squeaky undergoes a change. For, until this day Squeaky has felt that she must be a winner in order to be superior to the others lest they tease her brother and ridicule her. However, when she sees that Raymond can run quickly in his own inimitable manner, Squeaky realizes that Raymond has his own talent and she no longer has to defend him by proving her superiority; instead, she can help train him. Further, when she recognizes Gretchen's smile as genuine, as well as being praise for Squeaky's winning run, Squeaky understands that Gretchen is truly a friend, and not a rival.

What would Pa pack in his suitcase to travel back to Wisconsin to visit family in Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder?

When the Ingalls family moved to Kansas, they left behind relatives in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Pa's parents and some of his siblings still lived in Wisconsin. If Pa traveled back to Wisconsin to visit his parents and siblings, he would pack essential items for his trip. Pa would most likely travel by horse, so he would not be able to pack much.
Pa almost always took his hunting rifle with him. He used it for personal protection when traveling. Pa would pack ammunition for his rifle in his suitcase. He would pack a change of clothes and food, such as dried salt pork. He would bring some kind of container to hold water. If he had room in his suitcase, he might even pack his fiddle. Pa loved to play his fiddle and sing. When he was not using the fiddle, he kept it packed away in a box. Pa would also pack a blanket and matches for camping out under the stars along the way.

Who is Linda?

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is a novel published by writer Mordecai Richler in the year 1959. The book starts out with the titular character, Duddy Kravitz, as a misguided kid still in high school and takes us through his tumultuous journey to adulthood and trying to become a landowner.
Linda Rubin is a character that Duddy meets during his summer working as a waiter at a resort in the mountains. Linda is the spoiled daughter of hotel owner Mr. Rubin, as well as the girlfriend of Irwin Shubert, one of the employees at the resort who harasses Duddy. As a part of Irwin's plan to cheat Duddy out of some money in a rigged roulette game, Linda makes Duddy believe that she has feelings for him so that she can manipulate him.

What is the major theme of the novel Monster?

The major theme of Monster, by Walter Dean Myers, is the dissolution of racial prejudice. In the novel, the prosecution, led by Sandra Petrocelli, attempts to associate the African American Steve Harmon with confessed criminals and convicted felons, such as Osvaldo Cruz and Salvatore Zinzi. Steve's Lawyer, Kathy O'Brien, suggests this when she asserts how most of the jurors thought Steve was guilty the second they saw him: "You're young, you're Black, and you're on trial. What else do they need to know?" (79). Steve remarks on this again when he writes in his journal, "Miss O'Brien said things were going bad for us because she was afraid that they jury wouldn't see a difference between me and all the bad guys taking the stand" (116).
O'Brien combats this prejudice by placing Steve on the stand and encouraging him to express his character, ideas, and version of events. In this moment, he dissolves the criminal identity forced upon him by his race and establishes his individual genuine identity: Steve the student filmmaker, who only wished to make a film about his neighborhood over the holidays (231). This identity challenges the jurors' preconceptions of him and ultimately convinces them to deem him innocent. The very form of the book itself reproduces this conflict between preconception and perception. The story is relayed via both prose and screenplay; the screenplay relays an unmediated, objective version of events while Steve's prose involves his biased interpretation of events. The book thereby advocates for us to forgo our prejudices and instead attempt to view people objectively, like a camera does: without preconceptions or prejudice.

As is the case with many successful literary works, Monster is richly layered in its thematic concerns.  The prominent theme, however, is revealed through Steve Harmon's struggle to be viewed as an individual by his family, his attorney, and the judicial system, instead of a stereotyped young African American thug or "throwaway" person.  
Steve's diary and screenplay reveal that he understands the odds are against him, and his recollection of a discussion with his teacher, Mr. Sawicki, about predictability is meant to deliver this truth home about how empowered individuals consider his demographic.  Because Steve does not recount the details of the crime in his notes, there is ambiguity about his actual role in the robbery/murder, but readers are meant to understand that Steve might have been forced to act as a look out for the robbery, if he was involved at all. His own attorney is skeptical of his innocence and turns away from him at his acquittal. 
Steve's humanity is denied by almost everyone who surrounds him.  His father communicates his disappointment and distances himself emotionally and physically.  The perpetrators of the crime attempt to implicate him to shift blame from themselves. The judge is portrayed as mostly disengaged, as if this type of trial has become so routine and predictable that it is of little interest to him.  Steve emerges from the novel, not as a monster, but as a victim of the disinterest and dismissal of the people that surround him.

Walter Dean Myers examines several themes throughout the novel Monster, but the most significant theme he explores is how the justice system dehumanizes young African Americans during the judicial process. During the trial, the prosecuting attorney refers to Steve Harmon and the rest of the individuals allegedly involved in the crime as "monsters." Even though Steve is a relatively shy, kind person who has a positive reputation throughout his school as a talented filmmaker, he is categorized as a "monster" simply because he is on trial. This label bothers Steve, and he begins to struggle with his identity for the remainder of the novel. One scene, in particular, illustrates the extent of his identity crisis when he begins to get sick while he is mopping the jail floor after noticing that he looks similar to the other inmates. O'Brien informs Steve that her job is to differentiate him from the other individuals on trial because the jury already views him as guilty. Myers examines how Steve is not viewed as a unique individual while he is on trial, and Steve is at the mercy of the attorneys, judge, and jury. Steve and his attorney struggle to distinguish him as a talented, respected young man in order to win the case. Fortunately, Steve is found not guilty by the jury, but his attorney still views him as a "monster."

How are the characters in The Crucible responsible for the witch hysteria?

Almost everyone in Salem is responsible for the witch hysteria in one way or another. Characters such as Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam are motivated by selfish and cynical ends—Abigail by revenge and self-aggrandizement, Putnam by greed—and may be regarded as the most morally depraved. There is no indication that either of them believes in witches at all, but the witch-hunt serves their ends.
Ann Putnam, in contrast, has been so deranged by the deaths of her children that she is desperately looking for someone to blame and seizes fervently on the witch-hunt as a way of assuaging her grief. Mr. Parris is motivated by fear, as, in a different way, is Judge Danforth, who seems to have the intelligence to realize that the proceedings, if not a total sham, have clearly taken a wrong turn. However, he is willing to kill innocent people to protect his reputation.
One of the most culpable characters is Mr. Hale, who has dismissed a charge of witchcraft in his own parish of Beverly but is only too willing to believe the charges against Tituba on the flimsiest of evidence. Mr. Hale may be the most intelligent and thoughtful character in the play and is able to realize that he has made a mistake, but he is also a symbol of what is wrong with Puritan society. He is deeply concerned when questioning the Proctors on whether they believe in witches. His expertise on a non-existent subject is of the greatest importance to him.
It is the unquestioning attitude with which witchcraft is treated in Salem that allows credulous people to seize on it as an explanation and cynical people as a pretext for their greed and spite. In this sense, the whole society is responsible.

The Putnams are certainly responsible for propagating the hysteria regarding the presence of witchcraft in the community. They immediately believe that Tituba is guilty, and Thomas Putnam physically threatens her, which causes her to accuse two lowly citizens of being witches. Thomas Putnam also uses the witch trials as a land grab by telling his daughter to falsely accuse George Jacobs of being involved in witchcraft.
Reverend Parris is partially responsible for the hysteria after he calls Reverend Hale to investigate. Rather than handling the issue by himself and punishing the girls for dancing in the forest, he bows to prominent citizens like the Putnams because he does not want to lose his position of authority.
Both Abigail and Tituba are responsible for the hysteria after falsely accusing innocent citizens in order to avoid being punished for questionable behavior. Abigail holds the most responsibility for the spread of hysteria, as she threatens the other girls into corroborating her story and acts as their leader. She proceeds to lead the other girls, and they continue accusing innocent citizens of witchcraft during the proceedings. Abigail's followers, like Mary Warren, Ruth Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Betty Parris, are also responsible for the hysteria.
John Proctor bears some responsibility for the hysteria since he refuses to mention that Abigail and the others are lying. John Proctor does not want to ruin his reputation and is initially afraid to challenge Abigail Williams. He does not want his lechery to be revealed and only testifies against the girls when Elizabeth is falsely accused.
Deputy Governor Danforth and Judge Hathorne are also responsible for the hysteria because they refuse to recognize that their court is corrupt whenever Giles Corey, John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Francis Nurse challenge its validity. They are only concerned with maintaining their positions of authority and refuse to acquit falsely accused citizens.

The Putnams bear some responsibility for the witch hysteria because, in Act I, they are eager to believe a witch is to blame for the deaths of seven of their eight children. They repeat their suspicions again and again, fueling rumors of witchcraft in the town, and express their immediate certainty of the guilt of the women Tituba names.
Tituba and Abigail Williams are partially to blame for the hysteria as well because Abigail first names Tituba as a witch to shift blame away from herself, and then Tituba confesses and names two others as witches to save her own life. At this point, Abigail confesses to witchcraft, too, and she and her cousin Betty Parris go on to name many others as witches.
The group of girls consisting of Abigail, Betty, Mercy Lewis, Ruth Putnam, and their friends are also to blame because they continue to accuse people they know are innocent. We must include Mary Warren in this group because she initially participates, though she tries to tell the truth later. When she fears being accused, Mary then accuses her employer, John Proctor, of being a witch and tempting her away from God.
We must even fault Proctor for the hysteria because he knew the girls were lying early on—Abby told him herself—and he kept this information to himself until it was too late. Likewise, we can blame Mr. Hale because he knew the court was corrupt and failed to speak out against it soon enough, to stay in Salem and try to prove the innocence of those accused. What he did was too little, too late. For obvious reasons, we can blame Judges Danforth and Hathorne because they choose to believe the girls' accusations, seeming to enjoy the immense power their position enabled them to wield over others, even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Really, very few, if any, characters are without blame.

Why did Texans want their independence from Mexico?

White Texans saw themselves as culturally American, not Mexican. They spoke English, not Spanish, and felt a much closer affinity with the United States than with Mexico. The stark cultural differences extended to the issue of slavery. Slavery was illegal in Mexico, yet the vast majority of white Texans supported the institution. Many American settlers coming into Texas had brought their slaves with them, and were reluctant to give them up.
As with the rest of the United States, slavery was closely linked to the wider issue of states' rights. The 1824 Mexican Constitution had granted the Texans a fair degree of control over their own affairs. Yet it was subsequently abolished by the Mexican government, which gave itself more power and control, much to the outrage of the Texan public. The abolition of the 1824 Constitution was indicative of the chronic instability of the Mexican political system. Texans increasingly felt that there was no one they could turn to in order to protect their interests. They certainly couldn't rely on the chaotic central administration in Mexico City with its rapid turnover of presidents.
In economic terms, Texas benefited little from being part of Mexico. Most of the state's trade was with the United States, and so inevitably, close economic ties developed. As with many parts of the South, cotton was a vitally important cash crop for Texas. But it was difficult to transport to Mexican territory on account of the vast tracts of arid desert that separated Texas from Mexico proper. It was much easier to transport cotton, as with most other goods, downstream to American ports such as New Orleans.

How does the author start to foreshadow the ending in paragraphs 2 and 3?

Foreshadowing is the technique an author uses to create suspense and hint at events that will occur later in the story. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” foreshadowing is used from the beginning of the text.
In paragraph 2, the narrator says one boy “had already stuffed his pockets full of stones,” and he and some others had made a “great pile of stones in one corner of the square,” which they now guard. This is the reader’s first introduction to the stones that will later be used in the ritualistic killing of Tessie Hutchinson. The fact that the stones are piled neatly suggests they will serve a special purpose, but the reader doesn’t yet know what that is.
In paragraph 3, the narrator describes the behavior of the adults, whose “jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed.” This indicates that the adults are uneasy at this public gathering, which suggests that they are only making jokes to break the tension. While they may be engaging in small talk, their minds are elsewhere. When Bobby Martin doesn’t come immediately to his family’s side, his father speaks “sharply.” This shows that the occasion is serious, and the adults don’t want their children playing around during such a time. This obviously foreshadows the real purpose of the lottery, since the reader might initially expect the lottery to be something positive.
When the reader discovers that the selected actually loses his or her life, it defies common expectations. However, Jackson’s masterful use of foreshadowing subtly underscores the nefarious purpose of the lottery from the very first paragraphs.

In The Lottery, Shirley Jackson makes use of foreshadowing to create a twist ending that is well known among students and writers of short stories.
The most obvious example in paragraphs two and three is the following, in paragraph two: "Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix—the villagers pronounced this name "Dellacroy"—eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys." Upon a first reading, this might seem like innocent play and competition among young boys, especially as the day seems so beautiful and good, but it becomes alarmingly clear later that they are gathering these rocks in order to stone a resident of the village. This foreshadowing not only hints at what will happen later but also contributes to the story's message that this lottery is very normal to the villagers, and the normalcy of the event should be alarming and scary to readers. Something that seems totally normal to readers at first then becomes something horrifying.
Other examples of foreshadowing are more subtle, but still contribute to the foreboding and even hostile tone of the story.
In paragraph three, Jackson writes, "Soon the men began to gather, surveying their own children, speaking of planting and rain, tractors and taxes. They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner, and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed." We know from the very beginning that it is a "clear and sunny," beautiful summer morning, and the children are playing. The men also seem to be talking about very normal things. It seems out of place, then, that the men are so quiet and reluctant to laugh. This lets readers know that they are anticipating an event that makes them nervous, subdued, or unwilling to have too much fun. By pointing this out along with the indicators that is a beautiful, relatively normal day, Jackson is still setting up the horrifyingly normal nature of the lottery to these villagers and preparing the reader so the twist ending is not unbelievable or too much of a surprise.
Another example from paragraph three reads, "Bobby Martin ducked under his mother's grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones. His father spoke up sharply, and Bobby came quickly and took his place between his father and his oldest brother." Again, this reads as potentially normal family interactions, but it also indicates a sense of uneasiness in the characters, letting us know they are unsure exactly how the events awaiting them are going to unfold. It also again points out the stones, indicating their importance to the narrative.

The folktale about the tortoise and the birds in chapter 11 of Things Fall Apart can be seen as foreshadowing what major event?

Ekwefi tells Ezinwa an old story from Igbo folklore. In the story, some birds are about to enjoy a feast in the sky. A greedy tortoise wants to get a piece of the action, so he asks the birds to make him some wings that will enable him to fly up to the sky and partake in the sumptuous banquet. When he arrives at the feast, the tortoise asks the birds another favor. He wants them to call him "All of you." The reason for this soon becomes clear. For when it's time to eat, the tortoise asks his hosts who the feast is for. "All of you" is the reply, at which the greedy tortoise proceeds to eat everything in sight.
The birds are angry at being duped, so they remove the tortoise's wings, leaving him stranded. The tortoise has no choice but to prepare for a safe landing, so he persuades the parrot to tell his wife to put soft objects on the ground to break his fall. The sly parrot, however, tells the tortoise's wife to put hard objects down, instead. When the tortoise falls, he breaks his shell, which is then put back together again by a medicine man.
The animal fable foreshadows the arrival of colonialism to Umuofia. The colonialists are represented in the story by the greedy tortoise, and the indigenous people by the birds. The birds use two strategies to defeat the tortoise, and these provide a valuable lesson for the villagers in their anti-colonial struggle. The first involves standing together and refusing to give the tortoise what he wants—wings. Just as the tortoise can do nothing without the wings, so the colonialists cannot control the village if the local people refuse to cooperate with them.
The second strategy involves tricking the tortoise. This is what the sly parrot does when he passes on a false message to the tortoise's wife. In the long, hard struggle ahead, the people of Umuofia must also use cunning and guile to wear down their colonial oppressors, making it harder for them to rule effectively.

What is the author's purpose for writing "How It Feels to Be Colored Me”?

In her famous short essay "How To Feels to Be Colored Me," Zora Neale Hurston makes a powerful statement about identity, particularly African American identity, in the early decades of 20th century America. Through personal anecdotes and vivid imagery, Hurston illustrates that she confidently embraces who she is and feels that others should do the same.
Hurston's essay acknowledges the challenges she has faced ever since she "became colored" (paragraph 2). However, her attitude toward her race is very positive, so she does not dwell on oppression or racism. Instead, she celebrates herself. Hurston was a naturally outgoing girl who liked to sit on the porch and greet passersby. When she was young, Hurston admits that she didn't feel different from white people, only that she knew they did not live in her town (4). Hurston recognizes that once she moves out of the all-black town in which she grew up (Eatonville, also the town in which she sets her famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching God), she stands out more from those around her. She "became a fast brown" (5), but she quickly follows that statement with the claim "But I am not tragically colored" (6). Hurston did not and does not wallow in misery at her position but instead uses it as a starting point for an argument about individuality. Hurston says that even in situations where she "feels [her] race," she maintains a strong sense of identity. Hurston insists, "through it all, I remain myself" (10).
Hurston's purpose becomes most clear near the end of the essay when she introduces an extended simile:

...in the main, I feel like a brown bag of miscellany propped against a wall. Against a wall in company with other bags, white, red and yellow. Pour out the contents, and there is discovered a jumble of small things priceless and worthless. A first-water diamond, an empty spool, bits of broken glass, lengths of string, a key to a door long since crumbled away, a rusty knife-blade, old shoes saved for a road that never was and never will be, a nail bent under the weight of things too heavy for any nail, a dried flower or two still a little fragrant. In your hand is the brown bag. On the ground before you is the jumble it held––so much like the jumble in the bags, could they be emptied, that all might be dumped in a single heap and the bags refilled without altering the content of any greatly. A bit of colored glass more or less would not matter. (17)

Hurston says she is "like a brown bag" full of various contents which represent the different aspects of an individual's identity or experiences. She gives some examples, like "an empty spool" and "old shoes." The items listed are symbolic because they can also represent abstract concepts beyond the items themselves. Those "old shoes" are "saved for a road that never was and ever will be." This symbol taps into common human experiences of disappointments or dashed dreams. If the bags were all emtpied and refilled with a random jumble of these objects, she thinks they would not be that different than they were before. Hurston's point becomes most explicit when she says "A bit of colored glass more or less would not matter." The subtext here is that race does not matter. Hurston believes that there is a similar human spirit, that what unites us, and what we share is more important than those small, arbitrary distinctions between us. She goes as far as to say that this is probably what God ("the Great Stuffer of Bags") intended anyway.
Hurston confidently asserts that people are more alike than they are different, but she also celebrates the individuality of herself, and, by extension, suggests that others should be proud of who they are and not dwell on what separates them from other people.

How does the teacher explain the concept of love to Helen Keller in The Story of My Life?

One day, not too long after Helen learns to communicate, she brings Miss Sullivan some violets. When Miss Sullivan tries to kiss her in response, Helen resists the embrace, at that time only liking her mother to kiss her. So instead, Miss Sullivan writes "I love Helen" in her hand.
Helen, of course, doesn't understand what the word love means and asks Miss Sullivan about it. To explain it, Miss Sullivan indicates Helen's heart, but this still makes no sense to Helen. She only understands concrete images.
Finally, one day, Helen is able to understand the word "think," another abstract word, and this leads her back to love. She asks Miss Sullivan if it is like the sun coming out after a rainy day. Miss Sullivan explains that love is not something concrete that can be seen or held but rather a "sweetness":

"Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out," she replied. Then in simpler words than these, which at that time I could not have understood, she explained: "You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play."
The beautiful truth burst upon my mind—I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirits of others.

This story comes in Chapter 6. Anne Sullivan was teaching Helen words for all sorts of things, using finger language. Abstract concepts were trickier. One day Anne spelled out, “I love Helen.” Helen responded by asking, “What is love?” Anne pointed to her heart and said, “It is here.” Helen was confused and made some guesses that weren’t quite on the mark. A few days later, while Helen was having problems working with beads, Anne stopped her, touched her forehead, and told her to “Think.” Helen suddenly realized what that word meant. And she related it to the kind of word she thought “love” was. Anne was able to make the additional connection when she described scenes of nature that made Helen happiest:

You cannot touch the clouds, you know … You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play.

This is when Helen understood the concept of love.

Of all the difficulties that Salva has faced, which do you think is the worst?

Salva faces various difficulties while running away from the war in Southern Sudan. One of the worst is when he is abandoned by his fellow villagers, from the village of Loun-Ariik, at the start of their journey. Even though none of the group members comes from his family, he knows a few of them and is thus comfortable in their presence. He must have been scared to be all alone in a foreign place with the sound of gunshots and heavy fighting to be heard not far away. Fortunately, he meets an old woman who offers him food, shelter, and company. However, four days later, the old woman tells him that they have to part, as she has to move to another village and cannot move with him. His luck returns when the old woman asks another group of travelers to take him in so that he is not on his own.
Another major obstacle that Salva faces is the disappearance of his friend Marial. It seems that Marial is mauled by a lion as he is sleeping in the camp at night. Afterward, Salva is terrified of sleeping on his own, in spite of the protection offered to him by his uncle Jewiir.
The journey through the Akobo desert is another big difficulty that the travelers face. The vegetation in the desert is scanty and offers little protection from the sun’s rays. Also, since Salva’s shoes are worn out, he has to walk barefoot and is tormented by the desert thorns that prick the soles of his feet. To make matters worse, Salva stumbles on a rock somewhere along the way and loses a toenail. His first day in the desert is filled with so many challenges that Salva almost gives up. His uncle Jewiir is his only source of inspiration at this point in time. However, just as they near the end of the desert, the group chances on a group of Nuer fighters who raid their camp and kill uncle Jewiir. It would appear that this would be the final straw to break Salva’s back, yet, in his own words, “he could not think of any other explanation for the way he felt. But there was no doubt: Beneath his terrible sadness, he felt stronger.”
In 1991, after six years in the Itang refugee camp, the life of Salva and many other refugees is disrupted again by the abrupt closing of the refugee camp. The worst part of it is that the refugees are mercilessly chased away from the camp and forced into the dangerous waters of the fast-flowing River Gilo by Ethiopian soldiers. The soldiers even shoot at the desperate refugees. In the river, the refugees face “the rain, the mad current, the bullets, the crocodiles, the welter of arms and legs, the scream, the blood.” At least one thousand people die in the process. After this incident, Salva resolves to travel south to Kenya. He leads a large group of about one thousand and two hundred boys to a refugee camp in Kenya. It takes them about a year and a half.
It would seem that of all the tribulations that Salva faces, losing his uncle Jewiir in the Akobo desert is the most heart-wrenching.

What is the relationship between Paris and Putnam?

Parris and Putnam share a casual relationship, however, Putnam seeks to exploit the relationship for his selfish gains. Parris leads the church in which Putnam is a member. Putnam is an embittered man because the Salem community rejected his brother-in-law for the position of minister. Thus, the situation at Parris’s home provides him with an opportunity to seek revenge against members of the community he perceives to be his enemies.
Putnam urges Parris to consider Betty’s condition as being of a supernatural nature, involving witchcraft. Although Parris tries to resist the idea, he eventually succumbs to Putnam’s pressure and sets the proceedings in motion. Putnam believes he shares the same enemies as Parris and that their combined efforts will help them eliminate the individuals. Their daughters are involved in the witch hunt, and most accusations emanate from Putnam and are then supported by Parris.

It doesn't seem as though there is any very special relationship between the Reverend Parris and Mr. Putnam.  Putnam is one of the first people to arrive at Parris's house when Betty Parris falls ill, and he is anxious to persuade Parris that witchcraft is at the root of Betty's illness as well as his own daughter, Ruth's, illness.  He wants Parris to announce to the town that a witch or witches are responsible for the girls' sickness.  Putnam tells Parris, "Now look you, sir.  Let you strike out against the Devil, and the village will bless you for it!"  He attempts to compel Parris to proclaim witchcraft by claiming that instead of it being used against Parris by his enemies, he can appear to get in front of it and take credit for his forethought. 
Later in the same act, Putnam outright issues Parris an order, saying, "When Reverend Hale comes, you will proceed to look for signs of witchcraft here."  He seems quite resolute, and due to his bitterness and greed, it seems possible that he may already be attempting to manipulate Parris so that he can accuse his political enemies or those whose land he desires.

Why could Darry have been a Soc if not for the gang?

Darry could have been a soc because he met all the physical and mental requirements to be one. He was intelligent, athletic, and attractive. However, his obligations to his family and the gang held him back from capitalizing on those qualities.
Socs — short for socials — are a group of wealthy teens who have material things that the other people lack. One of the things that Ponyboy says they have are "futures". When he thinks that Darry could have been a soc, he's thinking that he could have had a future if he wasn't held down by his obligations to the gang and his family.
One of the things that holds Darry back is that he's responsible for his brothers. Their parents died and he had to take over the household. Before they died, though, he was on a good track with athletics and school.

In Chapter 8, Two-Bit, Dally, and Ponyboy are on their way to meet up with the other Greasers before the rumble and Pony tells Two-Bit not to tell Darry he's sick. Two-Bit comments on Darry's strict personality before saying,

"You know, the only thing that keeps Darry from bein' a Soc is us" (Hinton, 107).

Pony thinks to himself that he is aware Darry could have been a Soc because he is too smart to be a Greaser. Unlike the other Greasers, Darry is intelligent, athletic, and cuts his hair. Even Darry's old teammates are Soc members. Paul Holden used to play tailback on Darry's high school football team and the only thing separating them is their different situations. Once Darry's parents passed away, he was forced to turn down an athletic scholarship and work two jobs. Similar to his youngest brother, Darry earned good grades in high school, does not have a criminal record, and does not really fit in with the other Greasers. Given Darry's physical description, athletic ability, personal style, and intelligence, one can assume Darry could have been a Soc member.

How did the Pilgrims adapt to the strategies of fighting used by the Indians?

One of the most basic methods was through the use of advanced technology. Natives had never seen such things as horses or guns, and had no prior experience with combating them. Pizarro, for example, famously used a cannon to disorient and distract an Inca army outnumbering his vastly, scattering the massive horde of opponents.
Horses confounded the Natives (at least until the Plains Indians acquired them), and could be used to scare and startle the Natives as well.
Indians were proud of honor, and tended to think the Europeans were as well. They would do things like honor battles, strapping themselves to the ground so they could not flee. Europeans would simply shoot them.

How did America establish an informal empire in China from 1899 to 1912?

The US established an informal empire in China by sending troops to quell the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. The US, along with other nations, sent troops to China in order to ensure that the country remained open to trade.
China lost the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) to Japan, and that defeat highlighted China’s weakness to the rest of the world. Many European nations occupied parts of China and created “spheres of influence” in order to maintain control of trade between China and their home country. For example, British troops occupied Hong Kong in order to guarantee that trade between China and Great Britain remained intact. The US Secretary of State, John Hay, issued the “Open Door Note,” in which he called for all nations that had a “sphere of influence” in China to respect the rights of other nations and the rights of Chinese nationals. However, few nations adhered to the Open Door Policy, which created resentment and hostility towards Europeans from many Chinese citizens. As a result, Chinese nationals “rebelled” against the Europeans in China in what became known as the Boxer Rebellion. The rebellion was crushed within a matter of weeks, and the European nations (along with the US and Japan) continued to control “spheres of influence” in China.
The US established its “empire” in China by controlling a specific region’s trade and using military force to guarantee that it remained in control of that area. By controlling parts of China during this time, the US was merely adding to its overseas claims, which included Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, Samoa, and Puerto Rico.

Did Max de Winter kill Rebecca?

Near the end of the novel, Max de Winter confesses to his second, unnamed wife that he killed Rebecca. We only hear Max's side of the story, as told to us by a wife who wants very much to believe his version of events. In this version, Max, though anguished, very much justifies the murder as deserved.
Why was he justified in killing Rebecca? First, he tells the second Mrs. de Winter that Rebecca was unfaithful to him. They had worked out a deal in which she would pretend to be the perfect wife and hostess as long as he did not interfere with her various affairs. However, rumors of her affairs reached Max's ears, indicating that Rebecca was not maintaining her end of the bargain. When Max confronted her at the boathouse where she had been meeting her lovers, he told her he was going to divorce her.
Not about to be bested—and terminally ill with cancer, though Max did not yet know this—Rebecca told him she was having her cousin Jack's child and that Max would have to raise it as his own. Driven to rage, Max shot Rebecca, then took her corpse out on a boat and contrived to make her death look like a suicide.
According the second Mrs. de Winters, Max was manipulated into killing Rebecca by Rebecca, who wanted to die. The second Mrs. de Winters also finds the revelation that Max is a murderer brings the two closer together as she pledges to stand by her man.
The second Mrs. de Winters paints Rebecca as an evil, heartless woman. As we have no other version of the story, hers is the one we tend to believe. However, we might also question a man who felt it was permissible to kill a wife for infidelity.

The short answer is yes.
In the story, Rebecca is Maxim de Winter's first wife. She dies after Max shoots her.
Accordingly, Max and Rebecca had an unhappy marriage. When Rebecca was alive, she engaged in sexual affairs with different men. Max looked the other way as long as Rebecca was discreet and did not embarrass him. However, Rebecca soon became complacent and careless. She carried on her affairs openly, which upset Max greatly.
In due time, Rebecca had an affair with Jack Favell, a cousin of hers. When Max confronted Rebecca about it, she taunted him. During their confrontation at the cottage, Rebecca also revealed that the child she was carrying was Favell's. Max became so angry at the revelation that he shot Rebecca through the heart.
Then, he took the boat out and deposited Rebecca's body in the boat's cabin. According to the text, Max sunk the boat in the bay that night. So, Max de Winter killed Rebecca because he felt that she had betrayed him.

In the novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, what are some examples of why Lorena dissociates herself and is traumatized?

This is an interesting question because many of the reasons Lorena Wood begins to disassociate herself from people and activities actually traumatize her as well.  Generally, Lorena has to disassociate herself because she is an attractive blonde prostitute who many men are in love with throughout the book.  Among the love-struck men are Dee Boot, Dish Bogget, Jake Spoon, Augustus McCrae and even Xavier Wanz (who ends up burning down the Dry Bean because of this "love").  Jake Spoon admits Lorena's dissociation in the following quote:

She had a beautiful face, a beautiful body, but also a distance in her such as he had never met in a woman. 

As the story continues, Lorena has to further disassociate herself because of traumatic events: kidnapping and gang rape.  These two traumatizing happenings require disassociation in order to survive.  Blue Duck is the direct reason for both happenings in that he is the kidnapper as well as one of the participants in the gang rape after Lorena's abduction.  Because Agustus McCrae rescues Lorena from this horrible predicament, she falls in love with him.  Even this act of love with Augustus is a disassociation from her former boyfriend, Jake.  In fact, she was involved with Jake Spoon not because of love but because she hoped that he would take her to San Francisco.  Eventually, Lorena has to be left at Clara's farm for recuperation due to the severe beating she endured.  

Write an article on Paula Scher the graphic designer.

Here are some aspects to consider when writing an article on Paula Scher.
Paula Scher started her career as a graphic designer by working on album covers. She produced some iconic classics, such as Boston's first album in 1976. This certainly pushed her to explore pop culture and to use fonts and typography in an illustrative manner.
Her career took a turn when she became the principal at Pentagram in 1991, a very important design agency.
She is an incredibly versatile artist, and her work ranges from pop culture to environmental design to working with brands such as Microsoft. She is sometimes defined as "postmodern," but it is impossible to define her beyond that, as her production is varied. She refuses boundaries and celebrates creativity, whether she is working for a multinational corporation or a museum.
For Scher, the creative process is unclear. It is something ineffable, and it varies every single day; one cannot really be sure that it's going to work and if it works, to what standard it will. As stated in an interview:

How do you know [the creative process is] going to work? You don’t. That’s why some work is better than others. I remember a book jacket director in the ‘80s who said my work for him wasn’t up to my normal level, and I said, "Well, some days I’m just not as talented as other days."

As a contemporary graphic designer, Paula has an interesting view on technology and on the fast-paced world we live in. She stresses the importance of boredom, which now often has no place in our lives, as we are constantly bombarded by stimuli. This, in turn, can cause a disruption or decrease in creativity.

iPhones and other forms of digital media [are] disrupting boredom, because people can occupy themselves all the time. You don’t have any more downtime—you go on your iPhone, look at email, or you’re playing video games.
The fact of the matter is, that eats up really good creative time. I realize that when I’m sitting in a taxicab in traffic, or on my way to the airport, or waiting to get on a plane, or trapped in some other boring situation, that’s when I get the best ideas, because I’ve got nothing else interfering with it.
http://paulastribute.weebly.com/1974-1983-cbsatlantic-records.html

https://www.pentagram.com/about/paula-scher

How does The Crucible explore the importance of truth, justice, and integrity? Discuss and provide quotes for three potential paragraphs in an essay.

It is ironic that the concept of truth is so woefully and tragically tarnished by those who are intent on doing harm to others by proclaiming that what they speak is the truth. Further irony lies in the fact that such individuals are believed; meanwhile, the innocents' best attempts to convey reality are not believed. In fact, they are treated with skepticism and derision. Two excellent examples of an appeal that the real truth be told is found, firstly, in act 2 with Elizabeth Proctor's plea to her husband, John, that he tell the court the truth about Abigail Williams:

Let you go to Ezekiel Cheever—he knows you well. And tell him what she said to you last week in her uncle’s house. She said it had naught to do with witchcraft, did she not?

Abigail had apparently told John that hers and the other girls' confessions were lies.
A second significant quote is also found in act 3, when John Proctor demands that Mary Warren, their maidservant, confess the truth about a poppet purportedly made by Elizabeth to bewitch Abigail. Mary has already acknowledged that she herself had made the poppet as a gift for Elizabeth and that Abigail had seen her stick the darning needle into the doll's belly once she was done.

Proctor, moving menacingly toward her: You will tell the court how that poppet come here and who stuck the needle in.
Mary Warren: She’ll kill me for sayin' that! Proctor continues toward her. Abby’ll charge lechery on you, Mr. Proctor!

The court claims that it seeks justice for those who have been harmed by the assumed insidious incidents of witchcraft in the village. Judge Danforth is of the opinion that the girls are God's messengers and are used by Him to help bestow the kind of justice that individuals who have served the Devil deserve—execution. To prove that he is there to dispense justice, the judge states in act 3:

In an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to prove his innocence. But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it? The witch and the victim. None other. Now we cannot hope the witch will accuse herself; granted? Therefore, we must rely upon her victims - and they do testify, the children certainly do testify. As for the witches, none will deny that we are most eager for all their confessions. Therefore, what is left for a lawyer to bring out? I think I have made my point.

It is pertinently ironic, though, that the judge ridicules and rejects the testimony of others who have not been accused. He does, instead, go out of his way to prove that such individuals are themselves also guilty of evil.
The importance of integrity is probably best illustrated by John Proctor's desperate cry at the end of the play when he refuses to allow his name to be displayed on the church door. He tears up his confession and is prepared to sacrifice his life than tarnish his name. He is willing to die with his integrity intact. When Judge Danforth asks him to hand over his signed confession, he refuses and cries out after the judge questions his sudden refusal:

Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!

In the story "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, why does the piano symbolize a trophy in the end?

In the end, the piano is depicted as a trophy because it represents sacrifice, hard work, initiative, and investment, all the components needed for success in any field. Jing-mei's parents saved to purchase a black, Wurlitzer second-hand piano because they believed that the piano would lead to a great future for Jing-mei. Equally proud of the instrument, Jing-mei tells us that the piano was the "showpiece" of their living-room. More than anything, the piano represents the complexities of a mother's love.
The piano is at once an object of conflict as well as an object of a mother's faith. While Jing-mei is initially buoyed by her mother's belief in her abilities, she comes to dread her mother's smothering presence in her life. As the days progress, Jing-mei begins to feel as if she's on a constant, wearying mission to discover her prodigy potential. Home becomes a battlefield, and music becomes a topic fraught with stress and frustration.
In the end, to thwart what she considers her mother's foolish expectations, Jing-mei decides to teach her a lesson; she embarrasses her parents at a piano recital by playing poorly. In the end, after an especially emotional confrontation with her mother, Jing-mei is allowed to leave off playing the piano. The instrument sits unused in her parents' living room until Jing-mei's mother offers her the piano for her thirtieth birthday. Her mother's words remind Jing-mei that she has always been loved:

"Always your piano. You only one can play..."You pick up fast," my mother said, as if she knew this was certain. “You have natural talent. You could be a genius if you want to." "No, I couldn't." "You just not trying," my mother said. And she was neither angry nor sad. She said it as if announcing a fact that could never be disproved.

On the one hand, Jing-mei's mother has always believed in Jing-mei's potential to excel. On the other hand, her high expectations for Jing-mei created strife in their relationship during Jing-mei's childhood years. Perhaps, after so many years, Jing-mei's mother realizes the part she unwittingly played in her daughter's failure, for her matter-of-fact tone as she gives Jing-mei the piano betrays the secrets of her inner heart. So, in her adult years, Jing-mei comes to see the piano as a trophy, an emblem of a mother's love, faith, and acceptance, all the things she had always needed from her mother.

When the price of bonds decreases, the interest rate rises. Explain?

Bond prices and interest rates have an inverse relationship, meaning that when one increases, the other decreases, and vice versa. To explain this, we will make use of the following example:
Company X issues new bonds that have a 5% annual coupon rate and $1000 par value. When interest rates go up to, say, 7%, buyers will be reluctant to invest in Company X’s 5% bonds. This is because at a 5% rate, a buyer will be expecting yearly interests of $50 only, compared to $70 that they would have gotten elsewhere for the same principal of $1000. Therefore, in order to make its bonds attractive to buyers, Company X settles on a lower price p, for which it will give a similar interest of $50 at current interest rates of 7%. That is:
p x 7% = $50 ; p = $50/0.07 = $714.30
Company X has to sell its bond at a discount price of $714.30.
When interest rates go down to, say, 3%, then the bonds become attractive to buyers. The increased demand pushes bond prices up. Company X must look for a price p that will yield the same interest of $50 at the current market interest rate of 3%. That is:
p x 3% = $50 ; p = $50/0.03 = $ 1666.70
Company X has to sell its bond at a premium price of $1666.70.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/why-interest-rates-have-inverse-relationship-bond-prices/

In 1984 there is talk of "power over man." What is necessary to control man?

On the most basic level, Winston himself provides the grim answer to this question during his interrogation by O'Brien, saying that power is exerted over a man "by making him suffer." Though most citizens of Oceania are not made to undergo the kind of torture inflicted upon Winston, they are nevertheless kept in a constant state of fear. Everyone knows that he is under surveillance by the Thought Police. Moreover, the endless low-level wars carried out against Eurasia or Eastasia are a subtler form of control and a means by which the Party keeps the populace focused upon an external enemy. The Two Minutes' Hate similarly redirects whatever energy that remains to the average overworked and underfed person towards the "villain" Goldstein, whom the Party has set up as a phantom-like symbol of evil.
A more profound control is exercised through the Party's manipulation of "history"—assuming that in such a dystopia that word has any meaning. Winston's job at the Ministry of Truth is essentially to rewrite the historical record. The Party is continuously destroying, altering, and falsifying documents in order to expunge anything that would cause people to question its infallibility. The old documents are thrown into a "memory hole" and replaced by new ones that convey the Party's false view of reality. It is remarkable that Orwell wrote 1984 prior to the digital age, at a time when the computer was in its infancy and had not yet come into general use in business, government, and science. The falsifying process is shown being carried out with the "speak-write," evidently a computer-like device that allows Winston and the other workers at the Ministry to replace truth instantly with lies.
This last process is the ultimate form of control over man. Given that our understanding of the world is based upon our access to facts, leaders who distort those facts and replace them with lies can then manipulate the unknowing masses into blindly following their dictates. The Party creates a population of suppressed, zombie-like beings. This is the reality in 1984 represented by O'Brien's terrible metaphor of "a boot stamping on a human face, forever."

In A Complicated Kindness, Nomi notices a blood stain on her wall. She decides not to wipe it off because it reminds her that she is "at that very moment, not bleeding from [her] face. And those are powerful words of hope, really.” (89) There are many other references to blood in the novel. What is the meaning of blood here and elsewhere in the text?

It's certainly true that there are many references to blood in the novel. Nomi is fascinated by the congealed bloodstains on the wall because they remind her that she is very much alive. However, the old stains also highlight her dreary existence, one that has been purged of all vitality and purpose. 
In another passage, Nomi laments that her blood does not match Jesus's blood. We may think this comparison odd, but Nomi is said to be only five years old when she "notices" this. According to the text, Nomi once cherished a childhood book that contained many colors. One of the pages was red, demonstrating the power of the Savior's blood to save Nomi from her sins. Nomi didn't question the significance of the color until she discovered that the blood from a scratch-inflicted wound didn't match the supposed shade of Jesus's blood on the page of her favorite book. Nomi remembers poking every one of her fingers in her desperation to find the "right" shade. She also remembers how "spooked" she was to discover that Jesus's blood "was orangey in comparison" to hers.
Nomi's childhood experience and subsequent neurosis symbolize the stigma she endures as she journeys towards self-discovery and personal actualization. Because of her stringent Mennonite upbringing, she derives little pleasure from living. A rebel at heart, Nomi rejects the Mennonite code of conduct, a manifesto of provisions that includes a ban on "the media, dancing, smoking, temperate climates, movies, drinking, rock 'n' roll, having sex for fun, swimming, makeup, jewelry, playing pool, going to cities, or staying up past nine o'clock." Because of her rebellious stance, Nomi feels that her blood is "wrong." It fails to match the high standards her Mennonite faith requires of her. 
So, in the novel, Nomi's "strange" blood is a symbol of her rebellion and her yearning to explore life's purpose beyond the confines of her oppressively structured society.

Is Jarod Diamond successful in supporting his thesis in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel?

As it is an extremely large and complex work, there is really no single answer to this. Jarod Diamond's main answer to Yali's question of why Europeans have so much more "cargo" than the natives of Papua New Guinea is that it is due to geographical factors rather than innate intelligence or culture. The claim that differences in technological development are not the result of people in underdeveloped nations being somehow "inferior" is one that is widely accepted among educated people, nor was it the default belief when Diamond was writing; thus, it was not something really in need of proof. 
The cultural arguments are more problematic. On one hand, Diamond's arguments about the influence of the environment are quite interesting and, in my opinion, an important contributing factor. Complex human situations, though, can rarely be accounted for by a monolithic argument attributing complex phenomena to a single cause. Diamond has also been widely criticized for cherry-picking evidence and ignoring many significant cultural and historical phenomena. 
I would say that Diamond's work is an interesting and powerful argument concerning one of the potential causes of global inequality, but it is only a partial explanation. His work is well argued, using a wide range of evidence, but it is not perfect. It attempts to address such a wide range of phenomena and broad sweep of history that some of its explanations are superficial. 

How would the young man in "The Hitchhiking Game" write a letter to someone else about the incident that occurred between him and his girlfriend?

First, it's important to determine the character of the young man before we begin our letter. Identifying the young man's temperament and personality-type will help us to stay as true to character as possible. This will lend an authentic quality to the letter we write. From the story, we can see the young man considers himself cosmopolitan and wise. Nonetheless, he prizes purity above all else in a woman.
The story begins with the young man going on vacation with his girlfriend. She's twenty-two, and he's twenty-eight. One quality the young man likes about his girlfriend is her innocence; she's unlike all the other girls he has dated. Let's take a look at some quotes that can help formulate a letter:

He enjoyed her moments of shyness, partly because they distinguished her from the women he'd met before, partly because he was aware of the law of universal transience, which made even his girl's shyness a precious thing to him.
Now sitting face to face with her, he realized that it wasn't just the words which were turning her into a stranger, but that her whole persona had changed, the movements of her body and her facial expression, and that she unpal­atably and faithfully resembled that type of woman whom he knew so well and for whom he felt some aversion.
He had the paradoxical honor of being himself the pretext of her unfaithfulness. This was all the worse because he worshiped rather than loved her. It had always seemed to him that her inward nature was real only within the bounds of fidelity and purity, and that beyond these bounds it simply didn't exist. Beyond these bounds she would cease to be herself, as water ceases to be water beyond the boiling point.
. . . everything was in the girl, that her soul was terrifyingly amorphous, that it held faithfulness and unfaithfulness, treachery and innocence, flirtatiousness and chastity. This disorderly jumble seemed disgusting to him, like the variety to be found in a pile of garbage.

The first quote illustrates how the young man views his girlfriend; he worships her as if she is purity personified. The second quote marks a transition, a change in the way he now sees her: she has become a stranger acting out the part of a seductive woman, and he's not sure he likes what he sees. The third quote highlights his dawning disillusionment and encroaching doubts about her true character. The fourth quote illustrates his outright hatred of her.
Subsequently, the young man proceeds to humiliate his girlfriend, exhibiting the kind of callous behavior he only reserves for prostitutes and women he respects very little. The story ends with the young man in the uncomfortable role of comforter; once the game comes to a shattering end, he must come to terms with his own jealousies and inadequacies as well as work to restore the relationship to its former familiar terrain.
Based on the above, we can accompany a narration of the trip with the young man's evolving impression of his girlfriend. This is one way we can make the letter authentic. Below, I include a guide on how to proceed:
1) As the young man, begin the letter describing where you're headed with your girlfriend. You have a stressful job; there's nothing in life you appreciate more than "lightheartedness." Luckily, your girlfriend has that quality in spades, and you're looking forward to enjoying some time with her.
2) Describe your girlfriend and what you like about her, especially her shyness (which you think is endearing). You like to tease her and watch her reactions when you do. Illustrate what you mean by her shy ways: describe what happens when you stop at a gas-station and she asks to "take a little walk."
3) Despite all these good traits, there is one trait your girlfriend exhibits which worries you a little bit. She seems to envy the flirtatious girls you've dated before her. You try to reassure her that you only have eyes for her, but she doesn't believe you. Including this tidbit of information is important, because it will allow you to transition into the "game."
3) The "game" begins. Describe how you are now a stranger and your girlfriend is the hitchhiker. You exchange banter (refer to the story to include any details you deem pertinent to your letter). Eventually, you make a comment which irritates your "hitchhiker." This makes you want to stop the "game."
4) Your girlfriend doesn't want to stop playing the game. She wants to pretend to be the kind of woman she thinks you like. By now, you're irritated. Describe how you decide to display your frustration: "he stopped making the gallant remarks with which he had wanted to flatter his girl in a roundabout way, and began to play the tough guy who treats women to the coarser aspects of his masculinity: willfulness, sarcasm, self-assurance."
5) You decide to teach your girlfriend a lesson. Instead of heading for your initial destination, you tell her roughly that you will take her somewhere else. Describe the exchange you have with her and why it bothers you. Remember to write as if you are explaining your feelings to someone else.
6) You arrive at a hotel at Nove Zamky, and you don't like what you see (describe why). In truth, you're not really the callous persona you pretend to be, and you feel uncomfortable acting this way. Explain why you feel the need to keep up the pretense.
7) During a conversation at dinner, you realize you are beginning to feel uncomfortable with the way your girlfriend is acting. Explain why (again, please refer to the text for details).
8) Your girlfriend goes to the bathroom. On the way back, she flirts with a strange man. Describe your emotions and what you decide to do as a result: you take her back to the hotel room and proceed to treat her as if she is a prostitute you hired for the night. Again, please refer to the text to help you with the details.
9) Last, describe what happens after you have sex with your girlfriend. The spell is broken, and you are both horrified at how you've acted. Explain your emotions when you realize that you still have thirteen days left to vacation with your girlfriend.

What is the role of Curley in Of Mice and Men?

Curley is a classic antagonist to the protagonists George and Lennie in Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men. The antagonist in a piece of fiction is a character who stands against the main character or characters. From the very first time George and Lennie meet Curley in the bunkhouse in chapter two, they consider him a threat because of his tough-guy attitude. In their first conversation, Curley insists that Lennie talk, hoping from the very start that he can provoke a fight with the big man. Candy explains it best when he claims that Curley likes to pick on big guys such as Lennie:

Well...tell you what. Curley's like a lot a little guys. He hates big guys. He's alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he's mad at 'em because he ain't a big guy. You seen little guys like that, ain't you? Always scrappy?

After meeting Curley and then Curley's wife, Lennie's childlike instincts tell him that the ranch is not the right place for the two men. He pleads with George "Le's go, George. Le's get outta here. It's mean here." Lennie foreshadows the problems which will arise because of Curley's "pugnacious" attitude and the seductive qualities of Curley's wife. George acknowledges Lennie's fears but is determined to earn money to purchase his dream ranch. But he too worries about eventually fighting Curley, saying, "Ya know Lennie, I'm scared I'm gonna tangle with that bastard myself. I hate his guts."
In chapter three, Curley is rumored to be looking to fight Slim because he believes the skinner might be in the barn with his wife. Apparently this scene is typical on the ranch, due to Curley's constant jealousy toward his young wife. While this is going on, George once again describes the longed for ranch, this time exciting the aspirations of old Candy, who pledges to donate money to the project. While George, Lennie, and Candy muse over the future, Curley and the other men burst into the bunkhouse and Curley instantly lights into Lennie, punching him several times before Lennie fights back and subdues Curley by catching the smaller man's fist in midair:

Curley's fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. The next minute Curley was flopping like a fish on a line, and his closed fist was lost in Lennie's big hand.

George ultimately gets Lennie to let go of Curley's hand, but not before the hand is badly crushed by Lennie's overpowering strength. Afterward, Curley is subdued, agreeing not to tell anyone what happened to his hand so that George and Lennie can continue working on the ranch. Unfortunately, Lennie's beating of Curley arouses the admiration of Curley's wife, who quizzes Lennie on how he got "them bruises" on his face. This unintended attention comes to a climax in chapter five when Curley's wife insists that Lennie sit and talk with her. Soon enough, Lennie is stroking her hair, leading to his grabbing and shaking her. Steinbeck uses familiar language to describe Lennie's throttling of the girl:

He shook her then, and he was angry with her. "Don't you go yellin," he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.

After this incident, Curley's behavior is predictable. He immediately wants to kill Lennie, who has escaped to the "brush" by the Salinas River (which was the setting of the first chapter). Curley seems oblivious to reason and sets off armed with a shotgun. The reality that Curley will shoot Lennie, or, at the very least, the big man will be locked up in jail, prompts George to kill Lennie himself. Rather than seeing his friend suffer, George shoots Lennie in the back of the head and the man is dead instantly. At the end of the novel, Curley shows a glimmer of humanity when he examines Lennie's body: "'Right in the back of the head,' he said softly."
While readers may blame Curley and his wife for the tragedy of Lennie's death, it seems likely from evidence early in the novel that George would have ended up in the same position no matter where the men had traveled.

Compare between the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians.

The Lilliputians are relatively warlike. They are quite violent. Consider the way they treat Gulliver when they first find him: they automatically assume that he is a threat, and they tie him down, later shooting him with arrows. Not long after, they tie him up and confine him. Further, there have been a high number of civil wars over completely ridiculous things—like which end of the egg is the correct end to crack—that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of Lilliputians. The emperor insists that Gulliver assist Lilliput in its war with Blefuscu, as the emperor wishes to enslave the Blefuscudians.
The Brobdingnagians are relatively peace-loving. When the King of Brobdingnag hears about the invention of gunpowder, he is absolutely shocked by how barbaric and savage Gulliver's countrymen are. He calls Gulliver just about every terrible name in the book, and he refers to Gulliver's race of men "odious little vermin." The Brobdingnagians have few laws, and those laws are relatively simple and straightforward.

When is sarcasm used in Chapter I of The Scarlet Pimpernel?

Sarcasm is employed in the narration of Chapter I with the discussion of the attempted escape from France by the aristocrats. [Examples are italicized.]
The author, Baronness Emmuska Orczy, an aristocrat herself, describes with sarcasm the macabre enjoyment of the people who watch as the aristocrats, who  have been labeled as "traitors to the people" after the Revolution, attempt to flee the country and escape the guillotine. This treatment of the sadistic enjoyment of the peasants is certainly ironic (sarcastic) and intended by Orczy to mock the formerly oppressed peasants, who now themselves become the oppressors.
The "fun" begins when Sergeant Bibot, who has a "wonderful nose for scenting an aristo in the most perfect disguise," does not immediately arrest the aristocrats, but instead toys with them as a cat often plays with a mouse before killing and eating it. This "keen sense of humor" amuses the crowd who stand near the barricades and watch as Bibot often lets his "prey" past the gates in order to make them think they have made their escape. Soon, however, the aristocrat is marched back. To the people this is "extremely funny" because, often as not, the prisoner is a woman, "some proud marchioness, who looked terribly comical" as she has been stripped of her disguise and realizes that she will receive but a summary trial and after this, she will feel "the fond embrace of Madame la Guillotine."
Every day Bibot has the distinct "satisfaction" of apprehending royalists and returning them to the Committee of Public Safety that is presided over by "that good patriot" Citoyen [Citizen] Foucquier-Tinville. But, there is one man who somehow slips past the watchful eyes of the guards. He is an Englishman, the "accursed Scarlet Pimpernel" who cleverly escapes by disguising himself in the most unsuspected personas. Boasting that he would never be so foolish as to let this Englishman go past him, Bibot tells the crowd of one daring escape which cost a guard the punishment of the guillotine. It seems there was a daring escape in which the Scarlet Pimpernel was dressed as a guard and the aristocrats as soldiers while a harmless cart passed out of the city. Hearing this, the crowd becomes silent.

The story savored of the supernatural, and though the Republic had abolished God, it had not quite succeeded in killing the fear of the supernatural in the hearts of the people.

But, further sarcasm comes at the expense of Bibot, who has previously ridiculed the guard deceived by the Scarlet Pimpernel. For, it seems that Bibot has let pass a cart driven by "an old hag" who has told him that her son has had the plague so that he would not wish to be near her or the cart. Ironically, this cart has been allowed by Bibot to pass through with aristocrats hidden in it. And, the "old hag" has been none other than the "accursed Englishman" himself.

What are the shared strategies for W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington?

In his chapter on Booker T. Washington in The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois offers some measured praise of Washington, pointing to places where they agree. He notes that Washington has, as times, sent letters to southern legislatures protesting injustice against black people and that Washington has openly opposed lynching. Du Bois also agrees with him that blacks must "strive mightily" to improve their own lives. He concurs with Washington's emphasis on thrift and industrial education for black people and admires him for stepping up to the plate and taking leadership in the black culture by trying to find a way to make lives economically better for black people. Du Bois also took on a black leadership position and, like Washington, publicly protested lynchings and other forms of racism.
It is important to note, however, that despite a few similarities, the two men differed profoundly in outlook and strategy. Du Bois was sharply critical of Washington. As he outlines in The Souls of Black Folks, Du Bois rejects Washington's strategy of accepting black inferiority and second-class citizenship in return for modest economic gains. Du Bois believes that this strategy is not only ineffective but corrodes and destroys the black soul. As he writes of Washington's acceptance of subservience to whites:

We have no right to sit silently by while the inevitable seeds are sown for a harvest of disaster to our children, black and white.

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois had some shared strategies, even though they later disagreed on the direction of the struggle for equality for African Americans. Both men worked to develop legal strategies to fight the injustices that African Americans faced. Both men also worked together to arrange conferences, both professional and academic. They also wrote essays in the same publications. They also organized the National Negro Business League. They strongly supported the development of African American businesses.
Their goals were to help African Americans deal with the injustices they faced while improving their lives. For a time, both men blamed African Americans for their condition. They believed that self-help and moral improvement were very important qualities for African Americans to pursue. They both believed African Americans should work for economic advancement. They also believed in racial solidarity and working together on economic issues. They were willing to accept voting restrictions based on educational and property qualifications, but not on racial qualifications. They gave economic advancement a higher priority over suffrage rights for African Americans.
While they later differed sharply on how to obtain equality, there was a time when both men shared similar strategies to help African Americans achieve equality and improve their living situations.
http://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/1978/2/78.02.02.x.html

http://www.alabamahumanities.org/programs/road/presentations/booker-bois/

What are two examples of personification in "Rules of the Game"?

Personification is the use of figurative language in which something nonhuman is described using human traits or characteristics. This is similar to anthropomorphism. The main difference is that, with anthropomorphism, the nonhuman entity (animal, object, idea, etc.) actually takes on the human attribute. (A good example of this is in Animal Farm, in which the animals actually speak.)
The wind is the key symbolic element being personified in this story. Note that at the beginning, we get the first lesson from Waverly's mother:

Strongest wind cannot be seen.

Waverly will learn to be silent and strong like this wind.
As mentioned in a previous answer, the wind whispers secrets only Waverly can hear. In this, her first tournament, she wins her first match. After saying Check, "the wind roared with laughter." The wind is personified as laughing with Waverly's victory. This is the same wind whispering chess secrets and strategies to her. The wind is on her side.
At the end of the story, Waverly goes to her room and imagines a chessboard. Her mother sits across from her and utters the same phrase:

Strongest wind cannot be seen.

Waverly personifies her white chess pieces:

My white pieces screamed as they scurried and fell off the board one by one.

As her mother's chess pieces continue to advance, Waverly feels like she's losing. Then she notes feeling lighter and is pushed up by the wind away from everything below. She uses the wind to escape, a metaphorical tactic she might use in chess or with her mother in the future. The story ends with Waverly pondering her next move, and this undoubtedly refers to her mental chess game with her mother.

Personification is a literary device in which an inanimate object, animal, or idea is given human attributes. Amy Tan uses personification several times throughout her short story "Rules of The Game," which chronicles the experiences of a young chess prodigy, Waverly Place Jong. When Waverly is questioning her mother about Chinese torture as her mother roughly combs her hair, Waverly utilizes personification by saying,

"One day, as she struggled to weave a hard-toothed comb through my disobedient hair, I had a sly thought" (Tan, 1).

Waverly personifies her hair by referring to it as being disobedient. Disobedience is a human attribute and hair cannot behave a certain way. However, using personification helps describe the difficulty of combing Waverly's tough hair.
When Waverly attends her first outdoor chess tournament, she once again utilizes personification by attributing human characteristics to the light wind that begins to blow past her ears. Waverly says,

"A light wind began blowing past my ears. It whispered secrets only I could hear" (Tan, 4).

Wind is personified by having the ability to whisper into Waverly's ear like a human. Personifying the wind allows the reader to imagine Waverly's intricate thought process as she competes in her chess match.
https://literarydevices.net/personification/

Personification is a type of figurative language in which a writer gives a nonhuman subject human characteristics. In the story "Rules of the Game" (an excerpt from the novel The Joy Luck Club), Waverly, the first person narrator, often speaks figuratively in the description of her life growing up in San Francisco's Chinatown. For example, she uses personification when she describes the pigeons which she sees in the playground near the alley where she lives: "old country people sat cracking roasted watermelon seeds with their golden teeth and scattering the husks to an impatient gathering of gurgling pigeons." Impatience is usually a quality reserved for humans so by describing the pigeons as impatient as they wait for food is personification. Another example of personification occurs when Waverly is describing the chess board which her brother Vincent received as a present at the church Christmas party: "The chess board seemed to hold elaborate secrets waiting to be untangled." Again, holding secrets is definitely a human endeavor so Waverly is again personifying a nonhuman object, in this case, the chess board. 

How are nature and imagination expressed (thematically) in “Fra Lippo Lippi”?

"Fra Lippo Lippi" is a dramatic monologue in which Browning expresses his own aesthetic credo and his ideas about the subjects upon which an artist can best focus in order to achieve greatness.
The setting—Florence in the 1400s—is one in which the painter, whose actual name was Filippo Lippi, is stopped in the street at night by a gang of men who are apparently "going the rounds" and believe him to have committed some misdeed. He then proceeds to give them a brief history of his life and art. Lippi is an orphan who was taken into the care of monks. His talent for drawing has been discovered, but he comes into conflict with those around him because of the way he ultimately wishes to paint. Lippi intends his art to deal with more than spiritual matters. He is told by the monks that

Your business is not to catch men with show,
With homage to the perishable clay,
But lift them over it, ignore it all,
Make them forget there's such a thing as flesh.
Your business is to paint the souls of men—

In Browning's view, which he has Lippi express, it is precisely the natural world, which includes "the flesh," that should fire the artist's imagination. The real world—as opposed to the sterile world to which the monks wish Lippi would restrict himself—consists of

The beauty and the wonder and the power,
The shape of things, their colours, lights and shades,
Changes, surprises—and God made it all!
......yonder river's line,
The mountain round it and the sky above,
Much more the figures of man, woman, child,
These are the frame to? What's it all about?
To be passed over, despised? Or dwelt upon,
Wondered at?

The theme is that the physical world, "nature," is as much a part of the spiritual world as the rarefied and non-earthly images the religious authorities want Lippi to confine himself to.
Browning's theme in another monologue, "Andrea del Sarto," is similar. Andrea is considered the "perfect" painter, but he realizes that the artist who incorporates the imperfections of the real world in his paintings achieves a higher kind of art. The falseness of expecting perfection or completion is commented on in the lines,

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?
Similarly in the famous opening of "Rabbi Ben Ezra":
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be . . .

Browning is expressing the view that the struggles of life and of the aging process are to be welcomed, not rejected as signs of the "imperfection" of God's plan.
The basic view of nature and imagination in "Fra Lippo Lippi" and Browning's other works is an optimistic one. Browning sees life, including its negative and seemingly non-spiritual earthly aspects, as something to be celebrated, not despised in the tradition of the devout.

In the novel Night, discuss how Elie Wiesel is a different person from when he entered the concentration camps to when he left them.

At the beginning of the novel, Eliezer is a very religious young boy with dreams of one day learning Jewish mysticism known as Cabala. He enjoys his carefree life in Sighet where his father is a respected man, and Eliezer gets to spend his days studying the Torah and the Talmud. After the Germans occupy Hungary, Eliezer and his family are sent to various ghettos and concentration camps where they are separated from each other. In the concentration camps, Eliezer suffers malnutrition, both physical and psychological abuse, and lives in constant fear of being murdered by the Nazi soldiers. Eliezer's body endures extreme conditions as he is forced to march for miles in freezing snowstorms. The constant hunger and dire conditions force Eliezer to focus on his survival. At times, Eliezer even neglects the needs of his father in order to focus on his personal well-being. After witnessing such atrocities and surviving inhumane conditions, Eliezer is forever scarred with the traumatic images of dead bodies and grotesque living conditions. Eliezer loses his faith and does not believe that God exists. He cannot seem to understand why a benevolent God would allow such horrible acts of violence to happen. Eliezer no longer is a carefree young boy with a happy family. After losing the members of his family to Hitler's Final Solution, Eliezer is a broken individual with a negative view of humanity.

Calculus of a Single Variable, Chapter 6, 6.4, Section 6.4, Problem 64

Given equation is y' -y =y^3
An equation of the form y'+Py=Qy^n
is called as the Bernoullis equation .
so, to proceed to solve this equation we have to transform the equation into a linear equation form of first order as follows
=> y' (y^-n) +P y^(1-n)=Q
let u= y^(1-n)
=> (1-n)y^(-n)y'=u'
=> y^(-n)y' = (u')/(1-n)
so ,
y' (y^-n) +P y^(1-n)=Q
=> (u')/(1-n) +P u =Q
so this equation is now of the linear form of first order
Now,
From this equation ,
y' -y =y^3
and
y'+Py=Qy^n
on comparing we get
P=-1 , Q=1 , n=3
so the linear form of first order of the equation y' -y =y^3 is given as

=> (u')/(1-n) +P u =Q where u= y^(1-n) =y^-2
=> (u')/(1-3) +(-1) u =1
=> (-u')/2 -u=1
=> u'+2u = -2

so this linear equation is of the form
y' + py=q
p=2 , q=-2
so I.F (integrating factor ) = e^(int p dx) = e^(int 2dx) = e^(2x)

and the general solution is given as
u (I.F)=int q * (I.F) dx +c
=> u(e^(2x))= int (-2) *(e^(2x)) dx+c
=> u (e^(2x))= (-2) int (e^(2x)) dx+c
let us solve int (e^(2x)) dx
=>let t= 2x
dt = 2dx
=> int (e^(t)) dt/2
=>1/2 (int (e^(t)) dt) = 1/2 e^t = (e^(2x))/2
so, int (e^(2x)) dx =(e^(2x))/2
so ,now
u (e^(2x))= (-2) ((e^(2x))/2)+c
=>u (e^(2x))= -(e^(2x))+c
=> u = ((-(e^(2x)))+c)/(e^(2x))
but u=y^-2
so,
y^-2=((-(e^(2x)))+c)/(e^(2x))
=> y^2 = (e^(2x))/((-(e^(2x)))+c)
=> y = sqrt((e^(2x))/((-(e^(2x)))+c))

=> y = e^x/(sqrt(c-e^(2x)))
the general solution.