What does Zakaria see as the major strengths of the U.S. as a global power in the 21st Century?

I think that there are a couple of ways to answer this
question.

First, you could go with the message of the following
quote from Zakaria:

At
the military and political level, we still live in a unipolar world. But along every other
dimension—industrial, financial, social, cultural—the distribution of power is shifting, moving
away from American dominance

If you
look at it this way, Zakaria is saying that our strengths are political and military.  He is
saying that the US is the only country that has any sort of a claim to being a superpower.  Only
we can project force anywhere in the world.  Only we are a major player in every important
political decision (who cares what China and Russia think about the Israel-Palestinian conflict,
for example).

The other way to look at this is seen in this
quote:

More broadly,
this is America's great—and potentially insurmountable—strength. It remains the most open,
flexible society in the world, able to absorb other people, cultures, ideas, goods, and
services.

Here, Zakaria is saying that
the US is and will remain great because of the openness of our society.  Unlike Japan or China,
for example, we welcome immigrants no matter where they are from.  This openness keeps us
flexible and "young."  Because of this, we will be able to adjust to the new reality as other
countries become prosperous and somewhat more powerful.

What are some quotes of indirect characterization that show how/what Atticus thinks?Please give the chapter or page number if possible. Thank you...

It could be argued that Atticus is an independent thinker and
opinionated, but neither pushy nor outspoken.  He is intelligent, insighful, and above
everything, he's respectful.  Even when people and circumstances go against him, he treats
everyone and everything involved with respect.

There are several
examples that show this in the book.  He is the same man as a father (Jem and Scout) as he is to
friends and family (Aunt Alexandra, Uncle Jack, or Miss Maudie) as he is to neighbors he is not
particularly familiar with (Mrs. Dubose or Boo Radley).

I encourage
you to re-read through some key conversations he has with both his children and adults in the
story (indirect characterization through dialogue).  Notice how his
language, demeanor, and core values remain
constant:

1. Atticus and Scout lesson on porch (chapter 3,
   pg. 30)


2. Conversation with Uncle Jack (chapter 9, pg.
   87)


3. Atticus and Mrs. Dubose (chapter 11, p.
   100)


4. Atticus and Boo Radley (chapter 30, p.
   271)

What is the tradegy in the play Oedipus Rex?Was Oedipus empathetic to his subjects?

You have asked two questions, but I am allowed to answer
only one at a time. You must list the second question as a separate
posting.

The tragedy of Oedipus is a famous
one.

At the start of the play, a Priest and people of
Thebes come to Oedipus to ask for help, which he promises. They tell him they have been
hounded by terrible disasters because someone in Thebes killed King Laius. Oedipus
promises to find out what is going on.

The history that
leads to this point of the play is that Oedipus is the true son of Laius and Jocasta,
King and Queen of Thebes. One day an oracle (fortune teller) declares that Oedipus will
kill his father and marry his mother. To prevent the prophecy from coming true, the
parents decide the child must die. A servant takes their baby to kill him, but decides
instead to abandon him on a mountain side, expecting he will starve to
death.

After the servant leaves, however, a shepherd finds
the child and takes him to another country to avoid his fate. Ultimately, the child
finds his way into the household of King Polybus of Corinth, who raises Oedipus as his
own. Oedipus knows nothing of this. One day he is attacked by a two men on the road;
unknowingly, he kills his father, as he slays both
men.

Oedipus becomes King of Thebes because he solves the
riddle of the Sphinx, a monster who was eating all passersby if they could not answer
his question. To further honor him, the people of Thebes insist Oedipus marry Jocasta.
No one knows that he is marrying his mother. They have
children.

After Oedipus promises to find the murderer of
the former king, he speaks to an oracle who tries to tell him that HE is the murderer he
seeks. Oedipus does not believe this. He feels that it is a plot by Laius' brother
(Creon) to steal the throne from him. Creon swears this is not true. To intercede for
Creon, Jocasta repeats the story of her husband's death as a witness had reported it to
her.

Hearing the details, Oedipus realizes that he did, in
fact, kill Lauis, but believes that Polybus was his true father, a man who died of old
age; Oedipus therefore believes he did not kill his
father.

In the meantime, the shepherd who had left Oedipus
on the mountain side comes to Oedipus and reports that he was, in fact, the child of
Laius and Jocasta. Jocasta kills herself realizing she has married and born children to
her son. Devastated by the truth, Oedipus puts out his eyes, though this does not put
his mind at ease. He asks Creon to care for his daughter; Oedipus says his farewells to
his daughters. Then he asks Creon to exile him from the city.  And so the play
ends.

In summary, the tragedies are that Oedipus
unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother (and they have children), his
mother/wife kills herself, and he blinds himself and leaves
Thebes.

How "Othello" is different from Shakespear's other great tragedies?

Othello is Shakespeare's only domestic
tragedy.  It is a tragedy between a husband and a wife, neither of whom are kings and queens or
nobility of any kind.  Desdemona is a senator's daughter; Othello is a general in the Venetian
military.  Other plays that involve domestic scenes, such as Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, for
instance, are complicated by the politics of the area.  The power of royalty comes into play, and
the actions of the characters affect the welfare of the country.  This is not so with
Othello.

Further, Othello
is a play that involves a marriage between two people of different races.  Desdemona is a true
Venetian while Othello is a Moor.  In this play, these differences are paramount as Othello's
downfall lies partly in the fact that he feels as if Desdemona would naturally be attracted to
someone of her own race, a man such as Cassio.  Othello's racial difference causes him to doubt
himself as a good husband for Desdemona, and it is this doubt that Iago
exploits.

What is the meaning of the saying "It's not what you know but who you know?"

The meaning of this saying is that people get ahead in life
based on their connections, not on their skills or their knowledge. It is saying that often
people advance based on nepotism or on friendship, not on whether they actually know what they
are doing in their job.

There are many examples of this, especially
in countries where corruption is common. For example, it is said that Muammar Gadhafi's children
are all rich and have important jobs simply because they are his children, not because of
anything that they actually know. On a much smaller scale, you have probably seen this in your
own neighborhood. High school students often get summer jobs, for example, based on who they or
their parents know, not based on whether they would be a really good worker or whether they have
a given set of skills.

So, the meaning of your saying is simply that
people get ahead in life based on their connections (who they know) not based on their skills
(what they know).

What details show that Lady Macbeth is feeling isolated and anxious in Macbeth?

In Act 5 of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth
certainly shows that she feels alone and isolated and is now suffering mentally from the
acts that her husband has performed behind her back.  Lady Macbeth cannot believe that
Macbeth has gone so far as to murder Lady Macduff and her children, and this event is
one that pushes Lady Macbeth over the edge.  She says, "Yet who would have thought the
old man to have had so much blood in him" (V.i.37-38) when she thinks about all the ill
deeds that Macbeth has done. 

In addition to this, Lady
Macbeth also shows that she is feeling isolated and anxious earlier in the play when she
covers up for Macbeth at the banquet.  When Macbeth made the plans with the murderers,
he left his wife out of the scheme and told her that he needed to be alone.  When he
hallucinates the ghost at the banquet, Lady Macbeth senses that he has done wrong but
she is not sure what deed has been committed.

Analyze and evaluate the use of imagery or form in the poems“America” by Claude McKay, and “Song” by Adrienne Rich.

In Adrienne's Rich's poem, "Song," and Claude McKay's
poem, "America," imagery plays an important part.

In
"Song," perhaps the title gives the reader its first clue that the poem has little to do
with loneliness, as one might think at the end of the first line of verse. Rich's
imagery provides further enlightenment. Each image presented in all of the stanzas
express something positive to offset the question of
loneliness.

In the first stanza, Rich defies that concept
of loneliness, agreeing that she is only lonely if beauty in the world can be
loneliness:

readability="6">

...as a plane
rides...aiming
across the
Rockies
for the blue-strung
aisles
of an airfield on the
ocean.

The second
stanza finds Rich admitting to loneliness only if it feels like a woman on a journey,
going where she chooses, and avoiding places that do not suit her (what
freedom!):

as
a woman driving across country... / leaving behind... /
little towns she might have stopped / and
lived and died in,
lonely...

(She
would have been lonely if had she
stopped...insinuating that not stopping there means she is not
lonely.)

In the third stanza, Rich admits she would be
lonely if that meant that loneliness was that...

readability="7">

of waking first, of breathing
dawns'
first cold breath on the city
of being the one awake
in a house
wrapped in sleep

The peace
that comes from waking before everyone else in the house indicates a pleasure in those
quiet moments—but NOT loneliness— while wrapped in sleep among others still
asleep.

Can lonely be...

readability="8">

...the rowboat ice-fast on the shore
in
the last red light of the year
that knows what it is,
that knows it's neither
ice nor mud nor winter light
but wood, with
a gift for burning...?

The
imagery here shows what might at first seem to be
loneliness:

readability="5">

the rowboat ice-fast on the shore / in
the last red light of the
year...

is a an
intentional misrepresentation. The subject of the stanza knows what it
is, and what it is not: it has potential
("with a gift for burning..."). "Gift" is a positive
word.

Rich basically says that she is only lonely if the
wonder around her, and the possibilities lying before her, make one
lonely.

In McKay's poem, he begins by using imagery that is
strong or harsh, but it does not put him off. Quite the contrary, he responds to the
harshness of America by wanting to further embrace her, despite the threat she
imposes:

readability="5">

"bread of
bitterness,"

"sinks into my throat her tiger's
tooth."

After these images,
McKay shifts his response away from the threats
described:

I will
confess

I love this cultured hell that tests my
youth.

From this point on, the author gives a
negative image of the things that have a side of strength and imposition, but highlights
the positives, the duality, he sees in each.

Her
vigor flows...into my blood.

Giving me strength against her
hate,
Yet, as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her
walls with not a shred of terror...

By the end
of the poem, she ("America") is not the enemy, but the army at his
back:

Darkly I gaze into the days
ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders
there...

Whereas the poet himself starts out by
showing America as a frightening adversary, by the end, he leans on the strength of this
land.

Rich uses situational irony by providing the theme of
loneliness, but then presenting all the reasons that defy the image of
loneliness.

McKay's imagery presents the harsh side of America,
like a one-time adversary, who ultimately becomes his advocate and
strength.