Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Analyze the significance of clothing in Hwang's M. Butterfly.

Clothing serves as a symbol of character in Hwang's
M. Butterfly.  When Song takes on the role of Butterfly, he must
dress in lavish feminine clothing and costumes to disguise his true sex.  But more than
just a disguise, Song's clothing is symbolic of what entices Gallimard--he believes that
not only is Song a woman, Song is a representation of the perfect "Oriental" woman.  The
clothing is symbolic of the stereotypical images that men create of what this perfect
woman really is.  Later in the play, after Song reveals that he is in fact a man,
Gallimard cannot accept that he has been tricked because he feels that he has truly
grown to love Song.  When he must accept the fact that he has fallen prey to this
illusion, Gallimard dresses in one of Song's dresses so that he can relate himself with
Butterfly from Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly.  Here the clothing
is significant because Gallimard uses it to compare himself with a character from the
opera who was also betrayed.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Does the character Emily fit in the gothic tradition and why?

One aspect of Southern Gothic is defined by attention to
the macabre, and Emily in "A Rose for Emily" certainly would fulfill this aspect of the
literary tradition.  The obvious point to prove it is her keeping Homer's dead body in
the upstairs room for close to forty years, but it is the more subtle macabre details of
the story that really enhance this story's belonging in this
tradition.


Consider the
following:


1.  the long hair on the pillow, suggesting that
she was sleeping with the dead body of Homer for several years after his
death.


2.  Her unwillingness to let the town bury her dead
father -- indicating an inability to accept change and also showing a lack of typical
reaction to a dead body.


3.  The decay of her home, and its
being eyesore even surrounded by buildings that are
eyesores.


4.  The dust and disuse of her home as mentioned
in section 1 and 5 of the story.


5.  The Negro man whose
voice has "grown dusty with disuse."


6.  The mysterious
smell around her house that the townspeople came to spread lime for (we realize later
was Homer's dead body.)


7.  The demand for arsenic --
clearly a poison that will be used to kill someone.


All of
these details suggest a "grossness" surrounding Miss Emily.  These macabre details
create an atmosphere of death and decay that prevades the entire story and builds to the
climatic and most macabre detail in the final line of the story.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Calculate F(x) if f'(x)=cosx/(sinx)^3

To determine the function F(x) = f(x), we'll have to
integrate cosx/(sinx)^3.


Int cosxdx/(sinx)^3 = F(x) +
C


To determine the integral of f'(x), we'll change the
variable x.


We'll note sin x =
t


We'll differentiate both
sides:


cos xdx = dt


We'll
substitute sin x by t and cosxdx by dt and we'll get:


Int
cosxdx/(sinx)^3 = Int dt/t^3


We'll use the property of the
negative exponent:


1/t^3 =
t^-3


Int dt/t^3  = Int
t^-3dt


Int t^-3dt = t^(-3+1)/(-3+1) +
C


Int t^-3dt = t^-2/-2 + C


Int
t^-3dt = -1/2t^2 + C


But t = sin
x


Int cosxdx/(sinx)^3 = 1/2(sin x)^2 +
C


So, F(x) =  1/2(sin x)^2 +
C.

In Macbeth, what is the purpose of Act I, Scene vi?

This scene serves two main
purposes:


  1. to reinforce the basic
    good-heartedness of Duncan's nature, showing that there is no reason that he should not
    continue to rule as a wise and just King,

  2. and to begin
    to build the suspense that leads up to the murder of Duncan.  To create this suspense,
    Shakespeare uses dramatic irony.

Duncan,
immediately upon entering, says, "This castle hath a pleasant seat."  A double whammy of
dramatic irony (In scene v, the audience has just heard Lady Macbeth say that Duncan
"never shall" see the "morrow.") and support of the open-hearted way that Duncan is
prepared to embrace Macbeth and his wife.


Banquo also adds
to the irony when he says, "Heaven's breath/Smells wooingly here."  The irony here, of
course, is that Heaven must be far from this place, as Lady Macbeth has just called upon
"thick night" to "pall [her] in the dunnest smoke of
Hell."


The balance of the scene is an interaction between
Duncan and Lady Macbeth, which adds to the dramatic irony and suspense, but also reveals
how very cunning and cool Lady Macbeth can be.  She doesn't bat an eye as she lies in
the very face of the man heaping compliments upon her, knowing that she will be witness
to his death before the next sun rises.


For more on this
scene, please follow the links below.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

How did the Renaissance, Reformation and Great Awakening contribute to the establishment of the Political values that are found in the Constitution?

This is a loaded question.  I think that the Renaissance
ideals of extolling the individual and the power that the individual can possess is
something that is seen in the Constitution's affirmation of individual rights and
creation of a zone of minimal external interference that allows individuals to do great
things.  The First Amendment is a Renaissance ideal because it allows for the individual
to use their own spirit of autonomy and freedom to make what is there better.  This is a
Renaissance ideal, as seen with the affirmation of what the artist can do with a blank
canvass.


Additionally, the Reformation's desire to change
what it saw as wrong is seen in the Constitution's principles of popular sovereignty. 
When the Reformation took place it recognized that the Catholic Church was wrong and
acting in a manner that was wrongful.  It recognized that when the institution is not
correct, it must be changed.  It is in this light that the desire to remedy an
institution that is wrong was present, one can see the call for the Constitution's
popular sovereignty in much of the same light.  The Constitution demands that
individuals see their government doing wrong must call out and change it through the
power of articulating their voice through voting.


Finally,
I think that the Great Awakening, although a spiritual revivalist movement, can be found
in the Constitution.  Great Awakening thinkers like Edwards and Mather demanded that
spiritual worship undergo a revivification, and then when this enthusiasm is present,
there is a greater life ahead.  The Framers believed a similar sentiment in that the
more individuals possess passion and intensity about their political framework, the
better off government and the individual will be.

Can you help me understand the short story "On Her Knees" by Tim Winton?

"On Her Knees" is about dignity: about maintaining dignity
and understanding the true meaning of dignity. The narrator supposes his mother's
dignity is devalued, perhaps destroyed, because she works on her knees cleaning other
people's houses. This is especially true since she used to have specialized employment
in a medical office.


The narrator is himself pursuing his
dignity at law school, feeling that externals, like employment, provide the basis for
dignity. In connection with this feeling, he loathes to see her lower herself and
disregard and degrade her own dignity. He equally loathes to lower his dignity to help
her.


One day her dignity--and his understanding of
dignity--is put to the test when she is accused of stealing a pair of $500 earrings from
a householder form whom she cleans.


Metaphorically yelling
and screaming all the way, the narrator helps her do an all-out four-hour cleaning job
for the angered householder's home. The missing earrings are found when he vacuums under
the bed. His mother deduces what must have happened so that the earrings were carelessly
tossed to the floor with candy wrappers, and she cries silently when his back is turned:
"I heard her blow her nose."


The narrator finally
understands true dignity when his mother refuses the money offered by the householder.
As proof that he understands that dignity is from one's inner being and not related
directly to one's knees, he digs the earrings from the kitty litter box where he has
tossed them and leaves them "beside the unstrung key and the thin envelope of money."
All these are left behind and rejected by the mother's inner dignity. Further proof the
narrator understands true dignity is given in the symbolic closing lines: "It seemed
that the very light of day was pouring out through her limbs. I had my breath
back."

Please give an analysis of one rhetorical strategy Wilde uses in chapters 18-20 in The Picture of Dorian Gray, including quotes.

What I find interesting in Chapter Eighteen is the way
that Dorian Gray is identified with the hunt, as indeed, he has become an animal who is
trying to escape being tracked down and killed. Let us remember that in Chapter
Seventeen he has seen the face of James Vane watching him, clearly with malicious
intent, wanting revenge for the way that Dorian treated his
sister.


Interestingly, we see Dorian for the first time in
icy winter - the first scene of the novel took place in summer. This is also the first
time we see Dorian in anything resembling a natural landscape, and he seems like a
hunted animal gone to earth. Note how Dorian tries to save the life of the hare, being
"strangely charmed" by its graceful movement. Important to note and focus on is Dorian's
judgement on hunting:


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"The whole thing is hideous and
cruel."



Interestingly, Dorian
acts as a mouthpiece for Wilde's own thoughts about hunting, but we need to recognise
that Dorian's compassion for hunted things as expressed in this Chapter springs from the
fact that he is one of them himself. And, as he is well aware, the hounds are
closing.

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